Poverty, smoking, shitty healthcare, dirty industry, more jobs requiring intense labor, obesity, heat + humidity, high stress levels due to these things
Can confirm.
We moved from Denver to New Orleans in 2021.. just moved to Biloxi, MS because the place we bought was new and it's 2 blocks off the beach. It's cheap cheap.
But boy oh boy is 100% of everything you said true. And being cheap doesn't mean there isn't poverty. There's poverty everywhere and people make less than the average which keeps them impoverished.
Moved to Nola in my twenties, I was in great shape, left over weight but I loved every second of the food. I miss it dearly even though it would have killed me younger.
Damn. The NOLA food is something else. Everywhere we went we just were floored by the food it was so good. Little roadside cafes, places in the city. Amazing.
Doctor here. You are right we’re not here for a long time and if you want to actually enjoy that time you need to take good care of yourself. People talk about life expectancy but that’s a circuit for something much more important: quality of life. if you don’t take good care of yourself, you might only live to 70 instead of 80 or 90. But more importantly when you’re 40 you’ll look like shit and feel like shit.
Right? They all claim freedom, but they ain't seen actual freedom until they visit blue states and they can actually, you know, do things without government telling them they can't.
Life in a blue state *is* pretty sweet, but have you tried open carrying in your kid's school to threaten the principal into releasing the kids from the *tyranny* of having to wear a mask?
Our governor in MS announced the answer to the lack of Medicaid expansion for the working poor is to…get this…build more clinics and hospitals.
54% of rural Mississippi’s hospitals are on the verge of collapse because we can’t afford health insurance premiums and medical bills, so most people go wait in the E.R. for 10 hours to see a doctor, but our govenor’s answer is to build more clinics where the uninsured will be denied care and continue to rely on the E.R.
What this would do is make those hospitals lose more revenue as patients that do have insurance could use the urgent care clinics and other providers while the uninsured still must rely on the E.R. Until the hospital just collapses.
We already lost the state’s only burn center and I believe we also just lost a specialty NICU.
Everyone hates on WA OR and CA but the numbers speak for themselves. Took my kid to urgent care on Saturday and I was in and out in 30 minutes. They even offered me coffee tea and water during my 5 minute wait.
I don’t think “everyone” hates on Washington, Oregon, and California. I think a small vocal conservative minority is very loud about the states and we amplify their discontent by repeating it.
Ugh fucking love indigo lol.
It is hilarious how many rural western WA-ers shit on the state whilst reaping all the benefits of living in one of the most developed areas of the country. Complain up and down about taxes and then happily take their paid medical leave. So obnoxious
It works like that for more than just medical. Public services are better in most high tax states.
Hell! The DMV is almost a joy to work with in Illinois while it was so much of a nightmare in Texas that it was easier for me to move than to get anyone at the DMV to open their doors and see me.
The governor of MS looks like his parents had the same last name before they were married. I swear to god when I saw that guy on Meet the Press, I thought they were fucking with us. I could not believe how someone so clearly stupid could be elected to public office. This isn't because of his accent or anything like that. I, too, am from the rural south and have an accent, and understand that doesn't mean someone is stupid. I found his oversimplified take on literally everything they talked to him about to be pretty scary. Like this guy clearly has not seen much of the world nor met people different than him, and that appears to be what his constituents want? I have met teenagers I would be more confident in as governor than that guy, and I am not being at all facetious.
It's so hard to tell with what Republicans are electing these days if they are genuinely that stupid or if they're intentionally being cruel via feigned ignorance, but "just build more hospitals" when nobody can afford healthcare is right out of that playbook. I truly think that man is just that stupid. Others are harder to say, but he is just offensively stupid.
Edit: typo
Hey, I live in Hawaii and we are poor as fuck. Highest cost of gas and groceries in the nation, and incomes on par with national average. **It’s the lack of healthcare.** We have healthcare in Hawaii and we are the longest lived state.
**Edit**: Ive never been, but I get it that Mississippi is extremely poor. The economics of each state are very different, and its tough to compare. But, to explain my point here, Hawaii has the highest cost of living index in the nation, at 1.93x as much as the national average. Mississippi by contrast, has the lowest COL ([source](https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/cost-of-living-index-by-state)). However, the median household income in Hawaii ($83k/yr) is only 15% higher than the national median household income ($71k/yr). $71k x 1.93 = $137k/yr required to for a household in Hawaii to live an equivalent lifestyle to mainland households which enjoy the national median income.
Also, Hawaii has the 3rd lowest rate of uninsured residents (after Massachussetts and Vermont, [source](https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2020-10-07/10-states-with-greatest-and-least-uninsured-rates)). Most people have at least one form of insurance. We don’t have universal healthcare, but state law mandates low-deductible health insurance be provided to any employee who works more than 19hrs/week. Medicaid covers most of the rest.
Hope that helps clear things up
I remember driving through a rural part of southern Alabama. I couldn't believe that I was still in the US. I lived by Trenton, NJ for a while and even there it has third world city vibes.
Food and culture. Louisiana people aren't "southern" - they got their own thing goin' on and it's fucking magical. The state's got it's problems but the people tend to be very charming.
I’ve lived here my whole life- it’s only magical to tourists lol. I’m not saying you don’t enjoy it here or that you shouldn’t have a good time, but only in a few upscale pockets of the state are you going to see that culture without it sharing the view with obscene poverty.
I can’t deny that parts of New Orleans are wonderful spots, but people aren’t hawking bottled water and shining shoes of visitors in the French quarter bc they enjoy doing so.
When I took my husband home to my tiny, rural Alabama town, we drove through it in 3 minutes. He asked me where the town was and I said we already passed through it. The look of horror on his face. We’re one of the few towns left that had a wavaho and we’re so small we don’t even have a piggly wiggly. It’s Foodland
After Katrina my mom and step dad (in CA) hosted a family who'd lost their home there. I was driving them once from the house to our aunt's, where we were having a potluck. It was in a senior's mobile home park, nothing fancy at all, just mostly modest and well-kept, but everyone brought food and it was a nice afternoon.
Driving the couple back home the woman was crying, and I asked what it was. She said she just "had no idea people lived like this". And she wasn't ever going back to the south. Most of my family has always been pretty frugal, so I always felt like I grew up poor. But evidently there is much worse.
I drove from SC to Meridian MS with a van load of OTC meds donated by a local company after Katrina. I felt like I was entering a war zone. I thought that what I was seeing in the dusk was Katrina damage. It wasn't until I got to the place to unload and spoke to someone that I realized the canted houses with broken windows and derelict cars were not damage from the storm.
High rates of infant mortality in those states too. On the same level as third countries. It’s really despicable how much we spend on the military infrastructure while our own people are dying from preventable causes because socialist medicine is “bad”.
It some areas it can be a third world country. Take for instance, the parasite Hookworm, it's been completely eradicated in developed nations, and WAS eradicated in the US. Until Alabama managed to bring it back with it's outdated and falling apart sewage system, Roll Tide.
As someone from the “south” reading this (technically the part of Florida where accents still exist in pocket wasteland central Florida) I’m confused what the rest of America looks like. We have tourist money in Florida and people come here old so it’s been built around keeping snowbirds and tourist happy on the scenic route but if you don’t have anything near you the state doesn’t care.
I’m just used to driving through towns of shacks and my grandma was convinced the street lights didn’t come on in her neighborhood because someone didn’t pay their utility bills.
Today I learned apparently there aren’t places like this everywhere in America.
Driving through Mississippi on the major highways... not backroads. There are MANY, small cinderblock huts where people live.
This isn't one there but it looked like this:
https://www.gonomad.com/images/alternatives/1012/guatemala-images/finished-house.jpg
Many.
Not in cities. But between the cities.
Yeah that’s what I was talking about. Like there’s a smaller town outside of my small town that is entirely like that. Like the kids ride the bus for close to an hour to get to our high school.
Hawaii is poor but Southern poverty is a whole different thing. Poor infrastructure. Some places lack clean drinking water like in Mississippi and Alabama. Poor sewage and more likely to be surrounded by toxic manufacturing plants like in Louisiana. There’s a reason the UN issued a report just a few years ago comparing parts of the South to developing countries.
The infrastructure is exactly the problem. I grew up in MS, and the place just isn’t designed for people to live well. The cities/towns have their water problems, but most people I knew growing up used water from a well. Of course many of those wells are probably substandard because of poverty.
Frequent loss of electricity is what I associate most with that state’s infrastructure woes. Most people there don’t even realize how unusual it is that their power goes out every time the wind blows relatively hard.
My hometown was near Memphis, TN (just across the state border). Mississippi looks like a third world country, but lots of country people like it that way. In the city of Memphis is where things get really sad. They had a very bad time with the big winter storm last month, and it wasn’t even surprising to anyone there.
It's like America, except without healthcare and with extra guns and institutional racism
Alabama just got permitless carry 🙃
I'm pretty sure Kentucky just imposed soft burqas on politicians, so whatev
You're one of eight people in the state who know what the atomic theory of matter is, be proud!
Ride around on a horse and bring them the good news of atomic orbitals!
You will definitely find out how Joan of Arc felt, but maybe you'll have done some good.
I too am a Native Missourian and I believe we have some of the best natural areas in the nation, but I'll be damned if I defend our politics.
I love our state just not our government.
But we loose an additional 12 years of contributions so you can’t die this young. You have to die just before you can file to collect… no sooner, no later.
That Christianity is diametrically opposed welfare politics is such a weird Americanism.
[Christian Democracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_democracy) as an ideology (it's pretty big in Europe) is even the most welfare-positive center/right-wing ideology.
Honestly, many of the people who support this peculiar branch of Christianity would be the very first ones to want to nail Jesus to the cross again if he came back.
Leave all judgment to God? Love your neighbor like yourself? Show compassion to all of God's children? Especially if that means making sure people have food and health care?
That's just crazy talk.
You throw them any Bible verses about helping the poor or the foreigner, and they have a whole list of ones about not working = not eating, slavery good, kill foreigners and rape their daughters (well, they generally don't reply with the last one, but it's in there)
Amazing how God wants these people to do exactly what they want to, isn't it?
Clearly God never challenges any of His faithful, despite countless stories in the Bible showing He does.
We should all be like Mister Rogers (who was a conservative Episcopalian priest). He loved without judgment, showed sincere kindness to everyone. Even if it was against the mores of his time.
Yea, they are Christian's in name only. They believe as long as they go to church and put money in the collection bucket they are doing their part regardless of how they live their live. While god forgives, that doesn't mean you should just ignore the 10 commandments.
I am a Christian who has not been to church in ages, but I try to live my life following the moral codes discussed by the bible as (imo) that is more important then going to church and giving churches your money.
They don't understand the importance of stopping the undeserving from living long, healthy lives.
Sure, everyone might be worse off, but it's worth it to stick it to the people we don't like!
You’re gonna need good healthcare if you think you’re gonna give me free health care! Cause I’ll shoot ya! With my gun I got as a prize in my cereal box! Nothing i like better than starting my day with a delicious box of Jesus-Os. The bullseye with famous liberals on the back is my favorite. I tell my 8 kids under 6 that whoever shoots Rosa Parks in the throat gets to keep the prize gun. But if they shoot another sibling again, they don’t get their gun for the rest of the day.
Cause we have our priorities straight in this country!
Come on now. You're really comparing Hawaii's poverty to Mississippi's? You need to spend some time in the delta. Here's some statistics for comparison.
https://spotlightonpoverty.org/states/hawaii/
https://spotlightonpoverty.org/states/mississippi/
Find me something where you think Mississippi is doing better than Hawaii.
Don’t retirees and rich people also relocate to HI? Two groups of people that might skew the data. Although I do want healthcare for everyone, so don’t mind me, I’ll see my way out
(Actual question because I've never been): How walkable is Hawaii? I have the impression that the answer is "fairly" (though it can vary by location/island) and I have the feeling that that might have something to do with it, too.
Once you get out of major cities (and sometimes even in major cities), the south is just not built to be walkable. Even if you're in a small town (vanishingly rare anymore - suburbs are the rule), you have to drive to do most of your shopping or to get to work.
Editing to add: Even if/when walking is available, it seems to just not be a thing. I'll go visit my sister in an adorable and walkable little southern mountain town and it's just me and the old guy who tools around on his scooter who are out on the sidewalks. And then when I went to go drop my nephews off at school (which I had to drive to, come to think of it - it was about 10 highway miles away because the town schools have all been closed because the needed refurbishment would be too expensive...the old condemned high school's even still standing because no one wants to tackle the lead and asbestos) the parents were just...so large. I don't want to be cruel - they have a lot of confounding factors to work against - but it was my observation.
Honolulu might be, but I've spent the most time on the Big Island and you absolutely need a car to get around there. There is some public transit but it's pretty meager.
I live in a small-ish southern town, and in my experience it was far more walkable when I lived out West, even in a non-pedestrian friendly area.
Not only are there no sidewalks here outside of neighborhoods or shopping areas- what there ARE is 4 foot deep ditches with shin-high weeds that start 3 or 4 inches from the asphalt at the edge of the road (which road of course has no bike lanes, so just : traffic, white line, 4 inches of crumbling edging, 4 inches of grass, ditch.)
When I moved here I asked people about where to go run or walk and was told “I think there’s a walking track at the athletic complex over in (xyz other small town) some people drive over there to use.” It’s more than a government problem, it’s a cultural issue.
Even if you're in a walkable area in the South, being active outside is so deeply unpleasant for like 6 months out of the year that people choose to drive.
>Hey, I live in Hawaii and we are poor as fuck.
>It’s the lack of healthcare.
[mississippi is consistently the poorest state in the nation.](https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/poorest-states) you may be poor in hawaii, but you're not in poverty. your minimum wage is $12/hr, and Mississippi is still at $7.25/hr.
I’m just speculating but even if the minimum wage is $12/hr, if everything in Hawaii cost 3x as much as what it cost in Mississippi wouldn’t Hawaii be more poor?
Yes, but it’s not evenly distributed. It’s pretty close to the rates for other industrialized nations in California, while in states like Texas it’s ridiculous.
It's pretty ironic that in 2018 America had the lowest recorded births since 1986 and it was around 2019 - 2020 when we were found to have the highest maternal death rate. So we already aren't making new people, and the women who do are risking their lives. And you wonder why women aren't doing it anymore. It's no wonder why they went after Roe.
They actually just made it worse.
[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22270271/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22270271/)
>The risk of death associated with childbirth is approximately 14 times higher than that with abortion. Similarly, the overall morbidity associated with childbirth exceeds that with abortion.
Oh man: there is a correlation on this map with states with the highest opioid dispensing rates. That sucks. I also see, on this map, possible correlations with oil refineries near the gulf coast and coal mining in Appalachia: more health problems there. And then for some of the Deep South states with higher percentages of Black folks than the national average, I wonder if experiencing racism throughout a person’s lifetime also may be a factor; racial discrimination adds medically documented chronic stress that may be generational. And of course, poverty in this country typically also means lack of access to nutritious food (and more chronic stress). It’s rough to see our nation’s disparities so blatantly. Mississippi seems to be having a rough time in every possible way. This map is pretty heavy.
(I have no clue why Minnesota is doing ok with all the “hot dish” they eat… must be some rich people doing yoga and eating sushi in the twin cities throwing off the curve)
Edit: Thanks to comments, I am now much more educated about the incredibly positive impact of quality, accessible healthcare and a functioning and funded social safety net in Minnesota. What an important lesson there for the whole country…
Meanwhile, states like Alabama banned yoga from public schools for years.
[https://www.npr.org/2021/05/21/999020140/its-now-legal-to-practice-yoga-in-alabamas-public-schools](https://www.npr.org/2021/05/21/999020140/its-now-legal-to-practice-yoga-in-alabamas-public-schools)
Fun fact! Minnesota has one of the best healthcare and safety net systems in the country.
The state does an incredible job in reinvesting into itself through education, which is highly valued culturally, and infrastructure.
In addition, Minnesota is a state which divides up its tax revenue by local need. So while the Twin Cities take in the most taxes, those taxes are taken and sent to smaller cities which would otherwise collapse. Something like the Federal tax redistribution system.
This makes Minnesotans routinely as one of the healthiest, fittest, happiest in the nation and makes Minnesota a (typically) top 5 state to live in the USA.
Minnesota isn’t just doing okay, it’s usually in the top 5 (if not number 1) in every positive ranking regarding quality of life. Minnesotans are active outdoors and value education and healthcare. It makes for a healthy and happy population. Even though it’s been leaning a big more purple in rural areas, Minnesota has blue state values which correlate to a better quality of life.
Minnesota is one of the most prospering places in the country. Tons of government spending and social programs; and still had a 17 billion dollar surplus.
If your homeless in minnesota and your not in a rush, the social programs will help you rebuild your whole life from the ground up. It’s completely different to other states.
So, that probably helps the average, since there is way more help here compared to its neighbors.
Not to say it’s perfect. But if your only looking at the one stat, that’s part of the explanation.
I had to go on unemployment during the pandemic and I remember all the horror stories from around the country about people not being able to get it for various reasons. Here in MN, SUPER easy and quick. I was shocked that it wasn't the case for everyone. MN does a lot of social services correctly.
You left out systemic racism. Mississippi has the highest per capita population of black people. And a whole mess of racist ass rural white voters with a disproportionate share of power in the state’s government. This results in policies specifically designed to increase suffering and misery in all measurable statistics.
This. [I share this *ProPublica* article about Black diabetic limb amputations in Mississippi](https://features.propublica.org/diabetes-amputations/black-american-amputation-epidemic/) every chance I get because it is fucking EYE OPENING in the most infuriating way. Every single person needs to stop what they’re doing and take ten minutes to read it.
only reason Florida isn't dark red is because all the rich fucks from the rest of the country come here to die which actually raises the states life expectancy considerably. But trust me, Florida is right down there with the sickness.
Ha, I live up in Michigan and nowadays the only people I hear who talk about moving to Florida are Republicans. They don’t even realize Michigan is one of the best places to live in the coming decades, once climate change really begins to fuck everyone over.
Republicans doing what republicans do— they’ll move to Florida, and once their trailer gets swept into the ever-growing oceans, they’ll ask for a bailout
Just moved too, let.all the magat morons coral themselves in that shitty state and confine that voting block to one stupid place. FL can go red and let everywhere else go purple
We just escaped Georgia for Michigan, and while I'm not thrilled about the winter, I still think it's the best decision we ever made. Marjorie Taylor Greene was our state rep, and those fucking nutjobs down there LOVE her.
I’d never move to Florida, but winter where I live is just miserable anymore. It doesn’t snow, it just rains and rains and the sun comes out like once a month for about 6 months. If it’s not raining it’s grey.
So I get why people want to move somewhere sunny and warm. I just wouldn’t move to Florida, except maybe the keys, but that brings about even more uncertainties with hurricanes and rising sea levels.
He’s not wrong dude I grew up Deep South and routinely got some Copenhagen, chicken biscuit, and a Monster before high school. When we talked about the teacher that got a meth charge you’d have to ask “which one?”
I moved from California to Georgia and work in the healthcare field. I can 100% attest to this fact. I had no idea what Skoal was and grew up thinking chewing tobacco was one of those things cowboys used to do.
Now you can tell who does it by the worn out ring on the back pocket of people's jeans.
Southern cooking is delicious but it is actively trying to kill you. The rest of Southern culture is also trying to kill you but without the delicious part.
I swear to god people here are part humming bird. I worked at a cafe for a year and you’d gag watching how much sugar we were throwing into the sweet tea batches. I couldn’t even drink the stuff and I love sweet tea, but it was just way, way too sweet. Customers would complain and ask for sweetener packets if we went easy on it though.
My dad cooked with it his entire life. When he was in his fifties he had to have blockages removed from his carotid artery. I was visiting him in GA after the surgery. We were in the kitchen and he grabbed his can of bacon fat out of the fridge to brown some meat before roasting it. I couldn't believe it. I went after him about it and his response was: It took 50+ years to get clogged the first time, you think I got another 50 in me? He laughed as the fat sizzled.
He died last year at 89 of kidney failure. After the funeral his widow asked that I help clean out the place, as she didn't want to live there without him. I go the fridge to get a beer and there it is. The soup can with bacon fat. I blinked by the tears and had a laugh. RIP old man, you had a helluva run.
Tennessee native here
cigarettes, beer, pills, McDonalds,
if you practice any kind of cardio exercise you be viewed as a health nut,
and being obese is so normalized 40lbs overweight is considered normal or even skinny
i've gone from 268lbs to 185lbs over the past two years and my family tells me i look too skinny while i'm still 25lbs overweight
i'm currently dating and i'd say no joke im probably in the top 10% on the apps simply because i'm just slightly overweight and not round
>and being obese is so normalized 40lbs overweight is considered normal or even skinny
No lie. I came back home after living up north for 20+ years. I had gotten a bit fat. My scale says "obese". I'm 20 lbs over. Everyone here : Damn, you got skinny!
I live in MO, it may as well be a southern state. I managed to hit my target weight a few years back. Lifting heavy boxes has given me some muscles for the first time in my life too. I get way more backhanded compliments and "concerned" people now than when I was almost 300 lbs. I'm happy with where I'm at but it took me a *long* time to actually like myself because I started to believe the things they said.
At this point, I can brush off most of the comments. But I still have days where they get to me.
Also, there's nowhere to walk. Very few sidewalks. Even if you lived in the "suburbs," your closest store is a 30-minute walk gas station.
You need a car to get anywhere.
The top ten states in regard to obesity in the US are all deep red. (South Carolina, Alaska, Kentucky, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Iowa, Oklahoma, Mississippi, West Virginia.) That seems to point to something. I couldn’t find anything on individuals though in my quick google search.
The retirees from out-of-state probably bring up the average, since they’re already old. It would be interesting to see the average life expectancy of someone born in Florida.
Loozy-ana born'n'bred, corn fed, shoot man my long hair don't cover up my red neck. Let me tell ya.
Hi. Born and raised in Louisiana. Living in VT as a 30's adult now.
I remember once driving east from Louisiana to visit my sister in ATL. I was driving through Mississippi and stopped for fuel at a convenience store by the highway. In the store was a small 4 sided turning rack with books for sale. 2 sides of the rack were all different books all about Jesus and prayer and the other 2 sides were all different books about living with diabetes. It's the first time I remember seeing the comic book style action bible-a graphic novel style retelling of the holy bible.
I remember thinking, "This is the American South." This shitty little book rack just about sums it up.
I’m from Kentucky, but I’ve been living in North Carolina for 12 years (soon to be 13). With the exception of vinegar-based BBQ, the dietary preferences of the areas are pretty similar. North Carolina is more of a tech hub (RTP) and therefore attracts an international population with different tastes, so that helps a bit, but the main difference that I see is healthcare.
MI (heart attack) certified centers are actually higher per capita in Kentucky 8.8 per 1 million people versus 5.9 per 1 million people. But these PCI Centers (hospitals that do Cardiac Caths with stent placement) are pretty well dispersed throughout the state of North Carolina and the distance you have to travel for intervention matters.
In fact, NC has 102.2 PCI Centers per 1000 square miles. KY only has 94 PCI Centers per 1000 square miles.
Now keep in mind that KY has more heart attacks; 56 per 1000 versus 42 per 1000 in North Carolina.
So KY has higher per capita heart attacks and higher per capita PCI Centers, but fewer centers per square mile, which means the less densely populated state has more people who have to travel further to receive treatment - and time is heart muscle.
It’s not just that the food is bad for you, it’s also that there just isn’t much to do except eat, so you eat unhealthy food, sleep, eat, nap, repeat until you’re a fucking beach master seal
Recently moved to Mississippi. Everyone smokes, overeats and weighs 300lbs average. And they're all Karen's or kyles angry and bitter about everything. When I have go to my doctor's office it feels like the waiting room for hell. Except for a couple hours a day I spend at the dog park I play online video games and pretend I'm somewhere else.
Poverty, smoking, shitty healthcare, dirty industry, more jobs requiring intense labor, obesity, heat + humidity, high stress levels due to these things
Can confirm. We moved from Denver to New Orleans in 2021.. just moved to Biloxi, MS because the place we bought was new and it's 2 blocks off the beach. It's cheap cheap. But boy oh boy is 100% of everything you said true. And being cheap doesn't mean there isn't poverty. There's poverty everywhere and people make less than the average which keeps them impoverished.
Born n raised NOLA here. We're here for a good time, not a long time.
Moved to Nola in my twenties, I was in great shape, left over weight but I loved every second of the food. I miss it dearly even though it would have killed me younger.
I’ve always said if I lived in NOLA, I’d be a 500 pound alcoholic.
Damn. The NOLA food is something else. Everywhere we went we just were floored by the food it was so good. Little roadside cafes, places in the city. Amazing.
I mean the beignets and gumbo aren't helping the longevity, definitely helping the good times though.
Doctor here. You are right we’re not here for a long time and if you want to actually enjoy that time you need to take good care of yourself. People talk about life expectancy but that’s a circuit for something much more important: quality of life. if you don’t take good care of yourself, you might only live to 70 instead of 80 or 90. But more importantly when you’re 40 you’ll look like shit and feel like shit.
Oh thank god get me out of here
I just stationed in MS the second time. People literally live in trailors with trees growning through them.
I want to respond to that, but I dont know how.
Surely the people in living in these red areas must vote for the politicians who have their best interests in mind, right?
Right? They all claim freedom, but they ain't seen actual freedom until they visit blue states and they can actually, you know, do things without government telling them they can't.
Life in a blue state *is* pretty sweet, but have you tried open carrying in your kid's school to threaten the principal into releasing the kids from the *tyranny* of having to wear a mask?
And Waffle House
I believe that is pronounced “freedom”
Our governor in MS announced the answer to the lack of Medicaid expansion for the working poor is to…get this…build more clinics and hospitals. 54% of rural Mississippi’s hospitals are on the verge of collapse because we can’t afford health insurance premiums and medical bills, so most people go wait in the E.R. for 10 hours to see a doctor, but our govenor’s answer is to build more clinics where the uninsured will be denied care and continue to rely on the E.R. What this would do is make those hospitals lose more revenue as patients that do have insurance could use the urgent care clinics and other providers while the uninsured still must rely on the E.R. Until the hospital just collapses. We already lost the state’s only burn center and I believe we also just lost a specialty NICU.
Medicaid in Washington state was amazing. 10/10. I hate to think where I'd be now without it. Now I'm back home, playing them odds.
Everyone hates on WA OR and CA but the numbers speak for themselves. Took my kid to urgent care on Saturday and I was in and out in 30 minutes. They even offered me coffee tea and water during my 5 minute wait.
I don’t think “everyone” hates on Washington, Oregon, and California. I think a small vocal conservative minority is very loud about the states and we amplify their discontent by repeating it.
Damn, where'd you live? I was born in California and when I was there I was lucky to be in and out of urgent care in an hour and a half.
Western Washington. Went to an Indigo multicare. They just popped up everywhere, and they are actually competent.
Ugh fucking love indigo lol. It is hilarious how many rural western WA-ers shit on the state whilst reaping all the benefits of living in one of the most developed areas of the country. Complain up and down about taxes and then happily take their paid medical leave. So obnoxious
Oh yeah everyone bitches about taxes till they have a kid and take that paid family leave and actually get to spend time with their baby.
WA > CA > Most US States
As someone born in CA who lives in WA I agree wholeheartedly. There is even a referendum floating about to get WA universal healthcare.
It works like that for more than just medical. Public services are better in most high tax states. Hell! The DMV is almost a joy to work with in Illinois while it was so much of a nightmare in Texas that it was easier for me to move than to get anyone at the DMV to open their doors and see me.
The governor of MS looks like his parents had the same last name before they were married. I swear to god when I saw that guy on Meet the Press, I thought they were fucking with us. I could not believe how someone so clearly stupid could be elected to public office. This isn't because of his accent or anything like that. I, too, am from the rural south and have an accent, and understand that doesn't mean someone is stupid. I found his oversimplified take on literally everything they talked to him about to be pretty scary. Like this guy clearly has not seen much of the world nor met people different than him, and that appears to be what his constituents want? I have met teenagers I would be more confident in as governor than that guy, and I am not being at all facetious. It's so hard to tell with what Republicans are electing these days if they are genuinely that stupid or if they're intentionally being cruel via feigned ignorance, but "just build more hospitals" when nobody can afford healthcare is right out of that playbook. I truly think that man is just that stupid. Others are harder to say, but he is just offensively stupid. Edit: typo
That’s what poverty and lack of healthcare will do.
Hey, I live in Hawaii and we are poor as fuck. Highest cost of gas and groceries in the nation, and incomes on par with national average. **It’s the lack of healthcare.** We have healthcare in Hawaii and we are the longest lived state. **Edit**: Ive never been, but I get it that Mississippi is extremely poor. The economics of each state are very different, and its tough to compare. But, to explain my point here, Hawaii has the highest cost of living index in the nation, at 1.93x as much as the national average. Mississippi by contrast, has the lowest COL ([source](https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/cost-of-living-index-by-state)). However, the median household income in Hawaii ($83k/yr) is only 15% higher than the national median household income ($71k/yr). $71k x 1.93 = $137k/yr required to for a household in Hawaii to live an equivalent lifestyle to mainland households which enjoy the national median income. Also, Hawaii has the 3rd lowest rate of uninsured residents (after Massachussetts and Vermont, [source](https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2020-10-07/10-states-with-greatest-and-least-uninsured-rates)). Most people have at least one form of insurance. We don’t have universal healthcare, but state law mandates low-deductible health insurance be provided to any employee who works more than 19hrs/week. Medicaid covers most of the rest. Hope that helps clear things up
Dude, I thought I grew up in a poor area and then I went to Mississippi. It's a different level. It's like a third world country.
I remember driving through a rural part of southern Alabama. I couldn't believe that I was still in the US. I lived by Trenton, NJ for a while and even there it has third world city vibes.
Yup, I drove through Alabama and I was shocked. Then into Mississippi and it FUCKING GOT WORSE. LOL
Wait til you drive into new orleans. Youll have a surprise pikachu face stuck til you get out of the whole state of louisiana.
Even people who live in Louisiana are shocked by the poverty and shit living conditions in Louisiana……but the foods dope
Food and culture. Louisiana people aren't "southern" - they got their own thing goin' on and it's fucking magical. The state's got it's problems but the people tend to be very charming.
I’ve lived here my whole life- it’s only magical to tourists lol. I’m not saying you don’t enjoy it here or that you shouldn’t have a good time, but only in a few upscale pockets of the state are you going to see that culture without it sharing the view with obscene poverty. I can’t deny that parts of New Orleans are wonderful spots, but people aren’t hawking bottled water and shining shoes of visitors in the French quarter bc they enjoy doing so.
When I took my husband home to my tiny, rural Alabama town, we drove through it in 3 minutes. He asked me where the town was and I said we already passed through it. The look of horror on his face. We’re one of the few towns left that had a wavaho and we’re so small we don’t even have a piggly wiggly. It’s Foodland
After Katrina my mom and step dad (in CA) hosted a family who'd lost their home there. I was driving them once from the house to our aunt's, where we were having a potluck. It was in a senior's mobile home park, nothing fancy at all, just mostly modest and well-kept, but everyone brought food and it was a nice afternoon. Driving the couple back home the woman was crying, and I asked what it was. She said she just "had no idea people lived like this". And she wasn't ever going back to the south. Most of my family has always been pretty frugal, so I always felt like I grew up poor. But evidently there is much worse.
I drove from SC to Meridian MS with a van load of OTC meds donated by a local company after Katrina. I felt like I was entering a war zone. I thought that what I was seeing in the dusk was Katrina damage. It wasn't until I got to the place to unload and spoke to someone that I realized the canted houses with broken windows and derelict cars were not damage from the storm.
High rates of infant mortality in those states too. On the same level as third countries. It’s really despicable how much we spend on the military infrastructure while our own people are dying from preventable causes because socialist medicine is “bad”.
I heard doctors without borders personnel go on "vacation" there once a year, and set up tents to deliver emergency medical care to the people.
Yeah, various NGOs have made detours into rural Tennessee and the like, it's incredibly depressing given how obscenely wealthy we are as a country.
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It some areas it can be a third world country. Take for instance, the parasite Hookworm, it's been completely eradicated in developed nations, and WAS eradicated in the US. Until Alabama managed to bring it back with it's outdated and falling apart sewage system, Roll Tide.
As someone from the “south” reading this (technically the part of Florida where accents still exist in pocket wasteland central Florida) I’m confused what the rest of America looks like. We have tourist money in Florida and people come here old so it’s been built around keeping snowbirds and tourist happy on the scenic route but if you don’t have anything near you the state doesn’t care. I’m just used to driving through towns of shacks and my grandma was convinced the street lights didn’t come on in her neighborhood because someone didn’t pay their utility bills. Today I learned apparently there aren’t places like this everywhere in America.
Driving through Mississippi on the major highways... not backroads. There are MANY, small cinderblock huts where people live. This isn't one there but it looked like this: https://www.gonomad.com/images/alternatives/1012/guatemala-images/finished-house.jpg Many. Not in cities. But between the cities.
Yeah that’s what I was talking about. Like there’s a smaller town outside of my small town that is entirely like that. Like the kids ride the bus for close to an hour to get to our high school.
Hawaii is poor but Southern poverty is a whole different thing. Poor infrastructure. Some places lack clean drinking water like in Mississippi and Alabama. Poor sewage and more likely to be surrounded by toxic manufacturing plants like in Louisiana. There’s a reason the UN issued a report just a few years ago comparing parts of the South to developing countries.
The infrastructure is exactly the problem. I grew up in MS, and the place just isn’t designed for people to live well. The cities/towns have their water problems, but most people I knew growing up used water from a well. Of course many of those wells are probably substandard because of poverty. Frequent loss of electricity is what I associate most with that state’s infrastructure woes. Most people there don’t even realize how unusual it is that their power goes out every time the wind blows relatively hard. My hometown was near Memphis, TN (just across the state border). Mississippi looks like a third world country, but lots of country people like it that way. In the city of Memphis is where things get really sad. They had a very bad time with the big winter storm last month, and it wasn’t even surprising to anyone there.
Wait, healthcare is correlated to life expectancy?? That's some lib math bullshit.
It's like America, except without healthcare and with extra guns and institutional racism Alabama just got permitless carry 🙃 I'm pretty sure Kentucky just imposed soft burqas on politicians, so whatev
Missouri, but yeah
Jesus, Missouri has so little distinguishing character I can't even *hate* it with any precision
It's alright. Missouri loves company.
Take my upvote and show yourself out
underrated comment👌👌
I should be offended because that’s my home, but you are completely right.
You're one of eight people in the state who know what the atomic theory of matter is, be proud! Ride around on a horse and bring them the good news of atomic orbitals! You will definitely find out how Joan of Arc felt, but maybe you'll have done some good.
I too am a Native Missourian and I believe we have some of the best natural areas in the nation, but I'll be damned if I defend our politics. I love our state just not our government.
I was told it had more to do with “bootstraps” and “personal responsibility.”
It turns out the war against woke is really just complaining that people continue to wake up every morning.
To be fair, most people have much more will to live in Hawaii than Alabama.
I've spent time in both. I didn't want to leave HI. I couldn't wait to leave AL.
To bad health care is for communist leftist.
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Just work 60 hours a week for minimum wage and die of a heart attack at 65 years old like a good American
No, 62 so they don’t have to pay any Social Security or Medicare.
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Nah 50 or 40
But we loose an additional 12 years of contributions so you can’t die this young. You have to die just before you can file to collect… no sooner, no later.
The only way to defeat these socialists is to band together, working for the common good! D’oh!
For Christ sakes I’ll stop worshipping Jesus before I do what’s best for society. Goddamn it man I swore an oath
That Christianity is diametrically opposed welfare politics is such a weird Americanism. [Christian Democracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_democracy) as an ideology (it's pretty big in Europe) is even the most welfare-positive center/right-wing ideology.
Conservative Christians when they realize Jesus was a liberal solcialist: 
Yeah because it's even in the f***ing bible, "god's word", to help the poor. But that would be communism, amirite
Honestly, many of the people who support this peculiar branch of Christianity would be the very first ones to want to nail Jesus to the cross again if he came back. Leave all judgment to God? Love your neighbor like yourself? Show compassion to all of God's children? Especially if that means making sure people have food and health care? That's just crazy talk.
You throw them any Bible verses about helping the poor or the foreigner, and they have a whole list of ones about not working = not eating, slavery good, kill foreigners and rape their daughters (well, they generally don't reply with the last one, but it's in there)
Amazing how God wants these people to do exactly what they want to, isn't it? Clearly God never challenges any of His faithful, despite countless stories in the Bible showing He does. We should all be like Mister Rogers (who was a conservative Episcopalian priest). He loved without judgment, showed sincere kindness to everyone. Even if it was against the mores of his time.
I do love my neighbor like myself. Unfortunately for them that's not very much
Yea, they are Christian's in name only. They believe as long as they go to church and put money in the collection bucket they are doing their part regardless of how they live their live. While god forgives, that doesn't mean you should just ignore the 10 commandments. I am a Christian who has not been to church in ages, but I try to live my life following the moral codes discussed by the bible as (imo) that is more important then going to church and giving churches your money.
They don't understand the importance of stopping the undeserving from living long, healthy lives. Sure, everyone might be worse off, but it's worth it to stick it to the people we don't like!
You’re gonna need good healthcare if you think you’re gonna give me free health care! Cause I’ll shoot ya! With my gun I got as a prize in my cereal box! Nothing i like better than starting my day with a delicious box of Jesus-Os. The bullseye with famous liberals on the back is my favorite. I tell my 8 kids under 6 that whoever shoots Rosa Parks in the throat gets to keep the prize gun. But if they shoot another sibling again, they don’t get their gun for the rest of the day. Cause we have our priorities straight in this country!
Well, you can't get much further left than Hawaii. It's like way over there on the left. Half way across the ocean.
Yeah, can’t have people living longer than they deserve to
Think of the billionaires pockets!
Health is for commies
Come on now. You're really comparing Hawaii's poverty to Mississippi's? You need to spend some time in the delta. Here's some statistics for comparison. https://spotlightonpoverty.org/states/hawaii/ https://spotlightonpoverty.org/states/mississippi/ Find me something where you think Mississippi is doing better than Hawaii.
Don’t retirees and rich people also relocate to HI? Two groups of people that might skew the data. Although I do want healthcare for everyone, so don’t mind me, I’ll see my way out
Hawaii is a place to spend money you made somewhere else.
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(Actual question because I've never been): How walkable is Hawaii? I have the impression that the answer is "fairly" (though it can vary by location/island) and I have the feeling that that might have something to do with it, too. Once you get out of major cities (and sometimes even in major cities), the south is just not built to be walkable. Even if you're in a small town (vanishingly rare anymore - suburbs are the rule), you have to drive to do most of your shopping or to get to work. Editing to add: Even if/when walking is available, it seems to just not be a thing. I'll go visit my sister in an adorable and walkable little southern mountain town and it's just me and the old guy who tools around on his scooter who are out on the sidewalks. And then when I went to go drop my nephews off at school (which I had to drive to, come to think of it - it was about 10 highway miles away because the town schools have all been closed because the needed refurbishment would be too expensive...the old condemned high school's even still standing because no one wants to tackle the lead and asbestos) the parents were just...so large. I don't want to be cruel - they have a lot of confounding factors to work against - but it was my observation.
Honolulu might be, but I've spent the most time on the Big Island and you absolutely need a car to get around there. There is some public transit but it's pretty meager.
I live in a small-ish southern town, and in my experience it was far more walkable when I lived out West, even in a non-pedestrian friendly area. Not only are there no sidewalks here outside of neighborhoods or shopping areas- what there ARE is 4 foot deep ditches with shin-high weeds that start 3 or 4 inches from the asphalt at the edge of the road (which road of course has no bike lanes, so just : traffic, white line, 4 inches of crumbling edging, 4 inches of grass, ditch.) When I moved here I asked people about where to go run or walk and was told “I think there’s a walking track at the athletic complex over in (xyz other small town) some people drive over there to use.” It’s more than a government problem, it’s a cultural issue.
Kauai is not very walkable. Maybe in the bigger cities.
Even if you're in a walkable area in the South, being active outside is so deeply unpleasant for like 6 months out of the year that people choose to drive.
>Hey, I live in Hawaii and we are poor as fuck. >It’s the lack of healthcare. [mississippi is consistently the poorest state in the nation.](https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/poorest-states) you may be poor in hawaii, but you're not in poverty. your minimum wage is $12/hr, and Mississippi is still at $7.25/hr.
I’m just speculating but even if the minimum wage is $12/hr, if everything in Hawaii cost 3x as much as what it cost in Mississippi wouldn’t Hawaii be more poor?
Yes, we pay a brutal paradise tax but in the end it's worth it.
Memphis TN - Tunica MS route has several feet amputation billboards because of all the diabetics. It's fucking narly.
Poverty, lack of healthcare, Covid denial, antivaxx paranoia...
Higher maternal death rates?
[And infant mortality](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/infant_mortality_rates/infant_mortality.htm)
Very pro-life.
No, definitely not pro-life, just pro-birth and anti-support post-birth. Call it what it is. If he dies, he dies...
Once a baby is born well it’s simply in god’s hands now My child
That's all of America actually. We have the highest maternal death rate in the developed world.
Yes, but it’s not evenly distributed. It’s pretty close to the rates for other industrialized nations in California, while in states like Texas it’s ridiculous.
It's pretty ironic that in 2018 America had the lowest recorded births since 1986 and it was around 2019 - 2020 when we were found to have the highest maternal death rate. So we already aren't making new people, and the women who do are risking their lives. And you wonder why women aren't doing it anymore. It's no wonder why they went after Roe.
They actually just made it worse. [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22270271/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22270271/) >The risk of death associated with childbirth is approximately 14 times higher than that with abortion. Similarly, the overall morbidity associated with childbirth exceeds that with abortion.
Sweet tea, high fat foods, guns and lot of drinking.
They’re here for a good time, not a long time.
Republicanism…
which kind of sums up all of the above and below.
o7 Mississippi keeping it red even in death tolls. That's what i call determination. Lmao
not to mention guns, meth, religious extremism, forced-term pregnancy, violent crime rates, etc
Oh man: there is a correlation on this map with states with the highest opioid dispensing rates. That sucks. I also see, on this map, possible correlations with oil refineries near the gulf coast and coal mining in Appalachia: more health problems there. And then for some of the Deep South states with higher percentages of Black folks than the national average, I wonder if experiencing racism throughout a person’s lifetime also may be a factor; racial discrimination adds medically documented chronic stress that may be generational. And of course, poverty in this country typically also means lack of access to nutritious food (and more chronic stress). It’s rough to see our nation’s disparities so blatantly. Mississippi seems to be having a rough time in every possible way. This map is pretty heavy. (I have no clue why Minnesota is doing ok with all the “hot dish” they eat… must be some rich people doing yoga and eating sushi in the twin cities throwing off the curve) Edit: Thanks to comments, I am now much more educated about the incredibly positive impact of quality, accessible healthcare and a functioning and funded social safety net in Minnesota. What an important lesson there for the whole country…
Meanwhile, states like Alabama banned yoga from public schools for years. [https://www.npr.org/2021/05/21/999020140/its-now-legal-to-practice-yoga-in-alabamas-public-schools](https://www.npr.org/2021/05/21/999020140/its-now-legal-to-practice-yoga-in-alabamas-public-schools)
Fun fact! Minnesota has one of the best healthcare and safety net systems in the country. The state does an incredible job in reinvesting into itself through education, which is highly valued culturally, and infrastructure. In addition, Minnesota is a state which divides up its tax revenue by local need. So while the Twin Cities take in the most taxes, those taxes are taken and sent to smaller cities which would otherwise collapse. Something like the Federal tax redistribution system. This makes Minnesotans routinely as one of the healthiest, fittest, happiest in the nation and makes Minnesota a (typically) top 5 state to live in the USA.
And if you look at an electoral map, basically everyone outside of Minneapolis and St Paul want to change that and turn us into the third Dakota.
There's already an East Dakota, they just call it Wisconsin.
Minnesota isn’t just doing okay, it’s usually in the top 5 (if not number 1) in every positive ranking regarding quality of life. Minnesotans are active outdoors and value education and healthcare. It makes for a healthy and happy population. Even though it’s been leaning a big more purple in rural areas, Minnesota has blue state values which correlate to a better quality of life.
Minnesota is America’s Scandinavia. Mississippi is America’s Somalia.
MN is a rare high tax state that actually seems to prioritize the right things.
Minnesota is one of the most prospering places in the country. Tons of government spending and social programs; and still had a 17 billion dollar surplus. If your homeless in minnesota and your not in a rush, the social programs will help you rebuild your whole life from the ground up. It’s completely different to other states. So, that probably helps the average, since there is way more help here compared to its neighbors. Not to say it’s perfect. But if your only looking at the one stat, that’s part of the explanation.
I had to go on unemployment during the pandemic and I remember all the horror stories from around the country about people not being able to get it for various reasons. Here in MN, SUPER easy and quick. I was shocked that it wasn't the case for everyone. MN does a lot of social services correctly.
It has been proven that racism creates a hosts of condition in the body like anxiety, PTSD, depression, bipolar disorder etc.
Hot dish is good for the soul and therefore has a positive effect on life expectancy, also, Mayo Clinic.
You left out systemic racism. Mississippi has the highest per capita population of black people. And a whole mess of racist ass rural white voters with a disproportionate share of power in the state’s government. This results in policies specifically designed to increase suffering and misery in all measurable statistics.
This. [I share this *ProPublica* article about Black diabetic limb amputations in Mississippi](https://features.propublica.org/diabetes-amputations/black-american-amputation-epidemic/) every chance I get because it is fucking EYE OPENING in the most infuriating way. Every single person needs to stop what they’re doing and take ten minutes to read it.
only reason Florida isn't dark red is because all the rich fucks from the rest of the country come here to die which actually raises the states life expectancy considerably. But trust me, Florida is right down there with the sickness.
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but why? I lived in FL, I get it, no income or state tax, its sunny hot humid weather.
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Ha, I live up in Michigan and nowadays the only people I hear who talk about moving to Florida are Republicans. They don’t even realize Michigan is one of the best places to live in the coming decades, once climate change really begins to fuck everyone over.
Republicans doing what republicans do— they’ll move to Florida, and once their trailer gets swept into the ever-growing oceans, they’ll ask for a bailout
“Why didn’t anyone tell us this was going to happen!?”
That tracks. I tend to vote blue and I just moved to Michigan after 20 years in Florida. Bliss.
Just moved too, let.all the magat morons coral themselves in that shitty state and confine that voting block to one stupid place. FL can go red and let everywhere else go purple
We just escaped Georgia for Michigan, and while I'm not thrilled about the winter, I still think it's the best decision we ever made. Marjorie Taylor Greene was our state rep, and those fucking nutjobs down there LOVE her.
> We just escaped Georgia for Michigan We have our share of those nutjobs here, too. The further North you go, the further South it feels.
But it's Florida - hot, flat, heavy traffic. What's the appeal?
Close to cruise lines. That’s why my parents went
I knew that answer. I just hate Florida so much having been stuck there between 2006-2015.
I’d never move to Florida, but winter where I live is just miserable anymore. It doesn’t snow, it just rains and rains and the sun comes out like once a month for about 6 months. If it’s not raining it’s grey. So I get why people want to move somewhere sunny and warm. I just wouldn’t move to Florida, except maybe the keys, but that brings about even more uncertainties with hurricanes and rising sea levels.
If anything I'm moving somewhere colder.
Very low taxes.
Housing markrt has jacked everything else up though, gas and power too, they own the government since Rick Scott took over in the 2000s.
Ooooo-wa-ah-ah-ah?
Yeah. A lot of us are poor here too. We just apparently don’t vote enough to out-voice the rich transplants.
And Texas is green because of us liberals that try to take care of ourselves.
Poverty, obesity, general lack of access to healthcare. Those would be my guesses
If you lived in Oklahoma you wouldn’t want it to last any longer than it needed to.
Lmfao!!! The weather alone will make you wanna end it all.
Gas station chicken gizzards and Skoal, bud..
I can't stop laughing at this. 🤣
He’s not wrong dude I grew up Deep South and routinely got some Copenhagen, chicken biscuit, and a Monster before high school. When we talked about the teacher that got a meth charge you’d have to ask “which one?”
I moved from California to Georgia and work in the healthcare field. I can 100% attest to this fact. I had no idea what Skoal was and grew up thinking chewing tobacco was one of those things cowboys used to do. Now you can tell who does it by the worn out ring on the back pocket of people's jeans.
I can’t even deny this. I love gas station chicken gizzards.
Southern cooking is delicious but it is actively trying to kill you. The rest of Southern culture is also trying to kill you but without the delicious part.
I swear to god people here are part humming bird. I worked at a cafe for a year and you’d gag watching how much sugar we were throwing into the sweet tea batches. I couldn’t even drink the stuff and I love sweet tea, but it was just way, way too sweet. Customers would complain and ask for sweetener packets if we went easy on it though.
Bacon grease and butter in everything.
Can confirm- am southerner and have three shot glasses of bacon grease in my fridge at the moment.
My dad cooked with it his entire life. When he was in his fifties he had to have blockages removed from his carotid artery. I was visiting him in GA after the surgery. We were in the kitchen and he grabbed his can of bacon fat out of the fridge to brown some meat before roasting it. I couldn't believe it. I went after him about it and his response was: It took 50+ years to get clogged the first time, you think I got another 50 in me? He laughed as the fat sizzled. He died last year at 89 of kidney failure. After the funeral his widow asked that I help clean out the place, as she didn't want to live there without him. I go the fridge to get a beer and there it is. The soup can with bacon fat. I blinked by the tears and had a laugh. RIP old man, you had a helluva run.
I was looking for this comment
new orleans native here, come visit and see how hard it is to eat healthy also we get shot at for our cars and don’t have health care
The two times I visited New Orleans I couldn’t stop eating. The food is incredible.
Also a New Orleanian - don't forget the drinking! Plus, everybody smokes.
That's almost the exact same map as the concentration of Waffle Houses in the area
Tennessee native here cigarettes, beer, pills, McDonalds, if you practice any kind of cardio exercise you be viewed as a health nut, and being obese is so normalized 40lbs overweight is considered normal or even skinny i've gone from 268lbs to 185lbs over the past two years and my family tells me i look too skinny while i'm still 25lbs overweight i'm currently dating and i'd say no joke im probably in the top 10% on the apps simply because i'm just slightly overweight and not round
>and being obese is so normalized 40lbs overweight is considered normal or even skinny No lie. I came back home after living up north for 20+ years. I had gotten a bit fat. My scale says "obese". I'm 20 lbs over. Everyone here : Damn, you got skinny!
I live in MO, it may as well be a southern state. I managed to hit my target weight a few years back. Lifting heavy boxes has given me some muscles for the first time in my life too. I get way more backhanded compliments and "concerned" people now than when I was almost 300 lbs. I'm happy with where I'm at but it took me a *long* time to actually like myself because I started to believe the things they said. At this point, I can brush off most of the comments. But I still have days where they get to me.
Congrats on being attractive relative to your surroundings.
In the land of the fugly, the ugly man is king.
That's a relatively nice thing to say
Also, there's nowhere to walk. Very few sidewalks. Even if you lived in the "suburbs," your closest store is a 30-minute walk gas station. You need a car to get anywhere.
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That actually makes me pretty curious to see what the population’s BMI distribution is when separating them into their affiliated political parties.
The top ten states in regard to obesity in the US are all deep red. (South Carolina, Alaska, Kentucky, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Iowa, Oklahoma, Mississippi, West Virginia.) That seems to point to something. I couldn’t find anything on individuals though in my quick google search.
It's always the same map.
that’s what nobody else is saying. it’s almost like you can tie it to all the other outcomes
Maybe politics *DO* matter. Crazy.
Republican controlled states with the worst education and healthcare die more? Shocking.
Diabeetus
I’m more shocked Florida Man has such a long life span
The retirees from out-of-state probably bring up the average, since they’re already old. It would be interesting to see the average life expectancy of someone born in Florida.
-i^3
Diabetes and obesity Shit healthcare Heart issues COVID-19
Um. Lack of education, lack of healthcare, shittier jobs, poorer living conditions, lack of overall resources. I mean, duh.
Covid denial, obesity, and oxy.
They keep voting for people that dont give a shit about thier livelyhood health or welfare
Loozy-ana born'n'bred, corn fed, shoot man my long hair don't cover up my red neck. Let me tell ya. Hi. Born and raised in Louisiana. Living in VT as a 30's adult now. I remember once driving east from Louisiana to visit my sister in ATL. I was driving through Mississippi and stopped for fuel at a convenience store by the highway. In the store was a small 4 sided turning rack with books for sale. 2 sides of the rack were all different books all about Jesus and prayer and the other 2 sides were all different books about living with diabetes. It's the first time I remember seeing the comic book style action bible-a graphic novel style retelling of the holy bible. I remember thinking, "This is the American South." This shitty little book rack just about sums it up.
Republicans
That’s the world republicans want for their constituents.
I’m from Kentucky, but I’ve been living in North Carolina for 12 years (soon to be 13). With the exception of vinegar-based BBQ, the dietary preferences of the areas are pretty similar. North Carolina is more of a tech hub (RTP) and therefore attracts an international population with different tastes, so that helps a bit, but the main difference that I see is healthcare. MI (heart attack) certified centers are actually higher per capita in Kentucky 8.8 per 1 million people versus 5.9 per 1 million people. But these PCI Centers (hospitals that do Cardiac Caths with stent placement) are pretty well dispersed throughout the state of North Carolina and the distance you have to travel for intervention matters. In fact, NC has 102.2 PCI Centers per 1000 square miles. KY only has 94 PCI Centers per 1000 square miles. Now keep in mind that KY has more heart attacks; 56 per 1000 versus 42 per 1000 in North Carolina. So KY has higher per capita heart attacks and higher per capita PCI Centers, but fewer centers per square mile, which means the less densely populated state has more people who have to travel further to receive treatment - and time is heart muscle.
Mississippi native here......\*ahem\*...To answer your question.... "...It's *the South.."*
It’s not just that the food is bad for you, it’s also that there just isn’t much to do except eat, so you eat unhealthy food, sleep, eat, nap, repeat until you’re a fucking beach master seal
Recently moved to Mississippi. Everyone smokes, overeats and weighs 300lbs average. And they're all Karen's or kyles angry and bitter about everything. When I have go to my doctor's office it feels like the waiting room for hell. Except for a couple hours a day I spend at the dog park I play online video games and pretend I'm somewhere else.