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Americans knowledge of government

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khaoz
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14 Oct 2014, 10:03 pm

I think this story gives Americans more credit than they deserve

https://www.tytnetwork.com/2014/10/10/a ... y-imagine/



Kraichgauer
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16 Oct 2014, 12:39 am

Nothing surprises me about what Americans don't know.


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16 Oct 2014, 12:40 am

Nothing surprises me about what Americans don't know.


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16 Oct 2014, 5:58 am

/\. Repeat yourself much?


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Kraichgauer
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16 Oct 2014, 6:22 am

Raptor wrote:
/\. Repeat yourself much?


Guess so. I hadn't realized I had double posted. :oops:


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16 Oct 2014, 7:00 am

U do it quite often, I've noticed.....


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GoonSquad
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16 Oct 2014, 10:01 am

Raptor wrote:
U do it quite often, I've noticed.....


Well, it doesn't show. You could use twice the exposure to good ideas... :P

To the topic--This is more than sad or embarrassing. It's actually dangerous.

Civic ignorance is how republics fall to things like fascism.


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Jacoby
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16 Oct 2014, 12:02 pm

Having to pass a civics test to vote wouldn't be that bad of an idea.



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16 Oct 2014, 12:16 pm

I think this applies to most people anywhere. Governments are just too complex for most people to understand. I was reading on wikipedia about how the European Union worked a while ago and I just gave up. I didn't even know we had three different presidents.

Image



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16 Oct 2014, 12:21 pm

Raptor wrote:
U do it quite often, I've noticed.....


You do know that pointing out people's faults is considered very bad manners.


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16 Oct 2014, 1:08 pm

Kraichgauer wrote:
Raptor wrote:
U do it quite often, I've noticed.....


You do know that pointing out people's faults is considered very bad manners.


The same could be said about habitually double posting and not deleting the double.....


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16 Oct 2014, 2:23 pm

It is outrageous how uninformed the average American is. At work someone asked me who we (the US) fought in WW1. I answered the Germans. He replied,no you are thinking of WW2!
Sometimes I think we are being purposely dumbed down so we can be taken advantage of even more. The average guy just wants to zone out after a stressful day at work. The only things on are "reality tv", infomercials and other stupid stuff.
Yes, there is Jon Stewart, Colbert etc but all together thats less than 3%.


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16 Oct 2014, 2:58 pm

wittgenstein wrote:
It is outrageous how uninformed the average American is. At work someone asked me who we (the US) fought in WW1. I answered the Germans. He replied,no you are thinking of WW2!
Sometimes I think we are being purposely dumbed down so we can be taken advantage of even more. The average guy just wants to zone out after a stressful day at work. The only things on are "reality tv", infomercials and other stupid stuff.
Yes, there is Jon Stewart, Colbert etc but all together thats less than 3%.


WWI is something most Americans are ignorant of, WWII is taught as a just war against an evil enemy but you cannot say the same about WWI. How the assassination of some Austrian Archduke by a Yugoslav nationalist somehow sparked a world war involving France, Britain, Germany, Russia, the Ottomans, and the US is pretty confusing even to me. It was a pointless war that led directly to WWII, it was the catalyst to led directly to rise of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Woodrow Wilson should be remembered as the worst president in American history.



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16 Oct 2014, 4:40 pm

wittgenstein wrote:
It is outrageous how uninformed the average American is. At work someone asked me who we (the US) fought in WW1. I answered the Germans. He replied,no you are thinking of WW2!
Sometimes I think we are being purposely dumbed down so we can be taken advantage of even more. The average guy just wants to zone out after a stressful day at work. The only things on are "reality tv", infomercials and other stupid stuff.
Yes, there is Jon Stewart, Colbert etc but all together thats less than 3%.


That material was covered in any K-12 public school system in the US.
You know what they say about leading a horse to water.......


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Kraichgauer
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16 Oct 2014, 7:52 pm

Raptor wrote:
Kraichgauer wrote:
Raptor wrote:
U do it quite often, I've noticed.....


You do know that pointing out people's faults is considered very bad manners.


The same could be said about habitually double posting and not deleting the double.....


Oh, I'm sure I don't do it that often. And even when I do, it's unintentional, unlike having bad manners.


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16 Oct 2014, 8:02 pm

Jacoby wrote:
wittgenstein wrote:
It is outrageous how uninformed the average American is. At work someone asked me who we (the US) fought in WW1. I answered the Germans. He replied,no you are thinking of WW2!
Sometimes I think we are being purposely dumbed down so we can be taken advantage of even more. The average guy just wants to zone out after a stressful day at work. The only things on are "reality tv", infomercials and other stupid stuff.
Yes, there is Jon Stewart, Colbert etc but all together thats less than 3%.


WWI is something most Americans are ignorant of, WWII is taught as a just war against an evil enemy but you cannot say the same about WWI. How the assassination of some Austrian Archduke by a Yugoslav nationalist somehow sparked a world war involving France, Britain, Germany, Russia, the Ottomans, and the US is pretty confusing even to me. It was a pointless war that led directly to WWII, it was the catalyst to led directly to rise of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Woodrow Wilson should be remembered as the worst president in American history.


I'm pretty close to agreement with you concerning Wilson, though I would add that his wartime domestic policy was absolutely deplorable, as it had turned fellow citizens in the eyes of many Americans into possible enemies only because said citizens were of German extraction. This government inspired paranoia soon expanded to become anti-immigrant, anti-labor (the IWW was virtually outlawed by the Wilson administration, and union leader Eugene Debbs was sent to prison on a trumped up sedition charges), and of course you can't have hate without throwing blacks into the mix, as well. Many historians regard the legacy of Wilson's domestic policy to be the rebirth of the KKK, and the death of the Progressive Era, along with the First Red Scare.


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