We're Getting Smarter........

[quote]pookie wrote:
brucevangeorge wrote:
Guy1: puts it on Australia!!! (WTF?!)

If you look closely, the map has Australia labeled “Iran.” I think they had a bunch of maps with the names jumbled around.

I think some people are overreacting a bit. From the looks of it, it’s from a comedy show (the CNNNN logo in the bottom right is sort of a giveaway). If you interview a hundred people and make a 5 minute montage of the worst answers, of course it’s gonna look bad.

No one thinks (or no one should) that’s in any way representative of the whole population.

You could probably do a 5 minute montage of all the best answers and make it appear the America is filled with Rhode scholars.
[/quote]

True enough there is indeed a selection bias and stupidity is universal. There are also multiple factors that create the depth of stupidity we are looking at here.

And like a previous poster said regarding “J walking,” universities and education are not the only factors in reducing stupidity. education is also not necessarily valued as highly in some areas of the US as in others. What does some farmer need to know about Pakistan? Albeit it’s nice to know stuff but mostly unnecessary in many peoples lives. Some people will just never give a fuck about geography or knowing anything about the world in general, regardless of nationality.

The problem is that these people are the ones who can be the most opinionated about it. It’s OK not to know everything, it’s just bad to not know shit and then tell everyone you do and start lobby groups. I find wise people either have an informed opinion or no opinion at all.

-chris

All right…its very clear that they ONLY focussed on the answers that were stupid enough to be shown in the clip.
That said, when the average american doesn;t NEED to know the answers to many of the questions asked, why should he know them, save for the sake of general knowledge? When he knows that hes SUPPOSED to hate the middle easterners unconditionally , thats all he needs to know. He’s not expected to have a complete understanding of the political situation. Trouble is such people then form an opinion based on their poor understanding.

Finally its possible that three times as many participants answered the questions correctly, and there would have been no reason to air those responses, so just watch the clip to have a good laugh, thats all! its about as representative as the gallup poll (or less).

[quote]realpeanutbutter wrote:
pookie wrote:
brucevangeorge wrote:
Guy1: puts it on Australia!!! (WTF?!)

If you look closely, the map has Australia labeled “Iran.” I think they had a bunch of maps with the names jumbled around.

I think some people are overreacting a bit. From the looks of it, it’s from a comedy show (the CNNNN logo in the bottom right is sort of a giveaway). If you interview a hundred people and make a 5 minute montage of the worst answers, of course it’s gonna look bad.

No one thinks (or no one should) that’s in any way representative of the whole population.

You could probably do a 5 minute montage of all the best answers and make it appear the America is filled with Rhode scholars.

True enough there is indeed a selection bias and stupidity is universal. There are also multiple factors that create the depth of stupidity we are looking at here.

And like a previous poster said regarding “J walking,” universities and education are not the only factors in reducing stupidity. education is also not necessarily valued as highly in some areas of the US as in others. What does some farmer need to know about Pakistan? Albeit it’s nice to know stuff but mostly unnecessary in many peoples lives. Some people will just never give a fuck about geography or knowing anything about the world in general, regardless of nationality.

The problem is that these people are the ones who can be the most opinionated about it. It’s OK not to know everything, it’s just bad to not know shit and then tell everyone you do and start lobby groups. I find wise people either have an informed opinion or no opinion at all.

-chris[/quote]

Good post.

[quote]realpeanutbutter wrote:

The problem is that these people are the ones who can be the most opinionated about it. It’s OK not to know everything, it’s just bad to not know shit and then tell everyone you do and start lobby groups. I find wise people either have an informed opinion or no opinion at all.

-chris[/quote]

Spot on.

I remember one rather opinionated lady I sat next to on the LA - Vegas Greyhound. Apparently the Jews are the reason America invaded Iraq and Israel should leave Pakistan alone.

[quote]rbpowerhouse wrote:
That said, when the average american doesn;t NEED to know the answers to many of the questions asked, why should he know them, save for the sake of general knowledge? When he knows that hes SUPPOSED to hate the middle easterners unconditionally , thats all he needs to know. He’s not expected to have a complete understanding of the political situation.
[/quote]

Maybe I’ve misunderstood you, but why is the average American SUPPOSED to hate Middle Easterners? What have they done to the average American? Can’t they form their own opinions based on the facts freely available?

I’m curiously asking, does the quality of education differ from state to state? Is there no national average that everyone should adhere to, or is it that low? I was born and educated in South Africa, a 3rd world country, yet I have a fairly good general knowledge of the world - even though I may never put it all to use, it was all taught to me at school.

I’ve lost count the amount of times I’ve been asked about wild animals running around the streets of SA by people from all around the world - how fucken retarded can you be?

[quote]rsg wrote:
rbpowerhouse wrote:
That said, when the average american doesn;t NEED to know the answers to many of the questions asked, why should he know them, save for the sake of general knowledge? When he knows that hes SUPPOSED to hate the middle easterners unconditionally , thats all he needs to know. He’s not expected to have a complete understanding of the political situation.

Maybe I’ve misunderstood you, but why is the average American SUPPOSED to hate Middle Easterners? What have they done to the average American? Can’t they form their own opinions based on the facts freely available?

[/quote]

He was being funny.

[quote]AdamC wrote:
He was being funny.
[/quote]

Ah, I see I’m losing my sense of humour lately… :slight_smile:

[quote]rsg wrote:
AdamC wrote:
He was being funny.

Ah, I see I’m losing my sense of humour lately… :)[/quote]

Easy to do when you see crap like this. Or when you live in a world where C list celebrity death and insanity receives more media coverage than actual news. But that might not be a problem as much in England.

And yes, education does vary widely from state to state. Actually from district to district depending on funding and other things. I, for one, got an extremely awesome and difficult education in the suburbs of Kansas (!) and a lot of other people I meet at college can apparently barely put pants on straight in the morning.

I find I’m becoming more and more like Red Foreman and I’m not even 25 yet. Dumbasses are everywhere.

I think everyone understands what is going on here. Take 200 people’s answers and you’re going to have many dumbasses ANYWHERE.

They did this stuff in other countries and it was just as easy to put together 5-10mins of funny stupid people.

Like other people said, it isn’t practical knowledge either. They just have to acknowledge ignorance… which sadly doesn’t come from knowing little, but from knowing a great deal.

[quote]ShaneM686 wrote:
They just have to acknowledge ignorance… which sadly doesn’t come from knowing little, but from knowing a great deal.[/quote]

Not bad…I’d go so far as to define “functional ignorance” as : knowing little but having an unwavering opinion about everything. We honestly did not see any instances of that in the clip; the one guy who had a strong opinion (about making a crater of a certain region) did not give away any ignorance with stupid answers.

[quote]AdamC wrote:
I remember one rather opinionated lady I sat next to on the LA - Vegas Greyhound. Apparently the Jews are the reason America invaded Iraq and Israel should leave Pakistan alone.[/quote]

My apologies for the following political rant.

That woman’s definitely anti-semitic. The invasion of Iraq, while misled, clearly had other motives.

However, much of the hate for the US in the middle east has been due to the US’s unconditional support for Israel in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. For example, we give them huge amounts of aid, and sell them weapons that far outclass the Palestinians.

Ideally I think we should keep our hands out of it and be neutral. That’s what we did before the world wars forced us to change our foreign policy. Now we are too involved in foreign policy and the other countries get pissed because of it. It’d be better if we’d strengthen the UN and let it police world crisis, and let the US remain neutral.

[quote]Big Dan wrote:
That woman’s definitely anti-semitic. The invasion of Iraq, while misled, clearly had other motives.
[/quote]

Ok. Can you explain step by step how mentioning Jewish people is anti-semetic?

In the following sentence: Apparently the Jews are the reason America invaded Iraq and Israel should leave Pakistan alone.

[quote]brucevangeorge wrote:
In the following sentence: Apparently the Jews are the reason America invaded Iraq and Israel should leave Pakistan alone.
[/quote]

The part that says the Jews are the reason America invaded Iraq. I interpret that as blaming the war on the Jewish people. You’re right she may not actually be anti-semitic, but she is using them as a scapegoat, and that is one of the main ways prejudice starts.

While many dispute Bush’s motives, Congress allowed the war because they were led to believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. They weren’t only afraid that the WMD’s would be used on Israel (which is more probable), but that they could be used on the United States.

Rick Mercer’s ‘talking to american’s’ is also good if anyone feels like looking it up