(Untitled)

[taelle]

I wonder: are there really many USAians thinking that the Georgia at war is a Southern US state? Because I've seen this opinion several times in runet: that US supports Georgia because average Americans are worried that US is invaded and pressure their government to act.

Comments

[sartorias]

The average American is probably not mixing the Georgia's mostly because 1) there was no news about Russki tanks rolling past the Burger Kings at the border, and 2) because there are always simplified maps put up to clue the map-challenged, with Russia in big letters, and Georgia in small.

But...considering some of my fellow Americans...you Never Know.

[taelle]

Ah yes, maps. I almost stopped reading/listening to news (I just don't want to know!) so I forgot about them.

[carmentalis]

I remember a documentary snippet on the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996 in which a lot of people thought that because the games were in Georgia, the athletes entering under that nation name were Americans who just got to go separately because it was their home state. Who needs to know about some obscure ex-soviet nation?

Still, I'd expect more agitation if they thought Russia had hopped across the Atlantic.

[taelle]

a lot of people thought that because the games were in Georgia, the athletes entering under that nation name were Americans who just got to go separately because it was their home state.

Hn. An interesting idea (which has some logic behind it, though not much)

[asakiyume]

In its parody atlas, the humor newspaper "The Onion" made a joke about that, as if the reverse might be true, like this:

"When someone mentions Georgia, you probably think of the majestic Caucasus Mountains or the Black Sea, but it is actually also a U.S. state! So next time someone says they're from Georgia, before you ask them about their ongoing border conflict, stop to ask which Georgia they mean." (The joke being that until very recently most Americans were only vaguely aware, if at all, that there is a country called Georgia.)

But I think it's mainly trolls who are pretending to think the U.S. state has been invaded :-)

[taelle]

Ah, I think I saw The Onion once or twice. It's amusing. )))

[dsgood]

Whenever I become depressed at how ignorant Americans are about other countries, I remind myself that non-Americans are similarly ignorant about the US.

No.

I'm tempted to say that it's because "Georgia" is a reference to England's patron saint, and Americans think Georgia is also a former British colony.

I will note that many Americans are used to the idea that there's more than one place with a certain name. New York State has cities with such names as Mexico and Peru, for example.

Are any people on runet expressing the opinion that Russia is in the wrong?

[taelle]

Are any people on runet expressing the opinion that Russia is in the wrong?

Some, but not many (a certain percentage of those are Ukrainians worried that they will be next).

Many Russians who do express such opinion put it in the terms of 'We have brought on ourselves a lot of trouble in the international politics' (and they are often met with 'We don't need anybody anyway, and the only way to get respect is to show them how tough we are').

non-Americans are similarly ignorant about the US.

US is tricky like that (for us here, at least). After the fall of USSR we tried to model ourselves after US rather a lot, but we are really more like Europe in terms of culture and psychology, I think (except for the traits common to Very Big Countries). I read a lot about modern US, from livejournal to books, but there are still things that surprise me on the level of 'Could it really be like that?'.