Obviously, not all Americans are stupid, but unfortunately many of us are. Seemingly random statistics about intelligence levels and items that Americans "do or don't know" have been popping up in things I've read, watched and listened to lately.
Including being asked just the other day (due to my parents living in Poland at the moment) "Which side of England is Poland from us? The right side or the left side?" I died a little inside at that moment, by the way, as I explained that England is an island west of the European mainland to someone in their 60's.
Personal experiences and anecdotes aside, I thought I would share some stats with you:
- The average IQ of an American citizen is 98. Of the developed countries in the world, we rank 23rd. That's really low. One of the lowest.
- 41% of adults believe that humans and dinosaurs lived on the earth at the same time
- 47% do not know how long it takes for the earth to revolve around the sun
- 18% believe that the sun revolves around the earth
- 50% believe that Christianity is an older religion than Judaism
- 66% can not name all 3 branches of government
- 58% can not name 1
- 24% can not name the country we fought in the Revolutionary War
- 70% do not recognize that DNA is a key to heredity
- 51% do not know which country dropped the atomic bomb (ours...by the way)
Perhaps stupid isn't the best word to describe our country (even with the IQ statistic in mind), perhaps it's better to say we are ignorant.
Ignorant of history, politics, science, and I'm sure a great many other subjects that aren't so easily polled on.
The question is:
Why?
That's it. Just "why?"
