lurkyloos
22442
641
17
Edit: sources.
People, do your own research.
Add “-AI” to your searches.
Doing the research will show one that sources vary on specific rankings.
Apply some critical thinking.
https://okpolicy.org/kids-count-2024/
https://westvirginiawatch.com/2025/06/12/new-report-wv-education-outcomes-still-nearly-last-in-country-fewer-kids-attending-preschool/
https://www.wvstep.org/quality-of-life
GratuaCuun
Reality often has a left wing bias
StellarJay77
It's almost as if working together and cooperating allows people to achieve much greater things and is a much more solid long term strategy.
Emjayen
To a degree. It's more the fact that the entire foundation of right-wing ideology and its derived ideas is just so wrong as to be utterly laughable. Relgion? Wrong about literally everything. Ideas of natural law? Fanciful nonsense. Tradition? Literally just a fallacy. Natural hierarchies? Do not exist.
kraeftig
Right wing is basically the section of "i made a decision about stuff without referencing any data and you cant change my mind about it"
ahorseelbowdeepinme
"This proves that schools are leftist indoctriniation mills and anyone who isnt in poverty is rich so this also proves the democrats are the party of wealthy elites!"
-person with the worst take ever
TheLiteraryMachine
You forgot that those snooty Massachusetts people are so elitist! They think they're sooo much better with their college educations. smh
NightOwlRally
They all believe if the minimum wage goes up, prices will also go up.
...THEY'VE BEEN GOING UP THIS WHOLE FUCKIN TIME.
sfrinlan
They're convinced that as bad as things are for them, there are people that have it worse, and by keeping _those_ people down, they're lifting themselves up a bit.
CaldariBob
That's, like, out of 100 tho, right?
TheLastCircusBunny
Yes, just like the number of stars on the American flag!
And did you know that the toothbrush was invented in West Virginia?
lurkyloos
That’s why it’s not called a teethbrush.
TheLastCircusBunny
Was hoping that someone would recognize and complete the joke!
lurkyloos
Ive got half WVa blood. Bad teeth it’s a curse of the coal mining. Other half is Australian- double curse.
sascottsn
So, when a maga looks at this they are going to say “I don’t see the difference, none of those things are important to me.”
tekcor
Well literally yes. I've been fighting in my small town's budget situation and reason why the town's seniors want to cut about a million from the school is "my kids are all grown, why should I pay for the school."
sascottsn
If you are able too, you should move. Places like that are destined to die out.
I mean, that’s the same fucking argument as “why should we pay for healthcare when we never get sick”
tekcor
The obvious counter on the local scale is "why should I pay for roads I don't drive on?" Why should I pay for the community garden or the senior center I don't use? Why should I pay for the 4th of July parade and tree lighting ceremony we don't actually need?
It's such an incredibly boneheaded, antisocial take.
sascottsn
Something something… Jed Bartlett, The West Wing, Eskimo Poetry…
I think this pretty neatly sums it up.
https://youtu.be/c0Z-mOOLXQY?is=sCinI2S5w_9GveqN
tekcor
There is always some boomer standing in the way of progress.
SeasonedCitizen
The red state people are convinced that they are actually the smartest and have the best quality of life. The rest of that stuff is woke, or something.
BrusselSpout
Those red states purposely do not prioritize those blue state goals. Their whole purpose is to have ignorant superstitious followers
Thojira
exactly why education is such a bit factor and needs to be protected at all cost, because idiots get coned over and over again
RaxianTheta
I feel like west Virginia was drawn by a child with A-D-D. Dad: okay, make a straight line. good, and another ...good, and one going down...excellent and now....oh god what have you done!!!?
Mathman85
The funny (and in two cases, frustrating) part is that all three blame Democrats for their current situation.
1245restatemyassumptions
Conclusion: Education & healthcare make you gay and need to be banned.
Forosnai
I think a big problem a lot of Americans are missing when they talk about "blue" and "red" states is that NONE of them are truly that unanimous. Vermont was the "bluest" state in the last election, and 1/3 of the votes still went to Trump. Every single other state was redder than that. California, by virtue of sheer population, has more Trump-voting Republicans than Texas.
The call is coming from inside the house, there's a deep, deep rot that needs to be addressed, not just Trump himself.
PhloydPhan
Yeah, but West Virginia is 1st in the US in Mothman sightings. That's worth something.
Evi1Gav
Well it is almost heaven, so, you know, full of idiots.
Nandortherelentless
https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1c3p2amVuZTc5amJrYmJ1OXBkajE5N3JieXNrejY4MGdpYmE5ZmxyZiZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/jdivy0MdwKnOPnlM1v/200w.webp
Ooti
VindictiveBathToaster
And country roads that take you home.
mothmam
Oh yeah
n0gal
Meth. It's the meth.
AntaNce
Mothman of Imgur (courtesy patricbates) Is pleased.
ActionJohnnie
Malak224
Oblivion music really sold me. I go to the lamp.
Nightcaste
Not a presidency. Maybe a hot lead injection.
futhor
That's worth everything, to me
PocketCleric
TIL, mothman is educated enough not to bring down the average
KarenFromTheHOA
West Virginia is sad because it seceded from the rest of Virginia so it could leave the confederacy and rejoin the union. Sucks to see it end up like this.
silversean
Not only that WV used to be a democratic stronghold, JFK announced his run for Presidency in WV and WV was the start of the U.S. Labor Movement with the Battle of Blair Mountain. Now, it’s this…
KarenFromTheHOA
Come on, WV, you used to be cool
silversean
Best (?) Virginia.
Kilo11
Atleast $3:50
BeaverOnFire
lurkyloos
It’s that god damn Loch Ness Monster again!
Kilo11
She's not a monster she's a gentle giant that has never hurt a soul
adverselypossessed
That’s Nessie not the moth-man. Geez! Where’d you get your education? Oklahoma or West Virginia? /s
witheredspoon
I had a coworker from Alabama who used to say the motto of Alabama was "Thank god for Mississippi" so they wouldn't be dead last in everything
Huor
Funny thing is, the red-staters don't take those numbers as insults.
Isorikk
I like the messaging but I do feel like there's a little bit of causation not equalling correlation here. I'm in Arizona and we were a swing state the last two elections, and also ranked 51st on education out of 50 states because they count D.C. lol
zHurk777
Former Senator markwayne mullen R-OK regarding his state's education ranking: "Where was we ranked in 1979?" .... where was we, Geezuz Kriste.
Akurei00
Trump "loves the poorly educated" and knows that "smart people don't like [him]."
stoic000
Don't like it. Why does WV test score rating break the pattern of the prior 2, why is it a range all of a sudden. Who made this? Can I have a source where this is from?
lurkyloos
I made it. I updated an incorrect meme.
Added sources and edited the post.
People should take time to research themselves.
Add “-AI” to your searches.
stoic000
The sources were secondary, whether 3rd or 5th from the bottom the sentiment remains the same. The inconsistent formatting of the data spoke to a hasty or inattentive ingestion of the source data, which can sometimes lead to accurate information gaining undo skepticism.
https://www.eonesolutions.com/blog/best-practices-data-reporting/
IGotMyDreamJobProgrammingGames
God I hate republicans. Just such a stupid fucking cult
Perfzilla
Antrobus55
Why are Oklahoma and West Virginia like that, do you suppose? What could help explain this?
Fynndango
This isn't surprising. Well educated population votes overwhelming liberal, almost every time.
dingybasement350
I'm from Massachusetts, and let me tell you, if the best education and least homelessness are here then the rest of the country must be fucking dire.
Evenmoreuselessname
Correct
J1m8ob
Oklahoma here. My stupid state just had the opportunity to raise our minimum wage from $7.25 an hour. 53% of the state voted no.
SomeFukinWizard
Man, I thought Payne County was WAY more blue. I used to say it was a blue dot in a red sea - I guess things change quick once you get out of town limits.
lurkyloos
Mind boggling
LateNightBunnyParty
Fuuuuuuuuuck this state so hard. I did my part. I really did. I even convinced my (liberal, if not leftist) parents to get out and vote TWO HOURS AFTER DAD HAD EYE SURGERY.
Draygen
My daughter graduated culinary school and passed on an opportunity to be a sous chef at a college sports stadium so she could move to Oklahoma and work at a golf course making snacks for the old assholes there. FML...
scottcanoni
Wait, the people voted for this? This sounds more like a Senate vote that is disconnected from its citizens.
J1m8ob
I believe that it's only the federal level minimum wage that Senate would have to be involved in. State level is left to the people. And the people drank the Kool-Aid deciding that shooting themselves and future generations in the foot was a good idea.
jankyupeblik
Actually it was 53% (well, 55%?) not of the state but of eligible voters who actually could be bothered or managed to vote. Apparently only 26% of eligible voters voted, & eligible voters make up about 58% of the total population of the state. So only what, 8.4% of the total population voted no, or 11.6% of the population of eligible voters. Given that most of the population (in the USA & OK) live in urban areas, 55% of voters for no still likely reflects considerable voter disenfranchisement.
frissonfriction
Thank you! I appreciate when someone does the work to show voter turnout and how the non-voter is the undisputed champion. I wonder how hard it is for low wage workers to vote there. Washington state has statewide mail in voting and our turnout is better, but still can't crack 40% on non presidential voting years.
DrDoorman
But also, only like 25% of registered voters voted, so an 1/8th of the state against and 75% didnt bother
jankyupeblik
Or were disenfranchised.
JakeWren
...*why?*
dracklen
They’ve run successful propaganda that raising minimum wage is bad for people making just over minimum wage. Stuff like: Make $15 an hour? If everyone starts making $12 then everything becomes more expensive and you effectively make less.
It’s bs, but propaganda works. Particularly well on people who are downtrodden :(.
StellarJay77
Because of the education being so poor. Most of the people the raise would help aren't paying attention and only the wealthy business owners vote and they don't want to have to pay their employees more than they already do.
Hoiloidl
"only the wealthy business owners vote" - Just like the Founding Fathers intented!
dingybasement350
Education is the cornerstone of a functioning society and also the first things conservatives like to demolish for that very reason. Keep people dumb and poor and they're much easier to manipulate.
koalamonster
In addition to what the other person said they have some people really convinced raising minimum wage would ruin the economy. Paying people more won't ruin the country, the billionaire people do that. And still inflation.
resworn
BUT MCDONALD'S WILL COST $25
davebarton315101
It will anyway.
lightfoot2
Well, the world needs ditch diggers.
MrNardtastic
Agreed. However, as someone who has in fact been paid to dig dig ditches, let me tell ya, 7.25 an hour to dig a ditch is bullshit. The cheapest Ive ever been paid to do it was 10 an hour and that was 22 yrs ago as a new hire with no exp. Min wage these days is a joke. Aint nobody living on that.
lightfoot2
*nod* And to be honest I have the highest respect for ditch diggers, I tried to dig out a pad for a shed and dropped with a blown back within an hour. Hired two guys for a couple of hundred to do that and lay the ground cover and treated wood timbers and they just... did it... I watched in awe, learned a lot, and it was the best money I ever spent.
2Soon4Baboon
Those are expensive actually
nevergettingoutalive
Not in Oklahoma.
chewmaca2
Not if they are minors, like the right wants.
dingybasement350
When doesn't the right want minors?
Dasnekones
The problem with arguments like this is that if you can easily spin it. "The rich elite in the top states votes against the best interest of the rest of the country and the people most struggling are voting for those who are trying to help"
Something1Said
I think the reason that spin doesn't work is that the blue states follow the democratic party line internally, and red states follow the republican party line internally, and this is the result of internal governance. The red states education policy has nothing to do with what the democrats are doing, so they can't blame us for their failure.
Dasnekones
That conclusion only makes sense if you already assign blame to the GOP for their actions. If you think their states problems are caused by Democrats then it is a logically consistent belief. And that is exactly how they think.
Putting it another way, imagine if the 1% lived in a gated community with the best healthcare, education and jobs where as the poor lived in a slum. The 1% would naturally stand out and vote for politicians that maintains this while the poor would vote for change.
Something1Said
Whole states aren't the 1%, though. These aren't gated communities. This is whole states.
Dasnekones
And you dont think they view themselves as the underdog? The rednecks for example, they understand that other states has it better and thus it is not a big leap to think that there is unequal treatment.
It is hardly a secret that Republicans thinks that a lot of Democrats get stuff like government assistance and other kinds of handouts while THEY are pushed to the side and discriminated against. And the visible corruption in politics definitely supports such conspiracy nut thinking.
Something1Said
The republicans are often in power in the exact same way the democrats are, and yet republican presidents don't somehow cause the blue states education standards to fall below that of the red states. I understand that people do hold contradictory ideas in their head, I understand that it is possible for anyone to believe anything no matter how ridiculous, but man this is an intense conspiracy theory for so many people to hold.
Falthran
I don't really buy that, personally. And I grew up in West Virginia.
Saw at an early age how much the republicans were all about stuffing their pockets and refusing to change or adapt, at the expense of the general public.
One of our family friends was a coal miner, and saw first hand, several times, that those in the gov't constantly cut safety measures for increased profits for themselves.
Dasnekones
Sure, the issue was never that people did not see the corruption. The issue is that they are really bad at putting the blame at those who are actually responsible. For example when they voted in Trump, a nepo baby who is notorious for corruption, crime and lying, to "clean up" the corruption in politics.
The existence of corruption is simply ammunition for them to attack the other side and reinforce their own beliefs.
fubizdaddie
So what you're saying is that the problem with arguments which are valid and work for logical people is that the illogical people will do illogical things with them. Excellent analysis.
Dasnekones
Both interpretations are equally logical. The only way you could make an informed decision between the two is with outside context, which both sides disagree upon and makes it a bad example.
lurkyloos
Or you can spin it to “the poors just watch local news and have no clue that their votes are keeping them down”.
Idk, I was raised in a poor household. My bio parents are MAGA Christian Identity asshoes.
CallMeCourierSix
"people most struggling are voting for those who are trying to help"
They're voting for the GOP. The GOP doesn't help. Their entire platform is "I want to get rich, and being cruel is fun."
Shut the fuck up you MAGAt.
Dasnekones
Work on your reading comprehension. I am left wing. The fact that you so readily jumped to that conclusion however demonstrates how correct i am though.
CallMeCourierSix
You said the words. YOU. SAID. THE. WORDS.
"The people most struggling are voting for those who are trying to help."
THEY ARE NOT. The ones struggling most are GOP voters, living in GOP-controlled states, with higher death rates, shittier education, and fucked up standards of living. THEY ARE VOTING FOR THE PEOPLE WHO ARE KILLING THEM.