Why Does The World Think Americans Are Stupid?

[Sally]

Granted, there are some stupid people in the U.S. But I'd think that there are stupid people everywhere. So why do Americans have such a negative image around the world? Why do other parts of the world (Europe, for example) consider Americans to be so dumb?

Easy. In England we've been watching bad U.S. T.V. for decades - most probably nobody in the U.S. would go near it, but we assume that's what American culture is because that's what we see. It's a cultural generalisation. In England we have lots of them for all sorts of people from other countries. Maybe other countries do the same? I don't know.

Just like all sweeping generalisations, it has very limited application. I'm sure you're right, there are stupid people - and intelligent people - and everything in between - everywhere.

[protohistorian]

Read through a T.V guide and think about it. Dave

[The Good Michael]

Americans are less worldly than Europeans and that might amount to ignorance rather than stupidity. The thing is, Americans don't do a lot of travelling, for the most part, unless they're young and mom and dad are paying for it, or they are retired. Of course younger people can be louder and brasher while being unworldly which makes them seem stupid and obnoxious. Older people can just be set in their ways and uncomfortable with things that are not what they are used to. So, if these are the people that others tend to encounter, it skews everything. Americans don't have any laws regarding vacation time, so the average American with 10 days vacation, can't travel the world very well. If one is a homeowner it might be a week in Mexico every year, or Vegas, and a week fixing the home. We tend to be insular, but we also love having visitors from other countries because we can't go ourselves.

Mike the Stupid

[Sister Hyde]

yes there are stupid, and moronic people everywhere. Maybe it's just a simple matter of what we are shown on t.v., people just drink what it's giving them, and since depending on the countries 70-95% of the channel content is american or american-related shows (if you include reality shows, then it's very extreme). if they would bombard the channels with programs always only showing retarded germans or frenchs or whatever else, maybe then the world would think germans and frenchs are the dumbest people in the world.

[Monty]

Granted, there are some stupid people in the U.S. But I'd think that there are stupid people everywhere. So why do Americans have such a negative image around the world? Why do other parts of the world (Europe, for example) consider Americans to be so dumb?

Yeah, that'll be right.

Monty

[Richard E. Nixon]

Granted, there are some stupid people in the U.S. But I'd think that there are stupid people everywhere. So why do Americans have such a negative image around the world? Why do other parts of the world (Europe, for example) consider Americans to be so dumb?