and seemingly feeling no shame over it.
Look at a fucking map JUST ONCE...I am begging you.
used to work for a municipal library program teaching literacy and basic professional skills to adults (like how to use a computer or apply to a job). It was pretty common for students to have absolutely no awareness of other countries existing other than Mexico and even then a few of them believed Mexico was a US state. A common thing to teach in the first few lessons was how to read a map and at no point did I have a student who knew which continents were which or even which continent they lived on. I say this with no derision or smugness by the way. I found it horrifyingly depressing, not funny or annoying. The students I met were absolutely destroyed and left behind by the USA. It was a tragedy that they were illiterate, a complete tragedy how unaware of the world they were, a complete nightmare how they had lived in a constant state of poverty and anxiety their whole lives. The education system failed them, employment failed them, social services failed them. A bunch of the students were being forced to take literacy classes as part of their parole. We're so bad at taking care of people that a common way of getting adults to learn how to read is to do it as part of the criminal justice system.
I think the difference here is the students most often did feel shame at their lack of education and literacy. They wanted to know things, wanted to get a GED or certificate. It was probably the most depressing thing I've ever done.
Google Earth is a wonderful toy for children and adults of all ages. Download the desktop version, get comfy, and look at Socotra or Mongolia or the Andes. Get a feel for how coastlines flow from mountains and think about tectonics. Watch the spread of cities along waterways and jump into how they influenced human development! Learning is fun as shit.
I remember when they added the 3D feature to Google Earth and the first thing I did was hop on and look at the pyramids of Giza. Even to this day I am blown away by the scale of those things.
the privilege of imperial citizenship is not having to know geography, and Americans intend to take full advantage
you might enjoy Michael's geoguesser streams on the Chapo twitch channel, lots of geography heads in the chat
thank you hearts of iron and other paradox games for teaching me geography
I'm planning on taking a vacation to Cumania this summer
It is funny though.
Points to USA
"Is this Iran?"
*points to Pennsylvania
"is this Michigan?"
"Oh wait no THIS is Michigan"
*points to New Hampshire.Actually something I've seen someone do, in front of a live twitch audience no less that they wanted to be taken seriously by
Like...yeah...you can totally take my election analysis seriously when I can't even point to the state of the electorate I am talking about on a fucking map:agony: :agony-turbo: :agony-shrooms: :agony-mescaline: :agony-consuming: :agony-acid:
I once pointed out to some US chud who thought Australia needed to be protected from China that landing in Australia either means a)securing naval dominance in the entire south pacific to attack the east coast (in which case the USA isn't around anymore) b)A swamp landing followed by 400km of roadless jungle or c)a cliff-face/defended harbour landing followed by crossing a USA-sized desert with no logistics and maybe a 2-lane paved road if you're lucky.
Turns out he thought Australia was New Guinea and Antarctica was Australia.
I would judge people for geographical illiteracy but at least 90% of my own geographic knowledge comes from playing paradox games
I don't expect Americans to know all the countries of Africa or where they are.
But I atleast expect them to know the 50 stinkin states.There are too many states. No one on the west coast needs to be able to locate Rhode Island on a map.
My brain is mush and I know most of the states in the other country I've lived in so my brain is full. If I look up Rhode Island I'll forget where Andhra Pradesh is
Like I get mixing up Wyoming and Kansas or something but I'm pretty sure half of all Americans would fuck up finding New York.
I got 83% on this https://online.seterra.com/en/vgp/3003 so that's like 41 states
Why would it bother you when Americans don't know the States. At least that's indifference instead of jingoism. And if, God forbid, I ever actually needed to know where Nebraska was I could look it up. It just seems like such arbitrary information to have memorized.
every white person:
points to northwest asia
is this a continent?
If anyone here is a parent, I really recommend getting world map placemats. They made me a geography whiz.
as an adult i used a map shower curtain turned inward so me and my other adult roommates could study while we showered.
I got world and US map puzzles for my son, he’s pretty good at putting the states where they go and he’s not even 4 yet
sorry but i don't know any geography outside of your dad's bedroom :fidel-cool:
yeah, but it seems like there is always segments on talk shows or buzzfeed videos or twitter threads were Americans are just flaunting how ignorant of it they are.
I want to say that those talk shows have a financial interest in playing footage only of people who fail at the geography in entertaining ways, but I also want to bully everyone for not loving maps like I do
in college i made it my goal during a philosophy class that i would study geography until i could fill in a blank map from memory.
thank god for Sporcle. got me through much of my undergrad and still enjoyable years later.
i know so many important and unimportant things because of Sporcle.
we should all play geoguesser together and flex how much we love street view
somehow everytime I play, if I just guess russia, theres a 50 chance I'll be right
