Gennifer Flowers.

[hollodero]

(10-10-2016, 11:54 PM)Dilldo Wrote: I wouldn't expect anyone in any one country to follow what's happening in ALL countries on any continent. That's not the standard/level of "informed" to which I was appealing. My points were more nuanced, tying interest and ability to economic and educational levels varying within and across countries. (Not all Germans are Gymnasium graduates.)

And one point was that many Europeans--proportionally more than Americans--follow SOMETHING of other countries' culture and politics, and through the other countries' media/language. One consequence of bilingualism or multilingualism (E.g. many Swiss do know French as well as German and English)  is that people, in addition to becoming better informed about international politics, do become more aware of their own media's filters.  English allows non-Anglo Europeans quick access to to British as well as U.S. media. Further, those in the EU are somewhat forced to pay attention to other EU countries' economies and elections, even if they can't speak Greek or Spanish.  U.S. Middle-East politics have a great deal to do with the current refugees crisis in Europe, driving interest in what is going on in those countries and in U.S. foreign policy as well.

That might be true. I still believe you kind of overestimate this aspect, though. You see the ocean of intellectual sluggishness in your country, you might have missed out on ours.
Of our 8.5 million people in this country, over 3 million read one and the same newspaper. Guess what kind of newspaper this might be. If your guesses lead you to a word like "sophisticated", you're on the wrong track.

Some Europeans are multilingual, sure. A huge advantage and I envy those. Many here are certainly not, I'm not sure if I would call some even unilingual. What many of these these people - in varying intensities - "know" of refugees is simply they get here uninvited, they are bad minds, I don't like them, I want them out, I do not care if they die, might even cheer for it. They do know squat about Syria. There is no exaggeration here, and it's not just a few so I just... you know, the picture you draw is somehow a bit unbalanced and makes us look like such educated societies. That's just a segment, maybe the segment you interacted with. Now if yours is smaller, I would not know, I guess it is.

Sure, Americans don't really are known as particularly knowledgable people. No doubt.

(10-10-2016, 11:54 PM)Dill Wrote: If you have been following our election, you may recall that the Libertarian candidate for president, Gary Johnson, drew a complete blank when a journalist asked him about the situation in Aleppo. "What's Aleppo?" he responded. A few weeks later, Chris Matthews asked him to name one current world leader he admired. He could not think of a single one. (His VP chimed in "Merkel.") Johnson said "The previous president of Mexico," but could not remember his name. This is a former governor of New Mexico, whose state borders on Mexico. Trump, at least, could name Putin. That one candidate DOES know quite about about foreign policy and the politics of foreign countries does not seem regarded by the U.S. electorate a particularly decisive point in her favor.

I know Gary Johnson. He seems funny, a nice little funny meaningless clown. I don't know why you brought him up, I'd say people like him don't prove much - you have not seen what ran for president in OUR country. At least Johnson gets called out for knowing nothing, so that's a good sign.

The appeal of "outsiders" is a strange thing. It's almost as if people would not recognize the hard work a politician, let alone a president has to do. They would not trust a plumber without at least 5 years job experience to fix their toilet, yet they go for someone with no track record whatsoever to run the country. This kind of belief is strange. But maybe that's why her expertise and experience don't help Hillary - many people simply hold it against her. They found a magician who can fix stuff she and other politicians have learned to unintentionally sabotage. I know of course it's an empty smokescreen and the job is really about being knowledgeable, being insistent and working hard for small evolutional steps in an environment full of unpleasant facts and boundaries. Trump cannot change that. He can ignore it and cause complete chaos or he can let Pence run the show, but that's that. But I think people do not grasp any of these realities, which incidentally is also quite an American thing. (See: Climate change.)