Posted on Tue, 04/01/2008 - 21:10 — by shays
I am not making up what follows. I checked the references, and they are accurate. See what you think ...
Nicholas Kristof ... columnist for the New York Times ... a guy that conservatives think is too liberal and I think is too conservative (which means he is probably doing a pretty good job) posted some interesting data in an article he wrote entitled, "The Dumbing Down of Our Political Discourse". I will summarize what he said ... you can look it up if you are so inclined.
• The Reverend Wright, when he speculated that AIDS was a pandemic deliberately engineered to kill blacks, was accused of gross conspiriacrity (a coined word) and blatant paranoia, at the very least. However, the fact of the matter is that 30% of all African Americans believe that such a plot is at least plausible. This means, whether you like it or not, the Reverend is not so very far fringe looney as you would like to think he is. He at least is speaking for about 1/3 of all African Americans (less than that support the President of the US).
But let's not be fooled into thinking that at least 1/3 of all Black Americans are themselves fools.
• 36% of all Americans, for example, believe that the U.S. government assisted in the attacks on the WTC in 2001 (or at least knowingly let it happen so we would have a reason to go to war). • A 34-nation study found Americans less likely to believe in evolution than the citizens of ... any of the other countries polled (except Turkey). President Bush is the only leader of the Western and industrialized world that is not sure about evolution. • 40% of all Americans believe in UFOs • Only 10% of all Americans understand radiation • Only 33% of all Americans understand what DNA does. • 20% of all Americans know that the sun goes around the earth • Less than 10% of all Americans can accurately describe what causes the seasons*
Guess we're all a little kooky and stupid, aren't we?
* (Kristof didn't include this last tidbit, but it's true ... find and watch "A Private Universe" to understand how we can all hold on to misconceptions, even when explicitly taught the "correct explanation")
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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 287
Report madcali4nian
Why does this have to be about white reaction? If you havent noticed, there "are" minorities that disagree with Obama and the statements of his beloved most holy pastor. This would have been a white/black issue back in the days, but come on man, be inclusive, in this day and age, it is possible, yes it is for a minority to disagree wholeheartedly with the minority candidate of a party that claims to fight for the minority. This guy that wrote the column makes his point by leaving out those non whites that are offended or disagree with the so called ministers remarks even if they are few or far inbetween.
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 768
Report shays
My goodness, but you are paranoid ... Kristof IS talking about "non-white" Americans (because he is talking about the stupidity and ignorance ... palpably purposeful ... of all Americans). He simply used the Reverend Wright's conspiracy theory, and the fact that almost 1/3 of all black Americans agree with it (or at least find it plausible) as the bridge (i.e., introduction) to his essay about that ignorance. He cited countless emails -- from self-described "offended" white readers -- who felt that such widespread belief in such a looney theory was perhaps a broader condemnation of black America than the Reverend's words had been in the first place: How could that many blacks believe in such a patently stupid idea?. And then he went on to say, in effect, "because all Americans (or at least significant numbers of them) believe in equally stupid things.
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 768
Report shays
Okay, so I made another mistake and posted a message in the wrong place. The only way to remove it (as far as I can tell) is to "edit" it, which requires I write something in the Comment field. So, I have. Look for what actually belongs here a little further down, as a response to the Mad Californian
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 15
Report Femalto
This article is to say the least irresponsible. For one thing, if the Reverend Wright was a White man and not a Black man, and he said derrogatory remarks about the Black culture, he would be widely criticized and made out to be a racist and a member of the KKK, whether or not that was true. The author justifies Wright's statements by saying that 1/3 of the Black culture believes AIDs "was a pandemic deliberately engineered to kill blacks." That is exactly why these issues become facts instead of philosophies. Keep saying something often and long enough and it becomes real, whether it is true or not. As for the documentary "A Private Universe," it is not real, it is filled with deliberately placed innuendos and misnomers. No wonder our children don't learn anything useful at school or by reading the news. There is only one side taught. And that isn't necessarily the correct side. This, again, is more propaganda to keep people confused and to continue with the mass destruction of free thinkers. What a bunch of crock this article is. No logical thinking, only hysteria produced by the news media and liberal crocks like Rev. Wright. He is no man of God, in my opinion. He is a racist and a biggot. Obama knows how much of a loose cannon Wright is, and has side-stepped this issue. Wright is no better than Rev. Sharpton.
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 768
Report shays
In misreading Mr. Kristoff's essay, you expose your true colors "Femalto".
Kristoff in no way condoned or excused the Reverend's words. He used what most white people consider to be a looney belief, and 2/3 of the Black community also considers to be a looney belief, as a compositional trick to point out how a large number of Americans have fallen into similar anti-intellectual, pseudo-scientific beliefs. He then proceeded to outline what some of those other beliefs were. It is you, misreading Kristoff's words, who choose to focus again on race and racism ... turning, in the process, the entire sin of oppression and racism back on the victims.
Sick!
As to your cavalier dismissal of the documentary "A Private Universe", you say:
it is not real, it is filled with deliberately placed innuendos and misnomers. No wonder our children don't learn anything useful at school or by reading the news. There is only one side taught. And that isn't necessarily the correct side. This, again, is more propaganda to keep people confused and to continue with the mass destruction of free thinkers. What a bunch of crock this article is.
Most certainly, "A Private Universe" was staged for production reasons ... but what do you mean it is "not real"? What is not real? ... the fact that fully 2/3 (probably more) Americans can not adequately (or correctly) explain the reason for seasons, or identify the causes for lunar phases? ... the fact that many Harvard graduates, supposedly the best and the brightest, demonstrate that point? ... that school kids are taught to memorize complex, three-dimensional events by reading them out of a textbook with careless and confusing two-dimensional illustrations? ... that learning something wrong (or confused) in the first place is hard to undo?
The point, which you obviously missed in "A Private Universe" (making me wonder if you have actually seen it), is that our children have a hard time learning in school when only one method is used to teach them. The method in question, of course, is the common approach in which an "expert" (the teacher, a textbook author) tells children what they need to know without conducting a meaningful assessment of whether or not they understood it. A secondary, but related point, is that common methods of assessment ... which usually amount to nothing more than recalling what one was told (in slightly different forms, such as multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, short answer, or even identifying a correct sketch) ... do not measure understanding. They measure only the ability of the kid to spit back what was told in the proper format. Memorization is tested, not knowledge. Thus, "learning" -- especially as you seem to be defining it -- does not take place; a monkey or dog can be trained to respond correctly to the proper cues, but one would never claim that striking a bell three times correctly in response to a patterned clue is the same as mathematical understanding. Or would you?
"A Private Universe", actually, warns us to not teach just "one side" (although I am not sure, in the case of celestial phenomena, how there is more than one side ... so perhaps a better and more apropos description would be to say it warns us not to teach just "one way"). "A Private Universe" also warns us -- as you say -- that what is taught is not always "correct". Teachers are just people ... and not every K-12 teacher in this country is an astronomer who understands lunar cycles or axial tilt. They are a product of their own instruction, and often times teach what they were incorrectly taught (or, more likely, what they incorrectly understand). I would argue, though, that doing things as we do them now (and have done them) is more accurately the road to destroying free thought and critical thinking. I suggest that you watch "A Private Universe".