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The Bubble and the Pickup Truck
John Ekdahl asked a simple question Tuesday night:
The top 3 best selling vehicles in America are pick-ups. Question to reporters: do you personally know someone that owns one?
— John Ekdahl (@JohnEkdahl) January 4, 2017
This not at all complicated query should generate one of two answers: yes or no. Instead, Ekdahl got hours of contempt, confusion, and rage.
This is very silly question. To wit: The top 3 population centers in America are liberal strongholds. DO YOU PERSONALLY KNOW SOMEONE THERE? https://t.co/UJMccGjg40
— Ben Dreyfuss (@bendreyfuss) January 4, 2017
@JohnEkdahl Q: How many of those truck owners use them for the intended purpose? A: Not many unless you count immigrant laborers.
— Bob (@lytestreet) January 4, 2017
@JohnEkdahl I live in a city. I wouldn’t want to know people who felt they needed to own a pick up in the city (unless they haul bricks)
— John Corbett (@CorComm) January 4, 2017
Today in McCarthyism for Idiots: If you don’t know someone who owns a truck, you’re not a real ‘Murican! Bonus freedom points for TruckNutz! https://t.co/Jm3fQNjH79
— Desdakon (@Desdakon) January 4, 2017
Can we please move off the idea that truck-owning, country music-listening, gun enthusiasts are the “real” Americans https://t.co/R601jNKWvi
— Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) January 4, 2017
1) this is wrong, 2) many of these are fleet vehicles, 3) they’re geographically concentrated bc duh, 4) this is a dumb question for stupids https://t.co/6kulkdzStO
— Danny Concannon (@Danny_Concannon) January 4, 2017
Owning a pickup makes you more Real American than taking the subway and two buses to your job?
Pffft. https://t.co/RUKNElbmXF
— Donna Gratehouse (@DonnaDiva) January 4, 2017
.@JohnEkdahl plenty of heartlanders are opioid addicts. Does that mean to report on real Amerikkka you need an oxy habit?
— Jonathan Gitlin (@drgitlin) January 4, 2017
reporters continually signalling to cons that theyre “real americans and not those awful liberals” produces a lot of the ‘both sides” bs https://t.co/6Y2tiPWV92
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) January 4, 2017
It was a bad faith, rhetorical question that retrenchs disillusionment, suspicion and obscures the truth https://t.co/LQKwXn2B3j
— Matt Heimiller (@MattHeimiller) January 4, 2017
Ekdahl never mentioned guns, immigration, country music, race, or “real Americans,” yet a flurry of journalists and other progressives tried to shame him with each for daring to ask this non-political question. All because they didn’t want to admit that they live in a bubble.
Many Americans, left and right, live in monochrome cultural enclaves. Many of my friends at DC think tanks and my relatives on the farm don’t interact with many people who live different lives than themselves. Admitting this isn’t a black mark on either group; it merely helps us understand our limited perspective.
Since I live in the Phoenix suburbs, I know plenty of people in both groups. The economist PhDs make me feel dumb and the ranchers make me feel wimpy, so I learn a lot from both. Humility is a requirement if you want to learn or write about the many subjects outside your ken. Journalism would be a lot better if our media accepted this truth.
A longer version of Ekdahl’s question was posed by Charles Murray in his now-famous Bubble Quiz (which includes a question about pickup trucks, natch). I was in the middle of the pack with a score of 58 out of 100. Let me know what you get in the comments.
Published in General
I must be quite a hick, scoring an 88.
The blue collar unions are very weak. The unions we hear about most are: teachers, Hollywood writers, professional athletes.
Oh that’s a great twist on it.
To be completely fair though, it should ask questions like, “Have you ever ridden a subway to work every day”. As it is, it equates living in flyover country as having less of a bubble. While in general that may be true, since the culture is steeped in the other culture, I think you can take the assumption too far.
My last three vehicles since 1995 (when we completed construction on the verdant grounds of the Casa de Estrogen) have been trucks – a half ton Ford in 1995, a Ford SuperCrew in 2005 when we had added to kids to the mix, and a half ton Ram Quad Cab in 2013 when the SuperCrew had been been rear ended and totaled. I need the truck to handle the maintenance of the house, and it’s third of an acre (tree trimming, fence repairs, landscaping, gardening, home improvements) and unceasingly helping family, friends, and neighbors move things.
The point is, we use the truck as intended. But honestly, most new trucks come appointed better than a standard sedan these days. They’re comfortable, provide utility when needed, even if it isn’t the primary reason for the purchase.
We’ve also purchased several sedans (the last being a rather high horsepower Maxima), as well as a Honda Odyssey minivan in 2011. Since my oldest is preparing for her learner’s permit, we’ll be adding a small used vehicle for her in the next several months, after she has obtained her license, and gotten some miles under her.
I miss my old CHP Mustang, and have looked at obtaining a used Audi TT or an even older Mustang, but I will be lacking driveway and garage space, so one of those will wait until we can push these kids out of the door… someday.
@mattbalzer
I get that feeling when people are talking about unions, too. Outside of maybe teachers’ unions, do these people actually know anyone in a union?
Sure, the Screen Actors Guild.
Farmer and classicist. That explains a lot, specifically why he had such penetrating insights concerning the election.
I considered getting a pickup truck in the past, but the dealbreaker for me was thinking of all the friends who would rope me into helping them on moving day.
I rode a train in and out of Chicago every day for four years too. Not a subway, though.
So far my score is the lowest (16). Why don’t I feel like I live in a bubble?
I would think any kind of mass transit would divide people in substantially the same way. I’m just saying, to score thinness of bubble, you should score on both sides.
We are those friends : )
My husband (at 52) still thinks mover are a waste of money because we have boys.
Oh, and I got a 50. I feel very well balanced and superior to both high and low scorers right now : )
Amazing that the people responding to the question with this kind of nastiness don’t recognize their own bigotry.
I got a 56 on the quiz.
You make good points, but it is just that the liberals play this game with all sorts of other things (how many black friends do you have, have you even met a gay person, etc.) that seeing our side starting it up just convinces me that we are doomed to this kind of posturing forever. Welcome to the new PC…
Journalist don’t have to have friends in all the various social groups of the US, they just have to be willing to talk to all of them. But, when you ask someone if they know a person the implication is that they are friends or at least co-workers, so it is a loaded question in that respect. Why not ask, have you met anyone who own a truck? Well then, I would be surprised given their popularity if any adult could say no to that question.
The fact that it was met with discomfort and not disdain was telling. We have moved the pendulum, just a bit.
Oh, and I got a 67 but I am not sure if we are scaling it right. If we can merge the working class whites with the working class blacks and Latinos , it will be a powerful and enduring political coalition.
I have helped one friend move seven times in ten years – damned vagabond.
But, with six siblings, and nine adult nieces/nephews, someone always needs to move something – out of the seven of us, four of us have trucks in our households.
You’re a Arizonian: most trucks have fantastically powerful A/C – better than most cars! Plus with the poor fuel efficiency (400 horsepower Hemi), and blasting the A/C, I feel I am doing my part to balance out the California government s̶a̶n̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶e̶d̶ er, mandated climate change lunacy.
This person is paid to write about cars:
So no, not really.
24, but perhaps I have an over exacting standard of close friend. I interact with people every week that might have met some of the criteria, but I wouldn’t know it.
My view tends to coincide with @valiuth. The test shows one group of people interacting infrequently with another group of people, but only one group is consigned to a “bubble.” Is someone scores 100 on Murray’s test, but answers no to the following questions, living in a bubble as well?
I’m sure people could come up with better questions, but you see the gist. What if no one is outside of a bubble?
65 …But that is because I lived on a dairy farm for the first 18 years of my life. I’ve lived in the city mostly after that, but because we were in the military in the Carter years, we were technically in “poverty” so that’s another factor. My dream car was a Chevy Suburban because I had five children. We’ve always owned a pick-up truck because Mr. CowGirl was a rancher and I was farmer. We learned early how useful a truck can be.
I don’t currently own a pickup, but after this I’m sorely tempted to get one on the off chance it might give my lefty friends a case of the vapors. Who knew a pickup was such a threat to their little worlds? Nice article.
Jon’s comment above make me think of this commenter on Ekdahl’s tweet:
First of all: “I wouldn’t want to know” certain people based on their choice of vehicle?! How bigoted. One could also express derision at those who pay high prices for hybrid vehicles. Or at those who own a VW bug, because Hitler. Where does such idiocy end?
Secondly: If this guy was moving from one crappy, overpriced apartment to another, and he did deign to favor a pickup-owner with his friendship, how fast do you think he would call that friend?
I’m protesting my 41 on the quiz. I highly resent being dinged for not being able to stomach Dr. Phil, Ellen, Wendy Williams, Big Bang Theory, or (literally) Applebee’s and Chili’s. Why no Chick-Fil-A or Taco Bell? Why no Investigation Discovery shows like “Evil Kin” and “Wives with Knives”? I demand a recount! Call Jill Stein!
Absolutely! The twitter question was another example of “Dog whistle politics.”
I got 20.
You are sentenced to dinner at TGI Fridays ASAP, combined with an evening of binge-watching Big Bang Theory.
Feeling better about my 52. The goose egg on non-Waffle House restaurants and TV shows hurt my score.
And then there’s Obama, who is his own bubble.
Wait till they find out that Arizona not only has a state reptile, but it has a state gun. Time magazine found about it 2011 and posted a picture of the wrong gun. I find the East and West Coast press amusing, and the further they stay away from Arizona only adds to my enjoyment.
This is a photo of the pistol that Time magazine should have used in their article.
Oh dear. That’s humorous.