The data might not be so depressing as they appear, for it could be that the same bottom 25% subscribes to all the delusions surveyed, so it is not as if nearly everyone in America is dumb, just that a minority are very dumb. That said, sociologists have been asking for a long time why America "is the only first-world country with a third-world cultural niveau?" When I moved from the U.S. to Britain at age 28, I was shocked at how much higher the general intellectual level of the country was than what I had become familiar with in the U.S., and later, when my friend moved to Germany, she was surprised at how much more intelligent the culture was than Britain's. Is this difference due to America's extreme religiosity, to its large and still unassimilated culture of new immigrants, to the dilution of its intellectual quality by the over-expansion of university education, to its excessive capitalism with its attendant decline of all cultural products to the lowest cultural denominator, where the market is broadest, to the anti-intellectualism of its brand of populist democracy? Probably it is the result of all these factors. Newsweek: Dumb Things Americans Believe
I know Americans are far more ignorant than I would like, but I hope Americans are not as ignorant as the surveys indicate. What percentage of Americans would pretend to be stupider than they are when contacted by a pollster? I could Imagine some Christians who 90% believe in evolution claiming to not believe in evolution when polled in order to express solidarity with their religion.
I think that at least some of these polls must be due to people purposely answering incorrectly. I mean, ask a dumb question, get a dumb answer. Who doesn't know that the earth revolves around the sun? Maybe a poll could measure how likely people are to purposefully answer incorrectly?
I'm a US citizen who has lived around enough to know that we're at a growing educational and intellectual deficit in the USA. Of course there are always exceptions, but as with junk food, we are what we ingest. USis are force-fed an unhealthy diet of entitlement and exceptionalism that has left us mentally fat and lazy. Many of us have become conditioned and addicted to political cravings for anything, however artificial, that replaces our doubts with perceived strength, and nothing is better tailored to fill that craving better than international expressions of military rage. Our foreign rampages and meltdowns are carefully kept at a safe distance and filtered through sophisticated and highly-profitable we-can't-be-wrong media lenses. I think we're going to learn to see the world more clearly in the future from the USA, but the question is how much suffering we will inflict on others, and have reflected back upon ourselves, before we open our own eyes to what the rest of the world knows. We're a great but tragically misguided country.
This reminds me of the video clip I saw from the Daily Show where they asked people on the street in Iran, I believe Tehran? And also people from NYC in the United States questions about the other or something to that effect and the Iranians responded more correctly, more frequently than the Americans. I have often wondered why, in general, the intellectual level of Americans seems to be low. :shrug:
Surveys like that have never really impressed me. Compare the cultural influence the US exerts on the rest of the world with how much Iranian culture finds its way into American society and the resultant disparity is a no-brainer.
What is so bloody good about American culture anyway? With your Justin Bieber, McDonalds, American Idol and Jersey Shore. Yes, you're quite good at flooding the world market with your mediocre pop crap and horrid food. It's the same with Andy Warhol, yes, his shit is everywhere but it doesn't make him an artist. It's bourgy, mass-produced, crap.
Idol is British, dude. Anyway, I have no idea why so much of the world keeps buying our shit. But they do, and with it comes collateral knowledge of other things American. This seems to be a much more likely reason for the results of these "durrr Americans r dum" surveys that come out every so often, as opposed to the inherent intellectual superiority of one nationality over another. As an aside, as obnoxious as American pop culture is, I don't think it is necessarily any worse than what constitutes pop culture anywhere else. For example, the weird shit that Japan produces.
Just out of interest, how much good pop does Iran produce? Or is it banned as not Islamic enough? It might be worth checking out what Warhol was actually trying to say with his art. It seems you've missed the point.
Whether or not culture is good or bad is somewhat subjective. But a lot of people obviously think American culture is good, otherwise it wouldn't be all over the damned planet.
And yet, you recognized this. You a silly, idiotic, American were able to recognize intelligence. Still don't follow? Think about it. I am not saying you are an idiot.
It happened to me, too: Returning to the USA as a lad, I found school extremely boring, because the standards were so low compared with the schools I had attended in the Mideast, Africa, and Europe. As an instructor in US universities, the level of academic preparation of foreign students has been starkly superior to that of USi college students- not only in strictly academic terms, but also in terms of independent/critical thinking, self-reliance, and initiative. Also, there is now a noticeably disproportionate (and growing) number of expatriate faculty teaching in US universities, because there are not so many USis who measure up. The USA is clearly dumbing down.
It's a common topic here at sciforums: Americans are dumb or don't invent things and their culture sucks. I've heard this kind of crap for years now, and have even experienced it, first-hand, overseas. It's no more compelling online than it was in-person.
It may not be compelling but it's somewhat worrying to the rest of the world that the same people who like to go on (and on...) about how America is the most powerful nation in the world are among the dumbest (and certainly least informed) people in the world... and well satisfied (as hypewaders put it) by "international expressions of military rage." I mean, look at what's happened with all things Islamic. I think it's a pretty safe bet that, pre 9/11, few people would have had an interest in let alone an understanding of the Muslim faith, Now, everyone and his dog thinks they know ALL about it... yet really, know nothing beyond media-fed pap. And what makes it all the more worrying is that people believe every word, no questions. And of course the same scenario can be applied to just about every issue. In other words, something needs to become an issue before anyone knows anything about it, and then, all they come to know is what they're spoonfed - typically whatever makes them most fearful and therefore most in need of the "good guy", waiting in the wings. I think, forget better education per se. What's more important - at least, a vital first step - is an awareness (admittance) among people of the degree to which people (who ironically pride themselves as among the freest of people) are in fact enslaved (via manipulation) by their own ignorance to the extent that they can act against their own, and their country's best interests.
Significant in that manipulation is USi exceptionalism and assumed entitlement, which render empathy dysfunctional. This leaves many USis seriously handicapped in understanding the world: Exceptionalist memes block awareness that the reactions to our national posture and behavior in the outside world, and within stigmatized minorities within our society (past, present, and future) are all highly predictable, through simple human empathy.
In my experience, the stupid are everywhere, and people in far flung places tend to be as uninformed as anywhere else. Oh, sure. In my travels, people knew MORE about America than most Americans knew about their country, but it was all superficial knowledge. Ask them about American history or the nuances of American politics and you would get nothing of value.
Uh, apparently you have never heard our hip-hop, you best check yourself lest you wreck yourself. I don't think so and I'm not buying it.
Pink Cows, and other notes Well ... is it available at least via YouTube? I mean, I've heard Arabic rap before, and it sucks equally to American rap. Have you never been in a room wallpapered with pink cows on a yellow background? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Tate Museum, London
