> My conclusion is that at least 95% of US population are so bad in geography that they don't know that they represent only less than 5% of world population.
Uh-huh. You've been watching those candid videos where they interview stupid Americans haven't you? Of course you probably realized that they are always filmed in heavily populated areas and there is always a cut between every interview. You know why? Because you can find ignorant people in any crowded place anywhere in the world. It's just more funny when it's Americans.
I know from experience that Americans in fact, don't know their geography.
Many couldn't find where they lived if you pointed it to them on a map. I had a neighbor who thought Amsterdam was a city next to Athens, Georgia (US State) and even after explaining where it was, that it was part of Holland, he asked me how the Germany trip was when I returned.
And yesterday, the Indian gas station owner was flabbergasted that I knew about and where his home town was (Goa - relatively well known at least I thought). He actually asked 'how do you know that' and I wanted to say because I'm not a zombie.
To be fair, the US has an internal geographic complexity that other places don't have, though admittedly it is still irksome that so many people support a war when they can't find the enemy on a map.
He actually asked 'how do you know that' and I wanted to say because I'm not a zombie.
I occasionally get the similar question 'how do you know these things', and my response is, depending on context of course, 'how do you not know these things?'.
I know plenty of people in Europe that would have trouble locating major US cities on a map, but I wouldn't be so bigoted to say Europeans don't know geography.
I'm not expecting them to find the city on a map (aside from their own), but you'd be hard pressed to find a European that didn't know that New York or L.A. was located in the United States.
The tremendous amount of US culture exported by through movies, TV, and sports makes a lot of American people, places, and things household names around the world.
I'm saying from general interactions with American neighbors, people on the street and my own family, they don't know geography. Mine's not great - pretty elementary compared to the rest of the world.
Okay obviously my reply went right over your head so I'll give it to you straight: neither you nor the GP has any basis to make that claim. In another reply actual data was presented showing that American ignorance of basic geographical facts is nowhere near 95%.
There has been some research done in this area [1]. What interests me more is how does this compare to the other countries, if someone has the link please post it here.
Uh-huh. You've been watching those candid videos where they interview stupid Americans haven't you? Of course you probably realized that they are always filmed in heavily populated areas and there is always a cut between every interview. You know why? Because you can find ignorant people in any crowded place anywhere in the world. It's just more funny when it's Americans.