It’s accurate to say that the United States is a troubled nation.  Our economy is in trouble, with some of the biggest banks facing buyouts or uncertain futures thanks to billions of dollars in bad mortgage commitments.  Politically we’re divided right down the middle, and even our current candidates who are running on a platform of change are sniping at each other using the same old political mudslinging and empty rhetoric as always.  Not even including natural disasters like Hurricane Ike , which is currently bearing down on a large swath of the Gulf Coast, the USA is a troubled nation.

Natural disasters aside, I think the biggest problem facing the nation right now–the root cause, if I may be so bold, of many of our other issues–is the stunning lack of logical reasoning and reading comprehension skills amongst wide, wide swaths of our population.  I am constantly amazed by people who are completely incapable of digging even slightly below the surface of media.  It seems that most of the time, most people are happy to simply skim the news and pretend that they have a sufficient grasp of the issues.

Statistics would seem to be on my side here, as the United States seems to fall further and further behind in measures of reading comprehension, science aptitude and mathematics aptitude year after year.  Public opinion polls demonstrate every day that the American people are fundamentally unable to recognize rhetoric or tricky wording–you see it every time the same question is asked two different ways and yet the results are wildly different.

Sadly, it would seem that broadcasters and media producers seem to understand this pathetic reality all too well, considering some of the offerings that have appeared on the airwaves as of late. Continue Reading »