Dumb and Dumber?

I have believed for some time that Americans are getting dumber.  Now many will consider dumb a pejorative, but I am not trying to be judgmental or insulting, I am trying to be factual.  So substitute ignorant, uneducated, unaware or unknowing if that makes you feel better.  But on the whole, a significant number of Americans are really dumb.

Just some random examples of what many Americans don’t know:

• I recently Googled “How to write a check” – I got 21,600,000 hits.  Think about that.
• A recent Pew survey found that that less than 50% of Americans could name the 3 branches of government.
• The same percentage does not know the length of a Senate term.
• One third of survey respondents could not name the controlling party in the House or Senate.
• 40% could not name even one right guaranteed in the First Amendment.
• Currently, 40% of Americans believe humans originated 10,000 years ago.
• 40% have never heard of Auschwitz…..worse among millennials.
• The National Science Foundation reported that 25% of their survey respondents believed the sun revolved around the earth.
• In 2006 a Roper study found that 40% of young Americans could not Identify Iraq on a map (you know, the place where we were fighting a war at the time)
• Later, in 2018 Roper found that 75% of young Americans could not identify Iran or Israel on a map.
• But don’t despair…. at least 50% were able to identify the State of New York on a map.

These tidbits reinforce my belief that what I was taught about the normal distribution of IQs in America is wrong.  Now I know that IQ is not the only determinant of “smarts” and it might be racially biased and it does not cover any of the elements of emotional intelligence, but it is, and has been, a baseline measure of intelligence.  Based on the evidence around us, I do not believe the distribution is “normal” anymore.  A normal distribution is one where 50% are above the average, 50% below the average  and where that distribution looks like a bell curve, i.e., symmetric.  The prevailing assumption is that the average IQ (in America, I think) is 100.

No, no….I believe the average IQ is below 100 and that some 60-65% are below the average.  Thus not a “normal” distribution but a skewed distribution with more below the average than above.  The cause?  We know IQ is related to education.  We also know that IQ is highly influenced by the IQ of parents.  I will let the reader make of those two realities what they wish.

My thinking makes me one of those elitist scum that Americans have always disliked – the anti-intellectual attitude in America runs deep. And is likely getting deeper.

But think about it.  In 2008 some 40% of sub-prime mortgages defaulted because interest rates rose because the low teaser rates increased when the adjustment periods occurred.  Have you ever read a mortgage lending disclosure?  Right there in black and white, required by law, are the interest rates and payments that could happen at the highest level of your mortgage adjustment.  Yeah, mortgage brokers conned a bunch of people into buying what they could not afford, but the possibilities were shown right there and folks signed anyway – because they believed interest rates would stay at record lows forever.

Let me pile on the evidence.  A recent YouGov poll asked a representative sample of Americans to estimate the percentage of Americans that belong to a specific minority group and other characteristics.  So, in response to “If you had to guess, what percentage of American adults…..”

• are Transgender?            Poll answer: 21%  Actual: 1%
• are Jewish?                        Poll answer: 30%  Actual: 2%
• are Muslim?                      Poll answer:27%  Actual: 1%
• are Gay or Lesbian?       Poll answer: 30%  Actual: 3%
• live in California?           Poll answer: 32%  Actual: 12%
• live in New York City?                  Poll answer: 30%  Actual: 3%

Given those responses, apparently some Americans are under the impression that 100% of the US population is some combination of transgender gay or lesbian Jews and Muslims living in New York or California.  No wonder the “average” American is worried about Sharia law, Jews taking over the world, and gay, lesbian, and transgender people “grooming” our children.  It is because they do not know shit from Shinola.  But those estimates demonstrate a couple of things we should not ignore:

• – Our public education system has failed miserably.
  • – Fears about “the other” must certainly be linked to the outrageous over-estimation of minority groups.
    The survey showed huge over-estimations of the percent of the population that were Jewish, Muslim, Native
    American, Asian, Gay and Lesbian, Transgender, first-generation immigrants, Black, Hispanic, or live in NYC,
    California, or Texas.
    • – Our media, public and private, is complicit in this distortion, either through omission or commission.
      • – There is an undeniable dearth of critical thinking skills on display across America.

The situation is tragic.  We are, as a nation, ignorant of the realities of our nation’s composition and geography.  Instead of knowing about ourselves and our nation., a large percentage of Americans believe in conspiracy theories: Clinton pizza parlors engaged in peddling children to pedophiles, the Sandy Hook murders were either faked or instigated by the government, the world is flat, Jews control the US government, the banks, and space lasers – each one crazier than the next.

The founding fathers were mostly successful white guys who were highly educated.  They spoke or read English, French, Latin, and Greek.  They were well read in biblical studies both old and new testament, ancient history, and classic literature.  And while they certainly understood that they were a minority compared to the hoi polloi, I cannot imagine they ever conceived of a voting public as ignorant as ours appears to be.

Now, I do not know how this would compare to other western democracies.  I am also not sure that comparison is relevant because how dumb (or ignorant, or ill-informed, etc.) citizens of other nations are does not mitigate the masses of Americans who clearly are “dumb.”

The solution, I think, lies in improving our primary and secondary school teacher training and quality, as well as the curriculum. We could pay teachers more and make teaching a highly desired profession.  We need to add back civics, geography, un-politicized history, and problem-solving/critical thinking skills.  We need to figure out how to remove bias (left or right, religious, racial) from our public schools and public and private colleges and universities.  Our “academy” (i.e., teachers, professors, and educational administrators) need to get much clearer on what suppositions are versus what can be proved. Currently, particularly at the college and university level, a fair amount of politicized thinking is being offered up as fact.

The old saying is true – history is written by the winners.  We need to make sure the winners are not a mob of uneducated, incurious, know-nothings who end up writing our history.

So, yes, I guess I am an elitist.  When I pick a building contractor, a doctor, a lawyer, a plumber, I want them to be as smart and knowledgeable as possible.  The same is true for politicians and public officials.  To want anything less is to accept, at best, mediocrity ( or worse).