Quote from: GethKhilafah on March 10, 2015, 04:05:40 AMQuote from: Flee on March 10, 2015, 03:56:56 AMPeople generally don't seem to be very intelligent or knowledgeable about things. How would you compare this to people in Europe? I get the feeling this is the case in Americans when you're comparing to Europeans, but I have obviously talked to not enough Europeans to really get a good idea of what Europeans are like.Though most of the Europeans I talk to, I get along great with (in comparison to Americans), and we have a lot more in common I think.Well, we do have our fair share of morons here too, lol. Plenty of stupid and close-minded people to be found all over the world. What I mean is that people in the US generally seem to be less educated and just not as knowledgeable about things that aren't part of their own little world. This shows in a lot of things, ranging from general conversations to politics and your everyday culture. Politics and policy are incredibly populist in the US, which is something that you're hardly going to find over here. Take that thread in Serious about Hilary Clinton, for example. I commented the same thing there. It is almost disgusting how appeals to emotion seem to be a cornerstone of politics there. In her speech, she resorted to things like "it is clear that violent video games are out there to steal the innocence of our precious children", and ended it by having some guy, introduced as a parent of twins, come up the stage to appeal to parents in the audience. And this is a part of all politics. "Oh, you're running for president? Instead of actually making people vote for you because of your platform and beliefs, release a 2 minute ad of a black guy talking about how you heroically saved his wife's life when she was giving birth ten years ago because that's more likely to sway people in our culture". You would never find something like that over here.But I'm mainly just talking about day to day things and conversations. I had people warn me beforehand and shrugged it off because I thought their warnings were too ridiculous to be true. A few months later, I already had to explain to two hairdressers that Belgium was not just out of state, but on another continent as well. On the 4th of July, I had to answer several people that, yes, I knew what fireworks were, that I had actually seen them before and that they weren't just an American thing. I blew someone's mind by informing them that I was familiar with the concept of "holidays" and that they do exist outside of the US ("no, we don't work every single day of the year. We have weekends and holidays just the same."). Another person was pretty baffled when I told them I met my American girlfriend online, as she apparently never really realized we "have those kind of things" (= internet/computers) on the other side of the Atlantic.Now don't expect to come over to Europe and find only geniuses. Plenty of morons here too. But just speaking from my own experience, it does seem that people in the US are generally less educated and knowledgeable about things. Americans are generally amazed when they find out I speak Latin, while it's very common over here. Same thing with the amount of languages I speak, while virtually everyone here speaks at least 3. People here seem more interested in politics and news, what happens abroad included, which is also provided by (generally) less biased news sources. People seem to travel a lot more here too. Obviously, the US as a country is larger than any European one, but I've met people who just wouldn't leave their own state. I've received "why would I even want to?" as an actual response to my question of "are you ever interested in traveling abroad?" You be sure to let me know if this is just my own experience when you get to talk to people in Germany.
Quote from: Flee on March 10, 2015, 03:56:56 AMPeople generally don't seem to be very intelligent or knowledgeable about things. How would you compare this to people in Europe? I get the feeling this is the case in Americans when you're comparing to Europeans, but I have obviously talked to not enough Europeans to really get a good idea of what Europeans are like.Though most of the Europeans I talk to, I get along great with (in comparison to Americans), and we have a lot more in common I think.
People generally don't seem to be very intelligent or knowledgeable about things.
Since I'll be studying in America for a year. . .
