Are Americans unusually stupid???

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financeguy said:


By comparison to whom? Russians put up with a lot more encroachments on personal liberty by comparison, as do Chinese. If we are going to argue that Americans are stupid, we would have to argue that Russians and Chinese are stupider.
On paper Americans have better guarantees of fundamental liberties like free speech and freedom of worship (or not) than most other countries (I am a bit pressed to think of one that has as celebrated a history on that front). As far as being stupider America has a mean IQ of 98 or so, but then I guess they could just blame that on the blacks (that was an ironic statement about 'The Bell Curve).
 
Let's see we have tent cities popping up in Los Angles and all the American media can do is make an issues out of stupid stuff like flag pins. Does the media have low IQs or did they cheated their way through college? Oh wait the American media didn't get a degree because they went to modeling school.
Here is a video of a tent city in L.A. It's coming to your town too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmeHiFZUWtE
 
i think this is what tends to happen more in the US than in other countries.

we have very little government funded media/news organizations. the major networks and the cable news networks are all in the business of ratings, not news. the vast difference in news quality between NPR and CNN and Jim Lehrer and Fox News is astonishing -- i've spent loads of time watching the much vaunted BBC, and i adore it, and it blows CNN out of the water, but it is actually not quite of the same quality as NPR/PBS. it's scope is broader than the American government-funded equivalents, but the quality is, imho, slightly higher.

if American news were about news and not about ratings, you'd see a massive voter shift at the polls. such as it is now, news becomes not about events but about the spin of events, or not the election but the sense of the horse race of the election, and not the message but how those who receive the message might perceive it. spin, shock, scandal, the sense that Obama and HRC are in some kind of boxing match -- all this heightens the sense of drama, raises the perceived stakes, and gives viewers a reason to tune in. and you get questions about flag pins.

also, the US is a massive country. there are probably more highly educated, latte-sipping elitists in the US than Canadians in all of Canada. but there are 300m total, and many people simply aren't given the same access to education and, more importantly, the tools to become more sophisticated. i'd argue that intelligence is one thing, and it's manifested in myriad different ways, and that is found in all groups and all places and has nothing to do with environment or to whom you were born. but sophistication is something that is hard to acquire without some money and motivation, and not everyone has that.

finally, it's impossible to compare 300m Americans to 30m Canadians, 60m Brits, 10m Swedes, or 25m Australians. you just can't have any meaningful comparisons.

that said, for all my frustrations, i'd be hard pressed to really want to live anywhere else.
 
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Irvine511 said:
also, the US is a massive country. there are probably more highly educated, latte-sipping elitists in the US than Canadians in all of Canada. but there are 300m total, and many people simply aren't given the same access to education and, more importantly, the tools to become more sophisticated. i'd argue that intelligence is one thing, and it's manifested in myriad different ways, and that is found in all groups and all places and has nothing to do with environment or to whom you were born. but sophistication is something that is hard to acquire without some money and motivation, and not everyone has that.

finally, it's impossible to compare 300m Americans to 30m Canadians, 60m Brits, 10m Swedes, or 25m Australians. you just can't have any meaningful comparisons.

that said, for all my frustrations, i'd be hard pressed to really want to live anywhere else.

No country is perfect. I think that's something that everyone should remember. Having studied a lot of countries informally, I'd say that every nation has its irrational hot-button issue(s), asinine politicians, and, of course, the "idiots" who voted them in in the first place.

Having said that, I often wonder where I'd live if money was no object. Well, for one, I'd have to take tax and residency considerations into consideration to dictate how long I'd stay in one place during a year. But my mind is inclined to want to wander Europe for part of the year, and parts of South America for other parts of it too.

Nevertheless, the U.S. does have its advantages, particularly in terms of being a good environment for entrepreneurial types and overachievers, not to mention, overall, having a rather healthy appetite for freedom and fairness. Granted, both are obviously open to interpretation to many people, and I'm not entirely happy in this regard. But, again, no country is perfect.
 
I don't know. This past week I met a guy from Ottawa who tried to get me to go back to his hotel room.

In front of my parents.

That's pretty stupid, so I guess it's not just limited to us Americans.
 
Re: Re: Are Americans unusually stupid???

toscano said:
Well, as a fellow American, are you ?

No. I am really, awesomely smart.

I am so smart!
I am so smart!
S-M-R-T!

... I mean, S-M-A-R-T!

(thanks, Homer Simpson)
 
Re: Re: Re: Are Americans unusually stupid???

corianderstem said:


No. I am really, awesomely smart.

I am so smart!
I am so smart!
S-M-R-T!

... I mean, S-M-A-R-T!

(thanks, Homer Simpson)

sorry, meant to direct at the original poster, who may not be smart enough he/she is a fellow American.
 
After reading this article, I grow more convinced that yes, Americans are unusually stupid.

JONESVILLE, S.C. -- The sign in front of a small church in a small town is causing a big controversy in Jonesville, S.C.
Pastor Roger Byrd said that he just wanted to get people thinking. So last Thursday, he put a new message on the sign at the Jonesville Church of God.
It reads: "Obama, Osama, hmm, are they brothers?"

Byrd said that the message wasn't meant to be racial or political.
"It's simply to cause people to realize and to see what possibly could happen if we were to get someone in there that does not believe in Jesus Christ," he said.
When asked if he believes that Barack Obama is Muslim, Byrd said, "I don't know. See it asks a question: Are they brothers? In other words, is he Muslim ? I don't know. He says he's not. I hope he's not. But I don't know. And it's just something to try to stir people's minds. It was never intended to hurt feelings or to offend anybody."
Obama has said repeatedly during his campaign that he is a Christian and attends Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
Despite some criticism, Byrd says that the message will stay on the sign. He took the issue before his congregation Sunday night, and they decided unanimously to keep it.
Byrd also said he doesn't want it to look like controversy forced him to take the sign down.

http://www.wyff4.com/news/15948849/detail.html
 
If Obama is elected

I do not think he will turn the Lincoln Bedroom into a "Prayer Room." (for the 5 times a day praying).

But. is it a stretch to think that he would put a "Prayer Room" in the Whitehouse?
 
"It was never intended to hurt feelings or to offend anybody."
This idiot just offended a whole religion and claims he didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings?

Individual people are unusually stupid.
 
corianderstem said:
I don't know. This past week I met a guy from Ottawa who tried to get me to go back to his hotel room.

In front of my parents.

That's pretty stupid, so I guess it's not just limited to us Americans.

Yeah, Ottawa's a close second. It's because they're all Senators fans.
 
deep said:
If Obama is elected

I do not think he will turn the Lincoln Bedroom into a "Prayer Room." (for the 5 times a day praying).

But. is it a stretch to think that he would put a "Prayer Room" in the Whitehouse?

Care to clarify exactly what you're getting at here?
 
Diemen said:
Care to clarify exactly what you're getting at here?
If Barack Hussein Obama is elected President
it is likely there will be a "Muslim prayer room" in the Whitehouse.

this will be a first.
Along with not having an all white male as the President.

If John Sidney McCain III is elected
it is not likely there will be a Muslim prayer room in the Whitehouse
and all of the American Presidents will have been white males.
 
deep said:

If Barack Hussein Obama is elected President
it is likely there will be a "Muslim prayer room" in the Whitehouse.

Um, no. I asked you to clarify exactly what you're getting at, not what fearmongering bigots on the airwaves are getting at. Unless you've turned into one of them.
 
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