NC let's fucking gooooo!
this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2025
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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
interesting that the scale is positive everywhere.
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.
Not sure on Pennsylvania. But for North Carolina, my guess would be the research triangle helping boost it?
As a Californian, you're all just jealous. I will sit atop my pile of avocados and wildfires and functional economy.
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.
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 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])
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.
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.
(Percieved Natural Beauty) - (Political Unfavorability)
Forreal! Lol
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
The scenery is the only thing keeping TN green i assure yall
Midwesterners absolutely love Nashville for some reason. It's where everyone wants to have the bachelorette parties these days
and Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton is a national treasure.
Dolly Parton is a gift to humanity.
Finally a map that isn't just a population distribution.
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 😋
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
At least we can all agree that Hawaii is awesome
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.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
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.
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!
PA is weirdly high.
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?