American's aren't stupid
 

A youtube gem. All to be taken with a grain of salt of course.

Re: American's aren't stupid
 

When does natural selection kick in? :P
Seriously though, they made quite an effort to find the dumbest people west of the atlantic.

Re: American's aren't stupid
 

Yes well, not everyone wants to look at current events or basic math. I mean who would? But to say American's aren't stupid isn't to say that we ALL are smart.

If you really want to watch someone flounder over basic education questions you should watch "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader" Get some really interesting people there. Hosted by Jeff Foxworthy.

Example: This thursday's episode they had a college fratboy and his bro's up. Question: What four words follow "My Country Tis of Thee" in the song 'America'?

One of them answered "Oh beautiful, for gracias" Wrong song and even if it were the right song it would still be wrong.


Added: Of course it could also be camera schock, where you're on camera and all signs of intelligence vanish instantly.
It's scary but you'll find ample idiots in any country. They're not just localised stateside.

Still the video is also kind of scary. I'm no genius but I'm still smarter than those people. And I've only got a highschool education so far.

Re: American's aren't stupid
 

Yes, they broadcast that here as well. It's surprising to see how fast people forget everything they've learned in school. In the last episode I saw, the candidate had every single question wrong. Luckily, her son and his classmates bailed her out every time. :)

Re: American's aren't stupid
 

But remember, most of these people don't have jobs that require these facts on a day to day basis. This is the issue I have with education in schools, too many general facts that will serve about 1-5% of your class in their lifetime if at all. A 5th grader knows it because he is constantly being tested on it, asked to revise it. His life is only about homework and teachers at that time. The only reason it's learned is because a teacher is directing him to learn it, and it will probably never come up again in any signifigant matter, trivia games aside.

Re: American's aren't stupid
 

I knew every single question--and they were easy too.. Kinda scary some of those questions were so simple....
The Tonight show with Jay Leno does this (Don't like Leno--I like Conan) but man, most people didn't even know what the Vice President's name was!

Pretty scary.. Glad I have a high IQ I guess. :D

Re: American's aren't stupid
 

The thing about the Tonight show questions is; they are usually about things that an adult should know. The game show, if I understand correctly, is asking adults to remember something they learned a long time ago.

I have a dial-up connection and I am not able to see the video, so I cannot comment on what happened in it.

I do not necessarily agree with this statement. I have three children and the oldest is in 4th grade. It seems to me that the basic ideology the schools have is to teach a child not just things they will maybe use one day, but to teach them how to learn and retain knowledge. Once someone gets to higher education they are given a choice, sort of, on what they want to learn.

Re: American's aren't stupid
 

They've been doing these sorts of video's forever... you can go anywhere in the world and find people like this, too caught up in their own lives to care to learn what's going on around them.

Re: American's aren't stupid
 

You're right, stupidity is universal. The people that made this video also did a 'British' version:

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Of course, it isn't quite the same. All they have here is a bunch of teenage delinquents. Perhaps because everyone else knew the answers. I also missed questions like 'what is the religion of Buddist monks?' and 'what state is Kentucky Fried Chicken from?'. :P

Re: American's aren't stupid
 

Hmmm... if I were in Oz, I'd get a little nervous about all these people thinking that Iran and North Korea are located over there...

Re: American's aren't stupid
 

Wow! Looks like my time machine worked. I'm seeing videos from times long past...

Precisely. Well said.

Moreover, children would not know what they are interested in if they weren't taught a little of everything in primary school. Once they've tasted a bit of this and that they'll know what they really want to study later.

Re: American's aren't stupid
 

I just wonder... what would happen if they showed all of the interviews... and not just the funny ones.

Lets face it they could have stopped thousands of people, and 50 of them gave stupid answers.. and they are the ones that made prime time... the clever and concise answers went on the cutting room floor.

That could have been knee deep in them!

Re: American's aren't stupid
 

True, the vid wouldn't have had that impact if there were even 2 encounters where they knew the answers.

Re: American's aren't stupid
 

Sherlock Holmes thought that he does not need to know whether sun revolves around the earth or vice versa (or it is a combination of these two).

He was wrong. That is called general education, which is as far as i see, severely lacking in USA (and in Israel too).

Where is Iran??

LOL!

Re: American's aren't stupid
 

Not that it's lacking in the US, more that most decide to forget after graduating. Many choosing to forget after graduating Elementary School.

Re: American's aren't stupid
 

It's not just the US. Unless you have a job that utilizes all these subjects you are going to forget most of it as it falls into the background of your memory, and we think about our jobs or family or day-to-day things. Sherlock Holmes didn't have access to the internet btw. There is no excuse for being uneducated in this day and age, and if most americans don't know where Iran is (some don't know where America is) despite being told these locations in school, then we'd have to agree the system is broken and needs a major rework from every angle.