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Comment by arkis22 | Hacker News Reader

the unfortunate reality of America is that the constitution is taught for less than a semester, and then kids take a test on it, and then everyone forgets everything about it the semester after.

they have 0 understanding of any of the theory. and the resulting society we live in is people that don't understand how the rules work. If you don't understand how the rules work then you'll believe anybody who tells you that the game is rigged.

then you end up with idiots arguing with idiots while they all lie about reality.

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Yeah, yeah, but if you don't do your due diligence on Supreme Court rulings pertaining to the constitution you don't know how the rules work. And since there isn't a consensus on the living document shit well, it's subject to interpretation - which is a real hazard. Ain't nobody got time for that.

My "how a bill becomes a law" education didn't cover executive privilege and the delegation of just about everything to alphabet-soup agencies.

> If you don't understand how the rules work then you'll believe anybody who tells you that the game is rigged.

When the game is rigged, the conclusion that it is rigged is correct. Regardless of what was the reasoning hundreds years ago. If you don't understand how the rules work then you'll believe that the game is fair when it is not.

Also, if understanding the rules requires more then a semester, then maybe the rules are overly convoluted. It is not like other countries would had everyone spending years on equivalent stuff.

> the unfortunate reality of America is that the constitution is taught for less than a semester

State standards vary, but IIRC in California it's the central focus of a full semester of civics in each 8th and 12th grades and an important subject within a full year program of American History in 5th and 11th grades; if one participates in ubdergraduate work (as most Americans do), you are likely to have more of it in your gen ed requirements, as well, though the particulars vary even more than state standards for K-12.

If you checked the /content/ of those classes, however, I suspect you would find that it does not actually cover the scope you expect.

I do recall taking a constitution test in grade school and high school. I would definitely say that they weren't taught for a whole semester. The test was just something that needed to be checked off.

This is also kind of silly. You can be taught something as a kid, you can show them the legal rules, but if the adults around you don't act with respect for the system, why would you bother believing it?

What country do you think teaches constitutional theory better?

I think it is no coincidence that most socio-economic and political protests are attended almost solely by high school and university students. People (kids, really) who have no clue what they're complaining about because they're in the process of learning the very subject matter they're complaining about, but also very easy to rile up for ulterior motives with the right triggers.

If you want to amass a large group of people to exploit for political gains, targeting people without fully developed impulse control (quite literally one of the last things we develop in our brains in our mid-20s) can be very effective. Fortunately this is also counter-balanced by the natural inclination towards political apathy in young people, so no matter how much time and money people put into “get out the vote” campaigns targeting young people, it almost never moves the needle in elections.

Adults also have...shit to do that ain't protest. Like work and worry about paying rent.

The current political malaise in the US is due to your political system. Not ignorance of it.

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