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While this video is very clever and funny, it's not really sufficient evidence to deduce that "Americans are stupid."

In my experience, people the world over tend to be ignorant of many things, especially regarding the world theatre. Go to Shri Lanka and ask the average person on the street how many Eiffel towers are in France and see what sort of reply you get. Or go to France for that matter and interview enough people in Paris, and you will get at least one person who gives you an ignorant answer, and then you can make a video about it. lol

I'm an American, and I'm aware that our govenment is flawed in many ways, and that many of our people here vote without researching the facts. This is true of many governments in many "free" countries. There are many of us here in the US who would like to see improvements, but it's a process. Let's embrace the idea that we're citizens of earth (human beings) first (at least on an internet that allows us to come together), and then citizens of our various countries second. We can make alot more progress that way in righting the wrongs of those who've made (often severe) mistakes in treating their world neighbors. wink

i say Americans in general are some of the stupidest bunch of people... >.> every time i meet a foriegner they are VERY intelligent! but i have to look realy hard and wait a long f-ing time for any smart americans to show up!

Over-generalization is counterproductive, whether we're talking about Americans or any other nation's citizens.

To say "I hate all people" or that "all people are stupid" is an ignorant statement in itself.

Every country has smart people in it, and every country has stupid people in it. To make blanket statements is a sign of uninformed prejudice and lack of articulate thought.

Since I know you all are quite intelligent and capable of articulate thought, then it must be because you are feeling overly emotional (which snuffs out rational thought if left unchecked). I encourage everyone to be more aware of their responses. Are you reacting from intellect or are you lashing out clumsily from emotion? (not judging you here, it's human nature to revert to base emotions, but it's worth practicing awareness so that you might improve yourself).

In my experience, using the word "stupid" indiscriminately makes ME look stupid. Does this make sense?

O-o I have that effect on things. It seems that whatever I'm preoccupied with, it spills over into my other things.

I'm really stressing about my Speech and Debate tournament (What a coinkidink, It's on Nationalism. xP), because I can't find very much solid evidence to put into a debate form.

O-o; I got the short end.

I have to prove that nationalism is good for the world. The most I have is opinions. And it doesn't help the judges are biased... *Grumble*

and i didn't say "all" i said "in general." -.- there a few, not many in my experience, MY HONEST PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AS I HAVE ALREDAY STATED, smart Americans. and in my honest personal experience, every foriegner i have ever met, online and in person, was extremely intelligent.

sides, Li, why reason would anyone from another country have to say or do ANYTHING nice to Americans, when America is such an arrogant and rude country to the rest of the world?

Nationalism, by definition is a nation's furthering of it's own "good." The only way it can also be good for the world is if what is good for the nation depends upon it's effect on the world. This is a redundancy and poorly structured. "Good" in this reference is entirely subjective, and a subjective premise is very difficult to present in a logical argument.

Furthermore, the idea that Nationalism is "good" for the world can only be studied by comparison to it's opposite, the lack of nationalism (which does not exist in any geo-political entity anywhere). In effect, you would have to compare nationalism to a utopia on Mars or an Amazonian tribe to even approach any substantive "proofs."

Whoever came up with the debate topic either "rigged" it, or didn't actually take time to assess whether the topic was debatable. If they had, they'd realize that it's a semantic jumble and doesn't present a valid argument on either side.

Still, you have been given this assignment, so you may have to dig deep to come up with a presentable defense. I recommend not personalizing the issue, because your side of the topic is rigged to blow up from the outset anyhow, so it's no reflection on you if your arguments seem flimsy. Just try to use logic and facts and realize that the arguments against your position will be just as flimsy and invalid. Start simply: find examples of positive results of national self-interest benefitting foreign countries and try to ignore the obvious negative results which went hand in hand. British (and other European) colonialism would be the first place I'd start. Then I would address capital investment in foreign industry for profit. Both of these concepts are shady and questionable, but are the only legs I would consider using at first glance.

Tsun Tsu Proverb: When the mouse wishes to face the tiger, he leads it into the swamp where they are both equal.

Perhaps you might mention your concern to your teacher. It may in fact be that he/she is aware of the ambiguous ground you are being asked to stand on and that it's purposely intended for you to find a creative way to deal with this royal mess of a debate topic.