http://www.reallyfunky.com/media/428/Are_Americans_Stupid/ (http://www.reallyfunky.com/media/428/Are_Americans_Stupid/) :eek: :roll: :eek: :sad:
Just Kill Me. Kill Me Now. Please?
Oh sweet merciful fuck NOOOOOOOOOOO
Quote from: Nigel on July 18, 2008, 10:39:33 PM
Oh sweet merciful fuck NOOOOOOOOOOO
North Korea is a lot bigger than I thought it was... and it has kangaroos apparently.
There were, in fact, a couple of questions I did not know the answer to, and a couple that I felt it was reasonable for people to not necessarily know the answer to (There has been a lot of currency restructuring recently, for instance, so assuming people in the US know that the UK still uses Pounds Sterling might be a bit much to ask... most people who read books would be familiar with the term though), but for the most part, fuuuuuuuuck.
this is so :wrong: :vom:
is there a trick involved ? do they only pick dullards? if not :argh!:
It was done for CNNNN which was a satirical news show on Chaser's War on Everything.
I don't know if they used real people or actors, but to be honest, neither would surprise me (little has, since witnessing the idiocy of the "Are Atheists infiltrating the government?" (http://www.principiadiscordia.com/blog/cain/teh-great-atheist-conspiracy/) thread).
i see these dumb American interviews done on a bunch of different shows (tonight show, Sean hannity there was even a game show, street smart) and they all get morons i suspect they all edit for entertainment and shock value, they never show a smart American. if i had my tinfoil hat on i would say it was a conspiracy , but since i am in a more reasonable mood i will chalk it up to advertiser driven ratings..
Quote from: fnord mote eris on July 18, 2008, 11:59:04 PM
i see these dumb American interviews done on a bunch of different shows (tonight show, Sean hannity there was even a game show, street smart) and they all get morons i suspect they all edit for entertainment and shock value, they never show a smart American. if i had my tinfoil hat on i would say it was a conspiracy , but since i am in a more reasonable mood i will chalk it up to advertiser driven ratings..
Oh I agree, it surely had to be edited for content. However, that even one human believed a triangle to "have no sides" or one, seems troubling to me ;-)
Quote from: Ratatosk on July 19, 2008, 12:03:16 AM
Quote from: fnord mote eris on July 18, 2008, 11:59:04 PM
i see these dumb American interviews done on a bunch of different shows (tonight show, Sean hannity there was even a game show, street smart) and they all get morons i suspect they all edit for entertainment and shock value, they never show a smart American. if i had my tinfoil hat on i would say it was a conspiracy , but since i am in a more reasonable mood i will chalk it up to advertiser driven ratings..
Oh I agree, it surely had to be edited for content. However, that even one human believed a triangle to "have no sides" or one, seems troubling to me ;-)
i agree "scary" but why don't they do dumb Canadian, EU, African, Australian shows ? if they can find one American that stupid the same is probably true for the world. humanity should be a wreck in equal proportions .with money/ratings and stick-it to the yanks fever i doubt i will ever see one.
Well, I don't see much American TV (barring The Daily Show/Colbert Report and Lost) so I cannot comment on it from that angle.
However, as I'm sure you know, I read alot of US bloggers, especially on the right, and there does seem to be a worldview which almost takes comfort in its own simplicitly and lack of knowledge. Perhaps even more than that, it seems to almost be proud of the fact. The anti-intellectualism of current politics, if you will.
As far as I can see, there are two good reasons for this:
1. Policy no longer matters. What really matters is how you stage-manage the campaign, and image control. Because, on policy basis alone, both the major parties would be in deep shit.
2. The economy needs a tiny group of innovative thinkers to come up with new ideas to keep the population buying. This is common sense. However, when those people run out of ideas, they need lots of stupid people to buy stuff, like oxygenated face cream to be used right after using antioxidant face gel.
By creating a climate where intellectualism or intelligence or knowing too much is frowned upon, for various reasons, stupid politics and higher sales can be maintained.
If you want a conspiracy angle.
this is the correct tin foil hat.
QuoteRascality has limits. Stupidity has not.
-Napoleon Bonoparte
My guess is it was either staged, or the people who actually gave correct answers were edited out. This is the same vein as the bit Leno does on his show, I forget what he calls it but same idea. It may be entertaining but I see no value in it in terms of social commentary.
rick mercer from 22 minutes has been doing this stick for years up here
though hes a little more sly and manipulate and goes after polititions as well
http://youtube.com/watch?v=seYUbVa7L7w
anyways its worth it for the kid at the end
To be slight apologist, when you're surprised on the street by some guy in a suit who's also shoving a camera on your face, barking questions at you, your first response is usually pretty dumb.
If you ask 100 people questions this way, you can probably edit it down to 10 - 20 moronic answers.
Quote from: LMNO on July 21, 2008, 03:46:44 PM
To be slight apologist, when you're surprised on the street by some guy in a suit who's also shoving a camera on your face, barking questions at you, your first response is usually pretty dumb.
If you ask 100 people questions this way, you can probably edit it down to 10 - 20 moronic answers.
I tend to agree with this!
However, I also believe that Americans as a whole are reasonbly intelligent, they just don't do shit with that intelligence.
I'm not so sure intelligence is really a necessity anyway. I mean, clearly, it's good that some in our populace have the intelligence to work in R&D fields, engineering, etc., etc.,
But one of the side affects of a diverse workforce, is that it isn't necessary for EVERYONE to be book geniuses. For some, just being good with their hands is all they need to survive.
Quote from: LMNO on July 21, 2008, 03:46:44 PM
To be slight apologist, when you're surprised on the street by some guy in a suit who's also shoving a camera on your face, barking questions at you, your first response is usually pretty dumb.
If you ask 100 people questions this way, you can probably edit it down to 10 - 20 moronic answers.
they did a piece on this back when studio 2 was on the air (old current afairs show on public television) they asked trivia questions to both americans and canadians about their countries ... let me tell you some of them were fucking tough too (ie who at the leader of opposition in Manitoba)
though canadians did score higher not as high as many would like to think
i think (again im going off memory) both scored between 40 and 50 percent
but the real gap came when they were asked questions about each others countries
border states did much better, obviously, but the americans barily hit 20 percent while it turns out canadians know more about americans then they know about themselves
to be fair bordering such a large influencial country it only makes sense that you would try to learn everything you can about your neighbors, while canada is far more insignificant
Quote from: What's-His-Name? on July 21, 2008, 04:02:52 PM
I'm not so sure intelligence is really a necessity anyway. I mean, clearly, it's good that some in our populace have the intelligence to work in R&D fields, engineering, etc., etc.,
But one of the side affects of a diverse workforce, is that it isn't necessary for EVERYONE to be book geniuses. For some, just being good with their hands is all they need to survive.
but it does get kind of scarey when many of the polititions dont have any clue on what is going outside of their constituency
Quote from: Thurnez Isa on July 21, 2008, 04:09:37 PM
Quote from: What's-His-Name? on July 21, 2008, 04:02:52 PM
I'm not so sure intelligence is really a necessity anyway. I mean, clearly, it's good that some in our populace have the intelligence to work in R&D fields, engineering, etc., etc.,
But one of the side affects of a diverse workforce, is that it isn't necessary for EVERYONE to be book geniuses. For some, just being good with their hands is all they need to survive.
but it does get kind of scarey when many of the polititions dont have any clue on what is going outside of their constituency
TI, most of them don't have a clue on what is going on INSIDE their constituency!!!
Quote from: fnord mote eris on July 19, 2008, 12:22:21 AM
Quote from: Ratatosk on July 19, 2008, 12:03:16 AM
Quote from: fnord mote eris on July 18, 2008, 11:59:04 PM
i see these dumb American interviews done on a bunch of different shows (tonight show, Sean hannity there was even a game show, street smart) and they all get morons i suspect they all edit for entertainment and shock value, they never show a smart American. if i had my tinfoil hat on i would say it was a conspiracy , but since i am in a more reasonable mood i will chalk it up to advertiser driven ratings..
Oh I agree, it surely had to be edited for content. However, that even one human believed a triangle to "have no sides" or one, seems troubling to me ;-)
i agree "scary" but why don't they do dumb Canadian, EU, African, Australian shows ? if they can find one American that stupid the same is probably true for the world. humanity should be a wreck in equal proportions .with money/ratings and stick-it to the yanks fever i doubt i will ever see one.
Actually, the Chaser team (the guys who made the vid) don't always go after stupid Americans, but most of the time it is easier to laugh at people in the US (as it was made by Australians)
if we've built our societies up so that our kids wont have it as tough as we did, so that life is easy and our countries are wealthy, so that we take care of anyone who cant take care of themselves, then how can we expect anything else but our populations to get dumb and dumber.
Awful movie, but i think Mike Judge had some insight with the theme of 'Idiocracy'.
I can't bring myself to believe that any of those people were actors. obviously they've taken only the stupidest responses, and i think they could easily do similar things in other countries, just not as spectacularly. Australia has plenty of gibbering imbeciles, too, i tell you. and LMNO has a good point about being shocked into idiocy by a camera.
The US has got more extremes than most countries though, being a center of wealth and power. Stupidity is clearly just one of them. Unfair to generalize of course, many of the smartest people in the world are surely from there, but the Americans here post many a thread about the extreme stupidity in their states or areas.
FFS you need a license to have a pet lizard but any dipshit with half a nut and no brains can have as many kids as he can fit in his trailer. oh there are probably better threads to add that thought to, but it's a reason for average IQ decline.
Quote from: bones on July 22, 2008, 12:46:23 PM
if we've built our societies up so that our kids wont have it as tough as we did, so that life is easy and our countries are wealthy, so that we take care of anyone who cant take care of themselves, then how can we expect anything else but our populations to get dumb and dumber.
Awful movie, but i think Mike Judge had some insight with the theme of 'Idiocracy'.
I can't bring myself to believe that any of those people were actors. obviously they've taken only the stupidest responses, and i think they could easily do similar things in other countries, just not as spectacularly. Australia has plenty of gibbering imbeciles, too, i tell you. and LMNO has a good point about being shocked into idiocy by a camera.
The US has got more extremes than most countries though, being a center of wealth and power. Stupidity is clearly just one of them. Unfair to generalize of course, many of the smartest people in the world are surely from there, but the Americans here post many a thread about the extreme stupidity in their states or areas.
FFS you need a license to have a pet lizard but any dipshit with half a nut and no brains can have as many kids as he can fit in his trailer. oh there are probably better threads to add that thought to, but it's a reason for average IQ decline.
:mittens:
There are two infinite things.
The universe and human stupidity, and Im not sure about the universe.
-- Albert Einstein
majority is stupid,
american,british,german,swiss,japanese,turkish,ish mish whatever,
thats why theyre so easily manupulated,
you dont need to watch an american insulting video to see that,
i think.
or you do,
i dunno,
:|
my goddess, noooooo :x
not again,
please don wanna get munchies again!
guess its too late,
caaaaaaaaaaaaaandyyyyy baaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrssssssssss!!!!!
:lulz:
Quote from: PurpleriS DiscordiA on July 22, 2008, 05:20:03 PM
There are two infinite things.
The universe and human stupidity, and Im not sure about the universe.
-- Albert Einstein
majority is stupid,
american,british,german,swiss,japanese,turkish,ish mish whatever,
thats why theyre so easily manupulated,
you dont need to watch an american insulting video to see that,
i think.
or you do,
i dunno,
:|
my goddess, noooooo :x
not again,
please don wanna get munchies again!
guess its too late,
caaaaaaaaaaaaaandyyyyy baaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrssssssssss!!!!!
:lulz:
Go have yourself some chocolate.