Apparently I am a 47% or have had considerable contact with this portion of America.

"you scored between 13 and 16"

Don't need no stinkin' bubble! (well I DO like bubbles in beer!)

Because it kind of sucks. "Here comes Honey Boo-Boo" and Duck Dynasty? No thanks.

Call me a snob, or an elitist if you will. I don't care.

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.

I will try to get out more, but geez not NASCAR!

I'd've scored higher. However, point taken to get out more.

"in other words, you don't even have a bubble."

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.

Not sure what that means except that we seem to be in the middle of the range.

   
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 0 and 4.

In other words, your bubble is so thick you may not even know you're in one.

you may be considered an "elitist." Frankly, I don't find anything wrong with well educated, thinking, "aloof" people who are being considered an "elitist."

Because I enjoy hiking and biking to huntin' and fishin' doesn't mean I live in a freakin' bubble. And give me a locally-owned restaurant over a crappy chain, any day. Was the Nascar dude Jeff Gordon? If so, I guess that bumps me up to 5-8. (Redemption?!) And if willingly hanging around smokers is supposed to keep America from falling apart, fuck it, let *her* fall apart.

What a dumb fucking quiz, but consider the source...

I don't even have a bubble:

in a bit of a bubble.

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.

However, I will admit to not knowing anything about the book or the methodology itself. Still, it seems fairly two-dimensional.

I find the whole thing to be idiotic.

the questions were like a lawyer leading a witness or the Hamilton depression test where everyone tests as super depressed so they'll consume meds.

it mistakes cultural differences for socio-economic ones. And it presumes that a specific subset of American culture is "mainstream" (the ability to identify a NASCAR driver, having gone hunting or fishing, friends who are evangelical Christians).Those are not "mainstream" cultural markers outside of specific regions of the country.

Presuming that "NASCAR-watching, evangelical Christian who hunts or fishes" is somehow representative of a definitive cultural group representative of the "average" white American is nonsense. This smells suspiciously like the "real America" bullshit beloved of right-wingers.

makes a big difference. My neighborhood is heavily hispanic, not a lot of Evangelical Christians happening, but not much of a bubble here. And the fact that I think mass-produced domestic beer sucks, NASCAR is boring, and why the hell would I go to a Transformer movie matter...well, not terribly representative of my working-class neighborhood.

I live just outside of L.A., where by-and-large we don't watch NASCAR, we're not evangelical xians, and we don't hunt and fish. Also, if they'd've put Chili's, Denny's or Norm's on that list, I could've voted yes on that one.

(Oh yeah, I'm also only half-white. But I look white, so privilege attaches until they ask me my name.)

The "norm" is skewed. Always pays to consider the source.. . .

How mainstream are those things really? Do the vast majority of Americans actually hunt, fish, watch NASCAR and associate with evangelical Christians?

There's nothing wrong with any of those things, but not doing any of them somehow doesn't move me out of the mainstream.

Oh, I did score between 9 and 12.

Perhaps more to the point, I have lived in more parts of the country than many people. Because of a moderate amount of moving around, I feel as if I'm far less in a bubble than someone who has lived his or her entire life in one city. Again, nothing as actually wrong with that, but those people don't have any kind of perspective on all sorts of things. Oh, and usually those people have never really traveled more than 100 miles from home, either.

All the questions that require being in groups or having friends, for example, depend upon social interaction.

For example, personal isolation wipes away friends and associates be they Christians, or smokers.

Personal isolation follows illness, age and downward economic mobility at least as much as it follows classist life-choices.

This 'poll' is designed to make red voters feel victimized by snobby liberals. Not much more.

A good example is this.


Q.12)
Have you ever participated in a parade that did not involve global warming, gay rights, or a war protest?


Pretty telling that civil rights, and labor are excluded.

What a stupid question.

that don't involve global warming, gay rights or a war protest.

Charles Murray needs to crawl back under his rock.

I'll take the test later....

Although I wouldn't admit to watching an Oprah show all the way through even if I did.

I think I may have dined at an Outback Steakhouse but I wasn't sure so I said no.

In my defense I did a lot of this shit when I was young - serve in the armed forces, ride a Greyhound bus, work in a factory.

So maybe I really do have a tiny bubble.

Incidentally I think the Americans who really live in a bubble are those who could answer "yes" to the majority of those questions, but WTF can you expect from the "American Enterprise Institue"?

I am not going to apologize for holding white color jobs. My parents were lower middle income - no high level "managerial or professional" occupation - and they sacrificed a lot to send us, kids, to college and beyond.

I am also not going to apologize for not caring for fishing and hunting.

I once went to a restaurant that had its own creek so if one orders a fish, one could get it real fresh. I did, and could barely eat it. This fish, I thought, was alive 15 min ago and now is on my plate..

No, I am not a vegetarian, but a coward who purchase meat, fish and poultry boxed and wrapped where the portions carry no resemblance to their origin.

I am also not going to apologize that many of our jobs were in the suburbs so we purchased homes to be close by, thus never lived in an inner city neighborhood.

Why do you bring up 'inner-city' neighborhoods?

I did the quiz last night and don't remember anything about that.

No bubble.....

I am bubbleless.

But I won't apologize for being in a bubble from the Jerky Boys.

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.

I'm not as culturally isolated as my score indicates.

I understand what it means to be poor and/or working class... and I'm very liberal.

that there's a big difference between understanding what it's like to be poor, and actually having been poor.

And I'm not really sure that being liberal is a huge asset here unless being liberal also involved/involves willingly exposing oneself to situations and activities more common to a certain part of society.

Personally, I think this test is probably meant as a poke in the eye to Liberals by Conservatives, you know? One that says, "Hah! if you are really all that "liberal", you would probably be more familiar with things outside your own little world (bubble)".

Which makes sense to me.

Especially when I read the definition of liberal and it says, "Open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values."

Lots of so-called "liberals" don't want to even know anything exists outside their own values or opinions.

(Not referring to you personally, BTW...)

Last edited Sun Mar 10, 2013, 09:27 PM - Edit history (1)

Holy shit!

"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."

So much for my upper class aspirations.

You may also be surprised how many people will ask you if they can borrow your pickup to move items. I am always willing to help another person but I do the driving.

Upper class bubble? Huh? Upper class? Seriously? I can afford food, coffee, and an internet connection, but I am poor. But I am not culturally-engaged enough, with a 5-8 score. Fair enough. I do have a bubble, which helps me cope, keeps me out of trouble, and keeps me sane. That bubble has little, if anything, to do with "class" or income. Maybe I'm an oddball whose situation needs to be assessed by looking more at details the survey ignores. Or perhaps the survey is just pants. I'd rather like to know where they think they're going with this.

cultural milieu and mindset.

Seems like that plays into the vilification of the educated "elites", as described by Thomas Frank in What's The Matter With Kansas? Focusing on that level of cultural division helps fuel a race to the bottom rather than an effort to help everyone achieve greater education and understanding. We're defining "class" in this country now by asking whether one likes Nascar or drinks beer? I don't see how that helps. Possibly, though, I am a snob. Fallen middle class, perhaps I'm like the aristocrats in the Monty Python "Dennis Moore" skit. Reduced to poverty, they still retain their cultural and intellectual interests. I'm poor, live in a rotten neighborhood, can't afford a car, don't have a college education, and generally have few prospects. But I do appreciate jazz and classical music, read science and other high-falutin' things that don't directly intersect with my daily life, program a computer, draw a portrait, eschew sports, prefer coffee to beer. I am poor and I am lower class and I fully expect homelessness in my future.

I'm missing the point, I'm betting. I don't think we should fall for defining "class" this way, though, by cultural divisions. The bubble idea may have some validity, but I question the framing.

My score was 5-8, and it said, "In other words, you can see through your bubble, but you need to get out more", but I've always lived, worked and played around other working class people. I see and relate to hundreds, on a daily basis. I don't have the same world view as most of them (probably because of the thousands of books I've read), but I have no problem understanding what moves them. To suggest that I exist in some sort of upper-crust bubble, is ludicrous.

Others note that this is an American Enterprise Institute survey cum quiz. I suspect that part, at least, of the point is to promote their framing that "class" is based on largely self-identified cultural groupings, rather than income or socioeconomic status. That view has been pushed a lot in our culture, and many have been convinced. I think there's some truth to the "bubble" idea, but that's a problem brought on largely by media and technology. Was it MacLuhan who suggested, decades ago, that our culture would go through a period of collapse into self-identified, pseudo-tribal groups? Hmm. I've read too much and forgotten too much of what I've read. Most people live in a "bubble" of some kind. It's a big world out there and few, if any, can open themselves to all of it. The danger is that this degree of isolation could lead to animosity, with bubble groups attacking one another. The RW has been training their own bubble groups to hate the other groups for a long time. I think it might be one of their side's responses to identity politics.

In short, we're playing along with someone's divide-and-conquer tactic here. We're supposed to see ourselves not as a unified 99% or even an offended 47%, but as separate classes defined by what beer we drink, what vehicle we drive, how often we go to church, whether we like car racing. My brother-in-law's family might score as fully outside this "upper class bubble", but they have loads of money, being well-to-do rural conservatives. Their cultural preferences don't appeal to me, so I'm in the upper class bubble, looking out. Rubbish. I hope these think tank bozos are among the first against the wall when the revolution comes. (Note to Agent Bob or Phil or whomever: that is intended as a humorous statement, possibly invoking Douglas Adams. Obviously civilization will fall before we ever get around to a revolution, and then we'll all have bigger problems.)

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.

And let's not forget The Bell Curve, Lol.

The quiz is one of those bullshit things that's supposed to make liberals feel "out of touch" with "Real 'Merikans".

Like, The Bell Jar Charles Murray?

but yeah, that's the Charles Murray (The Bell Curve)

you scored between 13 and 16.

In other words, you don't even have a bubble.

Fuck him, his looneytarian bullshit, and the racist drivel he spews out in his books

You might score quite low and be homeless or a minority low income or probably just not be a big current "pop culture" person.

The test is heavily weighted to "white" culture with moderate disposable income and seemingly leaning male (except the Oprah question). Not all the questions but a chunk of them seemed tuned to a narrow demographic.

Those that score high are the ones in a bubble. To score high you have to be a product of a country western song.


I scored 5-8 the first time, took it a second time giving the answers I thought they wanted, and got a 17 or better.

So to be a regular American I have to follow Nascar, drink mass market beer, watch Transformers, hunt and fish, eat at Applebees, drive a pickup ....

considering how diverse my neighborhood is, with kids from 90 nations in the local schools, I think they are the ones in the bubble.

I don't watch television, and I'm a white guy living in a predominantly Mexican-American community. My white-guy grandfather warned me I'd be thrown out of the white-guy club if I married (in his words) "a Mexican girl," and he was right, thank God!

I think automobiles are smelly and dangerous things that are destroying our Earth's environment. I resent that I must own one so I drive an old mid 'eighties car with a salvage title that I've never washed except for the windows. It has lichens growing on it and spiders who hide out behind the mirrors when I'm driving hoping the wind doesn't thrash their webs too badly. I hate our family cars, and they hate me. If these cars died they couldn't hate me, so they don't die.

I have no idea who that NASCAR guy is, or what exactly NASCAR is. It's a car race, I do know that. Cars sometimes kill people. Duh. I think the race would be more interesting if the cars were electric and driven by robots. If a robot dies, you simply rebuild it and restore it from backup files. We can't do that with humans... yet.

I've never watched Oprah. Transformers is some movie. It didn't look like it would interest me.

I know and I work with plenty of military people, but I was never in the military. I failed the medical exam. Even so, the Navy offered me a civilian position. But I got a better offer from the Los Angeles Unified School District. But I resigned when my wife was accepted to graduate school in another state.

And I don't feel bad drinking mass market union made beers.

Riding the bus is fun, you meet all sorts of interesting people, see cool stuff out the windows, and get dropped off downtown. What's wrong with that? It's still my preference if I can avoid flying.

I also know where meat comes from, which is why I don't eat much of it. If you've never killed meat (fish included) and you are not a vegetarian, then you are living in some kind of bubble. Here's a picture of one set of great grandparents. They were not vegetarians:



From this picture alone, it's clear my family has always been a matriarchy. I don't know one woman in our family, genetic relation or in-law, who isn't a powerful matriarch.

My ancestors were Wild West because they weren't welcome in Europe or the more "civilized" places of 19th century USA. Many of them left no evidence of entering the USA and I imagine it went something like this: "Fuck this shit." And then they jumped overboard and swam.

I'm a miner, I'm a farmer, I'm a milkmaid, that's the ticket...

One of my ancestors was a mail order bride to Salt Lake City. She didn't like sharing a husband so she ran off with a government surveyor. Our family has been on the Mormon shit-list ever since. She wasn't the last bride stolen away from the Mormons.

I agree with your criticism of this poll. They are trying to prove some "Hollywood liberal" stereotype. It amuses me that even here on DU, a place that's the home of so many affluent liberals, they failed.

but it isn't who I am. I'm have a master's degree, but I've also worked in steel mills, factories, drove a cab, etc.

Most of the things on this absurd list I have done at some time, but don't do now, choosing not to do those things. Since I don't do them currently, I live in a bubble? Did I not experience them? According to the poll's author ... yes.

This is a very false notion.

or eat at Applebees. If that is this guy's idea of "the American norm", maybe he needs to get out more. Heh.

The whole quiz is shit, as are the assumptions behind it.

Seriously you post this shit here? From the American Enterprise Institute (A right-wing "think" tank, by the way) "scholar" Charles Murray. He's a right-winger

http://www.newrepublic.com/book/review/charles-murray-white-america#

except that people who live in areas that are not heavily populated with white, evangelical, christian neighbors may not be as socially isolated as this poll would represent.

When I lived in Central washington, I think a more apt line of questioning would be:

Have you ever been invited to a neighbor's daughter's quinceniera, or BBQ celebrating Guatemalan Independence Day?
Have you ever picked vegetables or fruit by hand, for pay
Have you spent time at a rodeo in the last year
Are any of your neighbors adept at playing a Guitarron Mexicano?

Living here in the PNW, specifically my neighborhood, questions would be

Have you spent time at a friends' wedding that involved a traditional vietnamese tea service?
Have you eaten Pho in the last year
Have you visited a dragon boat race in the last year
Do any of your neighbors speak Marshalese, Samoan, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Urutu, Somali, or Amharic

So I guess this quiz relates to when I lived in Florida, or SOuth Carolina, or other places, but for where I live now, and the people that I associate with and live near, my Ethiopian neighbors next door would probably score the same as I did, and I hardly think they are in an isolated bubble

But I lied about hunting and fishing because I backpack, but I don't kill stuff.

"Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010,"

And, of course, The Bell Curve.

Lol.

I have evangelical friends with whom I have wide ranging political disagreements.

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.

Kind of a silly test, though.

It asks if you've voluntarily hung out with smokers in the last month. I said no...but that's not because I chose not to. At my age, I don't "hang out" much with anyone...and #2 - most people don't smoke any more, and #3 - I didn't decide NOT to hang out with smokers. So that's different from avoiding smokers, wouldn't you say? Which I haven't done.

Yay me!

I'm proud to say I have no idea who the nascar driver was and never hunted or fished. And I don't feel bad working in academia.

I think that is what drives my pragmatism. I have a pretty good idea what the different parts of America think and believe and the effect that has on the ability to move an agenda forward.

I consider myself to be living in a bubble of wonderful people, some of whom I agree with and some of whom I disagree with vehemently.

Never had much money. That's why I know evangelicals and wore a uniform to work at times in my life among other things.

I balk at beer in my refrigerator. That's because of my religious background. Same for hanging out with people who smoke a lot. Not for me.

"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 read the short article that was information regarding this guy's book
and I don't know what he is talking about.

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.

If I'd gone to movies, fished, hunted, kept up with NASCAR, gone to restaurants, hung around smokers, hunted, drank beer or been in the service, I'd have been mainstream. As if was, I think I did enough to know America.

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.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hah! I get out enough, thank you!

Let's put it this way... in the past year, I have made enough bank interest to buy not one, but two.... cans of pop

"upper class bubble"?

I'll remember that when I'm stocking the cooler at work today. Utterly stupid test.

I could only answer yes to two questions and one of those was a big stretch.

But I simply don't care about the score. I'm well aware of what goes on in the world, and if my leisure pursuits are different than NASCAR and fishin', that's my business.

..just changing those two items to "yes" makes me 'more connected'. Um, no thank you.

Kind of a silly quiz, though.

The parade question - it really depends on where you live. I'm from New Orleans, and of course, I've been in a parade. But to be completely honest, that can be an elitist activity there - on some floats and in some Krewes, it costs a fortune to be in them - thousands. I'd also hardly think going to a krewe ball is a mainstream activity, but hey, what do I know.

And a transformers movie? And NASCAR? What?

you scored between 13 and 16.

...FB high school buddies to see if they only got C's 30 years ago since I never cared then.

I'm apparently somewhat of an elitist snob, but I have some appreciation for the hardworking joes.

Bryant

"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."

I hang out with more blue collar working class friends in a week than this elitist jagoff has his entire lifetime. I and I guarandamntee you he would fail his own quiz.

Not surprised, I come from a hybrid white collar, blue collar back ground, half year spent living in very poor neighborhood with my mom when school was out and middle and upper middle class suburbs with my dad during school year. My first job was a bagger, I moved up to meat dept. got fired for eating a deli sandwich that was about to be thrown out because it was past date, went to the next grocery store, got hired their as a bagger, worked up to produce and salad bar, graduated HS, skipped college went into air force, came home, started college, started working for my dad's business in the factory making BBQ sauces, worked on bottling floor, then warehouse and shipping, moved up the ranks and made it to purchasing, all the while, no special treatment from my dad. met a girl wanted to start a family, needed a better paying job, got hired as a corrections officer, did that for 5 years, moved to police dept, did that for one year, got divorced, quit PD, became an EMT, injured back, took my state time and 3 years of college and became a case worker and here I am. My friends all vanished along the way, starting their own families. Just turned 40, single, no children. Loving it.

If being involved in American culture means eating at Applebee's talking about Nascar, Honey Boo Boo and Dancing with the stars while drinking crappy Domestic Mass Market Beer and then going to see the latest Super Hero/Kids cartoon made into a "movie". Well then no, I don't want to leave my bubble and embrace American culture.
I'll stay in my bubble were I have science and good beer, and can watch brit coms, and movies where I have to read subtitles and have conversations with my wife about things were reading and are interested in. I'm not going to
embrace ignorance and bad taste, to fit in with a culture on a fast food diet of cultural crap.
Jeez when did mediocrity become the way to bring America back together.

I think the elites are scared of the 99% coming together against them.