American insularity, Are Americans really this ignorant? Options

[bryden42]

Hi Guys,

I got sent a funny video today via email

Linky to Video

At first i laughed, then I started to think and I got a little concerned. Is this really the level of knowledge that the average American has about the rest of the world?

I should probably say at this point that I really don't mean to tar the entirety of the country with one brush (I regard the Americans on this page with respect and as intelligent people).

I could almost understand this if they were confusing two countries within the middle east or two countries within Asia, or maybe even Europe. But to confuse any of the countries that they stated for Australia is a heinous display of ignorance. I have only been to America once and I laughed when i was asked if I had met Princess Diana and Benny Hill (and by this he meant met them walking down the street) and figured that the person asking obviously didn't know much about our culture if he thought that i would have met those people like that, after watching this video I'm starting to feel like this wasn't such an isolated example of the self centred and insular view that America seems to have.

So a quick question for you American Matazonians. Is this a fair representation? Is it better than this? Do I really have to worry that the most powerful nation on the face of the planet may get it wrong and invade my country by mistake? please alliviate some of my fears

[Astarael]

Ooh, there was another topic about this awhile ago in Issues, I think. But it was really funny and worth a bit more discussion. I hope that Americans are smarter than this, but I know a few people who are truly this ignorant. My question is whether it's ignorance or stupidity. Do people not know and wish they did, or do they know that they're ignorant and have fun not caring?
"Ignorance is temporary. Stupidity is forever." -Anonymous
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not too sure about the universe." - Albeter Einstein

[Calantyr]

Yup, I think I posted this earlier in Daft.

Some people just don't care about the world. They think it doesn't matter in their daily lives. This may be true... but then you allow these people to vote for leaders with foreign policies.

As the beginning of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars they did some surveys. Only about 20% of people asked could identify those countries on the map, let alone give opinions on them without regurgitating what they had heard on Fox News 5 minutes previously.

Ignorance is a scary thing.

[Astarael]

See Ast be somwhere in the ballpark with it being posted before...
Ignorance is dangerous, especially when people don't care enough to remedy it with research and thought. When people don't know what's going on, how can they possibly be voting for the leaders of the their countries? I know that this video is from the U.S., but I don't believe that living outside the borders automatically makes people smarter. How long will this ignorance persist? If you want to make informed decisions, then there's more to learning the truth than spitting out whatever the news told you when people ask what you think.

[Phyllis]

Hmmm. Our education system is a bit crap, to be honest, but it's not as bad as that.

Though sometimes we don't even know stuff about our OWN country. I mean, when I lived in NYC I got asked "Where's Oregon?" quite a lot. I can label all the states to this day because I was forced to memorize them when I was 10. Obviously this wasn't done in all the schools...though really, who cares if I know where Indiana is?

A lot of Americans really don't know much about British culture, no. See, your country is just so ickle in land mass to us, some of us assume you must all know each other Nevermind the fact that there are, what, 8 million people in London alone? And OH GOD I got so tired of the following conversation in the months leading up to my trip to the UK:

Person: So, I hear you're going to London!
Me: Well, I'm flying into Heathrow, but I'll be spending most of my time in Worcestershire.
Person: Oh. *disappointed look on face* How close is that to London?

Then when I got back, the same people who said that asked me how London was...

Anyway! I had equally silly questions from Brits as well, at times. Overall, no, I don't think the country is quite that ignorant. There are some definite flaws in our educational system...and well, our media as well, obviously. There are a lot of things that Americans simply don't know about unless they go to other countries or watch/read the news from other countries. A rather simple example of this is fairtrade anything. I've had to explain what it is to countless Americans, because it's not common knowledge here. There are very few brands that do fairtrade, and they generally have to be ordered online (the exception being one kind of coffee that I can't remember the name of cause I don't drink that vile crap). We have to be pretty diligent in seeking outside sources in order to even find out about simple things like that. *shrug*

I think at least some of it might have to do with the type of people who agree to do random surveys...just a thought. They're likely to do it because they have an excess of time on their hands, are bored, and probably won't really think their answers through all that much unless it's a subject that is dear to their hearts.

[Mata]

Oo oo! I know where Oregon is!

In my very limited experience of conversing with Americans about such things, cross-referenced with my slim amount of knowledge of where those people come from in the US, it seems that people on/near the coast will care far more about the rest of the world than your average person from South Dakota or Missouri will. As Cand says, it's probably partially about landmass. Those people have got a lump of land the size of a fair chunk of Europe between them and anyone else, so events across entire oceans seem to be literally a world away.

I've often said that most people shouldn't be allowed to vote, following the Scott Adams principle that even most smart people don't have time to really work out, or can't agree on, who is going to be best for the country and the world, let alone a person whose previous two weeks were spent chasing a bear that stole their dungarees.

[sjbbandgeek]

Its a little scary to see the responses in the video, but I'm sure that they left out many Americans who know where Australia and France are.
Many smart Americans are connected to computers as if it where life support, so we don't get out much. Well, at least I don't.

[Kitty]

Theres also the "No Child Left Behind" act. Which limits teachers severly. They place the kids that could possibly need alot more help in school in the same classes as the kids that will do fine with a regular work load. I think the law also says that the vast majority of these students need to PASS the class. This results in teachers teaching so that the lazier, and potentially LD kids, will pass their class. So basically all us smart ones sit there bored out of our minds

I dont think my chemistry teacher knows about this law though. All of his kids except a very select few got a D on a test he just gave out.... Still hasnt dawned on him that maybe he needs to be teaching differently.

[pgrmdave]

Let's not forget that the video is made for comedy, not for serious study. It is possible that the whole thing was staged.

[bryden42]

Let's not forget that the video is made for comedy, not for serious study. It is possible that the whole thing was staged.

Good point, but it didn't have that feel to me. Whils it was comedy I think that the people involved were real, not saying that there wasn't a lot of footage of people calling them on it that didn't get cut however.

[Mata]

I certainly hope that there were a lot of people who did know the answers, but it does appear that the people involved were real, just that they were (hopefully) in the minority!

I guess it's a kind of snobbery, but the people sound relatively educated and look reasonably well off, so I would hope that they would, for instance, recognise when Australia is mislabelled on a map. I'm a little scared by the possibility that people can succeed in life but not be able to recognise continents.

[oobunnie]

This slightley reminds me of a segment we had on a Canadian tv show called This Hour Has 22 minutes. The segment was called Talking To Americans and it real was quite funny.

[Astarael]

My sides hurt from laughing at that so much! I know that there's stupid people out there, but how dumb do you have to be to not give any thought to whether something so ridiculous and impractical is true? *is scared for the future of humanity*

[MrRandomQuotes]

Bush - "our most important neighbour to the north"

WTF??? How many neighbours are america keeping hidden up there? You cant really blame the people when their leader is as well documentedly dim witted. Or maybe you should blame the people and not the leader...

[Phyllis]

Bush - "our most important neighbour to the north"

WTF??? How many neighbours are america keeping hidden up there? You cant really blame the people when their leader is as well documentedly dim witted. Or maybe you should blame the people and not the leader...

Not when only 51% actually voted for him. That's a lot of people who don't want him in power...

Anyway, there are stupid, ignorant people everywhere. Apparently...in the past 3 years, 19 people in the UK have died from eating Christmas decorations they believed to be chocolate. A whopping 537 Brits also went to the emergency room last year for attempting to open beer bottles with their teeth. Those statistics were both listed in an article that was meant to be funny. Do I know whether or not it's true? No. Am I going to bother finding out? Nope, I cannot be bothered because it really doesn't matter that much to me. Am I going to giggle anyway? It's not very nice of me...but yes. Am I going to judge an entire country based on what some people may or may not have done according to something done for comedy? Obviously not. Heh, I said there were stupid people everywhere...not that I was one of them.

[Witless]

Problem as I see it.. the only americans i meet in person, are annoying tourists.. and quite dense people that asked me "are you british.. from like.. britain" in florida when they heard my accent.

Every american I have met that has been not scary like that has been online. The reason is.. (I think) that I don't get the chance to meet the average smarter person you'll meet there. If I lived in the states.. then i'd meet people at work, I'd meet college students, I'd have a friendship circle of people that I respected. I have none of those over there. The little I see of people is basically tourists and terribly arrogant people with silly questions.
I do meet people from the states on occasion that i respect.. but well if I'm honest.. it's not like I really get the chance to have many conversations with these people. It's only if they ask stupid questions like.. "does London have public toilets" (Yes.. I have been asked that), do I really realise I'm speaking to anyone from the states. The trick is just to remember.. they're out there.. they just don't show their intelligence as well as ignorant people show their ignorance.
To be honest that's the truth wherever you go really.. but americans speak the same language as the UK it's easier to see it when they do it .

[oobunnie]

Not when only 51% actually voted for him.  That's a lot of people who don't want him in power...

Anyway, there are stupid, ignorant people everywhere.  Apparently...in the past 3 years, 19 people in the UK have died from eating Christmas decorations they believed to be chocolate.  A whopping 537 Brits also went to the emergency room last year for attempting to open beer bottles with their teeth.  Those statistics were both listed in an article that was meant to be funny.  Do I know whether or not it's true?  No.  Am I going to bother finding out?  Nope, I cannot be bothered because it really doesn't matter that much to me.  Am I going to giggle anyway?  It's not very nice of me...but yes.  Am I going to judge an entire country based on what some people may or may not have done according to something done for comedy?  Obviously not.  Heh, I said there were stupid people everywhere...not that I was one of them. 

I agree with you. That was the thing about "Talking to Americans", it was obvious that they edited it so that only ignorant people got showen. That site doesn't have clips from all the shows, but there were segments that had even more absurd stuff then is showen. Like one I can remember was when Rick Mercer (the satire reporter) went around asking if Americans would support lending Canada a big tug boat, because Canada was starting to spilt in two and we only had one tug boat, but we figured if we had two we could just pull the two pieces back together. Or when he went around seeing if Americans would mind having Canadian navel ships docked in their state because Canada is land locked you see, we don't have any coast. Doesn't change the fact that it was worth a good laugh.
I haven't really met many super dense Americans like what they show, except one guy that yelled at me because I had no clue what a piggleywiggleys was, nor could I tell him where one in the city was (later I found out it some southern food change-ish store).

[LoLo]

Honestly are Americans actually being judged off a skit done by "CNNN" with ticker tape running at the bottom with headlines like, "Commuter celebrates 10 year anniversary of no eye contact"?

It's dangerous ground to generalize anyone based off of anything one might see, especially a comedy skit. Like has been stated you can find stupid people anywhere, and ignorant people anywhere, and it will get exploided for the comedy issues.

I do kind of find this funny though that the Americans you know on here are ok and respectable, but I guess we're just exceptions to the rule then huh?

[Calantyr]

Most of the Americans I have met ARE dense. I put this down to them simply being more loud-mouthed and so more noticeable. That said, some of my brightest friends are American too.
Oddly enough they complain about living in a country of loud-mouthed idiots too. *shrugs*

I have been asked such wonderful questions from those across the pond as:

"You're from England? What state is that in?" Granted she could have thought I said New England... but we had already established that I was from ANOTHER COUNTRY.

"England's in Europe, right?" No, we're on the moon.

"Where's France?"
to which I replied north of Spain,
"Where's Spain?"
to which I said east of Portugal.
"Where's..." you get the point. No, she wasn't joking. And this is a woman who deals with insurance claims.

"You have phones in Europe, don'tcha?" No, we never clawed our way out of the dark ages. Bring us your marvels of modern witchcraft!
Note that this was online. And before the days of broadband. Now it must have triggered somewhere in her mind that if we have access to the Internet we may just have phones...

"Everyone over there is a commie." Referring to Europe. Yeah, the Iron Curtain was just our overactive imagination.

"You're from England? Have you met Princess Diana?" This is always a good one. Replace Di with any modeately famous celebrity.

And of course the absolute classic!

"You speak English pretty well for a second language." He thought everyone in Europe spoke French. I would have thought the name ENGLAND would have given it away. *shakes head*


Why must the dumb people be the loudest? WHY, DAMNIT! *shouts*



Of course there's more than enough idiots over here, don't think I'm not aware of that too.

[elphaba2]

We're not all horrible, but I know some fairly idiotic people over here. Take my global teacher for example ("No, really, take her!" /false laughter) She's a doctor of Global History or some such and insists we address her as Dr. constantly. However, during a recent lecture, she referred to Quebec's being in Ontario. Someone corrected her, reminding her that Quebec is a province, and she got all flustered and fluted in a terrible transatlantic flute that she had mixed up her Canadian cities with the provinces. She said that oh she should have remembered, because she visited her sister in Quebec last month ("she lives in Toronto, dontcha know," she confided.) I gaped.

My cousin's roommate at Quinnipiac University believes that you can get sick from computer viruses and that the USA is part of the United Kingdom.

I know a sixteen-year-old boy who is building a biodegradable medical tool out of DNA that will be able to repair function in paralyzed limbs and then be absorbed into the body when complete. I know three published authors under the age of twenty. I know a piano scholar and four 4.0 GPA holders. The US is a mixed bag, and I bet Tibet and Brazil and France are, too. The one thing that gets pounded into American heads from birth is that we are diverse (which is why we're better than those snobby Brits.)

We sort of also just happen to have the single most noisy and grating bunch of ignorants. Coincidence?

[pgrmdave]

Americans are loud mouthed idiots

French people don't shower, are snobby, and will surrender under any circumstances.

Brits have no sense of humor, and greet everybody with a friendly "Cheerio!" every day.

Germans are constantly drunk, and warlike.

Koreans/Japanese/[insert east asian country here] are incredibly smart, play the violin, and hold tradition as the most sacred thing in exsistance, to the point of being willing to kill themselves for their family's honor.

Middle Easterners are either violent Jihadists or Oil Barons.

Mexicans are dumb and lazy, and the only work they do is menial labor.

Stereotypes aren't true.

[Phyllis]

It's only if they ask stupid questions like.. "does London have public toilets" (Yes.. I have been asked that), do I really realise I'm speaking to anyone from the states.

Perhaps they meant ones that you don't have to pay 20p to use.

I'm sure if you were in a foreign country, you'd ask some questions that locals would see as incredibly stupid.

The people who asked if you were British when they heard your accent were probably trying to determine whether you were from the UK or Australia. Many Americans find it difficult to tell the difference, simply because we're not used to hearing either of them. I was asked by someone while I was in the UK if I was Australian...which I thought was funny because I made a conscious effort to keep my incredibly generic American accent the same so I wouldn't sound like Madonna, trying to feign a British one.

[Moosh]

Brits have no sense of humor, and greet everybody with a friendly "Cheerio!" every day.

No sense of humour? Is that really the steroetype of Brits in the US? 'Cos we actually steroetype Americans as not being able to understand our subtle humour.

/Kinda' Spam

[Astarael]

I may have to agree with the subtle humor point a little. Most of the stupid people at my school have no respect for Monty Python or anything else British. The smart ones (nearly all of my friends... I'll ignore the stupid one) think it's hilarious and quote it until the teachers scream at us to shut up with the quotes already. Only the fun teachers will quote it along with us.

My church hosted a few people from Ireland last year. We had so much fun talking just to hear their awesome accents. Ah, we must have looked like such easily amused Americans.

[Witless]

The people who asked if you were British when they heard your accent were probably trying to determine whether you were from the UK or Australia.

The entire conversation went like this:

Guy: Is your accent british?

Me: Yup

Guy: Why are you speaking in a british accent?

Me: Because I'm from Britain.

Guy: Really?

Me: Yeah...

Guy: Never realised they had black people in britain, that's neat.


Actually remembering that conversation has finally reminded me why I started using the word "neat"