US adults are dumber than the average human

reply to post by AlliumIslelily


you can bet that the salaries of those with income way above the average skew the average, i can see it in my country. also, i don't think that those without employment are included in those stats, so no, they won't pull the average in opposite direction.

and when it comes to this topic, you can bet that disproportions amongst society when it comes to stupidity, are even greater than those based on the amount of money one has.

jedi_hamster


there's more than enough stupidity everywhere in this world, but thanks to TVs, McDonalds and US government, the USA is the land of the most retarded nation on this planet.

I really think that there are sub-humans on this planet, even many Americans. One thing to think about, they could have done 100s of questions to 100s of people and picked those that screwed up to represent their goal, but on the other hand there are some really dumb people, and they vote...geez....



You talk of TV a couple of times and I think that the internet has long over come TV as entertainment, good or bad. I'm very successful and I use to watch re-run on only 3 networks...hehe so who knows. I do remember flying UAVs in Afghanistan and on an older IR camera I watched a hot spot that was there for like 5 hours. After awhile I was saying there is no way that is a person, but after all that time it walked away, and I remember making the comment "that is what you do if you do not have TV"....hehe

Well in America public education is poorly funded if Americans are to be believed and even a basic advanced education very very expensive.

Compare that to "socialist" Europe by contrast. There was a 6 year period in Germany when university fees had been introduced, which amounted to 1600 Dollar a year but before and after they have been overturned, not only is an education at what is among the best universities in the world free, with your student pass you can use the railways in a state for free. But wait there is more, a friend of the family is studying engineering in Berlin. Next to his studies he works part time for Siemens in what is basically a well paid internship. Compare that to the American student who is underwater by now by several grands.

The catch, classes are in German. I am sure many of the nothern countries have a similar approach to education. The contries in Europe that fare less good are the ones with an more America approach to things, like Italy. If you look at Europe and look at the countries that lean more towards what many see as socialism and the ones that lean towards American style crony capitalism, then the America of late has been wrong about most things.

Egalitarianism and opportunity for all in America made way a long time ago to Cronism and classism through the wallet, where money not only determines what car you drive and where you live, but how much of your potential you can develop. With that in mind modern day America shares many aspects with feudal Europe and while it is not as clear cut whom belongs to the class of affluence and opportunity and to the class of the puissant, the effects are pretty much the same.

Those who have the means get an education and develop their potential, those whom are born in the wrong class have little opportunity to develop their potential. So if you are looking to ascend the social ladder, you are better off to do it in Europe. If your kid is intelligent and driven even if you are on the lower end of the income spectrum you can put him through college or equivalent, university even.

reply to post by TDawgRex


By ATS standards I do not agree that U.S citizens are dumb. If your citizens are dumb then how should I refer to my own "under the thumb" UK? People here in the UK are hopeless right now. They just resign themselves to slavery and ostracize any individual who tries to speak out against the corporate tyranny grinding away at their rights and freedoms so aggressively every day in every way!

Revolution9
reply to post by TDawgRex

 

By ATS standards I do not agree that U.S citizens are dumb. If your citizens are dumb then how should I refer to my own "under the thumb" UK? People here in the UK are hopeless right now. They just resign themselves to slavery and ostracize any individual who tries to speak out against the corporate tyranny grinding away at their rights and freedoms so aggressively every day in every way!

The users of ATS would represent only a very small portion of the overall population within the US. ATS and websites like ATS are unique in that they attract a specific type of individual. A few months ago, there was a thread where users were sharing their MBTI. A good portion of them fell under some of the rarest MBTI combinations that typically are only found in perhaps 6% of a given population at the maximum. ATS would not be representative at all in the "average American". The "average American" is more likely to be a highly individualistic person whose primary concern is their definition of self-improvement, a tendency to be apolitical, unlikely to have every learned critical thinking skills regardless of education level, and of an iq that may land anywhere between 90-110. I threw in the critical thinking skills because this was a commonly asked question by several of my professors. They would ask how many students actually learned critical thinking in school. In classes of 30 and up, only a couple people ever raised their hands. Over 90% had never once had a lesson in critical thinking or logic.

Compared to ATS, again, you have a specialized pool that is not representative of the population. Many of the posters either have acknowledged or show significant signs of having been in the same kind of specialized education program that I was in. It's really not a representative pool in the slightest.

reply to post by TDawgRex


They did a good job didn't they?

reply to post by Bassago

Poverty has little bearing on intelligence IMO.

You are completely wrong on that one... One is affected even before birth, on the availability and health condition of the mother, add to that medical assistance, sanitation, good hygiene and a basic understanding of nutrition as proper motivation to make the child flourish, access to education etc etc etc...

With money there is also a chance to get more, quantity and quality and have reduces the chance to have to go without... the other side of this is that those that have it easy will never understand those that do not and fail to give proper value to basic things as they take it for granted...

reply to post by TDawgRex


Wait are you saying wealthy people are smarter, or that they have the resources to afford dumb people in their family.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


Bush went to Yale and he was an idiot...all he had going for him is money and it didn't make him any smarter.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere

greenfox86
Bush went to Yale and he was an idiot...all he had going for him is money and it didn't make him any smarter.

Greetings,

Not for nothing but Bush isn't as dumb as you ascribe.

-He screwed over all of America if not the entire civilized world.
-Helped institute the Patriot Act and destroy the notion of freedom.
-Collaborated on if not helped to knock down the WTC.
-Started a cycle of wars and bloodshed in the M.E. by rooking the American public into conflicts they had no right to be in and that THEY had to die and pay for themselves.
-Made BILLIONS of dollars doing it for himself and his partners in crime.
-Pardoned the Pope for Vatican child abuse.
-Did it all right under everyones noses and for all his malfeasance....
-Has not been jailed or served a single day in prison for any of his crimes against humanity and walks around free as a bird to this very day.

I understand your anger and your point of view but puppet or not, that doesn't strike me as the resume of an idiot. Or perhaps it is your contention that Bush is still an idiot but everyone else is infinitely dumber for being duped by him?
It's gotta be one or the other.
Just saying.

-Amitaba-

Eryiedes

greenfox86
Bush went to Yale and he was an idiot...all he had going for him is money and it didn't make him any smarter.

Greetings,

Not for nothing but Bush isn't as dumb as you ascribe.

-He screwed over all of America if not the entire civilized world.
-Helped institute the Patriot Act and destroy the notion of freedom.
-Collaborated on if not helped to knock down the WTC.
-Started a cycle of wars and bloodshed in the M.E. by rooking the American public into conflicts they had no right to be in and that THEY had to die and pay for themselves.
-Made BILLIONS of dollars doing it for himself and his partners in crime.
-Pardoned the Pope for Vatican child abuse.
-Did it all right under everyones noses and for all his malfeasance....
-Has not been jailed or served a single day in prison for any of his crimes against humanity and walks around free as a bird to this very day.

I understand your anger and your point of view but puppet or not, that doesn't strike me as the resume of an idiot. Or perhaps it is your contention that Bush is still an idiot but everyone else is infinitely dumber for being duped by him?
It's gotta be one or the other.
Just saying.

-Amitaba-

edit on 10-10-2013 by Eryiedes because: Typo

edit on 10-10-2013 by Eryiedes because: Added Sentiment

edit on 11-10-2013 by Eryiedes because: Another Typo

Do you honestly believe that Bush was the "mastermind" of all these things? I personally think that Bush was Cheney's useful idiot, and that he used the Bush family name to get elected "vice" president, and then ruled through Bush. And even Cheney was just working for whoever is the REAL power, which we will probably never know.

727Sky
reply to post by TDawgRex

 

This test is not supposed to be an easy one. The website reports that avg. score was 49% and college professors average about 55%.

There are 33 Questions. Click Below:
www.isi.org...

I would think many of our members at ATS would do much better than the posted prior results. I screwed up on one question and still got 81.??% a while back.... I do not consider myself versed is such matters at all. So as dumb as I am and others are getting 49% it really makes you wonder what to heck is going on?

For our international friends sorry the test is American centric.... I might get 10% or less on another countries civic class by just dumb luck...maybe not?

I don't know about the average scores there, I scored 78.79% If I really scored that then I feel they purposely tested people they knew would do bad

Results You answered 26 out of 33 correctly — 78.79 % If you have any comments or questions about the quiz, please email [email protected]. You can consult the following table to see how citizens and elected officials scored on each question.

AlliumIslelily
I don't even agree with what is usually accepted as the definition of intelligence. Reading, math, calculating mileage, sorting groceries by expiration date? These are all things that can be done by a computer. Why is "intelligence" being limited to mean "how well you can mimic a computer processor".

Where is the critical thinking? The creativity? What about social intelligence? Reading, writing and math are important, but they're hardly even half of the whole picture.

My tablet can do all those things they tested for, but I wouldn't call it smart.

This becomes a problem with educational placement too. You get young kids with a large vocabulary, above average arithmetic ability and a strong memory, and everyone thinks they're "gifted". Problem is, they can't apply these abilities to new situations on their own. They can't problem solve, but they can regurgitate like nobody's business, and that's what counts as "smart" in our society.

Spot on observations of the current method of education in the world for the "common folk".

I suspect you probably already know this answer and your questions were rhetorical... but if you haven't read the (online) book I'll link below... it's WELL worth the read. It will have overlap with every other country that has gone down the industrialization route.

The industrialists needed lots more people content doing rote, accurate, repetitious work. Creative minds don't do well on assembly lines.

The Underground History of American Education: A School Teacher's Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling

greenfox86
reply to post by TDawgRex

 

Wait are you saying wealthy people are smarter, or that they have the resources to afford dumb people in their family.

They are definitely smarter when it comes to money. Common sense, wisdom and education, combined with morals or in some cases, the lack of them, all contribute to expanding your finances. Or taking care of idiot children.

Personally I find that the more people look at their latest phone, the dumber they are. They should call them dumbphones.

I wouldn't disagree the fact that the U.S. is failing in the education/intelligence category.

Since our schools are funded by the government, the government must give schools their money to pay for teachers, books, lunches, etc.

And if you look at our government, it's not doing well at all when it comes to finances. We're nearly 17 trillion dollars of debt right now. And when your in such a large debt, funding to numerous government buildings and/or programs will go in decline. Which would be one reason as to why our education system is lacking.

Also, in America, it seems like intelligence is almost mocked. When you are considered smart, you are usually labeled a nerd, geek, etc. And usually the handsome, strong, athletes are the ones who are coveted. This has been portrayed many, many, many times in television, video games, movies, etc. It's pretty strange when you think about it. Who would want to be considered dumb? And why would being dumb or a slacker be considered good?

Another thing that needs to be put into question, is the way we teach kids in schools. There isn't enough hands on things for kids to do. And a school is almost like a prison. You have to sit in a desk pretty much all day for 8 or 7 hours, just filling out papers and reading. You can't go outside, hell, you can't even go to the bathroom without permission. So what I'm ultimately trying to say, is that schools are far to "boring." You know there's a problem when the vast majority of kids will openly say that they hate going to school. When you force kids to learn in a boring environment, they will then associate learning with boredom, and will be more inclined not to learn anymore. Because people make it artificially bad in a sense.

One last thing, in schools today, some teachers or schools deliberately lower the passing grades. Why would a school do this? Because the better grades a school has, the better the funding they get. And that right there is a huge problem. The kids in one area are not destined to be dumber than the kids in another area. It does not give kids a equal opportunity. When I was in high school, I went into other schools before, and noticed how much nicer the gyms were, the lobby, etc. One school near mine actually had an astro turf football field, while mine was just a crummy somewhat beat up field with a running track around it.

There's a lot of reasons why the American school system is in decline. And we really need to start taking care of each problem one step at a time. But that will be hard to do since our government has been screwing up for awhile now.

WhiteAlice

Revolution9
reply to post by TDawgRex

 

By ATS standards I do not agree that U.S citizens are dumb. If your citizens are dumb then how should I refer to my own "under the thumb" UK? People here in the UK are hopeless right now. They just resign themselves to slavery and ostracize any individual who tries to speak out against the corporate tyranny grinding away at their rights and freedoms so aggressively every day in every way!

The users of ATS would represent only a very small portion of the overall population within the US. ATS and websites like ATS are unique in that they attract a specific type of individual. A few months ago, there was a thread where users were sharing their MBTI. A good portion of them fell under some of the rarest MBTI combinations that typically are only found in perhaps 6% of a given population at the maximum. ATS would not be representative at all in the "average American". The "average American" is more likely to be a highly individualistic person whose primary concern is their definition of self-improvement, a tendency to be apolitical, unlikely to have every learned critical thinking skills regardless of education level, and of an iq that may land anywhere between 90-110. I threw in the critical thinking skills because this was a commonly asked question by several of my professors. They would ask how many students actually learned critical thinking in school. In classes of 30 and up, only a couple people ever raised their hands. Over 90% had never once had a lesson in critical thinking or logic.

Compared to ATS, again, you have a specialized pool that is not representative of the population. Many of the posters either have acknowledged or show significant signs of having been in the same kind of specialized education program that I was in. It's really not a representative pool in the slightest.

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I think I agree that ATS is not a representative slice of the general population. Very fascinating to read of the study you cite.

I think people are dumb, on average, all over the world really. Most are media led and do not question the authorities or the societies they live in. Indeed, most are frightened to explore beyond their comfort zone.

Well there are some very bright members posting here. That is always refreshing for me. I am so glad you guys are here.

reply to post by Eryiedes


He didn't think all that up himself he had plenty of help from some very powerful people that had planned theses things, most likely before I was even born and every president since Kennedy has been noting but a puppet

reply to post by Eryiedes


And you do realize if a parent goes to an esteemed school such as Yale or Harvard no great grades necessary you get to go on account of who your folks are

reply to post by greenfox86


Of course he didn't think of it by himself but he DID pull it off.
An idiot (as you ascribe) would NOT have been able to do that.
Don't believe the hype...you are dealing with a VERY deceptive individual.

-Amitaba-