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4 out of 5 Americans don't know the U.S. has 50 states!

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bif Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 01:40 PM
Original message
4 out of 5 Americans don't know the U.S. has 50 states!
I was having lunch at a bar today and the tv was on. Some dumb show where they ask quesions to people on the street. And most of the people didn't know how many states we have! Are we the dumbest people on the planet or what? No wonder Bush won. There should be a test given to potential voters. These people just shouldn't be allowed to vote..
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Emboldened Chimp Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 01:41 PM
Response to Original message
1. That's just sad
What else can I say?
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Jessica Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 01:42 PM
Response to Original message
2. Wha ... ?
There are 50 of em? :o
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ET Awful Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 01:42 PM
Response to Original message
3. They're just included those other two states
State of Confusion and State of Denial.
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fob Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 01:45 PM
Response to Original message
4. We're down to 50!?!
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Stop_the_War Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 01:46 PM
Response to Original message
5. OMG!!!
:wow:
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ladjf Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 01:47 PM
Response to Original message
6. 59 million Americans willingly participated in the overthrow
of the U.S. Government.
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KitchenWitch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 01:48 PM
Response to Original message
7. only 50% are above average intelligence!
:P
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coloradodem2005 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 01:49 PM
Response to Original message
8. I find that hard to believe.
I had this fact drilled into my head ever since I was little. Are you sure that this is legitimate?
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bif Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 01:56 PM
Response to Reply #8
10. It was legit
It was a game show. Very sad.
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Zuni Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 01:57 PM
Response to Reply #10
12. oooh a game show
that proves it
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bif Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 02:00 PM
Response to Reply #12
16. Well, you had to see it
These people were just dolts. Like most Americans.
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Zuni Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 02:06 PM
Response to Reply #16
20. I do not know one American
who could not tell you there were 50 states.
I think everyone i know could name every state, no matter how politically naive or dumb they may be.
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bif Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 02:10 PM
Response to Reply #20
23. Hey, almost everyone I know voted for Kerry
So he must have won!
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Zuni Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 04:06 PM
Response to Reply #23
32. You saw some idiots on TV
so obviously, everyone else is an idiot
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JohnnyRingo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 01:53 PM
Response to Original message
9. Were they counting Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Greenland?
Mexico?
Israel?
Iraq?
or Costa Rica?

I think I see why some may be confused.
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Zuni Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 01:56 PM
Response to Original message
11. bullshit
Any TV can find morons who will say anything. hardly a scientific poll.
I do not know anyone that doesn't know that we have 50 states
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taught_me_patience Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 01:57 PM
Response to Original message
13. Iran and Iraq
51st and 52nd...

taught.
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ScreamingMeemie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 01:58 PM
Response to Original message
14. A while ago they went out on the street and asked a bunch of war supporter
to point out where Iraq was on a globe. Guess what? Most couldn't. They asked some protesters. Guess what? Most could. Amazing. :hi:
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Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 02:01 PM
Response to Reply #14
17. That's cuz war-protesting Ameruka haters is intellectually elitistical
Does it matter where Iraq is? All that matters is taht we're liberatin' em/ The important thing is that ethey know where Ameruka is! It ain't up to us know to where they ois. That's just ignant.
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ScreamingMeemie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 02:02 PM
Response to Reply #17
18. Spew! You owe me another keyboard Rabrrrrrr!
Ouch! ;) :hi:
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Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 02:03 PM
Response to Reply #18
19. Bwuhahahahahaha!
You hsould know not to have anything in your mouth before you read a patented RabrrrrrrPost(tm)!
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underpants Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 01:59 PM
Response to Original message
15. Dear Mr.President there are too many states please eliminate three
I am not a crackpot
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Zuni Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 02:07 PM
Response to Reply #15
21. I'll be dead in the cold, cold ground before I recognize missouria
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name not needed Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 03:47 PM
Response to Reply #15
28. The president is a demmycrat!
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kick-ass-bob Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 02:08 PM
Response to Original message
22. It wasn't Street Smarts, was it?
Edited on Fri Feb-18-05 02:29 PM by kick-ass-bob
Because they get the dumbest asses to go on there (or tell them to answer wrong)
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3rdParty Donating Member (119 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 03:33 PM
Response to Original message
24. Doesn't surprise me...
After HS graduation, I couldn't convince 4 of my fellow graduates that there were 50 states.
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CitySky Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 03:45 PM
Response to Reply #24
27. curious
Did they think there were fewer, or more?

and: How long ago was this? If you don't mind revealing your age.
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DeaconBlues Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 03:38 PM
Response to Original message
25. Didn't someone once say that democracy depended on an informed citizenry?
If the founding fathers knew what we were to become, they probably would have went to the Brits and said, "Our bad. Here's the country back."
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maveric Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 03:42 PM
Response to Original message
26. I work with dozens of people who think New England is a state.
I had to pretty much teach a class beore last year's Super Bowl, explaining that NE is a group of states. I got arguments,many of them! One RN stated that the capital of New England is Rhode Island!

AARRGGHH!!!! I wanted to line them all up and stooge-slap them!
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KamaAina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 03:50 PM
Response to Original message
29. We have 46 states and four commonwealths
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky.

They're pretty much the same thing, but originally, the word "commonwealth" connoted more of a sense of self-government.

Then again, I defy you to find a Bush** voter who knows THAT!
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Redstone Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 03:55 PM
Response to Original message
30. "These people just shouldn't be allowed to vote..."
If they're that dumb, they shouldn't be allowed to breed either.

Redstone
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catmandu57 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 04:05 PM
Response to Original message
31. I don't think most people could tell
you which states border theirs. When I was in a college geography course the professor asked that question, we are in missouri and have a number of states that border us, Ia, Il, tenn, Ky, Ark, Ok, Ks, and Ne. clockwise, noone but myself could or would answer that question.
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bleedingheart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 04:16 PM
Response to Reply #31
37. New York, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey
guess my state....
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catmandu57 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 04:57 PM
Response to Reply #37
39. Pennsylvania
nt
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AllegroRondo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 05:13 PM
Response to Reply #31
45. My daughter learned that in 5th grade
they had a little song to help you remember them.
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DU GrovelBot  Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 04:06 PM
Response to Original message
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BurtWorm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 04:07 PM
Response to Original message
34. Yeah, but 50 is such a big number to remember.
:shrug:
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hfojvt Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 04:10 PM
Response to Original message
35. and how many people believe that is a real sampling?
Seriously, those shows are looking for stupid answers, those are the ones they put on the show. How many of the responses are coached? How many correct answers are left on the cutting room floor?
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livinginphotographs Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 04:11 PM
Response to Original message
36. I worked with a girl who once asked me:
"What part of Virginia is Delaware in?" She looked at me really funny when I started bashing my head into the wall.

Sometimes, it's just easier to assume that everyone you meet is a drooling moron and let them surprise you.
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jswordy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 04:28 PM
Response to Original message
38. Your premise, and that of the show, is wrong.
You make an assumption based on the people SHOWN TO YOU by the TV show.

The show SELECTS PEOPLE who are dumb and leaves out lots of folks they taped with the correct answer, in order to satisfy its own premise. The show selects subjects for most outlandish response, not a representative sample.

Totally unscientific.
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Padraig18 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 05:01 PM
Response to Original message
40. They obviously didn't have Sister Joanne for 5th grade geopgraphy.
They'd know, if they had.

;)
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DrWeird Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 05:01 PM
Response to Original message
41. four out of five gameshow watchers...
believe that those "hey, let's find some stupid people on the street" skits are legitimate, that they don't actually go looking for stupid people to make fun of.
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donheld Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 05:04 PM
Response to Original message
42. There's not 50 states
if you subtract "Jesusland"
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Danmel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 05:07 PM
Response to Original message
43. Technically there are 46 staste and 4 Commonwealths
Mass, Pa, Kentucky & Virginia, but somehow I don'tthink that's what tripped them up!
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LeftPeopleFinishFirst Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 05:09 PM
Response to Reply #43
44. you beat me to it
nt
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