Millions of Americans Are Embarrassingly Ill-Informed – And They Do Not Care
There must be terrible consequences when ignorance reaches a certain level.

By Rick Shenkman / TomDispatch
March 16, 2015

Excerpted from Just How Stupid Are We?, by Rick Shenkman, by arrangement with Basic Books.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." -- Thomas Jefferson

Just how stupid are we? Pretty stupid, it would seem, when we come across headlines like this: "Homer Simpson, Yes -- 1st Amendment 'Doh,' Survey Finds" (Associated Press 3/1/06).

"About 1 in 4 Americans can name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment (freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly and petition for redress of grievances.) But more than half of Americans can name at least two members of the fictional cartoon family, according to a survey.

"The study by the new McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum found that 22 percent of Americans could name all five Simpson family members, compared with just 1 in 1,000 people who could name all five First Amendment freedoms."

But what does it mean exactly to say that American voters are stupid? About this there is unfortunately no consensus. Like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, who confessed not knowing how to define pornography, we are apt simply to throw up our hands in frustration and say: We know it when we see it. But unless we attempt a definition of some sort, we risk incoherence, dooming our investigation of stupidity from the outset. Stupidity cannot mean, as Humpty Dumpty would have it, whatever we say it means.

Five defining characteristics of stupidity, it seems to me, are readily apparent. First, is sheer ignorance: Ignorance of critical facts about important events in the news, and ignorance of how our government functions and who's in charge. Second, is negligence: The disinclination to seek reliable sources of information about important news events. Third, is wooden-headedness, as the historian Barbara Tuchman defined it: The inclination to believe what we want to believe regardless of the facts. Fourth, is shortsightedness: The support of public policies that are mutually contradictory, or contrary to the country's long-term interests. Fifth, and finally, is a broad category I call bone-headedness, for want of a better name: The susceptibility to meaningless phrases, stereotypes, irrational biases, and simplistic diagnoses and solutions that play on our hopes and fears.

more... http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/millions-americans-are-embarrassingly-ill-informed-and-they-do-not-care-0


An interesting article, but in my opinion it misses a key component.

As I see it, the problem is the human tendency to ignore one's limitations and to exaggerate one's knowledge.

There is no better example of this than when discussing global warming with a denier. They will talk as though they understand the situation better than climate scientists. They never admit that there may be details they do not understand and that scientists do. They never take the opinion that - because they didn't spend a lifetime studying the climate as have many scientists - perhaps they should accept scientific findings.

It's one thing for a person to not know the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment. It's something else entirely for them to disagree with a hundred historians that explain those freedoms.

"Great minds think alike", John! ~ ~ I just posted this identical commentary in your "Gee, where have I heard this before..." thread, but deleted it when I saw you had added it ~

I strongly encourage everyone to read this very long, and very well-written, commentary that is actually quite alarming ~ personally, I'm thinking that "ignorance" is fast approaching the tipping point ~ and I'm not sure how to even begin combating the willfulness of that ignorance ~ I'm not talking about the "my opinion is correct, yours is idiotic" mindset ~ but rather the total disregard for established/proven/empirical/factual information ~

Sooz

John, your personal comments in the op are exactly what I mean when I say "willful ignorance" ~

Sooz

Ignorant and proud of it.
It just wouldn't do to be part of that well-informed "elite".

I'm not surprised you were going to post this, Sooz.

I wrote above that "the problem is the human tendency to ignore one's limitations and to exaggerate one's knowledge."

Sooz used the term "willful ignorance".

Here's a perfect example...

Ted Cruz Compares Himself to Galileo, Calls Those Who Believe In Climate Change ‘Flat-Earthers’
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/25/3638622/ted-cruz-is-like-galileo/

The same Galileo who had to hide from the Christians in fear of the Inquisition? that Galileo?

This is too funny!

Cruz said that contemporary “global warming alarmists are the equivalent of the flat-Earthers.”......
“You know it used to be it is accepted scientific wisdom the Earth is flat, and this heretic named Galileo was branded a denier,” he said.

He's simply displaying his wilful ignorance. It wasn't "accepted scientific wisdom that the earth is flat" at the time of Galileo (and hadn't been for well over a 1000 years). Apart from anything else, Magellan's expedition had circumnavigated the world before he was even born and European trade routes and colonies in the America's and Asia had well and truly circled the globe by that time.

Galileo's "heresy" was to accept the Copernican view that the Earth circled the sun.

So Cruz has defended his ignorance of science by displaying his ignorance of history.

Wow. What a fool.

And too ignorant to "Google" it.
BTW, nice catch, CM.

Definitely presidential material (for Fox News viewers)!

Oh my. And this man has to A) understand a budget and B)vote on said budget?

Pete Sessions off by nearly $5M/person on claim that Obamacare costs $5M/person

WASHINGTON — Dallas Rep. Pete Sessions claimed on the House floor today that Obamacare coverage costs federal taxpayers $5 million for each newly covered American.

He was off by a lot — nearly $5 million, in fact.

“If you just do simple multiplication, 12 million into $108 billion, we’re talking literally every single recipient would be costing this government more than $5 million per person for their insurance,” said Sessions, chairman of the House Rules Committee.

The actual math is this: $108 billion divided by 12 million equals $9,000.


http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/ ... rson.html/

Liberals!
Always showing off their elitist math proficiency.
Do try and use your god-given fingers for this calculation and you'll see how hard it is.

Sessions says, "there are three kinds of people in the world - this who are good with numbers, and those who are not."

Sadly, hubby and I have been able to associate the current political idiots with characters on South Park many times. For this instance:

I just thought of something! Oh no wait, that's subtraction.

— Officer Barbrady

what does it mean when you can name both the five freedoms AND the five Simpsons?

I guess Cruz missed that class on Galileo at Harvard

In the U.S. it means you're a genius.

whew. thank God. schizophrenia was my concern.

Can a person be schizophrenic AND a genius?

I'm not the targeted audience for this terrific commentary ~ I grew up in a liberal/progressive family and have remained true to my roots ~ I spent my entire working life at a mostly liberal/progressive law firm ~ and I choose to live in a mostly liberal/progressive city ~ and while I predict the targeted audience will yet again totally ignore the value of this read, it absolutely/positively explains a lot ~ there are "live links" to more/corroborating information in the original ~ Sooz

9 Things Many Americans Just Don’t Grasp (Compared to the Rest of the World)
Americans' lack of worldliness clouds their views on everything from economics to sex to religion.
By Alex Henderson / AlterNet / March 25, 2015

To hear the far-right ideologues of Fox News and AM talk radio tell it, life in Europe is hell on Earth. Taxes are high, sexual promiscuity prevails, universal healthcare doesn’t work, and millions of people don’t even speak English as their primary language! Those who run around screaming about “American exceptionalism” often condemn countries like France, Norway and Switzerland to justify their jingoism. Sadly, the U.S.’ economic deterioration means that many Americans simply cannot afford a trip abroad to see how those countries function for themselves. And often, lack of foreign travel means accepting clichés about the rest of the world over the reality. And that lack of worldliness clouds many Americans' views on everything from economics to sex to religion.

Here are nine things Americans can learn from the rest of the world.

1. Universal Healthcare Is Great for Free Enterprise and Great for Small Businesses

The modern-day Republican Party would have us believe that those who promote universal healthcare are anti-free enterprise or hostile to small businesses. But truth be told, universal healthcare is great for entrepreneurs, small businesses and the self-employed in France, Germany and other developed countries where healthcare is considered a right. The U.S.’ troubled healthcare system has a long history of punishing entrepreneurs with sky-high premiums when they start their own businesses. Prior to the Affordable Care Act of 2010, a.k.a. Obamacare, many small business owners couldn’t even obtain individual health insurance plans if they had a preexisting condition such as heart disease or diabetes—and even with the ACA’s reforms, the high cost of health insurance is still daunting to small business owners. But many Americans fail to realize that healthcare reform is not only a humanitarian issue, it is also vitally important to small businesses and the self-employed.

In 2009, the Center for Economic and Policy Research published a study on small businesses around the world and found that “by every measure of small-business employment, the United States has among the world’s smallest small-business sectors.” People in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Belgium and other European countries are more likely to be self-employed—and the study concluded that universal healthcare is a key factor. According to CEPR’s study, “High healthcare costs discourage small business formation since start-ups in other countries can tap into government-funded healthcare systems.”

2. Comprehensive Sex Education Decreases Sexual Problems

For decades, social conservatives in the U.S. have insisted that comprehensive sex education promotes unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. But in fact, comprehensive sex education (as opposed to the abstinence-only programs that are common in the American Bible Belt) decreases sexual problems, and the data bears that out in no uncertain terms. Public schools in the Netherlands have aggressive sex education programs that America’s Christian Right would despise. Yet in 2009, the Netherlands had (according to the United Nations) a teen birth rate of only 5.3 per 1,000 compared to 39.1 per 1,000 in the U.S. That same year, the U.S. had three times as many adults living with HIV or AIDS as the Netherlands.

Switzerland, France, Germany and many other European countries also have intensive sex-ed programs and much lower teen pregnancy rates than the U.S. Still, far-right politicians in the U.S. can’t get it through their heads that inadequate sex education and insufficient sexual knowledge actually promote teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases instead of decreasing them.

3. American Exceptionalism Is Absolute Nonsense in 2015

No matter how severe the U.S.’ decline becomes, neocons and the Tea Party continue to espouse their belief in “American exceptionalism.” But in many respects, the U.S. of 2015 is far from exceptional. The U.S. is not exceptional when it comes to civil liberties (no country in the world incarcerates, per capita, more of its people than the U.S.) or healthcare (WHO ranks the U.S. #37 in terms of healthcare). Nor is the U.S. a leader in terms of life expectancy: according to the WHO, overall life expectancy in the U.S. in 2013 was 79 compared to 83 in Switzerland and Japan, 82 in Spain, France, Italy, Sweden and Canada and 81 in the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Austria and Finland.

4. Adequate Mass Transit Is a Huge Convenience

When it comes to mass transit, Europe and Japan are way ahead of the U.S.; in only a handful of American cities is it easy to function without a car. New York City, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, DC are among the U.S.’ more mass transit-oriented cities, but overall, the U.S. remains a car culture—and public transportation is painfully limited in a long list of U.S. cities. Many Americans fail to realize that mass transit has numerous advantages, including less air pollution, less congestion, fewer DUIs and all the aerobic exercise that goes with living in a pedestrian-friendly environment.

5. The Bible Was Not Written by Billionaire Hedge Fund Managers

Christianity in its various forms can be found all over the developed world. But the U.S., more than anywhere, is where one finds a far-right version of white Protestant fundamentalism that idolizes the ultra-rich, demonizes the poor and equates extreme wealth with morality and poverty with moral failings. The problem with hating the poor in the name of Christianity is that the Bible is full of quotes that are much more in line with Franklin Delano Roosevelt than Ayn Rand—like “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:25) and “The love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10).

6. Learning a Second or Third Language Is a Plus, Not a Character Flaw

In the Netherlands or the Scandinavian countries, becoming proficient in two or three foreign languages is viewed as a sign of intellect and sophistication. But xenophobia runs so deep among many neocons, Republicans and Tea Party wingnuts that any use of a language other than English terrifies them. Barack Obama, during his 2008 campaign, was bombarded with hateful responses from Republicans when he recommended that Americans study foreign languages from an early age. And in the 2012 GOP presidential primary, Newt Gingrich’s campaign ran an ad in South Carolina attacking Mitt Romney for being proficient in French.

In February, an eighth-grade girl who was studying Latin in Vermont received equally clueless responses when she wrote to a state senator suggesting that Vermont adopt a Latin motto in addition to its English-language motto (not as a replacement). The wingnuts went ballistic, posting on the Facebook page of a local television station that if the girl wanted to speak Latin, she should move to Latin America.

7. Union Membership Benefits the Economy

In 2014, a Gallup poll found that 53% of Americans approved of labor unions while 71% favored anti-union “right to work” laws. Union membership is way down in the US: only 6.6% of private-sector workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, belonged to unions in 2014 compared to roughly 35% in the mid-1950s. The U.S.’ overall unionization rate (factoring in both public-sector and private-sector workers) is 11.1%, which is quite a contrast to parts of Europe, where overall union rates range from 74% in Finland and 70% in Sweden to 35% in Italy, 19% in Spain and 18% in Germany. That is not to say unionization has not been decreasing in Europe, but overall, one finds a more pro-labor, pro-working class outlook in Europe. The fact that 47% of Americans, in that Gallup poll, consider themselves anti-union is troubling. Too many Americans naively believe that the 1% have their best interests at heart, and they fail to realize that when unions are strong and their members earn decent wages, that money goes back into the economy.

8. Paid Maternity Leave Is the Norm in Most Developed Countries

The U.S. continues to lag behind the rest of the developed world when it comes to maternity leave. Paid maternity leave is strictly voluntary in the U.S., where, according to the organization Moms Rising, 51% of new mothers have no paid maternity leave at all. But government-mandated maternity leave is the norm in other developed countries, including the Netherlands (112 days at 100% pay), Italy (140 days at 80% pay), Switzerland (98 days at 80% pay) and Germany (98 days at 100% pay).

9. Distrust of Oligarchy Is a Positive

In February, the Emnid Polling Institute in Germany released the results of a poll that addressed economic and political conditions in that country: over 60% of the Germans surveyed believed that large corporations had too much influence on elections. The survey demonstrated that most Germans have a healthy distrust of crony capitalists and oligarchs who take much more than they give. Meanwhile, in the U.S., various polls show a growing distrust of oligarchy on the part of many Americans but with less vehemence than in the German Emnid poll. A 2012 poll by the Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research showed that while 62% of American voters opposed the U.S. Supreme Court’s disastrous Citizens United decision, only 46% strongly opposed it. And in a 2012 poll by the Corporate Reform Coalition, most Americans agreed that there was too much corporate money in U.S. politics—although only 51% strongly agreed.

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/9-things-many-americans-just-dont-grasp-compared-rest-world

Another 1/2 century of the current trends and the US will be needing foreign aid to avoid starving masses.

The entire world is likely facing that same prognosis, oskar ~

Sooz

Not me.