“Who does that uppity ‘you know what’ think he is, saying Americans are ‘too lazy’ to know about the rest of the world?”

That, in essence, is the question raised by an alt-right website favored by supporters of GOP Presidential Nominee Donald Trump. In a headline story, “Obama: Americans Too ‘Lazy’ To Know Anything About the Rest Of The World”, the first lie can be found right there in the headline. When one reads the entire story, which we suppose most Breitbart.com readers are too lazy to do, one sees that the President said nothing of the sort.

Obama said, “You know I believe that the United States is and can be a great force for good in the world but because we are such a big country we haven’t always had to know about other parts of the world. If you are in Laos you need to know about Thailand and China and Cambodia because you are a small country and they are right next door and you need to know who they are. If you are in the United States sometimes you can feel lazy and think, ‘You know we are so big we don’t have to really know anything about other people.’  And that’s part of what I’m trying to change.” (Emphasis Added)

Scanning… scanning… looking for words “too lazy to know about the rest of the world.” Scanning… Not Found.

The ethically flexible editors at the Alt Right Ministry of Misinformation not only manufactured their own quote in the headline, they put quotation marks around it to signify the words “too lazy” are a direct quote.

“(S)ometimes you can feel lazy and think, ‘You know we are so big we don’t really have to know anything about other people,” isn’t even in the same ball park as “Americans are too lazy to know anything about the rest of the world.”

Experience has taught those capable of learning that the Alt Right Media Propaganda Implementation Team (ARMPIT) cares little for accuracy. Even when confronted with proof that they are lying to their readers, ARMPIT websites insist on telling the lie. Those who get their “news” from ARMPIT sources get downright angry when told they are being lied to — not at the website lying to them, but at those who point out the provable lies. The ARMPIT lies reinforce the readers’ narrow, bigoted, xenophobic and racist world view and doggoned if they’re going to let something as irrelevant as “the Truth” get in the way of their righteous indignation.

Sad fact of the matter, however, the President is correct.

No less of a wild-eyed lefty liberal George Soros-loving Saul Alinsky-following Lucifer-worshiping publication than “US News and World Report” published in its Oct. 16, 2015 online edition: “US Students are Really Bad at Geography.”

It’s no secret that U.S. students are horrible at geography and have been for some time.

Nearly three-quarters of eighth-graders tested below proficient in geography on the 2014 National Assessment of Educational Progress – also known as the Nation’s Report Card – and that’s almost exactly the same result as in 1994.

 

U.S. Government Accountability Office.
U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The report does not blame Obama or the laziness of Americans for this sad fact. It does offer a possible reason for it.

It’s a similar case when looking at prior NAEP assessments of fourth- and 12th-graders, approximately 80 percent of whom tested below proficient in 2010.

But now there’s a better understanding for why that might be.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office found that more than half of social studies teachers spend 10 percent or less of their time on geography. Social studies is the umbrella subject under which geography is taught, along with things like history, civics and economics

What’s more, a majority of states do not require geography courses in middle school or high school. As of 2013, only 17 states required a geography course in middle school and 10 states required a geography course for students to graduate from high school.

More funding for public schools, improving standards of education? That would make for a terrible headline for a muckraking ARMPIT website. Better to just invent a quote, pretend the President said it, and then sit back and count the insulting, racist comments that flow into the comment queue.

“How dare Obama call us lazy or stupid? That uppity so-and-so, if you know what I mean.”

Yes. We know what you mean.

By The Portly Pundit

After four months in the belly of the right wing media beast, and after a full four days of hot showering, everyone's favorite Portly Pundit is once again weaving tales of progressive pulchritude on Breitbart Unmasked.

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