Damn, we’re becoming a stupid people.
Pop quiz: Who was emperor when the United States declared independence from China?
Give up?
Perhaps you should ask one of the Americans who, when asked what country the U.S. separated from, named France, Japan, Mexico, Spain or, yes, China.
A new Marist poll shows that 26% of people in this country don’t know that the U.S. declared its independence from Great Britain. That includes 20% who aren’t sure — and another 6% who think it was another country.
Looking at the numbers more deeply, it appears the closer to 1776 you were born, the more likely you are to know the correct answer.
I had a /sarcasm tag.. but the blog deleted it..
I call bullshit. Americans are surprisingly knowledgeable about history, we just like to complain about the education system.
Didn’t fivethirtyeight.com bust some pollster not to long ago over a similar poll that essentially said students in Oklahoma knew nothing about US history. It turned out they had been making up numbers for years.
#12 qb
“50% of the population is below average”
Um, no.
50% of the population is below the median
26% of people “in this country”
Uh, that wouldn’t include the millions and millions of ignorant Mexicans, would it????
#16 Good to see you agree with me.
#24 Why yes, it does. And #16 agrees with us.
I would have said “England” with only a quibble that it might be Great Britain. BTW, which is it really? and is GB actually England and Wales, or just England, Wales AND Scotland? or with parts of Ireland. And if Free Ireland gets invaded, conquered, and incorporated again, would it become “Greater Britain?”
Sadly, the only “real” lesson to learn is that: land is taken and held by force alone. Rights and history and the killing of innocent people and the bleeding of overextended empires does form a context, but its all force.
I picked up an English babe outside a party near Norwich one evening and she took me home. Somehow the conversation turned to literature and she didn’t know who Shakespeare was. I thought to myself: could this chick really be from Oklahoma?
#26 bobbo
Just for the record:-
The United Kingdom consists of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Great Britain is a combination of England, Scotland and Wales.
Citizenship is of the UK.
All clear now?
Thanks Fred–but the question relates to timing.
Who did the American Colonies revolt against?
We’ve all been fooled. Our independance was a big scheme cooked up by the Brits to make us believe we were looking to disconnect from them when in reality it was the British who won their independance from from us as so many British colonies eventually did from Britain.
Hmmmmm…….
Now that’s revolting!!
#28 bobbo
Try this:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolution
It contains one fascinating sentence that should raise political hackles in some quarters:
“Americans rejected the oligarchies common in aristocratic Europe at the time, championing instead the development of republicanism based on the Enlightenment understanding of liberalism.”
If I have understood that correctly, in order to be a Republican you have to be a liberal! Whatever next?
Was it British Petroleum?
#13: The Declaration of Independence is the requirements document, while the Constitution is the design document. One implements the other.
24% of Americans think Obama was born in Kenya or some other place they couldn’t find on a map.
http://tinyurl.com/2b4jd6l
Now _THAT’S_ a bunch of dumb-as-dirt people.
#34,
not really a problem..
as its NOT the dirt people..
UNLESS you count the 1% of IDIOTS on top of the payroll.
#31–thanks fred==I think you may be using the wrong definition of republican. In context, its referring to “election of representatives” of the people rather than direct election. I don’t know what liberal meant in that context, but it could be as basic as “trying something new like not having hereditary kings.”
So, in context, should not raise any hackles. There were no “Republicans” or “Liberals” by name at the founding our great country. Some say hardly any Republican today, and too few liberals?
#34 never mind the fact that Michelle Obama stated that Kenya was Barry Sotero’s home country. That vid was distributed on various youtube posts. Never mind the evidence, let’s just pretend that the united states government is still legitimate governing authority.
Think Progress is really in favor of the working man? That is why they would favor the progressive income tax system that taxes the f out off working class people, but would offer tax incentives and tax exemptions for multi national corporations that layoff American workers to offshore their operations in third world nations that don’t tax the fuck out of them.
Bobo is just a simple dooshbag that should be ignored.
never understood why the 13 colonies could leave Great Britain, but the southern states couldn’t leave the union.
Canada has the same issue. some Quebeckers think Canada is divisible, but they don’t think Quebec is divisible.
tell that to the First Nations’ in northern Quebec. (or the Anglos in the Gatineau, Eastern Townships, etc)
26% is because 26% of the people were originally from foreign lands who immigrated to the US. id bet that stupid native born americans exist, but the numbers r quite lower.
#39 Ray, I bet foreigners know more about American history than native-born Americans. They have to take a history test to get US citizenship.