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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmerica the Clueless
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/12/opinion/sunday/bruni-america-the-clueless.htmlAccording to another survey, taken last year, about 65 percent of us cant name a single Supreme Court justice. Not the chief one, John Roberts. Not the mute one, Clarence Thomas. Not even the mean one, Antonin Scalia. Though when it comes to Scalia, perhaps the body politic suffers less from ignorance than from repressed memory.
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Heres one of my favorite findings: in a poll in 2011, after intense, closely chronicled fiscal battles in California, a sampling of the states residents were quizzed about which category of spending accounted for the biggest share of Californias budget. Only 16 percent correctly said public education through the 12th grade. And they did this poorly in spite of being given just four possible answers, including the correct one, from which to choose. They more or less underperformed the odds.
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At a heated point of the 2012 presidential primaries, when both Rick Santorum and the news media were making much of his faith and fecundity, less than 30 percent of voters could identify his religious affiliation as Catholic, according to one poll. Months later a different poll asked voters about President Obamas religious affiliation, persistently mistaken by some Americans to be Muslim. The good news? The share of voters making the Muslim error had dropped, to 10 percent. The weird news? Eighteen percent said Obama was Jewish.
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Into the vacuum of substantive knowledge rush the unprincipled advertisements, the unctuous hucksters, the super PACs, the Swift boating, the Sunday-morning-talk-show spin. A clueless electorate is a corruptible one, and one that seems ill poised to make the smartest, best call about something as sweeping as Obamacare and how it gets tweaked or not down the line. Maybe well blink our way to the right decisions. Or maybe well just stumble around with our eyes closed.
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Heres one of my favorite findings: in a poll in 2011, after intense, closely chronicled fiscal battles in California, a sampling of the states residents were quizzed about which category of spending accounted for the biggest share of Californias budget. Only 16 percent correctly said public education through the 12th grade. And they did this poorly in spite of being given just four possible answers, including the correct one, from which to choose. They more or less underperformed the odds.
...
At a heated point of the 2012 presidential primaries, when both Rick Santorum and the news media were making much of his faith and fecundity, less than 30 percent of voters could identify his religious affiliation as Catholic, according to one poll. Months later a different poll asked voters about President Obamas religious affiliation, persistently mistaken by some Americans to be Muslim. The good news? The share of voters making the Muslim error had dropped, to 10 percent. The weird news? Eighteen percent said Obama was Jewish.
...
Into the vacuum of substantive knowledge rush the unprincipled advertisements, the unctuous hucksters, the super PACs, the Swift boating, the Sunday-morning-talk-show spin. A clueless electorate is a corruptible one, and one that seems ill poised to make the smartest, best call about something as sweeping as Obamacare and how it gets tweaked or not down the line. Maybe well blink our way to the right decisions. Or maybe well just stumble around with our eyes closed.
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America the Clueless (Original Post)
Scuba
May 2013
OP
The first step in solving any problem is to first identify that problem.
Egalitarian Thug
May 2013
#1
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)1. The first step in solving any problem is to first identify that problem.
The American Ignorance Quotient has been rapidly rising for a long time. We're both dumber and fatter than ever before. So dumb in fact, that we get really angry when others point it out (though we're not really sure why we're angry, but we know for sure that we are).
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)2. "Eighteen percent said Obama was Jewish".
I suppose that's due to the "Barak" / "Barack" similarity.
That's going to lead to a whole new slew of conspiracy theories (if it hasn't already)!
malthaussen
(17,066 posts)3. Damn, and here I thought Mr Obama was a Jewish Muslim. n.t