Battle of the Jay-Walkers

[draggar]

Oh. My. God.

So, I didn't know Alaska was an island.....

Same here, and Canada is part of Alaska.

How do you not know that Canada is not a sovereign nation? have they ever looked at a map?

Apparently, the average American can't point out America on a map / globe. I actually got scared in high school when we had a test and we had to name all 50 states (each state was numbered on a map). I got two wrong (got Colorado and Wyoming mixed up) but had the highest score - by a long shot. Most people failed - most didn't even know where New Hampshire was (and that's where we lived) - most thought we lived where Florida or California was.

Or, you can take the Miss Georgia approach: most people don't own maps?

Quote:

What about the nuch-nuch-nuchlar reactor in Florida, it's leakin' or sumtin?

It's in Georgia, stupid!

Georgia is in Florida! Sheesh!

[One-Fang]

also i'm not sure but i think they also used a map without country names, or names in a different language... now granted that doesn't excuse them from picking Australia and New Zealand as being North and South Korea... but it wouldn't be as easy for one of us to read it perhaps...

One close-up showed Australia labelled as Iran. I'm assuming that for the dude who said "I didn't know North Korea was so much bigger than South Korea" that they had it labelled as North Korea (and Tasmania labelled as South Korea).

While it's somewhat dumb to not know some major world countries (even if you don't know where Korea is, didn't you know AUSTRALIA??!), it is the case that these people were told those countries were Iran, Korea, whatever, and just accepted what they were told.

In front of a camera a lot of people would accept something they knew to be wrong because they either don't know what's going on, don't want to be edited out and miss their 15 seconds of fame, or are afraid that what they "know" is actually wrong - it must be, I mean it says "Iran" right there.

[mattm04]

How do you not know that Canada is not a sovereign nation? have they ever looked at a map?

[BigBird]

I'm Canadian, and I'm relieved to find out that, in fact, we are not a US state! I'm worried, though, that since Alaska is apparently no longer attached to us, we might suffer some environmental disaster of catastrophic proportions....

[Nyoibo]

also i'm not sure but i think they also used a map without country names, or names in a different language... now granted that doesn't excuse them from picking Australia and New Zealand as being North and South Korea... but it wouldn't be as easy for one of us to read it perhaps...

Nope, the names were printed in English.

[SailorMan]

Oh. My. God.

So, I didn't know Alaska was an island.....

Actually, I have it on good authority (Governer Palin) that it shares a land border with Russia. She can see the Kremlin from her kitchen window!

[PepperElf]

good point.
personally i got most of that test right except for a couple of questions of groups. eh looks like all that social studies paid off.

also i'm not sure but i think they also used a map without country names, or names in a different language... now granted that doesn't excuse them from picking Australia and New Zealand as being North and South Korea... but it wouldn't be as easy for one of us to read it perhaps...

[smileyeagle1021]

So ... there was a clear inverse relationship between the self impression of how good your general knowledge is, and the actual general knowledge score. Those who thought their general knowledge rocked scored badly, and those who had a really good grasp on a lot of things thought they had bad general knowledge.

So ... do you feel smart, punk?

that is SO true... last week in my econ class, sense we finished early in the semester the professor decided, just for fun we'd do that american civics test that was in the news for people averaging 49% on it... I thought that I did OK, but though I missed quite at least a few questions... I ended up getting a 97%... missing only ONE question... the hotshot sitting next to me who thought that he knew all this stuff, he was going to ace it... ended up getting a 59%

[One-Fang]

That was fun, but you do have to wonder how many correct answers they tossed out in the edit room. I wonder what the ratio of right/wrong answers was like? I mean, obviously the wrong ones are the funny ones to include, but did they lose half their tape to right ones? Three quarters? None at all?

[Aethian]

*cries* That is bad Eagle... *cries and whimpers sadly*

[smileyeagle1021]

I weep for your country.

hey Americans are NOT stupid

[One-Fang]

what's scary is that ... i don't think they realize they're not that smart. I think they honestly believe that they're intelligent.

I recall some study many years ago that apparently proved that the dumber you are, the smarter you think you are.

Basically, when you're ignorant of what else is out there that you could possibly know about, you think you know everything. Because you just simply don't realise what there is to know.

The more you know, the more you realise there is that you don't know, and the dumber you feel.

So ... there was a clear inverse relationship between the self impression of how good your general knowledge is, and the actual general knowledge score. Those who thought their general knowledge rocked scored badly, and those who had a really good grasp on a lot of things thought they had bad general knowledge.

So ... do you feel smart, punk?

[Nyoibo]

The only one of those I got wrong was about the senators, but hell, I'm not American, why would I need to know?

I weep for your country.

[PepperElf]

i will say tho... Jay is wrong.

There are only 46 states. Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia are commonwealths not states.

... but when it comes to this three... I'd be glad if they at least understood that Canada is not a US State.

what's sad is that it's been about 20 years since 9th grade for me... but not only do I remember that there's 2 senators per state, but WHY... (long explanation tho and kinda off topic).


what's scary is that ... i don't think they realize they're not that smart. I think they honestly believe that they're intelligent.

[Aethian]

He worked for the Queen of Spain, but yea I can see why some people would get that one wrong. Specially since I remember one year our teacher had us read handouts on him instead of the book because the book was wrong.