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Not knowing what country the US fought in the American Revolution is pretty stupid, IMO. How can you NOT know that??? And it's not that hard to remember. The Jewish/Christian thing is amazing but I once worked with a woman in her 40s who didn't know that Jews don't believe Jesus was the Messiah. I was student teaching 11th grade American history and had a student who didn't know who Hitler was - the saddest part is that she'd taken European history the previous year. And she wasn't embarrassed at all about not knowing.
I ran into Americans who insisted that Rome is the capital of Romania, and that the US shares only one border with another country.
(.....and just for the record, I didn't shove a microphone in their faces.)
It's pretty bad. These trivia questions just scratch the surface of stupidity in this country.
Look at posts in the automotive forums of people trying to figure out interest rates and their horrible math. One guy actually asked "how do you figure out what a % of a number is." Then when he was crunching numbers he kept putting the decimal in the wrong place. He was in his late 20's. He had never heard of a "10 day pay-off", he had never heard of a "lein", he did not know what a "lienholder" was. He did not understand that his APR% was going to be higher. He didn't understand how to use a blue book. He never read or understood any of the fine print in any of his contracts and he got raped financially. Any bets on wheter he will follow thorough on his financial obligations?
This is what I worry about the most, simple everyday things that people should know especially before entering a financial contract. Household debt in the US is $11.4 trillion and people like this are not helping the situation. $8.5 trillion in mortgage debt. $690 billion in credit card debt. $710 billion in auto loans $550 billion in student loans. Do we even need to wonder why there is so much debt?
I saw many people say I'm just not interested in X. Someone said they were interested in knitting but their friends weren't, does that make them stupid? No, but that is a dumb argument because knitting isn't anywhere near as important as financial planning. Every human should be able to figure out a precentage rate, everyone should be able to balance a bank account, everyone should know how to create a budget to spend their money wisely. These are basic neccessities of knowledge that Americans are getting worse with by the year.
Yes, by the time you are an adult you should know that the Earth revolves around the Sun. You should know the 3 branches of governement, and the Bill of Rights and where the United States is on a map. You should know how to figure out simple math and a little geometry. Instead everyone makes excuses and all that does is drive down the collective IQ.
Ignorance at say, age 25+, is a symptom of stupidity.
Disagree. There are countless people that are ignorant as in the case of not being able to read. However, many are functional, live happy lives, raise families, are able to love, etc. If I am not mistaken, stupidity is fall somewhere in the range of mental capabilties. With that in mind, ignorance I do not think is a factor to rate someone stupid.
Lastly, there are countless Americans that are ignorant of those subjects and yet still produce commodities, invent, create, build, etc. So if you rate them as stupid, as a nation, we are not doing so bad.
I am not saying being ignorant of those areas would not be important but to classify someone stupid to me it is stretching it. Take care.
Another example of the endemic stupidity in this country: Watching a major television program (A&E's First 48) they ran an advertisement for an upcoming program, and to highlight the commentary of the narrator, they put in bold letters "GRIZZLY CRIME" when discussing what happened to someone by the suspect.
This went to air and no one knew the difference between "grisly" and "grizzly"? Forget whoever produced the intro, even an editor did not catch this obvious error?
IT is not only your average McDonald's worker, or the dishwasher, or the construction guy who did not learn the basics, it can be someone college educated, and often times it is those with college degrees who don't know the basics. Education is a subjective term these days.
This reminds me of some spelling errors I've seen on Craigslist. The best (or worst) was someone selling wrought iron who spelled it "rot" iron.....
Bill Maher challenges the idea that the US is a smart country on Fox News. After being called a pinhead by Bill O'Reilly, he comes back with a defense of his statement by referencing some interesting statistics.
Only 24% do know not which country America fought in the American Revolutionary War
More than 50% can not name a single branch of government
More than 50% do not know what is the bill of rights
Roughly 66% do not know what Food and Drug Administration does
Half of Americans do not know how many senators each state has
But the news isn't all bad, there are some signs of hope
Half were able to figure out which came first Judaism or Christianity.
and only 18% believe that the Sun revolves around the earth
He's polarizing. If you by and large disagree with his views then you're probably going to despise him. If you largely agree with him then you're likely to be a pretty big fan of his show, as it is consistently entertaining and informative.
don't think stupidity can be judge by national borders. The reason I say this is, well, just go over to the "world" forums and you will find plenty of Europeans who are dumb as posts. But I do agree with the poster who said Americans tend "to wear their anti-intellectualism like a badge of honor."
My favorites are people who walk/jog in the street with traffic (instead of against) when there is a perfectly good sidewalk available. They will even do this into the sun which blinds the drivers approaching from behind and they'll wear headphones so they wouldn't even be able to hear a car approaching from behind.
Or, they'll put $2000 mag wheels on a $1400 car.
Or, they'll pay down a 3% mortgage while paying the monthly minimum to 12% credit cards.
This reminds me of some spelling errors I've seen on Craigslist. The best (or worst) was someone selling wrought iron who spelled it "rot" iron.....
Craigslist is one thing, a major television production that is using an advertisement, repeatedly, for an upcoming weeks show and uses a bold font that takes up half of your television screen with GRIZZLY CRIME instead of GRISLY CRIME is inexcusable.
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