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From WashPo: Americans believe crazy things

Lafayette

Lafayette

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WashPo Article: Americans — especially but not exclusively Trump voters — believe crazy, wrong things

Excerpt:
Many Americans believe a lot of dumb, crazy, destructive, provably wrong stuff. Lately this is especially (though not exclusively) true of Donald Trump voters, according to a new survey.

The survey, from the Economist/YouGov, was conducted in mid-December, and it finds that willingness to believe a given conspiracy theory is (surprise!) strongly related to whether that conspiracy theory supports one’s political preferences.

Remember Pizzagate? That’s the bizarre theory that Hillary Clinton was helping run a child sex slave ring out of a D.C. pizza joint, as allegedly proven by code words in hacked Democratic emails.

Lest you think this theory was espoused by only a handful of Internet nut-jobs, observe that nearly half of Trump voters believe it’s true. This result is based on a poll conducted after a North Carolina man burst into the restaurant with an assault-style rifle, leaving only when he was satisfied that no child sex-slaves were harbored there.
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Makes one wonder the competence of their "information sources" - not only newspapers, magazines but the Internet.

Clearly, the Internet is giving a "voice" to some very, very strange opinions that are not factually based upon well-founded truths but just personal sentiment.

That's "dangerous stuff" for a functional democracy where "the voice of the people" is supposedly supreme ...
 
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Lafayette said:
WashPo Article: Americans — especially but not exclusively Trump voters — believe crazy, wrong things

Excerpt:

Makes one wonder the competence of their "information sources" - not only newspapers, magazines but the Internet.

Clearly, the Internet is giving a "voice" to some very, very strange opinions that are not factually based upon well-founded truths but just personal sentiment.

That's "dangerous stuff" for a functional democracy where "the voice of the people" is supposedly supreme ...
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I would have thought that it is more the naive use of information. Most of the type info you cite could easily be checked against independent sources in English. That is a less reliable method in regional languages with homogeneous beliefs regarding certain topics or where the state owns or controls much of the important medial supply.
 
Lafayette said:
WashPo Article: Americans — especially but not exclusively Trump voters — believe crazy, wrong things

Excerpt:

Makes one wonder the competence of their "information sources" - not only newspapers, magazines but the Internet.

Clearly, the Internet is giving a "voice" to some very, very strange opinions that are not factually based upon well-founded truths but just personal sentiment.

That's "dangerous stuff" for a functional democracy where "the voice of the people" is supposedly supreme ...
Click to expand...

Some people believe in ghosts. Some believe in space aliens. Others believe that Hillary Clinton only lost the election 'cuz Russia'.

Further, YouGov conducts their polls online. Anyone can volunteer for a survey, pretend to be a Trump voter, and take a poll.
 
joG said:
I would have thought that it is more the naive use of information. Most of the type info you cite could easily be checked against independent sources in English. That is a less reliable method in regional languages with homogeneous beliefs regarding certain topics or where the state owns or controls much of the important medial supply.
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I don't trust news-sources in general, and try to find corroboration by a number of different sources. Do they all lie? No. But they all do have a journalistic "slants" on the news. I don't trust WashPo any more than Forbes as regards "business-news".

Factually, as regards economics, I feel that if you can't measure it, "it" does not exist. If one wants to debate measurement-techniques, that is quite a different matter.

Worthwhile, but very, very hairy ...
 
First, this is an OPINION piece, not a news article.

Second, there were 1376 participants; 547 identified as Democrats, 501 as Independents, and 325 as Republicans. Not a very representative example IMO.

Just more SJW "look how crazy people are who didn't vote the correct way" demonization. :coffeepap:
 
Lafayette said:
WashPo Article: Americans — especially but not exclusively Trump voters — believe crazy, wrong things

Excerpt:

Makes one wonder the competence of their "information sources" - not only newspapers, magazines but the Internet.

Clearly, the Internet is giving a "voice" to some very, very strange opinions that are not factually based upon well-founded truths but just personal sentiment.

That's "dangerous stuff" for a functional democracy where "the voice of the people" is supposedly supreme ...
Click to expand...

Anyone who places an ounce of stock in polls conducted of a couple thousand people, especially online, is a moron. Didn't you people learn a thing from this election? :roll:
 
Lafayette said:
WashPo Article: Americans — especially but not exclusively Trump voters — believe crazy, wrong things

Excerpt:

Makes one wonder the competence of their "information sources" - not only newspapers, magazines but the Internet.

Clearly, the Internet is giving a "voice" to some very, very strange opinions that are not factually based upon well-founded truths but just personal sentiment.

That's "dangerous stuff" for a functional democracy where "the voice of the people" is supposedly supreme ...
Click to expand...

What a bunch of crap! Fifty percent of Trump voters believed Pizzagate? That's ridiculous. What is wrong with the Left?? They wouldn't know the truth if it slapped 'em upside the head.
 
MaggieD said:
What a bunch of crap! Fifty percent of Trump voters believed Pizzagate? That's ridiculous. What is wrong with the Left?? They wouldn't know the truth if it slapped 'em upside the head.
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People are funny. They believe the weirdest things instead of checking them out. In Europe most people think the EU is the reason there was peace in Europe for so long. It is really odd.
 
joG said:
He always says the same things. It's about deflecting from the rot in the EU. Pointing a finger and screeching "Catch the thief!" is a favorite trick.
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Speaking of that did you see this?:
A poll conducted by Germany's Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) found that 43 percent of Bulgarians and 40 percent of Romanians plan to leave their respective countries.
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?Brain drain? from Bulgaria and Romania helps Germany | Europe | DW.COM | 28.12.2016

I'll tell you what, the EU problems are so profound that even if they can find a way to save the place from Merkel's Folly the dream is probably dead.
 
Make passing a civics course an obligation for a high-school diploma might work.

At present, that is not the case in all states:
civicedmapblog.jpg


Excerpt from the site:
The map illustrates what our previous research has shown: substantial state-to-state variation in the requirements and assessments related to civic education.
« States require, on average, three credits of high school social studies for graduation, but the range goes from zero required credits in Colorado[1] to five in Idaho.
« Almost half of all states have required assessments in social studies, either through an end of course exam, other standardized test, or both.[2] The data also show the rapidly changing landscape of civic education: since 2012, Colorado, Florida, and Maryland have added statewide assessments, while Kansas and Missouri have dropped them.
« In the last two years, more states have also moved to require civics or American government as a condition of graduation from high school. There are now 45 states with such policies (five more than in 2012), with only Delaware, Rhode Island, Oregon, Montana, and Alaska lacking those requirements.
« However, only eight of the states with required civics or American government courses also have a required statewide test or assessment.
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The fact that the assessment-test required is not US-wide in nature is really unfortunate ...
 
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MaggieD said:
What a bunch of crap! Fifty percent of Trump voters believed Pizzagate? That's ridiculous. What is wrong with the Left?? They wouldn't know the truth if it slapped 'em upside the head.
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Neither would you, apparently.

A shame you don't know how to read above comics level ...
 
Hawkeye10 said:
Speaking of that did you see this?:

?Brain drain? from Bulgaria and Romania helps Germany | Europe | DW.COM | 28.12.2016

I'll tell you what, the EU problems are so profound that even if they can find a way to save the place from Merkel's Folly the dream is probably dead.
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Well, living in Romania can be rather interesting. I haven't been there in a few years, but I hear that large numbers live at a standard considered well below the minimum required by human rights in places like Germany, where the givernment is required to maintain a sufficient level. As they are in the same human rights area by law, there is an obvious disconnect in rule of law. This is hidden away to a certain extent by manipulating the published statistics. But that is getting less possible as people begin to look more closely.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
Clearly you think a good deal more of the quality of America's High Schools than I do.
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If one is seeking an "international" view of comparative qualifications, one must consider the PISA study analysis. (Program for International Student Assessment = PISA, which is run from the OECD.)

Find that here: PISA 2012 Results Overview

Scroll down to page 5 to see the results of multi-country assessment tests. You will find the US and France in the middle of the ranking with about the same (mediocre) scores. Which means what?

Perhaps that regardless of whether a "national educational system" is run centrally by the National Government (France) or distributed to Each State (US) is of almost no real relevance ...
 
joG said:
Well, living in Romania can be rather interesting. I haven't been there in a few years, but I hear that large numbers live at a standard considered well below the minimum required by human rights in places like Germany, where the givernment is required to maintain a sufficient level. As they are in the same human rights area by law, there is an obvious disconnect in rule of law. This is hidden away to a certain extent by manipulating the published statistics. But that is getting less possible as people begin to look more closely.
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Let's give three cheers for relearning skepticism of the assertions of power.....
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Lafayette said:
Neither would you, apparently.

A shame you don't know how to read above comics level ...
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You're the one who posted the ridiculous excerpt from the link. You even changed the font color to red. I insulted your ridiculous link. You can't defend it's absurd assertion, so you attack me?

Way to go!
 
joG said:
Well, living in Romania can be rather interesting. I haven't been there in a few years, but I hear that large numbers live at a standard considered well below the minimum required by human rights in places like Germany, where the givernment is required to maintain a sufficient level. As they are in the same human rights area by law, there is an obvious disconnect in rule of law. This is hidden away to a certain extent by manipulating the published statistics. But that is getting less possible as people begin to look more closely.
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Romania was a typical example of a communist country that just couldn't shake its past. Subsequent governments were not as evil as the Ceausescu family, but neither were they any less incompetent.

Romanian workers here in France are pretty good, but it is sad what is happening in their country. As they tell me ...
 
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countryboy said:
Anyone who places an ounce of stock in polls conducted of a couple thousand people, especially online, is a moron. Didn't you people learn a thing from this election? :roll:
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This election was NO SURPRISE.

When the US Attorney General threw the hooker regarding Hillary's emails (a thoroughly inconsequential matter), her lead started to diminish significantly.

You've elected Donald Dork, and you (plural) think he is going to "Make the Country Great Again". The country was already mending all by itself after the Replicants had blocked all Stimulus Spending the HofR, which is why there was no Quick Recovery.
 
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