Read the following article. What is the premise of the article? Can you think of any evidence to support? Why would people pick mediocre candidates? What is the long term danger? Any counter arguments to the scientific findings? If so, what? What are some solutions? What would be the best solution?
18 Comments
Laura Gold
3/12/2012 08:07:16 am
In this article, author Mike Moffitt reports that more than a decade’s worth of research contributes to the idea that the American public is too ignorant/dumb to choose the best political leaders for America. He reports the findings of psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger, who claim dumb people are unable to realize their incompetence due to their own stupidity and, thus, cannot correct or educated themselves. In Moffitt’s own words, “Stupid people are too stupid to know how stupid they are.” This makes them unsuitable for voting, bringing up the issue: who should be allowed to vote? Perhaps people pick mediocre candidates because that candidate might have qualities that communities deem worthy or superior, such as religion, beliefs, or race, which can contribute little to no actual political guidance/support. Also, the candidate could potentially be a very good speaker or be very charismatic (or have a great speech writing team), but may not be a good politician or a reliable leader. The long term danger of this is the possibility that Americans choose a completely incompetent leader that drives the country into the ground, using limited resources and borrowed money to fuel a country that can no longer stand on its own two feet. From what I read in the article, it seems that the best solution would be to only allow fully educated people to vote for candidacy or presidency, such as those with advanced college degrees or those who display understanding of proposed policies through a test or survey. However, other issues can come up from this, such as discrimination or circumstances that could prevent someone from receiving a college education or understanding these proposed policies. Despite its apparent simplicity, voting is a complicated topic that does not have one problem or one solution that can be proposed to fix the issue.
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Natalie McMillan
3/13/2012 12:55:17 pm
This article, written by Mike Moffitt, depicts an America where only the stupid vote. He suggests that we, as voters, think we are smarter and more capable of making decisions than politicians are and that we are incapable of recognizing when a politician has a good point or plan. On some level, I actually can agree with this. Some people are so right or left winged that they cannot fathom an America where a politician with the opposing party rules, therefore they do not even listen to what they have to say. This does seem pretty stupid to me (although I have to say that I am one of those stupid idiots guilty of doing so -- I literally would rather not vote than vote for Santorum). The long term danger of continually picking mediocre candidates is that it could lead us into an even worse economic downfall which causes a whole slew of other problems (unemployment, food shortages, homeless families, etc). I don't really agree with only allowing certain people to vote, I think that you should have the right to vote if you are a citizen of this country regardless of your level of intelligence. I do not believe that there is a "solution" to this problem, however, I do think that people should strive to be more aware of how a candidate will potentially affect the country as a whole if they were elected instead of voting based on emotional circumstances.
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Frani Gray
3/14/2012 12:01:23 pm
The article, by Mike Moffit, claims that our society is too stupid for democracy to thrive. David Dunning and Just Kruger state that even if a profitable decision was proposed to the people, the incompetent would be too stupid to recognize the benefits, assume they know more than others, and refuse to admit and recognize their own stupidity. It would most likely be a violation of our rights, but I think an IQ test should be distributed, and the lower scoring tests should have a conference with some kind of authority. We should then take these people and politely break it down for them that maybe they weren't born with the most brains. I personally think that not admitting to stupidity only perpetuates stupidity. This then makes them incapable of learning and maturing. These feeble minded people usually get enraged when someone insults their intelligence, and then close their minds to to outward wisdom and enforce their stupid remarks on other vulnerable individuals. All of this, unfortunately, makes our democracy less adequate. One of the scientists proposes an IQ test before one casts a ballot. I don't think intelligence, to a certain extent, has anything to do with good judgement. A test of judgement of character seems more appropriate. If you can be a good judge of character, you would be able to determine their values, and therefore, what kind of leader they would be, and distinguish how they would run a country. I don't think we should be ashamed of our mediocre candidates, I think we should be proud that they are mediocre and not terrible. For as many incompetent people that vote, for it to average out to be just mediocre, is astonishing. We don't even have enough intelligent and wise people voting for our candidates to come out as "good leaders". Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do to eliminate incompetence in the ballots. Democracy may not allow us to have the best leaders in the world, but at least we have freedom and options; we have the right to overthrow a bad leader, without democracy, that would not be possible. I hope this causes no controversy, but my evidence to support this theory lies in one word: Bush. The long term danger would be that we accidently choose a mediocre candidate, but in actuality, they are a bad candidate and destroy democracy, freedom, resources, and ultimately, our life as we know it. I don't believe there is a solution to this problem without numerous supreme court cases.
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Kelly Gutierrez
3/14/2012 03:40:27 pm
The main idea behind this article was that the people that vote impact the world we live in, and therefore the knowledge of the people that vote is of importance. The article addressed the idea that it is the responsibility of the citizens in a democracy to be well informed and knowledgeable on certain ideas before they make their vote. Through thee scientific experiment that was conducted by psychologist David Dunning from Cornell University, and his then-colleague, Justin Kruger it was found that "incompetent people are inherently unable to judge the competence of other people, or the quality of those people's ideas," demonstrating and emphasizing their concern towards the negative impact uneducated individuals have in our society. Although the rather clear solution would be to educate those individuals, the scientist have stated that stupid people are to stupid to understand the level of their stupidity. If these "stupid" individuals were to vote, they would pick mediocre candidates because their lack of knowledge limits their ability to understand, reach a valid opinion/decision, and vote according to their reasoning. This idea is of concern because they impact all of society. Though the scientist have stated a small amount of hope as to the possibility of improving and expanding their sources of knowledge, I believe it is the responsibility of each individual to inform and learn on their own in order to be an active, responsible and valuable member of society.
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Emily Gouveia
3/15/2012 06:20:24 am
This article, written by Mike Moffitt discusses how the voter's intelligence and understanding of politics impacts democracy and the outcome of the polls. Research from Cornell University supports that uninformed voters are obstructing democracy because they are not using understanding and reason when casting their vote. Due to ignorance, voters are unable to recognize the gap in their understanding and are therefore unable to cast a vote on the foundation of democracy. I believe this is a sound argument since many people my age are uninformed on current politics and therefore will not contribute to the democracy of our country. People pick mediocre candidates because they are unable to distinguish between good and bad when it comes to politics. Without staying informed on current politics, voters are unable to decide which candidate is good or bad so they choice the safe candidate who is in the middle. The long term danger this article brings up is the future of democracy and politics. If voters do not set an example for younger generations to become knowledgeable about the current issues in government, the future of democracy is in extreme danger. I disagree with the scientific evidence presented in this article. I believe that if voters take even the slightest initiative to becoming more knowledge in politics, democracy can still thrive. I think in the case of protecting democracy, the best solution would be to focus on the political education and promote developing a further understanding to the younger generations.
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Holle Depina
3/15/2012 02:11:40 pm
The article, "Scientists say America is too dumb for democracy to thrive" by Mike Moffit states that the Amerian public is too ignorant and dumb to pick the finest political leaders for America. Moffit also explains how the voters intelligence and understanding of politics impacts democracy. Psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger of Cornell University found that voters are hindering democracy because they are not understanding the information being presented to them, especially the "very smart ideas". It is difficult for people to adopt these "very smart ideas" because most people don't have the intellectual knowledge to recognize how good an idea is, especially uneducated individuals. Both Dunning and Kruger state that "stupid pople are to stupid to know how stupid they are." If these uneducated individuals were to vote, they would pick mediocre political leaders because of their lack of knowledge, ability to understand, and their ability to reach a decisive decision on which political candidate to vote for. Without staying updated on current politics, voters will have a difficult time picking a good leader. The long term issue brought up in this article is the future of politics and mostly importantly democracy. I agree with Emily that it is crucial to set an example for younger generations to become knowledgeable about politics so that they can pick excellent leaders and not mediocre leaders when they vote. I believe that people should try to be more aware of politics and how a candidate could affect the country because after all this is our country; we should not settle for mediocre leaders.
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maria gonzalez
3/15/2012 04:15:24 pm
In the article "Scientist say America is too Dumb for Democracy to Thrive," the premise is that America should of been a Republican because its too hard for people to make reasonable decisions. For example the wars wit Iran & Iraq we want to get rid of there dictatorship and impose democracy but its not right we just focused on spreading Democracy and not helping out. People pic mediocre candidates because they get sway by their political talks and promises that make that at the end don't come true. The long term danger is that more Americans are going to make unwise decisions and never realize it soon enough. Some solutions are that in order to vote you should prove that you understand how and know how. Also being able to understand and live the reality of the life of politics in that nothing is true but made up. the best solution would be that if you can prove that you know how to vote and understand it clearly then yo can vote and demonstrate you are not being sway by the media.
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MAGALI GARCIA
3/15/2012 04:19:17 pm
In Mike Moffets article, "Scientist say America is too Dumb for democracy to thrive," he restates the challanges Plato proposed for democracy; people are too ignorant to vote for the best political leader. In a recent study in Cornell, scientist David Dunning and Justin Kuger derrived to the conclusion that, essentially, people are so dumb that they do not realize they are so dumb. Or in Moffits words, "Stupid people are too stupid to know how stupid they are." If a significant amount of the public is too 'stupid' to vote for the better candidate the whole country could be run by mediocre representatives. Think about it, if people don't take the time to actually research some of the incredible ideas proposed by the candidates, we are stuck with people that don't necessarly understand what their voting for. For example if a candidate proposes an idea that has a very positive short term affect and a disastrous long term affect, the people will then be too 'stupid' to even realize the possible consequences and vote for this leader. The longterm issues brought about an under educated society is that if society continues to practices voting without educating themselves, like Emily said, we give the future generations the wrong impression of how to correctly vote. To fix this 'problem', it is suggested that only the well educated and informed vote even though it virtually puts the country in the hands of a few individuals that may be only looking to benefit themselves rather than the whole country. Personally, I believe the country already has a similar system to that proposed by Moffet, the electoral college already decides who becomes president. The best solution is to try to educate society in politics as much as possible. Knowledge is power, and if people finally realize it, the country does not have to settle for incompatent leaders.
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Mikhayla Crawford
3/22/2012 01:39:59 pm
In this article by Mike Moffitt, America is painted as a nation of idiots, which perhaps is not such a far fetched idea. Years of scientific research have shown that the citizens in this country lack the competence to make informed decisions when it comes to voting. It appears that every human thinks that they are the best person, the smartest person, and so forth; that we can't even realize when we really aren't, as Moffitt said, "Stupid people are too stupid to know how stupid they are." This back up the point that many of us citizens can not make competent decisions at the voting booth. We tend to choose someone who maybe is most like us, or shares views and ideals much like our own, because we think our way is the best way, so someone like us will be voted in, thus the perpetual mediocrity. The long term challenge and danger of this is that nothing will change in politics or the policies. Clearly the people in America need to be educated properly on such matters. The question is though, how? Solutions could range from high school education, to mandatory information seminars every voting season. If something is done though, America will live in a state of mediocrity forever.
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Chris Collins
3/22/2012 02:41:35 pm
The Premise of the article is that it makes sense that as a member of a democracy we should make sure that all other members of the democracy have a certain level of intelligence because they influence what happens to use through their vote. What’s to stop dumb people from voting for other dumb people? People would pick mediocre candidate because they aren’t intelligent enough to recognize a strong candidate when they are presented. A good point is put forth, “stupid people are too stupid to know how stupid they are.”The long term danger of this is that the cycle will continue and we will keep electing mediocre presidents and not be able to break the habit until our country has hit rock bottom. A solution to this would be to ensure that the general population has a better education and a more open mind in regards to new and outside ideals. I know it sounds bad to keep people from voting if they can’t score at a certain level on an IQ test, but it would definitely solve the problem of mediocrity and ensure that the voting population be able to realize a quality leader when they see one. If this means a large percentage of the population couldn’t vote than so be it, if people don’t know what’s best for them selves than what makes you think they know what’s best for the country?
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ethan behrens
3/22/2012 02:53:25 pm
In this article by Mike Moffitt he states that the american people are two dumb to vote for the right Person to be president. In my opinion there are small truths to this. There are people out there that do not educate themselves during the politic race to become president and therefor would not know who is right for the job. They would end up picking blindly. I do not think it would be far to only let people who are above average to be the only one aloud to vote. I feel if they where to tell any one this there would be a huge out rage and would never work. Even though some people may not know who to vote for there is enough people out there that do know for that to counter balance the vote.It is a citizens right to vote and you cant take that away.
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Andrew Abdalla
3/22/2012 03:25:21 pm
This article was written by Mike Moffitt. He states that according to research conducted by Cornell psychologist David Dunning, people are too ignorant to choose the best leader. What's more, Dunning claims that not only do they not choose the best leaders, but the ignorant people of this country believe that they are intellectually superior to everyone else. It is an interesting notion that people are too dumb to even recognize their own stupidity. By the same token, mediocre candidates are selected to lead because the voters are incapable of choosing someone whose leadership exceeds their own. The long term danger is the frightening idea that this country will always be lead by mediocrity, thus dooming us to be in a perpetual state of catch-up. Solutions to this type of problem always have a catch. One solution that may work, involves an awareness group, whose sole purpose is to impartially educate the citizenry to help them to make an informed decision.
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Emily Butler
3/22/2012 03:30:46 pm
This article is by Mike Moffitt. In the article he talks about how there is enough research that goes to the idea that American public is too ignorant to pick the best political leaders for America. The main idea is that the people who vote have a huge impact on everybody, and most of them think they are so smart and what not to really realize that they are not. Why people would pick a mediocre candidate is because they don't know when to recognize a strong candidate when there is one. The long term damage of this would be politics and democracy. This will continue to be cycle if we don't do anything about it and it won't change unless we gain a better knowledge and better educate ourselves on it.
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Jonathan Cazet
3/22/2012 04:13:33 pm
In the article, "Scientists say America is too dumb for democracy to thrive," Mike Moffet depicts the citizen of the U.S. as too dumb to pick the best leaders. Years of research by Cornell University prove that citizens lack the competence to make decisions when it comes to voting. Moffet puts forth the idea "What’s worse is that with incompetence comes the illusion of superiority." This idea simply meaning every person thinks they are the best. When it comes down to voting Moffet says we vote for candidates that are most similar to us, not necessarily considering the future of the country. The long term affect is that nothing will change in politics. People need to be educated more in matters they are voting on and ultimately deciding the fate of our country. Some solutions would be more introduction of political matters in school, most importantly high school.
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Janelle Borges
3/22/2012 05:01:23 pm
In this article, written by Mike Moffit, he says that Americans are too dumb to realize what is right for this country, and how they are too dumb to pick a worthy leader. The so called "dumb" people of America think they're the smart ones, but its the opposite. They're too ignorant to realize their stupidity. This causes mediocre candidates to be chosen one after another, causing America to spiral further and further down. A solution to this could be education and open minds. The more educated, the better choices the people make. A long term effect could be that nothing will change in politics. People need to be fully informed before they make a decision on what they think is right or wrong for this country.
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Gaby Calderon
3/23/2012 02:39:07 am
In the article "Scientists say America is too dumb for democracy to thrive," Mike Moffit claims people are too dumb to choose the right president who can actually make positive changes for the country. Those who believe they are they are smart, are not, they indeed add to the "dumb" population. They are so dumb they actually fall into the ignorant catagory as well. Seing as voting citizens don't know how to choose a right canidate to become president, they choose the bad ones over and over again, causing for an even greater downfall for America. To fix this problem, Moffit says, people need to be educated and have open minds in order to pick approperiate canidates as oppose to picking canidates who are similar to the voter, because we, the voters, are not taking the future of America into consideration. In long terms, i don't think anything will change in politics, canidates appeal to different peoples needs.
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Irving Barragan
3/27/2012 01:36:39 pm
In the article " Scientist say America is too dumb for Democracy to Thrive" the premise is that America should be a republican country where they make their own decisions to pick a leader who realize the right things to their country. I think any evidence to support is that they neeed to do better desicions about who is gonna be their worthy leader and choose someone honest. Because of this is causing mediocres candidates to be chosen and as a result they aren't enough stronger to make good decisions. The long term affect that nothing will change in politics that's it. People need to change and to have a logical mind to choose a real leader and also they need to make good decisions to their country what is right or wrong to them. the best solution would be give education to the people who has wrong choices in politics and what is the most important to their country.
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Erik Gonzales
3/30/2012 07:17:36 am
In the article "Scientists say America is too dumb for democracy to thrive," by Mike Moffit says that the people are too dumb to choose the right and the better person to change and do the best for this country. People keep choosing the worst candidates because they are not educated and they need to have open minds in order to vote for the better candidate or leader. The best solution for this problem of choosing the worst candidate is to give a better education and prevent the people of what are the consequences if they don’t have an open mind to choose the better candidate for their future.
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