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Poll: Quarter of Brits think Churchill, Gandhi were myth

news.yahoo.com — Britons are losing their grip on reality, according to a poll out Monday which showed that nearly a quarter think Winston Churchill was a myth while the majority reckon Sherlock Holmes was real.

Who dugg this? Made popular Feb 5, 2008

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  • GoKings, on 02/05/2008, -4/+251Those dumb Americans are at it again... Er... Wait a second...
  • jabrthel, on 02/05/2008, -1/+146If this were a poll of Americans, there'd be sooooo many vitriol comments... probably directed at rednecks, hicks, and southerners in general. Keep this in mind the next time you want to blame something on how dumb we are. Because, as it turns out, everyone's dumb. Stupidity knows no border.

    *I had no idea who the duke of wellington was, either.
  • knde, on 02/05/2008, -7/+83Before everyone gets overly excited at the supposed stupidity of the British, keep in mind that this was a "canvass of 3,000 under-twenties" who watch UKTV (not exactly PBS).

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/ne ...

    Same question could be posed to American under-twenties, using Douglas MacArthur, and I'm sure the results wouldn't be to far off.
  • omigon, on 02/05/2008, -7/+71Who cares about the Duke of Wellington? Winston Churchill died like ONLY 40 years ago! He was the prime minister of their country two times and he won a noble prize on literature!!! I mean for gods sake he would have been somebody I would glorify the crap out of if he was my country man
    But I guess it's something their ruler wants. 25% is not a joke, it's sad
  • gudnbluts, on 02/05/2008, -6/+68All of which is wrong. Guns weren't banned as such, because almost nobody had guns before the handgun ban (it affected fewer than one in 2000 people). Steak knives are legal. Defending your home is legal, even to the point of deadly force.

    But you'll get dugg up, and I'll get dugg down for knowing what I'm talking about.
  • inactive, on 02/05/2008, -54/+114And Brits call Americans stupid. That is a country that first banned guns, then banned steak knives, then made it illegal to defend yourself in a home invasion. Monty Python RULES!
  • glasgowm, on 02/05/2008, -6/+48THIS IS A SURVEY ON 3000 UKTV GOLD VIEWERS, THE EQUIVALENT OF E! IN AMERICA.

    burried as inaccurate.

    I just polled 10 of my friends, and they all knew who Churchill was, therefor 100% of Britons know who Churchill was?
  • Beveridge89, on 02/05/2008, -0/+37So long as a quarter don't think Churchill is a car insurance selling nodding dog, i'll take this as not too bad.
  • whathappened, on 02/05/2008, -3/+38Must be those chavs. They are the rednecks of the UK.
  • northernmonkee, on 02/05/2008, -7/+37And we get all high and mighty about the Americans struggling to name state capitals. I smell hypocrisy!
  • a6n28f, on 02/05/2008, -2/+30I know. All of academia has a pronounced conservative bias. Oh, wait....
  • jjb123, on 02/05/2008, -1/+29I find that 20-30% is the universal amount of retardation. Example, 27% support Bush, 25% don't think Churchill existed.
  • SteelChicken, on 02/05/2008, -9/+37Well us dumb Americans need another European country/culture to look up to now. France?
  • iloveazngurlzs, on 02/05/2008, -0/+27i am American and i am aware of the duke!

    But seriously, every country is full of idiots. What do you think most of the news on digg is about?
  • Laminarcissus, on 02/05/2008, -11/+37Actually, it's that the British are so courteous that they're intentionally answering wrong just to make Americans feel more comfortable.
  • Bleahdom, on 02/05/2008, -1/+27This is rather humiliating. Isn't the rise of a middle class supposed to come with a rise in education? Now I won't be able to tease the Americans.
  • bigmrpig, on 02/05/2008, -5/+28I couldn't have told you who the Duke of Wellington or Biggles were, but Yahoo doesn't have little blue lines underneath them, so they must not be as important as the rest.
  • TheSabre, on 02/05/2008, -6/+25Funny, because if E! interviewed 5 Americans and they answered wrong, we'd have to hear from everyone else how "Americans are stupid" and whatnot. Funny how things change when the shoe is on the other foot.
  • felman87, on 02/05/2008, -0/+19speaking of idiots
  • Troika37, on 02/05/2008, -4/+22You didn't know who the Duke of Wellington was? He saved Europe from a Napolenonic domination, almost by himself, through his tactical genius. His victories at Assaye and Waterloo were nearly perfect.
  • wreckosaurus, on 02/05/2008, -4/+22Bush is stupid, though I don't believe he exists either.
  • knde, on 02/05/2008, -4/+20If it makes any difference the question was posed to 3000 under-twenties, and not the general population.

    Since when has anyone had faith in the collective intelligence of the teenage masses???
  • gudnbluts, on 02/05/2008, -0/+15I think he's referring to the 3% of the British population that are Muslim, only he's multiplied it up by nearly 20 times to make Americans more scared.
  • dyranios2, on 02/05/2008, -0/+15Ohhhhh Yes!
  • leduck8, on 02/05/2008, -2/+17This reminds me of Jay Walking on the Tonight Show.
  • AndrewDB, on 02/05/2008, -7/+21Well something like 24% of Americans think Bush is a good president... so we're not exactly 100% there either.
  • Beveridge89, on 02/05/2008, -0/+14Really, you think 50% of under 20s are foreigners who only speak Arabic?
  • fuzzmeister, on 02/05/2008, -1/+15That's because Britain had nowhere near the gun ownership levels that America does when wide gun regulation went into place, making it much more feasible and effective. Also, you obviously don't know what you're talking about if you say it's "illegal to defend yourself in a home invasion."
  • lordsteve, on 02/05/2008, -2/+15Buried for "more wider."
  • GeyserShitdick, on 02/05/2008, -0/+13France is busy rioting and outlawing head scarves right now, but they'll get back to you in a couple weeks.
  • sigmaman2, on 02/05/2008, -2/+13If there were no Duke of Wellington, we might all be speaking in French now.
    No Churchill? We might be speaking German.
    No Ghandi? Well, we might be speaking English more fluently...?
  • Maxmojo015, on 02/05/2008, -1/+12Incase you didnt notice, that was the joke in GoKings comment....
  • pastaq, on 02/05/2008, -0/+11It's ok. FDR is a lie too. They say he couldn't walk, but only because he was never seen on he ground. He was always flying about like Superman.
  • tdog138, on 02/05/2008, -1/+12Douglas MacArthur isn't really a good analogy. Maybe FDR. But your point still holds, I think a lot of under twenties in the U.S. would have a hard time figuring out exactly who FDR was.
  • Vowieotw, on 02/05/2008, -1/+11Can we blame it on the British rednecks?
  • simplicityiskey, on 02/05/2008, -1/+10Being American and not knowing who the Duke of Wellington isn't surprising--living in England and not knowing who he is would be unacceptable.
  • alex7575, on 02/05/2008, -3/+12Rush Limbaugh
    Bill O'Reilly
    Ann Coulter

    This is what the "intelligent" right has to offer...

    Should I keep going?
  • sponeil, on 02/05/2008, -1/+10You can still tease us. Even if you're following in our footsteps, we're still ahead of you. ;-)
  • whathappened, on 02/05/2008, -6/+15surveying 3000 people who watch a specific TV channel out of a 60 million population is hardly going to give an accurate view.

    Also, who the ***** watches UKTV gold anyway?
  • QuickeningYak, on 02/05/2008, -3/+12With Bush it's meant as a compliment.
  • gudnbluts, on 02/05/2008, -0/+8You people really are ignorant aren't you? Britain is around 3% Muslim. Three percent. And unemployment is about 5%
  • kilgoretrout88, on 02/05/2008, -0/+8Most aren't aware we ever did. Empire isn't something we like to bring up in conversation.
  • welliamwallace, on 02/05/2008, -0/+8I don't know if that misspelling is on purpose or not...
  • inactive, on 02/05/2008, -1/+9Well maybe Troika37 was only critiquing the victories of non-environmental army-crushers...I mean the cold doesn't really have tactical genius, just chillinesssss
  • spudnic, on 02/05/2008, -0/+8He was voted the greatest Briton of all time. We do glorify the crap out of him.
  • NJHiker, on 02/05/2008, -0/+7I figured the word "Poll" in the title was self explanatory.
  • KyleGoetz, on 02/05/2008, -0/+6Oh them Britons, they're all bloody CHAAAAAVVVS! Every last one of them, proper YOBS. ;)
  • MadOtaku, on 02/05/2008, -0/+6You keep basing your opinions "more wider spectrum" and making judgments about people you don't know; meanwhile, I'll make fun of people who say "more wider".
  • akent22, on 02/05/2008, -11/+17Somewhat misleading title... It should probably read "Quarter of a small number of British Teenagers think Churchill, Gandhi were myths."

    Considering the population of Great Britain is over 60,000,000 that %25 should really be more like %5.
  • W00DR0W, on 02/05/2008, -1/+7They do like to talk ***** whenever they see one of those Jaywalking bits from Late Night With Leno. Of course most people say something stupid on purpose just to get on T.V.
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