What does 'Minnesota Nice' mean? (Minneapolis, Duluth: live in, moving to, relocating to)

[Ben Around]

Originally Posted by kg1701d

Where are we finding these "large amounts of passive agressive"?
and also, why are they being so passive agressive? just for the fun of it?many natives who don't understand the concept of irony? I'm thinking you've got some arrogance about where you're coming from. Minnesotans are very tolerant but they really don't like arrogance and they take (not unjustified)pride in Minnesota. And thinking that Minnesotans are naive and ignorant won't help you find any Minnesota nice.

kg1701d--

I've been away for several days, but want to respond to your post accusing me of arrogance. I was just making some observations, positive and negative about MN'ns. (Several of them have since been echoed by subsequent posters) As I stated, I like living here and love MN'ns despite their faults. I've lived in several states and cities and and could give you the positives and negatives of all of those places too. Do you have a problem with objectivity? Am I correct in assuming you are originally from MN, despite your Chgo post-header?

[kg1701d]

Wasn't born there but spent a fair amount of time there growing up.
It just seems mildy passive aggressive in itself to say that you like living in MN and Minnesotans despite their faults which apparently is an inability to understand irony (a sweeping generalization if I've ever heard one)

[meadowlark3]

"Minnesota nice" was a term created by outsiders who didn't recognize stoicism and silent coping skills. They thought the people of Minnesota were being nice. They didn't know that silence and endurance were the price tag for survival. We came back to Minnesota in 1991 after 29 years in California. My husband grew up here. I grew up in rural Montana. I can assure you from personal experience: there is no such thing as Minnesota nice. Silence and endurance is still the price tag for survival.

[Ben Around]

Originally Posted by kg1701d

Wasn't born there but spent a fair amount of time there growing up.
It just seems mildy passive aggressive in itself to say that you like living in MN and Minnesotans despite their faults which apparently is an inability to understand irony (a sweeping generalization if I've ever heard one)

I don't get where you are going with this. My affection of MN'ns despite the fact that many of them don't grasp irony should tell you that the ability to grasp irony is not a dealbreker for me in deciding who I like. Do you only like perfect people? Sheesh!

[Ben Around]

Yikes! Just went back to look at my reputation for my post on this thread. Someone gave me a red mark and the comment "Learn to keep your mouth shut!" The red mark I can handle. Posters aren't supposed to assign these just because they disagree with the post, but I'm sure they do, and it is difficult to police.

But the comment! That has NO place in a forum like this!

Whoever made this comment should be banned from city-data.com. I intend to report this to the moderators as a violation of the T&C.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by LaceyEx

I've found that even when you think you've finally been "accepted"-you're not. People are helpful but their space is their space.

"Acceptance" doesn't always mean "you have the right to trod all over my personal/private space", and I find it very strange that people seem to equate the two.

The two concepts are different here in Atlanta as well. Most of the folks I've met here seem just as private as the folks I knew while growing up and living in the Twin Cities.

[Kingsnkali]

There really are very few places in America (except maybe Alaska) where people will welcome you with open arms into their world. We don't share a great deal in common with each other anymore. We watch 500 cable channels instead of 3 networks. We lack shared experiences. We hardly get involved in our neighborhoods or towns anymore. We still wave at our neighbors. We don't hang out with them though. We don't have the legions of neighborhood moms at home being involved as the center of family social activities anymore. We don't have as many kids to form the same connections. We don't have many parties and social drinking is taboo. We don't have as much fun with the simple things in life. We don't have as much fun period. We all work. We drive home. And we cocoon in our own little world. You can call it Minnesota Nice or whatever nice. Our society is really no longer connected in a physical sense. This forum is our 1960's cocktail party. We type words to each other with cute little smile faces instead.

[marmac]

Kingsnkali----------very true

[newcastle]

Like I said before, Minnesota Nice is the person at the mall who waits for you to leave your parking space and helps you by getting out of his truck, and makes sure you avoid hitting a nearby parked vehicle. He was just being "nice" and didn't ecpect anything out of it-except your parking spot.

Minnesota nice is also inviting you to "come over anytime" but not really meaning it or telling another person you are mad at them by ignoring them, talking behind their back, and expecting the person you are mad at to be able to read your mind-because you never actuially told the person why you are mad at them-you just expect them to know.

This happens all the time at work, church and the gym. Yes and whoever posted the phrase about "dance cards being full" and trying to break into cliques is right on. The full dance card is made up mostly of family or old high school friends.

I love Minnesota-but Minnesota Nice is a bit of passive agressive behavior or just being friendly and helping someone out.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Snallygaster

One thing I love about Christmas is the snow...Minnesota seems an ideal place to wake up on Christmas morning and see snow on the ground..

My wife's parents place in Esko had plenty of snow this Christmas. w00t!

http://www.visi.com/~rsteiner/snowesko.jpg (broken link)

So did the drive along I-35.

http://www.visi.com/~rsteiner/snow35.jpg (broken link)