认为“美国人无知”的偏见是从哪里来的?（一）
Where does the prejudice that Americans are ignorant come from?
译文简介
很多（这种偏见）都来自于20世纪60年代。
正文翻译
Where does the prejudice that Americans are ignorant come from?
认为“美国人无知”的偏见是从哪里来的?（一）
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
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Not all Americans are ignorant, by any means - some of the best universities in the world are in the US. But overall, the standard of education in the US is lower than in other developed countries, and people in the US who are ignorant seem to be actively proud of their ignorance, and to flaunt it publicly, which creates the impression that there are more of them than there probably are.
无论如何，并不是所有的美国人都是无知的——世界上一些最好的大学都在美国。
但总体而言,美国教育的标准低于其他发达国家, 在美国，无知的人似乎积极地为自己的无知而自豪，并公开炫耀，这给人留下了这样的印象:无知的人比实际人数要多。
Asimov had this all worked out back in the 50s, Claire (so no surprises there). Even then, he identified it as a mood of “My ignorance is as good as your knowledge, any day!” And it seems to have gone steadily downhill ever since then.
Thank God for those utterly brilliant Americans we have on here, helping to redress the balance!
阿西莫夫早在50年代就提出了这个问题，所以这并不奇怪。即使在那时，他也认为这是一种“我的无知和你的知识一样多”的情绪。从那以后，它似乎一直在稳步下降。
感谢上帝，感谢那些非常聪明的美国人，帮助我们纠正这种平衡！
（注：艾萨克·阿西莫夫（Isaac Asimov，1920年1月2日-1992年4月6日），俄罗斯犹太裔美国科幻小说作家、科普作家、文学评论家，美国科幻小说黄金时代的代表人物之一。）
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
“在美国有一种对无知的崇拜，而且一直都是这样。反智主义的压力一直在我们的政治和文化生活中蜿蜒伸展，被一种错误的观念所滋养，即民主意味着“我的无知和你的知识一样好”。”——艾萨克·阿西莫夫
Asimov’s quote is even better than Goethe’s “Nothing is more frightful than ignorance in action.”
阿西莫夫的名言甚至比歌德的名言“没有什么比行动中的无知更可怕。”说得更切中要害。
Americans learn young to act less knowledgeable than they are. It comes from high school. Students who let the word get out that their grades are too high, or that they're actually interested in any of the subjects, would be ostracized on a good day and soundly beaten on a bad one. Even the teachers would mock the smart students. Learning to play dumb is a survival skill; better to be thought a moron than to be seen as a target for mob violence.
Some people learn the lesson a bit too well, and their faces grow to fit the mask.
美国人年轻的时候（高中的时候）就知道自己要表现得学习不够好。如果自己的分数过高或者对某门学科感兴趣的消息传出去，他们会好的一天受到排斥，在坏的一天受到痛打。即使是老师也会嘲笑聪明的学生。学会装聋作哑是一种生存技能;宁可被认为是白痴也不要被看成是暴民暴力的目标。
有些人把这一课学得太好了，所以他们的脸会长得和面具很贴合。
Meh, sounds like my entire primary school life, and half my high school life.
My mother taught (relieving teacher) at my primary school.
And still wasn’t told until I left that the reason I spent lunch and interval sitting in the library or outside the staff room was to avoid being beaten up.
听起来像是我的整个小学生活，还有一半高中生活。
我母亲在我的小学授课(代课)。
直到我离开时，我才吐露心声，把午餐和休息时间花在图书馆或教研室外面，是为了避免挨打。
As the late John Lennon put it: “They hate you if you’re clever and they despise a fool.”
正如已故的约翰·列侬(John Lennon)所言:“如果你聪明，他们会恨你;如果你愚蠢，他们会鄙视你。”
Similar experience in Australia. And there is a definite anti-intellectualist thread in adult society, but it seems to not have had quite the same consequences as it has in the US.
As an ex-smart student who got mocked a lot, there were other smart students with better social skills that seemed to do ok in the popularity stakes. And as a smart student it generally felt like the teachers were mostly on my side.
在澳大利亚也有类似的经历。在成人社会中存在着一种明确的反智主义倾向，但它的后果似乎并不像在美国那样严重。
作为一名经常被嘲笑的聪明学生，这里也有一些社交技能更好的聪明学生，在受欢迎程度方面似乎做得不错。作为一个聪明的学生，老师们通常都是站在我这边的。
sure and thats kinda the problem, as you said even the TREACHERS join in on Ostracizing the smart kids
当然，这就是问题所在，就像你说的，即使是叛变者也加入了排斥聪明孩子的行列。
The average American is poorer than the average citizen of other developed countries. Many millions of children are raised in homes with no books, magazines, or newspapers. Their vocabularies at age six are a fraction of those in northern European countries. They see no connection between learning and building a successful future.
Our problem isn’t our schools; it’s our economy.
普通美国人比其他发达国家的普通公民更穷。数以百万计的儿童在没有书籍、杂志或报纸的家庭中长大。他们在六岁时掌握的词汇量只是北欧国家的一小部分。他们认为学习和建设成功的未来之间没有任何联系。
我们的问题不在于学校，在于我们的经济。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
Our problem isn’t the schools, it’s our culture. Citizens of poorer countries have less, but are more educated and well informed. They spend much time and money in education. Americans have money. They just choose to spend it on things like sports and gadgets and pickup trucks. And to compensate for our ignorance, we continuously lower standards, with excuses like “well Algebra isn’t reaaaaally necessary in a college curriculum” or “let’s get rid of standardized tests because inequality and diversity.”
我们的问题不是学校，而是我们的文化。较贫穷国家的公民虽然拥有较少的财富，但受教育程度更高，见识更广。他们在教育上花了很多时间和金钱。
而美国人有钱。他们只是选择把钱花在运动、小玩意和皮卡上。为了弥补我们的无知，我们不断降低标准，借口是“代数在大学课程中并不是真的必须的”或“因为不平等和多样性，让我们摆脱标准化考试吧。”
When I was six Adlai Stevenson lost an election because he was classified as an “egghead “, or too smart. I couldn’t understand that. Even at that age I was mystified by the way Americans mistrusted brains. I still don’t understand it. Maybe people over identify with their leaders and want somebody dumb like them.
我六岁时，阿德莱·史蒂文森(Adlai Stevenson)输掉了一场选举，因为他被归类为“书呆子”，也就是太聪明了。我不能理解。在那个年纪，我对美国人不相信大脑的方式感到困惑。
我至今还是不明白。也许人们过于认同他们的领导，想要一个像他们一样愚蠢的人。
That seems to have repeated itself.
Dukakis lost to Bush in ‘88 partially because people thought he was a nerd. And while Bush would have been vulnerable against any Democrat the following election, Clinton built a strong following in the ‘90s by presenting as very down-home and plain-spoken.
The younger Bush continued this trend through the ‘00s, winning two elections over opponents who both came off as much smarter, but who also made gaffes that made them appear socially inept at times.
这种情况似乎正在重演。
88年杜卡基斯败给布什，部分原因是人们认为他是个书呆子。在接下来的选举中，布什可能会在任何民主党人面前不堪一击，而克林顿在90年代通过表现得非常平易近人和直言不讳，建立了强大的追随者。
小布什在00年代延续了这一趋势，在两次选举中战胜了对手，他们都比布什聪明得多，但有时也会出丑，因为他们在社交方面显得笨拙。
I’ll tell you, there was a shocking realization that quite a number of Americans that I had previously judged to be intelligent, reasonable and rational proved me egregiously wrong—all thanks to their belief in, support and adoration of Donald Trump. They bought into everything he was selling without question and that just left me gobsmacked. And you are quite correct when you say we seem to revel and relish in our ignorance. For many it seems to serve as a badge of honor.
When the realization dawned on me that I wasn’t anywhere nearly as clever as I thought myself to be, that was when I figure I was reaching my stride as an adult. In hindsight, I see that I didn’t need to be all that clever when surrounded by people for whom it wasn’t an important trait.
我告诉你，我震惊地发现，相当多我之前认为聪明、合理、理性的美国人证明我错得离谱——这一切都归功于他们对唐纳德·特朗普的信仰、支持和崇拜。他们毫无疑问地买进了他卖的所有言论，这让我大吃一惊。当你说我们似乎陶醉于自己的无知时，你说得很对。对许多人来说，它似乎是一种荣誉的象征。
当我意识到自己远没有自己想象的那么聪明时，我觉得自己已经成熟了。事后看来，我发现，当周围的人认为聪明不是一个重要的品质时，我并不需要变得那么聪明。
I’m a Canadian, and my nation shares a border with the USA. It’s not like we’re on opposite sides of the globe. Our cultures are quite similar, and most Canadians have a good understanding of how things work in the USA. But the ridiculous misconceptions Americans have about Canada and Canadians are astounding.
For starters, Americans seem to think Canada is bound by the US constitution. There were Americans taking part in the recent “Freedom Convoy” debacle. When the “protest” was dismantled, they complained that their First Amendment Rights were being violated. They seemed completely ignorant of the fact that Canada has its own constitution, and that the American First Amendment doesn’t apply in Canada.
They also assumed that their Second Amendment right to bear arms extends to Canada as well…a few of them tried to bring a variety of firearms, including automatic weapons, into Canada to help them with their “peaceful protest”. I’ve had it explained to me by Americans that we Canadians are being oppressed by our government because we don’t have the right to bear arms enshrined in our constitution.
我是加拿大人，我的国家与美国接壤。我们不是在地球的另一边。我们的文化非常相似，大多数加拿大人都很了解美国的运作方式。但美国人对加拿大和加拿大人的荒谬误解令人震惊。
首先，美国人似乎认为加拿大受美国宪法的约束。有美国人参与了最近的“自由护卫队”(Freedom Convoy)游行。当“抗议”被解散时，他们抱怨他们的第一修正案权利受到了侵犯。他们似乎完全不知道加拿大有自己的宪法，也不知道美国第一修正案在加拿大不适用。
他们还认为，第二修正案赋予他们携带武器的权利也延伸到加拿大……他们中的一些人试图将包括自动武器在内的各种武器带入加拿大，以帮助他们进行“和平抗议”。 美国人向我解释说，我们加拿大人正在被我们的政府压迫，因为我们没有权利携带宪法规定的武器。
Why Canadians don’t want to be “annexed” by the USA. Or why the USA doesn’t just annex us anyway.
Why the USA doesn’t just “take” the western half of British Columbia so they can drive all the way to Alaska without leaving American soil.
Why we allow “socialized medicine” instead of adopting the for-profit health care system Americans “enjoy”.
Why we don’t have Freedom of Speech in Canada.
Why we’re “ruled” by a Queen.
Why we aren’t more grateful for American Military “protection”.
Why we’re a com...st country.
Why we don’t celebrate Independence Day on the 4th of July.
Why we don’t celebrate American Thanksgiving.
It’s like Americans don’t understand that Canada is a separate nation…they seem to think we’re just an overly large American state that hasn’t learned The Rules yet.
我每天都会在Quora上看到一些非常无知的问题，比如:
为什么加拿大人不想被美国“吞并”，或者为什么美国不吞并我们。
为什么美国不直接“占领”不列颠哥伦比亚省的西半部，这样他们就可以在不离开美国领土的情况下一路开车到阿拉斯加。
为什么我们允许“社会化医疗”，而不是采用美国人“享受”的营利性医疗保健系统?
为什么我们加拿大没有言论自由?
为什么我们被女王“统治”。
为什么我们不更感激美国军队的“保护”?
为什么我们是共产主义国家。
为什么我们不在7月4日庆祝独立日?
为什么我们不庆祝美国感恩节。
美国人似乎不明白加拿大是一个独立的国家，他们似乎认为我们只是一个美国的大点的州，还没有学会规则。
Oh, Cathy, I wish it weren’t true!
American here and I love the time I spend in Canada - just summer road trips from California into B.C. and over the Alberta border into the National Parks. I have so enjoyed the people I’ve met, the conversations with Canadians who know much more about the U.S. than most people I know here.
So just so you know, not all from the U.S. are as you describe.
嗨，楼主，我希望这不是真的！
我是美国人，我喜欢在加拿大度过的时光——夏天的公路旅行，从加州到不列颠哥伦比亚省，越过阿尔伯塔省边界进入国家公园。我很享受我遇到的人，和加拿大人的谈话，他们比我在这里认识的大多数人都更了解美国。
正如你所知，并非所有美国人都像你描述的那样。
Great reply Ron I’m sure not all Americans are ignorant, people have a couple of experiences and then think all people in USA are like that.
答得好，我相信不是所有的美国人都是无知的，人们有一两次经历，然后认为所有的美国人都是那样的。
I’m going on a lifetime of ignorant questions here, not “a couple of experiences”.
我一生都在精力这些无知的问题，这不是“一两次经历“。
It’s a sad commentary on the utterly pathetic education system of much of the U.S. Certainly not the entire country, but the more conservative states seem to have the dumbest citizens. Maybe it’s due to very lax rules on home schooling, and you can imagine the “quality” of an at-home education, if you can call it that. Also many evangelical religious schools, where religion is the #1 subject and things like world history and civics take a back seat —- way, way back. I know from experience, having been forced by a stupid brainwashed mother to endure six years of Catholic school. Would’ve been more but the sex-is-evil Catholic mentality had the last four grades (9–12) converted into a girls school. I’m sure the nuns couldn’t handle the guys lusting after all those pure, innocent ladies. Guess I kind of went off on a tangent, but I’m still bitter after several decades.
[EDIT ADDED: Admittedly, this is little more than my opinion based on what I’ve seen and heard and is certainly far from complete and not totally obxtive. The reply below from Kelly Holt Sohn is a more accurate assessment than what I gave above.]
这是对美国大部分地区完全可悲的教育系统的悲哀评论。当然不是整个国家，但越是保守的州似乎就有最愚蠢的公民。也许这是由于家庭教育非常宽松的原因，你可以想象家庭教育的“质量”，如果你可以这么称呼的话。
此外美国还有很多福音派宗教学校，在那里宗教式第一课程，而像世界史和公民学则处于默默无闻的地位。我的经验告诉我，我被一个愚蠢的被洗脑的母亲逼着去上了六年的天主教学校。
本来会更多的，但是“性是邪恶“的天主教思想让最后四个年级(9-12年级)变成了一所女子学校。我敢肯定修女们无法接受那些对那些纯洁的，无辜的女人欲罢不能的男人。我想我有点跑题了，但几十年后我还是很痛苦。
补充：诚然，这不过是我根据所见所闻得出的看法，当然远非客观。下面Kelly Holt Sohn的回答比我上面给出的更准确。
It’s sad, shameful & depressing to live in the U.S. with so many rueful, hateful, ignorant people who are arrogant and proud of their depravities and deficiencies. First identified early in the 19th century by Frenchman de Toqueville, anti-intellectualism is a feature of American culture which never went away, just got worse. Reasons for this are not easily posited. But it’s very real and now why the U.S. in in real decline as a cohesive society meant to help and serve all.
生活在美国，和这么多对自己的堕落和不足感到骄傲的人在一起，真是悲哀、可耻和沮丧。早在19世纪，法国人托克维尔(de Toqueville)就发现了反智主义，它是美国文化的一个特征，从未消失，反倒是越来越严重。造成这种情况的原因并不容易确定。
但这是非常真实的，为什么美国在真正的衰落，因为作为一个有凝聚力的社会，意味着要帮助和服务所有人。
I have a sister who lives in Texas, she complains the education system is shall we say “lacking” in comparison to what her kids were getting in Canada. Fixing that might be a start.
我有一个住在德克萨斯州的妹妹，她抱怨说，与她的孩子当初在加拿大得到的教育相比，美国的教育体系可以说是“缺乏”。解决这个问题可能是个开始。
When this Canadian moved to California my kid was in grade 8. We found the high schools there to be primitive compared to those in B.C.
Except in sports. They sacrificed things like computer labs to have sports rehab buses.
It was to the point that in the US the science they had in B.C. in grade 8 was grade 12 material there.
Eventually, because of illness and boredom we had to switch them to the independent study program the school district offered. This way they graduated a year early. If we had known about this option sooner, they would have graduated 2 years early.
当这个加拿大人搬到加州时，我的孩子才上八年级。我们发现那里的高中与不列颠哥伦比亚省的高中相比比较落后。
除了体育课。他们牺牲了像计算机实验室这样的东西来拥抱体育。
在美国，他们在12年纪学到的科学是加拿大8年级的材料。
最后，由于生病和无聊，我们不得不把他们转到学区提供的独立学习项目里。这样他们就能提前一年毕业。如果我们早点知道这个选项，他们可能早两年毕业了。
Good luck there! Education in the US is by law local (in the Constitution, this is called a ‘reserved rught’ i.e. reserved to the states) that means that a school district is no better than the school board which it elects. They can, and do, enshrine ignorance and bigotry in many instances. More progressive states try to mitigate this huge mistake of the frxrs (remember, public education did not exist then), but it is expensive and difficult. The government can be of help, but local boards often resist that.) So there is little that can be done, short of amending the constitution, which would be impossible. We can only hope that enlightened parents will take up the slack. But children without enlightened parents, or who study in only one school, are pretty much doomed to ignorance, often in crucial areas.
祝你好运！根据美国的法律，教育是地方性的(在宪法中，这被称为“保留权利”，即保留给各州)，这意味着一个学区并不比它选举的学校董事会好。
在许多情况下，他们能够而且确实将无知和偏执神圣化。更进步的州试图减轻这个制宪者的巨大错误(记住，那时还没有公共教育)，但它代价高昂且困难。
政府可能会有所帮助，但当地的学校董事会经常抵制这种做法。因此，除了修改宪法之外，几乎没有什么可以做的，而修改宪法是不可能的。我们只能希望开明的父母们能帮我们。
但是，没有开明父母的孩子，或者只在一所学校学习的孩子，几乎注定是无知的，而这往往是关键领域。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
A lot of it comes from the 1960s.
Back at that time, even ordinary working class Americans were pretty affluent in global terms - especially compared to Europe where war reconstruction meant a lot of hardship. And so Americans were amongst the first people to start participating in this new fangled thing called mass tourism - previously only the super wealthy had really travelled. So lots of American tourists took the opportunity to travel to Europe (and other places) and see the sights.
But, as often happens, tourists can come across as a fish out of water when they are in a different country and a different culture. They say things and ask things that sound sensible to them, but come across as ignorant (and sometimes boorish and rude) to their hosts. The cliché of the American tourists in those days is of saying “Gee whiz”, and “’Aint that cute”, and making inappropriate comparisons to things ‘back home’. And for many people from other countries, this was literally the only situation in which they tended to encounter Americans.
Hence, the concept of the “rich but stupid” American became entrenched over time. And the stereotype still sticks (at least, overseas it does).
Time has moved on of course. Not only do people tend to be a bit more worldly when they travel, but mass tourism is common for the citizens of many countries today. And so we also see boorish and parochial behaviour from tourists from other countries (Brits, Russians and Chinese are famously bad tourists). But the label tends to stick to the nation that it gets applied to first, and so the idea of “stupid Americans” has carried on.
很多（这种偏见）都来自于20世纪60年代。
当时，就全球而言，即使是普通的美国工人阶级也相当富裕——尤其是与欧洲相比，欧洲的战争重建意味着很多困难。因此，美国人是第一批开始参与这种被称为大众旅游的新奇事物的人——在此之前，只有超级富豪才能真正旅游。因此，许多美国游客抓住机会去欧洲(和其他地方)旅游，看看风景。
但是，正如经常发生的那样，当游客在一个不同的国家和不同的文化时，他们可能就像离开水的鱼。他们说的和问的事情对他们来说听起来很有道理，但对当地的主人来说却很无知(有时甚至是粗鲁和无礼)。那些日子里，美国游客的最常说的是：“Gee whiz”，“那难道不可爱吗”，并与“家乡”的东西作不恰当的比较。对于许多来自其他国家的人来说，这是他们通常会遇到美国人的唯一情况。
因此，“有钱但愚蠢”的美国人的概念随着时间的推移而根深蒂固。这种刻板印象仍然存在(至少在海外是这样的)。当然，时间在流逝。人们不仅在旅行时倾向于更世俗一点，而且大众旅游对许多国家的公民来说是普遍的。所以我们也看到了来自其他国家的游客的粗鲁和狭隘的行为(英国人、俄罗斯人和中国人是出了名的坏游客)。但是，这个标签往往会贴在第一个被贴上标签的国家身上，因此“愚蠢的美国人”的想法一直延续了下来。