Are You Really That Stupid?
Last week Esra’a sent me a link to an article concerning the embarrassingly low geography aptitude of Americans. (I’d love to link the article but I cant find it for the life of me, I searched for almost an hour and I’d like to go to sleep before the sun comes up so I have given up prematurely.) The article states that 17 percent of American students between the ages of 18-24 were incapable of locating the United States on a map. The sad thing is that for many of you that comes as no surprise. Let me suggest this however.
I live in the United States and I’ve been exposed to hundreds of thousands of people in my life and I find it extremely hard to believe that such a large number of Americans could be so stupid. My personal opinion is that most of these statistics are invented for the entertainment of its readers.
I’m not saying most Americans are very geography savvy though, I’ve seen my fair share of stupidity especially with regards to my own Egyptian identity.
After discussing this article with Esra’a (who is among those not surprised by the article) I decided to test my co-workers. The opportunity came up quite by accident, I was busy staring at the wall and doing nothing at work when one of my co-workers started a conversation about which country is bigger, India or the United States. I admit that may not be the easiest question for people to answer, especially if there are people out there who can’t locate the U.S. on a map but the question yielded hilarious ignorance none the less.
My first victim, an Intern I call the Black Widow, was so ignorant that she sparked an entirely new debate. I approached the Black Widow and let the questions fly….
Yours Truly: Hey, I had a really quick question for you. Which country do you think is bigger India or the U.S.?
Black Widow: Well thats tough and Its funny that you asked because I was just studying India for one of my classes. I would have to say India. The thing that make India big is that it has all those other places inside of it like Iraq and Iran.
Yours Truly: Excuse me? You’re joking right?
Black Widow: What do you mean?
Yours Truly: I dont mean to be rude but those might be the single dumbest words ever spoken in the history of Western civilization! I’m offended by your ignorance!
Black Widow: What?! I dont understand.
Certainly this girl is a mental defective and there is no possible way she could have payed attention in class. I had to expose her ignorance to others so I went up to another co-worker and asked the question in a true or false format.
Yours Truly: Hey Rachel let me ask you a simple question. India is so large because it has Iraq and Iran inside of it. True or False?
Rachel: True!…Right?
Yours Truly: (sarcastic look on my face) I have two questions for you. Whats the extent of your education and have you and the Black Widow ever had a class together?
Rachel: I dont get it.
The ignorance doesnt stop here. I questioned as many people as I could with different questions designed to evaluate their geography deficiency.
Yours Truly: Hey Jimmy, quick question. Where am I from?
Jimmy: Egypt.
Yours Truly: Am I African?
Jimmy: No (with a smirk on his face)
Yours Truly: Jimmy what continent is Egypt in?
Jimmy: The Middle East.
Yours Truly: There is no continent called the Middle East, the Middle East is a region. Part of it is in Asia and part of it is in Africa.
Jimmy: So you’re not from the Middle East?
Amazing stupidity ladies and Gentlemen! It’s a crime that people this ignorant continue to prosper in the world, survival of the fittest should’ve sorted them out years ago.
On Friday a girl at work asked me, “what are Egyptians made out of?” I paused for half a second with shock on my face and then responded, “Titanium, stainless steel and synthetic hair, kinda like the Terminator!” I dont think that was the answer she was looking for.
This is the future of America everyone!
P.S. America is bigger than India.
Join the Conversation
how can there be people that stupid? I swear they should be hanged to death for the crime of extreme stupidity!
At least you know you’ll always be entertained at work.
Dude,
That was soo funny, i didn’t know american girls are that dumm?
Iran and Iraq part of india? nice answer , black window
thank you for making me laugh so much !
but it is so sad also that people could be so ignorant in the US
The ignorance doesn’t stop there.. even Americans ABROAD are making the same mistake! These are people whom you’d think would know more. Apparently they think there is a Japanese invasion of Saudi Arabia… and that… Bahrain is a village in China. Have a listen if you haven’t already, it’s rather depressing.
Podcast – when ignorance becomes funny.
By the way, I believe the link you are looking for is this (which I got through Joel in our forums.)
And this is not some lame survey for entertainment value, it is the National Geographic-Roper Global Geographic Literacy Survey
Esra’a !! what are you doing here ??!!!!
I think this is not just funny or strange, it is dangerous. This explains a lot, like how american can believe bush when they tell them saddam and ben laden are working together to kill them all. what do you expect from people who certainly don’t know about countries and regimes in the region ?
Shit Nadia I knew you’d find out! I’M LEAVING NOW. See you in 2 days!
That is too funny. Iraq and Iran in India. You can’t make that kind of nonsense up. I was recently in Geneva and we met an American girl by the lake. Making a silly joke, I said, “A love the ocean breeze here” and she responded by telling me how much she preferred the Pacific ocean back home (it’s warmer and better waves) as opposed to the Atlantic you find in Switzerland. An ocean….in Switzerland. I thought she was extending the “joke” at first. But that didn’t turn out to be the case. Yikes.
If the most powerful nation in the world is so dump, then how dump are the others ? lol , no seriously Americans are just formated, it seems like they all have the same “firmware” in their heads…
What a shame!
No seriously these “persons” exist everywhere, for example, once a taxidriver in cairo said to me when he knew i am tunisian : “Bellahi how is bourguiba ?”
me:- Peace on his soul!
him: Allah ! He’s dead ! When ?
me: 7years ago !!
him: Allah ….. and who is your president now ?
me: zin el abidin.
him: Who is this ? His son ?
me: no…
—- to be continued…
The Africa thing doesn’t really mean anything. In America, African connotates Black, and the Middle East is regarding as its own separate and distinct region. People don’t consider Saudi Arabians Asian, so why should they consider Egyptians African? The fact ist hat Egypt IS more “Middle Eastern” than “African” so I don’t see why this guy regarding Egypt as a Middle Eastern country is such a sign of supposed ignorance.
The comment that India has Iraq and Iran in it is pretty much retarded. How can people like that keep abreast of developments in Iraq when they think its in INdia, which is in the news for its economic prosperity? Don’t they ask questions? No wonder Bush was re-elected…
I don’t see how being aware of who the Tunisian president is is much of a display of ignorance. I would venture to say 99.8% of people outside of Tunisia do not know who either Bourguiba or Abidin are.
Its ignorance because he thinks the Middle East is a continent and doesnt know that Egypt is in Africa. I thought that was obvious Pat, or no?
You might not refer to Saudis as Asian but not knowing they are in Asia is simply stupid, very stupid actually.
And as far as an Egyptian living in Egypt, not knowing who the Tunisian president is…. Thats a big deal considering how knowledgable most all arabs are about politics especially those within their own region!
Ya.. what America…
Like DB said, Middle East is not a continent.
…ya the same Americans who thinks Iraq is in India. Same Americans who think Chinese/Koreans/Japanese = Asian and when I say I am an Asian and they look at me like I am from Mars. North Americans seriously need to learn basic geography, this is actually only applies to Americans and Canadians.
Jina, it isn’t just America. Where in the world are Saudis considered “Asians”?
Earth… name a country… I don’t understand your question.
How can their government continue to exist without the ignorance of its people?
First of all.. I haven’t laughed like this in a while..
We never say that we (saudis) are asians but we are a part of it, so is Iraq, Kuwait… etc, it should be well known.
I remember a time before 9/11 when I was in the states (california) when a guy asked me where I was from, I told him I was from Saudi Arabia.. he said: that is in Texas isn’t it?
I am sure they all know we ain’t in Texas now!!
I think that alot of Americans believe the US represents the 3/4 of the world!
You mean it doesn’t?!
I mean in population number.. not in power!
Yeah I was kidding, it’s funny actually that the entire developed region makes up less than 20% of this world in terms of population. Yet this is still the region that we hear of the most in the news, can you imagine what we don’t know about our planet?!
It is a shame.. an interesting thought though..
The media directs and controls many people’s way of thinking.. So many Americans are brain washed by their media, all they know about foreign affairs is spoon fed by their news.
I remember watching a movie about this a few years back.. nicely made, Dustin Hoffman acted, it’s called Wag the dog.
Unfortunately if you think outside the box.. you’re considered a crazy liberal, an Arab or Muslim propagandist/apologist, a supporter of terrorism, unpatriotic, or a silly conspiracy theorist.
To their credit at least… they can still express their opinions! With social consequences, but at least they can still express it! The only problem is that most take their freedoms for granted.
Sigh. Not all – or even close to all – Americans are that bad. As far as the population in general, it’s not stupidity, it’s being spoiled and blinded by comfort and luxury, however that’s defined in this case. If America wasn’t where it was on the socio-economic map, then people wouldn’t be that ignorant.
I just hate the word ‘stupid’. The fact that most Americans are ignorant (due to being blind to economic/social/etc world issues) is stupid, but I wouldn’t label Americans = stupid at the core.
It also depends where you are. I’m a hotshot New Yorker. I’m not going to waste that much of my breath on Midwesterners or the South…
Some other apt descriptions: lazy, naive, unmotivated, self-isolated, doomed to fail.
Don’t forget ‘fat.’
ignorace is a mixed blessing… ppl can be ignorant about alot of things it’s just a matter of asking the right questions to the right people.
I think that this link is very instructive:
http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/americains%2Bstupides/video/x1qwta_americains-stupides
It’s a good illustration of the poor knowledge of americans about the world.
I guess this says a lot about the place he works.
Please don’t display your own ignorance and say all americans are stupid just cuz a few don’t give a crap about the exact locations of countries they are never going to visit. And furthermore, to call americans “lazy, naive, unmotivated, self-isolated, doomed to fail.” is another sorry display of ignorance. Americans are The most productive people per capita worldwide, Americans are the best fighters worldwide, countless Americans are motivated enough to start their own business, and Americans are going to keep being the most successful nation on the planet.
How many of you know (without looking it up) where hispanola is?
Uh oh, the crazy nationalists are back.