Speaker 1: All right. I want to tackle this next subject delicately and with tact, but I do have to tackle it. This is one of those topics where no matter how you phrase it, someone's going to say, 

David, what an asshole, what an asshole that you're being. But I think this is too important to let it slide. So let, let me let me lay this out. Last week I pointed out in a discussion about 

Trump having a plurality, but not a majority of the vote. I pointed out that 21% of the country is functionally illiterate. What I mean by that is one out of five adults, roughly 21%, one 

out of five adults does not read beyond a sixth grade level. And in a sense, that works fine if Trump speaks at a sixth grade level and the, you know, 20% of the adult public doesn't read beyond 

a sixth grade level. But the point is, you really can't communicate nuanced ideas to people whose literacy doesn't go beyond grade six. So we've talked about this in terms of how it influences policy and politics and what people fall for. So then I'm on TikTok and I come across a video of a 

guy who goes by the name Bumi math tutor, also known as math guy, doing basic multiplication. And as I looked at this video, which I'm going to play, I thought to myself, who on earth is this video for? 

Because the video is of this guy explaining
like you would to a little kid, how do you multiply point eight by point 12? Now, right
away you look at it eight times 12 is 96 and there are three decimal places. So it's 0.096.
This is instant mental math. It's multiplication

tables and knowing decimal points eight times 12
is 96. Move the decimal point three spots .096. It is only one more step beyond three times
nine. We learned this in fourth grade, but you look at the comments on this video and
I'll play it in a moment and people are saying,

why isn't the answer Point 96, for example. And
of course, if you look at it and you say, what's 80% of point 12? It couldn't possibly be .96 80%
of point 12 can't be more than point 12. Okay. So

TikTok in the United States is for 13 plus
if you're younger, it's a different app with
different safety features. You wouldn't see this
creator's content. 13 year olds are in seventh to
ninth grade, depending on your state and your
birth date. Is this video for adults? So check

it out. I'm going to play the video for you and
then I want to talk about it in some more detail. Speaker 2: The average American can't do this
question. Yes, you could use a calculator for

this, but I'll show you how you can do it without
a calculator. So first, let's break down the best
numbers. So we have eight and I see 12. So first
you can do just eight times 12 and you can do that

in your head. Or you just do 12 times eight. Two times eight gives you 16, carry the one. Eight times one is eight plus one, which is 96. Now that means that you have to work with the

number 96. So what you have to do now, we have to calculate how many decimals we have. So looking at the number 0.8, how many decimal places do we have? So the idea is that to go from this decimal

place to the last digit, we just have to move it once. So that's one decimal place. And how about 0.12 and 0.12? We have to move one two to get to the last digit, two decimal places. So in total,

how many decimal places are we moving, or moving one plus two, which is going to be three decimal places. So in this case, with the number 96, moving to the left, three decimal places. So we start from here, move one, two and then three. So we end up right there, which means

we have to add an extra zero in your answer. 0.096.
Speaker 1: Okay. Now if you don't know this math instantly, when you look at point eight times 2.12, this isn't about making fun of you. If

anything, it's almost like there are victims out there, victims of the educational system, victims of a growing culture of non-thinking. But what is going on here and I know some people are going to say, David, you prick with you, you smug prick with your private school, this or that. I

want to know about private schools. I guess for grad
school, technically I did, but elementary school, 
middle school, high school, undergrad, public
or state schools. It's not about that. The other day I met a guy. We were talking about a driveway
paving job and he goes, okay, let me see though.

The number was 112 and he needed to add 20%.
He goes 112 and we've got to add 20% of that.
And I see the guy struggling now instantly in my
head. That's 22.4, right? So if you've got 112,

10% of that is 11.2 and then you just double it,
it's 22.4. That's how you get 20 to 20%. You take
10% of something and you double it. This guy's
struggling. He takes out a calculator and I go,

it's 22.4. All right, how did we get here? But
most importantly, this isn't a math show. What
does it mean about our politics? If a significant
portion of the population struggles with basic
critical thinking, understanding foundational
concepts, understanding things that kids learn

when they are nine, how on earth can we expect
them to evaluate policy proposals? Think about
Trump's proposals, tax cuts or tariffs or health
care. On the surface, they're often sold as good
for everybody. Of course, the reality is, if you
don't understand nuance, you can't possibly engage

critically with it. Trump will tell you tariffs
are great for America. We're really sticking it
to China. And people go, Yeah, we are. But they
don't realize tariffs are essentially taxes paid
by American consumers. It's basic economics that
the cost gets passed down to us. But if you're not

equipped to process that, you buy the soundbite
and you miss the impact. When you consider the limited
language capabilities of people who write
in to the show, you know, sometimes I'll
feature these messages I get from people
furious with me. They're clearly American. They

clearly only speak English. They can
barely string a coherent sentence together
in written form. This has real consequences. It's
not about laughing at people. So we really are in
this wild situation. It's not about multiplying
decimals together in your head or calculating

percentages. It's about equipping people with
the tools to navigate the world and not get duped
by the slick talking points and empty promises
of a populist sounding demagogue. And that's how
people end up being sold. A lot of these ideas.
Now, I'm not claiming Trump won because people

can't do math. Okay? That's that's not the point.
But what I am saying is that in general, aside
from which candidate motivates people to turn
out or did how did Trump's turnout compare with
2020 Harris versus Biden's and increase decrease
shrinking of the electorate demographic? All that

stuff is real. But also also when education has
been deliberately decimated by Republicans for
decades and you end up with a large share of the
population that can't string together a coherent
one paragraph email. I get it all the time. Can't
do basic math. Of course, they fall for stuff like

if I put tariffs on everybody, now it's Canada
and Mexico too. We'll talk about that later in
the show. Of course, they fall for it. And then
I go, Wait a second, I can actually figure this

out for myself. What happened? So I don't have
an answer. In my book, my forthcoming book, of course, I talk about. In public education.
We need to be teaching critical thinking, media literacy and epistemology. But if critical, if you
decimate funding for public education, where are

they going to get the money to teach those things?
So it's not the easy solution that maybe we would hope for. Let me know your thoughts. I'm not
trying to be a smug prick, as Dave Rubin called

me. I'm trying to talk about a real issue. I want
to hear from you. Info at David Pakman dot com.

Is something VERY WRONG with the country?

David Pakman Show

연사는 낮은 문맹률이 정치 담론에 미치는 영향에 대한 민감한 주제를 소개합니다.

발표자는 트럼프의 당선에 대한 이전 토론과 성인 인구의 21%가 기능적 문맹이라는 통계를 언급합니다.

이러한 낮은 문해율은 정치적 메시지를 받아들이고 이해하는 방식에 중요한 영향을 미치는 것으로 설명됩니다.

화자는 기본 곱셈을 설명하는 TikTok 동영상의 예를 공유하며 일부 시청자의 수학적 이해도가 놀라울 정도로 낮다는 점을 강조합니다.

화자는 간단한 곱셈 문제 동영상에서 대상 시청자에게 질문을 던집니다.

이 동영상은 수학에 대한 기본적인 이해가 있는 사람이라면 쉽게 풀 수 있는 기본적인 곱셈 문제(0.8 x 0.12)를 보여줍니다.

화자는 솔루션에 대한 이해가 부족함을 보여주는 동영상 댓글을 강조 표시합니다.

발표자는 TikTok에서 동영상 콘텐츠의 연령 적합성에 대해 논의합니다.

화자는 댓글에 나타난 기본적인 수학적 이해 부족을 고려할 때 이 동영상이 성인을 대상으로 한 것인지 의문을 제기합니다.

낮은 수학 능력이 일상생활과 정치에 미치는 영향

이 동영상은 동일한 수학 문제를 푸는 사람의 모습을 보여주며, 일부 사람들이 기본적인 계산에 어려움을 겪는다는 점을 강조합니다.

연사는 간단한 계산을 할 수 없는 것은 조롱의 문제가 아니라 교육 시스템과 문화적 요인의 결과라고 강조합니다.

20% 인상분을 계산하는 데 어려움을 겪은 한 사람의 일화가 공유되어 이 문제가 얼마나 널리 퍼져 있는지를 강조합니다.

연사는 기본적인 비판적 사고 능력의 부족을 정치 정책 평가의 어려움과 연결시킵니다.

관세의 예는 이해 부족이 오해의 소지가 있는 정치적 발언을 어떻게 받아들일 수 있는지 설명하기 위해 사용되었습니다.

연사는 시청자로부터 받은 이메일을 언급하며 낮은 문해력과 수리력이 초래하는 실제 결과에 대해 설명합니다.

연사는 이 문제가 개인을 조롱하는 것이 아니라 세상을 탐색하는 데 필수적인 기술의 부족을 해결하는 문제라고 강조합니다.

연사는 기본적인 수학 수행 능력이 정치적 결과의 유일한 이유는 아니지만, 기여하는 요인이라는 점을 명확히 합니다.

연사는 공화당 정책이 교육 기금에 미치는 영향과 현재 상황과의 연관성에 대해 설명합니다.

연사는 공교육에서 비판적 사고, 미디어 리터러시, 인식론을 가르치는 것을 해결책으로 제시하지만, 이와 관련된 재정적 어려움을 인정합니다.