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Thursday, March 26th, 2015

Millions of Americans Are Embarrassingly Ill-Informed – And They Do Not Care

Author:     Rick Shenkman
Source:     Alternet
Publication Date:     March 16, 2015
 Link: Millions of Americans Are Embarrassingly Ill-Informed – And They Do Not Care
Stephan:   If you read SR regularly you may remember the story I ran a few months ago about interviews with college students in which they demonstrated appalling ignorance about American history, but great knowledge about pop stars and cartoon figures. That was not an outlier result, as this report shows. It is clear not just that people don't know the basics, but also that they aren't very interested in learning them. The fact is that Americans may be too ignorant to maintain their democracy.
The third president, Thomas Jefferson

The third president, Thomas Jefferson

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” — Thomas Jefferson

Just how stupid are we? Pretty stupid, it would seem, when we come across headlines like this: “Homer Simpson, Yes — 1st Amendment ‘Doh,’ Survey Finds” (Associated Press 3/1/06).

“About 1 in 4 Americans can name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment (freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly and petition for redress of grievances.) But more than half of Americans can name at least two members of the fictional cartoon family, according to a survey.

“The study by the new McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum found that 22 percent of Americans could name all five Simpson family members, compared with just 1 in 1,000 people who could name all five First Amendment freedoms.”

But what does it mean exactly to say that American voters are stupid? About this there is unfortunately no consensus. Like Supreme Court Justice Potter […]

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