• Dingdangdog [he/him,comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I think there's like a psychological phenomena that happens to certain people when they get in front of a camera and microphone where they think they're being tricked or something, so they'll just say off the wall shit as a guess to an obvious question

    Because I have never met any people lacking knowledge at this level in my entire life

    • PasswordRememberer [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I think it's just that when those types of videos are made, they probably interview 100 people and only show the top 2 or 3 stupidest responses. It wouldn't make for very good entertainment to ask randos "who did the US fight in WW2" and then show 10 consecutive people saying "the Nazis, obviously"

      Death to America

      • Dingdangdog [he/him,comrade/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        I mean it's definitely cherry-picked, but anyone would know these answers even without education if they are at all participating within the pop culture of the US at basically any point.

        It's either people saying dumb shit because they're confused by the situation, some people saying dumb shit because they're annoyed at the man on the street interview, or they're just acting.

        Like there's just no way anyone could possibly think these things lol while also knowing what the event is referring to.

        Example: The 4th of July as an extent holiday in the US is basically unavoidable, it's impossible for a person to legitimately think it had anything to do with Koreans or took place in the 80s lol

        Maybe, someone living in a cave, having just seen the surface and then immediately interviewed may say something like "what are you talking about" but not what we got here lol

        • Diogenes_Barrel [love/loves]
          ·
          2 years ago

          just because the 4th of july is a giant unavoidable event doesn't mean you're bombarded with actual facts about it. most the 21st century its been jizzing on troops and :frothingfash: about muslims hating freeeeedom

          its entirely possible to absorb that kinda stuff to the exclusion of practical historical knowledge. when do people who aren't extremely fucking boring actually say 'we're celebrating this july 4th because they signed the dec. of independence, from Britain, for reasons x, y, z.'?

          also since we use such a limited stable of words to describe wars, something as simple as someone hearing about the Korean war of independence, and the US war in Korea being asked 'who we fought in the war of independence' nets: US v. Korea :thonk: which is true if you say Koreans were the ones fighting for independence

            • Diogenes_Barrel [love/loves]
              ·
              2 years ago

              you can't be anything but confused by the question and piece together your answer from half-remembered facts when you don't know anything about the question

              or you could say you don't know but we're yankees that'd be far too humble for us

        • Catherine_Steward [she/her]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Example: The 4th of July as an extent holiday in the US is basically unavoidable, it’s impossible for a person to legitimately think it had anything to do with Koreans or took place in the 80s lol

          ive never learned anything about history on the 4th of july. its just the day where people blow shit up and abuse animals

          • Dingdangdog [he/him,comrade/them]
            ·
            2 years ago

            I have no idea, maybe you're the cave being I referenced then. Still did anything lead you to believe Korea and the 80s had anything to do with it

              • Dingdangdog [he/him,comrade/them]
                ·
                2 years ago

                I'm trying to think about it more and you're right there really is no direct references to what any of it means. Just like bits of scattered information

                What the hell

    • ssjmarx [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      It sounds right to me, but I will still never get enough of Am*ricans saying incredibly wrong things about history and geography.

    • BerserkPoster [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      True, I think if I was presented with dude on the street I would be tempted to say something like "The USA and DPRK both achieved independence from the ROK which is why both of their colors are red white and blue, and both flags feature stars and bars"

    • Chapo_is_Red [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      I once had a student, 18 or 19, who wrote an essay where he mentioned Vladimir Putin was the ruler of medieval England. I asked the student about this and it took me a few minutes and a Google to convince them they were wrong.

      Another time, I had a student (a 20 something poc liberal woman) who wrote an essay about how egalitarian and enlightened the Spartans were. She was completely unaware of the Helots, pedastry etc. She was easier to convince.

      Those two examples stand out the most.

      • Dingdangdog [he/him,comrade/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        Vladimir the Great is a possible confusion there with the first one, not England but a rule associated with dark age Christianity so maybe

        And the second one I totally understand because there's a ton of fascist propaganda that love the Spartans so probably just got some of that at some point

        Neither of these are as bad as US independence from Korea in the 80s.

        • Chapo_is_Red [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          That's fair. Knowing basic facts about your own country's history is a much lower bar.

    • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I work with people who have advanced degrees who couldn't find England on a map or give you the events of any year before their birth. I'd be surprised if any of them knew the years WW1 was fought.