Take The Elitism Test!
Charles Murray (of The Bell Curve fame) has an op-ed in the Washington Post about how liberals are a bunch of elitists who don’t understand Real Americans(TM). I put together a quiz based on Murray’s elitism litmus tests.
Scoring: Each correct answer is worth 1 point. For Yes or No questions, Yes is 1 point, No is 0 points. Please be kind to your fellow commenters and don’t put the answers in your comments.
1. Who replaced Bob Barker on “The Price Is Right?”
2. Have you ever watched a full episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show?”
3. Who is Jimmie Johnson (2 answers)?
4. What does the acronym “MMA” represent?
5. Have you ever read “Left Behind?”
6. Have you ever read a Harlequin Romance?
7. Do you have an RV?
8. Have you ever been on a cruise?
9. What is the significance of Branson, MO?
10. Have you ever attended a Kiwanis or Rotary Club meeting?
11. Have you lived a year in a small, non-college town?
12. Have you lived in an urban neighborhood where most of your neighbors don’t have college degrees?
13. Have you ever spent a year with a family income less than 2x poverty (college student doesn’t count)?
14. Do you personally know an evangelical Christian?
15. Have you ever worked in a factory or ever visited a factory floor?
Scoring:
0-5 You’re an elitist! I bet you had to put down your latte to type, didn’t you?
6-10 You’re an elitist wanna-be
11-15 Congrats, you’re a Real American(TM)!
Tags: Republican Crazy, Washington Post
Do I get 2 points for knowing both Jimmie Johnson’s?
I got a 10, BTW. I’m almost a Real American!
Sure, why not lg
I rate as a real American, but I only know about most of that shit to make fun of it. I demand a more scientific text that accounts for degree of elitist snark.
BTW, the questions where I scored a point were 1, 2, 3 (2 pts), 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15.
If I get to count 2 pts. for #3 I qualify as a Real American(TM)! Although Glen Urquhart says I’m an extremist. 🙁
As far as the quiz goes, you have to talk to Real American(TM) Whisperer Charles Murray. I think some of the choices are odd myself – RVs are very expensive and cruises are as well (I’m assuming he means a Carribean cruise not a riverboat one).
Uh oh… I only scored a 4.
Love the cruise question, btw. Cruises can be affordable or expensive, but the reason they tend to appeal to “real” Americans is because they are so controlled – not exactly going to mingle with general population, experience a different a culture, or need to know any other language than English.
9
The only things keeping me from being an elitist were two yes answers related to assignments from my days in journalism.
Elitism tests are for the rabble.
Cruises can be affordable or expensive, but the reason they tend to appeal to “real” Americans is because they are so controlled – not exactly going to mingle with general population, experience a different a culture, or need to know any other language than English.
That’s why I don’t want to go on a cruise, or go to a resort.
I got 5.
But the reason that I’m likely an elitist in the eye of Charles Murray is that I can see the elitist shell game he is trying to run down here. Here is a man quite dependent upon the AEI — an institution very much funded by elites. Conservative ones, but I’d bet big money that his funders aren’t tooling around in an RV or telling their kids to stay away from Harvard. A thing *he* didn’t do, BTW. Murray has degrees from Harvard and MIT.
And here he is pandering to the anti-education, anti-intellectual crowd working yet again to make sure that these folks are always distracted from the shell game that their conservative elitist leadership continues to run down on them.
Seven, but I consider myself an elitist anyway. Good job putting together the quiz, UI. It shows how ridiculous his examples are. While I’m well aware of both the Left Behind books and Harlequin romances, I’d no more waste my time reading one than I would eating a deep-fried Milky Way. Some of these are socio-economic litmus tests, others simply a matter of taste. I know plenty of “elites” who enjoy boxing — is that really so different from mixed martial arts? I have watched episodes of Oprah, usually to see a particular guest. Isn’t that different from watching it every day because I’m a slack-jawed yokel?
As for the op-ed itself, Cassandra nails the hypocrisy perfectly. Let me add that this is yet another bit of apologia for his racist interpretation of SAT and IQ scores. Too bad those fancy degrees didn’t help him to understand the concept of circular logic, or the level to which an ability to fit into the elite version of society helps reinforce the traits that are passed on — through culture, not DNA — to the next generation.
I got 8.
wow. I got a 3, is anyone more elite than me?
Now wonder younger people tend to be elite liberals, we don’t have the life experience to be “real ‘mercans”
3, but maybe 4
Ive READ a left behind book, but it was to mock it and the whole time i didnt understand why i was putting myself through it. I appeal to the community. point or no point?
I know something happened in Branson, Missouri, but the details escape me. I’ll ponder the matter while I go search for the Grey Poupon that I thought was behind the large-graim caviar in the Sub-Zero.
Ive READ a left behind book, but it was to mock it and the whole time i didnt understand why i was putting myself through it.
Point awarded. The quiz doesn’t care why you read the book.
3
I got an 8 for knowing my Johnsons.
Charles Murray did a Q&A over at WaPo today.
He took a fair beating over there, I think. But apparently he is laying the groundwork for explaining why the tea party wins in November. If they do, of course. His task is to make it clear that candidates who may know something about “mainstream Americans” can be more successful at running the US than those who live in the liberal bubble. So he can’t exactly explain how it is that our Founders (who were very elite) could get it while apparently the current folks in charge can.
4 points if we’re counting both Johnsons; 1 if not and we’re deducting for animus towards the evangelicals I’ve met.
3
I got a 3 (Qs: 2,8,14). But then again, I already knew I was elite.
Oops, I gave an answer. Sorry.
“I got an 8 for knowing my Johnsons.”
I didn’t count knowing the former coach and current analyst. You’ll notice he left out the NFL JJ, because men of all collar colors watch the NFL. I wonder what Murray would score on the quiz? I guaran-effing-tee you he ain’t read no Harlequin cover to cover.
Oh crap! I got a 5! ‘Geek, you’re more tea bag than I am! Suck it! Keep praying and maybe you can run for Senate one day, too, while banning the News Journal from everything.
4 for me.
cranked out a 9, almost ten.
does watching Benny Hinn for shits and giggles count as knowing a born-againer?
9
My two RVs are Airstreams. Do I lose a point?
For knowing both Jimmie Johnsons and others, I got an 11. I am a real American…but I am not Christine O’Donnell!
My two RVs are Airstreams. Do I lose a point?
Not if one of them is your primary residence.
No questions on baseball. Too elitist.
Lots of teevee questions. Radio too elitist.
Rotary not elite? The Wilmington Rotary run Delaware for years.