"Americans are Simple-Minded"

Americans aren't any dumber than anyone else.

I once witnessed a Canadian girl ask a guy what country Mexico City was in.

anecdotal evidence of a few dumb people in a place doesn't speak for the whole group. a good indicator would be comparing our test scores as a nation to other countries ( we rank pitifully by the way)

Much of that is padded in other nations.

I'm not going to argue that American schools are the best in the world, but having lived in America, Canada and England, and having traveled extensively in Europe, it is my opinion that Americans aren't any dumber than anyone else. Less informed about the world around them, maybe, but not any dumber.

We do, as a whole, tend to be short sighted. If the problem isn't fixed with a happy outcome in a 1/2 hour TV sitcom we're not happy and tend to loose interest.
 
This guy could be the next Prime Minister of Japan
A key figure in Japan's ruling party dubbed Americans "simple-minded in a speech to fellow lawmakers Wednesday.
Japan has had how many prime ministers in the last ten years? Ten? He'll get elected in a flourish of optimism only to do what all the other PM's have done before him: Let the country down.

Most politicians who aspire to the Top Spot in Japan politics first must show "guts" in putting down America or blaming it for something, anything. Seems to me they need to shift their focus to China who, if you know anything about Asian history, is just itchin' to kick some Japanese ass and now they have the money to do so. (They all wanna' kick each others asses in spite of their united front that they put on for show.) But that's another thread aint it?

I'm not surprised about his comments as most Japanese think that they are decendants of the Gods and everyone else is just scum. Been that way for a long, long time. Aint' gonna' change anytime soon.
 
we are quickly becoming the dumbest civilized nation on earth. our school systems (except some colleges) are a joke compared to world standards. their students are a good 3-4 years ahead of us and their familys actually value education, a complete one at that which encompasses, art, science, math, history and everything in between.

"being dumb" and laughing about your ignorance of some subject is embarrassing in most other countries while it flourishes here
Thank you, liberal-dominated education.

The thing is, these liberal elitists really BELIEVE they are smarter and possibly better looking than anyone else!

That way, they don't feel so stupid when they realize the only people who agree with anything they say are the losers who are just like them...and that those losers are a huge minority in any successful country.
 
This guy could be the next Prime Minister of Japan
A key figure in Japan's ruling party dubbed Americans "simple-minded in a speech to fellow lawmakers Wednesday.
Japan has had how many prime ministers in the last ten years? Ten? He'll get elected in a flourish of optimism only to do what all the other PM's have done before him: Let the country down.

Most politicians who aspire to the Top Spot in Japan politics first must show "guts" in putting down America or blaming it for something, anything. Seems to me they need to shift their focus to China who, if you know anything about Asian history, is just itchin' to kick some Japanese ass and now they have the money to do so. (They all wanna' kick each others asses in spite of their united front that they put on for show.) But that's another thread aint it?

I'm not surprised about his comments as most Japanese think that they are decendants of the Gods and everyone else is just scum. Been that way for a long, long time. Aint' gonna' change anytime soon.

Followed by hari kari??? Where on earth has the mainstream media been on that?
 
Whether the guy was talkin' out of the side of his neck or meant what he said, I believe most national leaders lack the ability to speak their minds. I think in a lot of ways it can be more healthy.
 
we are quickly becoming the dumbest civilized nation on earth. our school systems (except some colleges) are a joke compared to world standards. their students are a good 3-4 years ahead of us and their familys actually value education, a complete one at that which encompasses, art, science, math, history and everything in between.

"being dumb" and laughing about your ignorance of some subject is embarrassing in most other countries while it flourishes here
Thank you, liberal-dominated education.

The thing is, these liberal elitists really BELIEVE they are smarter and possibly better looking than anyone else!

That way, they don't feel so stupid when they realize the only people who agree with anything they say are the losers who are just like them...and that those losers are a huge minority in any successful country.
:clap2:
 
If we're so simple minded then why do the Japanese depend upon us for to protect them? He is just playing to the typical foreigners are dumb. We do it, they do it, everybody does it.

Maybe because they prefer to use their taxes and trade surplus on building thier country stronger from within and not wasting resources trying to protect the whole planet.
 
  • Thanks
Reactions: blu
I don't think we're stupid. I think Americans, generally, can be shallow and breathtakingly ignorant of the rest of the world.

Having said that, the Brits ain't a whole lot better. I recently spoke to someone who thought Los Angeles was a state. I did laugh at that.

Like 'empty vessel' Palin thought Africa was a country? One BIG difference, that Brit wasn't running for the office that is 'a heartbeat away' from having their finger on the nuclear trigger.

Building a Nation of Know-Nothings

It’s not just that 46 percent of Republicans believe the lie that Obama is a Muslim, or that 27 percent in the party doubt that the president of the United States is a citizen. But fully half of them believe falsely that the big bailout of banks and insurance companies under TARP was enacted by Obama, and not by President Bush.

...

In the much-discussed Pew poll reporting the spike in ignorance, those who believe Obama to be Muslim say they got their information from the media. But no reputable news agency — that is, fact-based, one that corrects its errors quickly — has spread such inaccuracies.

So where is this “media?” Two sources, and they are — no surprise here — the usual suspects. The first, of course, is Rush Limbaugh, who claims the largest radio audience in the land among the microphone demagogues, and his word is Biblical among Republicans.

...

On the Muslim deception, Limbaugh has sprinkled lie dust all over the place. “Obama says he’s a Christian, but where’s the evidence?” he said on Aug. 19. He has repeatedly called the president “imam Obama,” and said, “I’m just throwing things out there, folks, because people are questioning his Christianity.”

You see how he works. He drops in suggestions, hints, notes that “people are questioning” things. The design is to make Obama un-American. Then he says it’s a tweak, a provocation. He says this as a preemptive way to keep the press from calling him out. And it works; long profiles of Limbaugh have largely gone easy on him.

Once Limbaugh has planted a lie, a prominent politician can pick it up, with little nuance. So, over the weekend, Kim Lehman, one of Iowa’s two Republican National Committee members, went public with doubts on Obama’s Christianity. Of course, she was not condemned by party leaders.

...

Climate-change denial is a special category all its own. Once on the fringe, dismissal of scientific consensus is now an article of faith among leading Republicans, again taking their cue from Limbaugh and Fox.

It would be nice to dismiss the stupid things that Americans believe as harmless, the price of having such a large, messy democracy. Plenty of hate-filled partisans swore that Abraham Lincoln was a Catholic and Franklin Roosevelt was a Jew. So what if one-in-five believe the sun revolves around the earth, or aren’t sure from which country the United States gained its independence?

But false belief in weapons of mass-destruction led the United States to a trillion-dollar war. And trust in rising home value as a truism as reliable as a sunrise was a major contributor to the catastrophic collapse of the economy. At its worst extreme, a culture of misinformation can produce something like Iran, which is run by a Holocaust denier.

It’s one thing to forget the past, with predictable consequences, as the favorite aphorism goes. But what about those who refuse to comprehend the present?
 
He's not lying. Daily interactions with Americans constantly reaffirm my conclusion that a great many of them are just plain stupid. It's a wonder some of them have survived so long.

america has always been a mass of simpler folks who get by through brilliant-minded socioeconomic and technological innovation and application led by just a few of us. i don't think that has changed or is showing any signs of it.
 
I don't think we're stupid. I think Americans, generally, can be shallow and breathtakingly ignorant of the rest of the world.

Having said that, the Brits ain't a whole lot better. I recently spoke to someone who thought Los Angeles was a state. I did laugh at that.

Like 'empty vessel' Palin thought Africa was a country? One BIG difference, that Brit wasn't running for the office that is 'a heartbeat away' from having their finger on the nuclear trigger.

:eusa_hand: americans have not demonstrated that we will support a dummy like palin with the majority of our votes. there are idiots running for office in england as well. like palin, they are not in government leadership.

sure there's dumb americans - pop on the tv. there are idiot japanese on japanese tv, for certain. if you are dealing with a certain echelon of americans, however, there is nothing stupid about us. i believe we will take all comers on that basis for some time in the foreseeable future as we have in the past, outsmarting and overpowering british and japanese intellect, both.
 
This guy could be the next Prime Minister of Japan ...

A key figure in Japan's ruling party dubbed Americans "simple-minded" in a speech to fellow lawmakers Wednesday.

It was not clear what prompted the remarks by Democratic Party heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa at a political seminar, in which he otherwise paid tribute to Americans' commitment to democracy, saying it was something Japan should learn from.

"I like Americans, but they are somewhat monocellular," the former Democratic Party leader said. "When I talk with Americans, I often wonder why they are so simple-minded."

Ozawa didn't elaborate on what aspect of Americans made him compare them monocellular organisms, a term also used to mean shortsighted or dumb.

There is growing speculation that the 68-year-old former party leader — renowned as a backroom dealer and election strategist but unpopular among the wider public — may run against rival Prime Minister Naoto Kan in a Sept. 14 election for the party leadership.

The Associated Press: Japan senior lawmaker: Americans are simple-minded


He's right.

Read this board and try to prove otherwise.

Many of us clearly haven't got the brains god gave geese.
 
Simple and stupid are two different words.

I would tend to agree that many Americans are not sophisticated. Americans tend to not know much about other nations. This might be because of the physical size of our nation. In Europe, people can much more easily travel to other nations. Most people in Europe know a second language and even a third language. Many Americans are very weak in the subject of geography.

Also, Americans aren't exposed to high culture much. In Europe, classic culture is much more available. Ancient history surrounds people. The arts are much more visible. In America, the public is more preoccupied with pop culture.

In America, people often work very hard, and focus on material acquisition. When someone gets ahead, they are most likely to buy a big house, nice car, a fleet of snowmobiles, a boat, etc... They aren't expected to start attending the opera and becoming well-versed in world politics.
 
Last edited:
  • Thanks
Reactions: blu
He's not lying. Daily interactions with Americans constantly reaffirm my conclusion that a great many of them are just plain stupid. It's a wonder some of them have survived so long.

The difference between Americans and most other nationalities isn't their stupidity, but their willingness to publically demonstrate it.
 
I see that some of you are using this opportunity to bash America but I can tell you this: Japan is dying. They're not making babies, the population is getting older, they don't want immigration, their economy has been sucking for a long time and they have crappy, do nothing leaders. The only thing they're doing right is buying US debt.

No one is killing themselves to get into "The Land of the Setting Sun", but they are killing themselves to get here. Think about that.
 
I see that some of you are using this opportunity to bash America but I can tell you this: Japan is dying. They're not making babies, the population is getting older, they don't want immigration, their economy has been sucking for a long time and they have crappy, do nothing leaders. The only thing they're doing right is buying US debt.

No one is killing themselves to get into "The Land of the Setting Sun", but they are killing themselves to get here. Think about that.

I don't think the Japanese are the most interesting people themselves. They are isolated on their island, have a mono-culture society, and tend to be work machines. Their main interest seems to be electronic gadgets.
 
I see that some of you are using this opportunity to bash America but I can tell you this: Japan is dying. They're not making babies, the population is getting older, they don't want immigration, their economy has been sucking for a long time and they have crappy, do nothing leaders. The only thing they're doing right is buying US debt.

No one is killing themselves to get into "The Land of the Setting Sun", but they are killing themselves to get here. Think about that.

I don't think the Japanese are the most interesting people themselves. They are isolated on their island, have a mono-culture society, and tend to be work machines. Their main interest seems to be electronic gadgets.

:eusa_hand:

Still, I'd like to have one for a pet.
 
I don't think we're stupid. I think Americans, generally, can be shallow and breathtakingly ignorant of the rest of the world.

Having said that, the Brits ain't a whole lot better. I recently spoke to someone who thought Los Angeles was a state. I did laugh at that.

judge a country by its education standards. for instance, in india, what we do in 2 & 3 year college they do in the 3rd year of their version of high school.

my gf's kid goes to regular school during thed ay, but we teach him extra stuff from india and other countries standards and its years ahead of his current school even with him being in a gifted school

Just send 'em to Catholic schools. Easy answer.
 
we are quickly becoming the dumbest civilized nation on earth. our school systems (except some colleges) are a joke compared to world standards. their students are a good 3-4 years ahead of us and their familys actually value education, a complete one at that which encompasses, art, science, math, history and everything in between.

"being dumb" and laughing about your ignorance of some subject is embarrassing in most other countries while it flourishes here
Thank you, liberal-dominated education.

Irony...the 'personal responsibility' mantra always disappears when it can be blamed on 'liberals'...guess you need a nanny...

Beyond irony...America's education system was number one in the world for decades when it really WAS liberal-dominated. 30+ years of conservative dominated politics have us behind the rest of the world.

Now, the right wing ideologues want to remove Thomas Jefferson from school textbooks.

Texas Removes Thomas Jefferson From Teaching Standard
 
we are quickly becoming the dumbest civilized nation on earth. our school systems (except some colleges) are a joke compared to world standards. their students are a good 3-4 years ahead of us and their familys actually value education, a complete one at that which encompasses, art, science, math, history and everything in between.

"being dumb" and laughing about your ignorance of some subject is embarrassing in most other countries while it flourishes here
Thank you, liberal-dominated education.

Irony...the 'personal responsibility' mantra always disappears when it can be blamed on 'liberals'...guess you need a nanny...

Beyond irony...America's education system was number one in the world for decades when it really WAS liberal-dominated. 30+ years of conservative dominated politics have us behind the rest of the world.

Now, the right wing ideologues want to remove Thomas Jefferson from school textbooks.

Texas Removes Thomas Jefferson From Teaching Standard

Bfgrn, you partisan drone, if "conservatives dominated politics," there wouldn't be a Federal Dept of Education.
 

Forum List

Back
Top