Bad Statistic or Stupid Americans?

thttht
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Saw this on Hardball last night. Do these people know something that I don't?



<a href="http://www.pollingreport.com/iraq.htm"; target="_blank">Iraq Polling Report</a>



Two questions from the Knight-Ridder polling:



[code]

"Please try to answer my next questions about Iraq

to the best of your knowledge. But if you're not

sure of an answer, that's okay -- just tell me and

I'll go to the next question. Do you think Iraq

and Al Queda -- Osama bin Laden's organization --

are allied and working together to plan new acts

of terrorism, or not?"



%

Are allied 65

Are not 16

Don't know 19



"As far as you know, how many of the September

11th terrorist hijackers were Iraqi citizens: most

of them, some of them, just one, or none?"



%

Most of them 21

Some of them 23

Just one 6

None 17

Don't know 33

</pre><hr></blockquote>



Frell, 50% of Americans in this poll believe at least one of the 19 September 11 hijackers was an Iraqi national. Does this mean that even though Americans watch 20 hours of TV a week, and is at least exposed to some sort of other media (print, radio, Internet, friends), they are not understanding what they hearing? Is the GWB administration propaganda so good that this myth can arise? Or maybe their reading comprehension is not any better than a 6-year-old's? This statistic is like what you see in Jay Leno's Jay-walking bit...



Really just too flabbergasted to say anything about it or to understand how it could be.



[edit: "code" doesn't word wrap! I didn't know that...]



[ 01-15-2003: Message edited by: THT ]</p>
«1

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 26
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    They're all A-rabs. What's the difference? Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, the Axis of Evil, it all gets jumbled in my little brain. All I know is they're all bad.
  • Reply 2 of 26
    outsideroutsider Posts: 6,008member
    THT, 95% of people just don't care about being (correctly) informed. They care about partying, sex, sitcoms, sex, porn, sex, playstation, sex, MTV and sex. I'm embarrased for those people they do street interviews with. How can you NOT know there are 52 states in the US?
  • Reply 3 of 26
    Outsider: you forgot to mention movies, and sex.
  • Reply 4 of 26
    Did I hear sex?
  • Reply 5 of 26
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    You know I think a lot of people freeze up when you ask them a question and end up just guessing.



    You know like, "Who's buried in Grant's tomb?"



    "Uhhhh ... Washington?"
  • Reply 6 of 26
    ringoringo Posts: 329member
    [quote]Originally posted by Scott:

    <strong>You know like, "Who's buried in Grant's tomb?"</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Actually...



    Nobody is buried there at all. Ulysses S. Grant and his wife are entombed there, but no dirt is involved.
  • Reply 7 of 26
    artman @_@artman @_@ Posts: 2,546member
    Golly! Here cum them middle earth Iraqeez! Hide up here in the tree!







  • Reply 8 of 26
    [quote]Does this mean that even though Americans watch 20 hours of TV a week, and is at least exposed to some sort of other media (print, radio, Internet, friends), they are not understanding what they hearing?<hr></blockquote>



    I think they understand what they are hearing. Except that what they are hearing isn't about Iraq. It's about Friends returning for anther season, it's about Joe Millionaire porking some golddigger, it's about the Raiders' short passing game, it's about Ozzy ****ing Osbourne, it's about Ben Affleck caressing the rotund expanses of JLo's booty etc. That's not to say that there are not millions of Americans looking for thoughtful discussion on the topic or to say that some of these other forms of entertainment are not also enjoyed by others who will give the Iraq issue some more serious consideration. But those people are certainly outnumbered by many others who dont want to be bothered by such details.
  • Reply 9 of 26
    ijerryijerry Posts: 615member
    [quote]Originally posted by Outsider:

    <strong>How can you NOT know there are 52 states in the US? </strong><hr></blockquote>

    I thought there were only 50?? Am I missing two somewhere? <img src="confused.gif" border="0">
  • Reply 10 of 26
    52 includes Hawaii and Alaska. The contiguous United States has 50 states though so it is usually referred to as the 50 states. Although really there are 48 besides Hawaii and Alaska but we have to pretend that there are 50 since the goddamned Texans think that they are such hot shit that Texas deserves to be counted three times.
  • Reply 11 of 26
    ijerryijerry Posts: 615member
    [quote]Originally posted by ColanderOfDeath:

    <strong>52 includes Hawaii and Alaska. The contiguous United States has 50 states though so it is usually referred to as the 50 states. Although really there are 48 besides Hawaii and Alaska but we have to pretend that there are 50 since the goddamned Texans think that they are such hot shit that Texas deserves to be counted three times.</strong><hr></blockquote>

    I guess that explanation will have to do, but I know that Hawaii is the 50th state,(i.e. the last to join). So I was curious. Count Texas 3 times huh, I will have to remember that.
  • Reply 12 of 26
    murbotmurbot Posts: 5,262member
    Just ask a Canadian how many provinces and territories we have.



    heh heh



    Or even funnier, ask someone from the US.







    [ 01-15-2003: Message edited by: murbot ]</p>
  • Reply 13 of 26
    ijerryijerry Posts: 615member
    [quote]Originally posted by murbot:

    <strong>Just ask a Canadian how many provinces and territories we have.



    heh heh



    Or even funnier, ask someone from the US.







    [ 01-15-2003: Message edited by: murbot ]</strong><hr></blockquote>

    Aren't there 13?? At least thats what I remember, and I am American, do I make you laugh??
  • Reply 14 of 26
    fran441fran441 Posts: 3,715member
    This is almost as bad as the 11% of people who voted for Bush that thought they were voting for Bush, Sr. and not his son.
  • Reply 15 of 26
    outsideroutsider Posts: 6,008member
    ijerry. 50 states. 50. I just find it funny the most popular wrong answer for "how many states does the US have" is 52 <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />



    We americans have it too easy here. Before 9/11 all we worried about is who won $1million last night on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, who in Hollywood is banging who, and what Monica Lewinski was doing with a cigar. All of a sudden the world has to get political and stuff and next thing we know 3000 people get thrashed and we are scrambling to understand why. Suddenly we watch more CNN and Foxnews than MTV or Spice and all these words wizz by our ears, Iraq+Arab+Muslims+airplanes=BAD MOJO. The details get fuzzy, made up, conclusions are jumped, etc, etc. We end up being interviewed on the street by some jackoff with a mic and then even the goddamned French are making fun of us across the ocean because we end up looking like uncooth simpletons!
  • Reply 16 of 26
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    [quote]Originally posted by ijerry:

    <strong>

    I thought there were only 50?? Am I missing two somewhere? :confused: </strong><hr></blockquote>



    Israel and soon to be Iraq.
  • Reply 17 of 26
    g4dudeg4dude Posts: 1,016member
    Guam and Puerto Rico. 52, beeotches!!!! :cool:
  • Reply 18 of 26
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    John le Carré also throws around some outrageous stats about Americans thinking Saddam was behind 9/11, etc. <a href="http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_16-1-2003_pg4_7"; target="_blank">linky</a>. I actually read this in a British paper, but this is all Google spit out. I can't tell you what's behind those numbers, but I can tell you that I find them surprising, even hard to believe. On the other hand, people always accused Ronald Reagan of abusing stats to skew his arguments, so I think we have to treat these with the same amount of salt that we treated Ronny's.



    I think Osama bin Laden = AL Qaeda, so I might be inclined by association to say that Saddam and Osama had some sort of association under terrorism. Can't tell you about the second though. Most of those killers were Saudi, Yemeni or Egyptian. God, I hate mock "democracies."



    [PS - don't forget the US Virgin Islands!]



    [ 01-15-2003: Message edited by: BuonRotto ]</p>
  • Reply 19 of 26
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    Robots. Lots of them. With laser beams.
  • Reply 20 of 26
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