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Governments that expressed disappointment over GTA VI being delayed (mander.xyz)
submitted 6 days ago by to c/dataisbeautiful@lemmy.world
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Stolen from https://www.facebook.com/100083353988428/posts/1070519302403193

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[–] 28 points 6 days ago (16 children)

To save my fellow Americans a Google, that's Poland.

I suppose there's nothing I can add to this that will convince everyone I didn't need to Google it. Oh well.

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  • [–] 10 points 6 days ago* (8 children)

    I would hope that most people wouldn't need to do a search to know where Poland is, but I suppose some schools put more effort into having people needlessly memorize state capitals than the placement of countries.

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  • [–] 10 points 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 child)

    For me it's a "how often does it come up" thing. In high school I could have labeled them all. Now, it's not really something that comes up often.

    Sure some of their global impact does, and relatively who's around, and large regional movements. But it's not really important for the average American to know exactly which countries directly border Poland. Just like it isn't important for every European to know which US state is which.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 days ago* (5 children)

    I would guess for most Americans it's "there's France, there's Spain, there's Germany, there's Italy, and... The rest."

    And they could probably find the UK on a map but not be able to tell you the difference between the UK, England, and Great Britain.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 days ago (4 children)

    And they could probably find the UK on a map but not be able to tell you the difference between the UK, England, and Great Britain.

    I feel like those distinctions don’t really matter much to those outside the UK.

    UK is the whole shebang. England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and most of the smaller islands in the British Isles. I can’t remember if the Crown Dependencies and the Overseas Territories are considered part of the United Kingdom or if the UK just has sovereignty over them.

    Great Britain is the largest of the British Isles. It’s home to Scotland, England, and Wales.

    England is one of the countries that makes up the United Kingdom. It’s on Great Britain.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 days ago* (3 children)

    Sadly even that's probably more than the average American would know; using 'England' as a shorthand for the U.K. as a whole is far more common than it should be.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 days ago (1 child)

    Oh I know that’s more than the average American would know. But I’m not sure how much it matters. I have family who are very well educated, and have been to the UK. One of whom even studied at Cambridge. I polled them all on this question and none could articulate it entirely. Though most had some part of it correct. Everyone in this group knew England is part of the UK.

    That’s not to say they’re dumb or anything, it’s just that that knowledge isn’t really important to the average American. There’s not really a reason for them to know it.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 days ago

    While small details like that might not be important to the average American, I think that most Americans having little to no personal exposure to anything outside the U.S. is in part responsible for many of the bad electoral outcomes that the country has had.

    Someone from Utah taking a roadtrip to Idaho isn't as culturally enriching as someone from Czechia visiting Portugal. While Europe's cultural diversity and geography make such contact easier, it's a shame that many Americans base their worldview around nationalism.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 days ago

    To be fair, as a Dutchman I couldn't name every country on this map without some heavy guessing. I do have an excuse that a number of these countries didn't "exist" when I was learning geography in school. Though Poland is one I definitely do know.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 days ago

    All right then, Carmen Sandiego. Label the other countries, too! 😤

    No need to label Spain, Germany, France, and the Boot. I’ve glanced at an enough World Cuppas to figure out those.

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  • [–] 0 points 6 days ago (2 children)

    That region is kind of a big deal at the moment. So even if I wasn't taught it in HS or learned from the history channel, I'd recognize it now just due to watching and reading about tensions. But yeah, it wouldn't surprise me at all if a majority of Americans couldn't tell you what country that is.

    They also recently deployed a bunch of K2 tanks right there on the border of kaliningrad.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 days ago (1 child)

    “Watching and reading about tensions” means being far more informed on the details of current events than the vast majority of Americans care to bother with. Source: am American

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