A society full of people who just don’t understand really basic things.
On the one hand, Americans lean toward positive assessments of US nuclear policy. A majority believe nuclear weapons are either very or somewhat effective at preventing conflict between the United States and other countries (63 percent). Almost half (46 percent) are at least somewhat confident that the US missile defense system will protect them in the event of a nuclear war. And Americans who say they are familiar with nuclear deterrence (40 percent of the overall sample) overwhelmingly think it has been effective at preventing a nuclear attack on the United States (88 percent of those familiar with deterrence).
On the other hand, just under half the public think nuclear weapons make the United States safer (47 percent). When combined, almost as many say that nuclear weapons don’t make a difference (24 percent) in making the country safer or that they don’t know enough about nuclear weapons to express a view (19 percent). On this question, there are significant differences between age groups, racial groups, and partisan affiliations. Only among Americans over the age of 45 does a majority say that the US nuclear arsenal makes the country safer (55 percent); a plurality of younger Americans say they don’t make a difference. White Americans are more likely than other racial groups to say nuclear weapons make the country safer, largely because Hispanic and African Americans are more likely to say they do not know enough to express a view. And Republicans (61 percent) are more convinced than Democrats (45 percent) that nuclear weapons make the United States safer.
Oh fuck off. “Cosmos” was never meant to be an ongoing series. Sagan didn’t intend for it to be more than one season. And there were two follow- up seasons with Neil deGrasse Tyson later on.
Also, there are 51 (and counting) seasons of “NOVA.” Not all Americans are stupid.
And yet this is the man who is a hair’s breadth from the White House a second time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpdt7omPoa0
Edit: Because I’m enjoying the hate and I’m enjoying looking this stuff up, here’s the last ignorant Americans fact until another person angrily suggests that Americans are so way into Carl Sagan stuff!
More than one in five (22%) of those taking the test said astronomy was “the study of how the positions of stars and planets can influence human behavior.” The answer they should have given was astrology.
https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-science-quiz-americans-pew-20150909-story.html
While a growing share of U.S. adults are religiously unaffiliated, there is one belief that appears to unite a significant share of them: astrology. YouGov’s latest poll finds that a little more than one-quarter of Americans (27%) – including 37% of adults under 30 – say that they believe in astrology, or that the position of the stars and planets influences people’s lives. About half of Americans (51%) say they don’t believe in astrology and 22% are unsure.
https://today.yougov.com/entertainment/articles/42292-one-four-americans-say-they-believe-astrology
51 percent of people in a new AP/GFK poll said they were “not too confident” or “not at all confident” that the statement “the universe began 13.8 billion years ago with a big bang” was correct.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/21814/evolution-creationism-intelligent-design.aspx
Yet he’s never won the popular vote. The majority of Americans don’t like him. His backers are just good at manipulating the rubes and gaming the system.
“Never won the popular vote” isn’t saying much considering our low voter turnout.
Which is another thing which supports the idea that America is a pretty anti-intellectual country.
I’m not sure why you’re trying to pretend otherwise.
Edit: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/nearly-7-in-10-u-s-adults-believe-in-angels-ap-norc-poll-finds
I’m from the country I’m judging. I thought that would have been obvious.
It’s not like I make a secret of it. I talk about being from Indiana in general and living in Terre Haute in specific all the time.
Also, I don’t enjoy being off-putting, it just comes naturally. But it’s okay because I’m used to almost everyone hating me for being awful.
This isn’t an “American” problem though
26% of Europeans believe astrology is “very scientific” with 43% believing it is at least somewhat so.
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/08/raw-data-astrology-in-europe/
While there is no real data on the age of the universe things you can look up, searches by country for creationism, or skepticism of evolution, show western european countries to largely be 15-40% skeptical of evolution, and eastern europe is much higher on average, but also contains the lowest skepticism of it.
Search “skepticism of evolution in Europe by country” and you will get information - it took me several hours of reading, but it was all on that search
I’ve heard of the dead guy’s series from almost half a century ago.
I have no idea wtf Duck Dynasty is. Sounds like something I’d order with plum sauce.
Every Republican in the U.S. can tell you all about Duck Dynasty if you ask them. And plenty of Democrats.
Cosmos? “I don’t watch them dumb science shows.”
Let’s not pretend PBS has ever had a massive percentage of Americans watching.
Edit: American ignorance update!
What a dumb meme lol
I would recommend a comma or period (or, arguably, a semicolon), an exclamation point and some capitalization.
Edit: Two exclamation points would also work. But not in a row.
I think I’m just going to start posting facts about how anti-intellectual America is to enrage my fellow citizens on Lemmy.
Quite a few thought it was Greenland though.
That article is from ten years ago. I’d suspect the numbers would still be worse than they should be, but Ukraine has become a much bigger situation since then which is why you’re using it in this example, so this is not an accurate picture you’re painting.
People are idiots. The average person can be reasoned with, but you put a bunch of people together, and the madding crowd takes over.
I dunno, the rest of the world here is watching you guys being complete jackasses. So it’s hard to take your issue seriously
Duck Dynasty?? Is this meme from the 2005 collection or is it 2006?
Duck Dynasty was on until 2017. The people on it are still major right-wing celebrities.
Edit: American ignorance update!
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — How well do Americans succeed at distinguishing statements of fact from statements of opinion? The answer: Not very well at all, according to new research co-written by a team of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign scholars.
Americans struggle to tell the difference between statements of fact and statements of opinion – a troubling trend that has grave implications for civic discourse and for navigating the torrent of political information that citizens receive every day, said Jeffery J. Mondak, a professor of political science and the James M. Benson Chair in Public Issues and Civic Leadership at Illinois.
Before we get off on the wrong foot, I want to say that you and I have a lot of positive interactions on this site and I generally agree with you.
This is a meme for an edgy freshman with Fight Club and Joker posters in their room. A scripted science show with a limited scope and a decent budget that was cherry picked for being one season vs a cheap, fast reality show that was also cherry picked for its longevity is a bad comparison and doesn’t imply anything about the intelligence of a country.
But instead of defending it, all of your replies are just “look at this other way Americans are stupid!” which just makes it seem like you are that high schooler caricature I described earlier.
I KNOW you’re not a teenager and I’ve always seen you act better than that in other threads so what going on with this one?