Have you noticed that Americans have 0 desire to learn?

Question

I've noticed a lot on here and elsewhere that Americans will expect other people to tell them what something is rather than take initiative and find out for themselves. Most people in other countries see something they don't know about and will google it to find out about it, Americans are just cool with not knowing.

One way this annoys me a lot is when talking about temperatures, I'll say it's 30°c and they will ask "what's that in F" rather than opening google and looking for themselves... Why do you do this?

CupcakeTheDestroyer · Accepted Answer

Approximately 1/3 of the American population is christian. I make this distinction because this feeds into the problem you’re describing along with the culture created in the country and the education system itself. Religion makes it so that you don’t ask questions, because they don’t want you to question these things so that you stay within that religion and continue putting your time and money into this massively profitable institution. Along with this profit comes a substantial amount of power that goes into making sure the education systems of every state keep to a standard set over 100 years ago to keep things in line with the views of the people who were in charge at the time. Who was in charge at the time, you ask? Mainly white, christian men who encouraged segregation and separation of races to help keep control over everyone in the borders of their nation. They created an education system meant to make factory consumers, meaning they would make the products and then buy them and all work for the people who owned the factories and the stores, creating an easy cycle of profit and labor to benefit them overall. This also created a culture that was based in christianity and christian traditions as their views influenced what was most important for the public to learn and how to live, especially when the only day off factory workers got was Sunday so they could attend church.

This is also a gross summarization of the events over the last century or two in the United States and it’s much more detailed than this but they won’t educate modern students on this because they still want to maintain this level of power. There is still, to this day, a white majority in congress and in courts. This fueled a culture of blind survival, it doesn’t matter who does what so long as you follow the law and keep your head down. Knowledge and critical thinking skills are not readily given to most americans at a young age. The best place for such learning is usually in university and college, the bane of the existence of conservative politicians looking to maintain this status quo as these americans — who can all afford to go to these very pricy institutions — are learning more and learning to see beyond the wool pulled over their eyes. However, there is also a very largely christian culture throughout the states that lends itself more into this blind survival rhetoric that encourages people not to ask questions, to stay in their lane, and only act when their beliefs are challenged (which in this current divisive political world, is often). I use the term “blind survival” over an alternative term like “blind obedience” because this is not about loyalty or allegiance. This is not about believing the politicians have been ordained by divine right to lead the country, it’s about taking care of themselves and their families before anything else. No one cares who’s in charge so long as they can keep paying for their homes and their dinners, so if a politician is telling people they can lower their taxes they get every year, a lot of americans will take that at face value and vote for them in droves. They don’t know the effect that has economically, that it means lower tax refunds, less money in schools, more money going into the national debt, because they never learned and were never told. This attitude makes it so that, whenever something new is encountered they expect someone to teach them about it, to spoon feed them as they did so in our education system that tells its students they are learning everything they need to know for the “real world” there and that after you graduate there is nothing else you need to learn outside of anything that effects your job, because that is the most important thing you need to maintain. There is very much a willful ignorance in America, but this comfort in ignorance is also something that is taught, not something that they do because they want to, they don’t know any other way to learn.

And that is my very long-winded opinion for you there.

chrissykerdock · Accepted Answer

that's a lot of people to assume... i'll admit there's a lot of americans who don't investigate politics and current events and take the media's word... i stopped taking the media's word for anything... maybe there's something to being brainwashed... so a fair argument.

D_Bone_Steak · Accepted Answer

I'm American and I have a bias towards Americans. I lived in Japan for 10 years and I always started to feel the cringe when they'd come around. Overly social for no reason and really loud. A lot of the time obnoxious.

At the same time though not all of them are like that. It's the ones that get in your face with their bullshit that you're going to notice the most. I'm sure lots of them do google it themselves, but they're not going to get noticed like the lazy ones that won't do a lick of their own research.

Each culture I've been exposed to does tend to have what I'll call... its "cultural flavor" though. Some are more annoying than others. Like with Americans for instance as an example... why the hell do so many of them think they're street gangsters? I mean I know why... but it's really lame pretending to be from a ghetto hood, when you've never gone a day without food and can afford expensive clothes.

nolabels · Accepted Answer

You assume much.

How does it feel to attempt to falsely elevate yourself with such a statement, and then be called be called on it by others as well as myself?

I'd feel like a pompous ass. Your doing so would require self-realization on your part, though. That doesn't appear to be likely at this point in time.

Are you aware of how you appear, whoever the hell your anonymous self is, to the overwhelming majority of those who see this chickenshit question? Again, a pompous ass.

Are you aware of the error in your wording of your question as you have? I'll let you try to figure that one out on your own. Shall I group all anonymous posters as being deficient in their use of the English language? I wouldn't stoop to that level.

So, you condemn an entire hemisphere of the world because someone asked you a question.

Pitiful.

madhatters4 · Answer

i don't think one can fairly categorize 331 million people based on your interactions with a few dozen of them

exitseven · Answer

I think that social media and popular culture have crated a generation of mentally stunted people. The schools are indoctrination centers. They do not encourage critical thinking. I saw little kids doing a project about global warming. I asked them if they knew global warming wsd not real. They really believed it wasn;t/ Thry accept everything they are told. I see people on this site that really do not know which end is up. However , my kids and a lot of their friends are amazing young adults. They have good jobs and understand how the world works. I think it depends on who their parents are.

BoopBoopBeep · Answer

I almost noticed, then it felt too much like learning so I stopped. When you say "why do you do this?" What do you mean? Is there a way you could upload a file of you READING the question out loud so I don't have to do it myself?

Can you then come to my house and download it for me?

Ooh... and my headphones are WAAAAAY over there...

ManOnFire · Answer

Yep, as an American I can say this is 100% true. Even when I used to work in retail, most people would rather you give them the answers for shit they can easily find out themselves if they just look it up. Foreigners were much more likely to Google stuff right there in the store before they really had to ask for help.

goaded · Answer

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
― Isaac Asimov

inhua · Answer

if it weren't for the super-geniuses of their society, the western world is actually full of dumbasses and idiots who couldn't survive 2 hours in the jungle without bringing up systemic racism, the patriarchy and global warming

rigmarole · Answer

The internet was created by Americans. Google was again created by Americans. When you don't know something, you ask Americans what the Answer is by your own admission. It's pretty fucking hilarious how brain dead you are.

Avicenna · Answer

Have you actually had enough contact with people from the US and those from elsewhere to be able to make such generalizations accurately? What sort of contact have you had with both Americans and non-Americans?

slatyb · Answer

Some certainly do have no desire to learn, but that's not peculiar to Americans.

"I'll say it's 30°c and they will ask 'what's that in F?'" So? If I were in Europe I wouldn't expect Europeans to understand temperatures in Fahrenheit.

Anonymous · Answer

Have you ever talked to a Haitian? My God, they are dumb as dog shit and twice as useless.

Let’s see which one of our posts will get removed. Me for saying something hateful about Haitians, or you for saying something hateful about Americans.

Anonymous · Answer

It's 88° F.; I can calculate it in my head We are not all idiots and only an idiot would think that we are all alike. What country produced you?

strateguy632 · Answer

if they ask, then the question showed s desire to learn. if not, then not ask.

ProbablyClueless · Answer

I have noticed that. A thoroughly uncurious, indoctrinated group of people.

msc545 · Answer

Americans don't value education as evidenced by our really shitty public schools and anti-intellectual attitude.

Miristheiss · Answer

What an ignorant post.

Anonymous · Answer

Typical of a foreigner to generalize.

Dargil · Answer

Depends on age and ethnicity.

historectomy · Answer

could be just enjoying talking to others

hardboiledink · Answer

Yes, Americans are dumb AF. I'm one and know lol

ButthurtGAGpeople1 · Answer

They do, they just learn STUPID THINGS

Have you noticed that Americans have 0 desire to learn?

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American people encourage new comers to speak English but they don’t teach anything?

Have you noticed that Americans have 0 desire to learn?

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American people encourage new comers to speak English but they don’t teach anything?

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