Clueless And Loving It
Every once in a while you see a headline and it catches your eye. I saw this headline at Hinesight.com "Clueless In America" and I had to investigate and when I got there I saw this, the first paragraph in an Agence France Presse or AFP.com release:
Now, to get back to my point. I think that 1/3 or 2/3 number is way too optimistic. I don't think any more than 10 percent of Americans have a clue or even know where to find one. To think that 1/3 of Americans have any interest in foreign affairs is a staggering number. One source showed a population of 302,000,000 in this country and to think that 100,000,000 could actually find Canada on the map is pushing it. I was going to say Mexico, but I think a very decent portion could probably locate Mexico or remember walking across it.
Jim Martin
Two-thirds of US adults admit to being in the dark about political issues outside the United States, and only a third are well-versed in US politics, the results of a poll published Tuesday showed.Now just a damned minute, no wonder people are confused when they have to read stupid paragraphs like that. Maybe something was lost in translation.
Now, to get back to my point. I think that 1/3 or 2/3 number is way too optimistic. I don't think any more than 10 percent of Americans have a clue or even know where to find one. To think that 1/3 of Americans have any interest in foreign affairs is a staggering number. One source showed a population of 302,000,000 in this country and to think that 100,000,000 could actually find Canada on the map is pushing it. I was going to say Mexico, but I think a very decent portion could probably locate Mexico or remember walking across it.
"Well over half (57 percent) say they do not like learning about political issues in other countries," and 32 percent expressed a lack of interest for homespun politics, the Harris Poll group said.These numbers still seem to be a little screwy in the report, but most people don't really give a big damn about anything outside of the NFL training camp injury report. Truth be told, I'm a little jealous of these people. I am interested and it just depresses the hell out of me. I think the numbers do add up though and it bothers me that these people go years without studying the issues and then every four years they feel that they have to vote for president. Why don't they just stay at home and leave it to people who really care? You see how this makes me react? Pretty damned sad and I think that to keep my sanity I must become one of them. I would probably be happier if I just watched football, stopped reading and threw this damned computer in the trash.
Jim Martin
Labels: politics, World politics
posted by Libby Spencer at 12:45 PM
5 Comments:
this is why I am anti government. I don't think people SHOULD have to follow all this stuff. Americans are anti state by nature. It would be alot more fitting for us to have a government that does less. We're in a war and people don't care. that's wrong.
You may have noticed an AP poll today showing that 25% of Americans didn't read one single book last year. The remaining group read about 4 and those consisted of religious books and popular fiction.
We are a nation of self-satisfied idiots and have no future as a Democracy. We're simply here to consume and be exploited.
Lester:
If you're anti-government then why would you not want to know more than they do? How would you know you had a government that did more or less if you don't read? It's by not being up to date and educated that we foster a government that is not us. If we had a real democracy we wouldn't tend to think of the government as "them" but we never will because we're so damn proud of knowing absolutely nothing.
This is why the concept of exporting democracy is such a disaster. Our goal should be to export self-determination and leave the details to the people.
There was an old joke about getting democracy to work in Iraq and then maybe trying it over here.
People who respond to polls tend to try to show that they are more aware than they really are, I think. Thus the high number of those who say they are in tune with foreign politics. I agree that the figure sounds inflated. But do remember Jim, that many of those who are not aware do indeed stay home on election day. Only about 1/2 of eligible voters care enough to get off their fat asses and vote.
fogg- my point is if there was a smaller federal governemnt that wasn't freely starting wars and printing money, our lacksadasical attitude towards current events would be a boon instead of the hinderence that it is. In the sense that if i didn't know anything about pool maintenence, it wouldn't really matter if i had no pool. Most people who don't follow, say, Plame gate, are usually pretty cognitive of local issues.
another example, i would rather be ignorant of terrorism and also not have terrorists tryingto kill me than to know alot about terrorism and have them indeed trying to kill me.
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