Happier Abroad Forum Community

I voted for Canada but I'm having second thoughts after watching this..

I think they have a slightly better public education system and better grasp of the English language over there. Who am I kidding, both are overwhelmingly a place of f***ing retards. They're like small children, lucky to be born into a country where they won't starve to death for being utterly clueless.

Do they cherry-pick these? Surely the average American has basic common sense, que no?

The Russians have tried the same thing with their population and they have turned out to be just as dumb. Also, I suspect they have gone through a lot of people and picked only the dumbest ones or asked them different questions from the ones we were made to believe they had answered. They may have staged some scenes as well.

As far as an average American having common sense, yes, plenty but the gap is geography and world knowledge plus anything that has no relevance to that person's profession or life. It is a huge blind spot in an American person's knowledgeability. But everything else is fine, and an American is not dumb in other things and is damn good at what he/she does. Narrowly specialized, very hard working with great common sense and great task related intelligence. Common sense ( not bookish knowledge) + hard Protestant work ethics have made America rich.

The people are just not interested in knowing about things that are irrelevant to their job or immediate needs. It is seen as a waste of time. An American may not spell well, but he is a damn good mechanic.

Does not know about where North Korea is, but is a very skillful and hardworking paralegal who does her job exceedingly well; or a person may not be able to know about "passive voice" but is a really professional and good shoe salesman who keeps getting one award after another and has already bought two houses.

Most Americans are very dedicated and ethical and hard working when it comes to their jobs. They do their work well! But they are not well rounded.

ladislav wrote:The Russians have tried the same thing with their population and they have turned out to be just as dumb. Also, I suspect they have gone through a lot of people and picked only the dumbest ones or asked them different questions from the ones we were made to believe they had answered. They may have staged some scenes as well.

As far as an average American having common sense, yes, plenty but the gap is geography and world knowledge plus anything that has no relevance to that person's profession or life. It is a huge blind spot in an American person's knowledgeability. But everything else is fine, and an American is not dumb in other things and is damn good at what he/she does. Narrowly specialized, very hard working with great common sense and great task related intelligence. Common sense ( not bookish knowledge) + hard Protestant work ethics have made America rich.

The people are just not interested in knowing about things that are irrelevant to their job or immediate needs. It is seen as a waste of time. An American may not spell well, but he is a damn good mechanic.

Does not know about where North Korea is, but is a very skillful and hardworking paralegal who does her job exceedingly well; or a person may not be able to know about "passive voice" but is a really professional and good shoe salesman who keeps getting one award after another and has already bought two houses.

Most Americans are very dedicated and ethical and hard working when it comes to their jobs. They do their work well! But they are not well rounded.

This is the best and fairest analysis of Americans that I've seen in a long time. Excellent!

ladislav wrote:The Russians have tried the same thing with their population and they have turned out to be just as dumb. Also, I suspect they have gone through a lot of people and picked only the dumbest ones or asked them different questions from the ones we were made to believe they had answered. They may have staged some scenes as well.

As far as an average American having common sense, yes, plenty but the gap is geography and world knowledge plus anything that has no relevance to that person's profession or life. It is a huge blind spot in an American person's knowledgeability. But everything else is fine, and an American is not dumb in other things and is damn good at what he/she does. Narrowly specialized, very hard working with great common sense and great task related intelligence. Common sense ( not bookish knowledge) + hard Protestant work ethics have made America rich.

The people are just not interested in knowing about things that are irrelevant to their job or immediate needs. It is seen as a waste of time. An American may not spell well, but he is a damn good mechanic.

Does not know about where North Korea is, but is a very skillful and hardworking paralegal who does her job exceedingly well; or a person may not be able to know about "passive voice" but is a really professional and good shoe salesman who keeps getting one award after another and has already bought two houses.

Most Americans are very dedicated and ethical and hard working when it comes to their jobs. They do their work well! But they are not well rounded.

Ha, ha I'm like the opposite of this. I know a little about a lot of things, a master of none. I guess that's why I suck being an American.

“There is a stereotype that Americans don’t know much about the rest of the world. There is some truth to that, but it isn’t as bad as you might believe. The reason this stereotype exists is because most other countries on Earth pay very close attention to American news and politics. Most people view our ignorance in terms of reciprocity: i.e. “I know about your country, why don’t you know about mine?� The truth is, if you quizzed people about third-party countries other than the US, they are equally as ignorant. I confronted one German man about this, asking him who the Prime Minister of Japan was. He had no clue. The problem with America is that we suffer from the same problem as the rest of the world: an obsession with American news. The quality of news I read in other parts of the world is on par with what you will hear on NPR�
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/20 ... ree-years/

odbo wrote:

I have seen that a couple of years ago. Just unacceptable and abhorrent.

MarkDY wrote:“There is a stereotype that Americans don’t know much about the rest of the world. There is some truth to that, but it isn’t as bad as you might believe. The reason this stereotype exists is because most other countries on Earth pay very close attention to American news and politics. Most people view our ignorance in terms of reciprocity: i.e. “I know about your country, why don’t you know about mine?� The truth is, if you quizzed people about third-party countries other than the US, they are equally as ignorant. I confronted one German man about this, asking him who the Prime Minister of Japan was. He had no clue. The problem with America is that we suffer from the same problem as the rest of the world: an obsession with American news. The quality of news I read in other parts of the world is on par with what you will hear on NPR�
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/20 ... ree-years/

That is exactly correct. Europeans also like to accuse Americans of being clueless about geography. When I ask them to point out St. Kitts, Tobago, or Barbados on a map, they are lost like little sheep.

Europeans might be aware of Andorra, San Marino, or Liechtenstein due to proximity, but ask them to identify our tiny neighbors and they are at a loss.