Why Does The World Think Americans Are Stupid?

[Tom_Wescott]

I'm not sure we're collectively thought of as 'stupid'. Generally, the world sees us Yanks as wasteful, bloated, and arrogant, which surely isn't far from the mark. The French really hate us. I've read that one out of every 3 or 4 American tourists in France are murdered on the streets.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Errata]

The world thinks Americans are stupid because Americans are stupid in the world. "Ugly American" tourists are considered the norm. A great many American celebrities are perhaps not as bright as one would wish. We don't learn other languages on the whole. President Bush. Freedom fries. Girls Gone Wild. Jersey Shore. A pervasive lack of cultural literacy. A pervasive lack of literacy. And despite the fact that we are a young country, we are not as young a country as we act. Our sense of history is still measured in centuries while most European countries are measured in millennia. We cannot think in terms of a conflict lasting 1000 years, and so our solutions to such conflicts tend to be overly simplistic. Even infantile. To an American, 100 years is a long time. To a European, 100 miles is a long drive. We are a grandiose people. Our country is huge. Our lifestyles are ideally lavish. We are the epitome of "New Money". But we have no sense of time, we do not have the weight of generations an Englishman has. We have no scope. And that makes us annoying. And the lack of understanding that we have no scope makes us stupid.

[Steven Russell]

That's exactly it, Errata. You have answered the question beautifully.

No offence, yanks.
Steve.

[DVV]

A pervasive lack of literacy.

I admire American literature.
More than French literature, really more.

[DVV]

I'm not sure we're collectively thought of as 'stupid'. Generally, the world sees us Yanks as wasteful, bloated, and arrogant, which surely isn't far from the mark. The French really hate us. I've read that one out of every 3 or 4 American tourists in France are murdered on the streets.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

Lmao....as kids say on FB !

[mariab]

I've read that one out of every 3 or 4 American tourists in France are murdered on the streets.

This is an urban myth.

I have a few short answers to that question (Why does the world think Americans are stupid?):
- W (AKA George Bush jr)
- Palin
- Dan Quale (of Murphy Brown fame)
- Oprah
- Tom Cruise
- Julia Roberts
- Steven Spielberg
- BH 90210
- Felicity
(I could go on for long, but, bored already.)

[DVV]

A most chilling list, Maria !

To be fair, we have the same nuts in Europe, but they're less famous.

[mariab]

Chilling it is, David. I briefly thought of pairing them up with their French (or European) equivalent, but it wouldn't make much sense on this forum. ;-)

[Robert]

We used to run the world, and we weren't all that popular. Now it's the Americans' turn. Power is a double-edged sword. It provides a kind of security, but the more power one has the more interests one has, and so the power is exercised in support of those interests which either leads to overstretching or the acquisition of yet more power....

[DVV]

Chilling it is, David. I briefly thought of pairing them up with their French (or European) equivalent, but it wouldn't make much sense on this forum. ;-)

Happy casebookers....who don't know about who are Christine Angot, Bernard-Henri Levy and Jamel Debbouze....

[Robert]

We have upper class twits over here. Monty Python did a sketch about them.

[Rubyretro]

[QUOTE][QUOTE]

Happy casebookers....who don't know about who are Christine Angot, Bernard-Henri Levy and Jamel Debbouze....[/QUOTE

I do.

[DVV]

Let's weep and mourn together.

[John Savage]

Why Does The World Think Americans Are Stupid?

Like many others much of my knowledge of the USA comes from what I have seen on the television, thus US television comedies tend to show that Americans have no sense of humour and will laugh at anything, whilst cops and robbers programmes always end in a ludicrous car chase that suggests the average life of a police car would probably be about three weeks! Your politicians, I am sorry to say, often give a bad impression (although I freely admit our are not much better).

However travel, as the saying goes, broadens the mind, and a couple of years ago I found myself paying an all too short visit to San Francisco - what a revalation. People were so friendly and courteous, waiters and shop assistants, hotel staff and even the immigration officers at the airport, all of them polite and eager to help. When uttering that old cliche "have a nice day" they sounded as though they meant it; even a beggar on the street (of whom there seemed to be many) was polite when his request for funds was met by a Yorkshire repost of B*gger Off!

So I guess that you are all much nicer in the flesh than on the screen.

Rgds
John

[Errata]

So I guess that you are all much nicer in the flesh than on the screen.

Rgds
John

Yeah, we really don't showcase the best of ourselves in the media. Except New Yorkers. They really are like that.