Dunce Americans Created 18 years ago2006-04-08 11:58:23 UTC by satchmo

700+ posts? You guys are beating a dead horse. I read the first page and got sick of it. Its amazing how many of you automatically assumed that most Americans are dumb. Makes me wonder if some of you are any smarter... Those people they interviewed are the people who most likely dropped out of high school. There are dumb people everywhere. Some are born that way and others choose to be dumb...especially the potheads and other druggies.

And yes I think we can all agree that Bush is dumb. My parents know that and they still voted for him...why? Because Kerry was such a dickhead that nobody wanted him to be president so they chose the lesser of the two evils. Simple as that. People that voted for him arent all dumb...they just had two horrible candidates to choose from.

And quit stereotyping the religious right. Im a Christian. Im conservative. Doest that make me dumb? Really now... I know alot of people who are religious and conservative and they are very open minded and smart. Sure there are some dumb ones but I can tell you theres alot of atheist liberals who are dumb as well.

I think alot of you need to stop being so narrow minded and believing everything you hear about us.

J3r3my, I'm sorry but it's a fact that the American public is, in general, dumber than most other developed nations.

Im a Christian. Im conservative. Doest that make me dumb?

Yes, in my view it does, if you believe in God, you are automatically dumb in my point of view. It's as simple as that. I'm not going to go soft on Christianity and say it isn't dumb compared to something like Scientology just because it's mainstream.

You may think I am dumb for not believing in God, that's your opinion and you are entitled to it, but don't expect many people to agree with you, at least not here on TWHL.

Yes, in my view it does, if you believe in God, you are automatically dumb in my point of view. It's as simple as that. I'm not going to go soft on Christianity and say it isn't dumb compared to something like Scientology just because it's mainstream.

You may think I am dumb for not believing in God, that's your opinion and you are entitled to it, but don't expect many people to agree with you, at least not here on TWHL.

That just goes to show how narrow minded you are. I honestly dont think youre dumb for not believing in God. Its your choice and I respect it.

Haha, Scientology, what a laugh...

fourthgen: Do you know Einstein was a Christian? Thomas Edison, etc...... That is very narrow minded automaticly thinking a religion classifies someone as dumb... Why that must be the dumbest thing I ever heard. In fact, that sounds ignorant and racist... (In its own racist way) I dont care about anyones religion. You look to the mind for the smarts, not the beliefs.....

Quote: "J3r3my, I'm sorry but it's a fact that the American public is, in general, dumber than most other developed nations."

WTF is this? What pre tell do you consider "facts"? Dont forget we have some of the best colleges in the entire world..... We might be ignorant and foolish sometimes but we are NOT dumb. You sir sound dumb. Now how can you say you are not after saying the things you said? You cant take them back. They are offensive false slander.

"ZOMG if u beleev in God u r teh dumb!"

What the hell, dude? You're so insecure. You feel intimidated by the fact that God MIGHT exist, thus debunking your little theories on life, so you have to insult the people who believe in him so you can think to yourself that YOUR way is better. You need to strengthen your beleifs, whatever they are. Christianity has been around a lot longer than you and will be here long after we are both dead. SOMETHING about it has to be working, yeah?

"Hmmm, If i make everyone else look dumb and closed minded, MY way will be the only one getting the good publicity!! HEHE!"

I hope you become a Christian, and are VERY happy about it. then I'm gonna post a quote from you and you'll feel like an ass.

The truth is, if you think you are open-minded and you won't listen to EVERYONE'S side of things and accept them all as equally valid, then you are a hypocrite.

I dont think he is intimidated by God, just has a different way of thinking. But, you still dont say everyone who believes in God is dumb. By that logic, Millions of Muslims, Cathloics, Christians, Jews, Buddists (Faction that believes in a God, not the true buddists) ETC ETC are dumb. Thats a huge part of the population. So that means almost everyone on Earth is dumb. You dont need to agree with people's religion, or get mad when they try to convert you, just brush them off, or listen. What ever you want.

Although it is narrow minded and he is wrong 100%, it is still his opinion. The problem with that kind of opinion is that sometimes others listen to it. Kind of like Hitlers opinions. It spreads and corrupts. This kind of rash, haphazard thinking leads to much worse things than a clash of opinion......

So unlike religion...

On a rather related note, check out this Flash. Really, do. It must be easily the most thought-provoking Flash 'toon ever.

Seventh-Monkey: you just don't listen... It makes me sad. Most religions do not start out sounding "rash and haphazard." Only when they are misinterpreted for the purpose of allowing someone to do what they want, do they become so.

Yet another person who must put down ALL religion and therefore all their peoples just to make themselves sound better to themselves.

Nice flash 7th.

I think it's wrong to condemn religion itself like people've done here. Religion has done lots of great stuff, be it lesser than the bad stuff, arguably. Even though I don't believe in religion and think it's primarily a tool for controlling 'believers', you should respect religious people. It's the faith they were brought up with and practic(s?)e.
Again, people can believe in whatever they want, be it flying spaghetti monsters or big men in the sky, it's fine by me - as long as they don't try to impose their beliefs on other, unwilling people.

But really, the need for religions can be discussed. Today we have science to tell us about many of the mysteries that affected the people who "invented" religions, even though some of them remain unanswered. To me it just seems like the fear of dying. Nevertheless, people who practice it should be respected like anyone.

Yeah. There's also the fact that the basic morals or ethics (however you want to call it) of people today, even if they are not religious, have most of their origin in religion. If I'm correct, early Christians in the Roman Empire were some of the first people that condemned slavery and spoke about humans being equal. Even the advanced Roman and Greek cultures were still divided by social ranks.

I wonder If anyone here has had any serious problem with religious people. I've never been attacked or been told that I would burn in Hell if I didn't do this or that... And If someone has actually spoken to you like that... Why would you get angry if you don't believe in any of that?

I dont mean to demene religion, but it throughout time, all religions have been used as a form of control over the masses.

And so have laws, politics, education, television, films, and a long etc. EVERYTHING is used to control the masses, not just religion.
People have the choice to decide what they believe or don't believe, so that "control over the masses" (at least if you are talking about Christianism), is not true anymore.

Of course its not true anymore, but it once was. It was nothing like political, or society controlling you. Think about it. If you did not obey the king or pope, you go to hell. Pretty strong driving force if you ask me.,

LOL @ the monkey filmstrip

Are you familiar with the 10 Commandments and the concept of sin? Those were the rules that dictated who had a sould worthy of Heaven or Hell. Obeying the king or pope has nothing to do with the concept of salvation... Maybe they tweaked the commandments and added a couple more...? I'm no expert because I was never there, but maybe you can clarify that for us

the church became so horribly corrupt during the middle ages that anything went. The pope was the dictator of the world. if you did anything against him and didn't give him tribute he would send the armies of Europe in a crusade against you. it really was just a horrible time durring history. This all happened because of the lack of leadership durring the dark ages. Christianity became the uniteing factor of Europe, hence papel states gained power.

It was a lack of Civilization after the fall of Rome, not leadership. Religion itself is not a controlling force, its a tool used by corrupt leaders. I am in no way insinuating it is evil and controls people, just saying people use it to control.

Christianity united Europe as a common element. all the christains listend to the pope. the pope became corrupt and became dictator of the world. leaders got power from the pope and were corrupt themselfs.

Yet another person who must put down ALL religion and therefore all their peoples

I think I've made it fairly clear that I hate religion, not the religious. I just pity most of them a little, like this woman.

That woman is not JUST religious. she's flyin' insane. If you think that ALL religious ppl are like that, you've the narrowest mind EVAR! lol

Of course I don't, I'm just giving an extreme example.

That woman is absolutely off her head.
That is the thing that annoys me about religion, people take it too far and start intefering with other peoples lives.

This woman really needs help. It looks like she was brainwashed or something.

fourthgen: Do you know Einstein was a Christian? Thomas Edison, etc......

Do you know that Einstein was jewish? And he got offered the presidency of Israel? Guess not...

I dont think he is intimidated by God, just has a different way of thinking. But, you still dont say everyone who believes in God is dumb. By that logic, Millions of Muslims, Cathloics, Christians, Jews, Buddists (Faction that believes in a God, not the true buddists) ETC ETC are dumb. Thats a huge part of the population.

Uhm, I'm pretty sure that during those 15 pages we all reached the conclusion tha most of the population is dumb. I'm not saying religious guys are dumb by default, but if you actually belive that god loves you and takes care about everyone's actions you are either blind, selfish or stupid. Seriously, don't you think the universe has more important things to care about other then your puny character?

If you look at religion you'll see that at one point it all becomes bad. Look at islam right now. Then look at christianity 600 years ago. Notice any resemblance?

You hardly need a specific religion to have faith. Faith isn't something that can be gained by pledging yourself to someone's god, you either have it or not. If you think that being a member of a mass belief is going to give you faith you're so wrong. Mass beliefs are for the weakminded.

All the crap people have said against my argument in the past two days

If you are wondering, yes, I do think both Thomas Edison and Einstein were dumb. Very dumb. Yeah, Einstein was an excellent mathematician, I don't dispute on that, but how does maths help you justify God? Maybe Einstein was driven to insanity because of his invention of the atomic bomb? the one greatest threat to the current world. In this he needed reasoning, he needed someone to justify it, tell him that he has not created something that could potentially lead to the end of the human civilisation or at least wipe out tens of millions of people with ease. Who better than 'God'?

As for Thomas Edison, he flew a kite in a thunder-storm, he pretty much summarises the American public right there.

Einstein wasn't Christian nor Jewish in terms of religion.
From the wikipedia:

He did not believe in a personal god, but rather in a set of deterministic physical laws governing the universe, and possibly in a creator god that set the universe in motion.
"I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious, then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."
"A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds?it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity; in this sense, and this sense alone, I am a deeply religious man."

I think believing that a guy died and came back to life is pretty insane myself and you cant really rebute that.

Wow, thanks for that, Kasperg. I can't say I ever knew that he wasn't just religious.

It seems his view of the Universe was something like:
"Hey, this place is huge, full of unexplained things and has a set of rules. Something must have originated it"
It is hard to think (at least for me) of any possible god with human qualities knowing that humans are a result of millions of years of evolution (if the life of the Universe was 1 whole year, humans have only existed in the last 3 seconds of December the 31st), and there are countless galaxies and planets out there. It's rather short-sighted to think that whatever triggered the origin of the Universe looks, thinks or behaves anything like us.

Maybe Einstein was driven to insanity because of his invention of the atomic bomb? the one greatest threat to the current world. In this he needed reasoning, he needed someone to justify it, tell him that he has not created something that could potentially lead to the end of the human civilisation or at least wipe out tens of millions of people with ease.

Einstein didnt invent the atomic bomb. He only came up with the theory for nuclear fission. In fact he opposed the development of the atomic bomb. Robert Oppenheimer was the inventor of the atomic bomb...or at least he was in charge of the program to create one. But even he ended up regretting what he did and he later opposed the building of the H-Bomb.

As for Thomas Edison, he flew a kite in a thunder-storm, he pretty much summarises the American public right there.

That was Ben Franklin.

You think youre smarter than any religious person and you cant even get your facts right. Hypocrite.

J3r3my, you've just proven that he did 'invent' it. He certainly knew what his research was capable of. I never said that he liked the idea either, he just though, (at the time) that the benefits outweighed the disadvantages.

That was Ben Franklin.

You think youre smarter than any religious person and you cant even get your facts right. Hypocrite.

Okay, you got me there. It was just one fact, I'm not too bothered.

What I find interesting is that you believe knowledge determines how smart you are. Any dumb-fuck can carry around a dictionary, only someone literate can read it.

I do think I'm smarter than any religious person. Correct indeed.
I believe their view of the universe is flawed, however they believe fully in their view. Therefore I think they're dumb. It's hard to give you a good analogy for this, simply because it's mostly specific to religions. Maybe that's what is so hard about religious arguments. They are one of a kind, humans have never had much experience in this area so we divide into the the natural groups:

People who believe everything;
People who believe nothing;
People who want to believe what they like.

btw, J3r3my, I don't want this to turn into a slag-match between us. If at any point you feel incapable of writing a sentence that does not include an insult directed at me, then don't bother even writing. I want to debate with you, not make you look like a fool.

EDIT: I blame the Edison mistake on the film I watched last night 'National Treasure'. Great film.

I do think I'm smarter than any religious person. Correct indeed.
I believe their view of the universe is flawed, however they believe fully in their view. Therefore I think they're dumb.

You don't understand the concept of smart/dumb either. It has nothing to do with that. After all, everything you know about the Universe has been told to you (or you have read it). I think nobody, absolutely nobody, can say their view of the Universe is not flawed.

fourthgen, why do you think Americans are all dumb? You keep giving stupid childish reasons for hating America. Saying Einstein and Edison were dumb? WOw you really have to be dumb to say that. WOW..... You really have tons of ignorant hate in you.

You don't understand the concept of smart/dumb either.

I think nobody, absolutely nobody, can say their view of the Universe smart/dumb is not flawed.

We could do this all day, nobody has the correct opinion.

I'm gonna withdraw from arguing on this. It's not gonna get me anything but extra keypulses on WhatPulse.

EDIT: I don't think Einstein and Edison are totally dumb, I just think that their religious beliefs are dumb, I respect them highly for what they have given us.

I don't think all Americans are dumb, I'm just saying that the American public is quite dumb compared to other countries. This is not to say you are all dumb, it can still be a small majority.

Im American, and my current stance is not that americans are dumb, my view is that few americans are smart

btw, J3r3my, I don't want this to turn into a slag-match between us. If at any point you feel incapable of writing a sentence that does not include an insult directed at me, then don't bother even writing. I want to debate with you, not make you look like a fool.

What about calling me dumb for being religious? You dont think that an insult directed at me? Stop being so hypocritical and then we can debate.

I believe their view of the universe is flawed, however they believe fully in their view. Therefore I think they're dumb.

You cant prove or disprove anyones views on the universe. Youre view is just as flawed as anyone elses.

Science is the realm of the disprovable. If it isn't disprovable, it's no scientific.

Religion, on the other hand, is just... whatever anyone says. I'm sure many of you mock people in England and the U.S. who claim to believe in fairies and magic and suchlike. It's the same thing.

Religion is so arrogant: the ideas that a) everything was created for you, and b) that you think you could ever understand everything in the Universe and its creation.

How can a religious following be linked to the word arrogance? I understand what you mean, but Religion does not claim to inform about everything in the universe.

fourthgen: Please understand that many Americans are smart. Try to remember that what you see on TV has no relation to the majority. People you talk to who tell you their fellow Americans are dumb probably only hang out with the dumb ones. We are not dumb.. Your experince with Americans online probably is what makes you hate them. You are probably talking to ignorant little American children who are in fact just children. We are very civilized, intelligent, and just like everyone else. NO GREATER, NO LESS.... People like you seem to put America as some Alien race different from everyone else. Dont forget we came from Europe. We are Europe. The only ones unique to this land were the Native Americans. Unfortunatly they were weak and primitive and were conqured.

Native Americans were not unique to the land either, they came from Asia.
Satchmo wasn't telling us that Americans are dumb. The subjects described in the first post of the thread just represent some sort of cultural ignorance, which might be the case sometimes.
My experience in this matter can't be used as an example to generalize because I only went to Elementary and Middle School while living in the U.S.
It did bother me a bit when some of my fellow 7th graders asked me which of the countries under Mexico was Spain... That was surreal.

Well Kasperg, I was only addressing fourthgen's post, not Satchmo's initial post. It still shouldnt bother you Kasperg that little 7th graders didnt know that Spain was far from Mexico. They are children....

Were Native Americans from Asia? Im not trying to disprove you, just curious. Do you have any link or reference for this? If so thats a cool little thing to know

but Religion does not claim to inform about everything in the universe

A massive amount more than it has reason to.

The term "Native" American Indians infuriates me. What was that skeleton the U.S. government confiscated 'cos it was politically unacceptable? The Portman Man? Something like that.

that little 7th graders didnt know that Spain was far from Mexico. They are children....

Uh, if you're 13 you should know where spain is. Honestly.

Everyone's African, originally, so it really doesn't matter.

Thats a theroy ZL, a stupid one BTW.....

I know the skeleton you're talking about, Seventh (not the name but we'll call him 'ol rattly bones) ... I didn't hear he was confiscated because he was politically unacceptable, but rather because he was f'ing old and thus a theoretical "view into the past" as it were and his "tribe" wanted him buried.

Edit - The Kennewick Man? If that's the guy you were referring to, researchers wanted to study him and the tribes contesting for his remains didn't have any evidence of kinship (obviously, he's f'ing old).

Why is the origin of our species in africa a stupid theory? Given the worlds continents were probably all joined together 3 million years ago it wouldnt have been that difficult for it to spread out.

Everyone knows the earth is only 5000 years old, it just LOOKS old, because God made it that way to keep us guessing.

It's stupid 'cause Africa wasn't Africa 3 million years ago, lolz. It was all about Pangeaa back in those glorious days.

#Oh Pangeaa, we used to be together
Why'd we have to drift apart?#

^ best song evr.

The Kennewick Man? If that's the guy you were referring to, researchers wanted to study him and the tribes contesting for his remains didn't have any evidence of kinship (obviously, he's f'ing old).

Yeah, that's probably the one, and your government deemed it the posession of your "native" American Indians.

Xyos, I fully understand that there are many, many smart Americans.
I'm not sure you understand what I am saying. I have never doubted there aren't smart people in America, but even if the smartest man/woman in the world does live in America, there are plenty of dumb people to counteract him/her.

Do you get me?

J3r3my, by calling you dumb, I was really refering to your beliefs in God. I do not understand why a person would believe such a thing and therefore I think you are naive for believing it. For me it's the equivalent of a man watching a magician perform magic and people believing it is magic. I would think they are dumb, and in the same respect I think you are dumb.

Why would you jump to the conclusion that God created everything just because you don't understand the universe yet? Humans still have much to learn, why don't you just wait?