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

reply to post by IgnoranceIsntBlisss


That's just dumb.
Everyone knows we fought Russia to gain our independence.
It was called "the cold war" because it was before the advent of indoor central heating.
Durr.

reply to post by Matthew Dark


I would expect a Sith Lord to speak in such a way.

the first person I just asked said FRANCE and got pissed when I doubled over with laughter. I felt a little sick too, we are doomed.

reply to post by WolfofWar


I agree. Typically when you see these videos they are usually done from satirical news shows like The Daily Show or Colbert Report etc.

If you look at the map in the one video that the people were putting pins in. You can see they were shown a mislabeled map as Iran was where Australia was etc. Now it does still come off as silly to me people misplacing pins even in an intentionally mislabeled map, but you have to take into account these people were just walking down the street a few minutes prior enjoying their day now stopped to be asked political and geographic locations.

I also often question these types of polls. How many of the people they polled were truly American born citizens and not just immigrants? People often forget that America is the melting pot of the world and many people living here grew up, and were educated in other parts of the world learning their own history.

Originally posted by WolfofWar
reply to post by Matthew Dark

 

I would expect a Sith Lord to speak in such a way.

Whuh?

reply to post by Matthew Dark


I guess you don't know what your quote is from?

reply to post by WolfofWar


Actually I don't.
I thought I was being clever and that it was a Dark original.

reply to post by Matthew Dark


I think my sarcasm detector is malfunction again...

reply to post by Come Clean


I only wish a few more had that attitude.

reply to post by mpriebe81


I do not want to be surrounded by dumb people. However, I have nowhere to go. I mentioned this article and one of the videos to my co-workers. Only a few seemed to be interested. Others just cracked jokes about it without thinking or attempting to think of the correct responses. Because of that I assume they do not know or care either. One even said it did not matter because it was the past, I was left sort of speechless at the attitudes I seen today about this.

I had hoped that I would have gotten a more caring response to this sort of thing; I guess I should just give up on trying to get most of these people to think. I mention stuff to them about real happenings or something in history and I am mocked because I seem to care.

Raist

reply to post by Arbitrageur


I was shocked at everyone pointing to Australia as well. I mean who thinks Iran is an island (not sure at what size an island is considered a continent), which I consider Australia to be. Now I also wonder how others thought it was North Korea.

Even with my poor geography, I would do a far better job at finding such countries.


Raist

The level of education of the majority of the people of the several states is frighteningly sad.

If more of the people of our Union understood our history and what form of government we have, our lives would be very different today.

It should be mandatory for all school children to read The Federalist Papers and The Anti-Federalist Papers. I personally would also make them read the Articles of Confederation, The Declaration of Independence, and The Constitution...both State and Federal.

The only way that we could ever take our respective Countries (the several states) back is through education and the people exerting their rights.

I was out with my roommates little brother today. He is 13 and I mentioned this article to him. His confused laugh of agreement sent off an alarm in my head so I asked him if he'd ever been taught about the First Amendment, Bill of Rights, or the Constitution even.

He said "we pretty much just watch movies all day in school". I don't know how true that is, or if it is true how widespread it is. He went on to say that he learned "something" about the Constitution once, but that was a few years ago. The fact that this 13 year old, going into I believe 9th grade has no knowledge of one of, if not the most important set of ideas in American history left me appalled to say the least.

So, don't knock people for not knowing something they were never taught about. Much less taught the importance of. Or, atleast don't place the blame on them.




[edit on 7/3/2010 by ThaLoccster]

reply to post by ThaLoccster


I would have thought it was something that was in the blood, and one would yearn to learn the history and culture of ones nation. (whether it is taught in school or not)

But the nation is obsessed with burgers, greed, OIL and the MTV culture.

Not much hope for history really.

If an American is to stand up and say (and they often do - as we are constantly reminded) they are proud to be American, then at least know your history, otherwise what is there to be proud of?



[edit on 3/7/2010 by Thistled]

[edit on 3/7/2010 by Thistled]

They still teach this stuff in the 4th-5th grade still i hope but it is sad how many stupid people there are in this country they shouldn't be allowed to vote IMO makes me sick. these are the same people complaining about how this country is so horrible. anyways happy 4th

That is the best youtube video I've seen in a while.

Australia = NK. Hilarious. 'Its a big bigger than I thought it was'.

reply to post by nine-eyed-eel


Yes and "Queen Elizabeth the first" beat of the Spanish Armada ,, and Great Britain has an old wall called " Hadrian's Wall" it was built by the Romans you know :--- so WHAT !!!!!

What other History lesson do you have for us, Its called History ....

The constitution was for 2 or 300 years ago,,, 1st amendment, Second Amendment whatever ,its not relevant any more ,,we live in the Year 2010 say it again the Year 2010

And People that vote for Obama are very intelligent they kicked out the Republicans ,,who had to appeal to the Supreme Court to win the election before good ol Dubya

I'm going to ask everyone I run across today.

I asked 2 people last night who we fought for independence. One answer was Egypt, one was South America.

Neither could name more than freedom of speech as a First Amendment right.

So I'm 0-3 on people knowing.

:facepalm:

People need to be educated on what exactly is going on and HAS been going on in this country. Most people don't even realize that this country isn't even a sovereign nation anymore.

www.creditorsincommerce.com...

reply to post by Torok


Haha. Well I was gullible for a little bit. That guy is a scammer. Some of what he says may be truth, but he's running a scam on people and has already been sued $15 million by the U.S. govt.

[edit on 4-7-2010 by unityemissions]