11 Bizarrely Wrong Beliefs Americans Have About Themselves

[Kakapo Dundee]

If we are so dumb then how did we get so great..

You'd have to have your head firmly wedged up your ass to believe that you still are.

Maybe back when you could put a man on the moon..... but today?

A country that got screwed by a handful of fundies with boxcutters?

 

[Kakapo Dundee]

I don't get this people who vote against their best interests nonsense. I'm an independent; I hate politics and keep my nose just close enough to have a little idea of whats going on. If both parties at the ballot booth are 2 evils, I usually vote for the lesser of the two even though I was never for that candidate. Besides that elections are fucking rigged by big business so really it doesan't matter who the fuck anyone votes for until we topple the regime that is the corporate hold on America.

Shush, The Man says America is great.:24:

 

[Tuffdisc]

Damn we are dumb.............

Here are some of the more glaring American dumbassery from the link:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics...mericans-have-about-themselves/239810/#slide1

The United Kingdom is one of America's closest allies. The nations have together fought multiple wars, and remain closely tied commercially, politically, and militarily. Yet a 2006 National Geographic survey of young adults found that only one in three could find the United Kingdom on a map.

Foreign aid is often controversial, particularly during economic downturns. Yet its unpopularity may be out of scale with its cost. According to a 2010 questionnaire, on average, Americans believe that a full 25 percent of the budget is spent on foreign aid, with most responding that 10 percent would be a more appropriate appropriation. In fact, the actual figure stands somewhat below 1 percent.

An old cliche asserts that everything good comes in threes. When it comes to the Three Stooges, the statement certainly holds true; 78 percent of Americans can name Larry, Moe and Curley. Yet only 42 percent can identify the three branches of government as the legislative, executive, and judiciary.

According to polls, 76 percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians. Yet significantly fewer can identify central facts about the faith. According to the Pew Forum's Religious Survey, only 45 percent know who the Gospels are attributed to: Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Earlier this year, Republicans called for defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which in turn funds NPR and PBS. There has meanwhile been a common understanding that CPB funding constitutes significant percentage of the budget . Only 27 percent of respondents recognized that federal spending on public broadcasting represents well under 1 percent of the federal budget (the actual cost is about 1/100th of 1 percent), while 7 percent of respondents thought the costs were over 50 percent of the budget -- which in real terms is the cost of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and interest expenditures combined.

Well there is a London in Kansas, you can hardly blame them can you? :24:

 

[hart]

Kakapo.......Scr*w u!!!! I still feel America is great. It's called Pride in Country. I won't negatively rep you but watch it........ Yeah, we got some assholes IN our country but I still think America is great so watch it buster:hey

 

[Kyle B]

America is still enormously powerful and has, by far, the largest economy in the world. So yea, I'd say we're still great.

 

[Zorak]

America is still enormously powerful and has, by far, the largest economy in the world. So yea, I'd say we're still great.

What do you spend all that economic output on though? Do you feel you have a quality of life directly proportional to that huge (and it is huge) GDP advantage you have over the rest of the world?

 

[Kyle B]

What do you spend all that economic output on though? Do you feel you have a quality of life directly proportional to that huge (and it is huge) GDP advantage you have over the rest of the world?

I don't think that, just because America has a large GDP, we're going to be living like kings. Individually, I'd say my quality of life is good. Of course, it depends on where you live in the United States, and your individual circumstances, much like anyone else in any other country.

 

[pjbleek]

God Bless America....land that I love...stand beside Her, and guide Her....yeah, our history is a bit fucked up here and there and how we have dealt with our own citizenry and how we were founded....all still amazes me...

 

[Kakapo Dundee]

Kakapo.......Scr*w u!!!! I still feel America is great. It's called Pride in Country.

Nothing wrong with being proud of your country, but it helps to be honest about it. Places like Detroit used to be the economic hub of heavy industry. Clothing was always made in the USA.

Now you're just as likely to drive an asian car to Walmart to stock up on chinese-made goods and buy produce that has been worked by illegal immigrants. You're frightened of a government that wants to take control of the health system away from the pharmaceutical companies, and the space shuttle is a pretty spiffy lawn ornament that the last great generation of Americans actually took into space.

 

[Panacea]

Nothing wrong with being proud of your country, but it helps to be honest about it.

This is how I feel, and it's why you'll never see me pounding my chest. There's a lot here to appreciate, and a lot to learn. I was lucky enough not to be born into a culture that completely prevents mobilization for women, or a third world country, or into an area with a ton of violence.

For that I am appreciative and humbled, but that's not limited to America and I wouldn't dare act like it.
There are things about Americans I like, and things I don't.

Overall I find nationalism unattractive.

 

[Mercury]

This is how I feel, and it's why you'll never see me pounding my chest. There's a lot here to appreciate, and a lot to learn. I was lucky enough not to be born into a culture that completely prevents mobilization for women, or a third world country, or into an area with a ton of violence.

For that I am appreciative and humbled, but that's not limited to America and I wouldn't dare act like it.
There are things about Americans I like, and things I don't.

Overall I find nationalism unattractive.

Agreed!

While happy to live here in the United States, I would be probably just as comfortable in England, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Germany ... so on.

There is nothing wrong with loving one's country but to blindly love and obey one's country is dangerous ...

 

[Johnfromokc]

 

[Kakapo Dundee]

I'm sure that there's a generation of Americans coming soon that will question the wisdom of clinging to outmoded tribal notions in an age where mass travel and corporate globalisation has made empire building obsolete.

I'm hoping that America will soon join the rest of the world in reappraising the perceived need for massive and ineffective displays of military prowess at the expense of domestic well-being.

In a world where the people who have everything are reducing the number of children that they breed in order to keep the lifestyle that they have, and those who have little are having more children simply to increase their chances of being cared for in their old age, it is inevitable that the 'survivor races' will eventually outnumber the 'consumer races' and the ability to control society by use of superior firepower will be buried by sheer weight of numbers.

As Detroit crumbles, Beijing rises. A new superpower is emerging, and it doesn't need to demand respect with menaces. When it wants to control the world, it will buy the world.