US people and geography

[Jordy]

Originally Posted by Future Raptor Ace

So you know most countries in your home continent .. wow you are super smart! Now do you know every country in Africa and South America? Oh you dont huh ... why is that?
You are comparing well known countries with populations in excess of a hundred million people to countries that have the populations of large cities. Do you realize how foolish of a comparison that is? It is NOT like someone confusing the US with Mexico and you lost intellect points in my book for even trying to use that as an example.

If some nomal person don't know the facts, he doesn't make offensive posts on twitter but check the facts, but what most people do now is that they just post very offensive posts without even knowing what they are talking about and they are very serious about it, that's the point.

And the reason why we are so anti-usa (we are not anti-american as you said) is that these stupid people who makes these posts don't bother to check if they are right or not, because most of them don't even think they could be wrong, most of them think usa (hence they) is never wrong, and that is the fact.

Stupid people are everywhere in the world but if you add US patriotism, poor education at some areas, and easy access to modern technology, you get the ultimate stupid person who thinks he is never wrong and spread his stupid ideas to the whole world.

[SpanishFan]

I am starting to think that those posts in twitter had nothing to do with ignorance... I think they were written with irony and that got lost in translation...
I would love to have a look at them because they look just like a meme thing.

[Future Raptor Ace]

Originally Posted by Jordy

If some nomal person don't know the facts, he doesn't make offensive posts on twitter but check the facts, but what most people do now is that they just post very offensive posts without even knowing what they are talking about and they are very serious about it, that's the point.

And the reason why we are so anti-usa (we are not anti-american as you said) is that these stupid people who makes these posts don't bother to check if they are right or not, because most of them don't even think they could be wrong, most of them think usa (hence they) is never wrong, and that is the fact.

Stupid people are everywhere in the world but if you add US patriotism, poor education at some areas, and easy access to modern technology, you get the ultimate stupid person who thinks he is never wrong and spread his stupid ideas to the whole world.

Then you are stereotyping a few people you see online to an entire a nation (a nation that is the 3rd largest in the world in terms of population) in which makes you sound unintelligent. You can honestly say America has all types of people since we are so large, that is why we are considered a "melting pot" however I prefer to call it a salad bowl of people!

[Lili4ever]

most of the US states are bigger than a lot of countries in the Europe. You just do not realize how actually big is US. So i am really not surprised if people don't know all the countries and history events. There is just so much stuff back at home. I bet some people in some Asian country can't understand how can you not know their country. Ignorance is universal

[Karin]

Originally Posted by Lili4ever

most of the US states are bigger than a lot of countries in the Europe. You just do not realize how actually big is US. So i am really not surprised if people don't know all the countries and history events. There is just so much stuff back at home. I bet some people in some Asian country can't understand how can you not know their country. Ignorance is universal

well... but possible unlike of the other countries, we learned about each country in the world, more or less, but but we were...

if US would confuse your country with another on other side of planet, and would like to make a invasion, you wouldnt be surprised how could they make such stupid thing? :P

[Future Raptor Ace]

Originally Posted by Karin

well... but possible unlike of the other countries, we were learning about each country in the world, more or less, but but we were...

if US would confuse your country with another on other side of planet, and would like to make a invasion, you wouldnt be surprised how could they make such stupid thing? :P

You are learning about every country in the world huh? Maybe you should buy an atlas and figure out how many countries there are in the world and then realize how what you just said is a foolish statement much like the thread you created!

[Karin]

Originally Posted by Future Raptor Ace

You are learning about every country in the world huh? Maybe you should buy an atlas and figure out how many countries there are in the world and then realize how what you just said is a foolish statement much like the thread you created!

well, I see you cant read... we learned about every country in elementary school. read before you write something

[Future Raptor Ace]

Originally Posted by Karin

well, I see you cant read... we learned about every country in elementary school. read before you write something

I guess you are not literate enough to read what you wrote, try again

Originally Posted by Karin

well... but possible unlike of the other countries, we were learning about each country in the world, more or less, but but we were...

if US would confuse your country with another on other side of planet, and would like to make a invasion, you wouldnt be surprised how could they make such stupid thing? :P

[SpanishFan]

Most americans think Spain is near Mexico and not in Europe, but that does not bother me at all, it is quite funny in a way.
About them not knowing a lot about geography, I could challenge the people who claim that to go and place in a map Costa Rica, Togo, Bahrein or Laos.

What I would find more interesting than geography knowledge, is the american attitude towards the rest of the world, in terms of going outside and visiting places. Very often I read about the high number of usa population that don't have a passport, or never fly away of their country.
I am sure it is in part due to a geographic thing. Living in Spain, France, etc... you have a lot of different cultures just two or three hours away by plane: Morocco(African culture), Italy(Roman culture) UK (Anglo culture), Greece(ancient greek culture), Germany, the Balcans...etc.

This is not as easy living in america, where you need a looong flight to reach all those different places. Apart from this geographic issue, I am sure there will be some other political or cultural reasons.

If you add to that a high sense of patriotism then I think you have the explanation of why some people can have this (right or wrong) feeling of americans not being that interested about the rest of the world.

Saying that they don't know about geography it is way too simplistic and even offensive for some IMHO. We could say a few "not very good" things about any country in the world, but that would be wrong and simplistic as I said.
But discussing the reasons of such claims can make for a good debate though.

[Jake04]

Don't worry, Karin. If we decided to invade Chechnya, I'm sure our military would use "Google map or Google earth!"