Why are Americans so politically ignorant?

Answer 1

Let me get the ball rolling on this question. I ask the question because I have been very confused all my life how a small group of people can lead a large group of people to believe in what anyone can see are lies masqueraded as patriotism. It is so plain to see! Leaders like Napoleon, Hitler,and Castro, just to name a few, have taken their countries and devastated them. Thrown them into chaos and poverty. Yet we the people let ourselves be taken for fools by these so called leaders that we vote for or we did not vote for. I do not understand. Why are we letting these politicians run our country into the ground. I have not seen any great changes in this country for 50 years. It is always the same rhetoric, and we fall for it! It absolutely amazes me. Nothing has changed. Congress is still lying to us, stealing from us, pissing every body off in the world, and we just take it. Those that do rebel or cry foul are disrespected by the same people who are suffering the same as every one else. It is a phenomena that is incomprehensible. If I may, I would recommend that you read the biography of Mahatma Gandhi . Here is a world leader that gave us true civil disobedience. Relentlessly fought the most powerful empire of his time. Without firing a single shot he beat them out of his country. Perhaps we should adopt some of his strategies to abolish our government's arrogance towards us. What do you think? Maybe we should have a week of prayer and meditation and no one in America goes to work! Maybe we do not pay taxes for a week and maybe that will scare them a little? We need to do something folks. There a re too many of us sleeping in the streets tonight. There are too many of us without health care. There are too many of us without jobs! What are we going to do about it?

I think we are so politically ignorant because our society has been so dumbed down and our market-driven consumerism has created a massive apathy epidemic. Folks are so over-whelmed with media, electronic gadgets, etc. that they simply absorb only sound-bites of information and are drawn to extreme messages instead of thinking through issues or perhaps researching issues through legitamate sources. Let me break it down: As long as folks have a Super Wal-Mart, a Mega-Theater Complex and Fox News and Entertainment, they really don't care what is going on with public policy even if it does affect them negatively.

Mahatma Gandhi's claim about civil disobedience was hockum. He was a hypocritical nutcase. The British Empire evolved to allow Indian self-rule - it was not a case of the British being forced out of India. The British allowed independence. Unlike the Americans, who don't like their colonies becoming free. That is why Iraq is having to fight for its freedom from the USA.