'Was it the day we overtook the South?': Americans admitting they have no idea about July 4th

[Surya Gayatri]

Americans caught on camera admitting they have no idea why they celebrate July 4th

* Media analyst Mark Dice spoke to citizens in San Diego, California

* Many had no idea why the country celebrates on the July 4th weekend

* One woman insisted Abraham Lincoln was one of the Founding Fathers

* Another initially said the U.S. declared independence from California

* Only person in video to answer question correctly, was an Italian tourist



When asked, 'What country famously broke away from England to start their own country in the late 1700's,' one man responded, 'I have no idea man, I don't know.'

Asked what they were celebrating, another woman said that Independence Day was to recognize 'the day that we overtook the south….it's our independence….from the south.'

She was actually referring to the Civil War which took place nearly 100 years after America celebrated its independence from Britain in 1776.

One woman wrongly said Abraham Lincoln approved the final words of the Declaration of Independence in 1964, then tried to correct herself with another wrong answer, 1984.

In 2011, a Marist poll found: 'Only 58 percent of residents know that the United States declared its independence in 1776. Twenty-six percent are unsure, and 16 percent mentioned another date.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3147653/The-day-overtook-South-Video-shows-Americans-no-idea-celebrate-July-4th-one-claiming-country-seceded-Britain-1964.html

_________________

Many Europeans know more about US history than the average 'Murcan. Do this same experiment on European beaches, and you'd be surprised.

[Roland99]

1. Oy...

[Surya Gayatri]

2. That was my reaction, too! LOL!

for 'Murcans and their historical ignorance.

[haikugal]

3. That's beyond pathetic, it's scary.

What is going on?

[Surya Gayatri]

6. Corporate schools and corporate media - with a vested interest in keeping the natives ignorant.

[haikugal]

8. How can anyone be so aggressively ignorant?

I find it unbelievable...am I in denial...the 4th of July?? The various answers are totally ignorant.

I'm embarrassed for them.

[yeoman6987]

29. They seem awfully old to be part of corporate schools

These are all products of public schools and definitely not charter schools as they are relatively new. But you know that.

[Surya Gayatri]

42. Some of them ARE of an age (the corporate buy-out of American education began 20 years ago)...

and then there's home-schooling and ignorance-pandering by lazy parents. Not to mention for-profit institutions of higher learning.

All part of the miasma that is 'Murcan "exceptionalism".

[dumbcat]

40. I really wish that was the answer

Really, I think it is just that kids don't want to learn and don't give a shit. Back when my son was in school he said being smart was a real social disadvantage. I see the results every day.

[Octafish]

4. The best slave doesn't know he is one.

Last edited Fri Jul 3, 2015, 09:58 AM - Edit history (1)

Shows success of Powell strategy.

The Powell Memo (also known as the Powell Manifesto)

The Powell Memo was first published August 23, 1971

Introduction

In 1971, Lewis Powell, then a corporate lawyer and member of the boards of 11 corporations, wrote a memo to his friend Eugene Sydnor, Jr., the Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The memorandum was dated August 23, 1971, two months prior to Powell’s nomination by President Nixon to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Powell Memo did not become available to the public until long after his confirmation to the Court. It was leaked to Jack Anderson, a liberal syndicated columnist, who stirred interest in the document when he cited it as reason to doubt Powell’s legal objectivity. [font color="red"]Anderson cautioned that Powell “might use his position on the Supreme Court to put his ideas into practice…in behalf of business interests.”[/font color]

Though Powell’s memo was not the sole influence, the Chamber and corporate activists took his advice to heart and began building a powerful array of institutions designed to shift public attitudes and beliefs over the course of years and decades. The memo influenced or inspired the creation of the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, the Cato Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Accuracy in Academe, and other powerful organizations. Their long-term focus began paying off handsomely in the 1980s, in coordination with the Reagan Administration’s “hands-off business” philosophy.

Most notable about these institutions was their focus on education, shifting values, and movement-building — a focus we share, though often with sharply contrasting goals.* (See our endnote for more on this.)

So did Powell’s political views influence his judicial decisions? The evidence is mixed. [font color="red"]Powell did embrace expansion of corporate privilege and wrote the majority opinion in First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, a 1978 decision that effectively invented a First Amendment “right” for corporations to influence ballot questions.[/font color] On social issues, he was a moderate, whose votes often surprised his backers.

CONTINUED...

http://reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/

Remember, America: To have a happy fourth don't drink a fifth on the third.

[Surya Gayatri]

5. The dumbing-down is astonshing and alarming,

(especially when observed from an ex-patriot's perspective).

[Octafish]

7. Orwell Lives

"The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history."

[Surya Gayatri]

18. ^^^This!^^^

[Rex]

19. Funny, he never goes into elaboration (and says he won't) about the 'attack'

Red baiting at it's finest! Shame that some here sound EXACTLY like Mr. Money in the 1970s!

[tabasco]

9. I can only laugh

but I should be crying.

[MohRokTah]

10. It's pretty easy to put one of these videos together.

All you have to do is let 3 out of 5 interviews end up on the cutting room floor.

Voila, NOBODY knows the answer except a foreigner.

OUTRAGE PRODUCED!

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!

There will always be idiots in any society, and making videos to show their ignorance is an awesome way to produce outrage!

[hlthe2b]

13. and those statistics make you feel better about the ignorance in this country?

Geebus

[MohRokTah]

16. It's pretty much the same anythwere you go.

Face it, at least 49% of people are below average.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

31. Not necessarily.

Consider a society where 5 people have IQs of 60,110, 110, 110 and 110. Then the average IQ is 100, and 4 out of 5 people are above average.

Not terribly relevant, I admit, but I think it's quite cute.

[MohRokTah]

32. Your sample is too small.

We're talking 320 million people here. Believe me, at least 49% are below average.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

33. No, the issue is distribution, not sample size.

If you pick enough elements from a normal distribution (or from any other symmetrical distribution) then you'll find that exactly 50% of them are below average.

But for some distributions that's not true. For example, significantly more than 50% of people are of below average age.

I don't know whether the mean and median intelligence are the same, but I don't think there's any reason to assume they would be.

[MohRokTah]

34. By definition, IQs are a bell curve.

So long as your sample size is sufficient, it will always form a bell curve.

[cwydro]

11. Pathetic. nt

[hlthe2b]

12. We are a country of idiots...

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

15. There are idiots in every country and generation.

Do you suppose that the video could have been deliberately made to make these people to represent all Americans as dumb?

A former boss of mine was / still is an idiot in his own field so yes, there are idiots everywhere.

There were idiots during the 1700s, 1800s, now and before that.

Lazy is easy.

[Bluenorthwest]

23. Of course these are made to represent Americans as dumb.

Look up who Mark Dice is. He's an Alex Jones, Fox News sort of guy.

[Marrah_G]

14. Not sure I am buying that.

[GreatGazoo]

17. 58% of poll respondents said "1776" -- 76% said "Great Britain"

Men did better than women (?), older better than younger:

http://maristpoll.marist.edu/wp-content/misc/usapolls/US110615/July%204th/Complete%20July%201,%202011%20USA%20Marist%20Poll%20Release%20and%20Tables.pdf

[tavernier]

20. I just returned from a week's vacation in Washington DC

with my 13 year old grandson. He requested we go "someday" (inspired by school civics course), and I felt that his interest and curiosity was the perfect excuse for a history lesson disguised as a mini vacation.

We drove from the Florida Keys, stayed in inexpensive motels, ate in local restaurants (especially enjoyed picnics on the lawn of the DC mall from dozens of lunch wagons in the area),walked all the monuments (free), three Smithsonian museums (free), and spent far less than we usually spend in Orlando when we hit the amusement parks. I would estimate less than a thousand dollars for the week, gas and lodging included.

We had a BALL, and believe me, my grandson can tell you the meaning of July 4! He can also describe to you The Spirit of St. Louis, the LEM, the size of Abe Lincoln carved in marble, the height of the Wasington Monument upside down when standing on your head next to it, and other very relevant facts in his educational journey.


Schools are wonderful, but they should never take the place of family to recognize and encourage childhood curiosity.

[BumRushDaShow]

21. I was born and raised and still live in the birthplace of this nation

and sadly, a good chunk have no idea where the Declaration of Independence took place nor where the Constitution was debated and signed.

HINT:



I remember about 10 years ago seeing a family of tourists walking around downtown (literally 3 blocks from Independence Hall) and one of the kids asked a parent where the Constitution was created and her answer was "Boston".

What's sad is the linked article doesn't even mention the word "Philadelphia" at all. Not once. I always speculated because the name had 12 letters in it and it was too much to say aloud.

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. And silly me

I thought that was in Mexico City... sorry












for those who will surely need it.

[BumRushDaShow]

30. Some think it's located in

Washington D.C.

although it was completed almost 50 years before this planning map was created for the District -

[Bluenorthwest]

22. Mark Dice is an Alex Jones style conspiracy professional, this piece from Raw Story is a good one:

Mark Dice, who recently described reality TV star Kylie Jenner as the “Buddha” of the chemtrails conspiracy movement, was described by the conservative news network as a media analyst during the segment, reported Newshounds.

The conspiracy theorist said he watched public sentiment turn so quickly against Confederate flag displays, and he wanted to see whether “politically correct millennials” could be duped into banning the American flag.

Dice asks students if they would support a newly designed American flag, which he said President Barack Obama had requested, that would feature pro-LGBT, Masonic, and Illuminati imagery.
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/fox-friends-brings-on-chemtrail-fearing-911-truther-to-bash-mentally-enslaved-millennials/


This is a load of horseshit from Infowars to be blunt about it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. The problem is that the answers in that video are quite frankly

not that far off.

I am nowhere close to infowars and I am always astounded at the level of ignorance from my fellow Americans. We have asked similar questions... and we have not done the tape cuts. (This one is heavily edited, so I am betting he did splice those who knew the answer out), but you would be shocked.

Part of the problem is yes, our educational system. But part of it is Americans are proud of their ignorance. I wish I were kidding.

[yuiyoshida]

25. This is what Fox News does to the brain

sad, sad...

[kentuck]

27. Ignorance will kill us all...

Unbelievable!

[onecaliberal]

28. Geezus Krist

These people no doubt vote. This is another result of the testing hysteria in our schools. History isn't taught. Who the fuck doesn't know what Independence Day is, it's in the title for fucks sake.

[davidn3600]

35. It's sad really..... many can't even tell you who won the Civil War!

Videos like this will make you wonder what the hell are we teaching in schools?

[Uncle Joe]

36. In one sense that woman is correct, July 4th 1863 marked a major turning point for the Union

with victories obtained in both the Battle of Gettysburg turning back the Confederate offensive and the siege of Vicksburg giving the Union total control of the Mississippi River.

The people of Vicksburg which had been relegated to eating horses, dogs and rats before the siege ended didn't celebrate the traditional 4th of July Independence Day again until 1907

Thanks for the thread, Surya Gayatri.

[malaise]

37. Blame the media and the education system

GEM$NBComcast is showing Locked Up and CNN is whipping up fear and hysteria.
In many other parts of the world there are programs and discussions about the holiday.

[Surya Gayatri]

44. Here in France, all major outlets are running historical human-interest stuff on the US holiday...

All the more so, in that a replica of Lafayette's tall-ship, HERMIONE - she that helped the Colonials win the war, is now visiting US ports-of-call.

She's in New York today, I think.

[malaise]

47. Precisely

Foreigners know more about American history than the average citizen and that is sad

[Surya Gayatri]

48. See the Italian tourist in the video...

For shame...

[alcibiades_mystery]

38. I just asked my six year old these questions

He got them all right, no prompting or anything. He just finished kindergarten.

[Surya Gayatri]

43. Let's hear it for the boy!!! A cut above average! LOL!

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

39. Confirmation bias

I'm sure if I interview 100 people I can find a dozen or so with stupid answers that will make a funny video. Some of them even relatively "smart folks". Based on the person who made the video, it's not to be trusted.

I get far more upset by people spewing hate speech than missing a few trivia questions.

[uppityperson]

41. When people tell me Happy 4th of July, or have a good 4th, I respond with happy independence day

Often I get an odd look.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

45. Way to represent, San Diego!

[Surya Gayatri]

46. They should be SO proud! LOL!