Why are American's so naive?

Question

I know I'll get flamed for this, but how come the typical American is so naive? I'm just going by who I've met and what I see on the American News shows that we get here in Australia in the early mornings.

Answer 1

They arent naive just insular and brainwashed mostly.

Answer 2

The problem is their is very little information coming in from the outside world. As you have said, you have watched the news programs coming from within the US. Next time you do sit down with a pen and paper and count the number of news stories about other places in the world, take note of their tone and scope of information. Then get onto something like google news and research the stories yourself, you may be surprised by how little of the outside world is actually getting to the average American. The reason for this I can only guess at and that will not help any one, but if you take a trip to the U.S.A. (I suggest Hawaii, since I have been there twice already and loved it each time) you will be able to see just how closed a society the USA really is. Hope this helps you, and sorry to anyone that I may have offended; that was not my intention.

Answer 3

I think lumping Americans into one category is a large mistake. Yes some are naive, but by no means the majority. I live close to the American boarder, so I've met one or two in my day. I will make one generalization, some are loud, some are friendly, some don't know that Canada has a different currency, some are well read and some i would like to boot in the a@@. on the whole a group of normal people.

Anyway you can't judge a group of people by the television that is produced in their country. If we did that you would have to say that Canadians are dull, concern themselves with the best way to roll a smoke with mittens on drive snowmobiles to work -- S**t I just described myself again

Answer 4

Naive people don't get to be the worlds SUPERPOWER. I'm sure there are a lot of naive people in America but what's it to you? Honestly? Not a day goes by where I don't read about somebody slamming the US or it's citizens...why? On the flip...I can't think of the last time I have even let Australia cross my mind. Don't watch American news!....I assure you a lot of Americans don't even watch most of that bull that is on our T.V.'s.....and we know, we all know, Bush is retarded! I voted for him and I feel like a retard every day....but why do you care? I have no clue who's running Australia but I'm sure you all have problems of your own. So I'll bust out the old American slogan "Don't Tread On Me" and end with mind your own buisness....mate.

Answer 5

I don't think American Soldiers are naive. I would point out that your entire question is based on hearsay and the opinion of one British soldier. Surely this British guy did not discuss Iraq with every American Soldier there? Trust me, there are plenty of American Soldiers who don't toe the government line. I'm one, and clearly the only reason that this region of the world matters is oil, so yes that is an underlying reason. Without oil, the Middle East would be about as important strategically as sub-saharan Africa. The war was fought for bogus reasons, but not to get oil as is commonly stated. Rather it was to instill democracy in the heart of a very undemocratic area. The idea is that poor disaffected people in the Middle East who suffer under authoritarian regimes are ideal recruits for terrorists. So you install democratic governments accountable to the people and Al Qaeda loses recruits. (Whether you think that would work in reality is another argument, but that is the reason I think the war was fought). But you would have never convinced the US to go to war in Iraq over installing democracy so instead we got this story about WMDs and an Iraq-9/11 connection and so forth.

Answer 6

Naive! You Aussie's did not consider American's naive when they were giving their lives to keep Austrailian from being taken over by Japan during WWII. If it weren't for the so-called naive American's Aussie's would be having a steady diet of rice. Be respectful of those who protect your shores and are there to stand with you during any hardtime. Austrailia is a great beautiful country with wonderful citizens. It would be a naive Aussie who considers ALL American's as naive.

Answer 7

i am a proud american. i dont feel so much naive. its more like left out. you cant judge all americans just because of what you see on a news program. its the news media that causes all other countries to hate us so much.
seems to me that just about everyone in the world wants to be apart of the american life style.

i just wish we could all get along (thats naive isnt it?) but true.

Answer 8

Our unaffected simplicity is due to the fact that our society is not yet old enough to have become totally rotted by cynicism and self interest. Given enough time we shall surely catch up to the Europeans.
As for Australians, you are not playing a leading role in the world. If you did, your country might also make some very, very poor decisions.

Answer 9

LadyNTex get your facts right!
We were never dependent upon the Americans during the Second World War.
Ignorant Yank

Answer 10

would you like to know whats even more naive then the subject of your question?

those who honestly believe they can actually place an entire nation of nearly three hundred million people into the category 'naive' simply because theyve seen a small percentage of that nations citizens behavior on 'TV'.....now THATS what you would call naive my friend

Answer 11

You can't necessarily judge any group of people by people you see on the news, and you shouldn't necessarily generalize about any group of people.

Having said that, sometimes "naive" is just another way of saying, maybe, "innocent", or else, "idealistic", or else "optimistic" - and those things aren't such bad things to be, are they.