Stupid Americans, again
Posted on June 26th, 2006 by Jackie Danicki
Do these people really believe the things they write? Newsweek on why some movie star is one of the ‘fifteen people who make America great’:
If it wasn’t for Brad Pitt, most Americans would never have heard of Namibia.
Right. And without Brad Pitt, America is less great. Also, if it weren’t for Angelina Jolie, most Americans would never have heard of lips. (This post’s title, by the way, refers to Sean Smith, the Newsweek writer who came up with this garbage, and the editor(s) who let it be published.)
Filed under: Life
Yes, but as an American I must sadly acknowledge the fundamental truth of Smith’s statement; as a culture, we’re isolated enough, and geographically unaware enough, and we ignore Africa in general enough, that most of my countrymen probably hadn’t heard of Namibia before the Brangelina circus.
(And yes, I know you’re a Yank too… but be honest: how many Americans do you really think knew the name Namibia, much less where it was?)
Not to be self-loathing or self-critical, but let’s call it like it is.
Actually, Chris, I’m pretty sure that most of the Americans I know - and I come from a backwater hick town in the Midwest - have heard the name Namibia. I don’t know what kind of crowd you run with over there, but I’m sad if you’re surrounded by that many idiots. Poor as the US public schools are in general, I’d say your experience is not a reflection on the rest of the 300 million people in the country, not as far as my travels and conversations would have it.
There is a good excuse for not having heard of various southern African nations and that’s because they keep changing their names all the time. German South-West Africa, that’s near Matabeleland isn’t it?
Ah, but Jackie, this man has a point with his sweeping generalisations of the most expected kind. You forget, of course, that if it wasn’t for Brad Pitt, most Americans…
— could sleep soundly in their beds at night without fear of facing further bloody details of apparently the only baby ever born in the entire world, ever
—could pretend the world of Team Aniston and Team Jolie T shirts never existed
—could face a shelf of newspapers and magazines without seeing “trauma” pictures of Jennifer Aniston as “she heard the news”
—could go back to being astounded by the everyday lunacy of the Cruise/Holmes contractual dealings
Or you could twist it thus: if it wasn’t for Jade Goody, most Americans would think that the English really did have the superior education system they crow about.
XX Raker
Give me a break. And most Europeans have never heard of the county in Mexico where I like to vacation in the fall since nothing of note or consequence outside of extreme poverty ever happens there. It doesn’t necessarily make a person entirely ignorant to not know about a small place far away that has no bearing on their life whatsoever and isn’t likely to before they die. Everybody I know has heard of Namibia, even before colonial overlording actors decided they would be benevolent enough to spawn there.
Yeah, you said it, Jackie! What a crock of… uh…
(I’d never heard of Namibia before Brad Pitt went there.)
Namibia is a country. Knowing of its existence is different from having heard of some backwater county in Mexico.
I get letters from people from across the USA (I’m an advice columnist). It’s frightening how many people lack rudimentary thinking and writing skills, and, I would guess, get their “world news” from U.S. Magazine.