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yeah it just makes me mad... like seriously nobody knows what Kyrgyzstan is. And Bhutan. And Equatorial Guinea. It bothers me how people don’t know what should be basic knowledge...

They literally never taught geography in our school system even though every classroom had a map.

part of it could definitely be traced to the quality / pacing of our education, but it probably has more to do with the general cultural mindset many americans grow up with and never bother to actually unlearn.

we live in such an "american-centric" world—the US has been a global superpower in terms of political and economic influence for decades; our products, media, and culture are very widespread. so if you grow up here, it's easy to feel like the US is basically the center of the world, or even the only place worth thinking about—especially if you grew up in a more isolated / less diverse area, e.g. the rural midwest vs a major coastal city.

we're also only bordered by canada and mexico, so the idea of existing alongside other countries is more abstract and less intuitive. contrast that with other continents, which often consist of many countries all densely packed around each other—and often politically, culturally, and economically interconnected in very material ways for the people who live there. so if you live in france, you kind of HAVE to know that spain is over there, and italy is over there, and belgium is up there.

combine all that, you have a whole lot of americans who don't really think about the rest of the world, who think global culture should cater to THEIR american sensibilities, and who would confidently say, "why should i have to know or think about other countries or where they are on a map? that's not relevant to me."

Even I consider myself absolutely abysmal with geography, but it is sometimes lowkey funny to see how many "grown and educated" adults can't even point out some simple countries ;-;