this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2025
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[–] CanadaPlus 43 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (6 children)

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 21 points 8 months ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] grue@lemmy.world 12 points 8 months ago (5 children)

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?"

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[–] piranhaconda@mander.xyz 4 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Not sure on Pennsylvania. But for North Carolina, my guess would be the research triangle helping boost it?

[–] AtHeartEngineer@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

Probably more OBX and the mountains. The "research triangle" is boring af and is just cookie cutter neighborhoods and chain restaurants

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[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 36 points 8 months ago (2 children)

The scenery is the only thing keeping TN green i assure yall

[–] expatriado@lemmy.world 37 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@piefed.world 21 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Dolly Parton is a national treasure.

[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 12 points 8 months ago

Dolly Parton is a gift to humanity.

[–] BakerBagel@midwest.social 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Midwesterners absolutely love Nashville for some reason. It's where everyone wants to have the bachelorette parties these days

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[–] Fermion@mander.xyz 27 points 8 months ago

Finally a map that isn't just a population distribution.

[–] zaphodb2002@sh.itjust.works 22 points 8 months ago (3 children)

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 points 8 months ago

Don’t forget, we also have Disneyland.

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[–] bitwolf@sh.itjust.works 21 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (6 children)

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 18 points 8 months ago (3 children)

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 points 8 months ago (2 children)

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.

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There is! They even joke about it in Futurama.

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[–] angstylittlecatboy@reddthat.com 12 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

New Jersey's negative reputation is almost entirely due to people from NYC jeering at an outgroup

[–] shnizmuffin@lemmy.inbutts.lol 6 points 8 months ago (2 children)

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.
[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)
  • 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.

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[–] itsgroundhogdayagain@lemmy.ml 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

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).

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[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

(Percieved Natural Beauty) - (Political Unfavorability)

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[–] marighost@piefed.social 14 points 8 months ago (2 children)
[–] LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago
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[–] artifex@piefed.social 11 points 8 months ago

At least we can all agree that Hawaii is awesome

[–] CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 11 points 8 months ago (4 children)

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 12 points 8 months ago (6 children)
  • 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.

[–] pixelmeow@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

East NC barbecue 😋

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[–] jaykrown@lemmy.world 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I don't believe this at all. Who did they ask?

[–] orenj 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

clearly not me, I couldn't get out of N Carolina fast enough

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[–] wildncrazyguy138@fedia.io 10 points 8 months ago (4 children)

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 points 8 months ago (1 children)

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”.

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[–] Bristlecone@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

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

[–] BigDiction@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Surprised that nowhere is negative actually.

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[–] ramble81@lemmy.zip 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

So who was the sample group? And what what the size? Also what was the criteria? This just seems weirdly subjective.

[–] LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago

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

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago (2 children)

As I often find myself saying, yes, New Jersey is terrible, please don’t visit.

[–] RebekahWSD@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago

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 points 8 months ago

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!

[–] Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 7 points 8 months ago (11 children)

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 3 points 8 months ago

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!

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[–] switcheroo@lemmy.world 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

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???

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