This is such a profoundly useless sentiment. What's the point of spreading the "Southerners are backwards" meme except to win some feeling of self-satisfied collective superiority?

You're ignoring the fact that investment has been plainly beneficial everywhere in the south. From land grant universities and TVA electrification to NASA in Huntsville and St Jude in Memphis, it's pretty clear that southerners don't just choose to "leave themselves behind" when given resources.