Foreigners: Do USians seem stupid?

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I'm an American within the U.S. but I know a lot of people from overseas. my fellow Americans are less informed than I would like them to be but this is only partially their fault. The quality of news in the U.S. has declined significantly in the past 20 years and the major media outlets, such as CNN and Fox News, have started to lean more towards the tabloid side of things. I try to keep fairly informed and even I have trouble finding quality news sources and I don't think the average American even puts in half the effort.

Also a lot of people expect Americans to be more cosmpolitan than they actually are. Half of Americans live in small towns, many rural, where the most exciting thing in a 100 mile radius is the demolition derby or high school football, and from where you could drive 1500 miles and find people not much different from yourself.

So I think it's more accurate to think of a lot of Americans as villagers in a less developed country.

Have you lost your mind?

If you ask me "is it X or Y?" one time, and I say "yes! It is X,or Y!" then you could put it down to misunderstanding.

But if you repeatedly ask me "which IS it? X, or Y?" and I keep responding with "Yes! Its X or Y" then it isn't just an understandable misunderstanding. Either I would be being an idiot, or I would be being a troll. Either way you would justified in treating me like an idiot.

It's always a shock to meet Americans who know little about the world outside the US.

And Americans seem way more brainwashed by their media than people in many countries.

However some of the world's great brains are American: for example Noam Chomsky, the world's most cited scholar. So it's a real mix IMO - the worst & the best.

Love the username.

Yeah, the world series thing and the general lack of knowledge about anything outside the US is appalling.

The video in your link is hilarious. I'm also a long time fan of these two:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJuNgBkloFE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27f0IimLQpU

And yes, I realize they used the worst/funniest responses, but still...

Experienced in NYC 2003:
Nice but geographically confused store owner: "I was almost in Norway when I visited Europe."
he went on to explaining how he'd been to Bulgaria...

My mother's experience in NYC 2004:
'Bright' clerk: "I know where Norway is"
Finds a map, points to Cape Town.

An American pen pal asked me what it would cost for her to send a letter to Norway. And I would know that because....?

A friend of mine on another forum overheard this at the Louvre, right in front of the Mona Lisa:

American Woman 1*: What's everyone taking photos of?
American Woman 2*: I don't know, I think everyone's just taking photos of everyone taking photos.

This conversation between two Americans apparently actually did take place and was over heard at Heathrow.

A: This is my first time in Europe.
B: England isn't part of Europe. They didn't want to be.
A: Then what are the main countries in Europe? Germany and Portugal?
B: No, it's Germany and... Britain.
A: But isn't this Britain?
B: No, this is the United Kingdom.
A: So where is Britain on the map? It must be right next to the United Kingdom?
B: Yep.


I wouldn't say that Americans are stupid, but compared to people of countries it is "natural to compare with", they do come off as more generally ignorant about the rest of the world. An American guy even said it was a stereotype for a reason.
Of course that is not something that holds true for all Americans, same as not all Europeans or Australians are well informed.

Like this true exchange from my own country:

A colleague of a relative said that he had noticed climate changes.
My relative: “oh, how so?”
Colleague: “Yeah, in the morning of Christmas eve, I saw the sun.”
My relative: “But we never lose the sun here, so if you don’t see it [in daytime], it’s because it’s cloudy.”
Colleague: “I’ve never seen the sun on Dec 24th before, so that was due to climate change.”