Talking To Americans (hosted by Rick Mercier)

[strwrs_guru]

i think some people are really stupid.



did you ever see a show here in america called "Street Smarts"?

it basically runs on the same format and it is funnier than hell.

[MJ-12]

hhy

[Fat_Turkey]

Hahaha MJ-12, half of all Americans are obese too! No offense to you Americans out there, I got nothing against ya, but really, sometimes the government and the way how half your population is worth our population of SHEEP in stupidity levels really makes me think how "the world's superpower" is gonna really rule the world!

P.S. - anybody else think that the American government in particular tries to police the world too much? I don't think that Gore would've made a difference either (except the fact that he's not the missing link between man and ape).

Later
-FT

[Anonymous]

" Well, half of all Americans have less than average intelligence "

Wait, how can that be? Wouldn't the average intelligence then be lowered (unless you're talking in global terms, in which case Americans are stupid as hell).

[Anonymous]

I don't think Gore would've done any better. The U.S. government definitely polices the world- way too much.

[Nick]

It's interesting what people will say when they have a camera and microphone thrust at them - no matter where they're from.

[Anonymous]

From this day forward I declare my body its own sovereign nation. []

[PeacefulWarrior]

Frist of all, I hope everyone here is aware that you could go anywhere in the world and illicit such responses and that's a fact.  I don't think Americans are less intelligent than any other general population, maybe less informed, but the word intelligent generally has to do with the capacity to learn, etc.

I have traveled around the world and have spoken with the average citizens in many countries and most people don't have a clue what's going on outside of their own little world of their career, etc.  I mean if one were to go to almost any country in South America (and this is just an example) you could illicit such responses and maybe even more humorous ones....BUT if you went to a University campus and spoke with grad students (and this is true for any country) you would get a different, albeit just as skewed response.

Anyway, I found this post to be very funny and the fact that there is such a focus on America is really just a form of flettery in the end.  When was the last time a US comedian went to Canada and did something similar?  Oh yeah, never because no one here cares (and maybe that proves we are stupid and ignorant![]

[Nerezza]

Anyway, I found this post to be very funny and the fact that there is such a focus on America is really just a form of flettery in the end. When was the last time a US comedian went to Canada and did something similar? Oh yeah, never because no one here cares (and maybe that proves we are stupid and ignorant!

Chances are Canadians would do much better.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/11/1120_021120_GeoRoperSurvey.html

Heres the test, I easily got through them all.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geosurvey/

[PeacefulWarrior]

Maybe, but it all depends.  If Canada had a population of almost 300 million people chances are the average would drop significantly....

[PeacefulWarrior]

I just took the quiz (and missed one) and I don't see how this quiz would prove how intelligent people are...I don't even know if that's the claim, but either way what it seems to test is general knowledge of politics, geography, etc.  I will be the first to admit that US citizens are very ignorant in this regard.  Until i left the US to travel I too lived in a glass bubble....we are a very egocentric community.

One way or the other, if this is survey reflects the results of stratified or systematic sampling then it is the least accurate kind of research.  It would be interesting to see a totaly random sampling.

Finally, I don't care if this survey had US as the top scorers on it, I don't think you can make such sweeping generalizations about human intelligence with 20 geo-political questions.  

Anyway, has anyone here ever seen Jay Leno's "Jay Walking" bits?  He goes around and asks people questions and then they show the funniest responses....it is hilarious.

[MJ-12]

zx

[Nerezza]

It took the children 40 minutes to locate Canada on the map!
Marge, anyone could miss Canada, all tucked away down there.


--Marge and Homer Simpson

[no_leaf_clover]

the more people you have in a country, the more gullible people you have. i agree with peaceful warrior about other countries and their citizens. people seem to be busting on america a lot more since the iraqi situation where anti-american demonstrations were very common. it gets on my nerves when people make fun of our citizens and i find that the people who are going around trying to instigate such responses are as ignorant as the people whom they question in one way or another.

the less intelligent or more gullible members of a country should not be manipulated in ways that make people think less of that country. there are some elected politicians who werent elected because of their brilliance. if we saw more of other countries, such as france or canada, for example, im sure we would find some government officials that really stuck out for their seeming lack of intelligence.

as far as that test, i suppose its online. the US has more internet-using citizens that any other country on earth. the internet is readily available to almost anyone who wants it. in the part of the country i live in, computers are every bit as common as tv's and phones. in other countries, such as, canada, however, it might be a little bit harder to get such readily-available access, therefore slightly limiting the availability of the internet. of course, this limit would only keep the 'lesser' members of society off the internet, providing that country with an online community slightly more well-rounded.

if the canadian population had a percentage of internet users equal to that of the united states, the results of that quiz just might be more accurate. [}:)]

[Nerezza]

As timeless said, im definatly not anti-american. I'll let my pro-iraq war stance be a testament of that.

As for the test, there are somethings which should be cleared up:

1) 3000 people from various counties took part. Im not a statician but gallop polls work the same way I believe, according to the law of stats.

2) Country population has nothing to do with the survey. It would be impossible to calculate everyone's response so they take a few and using statistics, vary the value accordingly.

3) The internet had nothing to do with it, only the sample questions(there were more than 20 questions I believe) were on the website. The test was taken in person.

4) Ringo may of been the least talented Beatle, but he more than made up for it in charm.

5) I never implied the survey showed lack of intelligence, rather lack of knowledge concerning the rest of the world.


 

[Tom]

I took the sample questions just now. The one I got wrong was Afganistan, which is not in Africa. Many of the map ones required looking at all four choices and throwing out the obviously incorrect ones. This was the only way I guessed Israel's location, for example. My knowledge of geography and climate is severely limited. The worst part is that I cannot think of a single good reason at this time to change this.

[no_leaf_clover]

well, i didnt see the tv show, and i dont even know who the host is or anything about him, so ill just go with what you say about him.

as far as the canadian children, are they randomly tested? tested from school maybe? or from home?

the children would still fit into this statement: "if the canadian population had a percentage of internet users equal to that of the united states, the results of that quiz just might be more accurate."

here's my reasoning:

the last i checked, the US was ahead of canada in educational standards. the last time i checked, we were third, only behind japan and germany. but then again, this was the last time i checked. i've been looking online for more recent surveys to prove we're still ahead, but i wasnt able to find anything. i am confident, however, that we are still ahead of canada.

if the tests of children were indeed truly random, and were held somewhere public to supply a wide variety of children, such as a school, then the test is inaccurate in the face of official international documents regarding the educational standards of the different countries of the world, or at least according to the last documents i saw, a year or two ago.

otherwise the tests were NOT truly random, which goes back to what i said before about the percentages of internet users from each country. the canadian children would have to be in families that have access to the internet, which would be a smaller percentage of canadian families than the percentage of american families.

so maybe the host is patriotic. maybe he's not out to make americans look foolish. but from what ive read here, about there being stupid people out there (in the US), those comments were most obviously inspired by what was written in the original post or else some other such tv show, radio program, internet site, etc. the US is one of the more educated countries of the world, and its important to keep that im mind when you talk about how ignorant some of our politicians are, and random people off the street.

i wonder, too, how many people they had to go through on the street to get all those ignorant responses. surely those mentioned weren't the only ones asked, probably not even a small majority.

[no_leaf_clover]

i make fun of myself, i dont even take myself seriously. but somehow it just bothers me when people poke fun at america, especially with whats been going on in the world. we had to go to war with iraq and our men have been dying over there, and north korea wants to start a nuclear stand-off (they've even used the term stand-off when telling south korea to stay out of it. they have a madman running their government, to make things better). so im just a little sensitive about those sort of things now, i guess.. i dont mean to be a butthead.

[no_leaf_clover]

so now intelligence is based on what you deem important in life? there mustve been some standard common to each country to compare the countries.

[timeless]

Dear No Leaf Clover,

This is not about intelligence. It is about the education system and how the education system is setup.  That is all.

Why do these things really bother you?  Why do you see yourself as US or THEM. It is all WE together in this world.  Isn't it?

Getting swept up in US and THEM type discussions or even arguements is generally an exercise in defensive reaction that wastes valuable energy and only leaves most feeling tense or badly.[] If you see something you do not like then do something about it in your realm of influence i.e. your children.  I know I have a globe for my child and teach her things I feel our education system is weak on.

Deepest Regards,
timeless[]

[no_leaf_clover]

heh.. i guess i got a little carried away []

[kakkarot]

'kay, just to reiterate myself, THIS IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE DEMEANING TO ANYONE! i was hoping that people (americans) wouldn't be hurt by this, and that other people (americans and non-americans) wouldn't start insulting the americans freely.

after all, i'm sure there were many americans who knew stuff about canada, but it wouldn't have made the show funny to air that stuff, right?

and no_leaf makes a very good point too, come to canada and we have our own stupid politicians (MOST of canadian politicians shouldn't have been elected, imo).

i just thought that it was funny how people answered questions that they had no clue about, or that especially the university students/professors at those "prestigious" places (ie, harvard, princeton, etc) also had no clue what they were talking about, even when the questions related to their own field of study.

i just wanted to post something funny, so please no more offending comments. []

~kakkarot

(and i'm gonna go back and fix some of those glaring spacing errors. sorry about those too [|)])

[skips29]

LOL [] no offense taken  by  me. []so   no    worries   there.  I actually  found your topic  rather  hilarious. [] where  can I  see this show or is it  only   up in  Canada  because I  think that that's really funny about the   "Canadian national anthem" LOL.  I   found the  best  part to  be about  "The National Igloo" LMAO. I've  got a few online friends  who would be  rolling on the  floor laughing and also some  American  friends  who would find that funny also. LOL   Yes, I'm an American  I just know how to take  certain things lightly.    goodlight.[]


PS. well....     it's about TIME that you all started having the same 24 hour clock that we  Americans   have LOL  []J/k

[Nerezza]

as far as the canadian children, are they randomly tested? tested from school maybe? or from home?

the children would still fit into this statement: "if the canadian population had a percentage of internet users equal to that of the united states, the results of that quiz just might be more accurate."

The internet had nothing to do with the test. Read the article.

[Nerezza]

Here's the full survey, which explains the methods used and the exact number of people tested.

http://geosurvey.nationalgeographic.com/geosurvey/download/RoperSurvey.pdf