im american and i knew that like in kindergarten so i think some of you are just stupid sorry
“US curriculums don’t talk about-” ok? And? Are you guys not absorbing literally any information from the outside world? Tv, movies, books, people talking around you? Hello????
*sigh*
No.
Just… no. Don’t be a dick about this. This is not a situation where being a dick will help.
First, people do not just know things. There’s a LOT out there that you - and yes, that’s you, too - simply don’t know. And you don’t even know you don’t know! You never asked!
And that’s the second thing. Not everyone is equally interested in every aspect of the world. I know more about the rules of Chunkey than Scrimmage, and people still play scrimmage! But I’ve never cared. So, yes, it’s entirely possible for someone to not know about metropolitan centers in Mexico because they never asked.
Which is the third thing. You basically assume that media depictions are correct. Not because you think TV, films, &c are authoritative sources of information, but because why would they lie to you? You’re not applying critical thinking to these things because there’s no apparent reason behind it. It’s like… your friend is telling you about this boss he had named Ted, and afterwards he says he punked you since the boss’s name was actually Bill. And you’re going… okay, but why did you change that? Why would you lie about that? What did you accomplish? So you don’t ask “Are there really a lot of pine trees near DC like you see in the X-Files?” It’s just not something a reasonable person asks about.
And yes, it’s true - a lot of people aren’t all that intellectually curious. They just aren’t interested. You’re not going to make them more curious by being a dick to them. You’re going to make them learn One(1) new thing: intellectually curious people are assholes. And they don’t want to be an asshole, so….
So, yeah. Don’t be a dick about this. The American education system is an awful patchwork which just doesn’t talk about a lot of important stuff and misrepresents things. And it’s not all the same stuff, either. And availability and accuracy of supplementary knowledge varies wildly. You will not improve this by being a dick about it, especially to people who are admitting there are gaps in their knowledge.
That’s fine and all, but that’s not the problem. The problem is that, even if people don’t just know things, it’s always americans that admit their ignorance of life in the global south and rather than saying “good to know” or just learning quietly about the world outside their bubble, make themselves victims of the abhorrent American Education System. As if the gaps in their knowledge are solely the education system’s fault, and they should be validated by us, the people of the global south who have to be informed about what goes on in the US because it impacts us dierctly.
It’s just frustrating to always have americans (because europeans, even when they’re as ignorant don’t victimize themselves) come into conversations about somewhere other than the US and try to make it about themselves, about how bad they have it, about how terrible their education system is. People shouldn’t be dicks in general, but when the issue is as widespread as it is, some snap back in frustration, and asking us to keep coddling american’s feelings even in such minor issues as these is not an actual solution to the widespread ignorance about the rest of the world present in the US.
