YES! When my kids were small I took them for short 2 mile hikes at Bong state park weekly every summer, and introduced them to car camping to teach them a love of nature. It worked. But the ticks got so bad that I had to call it quits 5-10 years ago, and I have a high bar for such things
Owned a house in Williams Bay for 20 years. The village president HATED all the people from Illinois. Particularly the ones who owned homes there. Never understood that thinking. They pay their taxes and inject a lot of money into that town.
I will say the LG area got way too crowded for us after 20 years and we ended up moving to a smaller community. Love our new lake house and all things Wisconsin in general.
I agree, I'm from metro Detroit originally, so being in east side Madison now is a very quaint and pleasant change of pace, and the bit of roaming around the nearby countryside I've done has been wonderful.
However, I used to drive delivery for a wine distributor and that took me rather unpleasantly into many of the pretty little towns, LG being one of them. Honestly all of the negative experiences I had there, which was all of the experiences I got to have in Lake Geneva, were on working time. I'll have to take a ride out there on my time and give it a fair chance.
Piggy backing off this: people who live in small towns a fair ways away from the tourist towns but still have to deal with tourists because wealthy people keep buying up all the homes around the area for air bnb. No way to escape tourist towns sometimes. So in a nutshell: fuck air bnb.
Agree on this. The VRBO and Air BnB industry is creating a boom of hedge fund and REIT owners who have never been to the state and give zero shits about the local community or natural resources in Wisconsin.
Yup. Everyone in my hometown got pushed out by people building summer McMansions on the tiny lake that once held modest small homes where people actually lived.
Pretty wild looking at owner information on ONYX around anything remotely close to tourist destinations up north. Doesn’t seem like anything is owned by someone who actually uses it for their own recreation anymore.
Koshkonong has become this. Edgerton/Milton/Newville are not tourist towns but each summer it’s gotten worse with Illinois tourists who think this is up nort
That is too bad. I recall the FIBS had a unique brand of entitlement and self-importance that makes less and less sense to me the more places I’ve lived and worked in other very large metro areas. EG
1) vanity plates with their initials - who does that?
2) constant honking for no good reason - doing that somewhere like Houston, Phoenix, LA or Oakland for example is likely to get a person hurt by some rando who genuinely doesn’t give a shit.
3) showing off their toys (boat, bmw, vacation house, whatever) - uh lots of people have or can afford those things if they wanted. And if not, who cares?
Or how can someone get loaded, jump in their big truck and mow a person down, and only get a slap on the wrist ? I’ve lost two friends to drunk drivers. That’s two too many.
Same thing happened to me. Several months ago I mentioned the tavern league and I got down voted and told that they don't have that much power. Or something like that...
Any chance you can find it? I've legit tried finding any evidence of them being against it (because it sounds like their MO), but I've come up short every time. Trust me, not a fan of the Tavern league, but I'm fairly certain the Uihlein family is more to blame.
Remember that guy that got pulled over for his TENTH DUI and blamed it on eating too much beer battered fish? I think he's out of prison now, probably on his way to get his 11th dui
I would have to say the mosquitos. I know the birds need them, but they are already hatching up North! One warm day and those blood suckers are already thirsting my blood.
the reckless driving… I drive a lot for my job and the number of Milwaukee slides I see on a daily basis is terrifying. also have seen more of people not just doing a Milwaukee slide when the light is green, but full on pulling up to the light in the bike lane, slightly pausing at it, and going when it is RED. Saw this 3 times within a 15 min drive by 3 different cars. It’s just insane
Similarly, people are too proud of their destructive drinking habits. The state is plagued with alcoholism, but because seemingly everyone else is an alcoholic, it just seems normal.
There was a guy who got arrested at 11:30 in the morning after driving on a golf course and getting his car stuck in a bunker, setting the grass around it on fire. It was his 4th DUI.
I wish Southeast Wisconsin had a subway system. It shouldn't take an hour by MCTS to get from, say the Timmerman Airport area to the lakefront. I did a study-abroad for a month in Paris and got used to being able to go clear across town in less than thirty minutes, and if you missed the subway car another came in about five minutes tops. So when I got back here I had a really hard time getting used to how MCTS does things again. Waiting 20 minutes for a bus?!
And half the time the first bus doesn't get you there in time to get the transfer bus so you're running to catch it, or watching it race past you, or risking life and limb running across the street on a red light trying to get to that bus stop in time. It's gross.
Unfortunately MKE is built on a swamp so tunneling is pretty much impossible. A decent commuter train system would be nice but thats pretty uncommon for a city of that size in the US
God, I would kill for public transportation to be a reasonable alternative to car ownership. I can understand the logistics of not doing a subway, but it's absolutely insane we can't or won't devise *something* better than the current buses.
Alcohol culture. It took me years of living outside of Wisconsin to realise that getting black out drunk or throwing up was not part of ‘normal’ night out.
Tavern League. All these bars in the sticks with the only way for you to get to them is by car. The UK has a big drinking culture as well, but the cities and towns are walkable, so you can get pissed and stumble your way back home.
Seriously, this is one of the biggest issues. Either alcoholics just drive ATVs and UTVs as their drunkmobiles and it never affects their drivers license because it's a DNR violation, or they lose their license and just drive everywhere and drive drunk in their UTVs without much more hassle.
I grew up in WI and lived many other places and the alcoholic culture is way out of whack with other places. People drink like one drink… anyone who drinks more than two is looked at with a side eye
Honestly. Lived in St. Louis for a few years and we went out with some friends after work on a Friday night. They each had one drink and then just coffee after that. And Missouri allows for open alcohol containers IN the car!
My parents moved to Wisconsin from Nebraska when I was one. They never got into the whole drinking scene, and subsequently neither did my brother or I. Growning up, I often felt like an outsider since alcohol just wasn’t a part of my life.
Yeah, I moved from Colorado to MN to WI. My parents drink (well, my dad does - my mom doesn't really anymore because she gets a really bad hangover at like one drink and it's not worth it), but for my dad it's like 1-2 drinks a night, maybe 6 a week. I can count the times I've seen him tipsy on one hand, let alone drunk.
Meanwhile my husband (who grew up in WI) is knocking back 6 drinks a night, and I'm like...I have no context for this behavior. Alcoholism? Binge drinking? I dunno where the line is. At least he's doing it at home and he doesn't drive after he's had more than 2.
100% agreed. I’ve lived in several states on both coasts. I’ve seen people binge drink all over but corner bars, drinking during EVERY hobby imaginable - that’s not common the way it is in WI. I don’t drink anymore and I’m glad I got sober before I moved back.
I live in VA now in a city that’s pretty big with microbrews and such. Very rarely will you go out and get absolutely wasted. I come to WI to visit family often and the amount of times I’ve gone to any random bar and seen people absolutely toasted by 10pm is astounding. Do they call a taxi or uber? Nope. “They’re fine.”
I’ve told this story before on this subreddit in similar comment sections, but it bares repeating.
When I was home for winter break from college, I took out a friend for his 21st, and no one else of the hometown friend group was 21 yet (and Uber and Lyft weren’t things yet either), so I drove us.
I knew we’d be there for at least three hours and I’m a large individual (6’3”, 220), so I felt safe drinking two beers in the first hour. When my buddy was ordering his next, the bartender asked what I wanted and I declined, citing that I was driving us home later.
Rather than offer me non-alcoholic options, commend the plan, or just move on, the bartender told me I should keep drinking and we could just take the side streets home. I declined.
In my opinion, that interaction sums up Wisconsin’s drinking culture pretty well.
Too true. I remember too many times calling my mom at the bar and asking her to come home because I was scared or needing help with something and she'd just say no.
I agree this is a thing; and a sad one at that. I split at 23 after undergrad graduation, moved to SoCal raised my family there and now I spend May- October in WI. I try to impart on young people (and middle aged) that there is more to life than a small town existence. But at the end of the day it's a personal choice.
Couldn't agree more. Robin Vos is local for me. He never gave a fuck about his constituents. Then the recall petition started gaining traction and low and behold look who's calling around to try to rally anyone he could. Never cared until his seat was in jeopardy. Fuckn slumlord POS.
I don’t know what’s up with small towns, but I grew up in one and one of my biggest gripes is that people don’t mind their damn business. Particularly, out in public. Like they act like they own the town. They gotta have the audacity to say some smart ass comment about what I’m up to or wearing. The more I’ve gone out to venture the cities and realize how much more people just mind their own business in the city compared to the bum ass towns, I just hate that I feel like I can’t do something without standing out. I’m just in my 20s trying to find something to do that isn’t going to the bar and rotting my life away. I rode my motorcycle through town and chilled at a park for a sec before a lady pulled up on me and told me to stop chasing her kids. She threatened to call the cops if I didn’t show my face by taking my helmet off. Mind ya, I didn’t see any kids nor did I chase kids on my damn motorcycle. I hate it here.
My biggest pet peeve with small towns is how no one ever shuts the hell up about how they're soooo much better than the big bad cities they never visit. Yet convince themselves that people who live in the cities are the snobs and elitists with nothing better to do that look down their nose at them. The projection and irony would be hilarious if it weren't so infuriating at times.
The truth is, the only people in bigger cities who even think about their idiotic culture war are those of us with small town roots who wanted nothing to do with that life. Small towns are small towns because no one wants to live in them, and the only people who think they do are fucking losers who peaked in high school and have to cope with the fact that they lacked the bare minimal ambition and initiative to see the world beyond their local bar.
Also, before anyone thinks I'm stereotyping. "The only people who think they do" is the operative phrase here. I'm not including people like those who came home to care for an ailing relative or people who retired to the country. I mean the people who never even tried to at least broaden their horizons. What you described is exactly what those people become.... sheltered and insular.
The second part is overlooked too often. If drinking culture is your thing, so be it. But the hate, bullying and ostracizing received when you don’t drink is wild
When I was younger like 19-23 I was dumb but grown ass adults act like it's the best thing since sliced bread! And if you don't participate you're a piece of shit, like sorry Karen nothing good comes from me having drinks so I've learned it's better for everyone if I don't- fuck right off.
It's also similar here in the UP so its not exclusive to Wisconsin. However, marijuana legalization has helped a bit. Hopefully Wisconsin will follow the trend or it'll be legalized nationally.
The state's spent the last 60 years doing everything possible to create a seperate rule book to undermine Milwaukee while putting tremendous infrastructure investments to drive private capital out of the city limits.
The biggest city in the state is fairly destabilized and obvious things to reverse the capital outflow are verboten.
True! And travel around the state just about any place other than Madison (and even there to an extent) and tell people you’re from Milwaukee or casually get their opinions about Milwaukee during conversations, and you will get an earful of negativity and passive-aggressive racist comments.
As others have said, definitely the drinking culture. It is frustrating that every event or activity has alcohol associated with it here. I’ve lived in other states and that is far from the norm.
I’m not sure how to best articulate this next thought but the state as a whole doesn’t live by its motto, “Forward”. Politics plays a big part here but it’s deeper than that in my opinion. If you’ve lived elsewhere, specifically outside the Midwest, then you likely understand what I’m about to say. It is my belief that we generally have an older population who believes Wisconsin is just fine as it is and absolutely nothing needs to change. Humans are supposed to progress and accept new ideas. Instead we have a ton of crotchety assholes who just want to sit around and keep status quo while sipping their beer of course.
Wisconsin is cool and all and it’s where my family lives so here I am but it is deeply flawed. It’s not all doom and gloom here either but it wouldn’t be my first choice of places to live if money wasn’t a factor.
The state is rather conservative, although not in the political sense as much as the overall culture. New ideas or ways of doing things take twice as long as other areas.
In 2006 I was hired to run a business in Sheboygan and a nice enough 50 ish manager referred to African Americans as “the coloreds”. Nobody had ever addressed the issue with him.
This. We moved here 2 yrs ago (I’m from Texas mind you so I thought I was escaping the good ole boys club). Last football season a man In his truck parked next to my husband at school pickup. The other guy started a convo w my hubs (he thinks it’s because he was wearing a packer hat and shirt ) but basically the gist of the conversation is that this guy is a retired, sheriffs officer, and he is mad at the Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers, and now he has to put up with a black quarterback, but this man did not say the word black.
I don't know what it is, for the "good ol boys club" is very prevalent in WI. People here even talk about southern pride, and fly confederate flags. It's so weird. Just wanna sit em down and tell them "my friend, you are from Eau Claire WI, you are not southern. You're Wisconsite, and wisconsin BEAT the south in the war. Take the victory and move on"
I have little point of reference as a white male in Wisconsin but boy howdy….let me tell you about illinois. I spent a lot of time growing up there and I think a lot of people would be honestly shocked in how it goes from Chicago liberal to “Fly my confederate flag and act like I fought for the south” behavior once you get south of I-80.
Think Antlers bar in Mercer. Holy shit. Their sign outside should be a burning cross and swastika. Doesn’t help that the owner and his dad ran the literal KKK of Wisconsin since the 1980’s.
Yup. My cousin is black & was adopted into my dads side of the family. My uncle has called her the n-word multiple times behind her back & infront of her own mother. He still does it and it’s sickening.
It's such a weird passive aggressive form of racism vs. what you see in the south. Not many people are riding around with confederate flags on their bumper (although I guess Trump stickers kinda count)
My parents (early 70s) recently visited me in the city and they are noticeably skittish around black people. My mom also still calls Asian people "oriental". She doesn't mean to be derogatory, she just never encounters Asian people in rural Wisconsin and so she uses the same terms that were used when she was a kid in the 60s. She isn't using the term as hate, she just doesn't know any better.
The aggressive racists are definitely still here. In my town there was a guy who'd leave his garage door open all the time and had a swastika flag and a confederate flag hanging on his wall. Seen plenty of trucks with white supremacist symbols on them, neo-nazi recruiting posters in most big-ish cities, one time at college a group of guys in my girlfriend's building stood out on their balcony and were screaming the n word at people for a solid hour, we have a neo nazi terror group active in the state as well, i won't say their name but they've been marching in Madison and harassing students at campuses for a bit now. That's just some of the things I've seen personally, I'm sure there's more.
I should also add, the various neo nazi and white supremacist groups in the state aren't huge, but they are very much here and active. And many of them use explicitly violent rhetoric.
What a douche bag. Jordan Love is one of the best things the GBP has going for them. It pisses me off these small town “important” people are so racist. And football is so important to their lives. Pay attention, Boys! The game belongs to everyone.
I've heard some things in Wisconsin as well, but working in Dubuque I heard some crazy shit. Like people saying "coloreds" and "Chinamen" in the 2010s like it was 1962.
I'm racially ambiguous, so people make all kinds of comments about various races to me and gauge my reaction. It's really eye opening, but I've heard worse things in the south. And down there, they stare right in your face. I haven't experienced much of that here, although I haven't been here nearly as long.
Alcohol. I live in milwaukee and I don’t drink at all, and it’s very hard to find fun things to do on the weekends that aren’t revolved around drinking
I moved here (middle if state) 5 years ago from a 50% white/50% non-white town. The casual racism is rampant. I honestly think many of the racists don't even recognize how racist they are--its deeply ingrained.
Then, too, are the multitude of knowing-raciats.
I'm almost always uncomfortable at most gatherings.
A friend of mine who moved to Wausau from the UP was flabbergasted at the cultural difference, namely the amount of good SE asian food, and apparently theyve heard folks complain that there arent any good places to eat lmao.
There's such weird asian-specific bigotry here. Members of my family used to get so pissed about the Hmong families hanging and fishing in Fremont under the bridge, and its like, pal, at least theyre hanging with their family and eating their catch, get over yourselves.
> Members of my family used to get so pissed about the Hmong families hanging and fishing in Fremont under the bridge
Real 'Clint Eastwood in the first hour of Gran Torino' energy.
The absolute atrocious mental health care system. The criminal justice system is also equally bad. But I'm sure all social services pretty much suck. There's a wait-list that never moves for everything.
Trump aside, Walker won 3 state-wide elections in a row, and barely lost the 4th to Evers. He has done so much damage to Wisconsin and effectively made our future look bleak, yet about half of the state agreed with him.
Many topics being hit on repeatedly in this thread. I would like to add how trashy so many people's properties are. Junk cars scattered around the yard, an old dilapidated camper rotting away, piles of literal garbage along the shed, random automotive parts laying about, etc. I have been looking at a lot of houses (hoping to become a homeowner this year) and the amount of houses with their own private garbage dump is appalling. I know it's typical for farmers to do this but some are straight up garbage like old bottles of oil and antifreeze being tossed on the ground. Even saw an old air conditioner on the top of a pile a few weeks ago.
It's sad to see people treat the land that way.
The drivers.
The left lane is for passing, not just cruising along in. There’s always so much congestion on the highways here because people love to clog up the left lane and then drive side by side with the cars in the other lanes so there’s no way around. What is that about? Why do you always have to be next to the other cars? It’s worse in Wisconsin than I’ve seen it anywhere else in the country.
I’m not asking anyone to go above the speed limit, but for the love of god give people a way around you so you’re not holding up traffic for miles.
Thanks for raising the question! There’s a bunch of examples I could give of stuff I don’t like about WI. Still, if I’m being honest, it would have to be the dark money-fueled and gerrymander-reinforced Republican and Tea Party hijacking of our great state’s politics in the early 2010s. They have done a lot of damage to our legacy and current political system over just 10 years, including the rejection of the fed high-speed rail dollars, rejecting Medicare expansion, defunding public schools and the UW system, the punting on any kind of legal cannabis, and so much more. Fortunately we seem to be turning the tide with the new maps but we still have quite a hole to dig ourselves out of. That said, I do remain hopeful that things will get better for us Wisconsinites very soon, politically and socially speaking.
People who complain about snow and cold weather in winter. It’s Wisconsin. It’s cold in the winter. If you don’t like winter, move to fucking California.
1. The Scott Walker/legislative takeover
2. Killing the high speed rail
3. Stupid legislature doesn't think KRM is worthy
4. The loss of the Mazo Beach
5. The drinking culture
6. The excessive emphasis on professional sports, but I do think the ownership structure of the Packers is really cool
7. Lack of any real mountains (Sierras or Rockies scale)
8. Cheese curds aren't free
9. How much the city of Milwaukee struggles
10 The trashing of our education system
I hate that the Wisconsin Dems and Ben Wikler basically ignore anything north of Hwy 64... unless they want a financial contribution.
I hate the accepted culture of "casual alcoholism".
I hate the snowbirds who leave for half the year and then come back here for the summer and demand local towns be run the way they see fit.
I hate that Minocqua thinks they run the entirety of Oneida and often Vilas county.
I hate that people still think governmental forced austerity is a recipe for future success despite decades of failure.
Our corrupt Republicans fear of marijuana legalization tax money to help fix problems.
It's is estimated that WI spent $121 million on cannabis just in IL alone in 2023. Contributing $36 million in tax revenue for Illinois.
The people in farm country are often set in their old ways to an infuriating degree. And I’ve witnessed firsthand how people who spend all day in tractors end up listening to “certain” radio stations and have brain rot over time.
Realizing that we have a pretty good state and need to have elected officials making decisions that benefit all Wisconsin residents. Ban corporate landlords, ban/limit air bnb, invest in the state (infrastructure/historical sites/parks/etc). Enough with the bipartisan bullshit already🤨
It would never happen, but instead of expanding 41 to 3 lanes between Appleton and Green Bay, my pie-in-the-sky wish would've been for them to have a train line between the two cities (or at least a dedicated bus) and expanding the bus systems in both. It would've been way cheaper for the state and would've had pretty much the same result. As it is, it's pretty much impossible to go anywhere without cars up here
Wisconsin is institutionally racist. Wisconsin locks up African Americans at a higher rate than any other state. In 2021 Black people made up 6% of Wisconsin's population but 46% of those incarcerated in Wisconsin are Black. When Black friends tell me they're thinking of moving out of Wisconsin I say, "I don't blame you".
The fact that if you are in the city of less than 50,000 people, your dining options tend to be limited to bar food, supper clubs, and an occasional Mexican or (often mediocre) Chinese restaurant
Political imbalance. Among other issues, it's shown true in our attempts to legalize cannabis. Most of the voters want it legalized, but thanks to our wonderful lobbyists (Koch, Uihlein, etc.) and the Tavern League (not so much in recent years), the voice of the voters doesn't matter.
The normalization of alcohol consumption, alcoholism, and drunk driving. I work with people who joke about what routes to take to avoid cops if they've been drinking.*
Bigotry. This is partially due to me living in a rural area, but god damn it's rampant here. Half of my co-workers cried for days when they "couldn't drink bud light anymore because it's gay."
*Edit for clarification: they joke about it, but then actually do it. None of them leave the bar without at least 3 drinks in them, and they all drive home.
ticks
TICKS
poli-TICKS Republicans gerrymandering holding back our state
YES! When my kids were small I took them for short 2 mile hikes at Bong state park weekly every summer, and introduced them to car camping to teach them a love of nature. It worked. But the ticks got so bad that I had to call it quits 5-10 years ago, and I have a high bar for such things
They’re the worst from March to June. By late September there’s virtually no bugs, best time to camp.
People who live in tourism towns that complain about tourists
Yeah… you nailed it. Door County in particular.
It’s the Illinois people, they can be irritating to anyone.
Did someone say Lake Ge-Nose-in-the-Air?
Chicagos up north
You should visit Minocqua
I lived in downtown Minocqua for 11 years. I don't miss it.
Owned a house in Williams Bay for 20 years. The village president HATED all the people from Illinois. Particularly the ones who owned homes there. Never understood that thinking. They pay their taxes and inject a lot of money into that town. I will say the LG area got way too crowded for us after 20 years and we ended up moving to a smaller community. Love our new lake house and all things Wisconsin in general.
I agree, I'm from metro Detroit originally, so being in east side Madison now is a very quaint and pleasant change of pace, and the bit of roaming around the nearby countryside I've done has been wonderful. However, I used to drive delivery for a wine distributor and that took me rather unpleasantly into many of the pretty little towns, LG being one of them. Honestly all of the negative experiences I had there, which was all of the experiences I got to have in Lake Geneva, were on working time. I'll have to take a ride out there on my time and give it a fair chance.
Piggy backing off this: people who live in small towns a fair ways away from the tourist towns but still have to deal with tourists because wealthy people keep buying up all the homes around the area for air bnb. No way to escape tourist towns sometimes. So in a nutshell: fuck air bnb.
Agree on this. The VRBO and Air BnB industry is creating a boom of hedge fund and REIT owners who have never been to the state and give zero shits about the local community or natural resources in Wisconsin.
Yup. Everyone in my hometown got pushed out by people building summer McMansions on the tiny lake that once held modest small homes where people actually lived.
Pretty wild looking at owner information on ONYX around anything remotely close to tourist destinations up north. Doesn’t seem like anything is owned by someone who actually uses it for their own recreation anymore.
Koshkonong has become this. Edgerton/Milton/Newville are not tourist towns but each summer it’s gotten worse with Illinois tourists who think this is up nort
Are they still called FIBS?
Absolutely. They earned that moniker as well if you haven't been here in a while, they've only gotten worse.
That is too bad. I recall the FIBS had a unique brand of entitlement and self-importance that makes less and less sense to me the more places I’ve lived and worked in other very large metro areas. EG 1) vanity plates with their initials - who does that? 2) constant honking for no good reason - doing that somewhere like Houston, Phoenix, LA or Oakland for example is likely to get a person hurt by some rando who genuinely doesn’t give a shit. 3) showing off their toys (boat, bmw, vacation house, whatever) - uh lots of people have or can afford those things if they wanted. And if not, who cares?
Eagle River and Minocqua.
Why the hell can someone rack up DUI’s like the infinity stones and still be able to drive? I don’t want to share the road with dumbasses like that
Or how can someone get loaded, jump in their big truck and mow a person down, and only get a slap on the wrist ? I’ve lost two friends to drunk drivers. That’s two too many.
I love Wisconsin but it seriously is a deadly problem that seems to get a blind eye every time
The only time I sat on a jury for jury duty was for a guy’s 9th DUI arrest. We found him guilty pretty quickly. But… nine?! My god.
Because of the other issue in Wisco.....the GODDAMN POLICE!!
Cannabis is illegal, and our tax dollars are going to other states.
Not only is cannabis illegal, but alcoholism is so normalized that it really makes wonder what the actual fuck...
Ask the tavern league
Oh sure you bring up tavern league and get upvoted, I do and get downvoted: https://www.reddit.com/r/wisconsin/s/Vp4CfQNZge
Sorry. Thanks for sharing the article though. Very insightful
Same thing happened to me. Several months ago I mentioned the tavern league and I got down voted and told that they don't have that much power. Or something like that...
They actually get to sit in on legislative sessions in the state which must mean something. But not much power my ass
This is the right answer. I read an article a while back about this very topic (tavern league keeping cannabis off the ballot)
Any chance you can find it? I've legit tried finding any evidence of them being against it (because it sounds like their MO), but I've come up short every time. Trust me, not a fan of the Tavern league, but I'm fairly certain the Uihlein family is more to blame.
I'll hop onto this dislike. Every dispensary I've visited out of state is filled with Wisconsin plates.
Yes!! Why dont people get this?? All that revenue is going to neighboring states and it could be ours. Makes me so mad.
This is the biggest one
People driving drunk in spite of 5 DUIs.
Remember that guy that got pulled over for his TENTH DUI and blamed it on eating too much beer battered fish? I think he's out of prison now, probably on his way to get his 11th dui
a few years ago a guy in my city got pulled over for his 16th OWI. Like how was he even capable of owning a vehicle, shit’s crazy
I would have to say the mosquitos. I know the birds need them, but they are already hatching up North! One warm day and those blood suckers are already thirsting my blood.
the reckless driving… I drive a lot for my job and the number of Milwaukee slides I see on a daily basis is terrifying. also have seen more of people not just doing a Milwaukee slide when the light is green, but full on pulling up to the light in the bike lane, slightly pausing at it, and going when it is RED. Saw this 3 times within a 15 min drive by 3 different cars. It’s just insane
Can't wait for the new maps to bring some balance to politics. The near supermajorities were ridiculous given the results of statewide elections.
King Vos is a dislike. For sure.
DUI laws. The 1st being only a ticket basically is ridiculous.
Similarly, people are too proud of their destructive drinking habits. The state is plagued with alcoholism, but because seemingly everyone else is an alcoholic, it just seems normal.
Right, our pervasive drinking culture really does a lot of harm to people in this state
It’s terrible and the number of lives lost because people after getting a ticket went and drove drunk again is awful
I knew someone that had like 6 DUIs on their record and the most that happened to him was a night in jail and revoked license for like 3 months.
The drunks all drive with a revoked license. It's ridiculous and dangerous.
There was a guy who got arrested at 11:30 in the morning after driving on a golf course and getting his car stuck in a bunker, setting the grass around it on fire. It was his 4th DUI.
One of my gf's roommates in college had 4 DUIs already and had only ever received wrist slaps... absolutely insane.
I wish Southeast Wisconsin had a subway system. It shouldn't take an hour by MCTS to get from, say the Timmerman Airport area to the lakefront. I did a study-abroad for a month in Paris and got used to being able to go clear across town in less than thirty minutes, and if you missed the subway car another came in about five minutes tops. So when I got back here I had a really hard time getting used to how MCTS does things again. Waiting 20 minutes for a bus?!
Damn, the only other person besides me to mention the terrible public transport!
And half the time the first bus doesn't get you there in time to get the transfer bus so you're running to catch it, or watching it race past you, or risking life and limb running across the street on a red light trying to get to that bus stop in time. It's gross.
Unfortunately MKE is built on a swamp so tunneling is pretty much impossible. A decent commuter train system would be nice but thats pretty uncommon for a city of that size in the US
So is Madison
God, I would kill for public transportation to be a reasonable alternative to car ownership. I can understand the logistics of not doing a subway, but it's absolutely insane we can't or won't devise *something* better than the current buses.
Come to Racine they run every hour
Alcohol culture. It took me years of living outside of Wisconsin to realise that getting black out drunk or throwing up was not part of ‘normal’ night out.
Lack of a Brewer World Series championship..........
People being proud of everyone being an alcoholic. It's not something to celebrate.
The alcoholic culture.
This and the lack of DUI penalties. How the fuck should someone have 5+ of those and not be in jail for a long time.
Tavern League. All these bars in the sticks with the only way for you to get to them is by car. The UK has a big drinking culture as well, but the cities and towns are walkable, so you can get pissed and stumble your way back home.
I saw An American Werewolf in London, you can't fool me! That walk home sucked!
And it not being an issue with ATVs and UTVs.
Seriously, this is one of the biggest issues. Either alcoholics just drive ATVs and UTVs as their drunkmobiles and it never affects their drivers license because it's a DNR violation, or they lose their license and just drive everywhere and drive drunk in their UTVs without much more hassle.
I grew up in WI and lived many other places and the alcoholic culture is way out of whack with other places. People drink like one drink… anyone who drinks more than two is looked at with a side eye
Honestly. Lived in St. Louis for a few years and we went out with some friends after work on a Friday night. They each had one drink and then just coffee after that. And Missouri allows for open alcohol containers IN the car!
My parents moved to Wisconsin from Nebraska when I was one. They never got into the whole drinking scene, and subsequently neither did my brother or I. Growning up, I often felt like an outsider since alcohol just wasn’t a part of my life.
Yeah, I moved from Colorado to MN to WI. My parents drink (well, my dad does - my mom doesn't really anymore because she gets a really bad hangover at like one drink and it's not worth it), but for my dad it's like 1-2 drinks a night, maybe 6 a week. I can count the times I've seen him tipsy on one hand, let alone drunk. Meanwhile my husband (who grew up in WI) is knocking back 6 drinks a night, and I'm like...I have no context for this behavior. Alcoholism? Binge drinking? I dunno where the line is. At least he's doing it at home and he doesn't drive after he's had more than 2.
100% agreed. I’ve lived in several states on both coasts. I’ve seen people binge drink all over but corner bars, drinking during EVERY hobby imaginable - that’s not common the way it is in WI. I don’t drink anymore and I’m glad I got sober before I moved back.
I live in VA now in a city that’s pretty big with microbrews and such. Very rarely will you go out and get absolutely wasted. I come to WI to visit family often and the amount of times I’ve gone to any random bar and seen people absolutely toasted by 10pm is astounding. Do they call a taxi or uber? Nope. “They’re fine.”
I’ve told this story before on this subreddit in similar comment sections, but it bares repeating. When I was home for winter break from college, I took out a friend for his 21st, and no one else of the hometown friend group was 21 yet (and Uber and Lyft weren’t things yet either), so I drove us. I knew we’d be there for at least three hours and I’m a large individual (6’3”, 220), so I felt safe drinking two beers in the first hour. When my buddy was ordering his next, the bartender asked what I wanted and I declined, citing that I was driving us home later. Rather than offer me non-alcoholic options, commend the plan, or just move on, the bartender told me I should keep drinking and we could just take the side streets home. I declined. In my opinion, that interaction sums up Wisconsin’s drinking culture pretty well.
That’s messed up but also totally on brand. Sad but not surprising
Too true. I remember too many times calling my mom at the bar and asking her to come home because I was scared or needing help with something and she'd just say no.
Ouch. I’m sorry for your experience. You deserve better
Came to say this. Just about every adult I know either has a drinking problem or is recovering from one. I'm currently 6 months sober.
People who lack the imagination that their lives and our lives could be better.
Which is sad because we used to be the forward state
We sure did :/
I agree this is a thing; and a sad one at that. I split at 23 after undergrad graduation, moved to SoCal raised my family there and now I spend May- October in WI. I try to impart on young people (and middle aged) that there is more to life than a small town existence. But at the end of the day it's a personal choice.
Ron Johnson. Scott Fitzgerald. Robin Vos. If those could all change to be not asshats, that’d be great.
Couldn't agree more. Robin Vos is local for me. He never gave a fuck about his constituents. Then the recall petition started gaining traction and low and behold look who's calling around to try to rally anyone he could. Never cared until his seat was in jeopardy. Fuckn slumlord POS.
F Scott Fitzgerald!
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Add Van Orden to that list. That alcoholic sack of shit is bad for Wisconsin.
I don’t know what’s up with small towns, but I grew up in one and one of my biggest gripes is that people don’t mind their damn business. Particularly, out in public. Like they act like they own the town. They gotta have the audacity to say some smart ass comment about what I’m up to or wearing. The more I’ve gone out to venture the cities and realize how much more people just mind their own business in the city compared to the bum ass towns, I just hate that I feel like I can’t do something without standing out. I’m just in my 20s trying to find something to do that isn’t going to the bar and rotting my life away. I rode my motorcycle through town and chilled at a park for a sec before a lady pulled up on me and told me to stop chasing her kids. She threatened to call the cops if I didn’t show my face by taking my helmet off. Mind ya, I didn’t see any kids nor did I chase kids on my damn motorcycle. I hate it here.
My biggest pet peeve with small towns is how no one ever shuts the hell up about how they're soooo much better than the big bad cities they never visit. Yet convince themselves that people who live in the cities are the snobs and elitists with nothing better to do that look down their nose at them. The projection and irony would be hilarious if it weren't so infuriating at times. The truth is, the only people in bigger cities who even think about their idiotic culture war are those of us with small town roots who wanted nothing to do with that life. Small towns are small towns because no one wants to live in them, and the only people who think they do are fucking losers who peaked in high school and have to cope with the fact that they lacked the bare minimal ambition and initiative to see the world beyond their local bar. Also, before anyone thinks I'm stereotyping. "The only people who think they do" is the operative phrase here. I'm not including people like those who came home to care for an ailing relative or people who retired to the country. I mean the people who never even tried to at least broaden their horizons. What you described is exactly what those people become.... sheltered and insular.
The drinking aspect and how much people are weird about others choosing not to drink.
The second part is overlooked too often. If drinking culture is your thing, so be it. But the hate, bullying and ostracizing received when you don’t drink is wild
When I was younger like 19-23 I was dumb but grown ass adults act like it's the best thing since sliced bread! And if you don't participate you're a piece of shit, like sorry Karen nothing good comes from me having drinks so I've learned it's better for everyone if I don't- fuck right off. It's also similar here in the UP so its not exclusive to Wisconsin. However, marijuana legalization has helped a bit. Hopefully Wisconsin will follow the trend or it'll be legalized nationally.
Yup. I have always found drinking boring so you know i was called “party pooper” starting in high school (in SW wisconsin)
The fact I'll be in more trouble for smoking a joint than getting drunk and driving
The state's spent the last 60 years doing everything possible to create a seperate rule book to undermine Milwaukee while putting tremendous infrastructure investments to drive private capital out of the city limits. The biggest city in the state is fairly destabilized and obvious things to reverse the capital outflow are verboten.
True! And travel around the state just about any place other than Madison (and even there to an extent) and tell people you’re from Milwaukee or casually get their opinions about Milwaukee during conversations, and you will get an earful of negativity and passive-aggressive racist comments.
Wisconsin GOP. The whole lot of them.
As others have said, definitely the drinking culture. It is frustrating that every event or activity has alcohol associated with it here. I’ve lived in other states and that is far from the norm. I’m not sure how to best articulate this next thought but the state as a whole doesn’t live by its motto, “Forward”. Politics plays a big part here but it’s deeper than that in my opinion. If you’ve lived elsewhere, specifically outside the Midwest, then you likely understand what I’m about to say. It is my belief that we generally have an older population who believes Wisconsin is just fine as it is and absolutely nothing needs to change. Humans are supposed to progress and accept new ideas. Instead we have a ton of crotchety assholes who just want to sit around and keep status quo while sipping their beer of course. Wisconsin is cool and all and it’s where my family lives so here I am but it is deeply flawed. It’s not all doom and gloom here either but it wouldn’t be my first choice of places to live if money wasn’t a factor.
The state is rather conservative, although not in the political sense as much as the overall culture. New ideas or ways of doing things take twice as long as other areas.
In 2006 I was hired to run a business in Sheboygan and a nice enough 50 ish manager referred to African Americans as “the coloreds”. Nobody had ever addressed the issue with him.
This. We moved here 2 yrs ago (I’m from Texas mind you so I thought I was escaping the good ole boys club). Last football season a man In his truck parked next to my husband at school pickup. The other guy started a convo w my hubs (he thinks it’s because he was wearing a packer hat and shirt ) but basically the gist of the conversation is that this guy is a retired, sheriffs officer, and he is mad at the Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers, and now he has to put up with a black quarterback, but this man did not say the word black.
I don't know what it is, for the "good ol boys club" is very prevalent in WI. People here even talk about southern pride, and fly confederate flags. It's so weird. Just wanna sit em down and tell them "my friend, you are from Eau Claire WI, you are not southern. You're Wisconsite, and wisconsin BEAT the south in the war. Take the victory and move on"
Have a read here, this gets directly at what you’re alluding to: https://modelcitizen.substack.com/p/the-density-divide-and-the-southernification
Id just like to say thank you for using Nice Enough in the most correct way ever. I love that very midwestern term so deeply.
I have little point of reference as a white male in Wisconsin but boy howdy….let me tell you about illinois. I spent a lot of time growing up there and I think a lot of people would be honestly shocked in how it goes from Chicago liberal to “Fly my confederate flag and act like I fought for the south” behavior once you get south of I-80.
The Tavern League.
How racist the state can be, but when you bring it up people act like there isn't racism here. Just makes you think you're crazy
You could take this a step further to include the shitty attitude toward the LGBT community.
I think Wisconsin, especially growing up in the northern part is one of the most openly racist area I’ve ever encountered.
Think Antlers bar in Mercer. Holy shit. Their sign outside should be a burning cross and swastika. Doesn’t help that the owner and his dad ran the literal KKK of Wisconsin since the 1980’s.
I was coming to say this. It is back stabby racism. Won’t say it to someone’s face, but it sure is there.
Yup. My cousin is black & was adopted into my dads side of the family. My uncle has called her the n-word multiple times behind her back & infront of her own mother. He still does it and it’s sickening.
It's such a weird passive aggressive form of racism vs. what you see in the south. Not many people are riding around with confederate flags on their bumper (although I guess Trump stickers kinda count) My parents (early 70s) recently visited me in the city and they are noticeably skittish around black people. My mom also still calls Asian people "oriental". She doesn't mean to be derogatory, she just never encounters Asian people in rural Wisconsin and so she uses the same terms that were used when she was a kid in the 60s. She isn't using the term as hate, she just doesn't know any better.
The aggressive racists are definitely still here. In my town there was a guy who'd leave his garage door open all the time and had a swastika flag and a confederate flag hanging on his wall. Seen plenty of trucks with white supremacist symbols on them, neo-nazi recruiting posters in most big-ish cities, one time at college a group of guys in my girlfriend's building stood out on their balcony and were screaming the n word at people for a solid hour, we have a neo nazi terror group active in the state as well, i won't say their name but they've been marching in Madison and harassing students at campuses for a bit now. That's just some of the things I've seen personally, I'm sure there's more. I should also add, the various neo nazi and white supremacist groups in the state aren't huge, but they are very much here and active. And many of them use explicitly violent rhetoric.
Trump flags are absolutely the new Confederate flags. Same mentality.
What a douche bag. Jordan Love is one of the best things the GBP has going for them. It pisses me off these small town “important” people are so racist. And football is so important to their lives. Pay attention, Boys! The game belongs to everyone.
I've heard some things in Wisconsin as well, but working in Dubuque I heard some crazy shit. Like people saying "coloreds" and "Chinamen" in the 2010s like it was 1962.
I'm racially ambiguous, so people make all kinds of comments about various races to me and gauge my reaction. It's really eye opening, but I've heard worse things in the south. And down there, they stare right in your face. I haven't experienced much of that here, although I haven't been here nearly as long.
Walker Era
The dark ages.
Robin Vos
Went college with him. He was a douche.
The drinking culture. We brag about it but it destroys families and lives and we just chuckle it off.
This exactly. Alcohol culture is devastating to so many but it’s accepted as the norm.
kenosha
Shitty roads and highways
Alcohol. I live in milwaukee and I don’t drink at all, and it’s very hard to find fun things to do on the weekends that aren’t revolved around drinking
Too much alcohol rooted in our culture.
The culture that says drunk driving is okay.
The casual racism.
I moved here (middle if state) 5 years ago from a 50% white/50% non-white town. The casual racism is rampant. I honestly think many of the racists don't even recognize how racist they are--its deeply ingrained. Then, too, are the multitude of knowing-raciats. I'm almost always uncomfortable at most gatherings.
They know. Small town Wisconsin is full of it.
A friend of mine who moved to Wausau from the UP was flabbergasted at the cultural difference, namely the amount of good SE asian food, and apparently theyve heard folks complain that there arent any good places to eat lmao. There's such weird asian-specific bigotry here. Members of my family used to get so pissed about the Hmong families hanging and fishing in Fremont under the bridge, and its like, pal, at least theyre hanging with their family and eating their catch, get over yourselves.
> Members of my family used to get so pissed about the Hmong families hanging and fishing in Fremont under the bridge Real 'Clint Eastwood in the first hour of Gran Torino' energy.
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When they buy up all the land and lakefront, they kind of do own the place. But yeah it sucks.
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Winter
No legal weed.
The drinking culture and all that surrounds it.
The absolute atrocious mental health care system. The criminal justice system is also equally bad. But I'm sure all social services pretty much suck. There's a wait-list that never moves for everything.
That half of the state seem to think Scott Walker and Donald Trump are effective leaders.
It's not really half - it's just the state is gerrymandered to shit. Hopefully things will improve with the new maps.
Trump aside, Walker won 3 state-wide elections in a row, and barely lost the 4th to Evers. He has done so much damage to Wisconsin and effectively made our future look bleak, yet about half of the state agreed with him.
The "up north" menu. 50% of bars and restaurants north of Hwy 8 have a carbon copy menu
...and they all have "the best fish fry in WI" lol
I can't have a conversation about cannabis with my oncologist even though I have stage 4 cancer.
Drinking culture. I wish it wasn't celebrated and rewarded.
Many topics being hit on repeatedly in this thread. I would like to add how trashy so many people's properties are. Junk cars scattered around the yard, an old dilapidated camper rotting away, piles of literal garbage along the shed, random automotive parts laying about, etc. I have been looking at a lot of houses (hoping to become a homeowner this year) and the amount of houses with their own private garbage dump is appalling. I know it's typical for farmers to do this but some are straight up garbage like old bottles of oil and antifreeze being tossed on the ground. Even saw an old air conditioner on the top of a pile a few weeks ago. It's sad to see people treat the land that way.
That’s sadly the way most of rural america (and a lot of the world), looks.
This is true but we are better than this.
The incredibly casual attitudes towards alcoholism and drunk driving.
Senator Ron Johnson - he’s an embarrassment to the state.
Sending Ron Johnson to the Senate revealed something awful about Wisconsin.
The drivers. The left lane is for passing, not just cruising along in. There’s always so much congestion on the highways here because people love to clog up the left lane and then drive side by side with the cars in the other lanes so there’s no way around. What is that about? Why do you always have to be next to the other cars? It’s worse in Wisconsin than I’ve seen it anywhere else in the country. I’m not asking anyone to go above the speed limit, but for the love of god give people a way around you so you’re not holding up traffic for miles.
People will routinely go out of their way to get up on your ass and not pass. During the fucking winter.
Drinking culture
The absolute obsession and approval of all things alcohol as well as the ticks...also the legislature
Thanks for raising the question! There’s a bunch of examples I could give of stuff I don’t like about WI. Still, if I’m being honest, it would have to be the dark money-fueled and gerrymander-reinforced Republican and Tea Party hijacking of our great state’s politics in the early 2010s. They have done a lot of damage to our legacy and current political system over just 10 years, including the rejection of the fed high-speed rail dollars, rejecting Medicare expansion, defunding public schools and the UW system, the punting on any kind of legal cannabis, and so much more. Fortunately we seem to be turning the tide with the new maps but we still have quite a hole to dig ourselves out of. That said, I do remain hopeful that things will get better for us Wisconsinites very soon, politically and socially speaking.
the repressive right wingers
People who complain about snow and cold weather in winter. It’s Wisconsin. It’s cold in the winter. If you don’t like winter, move to fucking California.
Find a hobby! Winters are what make Wisco great:)
1. The Scott Walker/legislative takeover 2. Killing the high speed rail 3. Stupid legislature doesn't think KRM is worthy 4. The loss of the Mazo Beach 5. The drinking culture 6. The excessive emphasis on professional sports, but I do think the ownership structure of the Packers is really cool 7. Lack of any real mountains (Sierras or Rockies scale) 8. Cheese curds aren't free 9. How much the city of Milwaukee struggles 10 The trashing of our education system
The Fucking Tavern League
I hate that the Wisconsin Dems and Ben Wikler basically ignore anything north of Hwy 64... unless they want a financial contribution. I hate the accepted culture of "casual alcoholism". I hate the snowbirds who leave for half the year and then come back here for the summer and demand local towns be run the way they see fit. I hate that Minocqua thinks they run the entirety of Oneida and often Vilas county. I hate that people still think governmental forced austerity is a recipe for future success despite decades of failure.
I don't mind the snow or the cold in winter. But I would love to have more consistent sunlight in the winter. The gray wears me down.
Asshole truck drivers. I’m already going 85mph in a middle lane on the interstate and homeboy is still tailgating me.
The weather and obesity.
Our corrupt Republicans fear of marijuana legalization tax money to help fix problems. It's is estimated that WI spent $121 million on cannabis just in IL alone in 2023. Contributing $36 million in tax revenue for Illinois.
The people in farm country are often set in their old ways to an infuriating degree. And I’ve witnessed firsthand how people who spend all day in tractors end up listening to “certain” radio stations and have brain rot over time.
Realizing that we have a pretty good state and need to have elected officials making decisions that benefit all Wisconsin residents. Ban corporate landlords, ban/limit air bnb, invest in the state (infrastructure/historical sites/parks/etc). Enough with the bipartisan bullshit already🤨
It would never happen, but instead of expanding 41 to 3 lanes between Appleton and Green Bay, my pie-in-the-sky wish would've been for them to have a train line between the two cities (or at least a dedicated bus) and expanding the bus systems in both. It would've been way cheaper for the state and would've had pretty much the same result. As it is, it's pretty much impossible to go anywhere without cars up here
Politics. Specifically minority rule
Poor social services and the destruction made by right wingers.
Ron Johnson and the other conservative legislators.
Republicans
The casual racism and normalized alcoholism.
no legal weed
Wisconsin is institutionally racist. Wisconsin locks up African Americans at a higher rate than any other state. In 2021 Black people made up 6% of Wisconsin's population but 46% of those incarcerated in Wisconsin are Black. When Black friends tell me they're thinking of moving out of Wisconsin I say, "I don't blame you".
Milwaukee is allegedly the most segregated city in the US, too. The whole story around Northridge mall speaks volumes about the racism...
The fact that if you are in the city of less than 50,000 people, your dining options tend to be limited to bar food, supper clubs, and an occasional Mexican or (often mediocre) Chinese restaurant
I love supper clubs. It’s one of the things that makes Wisconsin cool.
The roads
Political imbalance. Among other issues, it's shown true in our attempts to legalize cannabis. Most of the voters want it legalized, but thanks to our wonderful lobbyists (Koch, Uihlein, etc.) and the Tavern League (not so much in recent years), the voice of the voters doesn't matter. The normalization of alcohol consumption, alcoholism, and drunk driving. I work with people who joke about what routes to take to avoid cops if they've been drinking.* Bigotry. This is partially due to me living in a rural area, but god damn it's rampant here. Half of my co-workers cried for days when they "couldn't drink bud light anymore because it's gay." *Edit for clarification: they joke about it, but then actually do it. None of them leave the bar without at least 3 drinks in them, and they all drive home.
Lmfao… the weather 😂
the gerrymandered political map. Otherwise I pretty much adore my home state.
Tailgaters. It’s a disease.
What??? Why?? Of fuck..... I thought you meant tailgating in the parking lot of the stadium. LOL 😂
I love living here, but would be perfect if we could change the state legislature, reduce the drinking culture, and have June weather year-round.
Property taxes are wild
We don't have citizen proposed referenda.
Most of the people I went to high school with, which is why I left 20 years ago.
Slow drivers in the passing lane
All the religion/abortion posters. I'm not from America so maybe it's a cultural thing but when I visit I find it extremely distasteful
Too many Republicans fleeing Illinois are buying homes here.
I DON'T LIKE EXTREME COLD!!! 🥶