Of course vis a vis your political views.
I no longer know how to do a poll...

Myself.I'm a little more eclectic but in the main I'm not too much different from the mainstream American public-they're not really "politically educAted"
but their instincts aren't too bad...

I don't think that I am that different from the mainstream either. A little right where you might be a little left, but still more or less in the mainstream.

:shrug: I don't know.

I think I'm more conservative and more tolerant than people on either side maybe.

Actually I agree with both of you from what I've seen of your ideas-of course the professor has the arcane knowledge that mass man doesn't...

You'd have to have a good understainding of what the mainstream thinks. I assume you mean the average American. If so, then they:

Have an unfavorable opinion of GWB (http://pollingreport.com/BushFav.htm)
Think GWB is too conservative, picks poor people for leadership, is not honest and trustworthy. (http://pollingreport.com/bush.htm)
Think GWB acted inapropriately in the Plame leak (http://pollingreport.com/WHprobe.htm)
Disapprove of the way GWB is handling Iraq (http://pollingreport.com/iraq.htm)
Supports doctor assisted suicide (http://pollingreport.com/health2.htm)
Belive that homosexuality (http://pollingreport.com/civil.htm) is an acceptable choice, but don't support the idea of homosexual marriage. However, they do support civil unions, and don't support a federal ammendment banning gay marriage.
Disapprove of the way Dick Cheney is doing his job (http://pollingreport.com/C.htm)
Have a favorable opinoin (http://pollingreport.com/P-Z.htm#Rice) of Condi Rice
Have an unfavorable opinoin of Rumsfeld (http://pollingreport.com/P-Z.htm#Rumsfeld), Hassert (http://pollingreport.com/h-j.htm#Hastert), and Rove (http://pollingreport.com/P-Z.htm#Rove)
Believe that god created man (http://pollingreport.com/science.htm), but that you can belive in the Bible and evolution at the same time.
Favors the death penalty (http://pollingreport.com/crime.htm)
Belive the Bible (http://pollingreport.com/religion.htm) is the inspired word of god.
Do not support banning abortion (http://pollingreport.com/abortion.htm)

Based on that, I'm pretty close to mainstream.

cool link,Boo-I ddnt know you had so much respect for the word-true, you're not a literalist...

It varies. :hmm:

It varies. :hmm:

I know it sure does with you...you have some deep convictions but I see you change a lot...

cool link,Boo-I ddnt know you had so much respect for the word-true, you're not a literalist...

Whoa. Didn't mean to misrepresent myself. I don't agree with everything in that list, I only cited it to paint a picture of what "mainstream" means. My take on religion, specificially the Christian Bible, is far from mainstream. (Though I do think it's a good guidebook to life, I don't think it's deity is literal).

Whoa. Didn't mean to misrepresent myself. I don't agree with everything in that list, I only cited it to paint a picture of what "mainstream" means. My take on religion, specificially the Christian Bible, is far from mainstream. (Though I do think it's a good guidebook to life, I don't think it's deity is literal).

That's more in line with what I expected...

I'm so punk!

Naw, I don't know. I do support a political party that's supposedly in the middle of our political spectrum - but it's a relatively small party. I guess I am pretty mainstream, though. How depressing :l

not depressing,you just need another way to express your flamboyance

People who are mainstream are the sheep of the world. They do what they're told and are afraid to deviate from the norm. They lack imagination, courage and will and are the drones of the world. It is far better to be the the ice on top of the mountain that the mainstream relies upon to exist.

People who are mainstream are the sheep of the world. They do what they're told and are afraid to deviate from the norm. They lack imagination, courage and will and are the drones of the world. It is far better to be the the ice on top of the mountain that the mainstream relies upon to exist.
Such contempt for the common man is odd to see from one who also claims to believe in free markets and other social constructs based on rational choice. If you're not merely projecting and people really are as stupid as you make out, then rational choice is a joke and markets etc. cannot achieve anywhere near optimal results. Elitism such as you express cannot coexist with belief in self-governance except in the minds of the insane.

It's fairly well known among psychologists and sociologists that if you ask people whether they're in the top 10% according to almost any hard-to-quantify measure (e.g. intelligence, morality, driving ability) far more than 10% will answer in the affirmative. Obviously they can't all be correct. A large part of the explanation is that the capacity to judge ability is correlated with ability itself. In other words, low-ability people don't even know how much there is to know, and how much of that they themselves are missing. In even simpler terms, for the benefit of those to whom such an observation most applies, stupid people can't even see how stupid they are or seem to others. They consistently overrate themselves in both absolute and relative terms, often imagining they're members of the elite when in fact they're at the far end of the spectrum. They make decisions and select policies that benefit who they imagine themselves to be, not who they really are, and often become quite bitter when the results don't live up to their (delusional) expectations.

Getting back to the subject, the mainstream is often right. That's why more people chose it. Those who reflexively oppose conventional wisdom are just as enslaved by it as anyone. They're merely sheep with bad dispositions. The true leaders and innovators are those who follow their own path, whether it happens to be near or far from the mainstream. I like to think that I am of that sort myself, by and large, but I'll admit to my share of biases and blind spots. Most of my beliefs could be broadly construed as liberal, but I've never hesitated to condemn my usual allies or stick up for my usual enemies when the circumstances seemed to warrant it. I guess I'd say my path often parallels the mainstream, but is generally not a part of it.

Mainstream in Canada? I'm probably mainstream-ish socially (although I'm a bit to the left on some things, a bit to the right on others) perhaps a bit left economically and on issues like the environment, and perhaps a bit right on issues of national defence.

Getting back to the subject, the mainstream is often right. That's why more people chose it. They choose it because they don't have a creative thought in their head, they aren't bright enough to recognise stupidity and they require others to lead and tell them what to think. It's not elitism, it's just self esteem without fear. We disagree quite a bit, but I'd have to say you aren't mainstream and that's good whether I like it or not. Many ideas are better than one.

Many ideas are better than one.
Absolutely, and the same for beers. :beer: