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Yes I agree that there is a certain hostility towards other states within the USA. For instance, the south refers to the Civil War in America as "The War of Northern Aggression." But then again...they are the South...

Hey, I'm from the south(of course its not the deep south). wink
Well, that war is history and there isn't much that can be done now, but to learn from it. I do think that both sides were a bit to blame on that one, but I won't got into it here. There is quite a bit of Civil War History very close to where I live so I do find it fascinating. I do see what you mean about most Americans not being tolerant of anything different. It does exist between states and particularly with other countries. Personally, I love to read up on other countries, but there is still more for me to learn about Western Europe. I guess I found European history(particulary England and Russian) to be very interesting so I took quite a bit of time on my own to study it. Although, I have hopes that maybe the internet will help bridge the culture gaps a bit more so that Americans understand themselves as well as the rest of the World better.

I hope so too. The internet is an ideal conduit for cross-cultural understanding.

Though, largely, it seems to have failed thus far.

sad

Lol. Yeah, my neighbor has this huge Confederate flag painted on his barn; you can see it all the way from the highway. People tend to remember the Civil War fondly where I live. Those stupid flags are all over everything--hats, t-shirts, cars, lighters...it's crazy. Yankees need a passport to come down here.

A few years ago in school(or was this last year?), during history, I swear we were taught more about america then any other country. For example, when learning about the slave trade, we were only taught the american veiw of it, from the start of slavery in america, to the end of slavery in america. I think the only thing taught about england during this was the fact that it was the brittish transporting the slaves(something along those lines, anyway - never payed much attention in history. Well, I would have if we were taught something I would enjoy learning about... Like something about europe that doesn't include the romans, for example)

and the main thing that year I believe was the american civil war.

I'm glad now that I can do sociology instead of history.

My roommate is from Georgia and it's not like that with her. Not everyone is the same, which I know is understood. There are a lot of generalizations made by Americans about other Americans. There's a certain stereotype for each part; the Mid-West, East Coast, New England, the South, West Coast... Again, not something characteristic of just the U.S. Stuff like that happens everywhere. You just have to hope you run into and make friends with the more pleasant people from each place. smile

Now, I myself am an American, but am still currently studying abroad in Japan. I lived in the middle part of the states and from what I have taken notice, is that the Midwest seems to be the less ignorant. At the HS where I did attened for a slight time, we were encouraged to take classes that involved the learning about other cultures. We had British Literature, World History, World Politics, and European studies.

I think that to generalize the whole American public as a whole is the wrong thing to do. Truthfully, you must look to the leaders of the nation. And with leaders in mind, that includes past, present, and future leaders alike. I believe that the whole reason that America holds such biased opinions is that due to some lack of funding in the US educational system, and past wars and current battles in other nations, many US states believe in the misconceptions that are still in place, such as Egyptians still wearing gold head dresses.
Secondly, the media is somewhat to blame, but yet at the same time it is not. The media's duty is to inform the public, and that is exactly what it does. It informs. There are channels that show a conservative aspect and there are news reports that show a Liberal point of view. Then there are stations and broadcast systems that take an independant view on it. I agree that the media shapes and defines what the US population bases their judgement off of, but the Biggest enemy by far is the families.
The families introduce us to the world of politics and the way each child should view the world as a whole. The family already has a precept into the view of the world and they pass that on to their children. In fact it happens all over the world as we speak.

In the end, I think that in order to call America ignorant, we must call All other nations ignorant, because America is based off of different cultures. We are the land of the free, and we have the right to express our freedoms. In that case in point, the moldings of our own past and of all nations involved in that history place a deep root in which we end up basing all of our judgements from. And that's true in all countries as well.
And that's not to say that I think my country isn't ignorant, but looking at things as a whole, I think we are all ignorant within our own nations as well.

I just want to ask a question... Why is it that whenever Americans show a uneducated way of looking at other countries, it's ignorant, but when other countries bash on us for being ignorant rather than try to understand how our media and the whole system of education and family education runs, it's simply okay to do so? That's what I've noticed.

(I'm sorry if some of this sounds like rambling, but I've only gotten 2 hours of sleep in a 3 day period.)