Quote:
Originally Posted by pj3000
The Northeast US is certainly very Catholic, but it is also the very epicenter of WASP culture.
Old money, Ivy League, country clubs, Wall Street, "society", elite private boarding schools, and dudes with first names like Whitaker or Goodman...etc. etc.
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This.
The NE US is not even close to being majority WASP, as they're only a small percentage of the population at this point, but the whole regional culture (at least for white people of all origins) is very WASP-normative as you say. People of all origins going along with it, or at least its contemporary incarnation. (Don't get me wrong, I am not saying it's Plymouth Mass. in 1642.)
For someone from a place where lapsed Latin Catholicism exists in a purer form and is fairly dominant, it's fascinating to see the WASP-influenced (relative) conservatism of, say, Italian-Americans in NE on social matters like booze, dress, etc.
Multiply that by 100 when you compare it to a place like present-day Italy.