Americans ‘woefully ignorant’

Americans are woefully ignorant about their own country, let alone anywhere else, reveals a survey.

More than a third failed the official US Citizenship Test, a rudimentary exam taken by immigrants, and 29 percent could not name their vice-president as Joe Biden.

Four out of ten could not name the country’s enemies in the Second World War and more than a fifth knew nothing about Martin Luther King. Nearly three-quarters had no idea why America got involved in the Cold War.

The poll of 1 000 people for Newsweek magazine also revealed 44 percent could not define the Bill of Rights, 81 percent could not name a single federal power and only 6 percent knew there are 27 amendments to their Constitution.

It is not the first poll to highlight lack of knowledge. In 2009, a survey about international affairs showed only 58 percent of Americans could identify the Taliban despite the war on terror.

In 2010, a poll about religion showed 29 percent did not know Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

Dalton Conley, of New York University, told Newsweek: “We have a lot of very poor people without access to good education, and a huge immigrant population that doesn’t even speak English.” 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I didn't know it was this bad.  

See if you can pass the test: 

RESPECT THE U.S

What we don't know doesn't annoy us so much.

I passed 
10 out of 10

Americans don't say " I don't know" when they are ignorant about something , they just simply say " I don't care." lol

"   

"

Wow, I actually didn't know some of the answers to those test questions...
The hell I'm gonna be ignorant of the history of my country! Quick, somebody give me an American history book!

"I honestly see no reason why everyone in the US needs to know these things.  "

The whole world is ignorant about everything really.... 
 
I'm sure tons of americans are ignorant daily, but I'm also sure the rest of the world is as well.

this video hurt to watch. i can not believe my own people are so stupid... honestly, where was the berlin wall??? how do you not know that!!!

"
http://www.800citizen.org/us_citizenship_test/ 
 Practice test....I scored a 78%....on 50 questions "

"The whole world is ignorant about everything really....  I'm sure tons of americans are ignorant daily, but I'm also sure the rest of the world is as well. "

"this video hurt to watch. i can not believe my own people are so stupid... honestly, where was the berlin wall??? how do you not know that!!! "

" I'm just going to say. MOST Americans are stupid "

To be fair the proposed British version got similar results in a test i saw on the news a few years back. 
 
A few months back i was actually close to doing the US citizenship test and its pretty tough and i asked several co-workers to help me with the questions.. and they found them on the hard side.. like most things.. when you live somewhere knowing the exact structure and history down to the dates is not strictly necessary but if you want some sort of measure as to the kind of person you are letting in to the country you want to give them a test that really does test them.

"

Americans are woefully ignorant about their own country, let alone anywhere else, reveals a survey.

More than a third failed the official US Citizenship Test, a rudimentary exam taken by immigrants, and 29 percent could not name their vice-president as Joe Biden.

Four out of ten could not name the country’s enemies in the Second World War and more than a fifth knew nothing about Martin Luther King. Nearly three-quarters had no idea why America got involved in the Cold War.

The poll of 1 000 people for Newsweek magazine also revealed 44 percent could not define the Bill of Rights, 81 percent could not name a single federal power and only 6 percent knew there are 27 amendments to their Constitution.

It is not the first poll to highlight lack of knowledge. In 2009, a survey about international affairs showed only 58 percent of Americans could identify the Taliban despite the war on terror.

In 2010, a poll about religion showed 29 percent did not know Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

Dalton Conley, of New York University, told Newsweek: “We have a lot of very poor people without access to good education, and a huge immigrant population that doesn’t even speak English.” 

 
http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/americans-woefully-ignorant-1.1045359?showComments=true 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I didn't know it was this bad.  

 

See if you can pass the test: 

 
http://www.blogthings.com/couldyoupasstheuscitizenshiptestquiz/ "

Very true.

@cpt, well it's true the rest of the world IS ignorant but I also said so is America.....other countries have ignorant views on us based off of MTV, so I'm pretty sure that's ignorance at it's best lol

lol, I failed that test in the link.

In fairness, 
 

NO ONE KNOWS WHY THE US WERE INVOLVED IN THE COLD WAR

" In fairness, 
 

NO ONE KNOWS WHY THE US WERE INVOLVED IN THE COLD WAR

"

" I'm just going to say. MOST Americans are stupid "

It's times like this that make me proud to be Canadian...

I passed the test pretty easily, but I will have a bachelor's degree in history in about a month and a half, so it may not be as easy for some

I passed, barely. But I'm an Australian who's interested in 20th Century History, which isn't exactly prevalent on the test.

People all over the world are ignorant. Americans just get the most attention.

Hey, cut us some slack! We're still recovering from 8 years of having Bush as president, so it's not like we've had the best role model! ;)

And Obama thought we had 53 states.  It is sad how little we seem to know about our own nation, though it is played up to a ridiculous degree.  
9 of 10 and 96% on the two tests just to note, but history is a passion of mine (though the big quiz had my states old governor instead of the current so it was wrong on one ;)

Fifty-three states? What an idiot! Everyone knows we have forty-five, excluding Japan.

9 out of 10. Good enough.

I'm a smart American and I agree that Americans are mostly stupid. I can't believe how many people I've met that don't know our national anthem, the vice president or even the most basic history. I have tests all the time.  
 
My latest was to ask all the people I work with to name five Civil War generals. Highest score was 2.  
 
Also, to the people saying no Americans care about the questions in the OP - that isn't true. LOTS of Americans care about Jesus. They may not know anything about him, but they will come to your door and sell him anyway.  :)

"And Obama thought we had 53 states.  It is sad how little we seem to know about our own nation, though it is played up to a ridiculous degree.   9 of 10 and 96% on the two tests just to note, but history is a passion of mine (though the big quiz had my states old governor instead of the current so it was wrong on one ;) "

"I honestly see no reason why everyone in the US needs to know these things.  "

Americans are woefully ignorant about their own country, let alone anywhere else, reveals a survey.

More than a third failed the official US Citizenship Test, a rudimentary exam taken by immigrants, and 29 percent could not name their vice-president as Joe Biden.

Four out of ten could not name the country’s enemies in the Second World War and more than a fifth knew nothing about Martin Luther King. Nearly three-quarters had no idea why America got involved in the Cold War.

The poll of 1 000 people for Newsweek magazine also revealed 44 percent could not define the Bill of Rights, 81 percent could not name a single federal power and only 6 percent knew there are 27 amendments to their Constitution.

It is not the first poll to highlight lack of knowledge. In 2009, a survey about international affairs showed only 58 percent of Americans could identify the Taliban despite the war on terror.

In 2010, a poll about religion showed 29 percent did not know Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

Dalton Conley, of New York University, told Newsweek: “We have a lot of very poor people without access to good education, and a huge immigrant population that doesn’t even speak English.”       
 
Most of this doesn't deal with anything important its just random facts.

"@Vitality said:

"I honestly see no reason why everyone in the US needs to know these things.  "

I agree.
 
 

Americans are woefully ignorant about their own country, let alone anywhere else, reveals a survey.

More than a third failed the official US Citizenship Test, a rudimentary exam taken by immigrants, and 29 percent could not name their vice-president as Joe Biden.

Four out of ten could not name the country’s enemies in the Second World War and more than a fifth knew nothing about Martin Luther King. Nearly three-quarters had no idea why America got involved in the Cold War.

The poll of 1 000 people for Newsweek magazine also revealed 44 percent could not define the Bill of Rights, 81 percent could not name a single federal power and only 6 percent knew there are 27 amendments to their Constitution.

It is not the first poll to highlight lack of knowledge. In 2009, a survey about international affairs showed only 58 percent of Americans could identify the Taliban despite the war on terror.

In 2010, a poll about religion showed 29 percent did not know Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

Dalton Conley, of New York University, told Newsweek: “We have a lot of very poor people without access to good education, and a huge immigrant population that doesn’t even speak English.”       
 
Most of this doesn't deal with anything important its just random facts.

"