I'm sure you all have heard of the recent poll that found that 30% of Republican respondents and 19% of Democratic respondents support bombing the fictional country of Agrabah. I was having a conversation with some friends about what it says about our society.

We saw the possible answers as:
A) ignorance - believing Agrabah was a real country
B) bloodlust - doesn't matter who it is, we want war
C) bigotry - Agrabah sounds like a Muslim country, therefore we should bomb them

Or it could be something else or a combination of all of them. Any thoughts?

Perhaps we are fearful. With a dash of ignorance.

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Perhaps we are fearful. With a dash of ignorance.

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yup

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Perhaps we are fearful. With a dash of ignorance.

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Good point. Fearful of what though? Anything Muslim sounding or any nation that is presented as a threat to America? Personally, I see it as a mix of both. I think you could have put any fictional country in there and had people wanting to bomb it. I think many will assume that if they're being asked about it, then clearly that country is a threat in some way. I don't think, however, the numbers would have been as high had the name of the country been something more "western" sounding.

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With a dash of ignorance.

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25% believe the sun revolves around the earth.

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With a dash of ignorance.

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25% believe the sun revolves around the earth.

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an honest mistake one could make from reading the old testament.

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With a dash of ignorance.

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25% believe the sun revolves around the earth.

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an honest mistake one could make from reading the old testament.

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Not a mistake.

Well, fear is a typical reaction towards those things about which we are ignorant. Couple that fear with the fear of dying at the hands of the terrorists.

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25% believe the sun revolves around the earth.

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an honest mistake one could make from reading the old testament.

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Which is the closest to reading "science" that a certain demographic ever achieves.

The poll would be more informative if it included either real countries that most Americans don't associate with terrorism (Canada, Finland, New Zealand, etc.) or fictional countries that aren't Arabic or Muslim (like Elbonia from Dilbert).

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With a dash of ignorance.

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25% believe the sun revolves around the earth.

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I've always wondered about this people. Are they that uneducated, or is there some number of people that cannot distinguish between the statement 'the sun revolves around the earth' and 'the earth revolves around the sun'?

It says that Americans either haven't seen Aladdin recently or have never seen it.

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With a dash of ignorance.

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25% believe the sun revolves around the earth.

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I've always wondered about this people. Are they that uneducated, or is there some number of people that cannot distinguish between the statement 'the sun revolves around the earth' and 'the earth revolves around the sun'?

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There are some that flat out reject the science. http://galileowaswrong.com/

Those guys are just trolling the scientific community, right?

Unfortunately, no.

Many Americans reject basic economics as well.

I'm still for bombing Agrabah, and while we're at it let's see Prince Ali's birth certificate. Something's fishy there.

It shows that a significant portion of the population would rather pretend that they know something than admit ignorance.

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It shows that a significant portion of the population would rather pretend that they know something than admit ignorance.

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If this is the case, it's alarming that they would choose killing people in order to pretend to know something. I guess that says more than anything.

Or it could be that there are a lot of people who tend to answer "yes" to every poll question without reading it.

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Unfortunately, no.

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About

Galileo Was Wrong is a detailed and comprehensive treatment of the scientific evidence supporting Geocentrism, the academic belief that the Earth is immobile in the center of the universe. Garnering scientific information from physics, astrophysics, astronomy and other sciences, Galileo Was Wrong shows that the debate between Galileo and the Catholic Church was much more than a difference of opinion about the interpretation of Scripture.

Scientific evidence available to us within the last 100 years that was not available during Galileo's confrontation shows that the Church's position on the immobility of the Earth is not only scientifically supportable, but it is the most stable model of the universe and the one which best answers all the evidence we see in the cosmos

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Just another example of why universal suffrage is a terrible/ridiculous idea.

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Just another example of why universal suffrage is a terrible/ridiculous idea.

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Explain

The burden of proof is on you, good sir. I'm afraid to report that the early results are not good.

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The burden of proof is on you, good sir. I'm afraid to report that the early results are not good.

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Okay. What are you talking about though so I can know what proof is on me...

Sure thing: literature, culture, tradition, and observation tell us that many people are not fit to run their own affairs, hence the development of a welfare state to support them. But the idea that they are fit to decide on the leaders and direction of a country seems preposterous. Please explain why people who cannot manage to get a job or save $10,000 by age 65 should be able to vote.

Okay... What is your bar for sufferage. I think it's obvious republicans and democrats shouldn't be able to vote because they are worthless pieces of ****.

Yeah, most rational people would agree with you there!