Thanks for tossing out a stereotype. Care to tell us about “most” other groups of people while you’re at it?
“Most” anything usually isn’t, and people who start off a conversation saying that “most” of a group of people are a certain negative way tend to be distasteful. For further reference, see “bigots”.
I’d be real curious to know where that “somewhere” was that you read that, but even if it was legit, I know of at least one talk show here in the states that has a segment they do (did?) where they walk around outside their studio in New York asking random people basic questions and making fun of them when they get it wrong. They don’t tend to show the people who get the questions right, since that’s not good television.
There are people who don’t know things everywhere. But they are usually things they don’t need to know to get through their daily lives. Like asking a millionaire how much a loaf of bread costs. Doing that could show you how disconnected they are, but the takeaway isn’t usually that they are stupid. They don’t need to know it. They need to know other things.
As for what you read, what was the sample size and how were they selected? If they polled 100 people from a single area, and 51 couldn’t do those things, then they can conclude most of that specific group of people couldn’t. But to extrapolate that out to the entire population of 328,000,000+ Americans is disingenuous at best. Fitting an agenda at worst.
Speaking for myself, I can find my state (one of the rectangles you mentioned) and country on maps, but geography and I have never been friends. I also don’t like to travel. I know where my limits are, and I’m okay with them because I don’t need that knowledge in my day-to-day life.
Back to Waterworld:
Take two people, one who knows geography, and one who doesn’t.
Flood the world so that only the tops of the Tibetan plateau remains above the water.
Drop them in random spots on the now flooded world at least 1000-3000 miles from the last remaining land.
See how well either one does at finding it without any visible landmarks other than water on all sides and astrological bodies (provided they could be seen).
If the one who knows geography also happens to know how to navigate by the stars, he’s set. Provided he has enough food and water to make the trip. If he doesn’t know how to use the stars to navigate, then unless he’s lucky, I would expect him to be just as screwed.
