“37 Percent of People Have No Clue About What's Going On”
Wednesday, March 20, 2013 17:50
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“37 Percent of People Have No Clue About What’s Going On”
By Mark Morford
“Six percent of Americans believe in unicorns. Thirty-six percent believe in UFOs. A whopping 24 percent believe dinosaurs and man hung out together. Eighteen percent still believe the sun revolves around the Earth. Nearly 30 percent believe cloud computing involves… actual clouds. A shockingly sad 18 percent, to this very day, believe the president is a Muslim. Aren’t they cute? And Floridian?
Do you believe in angels? Forty-five percent of Americans do. In fact, roughly 48 percent – Republicans and Democrats alike – believe in some form of creationism. A hilariously large percent of terrified right-wingers are convinced Obama is soon going to take away all their guns, so when the Newtown shooting happened and 20 young children were massacred due to America’s fetish for, obsession with and addiction to firearms, violence and fear, they bought more bullets. Because obviously.
In sum and all averaged out, it’s safe to say about 37 percent of Americans are just are not very bright. Or rather, quite shockingly dumb. Perhaps beyond reach. Perhaps beyond hope or redemption. Perhaps beyond caring about anything they have to say in the public sphere ever again. Sorry, Kansas.
Did you frown at that last paragraph? Was it a terribly elitist and unkind thing to say? Sort of. Probably. But I’m not sure it matters, because none of those people are reading this column right now, or any column for that matter, because reading anything even remotely complex or analytical is something only 42 percent of the population enjoy doing on a regular basis, which is why most TV shows, all reality shows, many major media blogs and all of Fox News is scripted for a 5th-grade education/attention span. OMG LOL kittens! 19 babies having a worse day than you. WTF is up with Justin Timberlake’s hair?!?
It is this bizarre, circular, catch-22 kind of question, asked almost exclusively by intellectual liberals because intellectual conservatives don’t actually exist, given how higher education leads to more developed critical thinking (you already know the vast majority of university professors and scientists identify as Democrat/progressive, right?) which leads straight to a more nimble, open-minded perspective. In short: The smarter you are, the less rigid/more liberal you become.
Until you get old. Or rich. And scared. And you forget. And you clamp down, seize up, fossilize. And the GOP grabs you like a mold.
Oh right! The question: How to reach the not-very-bright hordes, when they simply refuse to be reached by logic, fact, or modern mode? How to communicate obvious and vital truths (conservation, global warming, public health, sexuality, basic nutrition, religion as parable/myth, the general awfulness of Mumford & Sons) the lack of understanding of which keep the country straggling and embarrassing, the laughingstock of the civilized world? And who are these people, exactly? And are they all really in Kentucky and Florida and Mississippi? Are they all in the Tea Party? Is failing education to blame? A dumbed-down media? Reality TV? In the wealthiest and most egomaniacal superpower in the world, why is the chasm so wide?
There is no easy answer, but there is a great deal of irony. It is a wicked conundrum that you and I can debate the definition of elitism, whether or not it’s fair to criticize those who believe that, say, gay marriage means kids will be indoctrinated into homosexuality, or that evolution is still a theory, or that Jesus literally flew up out of a cave and into the sky, when the discussion itself is, by nature, elitist, exclusionary, requiring fluid, abstract thinking the very people we’re discussing simply do not possess, and therefore cannot participate in.
Discussion of elitism is elitist. Intelligence can talk itself blue about what to do about all the dumb; the dumb will never hear it.
It’s a fact even recognized by Louisiana’s own Gov. Bobby Jindal, who had the nerve to defy his own state’s (and his own party’s) famously low IQ by saying, after the last election, “The GOP must stop being the stupid party. It’s time for a new Republican Party that talks like adults.” Of course he’s right. But where would that leave their base? And who will tell the megachurches? And does Jindal not know Louisiana is where they teach that the existence of the Loch Ness monster is evidence that evolution is a lie?
Brings to mind a stunning study about facts and truths. Have you ever heard it? It goes something like: Here is hard evidence, scientific evidence, irrefutable proof that something is or is not true. Here is a dinosaur bone, for example, which we know beyond a doubt is between 60 and 70 million years old. Amazing! Obviously! But then comes the impossible snag: If you are hard-coded to believe otherwise, if your TV network or your ideology, your pastor or your lack of education tell you differently, you will still not believe it. No matter what. No matter how many facts, figures, common senses slap you upside the obvious. You will think there is conspiracy, collusion, trickery afoot. The Bible says that bone is only eight thousand years old. Science is elitist. Liberals hate God.The end.
It is not enough to say people believe what they want to believe. They will also believe it in the face of irrefutable counter-evidence and millennia of fundamental proof.
This! This is what stuns and stupefies liberals and progressives of every intellectual stripe. We cannot understand. We cannot compute. We think, “Well, if more people just had the facts, just heard a reasonable and cogent argument or read up on the real science, surely they would change their minds? Surely they would see the error in their thinking?”
Oh, liberals. All those smarts, and still so naïve.
Here is the body of Jesus! We found it! In a cave in a hole deep in an iron-gated alcove beneath the Vatican! Turns out he is not the Messiah after all! Turns out – look at those tribal tattoos! Those mala beads! That blond hair! – he’s a wild non-dualist guru from parts unknown. Christianity is a total fabrication! Always has been, always will be.
Here is hard evidence coupled with an ocean of common sense that more guns equal only more violence and death! Stat after stat, mass shooting after mass shooting proving we have it all wrong about protection and fear. Also! At least 2,605 people have died by gun violence in America since the Newtown shooting. Can we ban them now? No?
Here is overwhelming evidence that global warming is ravaging us like a furious god, and not only are we complicit, not only have we blindly raced forth into the abyss, we are, if all goes according to current trends and speeds and attitudes, totally f–king doomed. Ah, unicorns. You look better every day.”
- http://www.alternet.org/
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2013-03-20 17:45:32
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I think you just proved your own point
No kidding –
Thirty-six percent believe in UFOs. —- see 25 rules of disinfo
terrified right-wingers are convinced Obama is soon going to take away all their guns —- see all the new bogus regs passing, and zionist fienstein’s gun grab bill – that failed but only because people are starting to wake up.
the Newtown shooting happened and 20 young children were massacred —– Lie.
He is right about the sheep in mega-churches though. They are sheep who fail to think for themselves.
What this article is, is exhibiting the last dying gasps of the Divide and Conquer technique, whereby the shills surrounding both parties and the media use the right and left labels, in order to make the stupid believe there is any difference between the parties or the politicians now, when there is No difference that matters. THEY ALL VOTED FOR THE NDAA.
They are ALL allowing us to be sprayed with Chemtrails poisons to kill the food supply and also our immune systems (geoengineeringwatch.org) .
In sum, this article is old bs from main stream media, and while there are dummies still clinging to either party, the majority IS waking up and realizing they are All traitors of the people.
The article is a Failed pys op. But we thank you for the example of the dying techniques to divide us. It’s not working anymore.
Common sense isn’t common. Need I say more?
Global warming is fiction.
We are actually cooling down.
people have posted evidence as to why youre wrong here, yet you continue to ignore it, and spout your garbage without ever offering anything to back up your stupid assertions.
you are probably religious, right-wing and an utter moron.
1) the climate IS changing under the Assault of chemtrrails and HAARP (geoengineeringwatch.org), it’s it causing warming in some areas, cooling in others, and drought or storms everywhere, depending on their assault plan
2) YOU are doing the same, tired, worn out bogus labeling that nobody cares about now. The label-divide-conquer tactic is failing. If you are not informed on chemtrails then get informed. If you’re just a divide and conquer labeling troll, go elsewhere.
I can not believe no comments are posted on this.
Here is an interesting factoid about your science that you seem to have overlooked..
If you are a progressive in an upscale college or university and go outside the curriculum that is frowned upon by the “elitist” echelons of said school, then you are barred from teaching everywhere.
If you have the critical capacity to think for yourself , you may see how corrupt the law makers are, also how they lie as a horney college kid will lie to a woman.
If you listen to these scientific providers, just to find out that A, they are not scientists. B received monies for stated proof, C are providing disinformation for the purpose of causing conflict, D work on theories that fit the paradigm , my goodness I could go through the whole alphabet with this ideal.
Then you may see where the ignorant ideas come from. Everything needs to fit into a pretty little box.
If truth were to come out, as in knowledge is power, then we would have a very different view on life itself.
Television is for entertainment, to bad it is used for programming social paradigm. Is that the fault of the uneducated? Especially when it is used for that exact reason?
Should we follow the FDA idea that using poisons in food is healthy? Or that cancer has no cure? Or that we as humans only use 10% of our brains? Or is that the spoon fed information we are suppose to believe?
The major problem with the ” educated” as you so clearly point out is……wait for it….
Superiority. You my friend my be well educated and well read, but even the Kentucky redneck can see when you are making fun of them with elitist vernacular, how is that possible?
There is more to the apple then just it’s color, but pointing out one is red while the other is green does not make for a sound idea, then to take that idea and simply run around claiming people are uneducated is in of itself and uneducated thought, there is a difference between book smart and intelligent.
As the tax system, using words that sound confusing just to cause confusion, so you may take advantage is a poor trait for humanity.
As I read that article of opinion, I was hopeful there would be a better point coming in the next paragraph, sadly I was mistaken, hence I am writing this review of my interpretation of one mans opinion to offer some ” food for thought” to a person whom has a very dim view of the American populace.
By the way, I was 18 when I filed my taxes for the first time, it was not confusing to me, it was just wrong
Banks do not offer security, they offer you nothing for something.
Politicians lie for a living.
There used to be a few bad apples in the bunch, now there only a few good ones,
The system is designed to keep you down and paying your unfair share.
Most very rich people do not have a formal education.
Companies are not people, but are protected like the president.
We can not address the government for our grievances.
Knowledge is power.
Hmm, lets think about this very carefully, because as you state, some of us are “slow”. More professors are liberal because universities won’t hire the more conservative ones. Education is to blame for the dumbing-down of americans, education is now called “indoctrination”. More gun ownership leads to less violent crime and deaths. That’s a fact, and if you bothered to go on the FBI crime statistics site, you would notice that more children die every year from head injuries “not related to gun violence”. The 2,605 people you state have died from gun violence this year are gang members. Finally, you’re right about global warming, but global warming is the natural progression of the earth, this too will pass.
see also john coleman committee 300, and tavistock lippman bernays programming.
my guess is you believe we went to the moon… one of the 90-93%…also uninformed
The most shocking source of ignorance among we americans is how all those on the recieving end of other peoples money rabidly cheer on thier democratic party heroes as they drive us head on into exactly the same place the ‘government is God’ Euros have placed thier people in. Whos not dealing with reality…
I appriciate the fact that you have invoked such a topic…
Perhaps we could stop and think about “what if” for a minute. Your ego preceeds you. Hundreds of years ago people were determined the earth was flat. And if you spoke out to the contrary, well you were not going to have a very nice day to put it mildly. Do you really think that we have changed all that much in a couple of hundred years? Did you ever stop to consider that radiocarbon dating could be off? Did you ever stop to think maybe, just maybe, someone down the line may have lied about something? Don’t you see that stating these things with irrefutable conviction places you in the same exact catagory as a creationalist?
I am not stating that I believe in unicorns or any other ancient legend that may be construed as literal while many ancient cultures spoke metaphorically. What I am stating is that you must keep an open mind or you will never learn anything. We could, in fact, be wrong on a lot of topics. I used to be just like you. I used to think that just because I saw something on the discovery channel or read it in a history book that it was true. The fact is what we think we know is proven incorrect over and over.
I am beginning to believe that one major problem we cannot seem to shake as a society is people lean too far in one direction or another. On one hand you have people who will believe anything they are told, and on the other hand you have people who will believe everything they are told. You speak of critical thinking and then fail to think critically. THINK FOR YOURSELF. “WHAT IF” IS THE KEY – AND THE CURSE.
“He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.”
– Aeschylus
this whole article is so off kilter, i don’t know where to begin. people have different levels of intelligence and different talents. some like common sense, some like inventing, some like order, some are mechanical, some are spiritual, some are looking to the future, some are good at communication, etc.. intelligence is hard to measure. i don’t like when someone calls another stupid or idiot. i thank my Creator that we are different. some things are black and white and don’t need to be debated. a gun by itself never killed a soul, our weather hasn’t been recorded for very long, so we don’t know that much about climate change. we do have the capacity for weather modification for quite some time. no one should ever lie to another. secrecy is not good. dumbing down the population has been ongoing. the devil is in control of this world. he is just not in control of ALL of us. truthfully? i don’t like your article or the way you box things in. take care….
Well I could not read all of this because the author is a complete liberal idiot! Got news for you idiot CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC & most of all MSNBC are COMPLETELY SCRIPTED for the 4th grade level! As for “The smarter you are, the less rigid/more liberal you become.” No the smarter you THINK you are the more liberal you become (and that is what so-called professors are). In fact it has been shown that the more liberal you are to dumber you are. It has also been shown that the more liberal you are the more of a pussy you become until you are nothing but a sniveling coward who is offended by everything, & fears everything and after reading this claptrap CoyotePrime is a prime example of liberal stupidity and the continued pussifacation of Amerika!