DEEP THOUGHTS: Commenter Robert makes a reasonable point:
To be fair, we could probably do the same kind of segment using Canadians and get some equally embarrassing stuff.
I have no doubt that there are countless, embarrassingly ill-informed Canadians (hello BTs). But it's particularly unforgivable to be that clueless when you're so thoroughly hip deep in neo-con imperialism and a Global War on Terror™. I mean, you have to believe that there are Americans who are all gung-ho armchair warriors who want to nuke the "Axis of Evil," yet who don't even know who the "Axis of Evil" is.
It's acceptable to be that geographically ignorant if you don't give a shit what's happening overseas. It's not acceptable when you have 140,000 troops over there being killed on a regular basis, and you keep howling frantically about the need to "support the troops" when you couldn't locate those troops on a world map if your life depended on it.
That's embarrassing.
35 comments:
To be fair, we could probably do the same kind of segment using Canadians and get some equally embarrassing stuff.
This segment was Australian (or NZ?), and even though I always enjoyed Rick Mercer's TTA show, I always thought we could better spend out time ferretting out that kind of ignorance here at home.
In work, I used to deal with a lot of people from Western Canada, and as a result, had all the flags for Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C. hanging around my desk. I would occassionally be asked, "Why I had these flags from other countries up?"
...and when I speak of "ferretting out ignorance," I'm talking about the rest of us trying to help with the fine job you're already doing CC. ;-)
What is it with people like Robert? It's well-known that Americans are abysmally ignorant...much more so than the rest of the developed world. But as soon as anyone points that out, they've got to rush in and imply that's it's nothing unusual.
I beg to differ. I've travelled all over the US for decades, and the ignorance of the average American is startling. I've met people in Chicago who didn't know where Toronto was.
And, as anyone who's read Powerline, Glenn Reynold's or Ann Althouse knows, it isn't just a matter of being under-exposed to information or being uneducated. I really do believe their brains are rotting.
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The segment (like "Talking to Americans") is a bit of a set-up. Americans are famously ignorant about the rest of the world, and if you line up enough people who can't recognize Australia on a map it only takes one idiot who doesn't know what a mosque is to make them all look stupid.
I think CC has a good point, though. The ignorance is kind of cute when they're in their insular, isolationist mode - there are 300 million of them in a vast and wealthy country bounded mostly by water and a handful of relatively similar Canadians, after all; it's not like you change languages and currency every few hours of driving.
It stops being cute when they switch into "let's bomb them into the Stone Age" mode and they still can't be bothered to learn the first thing about the people they kill.
I used to thing that perhaps it was the result of never having been bombed themselves - that they truly don't understand the horrors they're inflicting - but then the Brits shot that theory all to hell...
The ignorance is kind of cute when they're in their insular, isolationist mode...
It's not even that cute when it's confined...the way the American Right has been hunting and tearing into the rest of the citizenry for over the last 12 years or so, you do have to admit that there's some major, ugly dysfunction going on down there. It's a cancer that's been festering ever since JFK was assassinated.
It really is an issue that can be mitigated with better information, but that never seems to happen.
Given the opportunity to take a camera crew and shoot miles of videotape, then the use of an edit suite, I could hit the streets of any city or town in Canada and produce equally compelling "evidence" of how appallingly ignorant Canadians are about the world around them.
If Ti-guy finds the ignorance of the "average American" startling, then maybe he needs to upgrade the quality of people with whom he is interacting. Because I have been to many places in the US where the _intelligence_ of the average American is startling.
You just hear more from the idiots because (a) they're louder, and (b) they're funnier on television.
I could hit the streets of any city or town in Canada and produce equally compelling "evidence" of how appallingly ignorant Canadians are about the world around them.
I've heard that a million times. Go for it see what you find. My quess would be that you'd find a hell of a lot of people saying "I don't know", "What are you talking about?" and "Huh?" and not that many who don't seem to know that they don't know anything.
If Ti-guy finds the ignorance of the "average American" startling, then maybe he needs to upgrade the quality of people with whom he is interacting.
Well, that's the thing, eh? I'm a middle-class Canadian from the public school system. I compare like with like. But you're right; I should seek out a higher class of American with which to interact. The next time I go down there, I'll restrict myself to gated communities.
"To be fair, we could probably do the same kind of segment using Canadians and get some equally embarrassing stuff."
A TV station in Detroit tried to do that in Toronto in response to "Talking to Americans" and had to abandon the attempt because no one was falling for the stupidity. Meanwhile, "Talking to Americans" had a few versions and was a weekly feature on 22 Minutes.
My sister lives in Arkansas and is married to a great American, and both of them say that most people in the US are completely insular and ignorant. You'll notice in that video it wasn't just the rest of the world they were ignorant of, it was their own country.
Don't be so politically correct boys, the Yanks are ignorant. They won;t stop being ignorant if we keep pretending they are smart when they aren't.
"Don't be so politically correct boys, the Yanks are ignorant. They won;t stop being ignorant if we keep pretending they are smart when they aren't.
"
Replace the word "Yanks" with the name of any other group and the sentence would cause apoplectic convulsions from the regular commenters here. Progressives, indeed.
Let’s try it, kiki:
"Don't be so politically correct boys, the niggers are ignorant. They won’t stop being ignorant if we keep pretending they are smart when they aren't.”
"Don't be so politically correct boys, the sand niggers are ignorant. They won’t stop being ignorant if we keep pretending they are smart when they aren't.”
"Don't be so politically correct boys, the Spics are ignorant. They won’t stop being ignorant if we keep pretending they are smart when they aren't.”
"Don't be so politically correct boys, the Heebs are ignorant. They won’t stop being ignorant if we keep pretending they are smart when they aren't.”
"Don't be so politically correct boys, the Micks are ignorant. They won’t stop being ignorant if we keep pretending they are smart when they aren't.”
"Don't be so politically correct boys, the Pakis are ignorant. They won’t stop being ignorant if we keep pretending they are smart when they aren't.”
"Don't be so politically correct boys, the Chinks are ignorant. They won’t stop being ignorant if we keep pretending they are smart when they aren't.”
Nah. Ti-Guy doesn’t see it at all. Nor does the lumberjack cynic, I bet.
You don’t get to be the richest and most powerful country in history of the world by being better and smarter than everyone else. You get there by having ignorant rednecks fight wars of conquest and having money-grubbing Jews hoard the wealth of the world; and when the two marry, you call their progeny “neo-conservatives.”
Nice try anonymous. You'd think after years and years of trying that dodge, they'd have given up by now.
Ignorance is not an inalienable characteristic and can easily be rectified with exposure to better education, information and wider, more diverse experience.
So stop being so PC. The Yanks certainly are not when it comes to Muslims or...*gasp*...Canadians, even. Tucker Carlson called us "retarded" on national television and Ann Coulter routinely calls for our subjugation. The National Review called us "wimps" on its November 2002 cover.
Ti-Guy, of course, is the same sociopath that cries girlish tears whenever anyone even hints at anything that he might construe as anti-Canadian. But the US? Yeah, there's something wrong there; all the retards walk the street to be interviewed by insecure and smug Canadians, while the few that are smart like him (sic) live in gated communities.
If you ever needed proof that Ti-Guy doesn't get out of the house and has never been to the US. THAT is it.
I see our posts crossed. Ti-Guy, you just gave a perfect example of your crybaby wailing about anti-Canadianism.
I didn't wail. I reported facts. Don't be so ignorant.
Let's see: "Ignorance is not an inalienable characteristic of niggers and can easily be rectified with exposure to better education, information and wider, more diverse experience." -- Ti-Guy
Yup. Works.
Ti-Guy: Shrill ignorant anti-American Canadian loser.
Whoa. Glenn Reynolds, is that you?
You wailed. Don't compound your innate wimpishness by lying.
OH, Hah! No.
I think the correct word is wimpiness.
No. Wimpishness. Tres Canadien, grenouille fausse.
Took you long enough to spell check that, dope.
The would be très canadien. And I don't know what you mean by grenouille fausse.
Why is it that the only time a leftist decries "political correctness" is when that leftist is accused of anti-Americanism? Other than that the leftist is as promiscuous in its use as Margaret Trudeau is in her non-use of panties.
I mean to say, Ti-Guy, that you are a loser.
Sorry for the confusion.
Is this "pro-" or "anti-":
"God, I hate that country."
And, when coupled with this:
"So stop being so PC," when accused of being bigoted against that country, does that make you a hypocrite, a stupid hypocrite, or a Ti-Guy?
Heh. I don't think you're helping your case there, nonny.
Go back to talking about Maggie T's knickers (or lack thereof). That's so old it's retro.
You remember it, grandpa.
I sure do.
Just don't call it retro.
Americans aren't just ignorant about the world in general, but their religion as well. Wonkette had a nice little write-up about it a while back.
It's a good thing for the neocons that to "fight them over there" doesn't require them to get "over there" by their own navigation.
10% believe Joan of Arc was the wife of Noah from the Book of Genesis.
Heh. Gotta admit, sometimes, stupid people are amusing.
It's well-known that Americans are abysmally ignorant
Could we possibly get you a bigger broom Ti-guy? I don't think your sweeping generalization was large enough.
Perhaps there is a greater lack of knowledge amongst the middle class of the US, but it's only by a matter of degree, and could also be attributable to a number of factors.
If Canada's population were 10 times larger, we might very well find the same factors would come into play here.
If Canada's population were 10 times larger, we might very well find the same factors would come into play here.
Or we might not. That's a meaningless statement.
It's obvious you know nothing about this topic; standardised testing that reveals the US to have a sub-standard public education system, poll after poll that reveal the US media doesn't inform the population (and in the case of FoxNews, disinforms them) and a economy in which lack of critical thinking isn't an empidement to material success. Plus, all the evangelicals, who, for the most part, are irrational.
If we don't watch out, Canada could easily head down that road.
Wow. I'm speechless. 'Mericans are really dumb. Don't that just make my country look great. =/
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