Yep I can attest to this, I’ve not only been to most European countries I’ve been to Africa, Japan, and the north of England…a wild and dangerous place indeed
@@yendor9078 exactly, and all this nonsense about driving on the other side of the road! We are in the minority driving on the left, but we seem to manage.
@@yendor9078 I know, I was agreeing with you. I didn’t write it very well, soz! I was just pointing out that not only are US citizens whining about living so far away from everywhere, they also make a big thing of having to drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road when visiting UK. What they don’t seem to realise is that countries driving on the left are in the minority, there we (Brits and Aussies alike) are always having to drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road. That all got a bit long and wordy, maybe we should meet up and discuss face to face with a beer. But I agree with you, Australians have to travel vast distances but it doesn’t stop them.
Freedom of press has been abused by foreign entities for too long over the past decade or so, we live in a world of tech now and as such must adjust to it. I do agree that silencing domestic voices because they don't allign with your train of thought is a big problem though.
Americans always used the excuse of 'Everywhere is so far away.' it's an excuse that doesn't wash. Australia and New Zealand are far away from other countries but they manage it. The lack of time off work that the average American is given is a bigger factor. If people don't want to travel so far what about visiting central America. It's on the same continent as you after all.
Yep, it's an excuse, as you say, Australia is further away and yet they have lots of holidays around the world. The real reason I think Americans don't have holidays is because they don't have time to have holidays, getting 2 weeks off work is doing well in the states and a lot of the times, that's not paid time off. Would Europeans or any other modern country take as many holidays as we do if we only got a week or two off work per year and didn't get paid for that time off? Probably not, you'll be more worried about paying your bills. I'm sure a lot more Americans would love to have more time free so they can go on holidays around the world, but the system they live in doesn't allow that unless you're doing well financially, which doesn't help by the US having weak social programs by European standards.
A few years ago i and my family were on holiday in Orlando, Florida. My daughter who was about eight years old had become friends with some American kids of about the same age, one of these kids asked me which state we came from, i told her we were not from America, but from a country called England, it was on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. She said, so you speak Spanish then, I told her, No we speak English, But she wasn't having any of it, no you speak Spanish, i then asked her the name of the language we were speaking, English came the reply, i told her we are English, and this Language comes from England, the country we are from. I can't begin to describe the look on this kids face, it was like a mixture of horror, confusion, and disbelief, the poor kid was totally gobsmacked, she had no idea. What do Schools over there teach kids.
@@helenagreenwood2305 No, Europe is about 50 countries (depending which list you use); Canada and Australia are single countries with Landmass slightly larger (CA) or slightly smaller (AUS) than the US.
@@Thurgosh_OG yes but it's quite common for USA to remark that the 50 states (or how ever many there are) each have differences which they compare to being like separate entities
@@roblewis226 still would get 100 cents, but there are no one cent coins in canada so answer is no you can't get 100 cent pennies.. but your debit/bank card and charge card will add them up (on paper the cent still is.) ..no writing checks in canada for purchases at registers .....checks / cheques pretty much obsolete already for many many years.
When I was at college in Spain we got an American exchange student in our class. He wrote a blog insulting Spain and describing it as a third world country. He really thought nobody would understand him since it was written in English. Best part of the story is that we studied English philology.😂😂
A Brit, here. In the 90's, I was on a skiing holiday in Bulgaria, just after it had come out of communist rule. I bought a souvenir badge from a street vendor, and wore it along with half a dozen others. A few years later, entering the US, I was stopped at the border, and told to remove the badge, or I wouldn't be allowed into the country. The reason? It was a red star, with a hammer and sickle. To me, it was a small memento of a drunken, fun holiday, with my pals, and it had never crossed my mind that it was a communist symbol. Mebbe they thought I was going to formulate a revolution. I was actually going to a Doctor Who convention.
There is a major difference between stupidity and poor education. One is inherent, the other can be changed. Unfortunately, it is in big business's best interest to keep a mass market and workforce who don't ask questions. People have been trained that they're the best and not to rock the boat - and frequently seem proud of their ignorance.
On the internet, I repeatedly see, otherwise intelligent Americans, reading simple English sentences out loud and getting them wrong, coming up with the wrong word, even though it's spelled out in front of them. I think this is down to the differences in our education techniques: In the UK in primary school, we're taught to read by encouraging us to learn to recognise, WHOLE words, whereas it would seem that in the US, they encourage a technique of 'scanning' where once they've recognised a fair part of a word, they cross-reference that with words they know and immediately assume that they've got the right word.
NO! Oddly enough, other countries have their own laws. US laws only apply inside US borders. I'm assuming your question was sarcasm. I have seen more than few vids showing US citizens trying to apply that argument in other countries.
It’s quite shocking how many Americans think US law applies wherever they are. I watched a video recently where an American guy was quoting US law to to a police officer in the UK, and seemed genuinely surprised when the police officer told him that didn’t apply in the UK.
I have seen videos where young Americans have been asked basic questions about things you would think the average school child would know, someone was asked to name 3 states (no chance) you would cringe. I have noticed on X (or Twitter) even though a lot of Americans advocate freedom of speech but don't always know what they're talking about. I notice also some of Americas congressmen/women are trying to ban books.
I don't understand people who only watch films with people from their own country/culture in. I have an extensive DVD collection from all over the world. It includes (among others) Devdas and Ashoka from India, Nightwatch and Daywatch from Russia, various French films, The Green Butchers from Denmark, Africa United from (surprise) South Africa, loads of Korean, Chinese and Japanese stuff and a couple from Thailand none of which have anyone from Britain or even anyone speaking English. I prefer subtiltes to dubbing because western dubbing always misses the nuances of speech from other countries. I love the insight they give to life elsewhere in the world. xxx
@@almostyummymummy There was indeed a third instalment! I have seen the book but have been unable to source the DVD. I am not sure if it was actually finished. Have you seen any other Russian films? Film 4 (a British tv channel) ran a foreign cinema event years ago with a whole week of them. They were very interesting though bleak and in some cases very scary! xxx
@@michaelhawkins7389 the fact you couldn’t do a one minute Google search just tells me all I need to know. Look up the words screen reader and then apologise. I’m getting tired of sighted people thinking that we just sit in rooms all day rocking back-and-forth.
Americans don't get as much paid vacation (holiday) time off work. Here in Australia I get 5 weeks, and I can save that and take 10 weeks off next year, and travel the globe, if I want.
The highest grossing movies list is being interpreted very loosely to get some of those films to count as 'American'. There are several definitions (some official ones) used to attribute a film to a particular country. The Harry Potter films, for example, have a US studio behind them and some of the production money was from the US but the actors, locations and British money (including Gov grants) makes them British films. The James Bond series are very British but are distributed by US companies, so some people think they are 'American'.
I remember discussing an event that happened in Minnesota, and the lady I was talking to thought the state was on the Mexican border. A guy I know said he didn't know the direction that the Sun rose, and when driving North he thought we were going South, and recently he asked me how to spell 'icon'...
I always think that most of what we see as American stupidity is really just a case of forced ignorance because foreign history and politics isn't as widely taught or reported. Whereas over here I'd say 70 ish percent of dramas I watch are American and a good amount of news I take in is from across the pond.
I’m one of those Brits who currently knows more about US politics than my own country’s. But in my own defence, American politics is really riveting right now, and has been for the last seven years, whilst, apart from Brexit, British politics has been pretty dull on the whole.
@@grahvis - this is true. We also don’t worship any politician as if he were some sort of demi-god. On the whole we tend to be somewhat salty about the lot of them.
I would to the fact that most of the US tests are multiple choice, so even if they don’t know the answer they have a 1/4 chance of getting right, while the rest of the world doesn’t.
A couple of years ago we had a quick quiz and had to name as many of the American states as we could.We had no warning so it was all from memory. I managed 35 out of 50 which was not bad as I am a Brit and have never been to the USA. Out of about 20 people most got over 20 states right. The winner got 46. I was actually a bit disappointed with myself for not getting more!!! (We were all British!)
My British passport lapsed and I was going to just leave it ,but was advised at my bank that retaining a passport, even if unused, is important as it is a recognised and valid form of identification .
At about the 7.40 mark, an American cinema 'marquee/lit billboard sign' lists the films being shown. The bottom one was for a 1964 (B/W) British comedy called 'A Home of Your Own' - I hadn't heard of it, but it is actually available here on YT from a Blu-Ray release... It is less than 45 minutes long and has many British comedians from the period doing cameo appearances, in case anyone is interested?
That was really informative and interesting. It seemed illogical at first that followers of both political party were well informed - but I guess you only get involved in politics if you are interested in how the world works. It's those people who don't take any interest in politics who take no interest in the world beyond their own little bubble.
I'm in the UK and have holidayed in Cuba and they definitely sell Coke (imported from the Coca-Cola Company factory in Mexico)... was what I wanted to comment; Then the video continued to actually make that very point - DUH ! 😃
It is a poor excuse everywhere is far away Australia New Zealand & the Far East are 24 hours flight but the Brits flying there or them visiting us the longest flight I have taken to USA was 11 hours nothing to a trip to Australia
Very true when it comes to films, there were some great British films made in the post war decades however, due to financial restraints, many British films were still in Black & White, even up to and into the sixties. This obviously didn't go down too well in the US as they were used to things like Cinemascope etc..... For example, a superb film with Sean Connery is military prison film, "The Hill". It never reached its full potential when released in 1965 in B&W, so many just didn't bother!
I live about forty miles from London but don't often go there. I prefer the countryside. We did go earlier this year as my husband and son in law wanted to see the HMS Belfast so we had a weekend away for that. It was very interesting and well worth a visit.
I'm a Londoner and I've never been to Leeds, Manchester, York and a lot of other UK places, but I've been as far as Thailand, India.and many many more countries
I'm English and my passport has lapsed but I don't intend to travel abroad any more. There are too many places here I haven't seen. American's must feel the same as there are some amazing places to see over there.
Erm here in England we joke about having any marks against your name… and how we’re never travelling to the US! Denied at the border. In fact we travelled to the US and got taken into separate interview rooms, interrogated, with return uk tickets and absolutely no reason! No criminal record! We were just on a round the world trip. Had been to lots of countries! For that reason alone, I will travel anywhere for an experience, but not the USA. 😮
can't say I like the term 'stupid' to describe people who are not as well informed as others of the species. Perhaps un-informed or ill-informed or under-informed, additionally, ignorant, which suggests a willful intention not to seek information. Naive. Devoid of knowledge...etc
There are many things I love about the good ol' US of A, but one thing thing which really annoys me is that they all seem so proud to live in a 'free country'. This video makes it clear just how limited their actual freedom is, and hints at how their own government's propaganda gives them all the illusion of freedom. Is Brits are (for now, anyway) living in a freer country. (until the likes of Suella Braverman crush our freedom)
Nooo! Europe is NOT the whole world. Sure someone from the USA might get away with the "we're so far away" thing if they're talking to someone from Scotland or Switzerland. That might work (tho' probably not...people in other countries know their geography) But c'mon now - its about 6 and a half hours from most USA international airways to somewhere in Europe. From Australia it averages at 20 hours. Used to be 36 until recently. From China it's 9. From New Zealand it's 22 hours. From South Africa it's 12. Nah, man, don't you be pulling the we're-so-far-away card. Geez - compared to millions upon millions of people who visit Europe - from much further away, you guys are just a hop, skip & a jump.😁Do you not think it might just have something to do with draconian work practices? It's not so much that they WON'T go, it's because they can't? The (lack of) labour laws -not a 6 hour plane journey - are what prevent it for most folk.
It strikes me (from talking to Americans) that it's not stupidity, but ignorance. And that's because of a lot of factors - as one example, the BBC News Channel here used to broadcast an American show titled "World News Tonight" (no clue which US channel made it). Every single story on it was about the domestic US. Not world news with a US spin, domestic US. Here you'd never get away with that - if it's world news, it would have to be world news. (Though we're a little spoiled, because thanks to the World Service, the beeb has local reporters based in pretty much every part of the world, so if international stuff kicks off, they already have people on the ground.) I also think control is a big factor. Governments here try to do it too, but haven't been nearly as successful. If you control the information people can get at, you control the people...
Well Harry Potter is a British movie and that’s 49 on the list not 500 and a lot of American movies are based on British things like the titanic the USA tell a lot of British story’s cause we are great at writing story’s but the USA has the money to make them into films
Can we just point out, that at 14:36 where you have a chart showing the USA with a lower "High Income" compared to the "High Education" of 71%. 1) that data is from 2009 2) Quite a few young US Americans will attend a "College" no matter what that "College" teaches and what they get out of it - Whereas in somewhere like the UK, many fewer people on a lower income will attend a University and work for a degree (one that means something) 3) How many young US Americans will work 2 or 3 jobs paying slave wages just to pay for College. And then take a job where they are still paid badly, but have a fairly high level of education. 4) Compare that to the UK where someone with a high level of education will often be earning a good wage, and often still training on the job but paid well. - So 68% of High earners having a high level of education is not a surprise Looks like Finland is the place to be
As far as top grossing movies goes, it really depends how you define "American". The LOTR and Hobbit movies, for example, don't take place in America, were written by an English man, directed by a man from New Zealand, shot in New Zealand and take palce in a fictional realm. There are a few American actors in it and the production company is American. The Spider-Man movies also make a huge amount of money. Produced by... Sony. A Japanese multi-national. Ranked higher than Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon on the US box office list is Slumdog Millionaire, which is a British film. For arguements sake, The force Awakens, Infinity War and all the Harry Potter movies had enough British involvement that the BFI qualifies them as British movies for tax purposes, and two of those movies are in the top 5 grossing movies of all time. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is just the first one on the list with almost no US involvement whatsoever, but Slumdog Millionaire also had no real US involvement. Actually, arguably it had a lot less than Crouching Tiger seeing as it was the work of 2 UK production companies, with no US production companies involved at all. Crouching Toger was produced by Columbia Pictures, albeit a subsidiary specifically for producing movies in Asia; it's still a US company. Edit: I agree that people want to see themselves in the characters of movies. I find it disturbing that Americans are seemingly unable to do this if the character in question is non-American.
Mel Gibson is Australian and 7 years in Tibet were about a German bloke not American lol. Travelling distance not an excuse we travel.all over the world by we have paid month holiday and health care so we can travel Americans don't
The last samurai is a terrible example. It's based on real french military officers(Eugène Collache and Jules Brunet) who were sent there with equipment, to teach them how to use it. They fought alongside the shogunate during the Boshin war. With "The Last Samurai" being Ken Watanabes character, which is based on Saigō Takamori, one of the last actual samurai.
All this paranoia is the reason that I never visited the US again after being there in 96/98. Me with a British passport and my place of residence being Germany, was just too much for the lady from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcment.
i think it’s interesting that i was born in the early 2000s and all of the stuff going into my brain from tv and social media was american. all my favourite movies were american all my favourite celebrities were american and my favourite youtubers were american. as a kid i thought of america as a great place and only people who lived there could be famous. really affects kids how much all this was pushed onto other countries.
That example was heavily manipulated to confuse. The map was shown out of standard perspective with the USA on the right specifically to confuse. It's not the standard Cylindrical Projection - Mercator map. Of course everyone's saying you should notice the shape, but then catch someone out and about, interrupt them, stick a camera in their face with a celebrity taking to them, would you be thinking clearly about geography of all things?
In NZ we're half way across the world yet you'd be very unlikely to meet someone who's never been out of the country and almost EVERYone has a current passport. Americans cannot blame distance for their disinterest in the rest of the world.
No, that article in the UDHR does NOT mean that everyone can OWN everyone else's newspapers. It means everyone should be able to purchase and READ everybody else's newspapers.... and not even that is true, or a lot of US papers are currently violating this article by blocking EU IP addresses
High education probably relates to those attending Universities but says nothing about the intelligence of those attending (folks get there through paying - only really a recent innovation in the UK; sports scholarships) (sports people are not amongst the smartest of human beings) etc. I was born in Belfast but live in England now...I've been to the US several times (San Diego, NYC, New Orleans); Australia, most of Europe and parts of Asia so the world is a small place
Distance is not an excuse, when i was 6 months old my parents went round the world and took me with them, and they went to rio for carnival! And that was in 1980...
As a Brit, I have to say that our film studios have definitely caught up with and even begun to surpass the US in the movie making industry. Just look at movies like Harry Potter, James Bond and so on
America's Sweetheart Mary Pickford was a girl from Toronto. Pickford was the establishing force and manager of United Artists Another Canadian woman created the original cliffhanger scene, and the first 'nude bathing in a pond' scene.@@oliversherman2414
I watched the satire 'Cunk on Britain'. There was an American you tuber who, when works of art, including nudity, were briefly shown hastily stopped the video. He was shocked and mumbled about copyright. When I was growing up I and my contemporaries always thought America was a very broad, modern country, anything goes! I never realised they were so prim and narrow minded. Their humour is vastly different to British humour.
I'd think that for the Brits or some European countries, they used to have colonies around the world, meaning trade and cultural exchange. Even from long before armed forces etc would be posted overseas for extended periods of time, and personnel would bring their families with them as well. The British commonwealth could be found on every continent on the earth and postings may easily move them from one continent to another.
Not so many years ago, a large majority of Americans could not point to their own country on a world map, basically because they never saw the world news reported only stuff in the USA hence no need to know where in the world they were.
During the time of the Hays Code, one thing I noticed was that any female character whose morals dropped below perfect, would never still be alive by the end of the film.
Two can play at this game of ridiculing ignorance: the word "cellist" in the narration is pronounced "chellist", not "sellist" (as the widely-known instrument, the "(')cello" is a "chello" not a "sello")! Shame on my British compatriot for not knowing!
If you notice that map at the beginning, it's intentionally not the same map you usually see with the UK down the middle. So that would be disorienting to a lot of people to begin with
Despite that, most Europeans would be able to name many countries correctly. Not all and we all have stupid people too, it's just that 'being dumb' is something the US seems to be the best at.
@@Thurgosh_OGTrue enough, but as the guy points out, just ask enough people and edit together the least educated or the most socially awkward etc. I think it's a little mean spirited to give an uncommon representation of the map to begin with though
this is true only in the fact that most maps around the world, of world maps that is, tend to have the country of focus as the cantre. it is mostly common yes to have the normal European/ Brittan in the middle maps as it dates back to our colonial era ideals. but a lot of the American ones at the least do often have America as the focal point :)
@@Tvashk I've never seen one printed that way before, my assumption was that it was centred based on timezones rather than the fact I'm in the UK I'm pretty sure the GMT centred version is still the most common in the US though isn't it?
I most definately do not need to see an English person in a film set elsewhere. Why on earth would I? This American habit is very nationalist. It is true that travel broadens the mind and you quickly begin to admire certaIn ASpects of places you visit.
There is another thing I haven't heard mentioned so far - the doctrine of American exceptionalism. This is why so many lead roles in Hollywood films are played by Americans in Hollywood films rather than someone of a similar ethnicity to the original character. As an example John Wayne once played Genghis Khan in the film Conqueror. The reason you weren't allowed to bad mouth the church was because (according to one YT Video I watched) the Catholics greased the right palms.
The Last Samurai isn't actually a white saviour movie. The Samurai in the title is either Ken Watanabe's character, or it is plural and refers to the whole of his samurai village/clan. Tom Cruise's character is a western viewpoint character, and it's more like he's saved by them rather than him doing the saving.
On the first point, yeah, it's not necessarily that people are dumb, it's the camera in face suddenly on the spot thing. It happened to me once in Germany at a metal festival, a guy with a cameraman was like "Do you like classical music?" "Yes" "Do you like Wagner?" "Yes" "Name a Wagner piece" "uhhhhhhhhhh" When he pulled away I was like "shit, I could have said Flight of the Valkyrie, easy answer" My brain just refused to work being put on the spot like that. I was probably mocked on German TV somewhere. And yeah, they're also kinda cherry picked.
The map was reversed, the globe flattened out... . England is way over to the left on that map, basically where Canada and the Americas should be.. OK given they should have noticed it was that way, but you expect things to be an image from left to right, forget the shape of the countries, you have been taught the images looking from left to right since early childhood, so not dumb just not very observant.. A great reaction.. I'm in UK and as old as dirt now, so it's ok for me to give them a break on the 1st test
It really isn't stupidity as such. Its the way people are brought up in the US. But I could say that about a lot of other countries too no doubt. But the passport thing is a shocker! 40% jeez, and the UK is a tenth of the size of the mainland Us but is over 75%! Shit!
I think it's just that a lot of other people in other countries are more international in their outlook, especially in Europe and a big part of that is probably because we have a lot more time to explore the world with a lot of paid holidays and working fewer hours on average, and when you throw in other social benefits that Europeans take for granted that Americans don't have, it allows more freedoms to see the world without having to worry so much about the next bill. In the case of the EU, it probably helps that there are 27 countries in a union that allows these Europeans to work, rest and play in any of those countries, that likely helps on having a more international outlook on things, it also reduces ignorance and anything that reduces that is usually good for democracy and for people getting better rights. Americans are doing themselves a disservice by being ignorant and not learning from around the world, and that probably explains why the US is the odd country out of all the modern countries when it comes to social programs for the people, after all, if the system keeps telling you that you're the best based on nothing, it's going to be a lot harder to improve things and boy is there a lot that needs improving in the US, especially as the US seems to be slipping behind other modern countries in a lot of core indexes like quality of life. So the real question is, how bad do things in the US have to get before the people wake up and demand real change?, honestly, I still think there's a long way to go on the downwards trend, but there is hope among the younger generation, but I feel it's going to take decades before they can have any real impact and even then, they are going to have one hell of a fight on their hand with the pushbacks from the government and big corporations that control everything in the US that I'm grateful that in EU countries at least, we've not let it get that bad, but everyone should always keep their eyes open as the rich elites are more than happy to take more away from everyone else if the people let them.
"How Americans Got So Stupid" is the title of the video, then the presenter (a Brit,) repeatedly pronounces "Cellist" as "Sellist" rather than "Chellist" - the phrase: "Pot calling the kettle black" springs to mind!
Reminds me of a video about London where the narrator, who was British, pronounced Clerkenwell (‘Clarkenwell’) as ‘Clurkenwell’ and Southwark (‘Suthuk’) exactly as spelt.
I think you may find that AP and Reuters were originally owned by the British and to a large extent still are. This is not so much how we distribute English-speaking culture but how we control the news all over the entire world. News gathering is an extremely expensive business and their services are extremely cheap or effectively free of charge to prevent anyone else from getting into the business. Their owners make vast profits and protect their already vaste fortunes not by selling their services but by manipulating world events and controlling what any given population will do at any given time. Many billions can be made on the money markets within a few seconds by carefully controlling the flow and form of information. Their owners decide what the world knows and what they don't and this very much includes foreign governments. This means that these characters can also control what is known as disinformation, misinformation, or lies. What comes in on the feed from these two privately owned organizations is 95% of what the BBC would call the truth when it may be nothing of the kind. What it is, is the authorized version of whatever the owners of these Agencies want us to know as well as don't want us to know. Where you can often catch them out manipulating world affairs is when they give contradictory information to different parts of the world at the same time. Also when a very important event happens in the world never makes it anywhere near the British or American mass media, but is reported either on the BBC World Service, Al Jazeera, or Russian Television in full and gory detail. What we are told happens in this world by the BBC and what happens virtually every day are so far apart from that the rest of the world other than the USA may as well not exist. The UK was a member of the EU up until fairly recently yet as far as BBC reporting of Europe was concerned the entire continent may as well have been somewhere lost within another galaxy especially if anything bad happened.
