O'Reilly: 'More Americans are simply ignorant'

Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly said this week that the results of a recent Gallup poll that found social liberals and social conservatives on equal footing for the first time is indicative of a climate in which “more Americans are simply ignorant of the consequences involving social behavior.”

“The rise of the ’net has taken people away from the real world and put them in a fantasy world,” O’Reilly said Wednesday, referring to the “Watters World” segment on “The O’Reilly Factor,” in which show producer Jesse Watters asks random people on the street to answer questions of political significance.


O’Reilly said he believes just half of Americans take the time to understand the issues.

“Half the country does not. They’re unwilling and unable to discipline themselves into formulating a philosophy of life,” he said, later citing polls in which Americans said the country was going in the right direction. He also referenced the role of the media and the entertainment industry for the rapid societal change.

O’Reilly ended his commentary by saying that when “something awful happens, this country will quickly snap back to traditional thinking.”

Gallup has asked the question since 1999, and the percentage of self-identified social liberals has grown in recent years. Among 1,024 adults surveyed earlier this month, 31 percent described themselves as socially liberal and 31 percent identified as socially conservative. The highest point for those who called themselves very conservative or conservative on social issues was in 2009, when 42 percent responded in that manner.

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