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.
this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2025
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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.
Every state is positive! score is favourable - unfavourable. Hawaii would have been 76.5 vs 23.5.
Oh you're right! My bad I didn't read the fine print.
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.
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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?"
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.
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).
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Lol, give me a break and show me the data sources.
I’m surprised that people are surprised by this.
West Virginia somehow scores higher than california?? Has anyone actually been to west virginia?
I'm guessing the survey responder pool was "whoever is at this Midwest bingo hall at 2pm on a Tuesday."
Yeah, this seems wrong. Tennessee definitely isn't that good.
It must be because of the smoky mountains.... only thing cool about this place.
Oklahoma has way better meth labs than California 👍
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
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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.
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That's a wild score for Florida. Do people just like Walt Disney World that much?
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???
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.
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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.
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New Jersey's negative reputation is almost entirely due to people from NYC jeering at an outgroup
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I don't believe this at all. Who did they ask?
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.
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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.
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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
At least we can all agree that Hawaii is awesome
The collective South Loud enough for the people in the back, y'all: Thank GOD for Mississippi!
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
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