Try this 12 question political test and shudder at how the rest of USA did.

[Winterblues]

http://pewresearch.org/politicalquiz/quiz/index.php

I answered 12 out of 12

[La Lioness Priyanka]

1. i did not know this: About how many U.S. military personnel are currently in Afghanistan:

[trotsky]

2. I didn't either. n/t

[valerief]

7. I got the SAME question incorrect (but not way off). The others were correct. nt

[Old Codger]

18. Same here.... 11 of 12 missed troops N/T

[Zoeisright]

19. I was thinking about the surge, so answered 150,000.

Oh well. 11 out of 12 ain't bad.

[Kitty Herder]

87. Me too.

Oh, well. One wrong answer ain't the end of the world.

[redwitch]

97. Me too.

Although I was tempted to check "hip hop" artist on the Glenn Beck question.

[tridim]

53. That's the question I missed too.

It's interesting that most of us missed the same question.

[begin_within]

65. That's the only one I missed too.

[ellenfl]

116. the one i missed, as well. i got my age right! eom

[joeybee12]

3. I got 12 also...but i did it just to see how stupid people are...

...did you know about only 85% can name the current US president...not just because it's Obama, but it's always been around that percentage...now this is something i find incredible that some people do not know.

[CynicalObserver]

93. It is quite disturbing, because presumably some of those same people vote.

A more general quiz on our political system would probably get a lot worse results than questions on recent political persons of note or events given notable media coverage, and the fact that this is online heavily skews results up into more correct %, because on average internet people taking such an online test are much more literate (and some might even google answers to be correct).

It is quite frightening to me that a good chunk of the voting population has no idea how government works, how the constitution divides powers, what limits there are in theory on federal powers vs. state powers (said limits being ignored on a scale that would have caused revolt 50 years ago), etc.

[Sherman A1]

4. 12 0ut of 12

but, I think we should Cap & Trade McCain!

[surrealAmerican]

32. No matter how good a cap you put on him ...

... I doubt there are many who would take him in a trade.

[StarfarerBill]

5. 11 out of 12: I answered the national unemployment figure too high (according to them).

[valerief]

8. Yeah, they want the official answer, not the real one. nt

[hlthe2b]

45. I answered that right, but I think 10% is an underestimate

[tblue37]

72. Same here. I gave them the "official" answer, even though I

know it is a whitewash. I wanted a perfect score, so I didn't stand on principle.

[lostnfound]

61. Me too. nt

[arcadian]

77. I said %15

What is the official? %10?

[StarfarerBill]

84. Yeah...again, according to them.

[CynicalObserver]

96. Actually, 16% is probably closer to the real number, but they use 10%

publicly. There were some changes in how unemployment was calculated some time ago that reduce the % by 5-8%. Kind of like the consumer price index, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics.

[Luciferous]

160. Same here... I thought they wanted the actual figure

But 11/12 isn't too bad!

[Silent3]

6. I managed 12 out of 12 too.

And I didn't think it took a whole lot of awareness about current event to do that either. The questions were pretty easy for the most part.

It's scary that my performance is good enough to land anyone in a top 2% category.

[Hoopla Phil]

9. 11 out of 12. Missed the number of troops question.

[begin_within]

64. Same here.

[OregonBlue]

85. Same here.

[TorchTheWitch]

140. same here

[RT Atlanta]

10. 12/12

n/t

[old mark]

11. 12 for 12 for this old fart, in the highest 2% of those answering.

Of course, I actually DO have a pretty high IQ, regardless of this "test". And I read a lot.

mark

[brendan120678]

12. My results:

You correctly answered 10 out of the 12 possible questions, which means you did better on the quiz than 89% of the general public.

[Pisces]

13. 12 out of 12 and the results for the rest of the public do not shock me.

[MiniMe]

91. 6% getting zero correctly surprised me a bit

Other than that one figure, I agree with you.

[JHB]

14. Jeez, how many of us here account for that 2%?

Another 12 for 12, here.

[sandnsea]

15. Question 5 is our problem

80% of the people do not know the name of Max Baucus or his influence in the removal of the public option or the other problems in the health care bill. 20% of the people know, but that doesn't mean 20% oppose him. There clearly aren't enough people putting pressure on the man, and probably not on any other Senator either.

[TornadoTN]

16. 12 out of 12 - unbelievable at the statistical breakdown

Not surprising, but I really just shudder when the reality hits me that the American people are so blissfully uninformed.

Look at the 18-29 breakdown - unbelievable!

[davekriss]

17. 12 out of 12 here too

But the questions are very very easy.

It is truly scary to see how the majority of respondents scored. Explains a lot! :(

[fl_dem]

20. 10 out 12

I'll take it. I missed the last two, but I will blame it on distraction...I am at work! :)

[MissMillie]

36. me too

and those were the two questions I missed as well.

[TrogL]

21. I got 11 out of 12 and I'm Canadian

I got the Iran/Israel question wrong. Couldn't be bothered to check a map.

[BigBluenoser]

100. Me too,

but I beat you by 1 :)

[Tesha]

144. Think of it this way: You know that Iran is sort of generally to the Northeast of Israel.

Directly north is Lebanon (where Israel had some trouble
in the last few years).

And to the northeast of Israel are the rather-famous Golan
Heights, a part of Syria.

Farther around to the east, we find Jordan (as in the river).

No Iran in sight. And I'll bet you already knew all those
facts ;).

Tesha

[leveymg]

22. Only 2% got them all right? Most only 3-4 questions. Should those people really

be running around unsupervised, driving 6,000 pound SUVs and pick up trucks, drinking beer, and going to Tea Parties without adults in attendance?

Scary.

[tblue37]

74. And *voting*--since they inevitably vote against their own best

ineterests--and ours, as well.

[SaveOurDemocracy]

23. 12/12 - better than 98% of those who took test. The

American public is asleep at the wheel.

[CreekDog]

24. The median score was between 4 and 5 correct

I wonder if someone scoring that way would know what "median" is? :shrug:

[Lance_Boyle]

114. Dude, that's the place in the road where the grass grows.

Duh. ;-)

[CBR]

25. 12 out of 12. nt

[napi21]

26. I was quite surprised that so many people know so little!

I admit I pay more attention to news than most, but GEESH I didn't realize so many apparently pay no attention at all!

[immoderate]

27. I got 12/12.

Hard to imagine the people that get only one or two right. Maybe they're the "unrec" people from DU. :shrug:

--imm

[Kadie]

28. 11 out of 12.

Missed the troop number. Should have known that.

[bigtree]

29. missed the one about the dow

figures

[Subdivisions]

30. Here's my results:

[Better Believe It]

31. So who are the people who got the answers to all 12 questions wrong ?!

Yikes!

[Chellee]

59. My boss, probably.

Right after the election she tells me, "Well I hope you're satisfied. You got him, but he's going to get assassinated and then we'll have McCain anyway. So what did you accomplish?" I say, "First, that's not going to happen, but if it did, we still wouldn't have McCain, we'd have Biden. They don't give it to the runner-up." She gets this confused, blank look on her face and says, "Oh yeah, I didn't think of that." She did at least look embarrassed.

[CynicalObserver]

98. maybe she was thinking of Jefferson and Burr? ntxt

[mrcheerful]

63. The republicon base who else knows so little.

[superduperfarleft]

115. My dog did pretty badly on it.

Of course, he's not registered to vote, so it's not that big a deal.

[Tesha]

146. Free Republic, Little Green Footballs, listening to Rush, etc. (NT)

[hootinholler]

33. 11/12 Missed the wall streety one. n/t

[asdjrocky]

34. My daughter could have answered those questions when she was twelve.

It's really sad how stupid we all are. I guess we get the government we deserve.

[Better Believe It]

37. My cat would have gotten at least one of them right!

:)

[enlightenment]

35. 12 of 12

though I admit to guessing on the Dow Jones as I don't pay attention to that figure. The 'cap and trade' question was a bit fuzzy, as technically it may 'deal' with one of those things, but philosophically it affects more than one.

[ShortnFiery]

38. OMG! We're in the upper ...

2%. Wow, I don't feel savvy and score hopelessly average on IQ tests. :shrug:

[malaise]

39. 11 out of 12 right

Got the troops in Afghanistan wrong.

I did better on the quiz than 93% of the general public. WTF!!!!!!

[ShortnFiery]

42. Yes, the question was asking for number of MILITARY troops. We have more civilian contractors than

troops in Afghanistan. God bless military privatization? :thumbsdown:

[Atman]

56. Same here...I said 150,00 troops in Afghanistan.

It is pretty shocking that so many people couldn't answer those questions.

.

[bleever]

62. Same here.

I wish they'd broken the demographics down by geography, party, and income too.

And remember: this quiz is only taken by internet users, so the real public totals could be even worse.

[JHB]

125. They did, on one of the linked pages...

Anyone have the uRL for the final page, so I don't have to take the test over again to get to it?

[bleever]

149. You're right, here's the link:

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1378/political-news-iq-quiz

Thanks.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

40. I got 12 but one is almost a trick question (spoiler)

Distinguishing "military personnel" versus personnel employed by the military.

The former is closer to 70,000. The later is probably closer to the 150,000 choice. There are a LOT of contractors.

So I'd give partial credit for 150,000.

[CynicalObserver]

99. even being able to distinguish between those numbers puts you well above 99% of respondents.

[Exultant Democracy]

124. I also got 12, but I agree this question and the unemployment question both have even "more true"

answers.

[dsc]

130. I missed that one badly

I said 200k

[skipos]

41. 12 out of 12, though I must admit I wasn't 100% confident in all my answers. nt

[michreject]

43. 12/12

Here's Your Score: You correctly answered 12 of the 12 possible questions along with approximately 2% of the public. You did better than 98% of the general public.

[krispos42]

44. 100%

The nation as a whole is fucking scary, though...




And where do you think the Teabaggers are on this graph??? :rofl:

[Ron Green]

46. So DUers appear to be at about the 95th percentile...

Godalmighty, that's a scary thought when you consider the amount of teh stupid that exists even here on this site.

[tridim]

60. I wonder what the results would be if these questions were asked over the phone..

Instead of asking willing participants on the Internet?

I bet the results would be even worse considering the barrage of MSM misinformation beamed 24/7 into most households. Most Faux news viewers and RW hate radio listeners believe they know ALL the facts.

[Silent3]

75. There's a big self-selection factor here.

Pew, when they do their phone surveys, obviously manage somehow to get a lot more participation from people who wouldn't decide on their own to challenge themselves to a current events quiz.

I think it's likely that DU members are more informed than average as well, but self-selection by people who a eager to take the quiz, and self-deselection by people who don't do well when they do take the quiz and don't want to admit it afterward, has got to skew the results being posted is this thread.

[marmar]

47. 12/12 ....... and Yikes!!!!

Don't want to be an American Idiot !!!!

:dunce:

[FLyellowdog]

48. Was doing great til I got to the "Male" or "Female" part. nt

[Winterblues]

49. There always has to be one....LOL

[dmallind]

50. So lemme get this straight

Only 56% of the people know that the public option is related to health care and less than 1/5 know whose committee got the bill moving, and yet Obama will face a massive backlash and electoral defeat because people won't like that there is no public option in the bill that that committee passed?

[Starbucks Anarchist]

51. 12 out of 12.

Finally, I'm in the top 2% of something. :rofl:

[Kaleva]

52. 11 of 12. Missed the Dow Jones question.

[Tuvok Obama]

54. 11 out of 12

I guessed that Iran shares a border with Israel, which it doesn't.

:blush:

[Common Sense Party]

68. I read that one wrong. I thought it said Iran and Iraq.

I was going too fast and clicked before I realized it said Israel.

[Tuvok Obama]

155. I read it correctly and guessed incorrectly

My geographical ignorance befronts me greatly.

:smoke:

[Warpy]

55. 12/12, although troops in Afghanistan was a guess.

It's appalling how ignorant the US public is.

I lay that at the feet of broadcast news, concerned more with ratings than responsibility.

[MrScorpio]

57. Missed the one about the troops

Got the rest right

[proud2BlibKansan]

58. 12 out of 12

And I guessed on the question about the DOW.

[Burma Jones]

66. 12 of 12

[bullwinkle428]

67. Nailed it! 12 out of 12! Although I'll admit to having guessed

on the troop number question - I can't see a whole lot of people knowing that one off-hand.

[tblue37]

69. I got 12/12, too.

"Here's Your Score: You correctly answered 12 of the 12 possible questions along with approximately 2% of the public. You did better than 98% of the general public."

I am amazed and appalled that only 2% of the American public can answer such basic questions.

[WeDidIt]

70. 12 for 12.

Not a tough test at all.

[waiting]

71. I got 12 out of 12

And I have a GED from 1987.

[arcadian]

73. 11 out of 12

Missed the one about the unemployment rate.

[bluethruandthru]

76. 11 out of 12. Missed the troops question. n/t

[Mopar151]

78. The facts have a well-known liberal bias

I'm a 12/12 er too.... Anybody know what Ms. Palin scored? How about Glenn Beck?

[CynicalObserver]

103. these questions were so easy and related to current poltical events that

the people you name would likely have these facts in immediate recall in their minds.

Disagreeing with someone's politics is fine, but it is very foolish to assume someone you disagree with is stupid. Politics is close to religion in how people form a view of how they should be ruled.

Beck has almost certainly discussed most or all of the questions/persons on his shows, so you actually look quite stupid wondering how he would do on the test.

[JoeyT]

136. Beck would have to get at least one of them right.

If only because the question was about him.

[Juche]

79. 12/12. The unemployment question was tricky though

The U3 is about 10% but the U6 is about 18%.

I hate having political discussions with my family because I know how woefully uninformed they are. My dad (who is 60) has strong opinions but he doesn't even know how many senators there are in the US senate. People's opinions are based on soundbites.

You do have to give the GOP credit. They do not overestimate the intelligence of Americans. They know most people barely pay attention and just parrot (generally misleading) soundbites on issues they don't understand. Liberals seem to want to have a in depth discussion on policy issues to find the best solution to a complex problem. But the public generally aren't having that.

Sadly, liberals may have to become as 1 dimensional as the GOP in order to win 'swing voters' who are only swing voters because they are too lazy and uninformed to understand anything on more than a superficial level. We get the democracy we deserve.

[CynicalObserver]

105. both parties want more government. You think government will stop getting more into your

life when it reaches whatever personal limit you think is too much? Wrong. Government is going to get into our lives so much it will make brave new world look sane, and this healthcare stuff is a big step towards it.

both parties allow the looting of the treasury currently underway.

both parties have spent us into deficits the dollar and country will NEVER recover from, not in generations.

[Juche]

113. I want more government

You aren't really convincing anyone. If I went onto free republic and started getting angry that Reagan was shrinking the government, I doubt you'd be a convert.

I love government. There are many things the public sector does better than the private sector. Infrastructure, education, health care, pensions for the elderly, scientific R&D, military, regulation of private industry. I want more and bigger government in those areas, and I want the government to have more influence in those areas.

As far as the deficit, if we had never had the Iraq war and never had the Bush tax cuts, the deficit would be about 4 trillion smaller than it is now.



The deficit might only be 5-9 trillion or so now had Al Gore 'won' in 2000. No Iraq war & no supply side tax cuts = $400 billion a year in less spending and higher revenues for the federal government. Seeing how 0 net jobs were created during Bush's tenure, the argument that we needed those tax cuts to create jobs falls on deaf ears.

In fact back around 2000 Alan Greenspan was worried we might pay off the national debt in full by 2012. He said there might be negative repercussions to doing that.

[CynicalObserver]

157. Did you just discover bush was a total disaster in control of federal spending?

Hard to know where Gore would have gone, he would have faced gridlock like clinton did, and might have been a one-termer.

Out of morbid curiousity, what if any do you feel should be the limits of federal power in the areas you mention that aren't clearly constitutionally mandated (the military, for example)...

do you believe there should be zero limit, and that fedgov can do quite literally whatever it wants, be it general welfare or commerce clause? If there is any rational limit to federal power you believe in, how are the current precedents being set or already existing going to give you the slightest protection against your feelings being utterly trampled (or criminalized, under certain circumstances)...

Name me one country in history that gave complete, unlimited power to government and had what might be considered a good outcome. Is it really different this time? (h

[Juche]

162. Gore wouldn't have supported Bush's tax cuts or Iraq war

By not pursuing those two policies, Gore would've saved the country several trillion dollars. He would've blocked and vetoed any attempt to get these passed. Even if Gore was gridlocked, he still would've single handedly saved the federal deficit trillions.

The limits of government should be when private industry does something better. Private industry is better at consumer electronics, so they should run that market. Government is better at running healthcare so they should run that market.

I fear corporate fascism more than I do democratic socialism because corporations are less accountable. I do not think I am a 'slave' when government does something but 'free' when private industry does it. I think whatever industry can do the best job for the lowest price should do it. Medicare for all works better than for profit insurance. But Sony works better than a government TV. So give one to the public sector and another to the private.

But an example of a government where the gov is more powerful than the US is France. France has a good system and the people are fairly happy. Canadians are fairly happy too. So are people in New Zealand.

[Winterblues]

121. So I take it you believe in the America idea of Government of the people, by the people ,& for the p

The government is us....The better we make it the better we all are. The Republican meme that Government is somehow bad is absolute total bullshit of the highest order. Without Government there would be total chaos just like Somalia. I guess that is what Republicans want, their own little "war lords" in every neighborhood. Cars with mounted machine guns on every road. Yep Hate that Government all right..

[CynicalObserver]

156. The world of choices in government aren't limited to what you offer in your post.

I know there are some posters here who have grasped the concept that functionally eliminating any constitutional limits on federal power, while seemingly great when the party your favor is in power, is going to be un-great when the other party is in power.

At any rate, once basic rights are subject to limitations far beyond anything in the language in the bill of rights, your government of by and for the people has ceased to have any effective controls on what the people can do to other people via government. We are fast approaching the point where 50% of voters pay ZERO federal income tax, which has all kinds of implications as well. Of course, if you don't pay any taxes, this probably seems like a good thing.

[Winterblues]

172. Did you think the same way when Bush* got the Patriot Act passed or the Military Commissions Act?

It has appeared to me like the one's complaining about taxes are always Republicans and my observations have been that Republicans want everything for nothing. They want their cake and eat it too. When less than one percent of the population owns more than sixty percent of the wealth in the wealthiest nation on earth and there are people saying that one percent should have tax cuts so it will trickle down to the masses, I shake my head in wonder at the complete and total ignorance displayed.. Unless Diebold says differently the government still is of the people...Granted there are those that have sold their souls to the very wealthy/devil but I believe they are the minority..

[CynicalObserver]

173. Yes, of course I thought the patriot act was going to be widely used for things other

than islamists in far away places. It was almost immediately used to go after money laundering in vegas, IIRC. There are posts from me at the time it was being taken off the shelf and railroaded through noting that this bill was sitting around waiting for a crisis to pass it, and it was going to be used in ways never connected to its alleged sole function.

Now, on the other hand, prisoners taken in afghanistan are unmarked combatants and as per the geneva convention are subject to execution. What happens there is war, and I see no reason why someone kept for intelligence value after making war on US forces is entitled to special treatment beyond what has always been accepted american practice.

There are issues I worry about when it is used against an american in the US. That said, it is just a matter of time till we have a situation like the 7/7 bombings here, where US muslim citizens/residents are used for the attacks. I worry terribly about where things go from there, because our government and society was never designed/evolved around the assumption that we would have citizens doing these things, much less as suicide attacks. When someone robs a store or murders a person, the criminal justice system has an obvious function, but when someone kills themself as part of an attack designed to kill many many others and do critical harm to the economy, the entire concept of after-the-fact criminal justice is irrelevant and nearly-useless. What I would expect is further expansion of federal power to monitor/investigate/data mine ALL citizens, with the ability to use their findings in a legal context gradually expanding over time.

As far as who has sold their souls to wealth, you pretty much need look no further than congress (all, not just the party you don't like). Fortune 100 companies, China, oil-producing countries wanting to bog down and prevent any new domestic exploration/development, Goldman Sachs, have vastly more influence than the american voters, because nearly whoever you have a chance to vote for for congress or presidency is beholden to some or all of these interests. This is not a partisan issue, it is all-pervading.

The adult view of understanding government is 'Follow the money.' All the ideological diatribe is in great part theater for the masses and ideologues that actually believe those are the real reasons anything is done.

I think you are trying to look at me through a partisan lens, where the fact I disagree with you means somehow I am a member or proponent of the other party or something. You need to learn that in the real world it doesn't work that way, and that it is possible to rationally look at government behavior and expansion of power without getting blinded/godstruck by a silly D or R associated with something. That D or R will change at some point, but the power government takes is forever, and only grows.

As far as tax policy, you need to realize that matters have gone beyond simple confiscation/redistribution philosophy, and that the federal budget deficits and associated monetization of the federal debt by the Fed are going to kill the dollar. This is going to impact everyone, not just the evil republicans.

The 1% are so wealthy that you aren't going to substantially increase what they pay. At that level, there are many ways to move income into structures that pay less taxes or none. The group that IS going to pay it is the 49other% that pay taxes but cannot use trusts and other structures. The 50% that pay no taxes but benefit from federal programs aren't going to be sympathetic to the needs of the perceived rich that will be demogogued when middle-class tax hikes come.

[madmom]

80. 12 out of 12 here also! Amazing isn't it?

[freddie mertz]

81. 12 of 12. They were not very hard!

No wonder our nation is doomed.

[Cirque du So-What]

82. 12 of 12

Scary that the peak of the bell curve got only 3 or 4 questions correct. They probably comprise the low-info crowd that embraces birther bullshit, climate-change denial & teabaggery of all sorts.

[MindPilot]

83. 11 right but I had taken it a few weeks ago and scored 100%

I blew it on the unemployment rate.

That is a couple months old as evidenced with the reference to Max Baccus.

[Kansas Wyatt]

86. I got 10 out of 12, BUT...

I didn't ready the two I missed close enough, because I thought they were wanting the REAL unemployment figure and I didn't read the troop level close enough.

[Festivito]

88. Education, Age: Higher the better, M betters F except one ?:HCare$

On each question, The higher the education the better the result on that question.

Same for age.

Same for Males doing better than females. EXCEPT for the cost of health care: 59 male versus 63 female correct answers. The overall still favoring males 5.9 to 4.7.

Are women more concerned over health care than men? Perhaps we have an untapped tool for the health care debate.

Yeah, I got 12 of 12. Although almost blew the number of troops for the new number of troops yet to arrive.

[DainBramaged]

89. I'm a 2%er also

It's sad 45% got 4 or less right, very sad

[MiniMe]

90. 12/12

Had a hard time with the troop question, wasn't sure about that one.

[bvar22]

92. This is precisely WHY the TV gets to choose our President & Congress.

This is also WHY The Democrats are going to be able to pass this Health Insurance Industry Profit Enhancement Bill, because America is too stupid to care beyond what they see on TV.

BUT, when America finds out WHAT is really in this "reform",
When 40 million are forced to BUY a product they can't afford to use,
When the Middle Class is taxed on their "Cadillac" Plans,
When Premiums, co-pays, and deductibles continue to soar,
when The For Profits are successful at evading regulation,

When THOSE things happen, and the voters notice the money coming OUT of THEIR wallet,
then they WILL blame the Democratic Party...
And rightly so.

No wonder Democratic Senators are suddenly deciding to "spend more time with their families."

The DLC "Democrats" (including Obama) don't care.
THEY would prefer to see a Corporate Republican in power instead of a TRUE Democrat.
They (DLC Democrats & Republicans) work FOR THE SAME PEOPLE.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

94. 12 out of 12..............

Proud 2%er.

[Blue_In_AK]

95. 11 out of 12

I overestimated the troops in Afghanistan.

[ddeclue]

101. 12 for 12.. what is this? Are you smarter than a 5th grader audition?

Here's Your Score: You correctly answered 12 of the 12 possible questions along with approximately 2% of the public. You did better than 98% of the general public.


Actually one of the questions about unemployment is inaccurate. The OFFICIAL unemployment rate is near 10% which is what I answered but the defacto unemployment rate is somewhere between 15 and 20% when you figure in workers whose UE benefits have expired (no they aren't "discouraged" workers, just workers who can't find a job in this crappy economy) and the vastly underemployed (college grads working in Walmart, etc.)

[moondust]

102. 12/12 but pretty easy.

I doubt that the test group is very large so the stats may not mean much.

[nyc 4 Biden]

104. Great News!!

Only 40% of Adults know who Glenn BeKKK is.

[hfojvt]

106. 3 or 4 of the questions are kinda tough

1. number of troops in Afghanistan - 28% (got this question right)
2. chairman of the Senate Finance Committee - 18%
3. name of the Federal Reserve chairman - 33%

others are not much talked about Iran and Israel (42%) are probably not shown in a full map, and cap and trade (23%) is not much in the news these days. Also interesting that people are not following the Dow (33%) that closely and also not paying attention to Beck. Only 40% knew who he was.


Still kinda surprising that 45% would get four or less correct, especially since it is multiple guess. I got 12 of 12 but when I read the first question I was thinking Roberts or Alito. I briefly forgot about Sotomayor until I saw her name there.

[Birthmark]

107. 12 out of 12

It's amazing how little people apparently know. I shudder to think about the basis of their voting.

[bikebloke]

108. 11 of 12

I took in account real unemployment rather than the for-mass-consumption line.

[spin]

109. If more Americans could answer 8 or more correctly ...

we might be able to get a good healthcare system in this country.

Our politicians would no longer serve the big corporations.

DO YOU EVER WONDER WHY OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM SUCKS?

It's not that we can't have a better educational system, it all comes down to the fact that those in power don't want to rule over people who are smart enough to know when then are being screwed.

BTW, I also got 12 our of 12. But then I don't watch American Idol.

[davsand]

110. Not to fret--only about a quarter of these people actually show up to vote.

You have to figure that only half the eligible voters actually register. Of that half that had enough interest to register, only half can muster enough energy to actually show up and vote...

You gotta figure (hope) that the actual voters are the ones doing better than 75% on that quiz.


:woohoo:



Laura

[a kennedy]

111. 11 out of 12.......unemployment numbers......I still think the number

is higher then the gov is telling us.

[krabigirl]

112. 11 out of 12. I thought there were 150K troops in Afghanistan.

[tekisui]

117. 12-12. The graph is just sad.

[anonymous171]

118. What a brave new world we live in. nt

[frylock]

119. 11 out of 12..

missed the troop-level question.

[pink-o]

120. well I'm in the highest percentile of DU'ers!

I got 11 of 12, missing the number of troops in Afghanistan.

So that means I'm in good company, unlike the rest of the low-info populace of America.

Oh, and BTW, it's a deliberate effort on the part of the System to keep Americans distracted and ignorant. Make politics boring or daunting, and give 'em enough crap to watch instead so that when the Power Base wants to pull shit on the public, no one's watching or keeping score!

[GreenPartyVoter]

122. I got all 12 correct, but I confess to guessing on a couple of them.

[Cairycat]

123. Me: 11/12. My 16 year old son, perfect 12.

I got the troop numbers wrong; I did tell him the answers were based on the survey being originally given in October, so he was able to get the right number.

I would love to have his smarmy libertarian history teacher take it. I wonder if he'd do as well as my boy.

-Proud mama Cairycat

[Kadie]

139. Excellent! My 9 year old just got 9 out of 12 correct.

Not bad at all.

Proud mama over here too.

[Edweird]

126. 11/12 I didn't know the DJIA and guessed wrong...

[bigwillq]

127. 11/12 (nt)

[RFKHumphreyObama]

128. 10 out of 12 and I'm Australian

And I would have gotten 11 out of 12 had I not accidentally clicked the wrong button on one of the questions

[anakie]

132. 11 out of 12 for this Aussie

n/t

[Babyhoneylips]

129. 12/12

2%er baby!

[dysfunctional press]

131. 12 out of 12...better than 98% of the general public...

gee...way back when i took the act and psat, i did better than 99% of everyone else. i seem to be slipping. :shrug: early onset alzheimer's?

[Lugnut]

133. 11 of 12 n/t

[MyNameGoesHere]

134. Mwhaaaaaaa member of the

2% that are going to take over the world.

[yankeeinlouisiana]

135. Sweet! Got 12 out of 12!

[undeterred]

137. I answered them all correctly

though I was guessing on a couple. I can't believe only 2% got them all right.

[sakabatou]

138. 12 out of 12 too

[unapatriciated]

141. 9 out of 12

higher than 82% of the general public.
that's sad since I'm an over fifty working class woman.
I would have expected my score to be the norm.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

142. I rock! 12 for 12!

[Tesha]

143. 12 for 12, which puts me in the top 2%. Disgusting! (NT)

[jtrockville]

145. Thanks to DU I got 12 of 12, top 2%.

But how did Glenn Beck get in there?

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

147. I'm among the 2% who had all the correct answers.

[glen123098]

148. I only got 10 out of 12.

That seems low for this site, but I'm a young one.

[DCBob]

150. I got all 12 correct..

Disturbing how ignorant most of America is.

[DefenseLawyer]

151. I wanted to miss the Glenn Beck question on purpose

but I didn't. I always could crush the ol' multiple choice.

[sendero]

152. I aced it..

... but I had to ask my wife about the Iran/Israel border question. Good thing, cause I guessed wrong.

[Hansel]

153. 12 out of 12. nt

[DCBob]

154. Interestingly Republicans and Independents scored better than Dems... and men better than women.

"Republicans and independents each averaged 5.7 correct answers, compared with five correct among Democrats. Men correctly answered an average of 5.9 of the 12 items; women answered an average of 4.7."

I suppose this could be explained by the fact that Democrats include some who are extremely poor and disadvantaged and for this reason are less educated and less aware of current events which likely skewed the Dem numbers lower. I suspect those who scored the highest are also mostly Democrats. Democrats are more diverse in lifestyle, wealth, education, etc. than the monolithic, lockstep Republicans.

[Waiting For Everyman]

158. 12/12 too. n/t

[tammywammy]

159. 12/12 n/t

[Dead_Parrot]

161. Interesting how many of us fluffed the troops question

Of course, it's also interesting that a Brit living in NZ seems to know more basic US stuff than 93% of the US population ;)

[MilesColtrane]

163. The only one I missed was the number of troops in Afghanistan.

[RexDart]

164. 10 of 12.

Missed the unemployment one (I had my states number in my head), and the troops one.

[Luminous Animal]

165. It's good to know that more people (61%) know that we pay more for health care

than the citizens of Europe than know who Glen Beck is (40%).

12 for 12, too.

[berni_mccoy]

166. 12 out of 12 correct

and a damn shame that only 2% of the population is in that category.

[WT Fuheck]

167. 12 of 12

:scared:

[Colorado Liberal]

168. 12 out of 12

...and even with all of the DUers taking the quiz, still at just 2% with 12 correct <sigh>

[girl gone mad]

169. 12/12.

top 2%

I was a little surprised to see that women scored significantly worse than men on every question except for the one pertaining to health care costs. College graduates scored better than non-graduates, but not by enough of a margin to justify tens of thousands in tuition. I say this because I believe colleges have an obligation to graduate students who know how to consume, process and store information.

[Maru Kitteh]

170. 11/12

[4_TN_TITANS]

171. 12 out of 12 (thanks to DU)... But,

I was sorely tempted to declare Glen Beck a 'hip hop artist', he's about as accurate in his world views.

Only 2% of respondents could answer all 12???

[Maeve]

174. Yeah, and we're all here on DU!

Funny...my high school principal used to natter on about "most of you are good kids, but there's that 2% who cause all the trouble..." so even the honor students laughingly claimed to be "two percenters". And here I am again...in the 2%.

[Spoonman]

175. Finally a passing grade, mom would be proud!

Here's Your Score: You correctly answered 12 of the 12 possible questions along with approximately 2% of the public. You did better than 98% of the general public.

[Spoonman]

176. I don't know how they calculated this....

If it's true, that's sad!

"Republicans and independents each averaged 5.7 correct answers, compared with five correct among Democrats."

[LibertyLover]

177. Got 11 out of 12

Missed the question on the Finance Committee chairman being Max Baucus. Rats.