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Thursday, August 10, 2006

Modern Idiocy:

Some 30 percent of Americans cannot say in what year the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington took place, according to a poll published in the Washington Post newspaper.

There is one glimmer of good news:

95 percent of Americans questioned in the poll were able to remember the month and the day of the attacks, according to Wednesday's edition of the newspaper.


Let's, er, get that straight. When asked about when 9/11 happened, 95% of the population managed to know it happened on 9/11. The other 5% it's probably best not to ask about.

Planning lesson for the day: in any mass market quantitative sample, roughly 1 in 3 people are guaranteed to be individuals whose opinion you really shouldn't care about. And 1 in 20 will be officially a total and utter moron.

3 comments:

alyson said...

To be fair, those who didn't know the answer were over 50 (and clearly not taking their ginkgo biloba). So perhaps the lesson is only trust the over 50s if they do test positive for (mental) performance enhancing drugs?

Anonymous said...

Not so fast. I think with some products you might have the most luck persuading the 5 percent, assuming they have money. Then again, I'm over 50, though my doctor says parts of me are still in their 30's. If only I could remember which ones.

AKI SYSTEMS 2600 said...

it may be that those 1 in 20s, these "total and utter morons", are our client's best customers. afterall, who else is stupid enough to fall for advertisements?