Why are so many Americans so arrogant and ignorant?

[All Along The Watchtower]

Why are so many of my fellow Americans so mind-numbingly dumb when it comes to politics? And at the same time, they feel no shame in spouting their completely-divorced from reality opinions. There's so much hostility to factual analysis, or any analysis, really-a lot of people just spout political talking points that they picked up from some radio host or cable TV pundit, as if it were truth.

This does not seem to be as much of a problem in other democratic (or "republican") countries. There are problems in other countries, no doubt, but America's level of political discourse is "special" in its stupidity. And this problem seems to have gotten worse in recent years in America.

Seriously, just because you suck gas and you happen to live in "AMURKA!" doesn't mean you know anything.

/rant

[Associate Justice PiT]

     People are brought up to think that their opinion is of value by virtue of being their opinion. Combine that with the modern political emphasis on obstinate defense of one's views & you have the above-described phenomenon.

[Hash]

This thread will end badly.

[King]

tl;dr

[Paul Kemp]

Sorry I'd read this but my opinion is a lot better than yours and I don't care what you think.

[opebo]

Because of liberalism (using the term correctly of course).

[greenforest32]

Because they're stupid and think that every opinion and rationale is equally viable when it comes to politics.

[The Mikado]

Goddamn that's some hardcore elitism there.  I can't even touch that.

I'll just contribute by throwing in that old line that the American people will do the right thing...after they've tried everything else.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

This thread will end badly.

just my kind of thread...if only I were in Boston....

[dead0man]

Thank Og everybody is so reasoned and measured in the rest of the world.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

In the past they had the excuse of the media sucking, but with the Internet that excuse doesn't cut it.

During the 2006 California governor election, I remember the SF Chronicle running an article about a supposed Berkeley liberal who said he was voting for Arnold because he didn't know Angelides' positions on the issues. Whose fault was that? Angelides was one of the most wonkish candidates ever and his website was filled with his detailed positions on the issues, so it certainly wasn't his. The SF Chronicle didn't mention any of Angelides' positions in their article, so they were partially to blame, but most of the blame rests with this voter.

[Joe Republic]

This thread will end badly.

But it started so well...

[Franzl]

Because politics in America have become little more than a spectator sport. You root for your team and support its positions. It's a lot easier for people that either have no interest in thinking or lack the ability.

[tpfkaw]

This thread is incredibly amusing at a meta level.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

We're trying to imitate the French? 

[phk]

Because politics in America have become little more than a spectator sport. You root for your team and support its positions. It's a lot easier for people that either have no interest in thinking or lack the ability.

^^^^

[opebo]

Because politics in America have become little more than a spectator sport. You root for your team and support its positions. It's a lot easier for people that either have no interest in thinking or lack the ability.

^^^^

Come on guys, there has never been a time when politics has had a clearer influence on people's lives - the right-wing neoliberal experiment of the last 30 years has impoverished and debased the vast majority of americans to such an extent that they live in abject misery.

[minionofmidas]

In the past they had the excuse of the media sucking, but with the Internet that excuse doesn't cut it.

Info from the internet sucks even worse. Unless you invest effort into it.


The answer why America sucks worse than Europe in this respect is that America is a relatively insular, self-sufficient country.

[Person Man]

In the past they had the excuse of the media sucking, but with the Internet that excuse doesn't cut it.

Info from the internet sucks even worse. Unless you invest effort into it.


The answer why America sucks worse than Europe in this respect is that America is a relatively insular, self-sufficient country.

Yeah. The internet just makes it worse. Especially with stuff like this-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhQ-1E_lWNw

We're trying to imitate the French? 

More like the Italians..

[anvi]

I think there is another thing at work here also.  This is just my impression, of course.  But I think Americans, either as individuals or as a society, don't place much value on self-criticism.  When things go wrong, we just don't spend a lot of time asking what we ourselves said or did to contribute to our difficulties.  We just blame others. That basic trait makes political polarization, arrogance and the unwillingness to learn from others that much easier for us.

[Gustaf]

America does not have a history of elitism, so people who are elitist in the US are constantly upset about the proles not accepting their subjugation properly.




(the thread was going too well there for a while)

[fezzyfestoon]

Because politics in America have become little more than a spectator sport. You root for your team and support its positions. It's a lot easier for people that either have no interest in thinking or lack the ability.

^^^^

Yes. The positions are much like players; The greatest thing to happen to one's own team, but when they end up on the other team...worst position ever.

[BigSkyBob]

Why are so many of my fellow Americans so mind-numbingly dumb when it comes to politics?

The key breakthrough for you will be when you start to distinguish between disagreeing with your politics and being "mind-numblingly dumb."

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[Franzl]

"Disagreeing" with an "opinion" is always a nice way of defending the hopelessly stupid.

[BigSkyBob]

"Disagreeing" with an "opinion" is always a nice way of defending the hopelessly stupid.

Cloaking one's political opinions in the rhetoric of "objectivity" doesn't make them any less of an opinion, nor does claiming intellectual opponents are not as bright.

I find it deeply ironic that the same political class that has brought us a near-fifteen-trillion-dollar national debt has the audacity to question the political judgment of the American people.

What is your theory? If we picked people at random from the phone book to serve in Congress the debt would have been twenty trillion?

The reality is that the political class has shown itself to be functionally stupid, and economically idiotic. That fact can't be changed by blaming the American public.