Quote:
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Originally Posted by splck
...Americans I've met (and I've met a lot...I went to an american high school) tended to be ignorant about the world around them and were willing to be spoon fed whatever the school, government, media fed them.
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I'm not trying to pick on splck here, just using this quote as an example...
Many of the Non-American responses here lead me to believe that most non-americans typically believe that the individual American citizen is ill informed or just ignorant of the problems around us.
I'd just like to ask a question...
Where are the Non-Americans getting their opinions from? The facts and figures that you are using? I would bet that your opinion is greatly influenced by those same sources that Americans just get "spoon fed" from. As far as the Americans you have met - certainly you can't judge an entire country - with a population of just under 296 million people - by the relatively few Americans you have met.
Granted, our textbooks and media sources likely are biased - but I think you would be very hard pressed to find any that aren't, at least in some particular area.
I struggle to put this eloquently... but, for those of you that have a Holier than Thou attitude towards Americans - especially because you believe Americans have the same attitude toward the rest of the world - are pretty much hypocrites.
I am not trying to defend everything America does - nor do I agree with it, but we are all a product of our environment. Simply because the average American doesn't seem too keen on world events doesn't necessarily mean that we think we are better than anyone else - it just means that world events have very, very little effect on everyday American life. Most wars or political conflicts pass by the average American without notice - if we do notice, it's typically just because of the extensive television coverage or a rise in gas prices. We don't see the war torn nations - or people - up front and personally, they are simply more statistics on top of an already ridiculously long list of tragic news.
Just figured I'd throw my two cents in...