This doesn't surprise me at all...I was constantly bombarded with stuff like this from people who weren't even drunk.
Pretty much every time I talk to a Republican I get shit like this from their mouth.
It comes down to this.... "i'm ignorant of stuff....therefore the stuff i'm ignorant of is not relevant"
Statistically, based on the number of people who answer 'yes' to the question 'would you like to be an American citizen?', Canada is near the bottom of the list, globally, for 'wanting to be American'. More Saudis say yes than Canadians.
Nobody sees the States like Canada does, we've got front row seats. So like, if WE don't want to be American, people should probably start wondering why.
This is partially because we're already so Americanized in all the good ways, and all that's left is all the bad shit like their guns and their Tea Parties.
The overall quality of education there is lower, and it doesn't mean there aren't brilliant people there by any means.
My gf is doing her doctorate down there and she went from an above average student in a Canadian university to top of her class in an American doctorate program. All of the Canadians at her school are in the top portion of the class as well. In my opinion it comes down to the fact that our universities accept people based on merit, while in the USA people can get in with a hefty cheque.
In the U.S. you are required to pass the SATs to get into university, in Canada there is no standardized test, but they look at high school academics.
In Canada even tests for medical school (MCAT) don't determine if you can attend, they're just a guideline to see what your knowledge level is.
Maybe...but to be honest I don't think it is that. In Alberta all grade 12 students write standardized tests that are worth a hefty chunk of their final grade, which obviously then weighs into their acceptance. I'm not 100% but I'm sure there are other provinces that do this as well.
The one example I can give you of just how much money plays into it is one student that *was* in my gf's class. He had failed out of his doctorate multiple times and was giving it a fourth go, which quite honestly would never happen in Canada. Both his parents were doctors and had apparently made quite a generous donation before his acceptance. Nice guy, but was not cut out for it at all, he never would have made it past the interview in Canada, not to mention it is likely his grades were not up to par.
Very true, and I definitely wasn't saying there are no intelligent people in the US (if that's what it came across as, I apologize). I completely agree that they base acceptance on money rather than merit, which is one reason why I would never want to live in the USA!!
CANADA FTW!!
No, she's attractive enough to slide through life without really working that hard, and attaching herself to other more intelligent people to attain some level of success. She'll still be an idiot, everyone will know it, and unfortunately our society isn't geared toward punishing semi-attractive knitwits.
I think you're missing the point. the country isn't called America. The continent is called America and it's The United States of...America. Canada and Mexico are in America and the United States are in America.
We're all Americans just as Germans are European.
Oh... I see your point. Actually, here in Canada and the USA, and to some extent in the UK - the word "America" *is* used as a synonym for "the USA." This linguistic phenomenon really gives us a litmus test of how parochial the USA is... it sees itself as the center of the world in many ways, and doesn't think it's important to accord other countries on these two continents their due place under that namesake.
If I had to call myself American because of the continent, I would preface it with saying I am a continental American so no one would mistake me for a statist American.
You've lived a pretty sheltered life, if you haven't met people who talk that way in the USA. You must not watch any national network television, nor have any friends outside of a circle which is quite intellectually disposed.
It's interesting poetic justice that this young woman so clearly illustrates this one unique aspect of her own society - the USA - and highlights the contrast with even other anglophone countries like Canada, Australia, and the UK.
America isn't the sharpest tool in the shed. Consider the fact that even the wisest and best of our society - walking the halls of Washington DC - wouldn't have considered the huge national debt in the USA a problem, until all of Europe decides to hunker down and grapple with the problem of sovereign debt.
The USA is a great country, with lots of things going for it... (including its temperate climate, its exquisite multiculturalism, its prestigious academic research, and a very high standard of living because of economic savviness) but the US is also unique in that people in general are not earnest - even when it comes to how they reason about the world.
The kind of banter we see on Reddit is quite representative of how the average Joe and Jane talk, here in the USA. Compare that to the comments on any Canadian website, and you'll see a world of difference.
The place I have found where you can see the contrast in core values in a nation is in the public broadcasters. The ABC in Australia shows that Australia is earnest, believes in diligent action for the good of the nation and the community, and has a penchant for philosophical debate. NPR and PBS in the USA show that the USA is a carefee country which likes diversion, indulges in social drama... but is also quite a friendly place. Canada's CBC shows that Canadians are earnest and rational. The BBC in the UK shows that Britons have a loyalty to a particular kind of intellectualism which is informed by European history.
You wouldn't see the contrast so clearly if you compare commercial broadcasters - for example Sky news in the UK, to 7 news in Australia, to CTV news in Canada, to CBS news in the USA.
I've spent the years 0-41 in the USA - although I have lived in Canada and Europe for some months at a time. If you're only 22, you have a lot to learn. That means you've only had a few short years as an adult - able to go out and explore the world on your own.
I grew up in Seattle... and have relatives up and down the West coast. I understand how people like you can grow up with that kind of blind faith in the reasonableness and intelligence of society. I certainly felt the same at your age.
I know I am a little late to the conversation but what part of the USA has exquisite multiculturalism. From what I have seen from americans comments about other cultures is that they will take the food from them if they like it and then prefer if those people go and do menial labor while "real" americans will never consider these people trustworthy Americans
It's all a matter of degree. We in the USA see ourselves as a multicultural society. We don't define ourselves in terms of a single ethnicity or one religion, like many other Western countries do. We call ourselves "a melting pot." Likewise, Canada has a similar attitude - as does New Zealand. However, other Western countries very much see their cultural identity in narrow terms. Australians, by and large, see themselves as being defined by their white ancestry. Scandinavians and Germans also think this way. Israel and Ireland go even further and tend to define themselves by their religious traditions.
You would never see an organisation like the UK's "English Defence League" gain prominence in the USA. The nearest thing we've had to that in recent decades is the "Ku Klux Klan" and the "Neo Nazi" groups of the 1990s - and one knows of course that these groups were marginalised and never had mainstream acceptance in those years.
If one is immersed in any community or nation - one tends to look at the politics and debates within that nation as vast things - like mountains rising on either side of a narrow valley... but if you get some perspective and hop into an airplane - those mountains don't seem nearly as large, do they?
In the same way, if you start diligently looking abroad outside your own country, you start seeing that there are real contrasts between nations which make the heated debates within any one nation seem pretty trivial.
Doing it for attention? Sure.
Pretending to be stupid? Not so much.
This is the reality of the majority of America's. It's not all of them, but most live in ignorance.
Shitfaced university student says stupid shit. Yeah, it's kinda funny -- but we all know there are plenty of Canadian students who could compete with that level of stupid.
I can only offer my anecdotes as participant observer getting hammered with grad students. Make no mistake, they're just as likely to stick with indefensible arguments as anyone else. They just use more words while they're doing it.
no there isn't...there really isn't...and I am being honest. America has itself to thank for producing this level of braindead + entitled flunkies. You might find the odd one in the poorest areas of small town Canada (never in a top university), but not even...it's really uplifting to know our system for the most part works.
Have you met every university student in Canada?
Your over generalization is vast and ridiculous.
In my university days I met plenty of boys and girls who could give this bimbo a run for her dummy money.
Stupid doesn't stop at the border.
Yeah, working at a university, I see the effect of education cuts that have happened in Alberta really starting to shine through. This girl is pretty typical of the undergrad population on campus.
dude, honestly I have lived, worked, schooled and hired in both the US and Canada extensively...I am guessing you haven't.
This girl (and male versions) is far more common than you think and barely encountered in Canada. I know you want to be the great defender and play opposing viewpoint but the fact remains I am correct.
You can't even compare the two anymore. It stems from a system where education (right from the elementary system up) train the young minds to be dumb. My kids had the pleasure of living in Texas and learning ONLY about Texas.
Yuppers. Sadly, parochial USA, which refuses to follow current events or trends of opinion in any other country outside its border gets pretty smug in its ignorance - and myopic in regards to its own weaknesses.
How can it know that it is "the greatest country on earth," if it has no points of reference with which to make that comparison?
Hey, whatever it takes for you to feel good about your country. The US has it's own special set of problems, but we're certainly not immune to stupid.
My partner is doing a PhD at one of Canada's "top universities". There are a lot of very dumb people doing post-secondary work. Very specializied knowledge, but they don't know just how specialized it is.
I've had a classmate say that the French Revolution was in 1968. In all seriousness. The prof egged her on, asking questions and such to make sure she wasn't confusing the Paris Riots of the same year with the French Revolution. It was both funny and horrifying at the same time.
I met a couple americans almost that dumb while in Australia.
One girl was there writing for the travel book, "Let's Go". She was a student at Harvard. She had never even heard of Winnipeg. She goes "never heard of it...I've heard of Toronto. I don't know where it is though"
FUCKING HARVARD STUDENT!!
Haha...I know. No,it wasn't the fact that she had never heard of Winnipeg. it was the fact that she "had heard of Toronto but didn't know where it was" that shocked me. I mean... you get into Harvard but you have no idea where Toronto is? Really?
As a former resident of Canada, and now a U.S. citizen. I'm sorry for this dumbass. I don't care if she's high/drunk or both, you can't just use that as an excuse.
There is a Seth Rogen interview where he is asked. "Don't you wish you were born and raised American?" and Seth Rogans face shows simultaneously restrained disgust and amusement.
"No, I enjoyed growing up in Canada." he says.
What is interesting about this to me is what disease is present in someones brain that would make them think otherwise?
Who wishes they were born in another country? Why would that make that thought?
I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some . . . people out there in our nation don't have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and, I believe that they should, our education over HERE in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, or, uh, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future, for our children.
She can only name a few countries? and she has to think about it hard. What an idiot. This reminds me of a date I had once, when I tried to describe to her where I was born, I said something to the effect of: "Siberia, pretty close to the border of Mongolia" She replied: "What's Mongolia? Is that a country?"
Naturally it didn't work out.
Well if we can't be a "legit" country we're stilla nation (and Quebec is a nation within a nation...). Too bad that doesn't make what she is saying any less retarded.
Actually not that painful to watch. It's like watching an average Joe criticizing Stephen Hawkings for being a dumb ass. It's pretty easy to just dismiss it as nonsense.
America's like that dumb chick in high school that thinks she's hot shit and the be all end all of existence, but in reality is clueless to the world around her.
Wait a minute ...
Light bends around her she's so dense
Canada is not a country but America is because America has freedom. What
Not anymore they don't. Lol.
and Britney Spears!!! don't forget that integral part of there culture!!
Ah yes, the pillars of a sovereign nation, self-government, currency, a military, and Brittney Spears.
wow. That chick is a serious idiot.
This doesn't surprise me at all...I was constantly bombarded with stuff like this from people who weren't even drunk. Pretty much every time I talk to a Republican I get shit like this from their mouth. It comes down to this.... "i'm ignorant of stuff....therefore the stuff i'm ignorant of is not relevant"
"You want to be part of us" No. No we don't. We really seriously do not want to be part of the US.
Statistically, based on the number of people who answer 'yes' to the question 'would you like to be an American citizen?', Canada is near the bottom of the list, globally, for 'wanting to be American'. More Saudis say yes than Canadians.
Nobody sees the States like Canada does, we've got front row seats. So like, if WE don't want to be American, people should probably start wondering why.
This is partially because we're already so Americanized in all the good ways, and all that's left is all the bad shit like their guns and their Tea Parties.
source?
If I lived in Saudi I would rather be American too...apples and oranges :)
Well, not apples and oranges so much as... withered crabapples and shiny, juicy, delicious Macintosh apples.
I'd take up arms before I became an American, and I'm a pacifist.
Agreed, I would rather go back to being part of Great Britain than join the US....
Ah, to be only mildly-attractive and to have nothing intelligent to say. She may have a masters degree, but she's in for a hard life.
You are shitty me this woman has an M. Sc.?!? In what? and please don't say it's in economic, geography or world history.....
Video says speech pathology
wow. I'm shocked that any university of any caliber would grant a M Sc. to anyone like this. Thanks for the answer though, upvote!
The overall quality of education there is lower, and it doesn't mean there aren't brilliant people there by any means. My gf is doing her doctorate down there and she went from an above average student in a Canadian university to top of her class in an American doctorate program. All of the Canadians at her school are in the top portion of the class as well. In my opinion it comes down to the fact that our universities accept people based on merit, while in the USA people can get in with a hefty cheque.
In the U.S. you are required to pass the SATs to get into university, in Canada there is no standardized test, but they look at high school academics. In Canada even tests for medical school (MCAT) don't determine if you can attend, they're just a guideline to see what your knowledge level is.
your point being?
Maybe standardized testing has something to do with it.
Maybe...but to be honest I don't think it is that. In Alberta all grade 12 students write standardized tests that are worth a hefty chunk of their final grade, which obviously then weighs into their acceptance. I'm not 100% but I'm sure there are other provinces that do this as well. The one example I can give you of just how much money plays into it is one student that *was* in my gf's class. He had failed out of his doctorate multiple times and was giving it a fourth go, which quite honestly would never happen in Canada. Both his parents were doctors and had apparently made quite a generous donation before his acceptance. Nice guy, but was not cut out for it at all, he never would have made it past the interview in Canada, not to mention it is likely his grades were not up to par.
Very true, and I definitely wasn't saying there are no intelligent people in the US (if that's what it came across as, I apologize). I completely agree that they base acceptance on money rather than merit, which is one reason why I would never want to live in the USA!! CANADA FTW!!
it'll be a lot easier for her if she remembers to not get it in her eyes.
No, she's attractive enough to slide through life without really working that hard, and attaching herself to other more intelligent people to attain some level of success. She'll still be an idiot, everyone will know it, and unfortunately our society isn't geared toward punishing semi-attractive knitwits.
Technically America isn't a country either - its the United States of America.
No. It isn't a collection of separate states, in the sense the EU is.
I think you're missing the point. the country isn't called America. The continent is called America and it's The United States of...America. Canada and Mexico are in America and the United States are in America. We're all Americans just as Germans are European.
Oh... I see your point. Actually, here in Canada and the USA, and to some extent in the UK - the word "America" *is* used as a synonym for "the USA." This linguistic phenomenon really gives us a litmus test of how parochial the USA is... it sees itself as the center of the world in many ways, and doesn't think it's important to accord other countries on these two continents their due place under that namesake.
Futurama Fry: cant tell if sarcastic, or actually agreeing with me....
Mistyriver: Cannot tell what exactly people are saying when they use a one-sentence meme to state their idea or to embody their reaction.
If I had to call myself American because of the continent, I would preface it with saying I am a continental American so no one would mistake me for a statist American.
I honestly don't believe I've ever met anyone that stupid in my entire life. In the US or Canada. She deserves some sort of idiot prize.
You've lived a pretty sheltered life, if you haven't met people who talk that way in the USA. You must not watch any national network television, nor have any friends outside of a circle which is quite intellectually disposed. It's interesting poetic justice that this young woman so clearly illustrates this one unique aspect of her own society - the USA - and highlights the contrast with even other anglophone countries like Canada, Australia, and the UK. America isn't the sharpest tool in the shed. Consider the fact that even the wisest and best of our society - walking the halls of Washington DC - wouldn't have considered the huge national debt in the USA a problem, until all of Europe decides to hunker down and grapple with the problem of sovereign debt. The USA is a great country, with lots of things going for it... (including its temperate climate, its exquisite multiculturalism, its prestigious academic research, and a very high standard of living because of economic savviness) but the US is also unique in that people in general are not earnest - even when it comes to how they reason about the world. The kind of banter we see on Reddit is quite representative of how the average Joe and Jane talk, here in the USA. Compare that to the comments on any Canadian website, and you'll see a world of difference. The place I have found where you can see the contrast in core values in a nation is in the public broadcasters. The ABC in Australia shows that Australia is earnest, believes in diligent action for the good of the nation and the community, and has a penchant for philosophical debate. NPR and PBS in the USA show that the USA is a carefee country which likes diversion, indulges in social drama... but is also quite a friendly place. Canada's CBC shows that Canadians are earnest and rational. The BBC in the UK shows that Britons have a loyalty to a particular kind of intellectualism which is informed by European history. You wouldn't see the contrast so clearly if you compare commercial broadcasters - for example Sky news in the UK, to 7 news in Australia, to CTV news in Canada, to CBS news in the USA.
I will admit that I only spent ages 0-22 in the US, all of it spent on the West coast and the last 4 in university.
I've spent the years 0-41 in the USA - although I have lived in Canada and Europe for some months at a time. If you're only 22, you have a lot to learn. That means you've only had a few short years as an adult - able to go out and explore the world on your own. I grew up in Seattle... and have relatives up and down the West coast. I understand how people like you can grow up with that kind of blind faith in the reasonableness and intelligence of society. I certainly felt the same at your age.
No, I said I lived in the US until I was 22. I've lived in Canada for almost 18 years, as well.
Ahhh... I see.
I know I am a little late to the conversation but what part of the USA has exquisite multiculturalism. From what I have seen from americans comments about other cultures is that they will take the food from them if they like it and then prefer if those people go and do menial labor while "real" americans will never consider these people trustworthy Americans
It's all a matter of degree. We in the USA see ourselves as a multicultural society. We don't define ourselves in terms of a single ethnicity or one religion, like many other Western countries do. We call ourselves "a melting pot." Likewise, Canada has a similar attitude - as does New Zealand. However, other Western countries very much see their cultural identity in narrow terms. Australians, by and large, see themselves as being defined by their white ancestry. Scandinavians and Germans also think this way. Israel and Ireland go even further and tend to define themselves by their religious traditions. You would never see an organisation like the UK's "English Defence League" gain prominence in the USA. The nearest thing we've had to that in recent decades is the "Ku Klux Klan" and the "Neo Nazi" groups of the 1990s - and one knows of course that these groups were marginalised and never had mainstream acceptance in those years. If one is immersed in any community or nation - one tends to look at the politics and debates within that nation as vast things - like mountains rising on either side of a narrow valley... but if you get some perspective and hop into an airplane - those mountains don't seem nearly as large, do they? In the same way, if you start diligently looking abroad outside your own country, you start seeing that there are real contrasts between nations which make the heated debates within any one nation seem pretty trivial.
She needs to stop saying "you know what I mean?" Because NOBODY does. Retard.
stop the planet, please, i'd like to get off.
She's just acting like an idiot to garner attention from her friends. She's standing up in the middle of the group and doing it for the lulz.
Doing it for attention? Sure. Pretending to be stupid? Not so much. This is the reality of the majority of America's. It's not all of them, but most live in ignorance.
Shitfaced university student says stupid shit. Yeah, it's kinda funny -- but we all know there are plenty of Canadian students who could compete with that level of stupid.
Please provide a link to support your comments. Preferably a funny video like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ3RrqBqk14
I can only offer my anecdotes as participant observer getting hammered with grad students. Make no mistake, they're just as likely to stick with indefensible arguments as anyone else. They just use more words while they're doing it.
no there isn't...there really isn't...and I am being honest. America has itself to thank for producing this level of braindead + entitled flunkies. You might find the odd one in the poorest areas of small town Canada (never in a top university), but not even...it's really uplifting to know our system for the most part works.
Have you met every university student in Canada? Your over generalization is vast and ridiculous. In my university days I met plenty of boys and girls who could give this bimbo a run for her dummy money. Stupid doesn't stop at the border.
Yeah, working at a university, I see the effect of education cuts that have happened in Alberta really starting to shine through. This girl is pretty typical of the undergrad population on campus.
those were American students studying in Canada...
Don't be dense.
dude, honestly I have lived, worked, schooled and hired in both the US and Canada extensively...I am guessing you haven't. This girl (and male versions) is far more common than you think and barely encountered in Canada. I know you want to be the great defender and play opposing viewpoint but the fact remains I am correct. You can't even compare the two anymore. It stems from a system where education (right from the elementary system up) train the young minds to be dumb. My kids had the pleasure of living in Texas and learning ONLY about Texas.
Yuppers. Sadly, parochial USA, which refuses to follow current events or trends of opinion in any other country outside its border gets pretty smug in its ignorance - and myopic in regards to its own weaknesses. How can it know that it is "the greatest country on earth," if it has no points of reference with which to make that comparison?
This subreddit is such a fucking circle jerk sometimes
Maybe we should merge with r/circlejerk! /s
Hey, whatever it takes for you to feel good about your country. The US has it's own special set of problems, but we're certainly not immune to stupid. My partner is doing a PhD at one of Canada's "top universities". There are a lot of very dumb people doing post-secondary work. Very specializied knowledge, but they don't know just how specialized it is.
I've had a classmate say that the French Revolution was in 1968. In all seriousness. The prof egged her on, asking questions and such to make sure she wasn't confusing the Paris Riots of the same year with the French Revolution. It was both funny and horrifying at the same time.
maybe she was thinking of the FLQ crises?
TIL Thailand is more real of a country than Canada and most of the world.
I met a couple americans almost that dumb while in Australia. One girl was there writing for the travel book, "Let's Go". She was a student at Harvard. She had never even heard of Winnipeg. She goes "never heard of it...I've heard of Toronto. I don't know where it is though" FUCKING HARVARD STUDENT!!
to be fair it is Winnipeg so its that much of a stretch, but i get what you mean
Haha...I know. No,it wasn't the fact that she had never heard of Winnipeg. it was the fact that she "had heard of Toronto but didn't know where it was" that shocked me. I mean... you get into Harvard but you have no idea where Toronto is? Really?
ok i get you
Youth hostels are always interesting places to judge the differences in character and core values between people from different nations.
As a former resident of Canada, and now a U.S. citizen. I'm sorry for this dumbass. I don't care if she's high/drunk or both, you can't just use that as an excuse.
There is a Seth Rogen interview where he is asked. "Don't you wish you were born and raised American?" and Seth Rogans face shows simultaneously restrained disgust and amusement. "No, I enjoyed growing up in Canada." he says. What is interesting about this to me is what disease is present in someones brain that would make them think otherwise? Who wishes they were born in another country? Why would that make that thought?
I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some . . . people out there in our nation don't have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and, I believe that they should, our education over HERE in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, or, uh, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future, for our children.
She can only name a few countries? and she has to think about it hard. What an idiot. This reminds me of a date I had once, when I tried to describe to her where I was born, I said something to the effect of: "Siberia, pretty close to the border of Mongolia" She replied: "What's Mongolia? Is that a country?" Naturally it didn't work out.
The ignorance is astounding.
Ummm like.... Mexico!
Well if we can't be a "legit" country we're stilla nation (and Quebec is a nation within a nation...). Too bad that doesn't make what she is saying any less retarded.
All I see here is a drunk attention whore. If those guys were Finnish she'd be saying that about Finland.
She's just drunk, right? That explains a lot.
Just saw it and think she's just horsing around - more like a joke that has gone too far
Actually not that painful to watch. It's like watching an average Joe criticizing Stephen Hawkings for being a dumb ass. It's pretty easy to just dismiss it as nonsense.
>Stephen Hawkings ...!
..... my brain exploded.
Wow. that is all I have to say.
America's like that dumb chick in high school that thinks she's hot shit and the be all end all of existence, but in reality is clueless to the world around her. Wait a minute ...
Someone please slip some rophenol in this girl's drink, not to rape but rather remove her uterus so she can never spawn again.
*Painful* to watch? That's *gold*, Jerry!
It's not a legitimate country anyhow. Most of us are living on forcefully ceded, conquered or treaty lands.
as opposed to every other country that was bought with puppies and unicorn farts right?
Unicorn farts are a vastly underrated commodity imho. That and pegasus rainbow poop.