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Britain
Losing a grip on reality - and history
2008-02-04
Britons are losing their grip on reality, according to a poll out Monday which showed that nearly a quarter think Winston Churchill was a myth while the majority reckon Sherlock Holmes was real.

The survey found that 47 percent thought the 12th century English king Richard the Lionheart was a myth.

And 23 percent thought World War II prime minister Churchill was made up. The same percentage thought Crimean War nurse Florence Nightingale did not actually exist.

Three percent thought Charles Dickens, one of Britain's most famous writers, is a work of fiction himself.

Indian political leader Mahatma Gandhi and Battle of Waterloo victor the Duke of Wellington also appeared in the top 10 of people thought to be myths.

Meanwhile, 58 percent thought Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Holmes actually existed; 33 percent thought the same of W. E. Johns' fictional pilot and adventurer Biggles.

UKTV Gold television surveyed 3,000 people.

Posted by:lotp

#7  rjschwarz, true, 't means "I have two dicks and will fuckya real bad".

[I just made it up, never heard of such a thing, you may confuse it with Italian "cornuto" (approx. transl. = "pwned your wife/GF"), ponting finger and little finger, the rest and the thumb folded in]
Posted by: twobyfour   2008-02-04 23:29  

#6  I believe in some countries the reverse V is similar to the middle finger.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2008-02-04 22:59  

#5  

Thinking of this guy? Churchill gets to do it anyway he wants!
Posted by: KBK   2008-02-04 22:01  

#4  Correct me if I'm wrong, but the gesture Churchill's giving is NOT what is typically considered "V for Victory", is it? Or did he have special dispensation to use it that way?
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2008-02-04 21:52  

#3  And most disturbingly, a whopping 65% of them believed Flashman was fictional.
Posted by: Abdominal Snowman   2008-02-04 15:09  

#2  I wonder how many are also self-proclaimed jedi or just pranksters. I don't think polls take into account that sort of thing but I know I've mislead a poll taker more than once.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2008-02-04 13:22  

#1  This is happening here in the U.S. as well.

Think about it. Our colleges and universities are teaching young adults that critiquing everything Jefferon did or wrote is a sign of enlightenment due to the fact that he owned slaves, but that critiquing MLK or Ghandi for anything they said or did is racism because their skin was not lily white.

Our public high schools are teaching students that Christianity was the number one purveyor of murder and oppression in the 20th century and barely, if at all, mentioning Stalin, Mao, etc. who were all atheists. Those same high schools are requiring Nickeled and Dimed, an anticapitalist screed written by an outspokenly socialist author, as summer reading but the same kids are never even exposed to The Federalist paper regarding the need for discrepancies in wealth in order to form a vibrant and decent society.

Given this environment, it becomes difficult for average and even above average people to sift through the agenda and know what is real from what is mythology.
Posted by: no mo uro   2008-02-04 10:02  

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