Are Americans Too Stupid For Democracy?

[babylonsister]

AlterNet / By Joshua Holland
Are Americans Too Stupid For Democracy?
How can we rationally pursue our self-interests when we don't know what's going on?
March 19, 2013 |



In 2011, Newsweek asked 1,000 Americans to take the standard U.S. Citizenship test, and 38 percent of them failed. One in three couldn't name the vice-president. A 2009 study in the European Journal of Communications looked at how informed citizens of the U.S., UK, Denmark and Finland were of the international news of the day, and the results weren't pretty (PDF).

“Overall,” the scholars wrote, “the Scandinavians emerged as the best informed, averaging 62–67 percent correct responses, the British were relatively close behind with 59 percent, and the Americans lagging in the rear with 40 percent.” We didn't fare much better when it came to domestic stories.

Widespread ignorance of objective reality poses a genuine threat to democracy. The people of the United States have ignorance in abundance.

The way representative democracy is supposed to work is pretty simple: you protect the fundamental rights of the minority (so it doesn't become two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner), and then the majority of citizens, acting in their own rational self-interest, elect representatives who will pursue the greatest good for the greatest number of citizens.

That's the theory, but “rational” is a key word in that formulation. What happens when lots of citizens don't have a solid grasp of what's going on in the real world?

more...

http://www.alternet.org/belief/are-americans-too-stupid-democracy?paging=off

[russspeakeasy]

1. 47 % are.

[Flashmann]

2. +1

[Redfairen]

3. This is the same argument the right uses to justify voter purges. *

[babylonsister]

4. It is? How so?

I don't think they care how educated the masses are, other than making a concerted effort to dumb down the populace. So you're saying the rethugs want to disenfranchise people because they think they're uneducated? I never heard that theory.

[Redfairen]

6. It's an old talking point of the radical right message machine.

You can find all kinds of right-wing talk radio and internet pundits who'll tell you voting rights should be dependent on education/civics tests/property ownership/fill-in-the-blank. Imposing a device as a barrier to voting is a tactic as old as conservatism and their spinmeisters can be quite open about it. I'll refrain from posting those sorts of quotes here out of respect for DU but they're easily found if you care to search.

[babylonsister]

17. No device was offered in this, thankfully. So not the same. nt

[Lionessa]

5. Slippery slope no doubt.

Unfortunately the answer is in education, and the education system is suspected somewhat by all parties to differing levels and differing agenda in different states, plus the federal.

I don't see how any country creates a "qualified" voter presence without high quality free education for all.

[tk2kewl]

9. George Carlin:

"The real owners are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians, they're an irrelevancy. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehouses, the city halls. They've got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies, so that they control just about all of the news and information you hear. They've got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying ­ lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else."

"But I'll tell you what they don't want. They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them. That's against their interests. They don't want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they're getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago.

"You know what they want? Obedient workers ­ people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork but just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And, now, they're coming for your Social Security. They want your fucking retirement money. They want it back, so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They'll get it. They'll get it all, sooner or later, because they own this fucking place. It's a big club, and you ain't in it. You and I are not in the big club."

"This country is finished."

[alterfurz]

10. shorter Carlin:

[tk2kewl]

15. .

[reteachinwi]

7. stoopit centrle

[Progressive dog]

8. Maybe a literacy test to vote

or did the south try that before?
Elitists and democracy are not compatible.
We might need to improve our civics education and maybe do something about ignorance factories like Fox, but we have lasted over 200 years.

[Augiedog]

11. Critical thinking

Don't forget the Texas Republican Party had as a plank in their 2012 platform that the teaching of critical thinking would be excluded from the Texas school curriculum. To have as a policy position the idea that ignorance is preferable to skilled, educated and ready for the real world young people is...well, ignorant and stupid. Of course if your ultimate goal is to succeed from the Union and venture into the world of self nationhood why would you ever need smart educate critical thinkers.

[salib]

12. Democracy is the worst form of government except...

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.
- Sir Winston Churchill

[daybranch]

13. this post is ignorant

While I recognize the poster only used the words of the Original article title, she has fallen into a trap set by the mainstream media that benefits the right wing. This occurs for 2 reasons:
1. Using the word stupid incorrectly, is an unfair insult and reenforces the right wing selling point of a liberal elite.
2. It reinforces the republican talking point. Of course everyone will believe it applies to the inability of other voters but themselves due to lack of knowledge , education, morals etc.
Both babylonsister and myself have a desire to share our thoughts, our ideas and our views hopefully to educate others as we receive education from other postings. we must be sensitive to be used when we needlessly resort to insulting language. I recognize than in myself and others, I can take glee over my perceived intellectual, or moral superiority. I also recognize letting this control what I say is, i will not use the word stupid, ignorant of the impact of my actions and working against my own self interest.
Posters on DU would do well to read Lakoff and put his lesson in cognitive linguistics into effect.
I read some posts on this site complaining about attacks on catholics for their religion, and this turns me , a non-catholic off, totally obscuring the message. I believe we should stop using words which while they may increase our feelings of superiority or justify our inability to make the change we believe in, hurt us and our cause by punishing the victims rather than educating them.
Some say you should not be told you canor should not say something, it is America after all, but that is both naive and insensitive.

[daybranch]

14. Based on thousands of conversations,

most of the those most ignorant do not vote. The right wing supporters know they hate Joe Biden , just as they hate Obama. It is not ignorance of basic facts that drive them , it is the cognitive dissonance and the blaming sold by their media, whether it be Fox News, their churches, or the social groups they belong to. Lets make sure we understand the different between ignorant and stupid and remember that famous HL Mencken quote" for every complicated problem there is a solution that is simple, direct . and wrong". Writing people off as stupid exemplifies his statement and might as an action be legitimately described as ignorant. If you do not understand the problem, you cannot solve it.
People are not usually stupid. They are much more often ignorant. We must address that ignorance and the cognitive dissonance that has aided the republicans with education, explanation, patience, and acceptance.
Give a man all the facts and he votes right in the election, teaching him to gather the facts and avoid cognitive dissonance and you now have a lifelong progressive.

[lindysalsagal]

16. Yes.

Too stupid for freedom, security, honesty, equality or respectable swing dancing. With limited exceptions.

[babylonsister]

18. Our Right To Vote Is Supposedly Inalienable. No Tests For Anyone.

So stop saying that!

[cbrer]

19. Absolutely NOT! It's absurd to suggest such a thing.

Americans intelligence level isn't/aren't the relevant factor(s)

*However*

If throwing in laziness, complacency, or selfishness...

The equation slides!

[blkmusclmachine]

20. Home skool

Fuk yah.

Is we edumakated yet?

[andlor]

21. Yes, their are!