People ignorant of basic information about the world around them

Considering you started a thread about Real Housewives, you may want to think again before you post threads like this one.

How are those two things mutually exclusive, r1?

Call me one of the stupid but how does R1 know what threads OP has previously posted? Is that some Elite Member DL function?

r3: r1 used ignoredar (they ignored me, then looked at my posting history on their ignore list)

Literally everyone with two brain cells knows how to see what someone else has posted......?

R3 It's an "Advantage Plus" feature

R5 "literally"

Oh, dear!

I love embarrassing threads

And did you also type "BEARKING" in the headline of the Real Housewives thread, OP? If so, you have a lot to think again about.

To this day my mother believes there are two countries called Old Mexico and New Mexico. She doesn't know where anything is on the planet and has no interest in finding out.

"If the King's English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it's good enough for the children of Texas!"

“A lot to think again about”? R1=R5=R9 and may know the DL hidden features but not basic sentence structure.

Regarding the Civil War thing, a lot of people think 19th century = 1900s.

I don’t lord this stuff over people. People know about what they know about. I know a lot about birds and native trees/plants, and I am always surprised when someone thinks a Starling is a a Grackle or a Grackle is a Crow, or don’t understand the difference between roosting or nesting, or don’t know that a Robin won’t live in a birdhouse, etc. But people only have so much space in their brains. I’m not talking about abject idiots, I’m talking about regular people.

I don’t know that much about space exploration. for example. I don’t use the right terminology and sometimes people act all aghast, but I just don’t give a shit about space (or whatever) so I haven’t bothered to learn. When someone wants to act smug about something like that, I just think to myself “but you’ve been on Earth for 35 years and you can’t name ten birds within a square mile.”

We all have our own priorities.

[quote]But people only have so much space in their brains. I’m not talking about abject idiots, I’m talking about regular people.

R13 - Are you Roz Chast?

R12 Only R1 does not equal R5/R9 but nice try!

Speaking of both Real Housewives AND the thread topic. It still blows me away how Porsha Williams--granddaughter of a famous Civil Rights activists who was very close to MLK Jr.--didn't know what the underground railroad was. It's mindblowing.

OP, it's mainly an American thing. The average American prides him or herself on being uneducated and clueless. They think it's hilarious that they don't know where New York (the state) is on the map.

" I don’t use the right terminology and sometimes people act all aghast, but I just don’t give a shit about space (or whatever) so I haven’t bothered to learn. "

I think OP's point was that so many people "just don't give a shit" about what some of us consider basic knowledge of the world around us. Is basic geography really esoteric knowledge? Not knowing where to find Lesotho is forgivable (sorry, Basotho), but not being able to find the US on a map?

Exactly, r18.

I agree with OP. Americans only know where countries are if they been in a war there, and even then…. Some Americans also couldn’t name all the US states or locate them on a map. I think this lack of basic knowledge is why so many voters make irrational choices. They are not informed about the facts.

I made dinner for for my and friend and I not long ago. We both wanted to have Polish Sausage and Sauerkraut. She saw that on the jar of Sauerkraut that it said Bavarian Sauerkraut and said " I won't like it because German is the best" lol, I said Bavaria is in Germany! She didn't believe it. She ate it anyway, though.

Oh God R17, shut up.

We live in a world where opinions matter more than facts. And arguing facts will never persuade anyone of anything, no matter how ironclad your facts, because feelings trump all.

So people aren't embarrassed to spout off about stuff they know nothing about, and have no shame in being publicly proven to be totally wrong or ignorant. Because they're "right" in the only way that matters to them.

It used to be said that "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." Now everyone is expected to have the [italic]right[/italic] opinion, or else... and as for the so-called "facts," who cares?

[quote] Porsha Williams...didn't know what the underground railroad was.

And her name is misspelled, too.

It's not just about knowing random facts. It's about having a constellation of facts that come together to form a relatively sophisticated worldview. It's about using facts to produce greater context.

Some people are still unaware of the state of our educational systems. Grim. There were many students in my graduation class that struggled to read at a third grade level. Those students were passed along to the next grade anyway. This was years ago that this was happening so I have no idea how it is now. I grew up in the south. As a female my education wasn't considered important. I have always loved to read so much of what I learned I was self taught by my love of reading. We were truly cheated out of a decent learning experience and education. Just look at the idiots we are surrounded by now.

Was self-taught, not I. ^

It’s not just Americans who are clueless. Someone from the UK laughed at me when I referred to a volcano in the US. He insisted that there are no volcanoes anywhere in the United States.

R17 that’s me! Hee hee hee

[quote] Not knowing where to find Lesotho is forgivable (sorry, Basotho), but not being able to find the US on a map?

Some U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps.

R28- There are many people on SM insisting the world is flat. When I was in school I was told not to worry about learning math, it isn't that important just as long as you can add and subtract.

R7 What's wrong with the word literally?

It is really strange and even though I am a millennium and familiar with basic history I noticed that it really seemed to become more common in our generation. I’ll never forget in my mid twenties when I met a woman who’s mine was blown by finding out about North Korea. She had no idea there were still dictatorships in the world.

r33 I remember meeting some kids on vacation when I was about 11 or 12. They were 14 or 15 and didn't know when the American Civil War occurred. I don't mean they didn't know the exact years. They couldn't even put it in the right century. I remember being somewhat scandalized.

I am both OP and r25.

My point at r25 was that it's not really the lack of information that perplexes me, but what that lack of information implies. If you don't know very basic things about the world, when you look out into that world, what do you see?

R35, people are told what to see and they see what they're told.

Once upon a time, they were told by the church. Now they're told by the media or social media.

You don't need information when your beliefs are fed to you and you're certain that you're in the right.

Most people just want to be entertained, even in everyday small talk. You never learn anything from them and they never put in any effort beyond the basics to get by. Low contributors. What a banal way to live in the world.

For myself, I am grateful that I have always been a voracious reader. Reading opened the world for me. It is not healthy for your self esteem to be bright enough to be aware of your lack of education. ' Smart enough to know I am stupid. " The students who were never interested in reading were barely literate and it is shameful that they were allowed to graduate.

[quote]Is that some Elite Member DL function?

Yes, but it is not as highly valued as the one-free-hustler-a-month benefit.

When I was a kid in the 1970s I thought Africa was a country.

R36- Correct. As a female in the south we were forced into Home Economics when we really wanted to take shop or woodworking class. But at that time we were not allowed. I wanted to learn about cats and how to repair them so I wasn't a victim of sleazy mechanics all of my life. Nope, you will be put in heath class which is preparing the students for a career in nursing.

R37 lick my crevice

R41. Cars, not cats. Although I love cats. 😆

OP, you ought to be in a college classroom.

The lack of what should be common knowledge amongst the students is amazing...I should qualify that...American students. I've taught students from Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia. They possess what is common knowledge. Their American classmates cannot find their way home without GPS or the equivalent.

Americans have no knowledge of geography or basic facts...the capitals of states or foreign nations, for instance.

In 2019 I went on a gay cruise. One of the excursions I took was to this town that was well known in Italy for leather goods. I forgot the name of the town. This couple and their child were in the store purchasing something and this woman behind the counter said where are you from? The people told them they were from Israel than the woman said– Oh is that in Europe? Boy was she stupid.

R28, definitely not exclusive to America BUT I do think (on average) it is far more widespread here versus the other developed countries.

I’m Canadian and people here are unaware if basic history and I’ve met a criminally large amount of adults who don’t know where the provinces are. They have to look at a map to see that Nova Scotia is on the east coast. We only have ten provinces and three territories.

R21 “ for my and friend and I ”

Oh, dear!

I can memorize a map - memorization being one of the simplest, low-level skills…

R32 Accept the help. Don't use it. It makes you sound foolish.

My experience is that when people characterize any knowledge or mental skill as inferior or irrelevant, it is because they don’t know it or can’t actually do it.

R32, you used the word wrong. "Literally" means absolutely factually.

It is not correct that, as you said in R5, literally everyone with two brain cells knows how to see what someone else has posted.

Everyone alive has at least two brain cells. Of all people living, probably only a fraction of a percentage of them know how to find a posting history on Datalounge.

If you say, "I literally called customer service a hundred times today," you're misusing the word "literally" unless you actually did call customer service exactly one hundred times. Not 99, not 101, but [italic]literally[/italic] one hundred times.

Most people use the word wrong, so you're in good company. But now you know the right way to use it.

That is literally riveting r52.

r53 can't move because his ass is bolted to his chair.

"Aids Aftermath"........When you tell your 10 million followers about HIV/Aids ending (all around the world) in the 1990s. Absolute Ignorance. And for what? A paycheck?.

R52 Thanks I guess. But I didn't use the word literally. That was some other poster. I only wanted to know what he said that was wrong with that word

I saw a segment on Kimmel not too long ago where they asked young adults to pick out countries on a map. They couldn't even pick out the US.

I do ok when watching Jeopardy so that's something.

See it to believe it....Millennial drives over two people. In her hospital room she proceeds to sing and laugh and talk about taking a Vegas trip next. Fast Forward to the 20 minute mark.

COP = You killed two people tonight. Your car is totaled. Your car is a crime scene.

Driver Chick = My car is gone? How do I get to school tomorrow?. I have graduation in 4 weeks.

R59 24 years old in 2022, she's Gen Z. The oldest Zoomer is 26, the oldest Millennial is 42.

It's awful to hear someone riff and get everything wrong: "That Julie Garland played in the original "A Star Is Born".

R60 = Thank you Officer KnitPick....Eye'z try'n dooes better next timez!!

[quote][R32], you used the word wrong. "Literally" means absolutely factually.

If you look in almost any dictionary, you'll see that there are more than one definition for literally. The primary meaning is "factually" but informally, it's used to mean "virtually" when someone is exaggerating. And that usage dates back to the 1800s and has been used by writers like Mark Twain.

So you can't say someone misused literally when there are literally billions of cases where it's been used to mean the exact opposite of factual.

[quote][R1]=[R5]=[R9]

Maybe somebody like R1 has already answered this, but they're not all the same person. I can see R5 and R9, but I have R1 blocked.

Put back on topic, I am amazed when I'm talking to someone who isn't from the US but can tell you that Akron is in Ohio and know more about American geography than most Americans do.

I'll confess that I am a fairly well educated person, but I was an adult before I realized that Quebec wasn't just a city. I needed to get a plane ticket for a conference and I asked the travel company we used at work to book me a ticket to Quebec. And she asked me, which city? And I didn't know. I had to look more closely at the conference website to realize that the conference was in Montreal. I was probably 40.

In my weak defense, I never learned anything about Canada in school. It just wasn't a subject that ever came up.

I think that this is more of an American thing than with other nationalities. This is no proof but as an example, a couple of years ago I met some Americans my age in a train in Europe. We had a “name the USA state capital” game which I won. I’m Australian. We didn’t even attempt a “name the Australian state capital” game - there are only six states and two territories but why would Americans need to know those?

There was a Spanish guy on the same trip who refused to believe that Australia wasn’t a little island at the bottom of the Pacific and scoffed when I told him that it takes five hours to fly coast to coast.

[quote]We had a “name the USA state capital” game which I won. I’m Australian.

That's exactly what I was talking about at r64. I couldn't name the six states in Australia or their capitals. How did you as a non-American learn all of the US state capitals? When we're not even taught them all in school.

Well there's always a pecking order. And inside a range of the pecking order, there's a micro pecking order.

I'm a tenured professor. You'll find some tenured professors have broad general knowledge and some even have broad life experiences, and wide intellectual and creative interests. So they have that knowledge, too. But quite a number of professors have very narrow knowledge in a couple domaines - both academic and life. Deep, but narrow.

I'm sure some of what OP is observing is due to the type of mind a person has, and his curiosity about the world. Many people are not inclined to gather and learn broad knowledge.

This reminds me that there have been studies about the minds of political conservatives versus liberals...

🤡

[quote]How did you as a non-American learn all of the US state capitals?When we're not even taught them all in school.

I'm not the person you were replying to but when i was in school we learned all that shit about other countries, not just our own or those we were nearest and dearest to.

r67 I can completely understand that because when I started to learn about antiques I wanted to be good at just one category but I couldn't because I was too interested in all of it. So I am not an expert in any one thing but know some about a lot of antiques. I always felt there was just too much to learn and wanted to know something about all of it.

It is the same in my everyday life. I am sometimes amazed about how much I know especially about little stuff.

R65, well, to be fair, the capitals of the six states are also the largest cities in those states (right? I think so). It's easier to remember than Sydney is the capital of New South Wales than that Jefferson City is the capital of Missouri.

[quote]What do they think about all day? Do they lack all curiosity? It truly boggles my mind. I don't understand how one could go through life like that.

OP, many people have no interest in anything outside their own lives. They never think of anything that isn’t about their family, their work, their neighborhood or favorite sports team, or some celebrity they like. Nowadays, they are forced to show some interest in politics, but their "interest" consists of retweeting and mimicking the reactions of others, or else they pay no attention to logic or analysis and just cheer for the Democrats or Republicans as though they were football teams.

[quote]Maybe somebody like [R1] has already answered this, but they're not all the same person. I can see [R5] and [R9], but I have [R1]

I was r9 yesterday, but not r1 or r5. I find BEARKING to be the very height of nincompoopery.

[quote]It is really strange and even though I am a millennium and familiar with basic history I noticed that it really seemed to become more common in our generation.

Well in your defense, as a millennium, that's an awful lot of stuff to have to know. But at the same time, you've had 1,000 years to learn it!

There are heaps of dumb people everywhere though - I've noticed my nieces and nephews have no interest in anything other than what they HAVE to learn in school. They also don't learn critical thinking so they will just google something, assume it's correct and move on. I think the advent of smart phones and the internet has made people think learning stuff like that is now redundant. When all you had were the books in your local school or library, you kind of had to learn things off by heart.

r45 I see what you did there

There are arguments that young people do use the internet instead of memory for factoids such as state capitals. And maybe that is realistic. But there are lots of kind of old fashioned learning and memorising that was building cognitive capacity. So the info was of some importance but the brain exercise was very important. Children should be learning maths, music, art, and languages because this kind of learning and these systems build brain power. It think its OK if they off load minutia knowledge to the Internet but they ABSOLUTELY need information literacy and critical thinking and many do not have it. Even in university many do not have these skills.

R76, well put. Another reason to learn foreign languages is that it teaches us about English, especially grammar. We're usually taught grammar at a much more detailed level in a foreign-language class than in regular English classes, where the emphasis is on literature.

Also, studying a related language, like French or German, teaches us about how languages evolve and are connected by common linguistic ancestors.

[quote] OP, it's mainly an American thing.

No it’s not.

[quote]I'm utterly amazed by people who lack the most rudimentary information about the world around them. People who couldn't locate Brazil or Spain on a map. People who don't know the Middle Ages preceded the Renaissance, or that the American Civil War was fought in the mid-19th Century. Surely, there are a lot of these people in the world. (I've met several.) What do they think about all day? Do they lack all curiosity? It truly boggles my mind. I don't understand how one could go through life like that.

Because why do they need to know those things? It doesn't affect their day to day life. Yes, some people have interest in geography and history but some people don't. I would just stop judging them especially because those people may know a lot about other things or are good at some things I'm not. Even if it's just having a good life. They think about their relationships, work, sex, etc. Stop pretending that you 'don't understand how one could go through life like that' - you're just a snob.

Far from it, r79, but thanks for playing.

R80 Then you're the stupid one.

[quote]OP, it's mainly an American thing. The average American prides him or herself on being uneducated and clueless. They think it's hilarious that they don't know where New York (the state) is on the map.

There's ignorance wherever one looks in the world, but there is a deeply entrenched and digging deeper dimension to American ignorance:

Ignorant and goddamned proud of it!

[QUOTE] met a woman who’s mine was blown

Oh, dear.

[quote] but there is a deeply entrenched and digging deeper dimension to American ignorance:

No there isn’t.

[quote]Thank you Officer KnitPick....Eye'z try'n dooes better next timez!!

I loved this comeback, and gave a w/w. But as this thread descends into our usual pedantry, here's my humble contribution: it's *nitpick*.

wanna be depressed? Ask average US high school graduate when did United State of America become a nation...65% will say in the year zero.. and our nation is 2023 years old.

[quote]wanna be depressed? Ask average US high school graduate when did United State of America become a nation...65% will say in the year zero.. and our nation is 2023 years old.

I can't wait! In about 20 years, I'm going to go on Jeopardy and annihilate the millennials that don't know any basic facts and be the next Ken Jennings!!

It's my retirement plan.

R82, exactly. Americans think it's funny or cute or even good to be stupid and clueless about certain things (like geography); it's not.

The upside(?) is that people often marvel at my ability to do what I think are basic general-knowledge things -- cooking, house or car maintenance, gardening, etc. I can't count how many times I've been asked, "How do you know this stuff?"

I never know how to answer without sounding condescending, because the answer is usually "I read it" or "I researched it online." And then I tried it out and learned as I went.

It saddens me that people think everyday skills are some kind of genius-level specialty knowledge.

My go to, speaking with millennials, is to make sly jokes such as: "I bet you don't even like corny old movies. Such as Gone With the Wind that was made during the Civil War. I mean yeah, 1700s were a long time ago."

“I wonder if they even know what colors is” - recently overheard convo between 2 rednecks here in Texas as they were pontificating over ‘those’ people in ‘ shit hole’ countries… We are doomed.

We are a nation of fickwits. We are proud of our ignorance about everything. America is failing.

Take the US State Capital quiz!

R94, I never put much stock in state capitals quizzes or a lot of fact-based quizzes that miss the point. Knowing that it's Harrisburg and not Philadelphia or Pittsburgh in the case of Pennsylvania, or that the U.S. declared its entry into WWII on December 7, 1941, is arguably more baseball stats nitpicky than to be able to locate Pennsylvania as a Mid-Atlantic state and one of the original 13 states or that WWII occurred 1939-1945 with two key groups of Axis and Allied powers, with Pearl Harbor the trigger event for U.S. involvement.

It doesn't make for shirt and sweet quizzes, but the lessons we want from history are more about context and the character of a time period and key events and the repercussions. To guess that the state capital of Florida is Miami is a good laugh for Floridians, and oh how North Dakotans must laugh at people scrambling to name any ND city, let alone Bismarck, but to know those things is to know nothing about either state.

People love trying to trip up historians with pointless trivia, as though that is what history is. It's not.

How many siblings did George Washington have? Full- and half-?! What kind of wood were his dentures made of? How many new heads and how many new handles had the axe with which he chopped down the cherry tree? (The two trick questions to show the pointlessness of making such "facts" important.)

Buzzfeed-style tests can be both fun and stupid, but they are not a good picture of the sad state of things.

R95, I'm afraid you miss the point. Anyone who understands anything about the geopolitical stakes of WWII does know the dates, at least the years; the two bodies of knowledge are inseparable. It's like saying you don't care if your cardiologist knows where the vena cava is, as long as he has a good overview of cardiology.

Knowing 1939-1945 is the beginning of understanding the war. It's certainly not the end, but it's a necessary start.

Incidentally, there is quite a bit of evidence that memorization -- whether of dates, state capitols, poems, or speeches -- is in itself very beneficial to the brain, both developing brains and aging brains. Turns out there was merit to the old-school methods, in which students had to memorize the Gettysburg Address or the preamble to the Constitution.

I was attempting to comment on a pertinent news topic with an associate when she blurted out information regarding King Charles Coronation. Mind you, we live in the US.

He had to memorise Chaucer and Shakespear in HS.

R96, we're discussing different points, then: you about memorization of facts and dates AND 'knowledge at a level of 'anyone who understands anything about the geopolitical stakes of WWII', while I was suggesting that quizzes of state capitals are not the best indicator of OP's subject header, 'people ignorant of basic information about the world around them.'

My point is that a person who guesses that Pierre is the state capital of North Dakota is wrong, but not necessarily a fucking idiot (nor a cardiologist); however a person who doesn't have a clue to within 100 years of when WWII occurred or what nations were involved or why or anything of its lasting impact is a fucking idiot.

R99, all knowledge consists of facts. True understanding is another matter that involves thinking about that knowledge, absorbing and synthesizing it. But knowledge itself = facts.

What is trivia? If you are a recruiter for an MLB team, Hank Aaron's stats aren't trivia. If you're a cardiologist, maybe they are. For an American historian, the date of Dec. 7, 1941 is far from trivial. For a pushcart vendor in Mumbai, it might be meaningless.

I personally believe that there are few truly useless facts about history or geography. I don't go out of my way to memorize French kings of the 14th Century, no. But every bit of knowledge and information I happen to learn adds a tiny, useful bit of context to my world and how I interpret it. To put it another way: The more pixels, the clearer the picture.

I'm not sure how much of the details one needs to retain after having learned history one time. In college I had separate courses in: Cuban, French, Chinese, and American revolutions. Then my own readings on Russian and Haitian. 40 years later I can forget certain figures without a quick refresh. But I know what revolutions are all about. I enjoyed undergraduate courses across the domains so much that I dropped out of grad school, which I hated, and went to another college to get another BA. I only got graduate degrees 2 decades later when I need professional qualifications.

There's really nothing better than High School and college classes taught by passionate teachers who like young people and young minds.

I'm a college prof now at the end of my working life and its so amazing how fast some young people's minds are.

Not all young people are incurious.

R96, bravo! This, "Incidentally, there is quite a bit of evidence that memorization -- whether of dates, state capitols, poems, or speeches -- is in itself very beneficial to the brain, both developing brains and aging brains. Turns out there was merit to the old-school methods, in which students had to memorize the Gettysburg Address or the preamble to the Constitution." is 100% accurate.

I still make my way through history books. In early February I had surgery, spent 2 weeks recuperating. I had decided to read up on US presidents while at home. It was good, interesting stuff. But I don't remember much of anything... I never had to study and memorize what I read. I was never tested on the men, their dates, the sequence of who was president... seems like I wasted my time.

Studying, memorizing names, places dates is necessary.

Even the educated often have surprising compartmentalization of knowledge. I’m glad I have a liberal arts education. It’s a great first degree choice. Not knowing much makes one an easy victim. Perhaps that’s why it’s so damaging. To some degree being poor helps one learn how the world works because poorer people have to do so much for themselves. The wealthy can just pay for everything and never challenge there ignorance with practicality.

OP, the issue is clear. You expect too much of the general population which has been dumbed down due to laziness, poor education and apathy. Lower you expectations. You can thank me later.

Thank you, r96.

I read sometime ago that peoples brains were changing because they would not have remember things like those of us that didn't grow up with the internet. They won't be capable of critical thinking but they won't need it because there are machines to do it for them. This will be an entirely different world in 50 years.

[quote]Americans think it's funny or cute or even good to be stupid and clueless about certain things (like geography); it's not.

We are a nation who found it amusing to keep a game show called "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" on the air for six seasons.

Interesting r106

[quote]Speaking of both Real Housewives AND the thread topic. It still blows me away how Porsha Williams--granddaughter of a famous Civil Rights activists who was very close to MLK Jr.--didn't know what the underground railroad was. It's mindblowing.

Her claiming not to know what the underground railroad was seems to have had the intended effect of getting more attention for her "reality" show.

Didn't Jessica Simpson show them all how much attention can be gotten by a show of ignorance? Jesus, how can anyone believe anything Real Housewives say??

R108 I completely forgot that show even existed. Wow.

R95, as a nitpicker, I have to point out that the US declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941, not December 7. December 8 was the date of FDR’s “a date which will live in infamy” speech. We did not declare war on Germany until December 11.

Knowing these highly detailed facts is not especially important, but knowing that the attack on Pearl Harbor happened on December 7, 1941 is basic. Dates and places matter. Not knowing something like the date of the Pearl Harbor attack is gross ignorance for an American.

Besides, knowing when things happened and where things are helps students to place them in time and space. History is not a series of isolated events. You can't understand the 20th century without understanding the sequence of World War I, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, World War II, McCarthyism, etc. You can't hope to understand the sequence of events if you don't know the dates when they happened,

R109, Porsha also thought there were only 265 days in a year and when she visited Chinatown in San Francisco, she said "i feel like I'm in Tokyo!".

I can't find the clip, but Vicki Gunvalson claimed sharks were mammals.

R112, yet society celebrates these people.

Oh, you may say people only laugh at them, but they make millions from these shows and become celebrities. We reward them for being idiots, then wonder why people don't give a shit about knowing trivia like how many days there are in a year or what country Tokyo is in.

R114, it's no wonder the rest of the world views Americans as dumb. That's the image we put out there.

R115, these are reality show people. Every country has reality shows, and the participants are always stupid as fuck because who else would do reality TV?

The US has no public media to speak of, so all of our television is for-profit and tends to cater to the lower common denominator. All the same, the characters on some of the great scripted American dramas of this century have not been stupid or ignorant. As a recent example, the American characters on The White Lotus (both seasons) are not admirable people, but none of them is most notable for being unintelligent or ignorant.

This show was so entertaining.

[Quote] The White Lotus (both seasons) are not admirable people

Trash tv watched by the masses

White Lotus was not trash tv