"Independence" Day? Huh?
I hate to wreck the Fourth of July euphoria and all, but check out these sobering statistics.
Twenty-six percent of Americans do not know which country the United States achieved independence from.
When asked which country they thought we achieved independence from, the 26-percenters' responses included China, France, Japan, Spain and Mexico.
Discuss.
posted by Tom Harper @ 12:23 AM
16 Comments:
It would be to easy to blame it on Texas and it's re-writing on history, especially since Southern revisionist history is over 140 years old.
I've also read some where they could place WW2, Korea, and Vietnam in order. Couldn't tell who what the Circumstances were or who we were fighting or why.
Or my favorite where the Preamble to the Constitution is identified as communist propaganda.
Wasn't it McCain's opponent in the Primary who claimed we never declared War on Germany in WW2?
It runs all the way to the top.
Erik
Jesus.
Welcome to the land of mediocrity reigning supreme in the field of education.
I thought Independence Day was when Wil Smith beat back the alien invasion!
Seriously, when 18% of the people identify themselves with the Tea Party revisionist history, can this be far behind?
...last one out,please turn off the light.
The dumbing down of America has worked. Congrats to the Republican party. See what happens when your whole platform is based on bumper stickers. Palin for President...
Todd for Supreme Court...
All this time I thought it was Iceland, so we would not have to deal with redeheaded Vikings anymore. The things you learn on the "Internets" are just amazing.
Since they're so stupid, they won't mind it a bit when the fascist dictatorship is imposed.
I remarked the other day that it is no accident that the numbers in this poll roughly correspond to the percentage od Americans who believe that Chimpy is the Second Coming, or the Wasilla White Trash Welfare Queen is just a reg'lar old hockey mom.
And believe me, it isn't an accident of circumstance. Not at all.
Please NOTE: Blogger seems to be screwing up again. If your comment doesn't appear here, it didn't get rejected. (Except Lisa -- your 2 comments did get rejected.)
There are eight comments that got published. There were all here; now there are only two. If they don't reappear, I can always copy them from my e-mail.
The only thing that surprises me is that the numbers weren't much higher.
Wow and I had such a pithy witty comment too. Just kidding, it was no more pithy and intelligent than my usual :) Hmm, same thing happened when I posted a reply on Parsley's Pics. It was there and I went back to see if anyone had answered me and it was gone. Maybe she didn't know who I was though. Curiouser and curiouser
Thanks everyone for your comments. Here are all the comments that aren't appearing, copied from my e-mail notification:
Erik: It would be to easy to blame it on Texas and it's re-writing on history, especially since Southern revisionist history is over 140 years old.
I've also read some where they could place WW2, Korea, and Vietnam in order. Couldn't tell who what the Circumstances were or who we were fighting or why.
Or my favorite where the Preamble to the Constitution is identified as communist propaganda.
Wasn't it McCain's opponent in the Primary who claimed we never declared War on Germany in WW2?
It runs all the way to the top.
Bee: Jesus.
Welcome to the land of mediocrity reigning supreme in the field of education.
Lew Scannon: I thought Independence Day was when Wil Smith beat back the alien invasion!
Seriously, when 18% of the people identify themselves with the Tea Party revisionist history, can this be far behind?
Anonymous: ...last one out,please turn off the light.
Tim: The dumbing down of America has worked. Congrats to the Republican party. See what happens when your whole platform is based on bumper stickers. Palin for President...
Todd for Supreme Court...
Jess: All this time I thought it was Iceland, so we would not have to deal with redeheaded Vikings anymore. The things you learn on the "Internets" are just amazing.
Aww, I guess I'll have to miss Lisa's comedy.
Yes, and a few years ago a survey was taken in which the First Amendment was read to people on the street, and they were asked if that should be law. I don't remember the percentage of those saying no, but it was appalling.
As J.R. points out, it's the kind of outlandish ignorance that makes it possible for a George W. Bush to get elected and then re-elected.
I saw a 2002 article from USA Today saying 70 percent thought Saddam had something to do with 9-11. Amerika will embrace its police state.
SW: I've heard those stories too. The First Amendment, the Preamble (like Erik was talking about) -- people hear it and think it was written by communists or student radicals, and whoever wrote it should be locked up, etc.
Dave: The scariest part of that is, for awhile the percentage kept going up. After it was firmly established and reported relentlessly by the media that Saddam Hussein had no connection with al Qaeda or 9/11, a year later there were actually more people who believed Hussein/9-11/al Qaeda were all connected.
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