There’s also the time JCPenney’s actually had everything at the best price and so they weren’t doing discounts. But everyone was waiting for the ‘sales’. Your average American would rather have something be marked up $200 and then listed as 75% off than just pay $50 regular price.
Gonna spend the rest of my life knowing I’m surrounded by fucking morons. And I’m not some genius. I had a typical public education. I guess the difference is I actually paid attention.
Not a great feeling. Especially since that probably means things aren’t generally gonna get better. Can’t have a good society if it’s overflowing with dipshits.
Gonna spend the rest of my life knowing I’m surrounded by fucking morons. And I’m not some genius. I had a typical public education. I guess the difference is I actually paid attention.
Yep, I’m smart enough to know I’m not that smart. But I can at least look around me and go “This isn’t normal, right?”
It’s a weird fucking curse to have. Smarter than the average American due to the decades of under-funding the education system. I know how to use a computer more than boomers and younger people stuck using machines locked down by corporations.
Ask me to do a math question higher than high school level? I’m going to flounder. You ask me who was president in 1890 without looking it up, I probably know it. And I know that’s not exactly a flex, it’s probably overall better to know more advanced math than trivia, but it’s just how my brain works.
And yet I’m still smarter than Trump and his cultists.
This is by design. Decades of eroding education and critical thinking have produced a populace that is highly ignorant and extremely easy to manipulate.
There is a reason why attacking education is the first thing any right-wing government does.
Doesn’t help that a whole lot of idiots also think it’s somehow very clever of them to “rise above” it all by acting like it’s “both sides”. This is what passes (for a special kind of smug idiot) for political acumen.
Of course, the “liberal media” harps on the “both sides” thing all the freaking time. Which is why I find it mighty curious that a lot of supposed “leftists” take up that mantra, too.
The bullshit “liberal media” does the “both sides” thing all the freaking time.
And I’m talking about an awful lot of supposed leftists on places like Lemmy that do things like “but Biden’s economy was actually BAD!” and so on. I could go on for other examples…now, whether I believe most of them are actual leftists, I dunno…
Amongst wealthy countries, the US scores above average in science and reading comprehension, and are only really showing lag in mathematics. In terms of critical thinking, this has been a baked-in element of the curriculum, that was intentionally baked-in, for a long time now. Most countries are this way, and those that have dedicated time to specifically critical thinking, as its own subject, are relatively new, and not many do it, in primary education, yet. So this means the US is not unique in how poorly students are taught critical thinking, amongst countries with similar levels of resources.
Also, baby boomers demonstrated a lower level of critical thinking skills, than kids do today, they also show sharper cognitive decline, earlier in life, than X, and millennials have been. So is it that the conservatives have been trying to disassemble the public school system, to move funds to privatized education, thus eroding the common access to education? If so, why does the US actually score well compared to its peers? Why is it that the oldest common generation is actually the worst of the common generations, still alive, for things like critical thinking, and cognitive decline?
So there is some other factor(s) that make the US seem to stand out on this issue, amongst peers. Could it be US media specifically empowering the voice of morons, because outrage drives viewership, and profit is the only goal to US news/media companies? Is it that the elites within the conservative party have redesigned their entire party structure, and playbook, to empower morons, because morons vote for them more often than not? Is it a combination of these factors, and others, that have been shaping the US in this fashion? Could this be why we have been seeing greater, and greater, pushes from political influence groups, in other countries, that have ties to US wealth? Things like dismantling the NHS, establishing US style media as the dominant party in places like europe (murdoch family owned outlets getting larger pieces of the pie, and pushing sentiment to dismantle not for profit sources, like the BBC, and NPR/PBS, for example), far right parties, trump cocksuckers, putin cocksuckers, etc. have been on the rise for past ten plus years? Could it also be that people are growing increasingly disaffected with capitalism, and there are a lot of people lashing out, lacking understanding of what is causing life to be more difficult, and reaching out, in desperation, to anyone who sounds different from those who got us here, even if it should be obvious those people would likely make these specific issues worse? Is it that these things are also compounded with a growing desire, amongst the growing disproportionately wealthy set, to push all the bad aspects of societal structure, to hasten its collapse, and then swoop in to take over directly?
IMHO it is all of the factors in the previous paragraph, and others I haven’t bothered to bring up, and not so much the education system, at least not yet. Sorry for the word vomiting in this post.
Yes the lead is one of the many issues i didn’t get into, it is on the decline though. However, microplastics is the new lead. We know it affects the endocrine system, as of yet, though, we do not know how, or what the effects will be. Point being, blaming this behavior on education isn’t shooting at the right target, and there are so many targets.
I don’t think these factors are specifically unique to the US, some more than other. I think a lot of the environmental stuff you can see in many places, lead is not just a problem in the US, we are just more talkative about it.
Sigh, Its worse than that. Most of us are lazy. Lazy with their thoughts and how they learn new information. By the time they notice how bad they have it wrong you want to slap them. Of course most of them will blame anyone but themselves for their problems.
America, as a nation, is unarguably fucking stupid.
The rest of the world has been overly influenced by America, due to it’s wealth and power, for a very long time. We used to say that when America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. Recent events have seen a great decoupling of the world from America. We’ve seen that the American way is utterly fucked. America is the turd that is sinking whilst the rest of the world will get more buoyant as the new reality sinks in.
Yeah, I dunno broseph. Lots of other first world countries have things like universal healthcare, paternity leave, significant and mandatory vacation, longer lifespans, generally higher quality of life and happiness, politics that aren’t straight up clown shows, more human rights.
You’ve successfully nailed an obvious generalization that there are stupid people everywhere, but the point is that stupidity is hyper-concentrated in the good ol’ US of A. As is evident.
I mean. Many countries are still resisting to the right-wing authoritarian push. Canada for example. Americans democratically elected dt, even after he tried to overturn the government and explicitly stated that he would be a dictator. I don’t think that would have been possible in any other country. So yeah, in a sens, Americans are dumb af. Now if you want to make it semantic question, I guess he should have written " a majority" of Americans “electors” are dumb, but it’s kind of implicit IMO. Kind of like saying dogs likes to run, obviously there’s probably some that don’t like to run, but the majority does.
Americans are dumb as fuck
Americans didn’t realize 1/3 lb burger is bigger than a 1/4 lb burger…
There’s also the time JCPenney’s actually had everything at the best price and so they weren’t doing discounts. But everyone was waiting for the ‘sales’. Your average American would rather have something be marked up $200 and then listed as 75% off than just pay $50 regular price.
Americans would work as a dishwasher and believe it’s the American dream.
Yup.
Gonna spend the rest of my life knowing I’m surrounded by fucking morons. And I’m not some genius. I had a typical public education. I guess the difference is I actually paid attention.
Not a great feeling. Especially since that probably means things aren’t generally gonna get better. Can’t have a good society if it’s overflowing with dipshits.
Yep, I’m smart enough to know I’m not that smart. But I can at least look around me and go “This isn’t normal, right?”
It’s a weird fucking curse to have. Smarter than the average American due to the decades of under-funding the education system. I know how to use a computer more than boomers and younger people stuck using machines locked down by corporations.
Ask me to do a math question higher than high school level? I’m going to flounder. You ask me who was president in 1890 without looking it up, I probably know it. And I know that’s not exactly a flex, it’s probably overall better to know more advanced math than trivia, but it’s just how my brain works.
And yet I’m still smarter than Trump and his cultists.
This post resonates very muchly with me.
I’m in the same boat as you. I think I’m pretty middle of the pack. The bottom is filled with genuine morons.
What’s the George Carlin quote? Something about how stupid the most average person you know is, then realize that 50% of people are dumber than that?
Yeah that’s the bit pretty much word-for-word
This is by design. Decades of eroding education and critical thinking have produced a populace that is highly ignorant and extremely easy to manipulate.
There is a reason why attacking education is the first thing any right-wing government does.
Doesn’t help that a whole lot of idiots also think it’s somehow very clever of them to “rise above” it all by acting like it’s “both sides”. This is what passes (for a special kind of smug idiot) for political acumen.
Of course, the “liberal media” harps on the “both sides” thing all the freaking time. Which is why I find it mighty curious that a lot of supposed “leftists” take up that mantra, too.
*Rightists.
Right wingers are the only people I hear the “both sides” mantra from. I don’t know what media you’re consuming, but you got it ass backwards.
The bullshit “liberal media” does the “both sides” thing all the freaking time.
And I’m talking about an awful lot of supposed leftists on places like Lemmy that do things like “but Biden’s economy was actually BAD!” and so on. I could go on for other examples…now, whether I believe most of them are actual leftists, I dunno…
You must be new to lemmy
Indeed, add in all the religious meddling in educational curriculum and you’ve got a recipie for an ignorant population.
And depending on how that SCOTUS ruling goes on religious charter schools…it might accelerate.
Amongst wealthy countries, the US scores above average in science and reading comprehension, and are only really showing lag in mathematics. In terms of critical thinking, this has been a baked-in element of the curriculum, that was intentionally baked-in, for a long time now. Most countries are this way, and those that have dedicated time to specifically critical thinking, as its own subject, are relatively new, and not many do it, in primary education, yet. So this means the US is not unique in how poorly students are taught critical thinking, amongst countries with similar levels of resources.
Also, baby boomers demonstrated a lower level of critical thinking skills, than kids do today, they also show sharper cognitive decline, earlier in life, than X, and millennials have been. So is it that the conservatives have been trying to disassemble the public school system, to move funds to privatized education, thus eroding the common access to education? If so, why does the US actually score well compared to its peers? Why is it that the oldest common generation is actually the worst of the common generations, still alive, for things like critical thinking, and cognitive decline?
So there is some other factor(s) that make the US seem to stand out on this issue, amongst peers. Could it be US media specifically empowering the voice of morons, because outrage drives viewership, and profit is the only goal to US news/media companies? Is it that the elites within the conservative party have redesigned their entire party structure, and playbook, to empower morons, because morons vote for them more often than not? Is it a combination of these factors, and others, that have been shaping the US in this fashion? Could this be why we have been seeing greater, and greater, pushes from political influence groups, in other countries, that have ties to US wealth? Things like dismantling the NHS, establishing US style media as the dominant party in places like europe (murdoch family owned outlets getting larger pieces of the pie, and pushing sentiment to dismantle not for profit sources, like the BBC, and NPR/PBS, for example), far right parties, trump cocksuckers, putin cocksuckers, etc. have been on the rise for past ten plus years? Could it also be that people are growing increasingly disaffected with capitalism, and there are a lot of people lashing out, lacking understanding of what is causing life to be more difficult, and reaching out, in desperation, to anyone who sounds different from those who got us here, even if it should be obvious those people would likely make these specific issues worse? Is it that these things are also compounded with a growing desire, amongst the growing disproportionately wealthy set, to push all the bad aspects of societal structure, to hasten its collapse, and then swoop in to take over directly?
IMHO it is all of the factors in the previous paragraph, and others I haven’t bothered to bring up, and not so much the education system, at least not yet. Sorry for the word vomiting in this post.
You missed lead poisoning. I believe that’s epidemic in America…
Yes the lead is one of the many issues i didn’t get into, it is on the decline though. However, microplastics is the new lead. We know it affects the endocrine system, as of yet, though, we do not know how, or what the effects will be. Point being, blaming this behavior on education isn’t shooting at the right target, and there are so many targets.
Sure, but microplastics is a world wide issue. Lead, not so much. And here, we were discussing why America, in particular, is so goddam stupid.
I don’t think these factors are specifically unique to the US, some more than other. I think a lot of the environmental stuff you can see in many places, lead is not just a problem in the US, we are just more talkative about it.
https://www.cgdev.org/publication/combatting-hidden-epidemic-lead-poisoning-ideas-eu
The rest of the world too. Americans are just louder and prouder about stupidity.
That is objectively false. Other countries are far more educated.
Don’t mistake education for intelligence.
Trump has a degree from Wharton.
Correction: Trump’s father BOUGHT a degree from Wharton.
No one who actually earned a college degree, especially from a notable college, speaks and acts and makes mistakes like Donald Trump.
I’m sure Wharton educated trump. Whether any of it mattered… Well that’s the difference between education and intelligence…
I wouldn’t be sure. His professor from Wharton said he was the “dumbest fucking student he’s ever had”
Literally right there.
Sigh, Its worse than that. Most of us are lazy. Lazy with their thoughts and how they learn new information. By the time they notice how bad they have it wrong you want to slap them. Of course most of them will blame anyone but themselves for their problems.
We don’t have that on lock, dipshit. Look around you, the entire world is fucking up royally. We just happen to be one of the biggest shitshows going.
The fact that you treat Americans like a monolith shows that you’re dumb as fuck too.
America, as a nation, is unarguably fucking stupid. The rest of the world has been overly influenced by America, due to it’s wealth and power, for a very long time. We used to say that when America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. Recent events have seen a great decoupling of the world from America. We’ve seen that the American way is utterly fucked. America is the turd that is sinking whilst the rest of the world will get more buoyant as the new reality sinks in.
Yeah, I dunno broseph. Lots of other first world countries have things like universal healthcare, paternity leave, significant and mandatory vacation, longer lifespans, generally higher quality of life and happiness, politics that aren’t straight up clown shows, more human rights.
You’ve successfully nailed an obvious generalization that there are stupid people everywhere, but the point is that stupidity is hyper-concentrated in the good ol’ US of A. As is evident.
Yeah, he made a huge mistake.
Its merely that most Americans are dumb as fuck.
I think lead poisoning is epidemic in America. Decades of no money being spent on infrastructure will do that.
I mean. Many countries are still resisting to the right-wing authoritarian push. Canada for example. Americans democratically elected dt, even after he tried to overturn the government and explicitly stated that he would be a dictator. I don’t think that would have been possible in any other country. So yeah, in a sens, Americans are dumb af. Now if you want to make it semantic question, I guess he should have written " a majority" of Americans “electors” are dumb, but it’s kind of implicit IMO. Kind of like saying dogs likes to run, obviously there’s probably some that don’t like to run, but the majority does.
Just accept it. We have free healthcare for 50 years.
oh boy, you really showed them!