States ranked from smartest to dumbest! It's official!

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I live in a dumb state. Do you?

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/package.jsp?name=fte/smartstates/smartstates

1-50, in descending order:

How does YOUR state rank?
Massachusetts
Connecticut
Vermont
New Jersey
Wisconsin
New York
Minnesota
Iowa
Pennsylvania
Montana

Maine
Virginia
Nebraska
New Hampshire
Kansas
Wyoming
Indiana
Maryland
North Dakota
Ohio

Colorado
South Dakota
Rhode Island
Illinois
North Carolina
Missouri
Delaware
Utah
Idaho
Washington

Michigan
South Carolina
Texas and West Virginia (tie)
Oregon
Arkansas
Kentucky
Georgia
Florida
Oklahoma

Tennessee
Hawaii
California
Alabama
Alaska
Louisiana
Mississippi
Arizona
Nevada
New Mexico

― adam. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 14:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Texas and West Virginia tied!

― adam. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 14:57 (twenty-one years ago)

The dumb states are all the cool exciting ones and the smart states are the boring ones (except NYC)????

― adam. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 14:58 (twenty-one years ago)

24th! Just barely smart!

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 14:59 (twenty-one years ago)

It's called mediocre!

― adam. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Number one!

― Velveteen Bingo (Chris V), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:01 (twenty-one years ago)

States received negative points for high drop-out rates and physical violence.
!!

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:01 (twenty-one years ago)

this seems about right to me.

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Seems an appropriate alternate way to weight the electoral college votes. Kerry by a landslide.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Well I'm going out west where I belong
Where the days are short and the nights are long

Where they walk and I'll walk They fish and I'll fish
They sin and I'll sin They fly and I'll fly
Where they're out there having fun in the warm California sun

Well, I'm going out west out on the coast
Where the California girls are really the most

Where they walk and I'll walk They fish and I'll fish
They sin and I'll sin They fly and I'll fly
Where they're out there having fun in the warm California sun

Well, the girls are frisky in old 'Frisco
A pretty little chick wherever you go

And they walk and I'll walk They fish and I'll fish
They sin and I'll sin They fly and I'll fly
Where they're out there having fun in the warm California sun

Where they're out there having fun in the warm California sun

― adam. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Cali in the last fifth?? I'm glad I'm out of that intellectual wasteland!

(Must be all the ~~immigrants~~ hippies.)

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:03 (twenty-one years ago)

immigrant hippies!!

― adam. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:04 (twenty-one years ago)

FORTY-FIRST HOLLA

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I like how the list goes from whitest to brownest.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I am brown on the inside.

― adam. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:06 (twenty-one years ago)

It's telling that the world's biggest entertainment industry is situated in the eighth dumbest state.

― Wooden (Wooden), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Bold = Blue states in 2000

Massachusetts
Connecticut
Vermont
New Jersey
Wisconsin
New York
Minnesota
Iowa
Pennsylvania
Montana

Maine
Virginia
Nebraska
New Hampshire
Kansas
Wyoming
Indiana
Maryland
North Dakota
Ohio

Colorado
South Dakota
Rhode Island
Illinois
North Carolina
Missouri
Delaware
Utah
Idaho
Washington

Michigan
South Carolina
Texas and West Virginia (tie)
Oregon
Arkansas
Kentucky
Georgia
Florida
Oklahoma

Tennessee
Hawaii
California
Alabama
Alaska
Louisiana
Mississippi
Arizona
Nevada
New Mexico

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:11 (twenty-one years ago)

In case you missed it, the NINE SMARTEST STATES all voted for Gore.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:12 (twenty-one years ago)

If you give 50pts to the top and 1pt to the bottom, the 2000 election actually only yields a 641-634 win for Gore (excluding DC).

You can tell I'm trying to avoid work right now.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Bush's base supporters are dumbasses: it's official!

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:13 (twenty-one years ago)

And the dumbest.
dual xpost

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:13 (twenty-one years ago)

No disgrace being No. 8, I guess, but coming in behind Minn-uh-soda? The dumb ones must've been out fishin' that day.

― briania (briania), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Don't try and argue with this list! It's an official list that I got from the internet!

― adam. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmm, so what does the fact that five of the top nine are too close to call this time round and Kerry has designs on two of the three stupidest?

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:16 (twenty-one years ago)

virginia ain't that smart

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I really don't believe that Indiana is the 17th smartest state either.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Taking sides: paper smarts vs. life-smarts.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:19 (twenty-one years ago)

taking sides : paper smarts vs. scissor smarts vs. stone smarts

― adam. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Stupid dumb Nevadans taking all the money from us smart-state people!

― briania (briania), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:22 (twenty-one years ago)

whoooo i'm number 6 with a bullet!

i'm not sure how i feel about them calling new mexico the "dumbest" -- a lot of native american kids leave the mainstream system to go to reservation schools.

― Cynthia Nixon Now More Than Ever (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:22 (twenty-one years ago)

The geographical spread intrigues me most, seems the west and south stack up poorly, which kind of jibes with my (admittedly well-worn)observation:
everyone I've met from the east seems conditioned to be a quicker thinker(not better thinker, necessarily), on average than native Californians, they're definitely more energetic and...agitated I guess you could call it. Even Los Angeles is an "urban center" in name only, as its spaces, from suburb to ghetto, are still relatively "wide open" and I don't think it it breeds the kind of restless mental processes most other cities(and climates) would. Extrapolate that to even sleepier stretches of the southwest and southeast and it might explain at least a few percentage points difference between the brightest and the dimmest. That's my story and I'm...

― tremendoid, Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Everyone Californian ILXer I have met (besides me) has been dumb as shit!

― adam. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha! That might have been funny if I didn't fuck it up! But I R dumb!

― adam. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Hahahaha! DAWP! How many times does Dumb go into forty-seven?

http://www.geocities.com/donmartinweb/images/Mad_images/stupid_years2.jpg

― William Crump (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)

cf. The 2004 results of "Americas Most Literate Cities" are in

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:40 (twenty-one years ago)

So...I live in a dumb state but a highly literate city? I M confused.

― adam. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:42 (twenty-one years ago)

They read a lot, but only the Weekly World News and the horoscopes.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh the humanity.

― Leon Czolgosz in NYC (Nicole), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:50 (twenty-one years ago)

oh and Ayn Rand novels.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I knew my state was dumb...but I didn't know it was that dumb. Jebus.

― Leon Czolgosz in NYC (Nicole), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Everyone Californian ILXer I have met (besides me) has been dumb as shit!

When did you first meet you, adam?

― Michael White (Hereward), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 16:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I was first educated in the dumbest state in the union! Go me!

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 17:43 (twenty-one years ago)

When did you first meet you, adam?

When I was a baby, Michael! I'd call you out for that but you're a native Californian...

― adam. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 17:49 (twenty-one years ago)

That list was probly writen by some high-falutin percy-pants east coast yankee... but he shore don't know a thing about finding gold! Why, I can pull a nugget out of the sloocebox while hog-tying a lily-livered yankee with my one good tooth!

― andy, Tuesday, 19 October 2004 17:50 (twenty-one years ago)

adam, I was dropped on my head a great deal as a child. My parents told the authorities they were trying to test the applicability of the phrase 'bouncing baby boy'. California had nothing to do with it.

― Michael White (Hereward), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 17:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Minnesotans look at chart, breathe sigh of relief to be cleverer than Iowans: OFFICIAL. Then wonder how on Earth they were pipped by Wisconsin.

― suzy (suzy), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 17:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha, my point above seemed needlessly glib, but really what I was trying to say was that I'm suspicious of these metrics, especially when some of the "dumbest" states seem to be in areas that seem to have large Spanish-speaking communities or in the case of Alaska, Inuit/indigenous population....what are the metrics being used, and do they reward people who have English as a main language? And what sort of cultural assumptions are there?

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 18:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Ain't no way in hell we Illinoisans are dumber than Hoosiers!

― k3rry (dymaxia), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 18:15 (twenty-one years ago)

The first assessment noted in the tiny tag at the top of the list is "per-pupil expenditures," which means this list operates in part on the priciple that high property taxes are very clever.

New Mexicans are naturally bright because of the flouride in the milk. We don't need money for schools.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 18:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Wait. There's a New Mexico!!??

― Michael White (Hereward), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 18:20 (twenty-one years ago)

KENTUCKY 37! IN YOUR FACE GEORGIA! U! S! A! U! S! A!

― Dale Panopticalis (cprek), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 18:32 (twenty-one years ago)

sweet. number one.

― AaronK (AaronK), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 18:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Jersey REPRAZENT

― mcd (mcd), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

You all did note that this study assesses the quality of each state's public schools, which does not necessarily correlate with the intelligence of the average resident? Extreme case: DC's public schools are lousy, but people who were educated elsewhere and have moved to the Washington area boost the average intelligence.

― j.lu (j.lu), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 18:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Okay, while I like Minnesota's placing, THERE IS NO WAY THAT WISCONSIN IS SMARTER.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 20:04 (twenty-one years ago)

i think the fact that texas does as well as it does, considering the slant against immigration heavy states, is pretty impressive. go texas!

― ryan (ryan), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 20:10 (twenty-one years ago)

You know how Bush felt about education, Ryan!

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 20:16 (twenty-one years ago)

no immigrant left behind!

― ryan (ryan), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 20:30 (twenty-one years ago)

midwestern rivalries are so cute

― paranoia is the hipster's disease (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 20:57 (twenty-one years ago)

how is illinois behind iowa and indiana?? i guess we have east saint louis, kankakee, and peoria though.

― phil-two (phil-two), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 21:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Now do it by counties. Here in delaware we have three counties: the not dumb one and the two "slower lower" ones, and clearly they are bringing down the whole state. But New Jersey at number 4? (Oh, I guess they have Princeton)

― A Nairn (moretap), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 21:15 (twenty-one years ago)

but seriously, indiana is a vast wasteland. not a single redeeming factor in the entire state.

and they have gary

― todd swiss (eliti), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 21:15 (twenty-one years ago)

COME HERE AND SAY THAT
http://www.skateboardvillage.com/members/Members/925/Mugshot/fightin_irish.jpg

― adam. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 21:16 (twenty-one years ago)

wow, south carolina comes off a bit better than i thought it would.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 22:14 (twenty-one years ago)

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