We Can't Believe Our Ears!! How America Got So Stupid (Reaction)

Added: 2026-05-29

[00:00:00]And welcome back, guys. Here's your boy Sean >> and your girl Mel.

[00:00:04]>> Yes, yes, yes. Guys, we are back with another video. How America got so stupid.

[00:00:08]>> Oh my gosh.

[00:00:11]>> Let's see.

[00:00:12]>> All right, so guys, before we get into it, go ahead and smash that like button and turn on that notification bell so you guys notified next time we upload a video. And go ahead and hype this video up, guys. Here we go.

[00:00:21]>> Let's go.

[00:00:21]>> You want to know how I got this dislike ratio? I make a video praising the Soviet Union and nobody bats an eye. I make a video praising the United States and everybody loses their minds. Okay, fine. I hear you. You only want to hear things that confirm what you already believe. I get it. Let's talk about why Americans are stupid.

[00:00:46]>> I'm sorry. I got to stop it right there.

[00:00:47]I don't like that.

[00:00:50]I just got a bad >> I think we're stupid. Oh my goodness.

[00:00:53]out.

[00:00:54]>> Okay, let's hear him out.

[00:01:00]>> There's a famous episode of the Jimly Kimberly live show where clueless residents of Los Angeles fail to name a single country.

[00:01:06]>> Is it South Africa?

[00:01:08]>> Yeah, the country of Asia, >> Greenland, or Iceland or something.

[00:01:11]>> Although, these are no doubt cherrypicked. And I'm sure if you stood in a big city all day and shoved a camera in people's faces and asked them questions, you'd be able to find 3 minutes worth of people who couldn't answer on the spot. a miss for a dollar.

[00:01:22]Name a woman.

[00:01:24]>> Name a woman.

[00:01:24]>> Yeah.

[00:01:26]>> Um, >> but the stereotype that Americans are ignorant about the wider world is largely true. These people can't name a country because they don't care about other countries. 40% of Americans have a passport compared to 66% of Canadians and 76% of Brits. In 1994, it was only 10% of Americans. But that doesn't mean Americans have gotten more globe trotting since then. It was because after an above average episode of the news, it became mandatory to need a passport when entering Canada and Mexico. So, it's fair to say that a very small percent of Americans will be leaving this corner of the world. As I said in a previous video, America has all you'd ever want geographically within her borders. Why go anywhere else? The foreign cultures, maybe Americans don't care about that either.

[00:02:16]On the list of the highest grossing movies in the USA, you have to go all the way to 520th place to get a movie that isn't American. It's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, by the way. You couldn't even beat the nutty professor.

[00:02:29]Somebody please check up on Anglyia. I think he might have killed himself.

[00:02:32]Neither do global affairs hold the average American's interest. When asked about the Kyoto Climate Accords, who the Taliban are, or whom Nicholas Sarosi is, Americans are woefully underinformed compared to other developed nations. In 2009, only half knew that last year's Olympics were held in Beijing. Oh, but of course, when asked to name American celebrities, they had no trouble at all.

[00:02:58]At the same time, we non-Americans are flooded with American culture. Some British people know more about American politics and history than their own.

[00:03:07]>> Once you're dropped into the trench, depth, or the Z-axis, is >> it's Z axis, you floppy head [ __ ] France had to pass laws banning radio stations from playing too much American music.

[00:03:20]There are only two countries in the world where Coca-Cola is not sold. Wait, scratch that. This journalist from Finland bought a Coke at a water park in Pyongyang in 2017. And what's this hiding in the background of somebody's holiday snaps at the National Hotel de Cuba? Look, you know something's up when remote tribesmen in the Amazon rainforest who don't even have electricity know who Michael Jackson is.

[00:03:45]Americans used to be quite well read.

[00:03:47]After the Second World War, Americans consumed 63% of all the newspapers in the world, and they used this to their advantage. In 1948, the newly formed United Nations created a list of human rights that all countries should strive to uphold. One area that Americans were particularly interested in was this one, Article 19. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression and opinion and receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. What the USA wanted was a completely level playing field. Anyone can buy any media from any other country. a global free market of ideas released from the shackles of censorship. For if anyone can gain access to the truth, we cannot be marched into the same kind of ignorance and intolerance that characterized the Axis nations of the war. This is admirable. Freedom of speech is a core value of the United States and many other allied nations. But some delegates like those from India questioned the US's motives. If you believe in an equal access to information and culture, shouldn't you redistribute some of your media creating capacity to developing nations like ours so that we have an equal opportunity to tell the world our stories?

[00:05:06]The Americans would not budge. Of course, they knew deep down that India was right. The American delegation to the convention was highly populated by journalists and media magnates. They knew that if countries couldn't afford their own news, they would be increasingly reliant on buying news from American wire companies like the Associated Press, which was good for both the media company's profits, but also the US State Department, who would no doubt have been licking their lips at the prospect of a billion people reading news with a specific American spin on it. In 1944, the Associated Press sold news to 38 countries. Within eight years, that had doubled to 70 countries.

[00:05:49]In the 1950s, around half of films shown in European and Asian cinemas were American. Twothirds in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina, which makes sense.

[00:06:00]Americans made grand technical films brimming with Hollywood sparkle because they could afford to. Whereas war torn Europe, impoverished Mexico, and nuclear obliterated Japan were stuck making smallcale comedies to keep up morale.

[00:06:15]One of the most popular French movies in 40s France was 1949's The Big Day. A mostly plotless movie where a whimsical French postman gets into wacky mischief in a quaint village. There just wasn't the money or resources for anything else. Hollywood captured the European public's imagination, and they wanted more.

[00:06:38]But why is it only a one-way street?

[00:06:41]Because while you can do or say whatever you want within the United States, the Constitution also says that the American government can regulate what goes in or out. During the Cold War, anything that might be considered communist propaganda could be seized by the post office and never delivered. Books or even souvenirs from communist countries, for example, pamphlets criticizing US foreign policy.

[00:07:07]Immigration reached a low point in the early '7s with only 4.7% of Americans being foreign, limiting Americans interaction with different cultures.

[00:07:17]Obviously, it wasn't totally like North Korea. Plenty of foreign movies and music were allowed into the US, but the media that caught on was either already Americanized or so plastically exotic that it doesn't really say anything about the culture where it's from. The Beatles were British, yes, but they got their start covering American rock and roll musicians. When John Lennon stepped out of line, the American government made sure that he knew it. Movies imported from Japan were mostly samurai flicks, and very few movies set in the modern day. The film Ikaru is widely considered the best Japanese film ever made if you ignore people who have never felt the touch of a woman. But this existential drama about a depressed, lonely man was only given a limited release in California. And the poster was edited to feature a stripper who is only in the movie for like 1 minute. The narrow stream of European movies that made it into the USA came in the form of the French newwave cinema. Movies that were stylistically inspired by American films, but also so stuffy that few audiences would ever want to watch them anyway.

[00:08:41]This was further stifled by the haze code, a set of extremely strict regulations that were in place from 1934 to 1968. If you've ever wondered why old black and white films seem so dry, it's because of these rules. Some things that were completely banned from ever being shown in any film included bad guys winning. All movies had to end with the police outwitting the evil criminals or the criminals causing their own demise.

[00:09:09]Any nudity, even the silhouette of a boober is an instant ban. Blood or dead bodies. When people get shot in old films, they usually just clutch the wound, but no actual blood is seen.

[00:09:22]Pointing a gun at somebody in the same frame. This is why guns are always held at waist height. Kissing for longer than three seconds.

[00:09:34]Interracial couples. White people as slaves. Criticism of religion or of any other country. Naturally, this prevented the more artistically liberal European films from being shown in American cinemas. And when they did get a US release, they were usually edited to remove the violence in movies and sex on TV to comply with the good old-fashioned values, at least until the rules were abolished in 1968 and replaced by the age rating system we have today. Even as the Cold War ended and the internet gave Americans unparalleled access to the rest of the world and all of human knowledge, they still preferred to hang out on a handful of Americanmade websites dominated by Americans. The insular culture of 20th century America has carried over to the 21st. Tightened border security after Septm Unimo means foreign musicians can have a hard time getting visas. In 2002, the touring visa of a German orchestra was cancelled after it was discovered the Celist had a criminal record for shoplifting a pair of tweezers in 1991. When they tried again for a visa in 2004, the Cist had to undergo an hour-ong interview with Homeland Security and had to physically pick up his visa from the US embassy.

[00:10:53]Global cultures might be more present in American media, but they're always through the lens of American characters such as The Last Samurai starring Tom Cruz where he plays a white guy in 1870s Japan. 7 years in Tibet, another American in China. Indiana Jones, American in Egypt. The Born Identity, American in France, in Glorious Bastards, Americans in German occupied France. And for the ladies in the audience, Mamma Mia, for a movie set on a Greek island, there's not a single Greek person in the entire movie. Is there any hope for America? Or are they destined to be a stinky dumb redneck country forever? Maybe. In 2000, 92% of the music in the USA top 50 was American, making it the second most insulated market in the world after Pakistan, but today it's more like 60%.

[00:11:48]With Brits, Canadians, Latin Americans, and Africans making themselves more seen in the charts.

[00:11:55]Each year, there are more foreign films nominated at the Academy Awards than ever before. What used to be an Americanonly pay to-win awards show is now an international payto-win award show. As social media platforms have an element of randomness in what they show users, there is a higher chance of Americans being shown videos from other countries, forcing them to take note of what is happening. It seems the revolution will be Tik Tocked. I've been giving the impression throughout this video that it's all or most Americans who are terminally uneducated. But American ignorance isn't as evenly distributed as you'd think. That study I mentioned earlier, when adjusting for English proficiency, income, and education levels, Americans are really no different from their European counterparts, and in some cases marginally smarter. Knowledge about the wider world even correlates to political views, and not in the way that you'd think. A 2022 survey asked Americans 12 questions about the world, such as, "Who is the British Prime Minister? What does the Indian flag look like? And what this symbol represents?" The people who answered the most questions correctly were committed Democrats and committed Republicans. Swing voters, those enlightened centrist Chads, were the stupidest. Only 40% of moderate Republicans could name the US Secretary of State, compared to 60% of convicted Republicans. Only half of moderate Democrats knew that the US MCA trade agreement replaced NAFTA, compared to 66% of convicted Democrats.

[00:13:35]Also, I just thought it was funny that the more Americans know about the European Union, the more favorable view they have of it. So, are Americans ignorant? Many of them are, but it isn't their fault. It's a mix of geography, American imperialism, cold war paranoia, moral puritanism, and economic factors that create a paradoxical nation that is both the most expansive empire, but also anformational prison of their own making. God bless you, stupid bastards.

[00:14:10]>> Right back to you.

[00:14:12]The hell?

[00:14:15]I don't like that guy.

[00:14:16]>> Gosh, >> I don't like that guy.

[00:14:18]>> But you know what? Sometimes the truth hurts. Like if you think about what he's saying.

[00:14:24]>> Yeah. But >> we have been conditioned to not know a lot because if you can keep a group of, you know, people not asking questions and like kind of stupid, you can control them. So >> I I kind of understand what he's saying.

[00:14:39]But I think that we're smarter than what people give us credit for.

[00:14:43]>> Yes. America is, you know, trying to come along with the times.

[00:14:48]>> America came a long way.

[00:14:49]>> Yeah.

[00:14:50]>> All right. We got some good schools, good universities. We got some um we got a lot of good things, >> but we don't know a lot about the rest of like the world.

[00:15:00]>> Yeah.

[00:15:00]>> Like we are very vain. Like we don't know anything about what goes on in other countries.

[00:15:09]Like we don't know about world history at all.

[00:15:13]at all.

[00:15:15]>> Most of us, not all of us, but most of us.

[00:15:17]>> But you know what?

[00:15:20]But at the end of the day, I'm still standing there for my country. I think that real I think that we got some good music. We got good culture. We got some good states and cities and stuff that we can, you know, love and absolutely just just appreciate, you know.

[00:15:36]>> But I don't like this guy, you know, throwing shots at Americans. Don't like that.

[00:15:43]good, smart, intelligent people.

[00:15:44]>> Absolutely. It's not all bad. I think that, you know, more of the bad things are talked about than the good.

[00:15:53]>> Yes. And it seemed like people are more obsessed with America. Um, in my opinion, just got something to say about America. I don't know. This is why, you know, >> we're always in the headlight.

[00:16:05]>> We always, you know, somebody got name.

[00:16:10]Yes. All right, guys. There it is. Um, >> oh my god, >> we found this inside the comment section, guys. Thank you all for dropping it, though. Right.

[00:16:18]>> Thank you, guys.

[00:16:19]>> We're learning a lot.

[00:16:20]>> We're learning a lot. These videos are truly helping me to like helping us to do our research about other countries, other cultures. And it's beautiful. I love other, you know, I love different.

[00:16:34]So, you know, we definitely want to learn about other >> I'm proud to be an American, but you know, I'm also eager to learn about like other cultures and countries and everything.

[00:16:45]>> Learn something new. All right, >> guys. Go ahead, smash that like button, give this video a big fat thumbs up, and also get inside the comments section. We appreciate the love and support, guys.

[00:16:53]All right, we signing off. Peace, love, blessings.

[00:16:56]>> Peace.