Quote:
Originally Posted by ChainLegacy
As for Americans, no, I really don't believe we're any worse than the rest of the world, on average. I think a large swath of people across all cultures, nationalities, and lifestyles are stupid.  |
Yeah, but for whatever reason America tends to get singled out. I think it's more because Americans have for a long time been worried about their education falling behind (dating from the cold war), and so often focus attention on their own ignorance. Due to the dominance of American media, we get to see the attention paid to it. In Europe people are just as ignorant, but we don't
think we're ignorant, and so watching TV you'd never know it.
There's also a very old Anti-American line of thinking that pops up. The frequent accusation is that America is "without culture, without history", which is utter nonsense. They should watch some movies and TV and realise how American culture has overwhelmed their own. And America's history is rich and varied, and the average European isn't really aware of the period of Europe's history when America didn't exist anyway. Of course you can bring up the Greeks and Romans, but America has the Incas, Mayans and Aztecs(among others).
That said, America does have a worse knowledge of Geography then Europe. But not a lot worse. Neither Americans or Europeans tend to know about the geography of Togo or Laos.