26 PERCENT OF AMERICANS DON’T KNOW U.S. DECLARED INDEPENDENCE FROM GREAT BRITAIN

[kpete]

26 PERCENT OF AMERICANS DON’T KNOW U.S. DECLARED INDEPENDENCE FROM GREAT BRITAIN | According to a new poll by Marist, more than a quarter of Americans couldn’t correctly identify the country from which the United States declared its independence. While 74 percent correctly named Great Britain, 20 percent said they weren’t sure and six percent named other countries. In the South, 32 percent of respondents either responded incorrectly or weren’t sure. The poll comes on the heels of test scores that showed few American students gaining proficiency in U.S. history, a problem presidential candidate Rick Santorum blamed on the “conscious effort” by “the left” to keep Americans uninformed. (HT: The Hotline’s Steve Shepard)

http://maristpoll.marist.edu/wp-content/misc/usapolls/US100617/July%204th_summer%20vacation/Country_From_Which_US_Declared_Independence.htm
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/07/01/259417/americans-dont-know-independence-from-great-britain/

[originalpckelly]

1. 26% of Americans are really fucking stupid.

Odd coincidence? I think not.

[yardwork]

6. Ignorant, not necessarily stupid.

[TexDevilDog]

28. Some ignorant people don't know difference.

[Skidmore]

40. Stupid, because they

don't understand that knowledge is power and tend to be rather willful about disenfranchising themselves. Stupid works for me.

[TexasProgresive]

41. .Actually it is perferable to be stupid then to be willfully ignorant. n/t

[bulloney]

30. That 26% about matches the die-hard Republican base.

That's about where Dubya's approval rating bottomed out. It's about where all things favoring the Republican side of issues hovers around.

Coincidence? I doubt it.

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. In the South, 32 percent of respondents either responded incorrectly or weren’t sure

What area had the best scores? Was it in the article?



Sounds like the nation is getting its history from

Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and Bachman.

[Demit]

12. And so many Americans can't be bothered to read past the jump.

[Ichingcarpenter]

19. I was busy with something else here's the region, gender , age ,

the northeast did the best.



://maristpoll.marist.edu/wp-content/misc/usapolls/US100617/July%204th_summer%20vacation/Country_From_Which_US_Declared_Independence.htm

[Historic NY]

3. oh my.........then Monday is meaningless....

:argh: :banghead: 235 yrs shot to hell.

[Raschel]

9. 235 YEARS!! Our country is so new, and people don't know our history! What if they lived in Greece?

So embarrassing.

[FirstLight]

23. +1000!

crikey! :P

[Theo Haffey]

4. 26% of "U.S.A. Residents," not necessarily all American

Thinkprogress made a mistake.

[yardwork]

10. If you're suggesting that undocumented immigrants skewed the result, I doubt it.

Not very likely that many undocumented immigrants were asked to take the survey. AND, usually immigrants know quite a bit more about American history than those born here. Immigrants are motivated.

[Theo Haffey]

11. I am suggesting that accurate news titles are important

That's all. And not all immigrants are undocumented by the way.

[KittyWampus]

39. Undocumented immigrants don't have phones? Most working around here do. And why you think they know

more about American history than those born here is bizarre.

[nadinbrzezinski]

53. Because we do, epecially if we bother to go through

that citizenship exam that I am willing to bet MANY American Born cannot complete to the satisfaction of ICE.

[Octafish]

5. Texas School Book assclowns write out T. Jefferson and MLK...

...blame the Liberals.

[mopinko]

8. norma and mel, your gift keeps giving.

why is the left always right? we knew back then where this shit was headed. i think they said we were quaint.

[demosincebirth]

7. what does that say about our education system for the past 40 years?

[dixiegrrrrl]

26. Actually, not bad for 40 years, the results show 1/3 of the 18-29 age range surveyed

did not know. Which confirms what we all know as a dumbing down of our educational system.

Overall, the defining factors were age, income, geography and race ( race being defined as white and non-white)

[liberal N proud]

13. Palin and Bachmann are among those

Bachmann doesn't even know who the founding fathers are.

[moondust]

16. "Michele Bachmann's Story of America"

(Courtesy of Jimmy Kimmel)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RCH1nQ1u4I&feature=player_embedded

:rofl:

[nadinbrzezinski]

56. Thanks for sharing

All the things they did not teach me in college... oh MY

[awoke_in_2003]

64. that was great. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

55. Oh com'on John Quincy was crossing British lines

he was a precocious child solider

:sarcasm: for those who need it.

[dems_rightnow]

14. We declared independence from Great Britian?

I'm not seeing the news covering it at all. When did they do this????

[seabeyond]

15. my 13 yr old son wouldnt answer. i asked, and he says,... you dont know????

you dont know????

he was worried. lol. thought his mom was in bad shape.

he told me then i had him read your title. relief...lol

told him, just wanted to make sure he was not amongst the 26%

[seabeyond]

18. there are dummies, everywhere. not only U.S. nt

[demosincebirth]

46. Of course there are, But not like here. Compared to Europe, we ARE stupid.

[seabeyond]

47. disagree. watched the same thing with people in england, elsewhere. just as man, just as dumb, nt

[demosincebirth]

49. I disagree with you. see this post:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1402983

[FirstLight]

24. beautimous!

:rofl:

It's funny when our kids think we are losing it, isn't it?

[seabeyond]

25. it really was funny. these kids know so much. they are sponges with info, facts, statistics

i often ask them questions cause i have forgotten so much. i realized he thought i was asking cause i didnt know, not to test them. i do that often, too.

[cantbeserious]

17. What's A Great Britain?

eom

[Rex]

20. A place right above A Good Britian.

[FirstLight]

21. My 3rd & 4th grader..

are smarter than 1/4th of the country! yeah! :woohoo:

crazy, ain't it?

[Gman]

22. It's fixin' to be a whole lot more than that

with all the education cuts.

[fivepennies]

27. In practical terms, it really doesn't matter.

whether or not we declared independence at all, or from which "nation". It doesn't even matter if some people aren't aware of the "proper" answer.

Drawing lines in the sand, making declarations and writing pithy edicts doesn't alter the status quo for the people of extreme wealth and power who really run the show. Never did. The bankers/investors who have funded revolutions/wars for a thousand years and more have no loyalty to the nations, countries or people who fought them and drew new lines. But it is in their best interest to keep the populace dumbed down about who did what to whom, how they did it and when, so they continually rewrite history and even teach the edited story very poorly.

We may giggle behind our hands at things other people don't know, but do we ever ask ourselves if much of what we think we know is a lie?

"If Congress has a right under the Constitution to issue paper money, it was given them to use by themselves, not to be delegated to individuals or corporations.” Andrew Jackson

http://jimbernard.org/gpage16.html

[alcibiades_mystery]

29. I'm glad somebody said it

Among all the condemnation, there should be at least the minor point that the historical fact in this case doesn't matter fuck all to the lives of most people, and that people will tend to focus their mental energy and memory on Shit that Matters to Their Lives. Oh, yes, that's all terribly ignorant and we can compile the nice list of those to be condemned - from the education system to whatever politicians we happen to be bagging on today to the video game industry or the Real Housewives franchise. Tsk tsk tsk. Doesn't change the fact that whether Jane Schmoe manages to find a much desired minimum wage job this week doesn't seem to be affected in the least by whether she can recite little facts about her nation's official history, and so she thinks she has better shit to pay attention to than that.

[okasha]

32. The problem is that if Jane Schmoe doesn't know this bit of history

the odds are high that her verbal and math skills are also low. That means she's likely going to have trouble getting beyond that minimum-wage job to a living wage, with long-term negative results for herself and her family.

[alcibiades_mystery]

34. I don't think that follows

Maybe Jane cares about math, and doesn't care about history, and maybe that's because she's never encountered a good argument about why what happened 235 years ago matters to her daily struggles, whereas she understands how math does. This isn't that hard. In any case, you make an extrinsic argument for why it should matter to her - it seems to affect or at least correlate with other issues. But you still haven't made an intrinsic argument about why she should know it. There are certainly such arguments to be made, but it's interesting that your initial impulse was to find the practical upshot elsewhere, rather than in the knowledge we're all condemning Jane for not having itself!

[TheKentuckian]

79. Mary Jane would get so such slack if she liked history and wasn't into mat so much

and couldn't be called on to say multiply single numbers to any degree whatsoever.

You are talking very, very basic information that is repeated throughout the person's life to the point of being in commercials.

Multiplication may be terribly unfair a comparison. The information almost seems like counting into double digits.

Worse, like nine percent of freaking college graduates didn't get it.

No way you should be released from middle school at fucking worse with this basic level of information.

[fivepennies]

36. I wonder how many

Jane Schmoes simply zoned out in school because they were bored to tears. They could be brilliant beyond their educators and no one would ever know simply because their ability to regurgitate the garbage they were fed was lacking.

[fivepennies]

35. I do think

hearing some of the real facts about our nation's history might interest even Jane Schmoe. There's nothing like shining a little light on the true causes of how we all got into this pickle to put a different perspective on a person's personal day to day problems.

Unlearning the lies is the hard part.

[alcibiades_mystery]

37. I agree completely

But it requires that history be taught as a history of the present, rather than a collection of facts that the "cultured" know and the "ignorant" forget. Unfortunately, polls such as the one listed in the OP serve only that second way of understanding history, and therefore serve the purpose primarily of allowing the "cultured" bask in their own superiority relative to the "ignorant," with little understanding that ignorance can itself be a deeply political act. It could be that the 26% don't know, but there's also a sense in which they (quite rightly) don't give a good goddamn, for reasons that are completely justified.

[fivepennies]

42. Yep,

the attitude of superiority is where the whole thing goes off the tracks.

And you're exactly right, willful ignorance can be a deeply political act. maybe even an act of self preservation. If you think about it, what could they do about it if they DID know the correct answers and gave a damm? Slogging through the muck often seems to be the only option. so why worry about it. Its a lifestyle.

[nadinbrzezinski]

58. So declaring independence from Great Britain is a lie?

and the year is a lie too?

Gotcha.

There are many facts that are NOT taught until you hit college... but this is a BASIC factoid of US History... like 2+2=4 kind of a thing.

[fivepennies]

60. If you declared independence from the

US but continued using the money backed by the full faith and credit of the US, how would you have declared any functional independence. Functional is the operative word. Great Britain and the City of London are two different entities and always have been. Guess which one has all the power. Who sets the London Gold Fix still today?

[nadinbrzezinski]

57. Actually it does

we do not live OUTSIDE history.

Thinking that it does not matter, well read what Santayana wrote.

Those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it...

And Americans believe they live outside of history... well guess what? The battles of labor that were fought in the 1890s, are about to be refought... why? Well we don't know history and are PROUD of it.

[fivepennies]

59. I agree with you that we don't live outside history,

what we're living in is made-up history. Learning and teaching comfortable lies isn't exactly smart and that's the reason we're doomed to repeat the real deal all over again. Only this time the labor battles of the 1890s will seem like a walk in the park by comparison, that's how much ground we've lost in the meantime by letting the oligarch's minions write our revised and heavily redacted history text books.

[nadinbrzezinski]

68. 1776 us a comfortable lie?

You do know that this did not come athena formed from zeus's head right?

And no, actually we are far better than 1884, when the Haymarket affair happened. Unions are STILL legal in the US.

As to how history is taught in history books, I am sure if I presented you a standard college graduate level readying list, you'd think it is propaganda too... never mind it goes into a lot of the things we do not go into in Grammar school.

[fivepennies]

70. Where did you get the idea that I suggested

the date is wrong? Are you suggesting that's the only part they got right? At least its your only example of non-propaganda. And you jumped straight from grammar school to college? What, no middle school or high school? I'm impressed.

"A standard college graduate level readying (sic) list"? Begging your pardon, I never expected to find so many elitist snobs in the Democratic party, I thought we were supposed to be all about equal opportunity and everyone has value and other simple minded crap like that ... speaking of propaganda. So what about people who stop short of college - they have no right to know the "complete" history of their nation's creation? Of course then they won't know what all the mighty degree holders think they should know, which provides yet another opportunity to demonstrate superiority over the unwashed illiterate masses - wait, let's use Alexander Hamilton's favorite term, "the rabble". But when I ponder a perfect world peopled by none other than mathematical geniuses and scholars laboring over abstract formulas and spouting classical literature by rote, I have to wonder who will be left to pick up their trash and perform other "menial tasks" for them.

Getting back to the 1776 question, I think if I presented you with the many old, obsolete, out-of-print biographies about our "foundering fathers" and other historical books I discovered as a youngster in my parent's attic, they'd be deemed propaganda AND hate speech by today's standards. Of course I also attended history classes in school and heard the whitewashed version of our story. so you could say I learned fairly early to question authority and challenge people's perceptions. Got me into heaps of trouble, too. Still does.

So its probably a radical thought even for a liberal, but I'd have to call those unwashed, uneducated, unshod, unsung and unlamented farm boys who answered the call to go out and fight the British for liberty, our real founding fathers. The leaders who get all the credit were, in large part, wealthy landowners and powdered wig elites who pontificated from behind safe walls and collaborated in treaty talks with London's banking elite while the blood of the "lessors" was being shed here at home. And then, when the fighting was over, the leaders couldn't even come up with the money promised to the fighters for their service. I guess its true, the more things change the more they stay the same.

Finally, please consider this: if the Constitution had included strong language protecting workers from the greed of corporations in the first place, Haymarket and so many other evils perpetrated against those who always do the heavy lifting would never have happened. Or did you think that was merely an oversight?

[nadinbrzezinski]

71. Alas Washington Irving is read in COLLEGE

as an example of BAD history... but good NATIONAL building early in the nation's hstory... (Yes he was the one who coined that famous saying, Washington can't tell a lie). there is a reason he came up with that one. Just as there is a good reason why the equivalent tropes were written around the world during the Romantic period.

And I went from grammar school to graduate college since it is those folks who ATTENDED PhD programs who WRITE those books for grammar school and HS. So if they are writing propaganda, they are obviously readying it too. Just going by the logic here.

As to those who never went beyond college, Hubby is going back to college these days after 20 years in the Navy. What do you think he did while in the service? Like many others in the service, to the shock and surprise of some of their officers... they READ.. and READ extensively on all kinds of subjects, INCLUDING US History.

I hold a Masters (in Mexican History mind you) so before fully grasping the job of writing a US History of Labor I am slugging through the regular readying list of a Graduate in a US History program... it is not an elite thing to do... it just is. And I know that the FUNCTION of history in grammar school, and HS... Yes I have read, more than once, the statements of the American Historical Association, the same association that has been fighting the revisionist history of places like oh Texas. But hey, whatever.

I am now going to get my latte and drink it with an upper stiff lip, while driving around in my limo and yes, readying that elite history.. (which for the record it exist and it is written and it is always a matter of discussion in places like oh the AHA. I am sure though that you do not realize this. There is MORE than just one history being written or taught)

[fivepennies]

72. About the only thing I got out of that

response was that reading extensively and knowing a great deal about a given subject is worthless until you've got the framed diplomas hung neatly on the wall to prove you know it.

In no way did I imply attending college and earning a degree is elitist, but that does not rule out the fact that many who do, are. And it certainly isn't about limos, its about attitude.

And you didn't answer my very simple question: was it merely an oversight?

[nadinbrzezinski]

73. I did, and whatever, have a good life

welcome to my iggy list... oh and it is not about diplomas. IT is about GENERAL KNOWLEDGE... have a good life. Bye bye, oh and happy propaganda fourth of July, remember, Washington could NOT tell a lie and he did chop that cherry tree.

[fivepennies]

74. Well shoot,

thanks for sharing your general knowledge.

I guess I'll just have to suck it up and go find iggy to see if he wants to grab a beer and a hot dog to celebrate the big day tomorrow, that's what its all about, you know.

After all, who wants to celebrate all the missed opportunities to make the sentiments expressed in the Declaration of Independence reality. Its no wonder so many people just spend the day getting drunk.

[Urban Prairie]

31. "The “conscious effort” by “the left” to keep Americans uninformed"?

How is it that the left is keeping "Americans" uninformed ,when the teabaggers continue making protest signs, insisting that they need to take it back?

:shrug:

[peace4ever]

33. cramming for poorly conceived and implemented standardized tests, cutting the education budget...

corporate dominated media is to blame.

you get what you pay for.

[MineralMan]

38. Why is this surprising? At least that many people don't know that

eating is why we poop. Overestimating the ignorance of the general public about history is impossible.

If you want a really high number, ask who the King of England was in 1776. The percentage who don't know will top 80%, I'm pretty sure.

[krispos42]

43. !

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

44. "Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things:

"Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things: One is that God loves you and you're going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love." - Butch Hancock

[seabeyond]

48. you keep saying that. living two hours away in amarillo, i have yet to meet one person

that thought sex "the most awful, filthy thing on earth ". seeing how per capita this is highest teen preg in u.s., i would suggest their actions contradict you as well.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

51. Take it up with Butch.

[seabeyond]

52. ahhhh. edited

i probably did not say anything the first two or three times reading this, cause i took note of butch. forgot this time

[WinkyDink]

45. Ask any Social Studies teacher: "Facts" are no longer given priority; "concepts" are.

"Revolution" is a "concept"; "1776" and "Britain" are "facts."

[tanyev]

50. Jeez, people, that's why Paul Revere had to go fire warning shots at the British.

Come on.

[awoke_in_2003]

62. don't forget the bell ringing. nt

[yella_dawg]

54. That explains the never ending royal wedding garbage.

I hope. The alternative is worse.

[woo me with science]

61. Yeah, but it's not important as long as they can look it up.

:sarcasm:

[WCGreen]

63. Over 50% of those who know nothing are watchers of Fox News...

[AverageJoe90]

65. Yep, it's official.....

If things keep going the way they have been these past 30 years or so we will eventually end up at the point where we will be as ignorant as most of our ancestors were in the middle of the century before the last{that is, circa 1860}.

[fivepennies]

76. Maybe they could be called ignorant,

but they knew how to do things, make things, provide for their families with whatever resources were available or go to wherever the resources could be found. These qualities have been bred right out of us, and even if that wasn't true, most of those activities have become illegal for an individual to do.

[AverageJoe90]

82. That is true to an extent........

Truth is, though, we do both see the obvious regression of the educational system, am I right? :-(

[fivepennies]

83. That's an understatement!

I don't blame individual teachers for it, though, its systemic.

[Obamanaut]

66. . nt

[Major Hogwash]

67. And 75% of them are DU members.

LoL

[RegieRocker]

69. Independence from England....ROFLAMO

:rofl: The bankers own England and the US too.

[fivepennies]

75. Exactly.

[raccoon]

77. I wish the US hadn't. We'd have a national health plan. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

78. There are many what if moments where we could have gotten one

I mean a lot of the Constitutions in Europe and Japan have a right to health care in the document. If FDR had not died, due to the Economic Bill of Rights, I suspect the chances of us having one would be that much better.

That said, fast forward to the present... the attack on the safety net all around the world is not a coincidence... read Ill fare the land... by Judt

[L0oniX]

80. ...and about that same % can't find the USA on a world map.

[Warren DeMontague]

81. Isn't that the same percentage that thinks the Earth is 6,000 years old?

Hmmm. Odd coincidence, that.