Why I’m Afraid of Americans
Last month, Newsweek conducted a poll in which it asked Americans questions regarding American history, world history, current events, and geography. Predictably, the results were less than encouraging. 89% percent of those polled, for example, were unable to name the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (John Roberts) while 63% were unable to name the first person to win the presidency as a Republican (Abraham Lincoln).
However, one of the most disheartening results was the number of Americans polled who continue to believe that Saddam Hussein was directly involved in planning, financing, or carrying out the 9/11 terrorist attacks:
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.
This is downright pathetic. It’s bad enough that the majority of Americans can’t even identify who the first Republican president was, but for so many to continue to believe that Saddam Hussein was directly involved in the 9/11 attacks shows an almost willful ignorance on the part of 41% of Americans.
It looks like all the constant Iraq…9/11…Iraq…9/11…Iraq…9/11 by the Bush administration (not to mention countless misleading reports by Fox News and the Weekly Standard) has paid off.
The link to Newsweek’s poll can be found here.
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18 Responses to “Why I’m Afraid of Americans”
Trent Reznor is awesome!!! (Bowie’s cool too)
Did I read that right? 4% of Americans think the American Empire is older than the Roman Empire.
Granted, that’s barely more than the margin of error, but still, that’s truly sad.
I think the geography quiz I recently read was equally scary. (IIRC, 11% couldn’t find the United States on a map, but I can’t find the link.)
These are the voters who will elect our next presidnet.
That’s really scary!
Damn that Fox News and Weekly Standard!
Whats really scary is most of these voters where educated by our government. Not much bang for our buck.
Umh I did not know that Iraq became an independent nation in 1920 either. Neither did Wikipedia, neither did any other website.
[...] 6th, 2007 by mvdg For those of you who are wondering whether John Doe really is stupid: today, Nick Rivera links to this poll. The results of the poll: Even today, more than four years into the war in Iraq, [...]
You get no better results with private education:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/21/AR2007062101295.html
Those figures are golden to the Democratic Party. It can expect to thrive!
“American empire”? The Dems won’t like it, but there’s yet another example why the suffrage should be qualified and ideally, weighted.
[...] those of you who are wondering whether John Doe really is stupid: today, Nick Rivera links to this poll. The results of the poll: Even today, more than four years into the war in Iraq, [...]
["American Empire"]
… with their syndicated columnist, Noam Chomsky
[...] Thanks for visiting!For those of you who are wondering whether John Doe really is stupid: today, Nick Rivera links to this poll. The results of the poll: Even today, more than four years into the war in Iraq, [...]
From your link BrotherAlpha,
It seems that its to early to tell. More importantly, if you believe parental involvment is important in education, then you got to like this,
But believe it or not, vouchers was not my point. No, I’m just hoping that when we get the government involved with health care, that the medical community responds a little better than our students.
Perhaps that’s true with regards to some of the question. However, I’m guessing that American ignorance with regards to questions 6 and 10 benefits the Republicans more than the Democrats. It makes it a lot easier to sell the idea of Iraq being the central front in the War on Terror when:
- 41% of Americans believe that Saddam Hussein was directly involved with the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and
- 20% of Americans believe that the 9/11 hijackers came from Iraq (when, in fact, not a single one of the nineteen hijackers came from Iraq).
[...] those of you who are wondering whether John Doe really is stupid: today, Nick Rivera links to this poll. The results of the poll: Even today, more than four years into the war in Iraq, [...]
[...] those of you who are wondering whether John Doe really is stupid: today, Nick Rivera links to this poll. The results of the poll: Even today, more than four years into the war in Iraq, [...]
[...] those of you who are wondering whether John Doe really is stupid: today, Nick Rivera links to this poll. The results of the poll: Even today, more than four years into the war in Iraq, [...]