I think the point is they frequently vote against their own interests. For just one example, one need only look at the Kansas experiment to see what unchecked conservative tax policy can do to a state.

It was not an attempt to spread a meme or feel a sense of superiority.

My comment was an observation of a cultural difference that is not even really confined to the south. It’s more about rural and urban differences. I can only speak about the south because it is what I have experienced.

A culture that is at its root regressive, anti-science and anti-intellectual should not be surprised when it does not succeed in a modern world.