enfieldacademy

i think because he thinks most Americans are 'very intelligent' and would have answered those questions in the video much better than the people in the video did

yeah, you didn't have to know facts to answer some questions. those were common-sense. but a lot of them weren't like that.

IceQube

You nailed it.

Awaiting rejoinder from bioboy12

Bioboy12

I just find it surprising that they may not know something that, to me at least, is as basic as 2 + 2 = 4.

Doesn't it make you wonder what they learned in high school then? Sure you might argue that it's not important to know such trivial facts, but this also hints to an underlying idea that makes you question what is being taught/learnt in their schools. History may not seem important, but it may correlate to a lack of knowledge in other subjects as well. I do realize I might be wrong which is why I included the "may".

Also, just pointing out that I always like friendly discussions, so let's keep it that way.

Sent from my SGH-T959V using CC

IceQube

Again, you're extrapolating too much from the weak data presented by the video. Notice how the video goes back to the same people, over and over again. Those are the people who don't know, and those are the people the video hammers, and those are the people who supposedly represent America. I can't take your argument seriously because it's based on such a flawed premise .

As you said, all we can do is speculate. Go ahead and wonder. Go ahead and extrapolate to the nth term. I wouldn't advise that you draw conclusions though. Here, I'll even get you started.

1. People in a video don't know answers to history, geography, and current event questions.
2. These people represent America.
3. Not knowing history means that one is deficient in math knowledge.
4. Being deficient in math knowledge means that one will inevitably fail in life.
4a. Who doesn't use math? Don't we have to add and subtract at the grocery store? At the restaurant?
5. Not being able to do math quickly at the restaurant makes one socially awkward.
5a. It's so nerdy to pull out a calculator in a restaurant!
6. People start suffering from low self-esteem.
7. People start become recluses.
8. Restaurants fail because no one will attend because people can't do math and there is a strong stigma attached to calculator usage in restaurants.
9. Because restaurants fail, demand for beef will fall.
10. Cows will explode in population size.
11. Cows will inherit the Earth.

enfieldacademy

wait i thought high school was just to habituate the population to long days of tedium, so they wouldn't protest working equally long hours for a little bits of money.

oh yeah and to keep the population out of trouble.

learning is awesome. but learning has always happened outside of the classroom more often than it does in it ... especially nowadays.

of course private schools for intelligent students are an exception. in those schools learning happens because those kids are being prepared for intellectual activities when they get older, not tedious jobs.

Bassoonapus

Math and English are the most important things. Social studies and science aren't things most people use during their everyday lives.

Also, I didn't know some of the answers to their questions. Am I stupid?

twentythirteen

Well that was insanely biased... Some of those people seemed like they were under the influence of alcohol...

Reading the comments on the video itself made me shake my head. Even if these people are stupid for not knowing the answer to some of these questions, the even stupider are the ones who believe this represents our country as a whole.

ShadowMist

I'm sure there were people who answered the questions right, but that wouldn't have been quite as interesting/entertaining. Also, I can imagine being put on the spot like that to answer some of the questions might be a little nerve wracking. :I Though that's not an excuse for some of the questions. For example, when I first heard the question about a country that starts with a 'U', the first one to come to mind was Uzbekistan.

Bassoonapus

Yeah, I was really surprised people didn't get that one. I was like screaming "YOU LIVE IN A COUNTRY THAT BEGINS WITH U!!!!!!!"

Also I love that smiley. :I
:I
:I

MedicalBoy

What really scares me is that two people hesitated or didn't know how many sides to a triangle...

Davidabb84

You're saying that remembering that the civil war occurred during a 4 year period, between 1861 and 1865, is as basic as knowing that if you count two numbers higher than two, that makes four.

It's a LOT more difficult to remember such a specific range of dates. Math always works the same. If you ask me to calculate 100+4, I could do it just as easily as 4+4. But if you asked me what years the Boer War occurred in, I don't know that just because I know when the Civil War was.

Bioboy12

Haha I'm glad that some people are getting the entertaining side of this as well And MedicalBoy, I felt the same way!

@David,

I was just making a comparison -- no need to overthink it. I was referring to how easy the task was, not the actual activity of the task itself...

starlily

All I have to say is... that video is old, and I'm surprised you didn't see it before. xP