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1 in 4 Americans Believe the Sun Revolves Around the Earth

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Shrapnel
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07 Mar 2014, 5:10 am

lotuspuppy wrote:
This really isn't all that surprising, given America's history. Since the very beginning, American society has had a strong anti-intellectual streak. I am not sure this is uniform (the circles in America I run in reward intelligence), but it's there. I can't say whether it caused our public schools to start failing, or if it was the other way around. In any case, I doubt that improving public schools would remove the strong ant-intellectual bias from our society.

On the flip side, our nation consistently attracts the brightest and most talented people.


I infer this to mean that America is forced to import the best and brightest. I lay partial blame on our public school system, the disintegration of the two parent household and the media. Sad that others saw it as the perfect opportunity to inject gratuitous and irrelevant attacks on Sarah Palin, people who may have thyroid problems and gun owners.



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07 Mar 2014, 6:24 am

Kraichgauer wrote:
I recall how not many years ago, when Sarah Palin - hardly an intellectual giant - was running for the veep position, it was suddenly popular to ridicule intellectuals and "elitists." Suddenly, it was a point of pride not to know anything, and the idea that "knowing too much is a bad thing" became popular.


I remember that! She even made the French news where everyone laughed at her stupidity. She was decrying scientists for their interest in fruit flies and everyone was applauding her. She must be the dumbest politician I've ever heard. Totally clueless and trying to make ignorance into a virtue.


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Last edited by TallyMan on 07 Mar 2014, 6:33 am, edited 1 time in total.

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07 Mar 2014, 6:32 am

TallyMan wrote:
Kraichgauer wrote:
I recall how not many years ago, when Sarah Palin - hardly an intellectual giant - was running for the veep position, it was suddenly popular to ridicule intellectuals and "elitists." Suddenly, it was a point of pride not to know anything, and the idea that "knowing too much is a bad thing" became popular.


I remember that! She even made the French news where everyone laughed at her stupidity. She was decrying scientists for their interest in fruit flies and everyone was applauding her. She must be the dumbest politician I've ever heard. Totally clueless and making ignorance a virtue.


Her fifteen minutes lasted way too long.



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07 Mar 2014, 8:33 am

In fairness to Palin, her views on teaching evolution are right on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDrhVR8d2Gk



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07 Mar 2014, 12:18 pm

She likely modified her views to run on the McCain ticket. When she ran for governor she gave the usual creationist "teach the controversy" view.

Palin wrote:
"Teach both. You know, don't be afraid of information. Healthy debate is so important and it's so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both. And you know, I say this too as the daughter of a science teacher. Growing up with being so privileged and blessed to be given a lot of information on, on both sides of the subject – creationism and evolution. It's been a healthy foundation for me. But don't be afraid of information and let kids debate both sides."



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07 Mar 2014, 12:33 pm

Shrapnel wrote:
lotuspuppy wrote:
This really isn't all that surprising, given America's history. Since the very beginning, American society has had a strong anti-intellectual streak. I am not sure this is uniform (the circles in America I run in reward intelligence), but it's there. I can't say whether it caused our public schools to start failing, or if it was the other way around. In any case, I doubt that improving public schools would remove the strong ant-intellectual bias from our society.

On the flip side, our nation consistently attracts the brightest and most talented people.


I infer this to mean that America is forced to import the best and brightest. I lay partial blame on our public school system, the disintegration of the two parent household and the media. Sad that others saw it as the perfect opportunity to inject gratuitous and irrelevant attacks on Sarah Palin, people who may have thyroid problems and gun owners.


I brought up Palin as an example of the right's denigration of so called "intellectual elitists" (such as the President).
And public school systems teach science, much to the detriment of the Young Earth Creationist crowd. I fail to see the connection here. I'm willing to bet those people who believe the sun revolves around the earth are the same ones who doubt the validity of evolution.
And people with thyroid problems, or who are gun owners? When did I ever make that attack?
As for the breakdown of the two parent household - despite the right's attacks on urban areas of the country, red states in fact have a higher percentage of pregnancies out of wedlock, single motherhood, and divorce.


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lotuspuppy
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07 Mar 2014, 1:58 pm

91 wrote:
lotuspuppy wrote:
On the flip side, our nation consistently attracts the brightest and most talented people.


Hmm... not sure about this. The US seemed to be far more welcoming of me and my desire to achieve than my home country. Australia has a real issue with Tall Poppy Syndrome where the smart are cut down. In America I was generally encouraged to go as far as I could.

I am talking about the U.S. I actually feel lots of pressure here to put my best foot forward, or else. It has it's pluses and minuses.



lotuspuppy
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07 Mar 2014, 2:01 pm

Shrapnel wrote:
lotuspuppy wrote:
This really isn't all that surprising, given America's history. Since the very beginning, American society has had a strong anti-intellectual streak. I am not sure this is uniform (the circles in America I run in reward intelligence), but it's there. I can't say whether it caused our public schools to start failing, or if it was the other way around. In any case, I doubt that improving public schools would remove the strong ant-intellectual bias from our society.

On the flip side, our nation consistently attracts the brightest and most talented people.


I infer this to mean that America is forced to import the best and brightest.

It's possible, but we've been getting talent from abroad for a very long time. California, one of the traditional destinations of the world's intellectual elite, really started attracting top scientists with its then top-notch UC system. It used to be the best in the world.



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07 Mar 2014, 2:09 pm

LKL wrote:
they certainly say that they hope it will, anyway :wink:
Too bad it never will and the fact they do not understand plate tectonics! They would consider it blasphemy and witchcraft if i explained it to them! http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature ... ion567.htm *yawn*


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Shrapnel
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07 Mar 2014, 2:25 pm

Kraichgauer wrote:
As for the breakdown of the two parent household - despite the right's attacks on urban areas of the country, red states in fact have a higher percentage of pregnancies out of wedlock, single motherhood, and divorce.


I meant to make blanket statements regarding our society as a whole. But you seem more comfortable viewing issues in terms of red state vs. blue state, creationist vs. evolutionist, or us vs. them. Personally, I’ve never seen this country so polarized.

Kraichgauer wrote:
I'm willing to bet those people who believe the sun revolves around the earth are the same ones who doubt the validity of evolution.


I’m not sure that your gut feelings can qualify as empirical evidence. Isn’t it also a possibility that “those people” are ignorant simply because they failed to graduate high school? The entire premise of this thread is vague and economical with details regarding those questioned, leading commenters to speculate. But perhaps that was the point?

Regarding Palin, I find it amusing, considering she’s been out of the media spotlight for so long, that she can still illicit a response which can only be described as Pavlovian. I also think you took license to exaggerate her influence over people. Many of us were disappointed in McCain’s choice that year. But really, that was almost 6 years ago, how would you like it if I made a habit of dredging up the Kerry/Edwards ticket?



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07 Mar 2014, 2:35 pm

Shrapnel wrote:
Kraichgauer wrote:
As for the breakdown of the two parent household - despite the right's attacks on urban areas of the country, red states in fact have a higher percentage of pregnancies out of wedlock, single motherhood, and divorce.


I meant to make blanket statements regarding our society as a whole. But you seem more comfortable viewing issues in terms of red state vs. blue state, creationist vs. evolutionist, or us vs. them. Personally, I’ve never seen this country so polarized.

Kraichgauer wrote:
I'm willing to bet those people who believe the sun revolves around the earth are the same ones who doubt the validity of evolution.


I’m not sure that your gut feelings can qualify as empirical evidence. Isn’t it also a possibility that “those people” are ignorant simply because they failed to graduate high school? The entire premise of this thread is vague and economical with details regarding those questioned, leading commenters to speculate. But perhaps that was the point?

Regarding Palin, I find it amusing, considering she’s been out of the media spotlight for so long, that she can still illicit a response which can only be described as Pavlovian. I also think you took license to exaggerate her influence over people. Many of us were disappointed in McCain’s choice that year. But really, that was almost 6 years ago, how would you like it if I made a habit of dredging up the Kerry/Edwards ticket?


Again, I was only bringing up Palin because of her snipes at "elitist intellectuals" at a time when she had influence, not because I'm obsessed with that has-been.


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07 Mar 2014, 4:45 pm

I don't know a damned thing...about public ignorance!



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07 Mar 2014, 5:45 pm

A spirographic earth centered universe is more interesting.