question to Americans

[exp]

<< Having also lived in the UK and India, I can say that there are just as many people oblivious to what goes on outside the world in those countries as there are here in the U.S. >>



Exactly. I can say the same for Greece and Italy. Frankly, anyone who thinks their own country is populated entirely with all-knowing literati is delusional. In fact I am genuinely curious as to why so many foreigners are obsessed with the general knowledge--or lack thereof--possessed by Americans. AFAIK, most Americans couldn't care less whether a Romanian, for example, could point out the US on a map so why, then, does that Romanian think it so important that we be able to identify his own country? And which is worse, displaying total apathy towards current events thousands of miles away in Ghana, or obsessing over the thoughts and day-to-day activities of its inhabitants while problems in your very own backyard go unsolved?? Two sides of the same coin IMHO...


LMAO at some of the comments in this thread, BTW.

 

[Rainsford]

<< 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? >>



For those of you that don't think Americans should be offended by this statement, just read the following (almost) identical statement and ask yourselves if you're not offended.

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

any thoughts of reasons causes etc?

Isn't that pretty offensive? I'm making a gross generalization about a group of people. It doesn't even matter if it's true or not, what matters is that I'm giving a group of people a negative lable based on nothing more than what ethnic group they belong to. Just because Americans aren't a minority doesn't mean we have any less right to be offended, or that you have any more right to say stuff like that. And despite what your sig says, NonTechGuy, you're just a racist, and you don't even realize it. You dislike an entire group of people based on their nationality. Who's ignorant now?

 

[BD231]

<<I'm just wondering this, why do most Americans have no idea what goes on outside their country?>>

Why should we worry about other peoples problems?, there isent sh*t else hapening that the avrage american hasent already seen.

 

[NathanD]

<< bah, you are canadian, AND talking out of your ass. Why do you think will annex your country one day? Because canadians are tools like you. >>



Nope it'll be the result of you squandering your resources. Water and Power.

 

[skace]

Maybe it is because most Americans don't have the time in their life to do all the things they want to do, much less worry about crap like that. You'd have to be fricken bored off your arse to want to learn about every other country and what goes on in their boring arse politics too. I'd rather watch paint dry, old people have sex, or a tree grow.

 

[SilverThief]

I think your an idiot for even suggesting this. Would you like it if I said Why is that most (insert your country of origin here) dont have a clue as to what goes on outside their borders?

 

[Athanasius]

What a flamebait thread.

The U.S. is not necessarily the best country in the world. That would all depend on how one defines "best."

But name a country with 260 million people, with rampant immigration, with tremendous ethnic and cultural diversity, and with unmatched military might that has been as well balanced as the U.S.

The U.S. may throw its weight around sometimes, but I shudder to think what the post WW2/ post Cold War world would be like if China had become the only superpower, or the Soviet Union. Name a single country in world history that was clearly the dominant power and wielded it as democratically (not perfectly) as the U.S. has done. If your country is ever in the same position, and handles it more successfully, then you can cast stones.

Isolationism doesn't work. It favors the the Hitlers and Stalins and Imperial Japans and Miloslevics and Husseins. How would you have liked the Soviet Union to have owned Alaska, to be lurking on your borders, and to have had an isolationist United States standing idly on the sidelines?

Furthermore, it is much easier to provide healthcare to all people in a smaller, more static, socialistic state than it is in a free market, diverse state of 260 million people with a high level of economically strapped immigrants. That being said, there are only a few countries in the world that might have better healthcare than the U.S, and those countries do not have nearly as complex healthcare needs.

If you are going to make comparisons, make fair ones.

 

[CJZ]

I once thought that we Americans were the stupidest, laziest, most ignorant people on earth.
Then I went on a trip to England and France. Stupid people are everywhere.

 

[edjam]

I just think that impression may be given because of the pretty aweful news coverage you have. It is so insular and biased as well as hardly being independent of the US government, BBC is where it's at