Why are southerners so goddamn stupid?

[Rabrrrrrr]

And why are northerners so goddamn stupid? And west coasters? And east coasters? And southerwesterners? And westerners? And midwesterners? And mid-Atlanticers? And New Englanders?

In fact, my question is - why are Americans in general so goddamn stupid?

I know we're sexually stupid because of puritan influence, but the puritans also brought a keen appreciation of the intellect and knowledge and critical thinking. As did our forefathers, those men of the enlightenment who created this country.

What the fuck happened in our history that took a land that was initially populated and started by so many smart people: people who started our greatest colleges (Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, etc.), who were also religious people (though obviously not all, and not fundamentalist); and who started those great colleges as church-based schools; and who invented so much cool stuff; and who wrote such great treatises on economics, politics, government, and religion; what the fuck happened that turned this into a country mostly of frothing at the mouth goddamn imbeciles who amaze me every time they remember to take their pants off before they shit?

We used to be so smart. Now we're soooooooo fucking dumb, and celebrate that dumbness as well, that it's embarassing.

What happened?

Or is it just a shift in that the dumb people now have a voice due to the media, whereas in the early days, we had just as many fucking dumb people as we do now, they just weren't visible, and so we seemed smarter?

I would like to say that it is the fault of TV, but it's gotta be even more than that.

[BikeWriter]

1. Don't call me stupid until you can spell "kmnowledge"!

[Random_Australian]

2. How the freak did you pick that up? I ended up

having to put your spelling in a search!
Impressive, mate!

[BikeWriter]

4. Thank you, Pard. I'm old, but I'm not completely senile yet.

:hi:

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. It's a special kind of Puritan approach to intelligence -

kmnowledge!

Caused by typing on a laptop that is sitting on a bouncy mattress, a mattress on which I also am sitting meaning I'm too far away from the keyboard for good typing, when I am very tired and ready for bed...

[BikeWriter]

6. So don't call me names unless you're going to spell check!

Butt! :rofl:

[Rabrrrrrr]

12. If i'm gonna go to the trouble to call you names,

then don't expect me to do even more work by spellchecking.

It's one or the other, Mr. I Want Everything But I Appreciate Nothing.

:rofl:

[BikeWriter]

14. Oh, you are asking for it now!

I suppose we're supposed to feel special when you insult us? Ha ha ha ha ha!

[matcom]

5. you typed too many o's

in sooooooooo :eyes:

[Elidor]

7. "initially populated?"

Maybe you should back up and try that again, you stupid fucking white man.
:P

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. So you're saying that native americans are ignorant?

I said "took a land that was initially populated and started by so many smart people".

Why do you assume I meant the white guys?

:spank:

[Elidor]

11. I don't think Geronimo founded Yale

Pretty sure it was a white guy.

:P

Pretty sure he wasn't part of the initial population, too.

[DS1]

8. American Idol

[Burma Jones]

9. Not Stupid, Lazy

Of course, being intellectually lazy is a pretty apt definition of stupid.

When you're on top of the heap, or at least perceive yourself to be, you lay back.

I think that in the past, our less accomplished brains had the good grace to keep their mouths shut. Today, everyone has a voice, and an arrogance of ignorance has been encouraged by the Mainstream Media and evangelicals.

[billyskank]

13. Empire

You've entered the stage of decadence and decline. :P

[BikeWriter]

15. Rabrrrrrr has, yes. Look at his spelling!

:rofl:

[Rabrrrrrr]

17. That could very well be

We rose to the top (or at least, we BELIEVED we rose to the top), and could very well have decided that there was no need to try any more and got complacent and lazy.

[billyskank]

20. I guess you have orgies and bestiality to look forward to

if the Roman Empire is any guide. Eventually you will be sacked by barbarians. Gotta make a change from being sacked by an asshole, I suppose.

:silly:

[BikeWriter]

24. I'm looking forward to the dancing girls!

:)

[BikeWriter]

21. Yes, and some of us stopped proof reading and spell checking.

:)

[johnnie]

16. When were we not stupid?

No matter what people think, we are still a pretty stupid animal. We still club each other over the head for shiny things.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

18. funniest comment ever!

"We still club each other over the head for shiny things."

[Sugar Smack]

19. Seconded!!

:rofl:

[BikeWriter]

25. It's gracious of you not to point out the Indus Valley...

was civilized in 3200 BCE. ;)

[DrGonzoLives]

27. oooohhhhhh shiny pretties

*BONK*

[Droopy]

22. I don't think we're a stupid society

just uninformed. Certainly there are people in this country who don't score high on I.Q. tests, I'm one of them, but I think that it's just a lack of information (ignorance) that is our biggest stumbling block. How could that be possible in the age of the interenet? There is just as much disinformation on the web as there are facts.

When you have that type of atmosphere people are susceptible to buying into all kinds of horseshit, thus Bush is the president.

[cleofus1]

23. sometime i think it's just fear

most people want to fit in...they are afraid of being different...so they become part of the politic that they perceive to be mainstream...witness the "Reagan democrats"...it's what we describe as populism...the embrace of the image of the "common man"...conservatives have successfully re-defined the "common man" to be a hard working joe (not jose), god fearing, anti-intellectual patriot...and so there are a large group of people out there who, out of fear, seek to define themselves as "common men"...

[wildhorses]

26. when we came more interested in acquiring "things" than in

acquiring knowledge...we started finding what we set out to look for in bot cases. In the meantime we grew fat, lazy and stupid but, we had the latest widget and thingamobob....

[DrGonzoLives]

28. Ivy League schools are our greatest?

The people at MIT, Berkely, and dozens of state and land grant universities would beg to differ.

[Misunderestimator]

29. Always have been, always will be.

There's a general swell that happens in times when societies choose to educate and elevate their citizens, and a general decline in times that societies oppress and punish individuality and intellect. Sucks that we live in such an oppressive time now. Sucks a lot.

We're stupid now because our government does not value education, except for the rich.

[xchrom]

30. white trash checking in here...

you talking about me?

smile when you say that!

[kay1864]

31. Stupid people have more children?

And smart people fewer? That would dumb down the population.

I think TV is indeed a major factor. It's certainly true that the book-reading percentage of the population has dropped over the past few decades. I think there was a thread on this awhile back.

[kay1864]

32. Found the thread...

And these little nuggets:

Readers of literary works can be divided into four categories:
“light” readers (1-5 books during the year, both literary and non-literary),
“moderate” readers (6-11 books per year, both literary and non-literary),
“frequent” readers (at least one book every month, i.e., 12-49 books per year, both literary and non-literary), and
“avid” readers (about one book every week, i.e., 50 or more books per year, both literary and non-literary).

The percentage of people in each category is as follows:
light readers 21%
moderate readers 9%
frequent readers 12%
avid readers 4%.

In other words, about one in six people reads one or more books a month. Five in six people read less than that.

Sadder still, 53% of the American population did not read even one book a year.

[TrogL]

41. Ok, what's above "avid"

I've been known to read multiple books a day - and we're talkin' full-length novels.

[kay1864]

45. I think it's "DAYUM"

LOL

[trof]

33. 1. Television 2. Video games 3. Television 4. NRC 5. Television

I think that's about it.
;-)

[kay1864]

34. 4. Nuclear Regulatory Commission?

Damn radiation...it gets into everything...

[JohnKleeb]

36. Oddly enough

I got my early education on the Cold War from a video game and most of my WWII knowledge is from the TV.

[johnnie]

38. Me too

I learned about early man from watching the Flintstones.

[kay1864]

40. ...

:rofl:

[JohnKleeb]

42. hahaha

No I am serious though. I guess the game I played was the exception to the rule. Seriously not all video games are mindless violence and shit like that. Hell if you want me to be brutally honest it was the Medal of Honor video game series that gave me an appreciation for veterans.

[SOteric]

35. Grading on a curve.

x(

[TrogL]

37. You're supposed to take your pants off?

OK, that explains a few things.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

47. !

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

[leftofthedial]

39. stupidity is ascendant

because the "royalty" have determined it is in their interest to destroy the middle class. The foundation of power for the middle class and the key to being upwardly class mobile is information combined with intelligence. Corporations also (wrongly IMHO) believe they can profit more from stupid consumers than from smart ones.

Since the wealthy "royalty" and the corporations exert almost total control over media and most Murkans spend more time watching television than they do reading, attending school or talking to one another, the dumbing down of Murka is inevitable.

[Initech]

43. There's a reason they call it the "idiot box"...

And up until the last few years, I have never really understood what that meant until the advent of American Idol and Fox News. I mean it's pretty obvious why it's called the "idiot box", but outside of sports and a few select shows like the Daily Show, I dont venture too far into TV land.

[LSK]

44. TV

[trackfan]

46. Good thing I read to the end of the post - I was going to say TV,

but you already covered that. My mother was right - it really is the "idiot box".

[El Fuego]

48. Europe had the good sense to kick the puritans out.

And here they are in their modern incarnation, the idiot Fundie.

[smitty]

49. Speak for yourself bozo.

[RandomKoolzip]

50. Americans are not stupid, and I can prove it:

Ask your average beer-swilling, baseball-cap wearing white guy in his thirties about sports, and he'll, no doubt, be able to reel off numbers and stats that would make your head spin. Just listen to any sports call-in radio show and you'll hear a mastery of statistics and probabilities.

How pathetic, though....

[Left Is Write]

51. I don't know. I tried being stupid a few times, but I didn't like it.

I prefer being non-stupid now.

[Oeditpus Rex]

52. How's that workin' out for ya?

:rofl:

:hi:

[In_The_Wind]

53. I don't know why any of those folks you mentioned are stupid.

I quit trying to figure it out years ago.

[Oeditpus Rex]

54. Look at whom we consider credible

and worthy of role-model status.

Katie Couric? :shrug:

Barry Bonds? :shrug:

The BFEE? :puke:

[JohnKleeb]

55. Barry Bonds is considered credible?

News to me. Then again Jason Giambroid was given the Comeback Player of the Year award last year. It's a shame that real classy sports figures like Hines Ward aren't given much media time but I guess its becasue the media always has focused on cynical parts of life which is why TO is always mentioned on Sportscenter while a guy like Hines Ward who goes to South Korea and talks about how love between two people is and how race and ethnicity don't really matter. Sorry I am biased but its how I feel.

[Oeditpus Rex]

56. I assume Bonds is credible to some people

But I meant him for "role-model status."

[xmas74]

57. I had read somewhere recently historians

decided that the most intelligent general population of the United States lived some 125 years ago.

I'll see if I can find a link to that later this evening.

[what the]

58. Le historie stupide

"is it...that...the dumb people now have a voice due to the media"

Yes. Especially the internet.

Actually, history is an extreme distillation. It is a tiny fraction of all that has ever happened. Day-to-day stupidity fades from public memory and only large events are widely known.

You want stupid:

1. The Athenian campaign against Sicily.
2. Salem witchcraft trials.
3. Gen. Burnside's assaults (15 on them) against Marie's Heights at Fredericksburg.
4. Hostility to "germ theory" by 19th century surgeons (whose "status symbol" frock coats were coated with dried blood and pus).
5. Belief in "spontaneous generation," i.e. that bugs, spiders, and other small creatures appear out of dust and dirt, and not as the progeny of other bugs.

Here's my all time favorite. In the 17th century an early European scientist put a barometer in his yard. It was based on water, not mercury, so it was about 35 feet tall. He made the water level visible by putting a small buoyant doll in the water column. The local peasants mistook cause and effect; he fled town because they thought he was controlling the weather.