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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 get it. I feel like all of those hours watching “Maury” and eating 700 calorie giant burritos from 7-11 were wasted. I bet Charles Murray never did either.
63 and I don’t watch TV. Guess I’m deep in the streets baby.
Something that cost me points was the eateries were a little too upscale for me (Outback Steakhouse, Chilis, etc.). If it had been Arby’s, Subway, Mickey D’s… I’d have scored big time.
The angry blowback he’s getting for that question is pretty remarkable. And pretty revealing.
My uncle told me “The weekend after you buy a truck, you find out how many of your friends have brush piles.”
Do I live in a bubble if I’ve never heard of any of those people? Well, except for Oliver Willis, and I’m worse off for that.
Little known fact: When Arizona applied for statehood, they were told they needed a flag. So they used the design for the Arizona Rifle and Pistol Association. (We like our boomsticks.)
It gets worse. Not only does Arizona have a State Gun (something they share with Utah and a bunch of other states*), the official state flag of Arizona was first designed by the Arizona State Rifle and Pistol Association.
* I’m tickled pink by the fact that the State Gun of Tennessee is the Barrett M82 .50Cal rifle. I like to think that Chuck Schumer’s ulcers grow a millimeter every time that gets mentioned.
DrL & Quiet,
It’s interesting that you bring up VDH. His most recent piece really got me thinking. It is a lot more than just being in a bubble when damage to ordinary law abiding citizens is completely ignored. In this piece, VDH lets us city folk in on what’s happening in rural California. How the absurdist nonsense that has been coming from liberal elites has severely damaged life for those who don’t live with them.
It’s Still a Mad, Mad California
This is a lot more than just snobbery. This is systematic willful ignorance of the real effects of your pet policies on people.
Regards,
Jim
My head. Out. Now.
I look at it the other way: I enjoy being able to feel smug when people need my truck to help them move stuff.
One point that should mentioned- does anyone actually think that reporters are in any way ‘objective’ in their writing?
My second job, many years ago, was in a newsroom and at the morning producers meetings the agenda was ideas for ‘stories’ for the daily newscasts. But the stories were based on a premise/agenda and if the premise did’t pan out the way they wished then the story, already shot and brought in for editing, was killed. Stories that made air met their perceived criteria not the ‘truth’ of the matter.
Don’t be fooled by the ‘seekers of truth’ BS, that’s not how it works.
And did the liberal/progressive make trucks the litmus test of beliefs when they decided to be sanctimonious about the Prius?
Maybe no one should tell them that the kale farmers use trucks?
40.
Now I have to go shovel snow so I can get said pickup truck out of the garage.
I got a 39. I don’t see it so much as living in a bubble, but more like dwelling under a rock.
All those outraged liberals, and yet people STILL can’t figure out why Trump won.
I agree with you in the general: denigrating “Flyover Country” or praising the same real-estate as “Real America” are equally obnoxious to my mind.
That said, the defensiveness from the folks Jon cited is damning. The better answer from them would have been something more like “Huh. No, I don’t know anyone who drives a pick-up. That’s interesting.”
Nothing Frank Luntz does should really surprise me anymore, even when he piles on with the outraged reporters with a “you don’t have enough data” response.
26! And I don’t want TV much at all. At least I knew my military stuff! Don’t own a truck and don’t plan too.
Really, part of what this scanned for was being a nerd. I am a nerd. And I am wonkish. Went to private school growing up. Son of a Doctor. I have two Graduate Degrees, and I am a CEO.
I also am part of the Rabble. Go figure.
I got a 43 as a second generation middle-class with working class grandparents. I’m ashamed to say I probably would have scored even lower had I not served in the military. :(
This.
This is the equivalent of me saying “I notice the lid is off the cookie jar.” and my kid saying “I wasn’t in the cookie jar!” even though he was. These people are out of touch, and they know it, which is why they are so defensive.
Agreed. Questions about guns or gun ownership would really open it up, I think.
And I got a 48, so I’m a Man of the People™, not a cosseted elitist like Mr. Creighton. ;)
On a related note, I once took one of those “How Privileged Are You?” online quizzes, and there were plenty of questions about student debt and boutique sexualities, but not a one about military service. Who’s privileged now?
I did Murray’s bubble quiz a while back. And when it asked me something like “Have you ever stuffed your fridge full of coors light”, I stopped taking it. I don’t live in a bubble, and I don’t drink sh***y beer. The quiz is broken.
Clearly you must have, otherwise how could you have an opinion on it?
Hey Jon. I drive a pickup, and I could have used a good-old-boy trigger warning before reading those asinine Twitter comments in your post. Hehe . . .
But seriously, here in South Carolina at work, about 1/4 to 1/3 of the vehicles in the parking lot where I park are pickups. Furthermore, some folks who drive cars to work have a pickup truck back at home. I dare say that most of the pickups are crew cabs, which means four doors and a full-sized back seat for a family-very practical.
BTW, a real good-old-boy trigger warning is something like, “There’s a cop behind us with his blues on. Quick – finish your beer and throw the empties out the window!”
I own a pickup truck as does my next door neighbour, and so does my business partner. I’ve stuffed a fridge full of Coors light because even though I don’t drink lousy beer, my offspring do.
My friend, James Kirk, doesn’t believe in the Bubble Test, so he reprogrammed it to give himself a perfect score and a first date with the female test administrator. I understand the details are encrypted in The Captain’s Log.
Out here in flyover country a Vulcan Nerve Pinch is called G.I. Joe Kung Fu Grip but other than that the test gives me street cred independent of Pon Farr every 7 years.
I must have what? Stuffed my fridge full of coors light? No. I have drank it, yes. But if given a choice I don’t buy it.
The better answer would be “My 1500 will kick your F-150s ass, every day of the week ‘cept sunday, because then it’s parked at church!”