American Reacts to How America Got so Stupid 

We’re all just happy that Joel and his friends are defying the stereotype.

25 years ago on a beach in California, I was asked by a local person how I could possibly live in England with its awful weather. I replied that it made more sense to live with the rain than it did to live on a fault line!

I’m glad you’re there Joel - you are an ambassador that any country would be proud to have. Your openness to other cultures and what can be learnt is a constant joy.

Great work Joel ! Your posts are much appreciated ,from a grateful Brit !

From an Australian. Ignorance can be excused but ARROGANCE cannot!

The dumbing down of 🇺🇸 wasn't an accident. When John D Rockefeller bought his influence in government & head of education, his literal quote was "I don't want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers" ~ John D Rockefeller

I was in London the last couple of days, we were heading to an Italian Restaurant which was in an area with a range of individual restaurants and a pub, we overheard an American tourist saying "Why isn't there anywhere to eat, don't they have McDonalds here," they really couldn't see the wood for the trees.

I'm 58, born in and live in Indianapolis, Indiana. Grew up blue collar, working class, 1st generation to earn a college degree. Gen X. I work in public education and can say that students get the same information my generation received. But, the type of student has changed. Overstimulated. Can't focus. Traumatized. Needs to be entertained and be having fun and mustn't have to cope with boredom. They are the offspring of a generation of kids who received the self esteem curricula of the 90s. It became about feelings, and we've lost the plot since then. Never have I seen such anti-intellectualism in America culture. Apparently, there is no such thing as an expert. Higher education is scoffed at. People under 40 know nothing about their government, the geography of their country/world. We still have a reactionary, puritanical streak which tends to celebrate knownothingness.

Don't worry mate, there are so many Americans who are expanding their knowledge of the big wide world through channels similar to yours. I've been watching your channel for about 2 years & yours is the best IMO.

Greetings from County Durham, in the UK. I have to agree with Lily Joel. I’m a great grandfather - hey, what’s all this about your viewing community 🤣. You’re an intelligent chap who wants to learn more about what’s going on beyond your shores. There are many reaction channels but few are attempting to do anything intelligently - so bravo

One thing you are not, Joel, is dumb or stupid. Wait a minute, that's two things. I'm completely out of your age range, a grandmother indeed, but I recognise a bright spark when I see one, and come back to watch your videos because I appreciate your intelligence and perceptive observations on your adventures overseas.

Whilst in New York years ago I was asked if England was in London? Shocking!!

"Cellist" is pronounced "chellist" not "sellist". Sorry, it just really bugged me!

25 years ago on a beach in sunny southern England, I asked an American tourist how they could possibly live in the USA with its awful weather = hurricanes, tornadoes, violent heavy rainstorms / blizzards, frigid harsh winters, etc, etc. I further emphasized and elaborated that it made more sense to live with the oppressive & relentless, sweaty, humidity summer climate of central / southern England than it did to live on Tornado Alley, 90 storms per year Florida, Arctic / Antarctic - esque Minnesota, Midwest - North US / 10 months Pacific NW heavy rain, of the USA.

Ladies and gentlemen, the US Ambassador to the UK Mr JPS. Will happen one day.

Once when I was travelling in Europe a young American woman in her 20's asked me if the British speak American.

The USA is driven by money money money and everything else is secondary, USA is ranked 25th in the world for wealth inequality meaning a smaller number of people hold a large amount of the wealth and by contrast the UK is ranked 140th. The USA is controlled by wealth and the few controlling it have no desire for that to change it and threaten their wealth. I’ve worked for American owned organisations, all they are concerned with is profit, profit, profit, where as non American organisations I’ve worked for have a far better balance with employee welfare, doing the right thing and profit and generally have a moral,compass. Unfortunately the greed of the USA always wins out, partly due to the fact that the general population don’t stand up because they are far more controlled than they care to realise, I don’t see Americans as stupid, I just pity them because they are only allowed to know what those with the wealth allow them to know - too much knowledge could be dangerous!

From my time in the advertising industry, I know that there is hardly any difference between advertising and propaganda. In both scenarios, it works through constant repetition.

As long as you thirst for knowledge and learn about other countries, then you can never be stupid. Keep learning Joel and you will be okay.

I'm a Brit born in the 1950s and grew up with American film and TV shows (many of which I can still sing the themes.). I think we here, got a good feeling about American culture from it. I think ignorant is a more apt description than "stupid".

There’s the old story of an American visiting Windsor castle and asked why they built it so close to the airport 🤦🏻‍♂️

Meanwhile, even though parts of England are borderline semi-arid, very sunny & drought prone (especially south & east), there are still a few Americans (Californian's) that think Britain is sometimes akin to a Charles Dickens novel. It's how a few American's cope & everybody laugh's at them!

Your doing great Joel. Keep sponging up the information.😊

As I'm sure you've discovered on your travels - we have our fair share as well.

The expresion "blissful ignorance" does exist and Americans are the walking definitions.

The Beatles and Rolling Stones, etc. May have got their influences from the States. But much of that influence was black America.

I have American in-laws and some very good friends and they are all intelligent and well travelled. Many Brits are just as thick as the thickest Americans. One of my friends works in a university in Boston and she told me that the past few years of political madness with Trump has turned her into a socialist. I never thought I'd hear an American say that, but she has spent a lot of time in the UK and Europe so....

Being "on line" is the most extraordinary window to the outside World - if you choose to use it as such.

I remember having a conversation with an American in a bar in Florida and he actually asked me: "Why are you always having revolutions"?! I nearly hit the floor with the stupidity of the question. We had one Revolution in England and that was during the mid 1600s. I am not including the Glorious Revolution where King William and Queen Mary were put on the throne because it was not violent and that was in the final years of the 1600s. Other than than, nothing. As for the US, you've had two violent Revolutions, the first the War of Independence and then the American Civil War. I am staggered by just how little many Americans know about other cultures.

the only country where cola isnt the best-selling drink is Scotland! we have IRNBRU!

In Stratford upon Avon . In the cottage were William Shakespeare was born , aNew York women kept asking the most ridiculous questions of the guide. Did Shakespeare have a garage ? and To think Shakespeare was born in that crib !! If that had been true Shakespeares Mother wouldhave had to be a contorsionist . It was a rocking crib !!

First step in fixing a problem is identifying it usually. I think that explains a lot for many americans.

I watched an interview of a retired Republican party strategist, in which he explained that it is part of the Republican party long term strategy for decades to decrease education level in USA, seed distrust in science, intellectuals and experts and to control universities & students (e.g. by keeping them busy, dependent and in debt), who are regarded as potential intellectual troublemakers. Any kind of united, organized will of the people is regarded a threat, he explained. His pretty honest interview sounds like the charter of the Trilateral Commission (in the mid seventies).

I am a Brit and was involved in a project at a Midwestern University. While in America, my British accent attracted some curiosity. I was asked some weird questions, like, 'How did you get here? Did you drive across?' 'You sure have picked up the language well.'

World ranking in terms of insularity - 1. N Korea 2. USA

Freedom of speech needs boundaries. A lot of what is spouted in the US would be termed a 'hate crime' in Britain.

Good review of a good video ..... excellent insights Joel ...... cheers mate

It's not that we hate Americans it's the foreign policy being supported by ignorance and the arguments when travelling with Americans based on ignorance. It seriously becomes exhausting and frustrating, I'm South African, and the comments by tourists from the States!!!!!

There's a difference between stupidity and ignorance. Ignorance can be fixed quite easily Stupidity is harder to fix. Americans may be "ignorant" but not necessarily "stupid"

Thank you for your insights- you’re an exceptionally intelligent young man, it’s been a pleasure to watch you grow

I was in Florida a few years ago on holiday from Yorkshire. The adverts were almost entirely about compensation for medical malpractice and car showrooms, as well as advertising local lawyers. The news was also interesting. Inbetween hurricane season warnings and the Ebola outbreak in Africa, which seemed only interesting to the US because a US nurse was involved and needed bringing home to the States, there was a wonderfully random item involving two Brits surfboarding off of the coast of England who filmed a small seal jumping up onto one of their boards and hitching a ride. An eclectic mix to be sure. :)

Joel you are among a small amount of Americans who actually have a passport !

Its a bit of a paradox to say the USA is the richest country when it is also the most indebted standing at $35 trillion.

The worst of all is the Hollywood dramatisation of the WWII incident when a German enigma encoding machine was taken from a U-boat submarine. In real history it was carried out by a British commando unit. The movie, inevitably, made it into an American operation!

American ignorance is not just a result of those factors. The American education system has a LOT to answer for. I spent a year living and working in Texas for my British company about 20 years ago. I recall one conversation with some locals along the lines of "We Americans have never lost a war" to which I replied "What about the War of 1812?". The responses fell into two categories: 1. What was the War of 1812? (85%) 2. Hell yea! We won that one as well!! (15%) Given that in 1815 the US President Madison, who started the war in the first place, sent Envoys to ask for peace and the Royal Navy had invaded Washington DC and burned down all the public and government buildings there including the Presidential Mansion*, I reckon that we Brits can count that as a win for us. The USA asked for peace, not Great Britain. And yet my American friends had either never heard of it or had been taught that they had won it. Amazing!!! * : If you ever wondered why The White House is white it is because after the burned out shell was rebuilt it was painted white to cover over the smoke damage. 😜

ReJerry Lewis the film the Intern shows up the American health care system Lewis smuggles young mentally ill woman into the hospital where he works. When the hospital director finds out he wants to throw her out. "This is not a charity we need to make a profit.. in 60 years nothing has changed sadly.

The US is not alone in this issue. ‘Information’ over knowledge and understanding is an issue which needs addressing

I was asked by an American whilst on holiday "oh you come from England do you know my cousin? he lives there" like I know everyone in the UK pop almost 67 million. 🤦‍♂🤣

I think there’s always been a streak of isolationism in American culture and politics. Before WW2 is was official US foreign policy. However, I suspect there’s two reasons why people in the UK have a bit more awareness of what is going on beyond our boundaries. The first is our proximity to the rest of Europe. The second is that we used to be a colonial power whose historic actions still have an impact in former colonies.

It's a certain kind of American. We have the British versions, Joel.

Hi JP i really like you and your channel!!! Especially with you videos on your travel around The UK 🇬🇧 and how you enjoy and embrace our country and our culture! But as for your fellow Americans and your country 😮😮😮 I am really so glad there is 3000 miles of Ocean between The UK 🇬🇧 and The USA 🇺🇸!!! we are 2 countries divided by the same language??? I am so glad i am a Brit and I know our country isn't perfect!!! But us Brits just get things! We don't get taken in by idiots and we all get along together! Also we love taking the piss out of each other and its doesn't bother us if you take the piss out of the uk 🇬🇧 We are not fanatical patriots like Americans and we just enjoy being brits because we don't need to put our hands over our hearts to say we love being Brits. Keep up the good work Joel and we know you are an honorary Brit good on you mate!!!

I always like to say that the majority Americans have no interest in what happens beyond their county's/ city quarter's borders and you can see that on so many levels. Even some of my American friends who are well educated people baffle me with how little they know about what's going on in other regions even let alone elsewhere in the world...

I get really fed up with Netflix, it's stuffed full of low budget American films, cheesy plots where you can predict the ending after 5 minutes of watching. I watched 'Shadowlands' for free on RU-vid last night, a very British film.

I sailed to some the remotest islands in the South Pacific, Michael Jackson was always playing.

Tora Tora Tora was the only US box office release where the bad guys won.

The policy comment you made near the end….” I’ll stay out of it!” Cracked me up. 😂😂😂

As a 52 year old Norwegian high school teacher, this is not just an US phenomena. It is a generational one. We did something wrong somewhere, and I'm sorry.

Keep travelling Joel.....maybe broaden the geographical field (try to include the southern hemisphere, eg Aus, NZ, Asia, Sth America etc)! Most importantly, stay curious & open minded - you'll become fascinated with all that is out there...really!!

What made me chuckle was the narrator in the video calling the guy for saying zee axis instead of zed axis and then he went on to pronounce cellist incorrectly. It's of Italian origin and should be pronounced cellist. I'm not sure if cellist is an American pronunciation or not but still made me chuckle. Good video Joel, as always

US dumb patriotism doesn't help either.

Joel, your parents took you travelling living in different countries, i feel majority of Americans have never done that, whereas the majority of British people have taken their children abroad and shown other cultures and hopefully respect them, you are very bright and a pleasure to watch. Loved your brit vlogs 😊

I’d much rather see the beautiful black and white European films than over the top over productions in Technicolor

At least you're informed and are informing others.

I live in the US and the UK, and you’re 100% correct about the internet and so called smart phones. There is SO MUCH incorrect information out there and people believe it. Also, another factor, money!

Richness is not only measured in $$$'s

Great job Joel keep soaking all that information up ❤

Hey Joel, my online friend and I were discussing your last video and as we connected by a love of an artist called Ren we both agreed that you might find him interesting. We know you don't normally do music reactions but we would love it if you delved into the world of Ren, his take on life, society, greed etc might resonate with you too. I think Ali has suggested the Money Game Trilogy which is an excellent choice so we're trying to bribe you to react to them lol. You may do them and decide it's not for your channel and that's fine but I think you might like him regardless. You should pick up quite a few extra subs from it too as there is a large enthusiastic (obsessive) fan base who eat reactions for breakfast 😅 and we would definitely promote yours in the community, it's called The Rising Tide. Just a suggestion, either way enjoy your coffee mate 👍 (Just be sure to watch the official Money Game 2 video if you do and not the live version, they're very different)

My friend’s mum was a tour guide for a coach company. About 20 years ago, she was taking questions from the passengers on a Stone Henge tour. An American woman put her hand up and said: ‘why did they build it so near to the road?’ Everyone on the coach (including the driver and my friends mum) just started laughing…

Very enjoyable video. I'm a Brit.

I once saw an English comedian asking simple general knowledge questions on the streets of NY, the one that I remember most is.. Q.What is Big Ben? A. A Burger.

Joel,keep travelling please go to the Irish Rebulic.

11:10 when the French film was talking , all I could hear was Catherine Tate Translator

Hello Joel. I found folk in US great fun and hard working to the point they did not have time to care about more than getting by. The world should see how it is there before judging I reckon.

What a great reaction, you have provided a really balanced view.

Joel one of the things I find impressive about you is the fact that you have travelled substantially so you could learn first hand about other countries. I don't know what you have planned after you complete your formal education but I hope you continue your travels. You must visit Australia.

The english lad doing the voice embarrassed all us brits... He showed a pic of Mel Gibson next to the photos of Trump and Britney! Mel Gibson isn't an American celebrity!! Mel is Australian.

Education does not mean being Smart. These two terms are lost by most. One can learn everything there is to know about a Subject but this still does not mean they are Smarter than others who have a broader range of things with no phD under their belt. I once knew a homeless man who was way smarter than any University student or degree holder. This man knew everything about everything. From history to complex maths and on to science. He also knew how to stay dry and comfortable in the winter times, something the rest of us would have trouble with if we where in his shoes. He had no degree what so ever.

I really think you should come to Australia, your take on the place would be very interesting.

20% of US population think that the sun revolves around the earth. (cf. The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby)

This was what one of our historians calls: the enormous soft power of the USA. Movies, Disney, music, TV - the USA has an overwhelming presence.

Sadly, there are dumb people everywhere. Jacques Tati is wonderful. Well worth a watch.

Love this guy ❤

Laurel and Hardy a fantastic British and American comedy duo. "that's another fine mess you've got me into" as Oliver Hardy would say to Stan Laurel. ☺️☺️. 🇬🇧🇺🇸

I think we have to be careful not to totally conflate global awareness with "stupid". Many Brits also fail in their awareness of global culture, geography and language ("we don't need to learn the language before we go abroad; everybody else speaks English!"). Remember, America has half of the world's top 20 universities. Students may not know the world, but they're not stupid.

Joel, the cultural representative for the City of Birmingham, England. 😎

American Education has a lot to answer to. Any country is only as clever as it's Education and information systems

7:03 also in Britain one of the reasons for that is because when the James Bond Films were starting the government funded them a lot because it glamourised Britain to make it seem rich and cool but some British filmmakers decided to show how Britain really was at the time which was a lot of poverty racism and sexism and more and the government didn’t like this so they stop giving all of the money and the film scene has never recovered. The wave was called the British new wave if you want to look into it very influential and occurred in loads of pther European countries at the time like French new wave and Italian neo-realism which is one of the most influential waves and Tarantino absolutely wouldn’t be making films today if it wasn’t for it.

I am not believing that the top 500+ movies on the American IMDb are all American; there must be at least some British movies in there

American life has had a long history of insular ignorance-this is, after all, a big place. Reagan often spoke of his belief that God placed this continent "between two oceans" (a great place for a continent…) so that Americans could avoid involvement in other countries. To Reagan, and so to his followers, America's isolation was a feature, not a bug. But there has always been a strong current of anti-intellectualism in general. As Isaac Asimov said, “There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” An example was Adlai Stevenson, Democratic candidate for President in the 1950s, who was memorably dismissed as an 'egghead'. But I think a couple of things happened more recently. Somehow, we moved to actual widespread contempt for education. Consider radio and television shows that portrayed high school students. Right up through the 1970s, high school was always treated with respect, even when the students found it to be a problem (popular radio character Henry Aldrich had trouble with Latin for more than a decade). But then something changed. High school began to be portrayed as a nuisance, in which classes were a contemptible distraction from the real business of the characters' social lives. In 1986's "Peggy Sue Got Married", a woman goes back in time to 1960 and experiences high school again. At one point, she tells her algebra teacher that the class doesn't matter: "Well, Mr Snelgrove, I happen to know that in the future I will not have the slightest use for algebra, and I speak from experience." This was an audience-applause line. One hardly need dig deeply into shows like Saved By The Bell (notably re-tooled from a show where the teacher was the main character) or Dawson's Creek, or any number of Disney shows to see the same dismissal of education. Why learn that stuff in school when you can become-sorry, Joel-a RU-vid 'influencer' and become rich and famous? [ side note: it is daunting to watch reaction videos for a movie like Casablanca from people who are apparently only vaguely aware of World War II ] And of course most recently, politicians learned that they could get the most ignorant people, the ones most contemptuous of intellectualism-'elites' often being a coded word for 'Jews', by the way-to vote. Now people could be not only ignorant but _proud_ of their ignorance. Republican gubernatorial candidate Kandiss Taylor questioned the most basic knowledge of geography, considering that it is a conspiracy to hide the true flat earth ("Every store, you buy a globe. There’s globes everywhere. Every movie, every TV show, news media - why? It doesn’t make sense.”) That is scary.

That's an amazing video! Thanks.. I'm going to watch it again!

After criticising the use of the American Z pronunciation, the guy making the video uses the American term 'gotten' instead of 'got'. He also mispronounces cello as sello.

I live in Washington State, and we do not need a passport to get into Canada. We just have to get what is in-between a standard driver's license and a passport...it is called an Enhanced Driver's License. The cost is about midway between the two. And that requirement starts next year (2025). I do understand that is not the point of the video 😅 it's just an FYI.

I’m just glad that a lot of your fellow Americans have started to research other countries and customs. Some like yourself have actually ventured outside of the American narrative. Most people outside of America believe that the American story is indoctrinated into their people from an early age. Love Love Love that some of you are venturing out into the world. One place you may want to put on your bucket list is The Isle of Skye, the most beautiful vista in the world 😊

Believe it or not, but there is a really popular worldwide audience on RU-vid (as well as in Middle Eastern countries) for Turkish TV productions. Each episode can last as long as 120-180 minutes on a Saturday night. During Covid in 2020, the Top Leading Man on E!News TV awards was Kan (Jon) Yaman, a Turkish actor for his role in Erkenci Kus (Early Bird) a Turkish Romcom. You have no idea just how ticked off American viewers were that a worldwide audience out-voted their American male stars. They were claiming that it as rigged in some way that their favourites couldn’t have lost to this unknown actor.

American films are the best in my opinion (and not only mine) and that's why we know them all. Same happens with the music! The best music came from the US. Put them together and you'll have the beautiful American Musicals.. Thus, it's true there's a lot of ignorance in the US but don't underestimate yourself 🥰

Yes and many Americans think that the Republic of Ireland is in the UK.

"I wholly disapprove of what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it"

Joel I'm a man that is 71 years old and I know exactly what you mean when you say without the internet life would be better. We have to start looking to the internet as a tool rather than for entertainment. For instance I have this idea about using gravity generators and gravity batteries to store the electricity that is collected from wind and solar. Too bad, someone else already thought of that and they're doing it in China. That's an area where the United States could really shine. They have the elevation that is required and they have a glut of the element Lead (Pb). A little steel and concrete and there you go.

Another factor is the USA's priority on individualism which allows states to set their own educational agendas without oversight from the federal government. When you have no international studies in your schools, no history studies outside your own what do you expect. Add in low wages and a lack of holiday pay which means limited access to go on holidays and expand their horizons.

What a great video and what a great reaction to it. Thank you...