Thread: Stupid Americans?

Originally Posted by carcharoth

Damn people , that video was made to make people laugh...

Obviously but, given the thread title, some one seems to think it's meaningful. It's no different than any other video of its kind, such as Jay Leno's "Man on the street" segments.

Sadly, some people (in general) don't have the sense to realize that TV, etc..., is populated almost exclusively by edited footage intended to skew the story and present a given objective.

Originally Posted by PensivePatrick

Don't play the British colony card. That's a lame card to play. Sure, you started off as European settlers, but you got your independance, and I am pretty damn sure that the modern American education system has very, VERY limited links to colonial rule. And no, not all education systems are seriously flawed. Many European countries have very effective education systems (Britain, unfortunately, is not one of them.).

Sorry, I wasn't trying to 'play a card'. Why would I? I'm from the same British colony. I was not trying to say that the British are stupid.
I cant really be sure who you mean by 'you', but I am NOT American. And I don't know what you mean by 'limited links to colonial rule' but I'm sure you are right. I know that I for one do NOT like the Canadian school system, and thats why I'm not a part of it.

Originally Posted by Neruo

I really, really doubt Pensative Patrick really thought every single man, woman and child in America is stupid. : )

I didn't think he was saying this at all. The comment wasn't aimed at anyone in particular, it was just an opinion.

Originally Posted by carcharoth

Damn people , that video was made to make people laugh , why are you taking this so seriously?
One would be worse than stupid if he thinks that all americans are stupid by just seeing 20 of them.
And people who get offended from this video are equally dump.

I wasn't offended by this video, in fact I thought it was quite funny. Although I've already seen about 20 of these kinds of videos from various different countries. (Mostly Canada, Britain and the US.) And yes they are, quote "cherry picked."


Pensive Patrick wanted to start a debate. At least thats what he said. I was just throwing my thoughts out there. (Which may not be the smartest thing to do) If he had just posted the video up for a simple laugh, I most likely wouldn't have bothered to reply at all.

Originally Posted by indescribable

I was not trying to say that the British are stupid.

I wouldn't mind if you did. We are. Just look at our government...

And I don't know what you mean by 'limited links to colonial rule' but I'm sure you are right.

I meant that the modern American schooling system has probably not been influenced by the original British occupiers in America.

Pensive Patrick wanted to start a debate. At least thats what he said. I was just throwing my thoughts out there. (Which may not be the smartest thing to do) If he had just posted the video up for a simple laugh, I most likely wouldn't have bothered to reply at all.

Sorry about attacking you quite so aggressively, and yes, I did want a debate, not a funny video. Thanks for having the guts to put your opinions out there, anyway.

eh i've seen a lot worse governments, at least we have freedom and rights. Also you know Blaire is doing the best he can, every leader is going to be critised by the groups that think the opposite to what he does. It's impossible to keep everyone happy.

At first people thought the Iraq thing what be shorter then it was and so yes it was a good thing that we were going to help America, i mean 9/11 was a crisis. It's only now the peacekeeping is dragging on and the statistics of civilians and our soliders killed is sinking in that people are calling Blaire weak and idiotic to help America, which is unfair because we are allies, its kinda what allies do...

Anyway yeah they totally cherry pick scenes, like " In your face" on Bravo, they do a similiar thing and you can tell by how he's walking down the street asking people that they just picked the best 6 or 7 responses.

I know I'll regret this, but here's a much better video. It's unlikely any of this was edited. Just to clarify, I'm not saying that Americans are stupid. As such.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLXRVvA6T9k





P.S. Thank you to the *anonymous* user who introduced this video to me. You know who you are.

I think I like this video a bit better. I don't feel it has quite the edge the other one did. I did a search and I found a part two of it, where it shows the Americans asking 'Is this a joke?' before answering the questions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFqzBiLBwM8

And it is obviously just for humor, not to make anyone feel bad, or stupid. It's just funny. By the way, just if anyone is wondering, Rick Mercer is a popular Canadian comedian, so this is his job.

I'm wondering if anyone else has any thoughts on the second clip?

Maybe it isn't that American people are more stupid then other people, just that Americans don't know as well when to shut the fuck up : ) ?

I don't think it's Americans in particular. I think it's certain people in America who can be dumb, or obnoxious. Just like certain Canadians say 'eh' or 'aboot', and certain people. Just like certain people are racist, etc. (The list could go on forever) Anyone can be dumb or obnoxious. Not just Americans, and not ALL Americans.

I have known all different kinds of people, from all sorts of different cultures (Canada being very diverse) and I can tell you, they are NOT all the same.


Note: I have never actually heard a Canadian say 'aboot', I believe that is more of a Scottish thing. But the 'eh' thing is pretty common. It's like how the English are stereotyped to always say 'what' after a sentence. 'Eh', actually does mean 'what' in Spanish.

Originally Posted by Ynot

So......who did win in Vietnam?

Interesting topic. Approximately 58 thousand Americans were killed in the Vietnam War. The number of Vietnamese killed has been difficult to determine because the North Vietnam government was suppressing the numbers for propaganda purposes. The lowest estimate I have found is 1.5 million. The highest estimate I have found is 4 million. If you want to keep score that way, we whipped their asses. However, Ho Chi Minh refused to surrender, and the American left had put so much pressure on Washington to get us out of Vietnam that we left in 1975 without bringing about a surrender. South Vietnam remains unfree to this day because of that. So in terms of whether we were able to get the North Vietnamese schmuck ass dictator to surrender and get his government out of South Vietnam, we failed. In that way, we lost. But we were not outgunned by any stretch of the imagination. I think we needed to focus on assassinating the dictator instead of killing his soldiers and civilians and trying to get him to surrender. That sociopath was never going to surrender. He needed to be killed.

Originally Posted by NeAvO

You can't class a bunch of people found on the street as an entire population. I think its a bit easy to go to a country with a large population and find some idiots. You could get the same results in any country to be honest.

Exactly. It isn't like all americans are like that. Those idiots just give us a bad rap =P

It isn't like it is hard to go on the streets all day asking people obvious questions, and cut the 95% that are right

"Congrulations, Canada, on your first McDonalds!"

Awesome.

And really, I don't understand why we can't get along. When people insult America, it's pointless. When people insult Canada, it's pointless.

Also, I think Canadian's only say 'eh', when posed as questions. Unless you live in Newfoundland.

Originally Posted by CoLd BlooDed

Also, I think Canadian's only say 'eh', when posed as questions. Unless you live in Newfoundland.

Newfies say "by" all the time for no reason. "Eh?" actually makes sense. It loosely translates to "Do you casually agree with what I just said?" But newfies will actually point and say "look by" and I'm like..... by what? (I dated a newfie for 4 years, I'm allowed to make fun ).