So, So Sad

I have often written about how geographically ignorant Americans are.  We are also conceited, self important, and believe the "U" in universe stands for United States - as in, we are the center of it.

This video is exactly why it is so easy to lead this country's citizens off a cliff with nothing more than slogans and catchphrases.  No thirst for knowledge, no desire for facts.  No wonder we are in the shape we are in.

 

Comments

[malware mydoom in]

You certainly deserve a round of applause for your post and more specifically, your blog in general. Very high quality material

[ChickyPimp (Kathy)]

Embarrassing.

[Sharon in FL]

Where do they find these people?? Am I the only one that learned all these facts by middle school at the latest?? This is general information I would think most people were aware of whether they graduated from high school or not... What a terrible representation of the American population...

[Callen]

Wouldn't it be nice if the comments (on the video) were grammatically correct and spelled properly as well?

Just some stupid person wanting his/her 15 minutes of fame making fun of Americans.

[Carrie (Quik)]

Lori, you're absolutely right that it's not just us, and I think the UK is a good example because we have a natural tendency (learned from countless tv shows) to believe that everyone with a British accent is brilliant and worldly. And that's not even acknowledging that there are just as many different accents in the UK as in the US, maybe more.

I was blown away by how ignorant the teenagers I knew over there were, and they were kids who got good grades and came from fairly upper-middle-class households, so that excludes the "didn't have enough opportunities" excuse.

[Shawn]

I have to say that I am married to a man who did not graduate HS and does not read the paper or watch the news.

I ran a few of the questions by him and was a bit surprised by the answers.

Naming a country beginning with U: his answer Ukraine ( he said he wasn't even thinking his own country just other countries )

What religion is practiced in Israel: He had no clue.

It is sad that he is not more knowledgeable but he is not a moron by any means. My husband is not ignorant but most of these things such as what religion does Israel practice... are just not important to him.

He is also not one of those saying Obama is not a citizen or any of the other stupid ideas put out by the tea partiers or the Beck followers.

[Lori in Texas]

There are just as many ignorant people (if not MORE ignorant) in other countries worldwide. I'd like to know exactly how many people this guy had to interview to come up with this particular group of individuals. My guess is that it was a LOT.

A couple of years ago, Steven and I saw a TV show filmed in London that asked many of the same types of questions, and included an accurate world map (unlike the map shown in the video clip here). One girl in London couldn't even locate ENGLAND on the world map... she thought it was somewhere off the coast of southern Africa. And the UK has one of the most highly-touted educacational systems in the world.

So color me skeptical about this video. It does not, by a long shot, accurately depict Americans as a whole. Ignorance is everywhere... it's hardly an American phenomenon.

[Carrie (Quik)]

Susen, I dropped out of high school in eastern NC and work in retail - and I knew all the answers. MIT and Harvard aren't really a fair sampling, either...

[Dorothy R]

I have to agree with Susan and refuse to believe that those were just random samples. I suspect they edited out alot more than they filmed. God help us all if that is not the case!

[Susen]

See...I got everything right and I don't have to think about it or check my facts. I just know that I'm right because I read, research, study, and then read some more. (I also have a crap load of college degrees and have traveled the world...).

I think that there have to be people that answer all these questions correctly...but that they don't use them for making such clips because, well, no shock value. Instead, they find the 20 stupidest people and only use them. I have a friend in CA that got stopped for Jay Leno's Jaywalking. After she got the first three questions correct, they thanked her and moved on. Obviously, she wasn't what they sought.

There will always be people who are clueless. If they did those interviews on the campus of MIT or Harvard, the results would be far different.

[Chrisk]

As Forest Gump would say, "Stupid is as stupid does" so aptly put!

[Carrie (Quik)]

That was terribly, horribly depressing.

Damn.

[Irish M]

Oy! I like how nobody caught the relabeling of Australia as various other countries. Thought at least the older guy would have gotten the questions about World Wars and the Japanese cities.

[Aesop]

and why are people against having to pass a basic knowledge test before you are allowed to vote?? These are the people that elect all of our politicians (and become ones themselves).

[Pat]

We have a comedian in Canada by the name of Rick Mercer and about 10 years ago, he started a small skit on a comedy program, called "Talking to Americans" It was then later developed into a one hour special. People thought that a lot of this was set up, but after seeing the above clip, I'm thinking that it wasn't.

Here's a clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seYUbVa7L7w&feature=related

FYI - Our Prime Minister at the time was Jean Cretien (Not Jean Poutine that Rick was saying) (Poutine is a food dish)

Also, Ottawa is the capital of Canada, not Toronto.

[Jamie in WI to Chicky - Kathy!]

Oh thats just pathetic! And my daughter wonders why I push her so hard to do well in school! I dont want her to be one of these idiots!

[audreyf]

but you could've asked any one of them how many times Lindsay Lohan has been arrested, and they would know that! Sad sad sad!

[Another Lori in TX]

That was SO embarrassing!

[Ted]

That was such a sad commentary on the United States. If it's not about Pop Culture, millions of people have no interest in it.

[Kerry]

I'm with Amy - that just made my head hurt. I'm really bad at politics and geography, but even I knew the answers to those questions. Sad, sad, sad. Of course, not that it's a big excuse, but a lot of those questions were the same few people over and over and over again - they just found someone who was obviously uninformed and made good comedy and kept on it.

[Amy in CT]

OMG...makes my head want to explode.

[MPolo]

This is like a segment from Jay Leno's "Jaywalking"... but an unfunny version. Sheesh, I hope these people aren't voting.

[Theresa from Virginia]

Whoa!