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

reply to post by WolfofWar


I believe I covered that with "or our way of life". Show a little respect, I believe I've earned the benefit of the doubt.

Originally posted by IgnoranceIsntBlisss

Originally posted by WolfofWar
Even if you know your rights, and see or perceive them to be slipping away, you have no power to change it, save for electing your representatives, but since both parties are filled with people who also don't know the constitutions contents (or worse, willingly ignore it) it really is irrelevant who you vote for?

You are correct! ding ding ding

That's why I say no more self-serving politicians or political parties.

In fact everything you just said confirms what I've been trying to tell people lately as the reason why people are so disconnected from our nation itself. For a lot of people its a 'waste' of time when there is no feedback loop. When voting is even irrelevant.

If we agree I do hope you'll take a moment to go over my proposed solution for this crisis.

I'm not just bitching with this thread about ignorance.

nah, I'm not really pinpointing you, I just chose to reply to you in general, being the creator of the thread. There is a general air in this thread right now I wanted to trump down.

Originally posted by 6EQUJ5
reply to post by WolfofWar

 

I believe I covered that with "or our way of life". Show a little respect, I believe I've earned the benefit of the doubt.

our way of life has not been infringed upon anytime lately either. If you are referring to terrorist attacks, they have been ongoing for 30 years in America, hasn't stopped us yet, and it wasn't due to warfare. In fact, no war in the last 50 years threatened our way of life. You could argue that World War II COULD have, but Japan never had the capability to harm our mainland, and Germany would have been destroyed when they attacked the Soviets completely without our aide of France. Our way of life hasn't needed defending through force for over 100 years. I respect your job as much as any civil servant, but I will not place you or any other civil servant up on a pedestal, and I certainly won't stop from correcting false claims.

How many people know who the first vice president was? How many people can recite the first 6 presidents in a row? I'm sure you guys will google it and say you know. But if I walked up to you on the street would you know?

We need to get off this American Exceptionalism track we've been on. It isolates us from the rest of the world. No one likes a snop. Yeah, its important that people should know some American history if you live here. I'm just not convinced you're dumb or unpatriotic if you don't know every thing there is to know about our history.

reply to post by WolfofWar


You have no idea what goes on below the surface. Obviously if Walter Cronkite, Peter Jennings, or Katie Couric didn't cover it on the evening news there must not be any activities going on in the world that threaten our way of life here in the US that YOU couldn't possibly be aware of.

Originally posted by Come Clean
How many people know who the first vice president was? How many people can recite the first 6 presidents in a row? I'm sure you guys will google it and say you know. But if I walked up to you on the street would you know?

We need to get off this American Exceptionalism track we've been on. It isolates us from the rest of the world. No one likes a snop. Yeah, its important that people should know some American history if you live here. I'm just not convinced you're dumb or unpatriotic if you don't know every thing there is to know about our history.

It's probably pretty bad if you don't know who the vice President is, but still, what does it matter? How does it affect any persons lives, save a political writer or journalist? Does Biden have a "if you know my name and you send me a letter you get 10,000 dollars" national holiday? Same thing for the first 6 presidents? These are irrelevant to our lives, non-important trivial little facts that are only brought up to gloat and belittle people for a smug sense of satisfaction. There are so many more important things to know that Americans DON'T, like a strong understanding of mathematics and science, things that will actually further our technological progression and produce new innovations and industry. The first 6 presidents are a completely useless trivia to know, and that's coming from a man who has a pocket Constitution with him nearly everywhere he goes.

reply to post by 6EQUJ5


Name the last war fought for YOUR freedoms!

But I'd still put on a massive fireworks show for you.

The truth is that very few of the wars fought since most us have been alive had anything to do with my or probably even your freedom. That's not what troops are used for anymore. As a result, the ones who fight for those documents and concepts are mainly only the sorts such as myself who spend insane amounts of time researching and trying make make noise and motivate people to stand up domestically for those rights. I hate to have to say it but it's true, although that doesn't actually mean that I don't appreciate the sacrifice of our troops who believe they're doing the right thing.

That said, would you still have me over at your BBQ?

reply to post by IgnoranceIsntBlisss


Oh, I bet the number is much larger than 26%. That's a very conservative estimate which borderlines being generous.

Namaste and Love

[edit on 3-7-2010 by PsychoX42]

Originally posted by 6EQUJ5
reply to post by WolfofWar

 

You have no idea what goes on below the surface. Obviously if Walter Cronkite, Peter Jennings, or Katie Couric didn't cover it on the evening news there must not be any activities going on in the world that threaten our way of life here in the US that YOU couldn't possibly be aware of.

Ah, the old "well it's classified, but seriously, you were threatened!" I don't buy it, no thanks. That sounds like a nice way to get out of criticism for your rather standard post-military propaganda of "I defended you from unknown enemies! Respect me!" If you like to give me a hint of all the secret black ops that threatened me and my way of life, feel free to u2u me with the generalities. I'd love to hear about all the doomsday weapons, Supernation armies, and evil scientists that you yourself have thwarted and saved America from.

reply to post by IgnoranceIsntBlisss


I'd invite anyone to my BBQ, but be warned I tend to leave things a little too long on the fire.

The only point I was making was I really don't think it matters if you can recite any of the Amendments, or if you can name Clinton's Cabinet or know the last cuss word that Biden uttered. What should matter is that we, in American, recognize ourselves as Americans first today and be willing to make it a better America tomorrow. Hell, anyone can look up the answers on the Internet or go to the library. Being aware of your resources is much more important than rote memorization.

reply to post by WolfofWar


You need to relax a bit. If you're looking to pick a fight, you're looking in the wrong direction, I'm not interested, and I'm a nobody. I'm sure there are people that could tell you war stories on the level you seek, and most will be works of fiction. Just remember, the more details you get, the greater likelihood of it being BS.

reply to post by IgnoranceIsntBlisss


5:20 guy got it right:

'Al-Qaeda is a wing of the Masonic Order'

That's technically correct.

[edit on 3-7-2010 by star in a jar]

[edit on 3-7-2010 by star in a jar]

reply to post by 6EQUJ5


Actually, I don't consider myself to be an "American". I hate that word almost as much as I hate the word 'anti-American'. In fact, were it not for the headline rules in the Breaking News category, I would have considered headlining it differently.

"America" is an entire hemisphere: 2 continents.

This nation is known as the United States. So that would make us United Statians. Except I argue that the federal government has mono-marginalized most of the states into the 'state' of being provinces. So it could be argued that instead we're United Provincians.

Therefore, it might just be easier to go by our states. Meaning, I'm a expatriot Michigander, and now I'm a Floridian.

It would actually be interesting to see the same poll state to state. I wouldn't mind being taxed for that.

[edit on 3-7-2010 by IgnoranceIsntBlisss]

Originally posted by 6EQUJ5
reply to post by WolfofWar

 

You need to relax a bit. If you're looking to pick a fight, you're looking in the wrong direction, I'm not interested, and I'm a nobody. I'm sure there are people that could tell you war stories on the level you seek, and most will be works of fiction. Just remember, the more details you get, the greater likelihood of it being BS.

I'm calm, it's just my volunteer duty to seek out humbuggery and misconceptions on ATS and set them straight (or do my best to do so.)

reply to post by WolfofWar


You seem to trying to call me a liar. If so, come right out and say it.

reply to post by IgnoranceIsntBlisss


[color=C6AEC7]Hmm... is this sort of thing taught at school? How do Americans treat 4th of July? Do they just have a celebration day with parties and stuff or are there events to mark what the occasion is actually for?


Forgive me if I sound ignorant; I am genuinely interested, I just dont know much about how the day is celebrated.




[edit on 3-7-2010 by tappy]

reply to post by star in a jar


Just to point it out, also. While those videos are hilarious, they are really a trick of clever editing. How many correct answers were there that were cut out? How long were they out there? How many are actually actors planted to spice things up? We will never know.

reply to post by tappy


Everyday you're told how free you are and how much better your life is and you are over everybody else in the world, and how the world owes us for that.

The foundation of all of that is the 4th of July... Independence Day.

Schools out on that day, I mean the 4th is during summer vacation.

But when kids don't know who was fought for it, for all of this, especially considering it's at the core of our magnificence, then that proves that schools aren't properly teaching "American" history.

[edit on 3-7-2010 by IgnoranceIsntBlisss]

reply to post by IgnoranceIsntBlisss


[color=C6AEC7]Thanks for that. I think you are right - it does not sound like the history is taught properly about this.


[color=C6AEC7]Anyway,

[color=FF0000]Happy [color=FFFFFF]Independence [color=6960EC]Day

[color=C6AEC7]for tomorrow

reply to post by tappy


I dunno, it wasn't long ago I was in school, though it's starting to get fuzzy in my memory, I do clearly remember going through history rather well. Granted, in high school I was in Honors classes, so maybe the curriculum was different than the general thing.