Here are a couple articles I've found about MS and NE:

1. https://mississippitoday.org/2016/07/13/mississippi-brain-dr...

2. https://www.omaha.com/news/education/higher-education/nebras...

College-educated workers want and need to live in more urban areas that have employers in future-forward industries. From a cultural aspect, I think these people also want to live in municipalities (up to state government) that are run by people that share their values. Among the educated, these values are increasingly progressive.

I can't speak for the rest of the state, but I can tell you for certain that northern Mississippi (and at least some parts just south of it) has generally been booming. In fact, the "Gold Rush" may have slowed down quite a bit by now, but for a while there it was hard to keep people from surrounding states from pulling up stakes and moving there, for various reasons. Wages are somewhat lower, true, but then so is the cost of living. And if you pick the right location, you can be within easy driving distance of a "more urban area" while still living "out in the country", if you want to.

His own smug sense of superiority should suffice.

I guess if you insult one commenter you get downvotes, but if you insult half of the population no one bats an eye?

HN is a special place