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That’s right: New Jersey – which once claimed the top spot in a survey of states least likely to give to charity – is Number 1 again.
This time it’s in a survey that named it America’s most hated state.
The methodology used by BestLife magazine included an independent poll of 320,000 Instagram followers nationwide by of illustrator and amateur researcher Matt Shirley.
Sure enough, those driving the “Hatred Index” against New Jersey most were folks from New York Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Delaware.
Also influencing the results were the percentage of the population that has recently moved out of each particular state – in essence, voting with their feet.
BestLife also threw in the results of a Gallup Poll that determined that only 28% of New Jerseyans have state pride.
“These results were compiled into an algorithm that produced the final score of our Hatred Index, wherein the higher the number, the more hated that state is,” the resulting story says.
Any true Garden Stater knows that it’s a thin line between love and hate. So it’s no surprise that few New Jerseyans care much about the magazine survey.
Maybe it's because we're used to being treated the way we treat Seaside Heights. We’ve heard plenty of “what exit?” cracks, Jimmy Hoffa jokes and “Jersey Shore” references to last a lifetime of "Sopranos" reruns.
A campaign for a new state slogan decades ago culled such suggestions as: “One State, Under Indictment," "New Jersey: The 'Sue Me' State," and "I Got Your Slogan Right Here.”
Maybe haters wanna hate because New Jersey invented the malls, the jughandle and those hand gestures that tell the nitwit on the cellphone next to you to stay in his lane.
And maybe New Jerseyans see no reason to push back, especially since, in the Garden State, two wrongs don’t make a right – but three rights make a left.
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