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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
The modern pickup is the equivalent of a ’57 Chevy Bel Air Wagon – legroom, hauling capacity for the family, lots of utility for the home. Americans like big vehicles.
Same. I’ve seen Cinderella. Not sure I recognized any of the others. On the other hand, maybe I have seen some of them but just couldn’t remember their names!
My score would have been higher if I watched television. I don’t ever watch any.
I may be a pick up truck owner and veteran tire changer, but I can’t beat a pair of dropped transmissions and a changed out a generator. I say the Golden Wrench Award for this post goes to you, Cow Girl!
I think my main reaction to the Bubble Quiz is, “Wow, people actually remember all these things about themselves?”
No worries, we saw the flag and didn’t see anything wrong with the original comment.
Now I’m trying to figure out what it is that I did that’s resulting in a score that’s at least 15 more than most of the people who are reporting their scores.
The Bubble Quiz reminds me a lot of high school where you couldn’t be part of the in-crowd if you didn’t use the right words, wear the right clothes, or listen to the right music.
67. Weekly date nights with my wife made a big difference, I expect.
I read about these tweets and thought of the subtitle of Dana Loesch’s book, Flyover Nation: You can’t run a country you’ve never been to. She nailed it. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been watching the YouTube videos of each network’s election night coverage (MSNBC, Young Turks, and ITV had the best meltdowns. The Brits on ITV were even worse than the Turks. Unbelievable)
Had they ever traveled out of the “Acela province” for more than an awards acceptance, they might not have been so shocked. Meanwhile, I look forward to putting them out of business by encouraging other “flyover people” to starve them of viewers…and thus extinguishing them.
Balzer, I never thought I’d say this about you, but maybe you’re just a more mainstream guy than the rest of us weirdos?
The quiz doesn’t measure how embedded you are in typical “Belmont” culture, either – if you’re neither “typically red” nor “typically blue”, your score might be even lower! Nor is it a comprehensive measure of whether you’ve been sheltered from discomfort or tragedy. It is some sort of estimation of “mainstream-ness”. Balzer, are congratulations or apologies in order? ;-P
Besides my brother (my other brother is a wood floors guy, so he uses a big van to protect his stock from weather), and three brothers-in-law?
We live in Annapolis, about 5 miles from the Sajak Pavilion, and a half hour from Washington DC if you drive it at 3 AM when there is less traffic. I can look out my window and see 4 neighbors’ pickups parked by their houses.
That illustrates how small the bubble is- if those tweeter idjits ever left Manhattan or ventured outside the 495 Beltway, they might learn a lot about the USA.
This reads like a Business School case study on why diversity is critical to an organization. Their information system is basically inoperable at this point, and probably irreparable.
Not that I will let my advanced degree from an elite institution color my impression at all.
72. Kind of proud of it. I am a physician who owns an F-250 Supercrew FX4 King Ranch with matching shell, winch and gun vault with dog kennel. I hunt regularly. I served in the U.S. Navy for 3 years. My parents were blue collar and clerical. I read classic literature and trashier stuff. I do not watch NASCAR anymore but knew enough that Jimmie/Jimmy Johnson was either the old Dallas coach or owner(similar name Jerry Jones) or the NASCAR guy. I don’t watch much TV except DVR’d news or sports. I live in Louisiana so am a food snob and do not frequent chain restaurants.
The point to me was the apparent immediate disdain exhibited by the journalists. No insult should be taken simply by the query. It should be an opportunity for introspection and improvement. The bigotry on their part is active. The truck question was more passive but taken as provocative. Whereas, I would feel ignorant or lesser if someone asked if I had read much “Chaucer”, if I had not. I would react demurely and not with disdain, realizing there were experiential gaps in my person. If I were really bothered, I would go to Amazon and purchase the literature to broaden myself.
A more interesting question: Did you know that imported pickup trucks are saddled with a 25% tariff? And thus that all pickups in the US are 25% more expensive than they otherwise would be? Instead of paying $40,000+ for that Chevy Colorado diesel Z71 you should be paying no more than $30,000. That ought to outrage all those pickup truck owners who paid too much. Further, did you know that the TPP lowers that tariff on pickups…. over 20 YEARS!!! So much for free trade under the TPP. AS a septuagenerian, I won’t live to see the benefit. Then again, how many rice farmers in America export to Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, or Vietnam? What does the TPP say about rice exports/imports?
Kent,
Why is a domestic truck also saddled with tarif?
Most of those Toyotas are built here aren’t they?
The Chicken Tax – I know it well.
Ford makes its Transit Vans, and Fiat / Dodge makes its Promaster vans in Turkey because they sell these vehicles on the world market. (blame the EPA for getting rid of the venerable and sturdy E-Series vans). Even though MOST are sold as empty white box vans, they ALL come in with full rows of seats and windows to avoid the Chicken Tax, then are stripped of those things (which are destroyed) as soon as they are cleared through customs. Destroying all of that property is still cheaper than paying the Chicken Tax.
So I did see three of the movies on the list, but I can’t believe those are weighted that heavily. I think it’s either having grown up in a rural area or having the friend who couldn’t get above a C even if they tried. Although I’m not sure about that, I don’t know if they were trying as it was.
Haha! Yeah, I couldn’t say, yes, I knew friends like that in high school.
I had some close friends in elementary school who probably grew into guys who might be described that way, but we moved away from each other before high school, so I don’t know.
But then, I went to a large high school, with many tracks, and I’m not sure who wouldn’t be able to get better than C in something by applying some combination of effort and dropping down to a lower track. My homeroom contained a girl with fairly extensive brain-damage, and she was still getting decent grades in her Special Ed classes.
Is there not a musical that says you two should not be mixing? More or less having five children together….
Nine!
Have I won a prize?
It’s like people who lament the loss of “good factory jobs”. Most of them wouldn’t be caught dead working in a factory.
Glenn Reynolds has an interesting take on this in USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/01/05/gentry-liberals-trump-college-campuses-elite-glenn-reynolds-column/96155458/
For years the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (*in Cleveland) held its induction ceremonies in New York because they couldn’t get enough celebs to go to Cleveland.
$30k to 40k would be a 33% increase, not 25%.
Domestic would not be saddled with a tarriff. But tarrifs on competitive imports would tend to raise prices by the amount of the tarrif.
It’s like the “genius” idea I see spouted every few years about having a variable gasoline tax that only kicks in when the price of gas falls below a certain price floor. If the gasoline retailers were going to have to charge the floor price anyway, why would they ever let the price fall below it (and trigger the tax) if they’re just going to have to give the extra money to the government instead of keeping it for themselves?
If it makes you feel any better, the quiz linked to in that NPR article just says domestic beer. So it might be safe for you to take.
I can sort of understand that, but I don’t want to go to New York either.
47. Difficult to translate to Australia.