Apparently, Americans are pretty stupid when it comes to knowing anything about their own country. And Fox News host Bill O’Reilly thinks he knows part of the reason why.

Spoiler: it’s the Internet.

Yes, the Internet. The Internet has made you dumb. According to O’Reilly, the Internet has “created a generation of self-absorbed, addicted, distracted, and ignorant people.”

“The powerful machines–handheld, many of them–are diverting a lot of Americans away from real life. You can now create your own world on the net devoid of reality, and millions of Americans are doing that,” said the commentator on his Talking Points Memo portion of the show this week.

So, why was papa bear so perturbed? Apparently, O’Reilly had gotten hold of a 2011 Newsweek poll that found 29% of Americans couldn’t name the Vice President, 40% didn’t know who we fought in WWII, 73% didn’t know that Communism was a main concern of the Cold War, and other (admittedly quite troubling) statistics about Americans’ civic knowledge.

O’Reilly doesn’t focus all of his frustration on the Internet, however. Public education and disinterested, uninformed voters are also to blame for American ignorance.

But it’s you, denizens of the Internet. You, with your vast trove of information at your fingertips. Iz feelz dum.

I’ll refrain from commenting on Bill O’Reilly, an employee of Fox News, talking about the creation of worlds devoid of any and all reality.

Image via Wikimedia Commons