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Getbig Main Boards => Gossip & Opinions => Topic started by: Deicide on March 11, 2008, 06:04:02 AM
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http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/3/11/embarrassingly-stupid-americans-one-in-five-believes-sun-revolves-around-earth.aspx
Reading -- of books, newspapers and magazines -- is on the decline. A 2007 study even found that 80 percent of American families did not buy or read a book in 2006.
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http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/3/11/embarrassingly-stupid-americans-one-in-five-believes-sun-revolves-around-earth.aspx
Am I the only one in a state of shock?
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no, many americans are quite lazy mentally.
they can tell you the first and last names of the top 12 in American idol, but can't find iraq on a map.
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It was a trick question.
all Americans know that the sun revolves around the the good ol U.S.A.
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no, many americans are quite lazy mentally.
they can tell you the first and last names of the top 12 in American idol, but can't find iraq on a map.
Well, that used to be the case but I think most can figure out where Iraq is.
I work with an American and it's his first time overseas and he thought England was a country and that Tony Blaire had been the prime minister of England.... :o When I told him that he had been the prime minister of the United Kingdom, he said: I had always wondered what that was. :-\
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I wonder why these surveys don't compare American answers to answers from people from Africa, Europe, and the middle east. Then we would see who really is stupid
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I wonder why these surveys don't compare American answers to answers from people from Africa, Europe, and the middle east. Then we would see who really is stupid
Europe creams the USA in every educational category.
Africa and the Middle East would be the same as the USA.
Common Denominator= a lot of religion= ignorance and stupidity
Europe= little religion= less ignorance and stupidity
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Africa and the Middle East would be the same as the USA.
I disagree here.
You're telling me the average Iraqi or Somali would score as well as an American? no way.
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[color=red]Europe creams the USA in every educational category.[/color]Africa and the Middle East would be the same as the USA.Common Denominator= a lot of religion= ignorance and stupidity
Europe= little religion= less ignorance and stupidity
Where is the proof to the above?
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Europe creams the USA in every educational category.
Africa and the Middle East would be the same as the USA.
Common Denominator= a lot of religion= ignorance and stupidity
Europe= little religion= less ignorance and stupidity
And public schools are far better in most European countries, specially the nordic and western part.
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I disagree here.
You're telling me the average Iraqi or Somali would score as well as an American? no way.
Have you ever left this country? Education is the primary importance in the middle-east. Those arabs will beat any american at sciences and mathematics.
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he thought England was a country and that Tony Blaire had been the prime minister.
Hope you corrected dumbass on Blaire, too.
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Have you ever left this country? Education is the primary importance in the middle-east. Those arabs will beat any american at sciences and mathematics.
Been to Iraq and Kuwait, education is not the primary importance. The importance is your family's honor, religion, status in your social circle is second, where you fall in the family inheretence, and who your wife will be. These people are as shallow as the next american, and education is not as important to them as you think it is.
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Hope you corrected dumbass on Blaire, too.
My bad. I'm ignorant. I'm American. ;D
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Been to Iraq and Kuwait, education is not the primary importance. The importance is your family's honor, religion, status in your social circle is second, where you fall in the family inheretence, and who your wife will be. These people are as shallow as the next american, and education is not as important to them as you think it is.
Too much religion, like I said.
You don't believe that Europeans are better educated than Americans?
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Alot of jealous people because the sun shits on their countries while shining bright on America 8)
;D
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Too much religion, like I said.
You don't believe that Europeans are better educated than Americans?
I think both Europe and America have people that are lazy and uneducated. Why do you believe Europeans are better educated than Americans? Because of the article you posted?
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Been to Iraq and Kuwait, education is not the primary importance. The importance is your family's honor, religion, status in your social circle is second, where you fall in the family inheretence, and who your wife will be. These people are as shallow as the next american, and education is not as important to them as you think it is.
First, there's a difference between people from Kuwait and Iraq. All Arabs are not alike. That's a generic term and you put Egyptians, Syrians, Saoudis, etc... on the same level. Iraqi people were for a long time much more educated than most other Arabs from the Middle-East. Palestinians, Syrians or Iraqi have a long history and you can still find very educated people among them. The political turmoil and all the social problems that come with it are largely responsible for their "educational" problems. Go talk to a Saoudi "upper-class" representative and your jaw will drop from witnessing such ignorance.
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http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/3/11/embarrassingly-stupid-americans-one-in-five-believes-sun-revolves-around-earth.aspx
Thats nothing, I thought the Earth was flat ??? ??? ??? ;D
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Too much religion, like I said.
Leaping logic, Batman - our public schools booted Jesus along with higher learning standards.
Religion? The Church of Political Correctness, perhaps.
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I think both Europe and America have people that are lazy and uneducated. Why do you believe Europeans are better educated than Americans? Because of the article you posted?
They routinely score better than Americans do in mathematics, sciences, social studies and foreign languages. That's why.
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Leaping logic, Batman - our public schools booted Jesus along with higher learning standards.
Religion? The Church of Political Correctness perhaps.
We are the only Western country where teaching evolution is controversial. That says a lot, doesn't it?
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Have you ever left this country? Education is the primary importance in the middle-east. Those arabs will beat any american at sciences and mathematics.
Is it science or math to believe that 72 virgins await a suicide bomber in heaven?
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Thats nothing, I thought the Earth was flat ??? ??? ??? ;D
remember that idiot host of The View who honestly answered the earth was indeed flat?
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They routinely score better than Americans do in mathematics, sciences, social studies and foreign languages. That's why.
Why are there so many european students attending American universities?
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Why are there so many european students attending American universities?
our women.... they're worth $4300 per hour, you know!
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We are the only Western country where teaching evolution is controversial.
As is the flag salute. As is proper English. As is standardized testing....
But evolution is taught these days; creationism is controversial. In fact, you'll get fired for it. We don't even use BC or AD anymore.
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haha, I get Dr. Mercola's newsletter, was actually going to post this today but thought better of it. I'm glad someone did though. I am both an American and Swedish citizen and I can tell you for sure that the US is much less than what it's average citizen thinks it is. I generally agree with the article. If you scroll down and read the responses to the article, those are the best.
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remember that idiot host of The View who honestly answered the earth was indeed flat?
HAHAHAHA, yeah I dooo
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Why are there so many european students attending American universities?
I am not talking about university level education but rather K-12.
I would agree with you, having studied in both the American university system and the European, the American is superior....and it has to be, to make up for the lack of knowledge acquired during K-12. Why do you think so many unis in the USA have general education requirements?
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I am not talking about university level education but rather K-12.
I would agree with you, having studied in both the American university system and the European, the American is superior....and it has to be, to make up for the lack of knowledge acquired during K-12. Why do you think so many unis in the USA have general education requirements?
Good point, i never thought of that
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I am not talking about university level education but rather K-12.
I would agree with you, having studied in both the American university system and the European, the American is superior....and it has to be, to make up for the lack of knowledge acquired during K-12. Why do you think so many unis in the USA have general education requirements?
True and that's the paradox. But European students only apply to the best American universities and they don't have too many problems at first. They're eventually surprised of how competitive it gets.
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True and that's the paradox. But European students only apply to the best American universities and they don't have too many problems at first. They're eventually surprised of how competitive it gets.
Yeah...they go for top brass.
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???
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???
Relevancy to topic? ???
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Relevancy to topic? ???
Maybe his head is shiney like the sun ???
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Am I the only one in a state of shock?
I don't know how they get these statistics. I could probably think of maybe 3-4 people I know who are dumb enough to think that, out of thousands of people I've known. There must be a congregation of mental midgets skewing the numbers somewhere. I think they might call it Louisiana.
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Thats nothing, I thought the Earth was flat ??? ??? ??? ;D
You are not alone.
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I don't know how they get these statistics. I could probably think of maybe 3-4 people I know who are dumb enough to think that, out of thousands of people I've known. There must be a congregation of mental midgets skewing the numbers somewhere. I think they might call it Louisiana.
I am John Galt. ;D
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I am not talking about university level education but rather K-12.
I would agree with you, having studied in both the American university system and the European, the American is superior....and it has to be, to make up for the lack of knowledge acquired during K-12. Why do you think so many unis in the USA have general education requirements?
Oh oh! Pick me me!
"In order to equalize... and standardize... the unpredictable level of freshman knowledge... and preparedness..., thereby ensuring that no student is left behind. This is what makes Our university system... superior. Thank you. ;D ;D ;D"
Non-pagent answer: Lowest common denominator educational standards ensure that even Zeke the Site Toilet Cleaner can hand over all his money and brag that his son Bevin "Is the first o' th' Dunkis's's ta git ta collage 'n we're all real proud'm" ...thereby ensuring that no student receives a better education than young Bevin... which would be UnAmerican!!!
As is the flag salute. As is proper English. As is standardized testing....
But evolution is taught these days; creationism is controversial. In fact, you'll get fired for it. We don't even use BC or AD anymore.
I'm pretty sure you're a Jesus Freak, but you should post here more often man. If nothing else, you're a clever mofo.
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Am I the only one in a state of shock?
One in the five americans read this forum. Do you math ;D
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I disagree here.
You're telling me the average Iraqi or Somali would score as well as an American? no way.
No no no. Hi is telling you that they could score much better...But of course you have to give some equation here. What I mean is that you should ask those questions only from the people who has a similar "degree" of education. If you narrow your sampling only to the people who has complete their studies, iranians and africans will score better than average american, who has similar education. Sad, but true. Why?
In usa, there isn't any respect about education. In usa, there is millions of young people, who know as a fact that they doesn't gain anything by using years of their life to studies, so they have no interest about it at all. That has been going on for decades, so the average adults of the present day has a poor education. Very simple fact, and very american state of being...
While I have been "house quest" of your military, I had an opportunity to follow quite big group of your soldiers in their daily routines, and if I be really honest, that was scary. If I have to choose who I take to fight with me, I choose bunch of drunken russians in any day, because your youngsters are just too much to bear...
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I am John Galt. ;D
I am Howard Roark
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Warning: The Next Generation Might Just Be
The Biggest Pile of Idiots in U.S. History!
American Kids, Dumber than Dirt
by Mark Morford
SF Gate Columnist
I have this ongoing discussion with a longtime reader who also just so happens to be a longtime Oakland high school teacher, a wonderful guy who's seen generations of teens come and generations go and who has a delightful poetic sensibility and quirky outlook on his life and his family and his beloved teaching career.
And he often writes to me in response to something I might have written about the youth of today, anything where I comment on the various nefarious factors shaping their minds and their perspectives and whether or not, say, EMFs and junk food and cell phones are melting their brains and what can be done and just how bad it might all be.
His response: It is not bad at all. It's absolutely horrifying.
My friend often summarizes for me what he sees, firsthand, every day and every month, year in and year out, in his classroom. He speaks not merely of the sad decline in overall intellectual acumen among students over the years, not merely of the astonishing spread of lazy slackerhood, or the fact that cell phones and iPods and excess TV exposure are, absolutely and without reservation, short-circuiting the minds of the upcoming generations. Of this, he says, there is zero doubt.
Nor does he speak merely of the notion that kids these days are overprotected and wussified and don't spend enough time outdoors and don't get any real exercise and therefore can't, say, identify basic plants, or handle a tool, or build, well, anything at all. Again, these things are a given. Widely reported, tragically ignored, nothing new.
No, my friend takes it all a full step — or rather, leap — further. It is not merely a sad slide. It is not just a general dumbing down. It is far uglier than that.
We are, as far as urban public education is concerned, essentially at rock bottom. We are now at a point where we are essentially churning out ignorant teens who are becoming ignorant adults and society as a whole will pay dearly, very soon, and if you think the hordes of easily terrified, mindless fundamentalist evangelical Christian lemmings have been bad for the soul of this country, just wait.
It's gotten so bad that, as my friend nears retirement, he says he is very seriously considering moving out of the country so as to escape what he sees will be the surefire collapse of functioning American society in the next handful of years due to the absolutely irrefutable destruction, the shocking — and nearly hopeless — dumb-ification of the American brain. It is just that bad.
Now, you may think he's merely a curmudgeon, a tired old teacher who stopped caring long ago. Not true. Teaching is his life. He says he loves his students, loves education and learning and watching young minds awaken. Problem is, he is seeing much less of it. It's a bit like the melting of the polar ice caps. Sure, there's been alarmist data about it for years, but until you see it for yourself, the deep visceral dread doesn't really hit home.
He cites studies, reports, hard data, from the appalling effects of television on child brain development (any TV exposure before 6 years old and your kid's basic cognitive wiring and spatial perceptions are pretty much scrambled for life), to the fact that, because of all the insidious mandatory testing teachers are now forced to incorporate into the curriculum, of the 182 school days in a year, there are 110 when such testing is going on somewhere at Oakland High. As one of his colleagues put it, "It's like weighing a calf twice a day, but never feeding it."
But most of all, he simply observes his students, year to year, noting all the obvious evidence of teens' decreasing abilities when confronted with even the most basic intellectual tasks, from understanding simple history to working through moderately complex ideas to even (in a couple recent examples that particularly distressed him) being able to define the words "agriculture," or even "democracy." Not a single student could do it.
It gets worse. My friend cites the fact that, of the 6,000 high school students he estimates he's taught over the span of his career, only a small fraction now make it to his grade with a functioning understanding of written English. They do not know how to form a sentence. They cannot write an intelligible paragraph. Recently, after giving an assignment that required drawing lines, he realized that not a single student actually knew how to use a ruler.
It is, in short, nothing less than a tidal wave of dumb, with once-passionate, increasingly exasperated teachers like my friend nearly powerless to stop it. The worst part: It's not the kids' fault. They're merely the victims of a horribly failed educational system.
Then our discussion often turns to the meat of it, the bigger picture, the ugly and unavoidable truism about the lack of need among the government and the power elite in this nation to create a truly effective educational system, one that actually generates intelligent, thoughtful, articulate citizens.
Hell, why should they? After all, the dumber the populace, the easier it is to rule and control and launch unwinnable wars and pass laws telling them that sex is bad and TV is good and God knows all, so just pipe down and eat your Taco Bell Double-Supremo Burrito and be glad we don't arrest you for posting dirty pictures on your cute little blog.
This is about when I try to offer counter evidence, a bit of optimism. For one thing, I've argued generational relativity in this space before, suggesting maybe kids are no scarier or dumber or more dangerous than they've ever been, and that maybe some of the problem is merely the same old awkward generation gap, with every current generation absolutely convinced the subsequent one is terrifically stupid and malicious and will be the end of society as a whole. Just the way it always seems.
I also point out how, despite all the evidence of total public-education meltdown, I keep being surprised, keep hearing from/about teens and youth movements and actions that impress the hell out of me. Damn kids made the Internet what it is today, fer chrissakes. Revolutionized media. Broke all the rules. Still are.
Hell, some of the best designers, writers, artists, poets, chefs, and so on that I meet are in their early to mid-20s. And the nation's top universities are still managing, despite a factory-churning mentality, to crank out young minds of astonishing ability and acumen. How did these kids do it? How did they escape the horrible public school system? How did they avoid the great dumbing down of America? Did they never see a TV show until they hit puberty? Were they all born and raised elsewhere, in India and Asia and Russia? Did they all go to Waldorf or Montessori and eat whole-grain breads and play with firecrackers and take long walks in wild nature? Are these kids flukes? Exceptions? Just lucky?
My friend would say, well, yes, that's precisely what most of them are. Lucky, wealthy, foreign-born, private-schooled ... and increasingly rare. Most affluent parents in America — and many more who aren't — now put their kids in private schools from day one, and the smart ones give their kids no TV and minimal junk food and no video games. (Of course, this in no way guarantees a smart, attuned kid, but compared to the odds of success in the public school system, it sure seems to help). This covers about, what, 3 percent of the populace?
As for the rest, well, the dystopian evidence seems overwhelming indeed, to the point where it might be no stretch at all to say the biggest threat facing America is perhaps not global warming, not perpetual warmongering, not garbage food or low-level radiation or way too much Lindsay Lohan, but a populace far too ignorant to know how to properly manage any of it, much less change it all for the better.
What, too fatalistic? Don't worry. Soon enough, no one will know what the word even means.
Dark's Note: And if you think this is an exaggeration, just find ANY YouTube or Google video and read the comments left by the viewers. The amount of misspellings and bad grammar alone is utterly disturbing.
Do those people even have the wit to be embarrassed for themselves? Goddamn, if I were one of them not knowing what countries start with the letter U, I think I'd go home and put a bullet through the mush of my decayed brain. Literally decayed. It's not even fucking funny. They're meatloafs!!
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So basically what I'm hearin here is that the sun doesn't revole around the U.S. and that the world isn't flat ???
preposterous,pure hog wash >:(
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Young kids in America lack discipline and are never held accountable. Those two things are the the major problem; lack of discipline and not being accountable for their actions. Parents are lazy when it comes to parenting, it all starts at home. Parents would rather put their kids in front of a tv, or let them run wild outside rather than spend time with them than helping them with their homework, talking about lessons of life, and have them do simple chores. It's never too late to help these kids. I consistently work with 18-25 year olds from all over the states, and you will be amazed on what they can do when you challange them, discipline them, hold them accountable, and take the time to find out what makes them "tick". Not all these kids are reachable and some are too far gone, but the ones you do help and reach out to are the ones that will lead this country into the future.
Ok done with my meltdown
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Europe creams the USA in every educational category.
Africa and the Middle East would be the same as the USA.
Common Denominator= a lot of religion= ignorance and stupidity
Europe= little religion= less ignorance and stupidity
^^ = ignorance and stupidity!
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Well, that used to be the case but I think most can figure out where Iraq is.
I work with an American and it's his first time overseas and he thought England was a country and that Tony Blaire had been the prime minister of England.... :o When I told him that he had been the prime minister of the United Kingdom, he said: I had always wondered what that was. :-\
All americans are stupid ? So all Muslims are terrorists? Him being stupid ,doesn't say much for you .?.He works with you ..Must be a bunch of fvcking idiots at your place of employment ?
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http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/3/11/embarrassingly-stupid-americans-one-in-five-believes-sun-revolves-around-earth.aspx
What do you expect, god knows (lolz) how many Americans believe that the world is only 2k years old and was created by a superhuman or godly being who doesn't want to be seen is all knowing but cannot be arsed to help when he is really needed.
Also the same kind of people (as pointed out correctly by Bill Hicks) believe that Dinosaurs or the fossils and fossilised bones of Dino's have been placed in the earth on this planet by God specially to trick us, or better said "to test our faith"
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I am Howard Roark
I am Henry Rearden.
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I'm pretty sure you're a Jesus Freak
Interesting deduction.
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It is said that the average person nowq reads at a 6th to 8th grade level
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I am Henry Rearden.
Well who the hell does that leave me with then? Dagny Taggart? I'm Howard Roark!!!
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/15/AR2008021502901_pf.html
Original Article:
"The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself." Ralph Waldo Emerson offered that observation in 1837, but his words echo with painful prescience in today's very different United States. Americans are in serious intellectual trouble -- in danger of losing our hard-won cultural capital to a virulent mixture of anti-intellectualism, anti-rationalism and low expectations.
This is the last subject that any candidate would dare raise on the long and winding road to the White House. It is almost impossible to talk about the manner in which public ignorance contributes to grave national problems without being labeled an "elitist," one of the most powerful pejoratives that can be applied to anyone aspiring to high office. Instead, our politicians repeatedly assure Americans that they are just "folks," a patronizing term that you will search for in vain in important presidential speeches before 1980. (Just imagine: "We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain . . . and that government of the folks, by the folks, for the folks, shall not perish from the earth.") Such exaltations of ordinariness are among the distinguishing traits of anti-intellectualism in any era.
The classic work on this subject by Columbia University historian Richard Hofstadter, "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life," was published in early 1963, between the anti-communist crusades of the McCarthy era and the social convulsions of the late 1960s. Hofstadter saw American anti-intellectualism as a basically cyclical phenomenon that often manifested itself as the dark side of the country's democratic impulses in religion and education. But today's brand of anti-intellectualism is less a cycle than a flood. If Hofstadter (who died of leukemia in 1970 at age 54) had lived long enough to write a modern-day sequel, he would have found that our era of 24/7 infotainment has outstripped his most apocalyptic predictions about the future of American culture.
Dumbness, to paraphrase the late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, has been steadily defined downward for several decades, by a combination of heretofore irresistible forces. These include the triumph of video culture over print culture (and by video, I mean every form of digital media, as well as older electronic ones); a disjunction between Americans' rising level of formal education and their shaky grasp of basic geography, science and history; and the fusion of anti-rationalism with anti-intellectualism.
First and foremost among the vectors of the new anti-intellectualism is video. The decline of book, newspaper and magazine reading is by now an old story. The drop-off is most pronounced among the young, but it continues to accelerate and afflict Americans of all ages and education levels.
Reading has declined not only among the poorly educated, according to a report last year by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1982, 82 percent of college graduates read novels or poems for pleasure; two decades later, only 67 percent did. And more than 40 percent of Americans under 44 did not read a single book -- fiction or nonfiction -- over the course of a year. The proportion of 17-year-olds who read nothing (unless required to do so for school) more than doubled between 1984 and 2004. This time period, of course, encompasses the rise of personal computers, Web surfing and video games.
Does all this matter? Technophiles pooh-pooh jeremiads about the end of print culture as the navel-gazing of (what else?) elitists. In his book "Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter," the science writer Steven Johnson assures us that we have nothing to worry about. Sure, parents may see their "vibrant and active children gazing silently, mouths agape, at the screen." But these zombie-like characteristics "are not signs of mental atrophy. They're signs of focus." Balderdash. The real question is what toddlers are screening out, not what they are focusing on, while they sit mesmerized by videos they have seen dozens of times.
Despite an aggressive marketing campaign aimed at encouraging babies as young as 6 months to watch videos, there is no evidence that focusing on a screen is anything but bad for infants and toddlers. In a study released last August, University of Washington researchers found that babies between 8 and 16 months recognized an average of six to eight fewer words for every hour spent watching videos.
I cannot prove that reading for hours in a treehouse (which is what I was doing when I was 13) creates more informed citizens than hammering away at a Microsoft Xbox or obsessing about Facebook profiles. But the inability to concentrate for long periods of time -- as distinct from brief reading hits for information on the Web -- seems to me intimately related to the inability of the public to remember even recent news events. It is not surprising, for example, that less has been heard from the presidential candidates about the Iraq war in the later stages of the primary campaign than in the earlier ones, simply because there have been fewer video reports of violence in Iraq. Candidates, like voters, emphasize the latest news, not necessarily the most important news.
No wonder negative political ads work. "With text, it is even easy to keep track of differing levels of authority behind different pieces of information," the cultural critic Caleb Crain noted recently in the New Yorker. "A comparison of two video reports, on the other hand, is cumbersome. Forced to choose between conflicting stories on television, the viewer falls back on hunches, or on what he believed before he started watching."
As video consumers become progressively more impatient with the process of acquiring information through written language, all politicians find themselves under great pressure to deliver their messages as quickly as possible -- and quickness today is much quicker than it used to be. Harvard University's Kiku Adatto found that between 1968 and 1988, the average sound bite on the news for a presidential candidate -- featuring the candidate's own voice -- dropped from 42.3 seconds to 9.8 seconds. By 2000, according to another Harvard study, the daily candidate bite was down to just 7.8 seconds.
The shrinking public attention span fostered by video is closely tied to the second important anti-intellectual force in American culture: the erosion of general knowledge.
People accustomed to hearing their president explain complicated policy choices by snapping "I'm the decider" may find it almost impossible to imagine the pains that Franklin D. Roosevelt took, in the grim months after Pearl Harbor, to explain why U.S. armed forces were suffering one defeat after another in the Pacific. In February 1942, Roosevelt urged Americans to spread out a map during his radio "fireside chat" so that they might better understand the geography of battle. In stores throughout the country, maps sold out; about 80 percent of American adults tuned in to hear the president. FDR had told his speechwriters that he was certain that if Americans understood the immensity of the distances over which supplies had to travel to the armed forces, "they can take any kind of bad news right on the chin."
This is a portrait not only of a different presidency and president but also of a different country and citizenry, one that lacked access to satellite-enhanced Google maps but was far more receptive to learning and complexity than today's public. According to a 2006 survey by National Geographic-Roper, nearly half of Americans between ages 18 and 24 do not think it necessary to know the location of other countries in which important news is being made. More than a third consider it "not at all important" to know a foreign language, and only 14 percent consider it "very important."
That leads us to the third and final factor behind the new American dumbness: not lack of knowledge per se but arrogance about that lack of knowledge. The problem is not just the things we do not know (consider the one in five American adults who, according to the National Science Foundation, thinks the sun revolves around the Earth); it's the alarming number of Americans who have smugly concluded that they do not need to know such things in the first place. Call this anti-rationalism -- a syndrome that is particularly dangerous to our public institutions and discourse. Not knowing a foreign language or the location of an important country is a manifestation of ignorance; denying that such knowledge matters is pure anti-rationalism. The toxic brew of anti-rationalism and ignorance hurts discussions of U.S. public policy on topics from health care to taxation.
There is no quick cure for this epidemic of arrogant anti-rationalism and anti-intellectualism; rote efforts to raise standardized test scores by stuffing students with specific answers to specific questions on specific tests will not do the job. Moreover, the people who exemplify the problem are usually oblivious to it. ("Hardly anyone believes himself to be against thought and culture," Hofstadter noted.) It is past time for a serious national discussion about whether, as a nation, we truly value intellect and rationality. If this indeed turns out to be a "change election," the low level of discourse in a country with a mind taught to aim at low objects ought to be the first item on the change agenda.
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no, many americans are quite lazy mentally.
they can tell you the first and last names of the top 12 in American idol, but can't find iraq on a map.
Not just mentally, buddy.....look around. Seriously, there is no pride in anything anymore. People don't want to do/accomplish ANYTHING!
Most people I talk to, will do just enough at their jobs, to keep their job. Just about everyone I know is a half-asser.
Everyone thinks they are special....it's all about them. Shit, have many people can actually name their senators? Their Governor? It's fucking sad.....
This country has gone to complete shit.....and that's just the way the people who run things like it.
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Not just mentally, buddy.....look around. Seriously, there is no pride in anything anymore. People don't want to do/accomplish ANYTHING!
Most people I talk to, will do just enough at their jobs, to keep their job. Just about everyone I know is a half-asser.
Everyone thinks they are special....it's all about them. Shit, have many people can actually name their senators? Their Governor? It's fucking sad.....
This country has gone to complete shit.....and that's just the way the people who run things like it.
Some of what you say is true.
Some, not.
People like myself, who own their own companies and businesses, have a lot of pride.
We have to.
We cannot "half-ass" anything.
We must create, improvise, and innovate.
That's the only way we succeed.
The hallmarks of our capitalist system.
Incorporate more and more socialism, and, yes, these tenets will de-motivate, and make wqorkers into lemmings.
And the country has not "gone to shit".
In some compartments, perhaps.
Overall, we are #1 by far.
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Some of what you say is true.
Some, not.
People like myself, who own their own companies and businesses, have a lot of pride.
We have to.
We cannot "half-ass" anything.
We must create, improvise, and innovate.
That's the only way we succeed.
The hallmarks of our capitalist system.
Incorporate more and more socialism, and, yes, these tenets will de-motivate, and make wqorkers into lemmings.
And the country has not "gone to shit".
In some compartments, perhaps.
Overall, we are #1 by far.
::) ::)
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Some of what you say is true.
Some, not.
People like myself, who own their own companies and businesses, have a lot of pride.
We have to.
We cannot "half-ass" anything.
We must create, improvise, and innovate.
That's the only way we succeed.
The hallmarks of our capitalist system.
Incorporate more and more socialism, and, yes, these tenets will de-motivate, and make wqorkers into lemmings.
And the country has not "gone to shit".
In some compartments, perhaps.
Overall, we are #1 by far.
Clearly, I wasn't referring to any of the Getbig cagefighting, intellectual, self motivated, Nobel Prize winning, Super Model fucking, millionaires like you, sir. ;)
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::) ::)
:)
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Clearly, I wasn't referring to any of the Getbig cagefighting, intellectual, self motivated, Nobel Prize winning, Super Model fucking, millionaires like you, sir. ;)
And I was not referring to depressed, happiness-devouring pessimists such as you, old friend. :)
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And I was not referring to depressed, happiness-devouring pessimists such as you, old friend. :)
Touche. ;)
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Peace :)!
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Too much religion, like I said.
You don't believe that Europeans are better educated than Americans?
You do realise that most people of america are forced into a certain educational system...As are just about every other person on the planet...The system in place in america is doing what it is supposed to do...And that is to keep the kids dumbed down thru fear so the powers in place can keep all the gold...Its really that simple...Its also the main reason why american in its 300 plus year history became the most powerful country on the planet...
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http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/3/11/embarrassingly-stupid-americans-one-in-five-believes-sun-revolves-around-earth.aspx
wow, I can't believe 4 out of 5 are wrong. You can't deny the sun moves across the sky which must mean the sun goes around our planet :) I'm joining the republican party and you can't stop me :)
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Why is it that Europeans, especially the French, have the pathological need to find any statistic or study that allows themselves to feel superior to Americans? While there certainly are a lot of Bible thumping morons in America, at least we're a somewhat down-to-earth country, unlike the entitled, prima donna French. Get over yourselves. Your shit stinks. You've never produced a single good band, and you're gonna live and die just like the rest of us.
Meltdown completed. :D
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Not just mentally, buddy.....look around. Seriously, there is no pride in anything anymore. People don't want to do/accomplish ANYTHING!
Most people I talk to, will do just enough at their jobs, to keep their job. Just about everyone I know is a half-asser.
Everyone thinks they are special....it's all about them. Shit, have many people can actually name their senators? Their Governor? It's fucking sad.....
This country has gone to complete shit.....and that's just the way the people who run things like it.
tHAT IS CALLED SHIT SOCIALISM!!!! To much freedom, lots of minories wrecking the system... But here in Europe is getting the same... shit governments lowering their pants to shit immigrants and left wing gay policies... :-[
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tHAT IS CALLED SHIT SOCIALISM!!!! To much freedom, lots of minories wrecking the system... But here in Europe is getting the same... shit governments lowering their pants to shit immigrants and left wing gay policies... :-[
yea minories are destroying everything. I hate minories, they're ugly and smell funny. What is a minorie anyway ???
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Why is it that Europeans, especially the French, have the pathological need to find any statistic or study that allows themselves to feel superior to Americans? While there certainly are a lot of Bible thumping morons in America, at least we're a somewhat down-to-earth country, unlike the entitled, prima donna French. Get over yourselves. Your shit stinks. You've never produced a single good band, and you're gonna live and die just like the rest of us.
Meltdown completed. :D
Who the hell is French here?
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Hehe. I've done some traveling in my time and - believe it or not - stupid is not a localized phenomenon. :o
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Hehe. I've done some traveling in my time and - believe it or not - stupid is not a localized phenomenon. :o
I know. Most people, whereever you go are dumbarses...
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yea minories are destroying everything. I hate minories, they're ugly and smell funny. What is a minorie anyway ???
Muslims, gipsy etc, etc...
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The the average kid from china, korea, india and certain european union nations would beat the average american kid in math and science related subjects. Infact, it already happens here in the US school system with asian kids.
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Infact, it already happens here in the US school system with asian kids.
Because Asians spend zero time bitching about "culturally insensitive" tests. They learn the shit, they ace the shit, and then they buy all your neighbors' houses.
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The the average kid from china, korea, india and certain european union nations would beat the average american kid in math and science related subjects. Infact, it already happens here in the US school system with asian kids.
Quoted for truth.
Mark my words, a generation from now, we will have almost completely lost (if not lost already) our technological edge because we as a society no longer value science and research, while Europe and Asia are pacing ahead at full speed.
We're just too religious, and religious people really don't give a damn about societal advancement. Shit, that's why we had the dark ages after the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity for oh, a thousand-plus years.
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Epic visual aid right there.
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yeah, but you can't create incredible things without the lights on.
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PERFECT EXAMPLE!!!!!!!!!!
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PERFECT EXAMPLE!!!!!!!!!!
hahha "WHY DID YOU GUYS LET ME DO DAAT?" :'( ;D
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Because Asians spend zero time bitching about "culturally insensitive" tests. They learn the shit, they ace the shit, and then they buy all your neighbors' houses.
However, they just can't seem to stop overpopulating the planet....as smart and as industrious as they are portrayed to be
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Because Asians spend zero time bitching about "culturally insensitive" tests. They learn the shit, they ace the shit, and then they buy all your neighbors' houses.
Nothing is bought, that is the illusion...Everything is rented...
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Being an American, it's difficult to have to agree that our education system is poor. Al least at some private high schools the kids get a good education. The problem with public schools is they are a reflection of the failed integration experiment. When this system was forced on students, the standards and curriculum were lowered because of the inferior learning capability of certain minority students. They are plenty of statistics that can back up the learning disparities. Even with the lowered standards, they still are unable to progress. Unfortunately in our foolishly politically correct society, no one will do anything about it, so if you can't afford to send your kid to a good private school, he'll probably come home with his underwear sticking out of his pants muttering, "Yo,yo,yo whassup?"
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However, they just can't seem to stop overpopulating the planet....as smart and as industrious as they are portrayed to be
Overpopulating the planet is actually a very smart thing to do if you have a system in place can get taxes from all of them...
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Quoted for truth.
Mark my words, a generation from now, we will have almost completely lost (if not lost already) our technological edge because we as a society no longer value science and research, while Europe and Asia are pacing ahead at full speed.
We're just too religious, and religious people really don't give a damn about societal advancement. Shit, that's why we had the dark ages after the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity for oh, a thousand-plus years.
Perfect example of idiocy. Dude cuts-and-pastes trying to make a 'serious' point without a clue. ::)
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well if it the survey was a statistically accurate sample then the bar sure is low.
and if it is..also, then 1 in 5 getbig members AT LEAST would have answered the same way.
additionally its probably correct in suggesting that the getbig demographic (from the US) is probably collectively to the left of the mean in terms of IQ so theres an even greater probability that more than 1 in 5 GB US members think this.
whats really scary is that each of these morons has the right to vote, free speech and gun ownership.
let me ask everyone here- how would you feel if every 5th person was this stupid and owned one or more guns?
i would be very surprised if, even in the most remote place in australia, even 1 in 20 would think the sun revolves around any country. You would have to find an extremely remote, living off the land, indigenous tribe thats had no contact outside and they would only think this because they have their "dreaming"...not that they would be stupid by any means.
i would be very surprised if most other countries on the planet would have such a high % of morons.
The single difference is social structure..not religion and not educational standards. Its the gap between the haves and havenots.
most other countries around the world have much more "civilised" or socially responsible social infrastructure such as free dental, hospital, psychiatric, return to work plans for the injured, work cover for those injured at work, unemployment benefits for those who cannot get work (with no cutoff), housing and rental assitance, unfair dismissal laws and so on.
The offshoot is that there are so called more "restrictive" laws placed designed to minimise chaos and harm such as needing permits to fly home made aircraft, legally mandated wearing of motorcycle helmets, extremely difficult criteria for weapon ownership and sales etc. Certainly not prohibitive or stifling, but more of a compromise between being completely "free" (read wreckless and socially irresponsible) and being accountable for your actions by law.
The result is that the total average level of living is much higher, and there's less incentive to step on the next guy for personal gain. The liberals would hate this as they want a system that rewards the ruthless, greedy, opportunistic and generationally well off to be able to prosper and make of the world what they wish.
It's been shown that this doesnt work as ultimately we are cavemen and look after oneself and one's own. The strong survive and the weak dont.
This shouldnt happen in 2008. We owe it to be responsible to the less fortunate- for whatever reason they are. Surely everyone on this board can think of people doing it tough?...maybe a disease, injury, luck..whatever. Wouldnt it be nice to know that at least they were being provided a level of care that ensured some quality of life?
I hope that whilst im alive i see the US reform to a more balanced social model so that it can really meet its potential. Unfortunately someone has to make the first move..and it'd be one that would cost the country incredibly financial and socially and be analogous to 2 steps back and 3 forward.
Currently here ur government provides several $1000 rebates for those who purchase solar panels for electricity, many % off of water efficient washing machines and dishwashers, and tax offsets for retirement saving schemes.
and guess what?- no one "tips". This is still the single most annoying thing i come across when i goto the US. As a visitor, why the heck should i tip?!...fix that crap up for a start..
it all begins with accountability and responsibility. it probably means that the constitution needs to be hacked and slashed..until then the rights of the righteous will always rule.
make voting compulsory too.
sorry ive gone on a rant.
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I hope that whilst im alive i see the US reform to a more balanced social model so that it can really meet its potential. Unfortunately someone has to make the first move..and it'd be one that would cost the country incredibly financial and socially and be analogous to 2 steps back and 3 forward.
Would it really cost that much more, or is it simply a redistribution of tax money allocation? I sometimes see uninformed americans talking about the ridiculous level of taxation in "socialist" Europe, but real tax levels are AFAIK not that dissimilar between the US and the EU.
It may look that way at first glance, because (speaking for the Dutch situation now) our gross income is taxed heavily (20-50%), while in the US that is much less. But then in the US you pay for a lot of things afterwards, where for us it is included in the income tax. (e.g., pensions, part of the healthcare fee)
The real tax rate in The Netherlands is about 60% (depending on level of income, obviously). I've seen some americans estimating theirs at 50%+. Seems similar to me.
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I work with an American and it's his first time overseas and he thought England was a country and that Tony Blaire had been the prime minister of England.... :o When I told him that he had been the prime minister of the United Kingdom, he said: I had always wondered what that was. :-\
What do you mean??! England is a country. The UK consists of four countries, made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
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laws placed designed to minimise chaos and harm such as needing permits to fly home made aircraft
That is a constitutionally assured right.
"You can take my kit built ultralight... when you pry it from my cold dead hand!" -Charlton Heston
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Would it really cost that much more, or is it simply a redistribution of tax money allocation? I sometimes see uninformed americans talking about the ridiculous level of taxation in "socialist" Europe, but real tax levels are AFAIK not that dissimilar between the US and the EU.
It may look that way at first glance, because (speaking for the Dutch situation now) our gross income is taxed heavily (20-50%), while in the US that is much less. But then in the US you pay for a lot of things afterwards, where for us it is included in the income tax. (e.g., pensions, part of the healthcare fee)
The real tax rate in The Netherlands is about 60% (depending on level of income, obviously). I've seen some americans estimating theirs at 50%+. Seems similar to me.
I am both an American citizen as well as a European and I can tell you that the American system is better in this regard. The problem with providing the people with these things and just taking it out in their taxes automatically is that a large group of people pay for things they don't want. The American system allows the individual to choose. I don't particularly like western medicine and my educational choice for my children might fall out of the mainstream as the well-so here I am, left paying at least 30-40% of my income to the Swedish government for things that I don't actually want! If I choose to use them in the future, I would rather just pay for them then. I agree that something should be done for people in emergency situations, but the Swedish system, at least, is way overkill. From an American standpoint, it is socialist. No Swede would tell you that though.
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Perfect example of idiocy. Dude cuts-and-pastes trying to make a 'serious' point without a clue. ::)
Perfect example of a cop-out statement posing as an argument. ::) ::)
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Perfect example of idiocy. Dude cuts-and-pastes trying to make a 'serious' point without a clue. ::)
No no, he spent years pouring over data. That graph is the centerpiece of his dissertation. I can't believe you weren't convinced by it. Have another look.
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Nothing is bought, that is the illusion...Everything is rented...
Semantics, Copperfield.