question to Americans

[gopunk]

I'm just wondering this, why do most Americans have no idea what goes on outside their country?
It's like the average American thinks the world ends at the border to Canada, Mexico, Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean.
any thoughts of reasons causes etc?

no, but i'll tell you why i have no idea... the only reason i even have an idea of what goes on in my country is because it gets on the news or i hear people talk about it. it's not like i go and look for information about america. now, since they usually don't show too much stuff about what's going in other countries, most of what i know about current affairs is what i get from the news.

that is of course, unless you consider knowing what's going on outside of my country something like knowing all the rhetoric that gets pushed by all those fringe activist groups. but they annoy me, so i try to ignore them as much as possible.

 

[EpsiIon]

<< I'm just wondering this, why do most Americans have no idea what goes on outside their country?
It's like the average American thinks the world ends at the border to Canada, Mexico, Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean.

any thoughts of reasons causes etc? >>



Wait a minute... You mean to tell me that there are countries other than the United States?

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< I'm just wondering this, why do most Americans have no idea what goes on outside their country?
It's like the average American thinks the world ends at the border to Canada, Mexico, Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean.

any thoughts of reasons causes etc? >>

I didn't bother reading the rest of the posts in this thread. Americans don't know what's going on because 80-90 percent of Americans are vapid morons. Before I receive any replies from irate Americans, I am an American. I'm one of the elite in terms of education, I actually know what's going on in the rest of the world.

 

[worth]

<<
I didn't bother reading the rest of the posts in this thread. Americans don't know what's going on because 80-90 percent of Americans are vapid morons. Before I receive any replies from irate Americans, I am an American. I'm one of the elite in terms of education, I actually know what's going on in the rest of the world. >>



Wow, you're quite humble as well! Are you one of those people who considers him the best of the best? Well, you must be really knowledgable, since you said so.



<<
I was just surprised for the first year or so to realize people would not know on which continent a country is. Never mind what country. >>



Now, do you believe that the United States is the only country where people don't know on which continent a country is? Try going to Moldova, and ask someone there on which continent Sri Lanka is--I bet they won't be able to answer.

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< Wow, you're quite humble as well! Are you one of those people who considers him the best of the best? Well, you must be really knowledgable, since you said so. >>

As arrogant as my statement came off, it is easily validated by simple polls and standardized tests. BTW, I never said best of the best.



<< Now, do you believe that the United States is the only country where people don't know on which continent a country is? Try going to Moldova, and ask someone there on which continent Sri Lanka is--I bet they won't be able to answer. >>

I believe he was referring the industrialized nations. On the basis of that criteria, the United States' position is simply pathetic.

 

[gopunk]

oh come on guys, do you really think this all has anything to do with education or whatever? the rest of the world knows crap about us because we're the most powerful nation. it's always that way. it's just like bill gates and me. do i know who bill is? of course. does he know who i am? of course not.

 

[esc]

everyone who posted in this thread is clearly not the majority of all Americans. anyone smart enough to touch anandtech is not some average person. so get YOUR facts straight before trying to rule out Nontechguy. prove yourself worthy of not being just any average American by thinking like a civilized person and settling the problem in this thread. if you claim to be a people who's country solves problems, show it. i know you people are not those types of fools who go around shooting shotguns because of some immature family feud.

peace

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< oh come on guys, do you really think this all has anything to do with education or whatever? the rest of the world knows crap about us because we're the most powerful nation. it's always that way. it's just like bill gates and me. do i know who bill is? of course. does he know who i am? of course not. >>

It has a lot to do with education. Our education system is the poorest in the developed world, unless you count South Africa and Cyprus as developed. Regardless of our power, when 54% of Americans cannot find europe on an unmarked map, I say there's a serious problem. When 18% of Americans cannot find AMERICA on an unmarked map, I'd say there's a crisis.

 

[gopunk]

It has a lot to do with education. Our education system is the poorest in the developed world, unless you count South Africa and Cyprus as developed.

just because our education is poor, doesn't mean it's the reason americans are unaware of world events.

Regardless of our power, when 54% of Americans cannot find europe on an unmarked map, I say there's a serious problem. When 18% of Americans cannot find AMERICA on an unmarked map, I'd say there's a crisis.

source?

btw, nobody ever said there wasn't a problem, i was just saying it's not necessarily a problem with our educational system.

 

[Shalmanese]

One little factoid that I find not mentioned very often or at all which I think is very relevant is thaqt the US gives one of the lowest aid as a percentage of GDP compared to most other developed countries (0.3% IIRC sorry, no cites, seen in print media) and much of the aid given goes to isreal.

This seems to contradict the claims that the US is pouring billions into Less Developed countries to bail them out.

Financial aid is often a very dodgy subject at best. Goverment aid is very carefully crafted so that it looks like the largest figure possible for the least effort.

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< just because our education is poor, doesn't mean it's the reason americans are unaware of world events. >>


Just watch Jay Leno ask people questions on the street...it may not be accurate, but it gives an idea.



<< Regardless of our power, when 54% of Americans cannot find europe on an unmarked map, I say there's a serious problem. When 18% of Americans cannot find AMERICA on an unmarked map, I'd say there's a crisis.

source? >>

Typical of an ATer to ask that. It's from a very thoroughly researched non-fiction work called America As It Is, written by former Soviet dissident Valdas Anelauskas. If you're really picky, I can tell you the publisher.

 

[Daovonnaex]

<<

<< Canada put nearly 2 million soldiers into that war! US didn't come near that number. >>

are you talking about WW2, if so the US had more then 2 million people fighting. >>

The U.S. had about eleven million servicemen all over the globe in 1945.

 

[gopunk]

<< One little factoid that I find not mentioned very often or at all which I think is very relevant is thaqt the US gives one of the lowest aid as a percentage of GDP compared to most other developed countries (0.3% IIRC sorry, no cites, seen in print media) and much of the aid given goes to isreal.

This seems to contradict the claims that the US is pouring billions into Less Developed countries to bail them out. >>



uh no. 0.3% of our gdp as of 2000 was about 3 billion. our gdp was 9.9 trillion in 2000, according to the world bank.

 

[Nefrodite]

Just watch Jay Leno ask people questions on the street...it may not be accurate, but it gives an idea.


you aren't serious right? they go through tons of people that answer too many questions correctly to be funny. and now ppl have caught on and will answer questions wrong on purpose so they get on camera

 

[gopunk]

Typical of an ATer to ask that. It's from a very thoroughly researched non-fiction work called America As It Is, written by former Soviet dissident Valdas Anelauskas. If you're really picky, I can tell you the publisher.

that won't be necessary. did valdas do this study himself? as i don't actually have the book, i have no way of telling. i assume he didn't though, so does he cite the source for those stats?

 

[Slaugh]

no they are right.. and Brazilians live naked in a jungle riding elephants climbin trees

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

<< no they are right.. and Brazilians live naked in a jungle riding elephants climbin trees >>



Time to move to Brazil.

 

[gopunk]

<<

<< no they are right.. and Brazilians live naked in a jungle riding elephants climbin trees >>



Time to move to Brazil. >>



oy, i'm moving to russia, where all these young women want to meet me!

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

<<

<<

<< no they are right.. and Brazilians live naked in a jungle riding elephants climbin trees >>



Time to move to Brazil. >>



oy, i'm moving to russia, where all these young women want to meet me! >>



Brazilian women are hotter.

 

[Nemesis77]

<<

<<

<< Canada put nearly 2 million soldiers into that war! US didn't come near that number. >>

are you talking about WW2, if so the US had more then 2 million people fighting. >>

The U.S. had about eleven million servicemen all over the globe in 1945. >>



I'm not answering you directly, but I'm just commenting on this "number of soldiers" discussion.

I don't think you can just look at raw numbers here. USA had more troops, but you have to remember that USA had alot more citizens than Canada.

And example: USA lost about 500.000 (is that correct number?) men in entire WW2, all theaters combined. From Pearl Harbor 'till Hiroshima. Finland lost about 30.000 men in Winter War (that lasted for 105 days). Does that mean that USA suffered worse casualties than Finland did? No it does not. Had USA suffered as bad losses when compared to the total numbers, it would have meant losses of over 2 million men in a war that lasted for 105 days.

 

[gopunk]

meh, one man's trash is another man's treasure

 

[UltraQuiet]

<< Typical of an ATer to ask that. It's from a very thoroughly researched non-fiction work called America As It Is, written by former Soviet dissident Valdas Anelauskas. If you're really picky, I can tell you the publisher. >>


LOL. You use this POS as a reference and call yourself intelligent? Who are you going to quote next, Noam Chomsky? For those of you who don't know, he (Anallousy) was a Russian dissidnet (Lithuianian sp?), came to this country and decided we were screwed up also. He, like Chomsky, tends to take a fact and twist it around to make a point, so that by the time he's done it resembles little of what it started as.

 

[gopunk]

LOL. You use this POS as a reference and call yourself intelligent?

the latter should have been your first clue

 

[udonoogen]

when i think of canada ... i think of canadian jokes. =)

 

[element]

<< Just watch Jay Leno ask people questions on the street...it may not be accurate, but it gives an idea.


you aren't serious right? they go through tons of people that answer too many questions correctly to be funny. and now ppl have caught on and will answer questions wrong on purpose so they get on camera >>



And make themselves the laughing stock of the nation on purpose with their apparent gross stupidity? I always thought they were getting paid to act stupid.