Dumb Americans Really Ruining America, CNN Commentator Explains

Americans disagree on a lot, but it seems dumb Americans are a larger part of the overall problems plaguing this great nation, one CNN commentator argues.

While “dumb Americans” tend to often be those with which we don’t agree, the United States Of Derp is seemingly facing a brain drain of sorts — and it is because we, as a country, are collectively just getting stupider.

CNN commentator LZ Granderson laid out the dumb Americans plague in an op-ed today, where he quotes a report regarding literacy and its political impact. The cited report indicates that “individuals who score at lower levels of proficiency in literacy are more likely than those with higher proficiency to… believe that they have little impact on the political process [and]… have lower levels of trust in others.”

In the US, we rank at number 16 in literary proficiency, or, if our math is as bad as our reading comprehension, we’re number one!

The data comes from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s Survey of Adult Skills, but they seem to jibe with a U.S. Department of Education 2009 dataset finding 32 million adults who “lacked the proficiency to read a newspaper.”

(What were the stats for Fox News viewership, again?)

Actually, Granderson does admit this is not even a partisan issue — while even some high-ranking GOP operatives have called it “the stupid party,” he adds:

“But this is not just a Republican problem. I can’t help but notice the correlation between a more partisan nation and a more dumb-ass nation — regardless of party. Remember Ted Cruz is not the first politician to drag Dr. Seuss into the mess that is Washington… In 2007, during the immigration debate, Sen. Harry Reid read a piece from the New York Times that contained quotes from The Cat in the Hat.”

You can read the full “dumb Americans” editorial over on CNN, or go to the direct source report via OECD.