dumb Americans

tonycascarino

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119751448#Comment_119751448

How many Irish people can do that? Very few I would say.

There is no point in Irish people giving out about ''dumb'' Americans when we have our fair share of native Irish dumbos here.

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119766113#Comment_119766113

We all share about 99.9% of the same DNA. Intelligence can also be influenced strongly by environmental factors. The old "nature versus nurture" discussion.

The population of America is mostly descended from very recent arrivals, not the people who were there for thousands of years. So their genes should not have deviated too far from their relations in Ireland or wherever.

Tony EH

America is a nation of over 330,000,000 people. There's bound to be an element of thickos among that number. But Americans, in general, aren't stupid as it were. They're just quite juvenile in many respects, due to a rather dumbed down view of things that's fed to them, and they can be very easily led into binary positions. Look at their political landscape and you can see this in effect to a rather frightening degree.

Over the years I've met a great deal of people from the US, both inside and outside of it and the vast majority have been of an average intelligence, neither Mensa candidates or dribbling morons. Just ordinary folk, like the vast majority of people elsewhere. I'd also add that one needs to be careful of what the deem to be "America", because New York ain't Arizona and Seattle ain't Texas. In other words, America and Americans are very different depending on where you go and whom you're speaking to.

I will say though, that of the Americans that I've met, a lot of them tend to quickly form an opinion on nearly everything even if they know bugger all about the subject under discussion and, furthermore, they can be quite loud about it too. I believe that's because they are encouraged to speak their mind from a young age. Unfortunately this can lead to misstatements and whatnot giving the impression of being a bit on the dumb side.

gameoverdude

Why the ridicule. I'm too lazy and old to have a six pack. Be happy in your own skin.

slither12

One thing I've noticed about Americans is that there's an element of fake positivity in social interactions. I think the Irish and British are polite as well but wouldn't hesitate to be 'straight up' with you regarding what they think about someone/something.

y0ssar1an22

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmI6YpGew1w&t=297s&ab_channel=DannyOz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_pw8duzGUg&ab_channel=AdamJohnson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJlY9C7YWzI&ab_channel=MartinSimmons

ss

snowstorm445

Some of it is just the voice and the pitch. We tend to forget that Americans naturally talk LOUDER than we do, for whatever reason. Perhaps it's more of a reflection on us being quieter people (along with a lot of Northern Europeans) but their regular volume is just a lot higher than ours. And a lot slower, especially than your average Irish conversation.

But there are other factors too. I've noticed that a lot of Americans, especially online, come across as incredibly navel-gazing and introspective. They implicitly treat America as the default country. References to the rest of the world often include very vague generalised labels (e.g. "in Europe they do this..."). A lot of them will specifically remind you that they are American when in foreign company (i.e. "as an American" vs just "as a foreigner"), as if it adds weight or importance to whatever opinion they make.

There's also the simple fact that America is unlike every other western country in that it is a cultural hegemon. We import American culture and are expected to know a lot about them. Same goes for the vast majority of Europe, the Commonwealth etc. But it doesn't apply in reverse. Americans rarely receive foreign cultural inputs to the same extent as we do, and so can grow up in absolute ignorance of the rest of the world in a way that would be impossible/unacceptable for us. It's an imbalanced cultural dynamic.

Rothko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119767010#Comment_119767010

I don't believe that at all

I wouldn't consider myself dumb nor the brightest American.But living here over 20 yrs I've noticed your not much better in the grand scheme of life.And even here you have adopted our lingo and even cultures such as dreamcatchers in your holy shops.So if we are so dumb why does most of film,music,and cultures are copied by countries who have never had that experience?

kirk.

I was at university there for a year and work for another year

A lot of them eat a lot of processed food and believe a lot of garbage

There was really smart people there though I met

BorneTobyWilde

The US is 20 countries in one, its impossible to paint them all with the same brush.

wotzgoingon

As an American and a gun totting one too. Currently I'm polishing my AR15. As a Trump supporter I believe Trump should write a new current day American bible. He is a god and every country in the world should be worshipping him.

Merrica, I pledge allegiance to the United States of America

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119768901#Comment_119768901

I never knew this about the way Americans speak, so I don't know how I am supposed to have forgotten it. But now that you point it out, it is obviously the Southern European stock (think Italy, Spain, Greece) that went over who speak like this. The Northern European stock never brought that trait with them. And maybe it is an African and/or Asian thing as well. Although it is probably not good to attach generalities like this to whole continents. How many out of 330 million Americans did you base your observations on?

America of all places is the one which has got the most cultural inputs from all over the world, so I think you are way off the mark there.

BattleCorp

I used to live and work in the US years ago. It's my experience that the average American is not any dumber than us.

Where I'll concede that they seem dumber than us is in relation to the world outside of their border. Many of them are very insular and never experience or have any interest in anywhere outside of the US. That's not really being dumb though, it's just that it's their culture to not really care about the outside world. Kind of like how it's our culture to not be able to learn languages. The vast majority of the Irish don't even know their own language after learning it for 14 or so years. Does that make us dumb? Not really, it's just our culture to not bother putting in the effort when it comes to languages.

The above aside, I found this tweet very funny.

Ray Palmer

I know a lot of Americans and lived there for a while. It is hard to say they aren't a dumb nation. There general political views are right wing compared to Europe. Your average left leaning person would be a centralist here. They of course have extreme left and right too and due to the American praise for individuality the extremists are extra extreme.

For them being culturally unaware like thinking Irish people wear kilts is understandable as they actually have to know so much about the rest of the world as so many nationalities live there. Many Irish people would have issues remembering all the different cultures and we don't know about them either. Do you think the Chinese people who moved here have heard some really stupid questions from Irish people? For years a "Chinese" place was run by a Korean family near me. Most people refereed to the people there as Chinese even with big Korean map on the wall.

The thing is the USA has allowed fundamentalists run things. How creationism got into any education system is a damning situation. The creation of Christian colleges and what they are allowed do is shocking.

I was working in the USA and a women went to the Bahamas and mentioned that the water was different. After a brief discussion it turned out it was sea water she was confuse by and when she went swimming she tasted it and was surprised. She didn't know about the existence of salt water and was "college" educated.

Your average USA citizen doesn't know what socialism is but they hate it. The propaganda they are brought up with does affect them as does ours. Irish people have post colonial chip on our shoulders and fight most systems and authority. We have our people who are willfully ignorant too and cause issues.

Manic Moran

I don't know if I would knock open book exams. Even specialized fields often have a larger range of knowledge than can be reasonably learned by a mind to the extent that they don't need to look it up. Speaking immodestly, I am one of the best in my particular field, but still have a large library to fall back upon. To get my pilot's license, I can be asked any question from the relevant portion of the FARs, the Federal Aviation Regulations, some 500 pages of Bible thin paper and 8 point print. Good luck knowing it all.

The trick to success in life is not knowing the correct answer except as a matter of convenience. The trick is knowing where the correct answer lies, and how to apply that answer to the situation at hand.

Ray Palmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119790226#Comment_119790226

I think you are missing how the education system works there and how many multiple choice and open book exams they have at all levels of education. Yes open book exams have their place but over used in the USA.

BrianBoru00

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119750818#Comment_119750818

Whoa there, hold your horses. . . ."led the world"??

Science and medicine yeah fair enough (Isn't surgery just part of medicine?)

But literature?

Theatre?

Architecture?

No.

I mean they're up there but to suggest that they are somehow the leaders in every field is exactly the comment that an american would come out with. The Newsroom clip is very apt.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119751234#Comment_119751234

If you go for a graduate job in Ireland in the vast majority of fields - a graduate from Tralee IT has as good a chance as the someone graduating from Trinity with the same grades. That is NOT the case in America where there is huge snobbery towards the Ivy League schools in particular.

Also your "biggest economy" does not mean that there are not a lot of "thickos".

American culture permeating through to here is a very worrying trend. The rich in America keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer so the top 10% are grand. The next 20% get by but below that and they're struggling hugely. Its a country that's caving in on itself.

For all its faults It's still a magnificent country but the way it treats its poor is shocking

yourdeadwright

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119751537#Comment_119751537

Yet at the same time they have some of the greatest athletes the world has ever seen,

yourdeadwright

It's there lack of common sense & the fact they are so gullible that leads to the stereo type,

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119790193#Comment_119790193

Pollster. Hello, I work for a polling company. You look like an average citizen?

Citizen. What does that mean, there are 330 million of us, how do you work out the average.

Pollster. Anyway, do you know what Socialism is, and do you like it or hate it?

Citizen. Average citizens do not know what it is. But maybe above average citizens do. Go and ask one of them.

Ray Palmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119791408#Comment_119791408

All you have to do is listen to the politicians and supporters. Socialism to an average USA citizen is equal to communism.

Funny post to me as I worked in market research for years and it is basically what we do except qualify it by not having leading questions like yours and we also had quotas to make sure we got a spread across demographics.

You can hire companies to ask leading questions but they don't have certification from the recognised bodies which depends on countries laws. Worked on the Eurobarometer for years and there were cross studies done about the understanding of ideologies. USA does badly in such things.

You certainly don't see "socialist" used as an insult here as they do in the USA

dxhound2005

It doesn't take much looking to see that this is just stuff you have made up.

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2019/10/07/in-their-own-words-behind-americans-views-of-socialism-and-capitalism/

Floppybits

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119751735#Comment_119751735

100% agree. I don't think that they are stupid or thick but more about how easily influenced they are and once they are influenced that way then they are not for turning. I think that is why most people look at Americans and think are they stupid for electing someone like Trump or so some of the other things they do. As others have said as well that Americans don't even to look outside their countries borders and in some cases they don't need to look outside their state or county borders.

Fathom

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058267693/dumb-americans

Stereotypes? They speak for themselves. Just like cliches.