*I think this was a wise choice for Barnett. Seriously, twitter is fine for someone to do (though I think it is stupid). Barnett took it too far in his last couple of "tweets" when he talked about the rotation he is in. That is talking about what the organization is doing.

That should be an insta-fine.

---

I believe it's just Grant, Finley, and Barnett (suppsoedly retired from twitter now)

---

Barnett is staying off of twitter till next off-season. Boo 😞

---

Not to mention that you're only commenting on the portion of the internet you're exposing yourself too. There are plenty of awesome resources that function in the mannerisms you speak of.

I think the majority of us are interested in the topic at hand, but hate to have to continuously skip over these monsterous debate posts that are totally off topic. Just start a new "illiterate millionaires?" thread.

---

I've worked in global software corporations for 10 years now and can make a lot of stereotypes about different nations.

To maintain political correctness, I'll only keep it to positive ones. Straight up, the smartest nationals I've come across have been the Dutch, which by some strange coincidence are also among the nicest. It's not only that they're smart as a group, they're really, really smart.

I don't know if it's their drinking water, their education system, their national character, or their genetics, the Dutch are smart people.

Now Americans on the other hand (this is where some people will get upset), we as a nation cannot spell, cannot speak our own language fluently, and still think we're God's favorite nation. Go figure.

I see that you strive for excellence in everything you do, from your writing to running. That's commendable. You're also humble when you need to be. Those attitudes are more Dutch than American.

Sorry folks. I love this country and would gladly live here rather than there (too crowded there), but our people as a whole need to crack open a fucking book every once in awhile, and no, not the sports page, not a magazine, but a book. A fucking book.

---

No need to apologize zombie. Your experiences are your reality, and thus the basis of your views. I graciously disagree with your generalization. First of all, how much media and entertainment from the Netherlands are we exposed to? None, so how are we to compare. In my won expereinces in the research fields and industry work around the globe, I have found just as many idiots from other countries. I can't judge how well they use their language because I don't know it or am trying to, so how can I judge them on that either? And with those generalities aside, there are more bright people in the US then the entire population of the Netherlands. Are they any smarter, no, but there are so many more. Which on the flipside means more idiots, and we glorify that in tv and all outlets of media.
Not judging you at all, because I respect all opinions, just offering mine from my side of the mirror. Luckily I don't work in the media industries and actually get to work side by side intellectuals that do care about all those things you described.

Besides, if the Netherlands got uppity we'd just hit one of your dams with a hammer and flood the whole country, which are some of the most underrated scientific achievements. 🙂

---

Tezzy - Smartest people in the world are Americans. We win pretty much every Nobel Prize, every year.

We also lead the world in inventions. Every single year. Japan is #2. NOBODY else is close.

But our masses need work.

I'm not saying I'm perfect by any means or I'm any better. I'm just noting what I see.

EDIT: OK, screw political correctness. I'll give a negative example - the English. Now, there are many decent English folk out there, but while we're generalizing, they're by far the easiest people out there to offend. They get butt hurt by just about everything. Plus, they're exceedingly arrogant and passive aggressive, which are two traits that drive me nuts.

---

And how about them Hooligans? lol.
I hear ya Zombie, it's all very good stuff. I think the Americans and Japanese are primed to always get more of those rewards just because of the sheer amount of publishing and corporate sponsorship that they have access to, and not to mention gov't sponsorship for research as well. I enjoy your perspective becauae it forces me to look and reevaluate all the time. I wish i could have lived in Europe for more than 2 years just for the experience of it all.

---

Three and a half random thoughts:

1. zombieslayer may have inadvertently hit on the way to get Americans to read more books. Make it a sexual thing (i.e. a "fucking book") :)
2. The English are big time readers of books (compared to Americans). Oh, they have their ignorant twits/nobs/hooligan types. But compared to us, they're major league readers of books. One of the cool things is that you can find used bookstores just about anywhere, not just in college towns or big cities. And they don't just sell used Harlequins and Beeline Classics either.
3. While I'm a book person, and while I would rather people read far more books than they did, I think it's inaccurate to say that Americans, especially young Americans don't read. All that time they spend on the Internet isn't just viewing porn and playing World of Warcraft. They're reading all the time. And often, at least if it goes to their passion, they're often reading at a quite sophisticated level.
3.5 I think the reason we are collectively convinced that people don't read as much is that there are real sampling issues that arise when information about the masses is really cheap: it's easy to see lots of yobs who watch vacuous reality TV (and nothing else), or even more yobs who watch the nearly as vacuous TV news of CNN/Fox, and conclude that we've gone to hell in a handbasket. It's easy to see millions of ignoramuses in today's world, in a way it wasn't easy to see them in detail 50 or 150 years ago. But if you look deeper, you can discover a nearly as big an increase in thoughtful and literate.

To be sure, literacy in this country has declined (as it has, in fact,done steadily ever since we systematically made education compulsory). All isn't rosy, not by a long shot. But look closer at the way Gen Y (and their imitators among Gen X and a few Boomers) processes information, and you find big grounds for optimism, too.

I mean, focusing just on a single data point, do you realize how hard it would have been to find someone as thoughtful as Nonstopdrivel in the places where sports fans used to congregate when I was growing up? (i.e. 60s and 70s)?

I get frustrated with the "literacy" problem every time I look at a stack of papers to be graded. But that notwithstanding, I think there's much reason to be optimistic.

Frankly, I think we'd be better off disenfranchising everyone over 40 in this country. That's where most of the true problem children really are.

---