I thought J. Edgar Hoover was one of the former US presidents !!! - J. Edgar (2011) Discussion

[–] nightblast 13 years ago

There was a president called Hoover. His name was Herbert Hoover, however, and he was the president between 1929-33, and is mentioned in this movie.

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[–] lovecomesagain 13 years ago

That's good to know, I didn't actually notice that in the movie though. Throughout the movie, i was like.. waiting that now J.Edgar will become president but only at his death, i realized that he won't.

"We are the people your parents warned you about."

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[–] 13 years ago

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[–] El_Beastador 13 years ago

I'm sorry, but the fact that you're not from the States does not excuse you from thinking J. Edgar Hoover was the President.

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[–] afvp 13 years ago

It does not?
It's remarkable the he or she even knows that there was a president Hoover and an important figure named J.Edgar Hoover.
We (foreigners) have our own history which you probably don't know every single detail too and neither we expect you to. Besides, I don't find your history that important for me that I must know everything about it.

With that I do not intend in any way to start a discussion on how great america is or is not, just simply pointing out that there's history besides America's.

Regards

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[–] El_Beastador 13 years ago

I'm not American and you're right, us "foreigners" do have our own history of which I don't know every single detail but I am aware of the major historical points. Such as J. Edgar Hoover being the man that started the FBI and Herbert Hoover being an ex President.

Not being of a certain nationality does not excuse ignorance of major events in history. It just makes you look unread, uneducated and uninterested.

EDIT: Also, you shouldn't assume that everyone here is an American. Sometimes it can make you look stupid.

Regards, an Englishman.

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[–] brian-740 13 years ago

Being a foreigner doesn't excuse it - in YOUR eyes - but what DOES excuse it is that nobody gives two sh*ts what this guy, you, or anyone else knows or doesn't know about American history.

Really.....who cares???

Lighten the hell up.

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[–] El_Beastador 13 years ago

"Lighten the hell up" he ironically said while ranting at me.

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[–] afvp 13 years ago

Sorry for assuming you were an american but I got that impression.

Just because I don't know that major historical points, as you call it, thats not in any way makes me unread, uneducated ou uninterested. What I probably consider major it's different from what you do, and you might not know some facts I know.

In fact, I did know that there were two different Hoovers and that J.Edgar was not the president, and even thought I was aware of his existence I did not know he was the one who founded the FBI. I'm always learning, you know...

"The wisest mind has something yet to learn." George Santayana

Regards

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[–] El_Beastador 13 years ago

OK, to be fair, you acknowledged the fact that you're always learning. That's good enough for me. We can never know too much. Nice quote too.

I didn't mean to be a dick, I just find it hard to believe there are people that don't know something as major as J. Edgar Hoover being the man that founded the FBI.

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[–] hannahjb1310 13 years ago

You're joking right? The majority of my friends (who are American, and univrsity educated) couldn't tell you who the CURRENT prime minister of the UK is, what Henry VIII did, who Margaret Thatcher was/what she did. Some of my friends couldn't even tell you who was the American president/British PM during WWII. Granted I'm 24, but it's funny/sad that even with the increase of globalization/information technology, the younger generations are managing to learn less about the world around them.

I know that you're also a foreigner (as am I, sort of) but I think it's crazy that you'd expect foreigners to know who the founder of the FBI is. Also, not being able to distinguish between the two Hoovers, unless you do indeed know about US History, isn't too much of a crime considering they were active in the same pre-WWII era. Again, I have American friends that couldn't do that.

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[–] El_Beastador 13 years ago

Well to be fair, the majority of Americans don't know a whole lot of anything.

Maybe I'm just over-estimating the intelligence of the general population. Or maybe it shouldn't really come as a surprise. I'm constantly amazed at peoples stupidity these days.

You raise a good point though, about the increase in information technology. Anything anyone wants to know about anything is a few clicks away, yet people seem to be getting more ignorant and ill-informed.

I just expected trivia like this to be general knowledge.

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[–] hannahjb1310 13 years ago

Well to be fair, the majority of Americans don't know a whole lot of anything.

Lol, very true. I'm English but have lived in America for most of my life, and on five separate occasions I have been asked what language we speak in England (and none of the inquirers were under the age of 17).

On top of that, many of my college friends couldn't locate the continents on a map or distinguish between the centuries of the major wars (American Revolution, American Civil War, and WWI/WWII). One time a friend was telling me that she never votes. I responded with "but that's the whole point of democracy". She then retorted, "yeah but I'm not a Democrat, I'm a Republican". I backed down immediately and just said, "Oh, ok, I understand then".

I suppose there's stupidity everywhere, but I think America takes the cake when it comes to having some people that are ridiculously stupid.

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[–] GentianViolet 11 years ago

"One time a friend was telling me that she never votes. I responded with 'but that's the whole point of democracy'. She then retorted, 'yeah but I'm not a Democrat, I'm a Republican'."

Please tell me you made that up!

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[–] hannahjb1310 11 years ago

I wish I had, but sadly not. Although it always makes for a good story. :)

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[–] Jose_Accent_On_E 10 years ago

I suppose there's stupidity everywhere, but I think America takes the cake when it comes to having some people that are ridiculously stupid.

Yeah? Well, if you really think that then move back to Englishia...

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[–] blackno31 11 years ago

Your university-educated friends likely don't know much of American history thanks to the liberalization of American education, which chooses to conveniently ignore most of American history, in favor of explaining why certain historical events could have gone differently had America adopted a socialist government decades ago.

LLR

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] billycan 9 years ago

He didn't found it. The Attorney-General of the day founded it. Hoover simply acted as its first director.

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[–] 9 years ago

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[–] PNTPictures 13 years ago

Oh really? I bet you can't list off all the Canadian Prime Ministers without Google as a guide!

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[–] El_Beastador 13 years ago

No, I can't. However, I believe I stated major historical points.

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[–] wildkillerbeast 11 years ago

Is that a dig towards Canada's influence in the world?

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[–] PianoWired-688-539232 13 years ago

Not to worry, I am from the states and we came kinda close to electing a VP who didn't know who was in charge of the UK.

Knot2nite

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[–] El_Beastador 13 years ago

Haha. Who was that? You also had crazy Sarah Palin who thought the Earth was only 10,000 years old. Even for an American politician, she was mental. How she got so far in life is beyond me.

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[–] PianoWired-688-539232 13 years ago

The thing is, she won't. go. away! One of her latest escapades, to challenge Obama to a debate. (Without her flash cards?!) If J. Edgar was still alive he'd have a file so thick (the word not being lost on her) it would make those Alaskan nites fly by.

Knot2nite

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[–] perrrob 12 years ago

If she was smart enough to know how to write she would probably have a file on Russia as she can apparently see it from her home in Alaska.

What a dumb republican twat ... like the rest of these inbred neocons.

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[–] El_Beastador 13 years ago

John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972 aged 77.

Above quote copy and pasted directly from Wikipedia. I especially like the part where it states "he was instrumental in founding the FBI".

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[–] 13 years ago

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[–] El_Beastador 13 years ago

Ah yes, the old go to argument about Wikipedia that because anyone can edit it, it's not reliable. You do realise that Wikipedia is moderated by hundreds of admins and that everything that is posted must be referenced to an official source? It's actually a myth that Wikipedia is unreliable and they have about the same accuracy rate as the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

You're right though, I could go on Wikipedia right now and change anything I want, but guess what? It would be corrected soon after.

The BOI did more than just change it's name. The whole department was changed, with the advancement of forensic investigation being one of the main things and Hoover was paramount to these alterations.

"Hoover, J. Edgar (John Edgar Hoover), 1895–1972, American administrator, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), b. Washington, D.C. Shortly after he was admitted to the bar, he entered (1917) the Dept. of Justice and served (1919–21) as special assistant to Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. In this capacity he directed the so-called Palmer Raids against allegedly radical aliens. Director of the Bureau of Investigation (renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935) after 1924, Hoover built a more efficient crime-fighting agency, establishing a centralized fingerprint file, a crime laboratory, and a training school for police."

That quote is taken from infoplease.com. Pay attention to the bottom three lines. Like it or not, you're wrong. Hoover changed everything about the BOI and made the FBI what it is today.

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[–] ratracer 13 years ago

Sorry for chiming in here, but Pete Bondurant is right.

Like it or not, you're wrong. Hoover changed everything about the BOI and made the FBI what it is today.

That is correct, but what you stated earlier is:

J. Edgar Hoover being the man that founded the FBI

which is simply wrong, Wikipedia or not. The admins don't do research to correct everything that is published there. It will stay out there until some reader cares enough to put it right.
Hoover made all these changes years before the BOI was renamed. The organization existed long before Hoover took over, he transformed it into an effective force, and the renaming didn't took place until the year after Dillinger, Floyd and Nelson were killed. The myth of the G-men was already well established by then. That doesn't take away from Hoover's merits, but sorry, he did NOT found the FBI.

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[–] jglapin 11 years ago

You must be thinking of "Hoobert Heever" from the golden age of radio.

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] lovecomesagain 11 years ago

hahaha

I'm not gonna be here that long

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[–] joshua_carpino 9 years ago

there should be a horror movie about the post milennial world called "the uninformed".

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[–] Stevicus-2 8 years ago

...until I saw the movie. But again, I am not from states, so it doesn't count.

To be sure, J. Edgar Hoover was a rather powerful and well-known figure in Washington for decades. And, as someone else mentioned, there was a President Herbert Hoover. Hoover is a rather common name.

When I was a kid, I would hear people talk about J. Edgar Hoover as if he was this super-powerful, mysterious, enigmatic figure. I knew that he was never the president, but the way people would talk about him, some people might think that he was.

I wouldn't expect someone not from the U.S. to be aware of every detail of US government, politics, or history. In fact, sometimes I wonder just the opposite, since I've encountered quite a few non-Americans who are interested and seemingly knowledgeable about America.

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