Listicles are a dime a dozen. They’re a quick, easy content option that can also provide clickbait headlines, which is why you see them on websites all the time. I remember a time here at PJ Media years ago under different leadership when we wrote an insane amount of listicle content.
One popular form of the listicle is those lists of great or bad places to live. All you have to do is determine your criteria and rank states in a way that proves your point. A search for “best states” or “worst states” will give you plenty of options.
And then there’s CNBC. The network released its list of the “10 worst states to live in for 2026” on Saturday, and you’ll notice a pattern:
10 worst states to live in for 2026, per CNBC:
— Leading Report (@LeadingReport) July 12, 2026
1. Tennessee
2. Texas
3. Indiana
4. Louisiana
5. Georgia
6. Utah
7. Missouri
8. Alabama
9. Oklahoma
10.Arkansas
See it? Yep, they’re all red states. Many of them regularly show up on the lists of the best states in which to do business. The list of “key points” atop the listicle gives the game away:
- Crime rates, air quality, healthcare access, worker protections, and civil rights laws are among factors that can hurt a state in quality of life rankings.
- With more states touting their quality of life when trying to attract business, CNBC is giving it more weight in the 2026 America’s Top States for Business rankings.
- Based on the data, quality of life in some states does not make the grade.
In other words:
Reasons states wind up on this list (not exaggerating)
— Bennett's Phylactery (@extradeadjcb) July 12, 2026
1. Not enough abortions
2. Not gay enough
3. "food insecurity"
4. Not enough HR rules
5. Not enough gun laws
6. Not enough therapists
7. Not enough working moms
8. Not enough affirmative action https://t.co/b1AGjDCh12
Other than crime rates, which most often occur in red-state cities, which are the bluest areas of said states, the criteria for “quality of life” that CNBC uses are woke as a joke. Environmentalism, free healthcare, unions, and prioritizing the rainbow are what CNBC looked at.
Related: The Left Warned World Cup Tourists About the South. Then One German Fell in Love With It.
Here are some samples from the report. From the intro:
To score the states for quality of life, we use hard data on factors like crime rates, air quality, and healthcare. We also consider the cost and availability of childcare, inclusiveness of state laws, and reproductive rights. Some states offer exemplary quality of life. But these ten states do not make the grade.
“Oklahoma imposes one of America’s strictest bans on abortion, even though studies, including one by the National Bureau of Economic Research last year, found abortion bans increase net migration outflows, particularly among single adults,” CNBC writes about the state ranked ninth. “The Sooner State ranked 40th for worker protections last year, according to Oxfam America, which said that the state’s $7.25 minimum wage covers only about 19% of the cost of living for a family of four, and noted that state law prohibits municipalities from setting their minimum wages any higher.”
“Workers lack other basic protections including mandatory paid sick leave and protections against sexual harassment,” CNBC writes of the eighth-ranked state that calls itself the Heart of Dixie. “Alabama is one of five states with no public accommodation law protecting non-disabled people against discrimination, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.”
I have to show you the whole blurb for my home state of Georgia. The wokesters gave us a grade of F, so be proud, Georgians!
Georgia offers few protections for LGBTQ+ people, making it one of America’s least inclusive states.
“Georgia still remains a state where there is no place for hate, and I can assure all Georgians of that today,” Republican Gov. Brian Kemp said in April, when he signed a bill aimed at protecting religious freedom.
But critics feared the law could be used to permit other types of discrimination, especially because Georgia is another of the five states with no public accommodation law protecting non-disabled people.
The Peach State offers minimal worker protections, particularly when it comes to the right to organize.
Side note: If you’re wanting to move from a blue state to the Peach State, don’t. We full.
Who’s number one in the woke CNBC’s ideological penalty box? The Volunteer State. Tennessee dares to offer counterprogramming to Pride Month (GASP)!
Tennessee Republicans, led by Gov. Bill Lee, make no apologies for a rash of state laws targeting the LGBTQ+ community, including a so-called “bathroom law” requiring transgender people to use the facilities designated for their sex at birth. The state also explicitly bars localities from adopting their own antidiscrimination ordinances. To underscore the point, Lee signed a resolution earlier this year designating June “Nuclear Family Month.”
“The nuclear family, consisting of one husband, one wife, and any biological, adopted, or fostered children, is God’s design for familial structure and has been the bedrock of society since the creation of the world,” the resolution states.
Its sponsors deliberately timed the observance to coincide with the month when Tennessee’s more than 300,000 LGBTQ+ people celebrate Pride.
How dare they?
These are the same states where Europeans traveling for the World Cup experienced welcoming people, kind manners, irresistible food, and vibrant local culture. These are states whose economies are thriving, whose populations are enjoying their lives, and where people are free to practice their faith and lead their families.
CNBC can clutch its pearls, wad its panties, and head for the fainting couch all it wants, but these ten states are succeeding without giving in to the woke mob. If that’s not quality of life, I don’t know what is. And CNBC obviously doesn’t know.
The left loves to sneer at the South and other red states, but real life has a funny way of wrecking its favorite narratives. That’s what PJ Media is here for: cutting through the stereotypes, the media spin, and the coastal condescension with stories that tell the truth.
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