[ojc02]

I lived in England for 18 years and have lived the past 8 years in the US. One thing that really bugs the hell out of me is when someone posts a vid on youtube of an American doing something really stupid and then a bunch of Euros will say: "OMG, Americans are so f-ing stupid". My family and friends in England also seem under the impression that Americans are in general stupider than Europeans. Hell, there's probably a lot of Americans who think Americans are dumber than Europeans.

As someone who has lived in both places I am personally convinced that the distribution of general intelligence is virtually exactly the same. Dumb Americans just seem to get a lot more exposure in the media and on the internet than dumb Europeans. It also doesn't help when the president can't string a sentence together.

For the alcohol issue - binge drinking and alcohol abuse are rampant in the UK (I can't really speak for the whole of Europe). I have no evidence for this but it wouldn't surprise me if Europeans drank significantly more per capita than Americans.