I have no idea why KZfaq has only rendered this in 720p, hopefully it fixes itself but otherwise just pretend it's 2010 or something.

Honestly, as an American, I feel like a lot of people here are becoming proud of how stupid they are. You see it everywhere on social media

You would expect Americans to be very educated about the world, given how they are involved in so many foreign affairs.

As an American living in Asia, I find myself routinely embarrassed about the fact that I come across many non-native English speakers who can properly speak and write in English better than most Americans do, even when their native scripts use a non-Latin alphabet.

I'm cuban, i live in new york rigth now and i have to listen to people asking in what part of Mexico Spain is ._.

I'm a Romanian studying in the US. Almost everytime I'd mention I'm from Romania, they would ask me one of the following: Where is Romania? What's Romania? Wait, Romania is a country? Oh, where's Romania in Ohio? Wow, you're from Africa? So you're communist? Where is Romania in the US? And when I'd mention I'm from the Transylvanian region, they would immediately ask me about the Hotel in Transylvania movie. Some even debated me if Transylvania is a real place.

In fairness, knowing who the British prime minister is at a given time in recent years isn’t an easy question to answer.

I work as a tour guide in Buenos Aires. Many of my guests are from USA, they tend to be friendly, but I have to focus things quite differently. Less intellectual, sometimes from the very basics, more about "world records", and walk much less. But the thing that frustrates me the most is when they don't show interest in authenticity and prefer USA focused activities, like going to McDonald's instead of a traditional local restaurant which is cheaper and nicer.

From Canada: A few years ago in Texas I was having lunch with a few college instructors. One insisted adamantly that Texas was bigger than Europe. He absolutely refused to hear a differing opinion. Aghast I fashioned a small bet and loaded up the facts for our meeting the next day. I pointed out that France is about 70% the size of Texas. Then adding the size of Portugal I pointed out these two countries were bigger than Texas. I went on to present a few more European countries and soon the numbers showed Europe to be manymultiple sizes bigger than Texas. Without the slightest morsel of chagrin he very reluctantly paid the tiny wager and said “yah, but you included the Scandinavian countries”.

I spoke with a waitress in Georgia who told me she failed history after writing an essay on how the US bombed Pearl Harbor.

As an American yes large percentage of us are very stupid, i got into a legitimate argument with a coworker because he didn't think trees were plants, i asked him what he thought they were then and he didn't know but he "knew they weren't plants", took a Google search and 10 minutes of explaining plant taxonomy to finally convince a 35 year old man that trees are indeed plants😑

I was once asked "what's the weather like in china". When i answered by saying China is as big as Continental US, spanning roughly from Maine to Florida they looked at me stupid.

This reminds me of when I was working at Target a long time ago. A lot of people I worked with didn’t know that the US fought in World War II, where China is on a world map, that Joe Biden was the Vice-President at the time (2010), that Washington DC is the capital of the US, and that Europe is a continent instead of a country.

I was an exchange student in the USA in 1991, Spokane WA, Ferris High School. My favourite questions were like: "do you have cats in Germany?" and a bunch of other questions that basically centered around if we lived in caves and how much we admired the US? Until a fellow US student stepped in and said "yeah. they dont have electricity over there! they only have candles. And by the light of those candles they draw, design and manufacture all those Porsches, Mercedes, Audis etc." That sure helped to shut up that guy.

I'm a British immigrant who's been in America for six years now. I work remotely and my team used to have general knowledge quizzes every week, sometimes for prizes and other times just for fun. I'm honestly not boasting when I say my manager stopped doing them because I was winning every week. The only questions they would beat me on was popular modern US culture like music TV and films. Some of the answers they gave to other questions were ridiculous.

Actually, The Last Samuraï tells a romanticized but true story except the main character wasn't american... but French. So in the end, the conclusion is the same, americans want to see america shine, stealing a french men's story to erase it and create their own.

I once spoke with an American who told me he had seen the world and been to places such as Texas and Florida.

As an American, I can confirm that my IQ is in the negatives. The fact that I’m even literate is a miracle from god

I'm Japanese, but I lived in the U.S. as as kid. One day I was eating lunch at the school cafeteria, munching on an rice ball my mother made for me. An American friend of mine came over, seemingly excited, exclaiming "Sushi! Sushi!" I told him calmly that sushi is made using raw sliced fish and vinegared rice, whereas the rice ball I was eating at the moment was neither. My friend responded with, "No, no, no! That's definitely sushi. You're eating sushi." It remains to this day a bizzare question why my friend thought he was more informed about Japanese food culture than the Japanese kid in front of him, but as I grew up and got to know more about U.S. culture, and met more people like him, I gradually learned to just deal with it.

Its easier to lead stupid people...

I totally agree with you. There are some American still thinking Africa and Asia are still living in the hut and does not have access to modern facilities and technologies.

Last year I was in Italy on holiday, I'm Australian. An older American couple approached me to ask for directions, which I gave them. They then asked me where I were from and I said Australia. They looked very surprised and the woman said "Wow! you speak English very well" I was so suprised I couldn't even respond

This video is unfair. As a non American, I can be stoopid too, it's my God given right.

In the "Land of the Free", employees only get TWO WEEKS free time a year 😮.

“an above average episode of the news” is the most hilarious way to describe 9/11 I’ve ever heard

To be fair, asking someone who the British prime Minister was in 2022 was a bit of a moving target!

As a foreigner watching american news like Fox and MSNBC i was amazed by just how partisan the media is. They will say and do whatever that makes their party look good and diseregard any nuance or intepretation. Its very hard to find information that isn't biased and allow for any critical thought. No wonder america is so divided.

I feel privileged for having a circle of Americans who are either highly educated, or very intelligent.

I think another thing to consider is that most americans have accepted that they will always be average so they don’t bother to educate themselves because they doubt their ability to grow or learn

As an American who has gotten pretty tired of Europeans calling us “chucklefucks,” it’s so refreshing to hear a non-American rationalize why we’re perceived as so ignorant to anything within or outside of our own country. Good video

As an italian I can say that, when I was living in Florence as a student, there was an event caused by 4 american girl tourists I couldn't even think as possible. The local newspaper reported those girls managed to set a whole house on fire because they were trying to cook some spaghetti for the first time. They thought no water was necessary and threw the pasta directly in a pan. I still don't get how it escalated to that point.

The irony of U.S always intervening in other countries, yet the majority of the population doesn't know anything outside of U.S 🤣

Seven Years in Tibet is about an Austrian in Tibet...Not an American in China. Sorry, I'm an American.

As an American, I have never been so offended by something I 100% agree with. edit: 3.5K? Wow this blew up. (23.08.31)

You forgot the dumbing-down of the American education system--taking civics classes out of schools, as well as music classes; instituting "teaching to the (standardized) test" policies that ignore specialized knowledge, and book banning to remove any literature that is in any way controversial (Bradbury, Vonnegut, Salinger, Steinbeck etc.) If you want to get a well-rounded education in some parts of America, you have to do it largely on your own.

I’m Australian. Back in the early 80s I got a penpal from US. In her letter she asked if we had electricity in Australia and only drive on dirt roads. As a young teen I was like WTF? So I went to a travel agent, picked up a brochure that featured images of Sydney at night (the front cover was the HarboUr Bridge all lit up) and sent it to her with a note saying only “No electricity, we use big candles” Never heard back from her. No doubt today she probably thinks it’s still true,

we knew a Belgian expat who moved to the US a little before we did. He tried exploring the US a bit and then told my husband there is nothing in the US outside of NYC - nothing at all nothing worth exploring worth visiting and promptly requested his firm to relocate him back to Europe 😂😂😂😂😂.

I am indian. I have met some europeans who knew more about my country than I did. Europeans in general are very cultured people. They learn about other countries politics and history. Then I met some americans who thought that India was in africa and asked me if rode a camel to work.

I was on an Air France trip to Sweden, I spoke French to the Hostess asking for Orange juice, The Swedish woman next to me asked where I was from, I said America. She was baffled. Then she wanted me to know she has never met any Americans speaking any other language but English in her experience. It is easy to impress with the bar set so low.

They sell CocaCola in Pyongyang in a foreigners-only grocery store next to the embassy of Malaysia

America isolationism is one of the problems that caused ignorance. From not knowing holocaust was about race, or South Africa different definition of blackness. Lot of America lack of knowing different cultures causes this. Many Americans think blackness is genetic even though Africa is diverse and blackness just being a label from skin color like brown, or not knowing Hitler calling the Jews a race.

As an American, I’m completely offended. As an American, you’re completely right.

As an Australian travelling on a bus in Germany mid July, I sat next to an American lady and we chatted about the weather. I told her that where I come from, right now it’s winter. She couldn’t seem to get her head around that and actually asked “but when do you celebrate Christmas “?

Americanism to a degree and American Exceptionalism to a far higher degree is very real indeed. See, I am South African, mostly considered to be uneducated and primitive amongst other imprecations hurled this way. I take no pride in the many problems my country have. I am educated, did my Bachelor's Degree in South Africa, and, Master's Degree via Limburg University, Belgium. Though my native language is not English, CERF Level C1 is my grading. I will not engage in disrespectful conduct since it only adds to existing attrition.

Bro Fr when I saw those “guess the country” videos I was shocked how people did not even know where America was

I was really suprised about the passport thing. Turns out, in Germany only 41% of the population own a passport, so quite similiar. The difference is, that they can travel to 27 other european countries using only their regular ID.

When I first read American media articles I couldn't believe those were real. The news there is so different than the news in Europe.

What the US needs is: 1) Federally funded teacher salaries set to a respectable living income including expensive-location allowances, so that the smartest teachers don't leave the industry to become bar tenders instead. 2) Extra salary bonuses for every year of study or employment the teacher has completed outside the North American continent. 3) The freedom of speech stuff in the constitution to be rated a higher legal priority than local powers wanting to ban books, pronouns, biology, physics, objective history, or other components of a quality education.

What is the capital of Italy? - London What is the capital of Australia? - England -an American

I say this as an American. Something you forgot to mention more in detail is how scary it is spontaneously being under camera. I’ve gotten approached by a tik toker in one of those random pedestrian videos where someone approaches you randomly with a camera. I felt like I was getting robbed and I had fight or flight responses. I’m exceptionally stellar at geography but even in that moment I probably couldn’t answer a geography thing well. I have immense sympathy for the LA people at the beginning.

I remember having an argument with an American about if Spain (my own country) was a colony of Mexico and he didn't want to admit that it was the other way around. BASIC HISTORY.

I’m an American. At our superbowl party I overheard two guest talking about how horrible it was that schools are catering to furries, and allowing cat boxes in the bathrooms for them to use. One used to be a teacher and her daughter is currently a teacher and the other doesn’t have kids. Both argued with me about how it’s not happening. They got mad when I asked if it was a cat box size or kiddy pool size, who pays for the litter and who cleans it.

As, an American I actually agree with just how both our culture, economic and government have worked to really keep us in a bubble. Despite globalization, ironically, led by the US. I do think younger generations of Americans are being exposed more and more to the 'outside' world, so to speak. Personally, thanks to the internet I've become acquainted with people and cultures from around the world. Even', a lot of Americanic websites have people from other cultures that speak English well. Admittedly, it's a slow change, but I do think there will gradually be more exposure to the 'outside' world.

I think it's worth noting that a major reason only 40% of Americans have passports is because no US state has paid vacation time and some even lack unpaid vacation time. Even then, the time usually allowed is no more than two weeks. "But what about the gap year?" You may ask. Well, no such thing exists in the US as all university degrees require four years of study, including 50% general and elective studies outside one's major, instead of the three years required in the UK. And that's not even factoring in the lack of increase in real wages that's been plaguing the median American worker for the last twenty years. Finally, there's the proximity issue. The US is big and far away; the distance between New York and Los Angeles is equal to that between London and Baghdad; I'd be curious to see figures for the percentage of Europeans who have traveled that distance from their own homes in their lifetimes. And given the financial and time burdens I've already mentioned, most Americans don't even see that much of _the US itself._ I've visited 30 US states plus DC, and I'd venture a guess that that's more than most of my countrymen. tl;dr most Americans have neither the time nor the proximity nor the disposable income to be able to travel for leisure.

As an American, I've long been embarrassed at our level of ignorance. I believe that the geographical isolation and the sheer size of the country are the main factors.

What’s the capital of France? London! What’s the capital of Russia? Tokyo! -an American

I was riding in a car with my boss in 1988 when a news item about Pan Am flight 103 going down in Lockerbie, Scotland came on. He remarked at what a shock that must have been to the people on the ground, living the same as they had lived in the middle ages.I had to explain that they had cars and color TVs just like we did.

I just want to say, as a poor kid that grew up in the Southern US.... this place is pretty much exactly what he said. Yall have no idea the frustration i felt as a kid being able (at the time) to actually name other countries i wanted to visit only to have people look at me like i was speaking some ancient forbidden language.

I worked on a military base for a while and would somewhat regularly get foreigners training on US soil for a few months. When I'd ask them where they were from, most of the time they wouldn't want to tell me because other Americans had never heard of Latvia, Moldova, Albania, Thailand, Indonesia, Jordan, Ethiopia, etc. It was kind of disheartening.

When in graduate school my adviser once said to me: "Stupidity is the combination of ignorance and arrogance. You can be gifted and stupid at the same time." He was trying his best to avoid calling me stupid, but getting me to pay attention to a wrong assumption I was making about an experiment. I do my best to avoid forgetting that embarrassment, but it really helped me understand my weaknesses.

Once flying back from Tasmania to Melbourne there was a bunch of very cold underdressed Americans boarding the flight. They had found it a bit cold in Sydney and thought that by flying south to Tasmania it would be like Florida - wrong, a little matter of knowing which hemisphere you are in makes a big difference.

I love that train picture at 1:38 lol

In my conclusion as an American, it’s a result of my country’s education system, which in my analysis, as having gone through it; is stuck in a time warp, caters solely to teachers unions, a one-size fits all model, and when I went through it, taught memorization and not critical thinking skills. Plus, in comparison to other industrialized nations, my country ranks last in quality of education systems while at the same time, ranks high in spending, and having a two and a half-three month summer vacation, which is no longer necessary due to agriculture no longer being an economic or industrial base any more. Finally, many politicians didn’t want to put their careers in jeopardy due to not wanting to offend teacher unions, who have fought to maintain the status quo, which are benefactors to politicians, who in turn enrolled their kids in private schools.

I saw a French exchange student at an American university serving some French cuisine for an international day in 2005. I asked her where in France she was from. She got a strange look on her face and said, "Lille." I thought for a minute and said, "Wasn't it the European Cultural City last year?" She looked stunned and said, "You're the first American I've met who knows my city!" "Sorry," I answered, "I'm Canadian." Another time in college, three of us Canadians played Trivial Pursuit versus three Americans. Not regular Trivial Pursuit, the All-American version where all questions are about America. The Canadians won. I got a Master's from a school in Buffalo, on the border with Canada. One professor happened to admit she had never been outside the US despite living 20 minutes from another country. She must not have anticipated the reaction because the amount of incredulity we showed her finally seemed to embarrass her.

I'm Chilean, I traveled to Las Vegas for a festival last year. I met some ppl on the line, and we were talking about where we came from, or rather, they were talking. They talked all the time about the US. I mean I flew 12 hours from Chile to get here and no one asked a single thing about my country. They were like 'ok, I don't know where that is, let's talk about Kentucky' I guess they're not interested.

I wasn't expecting such a good vídeo 👏

I was asked "Poland? It is in Russia?"

As American, I never thought myself particularly smart. Sure I went to college, but I never FELT particularly intelligent or well-informed especially compared to some of my more intelligent peers. I figured I was perfectly average, maybe a tiny bit above average if I really was feeling up to overselling myself that day. I've since realized I was selling myself short. After graduating college, having worked jobs in 3 different fields, I actually feel incredible frustration at how astonishingly, incredibly and INSANELY stupid and uninformed so many other people are. Not in like, specific "smart-people stuff" like specific history topics or higher math or science or specific obscure laws or anything. I mean in absolutely basic "Elementary School children should know this stuff" kind of things. Like how US citizenship works. Like how vaccines work. Basic math. Basic reading comprehension. Lack of ability to recognize basic patterns or use basic reasoning to figure out a task or issue. But the cherry on top is the complete apathy - no, the complete disdain for curiosity, learning and intelligence. It's one thing to be dumb; no one is born smart after all. It's another thing completely to have a complete and total lack of interest or initiative in changing that, and another worse thing still to actively view with suspicion or disdain others who ARE curious and try to better themselves and broaden their knowledge. The confused looks I get from coworkers when I read a book during lunch just because I want to just seem so unreal. They straight up say they don't understand how someone can "Read just because". These are people much older AND somewhat younger than I am too.

Many people think its just as simple as point out "the education system". So glad to see a video who gives alternative answers.

Wow. This video is really an eye-opener.👍🏻

I'm an American and I'm deeply ashamed of my country. This is not what I served in the Army for. I tried to watch, I really did, but at 0:37 I was already so depressed.

“What used to be an American only pay-to-win awards show is now an international pay-to-win awards show” bro completely demolished them.

No one is more acutely aware of this situation than US citizens to whom it doesn’t apply. The degradation and hobbling of the US public education system by either incompetence or by wilful neglect and conscious sociological sabotage is a global tragedy.

As an American who is good at geography I find it so funny to watch videos about Americans failing geography

I’m Canadian and lived in the US and I was asked on multiple occasions to speak Canadian. It’s just ridiculous sometimes.

Thing is that Europeans don’t realise just how prominent American isolationism was to American culture. Even though we abandoned it nearly a century ago, it still impacts the way Americans today think. Similar to the way the impact of social-darwinism gives Europeans massive god complexes.

I traveled the US for a while, and my Dutch accent was mistaken for Canadian. My capital city was the name of the country Denmark, and some people asked what version of English we spoke in the Netherlands. The blank disinterested stares I got when talking about how things are done in the Netherlands or Europe in general still baffle me to this day. They truly don't understand that most of the world is not like the US. At the same time, for me it was very easy to adjust to life in the US, because it's very familiar through media exposure. Had a great time!

I grew up nearly as close to the geographical centre of the United States a it is possible to get, and still be in a reasonably large city. I ended up going to university in the UK, and my entire spent all of my working years there. I have recently returned home, and oh my! The culture shock! It's not just craving bangers and mash for breakfast and not being able to get it. It's not the feeling of being drowned in overwhelming consumerism. It has a lot to do with people who think it's good to have at least some criminal record. It's people who see no value in education. It's people in a supposedly secular nation being more rabidly Christian who have Christianity as a state religion. It's people who want to trade in democracy for dictatorship because that doesn't take as much effort. Here we have ignorance, and wilful ignorance. There are a lot more people who are wilfully ignorant than are ignorant due to circumstances beyond their control. The latter you can teach. The prior don't want to be taught, and angrily tell you so. Either America has really changed since I left, or I have really changed since I left. I think I should believe what I remember, since looking back at old photos and newspaper articles tend to confirm my memories. Consumerism has always had a presence, but not to the degree it does now. It has always been a bit provincial, but not to the degree it is now. Before, it was welcoming of immigrants, and you had to stand in a years long que to be a host family to an immigrant family. Now there are no host families or host organizations. Everyone wants to slam the borders shut now. America is becoming more isolationist now, and that is making me very uncomfortable. I was a professor at one of the world's greatest Universities (in the UK, or course, since two of the best are there), and I had both colleagues and students from every corner of the world. Each and every one of those students was there because they wanted to be there, not because their parents had said they had to be there. Those were heady times when, not only was I teaching, but I was also learning at the same time. I was surrounded by my people, who were people from everywhere. Now I am in a place where everyone looks the same, and everyone has to have the same things, but they have to have a lot of things, and where the only culture is MAGA Christian Nationalism. I don't count myself as a practicing Christian, but what I would give for just a touch of the Church of England! I feel lost here. How did I become so un-American?

11:49 That did not age well...

I will never forget when I went to America on a college exchange for one semester. I’m Australian and when I introduced myself to an American classmate and told him I was from Australia he said ‘wow you speak American so well, how long have you been learning?’. I told him I don’t speak American, I speak English, the same language he’s speaking, and that we speak English in Australia. He was embarrassed and said ‘you probably think I’m a dumb American’. I couldn’t help myself and said yes, yes I do.

Before becoming a US citizen you need to pass the citizenship test. One day i got a package in the mail, and it was a book to study about the US history. I decided to take it to work and read it at lunch. One of my coworkers was asking questions, and behold i got 75% right. Next worker from Mexico got 60% and all American worker got between 10 and 25% right..Some didn't know the Capital of there own State 😂

I did not expect a pyro sneak diss in this video, instant like and sub

I’m an American who was raised mostly outside the US. I always thought that because the US is such a large, diverse country that sure there are a lot of really dumb people, but also a lot of smart people. After going to college and working in the US, I have a more nuanced view. I’d say Americans, in general, seem to only value knowledge that is specifically relevant to their work or their hobbies. Anything else (often including history, geography, and foreign cultures) is completely neglected. I’m an aerospace engineer, my colleagues are generally very intelligent, but a lot just don’t know some basic, general knowledge that anyone with a high school education should know. One was going to Alaska and thought it was an island another thought it was part, not just connected to but actually territory, of Canada! These people have advanced degrees!

my teacher in germany liked to tell the story of how he went to visit america together with his students on a class trip and one of the things they did was to visit an american school, they did some sort of a q&a where the american students could ask questions and most of the questions were along the lines of "do you have trains in germany?" lol

Doc: The diagnosis is being american, im sorry

As a Canadian i met Americans that thought that we were living in igloos 😹

As an American this title might’ve upset me. If only I could read.

Anecdotally as a Brit living in Berlin, I will say that Americans who live here are very knowledgeable about the city and its culture and make a larger effort to speak German than the Brits I know. I think the problem is Americans who have never left the US or escaped their conditioning.

The foreign movies never really made it to the US because they had problems reading from the English subtitles and most American's span of concentration didn't extend beyond 5 minutes.

3:42 Right to freedom, so I can own a gun, right?

Honestly should be no surprise that people who're into politics know more about politics than people who'ren't

Can’t say that we weren’t warned about the “dumbing down” of America . 50 years ago, children were taught about geography, civics, history, etc.. We were taught how to think about what we learned and encouraged to do our own research. I don’t know What’s being taught now. Apparently Critical Thinking is anathema and education itself is becoming frowned upon. This isn’t an accident. 🙏📜🇺🇸🌊

Social Media is a big reason. Kids in school who can look up the answers on the internet rather than learn and retain them.

As a 10 year old American that was born in the us it frustrates me that some people 5 times my age don’t know that Africa isn’t a country

My sister went to USA as a exchange student in the 90's in North Carolina and her high school geography teacher asked where in America is this place called Finland she comes from located. My other sister went a couple years later in Arkansas and she was asked if we have automobiles or doors in Finland. I did not enter any exchange student programs after my older sisters.

As an American, I can say this is accurate. We usually don't care about the other countries. I mean, I like history and stuff, but mlst people only care about American history lol.

American philosophy. : Some people are more equal than others, : it’s a free world, as long as you do what you are told to do? You are free to make as much money as you want, but, don’t take any of mine! Haha.

As an American, who was an Exchange Student for a year in New Zealand, at age 16, I can say it was an enlightening experience that I wish every American could have. It gave me a whole new perspective on my own country. Kiwis are wonderful people and the country has some of the most breathtaking scenery anywhere in the world. What was the most shocking was how knowledgeable the people were about America, and it's history, geography, etc. They did have some crazy notions of American culture, but that is to expected, being on the other side of the World. Then, when I got home, I had to explain to many people that NZ was not in Europe. SMH.

I've heard an Italian say "the most stupid and intelligent people I've met are both from America". I'm American who's travelled abroad alot and I can confirm we really are at the extremes where a majority of us are very ignorant, much more so other countries, but a small handful of us are on the other extreme

Love the intro