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Examples Of Ignorant America Just How Stupid Are We
9/3/13

Ignorant America: Just How Stupid Are We?

Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Ignorant America: Just How Stupid Are We?

TomDispatch.com [1] / By Rick Shenkman [2]

Ignorant America: Just How Stupid Are
We?
July 1, 2008 |
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." -- Thomas Jefferson

Just how stupid are we? Pretty stupid, it would seem, when we come across headlines like this:
"Homer Simpson, Yes -- 1st Amendment 'Doh, ' Survey Finds" (Associated Press 3/1/06).
"About 1 in 4 Americans can name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment (freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly and petition for redress of grievances.) But more than half of Americans can name at least two …show more content…
"The study by the new McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum found that 22 percent of Americans could name all five Simpson family members, compared with just 1 in
1,000 people who could name all five First Amendment freedoms."

But what does it mean exactly to say that American voters are stupid? About this there is unfortunately no consensus. Like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, who confessed not knowing how to define pornography, we are apt simply to throw up our hands in frustration and say: We know it when we see it. But unless we attempt a definition of some sort, we risk www.alternet.org/print/story/90161/ignorant_america%3A_just_how_stupid_are_we 1/11

9/3/13

Ignorant America: Just How Stupid Are
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