Jump to content

51% of Americans are Dumb - Survey


Dru

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 21
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Reminds me of certain comments by some that liberals are 'feelers' and conservatives are 'thinkers'.....

Yes, that's a stupid gross generalization.

Christ, we're an anti-intellectual country... cry.gif

I would submit that the exact opposite is true. Conservatives are driven by emotion and liberals by thought. Where do you think the word liberal comes from?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't agree with the statement vis-a-vis liberals/conservatives, I've just heard it said and was making fun of it. I actually don't think it's a fair generalization for either group and is one of those little verbal bombs thrown into a conversation in order to evoke an emotional, rather than an intellectual, response in order to either make your opponent look bad or to mask the deficiencies in your own argument.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

http://www%2ecommondreams%2eorg/views05/1025-24.htm

 

Published on Tuesday, October 25, 2005 by the Baltimore Sun

The Limits of Bush's Mind

by Gordon Livingston

 

 

President Bush persists in his defense of the policies that have resulted in the decline of his fortunes.

 

In his recent rehearsed television conversation with 11 soldiers in Iraq, he said, "So long as I'm the president, we're never going to back down, we're never going ... to accept anything less than total victory." Twice he told them that the American people were behind them: "You've got tremendous support here at home." In an Associated Press poll taken in September, over half the public now says the Iraq war was a mistake.

 

What's happening? Is the man so insulated from the reality of events that he has come to believe his administration's propaganda? Or is there a more ominous and pervasive problem that calls into question something other than political ideology, that is influenced by a world view marked by an inability to reason logically and learn from experience?

 

The ability to reason accurately is not randomly distributed; some people are better at it than others. Though this is only one form of intelligence, it is an important one, and the lack of it tends to have adverse consequences on one's chances for success at tasks that require good decision-making.

 

While reason affects our beliefs, the process of correctly perceiving how the world works requires an understanding of the scientific method, and is fundamentally different from religious or philosophical inquiries that are concerned with questions of meaning and faith. When the two ways of thinking become confused, as in the controversy over evolution and "intelligent design," we are engaging in a kind of dialogue of the deaf in which scientific theory is pitted against religious belief.

 

A 2004 Harris poll on religion is instructive. Ninety percent of adult Americans professed a belief in God. More interesting, half believe in ghosts, nearly one-third believe in astrology and more than one-fourth believe that they were reincarnated from other people. Two-thirds believe in the devil and hell (but very few expect that they will go there themselves).

 

A nation can afford only so much superstition. For example, 12th-graders recently performed below the international average for 21 countries in math and science. This is an ominous statistic at a time when much energy is being expended in educational circles debating whether a creationist belief ought to be taught alongside evolution in science classrooms.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.




×
×
  • Create New...