Yep I can attest to this, I’ve not only been to most European countries I’ve been to Africa, Japan, and the north of England…a wild and dangerous place indeed
@@yendor9078 exactly, and all this nonsense about driving on the other side of the road! We are in the minority driving on the left, but we seem to manage.
@@yendor9078 I know, I was agreeing with you. I didn’t write it very well, soz! I was just pointing out that not only are US citizens whining about living so far away from everywhere, they also make a big thing of having to drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road when visiting UK. What they don’t seem to realise is that countries driving on the left are in the minority, there we (Brits and Aussies alike) are always having to drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road. That all got a bit long and wordy, maybe we should meet up and discuss face to face with a beer. But I agree with you, Australians have to travel vast distances but it doesn’t stop them.
Americans always used the excuse of 'Everywhere is so far away.' it's an excuse that doesn't wash. Australia and New Zealand are far away from other countries but they manage it. The lack of time off work that the average American is given is a bigger factor. If people don't want to travel so far what about visiting central America. It's on the same continent as you after all.
Yep, it's an excuse, as you say, Australia is further away and yet they have lots of holidays around the world. The real reason I think Americans don't have holidays is because they don't have time to have holidays, getting 2 weeks off work is doing well in the states and a lot of the times, that's not paid time off. Would Europeans or any other modern country take as many holidays as we do if we only got a week or two off work per year and didn't get paid for that time off? Probably not, you'll be more worried about paying your bills. I'm sure a lot more Americans would love to have more time free so they can go on holidays around the world, but the system they live in doesn't allow that unless you're doing well financially, which doesn't help by the US having weak social programs by European standards.
Freedom of press has been abused by foreign entities for too long over the past decade or so, we live in a world of tech now and as such must adjust to it. I do agree that silencing domestic voices because they don't allign with your train of thought is a big problem though.
@@helenagreenwood2305 No, Europe is about 50 countries (depending which list you use); Canada and Australia are single countries with Landmass slightly larger (CA) or slightly smaller (AUS) than the US.
@@Thurgosh_OG yes but it's quite common for USA to remark that the 50 states (or how ever many there are) each have differences which they compare to being like separate entities
America might be big land-wise, but the population there is comparatively less. Europe has twice the population of America, and that's not including the UK, which adds a further 67.33 million. But Americans believe that they are more important than anyone else, and they've suffered more than the rest of us.
A few years ago i and my family were on holiday in Orlando, Florida. My daughter who was about eight years old had become friends with some American kids of about the same age, one of these kids asked me which state we came from, i told her we were not from America, but from a country called England, it was on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. She said, so you speak Spanish then, I told her, No we speak English, But she wasn't having any of it, no you speak Spanish, i then asked her the name of the language we were speaking, English came the reply, i told her we are English, and this Language comes from England, the country we are from. I can't begin to describe the look on this kids face, it was like a mixture of horror, confusion, and disbelief, the poor kid was totally gobsmacked, she had no idea. What do Schools over there teach kids.
I've seen times after time on TH-cam examples of Americans being absolutely dogmatic about other countries, like the English cant possibly speak English cos it's American and the English must bw lying.
@@roblewis226 still would get 100 cents, but there are no one cent coins in canada so answer is no you can't get 100 cent pennies.. but your debit/bank card and charge card will add them up (on paper the cent still is.) ..no writing checks in canada for purchases at registers .....checks / cheques pretty much obsolete already for many many years.
There is a major difference between stupidity and poor education. One is inherent, the other can be changed. Unfortunately, it is in big business's best interest to keep a mass market and workforce who don't ask questions. People have been trained that they're the best and not to rock the boat - and frequently seem proud of their ignorance.
On the internet, I repeatedly see, otherwise intelligent Americans, reading simple English sentences out loud and getting them wrong, coming up with the wrong word, even though it's spelled out in front of them. I think this is down to the differences in our education techniques: In the UK in primary school, we're taught to read by encouraging us to learn to recognise, WHOLE words, whereas it would seem that in the US, they encourage a technique of 'scanning' where once they've recognised a fair part of a word, they cross-reference that with words they know and immediately assume that they've got the right word.
When I was at college in Spain we got an American exchange student in our class. He wrote a blog insulting Spain and describing it as a third world country. He really thought nobody would understand him since it was written in English. Best part of the story is that we studied English philology.😂😂
I have seen videos where young Americans have been asked basic questions about things you would think the average school child would know, someone was asked to name 3 states (no chance) you would cringe. I have noticed on X (or Twitter) even though a lot of Americans advocate freedom of speech but don't always know what they're talking about. I notice also some of Americas congressmen/women are trying to ban books.
NO! Oddly enough, other countries have their own laws. US laws only apply inside US borders. I'm assuming your question was sarcasm. I have seen more than few vids showing US citizens trying to apply that argument in other countries.
It’s quite shocking how many Americans think US law applies wherever they are. I watched a video recently where an American guy was quoting US law to to a police officer in the UK, and seemed genuinely surprised when the police officer told him that didn’t apply in the UK.
I don't understand people who only watch films with people from their own country/culture in. I have an extensive DVD collection from all over the world. It includes (among others) Devdas and Ashoka from India, Nightwatch and Daywatch from Russia, various French films, The Green Butchers from Denmark, Africa United from (surprise) South Africa, loads of Korean, Chinese and Japanese stuff and a couple from Thailand none of which have anyone from Britain or even anyone speaking English. I prefer subtiltes to dubbing because western dubbing always misses the nuances of speech from other countries. I love the insight they give to life elsewhere in the world. xxx
@@almostyummymummy There was indeed a third instalment! I have seen the book but have been unable to source the DVD. I am not sure if it was actually finished. Have you seen any other Russian films? Film 4 (a British tv channel) ran a foreign cinema event years ago with a whole week of them. They were very interesting though bleak and in some cases very scary! xxx
A Brit, here. In the 90's, I was on a skiing holiday in Bulgaria, just after it had come out of communist rule. I bought a souvenir badge from a street vendor, and wore it along with half a dozen others. A few years later, entering the US, I was stopped at the border, and told to remove the badge, or I wouldn't be allowed into the country. The reason? It was a red star, with a hammer and sickle. To me, it was a small memento of a drunken, fun holiday, with my pals, and it had never crossed my mind that it was a communist symbol. Mebbe they thought I was going to formulate a revolution. I was actually going to a Doctor Who convention.
I remember discussing an event that happened in Minnesota, and the lady I was talking to thought the state was on the Mexican border. A guy I know said he didn't know the direction that the Sun rose, and when driving North he thought we were going South, and recently he asked me how to spell 'icon'...
The highest grossing movies list is being interpreted very loosely to get some of those films to count as 'American'. There are several definitions (some official ones) used to attribute a film to a particular country. The Harry Potter films, for example, have a US studio behind them and some of the production money was from the US but the actors, locations and British money (including Gov grants) makes them British films. The James Bond series are very British but are distributed by US companies, so some people think they are 'American'.
Americans don't get as much paid vacation (holiday) time off work. Here in Australia I get 5 weeks, and I can save that and take 10 weeks off next year, and travel the globe, if I want.
At about the 7.40 mark, an American cinema 'marquee/lit billboard sign' lists the films being shown. The bottom one was for a 1964 (B/W) British comedy called 'A Home of Your Own' - I hadn't heard of it, but it is actually available here on YT from a Blu-Ray release... It is less than 45 minutes long and has many British comedians from the period doing cameo appearances, in case anyone is interested?
I always think that most of what we see as American stupidity is really just a case of forced ignorance because foreign history and politics isn't as widely taught or reported. Whereas over here I'd say 70 ish percent of dramas I watch are American and a good amount of news I take in is from across the pond.
I would to the fact that most of the US tests are multiple choice, so even if they don’t know the answer they have a 1/4 chance of getting right, while the rest of the world doesn’t.
I’m one of those Brits who currently knows more about US politics than my own country’s. But in my own defence, American politics is really riveting right now, and has been for the last seven years, whilst, apart from Brexit, British politics has been pretty dull on the whole.
@@grahvis - this is true. We also don’t worship any politician as if he were some sort of demi-god. On the whole we tend to be somewhat salty about the lot of them.
Canadians have 50% more passports than Americans and travel around the world. They are in the same position as the U.S. but they want to know about other world cultures, unlike Americans!
A couple of years ago we had a quick quiz and had to name as many of the American states as we could.We had no warning so it was all from memory. I managed 35 out of 50 which was not bad as I am a Brit and have never been to the USA. Out of about 20 people most got over 20 states right. The winner got 46. I was actually a bit disappointed with myself for not getting more!!! (We were all British!)
can't say I like the term 'stupid' to describe people who are not as well informed as others of the species. Perhaps un-informed or ill-informed or under-informed, additionally, ignorant, which suggests a willful intention not to seek information. Naive. Devoid of knowledge...etc
Very true when it comes to films, there were some great British films made in the post war decades however, due to financial restraints, many British films were still in Black & White, even up to and into the sixties. This obviously didn't go down too well in the US as they were used to things like Cinemascope etc..... For example, a superb film with Sean Connery is military prison film, "The Hill". It never reached its full potential when released in 1965 in B&W, so many just didn't bother!
That was really informative and interesting. It seemed illogical at first that followers of both political party were well informed - but I guess you only get involved in politics if you are interested in how the world works. It's those people who don't take any interest in politics who take no interest in the world beyond their own little bubble.
My British passport lapsed and I was going to just leave it ,but was advised at my bank that retaining a passport, even if unused, is important as it is a recognised and valid form of identification .
I'm in the UK and have holidayed in Cuba and they definitely sell Coke (imported from the Coca-Cola Company factory in Mexico)... was what I wanted to comment; Then the video continued to actually make that very point - DUH ! 😃
I live about forty miles from London but don't often go there. I prefer the countryside. We did go earlier this year as my husband and son in law wanted to see the HMS Belfast so we had a weekend away for that. It was very interesting and well worth a visit.
I'm a Londoner and I've never been to Leeds, Manchester, York and a lot of other UK places, but I've been as far as Thailand, India.and many many more countries
It strikes me (from talking to Americans) that it's not stupidity, but ignorance. And that's because of a lot of factors - as one example, the BBC News Channel here used to broadcast an American show titled "World News Tonight" (no clue which US channel made it). Every single story on it was about the domestic US. Not world news with a US spin, domestic US. Here you'd never get away with that - if it's world news, it would have to be world news. (Though we're a little spoiled, because thanks to the World Service, the beeb has local reporters based in pretty much every part of the world, so if international stuff kicks off, they already have people on the ground.) I also think control is a big factor. Governments here try to do it too, but haven't been nearly as successful. If you control the information people can get at, you control the people...
Distance is not an excuse, when i was 6 months old my parents went round the world and took me with them, and they went to rio for carnival! And that was in 1980...
There are many things I love about the good ol' US of A, but one thing thing which really annoys me is that they all seem so proud to live in a 'free country'. This video makes it clear just how limited their actual freedom is, and hints at how their own government's propaganda gives them all the illusion of freedom. Is Brits are (for now, anyway) living in a freer country. (until the likes of Suella Braverman crush our freedom)
It is a poor excuse everywhere is far away Australia New Zealand & the Far East are 24 hours flight but the Brits flying there or them visiting us the longest flight I have taken to USA was 11 hours nothing to a trip to Australia
Nooo! Europe is NOT the whole world. Sure someone from the USA might get away with the "we're so far away" thing if they're talking to someone from Scotland or Switzerland. That might work (tho' probably not...people in other countries know their geography) But c'mon now - its about 6 and a half hours from most USA international airways to somewhere in Europe. From Australia it averages at 20 hours. Used to be 36 until recently. From China it's 9. From New Zealand it's 22 hours. From South Africa it's 12. Nah, man, don't you be pulling the we're-so-far-away card. Geez - compared to millions upon millions of people who visit Europe - from much further away, you guys are just a hop, skip & a jump.😁Do you not think it might just have something to do with draconian work practices? It's not so much that they WON'T go, it's because they can't? The (lack of) labour laws -not a 6 hour plane journey - are what prevent it for most folk.
I'm English and my passport has lapsed but I don't intend to travel abroad any more. There are too many places here I haven't seen. American's must feel the same as there are some amazing places to see over there.
All this paranoia is the reason that I never visited the US again after being there in 96/98. Me with a British passport and my place of residence being Germany, was just too much for the lady from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcment.
Can we just point out, that at 14:36 where you have a chart showing the USA with a lower "High Income" compared to the "High Education" of 71%. 1) that data is from 2009 2) Quite a few young US Americans will attend a "College" no matter what that "College" teaches and what they get out of it - Whereas in somewhere like the UK, many fewer people on a lower income will attend a University and work for a degree (one that means something) 3) How many young US Americans will work 2 or 3 jobs paying slave wages just to pay for College. And then take a job where they are still paid badly, but have a fairly high level of education. 4) Compare that to the UK where someone with a high level of education will often be earning a good wage, and often still training on the job but paid well. - So 68% of High earners having a high level of education is not a surprise Looks like Finland is the place to be
If you notice that map at the beginning, it's intentionally not the same map you usually see with the UK down the middle. So that would be disorienting to a lot of people to begin with
Despite that, most Europeans would be able to name many countries correctly. Not all and we all have stupid people too, it's just that 'being dumb' is something the US seems to be the best at.
@@Thurgosh_OGTrue enough, but as the guy points out, just ask enough people and edit together the least educated or the most socially awkward etc. I think it's a little mean spirited to give an uncommon representation of the map to begin with though
this is true only in the fact that most maps around the world, of world maps that is, tend to have the country of focus as the cantre. it is mostly common yes to have the normal European/ Brittan in the middle maps as it dates back to our colonial era ideals. but a lot of the American ones at the least do often have America as the focal point :)
@@Tvashk I've never seen one printed that way before, my assumption was that it was centred based on timezones rather than the fact I'm in the UK I'm pretty sure the GMT centred version is still the most common in the US though isn't it?
That example was heavily manipulated to confuse. The map was shown out of standard perspective with the USA on the right specifically to confuse. It's not the standard Cylindrical Projection - Mercator map. Of course everyone's saying you should notice the shape, but then catch someone out and about, interrupt them, stick a camera in their face with a celebrity taking to them, would you be thinking clearly about geography of all things?
Interesting video, but can anyone tell me what the heck means "septiembre undécimo"? I don't need the translation into English because I'm a native Spanish speaker and obviously means September eleven, but why to say it in Spanish?...By the way, we say "once de septiembre". Here a confused Spanish person :))
The Last Samurai isn't actually a white saviour movie. The Samurai in the title is either Ken Watanabe's character, or it is plural and refers to the whole of his samurai village/clan. Tom Cruise's character is a western viewpoint character, and it's more like he's saved by them rather than him doing the saving.
Just to clarify, when you say "Americans", I'm guessing you mean the Americans SPECIFICALLY in the USA rather than the Americans in the other 34 sovereign nations of the Continental Americas (North, Central and South). 😁
Erm here in England we joke about having any marks against your name… and how we’re never travelling to the US! Denied at the border. In fact we travelled to the US and got taken into separate interview rooms, interrogated, with return uk tickets and absolutely no reason! No criminal record! We were just on a round the world trip. Had been to lots of countries! For that reason alone, I will travel anywhere for an experience, but not the USA. 😮
The last samurai is a terrible example. It's based on real french military officers(Eugène Collache and Jules Brunet) who were sent there with equipment, to teach them how to use it. They fought alongside the shogunate during the Boshin war. With "The Last Samurai" being Ken Watanabes character, which is based on Saigō Takamori, one of the last actual samurai.
As far as top grossing movies goes, it really depends how you define "American". The LOTR and Hobbit movies, for example, don't take place in America, were written by an English man, directed by a man from New Zealand, shot in New Zealand and take palce in a fictional realm. There are a few American actors in it and the production company is American. The Spider-Man movies also make a huge amount of money. Produced by... Sony. A Japanese multi-national. Ranked higher than Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon on the US box office list is Slumdog Millionaire, which is a British film. For arguements sake, The force Awakens, Infinity War and all the Harry Potter movies had enough British involvement that the BFI qualifies them as British movies for tax purposes, and two of those movies are in the top 5 grossing movies of all time. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is just the first one on the list with almost no US involvement whatsoever, but Slumdog Millionaire also had no real US involvement. Actually, arguably it had a lot less than Crouching Tiger seeing as it was the work of 2 UK production companies, with no US production companies involved at all. Crouching Toger was produced by Columbia Pictures, albeit a subsidiary specifically for producing movies in Asia; it's still a US company. Edit: I agree that people want to see themselves in the characters of movies. I find it disturbing that Americans are seemingly unable to do this if the character in question is non-American.
Mel Gibson is Australian and 7 years in Tibet were about a German bloke not American lol. Travelling distance not an excuse we travel.all over the world by we have paid month holiday and health care so we can travel Americans don't
On the first point, yeah, it's not necessarily that people are dumb, it's the camera in face suddenly on the spot thing. It happened to me once in Germany at a metal festival, a guy with a cameraman was like "Do you like classical music?" "Yes" "Do you like Wagner?" "Yes" "Name a Wagner piece" "uhhhhhhhhhh" When he pulled away I was like "shit, I could have said Flight of the Valkyrie, easy answer" My brain just refused to work being put on the spot like that. I was probably mocked on German TV somewhere. And yeah, they're also kinda cherry picked.
As a Brit, I have to say that our film studios have definitely caught up with and even begun to surpass the US in the movie making industry. Just look at movies like Harry Potter, James Bond and so on
America's Sweetheart Mary Pickford was a girl from Toronto. Pickford was the establishing force and manager of United Artists Another Canadian woman created the original cliffhanger scene, and the first 'nude bathing in a pond' scene.@@oliversherman2414
During the time of the Hays Code, one thing I noticed was that any female character whose morals dropped below perfect, would never still be alive by the end of the film.
I'd think that for the Brits or some European countries, they used to have colonies around the world, meaning trade and cultural exchange. Even from long before armed forces etc would be posted overseas for extended periods of time, and personnel would bring their families with them as well. The British commonwealth could be found on every continent on the earth and postings may easily move them from one continent to another.
High education probably relates to those attending Universities but says nothing about the intelligence of those attending (folks get there through paying - only really a recent innovation in the UK; sports scholarships) (sports people are not amongst the smartest of human beings) etc. I was born in Belfast but live in England now...I've been to the US several times (San Diego, NYC, New Orleans); Australia, most of Europe and parts of Asia so the world is a small place
i think it’s interesting that i was born in the early 2000s and all of the stuff going into my brain from tv and social media was american. all my favourite movies were american all my favourite celebrities were american and my favourite youtubers were american. as a kid i thought of america as a great place and only people who lived there could be famous. really affects kids how much all this was pushed onto other countries.
One of the biggest issues is how American media, especially movies, portrays the rest of the world. Watch a film about an alien invasion, and you'll see the American heroes in thier state of the art facility, but everybody else is in tents or mud huts, using radio equipment from WWII* This gives Americans the idea that they're world leaders in pretty much everything, and have all the best stuff, while the rest of us live like peasants. Why would you want to go to Japan when they all live in tiny bamboo houses and dress like ancient samurai? It's much easier to control the narrative when your audience knows little to nothing other than what you told them already. If you want the population to toe the line when it comes to US aggression and imperialism, don't ever let them see what's really going on. You can't convince them that a retaliatory attack was unprovoked if they can see that you fired the first shot. * No, you didn't win it, and we wouldn't all be speaking German if you hadn't gotten involved
No, that article in the UDHR does NOT mean that everyone can OWN everyone else's newspapers. It means everyone should be able to purchase and READ everybody else's newspapers.... and not even that is true, or a lot of US papers are currently violating this article by blocking EU IP addresses
In NZ we're half way across the world yet you'd be very unlikely to meet someone who's never been out of the country and almost EVERYone has a current passport. Americans cannot blame distance for their disinterest in the rest of the world.
I watched the satire 'Cunk on Britain'. There was an American you tuber who, when works of art, including nudity, were briefly shown hastily stopped the video. He was shocked and mumbled about copyright. When I was growing up I and my contemporaries always thought America was a very broad, modern country, anything goes! I never realised they were so prim and narrow minded. Their humour is vastly different to British humour.
"How Americans Got So Stupid" is the title of the video, then the presenter (a Brit,) repeatedly pronounces "Cellist" as "Sellist" rather than "Chellist" - the phrase: "Pot calling the kettle black" springs to mind!
Reminds me of a video about London where the narrator, who was British, pronounced Clerkenwell (‘Clarkenwell’) as ‘Clurkenwell’ and Southwark (‘Suthuk’) exactly as spelt.
Not so many years ago, a large majority of Americans could not point to their own country on a world map, basically because they never saw the world news reported only stuff in the USA hence no need to know where in the world they were.
I think it's just that a lot of other people in other countries are more international in their outlook, especially in Europe and a big part of that is probably because we have a lot more time to explore the world with a lot of paid holidays and working fewer hours on average, and when you throw in other social benefits that Europeans take for granted that Americans don't have, it allows more freedoms to see the world without having to worry so much about the next bill. In the case of the EU, it probably helps that there are 27 countries in a union that allows these Europeans to work, rest and play in any of those countries, that likely helps on having a more international outlook on things, it also reduces ignorance and anything that reduces that is usually good for democracy and for people getting better rights. Americans are doing themselves a disservice by being ignorant and not learning from around the world, and that probably explains why the US is the odd country out of all the modern countries when it comes to social programs for the people, after all, if the system keeps telling you that you're the best based on nothing, it's going to be a lot harder to improve things and boy is there a lot that needs improving in the US, especially as the US seems to be slipping behind other modern countries in a lot of core indexes like quality of life. So the real question is, how bad do things in the US have to get before the people wake up and demand real change?, honestly, I still think there's a long way to go on the downwards trend, but there is hope among the younger generation, but I feel it's going to take decades before they can have any real impact and even then, they are going to have one hell of a fight on their hand with the pushbacks from the government and big corporations that control everything in the US that I'm grateful that in EU countries at least, we've not let it get that bad, but everyone should always keep their eyes open as the rich elites are more than happy to take more away from everyone else if the people let them.
Two can play at this game of ridiculing ignorance: the word "cellist" in the narration is pronounced "chellist", not "sellist" (as the widely-known instrument, the "(')cello" is a "chello" not a "sello")! Shame on my British compatriot for not knowing!
Your comment made me think back to the early days of TV - there was a series about two young women exchange students (one USian and the other British) in the US the UK person was asked to play Martha Washington in a Fourth of July Pageant but one of the organisers complained that Martha should not be played by an English Girl with an accent. an early example of USians lack of understanding of History.
@@Shytot-1 A USian is a person from the United States of America who seems to have assumed the name American which denotes persons from The Americas of which USA is but a samllish part
Europeans don’t only travel to other European countries, they travel all over the world. So distance isn’t an excuse for not leaving North America.
Yep I can attest to this, I’ve not only been to most European countries I’ve been to Africa, Japan, and the north of England…a wild and dangerous place indeed
Australians love to travel, and check out where we live.
@@yendor9078 exactly, and all this nonsense about driving on the other side of the road! We are in the minority driving on the left, but we seem to manage.
@@tinaunderhill5412What? I'm saying we live in a continent, a long way from any where, but we still like to travel overseas regularly
@@yendor9078 I know, I was agreeing with you. I didn’t write it very well, soz! I was just pointing out that not only are US citizens whining about living so far away from everywhere, they also make a big thing of having to drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road when visiting UK. What they don’t seem to realise is that countries driving on the left are in the minority, there we (Brits and Aussies alike) are always having to drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road. That all got a bit long and wordy, maybe we should meet up and discuss face to face with a beer. But I agree with you, Australians have to travel vast distances but it doesn’t stop them.
I've never heard anyone pronounce 'Cellist', sellist!!
Have you not heard of that string instrument repair tool, sellotape?
Americans always used the excuse of 'Everywhere is so far away.' it's an excuse that doesn't wash. Australia and New Zealand are far away from other countries but they manage it. The lack of time off work that the average American is given is a bigger factor. If people don't want to travel so far what about visiting central America. It's on the same continent as you after all.
Yep, it's an excuse, as you say, Australia is further away and yet they have lots of holidays around the world.
The real reason I think Americans don't have holidays is because they don't have time to have holidays, getting 2 weeks off work is doing well in the states and a lot of the times, that's not paid time off.
Would Europeans or any other modern country take as many holidays as we do if we only got a week or two off work per year and didn't get paid for that time off? Probably not, you'll be more worried about paying your bills.
I'm sure a lot more Americans would love to have more time free so they can go on holidays around the world, but the system they live in doesn't allow that unless you're doing well financially, which doesn't help by the US having weak social programs by European standards.
I've actually worked with Mexicans, all Christians and very relatable people who don't want any problems with us.
And when asked to name American Celebrity's Mel Gibson is there the Famous Australian Actor for MAD MAX.... 3:16
Born in America
With those strict media laws, how on earth could the US proclaim itself as "the land of the free"?
Thank you!!!
If an American goes to another country to live and work they still have to submit US tax forms. That's not being 'free'
@@MarlynMeehan Yeah. Didn't think of it like that before, but that is sort of a slave contract... You can't get out of it.
cos Americans have freedumbs ,,,,lol,,, a bit different than our "freedoms"
Freedom of press has been abused by foreign entities for too long over the past decade or so, we live in a world of tech now and as such must adjust to it. I do agree that silencing domestic voices because they don't allign with your train of thought is a big problem though.
The size of the US argument just isnt realistic. Just look at Canada or Australia.
Or Europe
@@helenagreenwood2305 No, Europe is about 50 countries (depending which list you use); Canada and Australia are single countries with Landmass slightly larger (CA) or slightly smaller (AUS) than the US.
@@Thurgosh_OG yes but it's quite common for USA to remark that the 50 states (or how ever many there are) each have differences which they compare to being like separate entities
@@Thurgosh_OG Europe, as an entity, is bigger than the USA, is I believe the point being made.
America might be big land-wise, but the population there is comparatively less. Europe has twice the population of America, and that's not including the UK, which adds a further 67.33 million. But Americans believe that they are more important than anyone else, and they've suffered more than the rest of us.
A few years ago i and my family were on holiday in Orlando, Florida. My daughter who was about eight years old had become friends with some American kids of about the same age, one of these kids asked me which state we came from, i told her we were not from America, but from a country called England, it was on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. She said, so you speak Spanish then, I told her, No we speak English, But she wasn't having any of it, no you speak Spanish, i then asked her the name of the language we were speaking, English came the reply, i told her we are English, and this Language comes from England, the country we are from.
I can't begin to describe the look on this kids face, it was like a mixture of horror, confusion, and disbelief, the poor kid was totally gobsmacked, she had no idea.
What do Schools over there teach kids.
They teach kids to pledge to the flag everyday and history began in 1776.
I've seen times after time on TH-cam examples of Americans being absolutely dogmatic about other countries, like the English cant possibly speak English cos it's American and the English must bw lying.
An American once said to me: "In the US we get 100 cents to the dollar. How many cents to the dollar do you get in your country?" 🤣
Currently? 121 Cents to the dollar
150-180 cents to the dollar. It's fluctuated a lot since I was a kid though.
I'm pretty sure every dollar in the world consists of 100 cents. Not American cents, I grant you, but cents nevertheless.
@@roblewis226 still would get 100 cents, but there are no one cent coins in canada so answer is no you can't get 100 cent pennies.. but your debit/bank card and charge card will add them up (on paper the cent still is.) ..no writing checks in canada for purchases at registers .....checks / cheques pretty much obsolete already for many many years.
😂
Asked to name 'American' celebrities and shows Aussie Mel Gibson,
Technically, Mel Gibson is American. He was born in Peekskill, New York and moved to Australia aged 12.
There is a major difference between stupidity and poor education. One is inherent, the other can be changed.
Unfortunately, it is in big business's best interest to keep a mass market and workforce who don't ask questions. People have been trained that they're the best and not to rock the boat - and frequently seem proud of their ignorance.
On the internet, I repeatedly see, otherwise intelligent Americans, reading simple English sentences out loud and getting them wrong, coming up with the wrong word, even though it's spelled out in front of them. I think this is down to the differences in our education techniques: In the UK in primary school, we're taught to read by encouraging us to learn to recognise, WHOLE words, whereas it would seem that in the US, they encourage a technique of 'scanning' where once they've recognised a fair part of a word, they cross-reference that with words they know and immediately assume that they've got the right word.
Wanting to see a main character of the same nationality is a very American thing. We Brits don't care.
When I was at college in Spain we got an American exchange student in our class. He wrote a blog insulting Spain and describing it as a third world country. He really thought nobody would understand him since it was written in English. Best part of the story is that we studied English philology.😂😂
I have seen videos where young Americans have been asked basic questions about things you would think the average school child would know, someone was asked to name 3 states (no chance) you would cringe.
I have noticed on X (or Twitter) even though a lot of Americans advocate freedom of speech but don't always know what they're talking about.
I notice also some of Americas congressmen/women are trying to ban books.
I just saw a video where half of them didn't know what a country was. And when asked to name two states, one of them said the Bronx and Hollywood..
To be fair, I've seen videos of British people being asked easy questions and they were just as uninformed.
They are not trying to ban books just stop schools from teaching inappropriate adult literature to minors
Question from an American "If i come to the UK will my 2nd amd rights be respected?"
NO! Oddly enough, other countries have their own laws. US laws only apply inside US borders. I'm assuming your question was sarcasm. I have seen more than few vids showing US citizens trying to apply that argument in other countries.
It’s quite shocking how many Americans think US law applies wherever they are. I watched a video recently where an American guy was quoting US law to to a police officer in the UK, and seemed genuinely surprised when the police officer told him that didn’t apply in the UK.
I'm surprised he didnt mention the US isolationist policy brought in by Woodrow Wilson after WW1 as a contributing factor.
I don't understand people who only watch films with people from their own country/culture in. I have an extensive DVD collection from all over the world. It includes (among others) Devdas and Ashoka from India, Nightwatch and Daywatch from Russia, various French films, The Green Butchers from Denmark, Africa United from (surprise) South Africa, loads of Korean, Chinese and Japanese stuff and a couple from Thailand none of which have anyone from Britain or even anyone speaking English. I prefer subtiltes to dubbing because western dubbing always misses the nuances of speech from other countries. I love the insight they give to life elsewhere in the world. xxx
Did they ever finish Night/Day Watch? I'm sure there was a third planned.
@@almostyummymummy There was indeed a third instalment! I have seen the book but have been unable to source the DVD. I am not sure if it was actually finished. Have you seen any other Russian films? Film 4 (a British tv channel) ran a foreign cinema event years ago with a whole week of them. They were very interesting though bleak and in some cases very scary! xxx
@bradleybrown8428 if you're blind ... which I doubt, how did you write that comment?
Ask them their favourite movies and you find most are full of European actors.
A Brit, here. In the 90's, I was on a skiing holiday in Bulgaria, just after it had come out of communist rule. I bought a souvenir badge from a street vendor, and wore it along with half a dozen others. A few years later, entering the US, I was stopped at the border, and told to remove the badge, or I wouldn't be allowed into the country. The reason? It was a red star, with a hammer and sickle. To me, it was a small memento of a drunken, fun holiday, with my pals, and it had never crossed my mind that it was a communist symbol. Mebbe they thought I was going to formulate a revolution. I was actually going to a Doctor Who convention.
I remember discussing an event that happened in Minnesota, and the lady I was talking to thought the state was on the Mexican border. A guy I know said he didn't know the direction that the Sun rose, and when driving North he thought we were going South, and recently he asked me how to spell 'icon'...
The highest grossing movies list is being interpreted very loosely to get some of those films to count as 'American'. There are several definitions (some official ones) used to attribute a film to a particular country. The Harry Potter films, for example, have a US studio behind them and some of the production money was from the US but the actors, locations and British money (including Gov grants) makes them British films. The James Bond series are very British but are distributed by US companies, so some people think they are 'American'.
I believe he was taking about the Studio being American...
Ditto, Star Wars.
I was just gonna write this then seen you have already well said
Its pronounced cellist not sellist, a cello not a sello.
Cellist is indeed pronounced cellist !
(It sounds like: chellist) but definitely _not_ sounding like sellist !
Asking who is British Prime Minister in 2022 would result in a different answer depending on the month!
Americans don't get as much paid vacation (holiday) time off work. Here in Australia I get 5 weeks, and I can save that and take 10 weeks off next year, and travel the globe, if I want.
At about the 7.40 mark, an American cinema 'marquee/lit billboard sign' lists the films being shown. The bottom one was for a 1964 (B/W) British comedy called 'A Home of Your Own' - I hadn't heard of it, but it is actually available here on YT from a Blu-Ray release... It is less than 45 minutes long and has many British comedians from the period doing cameo appearances, in case anyone is interested?
The weird thing is even though only so few Americans travel abroad, they still manage to stand out as the loudest wherever they go.
This was really interesting, hadn't seen this video before! Keep up the good reactions!
I always think that most of what we see as American stupidity is really just a case of forced ignorance because foreign history and politics isn't as widely taught or reported. Whereas over here I'd say 70 ish percent of dramas I watch are American and a good amount of news I take in is from across the pond.
Can you find a video on the differences between American and British police dealing with drunk drivers
In Australia you drive for a couple of hours and you’re at the end of your driveway 😂😂😂 True story 😂
I would to the fact that most of the US tests are multiple choice, so even if they don’t know the answer they have a 1/4 chance of getting right, while the rest of the world doesn’t.
I’m one of those Brits who currently knows more about US politics than my own country’s. But in my own defence, American politics is really riveting right now, and has been for the last seven years, whilst, apart from Brexit, British politics has been pretty dull on the whole.
In the UK, few adults dress up like clowns, go to political rallies and act like twelve-year-old girls at a pop concert.
@@grahvis - this is true. We also don’t worship any politician as if he were some sort of demi-god. On the whole we tend to be somewhat salty about the lot of them.
Canadians have 50% more passports than Americans and travel around the world. They are in the same position as the U.S. but they want to know about other world cultures, unlike Americans!
A couple of years ago we had a quick quiz and had to name as many of the American states as we could.We had no warning so it was all from memory. I managed 35 out of 50 which was not bad as I am a Brit and have never been to the USA.
Out of about 20 people most got over 20 states right. The winner got 46.
I was actually a bit disappointed with myself for not getting more!!!
(We were all British!)
can't say I like the term 'stupid' to describe people who are not as well informed as others of the species. Perhaps un-informed or ill-informed or under-informed, additionally, ignorant, which suggests a willful intention not to seek information. Naive. Devoid of knowledge...etc
Disagree with you. Uninformed!!!! Where do they go to school. So no...
Stupid is as stupid does.
So the Hayes Code probably means Shakespeare and Greek tragedies were unable to be made?
Love yer video's by the way ❤
Very true when it comes to films, there were some great British films made in the post war decades however, due to financial restraints, many British films were still in Black & White, even up to and into the sixties. This obviously didn't go down too well in the US as they were used to things like Cinemascope etc.....
For example, a superb film with Sean Connery is military prison film, "The Hill". It never reached its full potential when released in 1965 in B&W, so many just didn't bother!
Great film.
That was really informative and interesting. It seemed illogical at first that followers of both political party were well informed - but I guess you only get involved in politics if you are interested in how the world works. It's those people who don't take any interest in politics who take no interest in the world beyond their own little bubble.
Why should you have a passport, you don’t get decent paid leave enough to go anywhere.
And even if you do get it, you are made to feel guilty for taking it.
My British passport lapsed and I was going to just leave it ,but was advised at my bank that retaining a passport, even if unused, is important as it is a recognised and valid form of identification .
I'm in the UK and have holidayed in Cuba and they definitely sell Coke (imported from the Coca-Cola Company factory in Mexico)... was what I wanted to comment; Then the video continued to actually make that very point - DUH ! 😃
I'm a brit and I haven't even been to London 😮❤
I'm Welsh and the furtherst I've been is Gloucester.
Before the internet we had books. Just saying.
I live about forty miles from London but don't often go there. I prefer the countryside. We did go earlier this year as my husband and son in law wanted to see the HMS Belfast so we had a weekend away for that. It was very interesting and well worth a visit.
I'm a Londoner and I've never been to Leeds, Manchester, York and a lot of other UK places, but I've been as far as Thailand, India.and many many more countries
It strikes me (from talking to Americans) that it's not stupidity, but ignorance.
And that's because of a lot of factors - as one example, the BBC News Channel here used to broadcast an American show titled "World News Tonight" (no clue which US channel made it). Every single story on it was about the domestic US. Not world news with a US spin, domestic US. Here you'd never get away with that - if it's world news, it would have to be world news. (Though we're a little spoiled, because thanks to the World Service, the beeb has local reporters based in pretty much every part of the world, so if international stuff kicks off, they already have people on the ground.)
I also think control is a big factor. Governments here try to do it too, but haven't been nearly as successful. If you control the information people can get at, you control the people...
Don't take it too personel lolllllllll
Distance is not an excuse, when i was 6 months old my parents went round the world and took me with them, and they went to rio for carnival! And that was in 1980...
There are many things I love about the good ol' US of A, but one thing thing which really annoys me is that they all seem so proud to live in a 'free country'. This video makes it clear just how limited their actual freedom is, and hints at how their own government's propaganda gives them all the illusion of freedom.
Is Brits are (for now, anyway) living in a freer country. (until the likes of Suella Braverman crush our freedom)
It is a poor excuse everywhere is far away Australia New Zealand & the Far East are 24 hours flight but the Brits flying there or them visiting us the longest flight I have taken to USA was 11 hours nothing to a trip to Australia
Nooo! Europe is NOT the whole world. Sure someone from the USA might get away with the "we're so far away" thing if they're talking to someone from Scotland or Switzerland. That might work (tho' probably not...people in other countries know their geography) But c'mon now - its about 6 and a half hours from most USA international airways to somewhere in Europe. From Australia it averages at 20 hours. Used to be 36 until recently. From China it's 9. From New Zealand it's 22 hours. From South Africa it's 12. Nah, man, don't you be pulling the we're-so-far-away card. Geez - compared to millions upon millions of people who visit Europe - from much further away, you guys are just a hop, skip & a jump.😁Do you not think it might just have something to do with draconian work practices? It's not so much that they WON'T go, it's because they can't? The (lack of) labour laws -not a 6 hour plane journey - are what prevent it for most folk.
I'm English and my passport has lapsed but I don't intend to travel abroad any more. There are too many places here I haven't seen. American's must feel the same as there are some amazing places to see over there.
In the Netherlands a passport is mandatory for everyone over the age of 14.
All this paranoia is the reason that I never visited the US again after being there in 96/98. Me with a British passport and my place of residence being Germany, was just too much for the lady from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcment.
You are not free in America
Very very interesting.I now know lots more.Cool 😎 Thanks!
Jimberley Kimberly show!! 😅😅😅
Can we just point out, that at 14:36 where you have a chart showing the USA with a lower "High Income" compared to the "High Education" of 71%.
1) that data is from 2009
2) Quite a few young US Americans will attend a "College" no matter what that "College" teaches and what they get out of it - Whereas in somewhere like the UK, many fewer people on a lower income will attend a University and work for a degree (one that means something)
3) How many young US Americans will work 2 or 3 jobs paying slave wages just to pay for College. And then take a job where they are still paid badly, but have a fairly high level of education.
4) Compare that to the UK where someone with a high level of education will often be earning a good wage, and often still training on the job but paid well. - So 68% of High earners having a high level of education is not a surprise
Looks like Finland is the place to be
If you notice that map at the beginning, it's intentionally not the same map you usually see with the UK down the middle. So that would be disorienting to a lot of people to begin with
Despite that, most Europeans would be able to name many countries correctly. Not all and we all have stupid people too, it's just that 'being dumb' is something the US seems to be the best at.
@@Thurgosh_OGTrue enough, but as the guy points out, just ask enough people and edit together the least educated or the most socially awkward etc. I think it's a little mean spirited to give an uncommon representation of the map to begin with though
@@irreverend_ I agree.They will only show the worst results but that's more entertaining for some audiences.
this is true only in the fact that most maps around the world, of world maps that is, tend to have the country of focus as the cantre. it is mostly common yes to have the normal European/ Brittan in the middle maps as it dates back to our colonial era ideals. but a lot of the American ones at the least do often have America as the focal point :)
@@Tvashk I've never seen one printed that way before, my assumption was that it was centred based on timezones rather than the fact I'm in the UK I'm pretty sure the GMT centred version is still the most common in the US though isn't it?
3:15 American celebrities? Mel Gibson?
That example was heavily manipulated to confuse. The map was shown out of standard perspective with the USA on the right specifically to confuse. It's not the standard Cylindrical Projection - Mercator map.
Of course everyone's saying you should notice the shape, but then catch someone out and about, interrupt them, stick a camera in their face with a celebrity taking to them, would you be thinking clearly about geography of all things?
Interesting video, but can anyone tell me what the heck means "septiembre undécimo"? I don't need the translation into English because I'm a native Spanish speaker and obviously means September eleven, but why to say it in Spanish?...By the way, we say "once de septiembre". Here a confused Spanish person :))
Props to the Mario kart music in the background ❤
Very interesting
3:20 Oh nooooooo! What kind of cheap keyboard abhorration of Giant Steps is playing in the background?
The Last Samurai isn't actually a white saviour movie. The Samurai in the title is either Ken Watanabe's character, or it is plural and refers to the whole of his samurai village/clan. Tom Cruise's character is a western viewpoint character, and it's more like he's saved by them rather than him doing the saving.
Just to clarify, when you say "Americans", I'm guessing you mean the Americans SPECIFICALLY in the USA rather than the Americans in the other 34 sovereign nations of the Continental Americas (North, Central and South). 😁
Americans believe that they live in "the land of the fee". What a joke!
Certainly is the land of the fee from doctors, hospitals, lawyers etc.
Erm here in England we joke about having any marks against your name… and how we’re never travelling to the US! Denied at the border.
In fact we travelled to the US and got taken into separate interview rooms, interrogated, with return uk tickets and absolutely no reason! No criminal record! We were just on a round the world trip. Had been to lots of countries! For that reason alone, I will travel anywhere for an experience, but not the USA. 😮
14:40. In the British political chaos of 2022, even us Brits couldn't keep up with who the UK PM was.
The last samurai is a terrible example.
It's based on real french military officers(Eugène Collache and Jules Brunet) who were sent there with equipment, to teach them how to use it. They fought alongside the shogunate during the Boshin war. With "The Last Samurai" being Ken Watanabes character, which is based on Saigō Takamori, one of the last actual samurai.
If I drive a couple of hours I will be in he sea ...
Pausing my reaction at 5:00 as I'm sure he's going to segue into a NordVPN advert
13:03 😂😂😂😂😂
As far as top grossing movies goes, it really depends how you define "American".
The LOTR and Hobbit movies, for example, don't take place in America, were written by an English man, directed by a man from New Zealand, shot in New Zealand and take palce in a fictional realm. There are a few American actors in it and the production company is American.
The Spider-Man movies also make a huge amount of money. Produced by... Sony. A Japanese multi-national.
Ranked higher than Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon on the US box office list is Slumdog Millionaire, which is a British film.
For arguements sake, The force Awakens, Infinity War and all the Harry Potter movies had enough British involvement that the BFI qualifies them as British movies for tax purposes, and two of those movies are in the top 5 grossing movies of all time.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is just the first one on the list with almost no US involvement whatsoever, but Slumdog Millionaire also had no real US involvement. Actually, arguably it had a lot less than Crouching Tiger seeing as it was the work of 2 UK production companies, with no US production companies involved at all. Crouching Toger was produced by Columbia Pictures, albeit a subsidiary specifically for producing movies in Asia; it's still a US company.
Edit: I agree that people want to see themselves in the characters of movies. I find it disturbing that Americans are seemingly unable to do this if the character in question is non-American.
Odd pronunciation of cellist.
3:19 is the joke here that Gibson is an Aussie and Trmp is German? Because Britney is American so it doesn't work as a fully realised piece of satire.
Mel Gibson is Australian and 7 years in Tibet were about a German bloke not American lol. Travelling distance not an excuse we travel.all over the world by we have paid month holiday and health care so we can travel Americans don't
On the first point, yeah, it's not necessarily that people are dumb, it's the camera in face suddenly on the spot thing. It happened to me once in Germany at a metal festival, a guy with a cameraman was like
"Do you like classical music?"
"Yes"
"Do you like Wagner?"
"Yes"
"Name a Wagner piece"
"uhhhhhhhhhh"
When he pulled away I was like "shit, I could have said Flight of the Valkyrie, easy answer"
My brain just refused to work being put on the spot like that. I was probably mocked on German TV somewhere.
And yeah, they're also kinda cherry picked.
As a Brit, I have to say that our film studios have definitely caught up with and even begun to surpass the US in the movie making industry. Just look at movies like Harry Potter, James Bond and so on
Most people, including Americans, don't know how much of Hollywood is Canadian and has been from the very beginning.
@@michaeldowson6988 Yeah many city scenes in American movies are actually filmed in Canadian cities
America's Sweetheart Mary Pickford was a girl from Toronto. Pickford was the establishing force and manager of United Artists
Another Canadian woman created the original cliffhanger scene, and the first 'nude bathing in a pond' scene.@@oliversherman2414
They always had.
@@terranaxiomuk yeah
I bet, if this were a map of Azeroth, Middle-Earth or Skyrim, it wouldn't matter for some people.
During the time of the Hays Code, one thing I noticed was that any female character whose morals dropped below perfect, would never still be alive by the end of the film.
10:52 Family Guy fan,lol
I'd think that for the Brits or some European countries, they used to have colonies around the world, meaning trade and cultural exchange. Even from long before armed forces etc would be posted overseas for extended periods of time, and personnel would bring their families with them as well. The British commonwealth could be found on every continent on the earth and postings may easily move them from one continent to another.
Britain is a European country.
High education probably relates to those attending Universities but says nothing about the intelligence of those attending (folks get there through paying - only really a recent innovation in the UK; sports scholarships) (sports people are not amongst the smartest of human beings) etc. I was born in Belfast but live in England now...I've been to the US several times (San Diego, NYC, New Orleans); Australia, most of Europe and parts of Asia so the world is a small place
Don't worry
As a Scot, I'm frequently asked, "How are things in England?", my unabashed reply is, "I don't f*cking know, I just told you I'm Scottish"...
for in formation the 1949 french movie the big day has olso been filmed on colorized film in technicolor
i think it’s interesting that i was born in the early 2000s and all of the stuff going into my brain from tv and social media was american. all my favourite movies were american all my favourite celebrities were american and my favourite youtubers were american. as a kid i thought of america as a great place and only people who lived there could be famous. really affects kids how much all this was pushed onto other countries.
One of the biggest issues is how American media, especially movies, portrays the rest of the world. Watch a film about an alien invasion, and you'll see the American heroes in thier state of the art facility, but everybody else is in tents or mud huts, using radio equipment from WWII* This gives Americans the idea that they're world leaders in pretty much everything, and have all the best stuff, while the rest of us live like peasants. Why would you want to go to Japan when they all live in tiny bamboo houses and dress like ancient samurai?
It's much easier to control the narrative when your audience knows little to nothing other than what you told them already. If you want the population to toe the line when it comes to US aggression and imperialism, don't ever let them see what's really going on. You can't convince them that a retaliatory attack was unprovoked if they can see that you fired the first shot.
* No, you didn't win it, and we wouldn't all be speaking German if you hadn't gotten involved
"God, bless you stupid bastards." Couldn't have put it more accurately myself.
A balanced view .
No, that article in the UDHR does NOT mean that everyone can OWN everyone else's newspapers. It means everyone should be able to purchase and READ everybody else's newspapers.... and not even that is true, or a lot of US papers are currently violating this article by blocking EU IP addresses
He doesn't know what paranoia is, geez 😫
In NZ we're half way across the world yet you'd be very unlikely to meet someone who's never been out of the country and almost EVERYone has a current passport. Americans cannot blame distance for their disinterest in the rest of the world.
I don't think all Americans are stupid, no more than anywhere else. I'm excluding all Trump voters from that obviously! :D
I'll admit it : as an American , I AM DUMB ! This video is speaking about me . I took a lot of notes !
The quality of education in the US is very poor. The first year at an American University is equivalent to the last year of a European high school.
I watched the satire 'Cunk on Britain'. There was an American you tuber who, when works of art, including nudity, were briefly shown hastily stopped the video. He was shocked and mumbled about copyright.
When I was growing up I and my contemporaries always thought America was a very broad, modern country, anything goes! I never realised they were so prim and narrow minded.
Their humour is vastly different to British humour.
"How Americans Got So Stupid" is the title of the video, then the presenter (a Brit,) repeatedly pronounces "Cellist" as "Sellist" rather than "Chellist" - the phrase: "Pot calling the kettle black" springs to mind!
My thoughts exactly.
Reminds me of a video about London where the narrator, who was British, pronounced Clerkenwell (‘Clarkenwell’) as ‘Clurkenwell’ and Southwark (‘Suthuk’) exactly as spelt.
Not so many years ago, a large majority of Americans could not point to their own country on a world map, basically because they never saw the world news reported only stuff in the USA hence no need to know where in the world they were.
A surprisingly well informed and balanced video.I think dumbness is evenly distributed around the world though.
I think it's just that a lot of other people in other countries are more international in their outlook, especially in Europe and a big part of that is probably because we have a lot more time to explore the world with a lot of paid holidays and working fewer hours on average, and when you throw in other social benefits that Europeans take for granted that Americans don't have, it allows more freedoms to see the world without having to worry so much about the next bill.
In the case of the EU, it probably helps that there are 27 countries in a union that allows these Europeans to work, rest and play in any of those countries, that likely helps on having a more international outlook on things, it also reduces ignorance and anything that reduces that is usually good for democracy and for people getting better rights.
Americans are doing themselves a disservice by being ignorant and not learning from around the world, and that probably explains why the US is the odd country out of all the modern countries when it comes to social programs for the people, after all, if the system keeps telling you that you're the best based on nothing, it's going to be a lot harder to improve things and boy is there a lot that needs improving in the US, especially as the US seems to be slipping behind other modern countries in a lot of core indexes like quality of life.
So the real question is, how bad do things in the US have to get before the people wake up and demand real change?, honestly, I still think there's a long way to go on the downwards trend, but there is hope among the younger generation, but I feel it's going to take decades before they can have any real impact and even then, they are going to have one hell of a fight on their hand with the pushbacks from the government and big corporations that control everything in the US that I'm grateful that in EU countries at least, we've not let it get that bad, but everyone should always keep their eyes open as the rich elites are more than happy to take more away from everyone else if the people let them.
Two can play at this game of ridiculing ignorance: the word "cellist" in the narration is pronounced "chellist", not "sellist" (as the widely-known instrument, the "(')cello" is a "chello" not a "sello")!
Shame on my British compatriot for not knowing!
Did you know that the first three (possibly four) US Presidents had British accents?
Your comment made me think back to the early days of TV - there was a series about two young women exchange students (one USian and the other British) in the US the UK person was asked to play Martha Washington in a Fourth of July Pageant but one of the organisers complained that Martha should not be played by an English Girl with an accent. an early example of USians lack of understanding of History.
@@johnthornton73 That's a new one for me, where is a "USian" from?
@@Shytot-1 A USian is a person from the United States of America who seems to have assumed the name American which denotes persons from The Americas of which USA is but a samllish part
@@johnthornton73 What other people from the Americas answer to the name 'Americans'?
what is a sellist?