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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
people, this is far simpler than you're making it. context and irony--age old comic tools--are the reasons this is funny. the hilarity and cringeworthiness of this clip is that the answer was given as part of a contest that she voluntarily entered, and that she knew would include a portion that required her to answer very easy questions. and she blew it gloriously! it was as if she had misspelled her name in a spelling bee.
but the deliciously ironic icing on the cake is, as another poster astutely noted, that her ridiculously inane answer to the question and subsequent high-showing in the pageant was perfect evidence of the real answer to the question - because ignorance and stupidity are not considered hurdles to social acceptance (and often even inspire reverence) in america, many americans are ignorant and stupid. like ms. upton, for example. delicious, delicious irony.
"...America's problem with geography, which goes back many decades, is due entirely, majority, or even significantly to her, is patently idiotic.
There are many reason's, primarily that we're a huge country isolated by vast distances and two oceans, where people travel internationally very little..."
This struck me as funny. Being Australian we really *are* a huge country isolated by vast distances - hell, we have to cross water just to get to one of our states. Last I checked wasn't America bordered by couple of other countries at least???
Sorry to nitpick, but I think your reasoning is slightly faulty.
You guys might be laughing at her because she's female or Southern, but believe me the rest of the world is laughing because she's American.
We're laughing at her because she reminds us of your President. We're laughing because of all the times Americans have said something really dumb to us ("Gee, you speak good English for an Australian. Where did you learn?") We're laughing because beauty pageants are such a silly part of US culture. We're laughing because it reflects our general bewilderment that the richest nation in the history of the world has such a flawed education system.
The USA is simultaneously the smartest and the stupidest country on the planet. It's an amazing paradox. I love everything great about it, but I also really love a chance to laugh at what isn't so great.
This struck me as funny. Being Australian we really *are* a huge country isolated by vast distances - hell, we have to cross water just to get to one of our states. Last I checked wasn't America bordered by couple of other countries at least??? Sorry to nitpick, but I think your reasoning is slightly faulty.
This might help clarify things for you:
Australians actually travel more internationally than Americans. Australians have on average several weeks of vacation, and Pacific nations ranging from Japan to the USA are often the destinations. The USA has a very diverse climate ranging from rainforests to deserts to arctic regions. We have landmarks like the Grand Canyon, and Niagra Falls (on the border) which contributes to some American's notion they can see it all in America.
Unlike Australia, the USA is a superpower, which means many Americans tend to be uninterested in foreign affairs believing the USA to truly be an island unto itself geo-politically, with some suits sorting out the details in Washington or wherever.
China historically was very similar, calling itself the "Middle Kingdom" and basically considering itself the center of the world.
Traditionally America was also very isolationist, and in many ways many still is. Culturally America made more of a break with Europe than Australia. For example, until Pearl Harbor was attacked, the USA was reluctant to enter WWII. Though you'd not know it superficially because leaders rely on middle-America's lack of interest in FP, to sell them on fabricated threats. And of course even isolationists respond to perceived threats.
While Australia is a vast landscape, almost all the population is coastal on a small fragment of the overall land. Much of Americans are also coastal, and tend to be more international mined, but there is certainly a far larger percentage of Americans living inland in relatively low population density areas.
The will to pageantry , I think, is somewhere in our DNA. By pageantry, I mean specifically these events whereby contestants are observed, judges make their ruling, and first prize is awarded. It happens with everything, not only women, in fact it would be wrong for women to be excluded. Men have their pageants, too, their competitions, on other stages, or fields of battle, for that matter, but we do this with everything - dogs, cats, chickens, chili, canned tomatoes, roses, this desire for pageantry is why we give out Academy Awards, Olympic Gold Medals, this is pervasive in TV reality shows, the process of testing, judging, picking the winners, the losers. It's a very pervasive human activity. Must be wired pretty deep, huh? I'm just thinking.
More compliments from you healthyskeptic? I have noticed that when you cannot actually refute some one's point that you issue an insult. Is this something you learned somewhere that you actually think passes for substance? Do you see ad hominem attacks as actual arguments?
My point about the connection between history and geography is based upon what I have actually seen in school systems. Teachers are sometimes afraid to deal with certain aspects of history and with the cultural and anthropological aspects of geography. I will ask you again. Do you think geography is just about maps?
Also, since you feel free to get personal with me, how old are you and do you have Asperger's? Because I wouldn't want to get harsh with someone who cannot help his woeful lack of manners.
The USA is simultaneously the smartest and the stupidest country on the planet. It's an amazing paradox. -- Andrew Burke
It's not a paradox, it's a gross statistical error.
If you take a region like San Francisco and Silicon Valley, you have incredibly high numbers of PhD in hard sciences and innovation, and some of the best universities globally. Berkeley for example has the highest number of PhD per capita globally, according to statistics. That's manifest in every way, from the internationalism, the quality of the architecture and pubic places, low crime, highest quality entertainments from live music and theater to film and dining, and generally the tastes of residents.
There are many such university/innovation regions around America, even including Austin, Texas, a state usually known for resource extraction, agriculture, and rednecks. Those areas also tend to vote more "blue" and are more liberal.
Then you have rural regions in every state, but particularly some states known for low population density and agrarian roots, basically where the least skilled immigrants landed, known for provincialism. They're not bad people, they're good people. But historically they're less educated, less technologically advanced, and more provincial. They're struggling to catch up in the high-tech world, and need help. But they're also proud people and tend to be reactionaries as well.
By comparison, there really aren't any habitable areas in Europe with such low population density and such distance from a major metropolitan hub, as we have in places like Montana or Utah for example. Utah has only one major city, Salt Lake, which is 80% of the population. Utah is 220,000 Km2 roughly equivalent to the UK. Yet Utah has 2.5 M people, compared with 61M in the UK.
The South Carolina pageant airhead was hilarious regardless.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
