What the bleep is a "Moderate extremist"?!?!?
pnh posted his result for this quiz, written by (Patrick's description) "tiresome Washington, DC insider pundit Joe Klein".
So I tried it. Trying to give honest rather than snarky answers, and allowing for the fact that the quiz probably doesn't register sarcasm*, I got this:
What kind of extremist are you?
Your Result: Rational Person
You consider these questions obvious straw men, designed to distract people from a meaningful investigation of facts and a serious discussion of relevant political issues. How boring.
Moderate Extremist
Right-Wing Extremist
Left-Wing Extremist
What kind of extremist are you?
Make a Quiz
OK, "rational person" is good. *Except* that Klein thinks it's "boring" -- apparently "a meaningful investigation of facts and a serious discussion of relevant political issues" is boring.) And "moderate extremist" -- what's that? "Moderate extremist" is an oxymoron! And "right-wing extremist"? Moi? So I tried again, changing a few answers to the snarky ones, and got this --AAUGH!:
What kind of extremist are you?
Your Result: Right-Wing Extremist
Like Ann Coulter, you are a wealthy, highly-respected media figure. You can literally say anything you want, no matter how violent, offensive or ridiculous, and you'll still be invited back onto prime time news programs.
Left-Wing Extremist
Rational Person
Moderate Extremist
What kind of extremist are you?
Make a Quiz
Ha! The only thing Ann whatsherface and I have in common is that we both have long hair, and presumably two X chromosomes. (I don't think her hair is a wig, because her roots show.)
Also, apparently there's not much difference between a "right-wing" extremist and a "left-wing extremist" in Klein's view, since that was the second-place result that time.
This is obviously a very stupid quiz. But there was one more thing I had to try.
"Multinational corporations never ever collude with each other" is an example of an answer I would only give in a sarcastic tone of voice -- yet, when I changed to that answer, keeping most of the rest the same, I got
What kind of extremist are you?
Your Result: Moderate Extremist
You are a muddled, sniping media figure like Joe Klein. You try to occupy the "center" of media discourse, which puts you on the liberal edge of corporate media. To make up for your insecurity, you constantly attack "The Left"
Right-Wing Extremist
Rational Person
Left-Wing Extremist
What kind of extremist are you?
Make a Quiz
I am a "moderate extremist."
What?!?!?!!? Again, what is "moderate extremism" besides an oxymoron? Klein tells us he's one:
"You are a muddled, sniping media figure like Joe Klein. You try to occupy the "center" of media discourse, which puts you on the liberal edge of corporate media. To make up for your insecurity, you c. So he admits his poltical thinking is muddled and sniping, trying -- pretending? -- to be centrist. But apparently he doesn't understand what the center is, because he thinks to be centrist is to be insecure, thus "you" (meaning himself, NOT me!) "You are a muddled, sniping media figure like Joe Klein. You try to occupy the "center" of media discourse, which puts you on the liberal edge of corporate media. To make up for your insecurity, you constantly attack "The Left"." None of that describes me, I hope, nor is it extreme, except in its whiningness. (That's what I get for picking a sarcastic answer out of curiosity.)
So Joe Klein is an oxymoron. Or is he just a regular moron? Maybe if he's lucky it's just his quiz that's moronic.
Mostly I think he's suffering from insecurity. Maybe jealousy. Look at his description of Ann C., his example of "right-wing extremist": "you are a wealthy, highly-respected media figure. You can literally say anything you want, no matter how violent, offensive or ridiculous, and you'll still be invited back onto prime time news programs." He wants to be able to say outrageously cruel and idiotic things and get away with it like she does. He thinks that's success. That's why he feels that he needs to "constantly attack "The Left"", because Ann, his idea of "highly-respected", his role model, does. And having Ann Coulter as a role model seems moronic to me, that's for sure.
So there we have it. Joe Klein wants to be a moron like Ann Coulter, but (being still rational) failing at that, he's just an oxymoron. He can't bring himself to go to either political extreme -- he is, to his credit, not a right-wing moron/extremist like Ann C., and seems afraid of being too liberal, too far "on the ... edge of corporate media" where he and his fellow pundits live -- but it seems he still needs to call himself an extremist, so he invents the oxymoron "moderate extremist". Because apparently he thinks extremism of any sort is "in"? He can't be a pundit as a mere "rational person"? Is the state of punditry so low these days?
If I had any respect left for Joe Klein after that anonymous novel he wrote, supposedly based on the 1992 Clinton campaign, this moronic quiz has totally wiped it out. Though I seem to be concerned for him nonetheless. I think he needs to quit punditing -- a job he has apparently long since quit being good at -- and get a real job somewhere, anywhere, a job where his model of success is not Ann Coulter, and is not described as "extremism."
So I tried it. Trying to give honest rather than snarky answers, and allowing for the fact that the quiz probably doesn't register sarcasm*, I got this:
What kind of extremist are you?
Your Result: Rational Person
You consider these questions obvious straw men, designed to distract people from a meaningful investigation of facts and a serious discussion of relevant political issues. How boring.
Moderate Extremist
Right-Wing Extremist
Left-Wing Extremist
What kind of extremist are you?
Make a Quiz
OK, "rational person" is good. *Except* that Klein thinks it's "boring" -- apparently "a meaningful investigation of facts and a serious discussion of relevant political issues" is boring.) And "moderate extremist" -- what's that? "Moderate extremist" is an oxymoron! And "right-wing extremist"? Moi? So I tried again, changing a few answers to the snarky ones, and got this --AAUGH!:
What kind of extremist are you?
Your Result: Right-Wing Extremist
Like Ann Coulter, you are a wealthy, highly-respected media figure. You can literally say anything you want, no matter how violent, offensive or ridiculous, and you'll still be invited back onto prime time news programs.
Left-Wing Extremist
Rational Person
Moderate Extremist
What kind of extremist are you?
Make a Quiz
Ha! The only thing Ann whatsherface and I have in common is that we both have long hair, and presumably two X chromosomes. (I don't think her hair is a wig, because her roots show.)
Also, apparently there's not much difference between a "right-wing" extremist and a "left-wing extremist" in Klein's view, since that was the second-place result that time.
This is obviously a very stupid quiz. But there was one more thing I had to try.
"Multinational corporations never ever collude with each other" is an example of an answer I would only give in a sarcastic tone of voice -- yet, when I changed to that answer, keeping most of the rest the same, I got
What kind of extremist are you?
Your Result: Moderate Extremist
You are a muddled, sniping media figure like Joe Klein. You try to occupy the "center" of media discourse, which puts you on the liberal edge of corporate media. To make up for your insecurity, you constantly attack "The Left"
Right-Wing Extremist
Rational Person
Left-Wing Extremist
What kind of extremist are you?
Make a Quiz
I am a "moderate extremist."
What?!?!?!!? Again, what is "moderate extremism" besides an oxymoron? Klein tells us he's one:
"You are a muddled, sniping media figure like Joe Klein. You try to occupy the "center" of media discourse, which puts you on the liberal edge of corporate media. To make up for your insecurity, you c. So he admits his poltical thinking is muddled and sniping, trying -- pretending? -- to be centrist. But apparently he doesn't understand what the center is, because he thinks to be centrist is to be insecure, thus "you" (meaning himself, NOT me!) "You are a muddled, sniping media figure like Joe Klein. You try to occupy the "center" of media discourse, which puts you on the liberal edge of corporate media. To make up for your insecurity, you constantly attack "The Left"." None of that describes me, I hope, nor is it extreme, except in its whiningness. (That's what I get for picking a sarcastic answer out of curiosity.)
So Joe Klein is an oxymoron. Or is he just a regular moron? Maybe if he's lucky it's just his quiz that's moronic.
Mostly I think he's suffering from insecurity. Maybe jealousy. Look at his description of Ann C., his example of "right-wing extremist": "you are a wealthy, highly-respected media figure. You can literally say anything you want, no matter how violent, offensive or ridiculous, and you'll still be invited back onto prime time news programs." He wants to be able to say outrageously cruel and idiotic things and get away with it like she does. He thinks that's success. That's why he feels that he needs to "constantly attack "The Left"", because Ann, his idea of "highly-respected", his role model, does. And having Ann Coulter as a role model seems moronic to me, that's for sure.
So there we have it. Joe Klein wants to be a moron like Ann Coulter, but (being still rational) failing at that, he's just an oxymoron. He can't bring himself to go to either political extreme -- he is, to his credit, not a right-wing moron/extremist like Ann C., and seems afraid of being too liberal, too far "on the ... edge of corporate media" where he and his fellow pundits live -- but it seems he still needs to call himself an extremist, so he invents the oxymoron "moderate extremist". Because apparently he thinks extremism of any sort is "in"? He can't be a pundit as a mere "rational person"? Is the state of punditry so low these days?
If I had any respect left for Joe Klein after that anonymous novel he wrote, supposedly based on the 1992 Clinton campaign, this moronic quiz has totally wiped it out. Though I seem to be concerned for him nonetheless. I think he needs to quit punditing -- a job he has apparently long since quit being good at -- and get a real job somewhere, anywhere, a job where his model of success is not Ann Coulter, and is not described as "extremism."