Off Topic Fun? The Livejournal Wingnut Test

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

We've been yelling at each other a lot lately. And there have been many threads with lengthy accusations of each other occupying some bizarre place on the political spectrum. With that in mind, I thought I could dig into my rating scale creation skills and help us all identify where we are on the spectrum from "entirely reasonable political discussant" and "utter and total whackadoodle wingnut".



1) On an average week, how many hours do you spend listening to AM Talk Radio or viewing a cable news channel for anything other than the weather or a traffic report?

a) 5 hours + 3 points
b) 10 hours + 8 points
c) 20+ hours + 15 points

2) Complete the following sentence --

"The people who disagree with me politically..."

a) "...are generally good people who have drawn different conclusions than myself." - 5 points
b) "...are misled and/or ill informed or they would agree with me." + 5 points
c) "...are responsible for most of what is wrong in the world today." + 10 points
d) "...are lying power-hungry hyena vermin." + 15 points

3) On an average week on Livejournal, how many threads of 5 or more responses to the same poster do you have?

a) none - 5 points
b) 3-5 + 3 points
c) 5-10 + 8 points
d) I lost count after 12 + 15 points
e) A lot but they are all about my cat - 10 points

4) Do you currently have more image macros than pictures of your family on your lj scrapbook?

+ 5 points

5) On your hard drive? + 10 points

6) Which of the following IS a government conspiracy?

a) The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment - 5 points
b) The Moon Landing + 5 points
c) Flouridation of Drinking Water + 10 points
d) The Attacks of September 11, 2001 + 15 points
e) Obama's Birth Certificate + 15 points

7) Have you ever called people you disagreed with "sheeple"? + 5 points

8) More than once a week? + 10 points

9) Have you purchased anything from Goldline in the past two years? + 10 points

10) Are any of the following stock expressions of yours in argument (close variation counts)?

a) "So what you are saying is..." + 5 points
b) "You have obviously never studied..." + 5 points
c) "Show me where I said..." + 5 points
d) "Democraps" + 5 points
e) "Rethuglicans" + 5 points
f) "Democan & Republicrat" + 5 points
g) Anti-choicer + 5 points
h) "Pro-abortion" + 5 points
i) "FASCIST!" + 10 points
j) "SOCIALIST!" + 10 points
k) "That's a really interesting point I had never considered before, thank you." - 20 points

11) The mainstream media's biggest problem is...

a) "...that it is selling an entertainment product pitched at the lowest common denominator in the marketplace." - 5 points
b) "...that it is a left wing driven conspiracy to distort the news against conservatives." + 10 points
c) "...that it is a corporatist driven conspiracy to support big business over truth and justice." + 10 points

12) Does your car have more bumper stickers than wheels? + 5 points

13) Do you keep old email notifications to use as material in later arguments? + 5 points

14) Are they filed by username? + 10 points

15) Does LJ drama have a tag for you? + 5 points

16) Do you have more political communities than people in your friends' view? + 5 points

17) Are you arguing in more than one community at a time RIGHT NOW? + 10 points

18) If I copied some text from your most recent post into Google will I find it on several other blogging sites? + 5 points

19) Which statement is MOST accurate?

a) President Obama is the most liberal/socialist President we have ever seen. + 10 points
b) President Obama is a corporatist tool selling out the people to Wall Street. + 10 points
c) WASN'T EVEN BORN IN AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!! + 20 points
d) None of the above. - 5 points

20) When a dozen or more posters all seriously question your reasoning, you...

a) ...thoughtfully reconsider to see if they are correct? - 5 points
b) ...disregard in favor of the people who agree with you? + 5 points
c) ...ignore well thought out replies and argue with people trolling you? +10 points
d) ...mutter "If I had my gun you'd all be dead by now." + 25 points

scale 0< - 265+ total points

If you score...

Under 0 points: Congratulations! Not only are you not a wingnut, you are probably one of the most mellow and reasonable people a person is likely to meet online. Unicorns comes out of the forest to rest their heads in your lap and gold finches follow you wherever you go. It is entirely possible that you are the next incarnation of the Buddha.

0-66: You are not a wingnut in any reasonable sense of the term. It is possible that you get into some heated arguments with others, but it would take a seriously poor judge of character to accuse you of being a wingnut.

67-132: Did you know that it is almost Springtime in the Northern Hemisphere? Some time very soon, there will be daffodills and lilacs and it will be warm enough to take a nice, long walk without a coat on. I am not saying that you are a wingnut, per se, but you might want to consider enjoying the calmer things in life.

133-199: People are starting to get worried about you and it is difficult to really blame them. You have moved past provocative and stubborn and into territory where others don't think it is possible to have a discussion with you. The growing silence that your posts are met with is not the flawless victory of your stunning logic, but the large mass of livejournal giving up on ever speaking with you again.

200 points and above: I'd call you a wingnut, but I am not sure if Western Union can deliver telegrams to your remote cabin in the Idaho Panhandle. If and when you decide to return to civilization, the rest of us would appreciate it if you avoided any and all clock towers.

Comments

[dark-weezing.livejournal.com]

Question, what if you agree with some or all the choices? As I do believe in all of 11's, oddly enough. Just all them add up, or is it one choice only?

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

11 is stated as "BIGGEST" problem, so that's a limited choice, I'm afraid. Others are more open.

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

A+

[bex.livejournal.com]

*Zoidberg voice* Yay, I'm not a wingnut! I would like to know more about remote cabins in the Idaho Panhandle, however.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

I only scored an 18. Clearly, there's something wrong.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Don't lie about the Goldline thing, man.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

1) In an average week I may listen to as much as an hour of talk radio.

2) A, of course, is the most honest answer. I'm aware enough of my own faults that I don't pretend to have all the answers.

3) Quite a few, but that's because in general I'm posty. Not sure how many of them are because I make a point that I either wish to clarify or try to edit forgetting that unlike on Dreamwidth I cannot edit on Livejournal.

4) I have no pictures whatsoever on the scrapbook.

5) Nope.

6) Tuskegee.

7) Only once and then as a joke related to a meme, and I lumped myself in that category. And that was on my personal LJ.

8) Whoever'd do that is taking the Internet and discussions therein a mite too seriously.

9) What's Goldline?

10) My stock phrases include fascist and socialist, but in the sense of "Group Individual X is *NOT* fascist/socialist. Group/Individual Y are. Stop being anachronistic."

11) A of course.

12) Hell no.

13) No. I'm not *that* petty, and I actually don't have LJ e-mail notification.

14) Wow.....whoever would go that far *really* overestimates the importance of the Internet and needs to step outside and take a few breaths of the nice clean air.

15) ROFL, the only people who'd *want* a tag there are attention whores and people who spend too much time on the Internet.

16) Actually this is the only political community I'm in.

17) No, but I am involved in multiple distinct fora where my current big project on one of them are two simultaneous alternate history timelines. And I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last weekend.

18) I.....have no idea about this. In some ways I'd rather that not be the case, as the Internet is serious business to more people than it has any reason to be.

19) D. And that is my final answer, Regis.

20) I'd like to think that I always respond A but I probably more often respond with a mixture of B and C.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Haha, that's pretty cool.

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

What is this, a silly paen to the formality of empty politeness? I'm not here to expand my horizons!111!!!!1eleventyone!1!!!

Excuse me while I get some more tea. I see the Count has arrived...

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Eleventy-one is one more than eleven, isn't it....even if only positionally.

[rasilio.livejournal.com]

1) Does Sports talk radio count? Seriously I don't watch TV news ever and the Stossel show on FBN is the only "news show" I watch. I do listen to talk radio occasionally but typically only during my evening commute which averages 15 minutes. Cumulative total would be about 2 hours a week I'd guess.

0 Points

2) A by far but in a few cases I'll throw in that they are obviously willfully and deliberately obtuse in that they have no interest in even trying to comprehend positions different from their own. So I won't take the negative and just call it...

0 points

3) Hmm, 5 responses to a single individual. I tend to make a smaller number of large posts rather than a large number of smaller posts and I tend to spread my responses around to different people. Still I'm sure I get 5 responses to a single person more than a few times a week so I'll guess B

3 Points

4) I have no images of any sort on LJ save whatever my wife uploaded for me when the account was first set up.

0 points

5) No macros on my hard drive. Not something I take time to bother with.

0 points

6) Well A definitely was, and the government did conspire to land a man on the moon and put fluoride in the water supplies however they really did land people on the moon and there was no nefarious purpose behind the flouride so I'll claim the bonus here...

-5 points

7) Only in jest, usually impersonating Dr Horrible.

0 Points

8) Well obviously 0 points as well

9) That would require having enough money to actually buy investments.

10) C and F (no fair on that one since I'm the only one who uses those terms here)

10 points

11) How many points for none of the above? Lets call that 0 points

0 points

12) No Bumper Stickers of any sort on my car, but if it had them they'd be more likely to be Sci - Fi Fantasy related than political

0 points

13) Nope

0 points

14) Nope

0 points

15) No clue but I assume so

5 points

16) Nope, only this community and Libertarianism

0 points

17) Nope, only this community

0 Points

18) Only if there is a snark site that pulls it's source snarks from here.

0 points

19) None of the above

0 Points

20) Lets see,

A: is unlikely but possible if they show that they actually understand what I am saying, incidents of that happening when masses of people disagree with me are vanishingly rare. Seriously I can really only remember 1 instance of someone reading something I wrote, disagreeing with it but then posting that disagreement in such a way that shows that they actually comprehended what I wrote rather than what they wanted to believe I wrote and that one instance was on Beliefnet not LJ

B: There are people who agree with me? Where are they? I've never met them.

C:I never ignore well thought out and reasoned posts but I do occasionally feed the trolls.

D: Nope, no violent thoughts

So we'll call that 12 points



Total = 25 points


I think your quiz has a problem because I'm pretty sure that most people around here would consider me a pretty extreme example of a wingnut.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

You weren't one of the test cases, however.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

1) Zero hours.
2) ...are deluded lunatics.
3) d) lost count.
4) Absolutely macros +
5) Zero. I have a small HD.
6) f) Hollow Earth. I always wanted to go to the world's basement. And return.
7) Sheeple, probably not. But pigs?
8) Eh, once a day perhaps.
9) What's Goldline?
10) L) "This is why we can't have nice things".
11) Media's problem: d) "...that it doesn't show enough sport".
12) Only my vignette on the windscreen.
13) No but I bookmark some threads.
14) No but they're put in folders/categories.
15) No but I have a tag for it.
16) Just this one. Plus, I have zero people on my f-list.
17) Does blog.bg count for a "political" community? I mean with all that ridiculous poetry...
18) If you could then translate it into Bulgarian...
19) e) He can fake the murder of a fly without blinking an eye.
20) e) Make a loud flounce and claim that everyone is stupid because they fail to understand me and my exceptional humor. HA!

Too lazy to count the points...

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Thing is as Europeans the scale doesn't quite apply to us. And from a previous post, I can imagine that Japanese folk would all score in the negative numbers, no matter how extreme their actual beliefs.

I love the self confidence shown by 16. Problem is I quite like people.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

I'll play your game (http://www.metrolyrics.com/breathe-lyrics-prodigy.html).
1. It's entirely possible that I'll get up to 5 hours of CNN thanks to my wife watching it at bedtime. +3
2. Something between (a) and (b). It depends on the person. +0
3. I didn't count, but it's likely to be (d). +15
4. I have no macros. +0
5. See 4. +0
6. (a) However, fluoridation is bad policy, and the gov't is partially responsible for allowing 9/11 to happen (my guess is that they merely wanted to track the guys and didn't think they were actually going to do something, like with the underwear bomber). So, +0
7. Not that I'm aware of. However, I do call people that who go along with whatever the gov't says and don't question anything. +2
8. No. +0
9. Never heard of it. +0
10. Nope. +0
11. (a) and (c) to some extent. +0
12. None at all. +0
13. I do keep old email, but I keep all old emails. I never have referred to them. +1
14. No. +0
15. Not that I'm aware of. +0
16. No. +0
17. Nope, just this one. +0
18. No idea. I doubt it. +0
19. None of those. +0
20. Has never happened. But if it did, I would probably say (b). +5
Total: 26

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

I got 11 points. BUT, this was because of 3 things: I don't use macros ever, I scored zero on most of the extremist multiple choice options, and I have, 2 times, said the "that's an interesting point I haven't considered before" comment in a reply.

If it wasn't for the last bit, I'd be in the low 30's in my result.

[montanaisaleg.livejournal.com]

1) None. 0 points
2) A. -5 points
3) A. -5 points
4) No. 0 points
5) No. 0 points
6) A. -5 points
7) No. 0 points
8) No. 0 points
9) No. 0 points
10) None of them. 0 points
11) A. -5 points
12) No. 0 points
13) No. 0 points
14) No. 0 points
15) No. 0 points
16) No. 0 points
17) No. 0 points
18) No. 0 points
19) d. -5 points
20) None of the above. 0 points

Total: -25!

I'm clearly the most reasonable person around, so you should all just agree with me from now on.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Who are you again?

I shouldn't be proud but I am.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Woo! 65 points! Just made it under the bar!

[udoswald.livejournal.com]

Hmm...-2 I must be doing this internets politics thing wrong (though many might disagree strongly with my scoring...)

[udoswald.livejournal.com]

1)

a) 5 hours + 3 points

2)

b) "...are misled and/or ill informed or they would agree with me." + 5 points

3)

a) none - 5 points

4)

I don't...

5) Nope

6)

a) The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment - 5 points

7) Nope

8) Nope

9) Nope

10)

c) "Show me where I said..." + 5 points
g) Anti-choicer + 5 points

11)

a) "...that it is selling an entertainment product pitched at the lowest common denominator in the marketplace." - 5 points

12) Nope

13) None of a political nature...

14) Nope

15) Nope

16) Nope

17) Not even one

18) Nope

19)

d) None of the above. - 5 points

20)

a) ...thoughtfully reconsider to see if they are correct? - 5 points


By this count it's -7, even better.

Oh, why not?

[dark-weezing.livejournal.com]

1) C, in terms of the former. I finally have cable after two years without, so I'm catching up with the latter.

2) A, for the most part. Although, I've met my share of hardcore believers.

3) B would be the most accurate, but E is getting some traction in certain entries.

4) I'll say yes, particularly as I don't post pictures of my family. (This is for personal reasons, and I don't have a scanner/digital camera.)

5) Yes, but I don't bother post them online.

6) A, though, I need to research the matter more fully.

7) I haven't used the term in public or private conversation, but I do think it on occasion. So, what, half points? Heh.

8) No, but it sometimes happens once a month.

9) No, but I wish I had.

10) I've used B, C, H and K on many occasions, so.

11) If I have to choose only one, then A.

12) No.

13) No, but I wish I had on one occasion. Long story short, someone called me a coward on my LJ as part of non-political drama. By the time I finally got around to replying (I originally thought it best to ignore), the comment was deleted by the OP. I wish I had kept the notification to confirm that, yes, the comment had existed.

14) No, but I have a good memory about such people and their usernames.

15) YES, but it is not political.

16) Yes, but I have a very small group of friends, so. Also, most of my friends are apolitical and/or don't share my politics. (Some are Independents, the rest are sane liberals.)

17) No, but the day is young. Some days, it can turn out that way, for completely different reasons.

18) No, but, man, do I wish. Heh.

19) A, if only we're going for "most liberal." Although, "most leftist" would be the more accurate in my opinion.

20) A, and it has happened quite a few times.

I don't feel like tallying up, so. I'll just say I failed, anyway. Hehe.

Worry not sports fans!

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

1) On an average week, how many hours do you spend listening to AM Talk Radio or viewing a cable news channel for anything other than the weather or a traffic report?

a.) The local woman b-ball games are on AM occasionally.

+5

2) Complete the following sentence --

"The people who disagree with me politically..."

a) "...are generally good people who have drawn different conclusions than myself." - 5 points
b) "...are misled and/or ill informed or they would agree with me." + 5 points
c) "...are responsible for most of what is wrong in the world today." + 10 points
d) "...are lying power-hungry hyena vermin." + 15 points

All of the above.

5+35=40.

3) On an average week on Livejournal, how many threads of 5 or more responses to the same poster do you have?

c) 5-10 + 8 points

48 points.


4) Do you currently have more image macros than pictures of your family on your lj scrapbook?

53.


5) On your hard drive? + 10 points

53.


6) Which of the following IS a government conspiracy?

a) The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment - 5 points

58.


7) Have you ever called people you disagreed with "sheeple"? + 5 points

63.


8) More than once a week? + 10 points

63.


9) Have you purchased anything from Goldline in the past two years? + 10 points

63.


10) Are any of the following stock expressions of yours in argument (close variation counts)?

c) "Show me where I said..." + 5 points
e) "Rethuglicans" + 5 points
f) "Democan & Republicrat" + 5 points
g) Anti-choicer + 5 points
i) "FASCIST!" + 10 points
k) "That's a really interesting point I had never considered before, thank you." - 20 points


63+50 = 113.


11) The mainstream media's biggest problem is...
a) "...that it is selling an entertainment product pitched at the lowest common denominator in the marketplace." - 5 points
c) "...that it is a corporatist driven conspiracy to support big business over truth and justice." + 10 points

113+15 = 128.


12) Does your car have more bumper stickers than wheels? + 5 points


133, but in my defense, I can find it in the parking lot!



13) Do you keep old email notifications to use as material in later arguments? + 5 points

133.

14) Are they filed by username? + 10 points

133.

15) Does LJ drama have a tag for you? + 5 points

Only five?

133.


16) Do you have more political communities than people in your friends' view? + 5 points

133.

17) Are you arguing in more than one community at a time RIGHT NOW? + 10 points

143.


18) If I copied some text from your most recent post into Google will I find it on several other blogging sites? + 5 points

143. Circa 2007 though.

19) Which statement is MOST accurate?

b) President Obama is a corporatist tool selling out the people to Wall Street. + 10 points

153.


20) When a dozen or more posters all seriously question your reasoning, you...

a) ...thoughtfully reconsider to see if they are correct? - 5 points
b) ...disregard in favor of the people who agree with you? + 5 points


163.

Re: Worry not sports fans!

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

You calculated a few wrong -- the Tuskegee was a conspiracy so that is MINUS 5 points.

You were supposed to subtract from the total score.

[tniassaint.livejournal.com]

Ha nice...
I scored a whole 8
Around here I am considered a major political wingnut.

funny though...

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

41. The language you use bit killed me ya fascist socialist.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Well let me see here.

1) None on AM, I listen to NPR often which is talk radio, but political set your hair on fire radio.

So do I choose uh zero? none of the above? Secret option D?

2) between a and b, I'll give myself a zero. :P I can do that.

3) b maybe? +3!

4) lj has a scrapbook?

5) yuuus. +10, but that's because I have no pictures of family.

6) well all of them are "government conspiracies", in that they are conspiracies and they relate to alleged government actions, only A actually happened though. -5

7) no but I'm sure just as bad of terms. +5

8) no

9) no :P

10) c maybe? +5

11) a bigtime. -5

12) none at all

13) no
14) n/a

15) no :P I avoid that place like the plague

16) no but the political communities probably have more posts, I'll give myself a +5

17) no.

18) you might find it on senorgif, I don't think an off-topic post counts!

19) d -5

20) it really depends on who it is doesn't it. If I were to say "libertarians are wrong on this issue" and then all the libertarians say 'nuh huh!!!' then I probably would take their assertion with a grain of salt. I'll take a zero.

I get 13.

An easier test

[russj.livejournal.com]

I have a much easier test.

To whatever degree you agree with the following statement, you are at one extreme of the political spectrum:

“There’s not a dime’s worth of difference; both political parties
are alike.”

Re: An easier test

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Grab a calculator and take the test.

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

I'm either -24 or +3 depending how strict I am. However, seeing the scores people claim, I hope you didn't put too much work into it..... Oh, and don't quit your day job to go to work at one of those quiz places, and I hope your tests at school work better :D

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Natch.

I weighted for the REAL wingnuts.

Most folks here are just stubborn and partisan.

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

Not a wingut. I scored a 43.

What exactly was the point of question 10?

[paft.livejournal.com]

Whoops! Sorry. That was MINUS five points. My apologies.