Are Americans ignorant of the outside world?

Question

People in Britain view the United States as a vulgar, crime-ridden society obsessed with money and led by an incompetent president whose Iraq policy is failing, according to a newspaper poll.

The YouGov poll found that 77 percent of respondents disagreed with the statement that the US is "a beacon of hope for the world".

A massive 83 percent of those questioned said that the United States doesn't care what the rest of the world thinks.

Mark, relax, you big patriot you, I am just asking a question on answers.yahoo.com, no need to be an emotional *****.

Answer 1

Yeah it's pretty much true.

And if you show interest in the world everyone just tells you to move to another country.

Answer 2

Well I'm sorry that Britain views the US like that. Not all of America is ignorant of the outside world. I think that most Americans are just afraid. There isn't a lot of Americans that go traveling outside the U.S. and I think that might be why some are considered "ignorant". Also even though our country has many different races, cultures, and beliefs there's still many places in America where it isn't as integrated as some of our major cities. People are afriad of what's different (ex. Gay Marriages).

As for being vulgar...every country is somewhat vulgar in one way or another. If you don't believe me read this article written by one Englishmen named R. Alex Whitlock. It's called The Sanctification of the Vulgar ( http://raw360.com/item/85 ).

...and crime-ridden society obsessed with money...every country is crime-ridden and obsessed with money. Don't believe me take a look at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Colombia, Germany (but the crime is because of the World Cup), and even Britain itself (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/808511/posts). "According to the U.N. recent figures show that Britain is now among the most crime-ridden countries in the world: Its citizens are much more likely to be attacked or robbed on the street, or have their houses burgled, than their counterparts in, say, Russia or South Africa, let alone the U.S."

As for the president...there were many Americans against President Bush and they did their part by being vocal about it and not voting for him, but the silent majority voted and they were for Bush and they won.

I'm sorry I seemed to have gone off abit...but I hope this answers your question.

Answer 3

I took World of Politics last semester which is a college sopohmore level class. 98% of the class room couldn't even point out where Iraq was located on a world map. Many people don't take the neccessary time to review current events around the world. This is probably because many people haven't even gotten into the habit of perceiving what's going on locally. How can you expect a person to know whats happening in the rest of the world when that person has not first taken the time to get to know their own neighbor. If everybody read and acted out the lessons that Dale Carnegie teaches things would be much different.

Answer 4

Americans are not as well traveled, schooled or cultured as the European counterparts. After spending two years of my life at the government's expense I watched and found that Americans are "PIGS" when it comes for travel. We have this tendency to be very arrogant and self serving. It would take a major miracle to alleviate the the image we have put on ourselves over there.

I should clarify that it's not every single American that act's this way but it sure is a lot of us and one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch.

If you go to Europe and all I can say is prove the persona wrong. At least you'll have made a difference.

Answer 5

NO, Americans are not ignorant of the outside world...in general. Of course, some Americans are ignorant about lots of stuff...but every country has those types. You have to be careful when you read polls...it depends on who they asked.
We had exit polls during the '04 Presidential election that stated Kerry was going to win by a large margin....turned out the pollsters were basing this on their asking Democrats who they voted for....personally, I don't put much weight behind any polls..no matter if I like the results or not.

Answer 6

Unless we have access to radio, TV, or newspapers from other countries we hear and read only what our local publishers and producers want us to hear.
Catch BBC and/or DeutcheWelt now and then; there actually are important things happening across the oceans.
Politically, it doesn't matter much. Polls are written so the answers support a position and don't help much there.
Actually, in terms of access to government, we have it fairly easy here compared to most European and Asian countries.
There have been some atrocious actions committed by legal governments that make ours seem mild.

Answer 7

I dont agree with your first paragraph but I have a few cose firends in USA and have visisted several times. The one thing I noticed was the news on tv in USA never mentions any other place. Maybe the citizens of USA are brought up to think they are the only place to be. Sadly its wrong. Some are good, some are bad, none are better than the rest...

Answer 8

Those polls were correct for most Americans. Americans suffer from extreme arrogance which, if you follow world history, usually ends a devastating downfall. Shoot just think about it, just a little over 400 years ago Spain was the wealthiest country in the world. Now look at them.

Answer 9

When America became a superpower, its people became self-centered. Thus, they almost neglected the outside world because they do not even need support from them. All they did was to suppress the emergence of other others such as Russia. Americans should reach out and help other countries.

Answer 10

Make that 99.99% that the USA don't give a damn about what the
world thinks. and Americans are not ignorant of the "outside world", it's the other way round, it is the "outsideWorld" that is real
ignorant of the USA, BTW, to all of you people in Britain, if it wasn'
t for the good ole USA, you all would be speaking German right
now!!!! Think about it.

Answer 11

Some