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.
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.
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.
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?”
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.
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.
I’ve never seen or heard Montana called Midwest. It’s more Rockies or Northwest. Eastern half could be considered Great Plains-ish.
Not sure on Pennsylvania. But for North Carolina, my guess would be the research triangle helping boost it?
Probably more OBX and the mountains. The “research triangle” is boring af and is just cookie cutter neighborhoods and chain restaurants
The Pennsylvania part is really mystifying. Is it riding on the popularity of cheese steaks?
What are the chances Washington gets dinged for having the same name as DC?
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.
Seattle and Portland do make up the PNW hippie culture, which I’m sure plenty of respondents find unfavorable
The scenery is the only thing keeping TN green i assure yall
and Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton is a national treasure.
Dolly Parton is a gift to humanity.
Midwesterners absolutely love Nashville for some reason. It’s where everyone wants to have the bachelorette parties these days
Charleston get too expensive?
Finally a map that isn’t just a population distribution.
As a Californian, you’re all just jealous. I will sit atop my pile of avocados and wildfires and functional economy.
Don’t forget, we also have Disneyland.
Go hang out with Hawaii.
Alaska can come too.
THE AEEND!
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.
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
the new mayor is openly gay, if that’s any reassurance to you.
There is! They even joke about it in Futurama.
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.
New Jersey’s negative reputation is almost entirely due to people from NYC jeering at an outgroup
People from Philadelphia and the whole of Delaware also routinely dunk on NJ for many reasons.
- Can’t pump their own gas.
- Can’t turn left.
- Gotta pay a toll to get out.
- It’s a literal swamp.
- Every single aspect of the Meadowlands.
- It’s a literal swamp.
- Every single aspect of the Meadowlands.
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.
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).
I think my response of “Good, don’t come back then” probably makes them even more unfavorable to NJ lmfao
(Percieved Natural Beauty) - (Political Unfavorability)
Forreal! Lol
aside from the Atlanta traffic design.
Atlanta (the city proper) is getting better, despite GDOT’s best efforts to sabotage it. It’s the metro Atlanta suburbs that really suck.
I’m still butthurt the Atlanta suburbs managed to block the MARTA expansion that was voted for and funded.
NC let’s fucking gooooo!
RAISE UP
Recently returned to my ancestral homeland of SC, and cheer wine (and actually decent barbecue) have been the local highlights.
At least we can all agree that Hawaii is awesome
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.
- States north of it vacation in the OBX, famous lighthouses
- Asheville
- Highly rated beer
- Highly rated universities
- whole triangle area is fantastic place for nightlife, culture and raising a family
- Basketball
- Mountains - mount mitchell highest peak in the east, waterfalls
- Great Smoky National Park, most visited in US
- AT goes through it
- Blue Ridge Parkway
- National white water center
- NASCAR HOF
- Middle of the road politically, not too red, not too blue
- lot of soldiers roll through Fort Liberty
- a cacophony of “Carolina ___” songs.
I’ve traveled a lot of places. This one’s home.
East NC barbecue 😋
Asheville
Asheville was great 10 years ago, now its overridden by Florida retirees (and the builders who cater to them) who have driven home prices far past what most people can afford.
Also it was destroyed in a hurricane
Other than parts by the river, Asheville survived for the most part. The cities really destroyed were the smaller towns around it like Chimney Rock.
I live here and that’s not true
I’m not living in Asheville currently but every time I have visited since the hurricane, it has been like normal with the exception of Biltmore Village and the River Arts District.
The only time it was really bad was when I went there about a week after the hurricane.
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.
Ohio has the 7th highest GDP in the country. No clue why you think it is a poor state
Perception > Reality
I don’t believe this at all. Who did they ask?
clearly not me, I couldn’t get out of N Carolina fast enough
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.
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”.
That’s exactly what people say about Ohio too.
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.
What’s Akron like? It seems like it should be cool.
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
So who was the sample group? And what what the size? Also what was the criteria? This just seems weirdly subjective.
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
Surprised that nowhere is negative actually.
deleted by creator
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!
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.
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.
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.
I’m sure it’s lovely apart from the killer tornadoes.
To be fair, a lot of places have some kind of natural disaster threat. Hurricanes, earthquakes, fire, floods, etc.
Alabama is nowhere near tornado alley. You’re mixed up with some midwest state.
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, 🤮
Don’t forget local corruption
As I often find myself saying, yes, New Jersey is terrible, please don’t visit.
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!
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!
