Are Americans too ignorant, uninformed and ideological (xenophobic) to vote for their own best interests? I believe they are.... at least this seems to be the case for a slight majority of the American electorate.
Better funding for education and voter awareness programs could help, but this might take decades to show the kinds of results necessary to have a well informed electorate. And even with better education & awareness, there are other problems that seem to prevent Americans from "getting it right".
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Young Americans Unable to Locate Iraq on a Map
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
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15 comments:
It’s true that most (not all of course) Americans are ignorant of their own country and of the world outside the Home of the Brave. In my experience living in the U.S for 15 yrs., I was (and still is) baffled at the amount of ignorance I encountered – not only by the least educated, but also by those who have university education. People shouldn't get bent outta shape when the prez himself mangles words and is incapable of constructing a complete sentence, or making a coherent thought. He is the product of the society that made him. In all fairness to the man, he is not the only one, one needs not to look farther than the nonsense that MCPalin are saying to the public, yet folks are enamoured by them. In any European country, a person like Palin wouldn’t even be considered to be the head of a small municipality let alone a veep. IMO, it’s INTENTIONAL! it is easier to lie and RULE an ignorant population, than an well-informed one. Many dictators would have been glad to have such a population.
In other countries, pupils are taught history of the world, geography, literature (from the rest of the world), sciences, and and of course other languages. By the time I left high school I was already speaking three languages. I remember my middle school teacher told us that we are a representation of our country and he wouldn't want us to leave school and travel the world and not know anything about it. With all the money that’s spent on schools, and other higher educ. institutions, one would expect a better result, but apparently they failed. The only education people get at their schools/higher education is how to perform a job well and how to make money for corporations that later on squander your lousy 401K. Susan Jacoby's book The Age of American Unreason gives and excellent analysis on this topic.
I love reading your blog often. You’re insightful and inspiring. Keep up the good work, and I hope you get rich some day (soon)*smile* so you can marry one of the beautiful women you feature on the blog,
I agree with all your points...
And if the American education system does not recover, the U.S. will slowly fade as a world power.
It's already decaying from the inside out.
Americans are ignorant and it's very sad. The education offered here is terrible. Students learn very little about the rest of the world.In Europe it's totally different. Like somene else mentioned here, you learn at least two other languages other then your own. You also learn about ALL religions. Also working for $8/hour living from paycheck to paycheck without any paid vacation is a reason why most Americans never will get a passport and actually have a chance to leave this country to travel and experience other countries. Most Europeand have 5 weeks paid vacation and their minimum wage is higher. They travel all the time.
This country is simply built on a system that exploits the ignorant. The few wealthy here are wealthy due to the ignorance of the American "sixpack" Joe.
Wost is that they truly believe that USA is the country that offers more democracy and freedom then other countries. As long as they are kept in the "dark" it will never change.
A Swede
I am amazed by the Europeans. They come to America desperate, refusgees from Nazi Germany, communist Greece, terrorist Yugoslavia and athgeist Russia. In Europe people starve, dying, getting arrested by the police and come to America totell us that we are ignorant. Why? because America is the countr of Jesus, Europe is the country of the Antichrist. America has Harvard, what Europeans have? Our president Bush "campaigned no-child left behind" In Nazi Germany or Islamic Greece how many thousands of children are behind? Europeans hate America because they envy America and the high standards of civilization we have.Simple.
As an xpat living in Holland I would like to tell the sheeple of America we are really FREE here in Europe you will not have to worry
about "terroists" taking your freedoms your gove.is taking care of that f/you,as one who retired
from USMC I see now how stupid Americans are ,the Arab cab drivers
here are MUCH smarter then most
Americans,the distruction we are causing around the world you must
wake up your inslaving your kids!
I remember watching that on Chasers. The guys that said Aus was France were close I mean we were almost French and before that almost Dutch. I can't believe the some of the stuff they said, or rather couldn't say.
Being Australian though I can already see this sort of stupidity starting to happen here and it scares the hell out of me. Maybe all os us should flee to Germany or another part of europe requesting asylum from idiocy. ;)
To anonymous who is amazed by Europeans: the majority of immigrants to the US do not come from Europe any more. There are no more people fleeing the Nazis any more. Greece is not a communist country, and in most European nations you will not get tortured. America may have Harvard, but Europe also has many fine universities. Greece is not largely Islamic, either. Europe is NOT the anti-Christ, whatever that's supposed to mean. By the way, Yugoslavia doesn't exist as a country any more, either.
I don't hate America, but I dislike ignorant individuals like you. It's sad, because there are a minority of Americans who are intelligent and who have common sense and are wonderful people.
god.... i am embarrassed to call myself an american. and i thought all along that it was just me who thought people here were complete morons... well, my sincere apologies go out to the rest of the world for these idiots here in america.. im moving out of this capitalistic, greedy country as soon as i graduate college.. though there are some people here that do possess intelligence, there is just way to much stupidity here.,,, IDIOTS :(
Tired of living in the U.S. Tired of having to put up with Americans' wish to undermine their country. I can just leave - I have that option - but most here cannot. Over the last 15 years I've spent a total of eight years here. It seems that things have gone slowly down hill throughout that time.
If you believe in individual freedom, why is it so wrong to empower individuals through education? It is not better for the individual to be disempowered by inferior education. Why is capitalism so perfect by its own nature that it needs no regulation? I don't hate America, I don't snickeringly laugh, frankly, America is breaking my heart.
"I am amazed by the Europeans. They come to America desperate, refusgees from Nazi Germany, communist Greece, terrorist Yugoslavia and athgeist Russia. In Europe people starve, dying, getting arrested by the police and come to America totell us that we are ignorant. Why? because America is the countr of Jesus, Europe is the country of the Antichrist. America has Harvard, what Europeans have? Our president Bush "campaigned no-child left behind" In Nazi Germany or Islamic Greece how many thousands of children are behind? Europeans hate America because they envy America and the high standards of civilization we have.Simple."
-- Communist Greece? Terrorist Yugoslavia? WHAT are you talking about?
Whoever you are I can tell that you are like many Americans; self-centered and ignorant.
Ok here you go:
-Harvard was originally a British College. And, for your information, Europe has Oxford, Cambridge, Bologna, Salamanca, and many other older and more prestigious universities.
- Europe cannot be the country of the Antichrist because Europe is not a country.
- In America people also starve, die, and get arrested by police.
- You're mixing two completely different subjects here; the "No Child left Behind Act" was enacted a few years ago and concerns education; "Nazi Germany" and "Islamic Greece"
(which is an ignorant, and slightly racist statement on your part) occurred some eighty years ago and had nothing to do with education.
-If you love Jesus so much, you should know that his word and teachings could not have spread without EUROPEANS.
- Finally, stop talking shit about things you don't know.
P.S. Jesus was born in modern day Israel not in America!
I am an American and proud of the grass roots which formed this country! However, I am not proud of the direction the United States has taken with it´s Judith Sheep leaders and bought out politicians! I would like to see a mass awakening of Americans, but this is unlikely to happened. Most Americans are uniformed do to the media´s false leading of information and the hijacking of consciousness by the sports arena! The world is in trouble and I believe Americans can be part of the solution to solve it, we are all one! Please do not think all Americans are naive like the one´s depicted in the video shown.
Ok first Islam and communist Greece makes no sense. De fuck is terrorist Yugoslavia?! Yugos dont exist son u pretty much confirmed american ignorance. But on a serious note, Americans arn't educated on the rest of the world so y would they know? I personally went to school in the caribbean and took a year of college in the states. It was really disappointing cause i had already learnt this stuff in sec school back in the caribbean. :(
It's weird. AS soon as you think Americans couldn't get possibly and dumber, they do! Maybe now, though, they call it, "Dumberer!"
To think that you can run from ignorance is Ignorance! Leaving a country because there are ignorant people living there or people who choose to live a different lifestyle than yourself is nothing more than an exercise in futility ! If you want to engage with intelligent people, they are everywhere as well. This topic reminds me of someone who would never dream of visiting some areas because, "they are dirty" but would never consider getting a group of people together to clean up an area! Educated people should express their views more. It can be frustrating when presenting facts to some and they still believe lies. This is common as television media news entertainment is allowed to express opinions and frequently do. News in America use to be based on hard facts period. That has changed. People watch entertainment news as much as they do hardcore news and are totally unaware of the difference. Trying to keep informed many Americans trust the integrity of the NEWS being reported and act accordingly. This does not mean they are sheeple, this means we need more regulation of the term NEWS. News should be kept factual without personal opinion!
July 1, 2015
Stay away. They are mind controlling through the "vaccination" program. The "food" is lab-created GMO, the human body can't digest it..turns to cancer. Everyone here is sick..cancer, diabetes, obesity..The drinking water is poison. Coastlines are deadzones and toxic to humans. Clean air in mountains only.
A police state is on the horizon. It is not safe to live here anywhere, crime is rampant. Guns are common. Racial war pending, fueled by the govt.
If you can get out, go..
If you come here, AT YOUR OWN RISK..
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