Take this quiz, then be very afraid

[Monkeyleg]

This is a simple enough quiz: http://pewresearch.org/politicalquiz/quiz/index.php

Take a few minutes to look at the percentages of people who got questions right or wrong. Scary. Very scary.

[Perd Hapley]

I choked on the number of troops in A-stan. 

[Balog]

I biffed troops in A-stan and healthcare spending per person, mainly because I think those numbers are cooked.

[Boomhauer]

I got everything but the unemployment rate and the DOW Jones average correct. It said unemployment is closer to 10%, but wasn't there an article or something not too long ago that said the employment rate was higher and the .gov was lying?

I have been deliberatly trying to ignore as much of the news as possible. I've got other stuff to worry about and I'm tired of hearing about everything (especially since the overload of the election coverage) and I realize that it all comes down to "We're Boned". The finer details don't really matter as much when you realize what's going to happen in the end...

[Ryan in Maine]

Here's Your Score: You correctly answered 11 out of the 12 possible questions, which means you did better on the quiz than 93% of the general public.

I got the question about our military numbers in Afghanistan wrong. I'm pretty sure we don't have 70,000 US troops over there. That's more than the ISAF. I thought we were still working on trying to double our troops presence there.

Guess I'm wrong on that one.  :'(

Oh yeah! Quite a disturbing trend!

1). 65%
2). 40%
3). 75%
4). 56%
5). 18%
6). 33%
7). 42%
8). 53%
9). 33%
10). 61%
11). 23%
12). 28%

[RevDisk]

I got all 12 correctly.  I'll be honest, I guessed on a couple.  Though, on the questions I was fuzzy on, it was easy to cut it down to 2 probable guesses.  Apparently 2% of folks get all 12 right.  Ok, I could see the finance committee question throwing folks off, or the current troop levels.  But the rest were pretty friggin easy.

I'll admit, I flinched when I saw the male/female score breakdown.  I'm honestly at a loss to explain it.  The education and age tracks like you'd expect. 

But overall...  Gods, that is depressing.

I got everything but the unemployment rate and the DOW Jones average correct. It said unemployment is closer to 10%, but wasn't there an article or something not too long ago that said the employment rate was higher and the .gov was lying?

Total unemployment is obviously higher than 10%.  "Unemployment" govt statistic only covers a specific aspect of people that are not currently employed.  For example, "discouraged workers" are not included.  I guessed that they meant the official statistics, not a more accurate number.

The govt isn't lying, per se.  Just being very picky about their definition.  If you want to see serious manipulation, look up the CPI.  That's crooked like no tomorrow.  There are a couple private CPI equivalents, all of the best ones are subscription required.

[Perd Hapley]

Republicans and independents each averaged 5.7 correct answers, compared with five correct among Democrats. Men correctly answered an average of 5.9 of the 12 items; women answered an average of 4.7.

Represent! 


Hey, RevDisk, did anybody ever tell you you're pretty smart for a Democrat?    

(Oh, come on, you gotta laugh at that one, man.)

[RevDisk]

Represent! 


Hey, RevDisk, did anybody ever tell you you're pretty smart for a Democrat?    

(Oh, come on, you gotta laugh at that one, man.)

 


I get that a lot from both sides.  "For a conservative, you're not a fascist redneck hatemonger."  "For a liberal, you're not a commie, pinko moron."  When you support all of the Bill of Rights, both parties view you as being kinda off in the head.  From my perspective, aside from a few wedge issues, I see few significant differences between either party.

[KD5NRH]

I get that a lot from both sides.  "For a conservative, you're not a fascist redneck hatemonger."  "For a liberal, you're not a commie, pinko moron."

I've gotten "even compared to most other Libertarians, you're a heavily armed, raving fanatic."

You'd think a politician would know better than to speak up with that.  Good thing for him that I consider it a compliment, and I think it was sort of meant that way too.

[seeker_two]

I choked on the number of troops in A-stan. 

Me, too.....serves me right for copying off your test paper.... 

[MicroBalrog]

Here's Your Score: You correctly answered 12 of the 12 possible questions along with approximately 2% of the public. You did better than 98% of the general public.

:D

[grampster]

I got 11 of 12, but truthfully, I accidently checked the wrong box on the health care box; Americans pay more.  I did have to think about it, but I do believe Americans pay less.  That's an easy test if one actually pays attention to daily life.

[mtnbkr]

I scored 10/12.  I missed the ones on the troops and the Senate Finance Chairman. 

Chris

[BridgeRunner]

I dunno Grampster, I think it depends on one's daily life.  I suspect the lower scores for women has something to do with stay at home moms.  That could only be confirmed though, with age+sex breakdowns.

I got 11.  I clearly recall having seen and heard news segments about a national unemployment rate about 15%, but then I get my news sans sound at the Y and san balance (mostly) on NPR.

(ETA: And yeah, I totally guessed on troop levels.  In terms of knowledge, I scored a ten.)

[brimic]

11/12
I checked 15% for unemployment due tot he fact that there are a lot of people not accounted for by the current government statistic who have simply given up on finding a new job.

[HankB]

I got all 12, but guessed on Afghan troop levels . . .

By the way, if you want to get technical, the wording on many of the questions actually indicated a "yes" or "no" answer was called for . . .

[makattak]

:D

At least that durn feriner didn't beat me none!
 

Here's Your Score: You correctly answered 12 of the 12 possible questions along with approximately 2% of the public. You did better than 98% of the general public.

[Daniel964]

I feel like and idiot. I only got 9. I missed numbers 5,6, and 7.

[MillCreek]

Woo hoo!  All 12 questions correct!  That bell curve is sure shifted to the left, though.

[Ben]

10 out of 12, and same as Balog. I missed the number of troops in Afghanistan, and I purposely said our health care costs are lower because I know the quiz didn't take taxes charged by other countries into account for overall costs. It's a Pew poll after all...

[roo_ster]

The Afghan question took a little arithmetic.  I recall, way back when Dems "supported" the effort in a-stan, that the troop level was in the neighborhood of 20-30K and that BHO stuffed 10-15K more over there.  70K seemed most reasonable.

As to some of the other questions of, ah, "questionable" provenance, one has to recall the dofference between "goodfacts" and "truefacts."*  goodfacts are what is reported by gov't and its hangers-on.  Truefacts are usually a bit closer to eh mark.  Unemployment, for example.  Goodfact ~ 10%. Truefact ~ 17% (by gov't's own reckoning prior to WJC changing the methodology)

Even if it is BS, it is helpful to know what the BS "goodfact" answer is.


* Babylon 5 reference.  Yes, there was good scifi before Firefly.

[charby]

I missed the Afganistan one too.

11/12 for me.

-C

[Iain]

Took a wild stab at Q12, which was the only one I got wrong.

[Ben]

Great jobs by Micro and Iain. If these were the equivalent questions for Israel or Great Britain, I'm betting I'd only get half of them right.

[Tallpine]

I realize that it all comes down to "We're Boned". The finer details don't really matter as much when you realize what's going to happen in the end...

Awesome punnery!  Ouch!