26% of Americans don't know who US fought to gain its independence

reply to post by IgnoranceIsntBlisss


He is being sarcastic just to see what type of a reaction he would receive from people. But, well you get what you see in the video which is a bit devastating and highly predictable for the better or lack of a term.

reply to post by Raist


I pondered doing something similar, but I guess never had the balls to do it, if you will.

For some it might be difficult to watch, but does it surprise us?

reply to post by ReAlIzAtIoN


You're right. He did a good job. His other videos are usually good, and he's done some others similar to that one in recent times.

www.youtube.com...

[edit on 2-7-2010 by IgnoranceIsntBlisss]

reply to post by ReAlIzAtIoN


I want to say it surprises me, I really do. I am not sure it does though. I thought for sure that even the basic stuff like this was common knowledge.

Raist

You know, my recent ambition has been the 'solution' found in my sig, or rather the solutions.

After mulling over all of this, I can't see how people can participate in the electronic direct democracy part of it without passing some sort of tests on history, and perhaps other things such as your understanding in social psychology (what else?). I Hate to say it but it's true.

However, I still contend that if people had the chance to participate they'd actually work towards getting smart. Further, I contend that subconscious realization that participating in the current system is almost pointless, and that helps fuel the disconnect we've been assessing in this thread.

[edit on 2-7-2010 by IgnoranceIsntBlisss]

Can we create a new "stupid tax" in this country? You're taking away from society when you're stupid, so give back some money. Not like they'd be able to put forth much of a resistance

I'd clean up our deficit....the one they have no idea about.

[edit on 2-7-2010 by ghaleon12]

reply to post by ghaleon12




And there's more:
www.youtube.com...

Originally posted by Raist
reply to post by 23refugee

 

I cannot believe that is the first time you have seen it on ATS. I have seen it several times and even used the word myself a few times.

I thought it was common knowledge the word was drivel. It should not make me proud that I know this word, but if what you say is true that puts me on the upper half of the worlds population (I did not even think I was that smart).

Raist

I guess I spend to much time in the low brow threads but this is honestly the first I've seen of "drivel". Now that I've mentioned it, I'm confident you'll run across "dribble". It'll catch your eye, like some sort of 11:11 phenomenon.

Originally posted by IgnoranceIsntBlisss

Originally posted by Totalstranger
public schools are becoming like a great big babysitter who lets the kids do whatever they want.

And people scoffed and ridiculed when Ron Paul got on TV and said we need to end the Department of Education.

These graphs begin when the Dept. of Education was founded.

That top chart looks like the IQ chart in the beginning of the movie Idiocracy (which is a definate must see movie). We're racing to it at breakneck speed

Man, what the fk wrong with those people !? technically I'm not an American yet .... and I'm sure I know more about US history than those people.

reply to post by the_0bserver85


I'm a green card American as well. Will be a citizen later this year. I know how you feel, but before you blame them, remember that the DOE, the teacher's union, and the schools themselves are highly politicized. These people were propagandized into stupidity and ignorance.

Remember that being a nerd, or even just intelligent, is looked down upon because of media influences. Few ever become anything more than cows... But at least it isn't 74 percent.

If i had any national pride i would be embarrassed.

Luckily i am just one more shameless American.

What i will say is betting on the intellectual acumen of any random American is a real money burner, which is why i haven't done it lately.

The real question is when do i finally, realistically become unnerved living here, enough to buy gold instead of risk years of labor on US currency. The current price of gold [silver] seems just painfully high.

But since 2011 is now not even a starting exit date from the money squandering Afghanistan & we haven't even left Iraq yet, maybe i am just not strong enough to face the ugly reality of it.

After looking and reading the posts, I am not surprised. Part of the ignorance on the history of the country by its populace, was predicted in 1958, by Edward R. Murrow, stating that the TV would either be used to enlighten the population of the country or dumb it down. Part of this problem is the education of the country, as the students are being taught to take tests and not think, where the facts of history are boiled down to dates and places, crammed in, rather than looking at the issues and having discussions to where the faces and names of the primary players and their backgrounds are taught.
I have found, once while working in a school, that many of the students, and they were high school age, did not know about the very holidays that they were getting time away from the class for. And these are the major holidays that hit during a school year.
The focus on the basics of education has gone by the wayside, infavor of more high tech stuff, and children are often more involved with more modern technology.
Personally I believe that computers need to be taken from the schools, banning the students from having cell phones and going back to the basics, books, paper, chalk and blackboard, simple desks and having the students actually learn the subjects, and writing, rather than typing and doing web searches for the answers.

The truth of the matter is that our entire system of government was designed to merely give the general population the illusion that we are in charge.

I don't have the time to look it up and quote it, but I remember reading in Aristotle's Politics where he spoke of a government like ours. It was appealing because the general population could feel like they were participating and had a little power, while the real citizens were the elected officials. This goes back to the idea of how to define a citizen. In the time of the Greeks, citizenship wasn't given to lower class nobodies! In fact, all of the great Greek Philosophers were prejudice upper class a-holes!

Brilliant? Yes. A-holes? Absolutely!

So, now you know why our Representatives don't listen to us. We're not real citizens. They know what is best for us!

I just so happen to be watching this new show American Inventor, for the first time.

I detest American Idol, in fact in my blog post version of this thread the top image is a cynical American Idol logo spoof that reads "American Idiot". This is a show much similar to that damned show.

But I gotta say, seeing some of the great ideas ordinary people have put their heart and minds into, there is still hope out there.

In fact, there's hardly anyone I can think of that I've spent lots of time with that hasn't said a good idea that could actually make some money and help some people at something.

Having old technology invention ideas over 10 years old, that still aren't around, and still would be good, and therefore being well researched on the patenting process, I can say that it's too daunting of a process for just about everybody.

Some of the ideas I've already seen not finished watching this show are testament to that.

For one thing, it costs about $10,000 to file a patent. Majority of the cost is thanks to the government. I guess a lot of people reading this have attempted to read some government legislative type document before. It's often absurdly ridiculous for the average person to make sense of. Many refer to the language as "Legalese". With patents there's an entirely different language that must be spoken for a patent to fly. In short, unless you spend ridiculous time studying misc patents just to learn the otherwise useless language, you have to pay a specialized patent attorney about $10,000 to write the patent submission for you.

From there it isn't much easier getting something to market. I'd guess the average person with half a brain already has a good idea of this, without even having to do a lot of research into it.

In short, the system discourages ideas and invention. If this wasn't the case, many people would often spend more time tinkering and inventing things.

And not only would there be a lot more cool stuff in the world, more people would have more skills from their hands on work, and more ideas from researching things otherwise not really 'worth' their investment in time.

[edit on 3-7-2010 by IgnoranceIsntBlisss]

Originally posted by projectvxn
reply to post by the_0bserver85

 

I'm a green card American as well. Will be a citizen later this year. I know how you feel, but before you blame them, remember that the DOE, the teacher's union, and the schools themselves are highly politicized. These people were propagandized into stupidity and ignorance.

Remember that being a nerd, or even just intelligent, is looked down upon because of media influences. Few ever become anything more than cows... But at least it isn't 74 percent.

It's true when I was in middle and high school (87-93) getting good grades meant being laughed at. You couldnt stride to do well or your friends made fun of you. It was more a popularity contest than anything. By senior year, I had none of the same friends that I did my freshman year because of this. I'm lucky I graduated because I hated going to school in such a menacing environment.

It's sad but when Columbine happened 6 years later I wasnt suprised and I understood why they did that.

reply to post by Totalstranger


Kids don't go to a school anymore. They go to a propaganda factory that looks and feels like a prison. Teachers aren't teachers anymore they are prison guards and babysitters. We have metal detectors, armed guards, and random locker searches. (this is what came of Columbine HS). To this day, I do not understand Eric Harris and David Klebold, but I do understand the system that produced them.

[edit on 3-7-2010 by projectvxn]

Now getting towards the end of the '2 hour' American Inventor episode I talked about, they have this supposed 'reality (show)' case who presented something already on the market, supposedly already owned by one of the 4 judges.

It turned into how the lady spent $12,000 going to one of the agencies out there who supposedly helps inventors get patents filed and then to market. The issue became how they screwed her and marketed the product. Assuming it wasn't staged, this is what I'm talking about by saying the system discourages innovation. We've become a society of people who don't even think about invention (an art), that I argue is driven by a sense of learned (and realistic) helplessness. We're all just waiting around for the monolithic corporations do come up with ideas, mainly just the next new CPU or Apple product.

[edit on 3-7-2010 by IgnoranceIsntBlisss]

This is why not everyone should vote, and organizations that seek to "get out the vote" are doing more harm than good...and are always politically motivated. I remember registering to vote through a "RocktheVote.com" form when I turned 18...and I got on the mailing list...only to start getting emails from change.org, moveon.org, etc etc. People who "get out the vote" are ALWAYS politically motivated, if you plan to vote you are up to date on issues, or at least know -something- about the situation. When someone asks you to register to vote, they mean, register to vote and vote like them. I bet at least 1/2 to 1/3 of this 26% voted in the election; when elections are often only one by single digit percentage points that small pool of ignorant voters can turn an election.

Probably the same people that think that Obama is the Anti-Christ.

You can't help the fact that there are some extremely stupid people running around.