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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   5318 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 26, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Are Brits on average more intelligent than Americans, at least verbally (restricting both sets to college-educated people, say)? As an American I know I might be conditioned by silly tropes of British sophistication but I feel like there's something here.

  • Based on what Youtube serves up to me occasionally, British talk shows seem more clever
  • Prime Minister's Questions, despite being nonsense, seem to require more quick-wittedness than any comparable American political event I can think of
  • Social customs seem to require saying lots of things in subtler, more roundabout ways, which is simply more mentally taxing for both the speaker and listener

Not that any of these are amazing displays of intelligence. There just seems to be a greater demand on one's verbal faculties in everyday life.

US culture is anti-aristocratic and egalitarian. UK culture still has a lot of class stratification.

So in the UK upper class people are expected to have posh accents and witty retorts. This is taught in school. Lower classes have things like cockney rhyming slang to make things difficult for outsiders.

In the US traditions of upper class verbal acuity are frowned upon. Politicians and people on TV are expected to speak in a more folksy manner.

Additionally supporting black voices is expected, so they have things like this national debate championship: https://youtube.com/watch?v=fmO-ziHU_D8

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