Except there is no continent simply called "America". There are continents called "North America" and "South America". Note the capitalization. "North" and "South" are part of the names, not just some descriptors that can be dropped off. To say so otherwise would be like claiming West Virginia is Virginia.
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America The Dumbest Nation
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Except there is no continent simply called "America". There are continents called "North America" and "South America". Note the capitalization. "North" and "South" are part of the names, not just some descriptors that can be dropped off. To say so otherwise would be like claiming West Virginia is Virginia.
Why, who would have a connection with the word america except people from the US?
Brazilians are american, so are canadians. Are we suppose to have some kindred american spirit like europeans?
Lagspike_exe
Member
Actually, North Korea has an extremely strict educational system. Just because they're rulled by a tyranicall family doesn't mean they're stupid.
cr_blah_blah
Member
I know you are, but what am I?
American =(
Yeah, I agree. We even have locally produced similar videos, and even the OP summed it up nicely. But the thing that rubs of the wrong way is the ending. Someone summed it up in the recent America is the greatest thread. There are so many people who unquestionably support the president.
LOL, yeah I was just thinking. All those poor beautiful women.
Mgoblue201
Won't stop picking the right nation
There is no concept of a "continental American" like there is of a European, and no other country even has the word America in its name, so there shouldn't be a problem. This is one of the more annoying complaints that I come across. I can't help but feel that what motivates it the desire to chastise all the stereotypical Americans who believes in American exceptionalism and know little about the rest of the world.
The first thing that came to mind was actually Uzbekistan. United States might have been my third or fourth answer. I always just refer to it as America too.
What does the amount of people have to do with it? They attract international students because the schools are good. The schools are good because the country takes higher education pretty seriously, and has a huge number of well established schools. If America were a "dumb" country nobody would give a damn about higher education and these schools wouldn't be so acclaimed. Most wouldn't exist in the first place if there wasn't a high demand for higher education.
As for WWII, like others, you're failing to acknowledge the war in the Pacific. WWII wasn't just about the Nazis. Australia, New Zealand and many other countries would have been in pretty rough shape had we not stopped the Japanese from invading. Also, why do you think the US entered the war on the European front in the first place? All of the Allied nations were important.
Russia alone did not "win" WWII. The Soviet Union lost twice as many soldiers as Germany and nearly 15 MILLION civilians. Read that again. 15 million innocent people and as many as 10 million soldiers. If I were Russian I would be insulted if someone said that my country "won" WWII while losing that many people.
RSLAEV
Member
"Who is in the coalition of the willing?" Who the hell cares?! Gee let me memorize all of the names of the countries that decided to jump face first into this middle eastern quagmire that we were forced into by Bush's administration because I don't have shit else to do and apparently it's my fucking *job*
shanshan310
Member
Chasers <3
Their whole show is satire guys!
Its funny because the people that made this are Australian. But go on, try and make this a Europe vs USA thread again, see if I care!
Their whole show is satire guys!
Its funny because the people that made this are Australian. But go on, try and make this a Europe vs USA thread again, see if I care!
Always-honest
Banned
very old but these kind of people are everywhere.
Yes, but that doesn't change the brainwashing and everything else they're told to be true, especially when talking about other nations and their lifestyles. I'm not saying the people there are dumb, but on the whole, you can't say they're smarter than the average person in most developed countries just because of how much they're kept in the dark. You can only know what your government allows you to know in a government like that.
So yes, you can say they're strict, but that doesn't make them necessarily smart in the areas discussed in the OP.
I agree. We also live in a world where people can't or don't care to remember things that happened more than a week ago. People have short attention spans today more than ever so it's like a few issues are latched onto and that's what gets all the focus. Basically, they're only as smart as the news they're watching or the book they're reading at the time...lol
The Soviets lost 25 million people during the war, but came out of it a superpower that controlled half of Europe. I think it's fair to say they "won". They really didn't get any help from the West militarily until the invasion of Sicily in 1943. By that time, the Germans had already lost at Kursk and were retreating from Russia. Lend Lease helped with supplies and logistics, but the Soviets had to do the majority of the major fighting during the war.
Eh this is a pretty unintellectual way of proving America is dumb, since this is something you can do in pretty much every country and get some variation of it, depending on how you select the clips.
If the video was about the way America is progressively slipping further and further behind the rest of the world in terms of competitive education, and it showed the real world data showing the de-funding of education/the slipping standards of students nationwide, the war on teachers and their unions, the impact on lower income families ability to send their kids to college, etc, then that would make me "rage" - even though I know about these issues.
Showing clips of people not knowing that Yugoslavia is not spelled Ugoslavia is not going to piss me off.
If the video was about the way America is progressively slipping further and further behind the rest of the world in terms of competitive education, and it showed the real world data showing the de-funding of education/the slipping standards of students nationwide, the war on teachers and their unions, the impact on lower income families ability to send their kids to college, etc, then that would make me "rage" - even though I know about these issues.
Showing clips of people not knowing that Yugoslavia is not spelled Ugoslavia is not going to piss me off.
lol that's actually why it came to mind first for me
C'mon now, you'd sooner be watching the parade than thinking that.
EDIT: Regarding the space race. If it wasn't for the death of this guy, human kind would probably go much further than the Moon.
ElectricBlue187
Member
Omg another one...Bush won the popular vote one time, in 2004.
Aquavelvaman
Banned
You seem to be a reasonable person with a balanced worldview, LDawg.
War Peaceman
You're a big guy.
The USA has more visibility of its less-intelligent members and it has a higher number of low intelligence people than most countries (obviously - look at the population numbers).
However, these sorts of videos are incredibly misleading for reasons already presented in the thread. Also, the USA is so geographically vast that it is easy to understand why citizens there might have a more USA-centric understanding. To them, it might be absurd that a Dutchman could not point out Arkansas on a map, or something. That said, better education is needed pretty much everywhere.
"I don't spend all of my time on the internet, because I have a life."
That's always the excuse I hear when I bring this up.
I guess they really like pizza.
Lol at his map with all the countries mixed up.
Edit: "Which countries are in the axis of evil" Holy shit, lmao.
That was the breaking point for me. It just feels as too big of a joke to be real.
So its tolerated discrimination and stereotyping then? Yay hypocrisy!
ElectricBlue187
Member
So true
Government-man
Member
Dude, this is just how human beings behave. If they don't understand the relevance that something has to their daily lives, they won't be interested in it. And that goes for all people. Also, judging intelligence by how well informed you are about current events is silly. That's not to say the people in that video are intelligent
A person so blase about foreign policy is extremely dangerous in a democratic society. An intelligent person should understand the relevance of being educated. Judging peoples' intelligence by how well they are informed is the very opposite of silly.
shanshan310
Member
No, so not true. There's no concept of a stereotypical European either.
tallkid123
Member
Those guys are the Chasers. They existed only to perceive everything with a healthy dose of satire. They stopped their television show though as they realised their brand of comedy was getting old (that, and having to be pulled off the air for a few weeks because they made fun of a charitable organisation dedicated to sick kids).
From my experience, the average American will still be able to have a better chance at reducing their ignorance of the rest of the world at some point in their lives than another race. For example,I'm not sure how much experience you have with local people from Asia however but I assure you that many of them know next to nothing about anything outside their borders.
I don't hold knowing world capitals of every major country to be that important. Naturally, a person will remember them if they've obviously been there or had some form of distant interaction with the place (a penpal, buying online, etc) rather than just having to recite it out of an atlas like a rotelearning a piece of info.
As for states, fair call.
It would be a good idea to know your own head of state and maybe those of any neighbouring countries. Beyond that, it's just up to the person to care. I gave up on caring who the Japanese prime minister is nowadays for example.
Many people don't have strong opinions on political issues as it doesnt affect them and therefore, they pay little heed to it. I'm very apolitical and only pay attention when its time to vote in my country. I make an informed opinion of some sort at elections and then once they're over, I stop caring.
Came in to say this. This doesn't prove that people are dumb, it just proves they have no knowledge of that particular subject. I can relate to this. I would answer many of these questions wrong as well because I simply have no interest in the subject. I remember someone in this thread saying that all of this knowledge is readily available to us but if I don't fundamentally care about the subject then that becomes a moot point does it not?
Some people just dont care about certain things. But I bet they could wax poetic about something else.
ElectricBlanketFire
Member
I'm going to compile a list of stupid things said on GAF for a "GAF is the dumbest message board" thread.
I've been wanting to share this for a while and this thread seems the most appropriate (actually the only relevant one I've seen!).
I guess it's quite easy to dislike "Americans" when you're overseas; but you visit the country (which I've done a few times, I'm an expert etc.) and, man, I forget how pleasant they can be. Granted, I've only been to big cities but I can only comment on what I know.
As for the "dumb" thing it's everywhere. Ignorance is what people imagine and then that mutates into "dumb". Ignorant mofos.
Go USA (with some tweaks and turns).
I guess it's quite easy to dislike "Americans" when you're overseas; but you visit the country (which I've done a few times, I'm an expert etc.) and, man, I forget how pleasant they can be. Granted, I've only been to big cities but I can only comment on what I know.
As for the "dumb" thing it's everywhere. Ignorance is what people imagine and then that mutates into "dumb". Ignorant mofos.
Go USA (with some tweaks and turns).
Angry Fork
Member
I generally do think Americans are stupid, but I don't like these videos. It's always selectively chosen for obvious reasons and you don't know how many people told them right answers as opposed to wrong and so on. I judge American stupidity by politics. The fact that Santorum was a presidential candidate and had support from tons of states is proof enough for me that at least a quarter of the country should be deported.
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