Watching clips of Jay Leno's TV show where he goes out on the streets and asks people easy questions about politics, geography, government, etc would lead you to believe that Americans in general are very stupid when it comes to how much they know about the world.
Do you think this is an accurate portreyal of the average American? From what I've seen only the ones that answer the questions wrong are put on his show. What percentage of the people he interviews do you think get the answers right but aren't put on TV because it wouldn't be funny?
If the stereotype is true do you think the same would hold true of people from other first world countries like France, England, Israel, etc? Or is it mainly just directed at Americans because those countries already have their own stereotypes. Such as that all French are drunks, all English have bad teeth, all Jews are greedy, etc?
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Firstly I would say the stereotype is that of an IGNORANT American. This has nothing to do with genetics or eating paint chips. The United States has a particularly bad government-run school system partly due to the influence of the National Education Association but also because of the inherent nature of ANY socialized service.
Sean Hannity does similar "Man on the Street" types of interviews. During NFL season Glen Beck has "More On Trivia" in which he calls convenience stores in the two cities who have teams competing in the next game and quizzes them on events of the day or sometimes just common knowledge types of questions. These can be quite humorous but I am unsure of how accurate they are in actually portraying the knowledge most Americans posses. For one thing, it could be that these hosts deliberately seek out people who have characteristics that in their experience are those of people without much knowledge. For example, if Jay Leno could interview two people one of whom was reading a copy of the Chronicle of Higher Education on a park bench while drinking a Starbucks Venti Mocha Late and the other was talking loudly on his cell phone about who he thought was going to get kicked off the next episode of American Idol who do you think he would pick for the interview???
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I think it's just to reinforce and play upon the stupid, ignorant American stereotype. Are Europeans, in general, more knowledgeable than Americans? I doubt it. We're just as likely to be ignorant of the world outside Europe, and many Europeans indulge in the same vices as Americans (junk food, sports, cheap porn and the like.) European elites would like to think they're superior, and Europeans do differ from Americans (and differ from one another even, just like Americans from different states do), but not so much in ignorance IMO. America might have even worse public schools though, but I doubt Europe is superior by much in this regard, or at any rate will remain superior for much longer. There is much more cynicism towards the political establishment in Europe, but this is mainly due to a dislike of the EU.
This wouldn't be as funny if it did not conform to the stereotype, so no doubt the sample selection is unrepresentative... despite what some Europeans might wish for.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_ignorance
Warning: This post is not serious.
I don't know whethere europeans are more or less ignorant than americans.
But I know that there have been high school italian students saying:
(1) Romeo and Juliet is a movie, I didn't know it was also a book
(2) St Patrick brought Catholicism in Ireland: before its arrival they were Protestants
(3) Sappho and Leopardi loved each other
(4) The feudal system is characterized by a castle at the center of the town, surrounded by arable land
(5) sin(x) divided by x makes sin*
I found out today at an italian top manager has cited Waterloo as a masterpiece victory of Napoleon.
Ignorance is widespread, I guess that there is nothing that can be done about it: most people are not simply interested in knowledge, and use reading, writing and math skills only for the IRS (that's the only reason why in public schools something is still taught, the citizenry wouldn't be able to pay taxes without those). Besides, medias are mainly concerned with the grotesque because it makes audience: no one would watch the TV to know that children know that 2+2 is 4 and not 5.
The vast majority of the population, for the whole history of mankind, has been uncapable of reading and writing. There is no reason to believe that it will become conversant with science and poetry only because the capitalist wage rate is incredibly higher than the average. There will be a little less illiteracy, but no miracles. Nowhere.
* That must be an immoral equation.
I travel quite often and have been told by people in other countries that I am not like the "typical American" being that I know Geography and History pretty well. But I explain to them that most Americans are not like the "typical American" that they are thinking of either. Its a big country filled with different people who have different knowlege priorities.
The tendency of an American to not be able to name the countries that border Senegal or sometimes even be able to name all the states is fairly typical of a geographically large place. I have met Russians that cannot name every Oblast and who are very ignorant of the world outside of Russia. They seemed to be especially baffled that food in Istanbul was not swimming in mayonaise...similar to the stereotypical American wondering why peanut butter is largely non-existant outside of the US.
When I lived in Bulgaria in the early 1990s I was often corrected by Bulgarians when I insisted that taxicabs were a rare form of transportation in America outside of New York City. But they had seen so many movies, that they felt they knew more than I did and perhaps I was just being modest since the US was rich and they were poor.
In France I encountered horrible music, frumpy clothing with non-sense writing like "Baseball Pilot Systems" on an expensive leather jacket and in Sweden I encountered fully-clothed prudish women...Go figure that beer comercials are not often accurate.
In Bogota Colombia I met shockingly normal people who had no intention of trying to get me to swallow cocaine for them or kidnap me but instead made me fruit smoothies and enjoyed talking about art and architechture. Oh, and the coffee in Colombia was generally horrible but the French food was great.
Its a huge world and ignorance and suprising knowlege are not the domain of Americans alone.
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BWF89:Do you think this is an accurate portreyal of the average American?
No, the majority of the people get the questions right and they are not put on because it would not be funny. I would bet that the majority of the ones who get them wrong do it on purpose because they know they can be on tv because.
...And nobody has ever taught you how to live out on the street, But now you're gonna have to get used to it...
Yes. At least 90% of people (not only Americans) are drooling idiots.
I think the gap between smart and stupid people has been growing. Things like the internet can magnify a persons stupidity or intelligence. The bad part seems to be that not much intelligence makes the main stream. I try to stay optimistic about this stuff, there is actually some quality out there. Conan O'Brien is a Harvard grad.
I think the biggest problem we face in America is poor parenting. People with good families are able to sift through the junk. Families have to be able to 'outperform' all the crap on TV.
econ student:According to the Europeans I have met in Japan, Americans are fat, dumb, and have no culture. That gets annoying rather quickly.
They may have a point with the fat part. But for the culture part, switch the topic to pop music and television and I bet you $10 declining dollars that they like the "Grease" soundtrack and "Dallas". Then you can tell them that they are just like the uncultured Americans....except we no longer like Grease and Dallas.
Norway has the highest concentration of fat men, and I think England of fat women. Again, Europeans do love envisaging themselves as superior even with no reason to do so.
The important fact to realize is that all stereotypes, including that of the ignorant American, are rooted in reality somewhere or other, but are usually exagerated in quality and generality (or am I stereotyping stereotypes? ).
At any rate Leno uses those clips on his show simply because it's funny and doubtlessly a lot more people answer correctly than he reveals. The reason that it's funny I surmise is because citizens of a democratic nation are expected to be well-informed, since it theoretically facilitates the state's ability to take action where needed (so the clips are funny because the people he interviews "fail to meet expectations"). This is pure folly of course; people remain uninformed precisely because they know the state cannot provide for them and therefore the time they spend getting informed is a waste. So as Miklos mentioned it is rational ignorance.
As for the prevalence of the stereotype, my guess is that it's due to America's being considered, or being expected to be, (both here and abroad I imagine) some sort of bulwark of democracy. Of course this is not at all an inaccurate view in light of what democracy actually entails; the irony is that nearly all the major proponents of democracy, in some way or another, expect the US government to modify its behavior and become "more democratic" when in fact it's following the general prognosis of the democratic state practically to the letter.
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What Americans are often ignorant in, is European/Asian geography. However, this is simply the result of geographical distance, few Europeans could name the capitol of New Hampshire or Illinois or find Alabama on a blind map.
I'm probably stereotyping here as well, but within the US, I do notice stronger concentrations of stupidity in various places. About a year ago I was in LA (where Jay Leno is taped) and I was hitting on some high fashion, gucci everything sort of girl and told her I was from Iowa. She then replied, "What state is that in?". I just walked away.
When I lived in Iowa and traveled in the US or met Americans in Europe, people would always say "That's where they grow all those potatoes" I would say something like "Uh ...yah, more corn and soybeans than potatoes"...Then it dawned on me they were talking about Idaho.
The only fat man I ever encountered in Norway was a Minke Whale in steak form on my dinner plate.
Well according to various statistics, it is the country with the most obese men worldwide.
Inquisitor: Well according to various statistics, it is the country with the most obese men worldwide.
It could be, but they must hide them when the tourists arrive. Perhaps that was the reason for all the tarps I saw next to the MuMu stores.
Americans are stupid, but so is everyone else. As the great Frank Zappa sang: the world is "Dumb All Over."
You can't take the sky from me.
Go to youtube.com and try to find similar shows in other countries. There are plenty of them!!!
And in some of them people are asked the same questions as in the US show and they give equally ridiculous answers. Simply because in each country you can find people who will not know those answers. So don't take it too personal or close to heart - not only your country is ridiculed :)
And people give such stupid answers not because they are stupid. You can't know everything, can you? :)
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Olga K
ryanpatgray:Firstly I would say the stereotype is that of an IGNORANT American.
Q: What's the difference between ignorance and apathy?A: I don't know, and I don't care.
I wonder what the deal is with this same stereotype being applied to Polish people? I mean theres really a lot of jokes out there about how stupid Poles are, how did that come to be?
CopperHead: I wonder what the deal is with this same stereotype being applied to Polish people? I mean theres really a lot of jokes out there about how stupid Poles are, how did that come to be?
I grew up in an area with a lot of Poles. They tended to tell the most Polish jokes that I ever heard so I think it might have come to be the same way pride in ones heritage comes to be....You need to make fun of yourself a bit.
Hi Austrian folks,
I don't believe Americans are more stupid, in average, than any other people. You cannot take general knowledge as a parameter for intelligence or competence. I've read texts from PhDs which reveal an absolute ignorance about the most basic principles of economics, while I also know about many examples such as a guy who formerly sold peanuts at a street crossing and turned out to be a successful enterpreneur - even giving lectures to university students and executives. I'm not sure if this guy would be able to cite the capitals of certain states, however this doesn't make him less important than the PhD who lives in his marble tower writing socialist rubbish.
For an external observer, exactly the opposite may be true, if you take into account the American prosperity and wealth, and the American leadership in world business, when compared with other guys who think themselves as "smart" such as Europeans or whatever.
It just sounds to me a bit like Mises wrote in his essay on "Anticapitalistic Mentality" - on the envy of those who don't suceed with respect to the well-to-do.
The international mainstream media use to stress out this subject, not without a little help from inside the USA - see such "famous" Americans like Mr. Michael "Stupid White Men" Moore & al.
Even though generalizations are not precise, the education level in the USA seems to have dropped throughout the last decades, and guess why??? Public schooling and all its PC-trash which replaced the study of useful subjects.
Kindest regards from Brazil,
R. Halevy.