If you believe the President reflects the electorate, the results seem pretty accurate.
Here’s just a few of the stats on the poll of 1001 Americans. Take it for yourself (cover up the answers with your hand as you go down the page) and see how you fare. My guess is readers of this blog will do better than average, although considering some of the comments we get….
Poll: What Americans (Don’t) Know
Even today, more than four years into the war in Iraq, as many as four in 10 Americans (41 percent) still believe Saddam Hussein’s regime was directly involved in financing, planning or carrying out the terrorist attacks on 9/11, even though no evidence has surfaced to support a connection. A majority of Americans were similarly unable to pick Saudi Arabia in a multiple-choice question about the country where most of the 9/11 hijackers were born. Just 43 percent got it right—and a full 20 percent thought most came from Iraq.
[…]
Our understanding of broader global affairs and history is sketchy at best. Less than half (42 percent) of the public was aware that Iraq only existed as an independent nation since 1920; 15 percent think Iraq existed as a country before and nearly half (43 percent) refrained from even guessing. Conversely, more than half (60 percent) could identify Vladimir Putin as Russia’s leader. Only three in 10 (29 percent) are aware that nine countries posses nuclear weapons. Four in 10 (38 percent) think only five countries posses such technology; 21 percent put the number of nuclear countries at 11.Roughly half (53 percent) are aware that Judaism is an older religion than both Christianity and Islam (41 percent aren’t sure).
You can imagine how the science portion went.
I’d like to see a “z-score” run on this poll to establish its bell shape.
It should come out bell shaped–ie, simply reflecting (not measuring) the IQ of the general population.
To that end, yes, the average person is not that smart. Nothing new. and it goes to No 22, As a matter of fact, I do get mostly shot down in bars. It comes mostly from ladies who like you who think quoting Shakespear relevantly to a conversation is a cheesy come on line. Sadly, I have been successful saying “Whazzz Up”, but you gotta score every once in a while.
#8, The sun is THE source of global warming. Whether changes in its output it is contributing to climate change or not is the question. No sun, no warming…
Regardless, teachers and parents are to blame for the general lack of knowledge, the order of blame is debateable.
Of course the country at large is ignorant. Any country that would elect Bush (twice) proves that…I don’t need a poll for that.
Any country that believes huge-ass SUVs are a good mode of transportation is ignorant.
Any country that complains when gas prices for said gas guzzlers is ignorant.
Any country that has automakers who continue to pump out 300+ hp gas monsters is ignorant.
Matt: A question can’t be incorrect.
They didn’t spell Jane Austen’s name correctly!
#34 – Regardless, teachers and parents are to blame for the general lack of knowledge, the order of blame is debateable.
Yes. It is the fault of “teachers” and “parents”. It isn’t my fault or your fault or the fault of the idiot who doesn’t know jack despite having had both teachers and parents who offered them knowledge.
No… Clearly, your logic, reasoning, and evidence is unassailable. Teachers and parents are to blame.
I say we banish all teachers and parents from this nation now! That will surely solve the problem.
—
So how did we devolve into a society that just places blame at the feet of whatever convenient group is available to have it laid at? Rather than accept what the Republicans like to call “personal responsibility”, instead we just blame and blame and blame. We sometimes cast blame for things we don’t even have reason to believe are problems.
I blame the lawyers.
#36 – Milo… If you’d kindly do me a favor, please reference the number of the post you are referencing. 🙂 As the thread grows it’s hard to keep track of what is being responded to.
OhForTheLoveOf :36, 32, 28, 18, 17,9, 7, 3. Hopefully you know the difference between question and answer. Matt’s got some issues with that. S and B just isn’t reading carefully. Angus (34) doesn’t get it either.
But hey, truthiness!
#40 – Thanks… But I meant, in the future 🙂
Yes… I know the difference.
The question was… 23. Which of the following does NOT contribute to global warming?
And of the four answers, the one marked as correct was 17. Greater output from the sun
But that is not “correct” but rather speculated to be correct… But it’s probably incorrect, as greater output does most likely (and according to some if not many in not all scientists) contribute to global warming.
I doubt that is in dispute. The question we wrestle with is how much does it contribute and to what extent does human activity contribute and there you’ll find consensus but not universal agreement. This lack of universal agreement inspires some to say that we should just keep on being wasteful and excessive rather than being proactive.
But that’s why I said that three of the questions could not be said to be objective, and that was one of them. As long as Matt isn’t one of these “global warming is a myth” guys, I’m not sure why his statement is wrong. It is undiplomatic, but then, so am I quite often so I can’t really attack him for that.
But since I’m talking about Matt now…
#14 – I think ignorance has been pretty helpful for the Dems as well. How many campaign promises have been broken just since the last election? Did anything actually change when they took control of the House and Senate? Sorta looks like the same old bullshit to me.
Dems came into office barely 6 months ago. How long do you think they should be given to change things? Since they lack enough votes to sweep change through because of lack of Republican support, do you think they should simply wave a magic wand and change everything?
Or are you simply in favor of the other guys? Republicans have been fucking up this country for many years now. Why should we always allow plenty of time for the right to prove their ideas work, but when the left doesn’t change things in the blink of an eye, it’s “throw the bums out”?
I love statistics.
13 of the 30 questions (43%) had answers where the most-picked answer was considered incorrect (including 4 incorrect by only 1%).
Of those 13 questions, #30 states 25% of the respondents were Republican.
Overall, that seems like such a small number of Republicans who were wrong.
RBG
Here are some important questions I have to know about:
1. What time does the last bus to NYC Port Authority arrive at the last stop in New Jersey?
2. Which train from the port authority NY is closest to 135 W. 50th Steet, 7th ave?
3. How much does it cost to travel in NYC subway, one way?
4. How long does it take for the NJ Transit bus 135 leaving the NYC Port authority at 5:15pm, to reach the first stop in NJ (GSP exit 120 Park & ride)? Hint: The trip is approx. 35 miles.
5. What is automake?
6. How do you reset a stringstream in C++?
7. Why can immigrants assilate the US culture and way of life?
8. Why don’t immigrants associate with other US citizens?
9. What happened to our great melting pot?
….
Question #5 is an opinion question. There is no “correct answer”. The question asks From what you know of the situation, do you think …
Question #6 is pure opinion. There is still a drive, especially from Dick Cheney and the Right Wing Nut crowd to push that thought. When people are being taught one thing is true they should not be penalized if it is actually wrong. The purpose of propaganda is to form the public’s opinion, which has happened here.
Question #7 is wrong. American troops HAVE found chemical weapons. That the artillery shells were probably degraded past use and date from the 1980s and the Iraqi – Iranian War is irrelevant, they were found.
Question #12 is wrong. You can’t answer a question with a question. Also, the war did end in 1953 with a cease fire. Although there has been no further “peace treaty” nor surrender, neither has there been any continued violence. There has been no official “surrender” by the Branch Davidians after the American government invaded Waco either.
Questions 18, 19, 22, 28 are silly, specialized questions normal average people need not know.
Question #23 is wrong. ALL plant life absorb CO2, a cause of global warming as well as UV radiation which heats the planet surface.
Question #27 is wrong. Pride and Prejudice was not written by Jane Austin. It was written by Jane Austen.
Question 30 is just opinion.
So, out of 30 questions, there are 11 either wrong, silly, or just opinion related. Not a very measurement to gage American’s intelligence. But a good indicator of the smug attitude that some pseudo-intellects have about the American populace.
#42
Thanks for explaining my issue with question 23. I ran out of energy and gave up. So, I think *most* of us are in agreement that the ANSWER assumes something that is still very much a topic of debate. …that’s all I was saying. 🙂
“Dems came into office barely 6 months ago. How long do you think they should be given to change things? Since they lack enough votes to sweep change through because of lack of Republican support, do you think they should simply wave a magic wand and change everything?”
I dunno, I’ve heard the same sort of logic used to blame Bush for 9/11. Democrats said he was responsible and should have stopped it, Republicans countered that he’d only been in office for six months and that Clinton had left things a mess. My point is that it’s silly to even argue about it because both parties are made up of people who are essentially the same.
Call me crazy but I think that they’re both so beholden to special interests that they’re utterly useless to the average citizen. I used to think one was better than the other but eventually realized that I had just bought into a line of bullshit so I would keep turning out to vote; like some sort of drone.
Look, if you’re a liberal, the Democrats will try to get you fired-up about things they know liberals care about. Likewise, the Republicans know exactly what buttons to push with conservative voters. It’s a game.
When I watch politicians from the two parties, I’m reminded of that old Warner Bros cartoon, with the sheep dog and the wolf. They both fight like hell during the day, putting on a spectacular show for everyone, and then they shake hands at the end of the day and go home.
It’ll be like this as long as there’s big money in politics.
42-46==Gee, before the bible was written people knew the sun heats the earth? You are “overthinking” the issue or politicizing it.
Question–if the sun’s output was twice as much would the earth heat up, cool off, or remain the same?
Ten times?
100 Times?
How many times before you get it?
#46 – I dunno, I’ve heard the same sort of logic used to blame Bush for 9/11. Democrats said he was responsible and should have stopped it, Republicans countered that he’d only been in office for six months and that Clinton had left things a mess. My point is that it’s silly to even argue about it because both parties are made up of people who are essentially the same.
I understand that its frustrating, but I’ll just say this…
Anyone who says 9/11 is Bush’s fault is an idiot, and anyone who says he should have known about the attack is being speculative. Anyone who says Clinton left things a shambles had better not have praise for how the military performed in the initial aftermath of 9/11 – because a new President only gets the military that was left for him to command and you can’t say Clinton screwed it up AND it performed well.
Democrats didn’t say he should have known. SOME Democrats did, so did some Libertarians, Greens, Independents, Communists, Girl Scouts, Teamsters, Gay Pride Marchers, Dog Groomers, and even one or two Republicans… And while I won’t say he should have known the date and time and methodology, despite the memo with the haunting headline, his eye wasn’t on the ball and his performance afterwards was abysmal.
But the two parties are not the same and the system isn’t full of corruption. That’s the lazy way to analyze it. There are 500+ elected citizens federally and and some big number times 50 at the state level and I don’t even wanna guess locally, who are charged with managing billions of dollars and writing the policies that effect over 300 million citizens. Do you imagine that might be complex?
Politics is a game of inches. Moments of sweeping change are rare and even when they do happen, they never happen suddenly. Women’s Suffrage and desegregation are two such radical changes, but they weren’t decided casually one Tuesday afternoon over tea. There was strife and turmoil that went with it.
We all bitch and moan that Congress is in the hip pocket of “big business”, as if “big business” is a nebulous monolith where all members share one common interest. And certainly there are times when it seems a so-called special interest wields too much power, and perhaps they do, but the caricature of the fat cigar smoking “fat cat” politician, ignoring the people and bowing to business bigwigs is just that… a caricature.
And keep in mind, EVERY “average” citizen belongs to at least one “special interest” whether they know it or not.
If your special interest isn’t getting the ear of your representation, then what will you do about it? Complain to me? Or get involved and complain to them? You might soon learn that governing isn’t all golf and fancy dinners.
#46, Matt
I’ve heard the same sort of logic used to blame Bush for 9/11. Democrats said he was responsible and should have stopped it, Republicans countered that he’d only been in office for six months and that Clinton had left things a mess.
Apples and oranges. Bush is the head of the Executive Branch. He is in charge of the day to day crap that happens. Including how to react to a threat. He has the authority to prioritize and react. The Democrats control the Legislative Branch. They enact the laws and authorize the money the Executive spends. In case you missed that part of your civics class, legislation is a consensus process and therefore takes time.
As I recall, the only things the Republicans were complaining about, upon taking over, were that the White House computers were missing the keys on the keyboards. A complaint later shown to be false. Rumsfeld, remember the guy running the Department of Defense, was instituting plans to further reduce the size of the military in favor of high tech weaponry. That policy didn’t change until the decision to invade Iraq was made and the Generals pointed out they didn’t have enough manpower.
What you hear and what the truth is makes a difference. Right Wing Nut radio is not the place to get your news.
49-50 Two great posts to finish this thread off. Hope to pick it up again.
46. I agree with you Matt. Sorry guys ( Fusion and OFTLO) but his last post blows you all away. I could be more eloquent and elaborative but the guy nailed it on #46. You two, respectfully, are blinded by your liberlaism.