“Can someone tell me why Americans always
leave the AC on even if they go out all day?” This question we saw last night posted to
an online forum by a disgruntled hotel owner. What followed were reams of insults, generalizations,
arguments, peppered with the odd intelligent and temperate comment. That’s par for the course online, but it
was fortunate we saw that so soon before writing this show. We saw comments along the lines of, “Americans
are just arrogant, ignorant,” as if 325.7 million people were molded into one monolithic
entity. Then we saw, “I’m American, and I leave
the AC on as long as I like. I pay for it.” “See”, people said, “they all think
the world owes them something. What about the environment! Driving around in their big cars and SUVs,
throwing out more trash than anyone, and pretending to care about environmental disasters.” This went on and on, with people casting aspersions
against an entire nation. Others of course weren’t so bad, calling
out people for having a very limited understanding of a country and its cultural and intellectual
diversity. But can we make such generalizations? Could we argue that many Americans embrace
their individuality and their right to do what they want? They paid for that darned AC and they will
darn well do what they want with it. The fact is, we all sometimes are culpable
of whittling down the world to a manageable size that fits with our sometimes uneducated
preconceptions. We cannot say all Americans are this, or that,
but perhaps there might be underlying character traits to a culture, something data, evidence,
or experience, can provide us with. But in the end, most of us don’t rely on
data or objective reasoning and rely instead on an image, a construction, that we have
created out of wanton bias. #5 Arrogance
As we said, much of the world thinks Americans are arrogant. You don’t have to look hard online to find
this out. We hear that they like nothing more than to
plant flags around their houses, and they go on and on about how great their country
is, and by association, that must mean how great they are – even though they often
didn’t do that much to claim this superiority. As the American comedian Doug Stanhope once
alluded, some flag-wavers are like Imperial hangers-on…Anyway, some people say this
is why Americans are often so loud, and don’t worry, there are plenty of articles and forum
questions asking why American voices tend to drown out others, say, when abroad. We might ask if this has anything to do with
that sense of patriotism, the great country, greatest, best in the world, no doubt, better
than anyone else…and also the entitlement that comes from a place that espouses expressive
individualism at all costs. The “loud American” is a much better known
phrase than the great piece of literature called, “The Quiet American.” Forums are full of people talking about these
loud people, demanding, expatiating, bragging, complaining, extolling the merits of good
‘ole America and forcing some poor European into a quiet internal violence, wondering
all the time, do they not realize they are being obnoxious…. where is the self-awareness? Hell yes, go ‘Merica! Now, this isn’t of course true for all Americans,
it’s a stereotype, but it exists. If you don’t believe us, check it out for
yourself. You could be reading for a year, even though
it’s fantastically unrealistic and arrogant to think the stereotype is true for all people
in the USA. What we hope to do is point out such stereotypes
and we can discuss them after the show. Now on to the next. #4 Ignorance
All countries attempt to imbue a sense of nationalism in their people, it’s how they
get soldiers to fights wars, to believe in the country, to create a sense of belonging
and cooperation. But do nations attempt to foster ignorance
in people? Well, you might have read some critics saying
the American school system is purposely trying to dumb down it’s citizens. They want workers, robots, not creative, critical,
skeptical kids that might ask too many questions. Hail the Idiocrasy! We are not saying this is true, it’s a criticism
levelled by some people. But we can say that much of the world thinks
Americans are ignorant. Well, to be frank, most of those shows pointing
out American ignorance regarding their own nation are made on home turf. But you’ll find people outside of the USA
saying things like, they don’t know anything about history, not even their own, they believe
only in their own heroic narrative and think the French revolution is a rollercoaster. We are told Americans are so insular they
are out of their depth when they walk out of the front door. But is any of this true? Listen to this, “There is a cult of ignorance
in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been
a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured
by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” Those words were spoken by the American scientist
Isaac Asimov. But the fact those words were his, means there
is a contradiction in terms. America is constantly ablaze with creative
thinking, there is a daily conflagration of innovation, thoughtful introversion, skepticism,
ground-breaking scientific research, world-changing fiction, reasonable intelligent discourse
appearing in blogs, podcasts, etc. But it turns out a lot of people, including
inside America and outside, believe a culture of ignorance is propagated there. Is there any data to support this? Yes, it seems there is. The Big Think wrote a story in 2013 with the
title, “Why Are Americans So Ignorant?” and indeed within the article is a lot of
compelling evidence that many, in some cases most, Americans know very little about how
their own country works, or worked, and don’t even ask about the rest of the world. “Weak civics curricula, partisan propaganda
and misplaced priorities of the mainstream media all share some blame for American ignorance,”
the writer says, but we feel it goes deeper than that. We will let you decide. #3 Positiveness and friendliness
We’ve really been bashing America, so now we will look at a positive stereotype, as
equally untrue for all Americans. We must add though, that when it comes to
generalizations of countries, many people harbor a negative bias. How many of you have ever uttered the words,
“Oh, I really don’t like the English, the French, the Indian, the Chinese”…just
add your nation to the list. We recently saw a comment made by a young
American who had gone to study in the UK. He couldn’t wait to get out, saying the
atmosphere for the most part was grey, unfriendly and intimidating. Maybe he just went to the wrong place, but
one might argue that Americans are in general more open and positive than Brits. We might remember what the dry, wry, British
celebrity intellectual Stephen Fry said about his trip to the U.S. when he made a show about
travel there. He said this sense of outgoing positivity
he enjoyed, and he said it’s something the Brits were missing. “You can do it” in America, or at least
many people are taught to think they can. While back in Britain perhaps the mostly downtrodden
submit to the fact that life is hard, painful, where’s the beer…What some people call
arrogance, Fry said was partly American optimism, or what he said was a “refusal to see oneself
in a bad light.” He added, “If you go to an American bookshop
by the far the biggest section is self-help and improvement.” He said people believe that “life is refineable
and improvable.” That’s how America works, he said, you adapt
and you find ways to improve, you never submit. Hell yeah, he loves that about ‘Merica. Take that in your British pipes and smoke
it. We think we might add here that a lot of people
haven’t experienced this, and while harboring the stereotype that Americans are outgoing
and confident, those same people might hold a counter generalization that sometimes this
positivity climaxes a bit too hard, it jumps the shark, and then within this transposition
it manifests as something deplorable to others. It turns into pride without substance, blind
faith, a superiority complex that has bathed only in its own ignorance. #2 Money, it’s all about the money
If you’ve ever read critiques on Hollywood versus world cinema, you’ll find that Hollywood
is said to be firstly, perhaps only, a money-making enterprise. European cinema, we are told, is more about
the art. In an American film often the happiest of
all happiest endings is when they get away with the money, what else could matter. If you want to make a movie in Hollywood,
first show bits of it to the most average consumers and ask what they think. Then make the film based on the results, even
if the movie might be greeted with intense dislike by more refined audiences. It’s all about cash Goddamnit. We won’t spend long on this. But America didn’t invent capitalism, it’s
evidently just been very good at it. But at the same time, America embraces free
speech, and critics of capitalism and neo-liberalism abound in the country. America, the foundation of the United States,
was built to have restrictions in place for if or when any behemoth gets out of control
and gains too much power. We won’t address the complications or merits
of this today, but we will say that much of the world thinks America is overly money-centered,
more than say focused on happiness gained from other means than merely being rich and
having lots of things. #1 Americans are all fat
Some Europeans and other citizens of the world like nothing more than to show their own superiority
by constantly defaming Americans for their ingrained bad habits and slovenly TV-addicted,
fast food-related obesity. It is a fact that some part of America has
a problem with eating, and this has led to what’s called an obesity epidemic that has
resulted in widespread health complications. Your average Asian might touch down in say
Houston for the first time and think they have discovered a land of giants. But America is not the fattest country in
the world, it’s around the 17th according to the WHO. It is the fattest western nation, but a lot
of other western countries are not far behind in terms of obesity. Obesity crises are happening in the UK, New
Zealand, Ireland, Australia, and many other nations. We can hardly say the junk food epidemic is
an American affliction only, and on the other hand, many Americans are fitness freaks. It’s a fitness conscious country as well
as a nation of couch-bound sugar junkies. Just look at popular podcasts, such as the
Joe Rogan show, and you’ll see that health, longevity, physical improvement, is on the
minds of many Americans. You could even go as far as to say this new
wave of health improvement is being led by an American avant-guard. But yes, the stereotype of fat America is
hardly only imaginary. We could have added more to this list, but
we feel if we are to debate these stereotypes in the comments we might leave it here as
it could get confusing. Do you think any of these stereotypes are
true? Do you take offense to any of them, or do
you think they are merely criticisms that can lead to improvement? We’d love to hear from Americans and all
of you who haven’t visited the country but still have an opinion. Tell us what you think in the comments. Also, be sure to check out our other show
American Things Europeans Find Weird. Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t
forget to like, share and subscribe. See you next time.
Infographics...They're quite the SAS treat. Considering they made the U.S. vs the World video lol.
A poor man's Kurzgesagt
Hey, it's the youtube channel that rips off Kurzgesagt and thinks that having strong opinions counts as "research".
Hahaha what pretentious nonsense. Hilarious.
“We are not the fattest country in the world!”
They rank #17 from almost 200 countries. Thinking that way is just sad.
This is a great video to show kids around the world what America's problems are.
Are they trying to stereotype Asians as skinny or short?I can't really tell but either way it sounds like stereotyping
It doesn't cost much to just press a button and turn the DARN thing off
You bet whoever wrote this script felt really proud of themselves while writing this
fucking infograohics show lol
they made one where they did a USA vs The Entire Fucking World
guess who won?
For the first time in a long time a disliked a video. I don't like stereotypes but it seems that Americans are actually arrogant