The stupid American stereotype

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ViennaSausage replied on Fri, May 30 2008 6:22 PM

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ryanpatgray:

Firstly I would say the stereotype is that of an IGNORANT American.

Q:  What's the difference between ignorance and apathy?
A:  I don't know, and I don't care.

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CopperHead replied on Fri, May 30 2008 8:52 PM

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 I wonder what the deal is with this same stereotype being applied to Polish people? I mean theres really a lot of jokes out there about how stupid Poles are, how did that come to be?

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Twirlcan replied on Sat, May 31 2008 11:40 AM

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CopperHead:

 I wonder what the deal is with this same stereotype being applied to Polish people? I mean theres really a lot of jokes out there about how stupid Poles are, how did that come to be?

I grew up in an area with a lot of Poles.  They tended to tell the most Polish jokes that I ever heard so I think it might have come to be the same way pride in ones heritage comes to be....You need to make fun of yourself a bit.

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Halevy replied on Sat, May 31 2008 12:09 PM

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Hi Austrian folks,

I don't believe Americans are more stupid, in average, than any other people. You cannot take general knowledge as a parameter for intelligence or competence. I've read texts from PhDs which reveal an absolute ignorance about the most basic principles of economics, while I also know about many examples such as a guy who formerly sold peanuts at a street crossing and turned out to be a successful enterpreneur - even giving lectures to university students and executives. I'm not sure if this guy would be able to cite the capitals of certain states, however this doesn't make him less important than the PhD who lives in his marble tower writing socialist rubbish.

For an external observer, exactly the opposite may be true, if you take into account the American prosperity and wealth, and the American leadership in world business, when compared with other guys who think themselves as "smart" such as Europeans or whatever.

It just sounds to me a bit like Mises wrote in his essay on "Anticapitalistic Mentality" - on the envy of those who don't suceed with respect to the well-to-do.

The international mainstream media use to stress out this subject, not without a little help from inside the USA - see such "famous" Americans like Mr. Michael "Stupid White Men" Moore & al.

Even though generalizations are not precise, the education level in the USA seems to have dropped throughout the last decades, and guess why??? Public schooling and all its PC-trash which replaced the study of useful subjects.

Kindest regards from Brazil,

R. Halevy.