Proof of massive public stupidity?

[Bill Burke]

If a large majority of the public were shown to believe A) that they know the apparently unknowable, B) that they know it with great certainty, and C) that they do this with great consistency, I hypothesize that it would be correct to conclude that 'the public is massively stupid. '

Do you agree with that hypothesis?

If you do, I wonder if you would also agree that this stupidity can be demonstrated by finding a finite number of valid, public opinion polls where the universe is the American adult population. that clearly show A, B and C for, say, 70% or more of those responding?

And how many such polls do you think would be required asr conclusive proof for this hypothesis?

Thank you.

[Georgieboy]

I dont think your poll would be demonstrating that the public is massively stupid, you would be just demonstrating that people believe in the metaphysical, and well... we all know that :D .

if im not making my point right i´ll just make a quote, though i kinda hate quotes (read my sig :) ), but i consider this one a very good and accurate one, though i cant remember it correctly word by word goes something like this:

"Intelligent people can justify perfectly to themselves things they got to believe for not intelligent reasons"

Being dumb or intelligent is not the issue in all the problems we discuss over here, its the very heavy DESIRE of the human brain to believe in dumb things.

[Kopji]

One of my favorite recent polls. This on geography by the National Geographic Society. Laced with humorously pithy and ironic comments, it is quite readable. Meet your children.


Worldwide, young adults performance in locating Israel was very weak across the board. In no country could even half of young adults surveyed locate Israel on a Middle East/Asia map; on average, fewer than one-fourth of respondents could locate it, including only 14% of young Americans.

By contrast, more young Americans (34%) could determine that the island used for the last season of the television show Survivor is in the South Pacific.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geosurvey/download/RoperSurvey.pdf

[Bodhi Dharma Zen]

One of my favorite recent polls. This on geography by the National Geographic Society. Laced with humorously pithy and ironic comments, it is quite readable. Meet your children.

That demonstrate, at least, that a vast majority of people is painfully ignorant. What a shame.

[ReFLeX]

I'd use the word ignorance well before stupidity. Remember, intelligence and thus stupidity are basically measured relatively. It's just like the fact that half of the world's people will always have below-average intelligence.

[Kopji]

Hard to say and I don't claim to know. If I discovered I were ignorant about something that mattered, but did nothing about it, would I then be stupid?

I'd say 'yeah'.

Politicians claim to represent 'mainstream' values, I suppose this is what they mean by that.

[Anti_Hypeman]

Huh? Whats a hypnothosist?

[ceo_esq]

If a large majority of the public were shown to believe A) that they know the apparently unknowable, B) that they know it with great certainty, and C) that they do this with great consistency, I hypothesize that it would be correct to conclude that 'the public is massively stupid. '

Do you agree with that hypothesis?How do you define "apparently unknowable"?

[BLACK HAT]

Two polls are needed.

The smart people take one, the stupid people take the other.