Critically-thinking humans move out to better states leaving those who either don’t think critically or who can’t afford to leave. Less critical thinkers = more Republican votes and a more solid grip on power to make things worse.

They’re not out to attract critically-thinking people with these; they’re trying to wear down and drive out their perceived enemies. Any deplorable who thinks “yep, this is what I want” and who decides to move there because of it is just a bonus.

Edit: Because of the way the Senate is structured, regardless of population, each state gets two. So if, hypothetically, there’s a mass exodus from these shithole states and population in better states explodes, they’ll still be able to hold the Senate hostage. In the House, the number of reps per state is determined by the census every 10 years giving them a big window to control both chambers of Congress with a minority of Americans on their side (House reps are elected every 2 years).

So, counter-intuitively, the best thing critically-thinking, rational people can do is move to these shithole states and vote these ghouls out. Because if enough states devolve to shithole status and drive out rational people, they’ll be able to either pass federal legislation making all states shitholes or at the very least prevent any federal laws from being enacted that would stop them.