# Fucking braindead historically vacuous Americans!!!!!! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 16, 2002, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-braindead-historically-vacuous-americans/114392 "2002-06-16T19:20:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![WSLer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@WSLer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WSLer)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-braindead-historically-vacuous-americans/114392/1 "2002-06-16T19:20:35Z")
So, I happen to cruise by CNN and Wolf Blitzer utters the magical word “Watergate,” so I stop and see what the deal is. Turns out in a new poll of Americans 18-54 **37% have little or no idea what Watergate was or it’s historical importance** _Ray Walston voice_ "WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE, ON DOPE???!!!:smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: Of course, maybe I shouldn’t be that upset seeing as the majority of Americans have NO PROBLEM with the governemtn taking away their Constitutional rights, in fact they seem to eerily happy about it. Fucking jackoffs. ---
**Author:** ![lenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3bc359/32.png) [@lenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lenin)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-braindead-historically-vacuous-americans/114392/2 "2002-06-16T19:25:40Z")
I blame the media. Oh, and I hear the popular theory now is that Pat Buchanan was Deep Throat. He may be a whacko, but he gets my vote next election, as opposed to my normal write-in choice(Mr. T). ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-braindead-historically-vacuous-americans/114392/3 "2002-06-16T19:47:12Z")
What’s worse, to be ignorant of history, or to re-write it? Visit the Nixon library, where you can be educated about how Woodward and Bernstein needed a big story, so they invented Watergate. [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/showcase/la-000041798jun14.story?coll=chi-news-hed](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/showcase/la-000041798jun14.story?coll=chi-news-hed) ---
**Author:** ![WSLer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@WSLer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WSLer)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-braindead-historically-vacuous-americans/114392/4 "2002-06-16T19:49:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lenin \* > \*\*Oh, and I hear the popular theory now is that Pat Buchanan was Deep Throat. He may be a whacko, but he gets my vote next election, as opposed to my normal write-in choice(Mr. T). \*\* _Mr. T voice_ "I pity the fool who isn’t in favor if a woman’s right to choose!! And I pity the fool who criticizes a man’s decision to wear 100 pounds in gold necklaces around his neck!!! ---
**Author:** ![Arden\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@Arden\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arden_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-braindead-historically-vacuous-americans/114392/5 "2002-06-16T19:57:05Z")
18-\*\*54 \*\*?? The 18 year olds I can see, I just found out last night when watching an ad for the program that my 15-1/2 year old has never heard of Watergate. According to her, they “never got that far in American History” :rolleyes: But 54? Where the hell were they? I’m 40 and I remember it. It was everywhere! You couldn’t get away from it. My grandmother watched every minute of the hearings and cursed Nixon everytime his picture was on TV from that day forward. It’s mentioned in the media on a fairly regular basis still. How can you just _not know?!_ ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-braindead-historically-vacuous-americans/114392/6 "2002-06-16T20:19:20Z")
Whenever I see one of those Americans-know-nothing-about-history polls, I always wish I could get a look at the questionnaire, just so I could see how I stack up against the average American. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-braindead-historically-vacuous-americans/114392/7 "2002-06-16T20:33:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Arden Ranger \* > \*\*18-\*\*54 \*\*?? > > The 18 year olds I can see, I just found out last night when watching an ad for the program that my 15-1/2 year old has never heard of Watergate. According to her, they “never got that far in American History” :rolleyes: > \*\* Do they ever get past World War II in American History? I mean, after the standard three-month unit on the Revolutionary War and the standard three-month unit on the Civil War, there’s just not much time for anything else! ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-braindead-historically-vacuous-americans/114392/8 "2002-06-16T20:50:15Z")
This is geography, not history, but still this thread reminded me of an incident at work. There’s a German collegue of mine who has, as his Windows wallpaper, the map of Europe CNN shown with the misplaced Switzerland (see it on last half of this Snopes [page](http://www.snopes.com/rumors/msnbc.htm)). I said it was pretty funny when when I noticed it, and he said something like “Ha ha! You Americans sure are stupid with geography!” I wanted to say “Yeah, it’s probably a lot easier to learn the geography of the world when you try and fail to take it over a few times…” but I was new to the group at the time. Now that I know the sonofabitch better, I’d love to shove that back in his face. ---
**Author:** ![RexDart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b77776/32.png) [@RexDart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RexDart)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-braindead-historically-vacuous-americans/114392/9 "2002-06-16T21:43:37Z")
As someone who holds a BA in history, I’m consistently amazed at the utter lack of what I consider pretty common historical knowledge in the general population. I’ve just had to learn to accept it. History educators at the high school level are hamstrung by crummy textbooks that oversimplify every issue in American history from Columbus to the Civil War to the Depression to WW2. History educators at the college level are so driven by their own research agenda, and often its accompanying political bent, that they taint courses with their choice of what to study in class. The few quality educators at university level still have to contend with the fact that their tenure will depend on their research. Why is history any different in that last respect? Well, you can learn any course in chemistry and physics from a single well-written text book, I did just that as a former Engineering major. You can’t learn a subject in history from any single text. You need an educator who understands the subject matter and a good selection of single-topic monographs written by other educators. History education is pathetic in this country, and that poll bears it out. ---
**Author:** ![Journeyman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/779978/32.png) [@Journeyman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Journeyman)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-braindead-historically-vacuous-americans/114392/10 "2002-06-16T21:59:08Z")
The oversimplification inherent in said crummy textbooks, in this student’s opinion, partially results from the sheer size of the subject matter. High school history tends to be taught in survey courses which hit the highlights. I do agree with you, RexDart, that history can’t be learned from a single textbook. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-braindead-historically-vacuous-americans/114392/11 "2002-06-16T22:21:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by WSLer \* > Of course, maybe I shouldn’t be that upset seeing as the majority of Americans have NO PROBLEM with the governemtn taking away their Constitutional rights, in fact they seem to eerily happy about it. > > Fucking jackoffs. \*\* And what fucking third-world country do you live in where you are so educated on history? If our education sucks so badly, educate your college students in your own damn countries. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-braindead-historically-vacuous-americans/114392/12 "2002-06-16T22:35:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by msmith537 \* > \*\* > > And what fucking third-world country do you live in where you are so educated on history? > > If our education sucks so badly, educate your college students in your own damn countries. \*\* That “third-world country” would be Maryland, according to his Location line… Although there are probably parts of the state that intertwine with WV that qualify… jayjay ---
**Author:** ![Kallessa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7993a0/32.png) [@Kallessa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kallessa)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-braindead-historically-vacuous-americans/114392/13 "2002-06-16T23:06:43Z")
Years ago, when I was still a high school history teacher, I went to a wonderful seminar on a _Connections_ style of teaching history. _Connections_ was a great TV show that started with something like nylons and traced a connection all the way back to a Greek philospher or Dutch tulips (I seem to remember tulips showing up somehow in every episode, but that might just be me). Anyway, this curriculum did that with history, it would take something like Watergate, and then, in the course of teaching about it, go into a bunch of other historical events that set up the situation (like war protestors, that went back to why we were in Vietnam, which takes us to colonialism or the cold war, etc.) it could be done either for a short period of time–events going back 10-20 years, or a more survey style that might touch on ideas from several centuries. I always wanted to try it, but went to law school instead. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-braindead-historically-vacuous-americans/114392/14 "2002-06-16T23:11:23Z")
> [@](#): > > The 18 year olds I can see, I just found out last night when watching an ad for the program that my 15-1/2 year old has never heard of Watergate. According to her, they “never got that far in American History” True. I never, and I mean never, got past WWII in a highschool history class. Which worked out well, because most of the textbooks stopped in the early seventies. There was a line from the textbook for my Sophmore history class, which I took sometime in '92, that I used to have memorized. Something along the lines of, “What does America have to look forward to in the bold new decade of the 1980s?” And this was at one of the best public highschools in the state. Okay, so this was in California, so that’s not saying much. (Motto of the Calfornia Department of Education: Making Alabama look good since 1970) ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-braindead-historically-vacuous-americans/114392/15 "2002-06-16T23:15:33Z")
PS and HS history tends to revolve around old empires and old wars, not relatively recent politics. ---
**Author:** ![WSLer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@WSLer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WSLer)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-braindead-historically-vacuous-americans/114392/16 "2002-06-16T23:28:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jayjay \* > \*\* > > That “third-world country” would be Maryland, according to his Location line… > > Although there are probably parts of the state that intertwine with WV that qualify… > > jayjay \*\* Ahhh, to be witty. Such a nice thing. Unfortunately you aren’t yet there. Keep trying. I lived in the part of Maryland that was much closer to Northern Virginia, which is scarier in its own way, then being close to WV. I got my bachelors in history, so I can say with all certainty that I KNOW history. Not all of it, but a good bit of it. ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-braindead-historically-vacuous-americans/114392/17 "2002-06-16T23:29:30Z")
> [@](#): > > Do they ever get past World War II in American History? I mean, after the standard three-month unit on the Revolutionary War and the standard three-month unit on the Civil War, there’s just not much time for anything else! In my one high school American History class, we got as far as the Civil War only by substituting the Ken Burns documentary on it for actual teaching, and completely skipping over the War of 1812. And this was a fairly decent high school, although that particular teacher was a complete idiot. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-braindead-historically-vacuous-americans/114392/18 "2002-06-16T23:31:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by WSLer \* > \*\* > > Ahhh, to be witty. > > Such a nice thing. > > Unfortunately you aren’t yet there. > > Keep trying. > > I lived in the part of Maryland that was much closer to Northern Virginia, which is scarier in its own way, then being close to WV. I got my bachelors in history, so I can say with all certainty that I KNOW history. Not all of it, but a good bit of it. \*\* Well, except for the fact that I was **defending you** , you may be right. Do I really need to put in a sarcasm icon? :rolleyes: jayjay ---
**Author:** ![WSLer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@WSLer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WSLer)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-braindead-historically-vacuous-americans/114392/19 "2002-06-16T23:36:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jayjay \* > \*\* > > Well, except for the fact that I was **defending you** , you may be right. > > Do I really need to put in a sarcasm icon? :rolleyes: > > jayjay \*\* Whoops:o Sorry about that, there’s a bit of excitement right now as my next door neighbor is apparently being arrested and is resisting. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-braindead-historically-vacuous-americans/114392/20 "2002-06-17T00:27:52Z")
In the one year of US history that I had, we barely reached the 1970’s and 1980’s…too sad, because I expected to learn or at least know a bit about the Reagan administration and my teacher’s opinion of it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-braindead-historically-vacuous-americans/114392.md?page=2)