The Dumbing Of America

[Chris]

Quote by: Winter wind It wasn't meant to be serious. Just funny. I didn't want to make a thing out of it... and john cleese made a better argument against American football. True men wear no armor.

Um... except it wasn't actually John Cleese (if you read the snopes link)

This American isn't stupid

[D Sretenovic]

What` with American wrestling, can someone please explain me that phenomenon? It is obvious that the participants pretend to fight, because they are very unconvincing actors, but still I see a lot of people come to watch them, and it` s a kind of national sport in America, if I got the picture right. I don`t think Americans are dumb in general, but this looks kind a dumb to me...

[thx1138]

If there is hope it must lie in the proles, in those swarming disregared masses, eighty five per cent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated.

Those wise words still hold true today.

[Compugasm]

Quote by: D Sretenovic What` with American wrestling..

The fact it's fake, isn't totally true. Hell in the Cell, nuff said. But it doesn't matter. It's entertainment. It's not that different from a shakespearian play, or a movie.

[Chris]

That fake ass wrestling - is only viewed by a small percentage of Americans. Its not anywhere near being a "national sport" and it isn't even considered a sport.

Also, I think you also have people in the UK watching that same fake ass wrestling (via satellite) And sometimes I see commercials for that PPV fake ass wrestling that is broadcast from the UK.

[Nono]

Quote by: tivo Let's not act like the phenomenon is limited to Americans. We are, as world leaders, easy targets for such surveys and studies. I would venture to say that many developed nations are in similar situations.

Not nearly as bad as in the US. Trust me on that.
You'll find ignoramuses and idiots wherever you go, true enough. But in the US it's positively promoted by the ambient culture. I mean, look at the president -- very seriously. And in his second term too.

Yes, the US is an easy "target" for studies and surveys -- easy because the ignorance is so massively manifest. People are practically proud of it.

[Socrates]

If I live for a hundred years I will never understand the odd pride people can display for there lack of intelligence. I guess its a status symbol in some communities, but i just think its sad.

[Technosoul]

Quote by: Isherwood I'd say yes to the latter but no to the former. The important factor is using your intellect (the root of intellectual). How you use it isn't as important as the fact you are using it. Just parroting information you've picked up without bothering to think about it, contemplate it or putting it into a context you can really grasp is not showing intelligence. Our computers can do that. Part of being intellectual is using your own mind to consider the information you encounter and expressing your own thoughts coherently. Part of coherently expressing yourself does require some knowledge of the language you're using. I hope to go into that in more detail in a forthcoming blog entry explaining my stance of grammar-nazis.

I must agree with that even if it might be a bit too late for me to conform.

Terrence MeKenna once said that launguage (hope I spelled word right) is the cutting edge of advancment and progress. As we improve our ability to communicate with words the faster we can advance as a culture,
even by adding new words to the dictionary with meanings we expand our ability to use more details to define things we wish to speak about.

Another of my heros said the same, he pointed out we have only a few words to discribe positive emotions, such as the word "love", and lots of words for negative emotions. But even on the negative side we have not covered all the shades of those emotions with words to detail the difference in meaning. Creating new words would enhance our ability to speak about our emotional system.

When we read the Consitution we can see that those intellectuals had a good grasp on the use of words and grammer, so much so that some of our highschool students cannot even understand what they read because the terminology is to advanced for them to comprehend.

None the less a really smart person shoud be able to pick out the meanings from what less educated people are writing about, even if they are irritated by the poor grammer or misspelled words.

[southernbread]

[
Your right.By reading these comments i as an american got dumber. You see its not that americans are getting dumb. How many of your parents went to college? So, how can the next generation get dumber with more education. It doesnt make any since. What we have done is, we now are so educated that we get bored easily and get lazy. I know this for a fact. Our standards of intellengence is alot higher than it used to be. We as a society and a civilization has grown. Were cave men stupid? no for there time they were quite intellegent. How i know cause they didnt get eaten by dinosaus. People pls email me personally and tell me what you think about htis. i apprecciatte it.-Southernbread

[Clarence]

lol!

[Halofan48]

I seriously hope that is a joke.

[Maryjane]

The least you could do was get "y'all" right.

[Tycoon]

Sorry, but as long as we're on the topic of the ridiculousness of the post I might as well correct the spelling errors.

You're right. By reading these comments, I as an american got dumber. You see its not that Americans are getting dumb. How many of your parents went to college? So, how can the next generation get dumber with more education? It doesn't make any sense. We now are so educated that we get bored and lazy easily. I know this for a fact. Our standards of intellengence are a lot higher than they used to be. We as a society and a civilization has grown. Were cavemen stupid? No, for their time they were quite intelligent. They didn't get eaten by dinosaurs. People please e-mail me personally and tell me what you think about this. I'd appreciate it.

[southernbread]

Quote by: Tycoon Sorry, but as long as we're on the topic of the ridiculousness of the post I might as well correct the spelling errors.

hey, thanx for fixing my grammer i did not go to college to speak or write english. I decided to fight in war so you all can whine about how bad our country is, wait isn't that an AMERICAN right? oh yeah thats what im fighting for. But thanx for taking the time out of your busy dya to correct my grammer. The country thanks you. Now the Rest of us can sleep better tonight. AND for the yall comment. I was born and raised in the south. Georgia to be exact. so i can say Yall not ya'll. alright thank you. do yall have anything else to argue about im interested in what bull crap yall can pull out yalls butts. lol-southernbread

[Chris]

southernbread, you are fighting a lost cause. What you are doing in Iraq is in no way protecting America, Americans nor American rights.

Its a big bite of a shit sandwich, and I honestly am sorry you are dealing with it.

We all hope you can come home soon.

[Halofan48]

Mj is also from the south. Btw, homo sapiens didn't exist at the same time as the dinosaurs. The bar has been lowered. There are people who can't even do simple math. The education system is slipping. Simple as that. I am getting all A's and i still have 2/3 of the period to relax, it has become so easy.

[Tycoon]

hey, thanx for fixing my grammer i did not go to college to speak or write english. I decided to fight in war so you all can whine about how bad our country is, wait isn't that an AMERICAN right? oh yeah thats what im fighting for. But thanx for taking the time out of your busy dya to correct my grammer. The country thanks you.

I didn't go to college at all in fact, as I'm only fifteen! But yet somehow I still found the competence to spell correctly.

You're welcome.

[Chris]

I think its time we all re learn the rules and be respectful. southernbread is a new member and we should welcome him to the site with encouragement not ridicule.

DO NOT RESPOND IN THIS THREAD TO THE PRECEDING MESSAGE. Please contact a member of the staff privately if you have any questions.

[thx1138]

Terrence MeKenna once said that launguage (hope I spelled word right) is the cutting edge of advancment and progress. As we improve our ability to communicate with words the faster we can advance as a culture, even by adding new words to the dictionary with meanings we expand our ability to use more details to define things we wish to speak about.

That's is very interesting. In the films Alphaville and 1984 (and book) the removing of words is a central theme.
Alphaville

[southernbread]

For Tycoon, WOW you just proved my point huh. Your smart enough to fix this paragraph. Hmmm. how about that you must be smart and your the youth. Dang thanx for proving my point.
For Halofan, the simple fact that your not challenging yourself to get a good job shows that your not smart at all, actuall you might be quite intellegent but lack social skills. thats why your typing under this instead of being in person.Its ok though somebody has to be dork.

For chris, Georgia is the real south, you cant get more southern then that. Are you kidding me? anyways man i think you need to go to like i dont know any other country and live and try to speak what you think. cause you would get beaten. You shouldnt question why we do this why we do that, you need to support us DUMMY, it doesnt do any good to whine about anything. You whine that cops are alays bothering you until what? until your punk a$$ needs them. Its all convient to you chris not to the world. America's problem is that we care about people too much