Simpsons 'trump' First Amendment

Simpsons 'trump' First Amendment
BBC | March 1 2006

Americans know more about The Simpsons TV show than the US Constitution's First Amendment, an opinion poll says.

Only one in four could name more than one of the five freedoms it upholds but more than half could name at least two members of the cartoon family.

About one in five thought the right to own a pet was one of the freedoms.

A new museum dedicated to the First Amendment said the findings showed there was a pressing need to explain one of America's basic laws better.

"We have our job cut out for us," said Joe Madeira, director of exhibitions at the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum.

Another finding from the poll, a telephone survey of 1,000 random adults with an error margin of 3%, was that 22% of Americans could name all five Simpson characters.

By comparison, just one in 1,000 people could name all five First Amendment freedoms.

The names of American Idol TV show judges and popular advertising slogans also proved more memorable than the five freedoms - speech, religion, press, assembly and petition for redress of grievances.

The dumbing down of Americans almost complete, all they have to do now is round up the real patriots of the U.S..... After that, they will have a live tv special were the leader of the free republic will burn the constitution along with the flag and have 24/7 simpsons marathon(soon)

yeah, i'm sure you've heard the new name for the rex84 concentration camp program...

endgame!

give me a break. it would be funny if it wasn't so serious and disturbing.

THEY cant hide- its the endgame for them---I think THEY are thinking we will go down without a fight---they have a big army but how many are willing to go along with the program-- they will have to outsource the army........

One of the cool things is that the gun owners of america make up the largest army in the entire world!

IMO even the people who support bush die hard like wont give up their guns. Especially the trigger happy people. Those people recognize guns as freedom. No guns no freedom.

Americans know more about The Simpsons TV show than the US Constitution's First Amendment that's sad and quite disturbing actually not that I'm not a simpsons fan but the americans know more about the simpsons then there own constitutions that's shocking.No wonder why the most american people are getting dumber by the second.

that's why four star generals can get on TV and say the president can do whatever he wants, and that the 4th amendment mentions nothing about probable cause...

people care more about the simpsons and american idol than the emerging dictatorship while they pump their kids full of aluminum, formaldehyde and mercury vaccines...and the cops in black ski masks and militarized swat teams shoot people.

go freedom!

i'm one of those 1 out of 1000 that could name all 5 freedoms listed in the 1st amendment...that's .1%...very sad. this very much disturbs me.

people need to wake up fast, we can't stand more than 2 more 'terrorist' (government sponsored) attacks and still expect things to be visibly okay. maybe just one more attack if it's big enough...

everything's coming together now with the stealing of pension funds, beefing up the militarized police, selling off the infrastructure (ports, water, roads) to foreign countries, national id cards, detention camps for EVERYONE...

we're being set up for 3rd world status and selling the country, and you or I are not going to gain from it. i'm going to be paying the king of Spain money to drive on the roads in Texas!

what more do people need?

go feudalism!

Minorities and Democrats are a big reason why People dont know this. They keep lowering the bar for students to pass. Florida and California are two big examples, Florida in the past tried to lower the passing grade to 45 for Minority students because the test were "too hard for them" (note..it did not lower the passing grade for whites,they still had to get 70).

California is now trying to do the same thing, lowering the passing grade for Hispanics to 40.