Opinion of South Dakota

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

In October, it's definitely a Freedom State for not having a holiday celebrating one of the most brutal mass murderers of all time.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

ND was the start of the Non Partisan League, which is pretty much the closest thing America has had to a mass appeal anti-elite agrarian socialist movement.

It survives in the repealed death penalty (California still has one), the nationalised bank and grain elevator, the ban on corporate farming etc.

Sorry, I just have a lot of love for the state of North Dakota. I still love California! (Well, more NorCal that SoCal; I don't think humans should live in deserts, it's against nature)

Take it from someone who actually lived there, it sounds a lot better on paper with your descriptions then it ends up being. The sheer isolation and emptiness is a much bigger issue than you think. Driving from Fargo to Bismarck in the dead of winter and arriving after midnight makes it feel like Bismarck might as well be some sort of colony a different planet considering how barren it before it, I know that actually sounds cool, but then try LIVING there instead of just visiting...

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I prefer North Dakota, due to its history as possibly the most lefty state in the union.

(suck it California)

North Dakota is Minnesotas red headed step brother.  We get protective of ND in MN when people criticize it.  The same can not be said for South Dakota.

That's because western Minnesota is basically an extension of eastern North Dakota (not the other way around, because eastern North Dakota is far more urban and populated than western Minnesota). Meanwhile the Sioux Falls sphere of influence might extend to Minnesota, but in only a few rural counties really no on cares about outside of those counties.