stupid Americans?

[harina]

I just watched Julian Morrow's interview of some American people. I don't know how famous the whole thing is, so I don't know if a thread about the subject already exists.

The interview starts from here (and continues in part 2, part 3 etc..): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtXCs0Wqs9Q

I really couldn't believe my eyes/ears when watching it. Are there many people who think eg that France is in Australia? Are you taught any geography outside the US at school, honestly? Or does the interview give a wrong kind of image of Americans?

Just tell me what do you think (even if you are not an American yourself).

[Radical Dreamer]

...Dang.

As far as I'm concerned, they chose all the highschool drop-outs and rednecks to interview, because I can tell you right now that I know plenty of Americans (myself and many of those on CAA included) that are quite intelligent, and at least know that coffee is a drink. XD I mean, that's just pathetic. I will say, though, that one part made me laugh really hard--the part about the first man on the moon. XD

"Well, I mean, some people don't even believe that happened; they believe it was like, reincarnated in Arizona or somethin'."

WOW. XDD But yeah, I'd say it's a pretty bad representation of Americans as a whole. Their answers are downright embarrassing, though. XD;

[KeybladeWarrior]

Where does this news channel air? Sorta is disappointing. Other countries know more about America than America knows about it self.

[Fish and Chips]

Trusting your friends to separate the wheat from the chaff and burn the wheat.

[MasterDias]

From what I gathered, CNNNN is a satirical program, so I'm certain the interviews were delibrately skewed.

If they did it seriously, they should get plenty of more intelligent answers than that. There are a lot of morons around, sure, but several of the replies were so ridiculous, I suspect at least some of those were staged.

As RD mentioned, I find it difficult to believe that an American doesn't know what coffee is.

[Etoh*the*Greato]

They were asking what Koffi Anan was. Koffi Anan is the big face guy of the UN, and is not a drink. It kind of made me chuckle.

[ducheval]

From what I gathered, CNNNN is a satirical program, so I'm certain the interviews were delibrately skewed.

If they did it seriously, they should get plenty of more intelligent answers than that. There are a lot of morons around, sure, but several of the replies were so ridiculous, I suspect at least some of those were staged.

As RD mentioned, I find it difficult to believe that an American doesn't know what coffee is.

The clip in question is actually from a show called The Chaser's War on Everything, which is an australian comedy show. They have a segment called CNNNNN, which is their fake news team. It's actually a really funny show, and quite a few quality clips are on youtube.

I do have to agree with the clip though. The average American geographical ignorance is legendary, and well established statistically. I will not mention American spelling or grammar. Forum english tends to comment on that better than I ever could.

As for whether or not we're taught it, I can't speak for everyone but I certainly was. My education wasn't all that typical though, involving several religious schools of different types and a whole lot of public school. The best education I got overall was definitely through public schooling, but my catholic history/geography classes were actually one subject that did stand out as better than my public school ones.

I should also note though that much of the 1st world considers Americans stupid also for our tendency towards fundamentalist religion. Take that to mean what you want =P

[harina]

I can tell you right now that I know plenty of Americans (myself and many of those on CAA included) that are quite intelligent, and at least know that coffee is a drink. XD

As RD mentioned, I find it difficult to believe that an American doesn't know what coffee is.

Um.. He was referring to Kofi Annan.

[MasterDias]

Ah...My bad. I wasn't paying complete attention and the questions were moving rather fast.

[Bap]

From what I gathered, CNNNN is a satirical program, so I'm certain the interviews were delibrately skewed.

If they did it seriously, they should get plenty of more intelligent answers than that. There are a lot of morons around, sure, but several of the replies were so ridiculous, I suspect at least some of those were staged.

As RD mentioned, I find it difficult to believe that an American doesn't know what coffee is.

They coulda cut out those answers though. xD]I[/i] don't think they were. @_@;a Asides from a coupla people, most of them sounded like they didn't really believe what they were saying, and were just answering to give an answer. xD;

And for some of them, I think it could be understood how they'd get mistaken for something else? xD; Or maybe that's just me... I know like... nothing. About anything. xD; But like, the Axis of Evil part? D: I mean, I was thinking of WWII, but when you Wiki / Google it, it talks about something that Bush said? xD; So maybe it could've been taken either way? @_x;a

I dunno. xD; I just didn't really think it was all that silly. And it's not like the... what, 60-ish people they interviewed represent the whole nation, right? xD;

[Zarn Ishtare]

I'll hope that we were speaking of redneck in the negative sense merely by the example set by, say, "Deliverence", and not red-necks as a whole.

*glances in the mirror at a very red-neck*

[Cognitive Gear]

To be fair, that whole thing is edited to only show the stupid responses. I'm sure that they got many people who were not as ignorant as those shown. You could ask random people in any country a set of questions and you are bound to get some very ignorant responses. Enough to make a short clip of ignorance like this, certainly.

[the_lizardqueen]

Rick Mercer did it better!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talking_to_Americans

He even manged to catch a number of notable polititians *cough*the president*cough* But in all fairness, you could probably dig up a number of Canadians that would fall for the same schtick. Rick Mercer is incredibly deadpan. Plus the special had a few outtakes of schoolchildren telling him off for being inaccurate.

[soul alive]

I'm always blown away by the number of people who not only have no idea that Wyoming is even a state. I've been asked if I'm from the town of Wyoming in Texas before, after saying I'm from Wyoming. And if they know it's a state, they ask if we still travel around in covered wagons and ride horses to school. Seriously.

While there are a lot of ignorant people out there, there are just as many well-informed, intelligent people, thankfully. One of my favorite quotes is:
"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt." -- Mark Twain

[harina]

To be fair, that whole thing is edited to only show the stupid responses. I'm sure that they got many people who were not as ignorant as those shown. You could ask random people in any country a set of questions and you are bound to get some very ignorant responses. Enough to make a short clip of ignorance like this, certainly.

Yeah, probably, but I also watched some other interviews of the same kind. One of them was made in Los Angeles and there was a man asking people to name as many European countries that they know. One woman's asnwer was: "The one with the kangaroos, what was it called.."

Um, hello??

As far as I'm concerned, they chose all the highschool drop-outs and rednecks to interview

Umm.. by the way, what actually is a red-neck? I have never really understood it.

[Radical Dreamer]

Umm.. by the way, what actually is a red-neck? I have never really understood it.

Straight from dictionary.com. XD


red·neck /ˈrɛdˌnɛk/

1. an uneducated white farm laborer, esp. from the South.
2. a bigot or reactionary, esp. from the rural working class.
–adjective
3. Also, red-necked. narrow, prejudiced, or reactionary: a redneck attitude.

Also, a blurb from Wikipedia: "In one of his stand-up routines, Foxworthy summed up the condition as 'a glorious absence of sophistication.'"

[Cognitive Gear]

Yeah, probably, but I also watched some other interviews of the same kind. One of them was made in Los Angeles and there was a man asking people to name as many European countries that they know. One woman's asnwer was: "The one with the kangaroos, what was it called.."

This is exactly the point I was trying to make, though. It does not matter where you go to ask questions, you will always find ignorant people to make fun of. It's not like USA has a special IQ reducing ray that it shoots at children upon birth.

[harina]

red·neck /ˈ]
Thanks. ^^ So the (white) people who can't read usually belong to these?

This is exactly the point I was trying to make, though. It does not matter where you go to ask questions, you will always find ignorant people to make fun of. It's not like USA has a special IQ reducing ray that it shoots at children upon birth.

I see. But so far, these kind of interviews haven't been done outside US (I think..)

[Radical Dreamer]

Thanks. ^^ So the people who can't read usually belong to these?

Mm, sometimes. As with any stereotype, there's always generalizations involved, and I wouldn't say that ALL of them can't read, or even most of them. *nodnod*

[termyt]

There are about 300,000,000 Americans out there. Finding ones who are not versed in world events or geography can't be that hard. It would also be even easier to find some who would be willing to fake not knowing for money.

Then again, how many Eurpoean conuntries should the average American know the names of? How many US states can Europeans name? But, if it will restore some faith in the people of the most powerful nation on Earth, I will take a go with out the aid of an atlas (please for give my spelling - and my use of American names for the countries):

United Kingdom
France
Spain
Portugal
Germany
Austria (easy to confuse with the country that has Kangaroos)
Italy
Switzerland
The Netherlands
Iceland
Sweden
Findland (didn't think I'd forget yours, did you?)
Holland
Belgium
Russia
Poland
Romania
Greece
Macedonia
Serbia
The Vatican
Belarus
Latvia
Estonia
Lithuania
Bosnia
Denmark
Montenegro
Herzegovenia
Malta
Ireland
Hungry
Ukrane
Turkey
The Most Serene Republic of San Marino

Well, how did I do? I know I am missing some (most?) of the republics that used to be in Czechoslovacia, but that area keeps changing.

[Swordguy]

I would have to agree that you could go anywhere and find ignorance; in fact some people prefer to live in it. I mean I have had a few people state they didn't realize that the United States didn't all form at once. As for my own knowledge I used to know a great deal of the nations of the world, back when I had to memorize them. Can I say them off of the top of my head? Not really no, you ask me where it is and for the most part I will know, hey I can't even tell you all fifty states off of the top of my head, had that memorized at one time.

Mainly I would say that some ignorance is from misinformation, and some is from the fact people don't like to always face things outside their own little world, the brain can only hold so much

[harina]

There are about 300,000,000 Americans out there. Finding ones who are not versed in world events or geography can't be that hard. It would also be even easier to find some who would be willing to fake not knowing for money.

Then again, how many Eurpoean conuntries should the average American know the names of? How many US states can Europeans name? But, if it will restore some faith in the people of the most powerful nation on Earth, I will take a go with out the aid of an atlas (please for give my spelling - and my use of American names for the countries):

Good to know that some are not so ignorant. ^.^
But I don't really think that an average European should know all the names of the states of America (besides, they don't make us memorize them at school, and there's a first rate education in Finland). After all, it's a country, not a continent.

Findland (didn't think I'd forget yours, did you?)

Hah, great spelling

[MasterDias]

Well, how did I do? I know I am missing some (most?) of the republics that used to be in Czechoslovacia, but that area keeps changing.

Czechoslovakia was split up into only two nations if I recall right, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Yugoslavia was the country that was broken into a number of small nations.

And you are also missing Bulgaria, Albania, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein...
And Holland and The Netherlands are the same country...

[Swordguy]

i never said one should know them all...i myself have been to over 2/3rds of them and i still can't name them all, i was talking about the fact that many don't realize we only started with 13, which kind of makes since because it is our history, not theirs

[termyt]

After all, it's a country, not a continent.

That's a pretty euro-centric statement for a thread pointing out how ameri-centric Americans are.

Hah, great spelling

Hey! I said not to count my spelling! I was doing it off the cuff!

EDIT - oh and thanks MasterDias. I figured it would only take two posts for someone to point out ones I missed. It took three, but I was close.

[Kaligraphic]

Harina - Kofi Annan is black and caffeinated, but not carbonated. It's close enough to the drink.

termyt - your ignorance astounds me! How could you forget Lichtenstein? Or Andorra?

Swordguy - Everybody should be able to name all sixty-one states. If you can't, you're a communist spy.

[Yojimbo]

To be fair about the race of a "redneck" it can apply to any unintelligent, ignorant, welfare leeching, person regardless of race. Trust me there are plenty of black and hispanic rednecks right up there with whites. It has nothing to do with race anymore. Anyone from the South or who has connections there can attest to that. It's the character of a person that makes them a redneck not their skin color.

[Radical Dreamer]

To be fair about the race of a "redneck" it can apply to any unintelligent, ignorant, welfare leeching, person regardless of race. Trust me there are plenty of black and hispanic rednecks right up there with whites. It has nothing to do with race anymore. Anyone from the South or who has connections there can attest to that. It's the character of a person that makes them a redneck not their skin color.

Very true. XD I forgot to mention that in my post. XD

[Destroyer2000]

No, that is giving the wrong image of Americans. I agree, they must have chosen completely stupid people, the kind who should not be allowed to reproduce.

[TallasLint]

There are some ridiculously uneducated people in the United States, but I'm sure there are dumb people wherever you go. A bunch of the girls on my floor in my dorm couldn't identify Australia from its silouette (we were going to use it on a T-shirt...)...whereas I know a majority of the world capitals (excluding pacific Islands...I've never learned those...).

I saw in Time Magazine an article about countries that have possible plans for new flags, and under New Zealand it said that 12% of New Zealanders couldn't tell their flag apart from Australia's...admittedly, their flags do look VERY similar, however, I'm just saying that there are uneducated people everywhere, not just in the United States.

Those clips were definitely purely satirical (if you need any proof, read the "headlines" streaming along the bottom...), and I'm sure there are people who answered the questions right, but they were edited out.