America the Clueless

[babylonsister]

Eighteen percent said Obama was Jewish?



http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/12/opinion/sunday/bruni-america-the-clueless.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

America the Clueless
By FRANK BRUNI
Published: May 11, 2013

snip//

That we Americans are out to lunch isn’t news. But every once in a while a fresh factoid like the Obamacare ignorance comes along to remind us that we’re out to breakfast and dinner as well. And it adds an important, infrequently acknowledged bit of perspective to all the commentary, from us journalists and from political strategists alike, about how voters behave and whom they reward. We purport to interpret an informed, rational universe, because we’d undercut our own insights if we purported anything else.

But only limited sense can be made of what is often nonsensical, and the truth is that a great big chunk of the electorate is tuned out, zonked out or combing Roswell for alien remains. Polls over the last few years have variously shown that about 30 percent of us couldn’t name the vice president, about 35 percent couldn’t assign the proper century to the American Revolution and 6 percent couldn’t circle Independence Day on a calendar. I’m supposing that the 6 percent weren’t also given the holiday’s synonym, the Fourth of July. I’m an optimist through and through.

snip//

At a heated point of the 2012 presidential primaries, when both Rick Santorum and the news media were making much of his faith and fecundity, less than 30 percent of voters could identify his religious affiliation as Catholic, according to one poll. Months later a different poll asked voters about President Obama’s religious affiliation, persistently mistaken by some Americans to be Muslim. The good news? The share of voters making the Muslim error had dropped, to 10 percent. The weird news? Eighteen percent said Obama was Jewish.

It’s possible, of course, that respondents just mess with pollsters’ heads. He’s a Seventh-day Adventist! He’s a Scientologist! But too many surveys over too many years show too much abject ignorance for the phenomenon to be belittled or dismissed. What’s more, there’s no consoling arc over time, no trajectory of progress. Wherever the Internet is speeding us, it’s not toward greater civic erudition and enlightenment.

Into the vacuum of substantive knowledge rush the unprincipled advertisements, the unctuous hucksters, the “super PACs,” the Swift boating, the Sunday-morning-talk-show spin. A clueless electorate is a corruptible one, and one that seems ill poised to make the smartest, best call about something as sweeping as Obamacare and how it gets tweaked or not down the line. Maybe we’ll blink our way to the right decisions. Or maybe we’ll just stumble around with our eyes closed.

•

[patrice]

1. K&R

[patrice]

2. Part of the problem is a lot of people mistake or use & admire ignorance as being principled.

to the effect: "The facts don't matter, because I have what's more important: values, morals, principles."

[freshwest]

7. IOW, bow to the loud-mouthed bully! Some of us aren't impressed with that style, though.

[treestar]

3. Messing with the pollsters

I could see why the clueless would go with Muslim - the middle name - but Jewish? Who would have that idea? Even the craziest anti-Semite would know enough to eliminate Obama from being Jewish.

[hfojvt]

5. somebody who doesn't know

and is making a WAG.

If "who gives a fuck?" was a polling option it might have polled at 40%.

[freshwest]

6. Some think his first name, Barack, is Hebrew:

Last edited Sun May 12, 2013, 05:05 PM - Edit history (1)

Barack Obama's first name is the anglicized version of Baraka, which means 'blessing' in Kiswahili (aka Swahili), a language spoken by Senator Obama's Kenyan father...

Barack or Barak means 'lightning' in Hebrew. The name Barak is also mentioned in the Bible in the book of Judges. Barak was part of the story of the prophetess Deborah.

Baruch (or Baruwk, Baruk, Strong, 1263) and its cognates berek and baraka all mean the same. Strong, 1288, says "barak, baw-rak', a primitive root; to kneel; by implication to bless God (as an act of adoration), and (vice-versa) man (as a benefit)." (See http://www.virtualchristiancenter.com/biblestudytools/kjvstrongs/STRHEB12.htm)

Regardless of how one spells the name, it gives two possible and not contradictory meanings, and one true meaning. One is "a blessing from God," and another is "a blessing from God that the individual may pass on to others as a benefit to them." and the true meaning that cannot be translated any other way is the name Barak which means Lightning.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_origin_of_the_name_Barack

[treestar]

10. Now that's interesting

Jewish Muslim Kenyan with some Irish thrown in!

[freshwest]

12. You've got it all down:

[treestar]

13. Thanks, I had not seen that before

The song seems to have some new verses, too!

[AMF2334]

16. Barack is Hebrew

According to the Sally H.Jacobs book "The other Barack" and the Wikipedia article on Barack Obama Sr. (The bottom of the Fourth paragraph under the Early Life section)His father was born with the name Baraka while Barack Obama was born in Hawaii born in the USA Barack Obama is an American born in Hawaii His father Barack Sr. was born in Kenya when Barack Sr. attended school in Kenya according to the Sally H.Jacobs book and the Wikipedia article on Barack Sr. (The bottom of the Fourth paragraph under the early life section) Christian Missionaries asked Baraka Obama to convert to Christianity and change his name from Baraka to the more Christian sounding Barack since the Old Testament which is used by both Jews and Christians has a Barak pronounced BA-ROCK which is spelled Barak if the Missionaries decided to change Baraka to Barack pronounced BA-ROCK then I guess it's considered a different spelling of the Old Testament name if a Hungarian man changes his lastname to Warner he has an Anglicized lastname that W.A.S.P.'s also have so if the Old Testament Hebrew name pronounced BA-ROCK is spelled Barak and an African with the name Baraka changes his name to a name pronounced BA-ROCK but spelled Barack since it was the idea of Missionaries I guess Barack is a different spelling of a Christian name so it's Hebrew Old Testament Christian if Barack is a different spelling of Barak then Barack is like Abraham Abraham Lincoln was a U.S. President

Because a Faith Based Office was created before Barack Obama who was born in Hawaii but has the name his father was given ran for President and because many Conservative Christian voters were supportive of Obama and unfortunately they would not have been as supportive of a candidate who's name they thought was nonChristian and African Baraka is African I figured they must've known that Barack according to Wikipedia and the Sally H.Jacobs book is Anglicized I thought these voters unfortunately would not have been as supportive of a candidate named Baraka which is African of course while the Sally H.Jacobs book says that Obama's father name was actually Baraka and Barack Sr. was encouraged by Missionaries to use Barack which is a different spelling of the Old Testament name Barak people kept calling Barack An Anglicized version of an African name since no one calls Warner an Anglicized version of a Hungarian name it's just called an Anglicized name and since Barack Obama called Barack "An African name" in his speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and in "Dreams from my Father" but the Wikipedia article and the Sally H.Jacobs book say his fathers original name was Baraka I figured something was going on where instead of just calling a different spelling of an Old Testament name Anglicized because the previous name was African they talk about it differently based on the Sally H.Jacobs book and the Wikipedia article and how many Conservative Christian voters who unfortunately might not like someone having a nonChristian African name were willing to vote for him I figured that the voters knew his father was given that name Barack by Christian Missionaries Barack itself is not African Baraka is So Barack is Old Testament Christian what I then read was that there are Japanese people with the lastname Obama that a relative of Barack Obama's had Obama as a First name that Africans who belonged to a Seventh Day Adventist Church had the same lastname as Japanese people Obama Barack Obama's Grandfather was a Christian with the lastname Obama and the African Firstname Onyango after Barack Obama's Grandfather converted to Islam Onyango Obama added an Arabic Middle name

So the lastname Obama itself is a name that Asian Japanese people and Christian Africans have I wondered because Obama's First name Barack which he got from his dad is a Christian Missionary name Obama's fathers original name Baraka was African Barack is a different spelling of a Christian name weather the lastname Obama also had something to do with Missionaries while I thought unfortunately Conservative voters wouldn't like someone having an African lastname since it's a lastname Asians have also maybe they don't mind the lastname if it's a name both Japanese people and Kenyans have or if Japanese people had the name and Africans who mostly joined the Seventh Day Adventist Church got the lastname also maybe since the First name Barack came from Missionaries the lastname has something to do with Missionaries also of course since Barack Obama doesn't use the Middle name on the birth certificate he's got a Christian Firstname and a lastname that different ethnic groups have and might be considered Christian also because it tells you about the voters I was trying to figure out why some voters were saying certain things

[arcane1]

17. Commas, and periods, are your friends. n/t

[CJCRANE]

9. Could be the RW conspiracy theorists who believe the NWO and the UN

controls everything and they in turn are controlled by "the Jews".

As pointed out in another post, Barack is similar to Hebrew "Barak".

And I thought everyone knew O'Bama was Irish!

[hfojvt]

4. this begs a question though

Aren't things like "the name of the current Vice President" or "the religion of the current President" fairly trivial and insignificant?

Are those really factoids that EVERY citizen NEEDS to know?

Or is that more like the trivial and inconsequential crap that passes for "news"?

Same with the other two mentioned. The proper century for the American Revolution? Does that really matter all that much? And how many people answering that question are confused over whether 1776 is in the 18th century or the 17th? Independence Day on a calendar? Who the hell calls it Independence Day? Only Martina McBride fans.

Omigosh, I forgot, if I ever knew, that Rick Santorum was Catholic. Oh the shame, the shame, If only I had watched more TV and taken notes.

When is Oprah's birthday again? How tall is Tiger Woods? And who the heck is Snookie?

The ignorance. It burns. It burns.

[DearHeart]

8. In my opinion, the problem is that they know who Snookie is & many people would follow Oprah

off a cliff if she told them to. People are woefully ignorant in this country, they're too busy watching DWTS, American Idol, Duck Dynasty, etc. They don't educate themselves about anything, including history, and they sure don't pay attention to what's happening in politics, even though it adversely affects their lives. No, they don't need to know factoids, but they do need to pay attention to what's going on and keep informed. We can see what effects their ignorance is having on our country.

[treestar]

11. It's not a whole lot to ask to know what Independence Day is

Whatever century, an American with a brain should know the year was 1776.

[hfojvt]

14. except that every 4th of July

we celebrate "the 4th of July" and not "Independence Day"

and maybe they know the year 1776, but the question was - which century was it in? "about 35 percent couldn’t assign the proper century to the American Revolution"

But really how is knowing the year 1776 any more significant to anyone's life than knowing the year the Magna Carta was signed, or the year the Edict of Nantes was revoked, or the year the defenestration of Prague took place or the year Missouri became a state?

[treestar]

15. One would have to be pretty shallow and dumb

To celebrate the Fourth of July every year without ever asking why, or learning and remembering why. That's why we have the holidays, to remember. 1776 is very significant to the United States and anyone who was born and raised here could at least know such a basic. It's not ignored in school.