Stupid People

[Phott]

This is how the world ends:
America makes nukes, thinks to itself "don't need these now, save em for a rainy day."
America becomes incredibly stupid.
America realizes they have nukes.
America uses nukes.
World ends.

Slowly moving forward.

[Mr-Jigsaw]

The rest of the world with it then, because I find this unsubstantiated belief that America is inherently dumber than the rest of the world to be irrational and unsubstantiated. But unless you have empirical data to support your claims I would avoid turning this belief into a dogma.

[zombie@computer]

The rest of the world with it then, because I find this unsubstantiated belief that America is inherently dumber than the rest of the world to be irrational and unsubstantiated. But unless you have empirical data to support your claims I would avoid turning this belief into a dogma.

bush has only been president in the USA. q.e.d.

[Mr-Jigsaw]

Very scientific.

[vcool]

What's the standard deviation?

[evochinima]

Here you go.

http://www.abytheliberal.com/internatio ... earch-data

USA scores the lowest in national average IQ among the developed countries of the world, at a national average score of 98.

Found this on another site:

30% of Americans don't know what year the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington took place. - Yahoo! News, 8/9/06

[krainert]

Hold your horses, people, and consider the context before you spread the hatred. Let me just pick out a few examples...

[...] I told the man I would like a half of a dozen chicken nuggets. He said sorry sir we dont have a half dozen of chicken nuggets we have 2 4 6 8 and 12 , i chuckled and said give me six.

So, not knowing the amount represented by a dozen makes you stupid. Let's look at the background, shall we?
"Dozen is another word for the number twelve. The dozen may be one of the earliest primitive groupings, perhaps because there are approximately a dozen cycles of the moon or months in a cycle of the sun or year."
Can we agree that dozen as a numeric simplification strategy in the modern world is kind of silly? Yes? Great. Then please do tell me, why would some random junior working at a burger joint know what value it represents? If I tell you to let me have a hexadecimal c, does that make you stupid if you fail to understand my request, or does it make me stupid for failing to understand my environment?

And now for something (almost) completely different.

I blame reliance on technology to get people through the day, instead of relyinh on their own brains. Perfect example here.

Judging from from an external perspective without first examining the specific background rarely yields constructive results. Let me just explain how a Danish written language exam works:
- The student usually has 4 hours to complete the test
- The test consists of about 4-5 topics among which the student is to pick one
- Each topic refers to one or more works included in the compendium or enclosed optical disc
- The topics are usually built around a few simple types of tasks; common examples are listed below
--- Summarize a text or video, analyze it, debate it, and compare it to one or more of the remaining included texts and videos, often picked by the student
--- Summarize two texts or videos, compare them, debate the often opposing approaches and arguments, and relate them to another included text or video
--- Read a leading article, formulate a response with justified argumentation, and complete some third task, typically including a reference to another work text or video
- The test is graded with respect to the student's ability to independently analyze and discuss a subject, seeing through subjectivity as well as putting the theme into perspective using relevant information. Formulating capacity, linguistic skills, and understanding and obeying the forms and boundaries of the requested type of response are also valued aspects.

So, do any of you honestly think an internet connection writes the assignment for you? It can help you find answers to concrete questions in terms of linguistics (which good ol' books could also do, only most things take too long to look up the traditional way), and it lets you ask Google for stuff to relate the material to, but it doesn't do more than that; it provides the student with advice, and heshe does the rest. So tell me, how is having access to an internet connection during an exam any more of an unfair advantage than having access to an internet connection while formulating a scientific document, writing a piece of software, researching for an article, browsing through your company's databases - or writing a weekly assignment for the same school at which you'll be sitting for the exam?

Overall, I just want to say that stupidity is, like most things, a matter of perspective. You finding a subject's lack of knowledge in a certain field problematic does not make it so. Furthermore, you finding a subject's lack of knowledge may reflect your own lack of understanding on a higher plane. It all comes down to the eyes of the beholder.

[Zabiela]

Then please do tell me, why would some random junior working at a burger joint know what value it represents?

For the sole reason that the word dozen, silly as it may be, is most definitely part american high school curriculum. The numerous math teachers I've had usually always used dozen instead of twelve, including half a dozen for problems involving a dozen.
I even remember discussing the word in english class.

Who hasn't had a math problem where you need to price a dozen [bakery goods here]?



I can understand if the kid didn't phonetically understand the word dozen coming through a garbled intercom, but for him not to know the word at all would be alarming.

edit:
This really reminds me of Verizon's math failure (good laugh here):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN9LZ3ojnxY

[Zipfinator]

Dozen isn't high school curriculum... It's elementary school if you can even consider a word like dozen part of a curriculum. If you don't know doesn't it might not make you stupid, definitely ignorant though.

And it kind of annoys me how everyone says everyone (or most of America) is stupid. I agree that there are a lot of stupid people in America, but I'm sure there are stupid people in your countries too. It just makes you look like a dick when you say it, at least to me.

[krainert]

Dozen isn't high school curriculum... It's elementary school if you can even consider a word like dozen part of a curriculum. If you don't know doesn't it might not make you stupid, definitely ignorant though.

I don't know how common the usage of a dozen as a measurement is over there, but I can honestly say I don't think I've ever heard anyone use it here.

[joe_dirt976]

what book was it where the smart people ruled over the dumb? Personally I believe that the "dumbification" is an irreversible trend, perhaps we can at least those with a respectable intellect can be given a better opportunity in life and a higher position of power as well.



What an idiot may look like:


/\ lol /\

[srredfire]

LOL JOE DIRT I GET IT.

CUZ BLACK PEOPLE ARE DUMB LOL.

[nub]

Stupid people exist everywhere.

I rest my case.

[Major Banter]

We're not Newgrounds; need I ask why this has thread has been made on a mapping forum? I don't quite get the purpose of why, aside from that you want a rant. I can see what Surfa is on about.

[Spike]

World needs stupid people.