yeah I read about that, apparently there are 90 million bombs left, so $1 for each lol

Lol when did he say that? And all this time I thought you just loved saying "crappity smacking." Just realized there's a filter here on the forums.

Unlike Obama, we as civilians are in the position where we can freely discuss and speak about our opinions. I agree most Americans are ignorant and arrogant and are often times overly nationalistic.

The leader of the US should not go in front of a crowd of foreigners and insult the American people. He also shouldn't bow to other leaders. Look at how Putin handles thing. He is a statesman that commands the respect of his people and from the world at large. Putin is a lion and he is regarded as such by his people. Here is the praise of one Russian political scientist:
""There are no more opponents of Putin's course and, if there are, they are mentally ill and need to be sent off for clinical examination. Putin is everywhere, Putin is everything, Putin is absolute, and Putin is indispensable""

In America, our leader is the son of a Marxist whore who posed for black pornographers. In his youth Obama was a Marxist who wrote homoerotic poetry for his university's paper.

Really hate Obama but he's right about Americans' lack of understanding about the world.  Most people I know don't travel and don't even have a passport.

mitch wrote on 9^th Sep, 2016 at 12:54pm:


Laos is a third world country so you can probably forgive most Laotians for their lack of knowledge about the world.

You don't need to travel to know what is the capital city of New Zealand or Australia for instance. Most Americans only just know there is a country called Laos in recent times, but may still struggle to know where it is located on the world map.

Compared to other English speaking western countries, Americans are the most uneducated about the world but they are good people and you can't really blame them because it's the education system and what they see on television (which usually focuses on news stories in America). They also love their entertainment and celebrity stories. I have relatives and friends living in America so I know.

America is a big country, many things are happening there and they learn more about their own country than other countries and what is happening around the world.

It's become commonplace for Americans who are slightly cosmopolitan than the average Joe to make jokes about how dumb Americans are when traveling abroad. That was definitely unprofessional of Obama though.

I wouldn't say most Americans are dumb, they're mostly ignorant which is different. I've met a lot of Lao people who I wouldn't classify as dumb, but just very ignorant which can be just as bad to an extent. I've met worldly Lao people, but this is less common. Anyway, Americans with degrees in the liberal arts from good universities tend to be less ignorant, although the ones with BS degrees tend to be extremely ignorant about geography, but very knowledgeable about science. I'm somewhat of a geography buff and it turns me off when people are ignorant about geography.

I once met a Lao guy who listened to Burmese and Tai Lue music and was interested in that whole scene. I also met a tribal Lao guy who knew his language was part of the "Mon-Khmer" family and knew all about Mon-Khmer languages, which surprised me.

I also meet Mon-Khmer people in Thailand who know about it, but the Thai teenagers seem to be extremely anti-intellectual, even the older taxi drivers are smarter. Maybe that's just because they're young, hopefully as they get older they'll learn more, or maybe the population really just downgraded. I'm not sure.

America is a different story in that it is a huge country that runs on a federal system.  Cultural differences between different corners of the country are huge, and that includes attitudes toward education and intellectualism. Because of that, there is a huge disparity in education quality.  On one hand, America has arguably the best universities in the world.  Indians and Chinese come here in droves to study at a US university. Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are known worldwide.  But in poor states like Mississippi and West Virginia, education quality is terrible.  It's really not fair to compare the US to Finland, often cited as the top country in the world in terms of education.  Finland has roughly the population of the state of Minnesota and is much more ethnically homogeneous.  Geography education does remain an issue here in America though, and I think a lot of it has to do with the attitude of "America is so great, why would you want to go anywhere else?"

I disagree that Aussies and Kiwis are more knowledgeable overall.  They do travel more and so are more in touch with world affairs, but they aren't smarter overall.  Of course they would know about Clinton, Trump, and US affairs: American media and influence dominates the globe.  And this whole "ignorant American abroad" meme really needs to die.  Americans dress poorly and tend to be fat, true.  But by far the most obnoxious, arrogant, heavy drinking travelers I've met overseas were Brits and Aussies.  On a side note, it's also pretty amusing hearing their arguments in favor of gun control.

A big reason why Americans don't travel overseas as much is that you can barely any time off in this country. 2 weeks is considered normal, lol.