Plan B Forum

...many Americans are as ignorant about the world as he is:

It’s a looping belt of tyranny that swoops from the South Pacific to Europe and all the way across the Americas. It controls three of the world’s 12 largest economies and the entire global supply of some key resources. It is, in the eyes of the world’s most important, and perhaps only relevant, demographic, a new axis of autocracy and it isn’t centred in Pyongyang, Tehran or Harare but in Canberra, Paris and, yes, Ottawa.

That demographic, of course, is the American teen. And if new U.S. test results are any sign, that all important group doesn’t think highly of us, if it thinks of us at all.

In recent results from the U.S. National Assessment of Educational Progress — billed as the Nation’s Report Card — fully 33 per cent of American 8th graders said Canada, Australia and France are dictatorships of one kind or another.

Asked on a national standardized test what the current governments of the three countries have in common, 23 per cent of the 29,000 teens tested chose “they have leaders with absolute power” from the four options available. Another 10 per cent chose “they are controlled by the military” while 12 per cent picked “they discourage participation by citizens in public affairs.”

It's no wonder that our resident village idiot believes things like Canada was an ally of the Soviet Union, or Europeans don't eat corn, when so many Americans are so woefully uneducated about some of their key allies and trading partners.

wanna buy a bridge?

We are already paying the full ride for a new one between Windsor and Detroit because the people of Michigan are too stupid to elect legislators brave enough to stand up to Matty Maroun.

you all might as well buy Detroit while it s selling dirt cheap, you couldn t do any worse than us with it. I d go buy a house there if I wasn t old and scared and didn t dislike cities...

That demographic, of course, is the American teen. And if new U.S. test results are any sign, that all important group doesn’t think highly of us, if it thinks of us at all.

. . . fully 33 per cent of American 8th graders

You're talking about 13- and 14-year-old kids who have only recently mastered tying their own shoes. Their world extends no further than the local shopping mall. As a whole, they have virtually no interest in current events or geopolitics and it is undoubtedly true that they don't think of Australia, France or Canada at all. No, wait -- my daughters know that Australia is where 5 Seconds of Summer comes from. But I would be truly surprised if 33 percent of 8th graders could even locate Australia, France and Canada on a map of the world (they might get 2 out of 3), let alone know anything about their governments.

The point is that Americans have an extremely insular world view and are, by comparison with residents of other countries, pretty ignorant about the world outside their borders unless it directly affects them. Yes, these are eighth graders. But in seventh grade I was learning about the settlement of the American colonies and the causes and progress of the American Revolution and writing essays about Thomas Paine. By eighth grade we had moved on to the French Ancien Regime and Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. When are American students first required to study Australian or Canadian or French history, or the history of any country other than their own? When do elections or other key political events in those countries get more than a cursory observation in the American press?

Scooter wrote:When are American students first required to study Australian or Canadian or French history, or the history of any country other than their own? When do elections or other key political events in those countries get more than a cursory observation in the American press?

Are you suggesting that there are other countries worthy of study, or even notice????!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?1111//!?!1?

Sue U wrote:

Scooter wrote:When are American students first required to study Australian or Canadian or French history, or the history of any country other than their own? When do elections or other key political events in those countries get more than a cursory observation in the American press?

Are you suggesting that there are other countries worthy of study, or even notice????!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?1111//!?!1?

Well certainly not the three he named. Now Great England (sorry) Britain, that's worthy of much study

Anti-Americanism in Canada


Anti-American books
A good way to become a best-selling author in Canada is to write a book that centres around some theme of Canadian weakness in the face of U.S. aggression.

Canada and the United States are quite possibly the two most similar countries in the world. Their residents speak the same language, eat the same foods, watch the same TV shows, live in similar-looking cities, labour in the same industries and share the same basic values of work, family and friendship. But familiarity can also breed contempt and insecurity, and Canadians spend a lot of time trying to come up with reasons why they are not like Americans. Or, just as often, why Americans are worse.

Disliking, judging, teasing and even hating America sadly forms a central part of the Canadian identity, and is a bias that tends to run through most aspects of Canadian society and culture. For various reasons, the default position of a vast many Canadians is that America, Americans and American things are generally bad, and need to be opposed. These feelings are not always logical and consistent, and can certainly be hypocritical in practice, but they do exist, and understanding their important role in all aspects of Canadian culture is necessary to understand what makes Canadians Canadian.
- See more at: http://www.thecanadaguide.com/anti-amer ... VLQrs.dpuf

maybe we should be nicer to Canada. say ..., not protest their arctic territorial claims and back them to the hilt against russia. maybe let them sell us their oil or at least give them a mutually beneficial pipeline to the gulf.

wesw wrote:....maybe let them sell us their oil or at least give them a mutually beneficial pipeline to the gulf.

We import more oil from Canada than we import from any other country...

yeah, I knew that part was wrong right after I posted it....

I m glad I, er, you, caught that joe.....

better you than meADE

Yup! The U.S. buys Canadian oil despite the fact that Canada is a dictatorship and its citizens don't eat corn.

Damn that "article" is some serious bullshit.

(So is the site)

The guy is clearly a legend in his own mind...you can't get through two lines anywhere on the website without coming across a gross factual error. If this is where our village idiot gets his info about Canada, it's no wonder he comes across as deranged.

Joe Guy wrote:Yup! The U.S. buys Canadian oil despite the fact that Canada is a dictatorship and its citizens don't eat corn.

It's Europeans that don't eat corn, we Canadians were Soviet allies.

Don't you know ANYTHING?

hey! I m the village idiot around here.

Scooter wrote: It's Europeans that don't eat corn, we Canadians were Soviet allies.

Don't you know ANYTHING?

Canada is in Europe, silly!!

yeah they have a queen and everything.....