The Dumbing Down of America: Who Lit the Fuse?

[Jnew28]

Who's to blame? Please check out the documentary mentioned in the blog - it was just released.

http://stupidpartymathvmyth.com/1/post/2015/10/the-dumbing-down-of-america-who-lit-the-fuse.html

[hobbit709]

1. George Carlin said it best.

There's a reason for this, there's a reason education sucks, and it's the same reason it will never ever ever be fixed. It's never going to get any better. Don't look for it. Be happy with what you've got... because the owners of this country don’t want that. I'm talking about the real owners now... the real owners. The big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls. They got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying. Lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I’ll tell you what they don’t want. They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests. That’s right.

They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fuckin’ years ago. They don’t want that. You know what they want? They want obedient workers. Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And now they’re coming for your Social Security money. They want your fuckin' retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it all from you sooner or later 'cause they own this fuckin' place. It’s a big club and you ain't in it. You and I are not in the big club. ...The table is tilted, folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice. ...And nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. That’s what the owners count on. The fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick that’s being jammed up their assholes every day, because the owners of this country know the truth. It’s called the American Dream, 'cause you have to be asleep to believe it.

[mountain grammy]

2. +1000

[Jnew28]

3. Carlin kept it 100!

[truebluegreen]

4. To quote the late great Molly Ivins,

"They don't want your kids educated, they want them 'trained'."

[dem in texas]

5. Example: TV Commercial for the Dumbed Down Americans

Don't remember the product, just the main line - "Six is greater than one". DUH!

[hfojvt]

6. What exactly is "dumbing down"?

My dad's dad had an 8th grade education and my mom's dad had a 7th grade education. Mom's mom had an 8th grade education and dad's mom was a college graduate. Many of their grandchildren have graduate degrees. Of my parent's grandchildren so far 4 of 5 are college graduates and one is going to be a senior in college next year. The other three are still finishing high school.

This generation will have a higher percentage of college graduates than ever and a higher high school graduation rate.

So dumbed down - compared to what? I do lots of work in the 1940 census and see adults who only had 3rd grade or 5th grade education.

So are you arguing that more education is making us dumber? That we are learning MIS-information with all our schooling?

There certainly are a lot of myths floating around these days - like the widely held myth that we are being dumbed down.

Maybe that is a myth that allows us old folks to feel good. We feel like we are smarter than all these darn kids these days.

[nichomachus]

7. Attending school isn't necessarily "educated"

My father had a 12th grade education. He was more knowledgable and better read than many college graduates today.

I taught college for 10 years. I had many students who shouldn't have gotten out of high school.

Don't be misled by years spent in school being taught to pass a test and not edcuated in any meaningful way.

[hfojvt]

9. it tends to be a measure anyway

even if they should not have gotten out of high school, they got further than the 5th grade.

I taught college myself, part time for 3 years, and do not remember very many who I felt should not have gotten out of high school.

Speaking of high school, it seems to me that high school now requires MORE math to graduate than it did in my day.

[Rex]

8. Interesting trailer, no doubt the entire movie will go right over GOPuppy heads...