Is America getting dumber?

[Evanauto]

Many would say yes, America is getting dumber. However i believe that this is not true. The answer is that sports has taken the minds of the people. Just listen to any sports radio or TV sports debate show (Around the Horn, Pardon the Interruption, The Best Damn Sports Show, etc.) and listen to the people who call in and rattle off opinions and facts about the any and all sport team in this country.

The fact is that to many politics and other well- meaning topics dont have the flash that sports does. Sports have heroes that rise and fall on a regular basis(Pete Rose, LaBron James, Michael Irvin). So does politics, (Trent Lott, Bill Clinton, Enron, etc.) but the masses didnt watch Clinton testify, they saw the Super Bowl.

the question remains: How is it possible to get people to enjoy politics with the fire and passion that sports have?

[IndecentXposure]

At 3/6/03 07:50 PM, Evanauto wrote: Many would say yes, America is getting dumber. However i believe that this is not true. The answer is that sports has taken the minds of the people. Just listen to any sports radio or TV sports debate show (Around the Horn, Pardon the Interruption, The Best Damn Sports Show, etc.) and listen to the people who call in and rattle off opinions and facts about the any and all sport team in this country.

The fact is that to many politics and other well- meaning topics dont have the flash that sports does. Sports have heroes that rise and fall on a regular basis(Pete Rose, LaBron James, Michael Irvin). So does politics, (Trent Lott, Bill Clinton, Enron, etc.) but the masses didnt watch Clinton testify, they saw the Super Bowl.

the question remains: How is it possible to get people to enjoy politics with the fire and passion that sports have?

America has the best technology in most fields in the world. If you are just talking about every day citizens, i dont think so. We are learning more about things therefore we are being taught more so i wouldnt say we are getting dumber.

[CannedFries]

At 3/6/03 07:50 PM, Evanauto wrote:

The fact is that to many politics and other well- meaning topics dont have the flash that sports does. Sports have heroes that rise and fall on a regular basis(Pete Rose, LaBron James, Michael Irvin). So does politics, (Trent Lott, Bill Clinton, Enron, etc.) but the masses didnt watch Clinton testify, they saw the Super Bowl.

the question remains: How is it possible to get people to enjoy politics with the fire and passion that sports have?

I watched the superbowl. Well I went to the party, I hate football. I think people will realize the importance of politics when this world reaches it's climax so to speak. They will regret the time they spent leaving the decisions up to the other person. They will regret not be involved in their country and they will regret the choices they left up to others. It happened before and it will happen again. After all 90% of german's went along with Hitler. Not because he was right, but because he was powerful and authoritative.

[EvilGovernmentAgents]

There are MANY smart people in the world, but at the rate we're going at, Stupid people outnumber the smart ones, 2,000 to one. Then again, we can manipulate all those idiots to do our bidding, 2,000 slaves to serve us.... drool....

(No offense to black people out there)

[paulz-69]

It's not that sports is to blam for the stupitity in America, but the lack of decent education. If more kids grew up learning stuff in schools in an applied manner instead of the theory bullshit there is now, subject like mathematics and the sciences would be a walk in the park. People watch sports because you can pick up the rules pretty quick and there's a lot of violence.

[mysecondstar]

At 3/6/03 07:50 PM, Evanauto wrote: Many would say yes, America is getting dumber. However i believe that this is not true. The answer is that sports has taken the minds of the people. Just listen to any sports radio or TV sports debate show (Around the Horn, Pardon the Interruption, The Best Damn Sports Show, etc.) and listen to the people who call in and rattle off opinions and facts about the any and all sport team in this country.

you can't say, since many people call into these sports shows, that it is "everyone". in fact it probably consitutes a smaller percentage than you would think. let's say only guys like sports (not true, i know) but of those guys maybe 70% really, really enjoy sports. so you have right there only 35% of the population of this country accounted for. that leaves you with.. hat..65% left? so it isn't necessarily fair to say that 35% of the American populous should represent the majority.

The fact is that to many politics and other well- meaning topics dont have the flash that sports does. Sports have heroes that rise and fall on a regular basis(Pete Rose, LaBron James, Michael Irvin). So does politics, (Trent Lott, Bill Clinton, Enron, etc.) but the masses didnt watch Clinton testify, they saw the Super Bowl.

people have different likes and dislikes in this world. some people enjoy sports more than politics. some politics more than sports, or both equally like them of hate both of them. it's all a matter of demeanor. and there was a poll done on the Super Bowl. something along the lines of 65% of the people watching it were watching it for the commercials only and not the game (funny how that number works with the one above, doesn't it?).

the question remains: How is it possible to get people to enjoy politics with the fire and passion that sports have?

people do. i guess you just don't know who they are. in fact, i feel strongly about politics, and i love the Chicago Cubs (curse? what curse?!).

[InSaNeFooL]

Hmmm, nobody's touched the subject name. If done intentially, great job, gave me quite the laugh. Otherwise, it's even funnier ;)

America has the best technology in most fields in the world. If you are just talking about every day citizens, i dont think so. We are learning more about things therefore we are being taught more so i wouldnt say we are getting dumber

I'd lean more toward some Asain countries having the best technology actually.

Is America losing it's intelligence? Watching from afar (ok, not very far, but I'm not there) I'd say yes, but this is because my only view on American intelligence is TV and the Internet. In both the lowest common denominator is always much louder and in your face, so it could be I'm just noticing more dumbasses.

-ME "That and you all keep using 'dumber' as a word.... =)"

Please corretly one words whit using america.Any one knows about dumb .But dumb is dumb.Like a song...ok
(Im screw out)

[Das-Gaylien]

At 3/6/03 10:12 PM, UNpossible wrote: There are MANY smart people in the world, but at the rate we're going at, Stupid people outnumber the smart ones, 2,000 to one. Then again, we can manipulate all those idiots to do our bidding, 2,000 slaves to serve us.... drool....

(No offense to black people out there)

So youre saying youre that one out off 2000? Of course I wouldnt know if you are, but it seems to me you dont have to be smart to manipulate with people and if youre really smart youll realise that the only thing you can actually use intelligence for is helping other people, I have always been very popular in school for instance, but somehow I have always felt lonely as well, maybe thats because I have a quite high IQ, anyways I started to manipulate with people and I was astonished how easy it was, but actually it just made me even lonelier, it was first when I learned to help others my life became meaningful, and I became less lonely sob" sob".
This is a load of crap to write in a BBS post I know, but I just couldnt help it Tchaaa.

[mysecondstar]

At 3/7/03 10:31 AM, Das_Gaylien wrote: So youre saying youre that one out off 2000? Of course I wouldnt know if you are, but it seems to me you dont have to be smart to manipulate with people and if youre really smart youll realise that the only thing you can actually use intelligence for is helping other people, I have always been very popular in school for instance, but somehow I have always felt lonely as well, maybe thats because I have a quite high IQ, anyways I started to manipulate with people and I was astonished how easy it was, but actually it just made me even lonelier, it was first when I learned to help others my life became meaningful, and I became less lonely sob" sob".
This is a load of crap to write in a BBS post I know, but I just couldnt help it Tchaaa.

sadly, i feel you. it's almost comically to see "normal" people going about their daily grind and how surprising it is how little they know or realize in life. most of the thing i would write off as common sense isn't so common sense to them. it's absolutely mind boggling to tell yo the truth. now i may be zinged for claiming to be someone that's more of an intellectual, if that's what they call it, but it makes no difference. the fact remains.

i was listening to the news on the radio the other day. none of my other friends do it. and i was drivign my buddy along with me when the noon business hour came up on WBBM radio. the was i see things, economics is logical. everything follows in a pattern and hardly deviates from it. my friend next to me was saying, "OH! that's why i dno't have a job!" as if he found out the earth was round for the first time. don't get me wrong, i love this guys. he's one of my best friends, but him finding out this late that the stock market was over-inflated and that the sudden burst of the internet bubble started an almost catasrophic down turn in the markets turning every bull to bear, every "profitable" internet company going down and bringing the rest of the world with them, having the nasdaq at 2200 and watching it plummet to 1300, that's huge. smart analysts knew that the market was so unstable that it could fall at anytime. that was in 1998. no one cared. they were happpy they were getting rich off of some dot com (sorry newgrounds..needed to prove a point i love you still! don't kill me....) if anyone remembered the Super Bowl it was filled with dot com ads. i'll tell you this now. out of all those companies that made ads then, i can only remember 2. yahoo and monster. but that's getting off topic.

i'll repeat that was 1998. the year is 2003. five years ago. i thought you had to live in a cave for those five years not to know about the market falling and unemployment rising, or at least if you didn't know that first hand, you experienced it. it's either that, or that they just entirely ignore what is going on around them, and that is their own fault. that's it's intelligence or if "America is getting dumber", it's America is getting more ignorant.

[Pikanjo]

I'd have to say, I've seen my share of dumb people in my daily life. People who can't operate the gas pumps, buying duct tape, yelling to prove their right when they're not, and hundreds of them who can't drive. Perhaps this is a bad example, but I see this just about everyday at work. Education isn't really the point I'm making, it's just the common sense lacking in these individuals.

[InSaNeFooL]

Ok, since you called for a zing, I shall happily oblige. To those of you who think you are one of the more intellectual people, you probably aren't. Remember, everybody thinks their smart. That's why the guy screaming screams, because he thinks he knows more than the person he's screaming at. That's why we seem to tell each other what's right and what's wrong all the damn time, because we think we're smarted. In many ways this could be true. You know how to pump gas, so you are surely superior to the people who can't...at pumping gas. For all you know the other person is a nuclear scientist. The point I'm trying to make is that we're all (ok, maybe not ALL...) smart people, but we're all dumbasses as well.

That being said, here's a picture!

[RoboTripper]

I think Americans get a bad rap because we always rank near the bottom when tested against other 1st world countries in stuff like math and science and geography.

But I think that American kids just have different priorities in learning. Put a kid from the US against a kid from another country in a test of computer aptitude and I think they would do quite well. And what will serve them better later in life: that or being able to find Uzbekistan on a map? Americans are smart, just in different areas than foriegn people.

[Killadar]

Is america getting dumber?

hmmm, i'd say yes and no. Lets face it, if a 18th century guy came up to you and said "solve : 45*5/(32+13)" most of us would take some time to solve it. You can be seen as dumb to someone, lazy to me because i know you'd just use a calculator to solve it. So maybe in some way the world is becoming dumber. As for america? America believes itself great, and i'm sure you know how good it feels to shoot someone down from that "i am great" by pointing out they suck, same with america vs rest of the world. If you cant beat them, just prove you are better than them in something else. simple as that.

Oh, and for those of you wondering, 45*5/(32+13) = 5
hope you did that one in your head...

[TomFlump]

not dumber, lazier. were using our brain power to make life easier on our muscles. basically lazieness. infact my biology teacher gave us this theory that in a thousand years, humans will have much less muscle mass, and larger craniums to support their better intelligence. we will have longer fingers for typing, and we will be about five feet high... crazy shiz...

[MonkeyMan-Inc]

At 3/6/03 10:12 PM, UNpossible wrote: There are MANY smart people in the world, but at the rate we're going at, Stupid people outnumber the smart ones, 2,000 to one. Then again, we can manipulate all those idiots to do our bidding, 2,000 slaves to serve us.... drool....

(No offense to black people out there)

Every race has been enslaved.

[killazz]

yep.... but i dont think its the people that are gettin dumber (i think its the president)!

[NEMESiSZ]

Yeah, sports, the one of the oldest traditions in the world, is ruining the USA...

[mysecondstar]

At 3/8/03 10:20 PM, NEMESiSZ wrote: Yeah, sports, the one of the oldest traditions in the world, is ruining the USA...

ruining how?

[NEMESiSZ]

Sarcasm, jackass...

Does anyone actually read the topics anymore, or do they just look at the most recent post and try to insult THAT person?

[jonfandal]

I do not think americans are getting dumber, but I do belive that americans are getting more apathtic and careing about issues less and less. I mean, look at voter turnout for elections in this country.

[Anti-corruption]

it is straight to ur head.
i guess Americans concern the sport news more than politics or to its own country.

maybe they simply don't give a damn.

[mysecondstar]

At 3/10/03 06:31 PM, NEMESiSZ wrote: Sarcasm, jackass...

Does anyone actually read the topics anymore, or do they just look at the most recent post and try to insult THAT person?

so basically, they do what you do?

[NEMESiSZ]

No, not at all.

[mysecondstar]

riiiight...