Why are Americans stereo typed as stupid when most of the worlds smartest men are Americans?

Question

I mean just look at the top 100 universities in the world. More than half of the universities there are American. Sure we have a lot of illiterate people but just think about it we have a population of 300+ million I mean do you think its easy to support 300+ million people and make sure all of them has a proper education? And also a big number of the modern technology that is being used today was invented by Americans or people in the United States.
i.e.
The Internet
The Airplane
Electricity
The Telephone
The Microwave (everyone uses this)
The Laser
The Minicomputer AKA Desktop computers
Space Program
Cervical Cancer Vaccine
etc.
These are just some of the inventions we have created that have benefited humanity in so many ways. So how the hell can we be called stupid when no one else even cam close to what we have achieved? I mean you can create all of this thru just dumb luck.

Rich M your sadly one of the few dumbshits in America. All of us are descendants of immigrants but were AMERICAN'S now. If you studied your history or even have a bit of common sense you would know there is no such thing as a North American race since everyone living in the USA have ancestors that come from different parts of the world that immigrated here so even though they are not born in the USA they became US citizens therefore their invention is credited to the USA. And officially we did intent the Airplane, in Europe they were the first to touch the skies yes but we invented the "Airplane" you know that thing with wings that people ride on. Just in case you didn't know what an Airplane was since you don't seem to have much understanding of how things are. LoL so I'm of Japense/Spanish descent so if I find the cure for cancer the credit goes to Spain and Japan? LOL!

Jock... its does not matter what race you are or what country you are from once your a US citizen that means you are a US CITIZEN! Understand!? Comprende!? Wakarimashta!? Intiende!?
So the credit goes to the USA since they are citizens of the USA. There is no such race as the USAannsss or something. Were again a mix of all the races of the world.

Oh to the one that said there are more Chinese scholars and more Indian's that speak English than American's do. Dude! THERE ARE BILLIONS OF THEM! The USA only has 300+ million people how the hell can we have more people that speak English when India has almost 2 billion people! Were 1.7 billion people short!

Answer 1

Other countries are just jealous of America.

Have You Ever Noticed, Most Countries Make Money From Copying U.S. Inventions?

"Electronic television (1927 http://www.tvhistory.tv/philo.htm ), email, transistors, microwave oven..."

" plasma TVs, computer chips, lightbulb, fluorescent light, electronic calculators, VCR, harddrive, internet, telephone, cellphone, satellite communication, portable communication radios(walkie talkie), digital satellites, stabilized rubber(shoes, condoms, tires, etc), nuclear powerplants, moon rovers, martian rovers, digital music(a/d converters), inkjet printers, laser printers, copy machine, best modern medicines, iron furnace stove, electric stove, air conditioning, airplane(engine-powered), animation (motion-picture), aspartame(sugarless sweetner), assembly line, automated teller machine (ATM), prepared baby food, bag (flat-bottomed paper), bandage (adhesive), barcode, barbed wire, blood bank, blow dryer, bra, bread slicing machine, portable camera, food cans, can openers, cardboard (corrugated). carbon 14 dating, cash register, cat litter, mail order catalogs, breakfast cereal, chewing gum, laptop computer, personal computer, oral contraceptives, cotton gin, crayons, credit card, heart defibrillator, smoke detector, artificial diamond, disposable diapers, dishwasher, drinking fountain, electric chair, modern rocket (Goddard, 1910s- 1920's), escalator, fiberglass, freeze dried food, frozen food, genetic engineering, electric guitar, coat hanger(wire), electric iron, jeans, jello, kevlar, laundromat, laser, lipstick, LED, electric motor, morse code, nylon, paper towel, parking meter, phonograph (records), petroleum jelly, Post-it Notes, potato chips, car radio, electric razor, safety razor, revolver (gun), remote control(television), roller coaster, safety pin, Scotch tape, stapler, first successful steamboat, drinking straw, sunscreen, tampon(cotton), teflon,
telegraph, toilet tissue, disposable tissue, tractor, automatic signal lights, viagra, video games, washing machine(electric), digital watches, zipper, high level computer languages, computer databases, handheld computers, optical recording and playback (used in DVD and CD ), glass bottle making machine, CCD(digital chips used in all digital cameras) which are used to convert light into pictures(also used in missiles made by the U.S., Russia, and Europe), DSL, CAT Scans "diagnostic X ray systems", laser ranging, laser multiplexing, air brakes, silicon solar cells, digital light processor, digital signal processor(used in all digital telephones), fiber optic wire, nearly all types of lasers, MASER, first laser medical treatments, microprocessor, automated telephone switches, radiator, modem, word processor, ethernet, computer mouse and computer windows," http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AsQR9DZlwDNW2KWUssuQi8wjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20070716230336AALRNLR

Answer 2

Some users when answering this always seem to use a race card. Same ol' rhetoric. Amazing! It took FDR almost 7 or 8 years to solve the economic situation during the Great Depression. It will take Obama, or the next president, 3 or 4 more years to stabilize this economy following the Great Recession. Obama is stable and makes wise decisions when our security depends upon it. That is another important issue that the GOP has no answer for.

Answer 3

Your list is rather limited. There are a great deal more inventions that those. Take the car, for example. The first steam powered car was built in 1769 by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot in France. The first electric car was built in 1832 by Robert Anderson of Scotland. The first gasoline powered car was built by Karl Friedrich Benz in Germany in 1886. It was the first true automobile. Gasoline automobile powered by an internal combustion engine: three wheeled, Four cycle, engine and chassis form a single unit.
Gunpowder/fireworks were invented in China over a thousand years ago.
he Montgolfier brothers, born in Annonay, France, were the inventors of the first practical balloon. The first demonstrated flight of a hot air balloon took place on June 4, 1783, in Annonay, France.
Dr. Hans von Ohain of Germany and Sir Frank Whittle, English, invented the first turbojet engine in 1930
I think the reason many Americans are not appreciated in many foreign countries has more to do with attitudes than brains. I say this as a born and bred, red, white and blue American.
And incidentally, "The United States is falling when it comes to international education rankings, as recent studies show that other nations in the developed world have more effective education systems.

In a 2003 study conducted by UNICEF that took the averages from five different international education studies, the researchers ranked the United States No. 18 out of 24 nations in terms of the relative effectiveness of its educational system."
(Find this article at http://kapio.kcc.hawaii.edu/upload/fullnews.php?id=52)

Answer 4

please respect the fact that these inventions and plenty others are an amalgamation of discoveries and experimenting in other countries by other people. these are merely the epiphany. These weren't created in one day out of nothing.

The question you asked also implies that the people who invented them are pure Americans or born here in the US. numerous inventions were invented by immigrants, it just happened here in the US. Yes, the US has the right to claim as the birth place of theses products, but in no way can it claim ALL the credit.

Besides, most foreigners refer to people RIGHT NOW due to huge drops in ratings for the US due to its recent actions.

You should also look at our culture. Years of bliss and surplus luxury, free from fear and imminent things like in the Cold War has softened the population, and proportionately our morals and culture. TV is crap, Movies, pop culture, video games, hell those hideous McMansions fill that void stimulating us with blandness and predictability and explosions like life support.

And so people hate us for our inability and plain bad decisions and general know how despite being so powerful and influential. Besides, have you seen American tourists? Plain rude!

We've lost our ability to do things right and to do the right thing.

I would love a time machine right now.

Answer 5

Americans are stereotyped as stupid because there are a lot of stupid people in the country it's that simple.

How many stupid people think the constitution grants them free speech on Yahoo?
How many "smart university goers" have you seen who will dump their logic and adopt a faith?
How many people think that sacraficing civil liberties for security is a good idea?
How many people think that global warming and evolution are lies?
How many people are blind to the control corporations have over the country?
How many people failed to see through the disgusting smear campaigns and lies in every election? Elections that inevitable affect the world, and not just the US.

That's why Americans are stereotyped as stupid.

Jealousy doesn't even matter. So many people in the developed world are just not jealous of the US, sorry to say. They are fine where they are. They all know we have our own pretty bad problems.

Answer 6

A Brazilian invented the airplane. Electricity was discovered by the ancient greeks, but first harnessed by Englishmen. We do get the telephone, internet, and microwave. The first computers were developed by Englishmen. The Russians initiated the space program. Sputnik? Yuri Gagarin? The first woman in space spent more time there than ALL American astronauts up to that time combined.

Ok, Wilbur and Orville were Americans. But consider some interesting facts. America denounces the teaching of evolution. It is taught in most universities, but not in secondary or elementary schools. That is pretty sad. And there are more chinese honor students than there are american students altogether. There are more people who speak english in India than there are people in the US.

Answer 7

When people refer to Americans as stupid or dumb, i don't believe it is their intelligence as in "good at math" or some other discipline that they are questioning. It is more to do with a general perception, people have, of our elected representatives in government. For example, George Bush is our elected leader, he is the person you immediately think of when you mention The United States. If Bush were in any other job, than that of President of The United States, he would have been fired for incompetence a long time ago. Bush is our public persona, and unfortunately your average Americans intellectual credibility is being put to the sword because we have a stupid man at the helm. It's as simple as that.

Answer 8

Umm we might of had some good inventions but count them off thats a few people who made some good things and they had to be at least from like 30 years ago. People today in america are just dumber......the kids in school....im amazed every time they talk just how dumb these kids are. It makes me sad because thats so much potential going down the drain.

Answer 9

Image created through television and movies. The current President weekly butchering of the English language does not help.

Noble prize recipients tend to be American as well.

Answer 10

Because it makes them feel better about themselves, just like making believe we came in at the very end of WWII and didn't really do anything except take all the glory, or denying the Holocaust, or that we did 9 -11, or all the other denial or twisting of reality that goes on around the world.

Answer 11

Yawn...for a start the telephone was invented by a Scot! I can bet your bottom dollar (pardon the pun) that most of the others in your list are Scots descendants as well. Scotha have achieved far more than you've ever done & we are a country much smaller than yours.