stupid Americans?

[EireWolf]

...and please Canada does not so count as a foreign country as everyone knows it's a district office of the U.S.A.

Please... You're making Americans look bad again...

As for the exchange students who didn't like their experience in America -- When I was "shopping" for a college to go to, I spent the night in a dorm at a particular college as part of a program for prospective students. The girls whose room I shared were rude to me and barely even acknowledged my presence. I would not go to that school... but neither would I assume that all students in that college would be so cold. I'm sorry that your friends had bad experiences, and I can understand that they might think all Americans act that way... but really, their experience was in one town out of the whole giant country, right?

(The converse is also true -- someone who has a good experience in a foreign country might assume that all [insert nationality here] are nice people, when it's probably not true.)

[mitsuki lover]

Well the fact is if you really think about it Americans do treat Canada like it was part of the United States.Aside from the Border and Quebec there really isn't that much difference between the two countries.And yes I do live within three hundred plus miles of the Canadian border so that is why my view of it might be skewered a bit.

[Bobtheduck]

Hmm... I recognize this thread from a little bit ago, and now I have to say... Some of the people in here worry me more than the stupid people on that video. I've seen generalizations about the nation I live in, political statements, self loathing... All from a video possible only through the power of editing. Anyone taking this video as fact proves themselves to be incredibly naive. And THAT makes me sad.

We ended up here because the realization that the hapless subjects of the original video are members of the voting public. Granted, those particular people are perhaps more extreme examples of public ignorance, but such ignorance is real and worse, seems to be a pervasive part of the American body politic.

*sigh*

I'm sure this can be taken a million ways. I can guess which of those million you most likely were coming from.

This thread makes me very sad. Not at the stupid Americans I live with. At the people in the forum I liked the best. Browsing youtube, I've seen the comments lists saturated with Anti-american crap. A sort of bigotry on par with Neo-Nazism, toward a land of people they've never met due to something they aren't part of, ignoring the horrible things that happened that were not of American origin in those events. What's worse, I see the call to destroy Jews and the destruction of Christianity. That is sad enough, to see that stuff still pervades our world, but it makes me more sad to see elements of that same sort of bigotry invade the Christian world. It was like that when I went to Australia, too... The bigotry and hatred I saw was immense. I guess it shattered my too positive stereotypes, particularly after the great Australian friends I had gotten while I was in the US.

What I think is the most ironic is, after all of this, people get off saying the US is full of bigots. A world of Bigots calling each other bigots. A world of stupid people calling each other stupid. A world of hatred calling each other on hatred...

Very sad.

[Dante]

What?! FRANCE ISN'T IN THE COUNTRY OF AFRICA!!! (Note there was a certain American famous for reffering to Africa as a country and not a continent : Mwah ha ha ha ha: ) Generally though, yes, we're the stupidest people on the face of the Earth, but does it matter? It's not how smart you are, but how many bombs and what amount of money your nation has. The only difference is that we're just stupid enough to spend our money on stuff that doesn't do anything and we are also dumb enough to drop bombs on who-ever makes use of that hideous item called logic . Teasing... sorta.

Plus fifty percent of my graduate level physics class if from China... the Chinese pwned America and I got the shaft as a result in grad school. Hope we get what we deserve and they take over the place and rise the Chinese flag over every state! Then they'll we'll be forced into doing something horrible... terrible indeed... AMERICANS WILL BE FORCED TO LEARN A SECOND LANGUAGE OTHER THAN SPANISH!!!! O_O MWAH HA HA HA HA!!! Enjoys his Kanji dictionary and wonders if he'll adjust better to the new regime more than the others.

Oh, we also have a tendancy to rant and wander from the main subject.

[Fish and Chips]

(Note there was a certain American famous for reffering to Africa as a country and not a continent : Mwah ha ha ha ha: )

Hey now, leave Drew Carry out of your nefarious schemes. He's got three shows to run.

[termyt]

*sigh*

I'm sure this can be taken a million ways. I can guess which of those million you most likely were coming from.

This thread makes me very sad. Not at the stupid Americans I live with. At the people in the forum I liked the best.

I tend to agree. I think the videos are a bit funny, but you make a good point. I ignored the comment when I first read it, but since the one who wrote it is largely considered to be one of the more intelligent members, it is probably worth speaking to.

To spread the stereotype that many Americans are fools because they do not know the political boundaries half the world away is one thing, but to imply that the majority of the voting populous here are idiots who will vote for the worst possible candidate is at the very least disheartening. Unfortunately, I hear a lot of that from my friends to the North (and I know and work with quite a few). I also hear a lot of positive things, too, but sometimes it’s kind of like someone punching me in the kidney and then complementing my on my hair.

But it’s probably all true. I mean how could so many of us vote for the lunatics in the Republican party when the whole world clearly understands that the liberal philosophy is clearly better? They haven’t solved their problems any better than us, but obviously they are right. After all, Canadians don’t spend anywhere as near as much as we do on the military, so clearly they are more enlightened and peaceful than we are. And even without spending the money on it, they have one of the best forces on the planet protecting them – the USAF, the USN, the USMC...

That statement is more political than I care to be, but it does hurt a bit to be impugned so as if we are imperialist warmongers out to rape the world of its resources to feed our monstrous appetite. The United States was the last country to successfully invade and conquer France. No army or political movement has done so since, but does the US control France today? What did we take from France? Just enough land to bury the soldiers who died driving the Nazis out.

[RobinSena]

We know Americans are stupid, we don't need a video to tell us. =P

(I am an American, btw)

[Doubleshadow]

I'm not terribly sure that this is constructive, but I am going to say it.

Many sufficiently intelligent people retain information relevant to their daily lives and do not expand their mental energies trying to keep hold of random facts and tidbits that are not useful in a practical sense to them according to their own judgment. Also, many people tend not to go out of their way to acquire "useless information", or they live under such circumstances that they are not even aware of their own ignorance.

I don't consider a skit done on a comedy show for fun an accurate gauge of any countries intelligence or knowledge base. There are a thousand factors involved in determining what a person does and does not need to know to get by in life and an arbitrary list of facts certainly will not aptly represent them all. This applies to any person, in any circumstance, in any country.

People only must know information pertinent to their daily lives; it should not be considered an intellectual short coming if they do not know information only someone else considers important. If a person knows what they need to to survive in life and do their job, then what does it matter if they do not know information they never have to use anyway? And how valuable is a good education if a person never bothers to apply it?

[Dante]

Ahem... might I ask? Why is the world so obsessed with America... I mean, we're only one country out of 193 recognized by the UN... (192 soveriegn states plus the Vatican... Sealand is not recognized if I remember correctly). I mean, why not focuss on Bahrain or Zambia? , by focussing so much on us you're overinflating our national ego, and if we only hear about us us us... well... that's just not a good thing, inspire a global view in an American today! Discuss the people Suriname or the Cook Islands!!!

[Fish and Chips]

Ahem... might I ask? Why is the world so obsessed with America... I mean, we're only one country out of 193 recognized by the UN... (192 soveriegn states plus the Vatican... Sealand is not recognized if I remember correctly). I mean, why not focuss on Bahrain or Zambia? , by focussing so much on us you're overinflating our national ego, and if we only hear about us us us... well... that's just not a good thing, inspire a global view in an American today! Discuss the people Suriname or the Cook Islands!!!

It inflates our national ego hearing foreigners rip on our people's intelligence?

[Dante]

Yes, of course it does, because it actually sounds like the intelligence of Americans is a global concern, and that Americans are special. I mean, would they create a TV show ripping on the intelligence of people who live in Suriname? No, time and time again it's always about us... really, why should they care?

[Nate]

No, time and time again it's always about us... really, why should they care?

Uh...perhaps because we have our noses in everything, we're always butting in on every other country's business. Suriname and Brazil don't do that, hence why you don't hear anything about them. Because they're not as prominent as the United States.

[termyt]

Butting our noses in is the cause? I don’t think so. We got criticized for doing nothing in Somalia. Then we got criticized for doing something. Then we got criticized again when we stopped doing what we had been criticized for. Never mind that the richest people in the world claim to be muslims and they did NOTHING.

When the Tsunami hit, the US gave more money than anyone else, but we got criticised bacuse the money didn't come directly from the government. Whatever. There’s no way to avoid the criticism. It comes when we do nothing, it comes when we do something.

[Ashley]

You know, this thread is stirring up nothing but animosity and political strife. Locked.