I know I joke a lot about the number of stupid people around me; but most of it is joking. There really is no way that I could really know for sure that the world is full of stupid people, or that even the majority of people in my area are stupid.
Well, this video found its way into my mailbox sometime this morning.
Questions like "name a country that begins with the letter U were being answered with "Utah" or "Utopia". Other questions were like "How many Eiffel Towers are in France" and were answered with "like, 10".
YouTube had the video airing on their web site; unfortunately, the video has been taken down and replaced with :"This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Australian Broadcasting Corporation"... So if you haven't already seen the video, then you probably won't until either the copyright infringement is taken care of or someone you know saved it...
----Update, April 16, 2007------- The video is back on the air. Not sure how or why, but here is the new link with the same video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCoVaeYHzWA&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Edebatepolitics%2Ecom%2Feducation%2F18755%2Dalarming%2Ddegree%2Dignorance%2Daverage%2Damerican%2Ehtml
I realize that it's probably edited; at least I hope so! And for that matter, it could be completely staged and made up, but still that would mean people have this view of Americans...
Where are we going wrong here?
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
Sad thing is, people in the United States *are* this dumb. My freshman year in biology, I witnessed a girl ask our teacher "Do plants have sex like humans?" and she was completely serious. There's a new show apparently called "Are you smarter than a 5th grader" and its sad how much people don't know, even if it's common knowledge.
There was a girl in my senior biology class that asked us 'how does your body know you're about to have sex' when we were discussing reproduction. Not as bad, but I don't think we ever let her live it down.
Jay Leno has these type of things on all the time. It's truly scary. Though, I admit, the first country I thought of that started with a U was Uruguay, not the United Kingdom or the United States.
~C
Visit my blog.
Yea, my first thought was of Uruguay too...and my husband's first thought was Ukraine.
---------------------------
"Dream as though you'll live forever, but live as though there's no tomorrow" --James Dean
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/fanaile-essence
Uganda!!!
Conformity is the jailor of freedom and the enemy of growth!~JFK
I unfortunately have met people like this, and a majority of them go to my high school. It's quite pathetic how people really are these days.
------
"They can smash your cookie, but you'll always get your fortune."
My blog
There used to be a show that ran on Fox late at night called Street Smarts. This video reminds me of that show... and sadly enough these people are deadly serious. :/
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." -Dr. Seuss
"May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the warm rays of the sun fall upon your home."
TEXAS!!!!!
Uraguay
United States
United Kingdom
Uganda
Ukraine
Uzbekistan
How can people not recognize Australia when they see it on a map?
And hating a country they don't even know exist.
What scares me is that those people are blindly going to the polls and just voting for whoever the republicans tell them. They might as well be zombies.
That is all I can say! Wow!
Conformity is the jailor of freedom and the enemy of growth!~JFK
Would somebody mind summarizing what happens in this video? I can't get it to work on my computer.
the video had a man asking random questions like name a country that begins with the letter U. and people are giving stupid answers. It is really embarrassing.
Conformity is the jailor of freedom and the enemy of growth!~JFK
Oh, bless their ignorant lil' hearts. I'd probably pee myself laughing if I could see it.
That has to be one of the nicest calling someone else ignorant comments ever. Anyone can call someone an idiot.. doing so with diplomacy takes some skill!
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." -Dr. Seuss
"May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the warm rays of the sun fall upon your home."
Ok, there are a lot of stupid people in the world, and people from the U.S. could use a few lessons on the rest of the world, but on the other hand, they obviously interviewed a ton of people and only showed the stupid ones. You could do this in Australia or anywhere else with the same effect. I know for a fact none of my friends would get a single one of those questions wrong. I would be cautious about promoting the idea of people in the U.S. being ignorant because the more you say it is so, the more it will be so. We should focus on the people that are trying to help make this world a better place and who do educate themselves about the rest of the world.
Peace, Ben Dayton
Although they probably did edit the video footage to only show those who weren't that bright.. The world *is* full of stupidity.
Our of just my class (about 500 kids) there are around 100-200 who apply themselves, while the rest take easy classes, don't understand anything going on in a speech class (yes.. all you have to do is write 1 minute about who you admire, and read it.. not that hard) or can't find answers to worksheets which are.. word for word.. the textbook. It's fill in the blank, and they don't seem to understand when it says "Fill in the blank while reading from your textbook."
A lot of the stupidity of the world could be attributed to bad home lives and drugs/alcohol, but I sometimes wonder...
You are right, that we should focus attention on those trying to better the world instead of what new stupid thing a celebrity did (thank those hardworking people at the News stations), because that certainly adds to the ignorance of the world.
We watched this video in American Politics last year and it just amazes me how stupid people really are. My sophmore year in college one of my friends did not know who won the American Revolutionary War and sometimes I feel like how the hell did you get in college. The same year actually a couple weeks later my friend mentioned a 2nd civil war that was in the 1960s I looked at her and said you mean the civil rights movement. These are two very simply things which every American should know.
just to let you know, the link doesnt work anymore. they took the video off of youtube.
Okay, thanks for letting me know. I'll update the blog to reflect that...
---------------------------
"Dream as though you'll live forever, but live as though there's no tomorrow" --James Dean
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/fanaile-essence
The best stupidity experience I've had is in AP English 3, when my teacher was teaching argumentation. Examples of poor logic from actual student papers included:
"I’ve never heard of Dick Cheney, so he’s obviously not that famous."
"Who is the Supreme Court to say what’s constitutional or not?"
"People who break the marijuana laws aren’t criminals."
"He isn’t a very good teacher because he isn’t funny."
"The intermediate license is the worst thing that could happen to a teenager."
"Cars kill more people than guns every year. Therefore cars should be illegal, not guns."
"If we put all the money we spend on prisons into hiring police officers, we wouldn’t have a problem with crime."
"People don’t obey speed limits because the limits are dumb. It’s dumb to have laws that no one follows."
"Eminem didn’t get his high school diploma, and he is a millionaire. So, high school diplomas aren’t that important, really."
"The ultimate impact of the 2000 Election is that fewer people will stay up on election night to find out the results of national elections."
And I live here. Depressing.
the sad part is, i could actually picture a few people i know saying those things. THIS is what they're teaching our high school kids in this country? jeez.
---------
Stephen Colbert: Enemy of the Democrat?
I heard a story from my boyfriend's class today that I have to share.
So, they were learning about events in Spain, and the teacher then said that they were going to look at the same time period in Italy to compare them.
One person seriously asked if Italy was in Spain. Then, after the teacher got out a map, another person asked where Louisiana is, since they were sure that it was in Europe. Keep in mind that these are Americans. Someone then told him something along the lines of 'No, Louisiana is in the US. New Orleans is the capital. Hurricane Katrine ring a bell?'
The person responded that he thought New Orleans was a state, and Katrina was the capital. I repeat that this is an American.
And yet, apparently the person is a genius (in science... he's certainly lacking some brain cells when it comes to geography).
~C
Visit my blog.
LOL, I have met some people with very similar geography skills.
When I was in school for Electronic Media and Broadcasting, there was a girl who swore that France was the capital of England, and that Paris was a suburb :)
---------------------------
"Dream as though you'll live forever, but live as though there's no tomorrow" --James Dean
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/fanaile-essence
Around here Africa is a country!
Conformity is the jailor of freedom and the enemy of growth!~JFK
I though my class was stupis. LOL Guess not. It is pretty funny/sad that people dont know these things.