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I Asked 1000 Americans to Name a British City Other Than London

blogsession.co.uk

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Re: I Asked 1000 Americans to Name a British City Other Than London

#61

Post by moocowduckquack »

kghose wrote: post #24

I don't know what the author's real motives were (Was it really to beat on the theme that 'Americans are ignorant?), but I personally think this is a good exercise to humble yourself - 'My country/city is not as important as I think it is'. Frankly, Britain is not as important as it once was and hasn't been for half a century. And it's not particularly notable. You would have better luck with Germany, France, Greece,…

I don't know what the author's real motives were

She did explain a motive right at the start of the article, that of seeing how well known Manchester was.

Re: I Asked 1000 Americans to Name a British City Other Than London

#62

Post by 67726e »

tapworthtg wrote: post #58
67726e wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please grow up. It's common for people to default to "he" as when they do not know the gender of the person in question. I didn't even notice the author until you mentioned anything. If anything, your last comment is quite a bit more inflammatory than accidentally referring to a random blogger as a "he".

Fuck you cunt.

You might want to give the guideleines a read: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: I Asked 1000 Americans to Name a British City Other Than London

#63

Post by moocowduckquack »

67726e wrote: post #55
tapworthtg wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is a she. There's a big picture of her, and she's called Stacey. Or did you not notice as the page doesn't have a pink background and it's about stats?

Please grow up. It's common for people to default to "he" as when they do not know the gender of the person in question. I didn't even notice the author until you mentioned anything. If anything, your last comment is quite a bit more inflammatory than accidentally referring to a random blogger as a "he".

It's a common for people to default to "he" as when they do not know the gender of the person in question.

It says "by Stacy" at the top of the article and there's a picture of her next to it. Being unsure of the authorship after reading it would seem lazy at best.

Re: I Asked 1000 Americans to Name a British City Other Than London

#64

Post by coldtea »

kghose wrote: post #24

I don't know what the author's real motives were (Was it really to beat on the theme that 'Americans are ignorant?), but I personally think this is a good exercise to humble yourself - 'My country/city is not as important as I think it is'. Frankly, Britain is not as important as it once was and hasn't been for half a century. And it's not particularly notable. You would have better luck with Germany, France, Greece,…

>I don't know what the author's real motives were (Was it really to beat on the theme that 'Americans are ignorant?), but I personally think this is a good exercise to humble yourself - 'My country/city is not as important as I think it is'.

Defensive much? For one it proves they are quite ignorant on geography. Britain might not be as important, but it's as well known a country as they come. They would fair even worse with other European cities -- "You're from Austria? I love Kangaroos!"

Heck, a few of the people I've asked for information didn't know large-ish cities 50-70 miles across a state line from them. Like living in Grand Island and having never heard of Wichita or Topeka.

Now, I can understand why that is: you can live all your life in Oklahoma or Oregon without ever caring about what happens in New Mexico or Idaho, much less about Britain or Japan. You just know what you have to know to get by in your own life -- and you might be very knowledgable in your field and even active in local politics etc. After all each state is the size of a large or small country in Europe itself.

What's troubling is that this lack of geographical knowledge means a total lack of interest and knowledge about world affairs -- that's how the only affairs that matter to the population are the ones that have been spoonfed to them by the media, and in the specific way they have been spoonfed to them.

In Europe, geographical skills are more or less taken for granted. And caring about world affairs is very much mainstream, including going out of your way to learn about them, not just what happens to be the discussion of the month on TV/intertubes.

Re: I Asked 1000 Americans to Name a British City Other Than London

#66

Post by 67726e »

moocowduckquack wrote: post #63
67726e wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please grow up. It's common for people to default to "he" as when they do not know the gender of the person in question. I didn't even notice the author until you mentioned anything. If anything, your last comment is quite a bit more inflammatory than accidentally referring to a random blogger as a "he".

It's a common for people to default to "he" as when they do not know the gender of the person in question. It says "by Stacy" at the top of the article and there's a picture of her next to it. Being unsure of the authorship after reading it would seem lazy at best.

I just tend to tune out whatever is on the sidebar of a website as it tends to be ads or other things I probably don't care enough to read. As for the "by Stacy", well it is rather small and gray. Of course I have a feeling the poster of the comment that sparked this little flame-war didn't read the article.

Re: I Asked 1000 Americans to Name a British City Other Than London

#67

Post by MaulingMonkey »

tapworthtg wrote: post #36
Dirlewanger wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'Americans are ignorant' You know he was dying for results that would support this. Why else would they ask such an inane question?

He is a she. There's a big picture of her, and she's called Stacey. Or did you not notice as the page doesn't have a pink background and it's about stats?

Personally, once the site stopped 500ing on me outright, I certainly didn't pick out her face in the sidebar full of social networking icons, random facebook faces, and navigation links until I went looking for it.

Then again, I didn't pick out the entire sidebar.

I had a hard time finding her name on the page even looking for it. It's not a signature, but tucked away nearer to the top between the blog title and more social networking noise, in light grey text on white background, in a completely separate column from the profile pic.

Perhaps if Facebook like buttons alone didn't out-number her name 4:1 (whether or not you count the comments) it'd be easier to notice these things...

Re: I Asked 1000 Americans to Name a British City Other Than London

#68

Post by DanBC »

67726e wrote: post #66
moocowduckquack wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a common for people to default to "he" as when they do not know the gender of the person in question. It says "by Stacy" at the top of the article and there's a picture of her next to it. Being unsure of the authorship after reading it would seem lazy at best.

I just tend to tune out whatever is on the sidebar of a website as it tends to be ads or other things I probably don't care enough to read. As for the "by Stacy", well it is rather small and gray. Of course I have a feeling the poster of the comment that sparked this little flame-war didn't read the article.

defending a sexist assumption by claiming a lack of attention to detail and an unwillingness to read the whole pages feels sub-optimal.

Re: I Asked 1000 Americans to Name a British City Other Than London

#70

Post by coldtea »

jacques_chester wrote: post #22

Australian comedian John Safran (and all-round crazy person) made a pretty good point about this concept that Americans are uniquely ignorant of geography: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z27xVjXBbk

Well, compared to what Australians? They are similarly insular.

A better comparison would be with Europeans.

The things he mentions as extremely insightful stuff people wouldn't know, e.g Zaire, Congo, Republic of the Congo, the civil war there, etc are all quite common knowledge.

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