Letters to the Editor
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Really, no, what are we drinking?
I'm serious here. What is in our water supply? What's happened to us? Where is our sense of outrage and our sense of moral justice? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!?! It's like we've all been living the last 5 years in a bad sci-fi film, only instead of the leaders being ruthlessly efficient in their establishment of a dystopian empire, ours our brutally incompetent. guess what though? Same number of people GET KILLED!
This isn't about lightpoles and stop signs. This is people's lives and livelihoods. And our public, our people, our country is WOEFULLY inadequate in getting real information about the state of the union. The dent in my wall (and my forehead) is getting bigger by the second. Good God, what is it going to take to shake us up? When the Chinese Yen is at 2 USD? When a single story home in Tupolo MO costs 500 grand? When gas is at 6 bucks a gallon? When is it finally going to hit home that we need help?!
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The jury is out, and won't come back anytime soon.
And how many Republican presidential candidates,in addition to the current occupant, stated that they don't believe in evolution? It was close to 40% as well.
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Innocense
Remember Bush saying after 9/11 and referring to Afghanistan: We will close their roads, railroads and PORTS ? That was not really innocense but plain old stupidity; and that from a Harvard graduate. He sure as hell did not know where that country was on the map. And he deems himself the leader of the free world? 41% is no surprise. Hear the rest of the world laughing?
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Jesus H.
Christ.
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Yes, we are woefully ignorant but...
Anyone have any poll numbers on how many people in 1980 knew who the chief justice was? 1960? 1940? 1920? Not an excuse, I'd just like a little context. Have we always been this stupid or is it a new phenomenon? And if we are just as stupid as we were 80 years ago, why aren’t we smarter when we have access to so much more info? Is it because we have access to so much more info (and lots of it’s incorrect info)?
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Only 18% know the winner of "Idol"?
That doesn't seem right. Given the astronomical ratings of "Idol", how can only 18 percent know who one the final?
Our children is not learning, no.
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What we believe
...and 20% think Christianity is an older religion than Judaism?
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What's American Idol?
I thought the US was a "Christian Nation"... isn't idol worship banned in Christianity?
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I is not learning, at least.
Someone won American Idol, not "one". Ouch.
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When life is comfortable...
...there is no reason to know anything. We don't vote, we don't participate, we have no will to civic unity, we are the laziest democracy on Earth.
We are drunk on petty freedoms and have not the depth to fathom Freedom. Our news reflects us; 30 second stories wrapped in 5 minutes of really kick-ass graphics! Anything that doesn't make money is ditched or converted into a money-maker.
It's all working according to plan.
The market has spoken, in slang:
This is why we have Bush and American Idol.
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Me Fail English?
That UNPOSSIBLE!
Thanks Ralph Wiggum for summing it all up so succinctly.
Even as shocking as some of these statistics are, I wonder if this comes as any sort of surprise to those who regularly read this site. Chances are, it doesn't since most of you probably have education beyond a high school/GED level and are interested in points of view outside of the glossy filler over at CNN or elsewhere. It leaves me wondering if people would generally poll stronger in this survey if they were asked if they knew what the global percentage of shark attacks was or how much wrath mother nature unleashed last month compared to the month before. Maybe those examples are too abstract for the average Joe, but my guess is the answers and results would really surprise.
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I feel...
...like a stranger in a strange land.
How appalling to know that this sort of willful ignorance, self deception and unreality is so prevalent throughout our country! After hearing the latest poll results this weekend, indicating 26% of adult Americans still support Dubya, I commented to my son that it's disturbing to think that fully one fourth of all the people you meet on the street are evidently clinically insane.
Are there any distinguishing characteristics, as in the 1960s TV series "The Invaders", where the aliens have a stiff pinky finger that won't bend? Are we being replaced slowly by pod people from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"? What the hell is going ON???
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What's all this I hear about "Conserving America's racehorses"?
I did a few years as an inkstained wretch. People justifiably accuse reporters of being contempuous of some common folks, but consider a few examples of dealing with the public:
> On election day some indignant guy called the paper to loudly complain that he had voted against the conmgressman in one district and that he also wanted to vote against a congressman in another district, "And they won't let me!" I tried for 10 minutes to explain to this meatball that you only have your one and only congresscreature, and he just could not grasp the idea.
> During the congressional banking uproar of the late 80s Lewis Grizzard wrote a satirical piece that Congress had resigned en masse. Some guy called the paper to ask if it was true. I had to explain to him the definition of "satire" (A word he did not know) and reassure him, if that's the word, that Coingress had not resigned.
> A port city where I worked was considering building a higher bridge to clear safely large freighers coming into port. A member of the public suggested it would be much cheaper to just dredge the channel deeper.
> When Janet Reno announced as a gubernatorial candidate in Florida, she was predicatbly and repeatedly attacked for having been responsible for the shooting of Randy Weaver's wife at Ruby Ridge -- something that took place in the first Bush administration.
There's plenty more where those came from....
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all this proves...
... is that the Big Lie continues to be a very effective political tactic. No news there.
Of course, it also proves that 40% of american adults are stupid enough, or ignorant enough, or lazy enough, to fall for the Big Lie.
The effectiveness of the Big Lie is as old as humanity itself. We cannot outgrow the problem, it seems.