Quarter of Brits think Churchill was myth: poll

Pretty typical really.

I'm glad you've taken matters into your own hands nefermore.

Yes there are some things in british history that we shouldn't be proud of, but there's much more good than bad IMO.

Every single person I know over the age of 21 knows who Winston Churchill.
This poll is not a fair reflection of British society as a whole and any statistician worth a carrot would agree.

However, I wouldn't be surprised if the statisitic was representative of certain sections of society as the relentless crusade to dumb down Britain continues.

Nice to see that the US is not the only country suffering from the dumbing down of an educational system. A system that has gone to the dogs due to a politically correct attitude brought about by the Lefties that have made it easier for little Johnnie to pass to the next level just because we don't want his poor little feelings hurt.

I was really surprised about the Brits, until I remembered this from a few years ago: 45% of Britons have never even heard of Auschwitz

Originally posted by snoopyuk
This does not shock me at all !!

my wife came home last week and said that the young (17-18) admin asistants in her office thought that WWII was in the 1960`s or 70`s.

other people i have met thought that it was the russians that started the war !!

the youth of today !!

snoopyuk

The majority of the people polled where most likely in their late 20's into their 40's or older.......

The old people of today! ...

And to think, this generation is the one that is supposed to be leading the world? .. No, I am not surprised at the state of world affairs. The sooner we stop letting the ignorant populations govern themselves, the better.

reply to post by snoopyuk


Trust me, this isn't exclusive to the 'youth of today.'

Current events are lost on most, and history is lost on even more.


loam,

Thanks for the article. Sadly it does not surprise me in the least.

If the British are so uninformed, I don't even want to imagine what my fellow Americans would answer to similar questions...

[edit on 2/4/2008 by biggie smalls]

Originally posted by marg6043
Hey things are bound to get worst here in the US as Mr. Bush is planing to cut into education to help with the stimulus package, I guess we don't want a nation of financial savvies but rather spending freaks.

I told you the Uk will be assimilated, dumb and stupefied.

It's not just Bush's fault, the dumbing down process doesn't happen overnight, it takes years and maybe even a few generations.

I'm not defending the stimulus package but the attitude that throwing money at something will improve matters has really got to stop because it almost never does.
In fact many times it only makes things worse.

Those little clips with the very ignorant of general knowledge people make me laugh. But I refuse to believe that every one of the people they talked to were that uninformed of basic things. Surely there are those out there without common sense and basic knowledge, but those clips are also edited to only show the people who don't know their stuff.

I hate it when articles don't provide any information about sampling techniques or margins of error, or even central tendencies.

It renders the data meaningless, even if the numbers are accurate.

The article about the British doesn't even say who did the survey.

As for the video, these are comedy routines that take advantage of people by putting them on camera and asking them questions that may be the farthest things from their minds under the circumstance.

Some of these people might be stupid, intoxicated, or uneducated or they might be just nervous, frivolous, and intoxicated.

Regardless, such a video can do no more than make use a convenience sample and any video can be edited to make any point desired.

Lies, Damm Lies and Statistics....


Well i can imagine some of my fellow countrymen and women thinking this i refuse to believe its a quarter, unless the sample group was from a series of crack houses.

I seriously could not believe this was a true representation (taken from a random consensus) of the British public. Then I found out that the survey was commisioned by UKTV Gold Big alarm bells ringing!

uktv.co.uk...

Churchill...Is this REALLY our darkest hour?

Oh Yes..

Churchill...can you fight them on the beaches, in the streets AND in the fields?

Oh Yes..

And will you NEVER surrender?

Ohhhh YES!

I've read this thread with both a smile and a tear in my eye, but It reminded me of something I found while surfing the web one day...

Enjoy..

One of the fringe benefits of being an English or History teacher is receiving the occasional jewel of a student blooper in an essay. I have pasted together the following "history" of the world from certifiably genuine student bloopers collected by teachers throughout the United States, from eighth grade through college level. Read carefully, and you will learn a lot.

History of the World ... Part 1



Peace...

Originally posted by snoopy
This does not shock me at all !!

my wife came home last week and said that the young (17-18) admin assistants in her office thought that WWII was in the 1960`s or 70`s.

other people i have met thought that it was the Russians that started the war !!

the youth of today !!

snoopy

How can you blame them? Look at what we are facing, we have myspace and facebook and its being used for all the wrong reasons. Everyone wants to gain acceptance so much these days it seems common sense has taken a serious back road and got lost somewhere between the speed and the coke.

Our youth will eventually come to when their sent to war and they dont quiet understand why.

We have to come to grips with reality, no one wants to understand why things happen in this world, everyone's to busy trying to be a rockstar. ahhhh Spears, Lohan, Hedger and all the rest of our role models.

You know what I mean. Its media control.

Not sure I believe this poll to be accurate at all. I can't believe that such a large percentage of the population is that stupid.

I would like to guess that this poll is very manufactured, in order to present it to people, so we can believe we are superior to the rest of the sheeple.

While I do believe that many people are ignorant of many facts, I refuse to believe that people are just plain retarded. This poll is to stroke the ego of the readers so we can sit back in our chairs, and say ha, pity the fools.

Is this truly the state of the world, am I giving people too much credit? I do admit to seeing stupidity every single day, but it's mainly due to selfishness and taking the easy road, but to to be honest, I don't interact with the world that much. Maybe we are really this bad off.

This poll clearly illustrates the importance of studying history. It also serves to underscore how vital it is to remember the true lessons of history -- 'Lest we forget'.

As the education system is being "dumbed down", we truly stand to lose our historical perspective. We stand to forget the lessons that we have learned from the past and to confuse myth with reality.

This is the reason why it is so important to remember the Holocaust, for example. To recognize that genocide is possible because it had already once happened. Already, we see Holocaust deniers trying to blur the lines of reality in a concerted effort to transform the deaths of millions into myth.

hello,

this thread nearly made me cry.........

I am 28 at the end of this month and i live in the garden of england in kent i have served in the royal navy and seen the d-day map at hms dryad (which is now decon'd) just talking a walk in the local country side and even some small villages shows the history everywhere from ww2 pill boxes to a 70 mile coastal towers system built for the threat of invasion,

histroy surrounds us and even though i didnt enjoy history at school i believe its something you grow into and i am constanly reading something or talking to the old guys who where there for a first hand review its fasinating.

I have a son of 4 all he wants to do at the mo is come home from school and play on the web and he's 4!!! but i will make it my mission when he is a little older to teach him the great past of our country and its up's and downs because England is great.

the problem today i feel is that the influx of illegal immigrants and forigners in our country are changing it, its very much a politaclly correct society here now, no flying the flag because it will upset your neighbour ffs and teaching my son about a muslim religon because there is one other kid in his class! whats up with telling him all about winston churchill and how we saved the world.

"well fight em on the beaches" yeah nows it we will fight em at Dover

Here is a saying (paraphrased and without attribution) that is very appropriate....

No one ever lost money overestimating the stupidity of people.

Maybe the percentage of people who thought Sherlock Holmes was real are just the people who wanted him to be real? Kind of boggles the mind, but then again since i'm in the US, it doesn't shock me very much. Kind of used to it by now.

Originally posted by MrDead
Not sure I believe this poll to be accurate at all. I can't believe that such a large percentage of the population is that stupid.

How many kids do you remember who can recite the full roster of pokemon, all 5 million of them, but have problems in school?

It's really about what people want to remember, not that they are stupid. I would much rather recall the witty one liner's from my favorite comedians than the boiling point of water.....(incidentally, I have trouble remembering many things....)...but my point is, people get a more favorable response from other people by recalling pop culture instead of Dresden.....the mass media crams this crap into our throats until we can only remember that Thank You is spelled, "thnx".

So are they trying to say americans are stupid or just texans? Im american so Im confused.