Are You Dumber than an American?

[davidthegnome]

48. Hmm...

It can be accurately said that there are a lot of stupid people in America. Of course, that could be accurately said of any Nation, depending on one's definition of stupidity. For instance, take our tea party conservatives - they undoubtedly see us liberals as incredibly stupid, though not for the reasons we find them to be, it has little to do with actual intellect. It depends on the context in which the word is used here.

To suggest that our "elite" are brilliant may be referencing their (generally) higher level of education (at least in regards to higher education, schools like Yale, Harvard, etc.), better availability of education and so on. If you take a look at how well our private and especially wealthy school districts perform, you'll find a significant difference between them and our working class schools. This has a lot to do with funding and a lot to do with the different atmosphere of "wealthier" schools.

It's a matter of perspective. The writer seems to be implying that those of us who reject the theory of evolution are stupid, that those who wanted Mitt Romney for president are stupid. That Sarah Palin's popularity indicates a stupid media (perhaps) and that religion can lead to stupidity. The writer seems to imply that those who sneer at science are stupid.

All that said, I agree that sweeping generalizations aimed at a very large group of people are stupid. However, without knowing the writer's mind or the way in which this was meant, I will not make any quick judgments about her character or her intellect, because it would be unfair.

I would suggest to the writer that the fact that we elected Obama demonstrates that there is hope for us. The fact that we voted for him in such numbers would seem to indicate that not all of us are stupid - that in fact, quite a lot of us are smart. I think that the writer has a fairly liberal point of view and that her use of the word stupid is primarily directed at American conservatives, rather than Americans as a whole. If I am wrong, then I would suggest to the writer that stupidity is universal and that we are in truth no more guilty of it than any other Nation.

It isn't simply raw potential or intellect, but how well our schools perform, how well we fund them and what our policies are like that generally determine our academic and intellectual ability. We have a long way to go and we're having a hell of a time with the reformation movement, the NCLB policy and so on. I suspect that if our system of education was run by those who better understood it, we would be far more successful in that regard.