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PM_me_PMs_plox t1_j9296p3 wrote

It's cool until they put it on a flag with an arm holding a sword over the head of a Native American (who wasn't even from Massachusetts).

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neifirst t1_j9298gt wrote

The state motto is great, sad that they're probably going to change it to something in English that isn't as threatening

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Snowstig t1_j92b7y8 wrote

Some of those are downright ironic

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NativeMasshole t1_j92bzm3 wrote

Got to love that Romance languages are listed separately from English and Latin.

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SainTheGoo t1_j92ebjb wrote

I like Vermont, very true to the culture.

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NoMoLerking t1_j92fhqs wrote

Maine out here proudly eating paint chips.

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willett_art t1_j92h849 wrote

After all that Texan boisterousness their motto is “friendship”??? 😂

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rubbish_heap t1_j92hsqw wrote

I like "It grows as it goes".
"By and by" is pretty cool too.

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commentsOnPizza t1_j92i1r4 wrote

Personally, I like Rhode Island's. "Hope" is something that works for all times. "By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty," is somewhat caught in time. It might work well during war times, but it doesn't really offer anything during peace times. It's the kind of thing that you adopt in 1775 when the main concern of the day is the revolution. It feels like New York deciding in 2002 to make their motto, "9/11, Never Forget."

To me, it doesn't capture the spirit of Massachusetts which has been based in hard work, education, experimentation, and intellectualism for most of its history. We're the state of Emerson, Thoreau, and Alcott. Of the first 12 presidents, the only two non-slaveholders were from Massachusetts. We're the state Horace Mann, advocate for public education. We're the state of the Massachusetts 54th and W. E. B. Du Bois. We're the state of Senator Sumner whose outspoken abolitionist views saw him beaten on the Senate floor. We're the state where the telephone was invented, where anesthesia was first used for surgery, where the first routers were made to enable the ARPANET (the US-government precursor to the internet), and the hub of mRNA research.

In some ways I guess it does capture Massachusetts. Even when preparing for war, we put an intellectual spin on it - that peace is only worthwhile under liberty. Still, it feels a bit trapped in time for me. It feels like the 1770s preserved in amber rather than something that continues to apply to our modern life.

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BNL52577 t1_j92kmla wrote

"While I breathe, I hope" - South Carolina's - really grabs me. That's a powerful sentiment.

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thomascgalvin t1_j92m9nl wrote

A bit too wordy. I'd go with something like "by the sword, liberty and peace." Or maybe "liberty above all, peace when possible, the sword when necessary."

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SheeEttin t1_j92ms7n wrote

TIL Michigan's. I cannot say I have ever sought a pleasant peninsula. Is that something people do?

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goPACK17 t1_j92odd1 wrote

Anyone else suddenly wondering if Mac is from Ohio?

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WhipCityUrchin t1_j92pgxh wrote

Some of these states need a reminder of what their motto is. Wyoming and Nebraska, I’m looking at you.

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RoastMostToast t1_j92plmr wrote

New Hampshires is probably the most badass though.

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todayIsinlgehandedly t1_j92ppyw wrote

I always thought our motto was “Go f#%k yourself” but this is way better!

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SheenPSU t1_j92qj3x wrote

What the hell does Washington’s even mean?

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TomatoManTM t1_j92rkke wrote

NH's motto was actually recently changed to "Live free or fuckin' die"

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TomatoManTM t1_j92s0f4 wrote

It's interesting how every single one would be improved by adding the word "fuckin'":

  • Under God the people fuckin' rule
  • Equal fuckin' rights
  • Ever fuckin' upwards
  • Strong deed, gentle fuckin' words
  • By the fuckin' sword we seek peace, but peace only under fuckin' liberty

US of fuckin' A baby

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luxy_kentucky t1_j92s8ip wrote

Virginia's is 'Sic Semper Tyrannis?' How long has it been that?

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DeskFan203 t1_j92t7cb wrote

Wtf with using "jargon" next to Chinook?

Chinook is a language...

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mallorn_hugger t1_j92wo1k wrote

As a Mass native now living in Missouri, that MO state motto is a twisted joke. Dark humor level 1000.

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BadDesignMakesMeSad t1_j932rtt wrote

Rhode Island should put an asterisk after their motto that reads “it’s all we got”

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modannaye t1_j934lee wrote

I thought the state motto was “The spirit of America”???

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prberkeley t1_j934mxf wrote

Replying to RumSwizzle508 (#1,861,423)

I think there is one remote island of Alaska that is technically west of the international date line and thus is the first part of the US to begin each day. But that's stupid so Maine all the way.

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TheTr7nity t1_j935d79 wrote

FAR, FAR from perfect but yea, we are better off then most of the other states

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Balsac_is_Daddy t1_j935v6v wrote

By the sword? Damn MA, I thought we were more civilised. But it tracks that we're pretty tiny but have like the longest motto 🤣 If MA was a person, he'd be a short king with BDE. Fkn love it!

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Semyon t1_j937ex0 wrote

I don't ever remember hearing "North to the future" while growing up in Alaska

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NH_Licks_Boots t1_j937l2d wrote

Replying to RoastMostToast (#1,860,891)

If they followed the motto instead of being a state full of militant douchebags and bootlickers it would be more fitting.

Hell, Maine lives more free or die than them. VT does. MA does. Nh is an absolute joke and low quality state.

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NerdyKirdahy t1_j937v73 wrote

Kansas has no right to such a good state motto.

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tapakip t1_j939an3 wrote

A lot of these are actually pretty awesome but for some reason they seem to just get worse and worse as you head west.

Utah has to be the worst by far. INDUSTRY. Settle down Mormons.

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feidle t1_j93bahn wrote

“Let it be perpetual” is fucking cool too.

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cspan92 t1_j93sryn wrote

Ours is awesome, but i gotta give the edge to New Hampshire

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Pappa_Crim t1_j93y7j6 wrote

We should shorten it to peace only in liberty

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tsk__tsk__tsk t1_j9421bk wrote

It cool until you realize it's talking about the sword raised over the head of native Americans

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wallybinbaz t1_j943hdp wrote

I thought New York's was "Excelsior."

Edit: Nevermind, I read the key.

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bunkerbash t1_j946q8a wrote

I’m jealous. The fuck even does our motto for CT even mean??!

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thisnewsight t1_j94e1k2 wrote

Legit feel proud when I read that motto out. Totally agreeable.

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Alkaen500 t1_j94hu16 wrote

The motto is too long in my opinion. It doesn’t really have any oomf to it. Especially considering next door you got New Hampshire with “Live Free or Die”

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Agreeable_Sun3754 t1_j950yb6 wrote

Replying to NoMoLerking (#1,860,019)

I lived in caribou main for a month once... there is so much radon in the groundwater I sware I started losing hair like a cancer patient within that month.

high is like 4 carries.... caribou had more than 300 carries.

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monmostly t1_j95oaur wrote

Replying to WhipCityUrchin (#1,860,874)

Speaking as a Nebraskan, the state has an interesting progressive history. Nebraska and Kansas joined the union at a time when there was a big controversy over whether new states would be slaveholder or free. There was a huge conspiracy to vote in slaveholding in Kansas that Nebraska managed to steer clear of and join as an abolitionist state. The state capitol building has some really interesting progressive mottos all over it and the only unicameral nonpartisan state legislature. It's also the only state in which corporate agriculture cannot own farms or ranches and public power districts are the norm. Too bad it's so solidly red right now.

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Jonabc5 t1_j95qagj wrote

Florida should read “America’s dirty asshole”

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miguk t1_j963u7h wrote

Replying to RoastMostToast (#1,860,891)

It's inaccurate, though. They don't live free; they live dependent on MA providing jobs to them, especially when their minimum wage is half of what it is in MA. That's why the majority of NH's population lives on the MA boarder.

A more accurate motto would be "Live dependent on the neighbors and die by bear attack."

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mikenice1 t1_j96bxj5 wrote

Colorado is a little obsessed with Rhode Island.

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JerkBezerberg t1_j96hds6 wrote

New Hampshire - live free or die. Massachusetts - live free or we'll kill you.

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diadem t1_j96tdms wrote

Alaska: North to the future

Map makers: let's put it south

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nrj6490 t1_j96xm0k wrote

Bro wtf is going on in Michigan

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rezistence t1_j974mqx wrote

The passage and the official motto of the U.S. Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The phrase is often loosely translated into English as "By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty." The literal translation, however, is "she seeks with the sword a quiet peace under liberty."

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CustyMojo t1_j97vome wrote

I thought our motto was "nice blinkah, fuckface"

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