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Have Americans always been this stupid?
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2025
654 points (92.2% liked)
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As a westerner who lived in Asia for the past 2 decades I have unusual take on this.
Americans generally aren't more stupid than anyone else but they have no face saving culture which acts as a useful bottleneck on social and information exchanges. Because of this Americans can easily subscribe and announce their beliefs even if theyre low effort conspiracies because they are not afraid of losing face for believing in something stupid.
Combined that with information flow that is too fast for most to even comprehend let alone keep up with means that Americans are quick to believe lies and don't feel punished for doing so.
This is very different in face saving cultures like Asia where if you say or do something stupid you'll have strong social consequences and even spiritual/religious ones if you're a Buddhist.
The caveat here is why Europeans are a bit better than this? I'm not sure i hadn't lived there for a while but I'd imagine that smaller countries are less susceptible to this issue as they can correct quicker and I think Europe does have a bit of face saving culture, well definitely more than the US.
TL;DR: Americans are stupid because they are shameless
Maybe part of it is the whole "greatest country on earth" stuff as well. In other words, a lack of humility
In the European countries I've lived in, pride like that wasn't really encouraged. And if you're too boastful or what not to the point of arrogance, you tend to get the stink eye
And this applies to patriotism as well. Here in Norway for example, despite us having a stronger claim for stuff like "greatest country", very few people, if any, really feel like being "proud" of one's own country is something that one should be doing, or it being honorable at all. The best I see is that people enjoy living here and, if they see another Norwegian out there or Norway mentioned, they just get happy to see a fellow Norwegian, just because we are relatively small
Honestly, most Norwegians I've met complain about Norway's problems more often than not lmao, despite, all things considered, you can hardly find better countries to live in, except some other European ones depending on your own preferences
There really is just, no culture of like, arrogance. Something that I feel like is very different to the US with its super heavy emphasis on individual capitalistic success
Maybe that's a large part of it as well. A consequence of American culture being so extremely individualistic
Wow you putting it like that:
That's literally it. You are so right.
I cannot count the amount of times that "annoying uncle/dad" is spewing racist/sexist/uneducated bullshit and everyone in the family feels like they just have to let them say it.
We really need to normalize pointing out stupid pov's with harmful consequences.
This also reminds me of the common experience in the US of some random white dude with a megaphone screaming "Jesus saves blablabla" in public places. Why the fuck do we deal with that shit?
"My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
- Isaac Asimov, sarcastically making a point
The European countries had their own wave of fascism and dictatorship in recent centuries. Some seem to have leaned from the experience.
The Netherlands is tiny and has a right wing extremist government full of very, very stupid people. In fact, the Dutch version of The Onion sued the minister of foreign affairs because it's impossible to distinguish between what she says and what they come up with.
This comment hits hard. There are a lot of ignorant people in my life that spout idiotic stuff and I brush it off, I disengage. I could take the time to listen, converse and correct but I don't. I disengage, I brush it off as just "Oh boy, there goes crazy Joe rambling again! But generally he's a good guy so I'll tolerate it". I need to start taking the time to push back and correct people I care about so they understand people are judging them when stupid things are said. Thank you!
Something people are discussing but not enough is America and the world’s refusal to diagnose and medicate mental illness.
Crazy Joe may just need meds.