How Did Some Americans Become So Stupid?

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Yes they can be both. But I am stating there are many whose motivation is a belief system they have inherited from their "bigoted" parents and their "bigoted community".

Here's a typical classroom from the USA 1963


the truth is the composition of schools has barely changed in 2023. Between these homogenous environs and the echo chamber back home it's any wonder bigotry flourishes in the USA.

I have to object to the inaccuracy. First that is not a typical public school class. It's a clearly a Catholic school based on the uniforms. I was actually in a public school at that time. We had dress codes that were stricter than today (girls had to wear skirts or dresses) but no uniforms and boys and girls weren't separated like in that picture. I attended a combined elementary/middle school. The elementary school was all white but the middle school was integrated however this simply happened because the middle school drew from a larger district plus residential segregation was way more intense then than now.

In the county where I now live and where my children were educated, the schools are EXTREMELY diverse. You wouldn't see an all-white classroom in any public school in the US unless the area it drew from was completely white which I think is unusual. Ironically it would be much less unusual to encounter an all-black classroom nowadays.

It's hard to know to know the situation in any foreign country. It's my impression that in Australia, the tendency has been to make black people invisible and to avoid discussing racial topics, but I would make no assumptions and am probably dead wrong. In 1979 I visited South Africa and although the racial situation there was bad, much of what I saw was a total surprise.

It IS a Catholic school. There’s even a nun in the back of the classroom.

This thread is about stupidity in general, not racial prejudice specifically. Religion, historically, has been strongly linked to racial prejudice in America, though, especially when it comes to the idea of keeping the races separate and the upholding of slavery. Some people still think races should be separate based on their interpretation of certain Bible passages.

Obviously, there’s more to it than that, but religion is responsible for a lot of the stupid in America, as it often is in other countries.

American classrooms ARE diverse in this day and age. As a teacher in a small town, I saw a fair amount of diversity in my school. Kids played together no matter their race. Sure, there’s a problem with racial prejudice in America, but most people aren’t prejudiced. It’s just a subset of Americans who probably have other stupid beliefs.

It’s fascinating to me when members, who aren’t from America, claim to know it better than Americans do. It’s hard to understand values, beliefs, and motivations of a country you’ve not lived in.

Last edited by TwilightPrincess on 02 Sep 2023, 8:24 am, edited 3 times in total.

Thank you for this analysis. Your understanding of this situation is dead on and you nailed the argument.

Why did you waste time posting this inane meaningless post?
It has nothing to do with either the topic, nor with reality itself !

Any random photo taken of any random grade school class taken in any nation on earth in 1963 or in 2023 would look much the same as that.

First that pic is not "typical" of the American schools I went to in 1963. Its a slightly more extreme version of what was typical. There were strict dress codes, but rarely THAT uniform. Second most public schools the world over, then and now, make their pupils wear actual uniforms. So even if it were "typical" of then, and or now, it wouldnt make the US stand out as different from the rest of the world.

And every nation has nationwide standards for running its education system. And every culture is an "echo chamber". So you're making distinctions without differences between the US and the rest of the world.

And what do you mean by "the composition of schools"?

^ His goal is to derail another thread by making it about race in America.

I should have also pointed out that, nowadays, it would be about as unusual to encounter an all-white classroom in a Catholic school as in a public school.

No, I am trying to demonstrate why it's easy to have an community echo chamber in which people look the same and think the same (ironically demonstrated here on WP). We know that 75 million Americans knowingly elected a "stupid" individual to run their country. The underlying motivations that drive these decisions are not all linked to religion.

Stupid is as stupid does applies here.

The data says otherwise
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2 ... s-analysis

Most of his fanbase is religious.

Obviously, there are issues outside of religion, but I think it’s the biggest cause of stupidity in the US for reasons I’ve already outlined:

You are taking things too literally. Schools in 1963 were highly segregated so the image is merely a reflection of the pervasive homogeneity of society that persists to today. America was built as a nation of immigrants but there is a belief that one is forced into a template of what an "american" is. I am searching for reasons why as a nation the US is so obsessed about patriotism/identity at the expense of health/education/environmental and technological progress.

I’m not patriotic, but I must admit that the US has contributed a lot, especially in the realms of science and technology. Perhaps you’re searching for reasons to uphold your own biases and prejudice.

For those of you still upset by the original title of the thread, and by the title of the video in the original post...here is a more equal opportunity vid in which Neil Degrasse Tyson is saying that EVERYONE is a dumbass! Regardless of nationality etc


https://youtu.be/9PJYd88O1Jw

^ I’m not, but a lot of people haven’t engaged with the content in the original video anyway. They’ve just expressed how they think Americans became stupid.

The original video doesn’t even address how even though it’s in the title.

I’ll watch this video when I get a chance.

I started it but didnt finish. Its kinda silly because he gets offended that folks arent up to speed on his own specialties of math and science. I am a map geek and I get appalled about how folks dont know geography (like how mom didnt grasp that the Morrocco is 3000 miles from any point on the Rift Valley even both are in Africa). But I dont get sympathy for my appalledness. So why should he get any? Lol!

I think it should be more about critical thought. If people know how to think rationally, including what constitutes valid evidence and what constitutes a good (and bad) argument, there’d be way less stupid. If people think the “evidence” in the Creation Museum is convincing, exposure to real science probably is not going to help them much.