I've lost faith in humanity

[smileyeagle1021]

I was busy looking through Yahoo!'s featured stories when I saw this gem
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080204...historyoffbeat

OMG the majority of people thought that Sherlock Holmes was real but over a quarter thought that Winston Churchill was made up

if anyone needs me I'm going to go binge eat and accelerate my path to diabetes.

[Rine]

That made me laugh.

Well, I guess that says a lot about Churchill--the man was so great that he's been elevated to mythical status.

What gets me is the fact that so many people think Sherlock Holmes existed. I've known since I was a small child that he was a character made up by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes was based on real character, yeah, but there's no real Holmes.

People are weird.

[Greenday]

You know, I think it'd be one thing if that was a poll of Americans or Aussies, but Brits? That'd be like Americans thinking George Washington was a myth!

[smileyeagle1021]

You know, I think it'd be one thing if that was a poll of Americans or Aussies, but Brits? That'd be like Americans thinking George Washington was a myth!

you mean he's not

[marasbaras]

Amazing how stupid people are.

[ThePhoneGoddess]

You know yesterday I read this hilarious article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080201/...2LU43Zjtis0NUE

I passed it to a couple of co-workers, and they had NO IDEA why I found it so funny or why people got so offended. One of them looked it up on Wikipedia and said 'It's just some Russian book, why are they so freaked about it?'

I thought Lolita was the most infamous modern book in the English language, but I was shocked to find that many people at work had never heard of it.

A lot of people only see what's in front of their faces, and don't pay the slightest attention to things which do not concern them personally.

[MMATM]

You know, I think it'd be one thing if that was a poll of Americans or Aussies, but Brits? That'd be like Americans thinking George Washington was a myth!

Don't worry. Americans are stupid too. One poll (I'll see if I can't find the article online, someone sent it to me a while back) indicated that 90% of Americans know who the CURRENT PRESIDENT is.

Here's a similar article, but this one doesn't mention knowing G. W. Bush. It's sad that only 69% know Dick Cheney, though, and that only 66% know their respective state's governor's name.

[FuzzyKitten99]

Don't worry. Americans are stupid too. One poll (I'll see if I can't find the article online, someone sent it to me a while back) indicated that 90% of Americans know who the CURRENT PRESIDENT is.

Here's a similar article, but this one doesn't mention knowing G. W. Bush. It's sad that only 69% know Dick Cheney, though, and that only 66% know their respective state's governor's name.

Yes but polls can be skewed and their results easily manipulated. It could be possible that they interviewed elementary school children who, while some may know who the president is, many don't know because they have either never been told or aren't really paying attention to that sort of thing at their age. I know I didn't.

They don't poll every single resident (legal or not) in the US, just a handful of people from a certain area. They could have also interviewed a group of people who live in parts of the city where the immigrants haven't assimilated into the culture and are kind of in their own world within ours.

Believe me, with as much TV as most Americans watch, do you really think that many people DON'T know who the president is? Especially in an election year?
Come on, don't be so gullible as to believe some poll made to make us look bad over common sense.

[Sylvia727]

I thought Lolita was the most infamous modern book in the English language, but I was shocked to find that many people at work had never heard of it.

Well, I'd heard of the book in the most basic terms (pedophilia), but when I hear "Lolita" I think "Japanese fashion trend advocating liberal application of petticoats, lace, and bonnets. See also Kamikaze Girls". But maybe that's just me

[MystyGlyttyr]

You just NOW lost your faith in humanity? I've been inclined to cause the mental suffering of others since I was seven.