Ignorant America: Just How Stupid Are We?

Ignorant America: Just How Stupid Are We?

www.alternet.org

"About 1 in 4 Americans can name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment (freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly and petition for redress of grievances.) But more than half of Americans can name at least two members of the fictional cartoon family, according to a survey.


"The study by the new McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum found that 22 percent of Americans could name all five Simpson family members, compared with just 1 in 1,000 people who could name all five First Amendment freedoms."

(visit the link for the full news article)

"...Only 34% know that it is the Congress that declares war (which may explain why they are not alarmed when presidents take us into wars without explicit declarations of war from the legislature). Only 35% know that Congress can override a presidential veto. Some 49% think the president can suspend the Constitution. Some 60% believe that he can appoint judges to the federal courts without the approval of the Senate. Some 45% believe that revolutionary speech is punishable under the Constitution."

Our minds are polluted from birth with meaningless drivel and this only serves the masters...we are mesmerized and hypnotized by the most powerful propaganda machine in the history of civilization. Bombarded 24/7 until we can no longer think and learn to make decisions in our own best interest.



www.alternet.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Leo Strauss


Well stated my friend...Indoctrination of propagandization...Freedom of thought is one thing TPTB don't want the masses to have, and their distractions have worked masterfully for ages. Star and flag for you.

TV is a big political tool. Dumb down the public and they will not question what you do. Keep them glued to the tube and the politicians can go out and do anything they want.

reply to post by Leo Strauss


And this will be why we will be literally screwed when it comes..

They will cart our asses off to some camp kill us, then leave all the idiots around to do meaningless tasks.

Idiocracy comes to mind really.

Sad thing is...I bet more people could name The Spice Girls, as well.

reply to post by Equinox99


I would agree with your point to an extend. Ofcourse you have to also know that a lot of people do watch History channel, tlc, PBS and other informative channels on the tv. I, for one, am one of the many that do. Most other shows on tv is just plain dumb and most dont even last a season or two before they are taken off the air. Yes its true that many people do listen and look at the really dumb shows and their IQ will show why.

reply to post by ThichHeaded


I'm afraid its not too far from the truth. The higher the IQ the less children will be had also less stress. The lower IQ have the most and the most stress and most likely to die early from drinking or drugs or getting killed by others and the children will keep up the old standards. Oh well.

Now, I know people are getting stupider at an alarming rate but I'm going to propose that it's not their fault.

These days nothing is really expected of a child or teenager. If a child begins to do poorly in school the most common approach is to have him or her diagnosed with a learning disability and then placed in special programs or a special school.

I've seen some of these special schools and more than one has absolutely no academic work what so ever. No history, no math, no sociology despite the fact that the students are completely normal functioning teenagers. Nothing is expected of children today, they're just expected to grow up and be another employee at Cotsco saying "Welcome to Cotsco, I love you"

However, on the reverse side, what is there for a child to reach for anymore? The socio-economic divisions are so apparent and start so early these days that there's really little for a child to aspire to be. What profession can a child look up to anymore in our service industry economy. Children are almost literally bred into slavery now.

Our academic standards are low to none, every classroom is dumbed down to the lowest denominator and educational funding is the last thing on the minds of the politicians.

We can complain about people getting dumber but it really seems to be our society's fault.

reply to post by Leo Strauss


Leo, Speak for yourself. These how dumb is America, hahaha posts are tiresome.

People are no more or less educated in the U.S. than anywhere else.

Originally posted by DarthChrisious
Sad thing is...I bet more people could name The Spice Girls, as well.

Victoria, Emma, Geri, Melanie B, Melanie C.

I agree, it's sad and scary how ignorant the people have become. Too much importance is placed on things that are totally irrelevant.

Originally posted by Leo Strauss
Our minds are polluted from birth with meaningless drivel and this only serves the masters...we are mesmerized and hypnotized by the most powerful propaganda machine in the history of civilization. Bombarded 24/7 until we can no longer think and learn to make decisions in our own best interest.

I think you are a little off the mark. It's not your comment about how people seem to be a little dumb but the reason why they appear to be less educated.
It's not the television. TV is entertainment and not meant to educate anyone. Society has nobody to blame except for the parents and schools.

First and foremost it's the parents responsibilty to make sure their kids are educated. If parents feel the schools are lacking then they should take up the slack. Instead of playing playstation, sit down with your children and teach them using educational games and other similar methods.

Secondly, most public schools are garbage because of the liberal agenda or at least the liberal way of thinking. The liberal establishment has infected the school system for the past 40 years to the point where it's basically useless. Instead of teaching the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic they teach the kids how to put on condoms. The kids are not taught basic American history or geography. And when they finally do teach subjects like match, they teach the test instead of actually teaching the kids how to solve formulas.



[edit on 2-7-2008 by WhatTheory]

Originally posted by deadbang
reply to post by Leo Strauss

 

Leo, Speak for yourself. These how dumb is America, hahaha posts are tiresome.

People are no more or less educated in the U.S. than anywhere else.

there is no "hahaha" on my side...
i find this quite disturbing!!!

it is the responsibility of the mainstream media to help the public make informed decisions...they are failing miserably!!

what is really embarrasing to me are all these posts saying we are stupid and all the americans chime in "yeah!!"

get some self worth ppl! stupid is as stupid does.

yes, we are to blame for the state we are in. we blame the media when we have been the ones watching the media. so, now some of us realize this. instead of going round and round this proverbial rhetoric, why don't you make a post saying what YOU personally are doing to beat the stupidity.

to sit here and say "america is stupid" is like someone sitting in the middle of their own dung crying they are stupid. get up out of your stupidity already so we don't have to keep seeing these posts.

Humans are bourn with a few instincts and a hell of an imagination rich or poor. What divides us from the animal flock is that we can use ouer imagination and communication tool to shape and controll things.

What divides humans form humans in the 21 centry! Well we like to imagin that poor people must be stupid. And the rich must be smart.

We imagine that rich people screw and get smart kid. Poor people screw and get stupid kids. Now hove stupid is that lol.






[edit on 27.06.08 by spy66]

Originally posted by Leo Strauss
it is the responsibility of the mainstream media to help the public make informed decisions...they are failing miserably!!

It would be great if that value statement was shared by the mainstream media....but pragmatism states their primary responsibility is to make money for the shareholders. And we've seen the results when that value becomes the guiding value.

Television, and most other media, is information flow in one direction. And that's where the problem occurs. Lacking the means to respond to, and discuss, the information flowing from the boob tube....results in a million informed decisions...with little consensus. This medium, the Internet, has the potential to reverse the trend of one-way information feeds. The founders of this country, the US, knew that an informed, reasoning populace could exercise a great deal of leverage via the printed and/or written word. Ideas could be exchanged, argued, discussed, and contemplated....the only requirement being the ability to read and write coherent thoughts. Which is one reason so many people see the "texting" phenomena, and it's accompanying bastardization of the language, with great dismay.

It's not that the population of this country is stupid.....the problem is, we're not aware of how smart we are as a group. The idiot box, with it's flashy lights and colors, is much like that little "flashy thing" in the movie Men In Black. It has a neurological affect; shutting down important parts of the higher cognitive functions. Regardless of the content offered by the mainstream media....it will remain "one way" in its legacy format; with no way for odd or misleading information to be immediately refuted.

However, this medium, the Internet, has the potential to reverse the trends that television and radio started. This is an egalitarian medium....anyone with the capability to write, and has access to an Internet connected computer, can express their opinion.

The Internet must stay neutral.

I probably have thousands of more words I could add to this subject....but, time grows short and I must get to work.

What do you think?

I love laughing at posts like these. There are always people who believe that the TV is dumbing down society while they sit on the Internet posting in forums. Or that (insert musical group name) is crap while the group they happen to like is a better and smarter choice. I think it's neat because it really shows a level of human psychology. You can sort of call it the “everything you like is crap but everything I like is great” mentality. I’ve done a very generic summery of it but that thinking is basically the root of all world problems. The irony.

the original article was pointing out that the average american knew the names of the simpsons as compared to knowing the rights bestowed upon american citizens by the constitution of the USA.

this is not a "battle of the bands" this is about a basic understanding of our republic and the document it was founded upon. the constitution allows you to prefer one band to another...get it???

These statistics are highly questionable.

Originally posted by Johnmike
These statistics are highly questionable.

No they arent...I just asked my wife who has a 130 IQ and she couldnt tell me more than 1. She name all 5 Simpsons though. I think part of it is whattheory said above. Parents need to step up and take some responsibility. But it gets harder and harder as it is shoved down your throat 24/7. TV the only good educational channels anymore is maybe the history channel and a few more but you have to watch out for the bias.

You get no education from our schools and that is not just because of the liberals as said above its because of EVERYONE in our government. Republicans and Democrats have let our education go to hell over the past 50 years. This is why the dept of education needs to be thrown out the window with weights attached to it. We need to give more incentives to home school and push for more of a Polish style education where you attach money to each student and let them go to whatever school they want. This forces the schools to compete.

Great post and it just goes along with what I say all the time. Our nation is going to hell in a handbasket and people just have no clue that its happening. As long as they have their Paris Hilton they just dont care.

PS I also think its pathetic that its kids of Indian decent winning all the American educational competitions. Nothing against India (My wife is Indian) but it goes to further show when you have parents who care about their kids education it matters and the spelling bee and geography bee were both won by Americans of Indian decent.