Deus_Ex: Hmm, aren't all americans a bit geographically challenged? Their nation has basically built itself into a bubble where seemingly no one has any reason to venture or know anything outside their own country? I head that the majority of Americans don't have a passport (though I can't remember if that's true or not) and basically when you are not being challenged to think differently or you can avoid confrontation with issues not relevant to your own interests (with even interests being very narrow because of your surroundings) you develop into a narrow-minded being. Some teenagers thankfully notice this and aren't satisfied with having opinions fed to them, instead they try to think for themselves and try to educate themselves.
I guess all I'm trying to say is that you're more or less the product of your surroundings, at least a big part of you is, and that when you lack certain stimulants you don't have the resources necessary to form what we would think of as an educated opinion.
Well, that is a bit of a myth perpetuated by some street interviews, particularly in big cites. The same has been done in European cities and Asia with similar geographic knowledge results.
The idea that most Americans don't have passports is probably true, but in reality they never needed them until recently. Up until a dozen years ago or so travel to the Mexico, Canada and many Caribbean nations did not require a passport. The reason most Europeans have passports is geography and history. Smaller countries, clustered together, each with unique cultures, languages and physical geography. I am not sure if this has changed since the formation of the E.U., but for sometime passports were required for travel between European countries. Especially between the big wars. During the big wars you only needed a gun and special government sanctioned travel arrangements. Also, locations in Africa, the middle east and Russia though relatively close, still required passports for travel.
The USA has an very diverse geography, both cultural and physical. Each state has it's own history and cultural identity-- the nation is not as homogenous as it might appear in some media. Each state, especially those separated by other states, can be strikingly different culturally, even in laguage. Also, the USA is made up of people from all over the world and every walk of life, each bringing their own view point and culture. People here are being challenged to think differently everyday through many multi-cultural interactions and a vast majority of those do not end up in fights.
Not to mention the Internet gives us all the ability to communicate freely across the world, giving us the ability to challenge each others preconceptions, regardless of your surroundings.
You can not let a couple of teenage yahoos on facebook define the country as a whole, that would be a grievous fallacy of composition. It is very difficult to have a narrow point of view here and get away with it. True, there are teenagers who can think for themselves, in fact those two in the facebook posts are doing just that (how ever ridiculous they might be), but you do not need a passport, be a world traveler or "not-an-American" to be able to think for your self or have your point of view challeged.
