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Ignorant America: Just How Stupid Are We?
thirdworldtraveler.com — Millions of Americans are embarrassingly ill-informed & they do not care that they are. 1 in 4 Americans can name more than 1 of the 5 freedoms guaranteed by the 1st Amendment (freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly & petition for redress of grievances.) But more than half can name at least 2 members of fictional cartoon family 'The Simpsons'
SaraLiberty- 88 diggs
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- MarkEarhart, on 07/27/2008, -1/+22I think the Jefferson quote I recieved with this shout sums it up far better than I ever could:
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." -- Thomas Jefferson - greenfyre, on 07/27/2008, -2/+12There was another report on this at http://digg.com/politics/Americans_How_Ignorant_Ar ...
- Pitofdoom, on 07/27/2008, -1/+17The web woven is so tangled they can't bear truth, so ignorance is bliss and slavery simple !
- MarkEarhart, on 07/28/2008, -0/+2Well stated.
- lazerus9, on 07/27/2008, -2/+13Americans are not stupid!...They are being anesthetized!
- jana67, on 07/27/2008, -1/+9I think you have nailed that one on the head Lazerus9. This anesthetization has been happening for generations..
The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage'
~Alexander Tyler, 1787 - Scottish history professor,
University of Edinburgh - MarkEarhart, on 07/28/2008, -0/+4I don't disagree Laz, but isn't the end the same either way? A person must know history in order to avoid repeating the tragic behavioral trends of the past. What little history is taught in the public schools today consists of half truths, lies, and whitewashing of facts. People's brains are constantly bombarded with distractions from serious concerns. The economy must be fine, because they said so on TV, etc. etc.....
I see it as more of a mass hypnosis. What does it take to regain consciousness? One must pull the plug on the IV dripping false reality into one's veins. But what do we do to convince them of the need to? I've been trying to pull people's plug for quite a while now, and most don't take kindly to it at all.
- jana67, on 07/27/2008, -1/+9I think you have nailed that one on the head Lazerus9. This anesthetization has been happening for generations..
- vrich187, on 07/27/2008, -1/+6I think the title is a little misleading. Many Americans are not stupid, just ignorant of the facts. I would say that until last year and even more recently the beginning of this year I was ignorant as well. In defense of people who don't know whats really going on I was one of those people. The media, entrainment industry and the whole society in general seems to be geared to keep you ignorant. Two years ago, I was engaged to be married, had a full time job, social activities, etc. I had no time or very little to read and study and ask why. So I can understand why people blindly accept what the media tells them as the truth. Also, its very difficult to realize the truth. For me a lot of alcohol consumption in sued.
- caferrell, on 07/27/2008, -1/+9Americans' problem is that we are:
1. certain that we are somehow superior, but immigrants to this country soon pass the Yankees by, leaving them watching porn and wrestling and Fox News on their flat screen and wondering why they can't make the payment on their pickup truck
2. lazy - we don't don't read or study, we don't try to improve, we just want to be entertained
3. brainwashed - (this can only happen because we are lazy and constantly connected to media) - lisaawesome, on 07/27/2008, -0/+7We are WILLFULLY ignorant and that is what makes me ***** sick. As a full time student who typically works full time (just part time at the moment tho) I have never had a problem staying informed. It is your choice to remain in the dark. I have plenty of responsibilities and like to go out with my friends but I also manage to Digg and stay informed because my ass isn't parked in front of the TV with my brain off for hours each night. Prioritize. I would rather know what is going on in the world than the plot of the latest Simpsons episode or who got kicked off American Idol.
- SaraLiberty, on 08/16/2008, -0/+3Hey Lisa I'm with you. I get teased constantly by friends for not knowing names of the latest "Dancing With the Stars" contestants or who won 'head of household' on Big Brother. It's possible to have fun, enjoy life (what it's about) and still keep yourself informed, awake and aware. There's really no excuse. The controlled info-tainment media is owned by business empires that make money off of our ignorance.
The problem is not that a computer network (Internet) offers an alternative to the information aristocracy. The true crisis is that neither the controlled 'news' media nor the government has enough credibility to be accepted as either truthful or impartial on their own.
This sums it up quite nicely http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dY4WlxO6i0 :)
- SaraLiberty, on 08/16/2008, -0/+3Hey Lisa I'm with you. I get teased constantly by friends for not knowing names of the latest "Dancing With the Stars" contestants or who won 'head of household' on Big Brother. It's possible to have fun, enjoy life (what it's about) and still keep yourself informed, awake and aware. There's really no excuse. The controlled info-tainment media is owned by business empires that make money off of our ignorance.
- MarkEarhart, on 07/28/2008, -0/+1The above mentioned institutions work in tandem like a well oiled machine to keep people ignorant. Those who grew up without reading books, which is a rare thing today, don't even learn critical thinking skills. If you can't critically analyze information you can't reason. If you can't reason you can't shoot holes in senseless propaganda. The trick is getting away from the machine, which leads me to pose the same question in essence that I asked in my reply above. If a person falsely believes they are free and nothing bad can happen how does one convince them otherwise? Most people who are comfortable don't want their perceived reality shattered.
I was a bookworm growing up, and had the advantage of attending a private school with high academic standards for two years. I still got sucked into false reality to a great extent. I had to become miserable before I sought answers. I hope something changes before we all wind up miserable due to real consequences that make life unbearable for all.
- caferrell, on 07/27/2008, -1/+9Americans' problem is that we are:
- caferrell, on 07/27/2008, -1/+12What do educated South Americans say about us Yankees?
We are fat
We have no sense of fashion
We know nothing about other cultures
We speak no foreign languages
We are rude
We know nothing about world history
We have perfect teeth- paradexes, on 07/27/2008, -1/+6Pretty much a fair assessment for the most part. Essentially if someone has a spanish accent or brown skin, they are labeled a Mexican. Never mind the fact that there are nations south of Mexico that almost all speak Spanish (Brazil excepted).
It is not hard to see why people say Americans are ignorant. And rude, seeing as calling a Hispanic something other than his nationality can be considered an insult as many have a strong sense of national and cultural pride. You go an label every Hispanic as a Mexican and you pretty much are ignorant. - Midtowner, on 07/28/2008, -1/+1The same thing (absent the bit about the teeth) could be said about almost any westernized culture.
- paradexes, on 07/27/2008, -1/+6Pretty much a fair assessment for the most part. Essentially if someone has a spanish accent or brown skin, they are labeled a Mexican. Never mind the fact that there are nations south of Mexico that almost all speak Spanish (Brazil excepted).
- Telmarine, on 07/27/2008, -1/+3Could this have something to do with it?
http://www.webfilehost.com/images/mainstream-media ... - thefightgeek, on 07/28/2008, -1/+5American's hardly corner the market on stupidity . . . they're just attention whores :)
- SaraLiberty, on 08/16/2008, -2/+5"Americans are too broadly underinformed to digest nuggets of information that seem to contradict what they know of the world ... Instead, news channels prefer to feed Americans a constant stream of simplified information, all of which fits what they already know. That way they don't have to devote more air time or newsprint space to explanations or further investigations... Politicians and the media have conspired to infantilize, to dumb down, the American public. At heart, politicians don't believe that Americans can handle complex truths, and the news media, especially television news, basically agrees."
--Tom Fenton, former CBS foreign correspondent - lazerus9, on 07/28/2008, -2/+1There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root
Henry David Thoreau - le0pardess, on 07/30/2008, -0/+1"what good fortune for government that people do not think" Adolf Hitler
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