Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Ben on March 08, 2013, 08:29:48 PM
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A quiz from the American Enterprise Institute sent to me by a friend. I haven't found the whole background on the quiz yet, but it is apparently supposed to measure how out of touch (or not) you are with non-white rich liberal America.
This quiz is inspired by American Enterprise Institute scholar Charles Murray's new book, "Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010," which explores the unprecedented, class-based cultural gap in America. How culturally isolated are you? Answer these 20 questions to find out.
I scored "between 9 and 12". Thank you Miller MGD, blue collar dad, and wearing a uniform when I worked at the county dump. :laugh:
http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=how-thick-is-your-bubble
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13-16 woulda done better but i quit drinking
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I scored "between 9 and 12".
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13-16. I grew up solidly middle class.
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I could have done better, but I thought some of the questions were kinda lame, like the NASCAR one. I can't name a single NASCAR driver (except I guess they were talking about a female one Dani something in the news last week). That's not because NASCAR is beneath me, it's because I lump NASCAR in with all other team and competitive sports that I have zero interest in. I should have been able to mark "hunting and fishing" twice since that's what I do instead of team sports. :)
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Between 9 and 12 is too ambiguous for me, I am assigning myself the number 10. Just middle of the road, thank god I bought that pickup 30 years ago. =D
bob
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13-16 here.
Came from very meager means, and had very meager means up until maybe 6-8 years ago when the dominoes fell in the right places.
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13-16 here as well.
I don't drink mass market beer, and if I was in a union local, it would be to blow it up.
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Told me I didn't have a bubble.
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"at least 17"
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13-16
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you scored between 13 and 16. That's it.
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9-12 here too.
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Does a Blazer count as a pickup?
Oprah
<shudder>
Have you ever participated in a parade that did not involve global warming, gay rights, or a war protest?
Just this week (http://igold.isra.org/), as a matter of fact.
Do you have a close friend who is an evangelical Christian?
How about "Are you..." (without even getting into the difficulty of nailing down what one actually is.)
And, click the button......
On a scale from 0 to 20 points, where 20 signifies full engagement with mainstream American culture and 0 signifies deep cultural isolation within the new upper class bubble, you scored between 5 and 8.
In other words, you can see through your bubble, but you need to get out more.
Screw that. I guess I'm out of touch because I don't drink beer or watch TV. I should probably get points for living 12 years in a (slum) trailer park. And if you search back for my "Life in my neighborhood" threads from the past year, you'll see the sort of neighborhood we currently live in.
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9-12
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13-16
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9-12 baby. *expletive deleted* "the upper class bubble". What hurt me was beer and nascar. Nascar has become upper class.
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Between 5 and 8
Result
On a scale from 0 to 20 points, where 20 signifies full engagement with mainstream American culture and 0 signifies deep cultural isolation within the new upper class bubble, you scored between 5 and 8.
In other words, you can see through your bubble, but you need to get out more.
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5-8 but said "I could see through my bubble".
It's my wife's fault. She dragged me into her bubble, and all the PBR in the world doesn't seem to help.
My wife and I talk about this quite a bit really. We realize that our world, both at work and around our neighborhood, is a bubble. It's very foreign compared to the worlds we grew up in, which were solidly working class. I still prefer simple things and "regular folk".
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9-12
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5-8. Quit drinking and smoking, so that didn't help.
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9-12.
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This redneck country geek ain't got no bubble.
jim
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9-12...
I don't think it's possible to be raised and live in the Milwaukee metro with a full "bubble" no matter what your household or class-background was.
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you scored between 13 and 16.
Took it again, Sam Ting.
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On a scale from 0 to 20 points, where 20 signifies full engagement with mainstream American culture and 0 signifies deep cultural isolation within the new upper class bubble, you scored between 13 and 16.
In other words, you don't even have a bubble.
Don't care about NASCAR nor have I ever let Oprah on my TV.
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Scored between 13-16.
"In other words, you don't even have a bubble."
I've been in a local union hall before, but not for any kind of a meeting. Might have scored a little higher, otherwise, if I had answered that question differently.
Had to join the IBEW when I worked in TV many years ago.
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5-8. Quit drinking and smoking, so that didn't help.
Ouch, my score as well -- and I don't smoke and drink very rarely.
But I do have windex to keep the bubble clear. [popcorn]
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13-16, But how meaningless. So yes answers identify mainstream American culture? Since when is crappy beer and sorry movies mainstream? :lol: Hell, 3 in 100 serve in the military, so that's not mainstream and that got me 3 answers directly( Served in armed forces, wore a uniform, rode greyhound) and several more indirectly. If inside the bubble is the more finite space, ask some questions which affirmative response to peg you as in the bubble. Like what is arugula? Do you shop at Trader Joe's? Should Susan Saradon be our UN ambassador?
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I buy arugula at Trader Joe's. Susan Sarandon, meh.
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What's arugula?
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5-8
Guess living in another country plus every major geographical region of the USA, working in a juvie prison, and living in a rural area don't qualify as getting out enough.
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What's arugula?
Highfalutin' word for radish greens.
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"13-16: We deem you culturally acceptable or at least redeemable. You will be exempted from the first round of processing for 'special treatment' but may be subject to appropriate re-education."
>:D
But yeah, I'm just so glad that I fit into some liberal professor's opinion of what constitutes open minded and culturally educated. ;/
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On a scale from 0 to 20 points, where 20 signifies full engagement with mainstream American culture and 0 signifies deep cultural isolation within the new upper class bubble, you scored between 13 and 16.
In other words, you don't even have a bubble.
Is it just me or does that thing come off a little arrogant? I
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you scored between 13 and 16.
In other words, you don't even have a bubble.
And I'm a curmudgeon and semi-hermit. If it were not for a mis-spent youth I would probably be between 1 and 0.
stay safe.
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9-12
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On a scale from 0 to 20 points, where 20 signifies full engagement with mainstream American culture and 0 signifies deep cultural isolation within the new upper class bubble, you scored between 13 and 16.
In other words, you don't even have a bubble.
I failed on NASCAR, pickup and Oprah. Pickup thing I'll hopefully resolve. Oprah and NASCAR I hopefully will not. I'm not sure if "plant floor" thing counts if it's aerospace "factory" making hundred million dollar aircraft, but they were nonspecific.
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21 but I ain't got no idee what they's talkin 'bout.
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0-4. Guess I'm doing something right.
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On a scale from 0 to 20 points, where 20 signifies full engagement with mainstream American culture and 0 signifies deep cultural isolation within the new upper class bubble, you scored between 5 and 8.
In other words, you can see through your bubble, but you need to get out more.
That about made me collapse a lung.
I actually drive a pickup with rust holes in it. I'm, apparently, upper class.
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9-12...
I don't think it's possible to be raised and live in the Milwaukee metro with a full "bubble" no matter what your household or class-background was.
I scored a 0-4. However, I think that's the result of answering strictly the "letter of the question."
I used to fish regularly in high school, I just haven't had the time in the past "five" years, so I answered "no."
I have eaten at Applebee's/etc., just not in the "past year" because I don't eat out regularly (it's expensive!), so I answered "no."
Neither me nor my fiancee have served in the military (so I answered no), but both of my grandfathers served enlisted roles in the military and told stories about it as I grew up.
I didn't grow up in a neighborhood where the majority didn't have college degrees (so I answered "no"), but both of my mom's parents came from northern WI farming families, didn't even finish high school, and my grandfather worked as a trucker his whole life.
So, having grown up in the Milwaukee area, I'm having a hard time believing that my score really indicates a "deep cultural isolation within the new upper class bubble."
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What's arugula?
It's a veg-uh-tu-bull!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGwjGZ1RkDs
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If I went to a union hall or even a NASCAR race and talked about watching Oprah, I think I'd get kicked out. How does Oprah fit?
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If I went to a union hall or even a NASCAR race and talked about watching Oprah, I think I'd get kicked out. How does Oprah fit?
I was wondering that as well.
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13 and 16.
In other words, you don't even have a bubble.
I live in Iowa, enough said.
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On a scale from 0 to 20 points, where 20 signifies full engagement with mainstream American culture and 0 signifies deep cultural isolation within the new upper class bubble, you scored at least 17.
In other words, you're so embedded in mainstream America that you need to visit the bubble once in a while
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What's arugula?
Something vegetarians eat.
My Dad, the retired farmer, would be able to tell you about it, from reading farming trade rags.
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Score 5-8?
Too many questions which make invalid assumptions. One example:
Have you ever participated in a parade that did not involve global warming, gay rights, or a war protest?
This seems to assume that I have participated in, or at least sympathize with, parades in support those causes.
I work in Detroit and am, while at work, surrounded by Black Detroiters.
I was raised as a military brat. I have lived in Asia for 9.5 years. My wife is an immigrant. We have lived, for the last 21 years, in a blue-collar neighborhood.
What "upper class" bubble am I supposed to be isolated in?
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On a scale from 0 to 20 points, where 20 signifies full engagement with mainstream American culture and 0 signifies deep cultural isolation within the new upper class bubble, you scored between 9 and 12.
In other words, even if you're part of the new upper class, you've had a lot of exposure to the rest of America
I live in one of the last parts of the county that has not been gentrified. I live in a trailer. I, technically, fall into the social class of working poor. I smoke (and except my dad I *don't* spend alot of time with people who smoke)
I somehow doubt the validity of this test...
Although I will confess, I have watched full episodes of Oprah, and even liked them. :O
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I live in one of the last parts of the county that has not been gentrified. I live in a trailer. I, technically, fall into the social class of working poor. I smoke (and except my dad I *don't* spend alot of time with people who smoke)
I somehow doubt the validity of this test...
Although I will confess, I have watched full episodes of Oprah, and even liked them. :O
Yeah...there's lots of things wrong with this test. Mainly that the professor who designed it seems to have a narrow, somewhat stereotypical view of working class.
I think the Applebees/TGI Fridays/Outback Steakhouse question is the dumbest of the lot. Where I grew up, near the Middle of Nowhere, Nevada, you had to drive at least four hours to find any one of those establishments. Hence, I rarely ate at any of them. I've never eaten at TGI Fridays, for instance, have only eaten at Outback Steakhouse once that I recall, and only occasionally eat at Applebees because my mother likes it, and we'd sometimes eat there when we were in Reno or another town that had one. But, according to this guy, that's evidence that I lived in an elite bubble because I grew up in a hardscrabble mining town whose only chain restaurant was a McDonald's. ;/
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5-8
I guess they want me to watch Oprah. (not likely.)
And be a NASCAR fanboy. (Uh-uh.)
And hang out with smokers. (Nope.)
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Yeah...there's lots of things wrong with this test. Mainly that the professor who designed it seems to have a narrow, somewhat stereotypical view of working class.
+1
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Yeah...there's lots of things wrong with this test. Mainly that the professor who designed it seems to have a narrow, somewhat stereotypical view of working class.
I think the Applebees/TGI Fridays/Outback Steakhouse question is the dumbest of the lot. Where I grew up, near the Middle of Nowhere, Nevada, you had to drive at least four hours to find any one of those establishments. Hence, I rarely ate at any of them. I've never eaten at TGI Fridays, for instance, have only eaten at Outback Steakhouse once that I recall, and only occasionally eat at Applebees because my mother likes it, and we'd sometimes eat there when we were in Reno or another town that had one. But, according to this guy, that's evidence that I lived in an elite bubble because I grew up in a hardscrabble mining town whose only chain restaurant was a McDonald's. ;/
Actually, I think he is mistaken in his definitions of class.
From what I have observed those resterants are mostly inhabited by middle to upper middle class suburbanites who have a relativly narrow world veiw, which is his sterotype of mainstream American culture.
His understanding of "lower" classes is seriously distortated by his inhabitation of the academic ivory tower "elite".
Dude needs to do more feild research.
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Maybe we could get some extra points if there was a question about guns.
I wouldn't be surprised to see the test designers — who are judging us and other Americans through their own distorted bubbles — might also have distorted views of those with a interest in them.
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Actually, I think he is mistaken in his definitions of class.
From what I have observed those resterants are mostly inhabited by middle to upper middle class suburbanites who have a relativly narrow world veiw, which is his sterotype of mainstream American culture.
His understanding of "lower" classes is seriously distortated by his inhabitation of the academic ivory tower "elite".
Dude needs to do more feild research.
True. Those places aren't exactly cheap. Denny's would probably have been a better one for a non-fast food chain restaurant. Or pick-your-random truck stop restaurant.
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True. Those places aren't exactly cheap. Denny's would probably have been a better one for a non-fast food chain restaurant. Or pick-your-random truck stop restaurant.
I'd rather eat at Denny's than Applebees any day.
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I'd rather eat at Denny's than Applebees any day.
Same here. Cheaper AND tastier.
I'm still a little mad there isn't one in my current county. We've got a crappy Ruby Tuesday's, but no Denny's. :facepalm:
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The test seems to assume that there is one American culture divided into bubble levels — if one is not a commoner, then one is insulated in an upper-class bubble. That is not the case.
(Might I note that my inner-city Black students are just as bubble-insulated from knowledge of the characters of those in the upper classes as the upper classes are insulated from knowledge of their characters?)
Some of us are mixed culturally, some are Third Culture Kids (TCKs – also called TransCultural Kids) who, depending on ones point of view, are either in no insulating bubble or are in bubbles that are neither upper nor lower ("common") class American.
I have to admit that I have so little knowledge of the string restaurants mentioned that I don't know what "class" they are supposed to represent. We usually go to family run ethnic places, most often Asian, in which I am often the only non-Asian — and since I can't see myself, I don't feel "different."
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Scored between 9 and 12. I haven't watched NASCAR since they quit racing stock cars. chris3
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I'd rather eat at Denny's than Applebees any day.
Not me.
Last time I ate in a Denny's - breakfast on a business trip - the only thing palatable was the coffee.
Barely.
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There is an Applebee's one mile from the house. We can walk there, have the 2 for $ 20 special; she has the house merlot, I have an IPA, and we can get out of there for $ 38 with tax and tip. We think the food is OK. Nothing really special but OK. My wife likes it more than I do.
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My biggest cultural isolation is that I'm a central WI hick from the sticks now living in on the fringes of artsy fartsy yuppieland.
My wife complains that I don't have many friends or I don't socialize much. Translation= I have very little in common with most of the dads of the kids that my kids go to school with and I'm not particularly interested in socializing with them. The people I do talk to and have a weekly beer with are coworkers and guys at the local gun club.
Applebees/TGIs are fake soulless facsimiles of restaurants.
Real question should have been have you eaten at greasy spoon/truckstop restaurant in the last year.
Nascar? Bah. Any sport that has a 'fantasy league' is firmly in the bubble. Question should be have you ever taken a date/wife/kids to an event involving monster trucks/tractor pulls/demolition derby/ or a race on dirt or ice tracks?
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9-12; Apparently having asthma can help lead to cultural isolationism. ???
Sure I have friends who smoke. We just don't hang out while they are smoking because I like to not have asthma attacks, and they agree.
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Result
On a scale from 0 to 20 points, where 20 signifies full engagement with mainstream American culture and 0 signifies deep cultural isolation within the new upper class bubble, you scored between 9 and 12.
In other words, even if you're part of the new upper class, you've had a lot of exposure to the rest of America.
I try to stay detached from the rest of America these days.......... or at least the 47%.
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The test designer needs to experience more than what they stereotype as 'class'. I don't have a bubble according to them but all my friends are solidly middle class, as am I. We just happen to get out of the house more, it seems.
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I'd rather eat at Denny's than Applebees any day.
I would too, but I went an Applebees in the last six months and I was somewhat impressed by their food compared to past experiences. The price seemed to match the quality and I would go there again if my friends or wife wanted to go there.
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you scored between 9 and 12
I had a pretty solidly middle class upbringing, so yeah.
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I'm a 5-8 as well, which I don't really understand given some of my answers...
Then again, I don't really give a rat's ass if I'm culturally and class isolated or not.
What really interests me, though, is that they conceive of this being the most class-isolated point in American history.
I'm not sure whether they're idiots who have no clue how to crack a history book, or just weeping liberal aholes.
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"I'd rather eat at Denny's than Applebees any day."
I'd rather drill my skull with Barbara Streisand's voice than eat at a Denny's.
I'll travel to get to an Appleby's.
I'll travel to get the hell away from a Denny's.
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What is middle class?
Y'all keep saying "I'm middle class" or "I have middle class upbringing"
So what is that?
Is it money?
Everyone from $35k/yr to $400k/yr claim to be "middle class". But the $35k/yr guy is not gonna look at the $400k/y guy a middle class, and vice-verse.
Is it net worth?
See above.
Is it a type of house?
Living in the city and owning a house was a medieval and ancient Roman measure of middle class. Not always a good indicator today. (the working poor rented apmts in ancient Rome, and ate fast food everyday because apmts didn't have kitchens.)
Is it white culture?
;/
Is it 1-3 kids and stable family?
Is it a non-criminal, but also does not have political connections?
(huge swath of america)
All of these things?
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Emcee: Now Karl has elected to answer questions on the workers' control of factories so here we go with question number one. Are you nervous? (Karl nods his head; the emcee reads from a card) The development of the industrial proletariat is conditioned by what other development?
Karl Marx: The development of the industrial bourgeoisie.
*applause*
Emcee: Yes, yes, it is indeed. You're on your way to the lounge suite, Karl. Question number two. The struggle of class against class is a what struggle? A what struggle?
Marx : A political struggle.
*Tumultuous applause*
Emcee: Yes, yes! One final question Karl and the beautiful lounge suite will be yours... Are you going to have a go? (Karl nods) You're a brave man. Karl Marx, your final question, who won the Cup Final in 1949?
Marx: The workers' control of the means of production? The struggle of the urban proletariat?
Emcee: No. It was in fact, Wolverhampton Wanderers who beat Leicester 3-1.
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What is middle class?
Y'all keep saying "I'm middle class" or "I have middle class upbringing"
So what is that?
What are the guys on Duck Dynasty?
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What is middle class?
Y'all keep saying "I'm middle class" or "I have middle class upbringing"
So what is that?
Is it money?
Everyone from $35k/yr to $400k/yr claim to be "middle class". But the $35k/yr guy is not gonna look at the $400k/y guy a middle class, and vice-verse.
Is it net worth?
See above.
Is it a type of house?
Living in the city and owning a house was a medieval and ancient Roman measure of middle class. Not always a good indicator today. (the working poor rented apmts in ancient Rome, and ate fast food everyday because apmts didn't have kitchens.)
Is it white culture?
;/
Is it 1-3 kids and stable family?
Is it a non-criminal, but also does not have political connections?
(huge swath of america)
All of these things?
Most americans idetify as middle class, period.
It goes:
Poor
Working poor
Working
Middle
Upper middle
Rich
Most are actually working class, rather them middle, and most upper middle don't always add the "upper", but our cultural idenity as Americans generally results in people always identifing as middle, even when they're actually not.
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What are the guys on Duck Dynasty?
El Tejon's neighbors.
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Where's El Tejon been? Did the rednecks drive him out?