Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences 
I'm a San Franciscan who will admit to having prejudices about the Midwest - until I fell in love with a Midwesterner. Now I am thinking of moving there. Many people living on the coasts moved here from the Midwest and talk trash about the middle of the country, and those of us who are native to the coasts tend to hear a lot of it. Basically the reputation of the Midwest is that it is full of very religious people who have little tolerance for racial differences, or gays, or liberals, or for people who are just eccentric and different, or for intelligent people who like new ideas. Sort of like in the movie 'Footloose.'
I have lived in California most of my life and know lots of native Californians, and there really isn't as much difference between us as these transplants tend to think (although I believed the stereotypes until I got to know more Midwesterners). So I think a lot of the negative comments are sour grapes from people who didn't fit in back home. A lot of the time they don't fit in out here, either, and mostly they hang out with other people like them who ran away to the coast in search of some kind of acceptance or personal freedom, and when they are together they tend to complain about the horrible places they left behind (and brag about how talented and special they are because they left).