I’ve seen multiple videos equivalent of Americans pointing where (country) is on the map, and there was an instance where the host asked the woman where the continent Africa is located (points to Asia) like WTF? That’s not even close at all.
I know there’s bias towards those types of videos since there are accusations of the host “handpicking” select strangers framing them as if they are representative of the US. But the truth is that their education system isn’t good as it lacks funding.
When you put it into perspective: how many Europeans can correctly locate & name countries adjacent to them within their own continent and globally? Is the education system within the EU that good or effective at teaching kids that subject?
There’s an old series of videos by Rick Mercer of Canada that does some similar cherry-picking of US residents responding to questions. They’re all done as a joke (Rick Mercer is a comedian) but they’re a surprising amount of accuracy to them. Mercer even interviews some US politicians in it and gets them to say some ridiculous things about Canada that show their lack of knowledge on foreign matters.
The US education is well-documented as an ineffective system but it’s not homogeneous across the country so I don’t think anyone would be correct to make any broadly-sweeping claims about how knowledgeable US residents are. Just know that some of them aren’t very bright and some of them are politicians.
You have to also factor in that culturally, America hates smart people. A politician who is knowledgeable about those things would be less likely to get votes, a lot of them are smart people who play dumb because they know dumb wins votes. A lot of politicians were viewed negatively and their opponents attacked them for being informed and knowledgeable people, and it worked very well. John Kerry is an excellent example of a politician who is incredibly smart and capable, but got politically destroyed for it.
Even Trump is way smarter in person by most accounts. But his public person is dumb as rocks because that’s what voters love, because our voters HATE anyone who seems smarter than them. It makes them feel condescended to.
Personally, I deal with the same thing. Say stupid dumb shit, and people like you. Say something smart and informed, they tend to dislike you. And I have known a lot of smart people who refuse to show their intelligence in most social settings because they know people won’t like them if they do.
There are very few environments where being intelligent and informed is generally rewarded. Usually only in the context of school and work, and often in higher-income/education communities, which are far and few.