Ignorance is this: A new Zogby International/AOL.com poll (PDF) has plumbed the depth of Americans’ idiocy, measuring how well citizens of the world’s wealthiest nation know civics versus, say, the names of the Three Stooges. Here are the lowlights:
- Knew Homer Simpson’s son’s name is Bart: 60 percent
- Could not name one of Homer’s ancient Greek tales (Iliad or Odyssey): 78 percent
- Knew Superman is from Krypton: 60 percent
- Could name the three branches of U.S. government (executive, judicial, legislative): 42 percent
- Knew that CIA stands for Central Intelligence Agency: 60 percent
- Knew that CSI stands for Crime Scene Investigation: 53 percent
- Could name prime minister of Britain (Tony Blair): 50 percent
- Could name two of Snow White’s dwarves: 52 percent remembered Sleepy, 39 percent named Dopey, but only 1.5 percent named Bashful
- Could name two Supreme Court justices: 20 percent named Clarence Thomas, 11 percent named Antonin Scalia, but only 1 percent named Stephen Breyer; 63 percent could not name a single justice
- Could not name Samuel Alito as the justice most recently appointed to the Supreme Court: 81 percent
- When asked which current world leader signed a secret order authorizing the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on American citizens and foreign nationals in the United States, 67 percent named George Bush.
- Named all three of the Three Stooges: 74 percent (only 1 percent mentioned poor Shemp)
The poll was taken in late July among 1,213 Americans, of whom 29 percent were college graduates, 74 percent were white, 27 percent make less than $25,000 per year and 52 percent were female.
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