I see loads of jokes online and on American TV about how terrible NJ is, etc etc.
Why? What’s wrong with New Jersey?
Alot of writers live in New York.
Surely if TV production was centered in Michigan, you’d get just as many jokes about Ohio.
Fair, although that does beg the question of why New Yorkers hate New Jersey to begin with.
The New Jerseyan in me has a snarky answer for you, but in all seriousness there are several reasons. One of them is because so many people live in NJ and commute to NY, there tend to be lots of NJ cars in the city. And when New Yorkers see a bad NJ driver they have a sort of confirmation bias that lets them say all NJ drivers are like that and roll their eyes whenever they see one. There’s also a sense of purity/superiority about living and working in NY as opposed to commuting (“we’re true New Yorkers!”).
I’m not sure if you’re American or not, but America is full of fierce little rivalries like that. Neighboring cities hate each other with a passion until they meet someone from another state. Neighboring states hate each other with a passion until they meet someone from a different region. Neighboring regions hate each other with a passion until they meet someone from the South. Americans hate each other with a passion until they meet a Canadian. And so on.
Yeah that makes sense. I’m Canadian, and there’s a similar dynamic. Albertans hate Ontario, BC hates Alberta, Quebec hates everybody, etc. etc. until an American comes along.
Correct me if I’m wrong but from what I’ve seen NJ seems most like the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) in Canada; a bunch of small suburban towns surrounding a major city, that people tend not to like.That’s the NJ that people tend to hate, yes. But that’s because the most heavily populated part of NJ is New York City’s bedtown. So people just paint that as “all NJ,” and imagine it as a hellscape of urban decay, chemical plants, and the turnpike. But the reality is that NJ is quite diverse. It has beautiful mountains up in the north, a long coast with very nice beaches, and a rural/suburban south with massive forest that takes up nearly 25% of the state. The popular image of “New Jersey” is pretty much Newark and Hoboken. It’s as incorrect as defining New York State as New York City.
