Comments on: Americans Ignorant and Illiterate

By: anjin-san

anjin-san — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 06:13:31 +0000

Americans Ignorant and Illiterate

How else could Bush have become President?

By: cirby

cirby — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 01:44:09 +0000

On the other hand, if you ask visiting Europeans about how knowledgeable they are about the world, they'll tell you that they're extremely well-informed, and much, much smarter than Americans in every respect.

Of course, then they'll ask you for driving directions from Orlando to Miami, because they have lunch reservations in South Beach in an hour and a half. Oh, yeah, and do you know a good place to rent a car? Yeah, they're going to drive to Texas to meet some friends tomorrow, too...

By: tom panian

tom panian — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 00:14:51 +0000

WOW... I am among the literati... 7 and counting. Starting with the most recent:

"Misquoting Jesus" (about the Bible)
"Chasing Justice"
"Last Stand of the Tin Can Soldiers" (GREAT book)
"Discoverers" (I have been reading this one for years... a couple of chapters at a time)
"Fiasco"(VERY good)
"Stringing Together a Nation" (if the history of exploration interests you)
and...

one or two other nonsense books for entertainment only.

I also read a lot of mags and blogs.

I have to say, so do my sons. My mother imbued the love of books upon me, and I passed the disease to my sons.

What have you read???

tom

By: Ron Franscell

Ron Franscell — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 21:29:19 +0000

Americans’ reading habits are just more evidence of our laziness, which seems to grow boundlessly. We prefer the simple, passive processes of information consumption, and are willing to sacrifice a little bit of imagination for the convenience. Our much-vaunted American obesity isn’t just physical, but it’s apparently intellectual and spiritual, as well. I blogged on this one, too.

By: just me

just me — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 21:24:25 +0000

I wonder the same thing Dave does, but I don't doubt those stats. My sister is quite proudly one of those people who don't know, don't care, and don't want to learn kind of people. But I can understand a certain apathy towards the area of politics, what I don't get is how many people don't read. I would be hard pressed to count the number of books I have read in the last year, shoot I am not even sure how many I read in a month. Granted some of those books are definitely pure entertainment fluff, but I can't imagine not reading a single book in a year of any kind.

By: legion

legion — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 21:14:44 +0000

Two-thirds of US adults admit to being in the dark about political issues outside the United States, and only a third are well-versed in US politics, the results of a poll published Tuesday showed.

Am I missing something, or does this sentence basically say 'two-thirds of Americans don't know jacke about politics anywhere"? And since when is 57% "well over half"? Or is it too much to expect the reporter hectoring me for my lack of political awareness to have a basic grasp of statistics before quoting poll numbers?

By: Dave Schuler

Dave Schuler — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 20:49:00 +0000

Perhaps a better title for the Breitbart article would have been “Americans Are Honest”. Most of my countrymen don't care about politics and don't mind saying so. I wonder how many Europeans there are who don't know a darned thing about American politics but would pronounce themselves “very knowledgeable”?