How Did Some Americans Become So Stupid?

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There’s a subheading in a 2014 The New York Times article which says: “American College Graduates, Trailing in Math Skills.” The data it outlines is interesting.

On testing participants on math upon completing a bachelor’s degree, the results were as follows:



https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/upsh ... -dont.html

While they weren’t where they should be according to the average, they scored comparable to or the same as other nations with similar cultures/shared history or language, so I think the subheading is a bit misleading or even unfair.

It’s true that a slightly smaller percentage of Americans pursue higher education (13th in the world). I suspect that it’s due, in part, to Christian fundamentalism.

Last edited by TwilightPrincess on 27 Aug 2023, 7:58 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Oh, that is interesting!



Someone deciding where another person is located rather than asking them where they are located and taking their word for it, seems like a red flag.



Oh dear.



That seems to be a wise decision.



Awesome!

He did ask where I was. I said I wasn't comfortable telling him because I'm big on personal privacy. He decided I was in UK like most of his other love muffins, and that I went to Cambridge. He constructed my entire life for me. I kept saying "I never told you that", but I think he had an intellectual delay or reading disability because he insisted it was true.

He sounds like a real fun guy.

^ Maybe he was using reverse psychology, and hoping you would correct him on his inaccuracies.

Or maybe I overestimate his cognitive ability.

I took a class at Oxford when I knew him, but strangely enough he didn't seem to believe that.

He wasn’t delayed or disabled. He was manipulative.

He was the main character in this thread:

viewtopic.php?t=414681

I think I read that a while ago.

I am mostly oblivious to who is who in these matters.

I can only guess.

That's the thing.

Whether he was doing reverse psychology or not, I didn't correct him.
It was none of his business whether he was right or wrong, or what was true or false.
It wasn't a process of elimination or a riddle for him to solve.

I decided that "I never told you that" was sufficient, because I really hadn't told him that.

You think you read it awhile ago? I thought it was sensational enough to stay in people’s minds for a good 6 months.

Haha, I did read it a while ago!

The aftermath is a sticky now at the top of the page by the_walrus, you can't really miss that, which is an extension of what happened to the people involved. You and Isabella..?

I tend to mind my own business on the forums, for the most part. I rarely private message so I don't really know a lot of the stuff that goes on, on WP.

I wrote a lot of that sticky.

There were dozens of women involved in the past but they left years ago.

Maybe those are the people Max was referring to.

I don't disagree. But perception (at least for NTs)is difficult to dislodge.

I always find it hard to believe that Americans have a monopoly on stupidity or on ignorance.

But willful ignorance...due to Fundy religion...that probably is a thing unique in the industrialized world to the US. Exceeded only by fundy Muslim regimes in the third world.

In fact we have a whole industry devoted to...spreading ignorance. We have Creation Museums, and the Ark Encounter, that show scenes that look like they came out of the Flintstone cartoons, of humans and dinosaurs interacting, as if that were a historic fact. Some even show Jesus Christ himself riding a saddled up triceratops.

This part of your post made me laugh out loud.