Americans - How Dumb Are We? - 29% do NOT Know Who VP Is

[kpete]

How Dumb Are We?
NEWSWEEK gave 1,000 Americans the U.S. Citizenship Test--38 percent failed.
The country's future is imperiled by our ignorance.



They’re the sort of scores that drive high-school history teachers to drink. When NEWSWEEK recently asked 1,000 U.S. citizens to take America’s official citizenship test, 29 percent couldn’t name the vice president. Seventy-three percent couldn’t correctly say why we fought the Cold War. Forty-four percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights. And 6 percent couldn’t even circle Independence Day on a calendar.

Don’t get us wrong: civic ignorance is nothing new. For as long as they’ve existed, Americans have been misunderstanding checks and balances and misidentifying their senators. And they’ve been lamenting the philistinism of their peers ever since pollsters started publishing these dispiriting surveys back in Harry Truman’s day. (He was a president, by the way.) According to a study by Michael X. Delli Carpini, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication, the yearly shifts in civic knowledge since World War II have averaged out to “slightly under 1 percent.”

But the world has changed. And unfortunately, it’s becoming more and more inhospitable to incurious know-nothings—like us.

To appreciate the risks involved, it’s important to understand where American ignorance comes from. In March 2009, the European Journal of Communication asked citizens of Britain, Denmark, Finland, and the U.S. to answer questions on international affairs. The Europeans clobbered us. Sixty-eight percent of Danes, 75 percent of Brits, and 76 percent of Finns could, for example, identify the Taliban, but only 58 percent of Americans managed to do the same—even though we’ve led the charge in Afghanistan. It was only the latest in a series of polls that have shown us lagging behind our First World peers.

more:
http://www.newsweek.com/2011/03/20/how-dumb-are-we.html#

[Richardo]

1. Who's "we"?

I resent being lumped in with morons.

[hfojvt]

13. exactly what you are expected to think

"But O’Donnell was on a cynical roll, encouraging viewers to lock themselves into a pleasing, but very stupid, belief—the belief that no one gets to be right but them; the belief that voters who hold different values and views must thereby be deemed unintelligent.

This belief is suicidal for progressive interests. It ratchets the ongoing culture war—a tribal war which divides the people who are currently being looted by the nation’s oligarchs. It teaches young liberals to think they are smart—and to think that everyone else is stupid. It teaches liberals to make such statements out loud, where they help poison our politics. It teaches liberals to build high the walls which help the oligarchs win."

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh031711.shtml

[Richardo]

19. I'm not right because they "hold different values"; I'm right because I know facts and they don't

And political views have nothing to do with it - I've seen just as much mortifying ignorance of political processes and facts among DUers as among teabaggers.

[hfojvt]

27. doesn't matter, if you are a liberal yourself

or if people perceive you as one because you hang out here.

It doesn't help when liberal elites sit around and talk about how much better they/we are than the rest of the blinkered world.

[seabeyond]

2. i think 29% is pretty damn good. i have three in my extended family that i could

say are probably in that group. not only do they praise the fact they dont read, but there is no interest what so ever in what is happening in the world, outside of their own limited space.

[snappyturtle]

12. I spent yesterday afternoon listening to the scope of topics discussed by

the usual Sunday attendees of the repub nest I live in. Of ALL that's going on in the world, I heard nary a whisper of a word concerning Japan, Libya,or the new oil 'slick', etc. I spent the rest of the day seized by the 'limited space'(your term...thank you!) these folks live in. It's so bad they don't even have opinions to discuss!

[Shagbark Hickory]

3. I believe it. I once mentioned the Taliban to a 50-something year old, and he said

What's that?

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

6. What??? A 50 - something year old doesn't know that Harry Belafonte song? Unbelievable!

:evilgrin:

[starroute]

28. I remember -- "Come Mr. Taliban, tally me bananas" -- right?

[Gidney N Cloyd]

4. It didn't help that our most recent ex-pres thought he was in the "Administrative branch" of gov't.

And Cheney tried to sell the idea he was part of some undefined fourth branch.

[n2doc]

5. Probably the same ones who think the Earth is 6,000 years old

And that the universe revolves around it. These folks would fit right in with those who lived in the dark ages.

[hobbit709]

7. I'm willing to bet at least 10% don't know what day it is.

[PADemD]

21. That's called retirement syndrome

[spin]

26. Retirement does have advantages ...

I've been known to forget what day it was. However, I usually score reasonably high on civics tests such as this one:

Full Civic Literacy Exam (from our 2008 survey)

Are you more knowledgeable than the average citizen? The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking the following test was 49%; college educators scored 55%. Can you do better? Questions were drawn from past ISI surveys, as well as other nationally recognized exams.
http://www.isi.org/quiz.aspx?q=FE5C3B47-9675-41E0-9CF3-072BB31E2692

note: I answered 30 out of 33 correctly for 91%.

I doubt if many people today, including me, could pass this 1954 8th grade Civics Test. Our educational system needs an overhaul.

http://www.rense.com/general75/pass.htm

[PADemD]

30. I took the test.

Scored 29 out of 33 correctly — 87.88 %

[spin]

37. Du posters are far smarter than the average citizen. (n/t)

[tammywammy]

35. Interesting quiz

I got:
You answered 29 out of 33 correctly — 87.88%

[TheKentuckian]

8. The 44% who cannot define the Bill of Rights gets my attention.

No wonder our civil liberties and the respect for natural rights is evaporating when half of us haven't a fucking clue and the other half consists, to some degree, of people who disagree with much of it or wish to limit such rights in some fashion.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

9. Hey at least I'm like sure that 29% doesn't like talk on their cell phones at the library..... Like

totally.

[The Magistrate]

10. Two Things, Ma'am, Make Democracy Unworkable: An Ignorant Populace, And Great Disparities In Wealth

[OwnedByFerrets]

11. Dumb or just willfully STUPID?

[snappyturtle]

14. Willingfully stupid with a dash of dumb! nt

[nolabels]

15. Everyone knows it's Hillary, don't be silly

The runner up always gets to be the VP, just ask the republicans :P

[Coyote_Bandit]

16. Ignorance is Bliss

If you don't know you can't give a shit.

But if you give a shit then you are doomed to learn over and over and over that your elected leaders and government don't give a shit about you or your needs and priorities.

Being invested and caring about matters of public interest might be the responsible thing to do - but it is far easier to attend to one's daily survival if that is where your focus is.

[DBoon]

17. 29% are probably working 3 jobs to pay the rent

Hard to keep up on politics when you work like a typical American

One way they keep people in line - make sure you are too busy and exhausted to care about anything other than survival

[OwnedByFerrets]

24. Or, the other alternative.....

on welfare, sitting in your trailer, watching Faux, and bitching about how the Gubment is evil.

[hfojvt]

18. is the world really becoming more inhospitable to incurious "know-nothings"?

When you goto a mechanic, do you really care if he/she knows who the Vice President is? When you call up a plumber or a roofer, do you give them a quiz about American civics, ask them to explain the Bill of Rights and the Magnum Carte?

Is somebody who cannot name the Vice President or define the Taliban, necessarily a "know-NOTHING"? If everybody in Ourtown, USA studied up on these things would a multi-national swoop in with some good-paying jobs as a reward? Or would we have to say "well-paying" as now seems to be the fashion, probably started by the same group of pin-heads who took the "the" out of "Smokey (mofo) THE Bear".

[jpgray]

23. Better return on one's time than learning the lineups and stats of various sports teams

Makes you a better citizen, more knowledgeable about the world, politics, etc. This would in fact lead to more accountable and therefore better elected representatives, which would in turn provide better support for the working people in one's community.

(Sports provides just one example of frivolous rote learning that has zero social value--there are plenty of others.)

[hfojvt]

25. in theory it could

but just knowing Joe Biden's name does not really inform you about what a putz he is.

I am now down on Joe Biden, since I heard that the December surrender was his idea. Previously I had been using his words from his nomination speech. "Failure, at some point, is inevitable, but giving up, is unforgivable."

I wish I hadn't learned about his perfidity.

More than that, I wish it wasn't true.

Say it ain't so, Joe.

[LatteLibertine]

20. Ok

there are 300+ million United States citizens and 1000 of us prove our ignorance?

I know nothing of these 1000 people beyond their citizenship. Possibly Newsweek readers are ignorant? :P

[rustydog]

22. And that 29% will hate him with the heat of a thousand suns

When Beck and Rush tell them they do hate him.

[starroute]

29. Is there really a "correct" answer to why we fought the Cold War?

I mean, besides to protect the profits of Wall Street and enrich the military-industrial complex -- which I somehow suspect wasn't what they were looking for.

[DefenseLawyer]

31. The People Yes by Carl Sandburg

The people so often sleepy, weary, enigmatic,
is a vast huddle with many units saying:
"I earn my living.
I make enough to get by
and it takes all my time.
If I had more time
I could do more for myself
and maybe for others.
I could read and study
and talk things over
and find out about things.
It takes time.
I wish I had the time."

[Politicalboi]

32. I went to get my hair cut the other day

And the woman who cut my hair didn't even know about the protesters and what Walker did to the public workers in Wisconsin. I guess during "American Idol" they don't put any real news near reality TV shows.

[trayfoot]

33. It's about the value of education....

For over 3 decades, this country has veered more and more AWAY from civics/histiory education. I know because I have been trying to teach those EXTREMELY important disciplines! The increased emphasis has been on math/science - or ANYTHING that can directly translate into more dollars! Until America decides there are more important or equally important things than increased money for corporate America, our population (or a significant % of it) will continue to score worse than other industrialized nations. Ignorance of this caliber is the reason why we have TeaParty nutcases believing the likes of Limpballs, Beckster, and the rest of the Faux News corral!

[timtom]

34. What about those of us -- right here on DU --

who actually believed Bush was President for 2 terms?

[slackmaster]

36. I always have to pause and ask myself what year it is before answering that one

I've been through so many VPs in my life.