Nate Silver Thinks Pennsylvania Is in the Midwest
Political and baseball data journalist Nate Silver recently left the New York Times to launch his FiveThirtyEight brand as a standalone site owned by ESPN. Here’s the site’s latest:
Almost no one agrees with me that Pennsylvania is in the Midwest. http://t.co/TTZTavPdDZ
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) April 29, 2014
Bah. This is the kind of nonsense I’d expect from Grantland, not FiveThirtyEight!
The article Silver links to is interesting: Reporter Walt Hickey asked self-identified Midwesterners which states were in the Midwest. Hickey also says this is “a somewhat regular argument I get in”, which means he is cordially invited to my next party.
Which states make up the Midwest? Even Midwesterners aren't united on this one. http://t.co/VEY2O6UclQ pic.twitter.com/KgZj7EWBJ7
— FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) April 29, 2014
Silver isn’t alone, though only about 10 percent of Midwesterners say Pennsylvania is in the Midwest. Hickey believes it, too, writing:
I’m from New York, and I generally consider anything west of Philadelphia the Midwest.
West of Philadelphia? So, Upper Darby?
After what I’m assuming is constant internet chatter, there is now a FiveThirtyEight “consensus” on the issue.
The @FiveThirtyEight office consensus is that the Midwest begins at the Phillies-Pirates dividing line. http://t.co/WNteznrRoY
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) April 29, 2014
That’s not bad, I guess, but I think the stereotypes are different: Pennsylvania is derisively called “Pennsyltucky” for a reason — it’s more southern. Pennsylvanians are viewed more as yokels, for better or worse. (I guess it’s worse. Bah.)
I could actually see Silver defending this with data: Maybe Pennsylvanians outside of the Philly area — or west of the Phillies/Pirates split — have similar demographics or voting patterns and my stereotype is completely untrue. But he just tweets that he thinks Pennsylvania is in the Midwest! That’s the kind of belief one needs to back up with data.