Why Is Nevada So ‘Hot’ and ‘Dangerous’?

I’m not one of those people who thinks that Americans are too homogeneous. If you pay attention, differences are pretty noticeable, actually. Just because there’s a McDonald’s in every town doesn’t mean that the people inside them are all the same. The folks in the Canton, Ohio McDonald’s definitely have a different flavor than the people inside a Santa Fe McDonald’s. Believe me, I’ve checked.

So, I always get a kick out of stereotypes about states. Indeed, in the past I’ve engaged in some stereotyping myself, pointing out, for example, that the Ron Paul movement tends to get less traction in Southern states (based on a 2008 analysis of political donations) and that Southerners also tend to rely more on tax funds than others, being that Southern states (excluding Texas) are mostly net tax receiver states with a huge dependence on military and agricultural subsidies. Then there’s this comment by Ralph Raico. I’m sure I’ve said nasty things about Northerners too. Somewhere.

Here’s a great graphic in which someone went in and compiled a list of state stereotypes using Google autocomplete. Whatever words came up in questions about that state are compiled according to the state in question.

For example, Ohio, Idaho, Indiana, and North Dakota (among others) are “boring” while only four states are “awesome”: Colorado (as expected), Minnesota, Texas, and Vermont.

California, Massachusetts, and New Mexico are “liberal.” Arizona and Texas and Utah are “conservative.” Kentucky is “good at basketball” and Nebraska is “important to the big 12.”

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2:15 pm on August 15, 2012