this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
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Mildly Interesting

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[–] Telodzrum@lemmy.world 145 points 1 day ago (7 children)

WTH, Americans think that 30% of the country lives in NYC?

[–] MBech@feddit.dk 125 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They think 21% are transgender too.... A lot of propaganda has gone through these people.

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 27 points 20 hours ago (4 children)

“Transvestigation” is fucking insane and there are a lot of people who are convinced that many celebrities are secretly trans.

I think it mostly started with disgusting conspiracies about Michelle Obama (they literally believe that Sasha and Malia were kidnapped, even have specific missing children they think they are). Alex Jones and his ilk think Michelle was born Michael.

This was a thing that developed I think late in his presidency, then it expanded to several other figures. My favorite is Donald Glover as a trans man - I’ll gladly welcome Childish Gambino into my community.

It’s a serious “Q anon” type mentally ill worldview.

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[–] brian@lemmy.ca 54 points 1 day ago (3 children)

By the looks of it, it's 30% to NYC, 30% to Texas, and 30% to California. So 10% for literally everywhere else in the US. That's gotta be close, right?

[–] Telodzrum@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'd totally get that for polling people outside of North America. It's just shocking to see it from people who have probably been to NYC or at least another major metro area -- which would instantly falsify a 30% number for NYC.

[–] kelpie_returns@lemmy.world 20 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

Why assume most Americans have seen NYC or other major cities though? Most of us don't ever make enough money to travel this country's hard-to-imagine-how-big-it-actually-is vastness, or even enough to leave our hometowns for longer than a couple days before financial woes start nipping at the mind, if not worse.

This is not to say I think it's a reasonable conclusion to think 30% of our population is in any of these three areas of course. That is silly and requires a very skewed view of things (which, lucky us, is easily provided by any number of increasingly 'official' seeming news sources that really just deal in intentional fear mongering and reductionism). Most people tend to believe whatever is put before them, and we have a system that has been explicitly set up to present false images of reality to US citizens. Propaganda to keep the propaganda machine running, right? As unreasonable as it is, it also makes sense that people could be duped into believing it because this system so many of us are stick within is hellbent on ensuring that we are intentionally conditioned out of the ability to know better by adulthood. It doesn't work on everyone, but it works well enough that's it's perpetuation is currently one of the highest yielding economies this foolish country has to offer.

The line of thought that seems obvious and reasonable to you and me has been intentionally beaten out of countless people here before they even had a chance to understand how to think rationally. I don't know how to fix these things. It is just so obvious to me from this inside vantage that the stupidity of our country is one that has been intentionally manufactured and amplified at the expense of us, the actual people the same system depends on and revolves around keeping ignorant.

Sorry for the rant. Many Americans are dumb. Most of the ones that are never had a real option to be anything else because of how fucked things are here. That's not intended as an excuse, but as an attempt at an explanation tbc

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[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It's shocking how bad normal people are with basic math

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[–] j4k3@lemmy.world 91 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Feels like they polled an elementary school in Jersey

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[–] Gloomy@mander.xyz 63 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (2 children)

Only 3% Atheists... And all of them are here on Lemmy.

[–] DrCake@lemmy.world 50 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

I know Americans love Jesus a whole lot but really only 4%. That just seems crazy low

[–] walden@sub.wetshaving.social 71 points 23 hours ago (9 children)

I think it's because people are still uncomfortable answering "atheist" on questionnaires and polls. It's easier to say "no religious affiliation", and most people are probably agnostic instead of atheist anyway.

[–] Gloomy@mander.xyz 35 points 22 hours ago

You're right. This survey lists 29 % of Americans as "Religiously unaffiliated". Of those 5 % are Atheists, 6 % Agnostic and 19 % "Nothing in particular".

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[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 47 points 21 hours ago (10 children)

These estimates are bananas, this only shows the systematic stupidification of Americans is highly successful.

[–] ProvableGecko@lemmy.world 16 points 20 hours ago (4 children)

It's called propaganda! Relentless, unceasing bombardment of right wing brain rotting propaganda.

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[–] fluckx@lemmy.world 40 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (5 children)

Americans believe 20% of the people have an income of over 1 million dollars and ~~20%~~ 30%of Americans live in NYC. Am I reading this chart wrong?

?????

NYC has a population of what? 10 million people? So they think there's only 30 million people living in the states?

[–] half_fiction@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (6 children)

NYC stood out to me too. We think 3 out of 10 people in the US live in NYC??? Lmaooo. I think a big part of it is that we just generally don't comprehend statistics because some of these numbers are wild.

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[–] marius@feddit.org 36 points 1 day ago (4 children)

88% own a car, but only 82% have a license? Interesting

[–] redlemace@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You don't need a license to own a car. You need one to drive it.

[–] KoalaUnknown@lemmy.world 17 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

You need one to drive it

legally

There are people, especially in the rural south, who own and operate a vehicle without a license.

Sometimes even congressmen

[–] deranger@sh.itjust.works 14 points 23 hours ago

Something like 40% of drivers in San Antonio, Texas are unlicensed. The one time I’ve gotten in an accident, it was an uninsured, unlicensed driver.

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[–] GreatBlueHeron@lemmy.ca 30 points 19 hours ago (16 children)

33% have a college degree yet only 3% are atheist. That's batshit crazy. I can't imagine having the critical thinking skills needed for a degree and not using those skills to figure out that god is a fairy tale.

Yes I know lots of educated people are religious - I had several christian professors when I was studying mathematics / computer science. That doesn't make it any less crazy to me.

[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 16 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

What's not represented in the graph.. I think you'll find a large portion of agnostics and "cultural Christians". I.e. people who go to church because they're raised that way in their community expects it.

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[–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 28 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

It seems the real thing this survey shows is most Americans are fucking dumb.

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[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 26 points 23 hours ago (13 children)

The 42% are democrats and 47% are republicans is the true surprise. That is a huge difference even though it might not seem like it.

[–] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 14 points 22 hours ago (2 children)
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[–] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 25 points 9 hours ago (3 children)

I unfortunately have to downvote this as this is far too interesting to be mildly interesting.

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[–] kazerniel@lemmy.world 23 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

they estimated 21% of the population are trans, lol I wish 😂

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 16 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

If 21% of the population was trans, republicans ain't winning elections again.

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[–] mgtzbos@lemmy.world 21 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

How incredible to see the effect of political messaging on citizen/voter perception. It is that the exaggerations, lies, and outrage marketing clearly have an outsized effect. I wouldn’t say the US population is dumb. But I would say the manipulation of perception is too much for the average person to do their own research and come up with unbiased facts.

***To those dismissing this based on inconsistencies between topics, you can’t make those comparisons. There is some blending of data in the methodology that is appropriate in order to look at the range. This is only about the gap between perception and reality, and a stack rank.

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[–] Matt3999@lemmy.world 18 points 6 hours ago

Only 4% union members - no wonder the US is so fucked for workers

[–] DickFiasco@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Here's the methodology according to the YouGov website:

Methodology: This article includes findings from two U.S. News surveys conducted by YouGov on two nationally representative samples of 1,000 U.S. adult citizens interviewed online from January 14-20, 2022. The first survey included questions on groups involving race, education, income, family, gender, and sexuality, while the second survey included questions on religion, politics, and other miscellaneous groups. The samples were weighted according to gender, age, race, and education based on the 2018 American Community Survey, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, as well as 2016 and 2020 Presidential votes (or non-votes). Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. citizens. Real proportions were taken from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, YouGov’s internal poll results, and the results of other well-established polling firms. Most estimates were collected within the past three years; the oldest is from 2009. Because the real estimates presented cover a range of time periods, they may differ from actual population sizes at the time our survey was conducted.

[–] Eheran@lemmy.world 17 points 23 hours ago

Sample size of 1000 is absolutely nothing for so many detailed/granular questions. Let alone then weighing the few sub-groups etc.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 16 points 1 day ago (2 children)

People just have no idea what numbers mean. And, look at how education works here, who could blame them?

[–] potoo22@programming.dev 16 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Reminder that a McDonald's new burger campaign failed because people thought a ⅓ lb burger was smaller than a ¼ lb burger.

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[–] mimic_dev@lemmy.world 16 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

They think almost 25% of people are trans?? Jesus fucking christ

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[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 4 hours ago (6 children)

Imagine thinking 1 in 5 people are trans... Just... This has to be a math understanding issue, right??

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[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 7 hours ago

Funny that more people own a car than have a driver's license.

[–] GaMEChld@lemmy.world 14 points 12 hours ago

I wonder how much of MAGA knows the entire population of illegal immigrants is estimated at a WHOPPING 3% of our population.

[–] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 14 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

92% of their population lives in either California, Texas, or NYC, if you do the maths.

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[–] Kowowow@lemmy.ca 13 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Wouldn't have guessed you guys would have more vegans than union members

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[–] Sludgehammer@lemmy.world 13 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

So looking at that chart the average person thinks that (roughly), one in four people are native American, one in four people are Asian, two in five people are black as well as two in five people being Hispanic. Or to use the given percentages the average American thinks that 136% of Americans are non-white. I suppose that explains a lot of the "white genocide" hysteria.

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[–] roguetrick@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

Part of this is people obviously not thinking about one per hundred and just giving a random percentage like number. Everything is clustered around 25, and 50 percent. This isn't reasonably measuring much(if anything as I can assure you nobody believes 90 percent of people live in either Texas, California, or NYC). The headline should be "don't poll people by asking what they think about qualitatively and asking them to translate it into quantitative percentages because you'll receive nonsense." Trying to reach other conclusions from such absolute noise really is just making things up.

[–] CoffeeJunkie@lemmy.cafe 12 points 53 minutes ago

Holy, holy, holy...they actually thought 21% of people are transgender? 1 in 5?? The only thing this proves is the polled Americans are stupid AF. 🙄🙄🙄

[–] prunerye@slrpnk.net 12 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Honestly the most shocking number to me is that 65% of Americans own a house. How can 62% have a household income "over $50,000" and 65% own a house? Is it all old people?

[–] Baguette@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

collapsed inline media

A lot of older generations own a house pretty much

It's easier to put into perspective when you look at how much cheaper houses were before they got bought up by private equity

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[–] Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 2 hours ago (7 children)

3% Atheists is such a bullshit number. There is a famous Pew poll, where they asked people two questions side by side, "are you an atheist" and "do you believe in any god", and 4% answered no to the first one and something like 20% answered no to the second one.

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[–] Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 11 points 3 hours ago

What morons did they ask? Holy shit.

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