Americans suck at geography
 

http://www.cnn.com/2002/EDUCATION/11...uiz/index.html

Given a map, 49% of Americans aged 18 to 24 years old can't find New York! :1orglaugh

And 11% can't even find the USA! :1orglaugh

Imagine that.

"We are going to kick some Iraqi ass, not sure where their country is located - but we are going to kick those suckers. Could someone show me the way to Iraq, please?"

It's true.

*LOOOOOOOOOOOL*:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

Bwahahahaahahaahaha!

I wonder what the stats would be on locating Canada.

You ever watch when Jay Leno goes out to ask people simple questions on the Tonight Show? That's why you can make so much money in the US, there are so many dumb people.

"In the world map test, Swedes could find an average of 13 of the 16 countries. Germans and Italians were next, with an average of 12 each."

Yay, there you have it. Swedes are almost twice as good as Americans .. :) :winkwink:

This Bud's for you America!

File under "Sad but True".

I remember sitting in my 8th grade geography class (about 10 years ago) and the class bimbo (bless her bleached blonde socks) COULDN'T find Canada on the globe. The rest of the class ROARED with laughter. Its a bit concerning that 10 years on, she probably wouldn't be alone in her ignorance.

haha...jeez...someone woke up with a complex. Whatever makes you feel GOOD. :thumbsup

In the past year of living in the USA, I've experienced this twice:

American: "You speak good English - where are you from?"
Me: "Er, England..."
American: "I didn't know they spoke English there..."

and this three times:

American: "Is that a British accent? Where are you from?"
Me: "England..."
American: "England? Is that near Britain?"

:helpme

Ouch. Again, "Sad but True."

Ever been asked if you're from Oz or New Zealand? Oh, and most Americans don't realise there's more to England than London and Manchester. Granted, it's not much, but it's there.

Americans think that England has three kinds of people... Posh aristocrats, cockney criminals, and scottish highlanders. The travesty of how badly the average American understands Scotland is atrocious, but not as depressing as the average English person. I think "A Life Less Ordinary" sums it up... "Scotland. That's in England, Near Paris."

Would you say that the majority of Americans are this ignorant about England?

:glugglug

I'd say that most Americans have no idea about the geography of the British Isles, and most Brits have no idea about the scale of US geography - I've had friends from England come to visit who think that we can drive to visit Seaworld in San Diego, Disneyland in Los Angeles and then the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco in the same day.

Their normal response to my laughter is "What's wrong with that? They're all in California aren't they?".

They don't realise that California is bigger than England... :winkwink:

Most of them dont know their head from their a#$ either :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

:smokin

Aye, sir. Plus food is not as bad as US food. Unless you're in New York and ask for any food NOT from US. I us to hang out in London and Bristol with a bunch of scottish lads and those funny "cockney talker" blokes when I visit UK. Great time indeed :thumbsup

One Nation
Under Canada
Above Mexico

totally.
when I lived in Texas in grade 6&7 i remember seeing stats like this and the % of Texan kids that didn't even know what country bordered their own state , was fuckin crazy!

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh

I wonder how many of those live in New York? Now if only we could make it so that NO Saudi Arabians could find New York.

Holy fuck ill never drink a Budweiser again!

:repuke

Are you saying that the food in England is BETTER than the food in the US?

Hahahahahaha!!! :1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

The fish and chips in my neighborhood Skippers are better than the fish and chips I had when I was in Jolly Old Etc. The country's "specialties" are things like steak and kidney pie and "pasties" (which over here in the US are something a stripper puts on her nipples).

http://abc.net.au/cnnnn/video/ep07_stupidyankees.ram

Jay Leno style...

well, I don't eat fish and chips :winkwink: but what's US specialty? Burgers? Or burnt meat? Sorry, I'm Italian and live in Argentina, so I'm used to VERY good food. It's a pain in the ass because you need to effort double not to gain weight, but someone has to do it! :thumbsup But seriously, everytime I go to US, if it's not NY or SF, I prefer to buy a burger, most commonly food is bad. I guess if you're used to that is not that bad, but I'm not :)

ive done that before....

less filling!

i don't see why it's so important to know where things are exactly... as long as the people in charge know where things are (and i don't mean the president, he's just a puppet) america can kick anyone's ass any time. each person only needs to know what he really needs to know to survive. knowing the details about where scotland is, for example, won't help anybody because nobody wants to go there anyway.

Tastes better as well :thumbsup

ROFL!!!

that is some funny shit..... :thumbsup

I don't know, guys, all of this finger pointing you do really smacks of something else. I find it ironic you claim we are so stupid, but you constantly measure yourselves up with Americans. If we?re so stupid, why don?t you just go about your lives and be happy with the fact that you?re so smart?

I want to give George W. Bush a map, and tell him to circle iraq.

he'd probably cirlcle Canada or something

yay USA =)

Our forefathers were not ignorant. Our grandparents were not this ignorant.

The intelligence and success of our ancestors have left subsequent generations fat, lazy, and stupid.

We are in this position now only due to the efforts of previous generations. You really think that the average 20 year old of today is as smart as the average 20 year old of say 1940? When it comes to such things as literature, art, history, geography? Hell no.

When you claim superiority, you claim the superiority of your ancestors, not of yourself.

Watch, this ignorance will reap what it has sown. The ignorant fuckers of today, are the "leaders" of tomorrow.

Our ancestors busted their asses for nothing. They built a country that allowed you lazy fuckers to sit on your ass, to breed the sort of complacent society that no longer values intelligence.

You are watching the fall of the Roman Empire. Enjoy it.

Well it's mainly because Sweden is such a small country...We feel small and therefore we make up the complex by learning alot of languages and being good at geography...now if we only would become smarter and drop the swedish language totally, but i doubt that happening when idiots always start talking about keeping our culture....

Labret I'm surpsised at you.

Basic sociology 101 taught us that our educational system was designed not to turn out thinkers but worker drones to fill the factories for our industrial revolution.

I think the damage is done and the rich will continue to get richer, and "smarter", because we all know that the schools their sons and daughters go to are ran differently.

They are taught critical thinking skills not just when they go to college or university, but at the earliest ages.

This is what is missing in our primary and secondary schools.

Plus you should stop being fuck drunk when you visit Copenhagen! :)

I am unaware of that theory, and my background in soc is rather strong.

If all they wanted was to churn out worker bees, there would be no study of the classic liberal arts at all. Only tech schools.

You cannot produce a free thinker, you can only give them the education that will in time give a person some perspective... if done properly. Lack of perspective and apathy creates Americans.

There is no emphasis on intelligence in American society these days. Who wants to be the smart kid in school these days? All that gets you is your ass beat. Bright kids in school are pushed to the fringe and alienated. THAT is a fucked up society.

Lets pump even more tax dollars in the public school system :BangBang:

I dont think there is anything wrong with the public educational system. Untold numbers of brilliant minds are products of it.

This is a societal problem.

I agree its a societal problem all starting with the parents. They give the kid a shitty upbringing, and dump their kid off at school and expect the school to raise them and teach them respect, and discipline.

My point is more, why should more and more tax dollars be sent into a blackhole.

For every brilliant mind, there is a hundred dumbasses that dont know 2+2 that graduate any way otherwise they would be in highschool ten years.

just send all the "bad" kids to a working camp...and voila...the smart kids are left alone and you get cheap labor at the same time as the bad kids learn a trade...

My mistake I edited my post I meant "critical thinker" and "critical thinking skills."
This can be taught.

This I will agree with...it falls in line with that pc bullshit where they started giving out trophies to all the kids at the YMCA. Even to the tards that couldn't win a single fucking game.
Remember...we're all winners.

I couldn't believe when my niece came home one day and while helping her with her spelling homework I was told that she didn't have to know how to spell it correctly as long as it was spelled phonetically correct.

In other words... if she spelled eat like eet that was okay.

But regarding the theory I put forth....I never finished my degree but did make it through first year sociology and this was one of the first things we learned.

Our public education system was not designed to teach critical thinking skills. They wanted people to learn basic skills, enough that they would be capable of learning simple jobs and tasks, but more importantly they would learn how to follow instructions and/or orders.

If you were smart enough to break through the ranks and go onto college or university that is where you learned critical thinking skills.

It's not my theory...it was what was stated by the professor and taught in the books we were given...see don't I sound like a good little worker bee ;)

Only 71 percent of the surveyed Americans could locate on the map the Pacific Ocean, the world?s largest body of water.

Holy Fuck!!! How can you not know where the pacific ocean is? It's like 1/4 of the entire world, you could point at any random spot on a world map and you would probably have about a 25% chance of hitting the pacific ocean.

There is a benefit of having a largely stupid population though, they are easily controlled through what they see in the media and by what the government tells them. If the government tells people that they need to attack Iraq to "protect freedom" the millions of uneducated armchair patriots will support it. They will never question that maybe the government is only attacking Iraq so they can install a puppet government and take control of the country with the 2nd largest oil reserves. And if they encounter anyone who is educated enough to question the government's motives, they will call that person a communist or some such other nonsensical title.