[Mars]

Oh yes... here in the United States we enjoy being thought of as idiots. 

No one, in any country likes to be thought of as an idiot.

[karajorma]

In the US no one wants to be thought of as an adulterer but people will admit to it more readily than they will in say Iran. Even if they stopped stoning people for it tomorrow it still wouldn't be culturally acceptable to be regarded as an adulterer for a long time.

Now apply the same thing to stupidity. 

The stigma of being perceived as an idiot is not as great in the US.

[Ford Prefect]

I think that's true. There's a strong vein of anti-intellectualism in our culture; intelligent, educated people are suspected of being elitist and out of touch.

However, I must come to the defense of our educational system. I think our model is really a superb one in many respects. People like to wring their hands about how our students are falling behind and our schools are failing them, etc. But the only real education problem in this country is our inability, or unwillingness, to fund it.

[NGTM-1R]

Goddammit I even gave you people a smiley and you still can't detect sarcasm?

[Polpolion]

In the 2000 election, Al Gore had over 500,000 more votes than Bush did, yet Bush won the electorate 271 to 266.


Stop using Bush's election as an excuse to call US citizens stupid, whoever was doing it.

[karajorma]

Want to explain the 5 million votes he won by in 2004 when we knew even better than in 2000 that he was completely useless?

Goddammit I even gave you people a smiley and you still can't detect sarcasm?

Well you were right even if you didn't mean to be. You just picked the wrong reason for Americans feeling that they have freedom of idiotic speech.

[Polpolion]

Want to explain the 5 million votes he won by in 2004 when we knew even better than in 2000 that he was completely useless?

IIRC someone in this thread already said it: They thought he would do a better job than Kerry. This relates to one of the points I made previously: Only a handful of the people who actually run for president might actually make even remotely good presidents. Whether Kerry would've actually done a worse job than Bush, like they thought, we'll never know.

One of the problems I think with the presidency (or rather, election) is the electoral collage. IMHO all the electoral collage does is distort the actual views of the people. IIRC there were 4 incidences with one guy getting the popular vote and another winning in the electoral; this being one of them. And if none of the candidate gets the minimum number of electorates, then the vote goes to the HoReps, which is even worse because that is almost completely partisan.

And keep in mind this is from the US constitution, and none of us voted on that.

[karajorma]

IIRC someone in this thread already said it: They thought he would do a better job than Kerry.

And the rest of the world think that they are idiots for believing that.

[NGTM-1R]

IIRC someone in this thread already said it: They thought he would do a better job than Kerry.

And the rest of the world think that they are idiots for believing that.

That's their problem.

[haloboy100]

'Nuff Said

[S-99]

Being humble doesn't exactly get you ahead in life.

If that's your take on it

[Polpolion]

IIRC someone in this thread already said it: They thought he would do a better job than Kerry.

And the rest of the world think that they are idiots for believing that.

And thus I think the rest of the world is idiots for assuming that a bad choice constitutes utter stupidity.

Either everyone in the world is an idiot, or the only stupid things in the world are people's choices.

[NGTM-1R]

And of course, we have no way of knowing if it actually was a bad choice.

Oh sure, sure, it couldn't be worse you say.


THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY IT CAN BE WORSE.

[karajorma]

And the rest of the world think that they are idiots for believing that.

That's their problem.

We don't consider it a problem. It's the Americans who complain about being referred to as a nation of idiots after all.

[castor]

I'd think the relative stupidity in US is on about the same level as in any country.

Lets think about factors like:
-size of population
-political Influence
-economical Influence
-freedom of press, media
-freedom of individual people
-openness of the culture
-etc etc

The level of stupidity in any country actually increases, seemingly, as such factors go up, no?  (you don't hear a lot of stupid anecdotes regarding North Korean people, should that mean they are smarter than most? or are they just silenced by an overpowering government, or what?)

And about Bush.. well, I'm not a fan of him, but if you look back in the history, its not like he'd be the only questionable leader any country has ever had.

Another thing, if you start to evaluate the smarts of the people according to their politicians, you need to bring into the equation the culture and history of that country as whole, because that is what molds the choices that are made by people today. I mean, they could be doing exactly what they want - not what you want.

[S-99]

Everybody knows that iran's got a dumb**** president too. Really so does north korea too.


"I run a country with no gay people. How unlikely is that?"


"I werr **** you up! I rearry mean it!!!!"

I'll toss bush in too

"UUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuhhhhhh??????????????????"

[haloboy100]

So everybody just thinks America is full of idiots because they have the power to rub their idiocy in everybody's faces?

[Mefustae]

So everybody just thinks America is full of idiots because they have the power to rub their idiocy in everybody's faces?

Who's going to annoy you more: The crazy guy rubbing his own **** into his hair down at the park, or the crazy guy going around the neighborhood and stuffing his own **** into everyone's letter box?

[Polpolion]

So everybody just thinks America is full of idiots because they have the power to rub their idiocy in everybody's faces?

Who's going to annoy you more: The crazy guy rubbing his own **** into his hair down at the park, or the crazy guy going around the neighborhood and stuffing his own **** into everyone's letter box?

Yup, that's pretty much it, with even a little extra bias to top it off.

[S-99]

So everybody just thinks America is full of idiots because they have the power to rub their idiocy in everybody's faces?

Off by a long shot
 It was an example of how idiocy is also esle where in the world