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**FRED** · February 13, 2007, 01:12 AM

Re: Are American's really the most stupid?

Contest is posted only an hour and we've already received our first insulting note:

I don't think you realize the degree to which you (even the contrarians) provide entertainment to the rest of the world.

As a leeetle taste, here's Felix Salmon recently of Roubini & Setser fame introducing his new site:

"Specifically, I'd like to get the tone right. Was there too much snark, or not enough, at Economonitor? "

http://www.felixsalmon.com/2007_02.html

Every little thing is mannered to the max. Every nuance is unashamedly tweaked to one's audience of peons.

And we laugh laugh laugh. Never lose the guns. Or you will lose the last thing that makes others take notice.

Ka-Poom theory or Kapow theory. Hee hee. We laugh at your instinctive need to slacken your jaw and drool in order to get noticed. A nation of kneejerk dimwits even when a neuron is known to fire on occasion. Keep it up itulip.

It's all for domestic consumption, of course. But the world reads for the laughs.

Signed,

Asebius Of_Toronto

Well? Are we gonna take this on the chin or are we going to do something about it?

Crank up the video cameras, guys. Time to go huntin' some slack jawed Canadians!

**Christoph von Gamm** · February 13, 2007, 08:22 AM

Re: Are American's really the most stupid?

In terms of stupid Europeans I have the ultimate answer:

When Americans mean "Edelweiss", they know the Sound of Music:

If Europeans, especially Germans, Austrians, Swiss talk about Edelweiss, they mean that one:

Not more to comment.

**Tet** · February 13, 2007, 09:34 AM

Re: Are American's really the most stupid?

Originally posted by Fred

Contest is posted only an hour and we've already received our first insulting note:

I don't think you realize the degree to which you (even the contrarians) provide entertainment to the rest of the world.

Signed,

Asebius Of_Toronto

To take this point from who is stupid and who is not and turn this into something to do with money, there are two places in the world that are nothing but low lifes, bloodsuckers, con artists, priates and scammers. Anything coming from either Toronto or Salt Lake City is nothing but a con, most of them very laughable if it wasn't for the fact that widows and orphans are who these scammers prey on. Bre-X from Toronto is a classic example and anything to do with this latest Tar Sand Scam is another. 90% of the penny stock e-mails you receive originate out of Salt Lake. Best not to enter into conversation with people from Salt Lake or Toronto, just hang-up and that will prove who is smart and who is not. Peace.

**FRED** · February 13, 2007, 09:40 AM

Re: Are American's really the most stupid?

Originally posted by Tet

To take this point from who is stupid and who is not and turn this into something to do with money, there are two places in the world that are nothing but low lifes, bloodsuckers, con artists, priates and scammers. Anything coming from either Toronto or Salt Lake City is nothing but a con, most of them very laughable if it wasn't for the fact that widows and orphans are who these scammers prey on. Bre-X from Toronto is a classic example and anything to do with this latest Tar Sand Scam is another. 90% of the penny stock e-mails you receive originate out of Salt Lake. Best not to enter into conversation with people from Salt Lake or Toronto, just hang-up and that will prove who is smart and who is not. Peace.
[/INDENT]

Yes, but do you have any video of them like Christoph von Gamm's Edelweiss video? That is inspired!

**WDCRob** · February 13, 2007, 10:12 AM

Re: Are American's really the most stupid?

I suspect your contest will fizzle Eric. The schtick only works because Americans are relatively wealthy and would-be hegemonists.

i.e. there's no incentive for someone to to stick a mic in the face of lower-middle class Europeans and try to make them look stupid. Who cares what they know/think?

**FRED** · February 13, 2007, 10:46 AM

Re: Are American's really the most stupid?

Originally posted by WDCRob

I suspect your contest will fizzle Eric. The schtick only works because Americans are relatively wealthy and would-be hegemonists.

i.e. there's no incentive for someone to to stick a mic in the face of lower-middle class Europeans and try to make them look stupid. Who cares what they know/think?

WDCRob's to-do list:
- Pay bills
- Send birthday card to niece
- Get tires rotated
- Get sense of humor

**qwerty** · February 13, 2007, 12:00 PM

Re: Are American's really the most stupid?

Originally posted by Fred

by a some Brits and Canadians

The MC's are all Australian. Where are the Brits and Canadians Eric?
[Hah! It would be just too funny if you thought these blokes had English accents. Their point entirely QED! ROFLOL]

No video, but you might like to monitor this page on a fortnightly basis

http://private-eye.co.uk/sections.ph...=dumb_britain&

"Dumb Britain"

The British references might be impenetrable, but try this one:

Presenter: Cambridge, Atkins and Cabbage Soup are all types of what?
Contestant: Universities?

**Jim Nickerson** · February 13, 2007, 01:29 PM

Re: Are American's really the most stupid?

Everybody is ignorant about something. Sometimes it's funny; sometimes it's not. We should all be careful at whom we laugh.

**FRED** · February 13, 2007, 03:50 PM

Re: Are American's really the most stupid?

Originally posted by qwerty

The MC's are all Australian. Where are the Brits and Canadians Eric?
[Hah! It would be just too funny if you thought these blokes had English accents. Their point entirely QED! ROFLOL]

No video, but you might like to monitor this page on a fortnightly basis

http://private-eye.co.uk/sections.ph...=dumb_britain&

"Dumb Britain"

The British references might be impenetrable, but try this one:

Presenter: Cambridge, Atkins and Cabbage Soup are all types of what?
Contestant: Universities?

Why... I have no idea what you're talking about! ;)

**qwerty** · February 13, 2007, 06:18 PM

Re: Are American's really the most stupid?

Originally posted by Jim Nickerson

Everybody is ignorant about something. Sometimes it's funny; sometimes it's not. We should all be careful at whom we laugh.

You are right Jim.

I only posted the British link because I am, myself, a Brit.

But mostly the people in the videos are not stupid, just uninformed about the world outside the US. And the juxtaposition of this with being the world super-power gives a hysterical element to foreigners' laughter.

**ratfink** · February 13, 2007, 08:44 PM

Re: Are American's really the most stupid?

Fred,

Sorry, I don't get it.

Unless you believe that the interviewees were paid infomercial shills or Colbert level satirists (puh leeze. You'd sooner convince me you've all just moved your assets to those BBB- tranches) I find it hard to follow your "wounded pride" act. These videos are about as funny as "The Great Dictator" or "Dr. Strangelove", and portend the same tragic somnambulism. Being spoofed that someone just met the PM of Australia may be silly (after all, the guy's got a camera crew with him), but I don't think for one second that anyone seeing these folks ready to turn the Mideast into a "glass bowl" has anything to laugh about. The subtext is an explanation of the otherwise incredible "dissonance" between what Americans say they are doing and what everyone knows they are doing.

Yes, Jim, all people are ignorant about some things, but those aren't always life and death issues, or issues that amount to support of genocide by people who seem to choose leaders with the will and means to accomplish it. Knowing where Iraq is, how many countries "we" "should" invade, or what Nagasaki and Hiroshima have in common isn't on a level with Trivial Pursuit questions. The folks here aren’t putting you on with their ignorance, and anybody in the States who spends twenty minutes a week outside of their limo doesn’t doubt the deadly reality of their earnestness, nor that they have counterparts at the highest levels of power who seem to act out their wildest and most ignorant fantasies. Perhaps the Ozzies can laugh because the idea of the “worldly unwise” hits them close to home, (without the nukes), but do you really think the crack about sending another 20K troops to Iraq got a lot of laughs there? The “Edelweiss” characters are fully self-conscious in their parody; I guarantee you Christoph wouldn’t have such a rollicking time digging up a man-on-the-street interview with a yahoo to agree to name a Middle East war “The Final Solution”.

EJ · February 13, 2007, 10:12 PM

Re: Are American's really the most stupid?

To me the whole point of the Canadian video was the punch line: Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee saying, "Congratulations, Canada, on preserving your national igloo."

Thanks for the video, Chris. I have to watch that again...

**DemonD** · February 14, 2007, 03:45 AM

Re: Are American's really the most stupid?

In my almost 30 years of life on this planet, I have come to realize that there are a lot of really stupid people everywhere, rich, poor, all races, all languages, all countries... there's just a lot of people that are stupid.

**WDCRob** · February 14, 2007, 10:44 AM

Re: Are American's really the most stupid?

That was my point too Demon. And the only ones having a mic shoved in their face today are the stupid Americans.

How do you reckon a Liverpool dock worker would have done on a world affairs pop-quiz c. 1880? Anyone think a French peasant would have nailed it while Napoleon was raping Europe?

Same shit, different century. People are the same in all places and in all times.

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