Blog Archives
Informed Citizen of the Web… or Just Another Web Walleroo?
Try this short and fun test to see how dumbed down you might be…
Who knows? You might even be (gasp!) a Sheeple!
by H. Michael Sweeney Copyright © 2012, all rights reserved, Permission to duplicate in unaltered entirety with links in tact hereby given but please advise with URL via Comment or contact to proparanoid at century link net.Definitions:
A Walleroo is a kind of kangaroo.
Abandoned Walleroo cared for
by Japanese Zookeeper (click)
A Web Walleroo is someone who hops around a lot on the Internet but doesn’t do much besides leave an occasional footprint of their passing through the digital landscape. They hop in and hop out with the briefest of glimpses and seldom stick around to actually absorb messages intended for them. Even when they do, they tend to do nothing useful with the information, being quick to gather visual fluff and short ‘textual or video sound bites,’ but sloth to consider actual substance and knowledge that might challenge their dumbed down state of mind. Got to hop on to the next visual bite!
Why the test? Because I note that while I may post advice to 6,000 ‘friends’ in groups of alleged mutual interests on important topics, less than 5% tend to take note and check out the material offered, and of those (say 300), less than 2% will bother to like, share, repost, rate (page top), or retweet. So I was wondering… is my writing style that bad (mostly get 5 stars when they do rate it) or do I just have nothing useful to say… or am I simply friends to a lot of Web Walleroos.
You can help me answer that by taking the test (or simply tell me you think my messages are just no good). I can deal with rejection very well, thank you. I think…
You know who you are:
TELL EVERYONE ELSE!
So take the test: Don’t worry if a given answer seems low or high, as they are used in calculations in unexpected ways. Everyone has some level of interest in ‘fluff’ matters of personal interest and some level of interest in more serious matters. This test attempts to quantify and measure one’s degree of interest in these two areas, and thereby to indicate their standing as either (Web citizen) Netizen or Walleroo.
You also needn’t worry if the answer seems unflattering to your sensibilities, because you can easily change your score by simply becoming more involved with the things that truly matter in life. Remember Aesop’s fable about the Ant and the Grasshopper.
Moreover, like all such tests derived by people too smart for their own britches (that would be me), it is not ‘scientific,’ and assumes much not in true evidence. It may therefore not truly reflect your actual status any more than a Political Poll really reflects who is actually going to win an election.
Straws. We are all grasping for straws. But that’s what makes it fun, isn’t it? To see if we can actually catch a straw and find it the right one? Give it a go…
Test questions (pencil and pad in hand), First section:
If you don’t regularly watch TV at all, skip this section (good for you).
How many times a week to you watch a network news show> Jot the number down, and again a ways to the right of it to make a second column with the same number.
How many times a week to you watch a talking head news/political commentary show? Jot it down, then multiply by 2 and jot that down in the second column.
How many times a week to you watch a reality TV shows? Jot it, then multiply your answer by 3 in the next column.
How many times a week to you watch a celebrity gossip/entertainment/talent show? Jot and multiply by 4.
How many times a week to you watch a sitcom or late night host show? Jot and multiply by 5. Underline these answers and add the columns up and write down the answers.
Now, think hard about the years just prior to Sept. 11 attacks and look at the total number of times for all shows. Ask yourself if you think as you look at each category if you likely watched notably more television then, than today, about the same (+ or – 10%), or notably less?
If less, double the second column total and jot it down just beneath it. If the same, do nothing, we will use the number directly. If less, divide the multiplied number in half and jot that down (approximate whole number is fine).
This is your ‘TV Media Impact‘ Score, which reflects how much of a chance your opinions, attitudes, and ACTIONS are altered by television.
New section: draw a line
How many Web Social Networks do you belong to or blogs, groups or causes do you regularly visit on line? Jot it down
Beneath this, jot down the total number of times you log into or visit them each week in total. You may wish to use margin space to jot down each one and add them up if you can’t do it in your head.
Multiply the two numbers and jot it down in the second column.
What is a typical number of times you like, share, comment, or rate someone else’s post or blog in a week – ONLY those posts which are NOT about personal matters but are actually about causes and topical matters of a more serious nature externally impacting your life, the country, or the World. Jot it down in the second column.
What is the typical number of times you like, share, comment, or rate where the topics are more of personal interests of less serious nature than the above. Put it in the second column and underline for a subtraction.
Subtract the second from the first. If less than zero, use zero.
This is your “Social Media Impact score.”
New Section: draw a line
Now subtract Social Media from TV Media and jot it down as a single, middle column. If less than zero, use a minus sign and keep going. You can probably do the rest of it in your head from here on.
subtract one for each real-world (e.g., Greenpeace, Republican Party, Garden Club, Exercise Club membership) or Web cause to which you belong and made a cash contribution or pay a membership fee, or have to go somewhere to participate.
Subtract one more for each such group to which you have attended at least three meetings in a year, and subtract five more for each instance which required overnight travel.
Subtract five for each attendance at a protest rally or public forum/debate, and five more for overnight travel, and 10 more if you participated as speaker or open dialog with a speaker, and 10 more again if you had an unpleasant confrontation with Police or other participants as result (stern words or worse).
Subtract 25 for each Web site or blog page, Cause, or Group you personally created and manage on the Web which has to do with the serious type of matters.
Circle this last result, which your final score for determining your status: Netizen vs. Web Walleroo. Lower is better as you may by now have guessed…
Scoring Section
Book by Chesa Boudin, Kenyon Farrow, and Dan Berger, Nation Books (click)
0-5 You are a concerned and aware citizen.
The closer to zero, the more active and informed you are compared to others on the Web, and the more potent you are as activist both on the Web and in real life (they amplify your power in one with the other). you’ve probably Read at least one book each by Ayn Rand, George Orwell, Adios Huxley, and Hunter S. Thompson. You’ve read the Constitution and Bill of Rights and something by Thomas Jefferson SINCE school days, know at least two Constitutional Amendments for which you can correctly identify their number and purpose, and you know what Posse Comitatus refers to.
Now, if a negative number, you are a subversive radical
Yes, just like me, and as result you are probably being watched by one or more government agencies! Better read my book, The Professional Paranoid: How to Fight Back When Investigated, Surveilled, Stalked or Targeted by Any Individual, Group, or Agency. You tend to be a Truther and think the FED, Congress, the IRS, the UN, the Bilderbergers, the National Debt, and Terrorism are just forms of phony baloney. You have pet conspiracies you follow and probably believe in UFOs and mind control. GOOD FOR YOU! Right on all counts!
The larger the negative number, the more lists you are on with government, and the more likely you are to end up targeted by a Drone for surveillance, liable to actions sanctioned under the NDAA, have a FEMA Camp bed with your name on it, or likely to enjoy targeting with Political Control Technology (e.g., voices in your head, microwave assaults, street theater and gang stalking, etc.) You should use FOIA with all of the initialed Agencies of government to see how many files there are opened on you and what they are willing to tell you is in them. The more redactions you see, the more of a terrorist you are considered to be, and the more sophisticated resources they are throwing at you in order to keep tabs on you. In other words, THEY FEAR YOU! You are being a PATRIOT who questions government!
5-10 You are wishy washy on controversial matters, not terribly concerned that all the bad things out there can have too much impact on your life, but probably enjoy watching it all unfold, a form of entertainment. You join groups but don’t participate and probably don’t contribute. You sometimes shrug your shoulders and may catch yourself saying any of the following. ‘That may be true, but we can’t do anything about it.’ ‘As long as it isn’t me, I’m not sticking my nose where it don’t belong.’ ‘They probably know what’s best.’ ‘If you have nothing to hide, it shouldn’t matter.’ When you do choose to participate, it may be a contrarian remark or criticism, an attempt to change the subject.
10-25. You are a Walleroo! You should become more proactive in your beliefs, and perhaps should be taking a very close look at just what you do believe, and why. Challenge your beliefs to pass hard tests as proposed by those who believe contrary, and the truth may just set you free. This can alter (adjust) your priorities to be more in line with your true needs, which you’ve likely been hiding from yourself. You may even be that Ostrich with its head in the sand as the Lion approaches, hoping that if you can’t see the evil, it will not see you — like the Ravenous Blugblatter Beast of Traal, which is described in the Hitchiker’s Guide to the Universe this way…
The Ravenous Bugblatter Beast is so mind-bogglingly stupid that it thinks that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you. Therefore, the best defense against a Bugblatter Beast is to wrap a towel around your head.
More than 25? You are not only a Walleroo, but a Sheeple! You are probably perfectly content to buy whatever media and government hands you as Gospel, and tend not to care too much about scandals where they are caught lying to you, stealing your tax money, having sex with under age moist cigars, and the like. You are an adamant consumer of products and likely a staunch Republican or Democrat who accepts party line as the only line because that’s what your parents did.
As long as you can continue to enjoy your small World of pleasures you have defined for yourself (like the Grasshopper who preferred to play his fiddle than worry about things to come), you remain content. You have a towel wrapped around your head at all times, and will not even know what hit you when evil finds you. Now, hop off happily to the next bit of fluff, if I haven’t already lost you somewhere around the definitions – because if you are still reading this, I doubt we are talking about you, at all!
******
If you enjoyed this in any way, shape or form, I KNOW you will enjoy my companion post on calculating how much money the Federal Reserve has cost you personally. Its a bit more complex, but far more interesting and shocking in results.
Related articles
- Dissent Without Permission: Will Protest Permits & Free Speech Zones Halt Or Hasten Rebellion? (corporategreedchronicles.com)
- Political Parties are Like Entertainment for the Compliant Sheeple (libertarianreview.us)
proparanoid 