lots of sensitive fee fees in here LOL
ok, i’ll join in: americans are stupid
and it’s by design. remember when al franken asked betsy devos a simple question and it was made abundantly clear that she didn’t know the first goddamn thing about education? but she bought her seat, so she became the secretary of education, saying we need guns in schools for “potential grizzlies.” i’m not fucking making that up
not only do 1%ers (the people who are calling the shots on public education) not give a fuck about public education, but they actively despise it, as that is money going to poor people instead of themselves AND an educated populace is bad for the aristocracy. so yes, there is a MAJOR anti-intellectual bent to all of american culture thanks entirely to republicans from the top all the way down to the mayor level, and spoiler alert: it’s not getting any better, since every attempt to improve education is blocked. by people who watch duck dynasty
edit: i need to add: to the people who insist on arguing against the painfully obviously hyperbolic statement “all americans are stupid” without taking 2 seconds to consider “maybe the core claim is that way too many americans are stupid, not literally every single american”-- you are reinforcing a side of the debate, just not the side you think you are
edit: i need to add: to the people who insist on arguing against the painfully obviously hyperbolic statement “all americans are stupid” without taking 2 seconds to consider “maybe the core claim is that way too many americans are stupid, not literally every single american”-- you are reinforcing a side of the debate, just not the side you think you are
Hah! You claim to be against anti intellectualism yet you move your own goal posts when people prove you wrong via a counter example!?
spoiler
/s /s /s
as that is money going to poor people instead of themselves
You need to look no further than the GOP obsession with cutting government programs to back this up. The “money going to” is in fact taxes and so if government programs are cut Republicans can also further reduce taxation on themselves and the ultra wealthy without hurting the deficit as much. They couldn’t possibly care less about government assistance programs because they don’t need them, it’s just the “poors” that do and we all know the Republicans mindset on that: get good or die, loser. Let the church do charity, but don’t “force me” to care about you.
Reality TV shows sucks
Duck Dynasty?? Is this meme from the 2005 collection or is it 2006?
Duck Dynasty was on until 2017. The people on it are still major right-wing celebrities.
Edit: American ignorance update!
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — How well do Americans succeed at distinguishing statements of fact from statements of opinion? The answer: Not very well at all, according to new research co-written by a team of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign scholars.
Americans struggle to tell the difference between statements of fact and statements of opinion – a troubling trend that has grave implications for civic discourse and for navigating the torrent of political information that citizens receive every day, said Jeffery J. Mondak, a professor of political science and the James M. Benson Chair in Public Issues and Civic Leadership at Illinois.
Before we get off on the wrong foot, I want to say that you and I have a lot of positive interactions on this site and I generally agree with you.
This is a meme for an edgy freshman with Fight Club and Joker posters in their room. A scripted science show with a limited scope and a decent budget that was cherry picked for being one season vs a cheap, fast reality show that was also cherry picked for its longevity is a bad comparison and doesn’t imply anything about the intelligence of a country.
But instead of defending it, all of your replies are just “look at this other way Americans are stupid!” which just makes it seem like you are that high schooler caricature I described earlier.
I KNOW you’re not a teenager and I’ve always seen you act better than that in other threads so what going on with this one?
Maybe you were imagining things?
No, you’re one of the few names I recognize here that I enjoy seeing around
Low effort edge lords. I hate low effort edge lords.
Oh fuck off. “Cosmos” was never meant to be an ongoing series. Sagan didn’t intend for it to be more than one season. And there were two follow- up seasons with Neil deGrasse Tyson later on.
Also, there are 51 (and counting) seasons of “NOVA.” Not all Americans are stupid.
Half of you are stupid. The other half are just hanging out with the stupid and we can’t tell who is who.
Also The Universe or whatever it was called on history channel got a lot of episodes.
And yet this is the man who is a hair’s breadth from the White House a second time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpdt7omPoa0
Edit: Because I’m enjoying the hate and I’m enjoying looking this stuff up, here’s the last ignorant Americans fact until another person angrily suggests that Americans are so way into Carl Sagan stuff!
More than one in five (22%) of those taking the test said astronomy was “the study of how the positions of stars and planets can influence human behavior.” The answer they should have given was astrology.
https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-science-quiz-americans-pew-20150909-story.html
While a growing share of U.S. adults are religiously unaffiliated, there is one belief that appears to unite a significant share of them: astrology. YouGov’s latest poll finds that a little more than one-quarter of Americans (27%) – including 37% of adults under 30 – say that they believe in astrology, or that the position of the stars and planets influences people’s lives. About half of Americans (51%) say they don’t believe in astrology and 22% are unsure.
https://today.yougov.com/entertainment/articles/42292-one-four-americans-say-they-believe-astrology
51 percent of people in a new AP/GFK poll said they were “not too confident” or “not at all confident” that the statement “the universe began 13.8 billion years ago with a big bang” was correct.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/21814/evolution-creationism-intelligent-design.aspx
You can throw statistics upon statistics and they will mean nothing without a comparison point, control group, or null hypothesis.
Yet he’s never won the popular vote. The majority of Americans don’t like him. His backers are just good at manipulating the rubes and gaming the system.
“Never won the popular vote” isn’t saying much considering our low voter turnout.
Which is another thing which supports the idea that America is a pretty anti-intellectual country.
I’m not sure why you’re trying to pretend otherwise.
Edit: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/nearly-7-in-10-u-s-adults-believe-in-angels-ap-norc-poll-finds
It was the highest turnout last election, no?
Universities are not unpopular.
Universities are not unpopular because it’s hard to get a decent-paying job without a degree unless you want to do something like be a plumber or electrician.
Give it a rest
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I’m from the country I’m judging. I thought that would have been obvious.
It’s not like I make a secret of it. I talk about being from Indiana in general and living in Terre Haute in specific all the time.
Also, I don’t enjoy being off-putting, it just comes naturally. But it’s okay because I’m used to almost everyone hating me for being awful.
lol
Been reading your comments for over a year now and one thing is clear: you’re not awful, nor are you a troll.
Thank you. I don’t feel that way, but I appreciate it.
This isn’t an “American” problem though
26% of Europeans believe astrology is “very scientific” with 43% believing it is at least somewhat so.
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/08/raw-data-astrology-in-europe/
While there is no real data on the age of the universe things you can look up, searches by country for creationism, or skepticism of evolution, show western european countries to largely be 15-40% skeptical of evolution, and eastern europe is much higher on average, but also contains the lowest skepticism of it.
Search “skepticism of evolution in Europe by country” and you will get information - it took me several hours of reading, but it was all on that search
I’ve heard of the dead guy’s series from almost half a century ago.
I have no idea wtf Duck Dynasty is. Sounds like something I’d order with plum sauce.
Every Republican in the U.S. can tell you all about Duck Dynasty if you ask them. And plenty of Democrats.
Cosmos? “I don’t watch them dumb science shows.”
Let’s not pretend PBS has ever had a massive percentage of Americans watching.
Edit: American ignorance update!
I liked Duck Dynasty and I’m from Europe .__. I think it run on Comedy Central overe here.
Yeah I don’t mind it either, I get their political views are WAYYYY different than mine but it’s pretty entertaining.
what exactly did you like about it? havent seen more than bits really so it looks like some vietnam veterans doing cosplay and have a bird kink or sth.
I should add this was like 2013? 2015?
Maybe I’m wrong. Was there another Series like this? Because I remember a Episode where they are in a Swamps hunting for Crabs or something, not ducks. It’s just this old Guy and his grandson (?). And the old Guy starts giving this 8/9 year old such random life advice. Like he should not watch for an attractive woman he should rather look for one that can cook and such random stuff. And this 8/9 year old is like “I will Grandpa, I will!” And it’s such a stupid situation 😂 Because you can feel that this Granddad is going home talking to his wife and be like “Yeaaah, I sat him straight. He will remember my Life lessons”. 😂 It was just so corny 😂
all these shows feel like exploitation of persons with severe mental disabilities
A far more appropriate channel. Sadly, it is not intended to be a farce.
Edit: American ignorance update!
Disturbing Findings Reveal Significant Number Of Millennials and Gen Z Can’t Name A Single Concentration Camp Or Ghetto, Believe That Two Million Or Fewer Jews Were Killed And A Concerning Percentage Believe That Jews Caused The Holocaust
Proclaiming that Americans are retarded while also running around with shit streaming out of your pants isn’t a very endearing argument. You’re not wrong, but you’re also not going to convince anyone your points have merit.
I do not make ableist proclamations.
But I do proclaim that Americans are, in general, anti-intellectual.
You do not have to be bigoted to criticize me.
You’re literally mocking people based on their perceived intelligence quotient but you get offended if I use a term like retarded. Gotcha. Seems just a bit hypocritical. You can try to fancy it up with ephemeral vocabulary all you want but at the end of the day you’re mocking people for being less cognitively able. I’m just helping you see the paint that you laid down.
I have been discussing incuriosity and anti-intellectualism, neither of which have anything to do with intelligence.
You, however, are using a word that has been used to horrifically bully people with both intellectual and physical disabilities.
I’m sure this won’t matter to you and you will continue to be ableist, but I’ll leave it for others: https://www.specialolympics.org/stories/impact/why-the-r-word-is-the-r-slur
And there it is everyone he cares more about the label then purposely disparaging upwards of 50% of a country as mentally deficient and or incapable . Or perhaps I just lack the sufficient reading comprehension to extrapolate your multi-layered and nuanced themed assertions based on ill sourced polls that Americans are not intelligent because the ones sampled failed arbitrary litmus tests of knowledge. Woe is me because it’s spread across multiple posts the true meaning of your tirade has been lost to me with my ADHD rattled autism spectrumd non-neurotypical brain. It’s okay. You can spell it out for me. I’ve been told by many professionals that I am in fact retarded. Clutch your pearls harder sweetie. Take your Pharisee energy somewhere else.
Who the fuck is he mocking?
As an American myself, your average Americans head would spind then explode due to extreme confusion 10 minutes into sagans show.
Duck dynasty However is, misogynistic, extreme evangelism, shoot em up guns, blownin up stuff, and incomprehensible hillbilly nonsense that your average American thinks they understand quite well. They don’t know it’s yet another propaganda enterprise made to make you think you know, ya know?
Anyways sorry for the rant I just really despise that whole family
If I recall, all those Duck Dynasty characters were a complete fabrication. Like if you look at their “before” pics they dressed and shaved and had haircuts like 9-5 corporate jobbers.
They were a manufactured product to pull in rubes and spin them up on white Nationalism and white Christ rhetoric. And, of course, it worked.
Wow, that makes it so much worse
What a dumb meme lol
I would recommend a comma or period (or, arguably, a semicolon), an exclamation point and some capitalization.
Edit: Two exclamation points would also work. But not in a row.
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That is my normal state, yes.
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Oh goodie. I have to explain yet again that I am seriously ill which leaves me with very little energy to do much and also stuck in a town I hate far away from any friends. I’m sorry I can’t go out and join an intramural sports league for your benefit.
I spend all day on the internet too (fuck sports), but I spread that time across various platforms. I have a severe mental health issue that prevents me from holding down a job, so I get it. But I also realize when it’s time to lurk more.
I think I’m just going to start posting facts about how anti-intellectual America is to enrage my fellow citizens on Lemmy.
Quite a few thought it was Greenland though.
That article is from ten years ago. I’d suspect the numbers would still be worse than they should be, but Ukraine has become a much bigger situation since then which is why you’re using it in this example, so this is not an accurate picture you’re painting.
Do you really think Americans have flocked to maps since then?
Do you really think Ukraine being featured prominently in American news, pop culture, political discourse, and zeitgeist in general for the past two and a half years hasn’t affected those numbers? You would not have used Ukraine in this example had it not been for the current conflict. To use numbers from ten years ago is a deliberate misrepresentation of reality.
Americans couldn’t find Iraq and Afghanistan on maps during those wars despite the latter lasting 20 Years and Americans being involved in them.
https://media.nationalgeographic.org/assets/file/Roper-Poll-2006-Highlights.pdf
Why is it different today?
There was those great videos of a presenter asking people on the street to point out various countries on a world map that didn’t have the country names.
Answers were… interesting, to say the least.
wow that looks like a very wide normal distribution maybe a mixture with another smaller peak at middle east lol
I mean it’s accurate, Americans are idiots
People are idiots. The average person can be reasoned with, but you put a bunch of people together, and the madding crowd takes over.
I dunno, the rest of the world here is watching you guys being complete jackasses. So it’s hard to take your issue seriously
“The rest of the world” is hardly monolithic. Some of the world despises American conservatives. Some of the world admires them. You know who almost none of the world looks up to? The US Democrat party. Authoritarian neolibs who don’t go far enough left for leftists, and don’t live up to their campaign promises to help the struggling masses, but are just as happy as Republicans when Wall Street is winning.
No shortage of documentaries or reality TV. We live in a land of plenty. What you watch is up to you though. They even remade cosmos in 2014, so there’s interest there.
Fuck america… I like my family and friends only. Everyone else is an npc or a bot.
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We truly live in a society.
A society full of people who just don’t understand really basic things.
On the one hand, Americans lean toward positive assessments of US nuclear policy. A majority believe nuclear weapons are either very or somewhat effective at preventing conflict between the United States and other countries (63 percent). Almost half (46 percent) are at least somewhat confident that the US missile defense system will protect them in the event of a nuclear war. And Americans who say they are familiar with nuclear deterrence (40 percent of the overall sample) overwhelmingly think it has been effective at preventing a nuclear attack on the United States (88 percent of those familiar with deterrence).
On the other hand, just under half the public think nuclear weapons make the United States safer (47 percent). When combined, almost as many say that nuclear weapons don’t make a difference (24 percent) in making the country safer or that they don’t know enough about nuclear weapons to express a view (19 percent). On this question, there are significant differences between age groups, racial groups, and partisan affiliations. Only among Americans over the age of 45 does a majority say that the US nuclear arsenal makes the country safer (55 percent); a plurality of younger Americans say they don’t make a difference. White Americans are more likely than other racial groups to say nuclear weapons make the country safer, largely because Hispanic and African Americans are more likely to say they do not know enough to express a view. And Republicans (61 percent) are more convinced than Democrats (45 percent) that nuclear weapons make the United States safer.
If you are spending your time just pointing out how much stupider than you people are, why not spend it doing something about it instead?
Or do you just like this state of things and are pointing that out to celebrate how smart you are?
This has nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with incuriosity.
I’m not smart at all.
I’m probably the stupidest person you’ve ever talked to.
Bottom text indeed, my friend
They’ll get him back right after the woolly mammoth.
ok but have you considered this: quack quack,?
