As an European, all I can say is "Fuckin' stupid American rednecks".
Jeez, do the US have at least A BIT chemistry lessons in their education system?
Jeez, do the US have at least A BIT chemistry lessons in their education system?
What I love about the US is that there seemed to be very few "pseudo-educated" people or "pseudo-intellectuals", just tons of uneducated people and few smart and educated ones, but without this annoying "middle layer" that seems to suffocate most European countries I know.
...all that said, I still can't stop enjoying the "are you American or something" jokes :) (http://i.imgur.com/OQYYA.jpg)
The only thing specific to the US compared to Europe is the influence of hard core christian on things like evolution. But for every other usual pseudo science crakery like astrology, magnetism, etc... there is little difference (see e.g. http://www.pseudo-sciences.org/spip.php?article1132 where a majority of French and American believe you can heal people with the power of thought....)
The UK is going through measles outbreaks caused by the lies of Andrew Wakefield and an anti-science bias in the media.
(http://tallguywrites.livejournal.com/148012.html)Also, I suggest asking your father or mother if they understand what "Dihydrogen Monoxide" actually is. The article does not mention the age of the callers...I'm willing to bet they are elderly people.
Since we're on topic of science and ignorance, no it's not.
>> Using cross-sectional time-series data for U.S. counties from 1977 to 1992, we find that allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons deters violent crimes and it appears to produce no increase in accidental deaths.[1]
This whole thread denouncing ignorance is full of depressingly ignorant opinions.
[1] https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=10129
I can't even remember when the last gun-related school shooting was here in Germany.
Or, take the list at http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amoklauf_an_einer_Schule#Deutsc... - six in the last 11 years, way more (and especially: much more violent!) in the US!
Also, let's be fair. Germany is not one to talk about gun violence. Last I remember, Germany was an aggressor in both World War I and World War II. Both wars accounted for roughly a 100+ million dead or wounded. Could you explain how "weapons control laws" could have prevented these wars? Don't get me wrong, I am for gun control...but really, it is not going to help until we fix other, more immediate socio-economic issues.
The fact is that this joke sometimes even temporarily fools people who are familiar with water's molecular make-up (and yes they do teach this in every American high school) because most common substances are not referred to by their chemical name.
US-related news here is mainly about: Tea Party, gun violence, wars, more Tea Party, corruption and dumbness on both popular parties, sheer political idiocy (sequester), and a record amount of bigotry throughout the society.
To the USA: deal with your external image before starting to whine when other people laugh at you.
But this particular issue isn't even that. This particular issue is the fact that Americans have been trained for decades to jump at shadows, to worry about every possible threat. This is partly because frightened people are easy to control, and partly because hidden corporate powers really are allowing their health to be at risk to make a slightly quicker buck.
It's easy to be alarmed about a technical term you've never heard before, and "monoxide" sounds like "carbon monoxide", which everybody knows is an undetectable gas that can kill your children in their sleep.
It's not as simple as just "stupid". It never is.
I mean, it should be widely known that US news organizations often have a massive bias cough Fox News cough, so it should be the first thing to do to do at least a bit of fact checking.
These guys got punished for making fun of the general stupidity of others. It would be okay if the people weren't so ignorant (or conditioned) that they'd be terrified so easily.
If you think about it, it's not too different from people being afraid of making certain kinds of cartoons out of fear of offending certain groups of people. Think about it.
Punishing them was a simple and convenient knee-jerk response. It should've been used as an opportunity for education instead.
It's funny and sad how often we struggle to educate people on a day to day basis, yet we throw away fantastic educational opportunities like this one. It's not everyday you have everybody's attention. And what do we choose to do with that attention? "Look at this fearmongerer, mocking you people! We shall punish them."
Few politicians have the guts to tell the electorate that they're dumb. THAT'S where it's "not so simple". We perpetuate and participate a system where we will never tell the electorate that they're stupid, uninformed.
It's not as simple as just stupid- it's intelligence being punished for having fun with stupidity, and representatives choosing to ingratiate themselves to the stupids because they're dependent on them for their livelihood.
Sigh
You are of course correct. It is not "stupid" but it is "ignorant" (both of the chemical terms used in the prank and of the critical thinking skills necessary to work out that "dihydrogen monoxide" is just "water")
Medical coverage (both insurances, and the quality of the medical service itself), school education levels in standardized tests, financial stability (both the country itself as well as the individual states), average wealth, poor-rich spread, amount and quality of science research... so yes, we Europeans DO get something done. In contrast to the USA, where everything actually important is either blocked off by extremist tea baggers or cut down by the sequester (which is a side effect of the mentioned teabaggers).