Myth Vs. Reality and the dumbing down of America

by Tunku Varadarajan for The Daily Beast

How is it possible that a fifth of this country believes Obama is Muslim, without any evidence? Tunku Varadarajan on other cockamamie American beliefs—and why so many cling to them.

I have just returned from London, which I pronounce to be a saner city, by far, than New York. And the one question I was asked repeatedly—by friends, by cabbies, even by complete strangers seated next to me at a cricket match—was how on earth a fifth of all Americans could maintain, in the absence of any respectable evidence to support their belief, that Barack Obama is Muslim. (The Pew poll that uncovered this fevered, adamant state of mind made quite a splash in Britain, where the natives rather enjoy feeling superior to Americans.)

The Myth: Obama Enacted TARP

According to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, nearly half of Americans believe President Obama started the Troubled Asset Relief Program, a U.S. government program that purchases assets and equity from financial institutions.
Truth: President George W. Bush enacted TARP. Only 34 percent of Americans believe this, according to the Pew poll.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2020/1/

Liberal spin, no doubt...

Actually I agree that George Bush started TARP, but I am not overly impressed by The Daily Beast. It reads more like The Enquirer in most of its stories. Just my opinion. Sorry to have to agree with either of you, but I tells it like I sees it!

Congratulations! You're in the 34 percent who believe correctly.

It’s sad to say, but I am afraid that most people if they get any news at all get it from the 45 seconds they see on the 10:00 news. Less and less people are reading newspapers, or books. If they do watch one of the 24 hour cable “news” channels they watch the one that best suits their political tastes. The same goes for talk radio, most people will only listen to those hosts who agree with their positions. Americans today seem to easily distracted and seem to care more about how their favorite team is playing, or who won the Emmy or the Grammy rather than what our leaders are doing or saying. I think the dumbing down of America is very real, and I do not think it’s by accident.

I disagree. I think fewer and fewer are getting their news from 45 seconds on the 10:00 news and more and more are getting their news from anonymous emails sent along by well-meaning friends.

What? Snopes or Truth or Fiction discounted it? That's because they're liberal, not because it's not true.

A growing number of Americans believe we never landed on the moon.

I agree that there is and has been a dumbing down of America, but I don't place that on the e-mails as you do, though there may be some truth there. I see that as the result of the agenda aimed at controlling our history, through the Education system. The textbooks that the students supposedly learn from are changing to eliminate a great part of what you and I learned in school to a more sanitized PC version of history. The facts haven't changed, the textbooks have.

As far as Snopes is concerned, you can continue to use them as your validation point if you choose, I don't. It is just that simple. We can agree to disagree, or not. The Daily Beast still looks very much like the Enquirer to me, BTW.

Wayne Harrison wrote: I disagree. I think fewer and fewer are getting their news from 45 seconds on the 10:00 news and more and more are getting their news from anonymous emails sent along by well-meaning friends.

What? Snopes or Truth or Fiction discounted it? That's because they're liberal, not because it's not true.

A growing number of Americans believe we never landed on the moon.

I cannot disagree. :VeryScared:

Ironic isn't it? As a higher percentage of the population graduates college and gets advanced degrees, supposedly the population is actually dumber now.

I don't believe this. I think Americans have always had a large percentage of misinformed people. Anti-semitic types who believe everything is controlled by the Jews. The large minority who thought Kennedy would follow the orders of the Pope. Those who believe Social Security will be there for them in current form. Zing!

My kids went to school in one of the top ten counties in the USA. At back to school night, his chemistry teacher told me that the AP chemistry class my son was taking was the basic chemistry class taught when I went to school in the same school system.

Talk about dumbing down! And kids go to college now but have to take several remedial courses because they didn't make the grade in HS. And we taxpayers pay for that. So we're paying twice for the same education. Plus, we pay for our own kids to go to college who have made the grade.

Education and economics.