The “Anger Index” or, “Profane in the Brain”
Having spent the better part of a year developing Cato’s Education Market Index, I’m obviously interested in the use of statistical indices to assess policies and measure trends. Well, it seems that the blogosphere is on the verge of developing a new “Anger Index” to measure the discomfiture of the left and right in America.
Blogger Patrick Ishmael has just compiled statistics on the use of profanity by the main left‐wing and right‐wing political blogs (hat tip Instapundit). The left is currently in the “lead” (waaaay in the lead).
It will be interesting to see how the distribution of political anger, as manifested by use of profanity, will be affected by the 2008 presidential election outcome. If a Democrat takes the White House, will the Anger Index flop the other way? Will it turn out to be lower in states that are more free than in states that are less free? What does it tell us, if anything, about the left, the right, and American political discourse?
