The English: Gullible or Uneducated?

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2004-04-06 06:34am

Sharp-kun wrote:I get the feeling this poll wasn't taken seriously

I wonder what the results would be if it was done in the US?

Worse and with more a larger percentage actually believing their wrong answers

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2004-04-06 07:17am

If done in the US I can imagine about 85% of the population saying "Gladiator: Based on a true story".

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2004-04-06 07:43am

We've a great tradition here of taking the royal piss out of anyone that approaches you in the street with a clipboard or phones up with a questionaire.

Heck, for people who call up asking questions, I live in a hovel with no windows, no doors and the running water runs through the big hole in the roof.

I think the Battlestar Galactica answers seal the results as a piss take.

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2004-04-06 09:18am

Keevan_Colton wrote:We've a great tradition here of taking the royal piss out of anyone that approaches you in the street with a clipboard or phones up with a questionaire.

Heck, for people who call up asking questions, I live in a hovel with no windows, no doors and the running water runs through the big hole in the roof.

I think the Battlestar Galactica answers seal the results as a piss take.

Exactly, i strongly suspect this was a royal piss take on behalf of the British public due to their contempt of surveys. Fuck, even I know that it was Venusians that invaded, Mars is a barren rock ffs!

h0rus · Post by **h0rus** » 2004-04-06 11:51am

Gandalf wrote:There's no way people could be that silly.

I bet a lot of it's just people playing with the surveyors.

That, imo shorts how silly a lot of polls can be. You're at the mercy of the person answering the question. With no credible way to gauge whether or not they're telling the truth, you can very well have people taking the piss. Still that's quite a bit of people answering in favor. That sample size is either dumb, delusional, dopey (the three d's), or they enjoy taking the piss. If someone asked me whether or not I believed in the devil, or conan, I'd answer yes, because I'm a clown, I'm spiteful, and because I want to fuck with their 'studies'.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-04-06 11:55am

there was some historical precedence for king arthur and robin hood, in that there was a king named arthur and that there was someone that went around robbing the wealthy.

anything else as it's portrayed in the movies is usually extrapolated exaggeration and not composed of any real historical fact.

though the fact that some people actually believed war of the worlds was real. . .that smacks of obvious bullshitting.

PrinceofLowLight · Post by **PrinceofLowLight** » 2004-04-06 12:27pm

....Blackadder wasn't real?

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-04-06 01:56pm

I feel I must apologise for my country's conduct in this poll.

I have this horrible image of teenagers discussing how funky that fictional bad guy called Hitler was in all those WWII films and then trying to find a textbook for history class on the Battle of Helms Deep before quoting some of Lord Blackadder's witticisms.

The less said about the people that believe in a battle with Ewoks involved, the better.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-04-06 02:52pm

Darth_Zod wrote:there was some historical precedence for king arthur and robin hood, in that there was a king named arthur and that there was someone that went around robbing the wealthy.

No English king was ever named Arthur. There are some historians who are examining Iron Age sites and have found "Arthurian-type figures" in English history of the time, but apart from a hoax perpetrated by a group of monks at Glastonbury there has never been a true "King Arthur." However, numerous English kings and queens have named their first child Arthur in the hopes of his fulfilling the "Once and Future King" thing, but every one of them has died before ascending the throne.

There ARE numerous potential historic figures who fit the bill for Robin Hood, that operated in and around Sherwood Forest at about the right time. They usually share at least part of the name, and some of them share BOTH parts of the name. There was also a "Robert" who was Earl of Huntingdon at the time, and who did live around Sherwood Forest and was renowned for his skill with a longbow.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-04-06 02:55pm

Keevan_Colton wrote:I think the Battlestar Galactica answers seal the results as a piss take.

What's strange, though, is that the percentages of people who answered ludicrous questions wrong are DIFFERENT. See, if we assume that the "Battlestar Galactica" people purposely answered ALL of the questions wrong, we still only account for a fraction of the incorrect responses. For example, we could conclude that everyone knew Xena was fake, but we would still find about 10% of the population that didn't believe in Hitler or Churchill. Of course, it could be claimed that people were TRYING to answer questions wrong, but didn't know the real answers and so couldn't respond incorrectly properly, but that would be almost worse.

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2004-04-06 02:57pm

Or in the british tradition, answering random crap to piss off the bugger with the clip board even more.

Over here only two kinds of people approach folk in the street armed with a clipboard, sociology students and hare krishna's....and I'm not sure which piss people off more

El Moose Monstero · Post by **El Moose Monstero** » 2004-04-06 03:07pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:I feel I must apologise for my country's conduct in this poll.

I have this horrible image of teenagers discussing how funky that fictional bad guy called Hitler was in all those WWII films and then trying to find a textbook for history class on the Battle of Helms Deep before quoting some of Lord Blackadder's witticisms.

The less said about the people that believe in a battle with Ewoks involved, the better.

I wouldnt read too much into that Ewok stuff, I'm betting that those 40 people are a mixture of jokers and people who havent seen or read much about Star Wars, be they people who are past the generational age to care much about it, people who don't watch scifi etc, the question was probably something along the lines of 'These battles are actual historical events, true or false: and then the list, which would have included 'The Battle of Endor'. I'm more concerned by the Helm's Deep, again, I'm blaming it on a mixture of people not knowing about Lord of the Rings, people recognising the name but not remembering where it came from, people who are arsing around and so on. We know nothing about the methods of polling, and I have no complaints about the way I was taught history at GCSE and at A-level.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-04-06 03:09pm

if the survey didn't bother giving any information about the actual events, and some of them weren't real movie or history buffs it could be understandable then. at the very least it would make them appear to be much less of an idiot or jackass.

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2004-04-06 03:15pm

I'd have to see what the exact form the questions took to know for sure what the results really mean. After all, how you ask the question can alter the results...for example?

William Wallace was real? True or False.

Compared to.

The events and characters in Braveheart were real? True or False.

You'd be an idiot to answer false to the first and an idiot to answer true to the second.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2004-04-06 03:27pm

This poll sounds like one of Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" stuff

Thag · Post by **Thag** » 2004-04-06 05:38pm

Either that or the Gumby family has taken control of England's education system.

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2004-04-06 10:54pm

HemlockGrey wrote:If done in the US I can imagine about 85% of the population saying "Gladiator: Based on a true story".

Well, in that sense they could be right. You didn't say anthing about how accurate and close to real life events the story had to be for it to be considered "based on a true story".

Commodus, his father and sister were real. Also Commodus liked gladiators and was supposedly killed by a gladiator and his own guards (just not in the colosseum).

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2004-04-06 10:56pm

Montcalm wrote:This poll sounds like one of Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" stuff

That's one of the reasons I'm thinking people in the US would do worse on this test without even trying.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2004-04-06 11:22pm

Tsyroc wrote:
Montcalm wrote:This poll sounds like one of Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" stuff
That's one of the reasons I'm thinking people in the US would do worse on this test without even trying.

And i fear it could be the same in Canada

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2004-04-07 03:11am

Master of Ossus wrote:There ARE numerous potential historic figures who fit the bill for Robin Hood, that operated in and around Sherwood Forest at about the right time. They usually share at least part of the name, and some of them share BOTH parts of the name. There was also a "Robert" who was Earl of Huntingdon at the time, and who did live around Sherwood Forest and was renowned for his skill with a longbow.

Wasn't "Robin Hood" just a slang term for a highwayman in Medieval Britain?

Keevan Colton wrote:Or in the british tradition, answering random crap to piss off the bugger with the clip board even more.

Exactly - one of the first things I thought upon reading this was "Well, the British are renowned for their strange sense of humour..."

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-04-07 10:41am

Peregrin Toker wrote:Wasn't "Robin Hood" just a slang term for a highwayman in Medieval Britain?

"Hood" was. "Robert" was one of the most common names of the era, so of course there are lots of people who went by "Robin Hood" that lived in about the right area at about the right time. And, of course, there was the earl who managed to run around robbing people and had the right name, too.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2004-04-07 10:44am

Or, it's possible alot of people *are* this ignorant. I mean, if I had edited this around to say United States, then I seriously doubt that much fuss would be put up about it. But, as I said, I really would like to see what the results would be in the US, most likely worse...

TheDarkling · Post by **TheDarkling** » 2004-04-07 11:18am

Nathan F wrote:Or, it's possible alot of people *are* this ignorant. I mean, if I had edited this around to say United States, then I seriously doubt that much fuss would be put up about it. But, as I said, I really would like to see what the results would be in the US, most likely worse...

I would have trouble believing 6% of any western population thought we had been invaded by Vampiric Squids from Mars 100 years ago, even Americans.

SecondStorm · Post by **SecondStorm** » 2004-04-07 02:50pm

Montcalm wrote:This poll sounds like one of Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" stuff

JayLeno: What are people living in Denmark called?
AverageDumbguy: Denmarkians?

Bob the Gunslinger · Post by **Bob the Gunslinger** » 2004-04-07 03:17pm

Fictional events that we believe did take place
War of the Worlds , Martian invasion - 6 per cent
Battle of Helms Deep , Rings Trilogy - The Two Towers - 3 per cent
Battle of Endor , The Return of the Jedi - 2 per cent
Planet of the Apes , the apes rule Earth - 1 per cent
Battlestar Galactica , the defeat of humanity by cyborgs - 1 per cent

I want to live in the world these people inhabit.

What kind of drugs are the British youth on these days, anyway?