Never heard of Arkansas . . . WHAT.

[teknoarcanist]

So I'm at work today (car rental place) and I'm driving from Point A to Point B with a coworker in her late 50's, and another in her early 30's. In front of us is a car, the license plate of which reads 'Arkansas' -- rather reasonably, in retrospect, as I assume the car was from Arkansas.

"What the hell is that?" asks the older one.

"What?" I reply, thinking she's spotted something silly amongst his various 'fuck obama' bumper stickers.

"Arr-kansas." she reads, deadpan.

"...Arkansas?" I ask, completely unaware of the lovecraftian horror that is about to fly up out of the stomach of the universe and slap me across the face.

"It says ARR-Kansas!" she protests. She's pronouncing 'Arr' like a pirate...followed by the state, 'Kansas'. Bearing in mind: this is NOT an uneducated woman.

"It's..." I begin, flabbergasted. "It's ARKANSAS. The STATE."

"Is that what's it called?" asks the employee in her early 30's, as though fascinated by this influx of new information -- like I'm the Johnathan Swift-style Future Man who's dropped onto the island and shown them all how to make fire.

"Yeah." I stammer, over the roaring sound of fuck filling my head. "Yeah." I say. "What?"

I repeat again, slightly more emphatic, as though I can retroactively make sense of what I'm hearing if I say the words hard enough:

"It's ARKANSAS, MAN. IT'S. A. STATE."

They look at me, no joke, like my head is on fire.

So yeah guys, I pretty much just give up. Going to Mars now; who wants my 360?

 

[Nostalgia Ripoff]

Who says you can't take it with you? If you build a colony, you can still play. Just not online.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

xD Wow. That was an amazing story.

 

[Nimcha]

Dibs on the 360!

 

[Link_to_Future]

I used to live in Nebraska years ago. You have no idea how much fun it was to convince people over the internet that I rode a horse to school every morning and ate nothing but corn for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Yes...over the internet.

Seems stupidity is fairly common.

*facepalm*

 

[emeraldrafael]

I wanna call Bull shit.

... But then again I've had people who asked my why they named New Jersey "new" and asked me what old jersey was like and if it was a different country (like Mexico and New Mexico). So I can believe it, though doing so makes me want to hit someone with a baseball bat that says common sense.

So yeah. Americans are fucking dumb. This coming from a fellow American.

 

[Pat728]

To be fair, Arkansas is pretty forgettable.

 

[Kitteh]

Cmon theres gotta be a few dedicated servers on mars! they play black ops!

 

[SomeLameStuff]

I've had some people who think Singapore is in China. I also had one guy who thought Singapore was in TEXAS.

 

[Agent Cross]

Guess they never learned the state song. They still teach that right? Or maybe they just remembered Alabama, Akaska, Arizona, ummmm... Totally blanking on that fourth one.

 

[Sinclair Solutions]

I'll take your 360.

Anyways, going to Mars is ridiculous. It's too expensive. You should be like me: move to Norway and live in the woods for the rest of your days.

 

[M4A1Sopmod]

Arkansas? I always thought that was a county in Europe... Im kidding... Maybe.

 

[Death on Trapezoids]

I once bumped into a guy who though new zealand was an island off the coast of the UK.

I know the feeling.

 

[teknoarcanist]

I wanna call Bull shit.

... But then again I've had people who asked my why they named New Jersey "new" and asked me what old jersey was like and if it was a different country (like Mexico and New Mexico). So I can believe it, though doing so makes me want to hit someone with a baseball bat that says common sense.

So yeah. Americans are fucking dumb. This coming from a fellow American.

Oh the story is very, unfortunately, horrifyingly real. The worst part is, like I said, these aren't uneducated people. They're normal, functioning, productive members of the American workforce. They WALK AMONG US.

THERE COULD BE ONE BEHIND YOU RIGHT NOW, EATING A SANDWICH.

AND. YOU. WOULDN'T. EVEN. KNOW.

 

[Link_to_Future]

Guess they never learned the state song. They still teach that right? Or maybe they just remembered Alabama, Akaska, Arizona, ummmm... Totally blanking on that fourth one.

Spoiler

This is how I learned all the states and capitols.

 

[AvsJoe]

That's pretty bad. I can understand someone outside of the States to not know what Arkansas is but two Americans not knowing what it is? That's as bad as a recent statistic showing that most of my fellow countrymen (Canadians) not knowing what kind of government we have (we are a Constitutional Monarchy, not a Democracy or a Republic).

Edit: Funny story, my brother's ex-coworker once asked him if Brazil was in the United States. He said no. She then yelled at someone else "See! I told you it was in China!" He loled.

Going to Mars now; who wants my 360?

Me me me me me me me me!

 

[teknoarcanist]

That's pretty bad. I can understand someone outside of the States to not know what Arkansas is but two Americans not knowing what it is? That's as bad as a recent statistic showing that most of my fellow countrymen (Canadians) not knowing what kind of government we have (we are a Constitutional Monarchy, not a Democracy or a Republic).

Going to Mars now; who wants my 360?

Me me me me me me me me!

Glad to hear we're not the only country that fails utterly at self-surveys.

Er...wait. No. No, I'm not.

 

[Anarchemitis]

Do you know anybody from Arkansas?
Have you ever been to Arkansas?
Do you know anybody who has ever been to Arkansas?
Can we really assume Arkansas exists?