13: Are Americans Intelligent?

Are Americans intelligent? Back in 1895, this was the question a visiting Chinese diplomat asked himself attending a dinner party. Let's dive into this "Metropolitan Magazine" article and find out his thoughts on things such as the American storytelling, sense of humour and the American tipping culture!

[mil_enrama]

Having studied Chinese and spent time with Chinese people, I think this was absolutely a made-up Chinese person. The mentions of dervishes and "a man having as many wives as he can afford" seem very much like an Orientalist conflation of all cultures east of the Balkans. And the information about China--Shandong province and civil service exams-- are very dry textbook facts. This was a story written by and for Americans, which I think is interesting in itself.

[sammypsychosis]

As an American I absolutely needed to click this lol

[Kai-Xi]

I can't really disagree with the sentiment that being a politician disqualifies a person from being a gentlemen

[Dragonfly]

I heard "...you are invited to die" and just accepted it

[velociraptor]

I'm an American/Australian I love history, mythology classical music, classical art and I love Japanese Samurai cinema. Thankfully most of my American friends are very nice people and when we talk about philosophy they are very intelligent. Sadly I think a lot of Americans are ignorant about the rest of the world but with proper research and studies you can always improve your knowledge. I do think the American education system needs to change.

[dakotalee]

Karolina out here asking the real questions.

[ybunnygurl]

I'm an American and I'm used to American humor. I also understand British humor having grown up with it. I understand most humor. This articles written in a way though that's very tongue in cheek and definitely written by an American and probably spoke Chinese and had a very scandalous conversation with this diplomat. And I can absolutely imagine in the time and place that he was found entertaining. People at dinner parties really were big on "one-up men ship" so it was all about who had the biggest most ridiculous thing to say true or not. And America definitely had a class system and some money was better than others. That's still true today if you hear people talk about new money versus old money old money is well respected and basically like having a title or an important name whereas new money well you do new money things which are usually flashing your cash which is considered uncouth even still. Well I have very little wealth to speak of people in my family are from old money and do have stupid amounts of it in their bank accounts that they can't touch because it's all invested in certain things and it's entrusts and blah blah so their ancestors have chosen wisely that the living only gets so much of it the rest of it is attached to the family name.

As to general American intelligence, some people are well educated by books some people are well educated by culture. Some people are well educated by both and many have no education at all. Just like everywhere else in the world.😂

[marcosfernandes]

Yessss Some sketches of SNL are funny, but weirdly some of the ones with the most enthusiastic commentaries are the ones that I can't even imagine which parts were supposed to be funny

[inthemakingca]

Excellent and just what I needed while painting this morning. Love your appetite for historical letters.

[shannahbanana]

I love that the debate has been going on for ages. 🤣

[JuiceMade]

I think many of us are uninformed. A lot of us are just as smart as everyone else but we’re not given the same education as other people. This is my opinion

[aeolia]

Humor is HIGHLY cultural, sonethings may make sense but not everything. To this day I don't get most French humor (I get most of British humor only because I grew up watching British sitcoms on PBS in the US) even though I live here in France and partnered with a French person, and while my French partner loves most US humor he has to admit he doesn't get most "black" humor (which not only is super contextualized but also deals with the AASV dialect which he already doesn't understand) and I only understand it because of where I grew up, so I constantly have to explain those jokes to him. But for some reason Russian humor always made sense to me, lol, though it was always translated. And after living in Korea for 5 years Korean humor very slowly started to make sense, but yeah, French humor still alludes me, lol

[amberlimbaugh]

"someone kicked me under the table."

My experience at every dinner lol

[parodysam]

Hey I may be stupid, but I’m also dumb.

[marniekilbourne]

Given SNL is making fun of life in America and Americans, it makes sense that you as a European may not understand why an SNL skit is funny. Not that they are all funny even to us but I think you get my point.

[earthstar]

I wonder sometimes. My husband and I are both homeschool kids. When I got to college, I realized a lot of my peers couldn't proficiently read. Most couldn't do basic math, and almost all couldn't do the work without the internet, AI, or just cheating in general, and they didn't see anything wrong with that.

Our education system is severely lacking. If you're lucky enough to get to come up outside of it, either private or home educated, you'll be better off, but it's bad. Lots of adults can't read or do basic math independently. The worst part is that most people lack common sense and critical thinking skills. They can't stop and think "wait that doesn't make sense." Because they both dont understand what they are seeing and hearing, but they also lack the thinking skills to sort the information they take in. Our culture is also very, very, very emotional. Many people make determinations and decisions not based on information available but rather just raw emotions in the moment. Not only does this result in violence, but because we aren't culturally encouraged to have self-control, it also creates hyper consumption and gimmie now culture. When all we do is focus on ourselves, our knee-jerk emotions, and our individual wants, it creates a population of very slow people intellectually.

I blame our public schools. The statistics are indisputable. Our literacy rates are falling in young people, and it mostly affects public school attendees. That's the vast majority of the population. Our public schools are on their 3rd generation of creating people who can't think, let alone read and who aren't taught historical context. For the country that spends the 4th most per pupil on education on the planet Earth, we sure are dropping the ball, and I wonder where the money is going.

[vernieplummer]

I am an American with a probably lower than average respect for my fellow Americans. Certainly, during this time politically, I am mostly ashamed of them. Regarding this article, I think that just about everything the man said was true. Our language is well known to be confusing because of the way that we just use one word for five meanings. It is certainly true that we are taught as children that almost every single item you could imagine was invented by an American, which I was shocked to find was not true when I grew up. All in all, I’m with the Chinese guy.

[projectrainbowscamp]

Thanks for taking the time and effort to analyze and read this entire article, Karolina. I particularly appreciate your comments on humor. I hadn't thought of some popular American tropes as odd or disrespectful but I see now. Please continue to find articles, read and comment on them. It's brilliant! (By the way, I adored my MIL.) 💜

[frogfernforest]

I think its the same way it is in all countries. Its impossible to be educated in everything and to be fully versed in all aspects of life. In the US, it can be more pronounced because we are such a big country that is so spread out. Someone in a rural farming town in the us will get a totally different education than someone in a weathy urban or suburban cummunity. Someone in a rural farming town probably didnt have access to an art history class, or even a world history class (especially one that speaks on nonwestern history). They also likely don't vitally need that information, if they plan on remaining in that community. But I guarantee those rural farming people know a lot more about animal husbandry, lumber milling, and beekeeping, than most of the wealthy urban or suburban people. And again, the wealthy urban people probably don't vitally need any of that knowledge. There are many college educated people that do not know how to cook. Even in college someone with a history degree may be well versed in a particular timeframe of a particular country, but may have little to no crossover into a different timeframe of a different country. Perhaps that individual didnt take as many biology classes because they simply did not need to. I know this is a thing in other countries as well, because i'ts just human to be this way and to attain knowlede that is interesting ir useful to us. Just toady, I watched a little piece on Margaret Gallagher from Belcoo, County Fermanagh, N. Ireland, who lives in her rural home with no modern amenities and has a job educating people on local history and places, despite her leaving school at the age of 14, I think it was. We are all smart in our own ways, and in ways which are useful to us personally.

[mcarts]

Im still confused about the fried banana joke