Far be it for me to start talking about polls again, but let me throw a smidgen of perspective out there. The news shows are constantly talking about polls. There seems to be a poll for everything, from presidential approval to whether we should support Israel. And everyone acts like opinion polls mean something. Well, I got your poll right here:
Some 30 percent of Americans cannot say in what year the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington took place, according to a poll published in the Washington Post newspaper.
While the country is preparing to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives and shocked the world, 95 percent of Americans questioned in the poll were able to remember the month and the day of the attacks, according to Wednesday's edition of the newspaper.
But when asked what year, 30 percent could not give a correct answer.
Of that group, six percent gave an earlier year, eight percent gave a later year, and 16 percent admitted they had no idea whatsoever.
These aren't 17-year-old morons; these are grown-ups, people my parents' age, who have no idea when 9/11 happened. And we're supposed to care what people say in polls? Are they polling the same 300 dimwits who think 9/11 was an inside job?
I'd wager a lot of Americans still can't find Iraq, Israel, or Lebanon on a map. They don't know a Sunni or a Shi'ite from Shinola. Yet we call them and ask what they think about world events. Whatever.
(Poll link found via Hud)
Posted by Sarah at August 11, 2006 11:12 AM | TrackBackIn March of 2003 something like 70% of Americans thought Saddam Hussein orchestrated 9/11.
Something like 60% of Americans think cavemen and dinosaurs existed together.
People are generally stupid, and that's the best thing the Bush administration has going for it.
Posted by: Will at August 11, 2006 03:03 PMP.S. today commemorates the 5th anniversary of Bush receiving the intel message "Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S."
Posted by: Will at August 11, 2006 03:04 PMIsn't it interesting that the president himself didn't know a Shiite from a Sunni from Shinola as late as January of 2003? He didn't get us where we are today with an obssesive attention to details.
Posted by: Herb at August 11, 2006 04:47 PMSarah,
It's interesting you brought this up.
When I was in an investing class with The Girl, a woman about 60-ish was looking at some stocks that tanked in 2002. She said something "Yeah, that must have been because 9/11 happened in 2002." I cringed, but didn't say anything. Like you said, it isn't like we're talking about a 17 year-old moron....Sad.
Posted by: Erin at August 11, 2006 09:24 PM