6 ms·

I don't know what the author's real motives were (Was it really to beat on the theme that 'Americans are ignorant?), but I personally think this is a good exerc

by kghose 13y ago

I don't know what the author's real motives were (Was it really to beat on the theme that 'Americans are ignorant?), but I personally think this is a good exercise to humble yourself - 'My country/city is not as important as I think it is'. Frankly, Britain is not as important as it once was and hasn't been for half a century. And it's not particularly notable. You would have better luck with Germany, France, Greece, Russia or many countries in Asia which are much more interesting tourist destinations and have more name recognition. I see this in science a lot. There are people in a field who are very famous and who get a little spoilt by that fame. But if you happen to mention their name to someone from a slightly different field, its 'Who?' I think it is important to realize that.

Dirlewanger 13y ago
'Americans are ignorant' You know he was dying for results that would support this. Why else would they ask such an inane question?
- tapworthtg 13y ago
  He is a she. There's a big picture of her, and she's called Stacey. Or did you not notice as the page doesn't have a pink background and it's about stats?
  - 67726e 13y ago
    Please grow up. It's common for people to default to "he" as when they do not know the gender of the person in question. I didn't even notice the author until you mentioned anything. If anything, your last comment is quite a bit more inflammatory than accidentally referring to a random blogger as a "he".
    - tapworthtg 13y ago
      Fuck you cunt.
      - 67726e 13y ago
        You might want to give the guideleines a read: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
      - officemonkey 13y ago
        Stay classy, ponyboy.
    - moocowduckquack 13y ago
      It's a common for people to default to "he" as when they do not know the gender of the person in question. It says "by Stacy" at the top of the article and there's a picture of her next to it. Being unsure of the authorship after reading it would seem lazy at best.
      - 67726e 13y ago
        I just tend to tune out whatever is on the sidebar of a website as it tends to be ads or other things I probably don't care enough to read. As for the "by Stacy", well it is rather small and gray. Of course I have a feeling the poster of the comment that sparked this little flame-war didn't read the article.
        DanBC 13y ago
        defending a sexist assumption by claiming a lack of attention to detail and an unwillingness to read the whole pages feels sub-optimal.
        67726e 13y ago
        Again, I don't really see using "he" as sexist. It's just the English language. From Merriam-Webster: 1: prejudice or discrimination based on sex; especially : discrimination against women 2: behavior, conditions, or attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on sex I can understand an argument that the author of the comment said "he" because of some assumption that anyone doing stats must be a man. However I'm making the counterargument that using "he" is a standard default in English and that such usage is not sexist, but rather as a result of how the English language is used.
        moocowduckquack 13y ago
        That's an astoundingly crap argument. You are saying that using he as a default isn't sexist because it is a default. However saying that a default position is a default position tells us very little indeed and nothing whatsoever about if that default position is sexist.
  - coldtea 13y ago
    He probably wanted to pad the stats.
  - MaulingMonkey 13y ago
    Personally, once the site stopped 500ing on me outright, I certainly didn't pick out her face in the sidebar full of social networking icons, random facebook faces, and navigation links until I went looking for it. Then again, I didn't pick out the entire sidebar. I had a hard time finding her name on the page even looking for it. It's not a signature, but tucked away nearer to the top between the blog title and more social networking noise, in light grey text on white background, in a completely separate column from the profile pic. Perhaps if Facebook like buttons alone didn't out-number her name 4:1 (whether or not you count the comments) it'd be easier to notice these things...
  - PencilAndPaper 13y ago
    I totally relate to your frustration here, but you are being petty in your reaction. If you would like to change the way the language works, hostile personal attacks are more likely to turn people against your cause.
alexjeffrey 13y ago
as a Brit I totally agree with the notability thing and it's a crying shame - the UK has always been such a key player on the world stage (not always in a positive light, mind you) until WWII. It seems pretty crazy that Germany has since recovered to become the most powerful economy in Europe while Britain has never really found its feet again, given Germany suffered arguably much more crushing losses.
Shish2k 13y ago
> I don't know what the author's real motives were You have reason to doubt "what I actually wanted to find out is how well known my own beloved city is"?
moocowduckquack 13y ago
I don't know what the author's real motives were She did explain a motive right at the start of the article, that of seeing how well known Manchester was.
coldtea 13y ago
>I don't know what the author's real motives were (Was it really to beat on the theme that 'Americans are ignorant?), but I personally think this is a good exercise to humble yourself - 'My country/city is not as important as I think it is'. Defensive much? For one it proves they are quite ignorant on geography. Britain might not be as important, but it's as well known a country as they come. They would fair even worse with other European cities -- "You're from Austria? I love Kangaroos!" Heck, a few of the people I've asked for information didn't know large-ish cities 50-70 miles across a state line from them. Like living in Grand Island and having never heard of Wichita or Topeka. Now, I can understand why that is: you can live all your life in Oklahoma or Oregon without ever caring about what happens in New Mexico or Idaho, much less about Britain or Japan. You just know what you have to know to get by in your own life -- and you might be very knowledgable in your field and even active in local politics etc. After all each state is the size of a large or small country in Europe itself. What's troubling is that this lack of geographical knowledge means a total lack of interest and knowledge about world affairs -- that's how the only affairs that matter to the population are the ones that have been spoonfed to them by the media, and in the specific way they have been spoonfed to them. In Europe, geographical skills are more or less taken for granted. And caring about world affairs is very much mainstream, including going out of your way to learn about them, not just what happens to be the discussion of the month on TV/intertubes.
- mkr-hn 13y ago
  Most Americans care a great deal about what happens in other countries, but Europe, the middle east, and the rest of Asia are a long way from the drug war on the border or economic tensions with countries in south and central America. It's easy to forget that the planet is very big, and we're very far away from your local concerns. Brazil and Alberta are more urgent interests for me than the debt crisis in Greece. That doesn't mean I don't care about what's happening over there, but I have to prioritize. There are over 100 countries and at least as many things worth knowing in each.
eksith 13y ago
Are you from the U.K. or Europe? I'm curious because you used "spoilt" in lieu of "spoiled".
- kghose 13y ago
  Uh Oh. You outed me :) I've been around a bit, but in the critical period I was schooled under the British system. It took a bit of adjusting but I've finally got rid of all the 'u's in my spelling, and I fit in very well, thank you.

by kghose 13y ago

Dirlewanger 13y ago

'Americans are ignorant' You know he was dying for results that would support this. Why else would they ask such an inane question?

tapworthtg 13y ago
He is a she. There's a big picture of her, and she's called Stacey. Or did you not notice as the page doesn't have a pink background and it's about stats?
- 67726e 13y ago
  Please grow up. It's common for people to default to "he" as when they do not know the gender of the person in question. I didn't even notice the author until you mentioned anything. If anything, your last comment is quite a bit more inflammatory than accidentally referring to a random blogger as a "he".
  - tapworthtg 13y ago
    Fuck you cunt.
    - 67726e 13y ago
      You might want to give the guideleines a read: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    - officemonkey 13y ago
      Stay classy, ponyboy.
  - moocowduckquack 13y ago
    It's a common for people to default to "he" as when they do not know the gender of the person in question. It says "by Stacy" at the top of the article and there's a picture of her next to it. Being unsure of the authorship after reading it would seem lazy at best.
    - 67726e 13y ago
      I just tend to tune out whatever is on the sidebar of a website as it tends to be ads or other things I probably don't care enough to read. As for the "by Stacy", well it is rather small and gray. Of course I have a feeling the poster of the comment that sparked this little flame-war didn't read the article.
      - DanBC 13y ago
        defending a sexist assumption by claiming a lack of attention to detail and an unwillingness to read the whole pages feels sub-optimal.
        67726e 13y ago
        Again, I don't really see using "he" as sexist. It's just the English language. From Merriam-Webster: 1: prejudice or discrimination based on sex; especially : discrimination against women 2: behavior, conditions, or attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on sex I can understand an argument that the author of the comment said "he" because of some assumption that anyone doing stats must be a man. However I'm making the counterargument that using "he" is a standard default in English and that such usage is not sexist, but rather as a result of how the English language is used.
        moocowduckquack 13y ago
        That's an astoundingly crap argument. You are saying that using he as a default isn't sexist because it is a default. However saying that a default position is a default position tells us very little indeed and nothing whatsoever about if that default position is sexist.
- coldtea 13y ago
  He probably wanted to pad the stats.
- MaulingMonkey 13y ago
  Personally, once the site stopped 500ing on me outright, I certainly didn't pick out her face in the sidebar full of social networking icons, random facebook faces, and navigation links until I went looking for it. Then again, I didn't pick out the entire sidebar. I had a hard time finding her name on the page even looking for it. It's not a signature, but tucked away nearer to the top between the blog title and more social networking noise, in light grey text on white background, in a completely separate column from the profile pic. Perhaps if Facebook like buttons alone didn't out-number her name 4:1 (whether or not you count the comments) it'd be easier to notice these things...
- PencilAndPaper 13y ago
  I totally relate to your frustration here, but you are being petty in your reaction. If you would like to change the way the language works, hostile personal attacks are more likely to turn people against your cause.

alexjeffrey 13y ago

as a Brit I totally agree with the notability thing and it's a crying shame - the UK has always been such a key player on the world stage (not always in a positive light, mind you) until WWII. It seems pretty crazy that Germany has since recovered to become the most powerful economy in Europe while Britain has never really found its feet again, given Germany suffered arguably much more crushing losses.

Shish2k 13y ago

> I don't know what the author's real motives were You have reason to doubt "what I actually wanted to find out is how well known my own beloved city is"?

moocowduckquack 13y ago

I don't know what the author's real motives were She did explain a motive right at the start of the article, that of seeing how well known Manchester was.

coldtea 13y ago

>I don't know what the author's real motives were (Was it really to beat on the theme that 'Americans are ignorant?), but I personally think this is a good exercise to humble yourself - 'My country/city is not as important as I think it is'. Defensive much? For one it proves they are quite ignorant on geography. Britain might not be as important, but it's as well known a country as they come. They would fair even worse with other European cities -- "You're from Austria? I love Kangaroos!" Heck, a few of the people I've asked for information didn't know large-ish cities 50-70 miles across a state line from them. Like living in Grand Island and having never heard of Wichita or Topeka. Now, I can understand why that is: you can live all your life in Oklahoma or Oregon without ever caring about what happens in New Mexico or Idaho, much less about Britain or Japan. You just know what you have to know to get by in your own life -- and you might be very knowledgable in your field and even active in local politics etc. After all each state is the size of a large or small country in Europe itself. What's troubling is that this lack of geographical knowledge means a total lack of interest and knowledge about world affairs -- that's how the only affairs that matter to the population are the ones that have been spoonfed to them by the media, and in the specific way they have been spoonfed to them. In Europe, geographical skills are more or less taken for granted. And caring about world affairs is very much mainstream, including going out of your way to learn about them, not just what happens to be the discussion of the month on TV/intertubes.

mkr-hn 13y ago
Most Americans care a great deal about what happens in other countries, but Europe, the middle east, and the rest of Asia are a long way from the drug war on the border or economic tensions with countries in south and central America. It's easy to forget that the planet is very big, and we're very far away from your local concerns. Brazil and Alberta are more urgent interests for me than the debt crisis in Greece. That doesn't mean I don't care about what's happening over there, but I have to prioritize. There are over 100 countries and at least as many things worth knowing in each.

eksith 13y ago

Are you from the U.K. or Europe? I'm curious because you used "spoilt" in lieu of "spoiled".

kghose 13y ago
Uh Oh. You outed me :) I've been around a bit, but in the critical period I was schooled under the British system. It took a bit of adjusting but I've finally got rid of all the 'u's in my spelling, and I fit in very well, thank you.