Please tell me people aren't this ignorant

[danscope]

Yes.... and I find it surprising that these concepts of the tilted earth orbiting the Sun do not take logical root in what should otherwisw be fertile soil.
The demonstrations in physical science class are pretty basic concepts.
Must be too busy gigling with the girlfriends or writing notes.
Have you ever seen Jay Leno's " Jaywalking " ?
I used to think these people were actors just making a buck.
But.....they could be for real. Scary, isn't it?
Best regards, Dan

[Noclevername]

Every time I think I've figured out just how ignorant people are, I'm unpleasantly surprised to find out they're even worse.

[Len Deighton]

For example: People who think the dinosaurs were only 7000 years old,......
......and build a museum to .....uhhrumpf.....try to "prove" their point.
Shame...shame....pity...shame ........

Best regards, Dan

People say all kinds of silly things. I try to think of a way to make money from them, for example, if they say an event is absolutely impossible, I ask them if they'd like to insure me for one million dollars against this impossible event. Usually they then start to maintain that while the event is absolutely impossible, there is a chance it could happen

But if these people are willing to put up money to build a museum, does that mean they really believe it, or does it just mean they're willing to make money from the people who really believe it?

[danscope]

Hi,
You make an excellent point. Maybe it is just a monument to con artists
everywhere!! It certainly reflects poorly on the chumps who actually believe
that dinosaurs ran around only 5000 years ago. What rubbish.
Like I said: Don't let such people work on your brakes.
Best regards, Dan

[jebubb]

A friend of mine put it better than I've ever been able to. Take what you consider to be "average" intelligence, then realize that by definition, most people fall below that mark.

Jim.

[Disinfo Agent]

I thought the scoop was that half of the people were below average.
Welcome to the forum.

[astromark]

Yes and when you tell some that our sun is a star, they do not believe you.

[jebubb]

Yes Disinfo, I worded that wrong. Meant to say half not most. Thanks for the greeting!

Jim.

[Peter Wilson]

Half the people are above-average, which makes the below-average people look bad

[UFOvsUSO]

It's true,and I read the article years ago.

[01101001]

Half the people are above-average, which makes the below-average people look bad

Funny things is, way more than half the people you meet in everyday life are above average in intelligence -- because a large portion of those on the way-low end of the scale are institutionalized. Society hides part of the curve.

Another interesting fun-with-statistics item I was reminded of yesterday: most people have an above-average number of legs -- arithmetic average, that is. There are too few with more than 2 legs to offset the fair number with less than 2.

[Doodler]

Is it really so hard to believe that the majority of people in the world are just plain ignorant of facts which don't directly impinge upon their daily trek through the rat maze?

Its not that they're stupid or otherwise mentally deficient, its simply that those particular pieces of information are, in a practical sense, utterly irrelevant to them. They could care less about the orbit of the Earth or the orbit of an electron, its pointless data. They don't see the need to know, so there's no effort to learn it. To the average Joe/Jane on the street, knowing the first thing about the world beyond the atmosphere is nothing more than trivia at best.

[ampassociates]

The weirdest stories are often true. Lets give it the benefit of doubt.

[KaiYeves]

I had a friend who didn't know that dinosaurs were dead. On the other hand, I met an eight-year old who knew the whole story of Lowell, the canali and how he was proven wrong.

[xfahctor]

I know this is an old thread, but I had to dredge it up from the bone yard. I do a lot of political work (no, not turning this to a political discussion, don't worry) and it is the same thing in that field. I'm astounded at how many, even supposedly, educated people, have no idea about the constitution, our system of government, it's proper role, who's in it or anything. If it wasn't such a relevent thing to people's lives, it would be hilarious.
We can blame our education system, a general lack of caring to know and people's obsession with other obviously much more important things like American Idol or Britny Spears' day to day life among many other things.
The saddest fact in all of this is ignorance to both politics and astronomy or even basic laws of science, leads to all kinds of people being taken advantage of in all kinds of ways, by all kinds of people.

[John Jaksich]

Most sadly, some college graduates from of the most prestigious Universities in the world are subject to such fuzzy logic...even on their day of graduation--I had seen questions posed to them with the results disastrous.

It may not be that ignorance is bliss---but bliss breeds ignorance...

[Jeff Root]

xfahctor,

I'm curious about where I rank on the scale of knowledge-ignorance of
things political. Do you have or can you point me to a reasonably good
test that I could take? Somewhere around 30-40 questions, maybe?
I'd like a test of things considered important rather than trivia.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[schlaugh]

Jeff, whether these questions are important, trivial, or somewhere in between, they nonetheless represent what the INS asks of immigrants who want to become US Citizens.

http://usgovinfo.about.com/blinstst.htm

Also:

Naturalization Self Test

[slang]

I like the subtitle of the Straight Dope website:

Fighting Ignorance Since 1973
(It's taking longer than we thought)

(Yes I know there was no 'web' in 1973, it allegdly existed as a newspaper column back then)

[xfahctor]

xfahctor,

I'm curious about where I rank on the scale of knowledge-ignorance of
things political. Do you have or can you point me to a reasonably good
test that I could take? Somewhere around 30-40 questions, maybe?
I'd like a test of things considered important rather than trivia.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

I don't have a ready made "test" myself. The citizenship test is a good place to start I suppose. What I was refering to was far worse though, people who couldn't even identify the vice president, couldn't tell you why they liked a particular candidate other than "he's gonna unite us", people who believe that a president can "fire" a governor, people who thought the persident could overturn prop 8 in california, the list goes on and these aren't even the worst. Don't worry, I'm pretty sure you are well far and above this kind of stuff.

[Rex84]

Please tell me people aren't this ignorant
yes and worse.

Not only are the people that ignorant, they are born pregnant,even the men! And babies are having babies!! Also if you don't go along with their programs and philosophies, they will hunt you down and weed you out! I tell everyone I can to find a legit inside track on the research you are interested in and isolate the information curve. Ride the curve and dominate the curve!

And then there will finally be peace in the galaxy!

[Gillianren]

(Yes I know there was no 'web' in 1973, it allegdly existed as a newspaper column back then)

Allegedly? I have books featuring the old, pre-internet columns!

[Jeff Root]

Newspapers are just an urban legend, Gillian. Everyone knows that.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[Rex84]

One person's newspaper is another person's toilet tissue!

[slang]

Allegedly? I have books featuring the old, pre-internet columns!

Books prove nothing!! *throws some Sibrel hardcovers*

I was just to lazy to check, and didn't want to get called a liar.

[Starfury]

I am holding my head in my hands in utter shame right now. People, sadly, are that dumb.

[astromark]

Conditioned learning and knowing what you need to know. Just because you have a obsessive disorder does not rule the rest of humanity mad. The young man in a New York Street Gang has a very different set of needs to the equivalent person living in the jungles of Brazil. I could not care less about your vice president as I live where he can not have a real and present importance. That does not rule me dumb. Its selective importance. My forest dweller does not require the city skills.
Given the right circumstance you could need the survival skills of either. As in 'their' worlds 'they' are supreme. That is not dumb or a measure of inelegance is it?

[لطفيّ]

Yes Disinfo, I worded that wrong. Meant to say half not most. Thanks for the greeting!

Jim.

"Most" might be correct - I don't know. Half of all people are below the median, but the median can be different from the average.

Also, there may be more than one reasonable way to measure the units on an intelligence test. What does it mean for one person to be twice as intelligent as another? It's not exactly the same as measuring mass or length. If one intelligence scale is, for example, a logarithmic transform of another, then the number of people who are above and below average will be different in the two scales.

[closetgeek]

Conditioned learning and knowing what you need to know. Just because you have a obsessive disorder does not rule the rest of humanity mad. The young man in a New York Street Gang has a very different set of needs to the equivalent person living in the jungles of Brazil. I could not care less about your vice president as I live where he can not have a real and present importance. That does not rule me dumb. Its selective importance. My forest dweller does not require the city skills.
Given the right circumstance you could need the survival skills of either. As in 'their' worlds 'they' are supreme. That is not dumb or a measure of inelegance is it?

It really makes no difference to you, to know it, because you are not a resident, but I think the topic is more about US citizens who do not know who the vice president is, or what powers the President actually has. The thread is about ignorance, however, not intelligence.

The third response in The Bad Astronomer's link provides a suggestion that should put some minds at ease, people freeze under pressure. I, for one, once accidentally marked that Louis Armstrong went to the moon, after snickering at the idea of Lance Armstrong being an astronaut.

[danscope]

Louis Armstrong may have sang...."Fly me to the moon", but...
That's different.
Dan