dumb Americans

America has led the world for easily a century, probably a little bit more, in science, medicine, literature, surgery, theatre, architecture, space travel, and pretty much any other field you can think of.

I don't know why or exactly when, but at some point in the late 20th century it became trendy to stereotype them as a bit thick. I suspect the origins may have come from the mistaken perception that they were all rich without having to work particularly hard for it. A mix of jealousy, the bizarre belief that American TV shows were an even remotely accurate picture of life for the average US working family, and our only exposure to actual American people being tourists who at that particular time tended to be rich as trans Atlantic travel was outside of most people's ability.

From my personal experience in the US nothing could be further from the truth, though obviously any collection of 350 million people is going to have its share of problems. But the very notion that a country could consistently be the biggest economy in the world whilst simultaneously being populated by thickos is just ludicrous.

Some of it is undoubtedly down to media sources going for the lowest common denominator (ie cheap laughs). I mean you won't have to Google it for very long to get interviews with Americans answering survey questions with things like "the capital of France is Europe" or "Harry Potter is the author of The Bible". That's just rubbish down to the selective editing of a TV show looking for comedy, the reality is that 99.99% of people who answer these questions know exactly what they are talking about, except they just don't make very funny TV clips so aren't the ones who get broadcast.

If an Irish person mentions Americans can’t find Ireland on a map I would usually challenge them to find states on a blank map , its actually really difficult without practice 😀

Apologies in advance, I'm not trying to come across as rude or a "grammar Nazi", but there's really no point in coddling you here. An American child with the most basic rudimentary skills in the English language could comfortably highlight at least four spelling mistakes that you just made in that post. But if they were to say "Europeans are stupid" or that we don't have education options based on your income as a result, that would be nonsensical.

The US is full of fine schools. I accept that entry into Yale and Harvard may not be in everyone's family budget, but there's no shortage of very decent alternatives and no barrier placed in front of you just because you are black, brown, foreign, living with unemployed parents, etc.

This is actually a very hard question to answer. I guess the best answer I can think of, based on the Americans I know personally - is not that Americans are dumb, but I do think they are often very out of touch to the point of ignorance about the rest of the World.

And because its so drummed into them that "America is the greatest country in the world" they believe that everyone else always gets it wrong (no matter what the subject is) and America is always in the right. I've visited America a couple of times, and it's great for a holiday, but I wouldn't like to live there.

Well now to be fair I wasn't being a grammar Nazi and I did try to make that clear. I agree I don't like them either, I was only using the example to say things can easily be taken out of context. If one person makes a spelling mistake don't assume 350 million of their fellow citizens are low IQ idiots. Sorry, I wasn't trying to say that's what you personally were doing, I just meant that it's what a lot of other people do seem to do.

I know a few Irish folk who got dumbed down by settling in America and have the outlook of 1950s/60s/70s Ireland. On the other hand I was very pleasantly surprised to meet seriously well relatives from California who study European architecture & history, Shakespeare, learn languages etc.

TBF, we are not talking about social problems or criminality. The States has that in spades as well.

Not some slob, literally thousands,across a handful of theme parks. And as it's a theme park there are people from across the entire country here, every state represented.

Where in the US were you that you didn't see the obesity problem on every street corner?

It's not like there was a wide array of options

Honestly, I do. And I'm basing it on what I witness around me. I don't see Michael Phelps, Simon Biles or any olympians (maybe there are 1 or 2) walking around, but I'm literally surrounded by obese and morbidly obese everywhere I turn. The amount of obese people moving around on mobility scooters is nothing short of disgraceful. They seem to be beyond the point of no return.

And it's not just in Florida, I've witnesses it in California, New York, Chicago and Missouri so it seems fairly ingrained across the country.

It's not overly surprising though when you see the soda fountains (free refills) in every food establishment, the size of food portions, the muck that passes for food here, the distance between venues that discourages walking, and more.

Anyway, off topic as you say.