[W]e included images from people who said they planned to vote for president, planned to vote for either Mr. Trump or Mr. Biden, took the picture themselves, and gave permission to publish it. We omitted images from people who said that not all of the voters in the household supported the same candidate, as well as images that were very dark, blurry or appeared elsewhere on the internet. Here, we have shown a balance of images from Biden and Trump supporters.
I kept going for 64 guesses, felt like I was pretty good at it, but only got 55% right. Who do people with big jars of mayonnaise vote for? Who has liquor and not much else? Who has a lot of stuff wrapped up or in containers and jammed in all over the place? Who buys Chobani? Who has a lone Coke can? Who has 4 dozen eggs?
Actually, I was quite interested just to gawk at a lot of real refrigerators. They tend to look pretty unappetizing, and these were the refrigerators people were willing to photograph and agree to share. It was also a great test of your own prejudice. If you go on long enough, you'll see your conception of Biden voters and Trump voters clarify... and maybe you'll be a bit ashamed of yourself for such thoughts.
You get feedback and see each time you are wrong, sometimes asking you to tap on an item that seemed to indicate the wrong choice you made. The lone Coke can tripped up a lot of us! You can see the most correctly guessed refrigerator. This is the #1 correctly guessed refrigerator:
Posts
93 comments:
The Mountain Dew was the tipoff, right?
Who has Krispy Kremes long enough to need to refrigerate them?
I would use the contents to guess urban or rural, wealthy or poor, and then use that to guess. Which, I suppose, is what most people did.
I would guess Biden for the single can of coke. What did you guess?
55% correct is basically a random coin flip. You were just guessing.
Presumably at least some of these images were curated, and I would also assume that at least some of the submitters calling themselves Trump voters did so falsely.
Here we have the best example I have ever seen of the pitiful state of American journalism.
Mountain Dew equals male Trump voter. Obviously.
So instead of doing the reasonable thing calling the FBI to ascertain the facts it learned from the Hunter Biden laptop, the NYT does a fun feature to find whether what it suspects is really true: Democratic voters stock their refrigerators with Brie organic products while, in Republican households, deplorables favor Budweiser and Cheese Whiz.
News of urgent interest, no -- punching down again, yes yes yes.
The self-regarding theoretically mainstream press is the dog that didn't bark.
Coincidence the NYT ran this the next day instead of Bobulinski?
I'm not going to the NYT for this. My guess is Trump (Dr. Pepper can).
Refrigerators??? Nothing to see here...Just the Bidens selling us out to China...but REFRIGERATORS??? I hate the Propagandists. Typical dribble from NYT's.
Anything to hide the skeletons in Biden’s closet.
"Who do people with big jars of mayonnaise vote for?”
French Canadians support Biden I think. They can identify with the corruption.
https://www.mtlblog.com/news/canada/qc/montreal/montreal-canadiens-fans-caught-eating-gallon-of-mayo-with-a-spoon-have-twitter-barfing
Creative? Or just another attempt to stereotype and divide?
Glad the New York Times has completed its investigative reporting into the Biden family's extensive business history with Ukraine, China, etc., and can now support such fun articles just before an election for president.
Next, maybe the NYT can do computer browser histories for Biden supporters, or heck, the Bidens, and compare them to those of Trump supporters.
You guessed 100 times and got 47 correct, for a score of 47 percent.
I picked Trump for each image, so you can get the average score of 53% by choosing Biden each time.
No fridge identities divide neatly. People vary. A kindergarten-type lesson in life from first trips to other households, IIRC. Someday the NYT will catch up.
asking you to tap on an item
I always clicked on the floor or the fridge itself and it never complained; I bet they don't know which item you're clicking on.
I have a lone Coke and 4 dozen eggs.
material about the candidatea
What brand is that? Is that like Coffefe? It doesn't sound too appetizing (Candida is a fungus) I don't want any.... thanks.
Joking. I know it is a typo, but before coffee my sense of humor is quite distorted.
That one is Trump.
It was also a great test of your own prejudice.
It was also a great validation of NYT own prejudice. They feel no shame.
"Who buys Chobani?"
Oh I think we all know who buys Chobani.
Part of the problem is with most examples you're not looking at a fridge for an individual but for a household of people. The collective clues of political affiliation are jumbled...
55% now THAT is some deductive reasoning!
now, give us a post on standard deviation!
Tubs of margarine, an opened soda can, and a strawberry Hershey's syrup. Three things I would never, ever have in my fridge.
Mine has a single squeeze bottle of mayo and some ketchup from Whole Foods, a half a head of cauliflower, a half dozen eggs now, some bottled water, and some leftover delivery Indian food which was not that good. I think they microwaved the nan, last time it was fluffy and light, this time it was chewy, and I swear they cut up the chicken in such a way as to maximize the bone content and minimize the meat. Maybe the meat goes in some other dish, like the chicken vindaloo I had last time. Until I found a drumstick in there, I wasn’t sure I wasn’t eating a Yorkshire terrier or some such. There was a poster on a pole of one missing in the neighborhood.
Anyway, only Trump voters in this household.
Who responds to an NYT request for photos of your refrigerator? What slice of Americana does that?
After looking at 100 refrigerators, I now feel a lot better about the cleanliness and organization of our fridge. I also somewhat marvel at how many people just leave their eggs in the original container and don't make use of the spot which is built-in for this use. We may be spoiled though: When we upgraded to a counter depth fridge a few years ago, we kept the old, fully functional fridge and put it into the basement. It's full of bulk sized things like a giant pickle jar, extra cartons of eggs, large leftovers and beverage cans and bottles. This keeps the kitchen unit more stream-lined.
I guessed 63 correct out of the 100, which suggests some systematic differences. My method was to generally assign large, full refrigerators to Trump voters since they tend to be part of larger households. I figured that since it is the NYT, they would be more likely to post darkly lit, grotty fridges from Trump voters than from Biden voters, but I was wrong a lot on this and it may have cost me.
After a couple dozen i'm running at 83. Sweet tea or multiple opened gallons of milk might as well be a MAGA flag.
I got fooled by clutter- disorganized is Trump but anarchy is Biden.
I got a snail mail asking me to accept a product scanner and to scan everything I bought in the supermarket each visit. It was an opportunity to scan only beer and potato chips on each visit to the supermarket but I declined to respond instead.
That looks a lot like our fridge, so I’m guessing Trump.
I can see the value in this in doing self reflection of one's own biases (How many NYT's readers truly reflect on their own biases towards the opposition in a way that is not self serving and elitist?). This also feels, however, like another way we are enabling the super dangerous idea that EVERY.F'ING.THING is political. In an age where serious people are trying to say that being a conservative is a form of mental disorder, these type of otherwise benign exercises reinforces that political ideology is the most fundamental part of one's persona. That is very dangerous in a free society.
I find the apparently all-pervasive, relentless "us vs. those people" focus of the Times to be very creepy. "Do you know what those people keep in their fridges?!?"
Or maybe I am slighting the Times, and it's really Althouse's obsession. Either way...
Are you suggesting information, pattern recognition, and correlation can be shameful?
"If you go on long enough, you'll see your conception of Biden voters and Trump voters clarify... and maybe you'll be a bit ashamed of yourself for such thoughts."
Actually, I just updated my stereotypes: Biden voters eat Heroic. Quantities. Of. Eggs.
I mean I love eggs, but even I am no Biden voter.
It's almost like people are whole beings, and not just whatever politics wants to say they are.
I noticed that our own refrigerator has changed quite a bit throughout this pandemic. Lots of stuff in it, mostly long lasting processed foods, at the beginning. Later, we sought fresh foods, but then got tired of cooking from home. Now there is very little in the fridge. However, I'm sure those invested in identity politics think they can divine what that means about mine and others politics. I suppose the desire to leave home for food is one indication. Give it a couple of weeks, and most people I know will have their fridge full of processed deer meet.
It might be more interesting to look at medicine chests or glove compartments.
I suspect most people saw that fridge and thought: "Dr. Pepper and Mountain Dew, that's the South. The south is a bunch of racists that vote Republican. Plus that Krispy Cream there to develop their Type II diabetes". Yet, according to the polls and Nate Silver, Biden is looking to flip the South blue. He may even win Georgia with Florida.
What this really tells us is that even the NYT readers, in their subconscious, don't believe the polls.
Cookies, donuts -- Why are the pancake boxes in the refrigerator? -- coffee, apple juice, Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, well organized, lightly used, extremely clean. New York Times readers are guessing Trump because of the Mountain Dew and the donuts.
If the typical reader is right 50% of the time in their guesses that would mean there is zero correlation between the appearance and contents of one's refrigerator and who you vote for.
But given how people are behaving about Covid-19, and the innumeracy implicit in this behavior, I'm guessing that 95% of the population would have no idea that 50% would mean that there is not any connection between refrigerator appearance and how one votes.
Now it could be that there really is no correlation -- or almost no correlation -- or it could be that the authors of the article deliberately choose photos that would lead to this result. If so I approve of that minor deceit, since really at this point we need every positive message we can find that pushes us towards not hating each other.
"I picked Trump for each image, so you can get the average score of 53% by choosing Biden each time."
Wow! So statistically speaking getting a score of 55% really was a true no correlation.
If it has really expensive ice cream in a $12000 Viking, it is a Democratical.
Her overly large gavel is up for grabs, bigly.
Looking inside other people’s refrigerators to guess their politics? Hard pass.
I find the apparently all-pervasive, relentless "us vs. those people" focus of the Times to be very creepy.
@Paco Wove, me too. Except that I am proud to be one of those people. The sort of people who read the Times, well ...
“This needs a good cleaning” is usually the first thing I think when opening our fridge.
Waste of time
The Bidens are full on corrupt - and this is what we are given by the NYT?
of course.
I despise the NYT, but this is fun. Begrudging respect for a clever idea well executed.
Krispy Kreme and Mountain Dew? That could be my in-laws in rural North Carolina. Sometimes stereotypes are correct. Nothing wrong with that.
We're a big country, but were mostly unified for most of our existence. About 50 years ago, ideologues set out to create a new society, mostly through non-elective means. Once people started pushing back, divisions were exposed. That's where we are at. All was quiet until the rubes started defending their country.
D.D.Driver said, "Biden voters eat Heroic. Quantities. Of. Eggs."
I certainly eat "heroic quantities of eggs", roughly 30 something to 40 something a week, and I am sure no Biden voter.
Electoral college? We don't need no steenking electoral college.
Mail in voting? We don't need no steeking mail in voting.
We just need a representative sample of refrigerator pics to declare an instant winner.
Bobulinski? We sure as hell don't need no steenking Bobulinski!
https://babalublog.com/2020/10/27/five-alarm-fire-neew-yorker-magazzine-comes-up-with-prize-worthy-headline-about-darth-trumps-effect-on-cuban-vote-in-florida/#comment-172905
"I also somewhat marvel at how many people just leave their eggs in the original container and don't make use of the spot which is built-in for this use."
The FDA and many online food sites recommend that you store eggs in their original carton. Less chance of them breaking.
This article is, as others have pointed out, just another way for NYT readers to indulge their snobbery and sense of superiority. I'm not going to give them the clicks, but I suspect they're not displaying any inner city fridges. It's only acceptable to sneer at the poors if they're white.
I have Chobani yogurt AND organic blueberries. Broccoli too. Not organic though. Just eating broccoli is sufficiently virtuous. Anyway I'm voting for Trump....I don't think that refrigerator contents are all that revelatory of character. Jeffrey Dahmer is, of course, the obvious exception...I'm just glad that my refrigerator is running this election.
I'll bet the deplorable ACB has big tubs of mayo and 4 cartons of eggs in the fridge at any given time. When you have 7 kids to feed, you buy in bulk.
I'd love to put my sister's fridge on this list. She's a fanatical organic, vegetarian, observant Jew. And as fanatical a Trump supporter as you will ever meet. She also buys Fage yogurt - for her dogs.
LOL. Oikophobia: the Game!
Boy, I wish they'd called on me.
I'd have self identified as a Biden guy. Then I would have emptied my fridge and added:
Russian caviar.
A bundle of cash.
A laptop computer.
Bet I'd gotten over 90%....
mandrewa aks Why are the pancake boxes in the refrigerator?
Weevils.
Just looked at my fridge at the standards, things we always have. How this is political is beyond me.
Door: Milk, half & half, heavy cream. Various salad dressings. Cranberry juice. Jars of Hosin sauce, Oyster sauce, pickled ginger, hot chili oil, grated horseradish,Dijon mustard. Butter, Garlic, yeast.
In the shelves: LARGE jar of mayo, (never catsup...we don't use it)from Costco. Pesto sauce. BBQ sauce. Colander of fresh fruit. 3 dozen eggs...fresh from the neighbor with feathers(don't wash the bloom off). Left over Santa Rosa Cobbler. Large container of Ricotta Cheese. Various leftovers for lunch later (baked cod, fried chicken, pork roast to make chili tomorrow). Sometimes some diet grapefruit sodas and iced teas.
Cheese drawer: Brie, jack, cheddar, parmesan, fresh mozzarella, cream cheese. Tortillas, won ton wraps. Dried fruit from our orchard.
I would be embarrassed to put a photo out. It is a jumbled mess sometimes with things stacked on top of each other. Like a food Tetris!
Don't even look in the vegetable drawer!! I do have some leeks and potatoes to make clam chowder today.
As long as you trust the NYT, which I dont. At all. Regarding anything.
I have a couple of bottles of Mexican Coca-Cola in our fridge, a couple of Heinekens, and the rest is would probably identify my wife and I as Biden voters. No ketchup or sweets, a lot of fruits and vegetables and freshly cooked leftovers. We are broken-glass Trump voters in South Florida, blue Broward County.
"tim maguire said...
I would guess Biden for the single can of coke. What did you guess?"
I guessed Trump. I got better at guessing as I answered but I ended up at 48%. My conclusion was that at this basic level there isn't much difference between the two groups. Milk, eggs, ketchup, pickles and yoghurt - 70 years ago there wouldn't have been yoghurt everywhere.
PS And under socialism this will still be true because all the refrigerators will be empty.
The late basketball star Yinka Dare tried to market soda in his native Nigeria, in a joint venture with Inca Cola and Mountain Dew. It was called Inca Yinka Dew.
JAORE said...
Boy, I wish they'd called on me.
I'd have self identified as a Biden guy. Then I would have emptied my fridge and added:
Russian caviar.
A bundle of cash.
A laptop computer.
Bet I'd gotten over 90%....
10/28/20, 9:26 AM
Thanks for the laugh!!!
If they saw all of the craft beer in my fridge, they'd probably want to send me to Al-Anon.
What I'm seeing is someone who has bugs in their pantry.
...roughly 30 something to 40 something a week, and I am sure no Biden voter.
If you say so, Bob.
wildswan said...
"tim maguire said...
I would guess Biden for the single can of coke. What did you guess?"
I guessed Trump.
I guess Biden because this person lives off carryout. Which usually means urban, lives alone or has a partner, but no children.
Wildswan: you may be right about refrigerators under Socialism. But at least they will be EQUALLY empty ;)
I'd vote for Dust Bunny Queen's refridgerator if I wasn't voting for Trump.
Here is another urgent article from today’s NYT.
How Income Inequality Has Erased Your Chance to Drink the Great Wines
By Eric Asimov
Benchmark bottles were always a splurge. But an increasing concentration of wealth has put them out of reach for all but the richest connoisseurs.
Damn those capitalists. In a socialist paradise, we all would be drinking only the finest of champagnes.
It's the NYT. I won't look at it.
How this is political is beyond me.
Door: Milk, half & half, heavy cream. Oh, you eat animal products!
Various salad dressings. Cranberry juice. Jars of Hosin sauce, Oh, you are a vegan!
Oyster sauce, pickled ginger, hot chili oil, grated horseradish, Dijon mustard. Butter, Garlic, yeast. Oh, you like yuppie fads!
In the shelves: LARGE jar of mayo, (never catsup...we don't use it)from Costco. You buy from big box stores and not the mom and pop novelty stores; and you buy from the Communist Chinese!
Yeah, it is just a Rorschach test.
I buy Chobani sometimes if I need a new starter for making my own yogurt. It's not my first choice, but the grocery always has a lot of it and I just need a plain yogurt with live active cultures.
I did not vote for Biden.
Back when I was living alone, I would store canned food in the refrigerator. Not because the canned food gains any benefit from being refrigerated, but because the cans hold the cold in. Every time you open the door, you lose a lot of cold air that the compressor has to work to replace. It actually saves energy to do this if you have a refrigerator that is not usually full.
I got the first two right, and I'm resting on my laurels.
I did well at the start. 13/16. Then I got bored and clicked all Biden then Trump to find their "random sequence". From there on I only missed a couple through 70.
So we are politicizing appliances now....
Deb reports: I'd love to put my sister's fridge on this list. She's a fanatical organic, vegetarian, observant Jew. And as fanatical a Trump supporter as you will ever meet. She also buys Fage yogurt - for her dogs. .
My dog also loves Fage yogurt. So do I. Fage plain 2%. Mmmm. And organic eggs and veggies. And I'm a Trump supporter. Most evangelical Christians I know are into organic, non-GMO foods. We don't trust science. ;-)
I haven't taken the quiz, but I think I would be more likely to guess based on the age/style/size of the refrigerator itself rather than the contents.
“ Who do people with big jars of mayonnaise vote for?”
Now if it’s Duke’s Mayonaisse, they’re my kind of people regardless of votes.
Now that I've looked at some of the pictures, I'd guess the one with the cartons crammed in all willy-nilly is most likely a person whose children are doing Zoom school but still picking up school lunch two or three times a week.
That's pretty funny. I am in and out of a lot of refrigerators every year I'd say around 50 to 75, all white people. I have been interested in the similarities and the differences for a while and I have found the one thing that is in everyone's refrigerator whether it is jam-packed or there's only one thing in it. Hummus. Every single person has hummus in the refrigerator. I made the discovery a couple years ago and now I just check and it's always there and I got to admit it's really turned me off hummus
How odd, an article in the NY Times that does not assume Trump voters are monsters. It's a good sign for a great calming after the election.
Look inside the average libertarian’s refrigerator and you’ll find a big bag o’ weed and human heads.
whitney said... I have found the one thing that is in everyone's refrigerator whether it is jam-packed or there's only one thing in it. Hummus. Every single person has hummus in the refrigerator.
Its only in our fridge when my LA lawyer S-I-L visits. We throw it out when she leaves. Hummus is boring.
I always have avocados in the fridge along with good salami, apples and cheeses. We also stock good wine, vodka and hand crafted IPA. Budweiser is not allowed. So, it is not like we are completely unpretentious.
"Who do people with big jars of mayonnaise vote for?"
That's my sister, and she's a Trump voter.
Only trolls have those kind of fridges.
Poor excuse for journalism, as to firefighters saving a cat from a tree.
Rather have smoke inhalation damage or fake calls from pot smokers ?, or buy most of those items in Cosco. Also get 12 dozen eggs there. Good for the year or i just eat 6 a day, not overly boiled or Opera does not aprove of my shit. I slurp them raw also.
I used to be addicted to mountain dew, too young, too soon.
Balanced my sporty spice edge.
The lonely coke was a pepsi. May have been an expired beer. I do not joke about the lonely can. I liked this post otherwise, overly liberal but good.
It's sorta like the zoom background room ratings. Covid Lives!
In the South, you should keep a lot of stuff in the fridge that doesn't need the cold, but to keep bugs out of it--like pancake mix. Also, Dukes mayo is the only real stuff. If you use anything else in your potato salad, the other ladies at church will talk about you behind your back.
Did NYT include "Pelosi refrigerator" in the mix ?
They wouldn't have taken my refrigerator as a gift, b/c it's a Subzero and the light doesn't work. But I wonder what they would have made of the contents. Cartons of dairy: 2%, half-and-half, a little one of heavy cream. Spiced cider and green tea. A big container of plain yogurt. Small container of commercial garlic paste, large one of ginger-garlic paste. Big wrapped-up package of lamb leg from the local CSA. Little ramekin-sized container containing, should they care to examine it, homemade bangala garam masala. Butter. Sushi and a teriyaki bowl. Six eggs. A container of pesto. Curry leaves, jalapeno peppers, scallions, shallots, lemons, ginger, garlic. A huge box of SAF yeast, bought b/c ordinary yeast envelopes were sold out everywhere. (I like it; not going back.) Some Diet Pepsi and some Premier Protein (Costco item). Package of ground chicken that I really must do something about, only the lamb comes first. Huge cake box from Gerrit Frank's Konditerei, a venerable institution in Salem.
Lots of disused stuff in the door. Not disused: Sriracha; Trader Joe's "Green Dragon Sauce"; tomato paste.
Anyway, Trump voter here; my husband is a Biden voter, but the fridge's contents are mostly mine, excepting the sushi and the Konditerei.
Oops, I forgot the big box of feta, the salad bags, and the Newman's Own balsamic vinegar dressing. Those are all my husband's.
Post a Comment