Happy 4th of July! Can you name the country from which we won our independence?

[Ninong]

Happy 4th of July!

Can you name the country from which we won our independence?

If you named France, or China, or Japan, or Spain, then you're among the 40% of Americans between the ages of 18-29 who could not correctly name Great Britain as the country we fought in the War for Independence.

Overall only 74% of Americans could correctly name the country we fought for our independence. The other 26% had no clue, although France, China, Japan and Spain were popular guesses. Obviously older Americans had to answer correctly at a much higher rate than 74% in order to bring up the younger Americans, 40% of whom are clueless.

So if you knew it was Great Britian, then you're probably an intellectual elite who is over the age of 30 and male. That's because only 67% of women got this question right.

Wow! I would have thought that at least 95-98% of Americans would get that one right. I mean it's not like asking them to name all nine Supreme Court Justices, which only 2% of Americans can get right.

Here.

P.S. -- I remember reading another disturbing survey that asked college freshmen questions about basic American history. Don't forget, this survey only questioned college freshmen, young Americans fresh out of high school who qualified for admission to a regular 4-year university. Believe it or not, half of them named the Soviet Union as one of our enemies in World War II and half of them -- probably the same half -- named Italy as one of our allies.

[Ninong]

Celebrate, America! 74% of you know what country we won our independence from!

(Make that 60% if you're under the age of 30.)

[Ninong]

JFK reading the Declaration of Independence

[Ninong]

Okay, as punishment, all you Communist Americans who could not name the country we fought to win our Independence from Great Britain, will now have to watch this video!

You have to watch the entire thing! :eek3:




P.S. -- That masterpiece makes Reefer Madness look like Citizen Kane. Don't give up, it gets even better as it goes along.

[zhenya]

Holly crap! Where did you dug this up? :eek3:
Not that I don't know who we fought for our independence but I wanted to check out that video...

[Ninong]

Holly crap! Where did you dug this up? :eek3:
Not that I don't know who we fought for our independence but I wanted to check out that video...

I must hate myself. I watched the whole thing! I just couldn't stop. It kept getting more and more hilarious as it went along. It was a combination of a bunch of paranoid fundies and the worst movie producer the world has ever known.

At the end, the Baptist preacher guy who "narrated" the film gave his address as being in New Albany, Mississippi. I googled New Albany and came up with a 2000 Census population of 7,600. That film was made in the 1960's, so their population then may have been less. Looks like the film was a project of four or five Baptist churches in the area. It was really over the top.

Don't forget, I was born in 1938, so I remember the 1960's very well. I had no idea that the rural fundies in neighboring Mississippi were that nuts.