United States Attacked [by Val Kilmer]: 'Batman' Says American Audiences Ignorant & Illiterate

NY Post ^ | 5/2/5 | Richard Johnson

[shadowman99]

He didn't say "stupid Bush voters!" or "damn moral police".

He said we don't read enough. And that's true. Some people will stand in line for six weeks to see the new Star Wars. But no, we don't read as much as we should.

Those who get most upset are often the same people who should take such criticism to heart.

[ravingnutter]

I also don't consider George Clooney to be Batman either.

Understand...but Kilmer has just joined the ranks of Clooney in the Moonbat-man category, LOL!

(Clarification: Moonbat = "an all-purpose insult for modern liberals, peace protestors, and other ideological opponents", according to Wikipedia)

[cinives]

If you read Theodore Dalyrymple's book "Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass" youd soon see that the British public is at least as bad as the US.

[r9etb]

I'd start a debate with you, but I'd rather return to my study of the orations of Hyperides.

In the original Greek, no doubt....

[Bluegrass Federalist]

heck, looking at the state of american education and media entertainment, who would conclude otherwise? American are frighteningly ignorant overall. How many can find the US on a world map? 50%?

Europe has its problems, too. The UK did one of those type surveys last year, and an astonishingly low number of their high cschool students even knew who they fought in WWII, knew about the Holocaust, etc. People who say things like Kilmer did say it because they want to believe that perspective, not because the US is less educated than the world. There is a reason the world comes here to get an education, rather than the other way around.

[reagan_fanatic]

Alas, Mr. Kilmer is correct. The first step in recovery is to admit that you have a problem. Americans are not well-educated, and they have (by and large) no cultural foundation.

It's not a question of whether there is any truth to Mr. Kilmer's assertion, it's the setting in which he chose to said it - a foreign country where far too many people eagerly gobble up anything spoken negatively about Americans. I would be less upset had he had the balls to do it in front of an American crowd in America.

It's one thing to speak honestly about your country, it's quite another thing to do it in front of people who already think Americans are idiots.

[Old Grumpy]

"Actually, I really enjoyed him as Doc Holiday in Tombstone..."

Yeah, me too. Durn his hide.

[tutstar]

oing

[Zeroisanumber]

'Top Secret' from the Zucker Bros. of 'Aiplane' fame was actually one of the only good films he has ever been in.

How about 'Tombstone'?

[r9etb]

It's one thing to speak honestly about your country, it's quite another thing to do it in front of people who already think Americans are idiots.

And it's yet another thing to deny an undeniably true statement because of who said it, and where.

[knittnmom]

I mean, the movie theatre parking lot in the town I reside is always full, not so of the library.

I read, but I don't visit my library - I'd rather order what I want to read through Amazon.

[Bonaparte]

A high school diploma and acting school. Those are Kilmer's "intellectual" credentials.

[Bonaparte]

Many consider it sound practice to judge a tree by its fruits. Americans have founded and maintained the freest, most powerful and prosperous country on earth; the greatest country of all time; the country that is the envy of the world; a country that feeds and assists impoverished countries all over the world and has the most people trying to get in.

A stupid people does not accomplish this sort of thing. But every nation has its share of dim bulbs and Kilmer is one of them.

[Bonaparte]

More on Mr. Kilmer...

At Chatsworth High School, Kilmer was not a good student, as he admitted to Ellis: “I had trouble with tests. I'm spiritually dyslexic: If I'm interested in something I can remember it forever; if not, I have to find a trick.”

"Spiritually dyslexic"? What on earth is this man talking about?

Kilmer enjoys... the humor of the controversial radio talk-show host Howard Stern.

Yep. A real intellectual, that Kilmer.

[WoofDog123]

yeah i had read about some of the appalling issues in UK education as well. It certainly doesn't excuse issues here, but apparently basic stuff simply isnt being forcibly taught anymore. My biggest pet peeve is calculators in the classroom, personally, though i am sure if I had kids in school the list would grow.

[Arpege92]

"Sad to say that more people know paris hilton's dog's name than who is the vice pres of the US."

That would be Tinkerbell and Dick Cheney. Now please please take me off that list. ;-}

[what's up]

I saw Kilmer on Larry King a few years ago.

He had trouble stringing 2 sentences together.

He came across as a very dumb person.

(However, I liked him in "The Saint".)

[AmishDude]

Reading books? READING BOOKS? Reading is not the evidence of intelligence, it is precisely the opposite. Now we are to believe that carrying Dan Brown or the latest polemic from Noam Chomsky indicates anything resembling intellectual capacity or reasoning. (And speaking of Chomsky, does that guy have one unexpressed thought?)

The very notion that one is desirous of taking in the thoughts of others is that one's own thoughts are not of sufficient merit.

Americans not well educated? My God, the Universities are teeming with vermin who spend their days pontificating upon pseudo-intellectual claptrap that would be inexpressible without the words "race", "class" or "gender".

Read books? I'd love to know what lines Mr. Kilmer's walls. Oh, I'm sure the height of intellectual achievement is a selection from the Oprah book club. These members of the pretentia -- foreign or domestic -- pontificate upon their own wisdom by spouting individual facts or names, and yet will never be able to grasp the concept of a quadratic equation.

America? America embraces those around the 100 IQ mark. Europe simply disdains and dismisses them. The culture ignores the riff-raff. Asia informs them of their worth at the time of college entrance exams.

America's culture? Culture is the waste product of a healthy society. It simply emerges from behind society as society moves on. It is. It simply is. Those who want to shape culture, who desire culture to be something other than what it is, are usually artists -- or more often, wannabes -- who want their own predilections -- or more often, perversions -- to be embraced by everyone else, whether anyone else wants it or not.

When you complain about McDonalds or action movies, remember that Americans know that food is to be eaten and art is meant to entertain. They'll save their intellectual energy for their work, thank you very much.

Americans don't worry about their culture -- they have better things to do.

[onedoug]

"Isn't that a daisy."

[hosepipe]

I think Val is normalphobic..
Just trying to be arrogant and smug and snobby...
Like any English artsy type.. Shuusssh now..
Can you hear him with the faux english accent badly done.. LoL..