Jun 29, 2020 | Bad Behavior, Coronavirus, Dumb Americans, Health, Something. To. Say.
Americans Unmasked, Americans Die
Hello everybody. I have something to say about the masking of America.
I watched the most recent news coverage of the pandemic. And that virus is just going crazy right now, especially in the south and southeast. Half the states are seeing big spikes in infections and hospitalizations.
Medical scientists all say the best way to control the virus is for everybody to wear masks. But everybody is not. I have my own unofficial reporters throughout the country, and they say a lot of people aren’t wearing them. And you know we haven’t seen President Trump and Vice President Pence covering their faces. Why not? Is it some kind of machismo? They’re so strong and manly they don’t need masks? Give me a break.
They say we’re in for a rough six months. Where is the leadership? If the universal wearing of a mask can help control coronavirus, shouldn’t the president be promoting the practice every chance he can. Maybe there should be a fine of at least $100 for people caught in public spaces without a mask. We have to wear seatbelts.
I know, the face coverings are ugly, uncomfortable and hot. But that’s gotta be better than getting sick or dying. Let’s beat this virus. Come on America. Mask up.
Until next time.
May 29, 2020 | Coronavirus, Dumb Americans, Health, Something. To. Say.
The Pandemic Makes Some People Act Crazy
Hello Everybody:
I have something to say about the pandemic’s effect on many Americans.
I’m in my third month of isolation and I’ve been doing okay. I watch way too much news but that’s the business I was in. So, I feel stressed out and anxious, because nobody knows what’s going to happen, or what the new normal will be. I don’t think I’m going to like it.
But Memorial Day Weekend sent me into a tailspin. I was so angry. Did you watch the news? Who were all those people who went to crowded bars, who huddled up together on beaches and touched each other’s bodies everywhere at parties? No masks. No social distance. What were they thinking?
More than 100-thousand dead Americans since February. 40 million Americans out of work. And here we had these lunatics throwing caution to the wind, as one woman said on camera, “Cuz, I gotta get my party on.” Well, party on, idiot. You and all the other idiots, willing to endanger themselves and the rest of us. I have to say they looked like 20 and 30-somethings.
How are we ever going to control Covid-19, if younger people ignore the restrictions and requirements? They’re crazy, just like Donald Trump, who does the same thing.
I thought the pandemic would make Americans band together and fight with all our might to destroy this killer. But no, we have too many people, who think they have a constitutional right to be stupid.
Until next time.
Apr 29, 2011 | Dumb Americans |
You’ve seen snippets of their ignorance on Jay Leno’s “Jaywalking” feature on late night TV. Dumb Americans. After struggling to name the date of Independence Day and failing, they giggle. “Ha, ha, ha,” we laugh back, when we should be crying, “Boo, hoo, hoo.” Americans can’t be that stupid. Well, there’s more proof they are.
I refer you to the April 4th issue of Newsweek in which you can find a long feature by Andrew Romano, called, “Ignorant America: How Dumb Are We?”
The magazine conducted an experiment, which I have been using in several of the journalism college courses I teach each year. Journalists must know the basics of U.S. history, civics and geography. How can they report to the public with intelligence and context if they think there are 98 justices on the U.S. Supreme Court? Yes, that’s one answer I got from a student.
Newsweek gave 1,000 Americans the U.S. Citizenship Test immigrants are required to pass to become naturalized citizens. Thirty-eight percent of them failed. Almost 30 percent couldn’t name Vice President Joe Biden. Forty-four percent couldn’t explain the Bill of Rights and 73 percent didn’t know about The Cold War? But here is the worst, in my mind. A whopping 86 percent of those tested did not know how many voting members are in the U.S. House of Representatives. Yikes!! Of course, you knew there are 435.
It’s downright embarrassing that our people are dumb, getting dumber and don’t know or don’t care. In this increasing global community, we are ignorant about the world and our place in it. The European Journal of Communication asked citizens from Britain, Denmark, Finland and Americans to answer questions about foreign affairs. Well more than 75 percent of Brits and Finns could identify the Taliban. Despite the fact that Americans have been fighting against them in Afghanistan since 2002, only 58 percent of Americans had heard of them.
Why, America, why?
I give my students a break because many of them have come from public high schools around the nation, where they were taught under the dictates of the Leave No Child Behind Act. Many history, geography, science, and social studies courses were dropped so students could spend their valuable class time learning how to pass the verbal and quantitative sections of standardized tests.
What about the rest of us? We know people are not reading newspapers or watching television news like they used to. They claim they get their news from the Internet. Right.
We don’t know the Taliban but we know the latest antics of Charlie Sheen or Lindsay Lohan and, what’s that little child’s name on “Jersey Shore.” Yeah, Snooki. Oh, they’re going to have an impact on the life of the nation.
I am ranting because I believe our democracy is in danger. Stupid people believe stupid things and take stupid actions. They don’t know how to think critically. It’s hard to believe the “birthers” led by The Donald and many Republicans distracted the nation for so long from oil prices, unemployment, and the shredding of the social safety net for the least among us.
I hear folks on the street wondering why there are tornados that killed hundreds of people in the South and why the Mideast is in flames, and where these earthquakes and tsunamis are coming from. “Is God angry?” I heard one construction worker comment to his buddy.
Yes, he’s angry that the people of the most powerful nation on the planet are so intellectually void. Americans don’t deserve our vaunted place on earth because we are a people who are dumb and getting dumber.
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