Foreigners: Do USians seem stupid?

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I dunno. Maybe its just me, but knowing that Kansas is part of the wheat belt and NOT part of the corn belt nor the cotton belt is more important than knowing the capital. And it pisses me off when characters in movies think that "they grow corn in Kansas" (no. they grow wheat, not corn).

Yes. That is a better comparison. European nations and American states are comparable units.And comparable in how well known they are. And they even have a similar range in size. France is about the size of Texas, the UK is about the size of Oregan, and (on the other extreme) Luxembourg is about equal to Rhode Island.

Our 8th grade geography teacher did do a day going over all of the insanely tiny European countries smaller than that:Andorra, Vatican City, Monaco, Lichtenstien, San Marino, etc. So we Americans do learn about those too, even if we don't remember much about them.

That bouncer is a moron, because most Americans know that Kansas City is split between Missouri and Kansas. So it cant be the capital of either state. The capital would more likely be in the middle of a state than be a city that straddles the border with another state. So I would venture that most Americans would know that "the capital of Kansas has to be someplace other than Kansas City". And after all- the Capital of New York is NOT NYC, but Albany. Most Americans know that too.

I guess I am proving you right- that state capitals are kinda important. Lol!

If they got into a war Rhode Island could squash Andorra under its pinky, but Rhode Island would be about evenly matched (GNP,population, physical size) to Luxembourg. Friends of my parents were on an airliner returning from Europe approaching NYC when the French accented stewardess announced that they were "flying over the Island of Rhodes" momentarily scaring our friends into thinking that they were on the wrong plane, and were over the Aegean between Greece and Turkey. So I guess Europeans are a bit confused about the name of our smallest state.

Not those I met; they seem particularly smart, easygoing, and thoughtful. But I am only thinking of my family from US and teachers who taught in Middle East who were American.


From the media and online comments they seem bigoted, vitriolic, and fond of arguing, but that could go for most online comments without taking nationality into consideration. And the media will usually show the mad people.
I really despise the stories of black ppl being shot for their colour, police brutality, etc. That’s about all I can surmise from the media.

Dang!

I thought everyone knew that you had to specify "Kansas City Kansas", or "Kansas City Missouri".

And I thought that everyone knew the irony that though Washington DC is the political capital of the nation, NYC is its economic capital, but that NYC is not even the political capital of New York state.

But I could be crediting folks with more knowledge than they really have.

I'm pretty sure residents of the US prefer the term "Americans", but whatever. I'm a Canadian and I used to have tremendous respect for the US. Then an orange walrus who doesn't believe in science got put in the Oval Office, and a bunch of people on the political right, who seemed to be more numerous than the political left (which I later found out isn't necessarily true), started perpetuating all of that idiot's tripe, and it's like rational thought went out of style in the US overnight. So, my opinion of the US took a nosedive.

Well...for a time. I actually did some research because nothing the political right said or did sounded remotely intelligent or sympathetic, so I had to find out why that viewpoint had any degree of popularity. It seems that I had actually fallen into the same trap as some critics of the political left, and there are plenty of misconceptions about the right that I was actually led to believe while condemning those who believe equally untrue things about the left. Like, sure I'm certain there are people on both ends of the political spectrum who fit certain stereotypes, but most people on the left don't believe in communism and I wasn't giving the right enough credit.

In all fairness though, the right does have this tendency to preach to the choir and push away anyone who might consider supporting their side by pretending to fit the stereotypes. No, those on the right aren't racist/sexist jerks, but many pretend to be for reasons unknown. The actual truth is that people on the right aren't opposed to people of alternate demographics taking up positions in various industries for example. They're just opposed to there being a certain quota of individuals in other demographics being encouraged to take up such positions while the same isn't true of white guys. Oh, and they would support having a female president, so long as she's actually who they think is the right person for the job, and not just so that can be checked off of some checklist. When you put it that way, the right-wing perspective sounds quite reasonable. So, I can't fathom why people on the right don't just say that instead of pretending to be jerks.

As for the stupid part, in response to this thread, I've heard the right spew some really dumb opinions regarding climate change, which by the way has significant scientific backing. I facepalm every time I hear people say "so much for global warming" when they look out and see the effects of a cold winter. Suffice to say, when I heard nonsense like that people on the right not only don't believe in climate change, but that they think it's all "fake news" spewed by some leftist political agenda that just made me assume people on the right are idiots. Some might be, but after doing some digging I found out what I now believe is the truth. Many people on the right do believe in climate change, but don't necessarily believe that leftist tactics such as carbon taxes are the solution. Again, that sounds very reasonable and intelligent. Why people on the right don't just come out and say that's their position is beyond me. Instead they're content with people assuming they're idiots who don't believe in science.

So, in summary, I actually think the right, who make up a good portion of the American population, is pretty reasonable in their views and being on the right no longer makes me assume one is unintelligent. Well, actually I only ever assumed that about the American right, but I think I was wrong. In all fairness it's because people on the right wanted me to assume that, but I'm on to you.

Uneducated - perhaps.
But I don't know much about US country and culture either so it doesn't mean much.
Just because someone doesn't know where Poland is located exactly in Europe doesn't mean they lack education. It's comparable to not knowing where Washington State is exactly located in USA. Lack of interest more than education.

However I met a particular idiot from US once. He claimed he is from US and English is his native language but he answered my question: "Did you buy it or find it somewhere?"(question about an item in online game) with a "Yes" and I couldn't get him to answer me properly.

It's only due to my fear of getting banned from WP (again) that I can't really answer this question. I think most people who've read my posts know the answer already, anyway.

"USians" is a brand new term with me; and I'm not sure I like it. I don't even mind being called a "Yankee."

We are Americans. We're from "The States."

I understand that "America" can refer to the entire North American continent--but no Canadian would enjoy being called an American. American is reserved for us Yanks.

Non-Americans are shocked at my decent knowledge of other countries.