Food is an important part of culture and identity. Your food preferences a marker of who you are and where you come from, of ethnicity and region and generation and class. What are your thoughts about fried food, organic food, carbonated soft drinks (whatever you call them, because region matters there)? Do you eat pasteurized processed cheese or cave-aged gruyere? What does an everyday meal look like for you, and what does a celebration meal look like? If you could afford to eat at any restaurant in the country, would it have a Michelin star? Do you know what a Michelin star is?
None of these preferences just happen. They’re shaped by our backgrounds and social groups and, yes, what we can afford. But what we can afford might change while our food preferences remain largely shaped by those other factors, showing the power of class and culture and ethnicity.
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All of those are big questions, but as I contemplated trying to address them in more depth—starting with the endlessly fascinating question of crab Rangoon—I found this survey that I need to share with you. The concept was great:
Food has always been tied to class. Silvia Bellezza and Jonah Berger at the University of Pennsylvania now believe they have a way to identify a person’s social class based on how they feel about certain foods. The results are not always what you would expect.
What do your food choices say about your social class? For each of the following dishes, indicate your feelings toward it below.
It sounded very rigorous—for an online quiz. It was “developed by professionals” who “work with psychometrics,” and “Test scores for the present test are entered into an anonymized database. Statistical analysis of the quiz is performed to ensure maximum validity and accuracy of the results.” It even cited the work of Pierre Bourdieu.
Then it went off the rails because it is so bad. I’m going to try not to give you spoilers here, but the quiz sorts 35 foods into five class groups, and which foods are upper class, upper middle class, middle class, lower middle class, and lower class are a hot mess. Mostly it’s that the survey makers don't seem to have fully understood the quite interesting research they based it on. But it’s also that—okay, fine—to break down and give just one spoiler, fish and chips is listed as a lower class food (fish sticks are a separate entry). However, if you’re using the term fish and chips, you’re affecting a British terminology that changes the class valence of the basic food of fried fish and french fries.
But as silly as it is, it's tremendously fun to try to figure out what’s going on with it. What does it tell you about yourself, and exactly how wrong is it?
On the first episode of season two of The Downballot, we're talking with Sara Garcia, the strategy and outreach manager at Crooked Media—home of Pod Save America—about everything her organization does to mobilize progressives and kick GOP ass. Sara tells us how Crooked arose to fill a void in the media landscape, how it not only informs listeners but also gives them tools to take action, and some of her favorite shows that she loves to recommend to folks.
Co-hosts David Nir and David Beard also discuss the Republican shitshow currently unfolding in Congress—and starkly different outcomes in two state legislatures that just elected new House speakers via bipartisan coalitions; the landslide win for the good guys in a special election primary in Virginia; why George Santos faces serious legal trouble that will very likely end with his resignation; and the massive pushback from progressive groups and labor unions against Kathy Hochul's conservative pick to be New York's top judge.