What is the worst US state to live in generally?

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨beon@sopuli.xyz⁩ to ⁨nostupidquestions@lemmy.world⁩

I’m aware that, at the moment, Florida is deemed unsafe for people to travel to, but what is generally the worst state to live in? Factors such as education, religious extremism, crime, cost of food, healthcare, and access to other resources are relevant. Will “Deep South” states remain one of the worst places to live in due to traditionalism, or are more progressive states bound to grow worse?

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shellsharks@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Every time ive seen an article about worst state it’s always Mississippi :-/. But these days thanks to awful leadership Florida and Texas are making a case for the crown.

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- Sharpiemarker@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  You’re not wrong.
  
  Mississippi is typically ranked very low due to a history of poor public education standards as well as being a battleground for civil rights. Not much has changed.
  
  Fortunately for Mississippi, Florida man is working overtime towards the enshitifcation of their own education system.
  
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  - BurntPunk@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Growing up in Alabama we used to joke that the unofficial AL state motto is “Well, at least we ain’t Mississippi” and Mississippi’s motto is “Well, at least we ain’t Missis…AW DAMMIT”
    
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  - captainlezbian@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Mississippi also just has really bad infrastructure. Like water is a concern in places there
    
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- VanillaGorilla@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  It's a race to the bottom, and Florida isn't here for the second place!
  
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STUPIDVIPGUY@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
The southern states still are the worst and I assume will continue to be the worst due to conservatism

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- shastaxc@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  And that will remain true until education improves
  
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  - STUPIDVIPGUY@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Meanwhile desantis is somehow making Florida’s education even worse
    
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snausagesinablanket@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Texas is full of pissed of GOP’s that are all hot headed and strapped. The excessive heat isn’t helping much.

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- ftothe3@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Have you ever visited Texas? Check out Austin and Dallas. Very different than what you’d expect based on the news.
  
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  - dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I live in Austin, the good isn’t good enough for me to want to stay. As soon as my kids are done with high school, I’m looking for somewhere else to live.
    
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  - reddig33@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Depends on the part of Dallas. Some of the suburbs are very conservative (Southlake is an awful place for example).
    
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  - TastyWheat@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I’m not from the US, but visited Dallas in 2009. I remember myself and a couple of friends from the area going into a Waffle House.
    
    First thing I saw was a sign on the door saying to leave your guns outside. When we walked in, there was a haggard old waitress with a smokers rasp going “what can I git ya?” and a mulleted stoner in the kitchen with a thousand yard stare. It was like I’d walked into the set of a movie and while we had breakfast my mates were quite amused at how… roadstop I kept saying it was.
    
    Kept waiting for a trucker named Bubba to walk in.
    
    Also in AR a waitress asked me if we had boats in our country, another swore up and down that she had seen me on some Australian renovation show on cable, and while watching TV an episode of Aussie Gold Hunters had subtitles for the Australians even though they were speaking clear as day English.
    
    The South is bizarre.
    
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  - eldavi@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    i just left austin because it’s becoming an increasingly facist shithole because anyone with above room temperature iq in austin knows that the state will continue to do everything in its power to reign in austin so they leave; like i did.
    
    the only gem in that place is houston and that is a much bigger target in the texas government’s eyes than austin ever was.
    
    there are holdouts and they will continue to hold out; ineffectually and pointlessly struggling for the rest of their lives.
    
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  - GlendatheGayWitch@lib.lgbt ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Depends on where you go in Dallas. With all the megachurches and conversion camp HQs around the metroplex, it’s also known as an evangelical Christian hotspot.
    
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  - Sharpiemarker@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Not as hot as it sounds?
    
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RavenFellBlade@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Depends. I’m dead serious when I ask this, but are you black, Latino, a woman, queer, Jewish or Muslim, trans or non-binary, liberal or any flavor of politics to the left of Right wing authoritarian fascist, or any combination of those groups? If so, then stay the hell out of any state south of Virginia and east of Illinois. They aren’t just bad. They are potentially deadly, increasingly as a matter or literal public policy. If you aren’t one of those groups, than you aren’t in physical existential danger. You’ll just be stuck in a nightmare hellhole of poverty and ignorance. But you’ll be safe. Mostly.

Honestly, I’ve been everywhere in the continental US. Been to every state, seen just about all there is to see driving over the road for fifteen years, and I can tell you that the southeast is damn near a third world country compared to everywhere else. The infrastructure is so bad it reminds me of when I stayed in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1993. And it’s only gotten worse. I have no desire to ever return now that I’m not required to for my job. Florida used to be the one shining exception, except now it’s embracing a return to 1930s Germany. Stay out of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas in particular.

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- eldavi@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  add arizona to that list
  
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- YaaAsantewaa@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  There’s more people of color living in all those states you hate then in any other part of the country, so your first point makes no sense
  
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  - qyron@lemmy.pt ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    You can dislike a place and have nothing against people living it.
    
    Considering the mentioned locations are, boiled down, hell holes run mostly by angry white men, I’d risk the living conditions in those places is due to systemic racism and other outdated views on what a society should be.
    
    People living in those those areas are victims and most probably poverty blocked to even consider to leave, regardless of melanin skin levels, although in the US being a shade over milk white is a detriment for having peaceful life.
    
    Stating those places are a bad choice to live is not racism: is stating a fact.
    
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  - RavenFellBlade@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    You assume that the majority of them live there by choice, and not because they lack the resources and opportunities to move. It’s kinda hard to pull up roots and move half way across the country when the economic and political realities of where you currently live force you to remain firmly entrenched in poverty with deliberately restricted access to any means to improve that situation.
    
    By your logic, black people must love prison, too, because they represent a disproportionate percentage of the prison population. I’m sure it has nothing at all to do with disproportionate enforcement against them, right?
    
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  - EsheLynn@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Why is that the metric you use, and not the policies they have? Just because plack people are too smart to live in the frigid north doesn’t mean the South is a great place to live
    
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ScrollinMyDayAway@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
It’s always the southern states that rate lowest in damn near every category.

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squidzorz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas are usually at the bottom of the rankings when it comes to the metrics you mentioned, especially education. Other southern states aren’t much better.

Seeing as how modern conservatism has become nothing more than a culture war against the things that improve the general well-being of a population, yes it will continue to be that way.

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force@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Louisiana and Mississippi, no doubt

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- dangblingus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Florida is expensive?? Damn. Make sure, next time you come on up to the Great White North, bring a couple extra bucks with you.
  
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  - force@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    It’s not nearly as bad as Miami or most of the rest of Florida lol
    
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Widowmaker_Best_Girl@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
The news about Florida exaggerates life hear. It’s not at all like you see in the headlines or whatever the “Floridaman” posts you always see. Life is fine. There’s good and bad. Painting it as some “DO NOT ENTER - UNSAFE TERRORIST ZONE” is utter bullshit.

That being said, it would be great if New Yorkers and New Jerseyites fucked off back to their states and stopped buying all the properties here.

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- Pratai@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Tell that to anyone in the LGBTQ+. Or anyone seeking an abortion. Or any child wanting to learn about systemic racism. Or anyone openly admitting to being atheist in school. Or anyone refusing to recite the pledge of allegiance.
  
  The news about Florida is SPOT-FUCKING-ON, and is why we move from there six years ago to find a better life.
  
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- scarabic@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Are you LGBT?
  
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- averyfalken@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Yeah but when being trans may mewb tiyr kids will get taken from you its a do not enter state for you
  
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- Kage520@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Disagree. It’s not just the laws, but the public support that has me crazy here. My very Catholic coworker so fully supports the governor that when the Catholic Church came out against some of his stances, she said they were the ones in the wrong! Those stances being that it should not be illegal to give a ride to an immigrant as thats just being a good neighbor, and it’s silly to expand the death penalty. Her daughter works for Disney too. She doesn’t care. Guy could come in and take a shit on the floor and she would try to explain how that was the most moral thing he could do, and how refreshing it is to have a sensible governor.
  
  Her views are not abnormal here.
  
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  - hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Ah, nothing’s more Catholic than placing some dumbass governor above the Pope.
    
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- prole@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Pretty privileged thing to say… Maybe when you and I are the ones they start creating laws against existing, then it’ll actually be bad?
  
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- scottywh@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Their “sunshine law” really drastically affect people’s perceptions of Florida.
  
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  - synae@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Traditional floridaman posts as a result of the sunshine law were offbeat, wierd, and humorous.
    
    It’s the modern “Governor Floridaman” news that are truly worrying to the sane parts of the country, and that’s got nothing to do with the sunshine laws (except insofar as he is trying to circumvent and subvert them to consolidate his power further)
    
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Blamemeta@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
California. Everything gives you cancer.

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- totallynotarobot@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Wow, people don’t like your joke. I liked your joke.
  
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- phoneymouse@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  It does other places too, they just don’t warn you about it.
  
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  - Blamemeta@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    So does the air we breathe, the sun we enjoy, and just existing in general. No need to put stickers on everything.
    
    Also, its a joke
    
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Coskii@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
As someone who has lived in 4 different states, and two very different areas of California, the worst by my metrics was Hawaii.

Yes, it has lovely weather, yes, it is a great place to visit… That does not make it a lovely place to live. Once you’ve done all the touristy things, you have to deal with the day to day. Prices are just higher for everything. It all has to come from somewhere, and it’s in the middle of the ocean.

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- thrawn@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I hear housing is extremely expensive as well. Plus the roaches are… plentiful
  
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  - Coskii@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Roaches are one thing. The large centipedes are something else entirely.
    
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- LovinNY@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I heard property tax is super cheap though
  
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madcaesar@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Bible Belt

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- Papergeist@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  My wife is born and raised in Texas. She thinks churches on every corner is normal. Now she is a travelling surgical tech and falling in love with upstate NY. It’s not my beloved Pacific Northwest, but I will gladly move anywhere away from these loco church people.
  
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  - hesusingthespiritbomb@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    That’s a great anecdote, but your wife is in the minority. Statistically speaking, Texas enjoys high rates of inflows in terms of domestic migration while upstate NY suffers pretty big outflows.
    
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  - revelrous@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    For please of mind just avoid Stefanik’s district, some people call it Cantucky for a reason. 🥲.
    
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Noodle07@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
The worst US state to live in is the state of poverty

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Smokeydope@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
It honestly depends on who you are. If you hate guns you don’t want to live in a pro gun state or vice versa. If you love pot then you will hate anti pot states and vice versa. If you hate corruption don’t go to new York. If you hate reduculous cost of living don’t live in new England area or the west coast popular states like Cali. If you want to boondocks and live a nomadic lifestyle the Midwest is much more forgiving to the lifestyle, east coast is much harder. So take an inventory of your personal political identity and what your dream state would look like condusive to your beliefs and lifestyle.

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the_q@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Alabama. Hands down.

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CoffeeDart@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Currently… Hawaii

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- Kalladblog@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  What happened?
  
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  - account_93@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Fires
    
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  - weremacaque@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    What's become the most deadly wildfire in the United States in the past 100 years, and they still found all of the bodies. 93 people have been confirmed dead so far, but there's at least 100 people missing. They're searching with dogs through the rubble, so those numbers will probably change in the next 24 hours.
    
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Etterra@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
IIRC Louisiana is at the bottom of most lists in the US for all kinds of factors, including financial. Florida (of course) and Texas are in a race to the bottom, each having a horrible ghoul of a Governor and an insane, FAR right government that leans so hard on its culture war that you’d think it had a stilt on just the other foot. California has two urban centers with a cost of living so damn high that you need a 30 year mortgage for a tent in ditch.

Here in my home of Illinois, taxes were jacked up to fix a budget so corruptly mismanaged that the State was so broke that it broke broke, and where there’s an even chance that any given governor from the last 50 years was convicted of a felony. And my home city of Chicago has a police union so crooked and powerful that they’re basically the government, and the mistreatment of the poor has kicked murder rates up to record levels. Again. At least our food is awesome though - suck it NYC.

Oh and New York sucks for poorly defined (by us Chicagoans) reasons, but especially their Pizza, and all their sports teams.

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- Desistance@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I live in Louisiana, can confirm. Median income is less than 50k a year. The legislature doesn’t really want to fix anything or tax big business. The parishes relies on federal dollars to move the needle because they can’t get much of anything out of the state and local tax dollars only go so far. The state is now losing 20k people a year since 2020.
  
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- revelrous@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Ya’ll do make a lovely casserole.
  
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RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
What do you consider in determining the worst?

As a Californian, I’d say California. Cost of living here is ridiculous, and pay isn’t keeping up. Gas at $6/gallon. Electricity bill skyrockets when using A/C, but with temperatures regularly surpassing 85 and being a desert state, we don’t have a choice. Water bill goes up every year because the water company rauses rates after a drought to make up for lost profit and never lowers the price back down after. Fast food meals are now $15 a meal, and store-bought produce isn’t much cheaper. There are car thefts and police chases every single day, often multiple in a day. Despite firearm related laws, there are still armed criminals committing crimes. Our two biggest natural disasters are wildfires and earthquakes, though in recent years there have been a few waterspouts out on the ocean, don’t remember if they ever made landfall or not. Real estate pricing here is out of control. The people here don’t know how to drive, especially in the rain. People are rude and uncaring most of the time. The schools get paid a lot of money but they pay it all out to pensions of retired teachers rather than active working teachers, which means education suffers greatly.

Sure, the weather here is usually nice, and there are a lot of entertainment centers (which are expensive by the way), but aside from that, California isn’t very nice to live in.

The only reasons I still live here are because I am too poor to move away, and my family is still here.

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- mikezane@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I just drove from California to Yellowstone and back for vacation. The gas prices were pretty close throughout the drive. And fast food costs were the same everywhere.
  
  Also, teachers retirement is paid through Calsters in California. That’s an entirely separate fund in an entirely separate state agency than education. It’s a pension system where the teachers pay in and the state pays as well while they are working like any other private company’s pension system.
  
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- andyburke@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  How much do you think you'd need to get out? (Asking, in a kidding way, as a Californian who is tired of these memes about how it's bad to live here when you're just describing any major urban center in the world.)
  
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- Billy_Gnosis@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Agree. 100%. Weather is pretty good, if don’t might 100 degrees for 3 months out of the year. Housing, and utility costs are out of control and homelessness and crime are rampant .
  
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  - RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Oh, yeah I totally forgot about all the homeless. In LA its so bad their tents take up the whole sidewalk of entire blocks. Its sad, but youd think a state as rich as California would have solved it already.
    
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- 1ird@notyour.rodeo ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Come to Missouri. It’s cheaper and we have legal weed. Plus, the more sane people the better.
  
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blazera@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Mississippi reigns supreme.

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PenguinJuice@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Florida is not actually dangerous lol that was just a publicity stunt.

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PeckerBrown@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Yes.

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flossdaily@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Have the Midwest states been mentioned? Bill Bryson describes them as interminably dull. Not sure how they’d stack up against the deep south, though.

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- BrokenToY@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Dull vs Dangerous
  
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- uncle_bagel@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  The Midwest states are essentially the top of the bell curve when it comes to quality of life stats. Maybe life isn’t as flashy as the coasts, but there isnt the absolutely ramoant poverty like you find in Appalachia or the deep South.
  
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  - NikkiNikkiNikki@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Nebraska is the exception, this state has some of the weirdest price of living to wage ratios. For example, in my town you cannot find a job that pays more than minimum wage without commuting to the other towns around you. But the rent is set at a point where you would need to work for $16 to $20 an hour to afford roof AND food. Wild stuff
    
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- profdc9@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Well, Bill Bryson might be right. But have you seen the rest of the world? Boring can be good. Be careful what you ask for.
  
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- ryathal@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  There’s a lot of corn, but there’s also a lot of good universities, and lots of beer. Not many mountains, but tons of forest and water.
  
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- 1ird@notyour.rodeo ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I moved from Tennessee to Missouri. I like the weather in Missouri and legal weed. Other than that, they’re about the same. Missouri is way flatter. I’d like to go somewhere else but I’m poor. Thankfully I live in a relatively tame political area.
  
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Billy_Gnosis@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
California

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Pixel@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I think it is a completely personal choice, and that’s what’s so great about it

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rebul@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Turns out, there are stupid questions after all.

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CookieJarObserver@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
State of injury or mental illness.

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Samanthastanky@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Listening to the Mothman episodes of Last Podcast on the Left made me pretty scared of West Virginia.

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- AphoticDev@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Idk why people are downvoting you, Aplalachia is one of the poorest regions in the United States, where there is little opportunity and a real lack of quality education. On top of that, drugs have ravaged the area, and the people are clinging desperately to a coal industry that is vanishing at a steady rate. Instead of looking for an alternative industry to boost their economy, the people there have doubled down, making some of the villages there literal ghost towns.
  
  Its a shame too, because they have a beautiful country and a growing tourism industry that wants to take advantage of that. They need to lean real hard into the hospitality side so they can jumpstart their economy.
  
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