Americans are NOT stupid

[Lord Duckhunter]

So you think no one in England has bought a van and decided to put things into it and charge? Come on, please rose tinted glasses or what.

 

My point was the reaction to his gamble(and it was a gamble) from his friends and neighbours.

[Batman]

It is the arrogance of the British who think Americans are thick. You ask people from the Uk and i doubt many would have a decent knowledge of geography and history....now 100 questions on Eastenders, C list celebs and Neighbours and then you would get full answers.

If you look at it logically, they dont really need to know much about the rest of the world, much like us having to know about Mongolia etc

 

They of course are not thick. Just not worldly at all

 

Only about 10-15% of yanks have a passport

[Barry Sanchez]

My point was the reaction to his gamble(and it was a gamble) from his friends and neighbours.

 

People take gambles all the time, rose tinted glasses, this Country has an entrepeneurial and cavalier spirit running through it, America and newer (Old British) Countries may have a more of "can do" attitude as their laws are less binding? But to say we all would take the **** as someone is trying to better themselves is simply wrong, Tim Berners Lee for an example.

Its all too easy to say they can and we cant, its simply not true and a gross simplification.

[Lord Duckhunter]

They of course are not thick. Just not worldly at all

 

Only about 10-15% of yanks have a passport

 

If you didn't need a passport to visit the EU and had never needed one , how many Brits would have one?

 

Add in the fact that the USA is so vast and diverse that you can have most types of holiday staying within the country. If you live in Boston, you can have a beach holiday in FLA, if you live in Texas you can ski in Colorado, want a city break, New York maybe. If you want a British Salou experience as a teenager, then you can do Daytona or other spring break places.

 

So ask yourself this, if Disneyworld/land etc theme parks were in the UK, if you didn't need a passport to travel to France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, ect how many Brits would have a passport?

 

What is this "worldly" you talk of. Does staying in an all inclusive "Holiday Village" in Turkey make you "worldly", or is it just transporting British culture and Butlins mentality to a hot country? If you narrow it down to Brits who take in the culture and sights and sounds of foreign countries outside of the EU, I bet the % is pretty much the same as Americans who travel. A lot of Brits (including me) go abroad to relax and get some sun in whilst staying in a different state/country, we need to leave the Country to do so, Americans don't.

[Batman]

I agree. Just pointing out why Americans are not very worldly

[Patrick Bateman]

Yes, the video is worrying and very funny. But come on, they've obviously picked their targets and gone to some hideous backwater town where people probably only care about their immediate vicinity, not even the rest of the US (as highlighted by some of their answers about states), let alone the rest of the world.

 

I worked for a massive Seattle based company. Without question, everyone in that company over there was totally clued up, worked hard and were genuinely intelligent people. Same with the guys I work with now who are NYC based, very very clued up people. My boss is American too now.

 

I bet if you interviewed a load of the cretins I see walking round London, or if you went to Hull you'd get similar answers.

 

When I was at Hull Uni, one of the blokes on my course who was from Hull didn't know where f**king Rotherham was!!!! So no, I don't agree that "Americans are stupid", but yes, it's a very amusing video and well put together.

[Patrick Bateman]

They of course are not thick. Just not worldly at all

 

Only about 10-15% of yanks have a passport

 

Most of them don't need one!! You know the plane from New York to Vegas, Seattle to Chicago, Chicago to Vegas (etc etc) all take about 4 or 5 hours??

 

I considered moving to Seattle to work, one of the guys said; "Where can you get to within 2 hours of London" - obvious answers; Paris, Dublin, Copenhagen, Berlin, Budapest, Barcelona etc etc etc.

"Where can you get to within 2 hours from Seattle" ... nowhere. Well, Vancover, that's it.

 

So whilst it's an amusing stat, most Americans don't need a passport. Christ, the cost of flights alone would stop them - let alone the fact they have less holiday (mostly) than we do and don't have the time ...

[Lord Duckhunter]

People take gambles all the time, rose tinted glasses, this Country has an entrepeneurial and cavalier spirit running through it, America and newer (Old British) Countries may have a more of "can do" attitude as their laws are less binding? But to say we all would take the **** as someone is trying to better themselves is simply wrong, Tim Berners Lee for an example.

Its all too easy to say they can and we cant, its simply not true and a gross simplification.

 

Bazza, If I turned up at my local tonight and announced I had bought a lorry on HP and was going to set my self up in the removal business despite never having done it in my life. Some people would say to my face, "what, you ****" and the polite ones would wait until I visited the John before taking the **** behind my back. Obviously, there would be exceptions, but as a general rule the reaction to an ordinary Joe taking a chance and trying to better himself is more positive than in the UK in my experience. It is often said, although I don't know if it still stands, that Americans are against soak the rich tax rates, because they all think they or their children could be rich one day

[Ohio Saint]

Of course a lot of places are named after places in Europe so if you mention a place name you have to qualify it.

 

Drives me nuts that one!! I mean, fair enough, it's their country, they can pronounce the names however they want......But it still drives me nuts.

 

Locally to me there are towns called Milan (My-lun) Greenwich (Green witch) Berlin (emphasis on Burr)

 

Then again, look at the way we pronounce Beaulieu!!

[Ohio Saint]

Yes, the video is worrying and very funny. But come on, they've obviously picked their targets and gone to some hideous backwater town where people probably only care about their immediate vicinity, not even the rest of the US (as highlighted by some of their answers about states), let alone the rest of the world.

 

My wife is smart. Her education and her awareness of the world around her, however is non-existent. I don't mean the rest of the world either. I knew more about American history than she does even before I came here! She is not the odd one out either. I see it all the time every day. Most of the common people in Ohio, at least are very poorly educated in terms of geography and history especially.

[suewhistle]

Americans are against soak the rich tax rates, because they all think they or their children could be rich one day

 

And that's why they're stupid...

[TheCholulaKid]

Lord Duckhunter and Patrick Bateman pretty much have this thread sewn up. There are dumb****s everywhere. Most Americans I've worked with/lived with/travelled with have been clued up and far brighter than the average Brit. The irony of 20 or so parochial posters on this thread reducing the intelligence of a nation of 300 million people...seriously...grow the **** up!

[Hamilton Saint]

Sarah Palin, former Governor of Alaska, and the Vice-Presidential candidate for the Republican Party, thought Africa was a country. So she was confused by the term South Africa - thinking it was a region of the country called Africa, rather than a separate country inside the African continent. She also could not name the three countries which had signed the North-American Free-Trade Agreement (the U.S., Canada, and Mexico). She was the Governor of her state, but had only a vague understanding of the division of powers between the federal, state and local levels of government.

 

Dan Quayle, the Vice-President during George H.W. Bush's Presidency, thought that the term Latin America (often used in reference to South America) was employed because all the people who lived down there spoke Latin.

 

The depth of ignorance down in the U.S. about the rest of the world can be quite astonishing - even amongst the so-called educated class.

 

My impression (correct me, if I am wrong about this, anyone who is in a position to know) is that throughout their primary and secondary education, Americans learn only about American history (and not much of that, some times) and American geography.

 

 

When I was a teenager, I was fascinated about the rest of the world. I read newspapers, watched the news, read books, perused encyclopaedias and atlases. I had a big interest in the world-at-large. I cared about what was then known as "general knowledge".

 

American teenagers (and adults) live in what is essentially an anti-intellectual, philistine culture that has virtually no interest in such things. They are obsessed with popular culture - which seems to be nothing more than news about ignorant and misbehaving celebrities. And "news" about the world has morphed more and more into entertainment. And political comment and discussion has degenerated into ignorant loudmouths being paid millions of dollars to rant and yell. The epitome of this is approach Fox News; and the worst purveyor of their notion of Political commentary is Bill O'Reilly - a truly appalling individual. But I digress ...!

Edited 22 June, 2013 by Hamilton Saint

[Colinjb]

American teenagers (and adults) live in what is essentially an anti-intellectual, philistine culture that has virtually no interest in such things. They are obsessed with popular culture - which seems to be nothing more than news about ignorant and misbehaving celebrities. And "news" about the world has morphed more and more into entertainment. And political comment and discussion has degenerated into ignorant loudmouths being paid millions of dollars to rant and yell. The epitome of this is approach Fox News; and the worst purveyor of their notion of Political commentary is Bill O'Reilly - a truly appalling individual. But I digress ...!

 

Heaven forbid, that is approaching our own domestic future.

[hutch]

To be fair, they didn't help themselves when they elected Bush junior, did they?

[hutch]

Heaven forbid, that is approaching our own domestic future.

Fox = Sky, so yes.

 

It is disgraceful the way Sky News increasingly sees it's role as one of creating the news, rather than reporting it.

 

I get particularly concerned at the trend of broadcasting film footage given to them by "rebel sources" (aka terrorist PR groups) which they legitimise with a general disclaimer that "Sky News was not able to confirm the accuracy of the footage".

 

If you can't verify that it's true, then don't broadcast it as news.

[Saint_clark]

Bazza, If I turned up at my local tonight and announced I had bought a lorry on HP and was going to set my self up in the removal business despite never having done it in my life. Some people would say to my face, "what, you ****" and the polite ones would wait until I visited the John before taking the **** behind my back. Obviously, there would be exceptions, but as a general rule the reaction to an ordinary Joe taking a chance and trying to better himself is more positive than in the UK in my experience. It is often said, although I don't know if it still stands, that Americans are against soak the rich tax rates, because they all think they or their children could be rich one day

 

Agree with this, I was trying to get a loan to start up my own business a few months back and all my "mates" took the p*ss, saying the idea was ludicrous and would never happen. The apathy I felt after being slated probably led to me missing the opportunity because the property I was eyeing up had been sold by the time I got round to it.

[Ludwig]

Agree with this, I was trying to get a loan to start up my own business a few months back and all my "mates" took the p*ss, saying the idea was ludicrous and would never happen. The apathy I felt after being slated probably led to me missing the opportunity because the property I was eyeing up had been sold by the time I got round to it.

 

agree with this. Not only do we lack the "can do" attitude, we are quick to blame others for our own failings.

[hypochondriac]

Agree with this, I was trying to get a loan to start up my own business a few months back and all my "mates" took the p*ss, saying the idea was ludicrous and would never happen. The apathy I felt after being slated probably led to me missing the opportunity because the property I was eyeing up had been sold by the time I got round to it.

 

Tbf if the idea was ridiculous then they were right to say so. No idea if it was or not.

[Essruu]

agree with this. Not only do we lack the "can do" attitude, we are quick to blame others for our own failings.

 

:-)

[badgerx16]

 

The depth of ignorance down in the U.S. about the rest of the world can be quite astonishing - even amongst the so-called educated class.

 

My impression (correct me, if I am wrong about this, anyone who is in a position to know) is that throughout their primary and secondary education, Americans learn only about American history (and not much of that, some times) and American geography.

 

 

The less you learn about foreign parts, the less guilt you feel when bombing or invading them.

Edited 22 June, 2013 by badgerx16

[washsaint]

What a pathetic, moronic post from Hamilton Saint. For your information, and other sneering, snidey posters, my kids learn a LOT of history in their education here in the US. They spend a lot of time learning about the ancient Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Chinese, etc. amongst other things and have a ton more homework than in the Uk.

 

This country is huge.....we have not been on a "foreign" vacation in the 3 years we have been here as there is so much to see and do in this vast country. It is an outdoors mecca and most people are polite, friendly and well meaning: certainly far more so than we experienced living in the UK.

 

Add to that, the rich history from here (different from the UK/Europe but no less fascinating) and the kids (and us) have learnt and seen a ton about early settlers, Civil War, Washington, etc.

 

 

 

And kids don't pledge allegiance to a State...they pledge allegiance to the Flag of America. Not very worldly wise some of you are you?

[solentstars]

What a pathetic, moronic post from Hamilton Saint. For your information, and other sneering, snidey posters, my kids learn a LOT of history in their education here in the US. They spend a lot of time learning about the ancient Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Chinese, etc. amongst other things and have a ton more homework than in the Uk.

 

This country is huge.....we have not been on a "foreign" vacation in the 3 years we have been here as there is so much to see and do in this vast country. It is an outdoors mecca and most people are polite, friendly and well meaning: certainly far more so than we experienced living in the UK.

 

Add to that, the rich history from here (different from the UK/Europe but no less fascinating) and the kids (and us) have learnt and seen a ton about early settlers, Civil War, Washington, etc.

 

 

 

And kids don't pledge allegiance to a State...they pledge allegiance to the Flag of America. Not very worldly wise some of you are you?

 

Agree when I was over there a guy from Georgia knew more about English history than I did.its a great country with a positive forward looking nation and can relate to there head of state.only downsides are the health care system and gun culture

 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

[The Kraken]

Agree when I was over there a guy from Georgia knew more about English history than I did.its a great country with a positive forward looking nation and can relate to there head of state.only downsides are the health care system and gun culture

If you think those are the two only major downsides you've missed an awful lot.

[pap]

What a pathetic, moronic post from Hamilton Saint.

 

 

And kids don't pledge allegiance to a State...they pledge allegiance to the Flag of America. Not very worldly wise some of you are you?

 

I like Hamilton's input.

 

They not only pledge allegiance to the state, but even a specific form of government.

 

"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands."

[Ohio Saint]

my kids learn a LOT of history in their education here in the US. They spend a lot of time learning about the ancient Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Chinese, etc. amongst other things

 

I am guessing they are not in High School yet. We all get to learn the fanciful half-history stuff about people in robes when we are younger.

Their history education in High school will most likely not advance beyond that level though. The education system here seems to be a big fan of revisionist history when it comes to anything that happened after the early 1600s.

 

Texas education board members (politicians) get to say what gets included in many of the books that go out to schools in the the rest of the country. That is a serious problem.

[View From The Top]

One of the key reasons I moved back to Europe from the States was the general ignorance of the populous.

 

Before the fall of the Berlin Wall I was having a beer with some American friends of mine, in Coco Beach FL, and they were seriously discussing about nuking the commies in the USSR or fighting a limited nuclear war in Europe, oblivious to the fact that Europe was home and millions would die. These weren't uneducated rednecks, to a man (& woman) they were graduates, some working at the Kennedy Centre up the road.

 

I find it perplexing. It's a great country with generous people but so ignorant and backwards at the same time.

 

Much prefer Canada & Canadians though.

[The Kraken]

I find it perplexing. It's a great country with generous people but so ignorant and backwards at the same time.

 

Much prefer Canada & Canadians though.

Having lived in the US for 2 years, and visited the country on over 50 separate occasions (34 states and counting) the first line in this is the most accurate statement I've yet seen on this thread. The second is equally true.

[Ohio Saint]

I find it perplexing. It's a great country with generous people but so ignorant and backwards at the same time.

 

 

I'll second Kraken's approval. That was a very concise, yet accurate comment.

[Hamilton Saint]

What a pathetic, moronic post from Hamilton Saint. For your information, and other sneering, snidey posters, my kids learn a LOT of history in their education here in the US. They spend a lot of time learning about the ancient Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Chinese, etc. amongst other things and have a ton more homework than in the Uk.

 

This country is huge.....we have not been on a "foreign" vacation in the 3 years we have been here as there is so much to see and do in this vast country. It is an outdoors mecca and most people are polite, friendly and well meaning: certainly far more so than we experienced living in the UK.

 

Add to that, the rich history from here (different from the UK/Europe but no less fascinating) and the kids (and us) have learnt and seen a ton about early settlers, Civil War, Washington, etc.

 

 

 

And kids don't pledge allegiance to a State...they pledge allegiance to the Flag of America. Not very worldly wise some of you are you?

 

I wasn't being "sneering and snidey" - I was just offering observations on what I see and hear. I don't know what parts of what I've said are "pathetic" and "moronic". You've been living in the US for three years? Well, I've been living close by to them - in southern Ontario - for almost 45 years, closely attuned to their culture and news media. Canadians are exposed to US media to a huge extent - but we also follow events in Europe and around the world. Americans do not pay attention to Canada to the slightest degree, even though many of them live very close by. They know virtually nothing about our history, geography and culture.

[OldNick]

Surely most of us only have interest in things that matter to us, it would be impossible to learn about every country. We Europeans think we are very important but we are fast becoming irrelevant. In the next 20 years there will be more Spanish speakers in the USA than English speaking, that could suggest that in the next few decades South America will be far ,more important to the US. Add the CHinese and Russians on the world stage and I suspect Europe will be pushed down the scale and the UK will be to them what Iceland is to us, we know of their capital city only

[Hamilton Saint]

Surely most of us only have interest in things that matter to us, it would be impossible to learn about every country. We Europeans think we are very important but we are fast becoming irrelevant. In the next 20 years there will be more Spanish speakers in the USA than English speaking, that could suggest that in the next few decades South America will be far ,more important to the US. Add the CHinese and Russians on the world stage and I suspect Europe will be pushed down the scale and the UK will be to them what Iceland is to us, we know of their capital city only

 

Yes - time to brush up on my Latin!