Have you ever wanted to know the answer to some of the biggest, most pressing questions about the United States of America? Questions like, “Why does Idaho grow potatoes?” or “Why does South Carolina have so many dams?” I know I lie awake at night for hours in bed wondering “Why does New Mexico hate Texas?”
Looks like I am not the only one.
At Mental Floss, they decided to take a look at what kind of autocomplete Google would give when they asked, “Why does (fill in a state),” to see what it was people asked about for each state in the union.
The results range from “that’s a legitimate question” to “uh, do you really need that explained” to “oh that’s just mean.”
I mean, “Why does Illinois have earthquakes?” is an interesting topic to explore, but “Why does California have the most seats in the House?” isn’t exactly a brain buster.
Some of these are questions I’m absolutely going to look into myself. I’ve never been to the great state of Wyoming, so I didn’t even know they had red roads, but now I need to know everything about them. Also, that silent “c” in Connecticut never bothered me before, but it’ll be the only thing I can think about now.
Some searches are just plain insulting. “Why does Florida suck?” and “Why does Nebraska smell?” seem like loaded questions. How bad can Nebraska smell anyway? Isn’t it all just corn?
However, those aren’t even the worst. Apparently people don’t understand why the poor citizens of North Dakota, Delaware, Rhode Island, and West Virginia even exist.
These queries show a lot about the perceptions of each state, but also reflect what is on our mind during an election. It will be interesting to see how these change next year.
Which do you think of the result for your state? Tell us below.
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Image: Mental Floss
