# Are most Americans stupid?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-americans-stupid/339846
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [January 13, 2006, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-americans-stupid/339846 "2006-01-13T18:20:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2006, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-americans-stupid/339846/1 "2006-01-13T18:20:12Z")
By “stupid,” I mean not informed and/or intelligent enough to make reasoned political decisions.
Why do you feel this way? Anecdotal interaction? Polls and evidence?
Also, is it a false premise that reasoned voting requires a basic level of competency in domestic and foreign issues? Is it the case that the collective will of an underinformed nation will be equivalent to the will of one super-informed expert?
For my part, I sometimes feel this way. I try to convince myself that I’m must being partisan, or elitist, and that most people are like me in thinking that everyone else isn’t smart enough (meaning we’re all plenty smart). But I get the feeling a lot of people on both political sides do think most Americans are stupid (judging by the way these people speak and act).
[If possible, I’d like to keep this out of the Pit, though I expect it to quickly become partisan]
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### Author:  [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2006, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-americans-stupid/339846/2 "2006-01-13T18:21:33Z")
> [@Richard Parker](#):
>
> By “stupid,” I mean not informed and/or intelligent enough to make reasoned political decisions.
>
> Why do you feel this way? Anecdotal interaction? Polls and evidence?
>
> Also, is it a false premise that reasoned voting requires a basic level of competency in domestic and foreign issues? Is it the case that the collective will of an underinformed nation will be equivalent to the will of one super-informed expert?
>
> For my part, I sometimes feel this way. I try to convince myself that I’m must being partisan, or elitist, and that most people are like me in thinking that everyone else isn’t smart enough (meaning we’re all plenty smart). But I get the feeling a lot of people on both political sides do think most Americans are stupid (judging by the way these people speak and act).
>
> [If possible, I’d like to keep this out of the Pit, though I expect it to quickly become partisan]
Wow. Just wow. What a monumentally Gauderian title. Help!
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2006, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-americans-stupid/339846/3 "2006-01-13T18:23:51Z")
The average American has an IQ of only 100.
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2006, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-americans-stupid/339846/4 "2006-01-13T18:26:26Z")
I’m American, and I think \*people \* are stupid and American often willfully misinformed. We have too much of an attitude of “We’re right, because we have DEMOCRACY and FREEDOM and those slave-driver overseas don’t know nothin’!” We just need to get our heads out of the sands.
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### Author:  [@AFAIKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AFAIKnow)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2006, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-americans-stupid/339846/5 "2006-01-13T18:31:40Z")
> [@Anaamika](#):
>
> I’m American, and I think \*people \* are stupid and American often willfully misinformed. We have too much of an attitude of “We’re right, because we have DEMOCRACY and FREEDOM and those slave-driver overseas don’t know nothin’!” We just need to get our heads out of the sands.
Oh yeah, the oldest democracy in the world has alot to learn from the slave-drivers who dont’t have democracy and freedom. :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2006, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-americans-stupid/339846/6 "2006-01-13T18:32:22Z")
> [@Richard Parker](#):
>
> Wow. Just wow. What a monumentally Gauderian title. Help!
What’s it worth to you?
😉
(Title corrected.)
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2006, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-americans-stupid/339846/7 "2006-01-13T18:34:42Z")
> [@AFAIKnow](#):
>
> Oh yeah, the oldest democracy in the world has alot to learn from the slave-drivers who dont’t have democracy and freedom. :rolleyes:
Did you have a point? Or just being sarcastic?
Why wouldn’t we have something to learn from them? Not necessarily about government, but other things.
I am just trying to point out that we are possessed of this feeling that no one can teach us anything, that we already know it. Which is not true.
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### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2006, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-americans-stupid/339846/8 "2006-01-13T18:35:34Z")
> [@jjimm](#):
>
> The average American has an IQ of only 100.
Not only that, half of us are of below average intelligence!
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### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2006, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-americans-stupid/339846/9 "2006-01-13T18:36:29Z")
> [@AFAIKnow](#):
>
> Oh yeah, the oldest democracy in the world has alot to learn from the slave-drivers who dont’t have democracy and freedom. :rolleyes:
Right. Democracy and freedom are uniquely American concepts, unknown in the rest of the world.
And “oldest democracy” depends on what your definition of democracy is. Was the US a democracy when blacks were enslaved and women could not vote?
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### Author:  [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2006, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-americans-stupid/339846/10 "2006-01-13T18:36:37Z")
> [@tomndebb](#):
>
> What’s it worth to you?
>
> 😉
Uhh, nothing really…it was all just a scheme to attract more people to the thread. Yeah. That’s it.
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2006, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-americans-stupid/339846/11 "2006-01-13T18:41:59Z")
> [@pravnik](#):
>
> Not only that, half of us are of below average intelligence!
Ah, yes. But half of us are _above_ average intelligence!
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### Author:  [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2006, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-americans-stupid/339846/12 "2006-01-13T18:45:21Z")
Any intelligent person would know that half of us are above and half of us are below the **median** , not the average. 😉
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2006, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-americans-stupid/339846/13 "2006-01-13T18:48:34Z")
> [@Giles](#):
>
> And “oldest democracy” depends on what your definition of democracy is. Was the US a democracy when blacks were enslaved and women could not vote?
Heck, Martin Luther King Day is coming up Monday and I am reminded that as late as 40 or 50 years ago, non-whites - people like me - were not allowed to drink from the same drinking fountain.
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### Author:  [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2006, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-americans-stupid/339846/14 "2006-01-13T18:57:48Z")
> [@Anaamika](#):
>
> Heck, Martin Luther King Day is coming up Monday and I am reminded that as late as 40 or 50 years ago, non-whites - people like me - were not allowed to drink from the same drinking fountain.
So what? What does that have to do with the intelligence of most Americans?
By any objective measurement, Americans as a country are at least as educated and intelligent as any other country. That may not be saying much as people in general can be stupid, immature and self-centered.
We did not get to be the greatest country in the world by being a population of imbecilles.
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### Author:  [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2006, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-americans-stupid/339846/15 "2006-01-13T18:57:54Z")
Well, let’s see. I’m an American and I’m stupid. Now if the other 299,999,999 of us will just chime in, we can settle this once and for all.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2006, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-americans-stupid/339846/16 "2006-01-13T19:04:42Z")
> [@Giles](#):
>
> Right. Democracy and freedom are uniquely American concepts, unknown in the rest of the world.
>
> And “oldest democracy” depends on what your definition of democracy is. Was the US a democracy when blacks were enslaved and women could not vote?
Yeah, it was. I mean, South Africa under apartheid was a democracy – at least for white people, and to them, it did make a real, practical difference. (See Robert Dahl’s _Polyarchy_ – [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300015658/qid=1137178748/sr=8-1/ref=pd\_bbs\_1/002-2924742-0975232?n=507846&s=books&v=glance](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300015658/qid=1137178748/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-2924742-0975232?n=507846&s=books&v=glance)). And the first democracy known to history was a slaveholding and sexist society. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athenian\_democracy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athenian_democracy)
If you wonder about the Founding Fathers not giving women the vote, just remember that the political experiment on which they were embarking (a republic on a scale larger than a city-state) was a radical enough one for its time, and that, up to then, there had never been a republic known to history where women **could** vote. (With the arguable exception of the Iroquois League – [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois)] – where only men could be chiefs, but chiefs were elected by councils of women.)
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### Author:  [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2006, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-americans-stupid/339846/17 "2006-01-13T19:09:08Z")
Everyone thinks they’re smart and well-informed about the issues which interest them.
I remember during the 2000 election, Hubby took a poll of his college students. They all had firm, strident opinions about “the issues”, but when Hubby started asking in-depth questions about them, only a few could answer. Most were seemingly just aping what their friends/boss/family/ preacher said, or third-hand reports of what was said on the news. But every one of them thought they knew what they were talking about.
Most people like to think that they’re smart, but there’s a seething undercurrent of anti-intellectualism in Americans. People intentionally keep themselves from being informed-- in this age of information, you have to willfully shut your eyes to it.
People don’t like complicated issues-- if there’s a sudden awareness of a problem, they want someone to blame, and legislation which promises to fix it, without all that boring mumbo-jumbo about ramifications.
People also don’t like being told that they’re wrong, especially if they’re thinking emotionally about an issue. “I just \*feel \* that \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ is wrong.” How can their gut feelings be incorrect? An instinctual raction must be natural, right?
And frankly, we’re just too fat and happy to care. Americans have great lives. We’re incredibly wealthy-- even our poorest people won’t starve to death, and those below the poverty line likely still have air-conditioning and cable. Issues don’t touch us, for most of us are not directly affected by Washington’s decisions. (I haven’t been inconvenienced by the Patriot Act.) Concepts such as lost rights which most don’t even notice are gone seem ephemeral and unimportant when you have pressing day-to-day concerns.
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### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2006, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-americans-stupid/339846/18 "2006-01-13T19:32:36Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> If you wonder about the Founding Fathers not giving women the vote, just remember that the political experiment on which they were embarking (a republic on a scale larger than a city-state) was a radical enough one for its time, and that, up to then, there had never been a republic known to history where women **could** vote. (With the arguable exception of the Iroquois League – [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois)] – where only men could be chiefs, but chiefs were elected by councils of women.)
You seem to be equating “republic” with “democracy”. Yes, it was a great political experiment, partly because of the large geographical extent of the 13 colonies. But a country where more than half of the adult population cannot participate in the government hardly seems a democracy. So South Africa under apartheid was not a democracy, while Britain today, while still a monarchy, is a democracy, because all the adult population can participate in politics and the monarch only has a formal role.
Becoming a democracy can be a gradual process. In Britain, it took several steps, including the reform acts of the 19th century and women’s suffrage in the early 20th century. In the US, it took several steps too, including freeing the slaves in the 1860s, women’s sufrage in 1920, and the civil rights acts of the 1960s.
(Note that I’m not responding to the OP, which I think essentially meaningless – just **AFAIKnow** ’s response.)
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2006, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-americans-stupid/339846/19 "2006-01-13T19:35:27Z")
> [@Freddy the Pig](#):
>
> Well, let’s see. I’m an American and I’m stupid.
Hi, **Freddy**!
> [@](#):
>
> Now if the other 299,999,999 of us will just chime in, we can settle this once and for all.
Huh?
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### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2006, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-most-americans-stupid/339846/20 "2006-01-13T19:36:16Z")
Folks: Anaamika clearly said that Americans had a certain attitude. She did not say that attitude reflected the reality of the world.
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