the US education system isn’t even that bad. many countries have objectively worse-funded education systems, but don’t display the same belligerent idiocy as them. the fundamental issue is that USAmericans have no real reason to care about the rest of the world, as it will never meaningfully affect their lives unless they decide to go on vacation or take part in an invasion. their lack of intellectual curiosity is because the rest of the world never really registers as a real place.
love the notes on this. ‘oh actually our education system is really underfunded’ that’s very unique of you. no other country is like that. i know people who are not legally allowed to attend higher education because of their gender who demonstrate more intellectual curiosity about the world than you. 'actually we’re all struggling and just trying to survive so theres no time to care about the world’ no you’re right the USA is the poorest country on earth after all. would sort of break the argument if people from much more impoverished countries showed significantly more interest in learning about the outside world than usamericans do. almost like people everywhere suffer from lack of access to education but the imperial core uniquely generates people who have no material reason to care, specifically because of their privilege even in poverty. 'um actually most of us can’t afford a vacation overseas’ so, again, since you’re not going to be invaded, and your government isn’t at the international financial gunpoint of a foreign empire, you will literally never be affected by other countries.
you tell a usamerican that the people they bomb, invade, coup, and sanction have it worse than they do and they start sobbing and crying about how they’re actually the least privileged people on the planet, because they don’t have [social welfare that western europe has] because, again, they don’t see the rest of the world, outside the west, as a real place.
addendum for all the yanks suffering from brain fungus in my notes: no, your education system is not uniquely propagandistic, either. every capitalist country has its education warped to support the ideology of its ruling class. similarly, and, even more insane of a claim to make, the US’s unique lack of intellectual curiosity is not due to inadequate mental healthcare. the idea that the rest of the world are all just getting amazing therapy is absurd, 42% of Palestinian children suffer from moderate or acute PTSD.
both of these claims reinforce what I already said, that usamericans literally do not see the rest of the world as being real, and self-victimise because they compare themselves exclusively with other western, imperial core countries like the EU. the only way these claims make sense is if they see 'the rest of the world’ as Germany and Sweden, and see the entire global south as a vague rhetorical construct that can be disregarded (through casual, joking reference to the incredible levels of imperial oppression of the African continent).
having not actually read the post at all, and instead jumped into defensively yelling about 'oppression olympics’, this likely won’t reach any of them, but still.