Poll of the Day > My uncle is really bad at world history.

(+) Yeah! (+)

My uncle just told me that he thought Chiang Kai-shek was the leader of the Chinese Communist Revolution.

Seriously. How does someone get history that backwards? Are all baby boomers this incompetent?

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After a lifetime of absorbing information, it's logical you'd get some things confused.

You should be proud of him for knowing anything about Chiang Kai-shek at all.

Most Millennials wouldn't even recognize the name, let alone narrow down his period of influence to the post-WWI revolutionary period in China.

And he might actually be smarter than you realize, even if only by accident, considering Chiang Kai-shek worked with the Communists for years before he turned against them and purged them from his government, setting up the eventual Nationalist/Communist conflict post-WWII.
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I passed my history/english CSETs easily the first time oh, about 8 years ago, I'm not even as old as Baby boomers, and I can't remember squat anymore. I can't tell you what year WWII was, know nothing about the 100 years war, and I'm lucky I can even remember when the American revolutionary war was.

As you get older you forget things, it kinda sucks, but it would suck more if people made fun of you for it.

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ParanoidObsessive posted...

You should be proud of him for knowing anything about Chiang Kai-shek at all.

Most Millennials wouldn't even recognize the name, let alone narrow down his period of influence to the post-WWI revolutionary period in China.

This, tbh. Most Millennials can't even get Western European history right, let alone anything in Asia.

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wolfy42 posted...

As you get older you forget things, it kinda sucks, but it would suck more if people made fun of you for it.

It's not just age, it's also importance.

As an adult knowing those things doesn't help you in life, and you don't use that information on a regular basis, so it gets pushed down in your brain and replaced by things that actually matter. Like social security numbers and bank statements and medical expenses.
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Don't worry, I'll bet there are Chinese people who don't know who Chiang Kai-shek was either.

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How did this topic even come up; like how or why was jiang jie shi's name even brought up?

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ParanoidObsessive posted...

As an adult knowing those things doesn't help you in life, and you don't use that information on a regular basis, so it gets pushed down in your brain and replaced by things that actually matter. Like social security numbers and bank statements and medical expenses.

So how come I can remember the lyrics to dumb songs they made us sing in 1st grade but I can't remember any useful information?

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Zareth posted...

So how come I can remember the lyrics to dumb songs they made us sing in 1st grade but I can't remember any useful information?

Because that was important to you.
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Zareth posted...

So how come I can remember the lyrics to dumb songs they made us sing in 1st grade but I can't remember any useful information?

Well, I mean for MOST people.

I can't really defend it in my own case either, considering I can hum the theme music from video games I last played 30-35 years ago, and can still remember exactly where items are or how to navigate mazes in some games I haven't played since George Bush (the first one) was President. And I can quote entire poetic verses from books like LotR, the Book of Lost Swords, or the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. And I can sing the entirety of "We Didn't Start the Fire" from start to finish.

On the other hand, I can't tell you off the top of my head when my niece's birthday is. Or how old she is.

But I think that's more a case of repetition burning channels into your brain so deep that even age can't erode them. Like, I probably heard the background music loops from Donkey Kong or Super Mario Bros or the early Final Fantasy games hundreds of thousands of times. And I actually spent a week or so deliberately memorizing every reference in "We Didn't Start the Fire" until I could sing it from memory, and it's kind of self-reinforcing (each reference leads directly to the next, so when you remember one it helps trigger the rest).

My memory used to be near-photographic, but it's definitely getting fuzzier as I get older. I've definitely noticed a difference over the last decade or so.
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Im bad at all history... Well, I know some non-important history sometimes...
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I don't think I've heard that name since whatever middle school class I first heard it in

That guy is one george washington

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Zareth posted...

So how come I can remember the lyrics to dumb songs they made us sing in 1st grade but I can't remember any useful information?

Probably repetition or the fact that that things are more memorable when put into song.


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