I have no idea what this map is supposed to mean, but according to the Atlantic it charts the “anti-creative class” — which is basically, by their metric, people who have access to cheap weed and/or have a lot of bars.
In the words of the people who created the map:
… it occurred to us that our two most popular maps – the Price of Weed and the Beer Belly of America – contained within them the means to provide a metric of sorts for the anti-creative class. Or at least places where the ability to be usefully creative would be severely compromised, i.e., where the price of marijuana is low and the availability of bars is high.
In other words, we’re looking for the Slacker Strata of America, the list that no city wants to be on.
Conveniently ignored is the fact that many of our best writers were lousy, no-good drunks. Paging Ernest Hemingway, Hunter S. Thompson, and Dylan Thomas, among many, many others. Also, much of our loveliest music was created by jazzmen and hippies high on the pot.
But you know, however you want to define “creative.”
