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The Astonishing Ignorance of Young Adults
Daily Signal ^ | October 26, 2016 | Walter E. Williams

Posted on 10/29/2016 5:56:18 AM PDT by detective

Do you wonder why Sen. Bernie Sanders and his ideas are so popular among American college students? The answer is that they, like so many other young people who think they know it all, are really uninformed and ignorant. You say, “Williams, how dare you say that?! We’ve mortgaged our home to send our children to college.”

Let’s start with the 2006 geographic literacy survey of youngsters between 18 and 24 years of age by National Geographic and Roper Public Affairs.

Less than half could identify New York and Ohio on a U.S. map. Sixty percent could not find Iraq or Saudi Arabia on a map of the Middle East, and three-quarters could not find Iran or Israel. In fact, 44 percent could not locate even one of those four countries. Youngsters who had taken a geography class didn’t fare much better.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailysignal.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: youngadults
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To: detective; All
Many young people seem to be ignorant about almost everything.

Their foundational problem is that they can't do math; not even basic arithmetic.

Us older folks remember when making a purchase, if the amount was 77¢, we would give the cashier $1.02 and the clerk would immediately give us back a quarter.

Try that today. Cashiers give you a bemused look, hand you back the 2¢, and advise you, "You gave me too much".

So what?

Math is the basis for everything in the world. If you can't do math, you'll believe every lie the political Left throws at you.

You also can't balance a checkbook, calculate, in your head, which product is the better buy at the grocery store, figure out whether Social Security is a good deal, calculate whether you'll be able to pay back your student loan, calculate your taxes, or much else.

The intentional "dumbing down" of student numeracy is the foundation for the "dumbing down" of everything else, and the creation of "Stepford" Democrat voters.

21 posted on 10/29/2016 6:31:38 AM PDT by ChicagahAl (Sanders - Make America Venezuela. Clinton - Make America My Piggy Bank. Trump - Make America Great.)
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To: servantboy777
So true. I am 59 and constantly shake my head in disbelief at the stupidity that surrounds me on a daily basis. I just assumed that young folks know what I knew at their age. Most can't spell common three and four letter words.
22 posted on 10/29/2016 6:32:39 AM PDT by 4yearlurker ("Good God,what brave fellows I must this day lose!" G. Washington~Battle of Brooklyn)
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To: detective

Had an argument with co-workers last week about the election. One Bernie supporter and now Hillary supporter didn’t even know the 1st Amendment. What an idiot!


23 posted on 10/29/2016 6:33:35 AM PDT by 38special (For real, y'all.)
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To: detective

I expressed similar sentiments to a teacher. She huffed and puffed but couldn’t refute them.


24 posted on 10/29/2016 6:36:24 AM PDT by relictele (Principiis obsta & Finem respice - Resist The Beginnings & Consider The Ends.)
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To: BRL

Well said, and spot on. Think “Harrison Bergeron.”


25 posted on 10/29/2016 6:37:42 AM PDT by Ancient Man
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To: x_plus_one
But with all their exposure to the entire world through technology, don't they wonder about the things they don't know? Don't they realize the appalling gap between the superficial images on their iPads and the realities behind those images? Don't they wonder where they are and how they got there?

Or is it that they're so smug and complacent that they fail to realize they're only one link in a very long chain?

Even if you write their banality off to narcissism, don't they know that they can't really "change the world" if they don't know squat about it?

26 posted on 10/29/2016 6:38:20 AM PDT by IronJack
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To: detective

Old people say that every day.


27 posted on 10/29/2016 6:41:49 AM PDT by Vermont Lt (Brace. Brace. Brace. Heads down. Do not look up.)
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To: BRL
It would appear that they are taught grievance claims in “Diversity-People-of-Color-LGBT-Safe space-PC-Sensitivity Awareness-Gender-Global Warming” studies over and above reading, writing and arithmetic, (to quote the late President Regan).

Civics, after all all the studies of “white, dead men” so why bother and learn about the great United States and her concept of Freedom, Democracy and plurality?

28 posted on 10/29/2016 6:50:06 AM PDT by Netz ( and looking for a way ti IMPROVE mankind.)
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To: ChicagahAl

Math is weightlifting for the brain.


29 posted on 10/29/2016 6:50:19 AM PDT by bankwalker (Does a fish know that it's wet?)
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To: detective

Schools and colleges have been brainwashing them for decades - what’s more surprising is those that still have their heads on straight.


30 posted on 10/29/2016 6:51:10 AM PDT by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: detective

Historic amnesia and academic incest


31 posted on 10/29/2016 6:52:33 AM PDT by bankwalker (Does a fish know that it's wet?)
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To: detective
I am attending community college full time as an art student. I am in my late 60s.

Every sentence of Williams’ essay is true. It is painful to watch my fellow student struggle to use a ruler. Using ratio and proportion to increase the size of something? Impossible!

And....Bil Clinton's impeachment was about sex. Right?

It's sad.

32 posted on 10/29/2016 6:58:15 AM PDT by wintertime (Stop treating government teachers like they are reincarnated Mother Teresas!)
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To: servantboy777

“Clueless. Most young guys cannot change a tire on their car, chop wood, start a fire and or cook over it. Gather water, filter it, sanitize it.Oh well.”

Wellll, living in ALL the New Virtual worlds courtesy U no whoo out West,we’ll just find their starved bodies one by one holding the ‘controls’ in their withered fingers?


33 posted on 10/29/2016 7:05:17 AM PDT by litehaus (A memory toooo long)
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To: D Rider

“Our former Secretary of State thought”

AND! Assad was a “moderate”

She is Soooo Smart!


34 posted on 10/29/2016 7:09:39 AM PDT by litehaus (A memory toooo long)
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To: D Rider

“Our former Secretary of State thought”

AND! Assad was a “moderate”

She is Soooo Smart!


35 posted on 10/29/2016 7:09:40 AM PDT by litehaus (A memory toooo long)
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To: detective

From the Greatest Generation to the Dumbest Generation in less than one lifetime.


36 posted on 10/29/2016 7:12:42 AM PDT by Rebelbase (DRAIN THE SWAMP!)
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To: BRL

Excellent post....and spot on...

I have several young adult in my extended family and if you get them in a corner logically and by reason, on any subject, especially politics, they simply shut down and start mumbling meaningless talking points....


37 posted on 10/29/2016 7:12:53 AM PDT by Popman
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To: IronJack
But with all their exposure to the entire world through technology, don't they wonder about the things they don't know?....

The overwhelming percentage perceive and treat all these devices as appliances. One pushes a button and it works, most of the time. Tap or flip the switch and the light turns on, don't have to have an understanding of electricity or circuits to make it work. Eloi perception "it just is".

A mundane but common example is the posting of home made videos in social media. Almost all are in vertical portrait mode, even for scenes where a landscape mode is the better choce. All android and iPhones have the auto-rotate option, a simple radio button switch that apparently few bother to learn about. So a handheld device was vastly more potential computing power than the NASA projects of the 60's and 70's is reduced to being an expensive narcissistic Polaroid Swinger and a telegraphic Post-It note.

I shop a lot on Amazon for small tech items and parts not available in brick and mortar stores where I live and read the reviews and questions. All to often wasting time for the amusement they provide. It's a world of magpies out there latching onto bright shiny things. Reading anything beyond the limits of a text message or twitter remark apparently is beyond so many of them, never mind comprehension.

38 posted on 10/29/2016 7:13:31 AM PDT by Covenantor (Men are ruled...by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern. " Chesterton)
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To: detective
-- Many young people seem to be ignorant about almost everything. --

And somehow this is astonishing? Give me a break.

39 posted on 10/29/2016 7:17:19 AM PDT by Cboldt
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To: detective

I remember years ago being given these quizzes/tests in school by a third party testing company.

We deliberately gave false answers. The teachers left the room when the testers arrived, and we had a free-for-all with them.

Fun times, but not an accurate measure of what we really knew.


40 posted on 10/29/2016 7:17:50 AM PDT by Alas Babylon!
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