Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
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
Those examples are more about ignorance than stupidity, and I wouldn't use those examples as a rubric for determining what is and isn't important to know. I'm of the opinion that the populace should be more informed IRT maths/sciences from technology to medicine to our own physiology and adequate nutrition since we utilize these things every day and being uninformed enables a culture of depedence.
Those examples are more about ignorance than stupidity, and I wouldn't use those examples as a rubric for determining what is and isn't important to know. I'm of the opinion that the populace should be more informed IRT maths/sciences from technology to medicine to our own physiology and adequate nutrition since we utilize these things every day and being uninformed enables a culture of depedence.
Unless you are an immigrant from a bush village you should know all of the above...
Ignorance at say, age 25+, is a symptom of stupidity.
Interesting that so many of those items were about government. When I was in junior high in the 1970s, we lived on an Air Force base in California, and California required that all 8th-graders pass what was called the Constitution Test before going on to high school. We spent something like 6 or 8 weeks in our social studies class JUST studying the Constitution. I thought it was fascinating and got 99-point-something on the test. I can still recite the preamble ("We the people ...") from memory, and I still remember all those facts about the government.
Don't know if California still requires the test for moving on to high school ... somehow I doubt it.
Incidentally, I also find it sad that it's "a sign of hope" that HALF of the people asked knew that Judaism pre-dates Christianity? So half thought it was the other way around?!! And 18% believe that the sun revolves around the earth?!!
I wouldn't necessarily disagree with him. Aside from a handful of excellent high school teachers and college professors, few teachers really inspired our students to learn, leading to students who did the bare minimums to get by in secondary school. Most of my graduating class did go to at least community college, but most of those who started never finished, and few of that remainder are what I would call truly "educated." I'm not an expert in any field, but I have enough of an education where I am at least literate in most fields to the level most popular articles are written at. Even if I don't have much formal background in something, I know how to think logically and can usually figure out the overarching concept (the big picture) on my known. I may miss the fine points, but I can at least give you a one or two sentence synopsis of what I've reading, seeing, or experiencing. Many people lack the ability to go from point A to point F without having B, C, D, E right there in front of them, and hell, many people lack basic literacy. It's no wonder were an ignorant, stupid society.
Still, one reason basic facts are not retained by people or even taught is that our society does not value being an intelligent, educated person. The biggest reason that I considered myself well-educated is because of those few excellent instructors I had who not only taught me information, but also where to find it and sift through it once I've found it - particularly at the college level. However, going to college to learn costs many thousands of dollars annually, and there is no financial incentive on the either end to do so. An extremely bright, well-rounded, and articulate humanities graduate will be turned down for positions, time and time again, over the nursing graduate who may know next to nothing about any field other than nursing. I am not picking on nurses, but society now values extremely specialized knowledge in a few specific areas over a broad, general knowledge that we'd traditionally associate with educated people.
Until we see more social and economic changes that value a holistic approach to knowledge, we will likely continue to be a "stupid" people.
Unless you are an immigrant from a bush village you should know all of the above...
Ignorance at say, age 25+, is a symptom of stupidity.
If an interviewer came up to me and asked me to list the bill of rights I would get some of it, but not all of it. Further, an ability to recite it would not lend to a conclusion of intelligence or stupidity. Although, that's not necessarily the same thing as not knowing what the bill of rights are.
If an interviewer came up to me and asked me to list the bill of rights I would get some of it, but not all of it. Further, an ability to recite it would not lend to a conclusion of intelligence or stupidity. Although, that's not necessarily the same thing as not knowing what the bill of rights are.
As intelligence is more a measurement of the ability to learn and the fact that all American school children DO learn the Bill of Rights I would say that it is a direct measure of a person's intelligence. One should be able to get most of them and they should absolutely know what the Bill of Eights are generally.
Of course, one would have to make allowances for memory issues and such.
If it were something such as mathematics I would tend to be more lenient as that involves a specific form of intelligence.
I am proud to not know who my elected politicians are or how the constitution works or what the process of impeaching a president is. I don't even vote. Learning about these things and voting are pretty much a waste of time. Rather, I plan my life on the potential outcomes of elections and react accordingly.
Location: Just transplanted to FL from the N GA mountains
3,997 posts, read 4,145,823 times
Reputation: 2677
I don't know that there's more "stupid" people.. but we sure hear about them more often now. You didn't hear about acts of stupidity on the news 24/7 and they sure didn't get their own TV shows just because of it. Stupidity has become fashionable.
i think a bit unfair. they are however cursed with very short attention span. remembering that america is only a few hundred years old and has a heavy immigrant population which feels no connection with what little short history we have. i fear that the cortez mind set is very much present with most immigrants, take what u can get trash the rest.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
- YouTube
