If you're shocked by Donald Trump, it's probably time to take the bubble quiz (Megan Daum)

[bemildred]

During the last year, have you purchased domestic, mass-market beer to stock your own fridge? Have you patronized Applebee’s or Chili’s? During the 2014-2015 television season, did you regularly watch “Scandal,” “The Voice,” or “How To Get Away With Murder”?

The answers to these questions may help determine just how shocked you are at the current state of American politics. Adapted from political scientist Charles Murray’s 2012 book “Coming Apart: The State of White America 1960-2010,” the questions aim to measure the thickness of the cultural bubble in which you live. The fewer meals you’ve had at Applebee’s and the less you know about network television (those shows were among the highest rated last year apart from NFL broadcasts), the thicker your bubble, which is to say the more clueless you are about how most Americans think and feel.

Murray, a controversial figure who’s known for divisive theories about the relationship between poverty and IQ, has never been popular in bubbly liberal circles. But in recent weeks his quiz has surfaced on progressive social media feeds, popping up on Facebook alongside handwringing articles about Donald Trump that ask “how did we not see this coming?” The implication is that “we” (which is to say those of us who read such articles and take such quizzes) are so caught up in NPR-listening, HBO-watching and LGBT-supporting that Trump’s ascendancy was simply beyond the scope of our imagination. And shame on us.

The bubble quiz is obviously more parlor game than scientific measure, but what it tests is still revealing. (You can take it online courtesy the PBS Newshour’s “Making Sense” blog by Paul Solman.) The questions say a lot about American values and the perception that progressivism is careening toward the mainstream. The quiz suggests this perception is held chiefly by progressives themselves. (I’m saying “they” instead of “we” to maintain an authorial tone, and because I ate at an Applebee’s a few months ago.)

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-daum-bubble-quiz-20160414-15-column.html

[independentpiney]

1. Here's the link to the quiz itself

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-a-quiz-2/

I came up with a 41

[bemildred]

2. 49, seems about right.

Largely middle class, petit bourgeois, but with a deep plunge into the blue collar world in my youth.

[Person 2713]

3. I have eaten zero X at the restaurants listed and do not watch Tv but got a 55

I saw one of the movies listed for free at a friend'shouse
Probably due to work, upbringing, oh and fishing? Wtf
Not surprised by birther Trump and his haters and their current success. Would not be surprised if he won the general election .

I am especially aware of now with trump, how middle class white trump people losing ground are given a media pass to be angry and hateful due to frustration with the economy and jobs and what is happening to the areas they live in.
but poor POC for decades try to bring light on their circumstances, protesting in a peaceful but persistent and determined manner and it is a whole different reaction .
Also the lack of continuity,as if they were not hit hard by the economic turn down (or never were included in the upswing )
Bubbles not bubble . Plenty to go around not one type

Murray’s 2012 book, “Coming Apart: The State of White America

[bemildred]

4. Well, it's based on stereotypes, you can't expect much.

I never eat fast food any more, and booze, and mystery meat, and I limit protein, and I limit processed stuff to about half. Gout was very motivating.

[bemildred]

9. That's a good point too, some people are allowed to get mad.

Other people are expected to be grateful. There are always double standards in these things, but they aren't always where you expect.

[psychmommy]

5. i got a 75

I have a thin bubble.

[bemildred]

6. Yeah, you do. nt

[Doctor_J]

7. I got 57

About what I expected. I was the first in my family to go to a 4-year college, and grew up in an integrated town/neighborhood/school. I don't watch reality TV, and eat locally when we actually do go out (usually cook).

[MisterP]

8. sigline ...

[bemildred]

10. About the same quality of work, yes. Pop psych.

It's not right, but it's better than phrenology.

[MisterP]

11. fun fact! phrenology became popular because it was materialist and politically radical!

my history of science has taken some--odd directions

[bemildred]

13. We never tire of thinkng up ways to pigeonhole our fellows, based on how they look.

Back there in the 19th century there were some very creative "science".

[MisterP]

14. eugenics was not only mainstream but "progressive"

that's why it's always so dangerous to look at the past through the present of the filter: "how could they be wrong? after all we know what's right today" (since that's exactly what THEY thought too)

[bemildred]

17. I am well-acquainted with that stuff.

The slave owner mentality transposed to sociology. They think they are culling the herd, they do.

[alarimer]

12. Charles Murray is a fraud. Not a controversial figure. A fraud.

His "Bell Curve" has been thoroughly discredited. He got his results, which purported to show that African Americans are dumber than white people. In reality, all he did was cherry-pick the data. Using that method, you can justify just about any hypothesis you might have.

I am PROUD to say I live in a bubble. All the questions on that quiz are biased in the direction of white midwesterners = "real" Americans. When in fact, we are all "real" Americans.

There is a lot of anger out there and not all Trump supporters are racist asshats. I think the Democratic Party has been doing such a good job sucking up to Wall Street and the "creative" class (such as bullshit term) i.e. Silicon Valley that they have lost sight of their roots. NAFTA and other trade agreements have had devastating consequences, as have the reduction in union membership and rise of "right to work" (that's mainly a Republican thing, but Democrats have not fought very hard for workers at all). When Obama's appointees advocate cutting social security, you know we are all screwed. The Democrats have betrayed their true New Deal roots, in exchange for playing nice with corporations.

Trump supporters are blaming the wrong people. They should be blaming Trump and others like him, instead of immigrants.

[greymattermom]

15. I got 8

Is that good or bad? No questions for academic geeks.

[bemildred]

16. It means, in theory, that you are ill-acquainted with the blue-collar world.

TV-land, NASCAR, Guns, Bibles, etc., and the proximate issue was Trump's appeal.

The writer (of the quiz) is a fan of class systems, author of "The Bell Curve", so it's not hard to see why he would be attracted to this sort of stuff.

I think he has a point, but it is not an academic one.