NEWS! "Are Americans Stupid?"...a question to foreign webmasters.

[Greg B]

All of you non-American webmasters and talent, do you or your countrymen think of Americans as gullible, stupid, irresponsible?

It's good to get an outsiders viewpoint to put things into perspective.

What is it about us that confounds you no end?

[bufferover]

Hmm i don't think that they are stupid it's same like everywere else in the world

[Manowar]

The stupid americans are the ones who get the bad publicity, im sure there are alot of smart people in america - but probably more in canada

[donnie]

Uneducated

[Shooter]

Of course there's a lot of stupid Americans, but nothing like the stereotype.

I think it gets blown out of proportion due to our oftentimes unfavorable politics.

[zzgundamnzz]

Originally posted by Shooter
Of course there's a lot of stupid Americans, but nothing like the stereotype.

I think it gets blown out of proportion due to our oftentimes unfavorable politics.

I agree, the rest of the world sees Americans as rednecks...

When in reality we have people from every country. Theres a reason why people from every single country in the world come here.

Then again Americans could be stupid and all those countries are just sending us their trash... hmm

[Greg B]

Well how do behave in other countries might be the better question.

Are we rude, boastful, sloppy, drunk, violent?

From your vantage point how do we conduct ourselves?

[bizmak]

there are some stupid people and they more than make up for the smart one.. you know something like your reputation preceeds you

[Jill_J]

I think that every counrty has numerous stupid people, the question is - what counrty has them more?

[aaron]

im american and i vote yes

[NakedBo]

Nah I won't say that every american is stupid. There are some stupid ones, but that is the same in every country. Americans are americans, and stupid people are stupid people. You can't give a discription to a whole country due to some bad apples

[NakedBo]

Originally posted by Greg B
Well how do behave in other countries might be the better question.

Are we rude, boastful, sloppy, drunk, violent?

From your vantage point how do we conduct ourselves?

I think some americans come over as rude, because they are more direct, and a bit loud sometimes. But every country has it's charmes. We dutch people are know all over the world for being tight asses and not all of us are like that.

[rickholio]

Originally posted by Greg B
Well how do behave in other countries might be the better question.

Are we rude, boastful, sloppy, drunk, violent?

From your vantage point how do we conduct ourselves?

I think a large part of the perception problems in other countries come from the people representing the US abroad... there seems to be three basic types of people from the US that go abroad: military, college students and old people. Military has a long and checkered past of boozing hard and engaging in criminal acts that local governments don't get to handle internally (vis. habitual rapes and BnEs in okinawa, running over civilians in Korea, etc).

College students tend to booze and carouse too, but are less likely to be armed while doing so. Still, a brawl involving a couple juiced up frat boys will leave a bad taste in people's mouths, whether they were the cause of the problem by instigation or just simply making the mistake of revealing their country of origin in the wrong place.

Old people are old people. They can be bossy and demanding and complain bitterly when things aren't exactly the way they are at home, and nothing is ever quite 'good enough' to the point where you wonder wtf they're doing out of the trailer park in the first place. I'd suggest that the term 'ugly american' probably sources from this group.

These are all the grossest of stereotypes, of course... but stereotypes exist because a plurality actually do exhibit these traits. For example, I will never, ever, EVER go hunting with another american. The lack of respect for the use and care of firearms exhibited on one trip has forever cured me of that desire, plus it's hard to watch some pristine forest be turned into a garbage dump with numerous beer cans, cigarette butts and various plastic detria.

That being said, I know that sometimes my countrymen will go overseas and cause needless dust-ups because they lack the motivation to get familiar with the culture they're getting into. Americans don't have a monopoly on ignorant assmonkeys leaving a bad impression overseas. For example, we Canadians are purported to be very stingy tippers.

[scottie0779]

My Canadian friend had to learn all our states and governors in school. Few American's even know ANYTHING about Paul Martin or Jean Chrétien, former. Not to say that I'm schooled either, but it's sad when other countries learn all about our gov't in addition to their own, and very few of our schools even dabble into it, eh?

[mary34d]

yes, my family is foreign and i was bored here....but if you have the late show with jay leno, watch jay walks just to see how stupid americans really are