>I'm not talking about that BS. I am directly targeting you. I am asking you that you prove you're less ignorant than me, average American, the likes of whom you've already disparaged. Forget all the rest of your Googling and nonsense.....pick and choose a venue and we'll see who is ignorant. I repeat, Walter, you won't like the result and it might damage your ego.

How would you like me to prove that if I can't use external resources (like the one found on google) and the psychological explanation for the situation? I won't blame anyone for beeing ignorant (how can i blame anyone for not knowing something?), but I'll blame for beeing vocally ignorant (Someone who is vocally spouting statements that show ignorance). That is the big difference to me. If you had the courage to read the article you'd know where I'm comming from.

As for the threat to damage my ego. My ego has been damaged so many times that I've grown the skin of a elephant. I've been involved with too many bullies to be hurt by a gentlemen as yourself.

So what are you proposing?




>
>>>Walter,
>>>
>>>>It indeed is not hate, at least from my perspective, to the average american as most of them who are educated on the issues above are as fed up with their government as we are. I sincerely hope that the US citizens are going to vote for change and not for a route that will be a continuation of the Bush era. We recognise though that many americans are far less educated on the world outside and more or less are trapped into a world not bigger than their own borders, being largely unaware of anything outside.
>>>
>>>You love insulting America and Americans. So now the claim is we're uneducated. Yeah, OK. You know, Walter, I'm your typical American. I love my country and I received a public education. I have no special educational honors or degrees. But I'll say this - pick a neutral forum for debate or contest between us on geopolitics or American/European history and I will take your smarmy, holier-than-thou junk apart. C'mon pal, let this ignorant American at you. You won't like the results, I can guarantee you that.
>>
>>John, AFAICS, it is the other way arround. The Bush government has insulted and irritated the rest of the world. I've given you enough links to get educated on why the image of the US in the world outside has shrunk inmensely during the last 8 years. You can choose to ignore that fact and choose it accuse me from insults, but the facts don't lie. Every study held spanning many countries and hundreds of thousands of people being interviewed show that the image of the US has gone down tremendously. In most of those investigation it is indicated that one of the major the reasons for this is the policy of the Bush administration and that they took every opportunity to hurt this image (Iraq, abu ghrail, cuba, extraordinary renditions (and at the same time complain about human rights in china), secret CIA camps in europe, katrina and economic mismanagement).
>>
>>If you do a bit of googling, you'd encounter enough AMERICAN sources that complain of the american ignorance as well. e.g, http://orangepunch.freedomblogging.com/2007/08/22/american-ignorance-about-the-world/ . In stead of grumblim about my 'Insults' about 'American ignorance', you could do a bit of googling on those terms and get educated why peope are refering to those terms. Unless of course, you don't want to be educated and just be vocal about your american ignorance.
>>
>>OTOH, I can't blame any american raised citizen on it. I think there are compelling reasons to it. America is big enough not to care about the rest of the world. Many of you would not go outside the borders except for a very small trip or so. Many are not exposed enough to forreign cultures enough to really know what is out there. The rest of the world however have been exposed to the american culture enough to have a sense of what it is about:
>>- Through the media (The american election is a big event on many european broadcasts. It is hard to escape, even if you want to)
>>- The economy (The american economy and the dollar is highly influential to the rest of the world)
>>- Through culture (we have mcDonnalds, American jeans, Lots of TV series, cartoons etc)
>>- Through world news (All the Bush administration faillure as much more analyzed up here than you'd imagine?)
>>Every child up here is confronted with the american culture since day1. I'm not saying this a bad thing. It does educate us on the world outside. How it differs from ortselves.
>>
>>Now, tell me what do you have got to educate yourselves on the world outside ?? I'd bet next to zero...
>>
>>Why?? Because you don't need to. The US is large enough to call it a world. It is quite homogenous (though many would disagree and emphisize the differences, it is nothing compared to the world outside of the US). The US citizens are known for being hard working people and generally don't care about the world outside because they have pretty full lives already.
>>
>>So in short, do you think you're in a favourable position to acurately compare the US with the world outside?? Remember you don't know what you don't know.
>>
>>The big problem I see, is your media, that for whatever reason (politics?) is not unbiased. From the article above:
>>so, what news entitiy are we supposed to believe? my husband is in broadcasting, and he says the news that goes out to the public is usually nothing like what comes in over the ap. they all spin it. so, apart from actually being on the scene of every newsworthy event, just what are we supposed to believe?
>>
>>And
>>
>>When I lived in Europe I saw a number of strange counter-intuitive institutions. In the US we focused on the idea of an objective unbiased press. In London there are 4-5 biased subjective “broadsheet” newspapers. And the same number of tabloids, arranged across the political spectrum. I used to read the Guardian (second from left) and when I wanted a different take I’d find the same article in the Times or the Telegraph. By comparison in the US most major cities only have one paper, and many of those are owned by the same company. I felt much more educated about my own government (much less the rest of the world) during those four years than I do now.