Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge?

[B_Nick4444]

no more so than the members of the lesser nations

 

[B_NineInchCock_160IQ]

me too. maps, dictionaries, and encyclopedias.

 

[yurkon]

I love watching a part of Jay Leno's show on Monday nights - "Jay walking". I'm amazed at what people don't know.

An all time favorite of mine was Bush saying at a podium "Childrens do learn".

Teachers are paid poorly because of the teachers union. Sure wouldn't want any accountability now would we? I doubt there is much of a difference in salary between a teacher who doesn't care and one that does. Money isn't the solution to fixing education. Parents who cared about their kids and spent time with them and showed them rather than tell them that school is important would do a lot.

So don't blame no child left behind. Schools sucked before that, it's just the latest way to point a finger. I dare teachers to abandon the union and get paid for performance.

FYI I believe USA's education system ranks 17th in the world and Hungary is higher than that. They are an emerging nation with a lot of drive to raise the standard of living. America no longer pursues education with the passion of many countries.

I'll admit, I get a kick out of what I call "the stupids". Their grammar, money management, lack of negotiating skills. Look at the sub prime mess in America. That's where greed met stupidity and there should be no bail out.

If your too lazy to read the contract you signed. You got what you deserved. Same for the investment houses that didn't look into what they were buying. Pretty funny when you think about it.

 

[Drifterwood]

If Americans are ignorant, how do you qualify that statement?

I didn't say that and didn't mention Americans - get the fucking chip off your shoulder. It's boring.

 

[Drifterwood]

no more so than the members of the lesser nations

Thank you Adolf.

 

[B_NineInchCock_160IQ]

I didn't say that and didn't mention Americans - get the fucking chip off your shoulder. It's boring.

likewise. You and every other American-bashing asshole on the internet. There's five billion of you and only one of me. Imagine how bored I am.

If you think that Europeans don't believe that they are better at geography when they scoff at some American not knowing where Hungary is, then you are either a colossal fucking idiot, or you are being the same kind of intellectually dishonest jagoff that the Sean Hannity's and Rush Limbaugh's of the world are: partisan political hacks who make inherently false or misleading arguments to make a point in their assault on common sense. The common sense in this case being that those who would criticize Americans for being ignorant consider themselves to be less ignorant, and the misleading argument being that "well since you can't find the exact words in this thread at this exact moment then it must not be happening."

 

[B_NineInchCock_160IQ]

no more so than the members of the lesser nations

sigh

 

[B_Nick4444]

Thank you Adolf.

you know I'm kidding :tongue:

 

[Drifterwood]

Ive had a few disagreements with some lovley USA'ians on here and have to say, ive been a liitle shocked with some peoples level of understanding and general knowledge.

But to be fair, dumb isnt the preserve of the American nation alone.

I can guarantee that people in Britain are just as ignorant towards knowledge as any American. This thread should've been about the Western attitude towards modern policies.

Get over yourself Nic. Apart from the above, only Dong and I have posted on this thread. Where are the European assholes bashing you about Hungary.

 

[Not_Punny]

I'm hungry too. What's for dinner?

 

[B_NineInchCock_160IQ]

Get over yourself Nic. Apart from the above, only Dong and I have posted on this thread. Where are the European assholes bashing you about Hungary.

I don't know. Every thread with "America" "American" "US" or something else relating to the above in the subject heading? I honestly don't know if you're just trying to be difficult or intellectually dishonest like I described above, or if you're legitimately clueless on this. I suppose it could be the latter. When I read a dozen times a day that I'm ignorant by virtue of where on Earth I happened to be when I popped out of my mother's vagina, it gets old. The only reason I read this crap is because I visit a lot of international forums. so fuck off. As soon as the weekly "Americans are dumb"/"Americans have no culture"/"This country or that country is the best in the world because we're not like America"/"Americans are evil" threads all go away, then I'll stop being defensive.

 

[B_NineInchCock_160IQ]

Do they? I am not aware of this. The only person claiming geographical knowledge supremacy here is you. I can't recall a single post anywhere in which a European has seriously claimed that they are cleverer than anyone.

You took what I said out of context. Deliberately trying to start something.

 

[Drifterwood]

then I'll stop being defensive.

and aggressive, I hope.

 

[BIGBULL29]

My geography is excellent. I can find Sao Tome and Principe, Kiribati, Nauru, the Atlases, Mariana's Trench, Mt. Erebus, Angel Falls, and a whole host of stuff. I read atlases for leisure reading.

But then I'm weird...

I love atlases, too (I won't bring my French, German and English grammar books).

Ok, I'm coming out of the intellectual closet: I can get lost in any monolingual or bilingual dictionary as well as any topic and book related to grammar/linguistics.

 

[B_NineInchCock_160IQ]

and aggressive, I hope.

sure, if you can magically make the threads stop, I'll be a regular peach. deal?

 

[2322]

Actually, reading back, both of you hoped this thread would be about the same thing (though I disagree that Bush is responsible for anti-intellectualism. I would argue that he was elected because of it).

And actually NIC, I think you're reacting as if this was a straw breaking a camel's back and taking it out on Drifter. I've read through this whole thread and he's been very restrained.

 

[D_Tully Tunnelrat]

Sure there are many ignorant people around the globe, as you point out ignorance is not uniquely American, but that doesn't exempt Americans from needing to improve our understanding of other countries, especially when we have the biggest military on the planet by a factor of 7-to-10 times, and we use our might with great regularity. We've had 7 wars (not including the cold one, or CIA inspired "actions") with foreign countries in the last 50 years. Whether you think they were all justified or not, is there a possibility that one of those could have been avoided with more knowledge & better understanding of how other people live? I'd like to think so.

 

[DC_DEEP]

Teachers are paid poorly because of the teachers union. Sure wouldn't want any accountability now would we? I doubt there is much of a difference in salary between a teacher who doesn't care and one that does. Money isn't the solution to fixing education. Parents who cared about their kids and spent time with them and showed them rather than tell them that school is important would do a lot.

It's obvious you aren't a teacher. Most public schools are not unionized, and in those that are, it isn't the union that sets salaries - it's the local school boards. The local school boards can only pay teachers what the tax base will bear. If the taxpayers refuse a millage increase, the teachers don't get a pay increase. It's that simple. Everyone wants something for nothing. They want quality schools, but are not willing to pay for them.

So don't blame no child left behind. Schools sucked before that, it's just the latest way to point a finger. I dare teachers to abandon the union and get paid for performance.

And how do you propose to quantify "pay for performance" for teachers? Student performance on standardized tests? Should teachers be penalized for students (and parents) who don't give a shit or for students who think that making good grades makes them "uncool?"

I'll admit, I get a kick out of what I call "the stupids". Their grammar, money management, lack of negotiating skills. Look at the sub prime mess in America. That's where greed met stupidity and there should be no bail out.

Now you are just being an idiot. The sub-prime mess is caused by a housing shortage in some areas, plus greed - not stupidity and greed. You are in Florida. What do you do for a living, manage stock portfolios for old retired people? It's a little different down there than in the DC or Boston or NYC areas. When every house that goes on the market has 20+ potential buyers bidding on it, yeah, the seller gets greedy, and you get studio condominiums going for $600K and 2 bedroom townhouses going for $800K. There are lots of federal employees in my area, and the federal pay scale maxes out at just under $100K per year. How can anyone afford the $4000 per month mortgage? "Creative financing." It sucks, but that doesn't mean the people who do it because they have to are stupid. The only other option for more "affordable" housing is a 3-hour-each-way commute.

If your too lazy to read the contract you signed. You got what you deserved. Same for the investment houses that didn't look into what they were buying. Pretty funny when you think about it.

Yeah, just a barrel of monkeys when people's houses get foreclosed. Just a fuckin riot.

 

[PussyWellington]

The sub-prime mess is caused by a housing shortage in some areas, plus greed - not stupidity and greed.

I think that quite a few people might disagree with you on this point but I don't want to hijack the thread by getting into that here.

 

[B_NineInchCock_160IQ]

And actually NIC, I think you're reacting as if this was a straw breaking a camel's back and taking it out on Drifter. I've read through this whole thread and he's been very restrained.

just reread it myself and disagree. I feel I've responded pretty fairly. I only bring up the pattern of previous threads because of his accusation that a general statement I made had no basis in reality, when it clearly does.

If I were to say that black people need to get that fucking chip off their shoulder and stop talking about racism because it was boring me, and that there is no racism in the South because nobody from the South on this forum has explicitly stated "hey guys, I'm a racist" in recent memory, would that be fair and restrained? I don't even think that's a fair analogy because we don't see a new "niggers are stupid" thread every week. Just because most feel it's okay to group together and belittle Americans doesn't make it so. This is what I'm working against.