Americans Stupid? Media to Blame?

[Mari333]

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/bottomline/0,15704,472203,00.html



ASPEN, Colo. — Are Americans well enough informed? Is media consolidation a bad thing? Have journalists sold out?

These are just a handful of questions we attempted to answer Tuesday morning at a roundtable discussion on the media at FORTUNE's Brainstorm 2003 conference at the Aspen Institute.

It's the kind of venue where a former U.S. Secretary of State, a member of the Saudi royal family, and Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, among other things a former chairman of The Economist, show up just to listen.


"Ah Voted Fer Bush!"

[Blue-Jay]

1. Not so much "stupid"

as misinformed, according to that article. Of course, our country has met it's quota of stupid people and then some.

Edited to correct my stupid spelling error. :)

[quilp]

7. "Stupidity " is a form of resistance used by alienated populations.

It has nothing to do with "genes". It has been often used by the populations of occupied countries. And by black slaves in this country. The difference from today is that in both of the above cases it was quite deliberate. Over here now it is more unconscious. It is a "switch-off" mentality that is growing in many people over here as control over their lives and society is relentlessly being taken away.

[whoYaCallinAlib]

2. Not stupid but not particularly bright either.

There are a lot of goobers out there who get all excited about "kicking some Arab butt", "gettin' rid of afirmative action", and "lowering taxes". They don't see that at the same time, Bush is destroying our economy, sacrificing our troops, and setting civil rights back 50 years. Well, then again, maybe they are stupid afterall.

[maha]

3. Yes and Yes.

Next?

[Darth_Kitten]

4. People have free choice......

Yes, the media influences us to a great extent, but in the final analysis, people have free choice to either learn about how things really are, or blindly follow what their "leaders" tell them.

Stupidity is a choice. :)

[searchingforlight]

5. Yes and No.

The information is there. We just have to take the time to search for it.

The funny thing is that we have an opportunity to be better informed than ever because of the mass of information out there but discernment has been bred out of us by the education system and our cultural dependency on media.

[donco6]

6. Stupid? Maybe. Naive - yes!

I think naivete is a big part of our intellectual problem here in the U.S. We often believe there are no consequences to our actions. Like a child who hides under a blanket, thinking if he cannot see, no one can see him.

The French and Germans know consequences all to well. They have existed for hundreds of years longer than the U.S., often surrounded by hostile enemies, with differing languages and cultures. One false step and its death and devastation for everyone. They've learned to tred softly and carefully. We tend to blunder about, banging on hornets' nests, mindless of the consequences to ourselves and especially to our neighbors. We believe our culture is utterly superior to anything else out there, even though few of us have ever experienced the German or French culture. We rely on stereotypes and sitcoms to deliver Weltenschaung, then we cling irrationally to these false ideas, even when confronted with proof to the contrary.

[mandyky]

8. Chalk it up to sound bite news!

About the only decent, in depth TV news is CSpan.

[MattNC]

9. apathetic, lazy n/t

[DagmarK]

10. Diet and a sedentary lifestyle......

Has caused our brains to atrophy a bit, I think.

Puritanical work ethic has made it so we don't take time to smell the flowers.

Being PUMMELED with fear-based,violent stimuli 24/7 for a few decades hasn't helped our psyches much.

Corporate advertizing being pummeled at us 24/7 telling us what we should look like, eat, sound like, wear, and desire for a few decades has cut us off from our SOULS.

Among other things ........