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Science Section => Science General Discussion => Topic started by: josephpalazzo on June 28, 2013, 09:57:52 AM

Title: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: josephpalazzo on June 28, 2013, 09:57:52 AM
On the acceptance of evolution, the US rates second last after Turkey. Thank God, Turks are dumber than we are!

(//http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff277/josephpalazzo/Acceptanceofevolutionbycountry.jpg) (//http://s243.photobucket.com/user/josephpalazzo/media/Acceptanceofevolutionbycountry.jpg.html)
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: Plu on June 28, 2013, 10:05:49 AM
It scares me that even here, we only get up to 60%. I wonder why that is, and who the target audience is.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: dawiw on June 28, 2013, 10:08:47 AM
That is mind boggling, the US should be in a higher position.

[youtube:18vi2ovl]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56GL2a6mSbM[/youtube:18vi2ovl]

Go to the 4:00 mark

Pastor Ted may have looked like he's the devil himself to Dawkins.

"You will find wrong on some things, right on some other things."
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: _Xenu_ on June 28, 2013, 10:17:40 AM
Quote from: "josephpalazzo"On the acceptance of evolution, the US rates second last after Turkey. Thank God, Turks are dumber than we are!

[ Image (//http://s243.photobucket.com/user/josephpalazzo/media/Acceptanceofevolutionbycountry.jpg.html) ]

Her Shoely wrath will soon show itself.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: GurrenLagann on June 28, 2013, 10:46:22 AM
Dammit...

I do have to wonder whether or not Hitchens was right in that these surveys are often either worded in a leading way or asked of people who "don't even know what it is that they don't believe in".
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: Solitary on June 28, 2013, 10:54:45 AM
Quote from: "dawiw"That is mind boggling, the US should be in a higher position.

Writer posted a YouTube video (//http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56GL2a6mSbM)

Go to the 4:00 mark

Pastor Ted may have looked like he's the devil himself to Dawkins.

"You will find wrong on some things, right on some other things."

Thanks for the video!
Well that video sure answered the question doesn't. "Insanity in individuals is rare, but in groups it is the norm." When a person that is arrogant they make claims or pretensions to superior importance or rights, overbearingly assuming: insolently proud. The very picture of Pastor Ted.  :roll: Solitary
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: Plu on June 28, 2013, 11:01:53 AM
It is pretty scary when you fall far below even countries like Romania and Bulgaria, which aren't exactly known for their universities.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: AllPurposeAtheist on June 28, 2013, 11:07:23 AM
Statistics couldn't possibly be skewed could they? Nobody fucking asked my opinion so results may vary.

You get em Shooz! :)

Dontcha love a good Shoezie smackdown? :D/
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: Solitary on June 28, 2013, 11:20:19 AM
It could be that Turkey and the United States are smarter than all the others and don't accept evolution.  :shock:   :-k   #-o  :lol:  Solitary
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: TrueStory on June 28, 2013, 11:26:16 AM
Reminds me of a Greg Giraldo joke.  Cyprus is beating us?  I didn't even know Cyprus was a country.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: the_antithesis on June 28, 2013, 11:47:48 AM
Americans are dumb because we don't have to be smart.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: the_antithesis on June 28, 2013, 12:23:19 PM
Quote from: "drunkenshoe"
Quote from: "the_antithesis"Americans are dumb because we don't have to be smart.

A very high priced luxury that expired long time ago, now you can't even use.
(//http://unseenlibrarian.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/captain-kirk-inspirational-awesome.jpg)
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: AllPurposeAtheist on June 28, 2013, 12:45:15 PM
Quote from: "drunkenshoe"
Quote from: "AllPurposeAtheist"Statistics couldn't possibly be skewed could they? Nobody fucking asked my opinion so results may vary.

You get em Shooz! :)

Dontcha love a good Shoezie smackdown? :D/

:lol: APA. *Shakes head. You are not helpiiing.
That, my dear requires thought and I'm your #1 fan club. :) Watching you feed their feet to them is all I ask in life.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: AllPurposeAtheist on June 28, 2013, 01:08:16 PM
As to why Americans are dumb.. 30+ years of leaded gasoline.. That explains it. :-k
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: the_antithesis on June 28, 2013, 01:12:15 PM
Quote from: "drunkenshoe"Yes, but it's a black comedy, APA. Some of the posters here already think I am here because I hate Americans. :roll: *Chuckles*

Why wouldn't you hate Americans? Americans hate Americans. Especially on the highway.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: AllPurposeAtheist on June 28, 2013, 01:13:00 PM
What can I say Shooz.. I have a dark sense of humor and the absurd. I don't express things as well as I would like anymore. Perhaps it's drugs, perhaps the dumb is wearing off from the rest of the dumb around me, but none the less you are correct as usual and a whole lot of insecure little dinkies are butt hurt as a result. ;-)
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: AllPurposeAtheist on June 28, 2013, 01:20:54 PM
The messages we get from 'officials' are pretty dumb. Powerful people certainly don't want us smart and if they do they go about it dumb. :-k
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: aitm on June 28, 2013, 08:01:59 PM
Quote from: "drunkenshoe"Americans are not dumb, Turks are not dumb, Africans, Eskimos, Europeans, Chinese are not dumb. Nobody is fucking dumb.
.

specifically no. In general yes. People are indeed dumb.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: the_antithesis on June 28, 2013, 11:35:27 PM
Quote from: "drunkenshoe"Nobody is fucking dumb.

Dummies are dumb.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: Aletheia on June 29, 2013, 01:59:26 AM
Quote from: "drunkenshoe"Nobody is fucking dumb.

Visit the Bible Belt sometime. There are quite a few people who simply lack the necessary brain power to engage in deep, meaningful conversation - let alone any academic achievements. This has nothing to do with environment - they are genetically predispositioned to be borderline retarded. The jokes regarding inbreeding have their roots in some degree of truth.

Furthermore, there is a substantial portion of the U.S. population in the southern states which foster belligerent ignorance and encourages people to wear their stubborn refusal of science as a badge of honor. You'd literally have to be here to truly appreciate the bizarre and unsettling mindset of the people here.

As for Turkey, who knows. You wish to champion your country as being at least smarter than the U.S., well I can't blame you for wanting to at the very least look better than the American south.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: Mermaid on June 29, 2013, 06:45:45 AM
This does not surprise me. It makes me sad, but it doesn't surprise me. And it's exactly why I am not up front about being an atheist. Especially at work.
And in case you don't recall, I am in the scientific field, veterinary medicine. So I work with a bunch of biologists. Christian biologists. I can't exactly process that, but that is how it is.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: Aupmanyav on June 29, 2013, 07:13:28 AM
It makes me sad too. Americans should have been leading the table.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: WitchSabrina on June 29, 2013, 08:27:22 AM
Quote from: "the_antithesis"
Quote from: "drunkenshoe"
Quote from: "the_antithesis"Americans are dumb because we don't have to be smart.

A very high priced luxury that expired long time ago, now you can't even use.
[ Image (//http://unseenlibrarian.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/captain-kirk-inspirational-awesome.jpg) ]


***  coffee spew ***
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: SGOS on June 29, 2013, 09:45:17 AM
Quote from: "Aletheia"
Quote from: "drunkenshoe"Nobody is fucking dumb.

Visit the Bible Belt sometime. There are quite a few people who simply lack the necessary brain power to engage in deep, meaningful conversation - let alone any academic achievements. This has nothing to do with environment - they are genetically predispositioned to be borderline retarded. The jokes regarding inbreeding have their roots in some degree of truth.

Furthermore, there is a substantial portion of the U.S. population in the southern states which foster belligerent ignorance and encourages people to wear their stubborn refusal of science as a badge of honor. You'd literally have to be here to truly appreciate the bizarre and unsettling mindset of the people here.
When just about anyone moves to the Bible Belt, it makes a very small statistical change in the average IQ that actually shows up on the census reports. :-D
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: AllPurposeAtheist on June 29, 2013, 09:47:36 AM
Alethia, it's not just southern states. Ignorance is everywhere and belligerent ignorance is everywhere. Go down to any drug rehab in any city and it's not tough to find. Go to any AA meeting anywhere in the world and it's not tough.. The US south isn't uniquely dumb and in fact I know many well educated, well reasoned people from southern states.
Here in Ohio entire sections of towns are inhabited by ignorant fucks.
The power structure wants and needs the uneducated and ignorant to do their dirty work so it's in every city, every state and every nation.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: SGOS on June 29, 2013, 09:52:47 AM
Quote from: "AllPurposeAtheist"Alethia, it's not just southern states. Ignorance is everywhere and belligerent ignorance is everywhere.

Don't be a piss ant.  We're having fun shitting on the Bible Belt. :-D
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: AllPurposeAtheist on June 29, 2013, 09:56:11 AM
Wherever there's trouble, wherever there's injustice, wherever there's dumb people.. I'll be there.. :shock:

Hey..that didn't come out right did it? :oops:
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: Solitary on June 29, 2013, 10:09:42 AM
I resemble that remark!  :P  Solitary
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: Sal1981 on June 29, 2013, 10:12:20 AM
Lol, Iceland is ahead of Denmark.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: josephpalazzo on June 29, 2013, 11:00:33 AM
It's been in the American culture since its nascent days to vilify anything that is representative of authority, be it the government or an expert who contradicts one's cherished beliefs. On top of that, you have big corporations pouring billions of dollars to dummy down the culture. And you have one complete party, from a two-party system, that's bought hook, line and sinker into this -- you've got Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) and Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), both members of the science committee, who have made their anti-science views well known. So this poll results shouldn't surprise anyone.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: La Dolce Vita on June 29, 2013, 11:07:36 AM
Almost 20% of Norwegians believe that evolution is false? I'm not buying that. You should note the small amount of people asked from each country. The error margins are likely huge.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: Plu on June 29, 2013, 02:12:08 PM
I wouldn't be so sure. If they asked a random sampling then it's going to include a bunch of old people who haven't been inside a school since the 60s. Odds are quite good that they simply have no clue what evolution is and were still raised on religion.

If the results were from sampling people in their 30s and younger, I wouldn't buy them. But if you include grandma, it seems plausible enough.
It'll also include your local dumbfuck community which exists in every country and is very minor, but will still make up a decent percentage. And never forget that people are always dumber than you expected them to be.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: La Dolce Vita on June 29, 2013, 03:44:05 PM
Also, remember that the people who actually answer surveys are typically people sitting around with little to do. Interestingly I answered my first phone survey ever today. Always just hung up, but then I realized how important such stats can be.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: Colanth on July 05, 2013, 05:36:16 PM
Quote from: "Aletheia"
Quote from: "drunkenshoe"Nobody is fucking dumb.
Visit the Bible Belt sometime. There are quite a few people who simply lack the necessary brain power to engage in deep, meaningful conversation - let alone any academic achievements. This has nothing to do with environment - they are genetically predispositioned to be borderline retarded. The jokes regarding inbreeding have their roots in some degree of truth.
The ones who truly amaze me here are the ones who have academic achievements (up to and including doctorates in non-religious subjects) - who are firmly in the YEC camp.  The level of cognitive dissonance is astounding.

Quote from: "drunkenshoe"Do you mean to say these people make so a large proportion of the population of the US that we need to count them in the first place when we need to draw the basic characteristics of a 300 million nation? Are you serious?
They make up almost 100% of the population in the southern states, Shoe.  If you tune the radio dial here, other than country and western music, you hear Christian stations.  Not just on Sunday mornings, like the rest of the country, but 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.  These people take their Christianity more seriously than a drug addict takes his drugs.  They're not addicted to religion, their religion is what they are.

Draw a line starting at the east coast, just south of Washington, DC, and extend it west to Oklahoma and Texas.  The vast majority of the people living south of that line are raving fundamentalist Christians.

Do they influence the country as a whole?  In the 2012 presidential election, 3 of the 17 nominally southern states went for Obama, and the results were pretty close in them.  (And some of them have a decent number of electoral votes, which is apportioned by population.)  So I guess you could say that they do.

Quotepeople are required to be made 'stupid' and also made 'hate' each other domestic and international so they could be herded. This is not some conspiracy. People always act for their benefits as the way they see it
People in the northern states see "their benefit" as that which actually benefits them.  People in the southern states see it as that which they've been told - usually by their religious leaders - is best for them.  Don't vote for the "Christian" candidate?  You'll end up in hell when you die.  You vote for the candidate who will raise your taxes, lower your salary and reduce your benefits - because your pastor tells you to?  It takes a certain amount of lack of intelligence (or one hell of a lot of indoctrination as a young child) to use that as the entire basis for your life.

Yet that's how it works here in the south.  Evolution is crocoducks and never happened, but praise Jesus and you'll have a good life after you die (even if you don't have enough money to eat, and tithe half of that to the church under various scams).  This life doesn't matter, only your "eternal life with Jesus" does.  Yes - they actually believe that.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: The Skeletal Atheist on July 05, 2013, 07:40:43 PM
Americans don't need to be smart. We just need to be able to hold a gun and run when they tell us to run...we also need to be able to readily produce cannon fodder. Americans being smart and alert would run counter to the program.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: Hydra009 on July 06, 2013, 02:04:57 AM
Quote from: "Colanth"They make up almost 100% of the population in the southern states, Shoe.  If you tune the radio dial here, other than country and western music, you hear Christian stations.  Not just on Sunday mornings, like the rest of the country, but 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.  These people take their Christianity more seriously than a drug addict takes his drugs.  They're not addicted to religion, their religion is what they are.

Draw a line starting at the east coast, just south of Washington, DC, and extend it west to Oklahoma and Texas.  The vast majority of the people living south of that line are raving fundamentalist Christians.
It's not *that* bad.  We have some top 40, pop, and I can attest from first hand experience that there's even the occasional rock station.

And while the fundies are definitely out in force, they're not the majority (//http://religions.pewforum.org/maps).  (at least, evangelicals are not the majority in most states in the South)  They're pretty sizable minorities there, though.  ...wow, that really did not help my case very that much.

The bright side is that these fundamentalist beliefs (along with Christianity as a whole) are slowly dying off in the US (//http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-03-09-ARIS-faith-survey_N.htm).  Creationism, too (//http://www.gallup.com/poll/114544/darwin-birthday-believe-evolution.aspx), even though it sure doesn't look that way (//http://www.gallup.com/poll/155003/Hold-Creationist-View-Human-Origins.aspx).
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: Hydra009 on July 06, 2013, 02:16:46 AM
Quote from: "drunkenshoe"Turkiye is not a European, nor a Western country. The list is specificly a western list. Suddenly Turks need to be included? Oooh I see.
Turkey has, in recent years, become something of a breeding grounds for creationism.  (Harun Yahya)  Apparently, the researchers wanted to know how bad the situation there was.

Since then, there have been more polls on the matter.  I'm sure we all remember the recent Muslim poll (//http://www.pewforum.org/uploadedFiles/Topics/Religious_Affiliation/Muslim/worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-full-report.pdf).  Way down on page 132, there's a poll regarding evolution.  Turkey is NOT the worst one there by a long shot.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: Gawdzilla Sama on July 06, 2013, 06:24:58 AM
I don't think anybody can get a good read on what the average American knows because they've been trained to lie about their beliefs.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: PopeyesPappy on July 06, 2013, 01:12:12 PM
Quote from: "drunkenshoe"However, I am sick of the country being listed in different regions according to the politics at hand Hydra. Turkiye shouldn't have been in that list in the OP. They can make that research for Turkiye without comparing it with completely different countries if they really wonder.

Actually even United States shouldn't be in that list.

Well Shoe, perhaps Turkey, the US and Japan are on that list not because they are being compared with European countries, but because they are being compared to other countries defined as developed. Now different organizations have differing definitions of what a developed country is so the countries that appear on those list are sometimes different. In order to make any of the lists the country must have a post industrial economy which includes Turkey. Some set a minimum for GDP per capita. Depending on where that limit is set it could exclude Turkey. But the list of countries in the OP closely matches the original list of developed countries as shown in the CIA World Fact Book minus Australia.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: Rajhoul on July 07, 2013, 12:31:39 PM
Jacque Fresco:
The more justice you seek, the more hurt you become because there's no such thing as justice. There is whatever there is out there. That's it. In other words, if people are conditioned to be racist bigots- if they are brought up in an environment that advocates that why do you blame the person for it? They are a victim of a subculture. Therefore they have to be helped. The point is, we have to redesign the environment that produces aberrant behavior. That's the problem. Not putting a person in jail. That's why judges, lawyers, "freedom of choice" - such concepts are dangerous, because it gives you misinformation. That the person is "bad" or that person is a "serial killer". Serial killers are made just like soldiers become serial killers with a machine gun. They become killing machines, but nobody looks at them as murderers or assassins because that's "natural". So we blame people. We say, "Well, this guy was a Nazi - he tortured Jews". No, he was brought up to torture Jews. "Once you accept the fact that people have individual choices and they are free to make those choices." Free to make choices means without being influenced and I can't understand that at all. All of us are influenced in all of our choices by the culture we live in, by our parents and by the values that dominate. So, we're influenced- so there can't be "free" choices. What's the greatest country in the world?' - the true answer: I haven't been all over the world and I don't know enough about different cultures to answer that question.' I don't know anybody that speaks that way. They say, "It's the good old USA! The greatest country in the world!" There is no survey. 'Have you been to India?' - 'No.' 'Have you been to England?' - 'No.' 'Have you been to France?' - 'No.' 'Then what do you make your assumptions on?' They can't answer, they get mad at you. They say, 'God dammit! Who the hell are you to tell me what to think?!' You know. Don't forget: you're dealing with aberrated people. They are not responsible for their answers; they're victims of culture and that means they have been influenced by their culture.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: Colanth on July 07, 2013, 08:17:50 PM
Quote from: "drunkenshoe"The thing is, what gets to me actually that I see in countless things the country being put in different continent, symbolising a different edge of a culture PAP.
To most Westerners, Turkey is located in Asia Minor (or the Middle East), but is culturally European (or, at least, a lot more European than most countries anywhere geographically near it).  Whether it is or not is another matter - I don't know enough Turks to be able to answer that.  But that's Western thought, for the most part.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: AllPurposeAtheist on July 07, 2013, 08:36:20 PM
We're all dumb for not drawing and quartering referees in football matches the way they do in Brazil. That's the ticket baby! Cut their damned heads off, stick em on a pike and warn referees everywhere, 'DON'T FUCKING STAB OUR SIDE OR ELSE!'

And THAT'S why we're dumb. :)
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: Hydra009 on July 07, 2013, 11:06:53 PM
Quote from: "AllPurposeAtheist"We're all dumb for not drawing and quartering referees in football matches the way they do in Brazil. That's the ticket baby! Cut their damned heads off, stick em on a pike and warn referees everywhere, 'DON'T FUCKING STAB OUR SIDE OR ELSE!'
//http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misleading_vividness
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: AllPurposeAtheist on July 08, 2013, 12:27:30 AM
I
Quote from: "Hydra009"
Quote from: "AllPurposeAtheist"We're all dumb for not drawing and quartering referees in football matches the way they do in Brazil. That's the ticket baby! Cut their damned heads off, stick em on a pike and warn referees everywhere, 'DON'T FUCKING STAB OUR SIDE OR ELSE!'
//http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misleading_vividness
Oh now I have to be factual.. Factual schmactual.. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: GurrenLagann on July 08, 2013, 02:16:53 AM
Guys, if you don't live in the Bible-Belt, it's pretty damn hard to imagine. Yes, there are fuckwits everywhere, probably just as dumb as we've got. But there's a concentrated, yet expansive amount of it here. I mean from the inane rhetoric on Christian radio stations (of which there are just tons), to the absurdity and borderline absolute certainty preached from just about every pulpit I've ever sat in on, to the schools (from which I graduated just 2 years back).

I mean yes, you'll find a number of competent and intelligent folk in these parts (Austin is a rare oasis), but overall in areas relating to or teaching science (especially biology) or promoting social equality, you often find a veritable reservoir of contempt and/or hate. I mean fuck, I sat in at a nearby church service, only to walk out laughing when the preacher referred to 50 Shades of Gray as a "filth and a disgusting work of Satanic anti-Christianism".

I fucking kid you not.  #-o
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: Cheerful Charlie on August 05, 2013, 07:36:48 PM
When our states are often in the grip of idiots like the Texas Board of Education, I am surprised things aren't worse.

"God created idiots, but first he created school boards for practice."
 - Mark Twain

Cheerful Charlie
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: josephpalazzo on August 06, 2013, 09:33:38 AM
Quote from: "Cheerful Charlie"When our states are often in the grip of idiots like the Texas Board of Education, I am surprised things aren't worse.

"God created idiots, but first he created school boards for practice."
 - Mark Twain

Cheerful Charlie

The US would be a great nation had the North let the South go. Lincoln was wrong.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: Colanth on August 06, 2013, 03:42:00 PM
Quote from: "josephpalazzo"The US would be a great nation had the North let the South go. Lincoln was wrong.
Pennsylvania is in the North.
Title: Re: Why Americans are dumb
Post by: Hydra009 on August 06, 2013, 04:34:04 PM
Quote from: "josephpalazzo"The US would be a great nation had the North let the South go. Lincoln was wrong.
As much as I want to sympathize with this sentiment, that's a bit extreme.  The South isn't as terrible as its reputation would imply.  Its major cities are culturally and politically very similar to northern cities.  (Rural areas are another story...)  And high levels of immigration between each region in the U.S. has steadily been wearing down the social differences between them.  Its relative backwardness on a lot of key issues is frustrating to say the least, but it's something that has to be endured and fixed, not excised.