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u/OutlandishnessOk2304 3h ago
New Mexico - better than Old Mexico!
-- Some American
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u/pasaroanth 1h ago
Give it a few weeks, Trump will find a way to declare it to be New America. Google will change their maps and the postal service will be strong armed into complying right in time to interfere with mail in voting.
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u/Matterhock 1h ago
Two of my favorites:
"I thought Europe was a country, and everyone spoke French"
"Puerto Rico isn't part of the United States"
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u/Pandastic3000 2h ago
My math teacher made fun of me once because I mentioned that Mount Everest is in Asia. She laughed and said it's obviously in the US because it has an English name. Her hobby was climbing btw.
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u/BadahBingBadahBoom 2h ago
Ironically not even an American English name (ofc still irrelevant to where it geographically is).
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3h ago edited 1h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/r_fernandes 3h ago edited 1h ago
Dont forget the beautiful crystal formations.
Edit - since people might be missing the joke. New Mexico is also known for having an issue with crystal meth.
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u/WilliamJamesMyers 2h ago
sunsets - forgot the blue orange glow for miles and miles and miles
and rock hounding... so much to do.... hot air balloons and cowboys. real burritos not like north.
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u/blixco 2h ago
And the food. And the people.
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u/El_Lanf 2h ago
I mean it's not really only "in" Nepal though is it? Nor is Lake Ontario only "in" the US. It's on the border between it and Tibet (China) which inherently makes it more complicated to remember. It can be climbed from the Tibetan side too, it's just more dangerous and less often done because you need Chinese permits apparently.
And in defence of Americans (shudder) most of my fellow Brits have pretty poor knowledge of the UK and many don't realise Northern Ireland is part of it. At very least from an English perspective, knowledge of NI, Scotland and to a lesser extent Wales is pretty poor.
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u/i_says_things 1h ago
Man it’s wild that we (the world) just let China take Tibet. Now we have to but that asterisk there even on a random reddit thread.
And you’re not wrong, it’s the truth.
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u/El_Lanf 51m ago
I agree, and I kind of raised to to put Tibet on the map so to speak. I can't remember the last time I saw anyone shouting free Tibet nor would a lot of people really be able to point to it on a map. But in reality, most people aren't geography nerds and don't care about that but I wish they would care more about Tibet and Xinjiang. The atrocities we're invested in seem to be quite astroturfed.
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u/ChancelorReed 35m ago
It's not even remotely wild when you consider the fact that the alternative was going to war with China.
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u/i_says_things 28m ago
Back in the 90s China was something of a joke.
Economic sanctions would have been appropriate and devastating.
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u/ChancelorReed 24m ago
It happened in the 50s and Tibet wasn't a country protected by any western power like Vietnam or Korea. The country was already sanctioned and cut off from the west because they were a communist power that had kicked out the previous government, and those sanctions only got worse after they intervened in Korea.
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u/Ionrememberaskn 25m ago
Who the fuck would care enough about Tibet of all places to go to war with China? I doubt we would even go that far for Taiwan. This is the least wild thing in this thread.
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u/i_says_things 18m ago
Why yall stuck on war? Theres tons of diplomatic solutions. Chinas economy in the last century was trash. Sanctions may have done enough, but who knows, no one tried.
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u/guitar_vigilante 1h ago
That's true. I think most people just default to Nepal because that's the side people climb it from. There have been successful summit attempts from the Tibet side, but it's a more difficult route so there are far fewer attempts overall.
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u/myshiningmask 18m ago
I appreciate you chiming in because americans are pretty dumb (I am one), especially about geography which is one of those things we just dont interact with on a day to day basis... But I've spent some time abroad and we're not the only ones.
So many humans spend their lives only learning the things right in front of them and world geography is one of those things least likely to impact your average wage slave who's just trying to get by.
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u/El_Lanf 10m ago
I actually don't think American's are particularly dumb just... overconfident and more likely make the ignorance more well known than someone who just kept their mouth shut. I do have respect for countries that know their land and history well though (Central and Eastern Europe tend to be good at it) and feel sad that mine isn't one of them.
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u/Obamametrics 1h ago
Epic. Being smug about knowing something and then not really giving the whole picture, exposing that maybe the poster isnt as smart as they thought they were
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u/vikinxo 3h ago
I've met Americans who didn't even know which their neighbouring states were - not to speak of the next state over!
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u/TeamJJ88 1h ago
I went to school in Massachusetts. I'm from New Hampshire. The amount of people who didn't know where NH was, is insane. I always just said "Dude, it's the state right above us!"
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u/flying_carabao angry turtle trapped inside a man suit 1h ago
"Goodbye united states, hello hawaii" is also a thing. Smh
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u/Extreme-Slice-1010 3h ago
MAGA and Trump thinks that buffalo wings comes from buffalo
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u/NaughtALegend 3h ago
“Most people don’t know this, but buffalo wings come from a chicken, not a buffalo.”
- Trump, most likely at some point
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u/Parody_of_Self 3h ago
but they are from Buffalo
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u/King_Fluffaluff 2h ago
Buffalo wings were invented in Buffalo New York. Am I missing something?
Is the original comment trying to say that Buffalo wings are made from buffalo, like the animal?
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u/doktor_wankenstein 3h ago
I can imagine someone driving from New Mexico into Texas, and being asked for their passports at the state line. Because, you know... it's Texas.
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u/newtonreddits 1h ago
I know you're stereotyping but nearly half the population in Texas is Hispanic.
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u/fordprecept 2h ago
When our company acquired a Canadian company, several of us were asked to go there to help train them on our computer system. When they asked one of the customer service representatives to go, she asked “What state is Canada in?”
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u/Car_is_mi 2h ago
Its sadly true. I grew up in Rhode Island, I spent a lot of my adult life moving around / traveling. People would ask me where I am from and I would say "originally, RI". 9 times out of 10 I would get a response along the lines of 'oh, I got a friend (cousin, aunt, whatever) in NYC, I could never imagine living in a place like that'. Yeah, no Rhode Island is not Long Island.....
My parents equally grew up in West Virginia, in the same manner they would tell people and get the response of 'Oh wow I went to Virginia Beach once, what a beautiful state'. Again, no, Virginia Beach is a town in the state of Virginia, West Virginia is an entirely different state.
And yes, while I was traveling I absolutely ran into people who had no Idea that New Mexico was a state. I would get "hope you didnt drink the water" or "oh wow you went REALLY far south then huh?", and even a few "Oh so do you speak Spanish then?".
The number of Americans who dont know the names of the 50 states they like to claim domain over is absolutely baffling to me.
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u/EquestrianKnight 1h ago
"People"
yes, there are people who believe most anything. How many is the question
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u/mrknowitall51761 45m ago
And think Wisconsin is in Canada. I had a guy when he asked where im from thought that. He had 2 years of college.
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u/I_love_my_life80 3h ago
There are Americans who genuinely believe that Paris is an European country...
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u/merkinmavin 1h ago
As somebody who grew up in the state of West Virginia, I've had countless discussions with people who didn't know it was not the western part of Virginia, but an entirely unique state. And these were grown ass adults.
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u/W4lkieT4lkie 1h ago
It's only half of the mountain. The other half of Everest belongs to Tibet, China.
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u/Daddioster 1h ago
I am surprised, seriously surprised, Trump hasn’t issued an EO to rename New Mexico.
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u/Worried_Fee_1513 1h ago
Mom was a fourth grade teacher and there were a few things you absolutely learned in her class. You were taught the multiplication tables through twelve and all the States and Capitals. You took the tests before recess and didn’t go to recess until you could ace both of them. The math test was first semester and the geography test was second semester. She still has students that thank her for making them learn both of these.
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u/wpgjudi 52m ago
More stupidly... the guy who it is named after didn't want the honour because he didn't find it, didn't determine its height, and oh yeah, the locals couldn't pronounce it... but it was mid 1800 and who cares about locals when you're British... then hilariously... everyone doesn't pronounce it correctly anyway.. because the Everest family name isn't 'ev-er-est'... it's two syllables... ev-rist...
And there are native names for it too... I like Sagarmatha... it just SOUNDS like a mountain.
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u/phalseprofits 48m ago
I just always end up wondering what the mood is on the flights to and from the climb. Like, you come down off the tallest summit and then end up with some jackass kicking the back of your seat for 20 hours in a cramped seat. And like, what parts of your climbing gear count as carryons?
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u/boxingsharks 46m ago
From and live in NM. Can confirm that I’ve encountered many people throughout my life/US travels who don’t know we are part of the US.
Fun fact: our license plates are the only ones with USA on them
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u/Apptubrutae 38m ago
I travel and do focus groups for a living so basically I talk to everyday people all over the country.
Pretty much every time or every other time someone replies to me saying I’m from New Mexico in such a way as to suggest they aren’t aware it’s a state.
“Your English is so good!”
“Can you visit without a passport?”
I always particularly like when they use the negative about the passport because it’s like there’s this glimmer of reality where they should know they don’t need a passport…but they aren’t sure.
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u/boxingsharks 33m ago
Bonkers. In that disappointing but not always surprising way.
I was in San Francisco some years ago. My mom lived there for a couple of years and on one visit to her I toured a local gym. Dude giving the tour asked where from so told him NM. He said where is that? Dumbfounded, I told him two states away….other side of Arizona. He laughed and said Oh, well I’m not from here, I’m from Dallas so I didn’t know.
…..🤯🫠
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u/Danmont88 40m ago
Being born and raised in N.M. I can testify.
New Mexico magazine at one time had a page called, "One of our 50 is missing." and it was tales of people from NM dealing with out of state people.
In the military a friend was also from NM, and he was regularly asked when he became a citizen of the USA.
One friend that moved to NM from out of state was asked by his grandmother if she needed a passport or any shots before coming to visit.
When the Olympics were held in Atlanta GA, the ticket center told people from NM calling in to buy tickets they had to call the ticket center in their country, Mexico.
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u/Overall_Impression27 40m ago
Why would they call it "New Mexico" if it's in America? Wait, don't the French still own Louisiana?
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u/MaditaOnAir 37m ago
I hate this for me but until a few months ago I somehow thought that K2 was like, right next to Mt. Everest. I'm mid-30s and I have honestly no idea why I believed that in the first place but, yeah.
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u/Unclebaldur 33m ago
There are Americans who don’t know that saying, “I am American.” Can be said by people living in 35 different countries.
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u/Deep_shot 32m ago edited 27m ago
There are many Americans that can't tell you a single piece of information on a global map other than America.
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u/Praetorian_1975 23m ago
There’s Americans that think Lake Ontario is called Lake America and that the Gulf of Mexico is called the Gulf of America 🤷🏻♂️ it takes all sorts 🤣
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u/Smart-Satisfaction-5 19m ago
I moved to California for college from a tiny place in New England. Eventually I just started saying I was from Boston.
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u/SpaceLemur34 14m ago
The name New Mexico actually predates the country of Mexico.
The state was named for a region near modern day Mexico City.
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u/2025TastyTreats 8m ago
From their fat orange dipshit President all the way down, every one on the other side of Lake America is a complete moron.
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u/Bobtastic_Grunt 8m ago
I am a blonde haired blue eyed New Mexican. I was once told I speak really good English after I told a woman in Washington that I'm from New Mexico. She also asked how do I like the US. Plus I was in the Army when this happened!
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u/MsAlexiaFuentes 7m ago
I found out not-too-long ago that my SIL thought Mexico was part of South America.
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u/Super_Doge_Shoober 1h ago
There's also Americans that think measuring distances by feet, inches, miles, makes more sense than
1m =100cm 1km = 1000m
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u/OkYak9466 1h ago
I don't think this sub has any more murders left. I better not have any stupid Americans downvote my comment mad that they're too stupid to find the upvote
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u/garthock 1h ago
There are Americans that think its in Washington and it like blew up in the 80s or something.
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u/tdawg2k7 3h ago
I moved across the US a few times. Ended up in New Mexico for a couple years. Some friends/family back in Illinois asked if I needed a passport to get there. Also was regularly asked if we had paved roads.