The state of our nation:
http://trava.kiev.ua/flvplayer.swf?f...autoStart=true
Sure it's a bit, sure it's loaded, but it's still f-ing sad people are THAT ignorant.![]()
The state of our nation:
http://trava.kiev.ua/flvplayer.swf?f...autoStart=true
Sure it's a bit, sure it's loaded, but it's still f-ing sad people are THAT ignorant.![]()
A cunning linguist...




Its sad, but not very surprising.....
...though you pretty much hit my #1 pet-pevve with that video, ignorant people...
I read a stat that something like 50% of Americans could not find the US on a world map...I sh*% you not...
Sure it's a bit, sure it's loaded (like did the intentionally delete those that got the answer correct?) , but it's still f-ing sad people are THAT ignorant. I’m also not convinced it’s an American thing (this bit was intended ad American bashing no doubt) but a people thing. That is, I would like to see the same questions asked on the streets of other major cities of the world and see what answers they got.
Regardless, most Americans are ignorant of the world, their own country, etc, and it does not bode well for our fine Democracy. But, we are the victims of our own success in the world it seems. Visions of Rome no doubt…
Trivia: pick your favorite stupid person. Hard to pick from all that, but for some reason, the older gent not knowing how many world wars have been fought, really blew me away. He’s old enough to know better. I expect that from some dumb kid, but him? He’s old enough to be a vet.
A cunning linguist...





Reminds me of "Talking to Americans" which is a show we have in Canada. A guy goes and interviews Americans about things relating to Canada. It's hilarious. Sometimes he tells them things like we are getting out first highway or we are finally getting electricity. What is sad is he speaks with Harvard professors and even got Bush during his election campaign!!!!!
I'm not going to believe a Harvard proff is going to believe Canada just got electricity. You would have to porve that one by me personally. I would only ask the reverse was done, because when i see what people from other countries THINK they know about the US, vs what is true, it's often no less ignorant, just different. But yes, people are just stupid![]()
A cunning linguist...
Haha, thats one of my favorite tv shows Chasers War On Everything they are hilarious and pull some great stunts - I trust you may have heard of this one!





I'm sorry, but you can find dumb, ignorant people in any country. It's not just limited to the U.S.![]()
Thus my comment:
I’m also not convinced it’s an American thing (this bit was intended ad American bashing no doubt) but a people thing. That is, I would like to see the same questions asked on the streets of other major cities of the world and see what answers they got.
However, stats do point to Americans as being on the bottom in terms world knowledge, and that's scarry.
A cunning linguist...





Well, I missed that. My bad. This is just a very sensitive issue with me. I've spent some time overseas and have seen and experienced firsthand how Americans are perceived through foreign eyes. After a while, frankly-it gets OLD. These people can take their fucking superiority complexes and stick them up their asses as far as I'm concerned.
Good point there, thus my comments. Also, people from other countries are quite ignorant about the US. What they think they know about the US and what are the facts about the US, are often wrong, so I agree with you. For example, I have noted people in the UK think the US is full of crime and look down on the US, when it's been shown the UK is FAR worse than the US for most crimes. Many of these countries have higher crime rates than they know (higher than the US in some cases), the US has lower crime than they realize, and they too are victims of their own media brain washing about the US.
A cunning linguist...
OKay here we go. Born in Europe, don't give a rats ass about my home Country!!!
My mother now lives in the US and she drills me ALL the TIME about Sweden...I don't speak Swedish well, oh but i'm learning alot more now, thanks to her drilling!
I don't claim to know alot about the US. I work i hold two degrees, i am a clever person, but i don't want or need to be a "know it all" I know alot about somethings, a little about somethings, and nothing about somethings. And yes this will have to do with the US and Europe, as well as Pro-Football as i learned last night..LMFAO! I don't want to know it all. Can't.
I have dated Doctors, and outside their work....I blow them away with trivial questions...that's SAD.
I am the one who can carry on a convo. with the dumbest person and we have a ball!
PS i know the capital of every State and Country!!!! Yep, that' my knowledge! Well almost every Country.




There's a guy at work, from Dorchester, two things that really blew my mind:
1: He asked a group of guys 'Hey did you see that Cowboys against Dallas (football) game last night?". Yes, we all had to look at him or a couple of seconds to comprehend that.
2: Quick background, he's a middle-thirties african-American, he says something to me one day about me, that really could be about himself; so I respond "That's the pot calling the kettle black."
No word of a lie, he though I was being racist against him, till we, myself and his manager (good friend of his) had to spell out the whole analogy for him.




I think the issue, both sides of the pond is that when all your presented is the stereo-type, than that is what you think of that population/country as a whole.
Though I got pissed off a number of times in France when I saw americans think that if they talked slower and louder, that a French person who doesn't speak english would understand them.





Well then they were just ignorant. That's two out of 301 MILLION. That certainly doesn't make it indicative of anything.
I love how in the video they interviewed rednecks and what looked like homeless people. Great way to get the intended finished product.![]()
The thing is, though, that other countries DO tend to know a great deal more about the United States than we know about them. So we ARE pretty ignorant when it comes to other countries...
Of course, when I say other countries, I mean countries with the technology/ability to receive the information. I too have done some world traveling and I could have conversations for hours with the Dutch and the Belgians about U.S. foreign policy/economics/etc., and we could have long conversations about International Relations, but I couldn't tell you much about them...It's something I soon hope to rectify.





A great percentage of that has to do with the media and what we're exposed to. Is someone in Europe inherently smarter because their news broadcasts world issues instead of apartment fires in whatever city? That information is fed to them straight through the boob tube while we get coverage of Paris Hilton's arrest.
We can get access to the same information, but we have to search harder to get it. Plus, well I hate to say this without sounding like some tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist, but our media is very slanted, America-centric and waters down the truth for the masses. That is why so many people are ignorant.




The problem is, you don't have to search all that hard.
There are many websites available with world news...Time...The Economist...BBC news...The New York Times...The Washington Post...etc. In the time one sits down to watch the news about Paris Hilton, one could read the headlines on each one of those websites. It's just a matter of adding them to your favorites...
If you don't have access to the internet, it DOES become slightly more difficult. Though the news wouldn't be reporting on Paris Hilton if it wasn't what the general public wanted. News channels have one job--and that is to make money--if we would buy international news, the channels would provide it. Americans don't care about the state of Zimbabwe. We care about Jamie Lynn Spears's pregnancy.




Its a trend that has been going on for years,
you can look at it this way, i think there are only 5 cities in the country that have 2 or more daily newspapers. Which when you think about it, is amazing that editors, etc get to act as gatekeepers to only give the info they want to, and the info. that will sell.
News, rather Journalism is dying in this country, and the fore-fathers thought it was always one of the most important pieces in the whole democracy, it enabled citizens to find out what was going on, and not just what the politicians told them.
Nowadays news on Fox/CNN consists of getting 2 poeple with opposite opinions, and let them fight for 1 minute, see Bill O'reilly.
^^Sad state our world is in, isn't it?
This is a valid point. None of us have time (or an interest) to learn everything.
Intelligence is a "simple" word for what is in fact a complex concept. Knowing facts can be an aspect of intelligence, but it's not the definition of intelligence.
p.s. that said, it is a bit scary how out of touch some people are with basic world facts.
I guess it’s very "in" to take shots at America and Americans. Can you imagine a show called “talking to Canadians” or “talking to Mexicans” where the host spent all his time attempting to make them look ignorant would go over? There would be world wide outrage.
I only watched the first one, but I didn’t see anything terribly unreasonable per se and I doubt you would get different responses that were given in another country if the same trick was done to them on your average older person, most of which were “that’s a terrible idea” or “I don’t like that idea at all” and so on along, yes, with some real bone heads...
Americans are insulated, that’s for sure, but I am not convinced it’s an American thing but a people thing: most people on this planet are just smarter than a house cat, and I have known house cats smarter than some people.
A cunning linguist...
Meh.....I don't know half of those answers they asked and could give a rats ass but hey to each there own.![]()
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