Originally Posted by drift freaq

Its like this. France is a small country with their nose high in the air. France is a country that the U.S. rescued twice in the last century in two world wars. France is the most ungrateful uppity country in the world.
Now with that said some French people themselves are nice cool people, SOME not all and quite a few think they are the shit.
Britain a country that was once a great world Empire two centuries ago in its own right. Now reduced to the Island Nation it once was before its Empire. A cool country with some people that are really cool. A country that for the most part in some circles never got over being beat by the U.S. in the American Revolution. Cest La Vie.

Most British people like America and Americans, snotty upper crust English like to put down the United States. Clarkson on top gear does it because he just likes being an ass for the sake of being an ass.

Now I pointed these things about those two countries out because you used them as the examples. Poor examples they are. neither has achieved the kind of technological advancements the U.S. has. We were the first to smash the Atom. We lead the world in semiconductor technology( oh and don't even attempt to argue that) i.e. we invent transistors, we invented silicon transistors, we invented TTL and large scale integration. Without large scale integration you would not have your cell phone or your computers.
Sure other countries make memory chips cheap. Though when it comes to microprocessors we are the bleeding edge. Same goes for software.

Now with those examples plus other things as well,its a fact that the U.S. is a country that is almost 30 times or more the size of Britain or France. A country that has thrown open its doors to people from all over the world with different levels of education and knowledge.

In that sense you cannot expect everyone in the United States to be of above average intelligence. There is more chance of there being a higher concentration of bright people in Britain or France just based on a geographical size difference to population.
Even though their are areas and places in the U.S. were intelligence is extremely high and areas were its extremely low.
The San Francisco Bay area and more specifically Silicon Valley is an Example of an Area with a high population of way above average intelligence.
Hell the high School I went to in Palo Alto was in the 98th percentile.
Seattle and Redmond Washington would be another area. As well as certain areas of Texas, believe it or not. Boston Mass because their is a high tech area out there. Chicago area(it was the home of bell labs were the transistor was invented by William Shockley) .

So basically your question is a rather broad and generalized situation. Are Americans smart they can be. Are there some dumb Americans that embarass America? Yes. Though see every country has their idiot.
Its just both France and England are has been's that want to throw darts at the successors. LOL

As far as our educational system goes the secondary schools have fallen in the last 15 years. They do need to be reformed.
Our Colleges and Universities are exceptional though. Which is way you see so many foreigners coming here or wanting to to attend College.

Our Medical is also considered to be the most advanced in the world as well. Regardless of costs or lack of universal health care. Yes Britain and Canada have universal health care but there medical is still not quite as good as the U.S.

Oh and as far as what the poster above me said, LOL dude you really need to study more about America's technological advances. You are proving that Americans can be quite ignorant, of their own achievements and success.

I find all to often on car forums the people are only keyed to the fact that foreign countries now make better cars, and think because of it America is not as smart or technologically advanced.
Our car companies are beat because of bad management and the American auto workers union period!
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Originally Posted by steve_o1989

I'll bring in a Canadian perspective here. Being a neighbour, and frequently travelling down to the states, I can kind of differenciate between how Americans are viewed as a whole here, and how I personally view them.

I don't think that they are really as under-educated as they are made out to be. To me it seems that they just don't give two shits about where Britain is on a map, or what the weather would be like in Canada in the middle of July (couple stories about that one.)

From how I see it, American's don't have a good knowledge of other countries, or cultures, but then they don't have any desire to. They are all taught that United States is the greatest country in the world and that is all they need to know. I guess it is just more of an ignorance to the rest of the world, not stupidity.

Of course there are still the uneducated, but every country has that.

I also think that the media has tons to do with it. As we all know, the media focuses more on the negative aspects of society than the positives. Are you more likely to remember hearing about a guy who blows off his hand trying to go fishing with dynamite, or a guy who comes up with a new method for a transplant?

In my opinion alot of people just don't like Americans. For one reason or another; whether it is because they seem to take so much for granted, or because it seems like they don't really give a shit about the rest of the world, or whatever. I personally don't dislike them, I just know lots of people don't. I think that alot of this also stems from money. America is a capitalist society. They make a ton of cash. Look where most of the billionaires are from, look at where the major franchises are based out of, look at the shear amount of production they do. Other places resent this, and like to justify it to themselves; "oh they are all fat and lazy dumasses".

Now obviously this is extremely generalized. It is ment to depict a society, not an individual, so don't take it personal.

One thing I do notice when I do go to the states though...there is a fuck ton of fat people haha. That is one thing I INSTANTLY notice walking into a mall there. There are just lots of huge, like not a little extra chunk, but waddling blobs that are as tall as they are wide.

Originally Posted by drift freaq

This is a problem that has come about in the last 15 years or so. America was not always this way. Plus America used to have plenty of self discipline.
Truth be told Sooshi did nail it with the fact that the grading system curve has been lowered for the sake of less educated people. The LA school system is notorious for this kind of bullshit. Hell they pass kids that can't read. How the fuck does that happen? When I was a kid it could not happen, now it does. Shit 20 years ago LA had a excellent school system.

Its true Americans have gotten lazy. Another major problem is current college bound kids are more interested in making money than actually doing things that would make the country better. I.E. going into Sciences and whatnot.

Its true this is where China and India excel where we used to excel. Like I said earlier we still lead the World in Technology but the pool of Americans doing that work is shrinking because everyone is becoming greedy and more interested in making money period.


Though to sum it all up once again, A country this size accepting people and cultures from all over the world is not going to have all intelligent or all non intelligent people. Its going to have a mix that will skew the results.