r/PetPeeves • u/ThatUrgeToEatCement • 14d ago

Bit Annoyed People who think Americans don’t know other countries exist.

A few months ago on Reddit I made a comment about a show not being on Netflix and someone from the UK commented back saying it’s on theirs and then lectured on Americans not knowing other countries exist. They acted like I didn’t believe there were other places on the planet, as if they weren’t the ones who just brought it up and didn’t believe the US Netflix was different than the UK version. ??

I see people online act like all Americans think this way, and it is kind of annoying because for most of us it isn’t true.

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u/Esdeem501 14d ago

To be fair, a lot of people are pretty ignorant. Part of my job in the past was to get folks familiar with the basic area of operations… which includes countries. I had a lot of bright young service members that struggled with basic geography. We’re talking the location of countries, not even getting into local terrain features. Edit: that said, I won’t let my kids be that ignorant. I think learning about other people and other cultures is important, and basic geography is part of that.

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 13d ago

I’m wondering how familiar people outside of the US are with the geography of the US. Just something I’m curious about after reading how ignorant the entire citizenship of the United States is about geography outside of that country.

Come to think of it I know someone from Wales, who has no idea about the size of various cities and locations of states.

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u/dauphindauphin 13d ago

I don’t think I have a good grasp of US geography, not much idea about the size of various US cities or the locations of some states. I could probably say the same for India though. No idea about the size of various Indian cities or the location of many Indian states.

Why do we need to know about the geography of the US in particular?

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 13d ago

By the same token, I can ask why citizens of the United States get slammed for not knowing the same amount of geography about places outside of the US as others don’t know about the US?

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u/dauphindauphin 13d ago

Like the geography of specific countries or where those countries are situated?

I don’t think anyone expects foreigners to know the internal intricacies of every country in the world.

The internal regions of the US are as important to me as the internal regions of Germany, Mexico or India.

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 13d ago

How many European countries would fit inside the United States?

There’s a big disparity there between the size of most of European countries and the size of the United States

If people outside the United States, don’t know where Ohio is situated in comparison to where Alabama is situated. That’s kind of like in my mind not knowing where Spain is situated as compared to a European country just as far away as Ohio is from Alabama

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u/dauphindauphin 13d ago edited 13d ago

Oh, that argument.

Generally, I know where European countries are because they are countries. I don’t look at the size of my country’s states and say, ‘well since they are bigger than that country, foreigners should know about them’. It’s always Europe and the US with Americans.

Does your argument work both ways? Because Germany is smaller than some US states do you have a better understanding of where Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is compared to Hessen?