Bethesda, Silver Spring in 'Out of Touch' Bubble

Do you live in a bubble?

That’s the question a researcher is posing to Americans, and the answer for some Bethesda and Silver residents is “yes.”

Those communities are part of the Washington, D.C., area, which couple with sections of New York City and San Francisco’s metro region are the country’s seats of power. And the researcher argues the folks inhabiting those areas are totally out of touch with most of America, which doesn’t bode well for our culture.

The new upper class is completely disconnected from the average white American and American culture at large, says Charles Murray, a libertarian political scientist and author.

Take this 25-question quiz, based on one published in Murray’s book, “Coming Apart: The State of White America 1960-2010,” to find out how thick your bubble is.

»Tell us what you think of the rankings? How isolated are Bethesda and Silver Spring from the rest of the country?

Also included in the Washington isolation bubble are Potomac and Columbia in Maryland, along with Northwest DC and Reston, VA. All of these area rank highly as places where children grow up the most isolated from mainstream white culture.

Questions Murray’s quiz poses to gauge your cultural isolation include: have you ever owned a pickup truck, did you grow up in a household where the breadwinner wasn’t a doctor or lawyer, do you have a friend who belongs to an evangelical church, and others.

His take on the 75 “bubbliest” zip codes: The epicenter is New York’s Upper West Side.

Find the full list of 75 zip codes deemed most removed from regular American life here.

PBS Newshour adapted Murray’s questions into the online poll, reports The Washington Post. Scores range from 0–100; the higher the number, the more in tune you are with working-class culture.

The poll also asked people where they currently live and where they lived when they were ten. Last week, Murray revealed he calls the “bubbliest” places in America — where children grow up the most isolated from mainstream culture – in his list of 75 zip codes.