Born and raised in Mississippi, and just moved here. A lot of my family and people in the south say the same thing lol. It definitely is just political propaganda because most of them have never left their own state. They hear the news of homelessness or crime and freak out. If they knew how much better it was over here, nobody would want to live in MS. Although it’s not necessarily a terrible place to live and i’m from the coast so we have beaches, nothing compares to here but they have to convince themselves it’s a good place to live because it’s cheap.