Are Americans as Stupid as the Media Think They Are? (Maybe)

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Marty Kaplan

Are Americans as Stupid as the Media Think They Are? (Maybe)
"Poll numbers that pretty convincingly correlate believing idiotic things with having less education, and not believing idiotic things with having more education."

March 30, 2010 |


I know some scary smart people who never graduated from high school, and I know some real doofuses with graduate degrees, so I understand that the number of years of formal education that someone has racked up is no guarantee of intelligence. But every once in a while, I see some poll numbers that pretty convincingly correlate believing idiotic things with having less education, and not believing idiotic things with having more education.

A recent example is a Harris poll that asked whether each of 15 statements about Barack Obama is true or false. In every single case, the less schooling people had, the more likely they were to believe that false things are true.

For example, 18 percent of Americans with high school or less education think that the president may be the Anti-Christ. That's right, nearly one out of five people who are eligible to vote, same as you, believe Obama is the bad guy in The Omen. But only 13 percent of people with some college believe that; and 9 percent of college graduates; and down to 4 percent of people who've had some post-graduate education.

It's the same descending scale with "He is doing many of the things that Hitler did." Twenty-four percent of high-school-or-less say yes; 20 percent of some-college; 18 percent of college grads; but only 10 percent of post-grads. "He was not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president": 32, then 22, then 21, then 7. "He is a Muslim": 43, 30, 24, 9. "He wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a one world government": 37, 28, 21, 12. You get the idea. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/146217/are_americans_as_stupid_as_the_media_think_they_are_%28maybe%29

[ixion]

1. collectively speaking: Yes, Americans in particular, and humans in general

are just not that bright.

[Captain Hilts]

3. They're lazy. nt

[ixion]

4. to quote Animal House

"Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

[ShortnFiery]

14. True, but they also want to belong to the group, not unlike SHEEP and/or LEMMINGS.

There are few independent thinkers within the herd ... and those who are, well = we're usually democrats. ;)

[Kablooie]

22. In other countries the stupid don't group together and claim they are smart like here.

[Mopar151]

25. Oh, yeah they do

There are far-right morons and psychopathic "revolutionaries" all over the place. To borrow some phraseology from Chris Rock "Most of the trouble in the world comes down to one thing - nitwits be shootin' at the neighbors!"

[Captain Hilts]

2. I saw a truck with Ron Paul AND NASA stickers on it. How can you have both unless you're stupid? nt

[SkyDaddy7]

5. Agreed!

[ixion]

7. Exactly... I saw an Obama sticker on a car with a peace sign

same thing.

[Captain Hilts]

8. He looks like a groovy, peaceful guy.....nt

[ixion]

9. ...

:rofl: Uh-huh. :)

[Captain Hilts]

11. That's enough for many folks. nt

[ixion]

12. Agreed.

:hi:

[ShortnFiery]

15. Yes, the Jungian "Duality of Man" complements of the flick Full Metal Jacket.

'A peace sign pined on your flak jacket and "born to kill" written on your helmet. What is this, some sort of sick joke?!?' :evilgrin:

[ixion]

16. Indeed... one of my favorite scenes... from one of my favorite movies

from one of my favorite directors.

:evilgrin:

[ShortnFiery]

17. Yes, that movie was awesome.

Up there with the best Vietnam Flicks such as Apocalypse Now and Platoon.

[JohnWxy]

21. over the short run - YES! DEFINITELY. However, I hold out HOPE that over the longer run people do

wise up, to a degree. But, it does seem to take a rather long time (for my taste).

[tanyev]

6. They should do a similar survey but ask how much time is spent watching FOX "news".

That's probably an even bigger predictor.

[Loge23]

10. As stupid as the media?

Probably. I don't see the media in general as an entity that encourages any intelligent debate or factual information.
Turn on just about any MSM news and you'll see what I mean.

[carolina8800]

24. media indirectly responsible

Probably. I don't see the media in general as an entity that encourages any intelligent debate or factual information.
Turn on just about any MSM news and you'll see what I mean.









The media talks down to "us", that is for sure. Especially cnn. fox.........well you know. In general the media tries to make things simple, you know, so we can understand. I hate having my news dumbed down!!!

[rgbecker]

13. 9% of College Graduates believe Obama may be the Anti-Christ?

I just have to repeat that in order to let it sink in.

[JoeyT]

18. Not all colleges are created equal.

Liberty U and the various other fanatical idiot-farms are considered colleges too.
That and some people are just born stupid. No amount of edumacation is going to fix it.

[4lbs]

20. The majority of that 9% are probably graduates from Xtian Universities like

Jerry Falwell's Liberty University.

[tom_paine]

19. It's not as much intelligence as it is CONSCIOUSNESS.

As America descends into RW Authoritarianism & Corporatism, I have been watching it happen from the very first steps in the early 80s, even before I knew what it was I was seeing.

Now, while the gullibility factor of many RW Authoritarian Followers is high, I have met more than a few who, graded strictly on intelligence, are intelligent.

I realized a while ago that old term, "consciousness", which is of course NEVER deliberately discussed or analyzed on Corporate-Controlled M$M (duh, why would that be? lol), is much closer to the correlating characteristic.

Consciousness includes many attributes under it's rubric, from self-awareness to empathy, and in my opinion is much more of a factor in determining whether people are ripe to fall under the sway of Authoritarianism.

[Mopar151]

26. Nail on the head!

I've met members of Mensa number than a hardwood plank.

[carolina8800]

23. they have no clue

I think another real problem is that so many Americans don't have a clue how our political process even works. They NEVER know who the Speaker of House is. I've seen several polls showing that the MAJORITY of the public don't even know who Nancy Pelosi is............yet they are not at all happy with Congress. They often don't know who any of the main players in Congress are, let alone their own state/city/town. It is really annoying!!!!


If one doesn't even know who the Speaker is, how can they approve or disapprove of her/him????