A Political Quiz!
| July 16th, 2004I love these things: Red/Blue quiz.
I came out just to the red side of the center; the diagnosis was: “Time to get out of the sun, you’re looking a little Red.” (Although, this may surprise some, it is true. I am just to the right of the center. )
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Warning to left leaning Illini: You are likely to turn out red simply by virtue of having driven around Illinois and neighboring states. My advice: Don’t worry about it.
July 16th, 2004 at 2:20 pm
I’m almost smack dab in the middle, but I lean slightly to blue.
This comment was written by Amanda.Report this comment to the moderators
July 17th, 2004 at 8:48 am
“…simply by virtue of having driven around…”
Well, duh. The quiz measures whether you’ve heard of various things popular in the Midwest and the South. Then they just equate that with “red”. Why is that interesting?
Sorry, I just find it irritating when Davidbrooksian magazine writers go on about how interesting it is that other Davidbrooksian magazine writers have managed to popularize a cliche within their media world, and then use that as evidence that it must be valid in some way. Has anyone ever really used “red” and “blue” in this way in a conversation?
This comment was written by Eli.Report this comment to the moderators
July 17th, 2004 at 10:01 am
I took the dumb quiz too. What an inane waste of time. Just because one lives near walmart and not in NYC does not make one a red-stater. Just silly.
This comment was written by rusty shackleford.Report this comment to the moderators
July 17th, 2004 at 10:45 am
sure, but was it right? does the quiz authenticate its predictive validity, by, say, asking for a zip code? this would seem to be an easy feature to add. slightly trickier is adjusting the weighting of the questions to get better answers if that’s what the data shows.
This comment was written by arbitraryaardvark.i’m also interested in cross-correlations between quizzes. www.lp.org/quiz has the two-axis world’s smallest political quiz quiz.
(similar to, better than, the political compass quiz)
it would be of interest to see how red/blueness correlates with political positions.
correlations have been found with personality type and birth order.
as somebody operating from the purist libertarian perspective,
i’m interested in ways of communicating that message in a way that reaches people of other personality types.
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July 17th, 2004 at 11:06 am
>>it would be of interest to see how red/blueness correlates with political positions.
Yes it would be interesting.
The fact is, I love these quizzes no matter how absurd! It was pretty funny to read how they rated answers.
One would think giving the right answer shouldn’t really tell anyone very much at at all. Of course I know where the Quad cities are– my counsins live there. Of course I know what “the UP” is, I’ve skied there. Of course I know where Door county is– when I was a kid growing up in Libertyville, Il, just 10 miles from Wisconsin, tons of other kids families went there for summer vacation!
And WHO may I ask eats brisket with Aoli sauce?
Next week, I will be eating cheese, drinking beer and eating beef sticks in Wisconsin. Man I must be totally red!
This comment was written by lucia.Report this comment to the moderators
July 17th, 2004 at 11:15 am
Ohhh… I took the other quiz. It is better– and I had seen it before. (Before I was a co blogger– so I didn’t post it.)
It correctly concludes:
According to your answers, your political philosophy is: libertarian
Libertarian
Libertarians support a great deal of liberty and freedom of choice in both personal and economic matters. They believe government’s only purpose is to protect people from coercion and violence. They value individual responsibility, and they tolerate economic and social diversity.
On the graphic, I’m smack over “centrist” and half way up the diamond of libertarian.
This comment was written by lucia.Report this comment to the moderators
July 17th, 2004 at 3:06 pm
Not surprisingly, I’m a left-liberal. I found the quiz’s descriptions to be subtly biased, though, which irritated me.
This comment was written by PinkDreamPoppies.Report this comment to the moderators
July 17th, 2004 at 4:57 pm
’scuse me? I eat brisket, and just about any other beef, with horseradish (vinegar-based diced, or mayonaisse-based, another word for which might be “aoli”). However, I live 10 miles from the Horseradish Capital of the USA (IL).
Really useless quiz, just measures general knowledge, pretty worthless if you have lived in NY and in the Midwest.
This comment was written by NancyP.Report this comment to the moderators
July 17th, 2004 at 6:38 pm
I thought aioli was garlic flavored, not horseradish! My brothers in law eat brisket with horseradish too. It’s either that or barbeque sauce.
Out of curiosity, where is the horseradish capital? (I’m in Lisle, Il– right next to Naperville.)
This comment was written by lucia.Report this comment to the moderators
July 18th, 2004 at 12:54 am
How “blue” does it make me that I was irritated that they didn’t have an option “I don’t eat brisket”?
This comment was written by PinkDreamPoppies.Report this comment to the moderators
July 18th, 2004 at 5:42 am
I came out in the middle, and I wouldn’t have minded so much if I hadn’t had to get rid of my taskbar and change my display settings to “Jeez, this is so TINY, I can’t friggin’ read it!” just to see the whole quiz window. :( I’m going to go take something for eyestrain now…and I agree totally with PDP about the brisket question.
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July 18th, 2004 at 7:47 am
Well… the brisket question was also difficutl for me. The only way I prepare brisket is corned, and then I eat it on St. Pat’s day with cabbage and potatos. (And horseradish.) We prepared pretty much the Irish boiled dinner– but using corned beef.
Otherwise, the only time I eat brisket is when someone else prepares it and serves it at a barbeque. So…. with BBQ sauce. (Which makes me “red” again.)
I still love these test– no matter how odd! And this one, is, indeed odd.
It is very odd that you accumulate “red” points for knowing where the Quad cities are. These four cities are in Iowa and Illinois– both of which were “blue” states during the 2000 election.
You accumulated “red” points for knowing that Door County was in Wisconsin– a blue state during the election.
You accumulated red points for knowing “the UP” was in Michigan– a “blue” state! (And a vacation destination for many living in Wisc, and Illinois– both state!)
Ok.. it at least made *a little* sense that you might accumulate red points for visiting Branson MO— that at least *did* go a red during the election!
The fact is, this part of the country went BLUE big time. (My guess– Illinois will likely go blue again. Although, one never knows. We do swing around here….)
This comment was written by lucia.Report this comment to the moderators
July 18th, 2004 at 9:55 am
no scroll bar, dammit.
wwb
This comment was written by wwb.Report this comment to the moderators
July 18th, 2004 at 10:05 am
Lucia, you’re analyzing this way too hard. The test is just measuring whether you’re from the East or West coast or anywhere else, and is calling the “anywhere else” red. The writer carefully avoids making any specific political claims, or, really, any claims about anything - all the “red and blue are really states of mind” verbiage is just second-hand David Brooks, “I’m not really saying these stereotypes mean anything, but I sure do know how to make lists” stuff.
Like Brooks, the writer pretty quickly makes it clear that she’s writing for the “blue” crowd - specifically suburban New Yorkers, I’m guessing, since there’s no reason for Californians or New Englanders to know what “LIRR” is. People on the coast tend to assume that everyone in the Midwest is a Republican, thus they wouldn’t catch your point about Wisconsin, Iowa, etc.
This comment was written by Eli.Report this comment to the moderators
July 18th, 2004 at 11:14 am
Ohh… I agree I analyze this… and other things way too much. I enjoy overanalyzing. :-)
I also agree the people on the coasts, and especially New Yorkers, think the entire region between Penn and Idaho and Alabama to Arizona consist of one homogeneous mass of rubes and country bumpkins.
Mostly, I think it’s pretty funny that Anne E. Kornblut, the soi dissant political correspondent, who wrote the article evidently did not check that the particular geographic locations the test considers “red” are, in fact, “blue”! If she really thinks where you live plays a big role on your red/blueness level, couldn’t she at least look on a map and find out the “red” Quad cities spans two blue states?
This comment was written by lucia.Report this comment to the moderators
July 18th, 2004 at 7:15 pm
These things are great. A waste of time, but fun none the less.
This comment was written by JLT.Report this comment to the moderators
July 19th, 2004 at 3:21 am
I also agree the people on the coasts, and especially New Yorkers, think the entire region between Penn and Idaho and Alabama to Arizona consist of one homogeneous mass of rubes and country bumpkins.
Kinda like how people not from New York tend to think “New Yorkers” can only mean those from NYC and/or that all of NY state is just like NYC, or at most NYC and “upstate NY” (which is really just the area surrounding NYC)? :p
signed, the native New Yorker who doesn’t know much more about NYC than the average mid-westerner.
This comment was written by bean.Report this comment to the moderators
July 19th, 2004 at 7:18 am
I really couldn’t even take this quiz — I’m so clueless about pop culture that they’d end up having to base my score on about 15% of the answers (the rest having been left blank). I often wasn’t even sure what sort of thing was being discussed!
eesh, made me feel stupid. I already know my political leanings….
This comment was written by acm.Report this comment to the moderators
July 19th, 2004 at 7:41 am
I came out exactly in the middle. I grew up in Naperville, IL, so of course I knew about the Quad Cities, and Door Co. Guessed on the UP and LIRR. Briefly lived in upstate NY, and central IN for the last 10 years. Listen to country music occasionally, but am definitely blue politically.
This comment was written by Mychelline.Report this comment to the moderators
July 19th, 2004 at 7:42 am
Oops, I meant green politically. But if we have to say either blue or red, then blue.
This comment was written by Mychelline.Report this comment to the moderators
July 19th, 2004 at 9:52 am
You know, this has to be the only country in the world where people who believe that the best government policies are those that benefit the ultra-rich are described as red, and those who are aligned with labor unions are described as blue…
Does anyone know where these color associations started?
This comment was written by Charles.Report this comment to the moderators
July 20th, 2004 at 5:33 am
What the heck is a “brisket”? Says the Dane, who couldn’t be bothered to take the quiz because of how it showed up on his screen.
This comment was written by Kristjan Wager.Report this comment to the moderators
July 20th, 2004 at 6:11 am
>>What the heck is a “brisket”?
It’s a cut of meat that tends to be fatty and is not very tender. Here is a recipe for Scandinavian Stew. Some food information from a Danish source. Unfortunately, it’s in English, so brisket is called… brisket! However, there seems to be a language button, and the detail page for one type of raw brisket says: “Oksekød, spidsbryst, råt”
It would be pretty funny to read your reponses. I would suspect you don’t have any idea where the Quad cities, the UP, or Door county are. You probably also wouldn’t know who has some sort of logo with wings sticking out of it! (I didn’t have a clue on that one.)
This comment was written by lucia.Report this comment to the moderators
July 20th, 2004 at 6:33 am
I also agree the people on the coasts, and especially New Yorkers, think the entire region between Penn and Idaho and Alabama to Arizona consist of one homogeneous mass of rubes and country bumpkins.
Well, I’m a Bostonian, not a New Yorker.
I grew up thinking just that, the entire region consists of one homogenous mass of rubes and country bumpkins.
Then, I spent a few years of college in St. Louis.
Those years in The Great Heartland did not disprove the Country Bumpkin theory :-)
This comment was written by ChurchofBruce.Report this comment to the moderators
July 20th, 2004 at 6:35 am
And WHO may I ask eats brisket with Aoli sauce?
Well, it specifically said a horseradish aoli, so I do.
Then again, part of my heritage is Lithuanian/Polish, so I’ll put horseradish, in or out of an aoli, on anything :-).
This comment was written by ChurchofBruce.Report this comment to the moderators
July 20th, 2004 at 9:05 am
It would be pretty funny to read your reponses. I would suspect you don’t have any idea where the Quad cities, the UP, or Door county are.
Nope, nope and nope.
You probably also wouldn’t know who has some sort of logo with wings sticking out of it! (I didn’t have a clue on that one.)
The German and Danish railroad companies.
This comment was written by Kristjan Wager.Report this comment to the moderators
July 22nd, 2004 at 12:17 pm
Try this one, if you haven’t already, lucia.
This comment was written by newswriter.Report this comment to the moderators
July 22nd, 2004 at 12:25 pm
Whoops. Clicked post when I shoulda clicked preview. I found this one really interesting, particularly when I scrolled down the results page to see where some more well known figures may have fallen on the chart and how I compared. Incidentally, I found it a little confusing at first, because the results are down the page a bit and not at the top.
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December 9th, 2004 at 1:39 am
WARNING - RISE OF FASCISM IN OUR NATION:
http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/authoritarianism_and_fascism_alerts/index.html
Fundamentalism is a key component of Fascism (see the 14 common threads to seven fascist regimes here: http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/britt_23_2.htm)
Below is a list of things some Muslim fundamentalists hate about our culture:
* They hate liberated women, and all that symbolizes them. They hate it when women compete with men in the workplace, when they decide when or whether they will become breeders, when they show the independence of getting abortions, and changing laws that previously gave men more power over them.
* They hate the wide range of sexual orientations and lifestyles that have always characterized human societies. They hate homosexuality, can’t confront the homosexual tendencies that exist in them, so project them outward and punish them in others.
* They hate individual freedoms that allow people to stray from the single rigid sort of truth they want to constrain all people. They hate individual rights that let others slough off their simple certainties.
Not much about these revelations is really new. We saw all this before, when Khomeini’s Muslim fundamentalists wreaked such havoc in Iran in the years following 1979. We have long known that Muslim fundamentalism is a mortal enemy of freedom and democracy.
But a real surprise came just a few days after September 11th, in that remarkably unguarded interview on “The 700 Club” between Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. It was remarkable partly because these men are so media-savvy it’s amazing they would say such things on the air. But it’s also remarkable because as they listed the “causes” of the September 11th attacks, we heard exactly the same hate list the Afghan Taliban had outlined:
* They hate liberated women who don’t follow orders, who get abortions when they want them, who threaten, or laugh at, their arrogant pretensions to rule them.
* They hate the wide range of sexual orientations that have always characterized human societies. They would force the country to conform to a fantasy image of two married heterosexual parents where the husband works and the wife stays home with the children - even when that describes fewer than one-sixth of current American families.
* They hate individual freedoms that let people stray from the one simple set of truths they want imposed on all in our country. Pat Robertson has been on record for a long time saying that democracy isn’t a fit form of government unless it is run by fundamentalist Christians of his kind.
This comment was written by interested_party_123.Report this comment to the moderators