Are You Dumber than an American?
http://watchingamerica.com/News/184212/are-you-dumber-than-an-american/
Are You Dumber than an American?
Expressen, Sweden
By Ann-Charlotte Marteus
Translated By Grace Olaison
7 November 2012
Edited by Natalie Clager
Sometimes one is a little afraid of the United States. Not because it possesses nuclear weapons or anything along those lines, but because many Americans, beside the brilliant elite, seem so… well… foolish.
How can 46 percent of the population reject the theory of evolution? How can half the people want a rogue like Mitt Romney as president? How can Sarah Palin even exist? How could doubt about Obama's citizenship and religion become a perpetual point of mobilization, despite the total lack of common sense and evidence?
The deep distrust of reason, science and facts that many Americans wallow in today, is purely detrimental to society. You cannot raise a democratic discussion when preposterous lies are given the same credence as truths.
And never have politicians gotten away with so many lies as during the 2012 election campaign. The exaggerated distrust seems paradoxically to have made people so misguided that they have become gullible.
= new reply since forum marked as read
jeff foxworthy is one rich redneck...and larry the cable guy isn't hurting either.
different strokes for different folks. 
... 
and I assume you are one of those who do enjoy that kind of humor? Well, excuse the Hell of of me, OK? How dare I even suggest that we not laugh at ignorance. I watched exactly one of those clips and never watched another. Instead of laughing at ignorance, shouldn't we be thinking about how on earth to get all those people educated? Call me petty. I'll call you shallow. How 'bout that?
Yes, I did just sign up on election day, but I've been reading DU since it's beginning, some 11 years ago. I promise I will go look up the DU rules of posting so I won't make the mistake of stepping on someone's sensibilities, as I seem to have with yours. What is this, war-on-newbies day? Lets just part ways. I don't say things to incite arguments, OK? I like to discuss and join in conversations on the issues, not fight. I will search DU for the rules of posting and learn them by heart. I wish you peace, EmeraldCityGrl.
You like the rednecks, I like Lewis Black. Nothing wrong with that, huh? Each to their own humor. 
BTW, Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. 
Good Almighty GOD.
If it were as practical for residents of North America as Spanish, we'd all speak it fluently.
"av" has both the functions of the English "of" and the German "ab." It can be used, depending on context, to mean "of," "from," or "starting with"
"vid" is one of those all-purpose prepositions that drive foreigners nuts until you just get a feel for when to use it. "opposite from" or "at" are two of many uses. It could also be used, as in the case, to mean "as opposed to."
Ibland blir man lite rädd för USA.
Inte för att landet har kärnvapen eller något i den stilen, utan för att många amerikaner, vid sidan av den briljanta eliten, framstår som så - oförnuftiga.
Sometimes one gets a little afraid of the USA (Swedish uses "afraid before--rädd för" where we just say "afraid of"
Not because the country has nuclear weapons or anything like that (literally "something in that style"-- in Swedish "något" or "någonting" can mean "something" or "anything" , but rather ("utan" is literally translated as "without," but can be correctly used in context to mean "rather than," much like the German "sondern" because many Americans, as opposed to the brilliant elite, come across as so--not sensible.
Swedish and German have this great word förnuftig (vernünftig in German) which basically means "having common sense." The negative, oförnuftig (unvernünftig in German), means "lacking common sense." We don't really have one word that encompasses the meaning.
"av is very much a cognate of the German "ab" though not always parallel to the fullest. "För" as a prefix" very closely follows the German "ver" and is even pretty much pronounced the same way. "O" and "Un" as prefixes are very much similar, with the Swedish "O" being pronounced as our long "oo" as in toon (not as in "book" .
I'm sure there such a dictionary as you are asking about, but when I was taking it in college, I only took it up through the first semester of my junior year, when I had to concentrate on the necessary number of credits for my major. We read literature, but didn't delve deeply into etymology. Our professor did quite a lot of telling the German majors among us what the German equivalent was to many Swedish words as we learned them, but as I learned Swedish first, and German second, I didn't get the references. We read a lot of literature (Strindberg to Moberg), watched contemporary films--7th Seal, Ådalen 31 (still one of my favorite films), etc. She spoke to us ONLY in Swedish from the first day of class, but Swedish is really that easy to learn. By the end of my freshman year, I returned to Sweden in the summer to visit Swedish friends I had visited the year before, when I didn't speak a word of Swedish. They couldn't believe I had learned enough to hold a coherent conversation in just 10 months, but it really is that easy to learn.
We have the advantage of education and a perspective on history that other nations in a similar situation in the past have not had.
I don't think Americans are biologically any less intelligent than the rest of the world but we have a popular culture which is jaw-droppingly brilliant at inculcating rank stupidity and/or ignorance in the population.
of our fellow Americans.
I had an unpleasant encounter with a DUer just a couple of days ago that went completely sideways because Real Housewives of various places is the only show I could think of that people constantly talk about. I've never even seen it, but this person is absolutely certain that I used that reference because I am a sexist pig.
Is Dancing With The Stars still on?
What can you do?
Still, it was another kick.
Of course, the phrase is typically deployed in an ironic fashion, these days.
people call all Americans dumb and don't realize they are including themselves. Of course they are the exception
Stereotypical redneck here, my home has the wheels to prove it.
And I live in the South, go figure.
Now, you're begging the question.
And if that is too difficult for you to grasp;How about, I know you are, but what am I?
Icelandic is to the modern Scandinavian languages what a hermit living in a cave in northern Idaho is to a Manhattan socialite. They're from the same species, but just barely. Icelandic is not only old Norse, but they take pains to keep it that way. They even retain the voiced "th (as in "broTHer" as a separate letter: ð
to make an argument, particularly about people?
Blacks are lazy.
Jews are miserly.
Yes, indeedy. Brilliant, hon.
Just pointing out the fact you made a sweeping generalization while condemning sweeping generalizations, I thought it was more than a little ironic.
Criticizing one article for broad brushing a nation of 310 million hardly qualifies
as a "sweeping generalization".
Calling 310 million people "stupid" certainly does.
The problem is I addressed the fact that you accused Cali of something she didn't do. Would you like to read your own words?
"Just pointing out the fact you made a sweeping generalization while condemning sweeping generalizations, I thought it was more than a little ironic".
Get it now?
I guess it's for the haters, self and otherwise.
I often forget the "irony impaired".
ubiquitous, I had to drop the radiation.
and "Spare Ass Annie," the album where they backed up William S. Burroughs.
world". XD 
I still have my "Don't Blame Me. I'm from Massachusetts!" Bumper sticker some where. Never actually stuck on my car.
I do hope you're being facetious. If not, you certainly sound more
foolish than the "average American", whoever you imagine
that to be, as well as a self-superior bore.
Do try and emigrate to Canada, dear.
We'd hate to have your heart continue to "break a little".
but with the utter, and IMO, despicable, contempt so many here hold for there own countrymen,
it's hard to know.
some here feel the need to indulge
doesn't enjoy pain as much as you.
No offense, but some of us just don't have the kind of self hating masochism
that tells us we "need" to be shat upon.
How nice for you.
What do you think?
she lived in an apartment building that housed a lot of foreign students attending the local universities. She did typing for them and became friends with them. One more than one occasion while talking with them they referred to Americans as stupid and self-centered.
At first it made her angry to hear this, but then she slowly realized that there was a lot of truth in what they were saying.
I have traveled a lot--and lived in several countries. There are stupid self-centered people EVERYWHERE. You can't escape them on this planet My own sister--not that stupid--butshe is totally and completely self centered and self absorbed (oh yeah--and she's a Democrat--so it isn't just THEM that have this problem)
"At first it made her angry to hear this"
Gee.. I can't can't imagine WHY, especially since they were attending the "local universities", it seems, in her own country.
Were it me, after blasting them for unmitigated rudeness mos likely underscored by jealousy, I'd ask them why they chose to attend our
schools if we were so "dumb"? Duh.
"Stupid and self-centered" my ass. When civilized people TRULY feel superior to others, they're more inclined to
treat them with kindness and concern. It's only when people secretly envy that country for something they HAVE, that
their country does NOT, that they engage in this sort of "bullying". I mean, really, can you imagine the outrage and cries of
"ugly American" we'd hear were we to go to their countries and insult them to THEIR faces like this? .
I don't know how many years ago your wife experienced these jerks, and I know many will balk at my "jealousy"
theory as being part of the reason, but it's true, in my opinion. Oh, yes, they'll regale you with the superiority of their health and
social systems, and to a large extent, they're right, but, (and here's the big "but" one thing they do NOT have anymore is power,
and as much as they'll deny it, they resent and envy us for it.
In fact, the more "undeserving" they can convince themselves we are of it, the angrier it makes them,
and so the more anxious they are to "put us in our place"
Again, Europeans don't generally denigrate nations they really view as "inferior", especially not with the persistence the've
shown toward us Instead, they're inclined to a more "humanistic" approach to them and
if we were to lose our super power status, and if they did not, at the end of the day, have to depend
on it for their own safety, their attitude would change.
To summarize, I believe the constant ridicule and assertion of superiority is mostly a cover for intense resentment.
as the OP pointed out
When 46% of the population rejects evolution
When 48% supported Romney for president (at the very least thaey should have been asking themselves how a man who made his personal forture eliminating/exporting jobs could suddenly create jobs in America)
When 46% supported the 2008 McCain/Palin ticket in spite of the fact that was and is an idiot (and still has a sizable audience)
How Obama's citizenship and religion became a point of mobilization to this day
The deep distrust of reason, science and facts that many Americans wallow in today
When at least 40% of the general population gets their news from FOX
YOU'VE GOT TO WONDER!!!
I've done the same and am in complete agreement.
article, when we say essentially the same things day in and day out here on DU.
I know, I know, it's different when a non-American says it, but really, Sweden? Of all places! A lot of people on this board, myself included, would probably say that they have a smarter and more humane society than we do. But to read some of the complaints here, I have to scratch my head and ask what happened...
color me baffled
Hitler, the banking scandal in Japan, Rupert Murdoch and the media scandal in England, Putin, Stephen Harper, Imelda Marcos, Idi Amin, the Eurozone, Sharia law,......
Yeah, only America has stupid people
from foreigners, I really can't STAND the drooling europhiles here with so little pride
and so much desire to curry favor with the Euros, that they denigrate their own people,
including themselves and those of us on DU.
It's simple bigotry, really, and I have had at least one "Americans are.....insert insult..." post hidden/deleted
here for exactly that reason.
I understand perfectly the frustrations and impressions of "ignorance"
when it comes to the Tea Party and the Far Right in general, but there ARE reasons for
that -- a 24 hour propaganda station called Fox, for one thing -- and, if I'm not mistaken,
I believe we bright and "informed" Americans just BEAT BACK the others in the last election!..
What a fucking downer to have to read more shit about "dumb Americans". Most of these people have never been here
and have NO real conception of how BIG America is and how diverse. We are, however, a super power,
and so make a perfect "whipping boy"
For what it's worth, I like Europe, have visited there several times and even have "right of return"
due to my ancestry. That being said, I'm a progressive American who does NOT "apologize" for her
nationality nor "genuflect" to others because of theirs. In the long run, I think that stance both reflects
and engenders more respect than that of self-effacing self-haters.
those who made such comments about ANY other country in the world.
Perhaps when they talk about "dumb Americans" they are really speaking of themselves.
And by pasta, a dumb-as-a-post popular culture is a huge flaw of my ethnicity.
There just aren't all that many ethnicities where ignorance is considered a virtue and the ones where ignorance is considered a virtue are worthy of being mocked.
There's an entire major political party devoted to denying reality and they came scarily close to winning yet another presidency, that's not an indication of a real bright ethnicity on the average even if everyone who voted the other way is a damn genius
Damn, I'm drowning in a sea of fucking stupid here in red state hell and I'm not even supposed to mention it.
There's no doubt in my mind that you carry at least as many prejudices as I do, I'm just being honest about mine.
I never said anyone at all was "bad" or "evil", what I said is that America has a bone deep stupid popular culture which celebrates ignorance, an undeniable fact.
The moment it really hit me was when Dubya was reelected in 2004 with more votes than he got in 2000, that was an election for the record books when it comes to jaw dropping displays of sheer dumbfuckery. At that moment I realized I lived in a nation that was full of people who couldn't think their way out of a wet paper bag. Remember, that was *after* Iraq had turned into a quagmire and the WMDs (remember them?) were discovered to be vaporware.
"The question is seldom asked: Is our children learning." -President George W Bush
Just as mature and logical as what you wrote.
and believe me, I was defending my own point of view as much as yours.
The OP couldn't be more ill-timed: Who wants to be insulted again with another
"Dumb Americans" thread, especially on the heels of a successful election?
Ironically, I find a recent admonition from a prominent Republican pertinent here:
"Stop despising people".
If they feel "above" the rest of us, let them take their sneering asses elsewhere,
and if that amounts to "love it or leave" it, so be it.
I find few as loathsome as those who spit on their own countrymen.
and you are so wrong in saying that "America has no culture" it leads me to believe you are,
for whatever reasons, actually quite ignorant about our country.
America certainly DOES have a culture. The fact that such a large country varies somewhat from region to region
is neither surprising, nor out of keeping with virtually all OTHER countries.
The South of China (Hell, the south of Italy) has a slightly
different "culture" than the north of that country and the same thing applies,
perhaps even more so, in countries like India where the languages and customs vary from
state to state. That being said, East Indians are generally seen as "an ethnic group"
Spidey, time and again, the strength of your "opinions" seems in inverse proportion to your knowledge
of the subject of which you are speaking. In light of that, I think you might consider
that you actually may be have things to learn from an anthropologist after all.
Stranger things have happened.
I didn't say "America has no culture"; I said "there is no 'American' culture", which is not the same thing; there are cultures, but not one overarching, unified culture (NB that small c "culture" is not the same thing as large C Culture in the sense of "distinctively American art, literature and music" ; culturally speaking, Texas is not New England is not California is not Seattle is not Iowa. And you proffer a few really bad examples; East Indians are not generally seen as an ethnic group, nor are Chinese; both countries have diverse populations representing multiple ethnic groups with different histories, dialects, religious and cultural traditions. (And Sicilians and for that matter Sardinians are generally regarded as being ethnically distinct from mainland Italians.)
Splitting hairs is a nice distraction, but not one compelling enough
to avoid the larger, more important point:
Broad brushing an entire people, be they a "nationality",
or an "ethnicity" is stupid, lazy and bigoted.
Have a nice day.
They're convinced Utopia waits for them across the Atlantic.
They're a sad little bunch that, for the most part,
probably has little experience abroad.
and their little chocolaty, clocky, ticky-tocky country. If we invade the Swiss, the Swedes will know that they're next. We must exhibit global power when and where the opportunity arises.
If it is really necessary...
Look at the title and subject of the OP and then reread my reply!
You should probably travel more.
My passport has plenty of stamps, and America has not cornered the market on dumb.
Way to put words in my mouth!
We need to stop mixing religion and science, religion and government(education), etc
child porn was legal until 1999.
I'd say Ignorance is rarely a "deliberate choice" and, if you're talking about this country,
it's simplistic to the point being ignorant in itself.
Ignorance is foisted on vulnerable populations -- people who are
working too hard at too many jobs at wages too low to have the time or resources
to do much else but survive.
There are dumb people everywhere. The Japanese have a reputation for being highly intelligent and well-educated, and it is true on a basic level. I've never met anyone who couldn't spell my name in katakana characters after I said it. I've never met anyone who can't make change. When some people asked me to explain fundamentalist Christianity and I said that, among other things, they don't believe in evolution, everyone thought this was incredible.
However, somebody is watching all those inane talk shows on Japanese TV, and if you know enough to understand overheard conversations, you will hear conversations that are so stupid it hurts your brain.
The difference is this: most politicians don't CATER TO stupidity. Voters don't elect politicians on the basis of "Cool, he's as dumb as I am!" There doesn't seem to be a deliberate attempt in the media to dumb people down.
Or take the UK. There are some really dumb people there, too, and really, only the best of their TV gets exported to this country. Even so, as a mystery fan, I'll take a British author over most American authors any day, because their mysteries show more complexity, social commentary, and depth of characterization, while the most popular Americans seem to be cranking out book-length scripts for CSI (yes, there are exceptions, but I'm thinking of the real popular authors). British TV dramas are more likely to feature actors who look like real people (compare the original "Prime Suspect" and the American knock-off), to explore moral and ethical dilemmas, and feel free to have sad or inconclusive endings. They get the best of our TV (The Wire, The Sopranos, Mad Men--and all except Mad Men comes from the subscription-only channels) unaltered, but in the U.S., the networks feel compelled to remake (and dumb down) foreign programming. Furthermore, a country with 1/5 the population of the U.S. supports not one, but three monthly classical music magazines. Look at their newspapers: Yes, the appallingly dumb and sensationalist tabloids that make the National Enquirer look like a Ph. D. thesis, but also really, really smart mainstream newspapers like The Guardian, The Independent, and The Times (conservative, but not stupid).
Or take Scandinavia. When I went as a teenager, I had to use the phrase "Snakker du engelsk" ("Do you speak English" a lot. The answer was "no" about half the time. On my trip last year, I stopped asking, because younger people in particular seemed almost offended that I had to ask. Most of them also speak a second language as well. Yet in this country, if you speak another language (even more so if you speak more than one), you're regarded as either some kind of a genius or a stupid immigrant who doesn't want to become a proper American. Even back in the 1960s, Maj Sjövall and Per Wahloo wrote a book called "The Man Who Went Up in Smoke," in which a Swedish police detective is sent to Hungary to trace the disappearance of a Swede. When he protests that he doesn't speak Hungarian, his supervisor assures him, "You'll get along fine with just English and German." Yes, the assumption that an ordinary police detective should speak two foreign languages.
Of course, not everyone in Scandinavia is smart, either, but I think the attitude is different in many other countries. Our pop culture says that being smart is a BAD thing and that smart people need to relax and become TV zombies and sports nuts.
now that you've been shown as utterly ignorant of it!
Sour grapes, anyone?
when you mistakenly thought you had a point to make,
now, it seems, not so much.
You see, I don't view it is a "petty issue" and feel no guilt at all, LOL.
All I can say is that you must feel really embarrassed by your continual "misses".
about Prime Suspect, assuming it, incorrectly, to be representative of the difference in
quality between U.S and Euro television and drama. Now that you've
been exposed as knowing virtually nothing about the issue, your first
line of defense was to: Pretend that this wasn't your point. That
didn't work, and so you're now claiming the whole subject to be "trivial" anyway, LOL
I'd say subtlety isn't your strong point, Val, because those are both obvious dodges
employed to avoid admitting being wrong.
P. S. This "youngster" is a 63 year old woman and, whatever your age,
it seems my critical thinking skills are in a lot better shape than yours.
And stupidity isn't limited to the US. Even the wise and noble swedes occasionally come up with spectacularly stupid ideas.
