Dumb Dumb Dumb Dumb

From Chris Danello, a producer (?) at The Atlantic, we get a piece on "11 Bizarrely Wrong Beliefs Americans Have About Themselves."

These kinds of things are usually fun.  No matter where (or when) you  are, people always have fascinating pockets of ignorance.  Often these lists are hijacked by partisans trying to prove the other side is stupid.  In Danello's case, I think he was so taken by the concept of stupidity in general that he forgot what the piece was about.

Here are the 11 items:

1. "Foreign aid costs the government a lot"
2. "The health-care law has been repealed"
3. "Who is on the Supreme Court"
4. "What three branches of government are"
5. "Who wrote the Gospels"
6. "Where in the world the United Kingdom is"
7. "We all drive well"
8. "Who the Vice President is"
9.  "Public broadcasting costs the government tons"
10. "The Sun revolves around the Earth"
11. (I guess--this isn't in the main display but is part of the opening paragraph) We estimate a quarter of Americans are gay.

I thought this was supposed to be mistaken things we believe about ourselves.  Most of these aren't false beliefs so much as lack of data.  Some of them are not about ourselves (or our country).  Some may be wrong but aren't bizarrely wrong (watch out for those adverbs)--it's funny that most individuals believe they're above average drivers, but it's hardly bizarre.  And a couple beliefs--#8 and #10--the majority got right.