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Americans are dumb.

Americans have no smart idols anymore.
After Sputnik, becoming an astronaut or physicist seemed cool.
Today, becoming a Youtube star is the pinnacle of career aspirations.
 
I have similar thoughts about Americans without passports - If I want to go somewhere snowy, I need to leave the country, if I want to go to a desert or somewhere tropical, I need to leave the country. If I want to go see really big mountains, I need to leave the country. A resident of the US doesn't need a passport to get to all that stuff, I do.

Yep. Worked in a few US states and until I started a couple of weekend trips I just did not grasp the scale of the country. And working in New Jersey state and Texas were culturally very different though both very American.
 
Americans have no smart idols anymore.
After Sputnik, becoming an astronaut or physicist seemed cool.
Today, becoming a Youtube star is the pinnacle of career aspirations.

I am surprised to learn that I no longer look up to other Americans like Carl Sagan or Neil Degrass Tyson.

I will try to watch more PewdiePie videos since that is now the pinnacle of my career aspiration.

Thanks for educating me on how I really feel!
 
I am surprised to learn that I no longer look up to other Americans like Carl Sagan or Neil Degrass Tyson.

I will try to watch more PewdiePie videos since that is now the pinnacle of my career aspiration.

Thanks for educating me on how I really feel!

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/educati...r-aspirations-todays-primary-school-children/

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/children-dream-of-hitting-the-big-time-on-youtube-6b2b3br0m


you are in the minority.
I know, it's the UK, but I doubt US kids that age think differently.
 
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Lol, ok Zaganza. I will take your word for it that the fact that British Children wanting to be youtube stars instead of pop starts means that Americans no longer have intellectual icons.

I am sure that that one must directly follow the other, and it is not just a projection about how you feel about Americans.
 
The Times UK said:
Teaching and becoming a vet were still leading career choices.
Glad it's not just YouTube stars. They really want to help students learn and help animals be healthy.
 
Lol, ok Zaganza. I will take your word for it that the fact that British Children wanting to be youtube stars instead of pop starts means that Americans no longer have intellectual icons.

I am sure that that one must directly follow the other, and it is not just a projection about how you feel about Americans.

(Although I will admit that I wish I could get my kid to quit watching that Logan Paul guy. I AM POSITIVE that Logan Paul will single handedly pull down western civilization with his horrible Youtube videos./turns off cranky old man voice)
 
Is this a dreadful thing? I don't know. I do know there are a million things I couldn't tell you about US history that your average 14 year old US schoolchild could reel off. Is it more important to know about ancient Greece? I don't know.

I would say that knowing Rome is in Italy is a significant fact that is a prerequisite for anyone claiming to have an education. They don't have to know a thing about Rome, or the Romans, just where the damn place is.
 
A person who does not know that Rome is in Italy can still be kind, strong, empathetic, sympathetic, helpful, loving and a good friend. They might even be sexy as hell.

Sexy isn't dumb and some of the greatest people you will ever meet don't know left from right.
 
A person who does not know that Rome is in Italy can still be kind, strong, empathetic, sympathetic, helpful, loving and a good friend. They might even be sexy as hell.

Sexy isn't dumb and some of the greatest people you will ever meet don't know left from right.

They can't be that great if they are so dumb/ignorant.

ETA: Note: Not in USA. Not knowing where Rome is would quickly send you into "Are you idiot or what?" group. Such people tend not to have most of those qualities. They are about as common as white crow...
 
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A person who does not know that Rome is in Italy can still be kind, strong, empathetic, sympathetic, helpful, loving and a good friend. They might even be sexy as hell.

Sexy isn't dumb and some of the greatest people you will ever meet don't know left from right.

Please quote the post where I said a person who doesn't know Rome is in Italy can't be any of those things.
 
"It is a sign of greatness to be aware of and honest about the things you don't know" ... and then to get off your but and learn some.
 
I disagree. One cannot understand history
How much history does one actually need to "understand", though?

without knowing at least the most basic geography,
Rome isn't basic geography unless you happen to live there.

and Rome was one of the most significant parts of history.
Being historically significant and being presently significant are two different things.

No college educated person should not know Rome is in Italy.
This is our expectation of what kind of generic information colleges should include. It doesn't follow that it's actually a significant fact.
 
They can't be that great if they are so dumb/ignorant.

ETA: Note: Not in USA. Not knowing where Rome is would quickly send you into "Are you idiot or what?" group. Such people tend not to have most of those qualities. They are about as common as white crow...

Pfft, got that beat. One of my friends in the UK (university educated, 1st in physics) hadn't heard of the Holocaust. (Amazing considering that uk high school history is largely Tudors and ww2).
 
Today two coworkers confused the Parthenon with the Pantheon. That I could forgive. But in the ensuing conversation it came out that neither knew the Parthenon is in Athens, and one of them didn't know that Athens is in Greece. He did think Rome was in Greece. He's in his fifties and is a college graduate.
We STILL regularly get Sydney being the capital of Austria, and asked how come we manage to speak "so good English". Also, "Is there McDonalds and Coke available in Canberra?", "Where can I see some Cola Bears?" and "Can I bring my guns to Australia in case of kangaroo attacks?"

Seriously, the issue for Americans is not the average intelligence (or dumbness) quotient. I've met and working with many Americans, and generally they are well educated and very intelligent (although perhaps that's a result of the business I work in).

It's the general level and breadth of ignorance, the lack of relevant world information, such as the above, that astounds us at times. It's almost idiot savant-like at times. Perhaps it's why TV shows like The Big Bang Theory are popular - they seem to reflect the reality of the American psyche.
 
Haven't read thread. Slightly drunk. American. Still....

"Dumb" means unable to speak. Americans are anything but that; they'll open their mouths any time they get half a chance. Americans are stupid. Because they are humans.
 
We have all three of those just in my state alone! (...and I already knew that! ...woohoo!) ...but we don't have a Prague. You would have to go to Arkansas, Oklahoma or Nebraska for one of those, apparently. I had to Google that part.
 
Can somebody explain this? im not American.
Many Americans are sure that Thanksgiving day was celebrated on Third Thursday in November. Infact, it is fourth Thursday in November.
There's a thing called Mandela effect and they believe that timeline changed or that paralel universes merged.
 
Can somebody explain this? im not American.
Many Americans are sure that Thanksgiving day was celebrated on Third Thursday in November. Infact, it is fourth Thursday in November.
There's a thing called Mandela effect and they believe that timeline changed or that paralel universes merged.

It's part of a general effect because people think they can rely on their memories when all the science shows quite conclusively they can't.
 
It baffles me. I thought it was so important holiday in American culture that noboody could be wrong.

Its on the calendar, we don't much pay attention to if its the 3rd or 4th Thursday just that its towards the end of November. If you asked me without any prompting, I'd probably have told you it was on the last Thursday in November.
 
If you asked me without any prompting, I'd probably have told you it was on the last Thursday in November.
There was a time in American history when Thanksgiving was celebrated on the last Thursday in November. This meant that sometimes it would be the fifth Thursday. Then around 1939 it was starting to be changed to the fourth Thursday. But some didn't want the change for various reasons including political ones.

Trivia: Possibly as recent as 1956, Texas celebrated this holiday on the last Thursday in November.
 
It baffles me. I thought it was so important holiday in American culture that noboody could be wrong.

It often falls on the 22-25th day, which feels like it would be the third, as opposed to the fourth. Last year it was the 23rd, this year the 22nd. The importance is not on counting the days or even noticing the specific date; the events and overall season make it important.
 
How many is many, and where are you getting that number from?

From reddit and several YouTube videos. There are like ten or more threads on reddit on this. They remember it being on Third Thursday in November.

Quote:"And when I was in public school, all through public school we were taught that the way to always remember which week Thanksgiving is on is to remember the three T's "Thanksgiving Third Thursday"."
 
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We have around 20 Romes in the U.S., give or take! ...and yet you'd call us dumb for not knowing where just one of your few Romes is?! Give us a break, man!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_(disambiguation)#United_States

I know you're being humorous, but seriously: For a resident of Rome, Georgia, there's one Rome that is very important to their daily lives, and another Rome on the other side of the world that's completely irrelevant to them. Which Rome should they actually know something about?
 
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