12% of 16- to 24-year-olds think honey is produced by farmers squeezing bees. A fifth think fish fingers are made from the fingers of fish. 15% don’t know that lamb comes from sheep. 9% think potatoes grow on trees. ( Rowse/Daily Mirror)
Could this possibly be true? I would like to think these young people are having the survey-takers on, teasing them. No one who has paid attention in school, read any books or who has even a minimal thirst for knowledge could really believe this rubbish. Or could they?
No, it must be a spoof.
As one of these British 16-24 year olds, I know this not to be a spoof. Many of us are complete idiots, unfortunately. But there are also a lot of smart ones. People as a whole are more intelligent than they were a generation or two ago, because the internet makes access to knowledge easier. But the gap between the intelligent and ignorant has grown, which is one of the reasons why income inequality is higher nowadays.