This is actually one of the best maps on here in a while. If you know the US discourse, you can clearly read the stereotypes, political bubbles and straight-up ignorance of the various different people that were surveyed.
Illinois gets dinged because of racist narrative around Chicago. Montana does better than the rest of the midwest because it's romaticised. The people who hate California are a different bunch than the ones who hate Illinois or, for the most part, Alabama. NJ is mainly known from jokes at their expense by media-powerhouse New York. Few people know enough about South Dakota to care. DC just absorbs opinions of the feds.
I don't get the love-on for North Carolina and Pennsylvania, I guess.
Chicago is about 3 times the size of the Twin Cities and is generally more well known and payed attention to. The Twin Cities mostly get ignored by the rest of the country, unless something like the murder of George Floyd happens, so that doesn't move the needle against Minnesota. The only people who really hate them are people in rural Minnesota, but most of them have a lot of state pride so still have a favorable view of Minnesota.
I *don't* get the love-on for North Carolina and Pennsylvania, I guess.
Not sure about Pennsylvania, but I think North Carolina is rated so favorably because conservatives like it because it's part of the South, and liberals like it because it sucks less than most of the rest of the South due to the Research Triangle. (Georgia gets a similar boost because of Atlanta, but lesser because it gets extra hate from conservatives because of civil rights / Black culture.)
Montana does better than the rest of the midwest because it's romaticised.
So, folks, are we just gonna gloss over this guy calling Montana "Midwest?"
Yeah, that's what I thought. Although I did know there's a great deal of controversy over how far east if goes, and people laugh at New Yorkers for thinking of Cleveland as basically the same as Kansas.
In Canada, the Prairies go from the Rockies to the Shield region where things get stony and boggy. And extend north until it's too forested for the descriptor to apply, maybe a quarter of the way to the Arctic coast on average (so it's mostly taiga nd tundra with just a little bit of farmable area).
In the US, the "Midwest" means the area from Ohio to the Dakotas (and with a southern limit along the Ohio river and southern border of Missouri and Kansas).
Montana is full-blown "West" (or sometimes "Mountain West" or a member of the "Mountain States," if you want to distinguish it from the "West Coast" or "Pacific Northwest.")
If you can grow wheat there, it's the prairie. Therefore the Midwest. Just how the eastern parts of Colorado are the furthest west parts of the mid west. Unless you want to exclude the prairie states entirely from the mid west, which i wouldn't do.
That has never been the definition of the Midwest. If you want to go by the census definition, you are wrong.
If you approach if from a cultural or demographic standpoint, you are still wrong.
I would argue that the Midwest ends at the banks of the Mississippi river and maybe carries halfway into the western states. Past that it is a whole nother place.
Montana is mountain west or west. Always has been.
How many people do you know from the great plains states?
I have family from Kansas and Colorado, who worked the wheat harvests going from north Texas through to the Dakotas and eastern Montana. Eastern Colorado and western Kansas are not very different at all. I don't see why you would want to say a cultural definition is incorrect when it's people's self identity.
"How many people do you know from the great plains states?"
All of them. It's where I live. It's where I have lived the majority of my life. But I'm also well traveled and can assure you, there are cultural differences between the regions you are conflating.
Lemmy user sem didn't invent the term, nor are they in charge of it either. But the census bureau has way more precidence than you have ever managed. Take the loss and move on bud.
I can say for sure none of it's very Northwestern; even eastern Washington is more like Idaho than the coast.
Rockies is fair, for the part that they actually run through, which seems to be more like a third of the area and inevitably less populated. I guess that's the part they like to advertise, though, and clearly it has worked.
To give them some credit, Americans know basic facts about their own geography, at least. Washington ends up with roughly the same favourability as Oregon here, and the two states do seem awfully similar.
Now, knowing that DC is actually full of ordinary, mostly black people, or that Montana isn't very different from North Dakota? Maybe not. That's beyond just map facts.
I'm surprised Texas is so high, but I'm not surprised that NJ is low, isn't there an old meme to the effect that New Jersey smells bad/ is full of toxic industrial chemicals or something?
Texas may have some crap politics statewide, but the major cities are top notch and Hill Country is a national treasure, same goes for the brisket and the old style country music.
One of these days I’ll get down to Big Bend and up to the mountains in the west.
I recently got down to Austin and was lucky enough to see the bats fly out from the bridge downtown. Millions of bats, was a sight to behold.
I'm in the process of preparing for a move to San Antonio, and the thing I'm genuinely scared about is the politics. This admin, the governor, being gay, on the left... The whole idea is very frightening, to be honest. I'm hearing good things about San Antonio, though, and I'm hoping being in a city will insulate me from the other stuff a bit
Conservatives are more tribal, and will vote favorably for "their" states and unfavorably for "liberal" states with more consistency than liberals. Hence conservatives' like of Texas and dislike of Cali shines through, while a liberal would probably think that there are some things to like about Texas and dislike about Cali, and get washed out in the data.
Seriously though, NJ has some seriously varied ecology from the Delaware basin to the Piedmont, the Skylands, and more. People from outside just don’t think much about it because their experience of NJ is the clusterfuck that is flying into Newark Airport and driving to Manhattan through the meadowlands sprawl.
All I know is at least when the world ends I’ll at least make for a good Warboy; if I can drive in this mess unscathed then I can definitely handle the wasteland.
NYC has so much more influence that my comment still stands.
Plus, NJ is Philadelphia's collective weed man, and would be more bearable to share a state with than rural PA (see: SEPTA funding issues [and Pittsburgh is having issues with their public transit too])
Jersey is the only state where if you tell someone you're from there, they will tell you why they hate it (and the poor soul probably got stuck in traffic there once while passing through).
As a lifelong southerner, NC is my favorite southern state. I've lived in SC, FL, NC, VA, TN. I absolutely love Asheville. Granted, I lived there as a youngin, and have only visited Asheville and a few other places as an adult. But my God don't I love Asheville.
Asheville is basically anti NC. I agree that mountain hippies are great, but as you move east you go from fucked up tobacco shit, to Fuck Duke, to fucked up military industrial complex, to tourist hellscape. Charlotte is ok, but it's like if you took a real city and made it optimized for 7' tall pickup trucks.
As someone who used to live in NC but no longer does because of the car dependence and horrible state politics, how the heck is it one of the highest ones? I didn't think the other states even thought about NC very much outside of election season tbh.
Known for naturaly beauty. Red enough for conservatives not to dislike it. But turning blue enough for liberals not to dislike it. Financially successful enough to not get a "Mississippi"/"Ohio" reputation. Hence, people tend to have nice thoughts about it.
I think people just don't know much about the PNW. Seattle produced some rock bands and companies in the '90s and Portland got a TV show that ended years ago, but that's about it. We just don't make much noise right now.
Ohio is way too high. I moved there for a year, first time I talked to the cashier at the local grocery store, I said I moved here from so and so and her knee jerk response was a snarky “why?”
Cleveland is the best hidden gem about that state and that’s saying something.
Also, I’ve oddly had a few good ventures out in Alabama. Fairhope on the bay in particular was much nicer than my preconceived notions had expected. There’s a few good fancy restaurants in downtown Montgomery that are cheaper than equivalents in other states.
And Auburn’s campus is a dream, hate what happened to those trees on Toomer’s corner though.
I kinda see where that cashier was coming from though. I grew up in Indiana (not terribly different than Ohio), and we knew it was a garbage state. Its motto is “Crossroads of America”, which we always said just means “you have to go through here to get to somewhere better”.
Ohio os the most average state. Make a bell curve comparing states and Ohio is right there at the top every time. The weather is pleasant, rent is cheap, and jobs aren't too hard to come by.
Said many times that Alabama is way nicer than it's given credit for. And yeah, the whole Fairhope/Daphne/Spanish Fort area is stunning. Too rich for my blood though.
Alaska makes sense as the most popular in perception I suppose
Edit: I didn't even see Hawaii there! Just popular due to tropical features judging by comparison to other politically aligned states, and those with similarly extremely racist backgrounds
Growing up, my father was in the military, so we moved every 3 years. One of our locations was northern Alabama, and I remember crying about it at the time because I really didn't want to live there and had always heard bad things about it.
Actually living there, it's fine. The Huntsville area has NASA and a lot of aerospace jobs, and is generally a nice and pleasant place to live. You can buy houses within a 30-45 min commute of pretty good jobs for surprisingly cheap (was just looking at a 3000+ sq ft brick house with a couple acres for $120k, needed a new AC unit and some work, but nice enough to live in while you fix it up). The people are really friendly compared to most other states I lived in, and the countryside is pretty beautiful.
I can't speak for most of the rest of the state, but in general I think Alabama gets a worse reputation than it deserves. Biggest issues with it are the tornados and humidity.
Alabama is way nicer than it's given credit for. I drive most of the way through the backcountry highways and it's great. We stop at a great many small towns and they're surprisingly clean and charming.
I noticed a lot of public works improvements and activity. Turns out they finally put a tax on gasoline and put that into the new Rebuild Alabama Act. The results are most impressive.
Another neat thing, Alabama is the most heavily forested state in the union. Nice!
Having Huntsville atop the rest of Alabama is kind of like having Canada atop the rest of America.
Also, the most common thing you'll hear anyone in Alabama say is "Thank God for Mississippi," because at least that way they still have someone to look down on.
Alabama has the nicest small towns I've ever driven through. I'm often commenting to my wife, wondering how the hell such a small town has enough industry and tax base to be so nice.
They really don't deserve the reputation. Arkansas and West Virginia and others are far, far worse off.
Well, okay. I'm biased because I lived for well over a decade in Alabama, and I'm not white.
I'm Native American, and there's this weird thing that happens in Alabama when you're native.
One, people think that you are Mexican and so they will speak Spanish to you and ask you to translate things and wonder how much your gardening services cost. (and when I did that kind of work, my prices were very reasonable)
Two, once they learn that you're native because you happen to have, you know, three foot long hair and high cheek bones, they will assume that you have mystical powers and can talk to the wind and that animals will communicate to you with the secret magics.
So I got the downside of racism, where people hated me and people who liked me as a person would not date me because of the color of my skin, but I also got the upside of racism, where people thought that I was special and magical because of who my parents happened to be.
All of that aside, as I grew up, I thought I must be somebody special because every time I went to the store, people would follow me through the store and watch me closely, constantly sticking their head around corners as if getting a glimpse of me was one of the highlights of their time travel experience.
Turns out that they were just being racist and watching the little brown boy to make sure that he didn't steal something or cause some sort of kerfluffle that they could get involved in.
I said all of that to say Alabama is incredibly racist.
My lived experience is that of racism.
And nobody lynched me.
I was not beat up.
I was not horrifically abused.
But racism is still racism, and people held me back and thought less of me, thought differently of me, or refused to evaluate me on the same level that they would have evaluated me if I was white, because I was not white.
So sure, a lot of those small towns are, you know, quaint and pretty and the people will smile and wave hands at you and open the door for you and say cute little colloquialisms with southern twang voices.
But if you don't fit into their established social groups by benefit of the color of your skin or your financial position in the world, don't rely on that for anything other than a very thin veneer of how they justify to themselves how they weren't really racist because they didn't murder you, they just watched you like a hawk and made sure that you were kept on your tippy toes to make sure that you know you are being allowed to be where you are.
Seen the racism on my last road trip, not so much in Alabama, but Mississippi was straight up eerie this go round. Felt like a switch got flipped once we crossed the border.
My wife's Filipino, so like you, people think she's Mexican. Which is kinda funny given Jo Koy's take that they're the Mexicans of Asia. Not so damned funny this last trip. Mississippi had always been nice enough on the surface, but now? Don't have the words, but I did not feel we were welcome any longer.
And no, despite being a middle-aged white guy, I'm not blind to the "down low" racism. Was just commenting today about how black people have to be extra polite and deferential and it makes me sick to see. And what I've seen of the "in your face" racism my wife has faced, Jesus, I had no idea Asians were treated like that.
So Native American's get the "magical Negro" treatment? Guess I shouldn't be surprised. Even though I'm from Oklahoma, never knew any of y'all. Weird. But yeah, when we were kids we had that magical view of Natives, like they were better than us, more connected with nature and god, mystical, wiser.
Anyway, back to Alabama being racist. I've seen crazy racism everywhere I've visited or lived in America. Chicago and NYC? Segregated down to the city block. Manhattan in 1992 was wild. Jamaicans this block, Haitians that block, and do not fucking cross the street. I assume it's better now.
I guess Huntsville is a bit off the path, but there's a fuckoff big Confederate flag on the I-65 between Birmingham and Montgomery. Friendly is a matter of proximity and perception: you were either not close enough or too respectable to meet the sort that give Alabama its reputation.
Haven't seen that, sure it's still there? Haven't been that way in a year and I'm never driving through Birmingham again. I talk up Alabama a good bit around here, but Birmingham, 🤮
Man that is another state that is full of wonderful nuggets. Philly is chock full of American Independence history. Pittsburgh has cleaned up a lot and is beautiful there by 3 rivers. People love the Eagles and Steelers. Carnegie Mellon and Penn St are powerhouses. Sesame Place, Hershey Park, 6 flags. Tough parts of the AT go through PA. Turnpike has decent rest stops. Strong Union presence. Decent railroads. Erie is a cool little town by the lake with that Isle right there.
And then all in the middle of the state you basically have a carbon copy of wild n wonderful West Virginia. What’s not to like?
129 Comments
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org · 62 pts · 1y
This is actually one of the best maps on here in a while. If you know the US discourse, you can clearly read the stereotypes, political bubbles and straight-up ignorance of the various different people that were surveyed.
Illinois gets dinged because of racist narrative around Chicago. Montana does better than the rest of the midwest because it's romaticised. The people who hate California are a different bunch than the ones who hate Illinois or, for the most part, Alabama. NJ is mainly known from jokes at their expense by media-powerhouse New York. Few people know enough about South Dakota to care. DC just absorbs opinions of the feds.
I don't get the love-on for North Carolina and Pennsylvania, I guess.
BakerBagel@midwest.social · 24 pts · 1y
People like the outer banks and It's Always Sunny. Midwesterners also HATE Chicago/Illinois since that's the biggest city in the area.
My biggest ahock is that Texas polls so high. Most people who don't live there absolutely despise Texas in my experience.
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org · 1 pts · 1y
What about the Twin Cities? They're also a major center, and in a "more" midwestern area in some sense, although Chicago is probably bigger.
Glytch@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
Chicago is about 3 times the size of the Twin Cities and is generally more well known and payed attention to. The Twin Cities mostly get ignored by the rest of the country, unless something like the murder of George Floyd happens, so that doesn't move the needle against Minnesota. The only people who really hate them are people in rural Minnesota, but most of them have a lot of state pride so still have a favorable view of Minnesota.
grue@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 1y
Not sure about Pennsylvania, but I think North Carolina is rated so favorably because conservatives like it because it's part of the South, and liberals like it because it sucks less than most of the rest of the South due to the Research Triangle. (Georgia gets a similar boost because of Atlanta, but lesser because it gets extra hate from conservatives because of civil rights / Black culture.)
So, folks, are we just gonna gloss over this guy calling Montana "Midwest?"
untorquer@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1y
Midwest, at least culturally, can spread from the slopes of the Rockies to the slopes of Appalachia.
I am of the strong opinion that Aurora is Midwest and Denver is west.
CanadaPlus@futurology.today · 2 pts · 1y
Yeah, that's what I thought. Although I did know there's a great deal of controversy over how far east if goes, and people laugh at New Yorkers for thinking of Cleveland as basically the same as Kansas.
In Canada, the Prairies go from the Rockies to the Shield region where things get stony and boggy. And extend north until it's too forested for the descriptor to apply, maybe a quarter of the way to the Arctic coast on average (so it's mostly taiga nd tundra with just a little bit of farmable area).
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org · 2 pts · 1y
Is it not? What would you call it? It doesn't even end at the Canadian border, really, although we start calling it "prairies" to be distinct.
Source: Live here, have seen that border.
grue@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 1y
In the US, the "Midwest" means the area from Ohio to the Dakotas (and with a southern limit along the Ohio river and southern border of Missouri and Kansas).
Montana is full-blown "West" (or sometimes "Mountain West" or a member of the "Mountain States," if you want to distinguish it from the "West Coast" or "Pacific Northwest.")
sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 1y
If you can grow wheat there, it's the prairie. Therefore the Midwest. Just how the eastern parts of Colorado are the furthest west parts of the mid west. Unless you want to exclude the prairie states entirely from the mid west, which i wouldn't do.
JustAnotherPodunk@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1y
That has never been the definition of the Midwest. If you want to go by the census definition, you are wrong.
If you approach if from a cultural or demographic standpoint, you are still wrong.
I would argue that the Midwest ends at the banks of the Mississippi river and maybe carries halfway into the western states. Past that it is a whole nother place.
Montana is mountain west or west. Always has been.
CanadaPlus@futurology.today · 1 pts · 1y
Is West what the census calls it, too?
JustAnotherPodunk@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 0 pts · 1y
How many people do you know from the great plains states?
I have family from Kansas and Colorado, who worked the wheat harvests going from north Texas through to the Dakotas and eastern Montana. Eastern Colorado and western Kansas are not very different at all. I don't see why you would want to say a cultural definition is incorrect when it's people's self identity.
JustAnotherPodunk@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
"How many people do you know from the great plains states?"
All of them. It's where I live. It's where I have lived the majority of my life. But I'm also well traveled and can assure you, there are cultural differences between the regions you are conflating.
Once again, you are wrong. Thank you.
grue@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
¯\_ (ツ)_/¯ Take it up with the U.S. Census Bureau. It's their definition, not mine.
sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 1y
The census bureau did not invent the term, nor are they in charge of it.
JustAnotherPodunk@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
Lemmy user sem didn't invent the term, nor are they in charge of it either. But the census bureau has way more precidence than you have ever managed. Take the loss and move on bud.
ryrybang@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 1y
I've never seen or heard Montana called Midwest. It's more Rockies or Northwest. Eastern half could be considered Great Plains-ish.
CanadaPlus@futurology.today · 2 pts · 1y
I can say for sure none of it's very Northwestern; even eastern Washington is more like Idaho than the coast.
Rockies is fair, for the part that they actually run through, which seems to be more like a third of the area and inevitably less populated. I guess that's the part they like to advertise, though, and clearly it has worked.
piranhaconda@mander.xyz · 4 pts · 1y
Not sure on Pennsylvania. But for North Carolina, my guess would be the research triangle helping boost it?
AtHeartEngineer@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1y
sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 1y
The Pennsylvania part is really mystifying. Is it riding on the popularity of cheese steaks?
neatchee@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
What are the chances Washington gets dinged for having the same name as DC?
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org · 4 pts · 1y
To give them some credit, Americans know basic facts about their own geography, at least. Washington ends up with roughly the same favourability as Oregon here, and the two states do seem awfully similar.
Now, knowing that DC is actually full of ordinary, mostly black people, or that Montana isn't very different from North Dakota? Maybe not. That's beyond just map facts.
neatchee@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
Seattle and Portland do make up the PNW hippie culture, which I'm sure plenty of respondents find unfavorable
A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world · 40 pts · 1y
The scenery is the only thing keeping TN green i assure yall
expatriado@lemmy.world · 42 pts · 1y
and Dolly Parton
The_Picard_Maneuver@piefed.world · 25 pts · 1y
Dolly Parton is a national treasure.
aeronmelon@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 1y
Dolly Parton is a gift to humanity.
BakerBagel@midwest.social · 12 pts · 1y
Midwesterners absolutely love Nashville for some reason. It's where everyone wants to have the bachelorette parties these days
phdepressed@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 1y
Charleston get too expensive?
Fermion@mander.xyz · 28 pts · 1y
Finally a map that isn't just a population distribution.
zaphodb2002@sh.itjust.works · 27 pts · 1y
As a Californian, you're all just jealous. I will sit atop my pile of avocados and wildfires and functional economy.
hperrin@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 1y
Don’t forget, we also have Disneyland.
sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 1y
Go hang out with Hawaii.
Alaska can come too.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 1y
THE AEEND!
bitwolf@sh.itjust.works · 22 pts · 1y
I'm surprised Jersey is rated so low relative to Texas having lived in both states.
Georgia deserves its score. Georgia is great aside from the Atlanta traffic design.
CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social · 20 pts · 1y
I'm surprised Texas is so high, but I'm not surprised that NJ is low, isn't there an old meme to the effect that New Jersey smells bad/ is full of toxic industrial chemicals or something?
wildncrazyguy138@fedia.io · 8 pts · 1y
Texas may have some crap politics statewide, but the major cities are top notch and Hill Country is a national treasure, same goes for the brisket and the old style country music.
One of these days I’ll get down to Big Bend and up to the mountains in the west.
I recently got down to Austin and was lucky enough to see the bats fly out from the bridge downtown. Millions of bats, was a sight to behold.
dharmacurious@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 1y
I'm in the process of preparing for a move to San Antonio, and the thing I'm genuinely scared about is the politics. This admin, the governor, being gay, on the left... The whole idea is very frightening, to be honest. I'm hearing good things about San Antonio, though, and I'm hoping being in a city will insulate me from the other stuff a bit
braxy29@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
the new mayor is openly gay, if that's any reassurance to you.
UnpledgedCatnapTipper@piefed.blahaj.zone · 8 pts · 1y
There is! They even joke about it in Futurama.
blarghly@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y
Conservatives are more tribal, and will vote favorably for "their" states and unfavorably for "liberal" states with more consistency than liberals. Hence conservatives' like of Texas and dislike of Cali shines through, while a liberal would probably think that there are some things to like about Texas and dislike about Cali, and get washed out in the data.
angstylittlecatboy@reddthat.com · 15 pts · 1y
New Jersey's negative reputation is almost entirely due to people from NYC jeering at an outgroup
shnizmuffin@lemmy.inbutts.lol · 8 pts · 1y
People from Philadelphia and the whole of Delaware also routinely dunk on NJ for many reasons.
NOT_RICK@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 1y
Pine Barrens: Am I a joke to you?
Seriously though, NJ has some seriously varied ecology from the Delaware basin to the Piedmont, the Skylands, and more. People from outside just don’t think much about it because their experience of NJ is the clusterfuck that is flying into Newark Airport and driving to Manhattan through the meadowlands sprawl.
All I know is at least when the world ends I’ll at least make for a good Warboy; if I can drive in this mess unscathed then I can definitely handle the wasteland.
angstylittlecatboy@reddthat.com · 2 pts · 1y
NYC has so much more influence that my comment still stands.
Plus, NJ is Philadelphia's collective weed man, and would be more bearable to share a state with than rural PA (see: SEPTA funding issues [and Pittsburgh is having issues with their public transit too])
itsgroundhogdayagain@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 1y
Jersey is the only state where if you tell someone you're from there, they will tell you why they hate it (and the poor soul probably got stuck in traffic there once while passing through).
RebekahWSD@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
I think my response of "Good, don't come back then" probably makes them even more unfavorable to NJ lmfao
blarghly@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1y
(Percieved Natural Beauty) - (Political Unfavorability)
bitwolf@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 1y
Forreal! Lol
grue@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
Atlanta (the city proper) is getting better, despite GDOT's best efforts to sabotage it. It's the metro Atlanta suburbs that really suck.
bitwolf@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 1y
I'm still butthurt the Atlanta suburbs managed to block the MARTA expansion that was voted for and funded.
kreskin@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 1y
West Virginia somehow scores higher than california?? Has anyone actually been to west virginia?
_stranger_@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 1y
I'm guessing the survey responder pool was "whoever is at this Midwest bingo hall at 2pm on a Tuesday."
swelter_spark@reddthat.com · 8 pts · 1y
Yeah, this seems wrong. Tennessee definitely isn't that good.
piccolo@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 1y
It must be because of the smoky mountains.... only thing cool about this place.
Wav_function@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
Oklahoma has way better meth labs than California 👍
marighost@piefed.social · 15 pts · 1y
NC let's fucking gooooo!
LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y
RAISE UP
dharmacurious@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 1y
Recently returned to my ancestral homeland of SC, and cheer wine (and actually decent barbecue) have been the local highlights.
Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works · 15 pts · 1y
Lol, give me a break and show me the data sources.
SwimmingInTheeStars@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y
I’m surprised that people are surprised by this.
jaykrown@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 1y
I don't believe this at all. Who did they ask?
orenj@lemmy.sdf.org · 9 pts · 1y
clearly not me, I couldn't get out of N Carolina fast enough
dharmacurious@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 1y
As a lifelong southerner, NC is my favorite southern state. I've lived in SC, FL, NC, VA, TN. I absolutely love Asheville. Granted, I lived there as a youngin, and have only visited Asheville and a few other places as an adult. But my God don't I love Asheville.
socsa@piefed.social · 3 pts · 1y
Asheville is basically anti NC. I agree that mountain hippies are great, but as you move east you go from fucked up tobacco shit, to Fuck Duke, to fucked up military industrial complex, to tourist hellscape. Charlotte is ok, but it's like if you took a real city and made it optimized for 7' tall pickup trucks.
princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 11 pts · 1y
That's a wild score for Florida. Do people just like Walt Disney World that much?
artifex@piefed.social · 11 pts · 1y
At least we can all agree that Hawaii is awesome
CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social · 11 pts · 1y
As someone who used to live in NC but no longer does because of the car dependence and horrible state politics, how the heck is it one of the highest ones? I didn't think the other states even thought about NC very much outside of election season tbh.
wildncrazyguy138@fedia.io · 13 pts · 1y
I’ve traveled a lot of places. This one’s home.
KoalaUnknown@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y
iamericandre@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
Also it was destroyed in a hurricane
KoalaUnknown@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
iamericandre@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
I live here and that’s not true
KoalaUnknown@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
pixelmeow@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y
East NC barbecue 😋
blarghly@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
Known for naturaly beauty. Red enough for conservatives not to dislike it. But turning blue enough for liberals not to dislike it. Financially successful enough to not get a "Mississippi"/"Ohio" reputation. Hence, people tend to have nice thoughts about it.
BakerBagel@midwest.social · 3 pts · 1y
Ohio has the 7th highest GDP in the country. No clue why you think it is a poor state
blarghly@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 1y
Perception > Reality
switcheroo@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 1y
How in the hell does Oregon and Washington get mid like that? What'd we ever do to you but enjoy our trees and rain?
How do you like a big dumb desert and deserts little cousin more than us???
VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1y
I think people just don't know much about the PNW. Seattle produced some rock bands and companies in the '90s and Portland got a TV show that ended years ago, but that's about it. We just don't make much noise right now.
untorquer@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
They both had a ton of popular bands and companies.
I think the rating might be a easily of national politics.
untorquer@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
But both Oregon and Washington are mostly big dumb desert. They've got everything!
ramble81@lemmy.zip · 10 pts · 1y
So who was the sample group? And what what the size? Also what was the criteria? This just seems weirdly subjective.
LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1y
Sample group: 2073 adult citizens Question was just "do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the following states"
Yeah I'm not particularly impressed, but also NC LETS GO
wildncrazyguy138@fedia.io · 10 pts · 1y
Ohio is way too high. I moved there for a year, first time I talked to the cashier at the local grocery store, I said I moved here from so and so and her knee jerk response was a snarky “why?”
Cleveland is the best hidden gem about that state and that’s saying something.
Also, I’ve oddly had a few good ventures out in Alabama. Fairhope on the bay in particular was much nicer than my preconceived notions had expected. There’s a few good fancy restaurants in downtown Montgomery that are cheaper than equivalents in other states. And Auburn’s campus is a dream, hate what happened to those trees on Toomer’s corner though.
compostgoblin@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 7 pts · 1y
I kinda see where that cashier was coming from though. I grew up in Indiana (not terribly different than Ohio), and we knew it was a garbage state. Its motto is “Crossroads of America”, which we always said just means “you have to go through here to get to somewhere better”.
sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 1y
That's exactly what people say about Ohio too.
BakerBagel@midwest.social · 5 pts · 1y
Ohio os the most average state. Make a bell curve comparing states and Ohio is right there at the top every time. The weather is pleasant, rent is cheap, and jobs aren't too hard to come by.
shalafi@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
Said many times that Alabama is way nicer than it's given credit for. And yeah, the whole Fairhope/Daphne/Spanish Fort area is stunning. Too rich for my blood though.
sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 1y
What's Akron like? It seems like it should be cool.
slingstone@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 1y
As a South Carolinian, let me confirm that we do not deserve a positive rating. I love my state, but its government is run by rich idiots.
kerrigan778@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 1y
To be clear, that is still less than 50% approval rating. The only state apparently to get over 50% is Hawaii and not by much.
humanspiral@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 1y
Every state is positive! score is favourable - unfavourable. Hawaii would have been 76.5 vs 23.5.
kerrigan778@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 1y
Oh you're right! My bad I didn't read the fine print.
BigDiction@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1y
Surprised that nowhere is negative actually.
expatriado@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 1y
Bristlecone@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1y
Alaska makes sense as the most popular in perception I suppose
Edit: I didn't even see Hawaii there! Just popular due to tropical features judging by comparison to other politically aligned states, and those with similarly extremely racist backgrounds
swelter_spark@reddthat.com · 2 pts · 1y
Hawaii is racist?
Bristlecone@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-stuff-you-should-know-26940277/episode/at-long-last-hawaiian-overthrow-episode-71868580/
swelter_spark@reddthat.com · 1 pts · 1y
You're saying that the existence of Hawaii as a state is racist, or Hawaiian people are racist? I'm confused.
Bristlecone@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
It's a state because white people betrayed the native people pretty badly, I suppose
Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz · 7 pts · 1y
Growing up, my father was in the military, so we moved every 3 years. One of our locations was northern Alabama, and I remember crying about it at the time because I really didn't want to live there and had always heard bad things about it.
Actually living there, it's fine. The Huntsville area has NASA and a lot of aerospace jobs, and is generally a nice and pleasant place to live. You can buy houses within a 30-45 min commute of pretty good jobs for surprisingly cheap (was just looking at a 3000+ sq ft brick house with a couple acres for $120k, needed a new AC unit and some work, but nice enough to live in while you fix it up). The people are really friendly compared to most other states I lived in, and the countryside is pretty beautiful.
I can't speak for most of the rest of the state, but in general I think Alabama gets a worse reputation than it deserves. Biggest issues with it are the tornados and humidity.
shalafi@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1y
Alabama is way nicer than it's given credit for. I drive most of the way through the backcountry highways and it's great. We stop at a great many small towns and they're surprisingly clean and charming.
I noticed a lot of public works improvements and activity. Turns out they finally put a tax on gasoline and put that into the new Rebuild Alabama Act. The results are most impressive.
Another neat thing, Alabama is the most heavily forested state in the union. Nice!
The_Picard_Maneuver@piefed.world · 4 pts · 1y
I've been to Huntsville before and was surprised at how charming it was. It felt like one of those idyllic suburbs from a movie.
bizarroland@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1y
Having Huntsville atop the rest of Alabama is kind of like having Canada atop the rest of America.
Also, the most common thing you'll hear anyone in Alabama say is "Thank God for Mississippi," because at least that way they still have someone to look down on.
shalafi@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
Alabama has the nicest small towns I've ever driven through. I'm often commenting to my wife, wondering how the hell such a small town has enough industry and tax base to be so nice.
They really don't deserve the reputation. Arkansas and West Virginia and others are far, far worse off.
bizarroland@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1y
They're nice to drive through.
They're not nice to live in, especially...
Well, okay. I'm biased because I lived for well over a decade in Alabama, and I'm not white.
I'm Native American, and there's this weird thing that happens in Alabama when you're native.
One, people think that you are Mexican and so they will speak Spanish to you and ask you to translate things and wonder how much your gardening services cost. (and when I did that kind of work, my prices were very reasonable)
Two, once they learn that you're native because you happen to have, you know, three foot long hair and high cheek bones, they will assume that you have mystical powers and can talk to the wind and that animals will communicate to you with the secret magics.
So I got the downside of racism, where people hated me and people who liked me as a person would not date me because of the color of my skin, but I also got the upside of racism, where people thought that I was special and magical because of who my parents happened to be.
All of that aside, as I grew up, I thought I must be somebody special because every time I went to the store, people would follow me through the store and watch me closely, constantly sticking their head around corners as if getting a glimpse of me was one of the highlights of their time travel experience.
Turns out that they were just being racist and watching the little brown boy to make sure that he didn't steal something or cause some sort of kerfluffle that they could get involved in.
I said all of that to say Alabama is incredibly racist.
My lived experience is that of racism.
And nobody lynched me.
I was not beat up.
I was not horrifically abused.
But racism is still racism, and people held me back and thought less of me, thought differently of me, or refused to evaluate me on the same level that they would have evaluated me if I was white, because I was not white.
So sure, a lot of those small towns are, you know, quaint and pretty and the people will smile and wave hands at you and open the door for you and say cute little colloquialisms with southern twang voices.
But if you don't fit into their established social groups by benefit of the color of your skin or your financial position in the world, don't rely on that for anything other than a very thin veneer of how they justify to themselves how they weren't really racist because they didn't murder you, they just watched you like a hawk and made sure that you were kept on your tippy toes to make sure that you know you are being allowed to be where you are.
shalafi@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
Seen the racism on my last road trip, not so much in Alabama, but Mississippi was straight up eerie this go round. Felt like a switch got flipped once we crossed the border.
My wife's Filipino, so like you, people think she's Mexican. Which is kinda funny given Jo Koy's take that they're the Mexicans of Asia. Not so damned funny this last trip. Mississippi had always been nice enough on the surface, but now? Don't have the words, but I did not feel we were welcome any longer.
And no, despite being a middle-aged white guy, I'm not blind to the "down low" racism. Was just commenting today about how black people have to be extra polite and deferential and it makes me sick to see. And what I've seen of the "in your face" racism my wife has faced, Jesus, I had no idea Asians were treated like that.
So Native American's get the "magical Negro" treatment? Guess I shouldn't be surprised. Even though I'm from Oklahoma, never knew any of y'all. Weird. But yeah, when we were kids we had that magical view of Natives, like they were better than us, more connected with nature and god, mystical, wiser.
Anyway, back to Alabama being racist. I've seen crazy racism everywhere I've visited or lived in America. Chicago and NYC? Segregated down to the city block. Manhattan in 1992 was wild. Jamaicans this block, Haitians that block, and do not fucking cross the street. I assume it's better now.
PyroNeurosis@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 1y
I guess Huntsville is a bit off the path, but there's a fuckoff big Confederate flag on the I-65 between Birmingham and Montgomery. Friendly is a matter of proximity and perception: you were either not close enough or too respectable to meet the sort that give Alabama its reputation.
shalafi@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y
Haven't seen that, sure it's still there? Haven't been that way in a year and I'm never driving through Birmingham again. I talk up Alabama a good bit around here, but Birmingham, 🤮
twinnie@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 1y
I’m sure it’s lovely apart from the killer tornadoes.
Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 1y
To be fair, a lot of places have some kind of natural disaster threat. Hurricanes, earthquakes, fire, floods, etc.
shalafi@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
Alabama is nowhere near tornado alley. You're mixed up with some midwest state.
Jake_Farm@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 1y
Don't forget local corruption
NOT_RICK@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 1y
As I often find myself saying, yes, New Jersey is terrible, please don’t visit.
RebekahWSD@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1y
Yes yes, absolutely horrible, no need to come and check, nightmare here constantly, just the worst. Yes yes yes.
...
Are they gone yet???
Oh thank goodness!
aramis87@fedia.io · 3 pts · 1y
The best place to visit in New Jersey is Elizabeth, maybe just a bit west of it, there's just lots of fresh air there!
dharmacurious@slrpnk.net · 5 pts · 1y
The collective South Loud enough for the people in the back, y'all: Thank GOD for Mississippi!
PagPag@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
Wonder how much the Yellowstone series helped Montana out?
StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 1y
Alabama I get but what did Mississippi do?
njm1314@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 1y
I mean there's a saying in the south, thank God for Mississippi. Because no matter how bad your state is at something, Mississippi's worse.
sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 1y
Ferguson for one. And that was just a symptom
Madison420@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
The police stuff a couple years ago? That was Missouri.
shnizmuffin@lemmy.inbutts.lol · 2 pts · 1y
PA is weirdly high.
wildncrazyguy138@fedia.io · 3 pts · 1y
Man that is another state that is full of wonderful nuggets. Philly is chock full of American Independence history. Pittsburgh has cleaned up a lot and is beautiful there by 3 rivers. People love the Eagles and Steelers. Carnegie Mellon and Penn St are powerhouses. Sesame Place, Hershey Park, 6 flags. Tough parts of the AT go through PA. Turnpike has decent rest stops. Strong Union presence. Decent railroads. Erie is a cool little town by the lake with that Isle right there.
And then all in the middle of the state you basically have a carbon copy of wild n wonderful West Virginia. What’s not to like?
sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 1y
To answer your main question, "pennsatucky" and the fact that the roads are badly maintained once you cross the border over from a neighboring state.
But you're right about the good parts. Also, Pennsylvania dutch!
sqw@lemmy.sdf.org · 1 pts · 1y
interesting that the scale is positive everywhere.