The Average American?

[Espectro (DayZ) 0]

Im an American, I own a gun, I travel to south america and purchase midgets and get them to perform menial tasks such as sorting my socks, guarding my car, taste testing food I purchase from suspicious places such as the bum under the freeway, other midgets who are all "uppity" on midget rights, and of course Taco Bell.

but the fact of the matter is, at this point I understand where most middle eastern countries are located... they are almost in the middle.. but just a little east, so I am not ignorant.

I eat lots of meat... any kind of meat will do.. pork, Beef, chicken... disobedient midgets... etc.. the usual.. (all american eat midgets, dont be fooled.)

I do american things in my free time, I go fishing.. and dont keep any of the fish I catch, I play golf, wich I will admit is a retarded sport.. You hit a ball, then.. try and find the bastard.. and when you finally do... You hit it again.. Your guess is as good as mine.

I like "Chicken Fried Steak"

just.. what the hell is that? it isnt chicken.. cooked like steak, so thats out, its really isnt steak prepared in the same way as chicken is... so no deal there either.. so that leaves only one option.. it is steak.. as cooked by a chicken.. insinuating that chickens... kill and eat cows, and so so with such frequency that they have their reciepe.. which is in and of itself an eye opening and terrifying idea.. but what do you expect.. mad cow + bird flu.. its a modern race war..

and of course.. in the wee hours of thursday mornings (12:30am-ish to be exact) I .. while intoxicated.. create odd, and abstract posts on a video game forum.. while drunk..

what.. you thinke somebody would write all this nonsense sober?

Btw Wobble, wheres ya baby avatar?

[Sc@tterbrain 0]

Im an American, I own a gun, I travel to south america and purchase midgets and get them to perform menial tasks such as sorting my socks, guarding my car, taste testing food I purchase from suspicious places such as the bum under the freeway, other midgets who are all "uppity" on midget rights, and of course Taco Bell.  

but the fact of the matter is, at this point I understand where most middle eastern countries are located... they are almost in the middle.. but just a little east, so I am not ignorant.

I eat lots of meat... any kind of meat will do.. pork, Beef, chicken...  disobedient midgets... etc.. the usual.. (all american eat midgets, dont be fooled.)

I do american things in my free time, I go fishing.. and dont keep any of the fish I catch, I play golf, wich I will admit is a retarded sport.. You hit a ball, then.. try and find the bastard.. and when you finally do... You hit it again..  Your guess is as good as mine.

I like "Chicken Fried Steak"

just.. what the hell is that?  it isnt chicken.. cooked like steak, so thats out, its really isnt steak prepared in the same way as chicken is... so no deal there either.. so that leaves only one option.. it is steak.. as cooked by a chicken..  insinuating that chickens... kill and eat cows, and so so with such  frequency that they have their reciepe.. which is in and of itself an eye opening and terrifying idea.. but what do you expect.. mad cow + bird flu.. its a modern race war..

and of course.. in the wee hours of thursday mornings (12:30am-ish to be exact) I .. while intoxicated.. create odd, and abstract posts on a video game forum.. while drunk..

what.. you thinke somebody would write all this nonsense sober?

Absolutely classic. Just what this thread needed, a little comic relief.

If you take requests, next time your drunk can you tell a hunting story that involves corn-dogs and malt-liquor?

Maybe throw in something else American like muscle cars, gun racks, county fairs, window lickers, tractor pulls, being shirtless on COPS the tv show, or ...apple pie.

[ralphwiggum 6]

You've also got to remember - America is several times larger than any European country. We've got nearly every climate imaginable within our own borders.

Let me add more to that. In Southern California, it's 1-2 hours of driving for that.

I think someone said it somewhere before, and I'll say it again. You can get those kind of response in any place on earth. Just needs some patience and enough people. One thing that is funny about the map the guy was holding was that Austrailia was labeled "North Korea" or someother country. Missing a big continent is inexcusable, but resorting to such trickery is also lame.

[kavoven 4]

You've also got to remember - America is several times larger than any European country. We've got nearly every climate imaginable within our own borders.

Let me add more to that. In Southern California, it's 1-2 hours of driving for that.

I think someone said it somewhere before, and I'll say it again. You can get those kind of response in any place on earth. Just needs some patience and enough people. One thing that is funny about the map the guy was holding was that Austrailia was labeled "North Korea" or someother country. Missing a big continent is inexcusable, but resorting to such trickery is also lame.

They even changed the name each time they asked

[CsonkaPityu 0]

I think someone said it somewhere before, and I'll say it again. You can get those kind of response in any place on earth. Just needs some patience and enough people. One thing that is funny about the map the guy was holding was that Austrailia was labeled "North Korea" or someother country. Missing a big continent is inexcusable, but resorting to such trickery is also lame.

Watch again, Australia gets labeled as Iran, North Korea, France and various other rogue nations that the questioned people would like to invade. So i advise the aussies out there to stay on your toes, they want your kangaroo farms.

[super64 0]

Wow.. with the exception of a couple humorous posts, I'm amazed this thread hasn't been locked. No good can come from a thread who's main purpose is to whip the masses into a good old fashioned American-bash.

What amazes me the most is the amount of sheer ignorance displayed by people who have never been to the US or spent much time around Americans. Sure there's a lot of 'less than genius' people in the US. There are also plenty of very intelligent, very open minded, well spoken, educated, worldly people. I've traveled quite a bit through Europe and even through some of Australia. I've always enjoyed those I've met, no matter what their intelligence level appeared at to me.

Its very disappointing to read so many people here taking the easy road of jumping on to the Anti-American band wagon, just because its the popular International thing to do these days. Perhaps you should re-think those you stereotype, because after all.... the "slow" live amongst you too.

[kavoven 4]

Wow.. with the exception of a couple humorous posts, I'm amazed this thread hasn't been locked. No good can come from a thread who's main purpose is to whip the masses into a good old fashioned American-bash.

What amazes me the most is the amount of sheer ignorance displayed by people who have never been to the US or spent much time around Americans. Sure there's a lot of 'less than genius' people in the US. There are also plenty of very intelligent, very open minded, well spoken, educated, worldly people. I've traveled quite a bit through Europe and even through some of Australia. I've always enjoyed those I've met, no matter what their intelligence level appeared at to me.

Its very disappointing to read so many people here taking the easy road of jumping on to the Anti-American band wagon, just because its the popular International thing to do these days. Perhaps you should re-think those you stereotype, because after all.... the "slow" live amongst you too.

I think you can't forget on big part and that's the second election of Bush, after which you can come to the conclusion that 51% of America are stupid. (Please don't take this serious and yes, I know that the election of Bush doesn't mean 51% of the US voted for him)

I think stupidity isn't meant with "Oh dear, he can't multiply 2 and 2". It goes more into the direction of ignorant regarding the rest of the world. And many think that this is equal to stupid. So this video is just an exellent proof for this theory. And therefor, there is no need for visiting the US, because you can get all the needed information through modern media.

On the other hand, the information we get in Europe are very polarized from our own media. You can watch CNN, but I rather watch BBC because the Britisch way of speaking English is easiert to understand for me. So the truth may be somewhere in the middle, as usual

[chipper 0]

Why the hell is this thread even allowed to remain on the forum?

People get WLs for talking shit about the French but the American's nope.

I thought the mods were supposed to be unbiased.

[kerosene 0]

If you bothered to read the thread youd see its a fairly balanced discussion, with a few exceptions.

[Thunderbird 0]

There are no reasons some people should feel insulted by this thread as it is a constructive debate with opinions from all sides.

I find it interesting how people perceive the US average citizen, and how the US somehow perceive the rest of the world.

Such boards are quite representative of the diversity and consequently, a great tools to learn more about the other side of the atlantic.

regards,

TB

[Fork122 0]

Well, I am an American, and just this week in my hometown, two guys definately lowered the standard of the average American:

Quote[/b] ]

Man burns genitals in 'Jackass' stunt

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. - Attempts to do a movie stunt landed one man in the hospital with burned genitals and another facing criminal charges. The men were trying to do a stunt from one of the "Jackass" movies, in which a character lights his genitals on fire.

Jared W. Anderson, 20, suffered serious burns to his hands and genitals, according to the criminal complaint. Randell D. Peterson, 43, who sprayed lighter fluid on Anderson and lit him on fire, was charged with felony battery and first-degree reckless endangerment Tuesday in Eau Claire County Court.

Witnesses told police that Anderson, who was drunk, volunteered to do the stunt Sunday after watching the movie, the complaint said.

According to the complaint:

Anderson pulled down his pants and let Peterson spray him with lighter fluid. When the fire didn't catch, Peterson sprayed more lighter fluid on Anderson, splashing some on his clothing. He tried again to light the fire, catching Anderson's genitals, hands and clothes.

Anderson ran into the bathroom, jumped into the tub and put the flames out. Other guests took him to Luther Hospital, and eventually he was treated at the Regions Hospital Burn Unit in St. Paul, Minn., for second-degree burns.

Anderson told police who were called to the hospital that he didn't want anyone to get in trouble because of the stunt.

Peterson was freed on a $2,000 signature bond. He has a hearing scheduled April 16. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

Yahoo! News

In my opinion a lot of Americans can be ignorant and stupid, but there are also a lot that are very smart individuals. The problem is, you never hear about them, and you hear about "Jared" who lights his crotch on fire

[Wobble 1]

Well, I am an American, and just this week in my hometown, two guys definately lowered the standard of the average American:

Quote[/b] ]

Man burns genitals in 'Jackass' stunt

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. - Attempts to do a movie stunt landed one man in the hospital with burned genitals and another facing criminal charges. The men were trying to do a stunt from one of the "Jackass" movies, in which a character lights his genitals on fire.

Jared W. Anderson, 20, suffered serious burns to his hands and genitals, according to the criminal complaint. Randell D. Peterson, 43, who sprayed lighter fluid on Anderson and lit him on fire, was charged with felony battery and first-degree reckless endangerment Tuesday in Eau Claire County Court.

Witnesses told police that Anderson, who was drunk, volunteered to do the stunt Sunday after watching the movie, the complaint said.

According to the complaint:

Anderson pulled down his pants and let Peterson spray him with lighter fluid. When the fire didn't catch, Peterson sprayed more lighter fluid on Anderson, splashing some on his clothing. He tried again to light the fire, catching Anderson's genitals, hands and clothes.

Anderson ran into the bathroom, jumped into the tub and put the flames out. Other guests took him to Luther Hospital, and eventually he was treated at the Regions Hospital Burn Unit in St. Paul, Minn., for second-degree burns.

Anderson told police who were called to the hospital that he didn't want anyone to get in trouble because of the stunt.

Peterson was freed on a $2,000 signature bond. He has a hearing scheduled April 16. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

Yahoo! News

In my opinion a lot of Americans can be ignorant and stupid, but there are also a lot that are very smart individuals.  The problem is, you never hear about them, and you hear about "Jared" who lights his crotch on fire  

a lot of anyone can be ignorant... in fact.. I cant think of a single culture/country.. etc that you can point at and say... "those people, are incapable of doing anything dumb"

Americans do some goofy retarded shit from time to time... and so does everyone else..

its not so much a matter of who is doing what, its about who is being paid attention to the most.

5 scottish men could be mortally wounded for taunting an epiliptic goat with a strobe light... but if nobody sees it and tells the story.. you never hear about it.

[ralphwiggum 6]

Quote[/b] ]but if nobody sees it and tells the story.. you never hear about it.

yup. but some do tell the story...

Quote[/b] ]not a military story.. but when i first got my AR I shot a can of spraypaint I though was empty from about 20 feet away and i got a nice blast of smurf blue all over me and the gun.. took me several hours to clean all of it off the gun. it was wierd it literally exploded.. it was like a frag or something.. but it stayed in one piece.. just kinda turned inside out..

oh and one time I shot a coleman lantern cannister from about 100m away and the boom could probably be heard for many miles.. those things are great.. but expensive.. I decided to shoot this one because it was leaky and old.. and I thought it was empty (why do I keep thinking things are empty)..

oh.. and probably the best story:.. and the dumbest..

me and my gf went out to a small creek to do a little shooting, sh had just got her .38 and wanted to be destructive.. so I founf this odd small can that had been rolling around in the bed of my truck for many weeks.. I couldent remember what it was and all the paint was practically rubbed off from sliding around back there.. it was *almost* empty..

anywho we started plinking at it from about 30 feet away about the 5th shot I hit it and it poofed into a nice red cloud.. and blew all over me... at that moment I realized what it was.. when my gf was a car-hop at sonic she carried it for safty. it was pepper spray..

that really sucked, I couldent even drive home.. though my GF had a hoot with the 4wd (she had little pissy car at time).. I dont know how she managed to avoid it.. she got a little on her arm and that was it.. oh well.. there are lots of Wobble being a dumbass stories.. but they are not military related so I will spare ya.

[Espectro (DayZ) 0]

Wow.. with the exception of a couple humorous posts, I'm amazed this thread hasn't been locked. No good can come from a thread who's main purpose is to whip the masses into a good old fashioned American-bash.

What amazes me the most is the amount of sheer ignorance displayed by people who have never been to the US or spent much time around Americans. Sure there's a lot of 'less than genius' people in the US. There are also plenty of very intelligent, very open minded, well spoken, educated, worldly people. I've traveled quite a bit through Europe and even through some of Australia. I've always enjoyed those I've met, no matter what their intelligence level appeared at to me.

Its very disappointing to read so many people here taking the easy road of jumping on to the Anti-American band wagon, just because its the popular International thing to do these days. Perhaps you should re-think those you stereotype, because after all.... the "slow" live amongst you too.

Well, i'm pretty sure you can make a video like this for any country in the world, if that's what you set your mind to.

What I don't like about America is their political culture (not only their politics). Things like including religion in whatever sentence etc. to justify their means - is very 'wacky' for me.

People sue other people just for the money, there aren't much normal and healthy sense in this. I don't know what cause this, or if it is just a damn stereotype cause by the media or holywood films. Ive only been in America once, and it was only for about 1½ months, so it's true, of course I don't know much firsthand about Americans.

What I missed in America was culture, inheritage and stuff like that. That is, of course, completely impossible to have any kind of history when the country is this young. But it stunned me, that almost every day you guys celebrated, was because of some war (or end of it) in your country. There must be something else you guys can hang on to?

Most people have the need to 'belong' somewhere, and since you have no history to be common about, maybe that is why so many Americans find religion that important?

I did get all the classic questions by the Americans while I was there, among one of them was a man who believed that Denmark was the capital of Switcherland. When I told him it was not, and indeed it was a country - he refused to accept it, in frighten of loosing face to his friends and family. I was like -ooohhkaaay *slowly moving backwards*.

Anyway, had a nice time there, it's 5 years ago now though. As stated, I missed culture and I also (as another one stated) missed the 'local buisness' such as private restaurants etc.

Cheers

[TrevorOfCrete 0]

its just a media generalisation that americans are stupid. Personally i dont see anything wrong with it, too be fair with a presidant like Bush who cant prenounce himself properly it hardly does you any favours no?  

Besides, this isnt all one way,  Amercians have it fixed in there head, for example, that Britian is the size of a small farm, we all have bad teeth, speak with a BBC accent or are cotney (most dont know we have hundreds of individual accents).  I have travelled to the USA pretty extensivly, and tell the averige american you personally know Prince Charles, or you live next door to the Spice Girls (because they believe Britian is so small), they will believe you.  In short, and its apperent from there comedy and media, they beleive were a nation of wannabie Hugh Grant, tea drinking football hooligans.

Ofcourse not every american thinks this, but not every Brit thinks americans are stupid. I personally dont as my studies include the many books by Harverd and Prinston proffesors. But its just a bit of comic relief to have these friendly rivalries. Look at Americas view on australians, like in the Simpsons or movies like crocodile dundee. Americans think australians are just as stupid as vice versa.

[kerosene 0]

its just a media generalisation that americans are stupid. Personally i dont see anything wrong with it, too be fair with a presidant like Bush who cant prenounce himself properly it hardly does you any favours no?

Besides, this isnt all one way, Amercians have it fixed in there head, for example, that Britian is the size of a small farm, we all have bad teeth, speak with a BBC accent or are cotney (most dont know we have hundreds of individual accents). I have travelled to the USA pretty extensivly, and tell the averige american you personally know Prince Charles, or you live next door to the Spice Girls (because they believe Britian is so small), they will believe you. In short, and its apperent from there comedy and media, they beleive were a nation of wannabie Hugh Grant, tea drinking football hooligans.

Ofcourse not every american thinks this, but not every Brit thinks americans are stupid. I personally dont as my studies include the many books by Harverd and Prinston proffesors. But its just a bit of comic relief to have these friendly rivalries. Look at Americas view on australians, like in the Simpsons or movies like crocodile dundee. Americans think australians are just as stupid as vice versa.

I find your claim to be British suspect.

You mis-spelt Britain and I've never heard of a "cotney accent"

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

Why? During the worldcup there was a pic posted on bigsoccer.com which showed a hooligan with a tattoo saying "Great Britian". These patriots must know better than you!

[CsonkaPityu 0]

When i was little i thought all british were posh.

edit: And it's cockney. A brit would surely know that no?

[AWDrift 0]

The reason you see so many holidays about war is because it's the one of the few things our whole country experiences and so many of us at one time or another had a family member shipping off to battle.

There are many smaller celebrations, but they mostly only go on at specific cities, towns, or states. Like Fur Rondy in Anchroage, Alaska.

[wex-q 0]

I find your claim to be British suspect.

You mis-spelt Britain and I've never heard of a "cotney accent"

He misspells like 95% of the words that are a bit difficult to spell, so he might just be really bad at spelling

[crashdome 1]

Well, I am an American, and just this week in my hometown, two guys definately lowered the standard of the average American:

Quote[/b] ]

Man burns genitals in 'Jackass' stunt

Yahoo! News

In my opinion a lot of Americans can be ignorant and stupid, but there are also a lot that are very smart individuals.  The problem is, you never hear about them, and you hear about "Jared" who lights his crotch on fire  

HAHAHA.. I'm not far off from you. Milwaukee to be exact.

That story is nothing. I got one of a guy who previously worked where I work. Once he quit, he wanted to get a sex change operation and ended up trying to do it himself with a cleaver and soldering iron IIRC. Botched it up really bad too.

It sounded made up... even to me.. but I can assure you it's true AND the guy is truly an idiot.

People have to remember that the US is large. There is alot of culture and subculture here that goes beyond television. Even people in the US don't see it all sometimes... but I can assure you.... if the type of person exists... we have them. Smart, stupid, funny, eccentric, etc... Pretending to think that a single TV show can represent the entire population is being even stupider than the people shown on it.

[TrevorOfCrete 0]

When i was little i thought all british were posh.

edit: And it's cockney. A brit would surely know that no?

sorry my spelling is bad.  Both Cockney and Cotney are used to mean London accent.  Cotney is used in the South West for some reason.

[denoir 0]

The US is the home of the smartest people in the world. No, I'm not joking. About half of the world's Nobel laureates live in America. The three top universities in the world are American and as soon as a European or Asian scientist gets any good he/she runs off to America to work - because all the other smart people are at the universities there.

I won't bother listing all the achievements by America and Americans - landing on the moon for instance.

So is it why there is so much anti-Americanism in the world (and there is a lot of it)? Is it simply envy of its power?

Well, yes and no. Americas power is an answer to why it is the primary target but not quite why.

Warning: If you are a cultural relativist who thinks that all cultures are equally good and can't be compared - prepare to be offended. If you think that stoning women for adultery is just a cultural peculiarity that has to be judged within its cultural context, you won't agree with me.

So let's look at the why.

First let's look at the obvious elephant in the closet: Bush and the Iraq war. A vast majority of the world was against the war and a natural animosity against American politics evolved. When the majority of the America people re-elected Bush it was clear that it wasn't just about the politicians at the top - it was the people. After all, in a democracy people are to some degree responsible for the idiots they elect. The first time didn't count as people didn't know what was to come, but re-electing him was approving of his previous actions.

On a practical level it gave Europeans (lusting for integration) something in common: they were not Americans. It is impossible to understate the difference between the opinions and cultures of different EU states - opposition to the Iraq war was one thing that everybody could agree on (the populations if not the politicians). Nobody has done so much for practical European unity as Bush.

As I said first, America is home to much of the best that western civilization has to offer. This is due to its enormous size and subsequently it is also home to the worst that the western civilization has to offer. The distribution is as always a bell-shaped curve.

The world however does no primarily see the worst - for the most part through television and news it sees the average. It's at the center of the bell curve that everything is aimed at - the average American.

And at this point there has to come a comparison.

Are Americans more ignorant than other people in the world? Of the 201 states in the world is America at the bottom half?

-No, absolutely not. Using almost any imaginable metric America ends up in the top half.

To pick a few random countries: The average person in say Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Niger.. are all far less educated and far more ignorant of the world than the average American.

Clearly America has been chosen for bashing not just because of the ignorance of its population - more than half the world are worse in that respect. Nigeria isn't being bashed because it is not a significant and visible player on the world stage.

Having said all that, there is another elephant in the closet - what about the western world? How does America stack up against countries that have a similar GDP/capita? The answer there is not as encouraging: compared to most other western nations the ignorance is abysmal.

One poster wrote earlier that if you looked around you could find a Swede that can't point to Sweden on a map. True enough - according to the 2002 National Geographic Survey about 2% of Swedes don't know where it is given a map and four choices. However, 11% of Americans can't find America on a map, given four choices. That's 5 times worse. Yes, there are ignorant people in every country - the relevant question is however how large percentage of the population they constitute.

From the same NG survey:

Quote[/b] ]

Which of the following organizations endorses the euro as the common currency for its members?

-World Trade Organization (WTO)

-North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

-European Union (EU)

-Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

-North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

-I Don’t Know

Result:

This is astonishingly bad especially since the answer is given in the question. 44% is very much in average territory. We're not talking about marginal idiots here.

Same thing for this:

Quote[/b] ]

Question:

Take a minute and look at the map below. Russia is shown by what number on the map?

-27

-46

-55

-12

Result:

And finally one more, which I think is the worst of them all:

Quote[/b] ]

Statement:

"Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals."

Answer:

It is not an exaggeration to say that answering "no" to that question is about as sensible as saying that you think that the earth is flat.

47% of the American population believe that the earth is under 10,000 years old  [src] (the right answer is roughly 4.567 billion years) and 44% think that Jesus will return within their life time [src] (armageddon, end of the world...).

This comes from a nation with 20,000 strategic nuclear weapons and that is the #1 polluter. Not very encouraging for building a sustainable development. If you are convinced that you'll be raptured to your sky-god relatively soon, of course you won't bother yourself with such worldly vulgarities as global warming. And the especially disturbing twist is that if say a nuke was to go off in Jerusalem, about half the US population would see it as a happy sign of Jesus soon coming back. Given that a third of the world's population are fundamentalist Muslims that will gladly provide the provocation and excuse for a conflict.

So given its power and unique position in the world combined with the excessive (relative) ignorance displayed, America does deserve the mud being flung at it. There are real concerns that go way beyond in-group/out-group bashing.

Conclusion:

Of course generalizations are bound to be unfair for many at an individual level - and for America especially since it is a very divided society. Saying that Americans are ignorant and dangerous fundamentalists will be wrong 50% of the time. It is however not to dismiss that 50% of the time you would actually be right to say so.

And yes, again, there are far worse countries than America in that respect. Instead of 50/50 it would be no overstatement to say that for instance 90% of the Saudi population are ignorant and dangerous fundamentalists. It's not politically correct to say so as it hurts our liberal sensitivities, but nevertheless it is the ugly truth. In Saudi Arabia like (the liberated) Afghanistan and many other Muslim countries you can actually get executed for teaching evolution and any other knowledge deemed 'heretic'.

America however is not just any country - it is the most powerful and richest country in the world so of course it deserves special attention. The America bashing that is so popular world-wide has a solid ground it stands on - it is not just arbitrary hatred or jealousy.

Ultimately what America needs is a better public education system and much less religion. Some travel (no, invasion doesn't count) wouldn't hurt too.

[wex-q 0]

Sweden all the way!

[GrimErazer 0]

Ultimately what America needs is a better public education system and much less religion. Some travel (no, invasion doesn't count) wouldn't hurt too.

That was a whole good writing with an excellent and agreeable ending line.