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22% of Americans are morons

By Dan8267   Follow   Thu, 3 May 2012, 10:14pm   6,395 views   92 comments
In Boca Raton FL 33433   Watch (1)   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike  

Nearly one in seven people believe that the world will come to an end in their lifetime and one in 10 think the Mayan Calendar signifies that it could happen sometime this year, a new poll found.

IPSOS Global Public Affairs conducted the poll on behalf of Reuters and surveyed 16,262 adults in 21 countries.

Across those countries, the United States and Turkey rank the highest, with 22% believing the world will come to an end.

France was the most optimistic country surveyed, with only 6% of people saying they believed the world will end.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/10-world-ending-2012-poll-article-1.1071291

I guess France has the fewest idiots.

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1. Vicente Follow Befriend (8) 204 threads 4,415 comments Davis, CA

   1   10:31pm Thu 3 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   I'm debating which day to plan a big party for. The day before Mayan Apocalypse? Or the day after?

2. iwog Follow Befriend (48) 274 threads 12,572 comments 47 male Lafayette, CA Premium

   2   10:41pm Thu 3 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   I'm not surprised Americans scored the worst. We're a nation in serous decline and that is most evident in intellectual areas.

3. Kevin Follow Befriend 40 threads 2,652 comments

   3   12:52am Fri 4 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   I dunno, America has always had a pretty significant moron segment. You can look back 40,50, 60 years and you'll see that there's a consistent group of 20-25% of people who believe crazy bullshit. That said, these people could just be very optimistic about their life expectancy.

4. Mick Russom Follow Befriend (2) 7 threads 530 comments Belmont, CA

   4   1:02am Fri 4 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike (1)   iwog says I'm not surprised Americans scored the worst. We're a nation in serous decline and that is most evident in intellectual areas. And "liberals" like you use your intellect to make rent-slaves out of them. Dont teach them to fish, no, jack their rent up to the point where there is just enough left over for beer money.

5. Michinaga Follow Befriend (2) 3 threads 283 comments

   5   6:21am Fri 4 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Maybe only 10% are morons and the other 12% are jokesters who intentionally give stupid answers because the like seeing people tear their hair out over how far America has sunk.

6. iwog Follow Befriend (48) 274 threads 12,572 comments 47 male Lafayette, CA Premium

   6   6:22am Fri 4 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike (1)   Mick Russom says And "liberals" like you use your intellect to make rent-slaves out of them. Dont teach them to fish, no, jack their rent up to the point where there is just enough left over for beer money. I can't help people who fuck themselves by voting Republican. It really is that simple.

7. CaptainShuddup Follow Befriend (1) 249 threads 4,742 comments

   7   6:49am Fri 4 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike (2)   Perhaps the Mayan Calendar ends because it predicts Obama second term win. And it has nothing to do with geo disturbances at all. If that's the case, then 22% could make a strong argument for their stance.

8. iwog Follow Befriend (48) 274 threads 12,572 comments 47 male Lafayette, CA Premium

   8   7:20am Fri 4 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   CaptainShuddup says Perhaps the Mayan Calendar ends because it predicts Obama second term win. And it has nothing to do with geo disturbances at all. If that's the case, then 22% could make a strong argument for their stance. Now we all know what "strong argument" means to a Republican.

9. CaptainShuddup Follow Befriend (1) 249 threads 4,742 comments

   9   7:25am Fri 4 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike (2)   iwog says Now we all know what "strong argument" means to a Republican. Hey 2008 was the end of the world as we knew it. 2012 could be the for real-zies.

10. CaptainShuddup Follow Befriend (1) 249 threads 4,742 comments

    10   7:27am Fri 4 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike (1)   Fo-Real for real!

11. CaptainShuddup Follow Befriend (1) 249 threads 4,742 comments

    11   7:28am Fri 4 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike (2)   That should be Romneys campaign slogan. "Vote for me or we'll all die. "

12. thunderlips11 Follow Befriend (13) 52 threads 2,639 comments Premium

    12   7:32am Fri 4 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   I don't know, if the Mayans were so good at prophecy, how did they miss the coming of the White Man, or forecast their own Collapse before that?

13. ATK Follow Befriend 4 threads 29 comments ATK's website

    13   8:08am Fri 4 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   this will be the 4th time the world ended... #1. Y2K. #2. May 21, 2011. #3. Oct 21, 2011 and now #4... and remember what Nostradamus said in 1999 the great King blah blah blah

14. CaptainShuddup Follow Befriend (1) 249 threads 4,742 comments

    14   8:10am Fri 4 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike (1)   Maybe the world has ended, and we're all just beating a dead horse.

15. Dan8267 Follow Befriend (16) 764 threads 7,710 comments Boca Raton, FL Premium

    15   7:40am Sat 5 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Does anyone know of a place where I can take out an insurance policy that the world will not end in 2012?

16. rootvg Follow Befriend (8) 1 threads 792 comments Danville, CA Premium

    16   8:28am Sat 5 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike (1)   iwog says Mick Russom says And "liberals" like you use your intellect to make rent-slaves out of them. Dont teach them to fish, no, jack their rent up to the point where there is just enough left over for beer money. I can't help people who fuck themselves by voting Republican. It really is that simple. I wonder if all the multimillionaires in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and Atlanta agree with your assessment. There's a lot of them down there. I've seen it.

17. Kevin Follow Befriend 40 threads 2,652 comments

    17   11:35am Sat 5 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   rootvg says iwog says Mick Russom says And "liberals" like you use your intellect to make rent-slaves out of them. Dont teach them to fish, no, jack their rent up to the point where there is just enough left over for beer money. I can't help people who fuck themselves by voting Republican. It really is that simple. I wonder if all the multimillionaires in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and Atlanta agree with your assessment. There's a lot of them down there. I've seen it. There are a lot of even richer people in san francisco, LA, and NYC. Do you have a point?

18. rootvg Follow Befriend (8) 1 threads 792 comments Danville, CA Premium

    18   12:11pm Sat 5 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike (1)   Kevin says rootvg says iwog says Mick Russom says And "liberals" like you use your intellect to make rent-slaves out of them. Dont teach them to fish, no, jack their rent up to the point where there is just enough left over for beer money. I can't help people who fuck themselves by voting Republican. It really is that simple. I wonder if all the multimillionaires in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and Atlanta agree with your assessment. There's a lot of them down there. I've seen it. There are a lot of even richer people in san francisco, LA, and NYC. Do you have a point? Most of the conservative money is self made. The liberal money generally is not.

19. rootvg Follow Befriend (8) 1 threads 792 comments Danville, CA Premium

    19   12:12pm Sat 5 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike (1)   CaptainShuddup says That should be Romneys campaign slogan. "Vote for me or we'll all die. " Anecdotally, the Romney campaign slogan will be Anybody but Obama. It'll work. We're already seeing it. The Democrats' losing 63 seats in the House in 2010 and the number of high profile retirements in both the House and Senate tells us 2012 will be a complete bloodbath. Why would Scott Brown be leading Liz Warren by significant numbers half a year ahead of the actual vote if Obama and the Democrats were going to be returned to office? That wouldn't make sense.

20. Dan8267 Follow Befriend (16) 764 threads 7,710 comments Boca Raton, FL Premium

    20   1:15pm Sat 5 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   rootvg says Most of the conservative money is self made. The liberal money generally is not. And how exactly is that? Gives some examples and evidence, please. Sounds a lot like "liberals aren't real Americans 'cause I say so".

21. Vicente Follow Befriend (8) 204 threads 4,415 comments Davis, CA

    21   1:56pm Sat 5 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   rootvg says Most of the conservative money is self made. The liberal money generally is not. Last I looked the Forbes richest list, was about 60% Democrat. I suspect they ALL (Elephant or Donkey) describe themselves as "self-made". Heck even Romney considers himself a rags to riches story. No Richie Rich is, but hey you are free to delude yourself in this country. I'm not buying it though, and neither will I let it slide by without countering.

22. rootvg Follow Befriend (8) 1 threads 792 comments Danville, CA Premium

    22   1:57pm Sat 5 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike (1)   Dan8267 says rootvg says Most of the conservative money is self made. The liberal money generally is not. And how exactly is that? Gives some examples and evidence, please. Sounds a lot like "liberals aren't real Americans 'cause I say so". First, grow up. I don't owe you anything. Second, it's common knowledge that the Bay Area is loaded with trust fund babies and inherited wealth. A lot of houses in better areas are handed down from generations past particularly in better parts of San Francisco. My wife's boss has lived in SF all his life, went to SF State and then Berkeley later on, said yeah...it was always that way. Dallas, Fort Worth (especially Fort Worth), Houston and then Atlanta are self made towns. There's not really anything down there except for money. Atlanta can be nice in certain months but Dallas is flat, nasty and windy. There's nothing to do there but eat, shop, work or fuck. People spend insane sums of money on their homes because they're barricaded inside them for most of the year. It's one of the reasons we left.

23. rootvg Follow Befriend (8) 1 threads 792 comments Danville, CA Premium

    23   2:05pm Sat 5 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike (1)   Vicente says rootvg says Most of the conservative money is self made. The liberal money generally is not. Last I looked the Forbes richest list, was about 60% Democrat. I suspect they all describe themselves as "self-made", which no billionaire is, but hey you are free to delude yourself in this country. I'm not buying it though, and neither will I let it slide by without countering. “Eagles are dandified vultures” - Teddy Roosevelt Donald Trump is not. His family sent him to the best schools, taught him what they knew about real estate and gave him his first bump. He took a little pile and made it into a big pile. Ross Perot is completely self made. He got rich because IBM capped his commissions, he got pissed off and started EDS with a loan from his wife in 1962. One of his early projects was processing claims for Medicare. I think Carl Lindner was self made as well. His family were small business people but the big deals were all his.

24. rootvg Follow Befriend (8) 1 threads 792 comments Danville, CA Premium

    24   2:08pm Sat 5 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike (1)   Vicente says rootvg says Most of the conservative money is self made. The liberal money generally is not. Last I looked the Forbes richest list, was about 60% Democrat. I suspect they ALL (Elephant or Donkey) describe themselves as "self-made". Heck even Romney considers himself a rags to riches story. No Richie Rich is, but hey you are free to delude yourself in this country. I'm not buying it though, and neither will I let it slide by without countering. “Eagles are dandified vultures” - Teddy Roosevelt Romney's family were affluent but if you do the research, they only paid for his education. Yes, he went to the best schools but the deals were his. He took the education and family contacts and used them to start Bain Capital and make all that money. He's not a trust fund baby.

25. Vicente Follow Befriend (8) 204 threads 4,415 comments Davis, CA

    25   2:11pm Sat 5 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   Ross Perot ran as independent. He was pro-choice right down to supporting federal funding so women would always have that choice available locally. So he'd be pretty unwelcome in GOP circles especially these days. Frankly I'm not sure where to pigeonhole Ross, he's an outlier IMO.

26. Dan8267 Follow Befriend (16) 764 threads 7,710 comments Boca Raton, FL Premium

    26   2:13pm Sat 5 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (2)   Dislike   rootvg says First, grow up. I don't owe you anything. It's pretty sad that you took a request for clarification as an attack. It also demonstrates a distinct lack of confidence in your position. Why are you getting so defensive when asked what you mean by "self-made"? I've never claimed that you owe me anything, but guess what, honey. If you don't clarify and back up your accusations, we the audience don't owe you any acceptance or credibility. Only a fool writes something in public and then gets defensive as soon as someone posses a question about what he just wrote. rootvg says Second, it's common knowledge that the Bay Area is loaded with trust fund babies and inherited wealth. 1. It's not common knowledge. Most people's perspective of Silicon Valley is that it is new money, not old money. You're thinking about Texas and the South. 2. Whether or not it was common knowledge does not make it true. Where are your statistics, your evidence? Are you seriously proposing that just because you heard a statement repeated many times, you should not verify or question it's accuracy? What are you, a Fox News listener? 3. Contrary to what you believe, the Bay Area isn't all of liberal America. I've never fucking been to San Francisco and I work in I.T. You know there is this whole other coast, called the East Coast, where so-called liberals thrive. So get off your ego trip and back up your statements with reasoning and evidence -- which you have yet to do -- instead of getting all bitchy because someone asked what you meant. As it stands, right now not only do we not have any reason to believe anything you said is true, but we don't have any reason to believe that you are even being sincere in your statements.

27. Vicente Follow Befriend (8) 204 threads 4,415 comments Davis, CA

    27   2:15pm Sat 5 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   rootvg says Romney's family were affluent but if you do the research, they only paid for his education. Yes, he went to the best schools but the deals were his. He took the education and family contacts and used them to start Bain Capital and make all that money. He's not a trust fund baby. Yeah Mittens had plenty of advantages over any of us. Best schools, contacts, but sure "the deals were his" and he didn't so far as we can see fuck any of them up while doing his vulture thing and putting people out of work. But maybe he didn't actually have a huge trust fund handed to him, what a huge disadvantage for him versus some schlub in the Bay Area who got to inherit a "historic" row house with single-pane windows. OK, even if true Mittens is rectifying that for HIS kids who will be covered to the tune of $100 million.

28. Dan8267 Follow Befriend (16) 764 threads 7,710 comments Boca Raton, FL Premium

    28   2:18pm Sat 5 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   Vicente says Ross Perot ran as independent. He was pro-choice right down to supporting federal funding so women would always have that choice available locally. So he'd be pretty unwelcome in GOP circles especially these days The godless, greedy GOP leaders need the brainwashed Jesus freaks because the top 0.1% can't win a popular election by themselves. On one hand, you can never have too many poor people as the more you have, the more disposable they become. On the other hand, the whole election thing with it's one person - one vote practice is very inconvenient for the ruling class. The solution is for the GOP leaders to promote the Jesus freak agenda like outlawing abortion, removing Evolution from the classroom, etc. while hiding the fact that they spend all their time snorting cock off of a hooker's ass and then blackmailing her to get an abortion and stay silent about it.

29. CBOEtrader Follow Befriend (2) 26 threads 502 comments Chicago, IL

    29   2:44pm Sat 5 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   thunderlips11 says I don't know, if the Mayans were so good at prophecy, how did they miss the coming of the White Man, or forecast their own Collapse before that? Homo Economicus. A Legendary Creature, like Bigfoot, claimed to exist by Pseudoscientists. Their calendar isn't about magic, or prophecy. The Mayan calendar represented advanced scientific knowledge, even by recent historical standards. The asshole Spanish Catholics burned their writings...We don't know what they expected to happen at the end of their 5200 year cycle, or what knowledge the catholics sacrificed to their false god. Pretty sure it wasn't anything like 2012, the movie, though.

30. Dan8267 Follow Befriend (16) 764 threads 7,710 comments Boca Raton, FL Premium

    30   4:34pm Sat 5 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   CBOEtrader says We don't know what they expected to happen at the end of their 5200 year cycle I have it under good authority that some Mayan coder said that "we're not even going to be using this calendar in 5200, so we can save a few bytes by not handling dates past that". Had the Mayan civilization lasted, there would be hordes of Mayans performing year-5200 compliance testing.

31. rootvg Follow Befriend (8) 1 threads 792 comments Danville, CA Premium

    31   4:37pm Sat 5 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike (1)   Vicente says Ross Perot ran as independent. He was pro-choice right down to supporting federal funding so women would always have that choice available locally. So he'd be pretty unwelcome in GOP circles especially these days. Frankly I'm not sure where to pigeonhole Ross, he's an outlier IMO. “Eagles are dandified vultures” - Teddy Roosevelt Ross Perot ran in 1992 as an Independent but had a very close relationship with big name Republicans going back to the sixties. He and Nixon were close for years.

32. Kevin Follow Befriend 40 threads 2,652 comments

    32   6:42pm Sat 5 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (2)   Dislike   rootvg says Most of the conservative money is self made. The liberal money generally is not. Bullshit. Take a gander at the forbes 500. Identify all the liberals and all the conservatives, and them come back and tell me which ones are "self made". I'll accept "self made" as "was not born as a member of the 1% already". Turning a decent upper middle class upbringing into extreme wealth ala Bill Gates counts. Inheriting your parents wealth / business like the Koch Brothers does not.

33. thunderlips11 Follow Befriend (13) 52 threads 2,639 comments Premium

    33   11:41pm Sat 5 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   rootvg says Donald Trump is not. His family sent him to the best schools, taught him what they knew about real estate and gave him his first bump. He took a little pile and made it into a big pile. Uh, that was a hell of a small pile. Frank Trump, the Donald's Father, built his wealth on low-income housing projects (ie Government Contracts Subsidies). Before Donald was in High School, Frank Trump made multi-million dollar deals. In 1962 he brought an apartment complex in Ohio for almost $5M, big money in those days. The Donald took over his daddy's multi, multi, multi million dollar business just three years after leaving Wharton, in 1971. When Frank Trump passed, he left $400M. I call that a "Big Pile". rootvg says Romney's family were affluent but if you do the research, they only paid for his education. You're kidding right? Romney's Daddy was the governor of Michigan, chairman of the Automobile Manufacturer's association, and the CEO of an auto company. His grandparents were big landowners in Mexico, having descended from a polygamist sect that moved there in the mid 1800s.

34. FortWayne Follow Befriend (13) 103 threads 3,764 comments

    34   7:27am Mon 7 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   That seems like a low estimate.

35. Vicente Follow Befriend (8) 204 threads 4,415 comments Davis, CA

    35   7:43am Mon 7 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   The average IQ in USA is 98. Here we used to call any result of 51-70 a moron, being the notch above imbecile. I'm not sure this measure means anything any more. Mrs. Vicente is Italian, and their usage of the word roughly equates to "cretin" in English. The sort of person who grabs the parking spot you were clearly in line for.

36. bdrasin Follow Befriend 6 threads 490 comments Alameda, CA

    36   8:40am Mon 7 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   CaptainShuddup says Perhaps the Mayan Calendar ends because it predicts Obama second term win. Nope, it's because Dick Clark won't be around to count in the New Year. Well played, Mayans, well played.

37. leo707 Follow Befriend (12) 10 threads 3,516 comments Oakland, CA leo707's website Premium

    37   11:38am Mon 7 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   *BHAAHHH* Why should I put my trust in some old calendar made by some un-American -- probably communist -- savages when I have a good o'le American calendar on my wall. Let me check... OK, my American calendar has an end date of December 31st, 2013. So, that is what I am putting my money on as the end of the world date, clearly the 2012 set by Mayans is incorrect.

38. Dan8267 Follow Befriend (16) 764 threads 7,710 comments Boca Raton, FL Premium

    38   5:57pm Mon 7 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   Doesn't anyone else see the irony in believing that a society predicted the end of the world, but could not see their own society's imminent collapse? That's why I don't listen to any fortune tellers who aren't multiple lottery winners.

39. Kevin Follow Befriend 40 threads 2,652 comments

    39   11:09pm Tue 8 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   Vicente says The average IQ in USA is 98. Here we used to call any result of 51-70 a moron, being the notch above imbecile. I'm not sure this measure means anything any more. Mrs. Vicente is Italian, and their usage of the word roughly equates to "cretin" in English. The sort of person who grabs the parking spot you were clearly in line for. “Eagles are dandified vultures” - Teddy Roosevelt The average IQ of any age group is exactly 100 (this is true in the US as well as anywhere else). Given that human intelligence has increased over time, assigning labels like "moron" to someone at a certain IQ level is probably a bad idea. That same person may well have been average 100 years ago. IQ is a crappy measurement of intelligence anyway. There is actually no way to compare IQ tests between people who have different native languages, due to language / cultural bias in IQ tests and a lack of a single accepted standard. Any chart you have ever seen claiming that a certain nation has a significantly higher or lower IQ than the united states is almost certainly wrong and trying to argue some point.

40. Dan8267 Follow Befriend (16) 764 threads 7,710 comments Boca Raton, FL Premium

    40   3:45pm Wed 9 May 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   Kevin says Any chart you have ever seen claiming that a certain nation has a significantly higher or lower IQ than the united states is almost certainly wrong and trying to argue some point. I don't think you have to be a scientist to realize that Americans are dumber than most other countries. In fact, there are many such international tests that are used to rank students across countries. You see, when you're building a nuclear reactor, it doesn't matter what culture you come from. The laws of physics are the same. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0923110.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-07/teens-in-u-s-rank-25th-on-math-test-trail-in-science-reading.html http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/us-teens-math-test/2010/12/07/id/379224 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/26/opinion/26tue2.html http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-12-07-us-students-international-ranking_N.htm http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-838207.html Yes, Americans are dumb. Yes, it's getting worse. Yes, our culture of stupidity is largely to blame. Yes, this will affect the economy. Yes, this will affect social security when you finally retire. Yes, this will impact health care in our country. Yes, all those effects will be bad. On the bright side, assless chaps are now half off. Stock up for the upcoming post-apocalyptic landscape.

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