Running with Americans. Boring conversations due to lack of knowledge

entertainment is our export wrote:

not an isolated opinion wrote:

I have spent 20 years working around the globe and with people from dozens of different countries. Most of them seem to think we are dull and consumed by crappy low brow entertainment and work.

Why does the rest of the world consume American entertainment if they find it to be crappy and low brow?

My friend from the Netherlands learned English because he grew up watching American movies. I don't think many people around the globe are watching enough Dutch movies to learn the language. American musicians from Bruce Springsteen to Vampire Weekend can sell out shows all over the world. Asia absolutely love American jazz.

There are certainly things that Americans are ignorant about. Entertainment is not one of them. In fact, it is probably our most significant export.

I consider McDonald's to be crappy and low brow. I still eat it.

Americans are knowledgeable about a very concentrated slice of entertainment.....contemporay American entertainment. that doesn't exactly refute the notion that they are relatively ignorant of culture and history outside of their own borders.

Mainstream American culture is not exactly an achievement in the arts, it's an achievement in marketing.

We make some amazing movies......and they make $10 million while caped superhero movies make $ billions $

Yes, American Jazz is amazing.....and hardly listened to by anyone in the US under 40.

Movies that are considered too cerebral for American audiences are usually justified in production by the fact that they will make back their money in Europe.

We are a country of amazing artists and mediocre tastes.

our idiots are just more obvious wrote:

Honestly, I think a big part of the reason that Americans seem ignorant is that we're one of the few countries that is advanced enough that our poorest, dumbest people actually have a voice that can be heard. Other countries don't lack ignorant slobs. It's just that in other countries, the ignorant slobs don't have the ability to display their ignorance to the world.

easy now, you're talking about our President

Takinadump wrote:

You're supposedly a worldly person yet it took you this long and this many comments to actually search it and call me out on it.

Wow, amazing defense. "It took you several minutes to realize exactly how ignorant I am."

Again, though, I think this perception of Americans is caused by the fact that we are comparing metropolitan Europeans to yokel midwestern Americans. Compare apples to apples. Compare people from London and Paris to people from NYC. Compare people in Ohio to people from whatever Russian rural hellhole is equivalent to America's Midwest.

If you go to NYC, you'll find plenty of culture, just like you'd find in any major European city. If you go to Ohio, you'll find mouth breathers who think that people who will buy whatever crap is marketed to them, the likes of whom you would presumably also find in Europe's backwater areas.

Thank you. You spelled it out better than I did and it's obvious that this is true, you can't compare two countries the way some people do yet they know there's plenty of morons in other countries but I don't know I guess those people are poor and they're in a more progressive part of that country so those people must not exist.

We have enough yokels to elect a President and repeal abortion rights though. It's not just a back water fringe group. People in LA are incredably self-centered and certainly don't give a flying fk about other cities, let alone other countries.

I agree NY is more comparable to European city, but it is the exception rather than the rule in this country.

Takinadump wrote:

Thank you. You spelled it out better than I did and it's obvious that this is true, you can't compare two countries the way some people do yet they know there's plenty of morons in other countries but I don't know I guess those people are poor and they're in a more progressive part of that country so those people must not exist.

You already clearly demonstrated that even Americans in NY have laughable bad basic geographic knowledge.

Might I remind you that Brexit exists?

Takinadump wrote:

one difference wrote:

We have enough yokels to elect a President and repeal abortion rights though. It's not just a back water fringe group. People in LA are incredably self-centered and certainly don't give a flying fk about other cities, let alone other countries.

I agree NY is more comparable to European city, but it is the exception rather than the rule in this country.

Might I remind you that Brexit exists?

Might I remind you that you thought the continental US was at least 3 times larger than Europe?

yawn..i'm done. You've already proved my point far better than I ever could have hoped to....

yeah, but wrote:

Takinadump wrote:

Might I remind you that Brexit exists?

Might I remind you that you thought the continental US was at least 3 times larger than Europe?

yawn..i'm done. You've already proved my point far better than I ever could have hoped to....

Might I remind you that I planted that and you didn't know the correct information and you were also wrong on every single level of your argument? Might I also remind you that despite supposedly being an American you are also biased against Americans despite having limited contact with other peoples? Might I remind you that you actually know far less about people than you think you do just like every American that believes they have an important position in life? Might I remind you that you're actually not smart just like everyone else?

Might I remind you that this is a message board and you or I can be anyone and none of this matters other than you being a bigot?

yeah...you seem like a real mastermind genius.

Big Mick wrote:

Americans are knowledgeable about a very concentrated slice of entertainment.....contemporay American entertainment. that doesn't exactly refute the notion that they are relatively ignorant of culture and history outside of their own borders

Not really. K-Pop is popular in the USA. British and Australians musicians have done very well here. Plenty of Japanese influence from anime and games. People in the southwest are very aware of Mexican and Latin American culture. Chinese restaurants in every town. Numerous other examples.

People in other areas of the world like Europe know more about other countries and cultures around them because the countries are small. A Dutch guy knowing a lot about British culture isn't really more impressive than a guy from Michigan understanding southern culture.

BoA wrote:

Chinese restaurants in every town.

Nevermind..I take it back. American's have in-depth knowledge of foreign countries.

Comparing the difference in culture between states to the differences between two countries that speak different languages, are run by different governments and have completely different histories is so completely asinine and self -centered that only an American would think of it.

I'll just stop reading here.... wrote:

BoA wrote:

Chinese restaurants in every town.

Nevermind..I take it back. American's have in-depth knowledge of foreign countries.

Comparing the difference in culture between states to the differences between two countries that speak different languages, are run by different governments and have completely different histories is so completely asinine and self -centered that only an American would think of it.

They don't have completely different histories. The Dutch and English have been involved in wars and politics for centuries. They even had the same king at one point.

BoA wrote:

I'll just stop reading here.... wrote:

Nevermind..I take it back. American's have in-depth knowledge of foreign countries.

Comparing the difference in culture between states to the differences between two countries that speak different languages, are run by different governments and have completely different histories is so completely asinine and self -centered that only an American would think of it.

They don't have completely different histories. The Dutch and English have been involved in the wars and politics for centuries. They even had the same king at one point.

The same wars. Also they're both under the EU and most Dutch know English.

Well that and... wrote:

honest question, how many years have you spent in other countries? what exactly are you basing your opinion on?

I agree with what the poster you're responding to said. I've spent 5+ years outside the US as an adult, have been to over 50 countries on 6 continents, speak 3 languages fluently (and another passably), and know quite a lot about many foreign countries' histories, geographies, and culture. And I'm American. Where are you from and what's your overseas experience like?

BoA wrote:

I'll just stop reading here.... wrote:

Nevermind..I take it back. American's have in-depth knowledge of foreign countries.

Comparing the difference in culture between states to the differences between two countries that speak different languages, are run by different governments and have completely different histories is so completely asinine and self -centered that only an American would think of it.

They don't have completely different histories. The Dutch and English have been involved in wars and politics for centuries. They even had the same king at one point.

oh right....then I guess that makes that makes them petty much like states in the same country that have nearly the same culture, a nearly unbroken history of a shared national politcal system, a shared language, the same passport, the same laws, the same education system, the same TV shows, the same movies, the same books, the same postal system, a connected highway system, and the nearly the same chains of businesses .

If you are trying to argue that Americans aren't ignorant and self-centered, you're doing a poor job.......

then again......they do have Chinese restaurants.....