Decius wrote:
] Here is a direct link to the recent Gallup results on American
] opinions about the Iraq war. What you think of those opinions
] probably has a lot to do with how closely they resemble your
] opinions. The exception is the one Ryan pointed out... Do you
] think Sadam was involved with the 911 attacks? He wasn't and
] this is a simple factual measure of how confused you are about
] what is going on.
]
] The rate is as high now as it has ever been. A slight decrease
] in the number occurred in September when Bush said he wasn't
] involved, but now its right back up again, proving that the
] only thing worse then our grasp of the facts is our attention
] span.
]
] Campaign finance reform attacks the symptom and not the
] disease. We don't need campaign finance reform, we need voter
] clue reform. As long as so many people remain completely
] incapable of independent thought they will always be the
] victims of big marketing budgets.

Ryan: I absolutely agree. I wish there were some way to penalize people for lying in the mainstream media. The media lies, the people running the show lies. I just wish I could stop idiotic arguments before they start.

Decius wrote:
] ... recent Gallup results on American opinions about
] the Iraq war. ... Was Saddam involved with the 911 attacks?
]
] The rate is as high now as it has ever been.
] The only thing worse than our grasp of the facts
] is our attention span.
]
] As long as so many people remain completely
] incapable of independent thought they will always
] be the victims of big marketing budgets.

I once logged a study that found a positive correlation between time spent watching major broadcast media outlets and fundamental confusion about the facts of current events.

I can't find it at the moment ...

Jeremy wrote:
] I once logged a study that found a positive correlation
] between time spent watching major broadcast media outlets and
] fundamental confusion about the facts of current events.
]
] I can't find it at the moment ...

Found it. Search MemeStreams for Iraq AND study

The study was by Pipa.org which is associated with the University of Maryland. I recall when looking at it earlier I felt their overall focus to be politically motivated, but I'm not sure right now why I came to that conclusion.

Decius wrote:
] Campaign finance reform attacks the symptom and not the
] disease. We don't need campaign finance reform, we need voter
] clue reform. As long as so many people remain completely
] incapable of independent thought they will always be the
] victims of big marketing budgets.

Well, yes, but I think it'll be easier to get campaign finance reform. :)

Remember, most of the people in the world are just plain not as bright as most of the people in our little community here. This doesn't mean that most of the people in the world are stupid. This means that they are average in intelligence, and that we are the odd ones, by being *above* average. And as the higher IQ ones, I believe that we have a responsibility to the others of our species. It falls to us to some degree to come up with *systems* that work, not to sit around whining that other people aren't as smart as we are.

It's my belief that it's the human condition for some to lead and to push for change, and for most others to follow. For most people, they naturally follow along with the systems that others have established. Which, again, doesn't make them stupid -- it makes them human.

So, fwiw, I'll keep pushing for campaign finance reform.