The August 7th episode of Real Time with Bill Maher some hilarious yet sadly true statistics, and I couldn't help but clip it out and post it online. Enjoy.
That's not how averages work... If 10% of people were stupid enough, then they could bring down the average so significantly that 90% of people could be smarter than the average.
Statistics should always be taken with a pinch of salt. There are fallacies that abound in making conclusive statements from a given data set. On a more general level, making claims about the beliefs of an entire population can be skewed and may not fully represent the actual state of affairs, based on how the data was collected. It irks me when people like O'reilly pull percentages out of a hat and dress them up as fact when on TV; vaguely sensible people like Maher should know better.
For zcxsx | The basic reason why the planets revolve around, or orbit the sun (rotate actually is used to describe their spin, for example, the Earth completes one rotation about its axis every 24 hours, but it completes one revolution around the Sun every 365 days), is that the gravity of the Sun keeps them in their orbits. Just as the Moon orbits the Earth because of the pull of Earth's gravity, the Earth orbits the Sun because of the pull of the Sun's gravity.
@APOCALYPTIC117 it's a grain, dairy, meat, and sometimes a vegetable so... at least they were roughly 12.5% right (depending on how often you put vegetables on your pizza)...
Apart from the two senators thing, I could have answered those questions correctly, and I'm from fukken Finland! I know reading a newspaper or a book is a bit too much to ask, but I learned those things just by watching american television.How hard can it be?
grimsoncrow exactly! I’m from Jamaica, and the first time I saw this I was shook. The revolutionary war? The FDA? Just by reading labels on American items, you can figure that out. Are you serious?
I spend my summers in Utah and my winters in southern Morocco. I can assure you the (mostly non-practicing) muslims here know more about christianity than American christians know about islam. Oh, and secular jews from Israel beat both groups easily!
ixlnxs Not very - as an American, I literally could answer all those questions (except who my representative was, and maybe the FDA) by 3rd grade. How sad that so many adults here can't do it.
+Pat Doyle - Right wingers don't need to know anything about government, right wing propagandist and politicians will tell them what to think, say and do and that's good enough for them!
I love the medic care guy but my new favorite guy is the guy while holding the Confederate Flag when referring to the election carrying a sign "Get over it you lost"
Bill clearly IS smarter than the majority. He's got a hit show on HBO, a few movie's to his name, a very successful comedy career, so I would say he's far from "very average".
I was in a technical college class once and the teacher asked everybody where North America was. I was the only one in class that knew we were standing on it. Just crazy huh??
I am proud to be part of the only 18% of Americans to know that planet sun revolves around the earth! I can't believe so few people know that. Scientific literacy is a huge problem!
OysterHuman And I'm probably one of the .001% of Americans who know the sun *_does_* revolve around the Earth.....*_and the other way around_*.....because the sun isn't some fixed stationary object; both bodies revolve around *_each other_*, relative to each body. But of course, that takes a subtle understanding of scientific knowledge...hence the .0001% part. -____-
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." - Mark Twain. "Facts are meaningless; you can use facts to prove anything!" - Homer Jay Simpson
Dear Mr. Canada do you have your own country to worry about ? OR is it the fact that you have the land mass of the US and the Population of California make your issues just a little different than ours. I can't help that your socialite elite use are country as an example for every excuses to further the restrictive SOCIAL laws on your people (your business laws are doing very well) thats for another time. Anyway plz mind your own business nothings funny about your country it's BORING!
Id say it makes it funnier, since I believe he actually has an audence. Meaning people who agree with what he is saying. And I just have to say, listening to Bill Maher on his show and interviews on like "The tonight show." he is funny.
Oh god, alright, we gotta set some things straight: the founding fathers were liberals both in their time and in the European sense. Liberalism today has an entirely different meaning and context. Hell, American Liberalism and European Liberalism are opposites. I was referring to liberals and their current social policies which lean heavily on government regulation and dependence. But you're right, when it comes to FOREIGN issues, conservatives (of today) believe in state authority.
@OrthodoxAtheist I totally agree hun. As an up and coming teacher, what doesn't make any sense is that they take money away from "failing" schools and give the money to the schools that are making it. Shouldn't it be the other way around? ya know?
I don't know if you're aware of this or not, but we still lead the world in many innovative fields. Americans are inventing new technologies in the medical field on a daily basis that contribute to saving the lives of people all over the world. As a rule of thumb, America still contributes the most good to the world by quite some margin, even if we do many bad things as well. People tend to look over the good and focus on the bad.
Funny how that wasn't even my point, yet for the third time, that's all people seem to be stuck on: who's smarter than who. You're all largely just driving my point home for me. Quite frankly, most people aren't even fit to comment on who's smart or stupid.
He’s talking about the conspiracy that Cheney and bush did 9-11 not the memo saying bin laden determined to attack us. The conspiracy is far more specific.
A smart person learns....their not born with the knowledge about life. It's never the individual's fault. It's the parents, the school, the system, and society.
His studio audience is such an annoying group, groveling at his feet, screaming and hollering at every anti-Republican/pro-Democratic statement that he makes. He ought to do away with the studio audience altogether.
Matthew Prouty "what do you expect?", I thought I made that pretty clear in my original post when I said "he should do away with the studio audience altogether".
AnAntitheistGuy Yea I heard you but that's not even a consideration. What, you want a laugh track? Or else silence, or tepid laughter from the panel? He needs an audience of some kind.
Spiders for President! =D! YT comments dont impact US politics as much as you appear to think they may. But neither does reading the raw briefings every day. What should one person with no billions do? ... SPIDERS FOR PRESIDENT!!
Answers to Bill's statistic questions: 1)Branches of Government: Judicial, Legislative, and Executive 2)Bill of Rights: The first 10 amendments of the constitution 3)Revolutionary War: Colonies vs Great Britain 4)Roe v Wade made abortion legal in the U.S. 5)The Food and Drug Administration monitors and regulates the safety of foods and drugs and the companies that make them. They also monitor things like tobacco, cosmetics, medical devices and much more. There, hopefully you learned something (:
Interestingly, depending on one's definition of "the American way", it could certainly be argued that the present behavior of our nation is "unamerican". It certainly doesn't mesh well with the principles embodied in our constitution. Intrusive surveillance, torture, and wage slavery do not seem to be what our founders had in mind, despite the fact that several of them were OK with REAL slavery, but then, men will always be products of their times and none are perfect.
Thanks for understanding that we are not all stupid/ignorant. Sadly, while I suspect that most countries would not fare as well as they would wish in such a test, I think the USA has a certain sense of innate superiority which allows ignorant Americans to feel superior just by virtue of being American. I think this tends to make us a bit more stupid/ignorant than many other countries. One may note that this did not seem to be a trend before WW II, but is now rampant.
@DissorderedArray I don't think that's true at all. Yes the clueless turd has an equal say, or opportunity to have their say, but people aren't going to give him the same credibility as a physicist. I mean sure, there would be some people who would accept the moron more than the scientist, because they're morons and they feel inferior or otherwise hostile to someone with education, but they would be in the minority.
People who really love their country are not afraid to speak up about its faults. Just as a good father who loves his children doesn't just sit and watch as his kids become drug-addled drop outs - he does something about it! Your attitude would be more like a father putting a bumper sticker on his car that says "My child can cook meth better than your honor student".
Liberalism isn't really about questioning authority, it's about deferring to authority. Hell, Obama said as much in a recent speech at a college. Basically telling the graduates not to listen to people that warn about governmental tyranny. That doesn't sound like questioning shit.
The US still has some Commonwealths which date back to the founding of the US, in fact, it was Commonwealth colonies that in large part founded the US... You realize this, right? It's this sort of ignorance you're displaying that makes the US look worse... Unless that's your intention. >.>
Bill Maher - I was just checking out one of your 2009 episode, when you mentioned that "Judaism" is older than Christianity, however, you're wrong. During the time of old testament, there came about a religious sect that practiced "Pharisaism" ; the words Judaism and Jew, did not come into existence until the 18th century, in fact, no bible (until after the second edition of the King James Version; the latter half of the 1600's) including the 63 books of the Talmud (still to this day) does not recognize any groups of people known as Jews or any religious sect that practiced Judaism (not one word of it mentioned), it is the most purposely misleading 185 word / s of the bible today. Jesus was known as a Judean (as in from Bethlehem, Judea, which has nothing to do with said religious sect), or a Judahite by some. So, besides the people who wrote themselves into those pages for a deception that has changed that segment of history thus far, Jesus wouldn't have known what the f%$K a Jew was, a Pharisee (those who brought Talmudic teachings from the Pumbedita and Sura Babylonian discipline to the Khazars we now know as Jews today) he would have known, and we all know how he felt about them. I still love you man.
And I'm probably one of the .001% of Americans who know the sun *_does_* revolve around the Earth.....*_and the other way around_*.....because the sun isn't some fixed stationary object; both bodies revolve around *_each other_*, relative to each body. But of course, that takes a subtle understanding of scientific knowledge...hence the .0001% part. -____- It's actually frightening to hear those statistics Bill mentioned. I knew every single one of the answers. I'm not "proud" of this...it's something everyone ought to know by virtue of existing. It's insane how ignorant most people are. How is it _possible_ to be complacent with such ignorance?? Seriously?
well every america doesn't have the financial luxury to just up and leave the country whenever they want. Plus, not EVERY american is dumb. the way america is ran is really beneficial to some americans and there are opportunities here in which you would rarely find anywhere else in the world. There has to be a reason so many people move here right? However, i am in no way saying America is the greatest country, im just being reasonable.
come on guys you really believe that? i study politics closely and i must frankly say there is no longer a fundamental difference between your political parties, i mean don´t get confused, there is plenty of difference when hear politicians them talk about what they would like to get done, but when you look at what they actually do, it don`t seam to matter who is in power, the sane shit gets pushed through anyway. so please try to make piece democrats and republicans for the good of your nation
I say that to ocassionally act condescending is great to release some frustration WHEN YOUR RIGHT (which he usually is). It's when stupid people act condescending that's really annoying. It's like they think that to be condescending is just a nasty tone of voice and calling somebdy stupid. BUT HAVE NO FACTS TO BACK IT UP. That's the key to condescending and they miss it, proving their stupidity. a-n-n-o-y-i-n-g!
You're probably wrong about that. There's no need to start inventing conspiracies to explain it -- it's as simple as staying in business. The schools need funding to keep running, and as it stands, the way they get that funding is by having students score well on standardized tests. The tests are the way they are because they're designed to be easy to administer and grade. Thus, you have schools teaching recitation of facts (sans parenthesis) rather than critical thinking.
That is a cop-out, there are books, one can research, learn about the world around oneself. Now there is the internet(as long as one is diligent about sources) ignorance about things like history(so as not to repeat mistakes) our government(so as to be able to meaningfully participate in our constitutional republic) or science is obscene. Once a human being reaches adulthood it is on them if they are deficient in such subjects unless someone is physically barring their access to information.
You claim that "true intellect is developed at early stage by a strive of wanting to know more about the world". But that "strive of wanting to know more" is something that has to be taught and stimulated. Without parents (whom you cannot control) and schools (which you _can_ control) that romantic strive you're talking about will not be present. The strive of wanting to know more about the world is what we call intelligence. Where would that have to come from?
Your arguments are not constructive. All I see are moral viewpoints. "Parents should" "People should". If you're correct and schools are indeed useless, wouldn't it be the smart choice to actually improve schools and the standard of education then? And your argument about kids not choosing to want to know more is absolutely ridiculous. You hold children responsible for what they know and don't know?! ALL children will pick up and learn is taken from their environment.
So the reason certain parts of the US are less intelligent is what? Collective lack of responsiblity? Lazy culture? Come on, children are at school the greatest part of their lifes, so it definitely matters what happens in there. Please realize that the ability to learn declines enormously after your first 25 years. Years which you spend at school. Also, your reasoning is circular. If intelligence is only genetically defined, why would you hold someone responsible for it?
You didn't take Britain down, Britain let you have your independence because they saw you as a unproductive colony. American colonies weren't too profitable for Britain so wasting troops for them wasn't worth it especially when you have several other nations at war with you. Do you really think US would stand a chance if Britain brought in more troops? Also, rebels received quite a lot of aid from other countries such as France, Spain and Holland. Please get your facts straight next time.
I would laugh, but I fear for my planet when I consider that the most ignorant, bigoted, bloodthirsty, self-righteous and loudest people can run for a certain political office, which includes the following perks: 1. 8000 nuclear weapons (2150 active) 2. 11 active carrier fleets 3. 168 strategic bombers (active) 4. US Intelligence Community 5. USSOCOM among others. Letting a child play with matches is bad enough. We're giving these children flamethrowers.
Bill Mayer’s delivery does little more than promote extremism. If you keep calling people stupid, no matter how funny or creative, they are going to become defensive, defiant and obstinate. Moreover, he does not seem to recognize the basic human need for spiritual growth as the futility of materialism is discovered. He lumps this need in with a condemnation of religion. We need to remember, he is foremost an entertainer whose secondary objectives may be social, economic or political change.
I don't think you're aware how extremely similar the Canadian and Norwegian system is. Universal healthcare is decent, by the mere fact that it is Universal. But that does not mean it is the best care one can get, and that is my point. The idea that political motivation(i.e welfare,universal healthcare) is somehow more noble than economic motivation(free-markets, and private healthcare) is ridiculous. And no, America is not a good system. America has fascist economic system.
Wow angry religious people are getting out of control again. Nothing new... You know what, its more moral to not have a God that says whats right and wrong, these things have to come through you yourself. If someone has to punish or reward you for bad or good behaviour, you are missing the picture of morality. morality means doing the right thing without it having consequences for you. That is truly moral. At least atheists get the golden rule, a lot of religous people don't.
@gamefreak1000000-Then you should probably leave because he IS running the country and is likely going to continue running it for the next 4 years so, yeah, you should probably leave. Curious. . .you seem kinda proud of the idea that our founders believed in fairy tales and would actually burn people at the stake for believing otherwise-neither of which is true. Most if not all the founders were secularists who had to create a nation for religious folk. Hence 'In God We Trust' which they didn't.
Just because you allow two people who love each other have the same rights as you, doesn't make you gay, it just makes you a human who realizes that love, between two consenting adults, is love An unborn fetus and a baby are two different things, you wouldn't call an acorn a tree That actually affects security of the nation so it would be bad just because you have an answer doesn't mean it's right
Our medical innovations are actually quite impressive, but that alone does not make up for our pathetic medical industry. When we are tied for 29th in infant mortality in between Hungary and Chile the medical industry might not be where you point to prove our dominance. Several reports, from a casual search of google, show that the rest of the world is catching up to our dominance in the field. Which proves my point we brag about being the best because of what other generations did.
Yes we contributed more to the world as it is right now. We created one of the first, and most successful, Democratic countries in the world. The Marshall Plan was genius. Defeating communism or at least the totalitarian governments that said they were communist. The biggest thing you will notice about all those things are they happened decades ago. Right now our country is NOT great. We could be, but have rested on the achievements of past generations too long.
Yes Jesus said to sell all of your property and give the money to be redistrubed according to need. He said pay your taxes (give to Ceasar). He said it is hard for a rich man to enter heaven. He said when you pray do not do it in public, go to your closet. Surpising how little these right wing theists. Notice I said theist because they believe in a god just not the teachings of Christ like a CHristian would do. I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians - Ghandi
(cont) If they read more, they wud in the process likely gain some critical thinking skills. Ethics & integrity, I don't know how they fix that shit. Remember tho, I said Rethugs possess any or all of these traits. Some only have 1 or 2. Others are riddled with all of them. NOT people I want in my life. Hypocrisy is TOXIC & the fact that many of them vote for hypocrites knocks them off the list right then. They're not worth my trouble or effort to find out anything more about them. Yes, really.
#1: I don't appreciate being called a heathen, because that implies that there is a god, and it's the god you believe in. How about buddhists, are they heathens too? Believers in the northern gods, are they heathens? #2: You're free to disagree with Bill Maher, but please attack his views, not his looks or his person. #3: Do you read the bible/torah literally or metaphorically? and those who reads it differently, don't they understand the word of god?
"Flouride in the water, mercury in yer teeth, contolled demolitions, thermate in the street!" More Rock n Roll lyrics: "Paid for politicians in bed with the FED, military machine controls your head. Yeah, let's rock, oo, ooo, oo, let's rock." "Everybody in the whole cell block was dancing to the FEMA rock." "Number 911 said 322, Skull 'n Bones is jumpin' let's light another fuse"... "George Bush senior said to JFK, no ones a lookin' how I blew you away. Yeah, let's rock, oo, oo, oo, WTF!
@TheRhinehart86 Sorry about that. One of the problems with the printed word is that sarcasm can be hard to detect. I was trying to (and spectacularly poorly at that), point out that even though socialism is a dirty word to many americans, there are things that are just necessarily run by government. That isn't socialism, that is for the good of all. I am Canadian by the way, and we are proud of our county. We are getting more right wing though, and that is scary.
@hostyle0 Of course it's worth arguing, it' not about an individuals free will/ choice or their stupidity, I'm not for a moment suggesting americans consider pizza a vegetable. it's about nutrition of our youngsters and how this legislation effects the dietary programmes of high schools up and down the country. Schools are now legally permitted to include pizza as a vegetable serving.
@Hogan1950 Lol, ever heard of civic virtue? Neighbourly charity? Youre saying that if someone is too poor to afford the fire department their house should be allowed to burn? What about appartment buildings? What if some have fire insurance and others dont? I live in Australia, a socialist country with health care, public housing and subsidised education, we're ranked 52nd in population and 17th in GDP and getting bigger, youre country is falling apart, who's got the right idea?
@Hogan1950 Another thing about the fire department, it is ran by the state. States can run social programs much like states can run health care. The federal government is there for 2 things. Deal with foreign affairs and give US citizens rights to control government. If federal government control health care then who is going to control the government? I am not against government run health care I am against an overpowering government.
@alexgibson198209 All my healthcare decisions have been decided between my doctor and myself. The current system is great for me. While a different system may benefit some it will hurt many others like myself. I don't like some things about the healthcare system we have but compared to the other options we have out there the system we have is the best for me and many others I know.
@metalgear767 You do realize you are wrong don't you? Wealth and income are 2 very different things. In a free system, hard-work and efficiency are rewarded. Sam Walton revolutionized retail, doesn't he deserve the market rewards? Bill Gates revolutionized software, doesn't he deserve the market rewards? If you want equality of outcome you need to move to a socialist country. And no one in america is suffering. The poor here are wealthy compared to the rest of the world.
Americans aren't stupid, they are ignorant. They assume America is the greatest country in the world in every sense of the meaning, and therefore everything that happen in America, or anything America or Americans do, must be great and wonderful. This notion seems to apply to any inhabitant in the US as well. A common American motto seems to be "I was born in America, and therefore all truth and knowledge has been intutive to me since birth." Any criticism of that notion is of course unamerican.
@kungharry While critical thinking is something that we apparently don't put much emphasis on, though we should. The phrase taking your own responsibility seems to generally be more of a buzz phrase than actually meaning much of anything especially when it comes to talking about kids where the psychology is generally different than in adults, especially in households where many kids are already raised outside of school to simply accept authority and not think too much outside of that.
@adakar Every country has their idiots. Every single one of them. The problem that is creeping into America is that the investments the country used to make into education, long term economic policy, scientific research and development etc; have gone by the wayside because enough of the voting public (America has a very low voting turnout, probably mostly due to the difficulty of the voting system) think we're fine now, and so we don't need to keep spending. Wrong, we're starting to lose
@GuillemotWatcher Well I just watched THIS video - v=dGxBUyHbn2E ...and I think it illustrates a considerable part of the problem. It should be our first priority, even before general funding of schools, and choosing to educate children instead of teaching them to pass exams, or lowering standards to artificially inflate test scores to steady the school's funding, and hide a very real and disturbing problem... current US children will be the luddites of this generation.
@DissorderedArray Then let me offer you some consolation by revealing... I'm an Englishman in America, and their education, at least between the ages of 11 and 16, are a year or two behind ours. (I know this because I helped my daughter-in-law and her friends daily with their homework between those ages). A 15 year old from England going to school in California, for example, would feel like they are repeating the last 12-24 months of school. So at least England isn't last. lolz
@OrthodoxAtheist I'll have to take your word for it, I have only spent a little time in the States - not enough to get a true opinion beyond the usual 'Yanks are dumb' stereotype. I would rather give them the benefit of the doubt and say that it's the media and popular culture which are dumb rather than the general population per se. I do spend a lot of time in Germany and Switzerland, and am always impressed by the higher standard of general education there compared to my own country, Britain.
@magnusalpha Yet unfortunately that's the very point, on one hand people trust their own experiences more than impartial evidence (but the Earth looks flat, so it must be) particularly when it is reinforced by someone from their 'peer' group. On the other, people are swayed by a majority - 8 out of 10 people believing in this remedy doesn't make it actually work, but as an argument it will be more convincing to more people than one scientists saying there is no efficacy data for that treatment.
So you blame our right wing government.... Sir, I live in California. Our right wing is not on the right wing. It is just slightly right of the left wing and still sits on the left. We have the most spending and the worst output. Nobody asks, "Maybe money is not the issue. Maybe its the quality." Instead, we keep dumping more and more money into education.
I live in a democratic dominated county. They always scream and argue about how we need to tax more and that we are not spending enough on education. I then ask if they understand we spend the most on education then any other state in the United States and we get the worst students. They never respond.
Condescending? I agree that on the surface he appears condescending, but how the hell do you address the issues that he's talking about without sounding condescending? How do you address the issues of American stupidity without sounding that way? I don't think it's possible, because smart people always sound "condescending" to stupid people.
The population of America is around 300million and there are complex formula to determine a representative sample size. Statistics can be manipulated to say ANYTHING so the methodologies used and precautions taken should be checked when reading poll results and even then they should be taken with a grain of salt, imo.
Well, he's not a public figure or anything so he's never said, but only about half the people in Korea claim themselves to be religious, and the vast majority that do are either Buddhist or follow Confucianism, neither of which believes in gods in the same sense as other religions. So your assumption would most likely be a poor one.
Its called the Austrian School of Economics and one of its claims is that empirical data that does not conform to the schools ideological standpoint is wrong for no other reason that it disproves all of what they believe in, also they believe that you can predict the economy by trying to guess the whims of rich people and how they're feeling on that particular day.
@alexgibson198209 If I were to get into a car accident the hospital can't deny me from getting care in the ER, but I would have to pay for it later. If my house catches on fire then the fire department puts it out, but they won't buy me a new house or possessions, I would have to do that or have insurance. So that is a bad analogy.
@dandyif That is a very broad description of Americans. If I were to make such a broad statement about a race or religion it would be completely unfair. You are doing the same thing except you are applying it to a region. The claims that you are making are insulting. Most Americans don't agree with everything the government does. If you think they do then you are ill informed.
Where does Maher gets his sources from? I don't buy into a lot of those stats. Also, there is more to intelligence then speaking big words and knowing "facts." An intelligent individual is one that can think for themselves, something most liberals, like Maher, can't do. That is why they are for big government. Let the government do it all for them so they don't have to.
Thanks to my American "education" I only really know of the good European countries. I never even heard of Syria until I began my life on the net. I bet most Americans weren't even away Syria existed until now. It's disgusting. I at least try to keep myself educated.
You are 100% right. I have had a discussion with that kind of people. They know all about the second amendment but when it comes to all other stuff, they are totally blank.LOL= Maybe i shouldnt laugh cause it is in fact very serious. Anyway the South has always had that problem.
I don't think of it in a one dimensional way. It's complicated but I think someone's decision has to do with a great deal of how they were raised. A lot of times there can be a cycle where generation after generation there spawns an idiot and I believe it's not uncommon.
