This is either for Americans to answer or non-americans. No hate, no judgement, just pointing out things they famously are ignorant of. I'll start:
South America is a continent, it doesn't mean all countries south of America, (central America is in-between, with 7 nations).
I'll let you take this one, Shogun.
shareThe difference between Communism, Socialism, and Social democracy. And I would say those terms individually as well. I understand that this is not true for everybody, but that this happens even at the level of news reporters is really strange to many Europeans.
shareGeography. Even of their own country.
shareforeign languages
world history
american history internationally, from the perspectives of those impacted by it
american racial history, particularly - though that is starting to change.
an appreciation for political histories/contexts/consensuses outside of the us
we are a heavily sequestered & indoctrinated people, but not in the way most might think. we take our preeminence, conventions, nostrums received from our masters, and the associated prerogatives as the most natural thing in the world, without much understanding or appreciating or respecting the world we assume ourselves preeminent concerning.
a notorious example - you ask Americans on the street what were the casualties of the vietnam war - many come up wuth an answer of about 60k Americans, but far fewer will mention the 3 million plus Vietnamese dead.
another - we invaded an extremely large, populous, diverse & strategically important arab nation, deconstructing its entire government & authority & patronage & economic structure at a stroke, led by a man who didn't understand the difference between the sunni & shia sects of islam. the 'planning' committee had virtually no arabic speakers.
in my mind, these anecdotes tell a large part of the story.
Ah you beat me to it. It's kinda like if you are ignorant of geography situational awareness of everything else follows suit. How can Americans know anything about anything if they don't even know where they are? Can you imagine how often they would get lost?
shareI think people of the US are generally not well versed in world geography, but not sure that is a trait of just us.
Definitely more of an american thing. Jimmy Kimmel loves catching people out.
https://youtu.be/kRh1zXFKC_o
We are not ignorant of that. We learned that in the first grade. People outside of the US are ignorant of that.
sharePresident Reagan thought that South America was one county.
Nonsense. He was a very intelligent man and traveled all over the world. I can buy AOC thinking South America is a county. Not Reagan.
shareOkay, perhaps it was extrapolation from a comment he made to the press after his 1982 tour, "I went down to find out from them and learn their views. You'd be surprised. They're all individual countries."
Nothing wrong with that. Since people seem to be fleeing those countries by the hundreds of thousands, the more important question is WHY these countries are still failing? But let's concentrate instead on something Reagan said 40 years ago.
You see this is how stupid you are. They aren't fleeing South American countries. You are EXACTLY the reason for the OP's question. Thanks for being an example for us all. You are an embarrassment to the rest of us Americans.
share"I can buy AOC thinking South America is a county."
When you say something that dumb you know that we are ALL thinking that what you say about her is most likely true of you.
Do you even know where her heritage is from?
Um, she said the world will not be able to support human life in 10.5 years. Well, she said 12 years but that was a year and a half ago. She was serious. You cannot be as dumber than AOC. And she is from Puerto Rican descent. That's not South America. Or do you think all Spanish speaking people are the same?
shareStupid liar. She is saying what some scientists have been saying, that we have 12 years to reverse climate change. Some scientists have said the time has already passed and they might be right. But you don't even know what gravity is or why the sky is blue so no use having this conversation with you.
shareWhy do people believe idiotic shit like that.
When someone posts the word "Africa" in a forum 50 people will come by and say, gotcha bitch, Africa isn't a country.
Everybody knows Africa is not a country.
Everybody knows South America is not a country.
Of course Africa isn’t a country. Everybody knows it’s a song by Toto: -
https://youtu.be/FTQbiNvZqaY
Trump didn't even know what Pearl Harbor was for before he even visited. Isn't that level of lack of awareness just astounding?
shareTake your pick:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jay+leno+jaywalking
O' cherry picking Jay.
shareI don’t think Americans are any more ignorant than people of other countries. Why single them out?
shareThey are incredibly insular.
shareMore so than the British who don’t want to be a part of the European Union or Australians who love locking up asylum seekers in offshore detention centres?
Nup, try again.
Does that make them insular or just jerks? What Australia is doing needs to be called out worldwide as a human rights abuse. The British are finding out the hard way about their idiotic mistake.
shareYou're impressively enlightened for a rightist. Well dispelling of ignorance will put you on the road to liberalism. The more truth you learn the more you learn the truth has a liberal bias.
shareSlightly silly thing but not realising that their school system is unique and no one else knows what they mean when defining someone as a 1st, 2nd etc grader. A confusion compounded by all the school based shows where 20+ actors play the roles.
shareI never thought it was weird, even though we say in Australia "a grade oner, twoer, threer".
Now that's incorrect English.
It sounds like your system is a little closer to the American one. In the UK it seems very different - at least compared to what I remember - which was admittedly a long time ago.
share