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30 Times People Failed At Geography So Badly, They Made The Internet Facepalm (New Pics)
Most of us have been there: you post something online that you’re 100% sure is the absolute truth, flexing those big cognitive muscles of yours… only to realize that you made a mistake. You blush. You start sweating. You realize that you’ve made an utter fool of yourself. On the internet of all places! And now, your blunder will forever live in the Internet Hall of Infamy, also known as the r/facepalm subreddit.
The online community is full to the brim with people making epic mistakes. But few of them are as painful to see as when someone boasts about their [cough] ‘deep’ knowledge of geography [cough]. For anyone even with a rudimentary knowledge of geography, the posts you’re about to see might make you lose a bit of hope in humanity. Put on your safari hats, scroll down, upvote the worst geo fails you’ve seen, and don’t forget to share your unfiltered opinions in the comments, dear Pandas! Just remember not to feed the F-grade students…
Once you’ve completed the trek through this list and if you feel like you’d love to go on another humorous adventure, then you’ll probably love Bored Panda’s previous article about facepalm-worthy geography fails. Check it out right over here.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
You Can Only Pity Such People
RELATED:
#2
When You Dont Know What You’re Talking About
Julia Mckinney 3 years ago
"And Ted, the Moderna Vaccine was partially funded by Dolly Parton!"
#3
Blindly Playing Yourself
Jeremy Bayer 3 years ago
Detroit has a lot of abandoned homes. I took my Spanish friend to tigers baseball game and as we drove through Detroit he asked me why it looked like Europe after WWIi
Look, Pandas, we all had our favorite and least favorite subjects back in school. For instance, yours truly always enjoyed history, literature, and biology. Math, on the other hand, was a pure nightmare. For me, personally, geography fell squarely in the middle of the pack.
The subject itself was incredibly interesting. After all, who doesn’t enjoy learning about volcanoes and global cultures, and drawing maps in class? However, a lot of this enjoyment rose and fell depending on the teacher. Some were very strict and gave you awful grades for failing to memorize all of the important geographical locations around the world. Others, however, made the subject fun, relatable, and, well, not a chore.
#5
They Don't Teach Flags In High School Geography?
#6
More Liberian Flag Confusion
zububonsai 3 years ago (edited)
Hm, I somehow expected the dumbest /most non-educated blogs in the top 5, but here the posts deteriorate even the more I scroll down... 🫣🙄 (PS: I posted this comment when this post was around #18... 😬)
It’s not surprising that some people are completely awful at geography. After all, the world is full of folks who fail at math, science, history, and all the other subjects that some of us know and love. You’ll never find a subject where everyone’s a pro.
#7
Yahoo Answers Might Be Gone, But We Still Have Quora
#8
Ah, Yeah. I Swear It's Always Us Americans Who Don't Realize There's A Country Called Georgia
Mason Kronol 3 years ago
It's hard to have sympathy for people bad with geography and maps when they post dumb comments on the internet that has Google earth, maps and all kinds of reference material. I used to have to walk to the library to find out information. Now even Wiki has disambiguation pages to help sort out all the Georgias.
#9
Ah Yes, "Time-Zones"
However, this doesn’t excuse someone from being ignorant about basic things. You know, common sense stuff like how time zones work, what language is spoken in the United Kingdom, what the map of your country looks like, and knowing that there are currencies besides the dollar used around the globe. We all make mistakes. But it’s a bit embarrassing when you don’t have a working knowledge of the basics of geography.
#10
Imagine Being This Uneducated
Mason Kronol 3 years ago
I would like to see them redo the General Lee with that flag. Also The Hazard County Bobsled Team would make an interesting sequel.
#11
America Is The Whole Globe
#12
Canada Is A Country In Eastern Europe! Read A Book, Bro
Nobody’s saying that you should be at the level of a PhD candidate (and even they make silly mistakes!), but you have to at least be aware of your place in society and the world at large. It’s perfectly possible to spend your entire life not knowing what’s beyond the borders of your tiny little town, but it’s debatable how much fulfillment you’d find living this way.
#13
I Posted A Picture On Another Subreddit About A River In The Country Georgia And This Person Had A Lot To Say
David Martin 3 years ago
And then they don't even use the American flag emoji as they declare how American they are -_-
#14
Someone Didn’t Pay Attention In Geography Class
#15
Where Is Ukraine?
Almost all of the r/facepalm geography fails are related either to ignorance or arrogance. Sometimes, both! People either don’t know basic facts. Or they think they know something, only to be proven very, very wrong.
In cases of extreme embarrassment, your instinct is probably to shy away and defend yourself. However, that’s really not the best approach because it may lead to deep-seated feelings of shame further down the line.
#16
Dunno What To Say
#17
Geography
#18
A Girl At Work Drew What She Thinks The Map Of The USA Looks Like. She's Almost 30 With 2 Kids. The Nc Public School System Has Really Failed Her
No, the mature way to react is to lean into your embarrassment. Embrace those uncomfortable feelings. Show everyone that you do feel embarrassed. Acknowledge that you’ve made a mistake. That might actually work out in your favor and improve your reputation—through humility, you become more likable.
#19
Someone's Geography Needs Some Upgrading
DC 3 years ago
It works because people actually want it to work. Usually, the town or some other regional entity decides and pays everything about public transport, and often, it's a major factor in regional elections. As our system isn't as divided and in a warlike state like yours, on regional level, the elected governments often are pretty similarly acting, regardless of party, about more general things, but take a different approach on public transport and generally traffic and infrastructure, and therefore, this is often what makes one win or lose the election - other words: We care about that stuff, we vote according to that stuff, we know how useful it is, and therefore, we treat ourselves with some underground trains in almost every major city, and at least some kind of Tram'n'Bus, we have everywhere.
Ralph Watkins 2 years ago
Europe was completely destroyed in WW-II. When they rebuilt, they decided to do it right. It took over 50 years of everybody working towards the goals set forth. From industry to people to politicians. In the Netherlands a woman gets a year of paid maternity leave, 2 years if she or the baby have issues. Here in the US, a woman would make sure to get pregnant every 9 months just to stay out of work. So many things in the US are about agendas, appearances, racism, or special interest groups. Even a single party cannot make important decisions on what they want to do anymore. We just can't have nice things here.
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Michael Largey 3 years ago
The numbers relevant to the issue are not size, but population density and distribution.
XenoMurph 3 years ago
Or, the desire to install rail networks. Most are not due to wars.
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AwesomeLeoWife 3 years ago
Uhhh… I kinda see their point in that the area of Europe, an entire continent, is still very close to the area of one country. Although one could argue that if each state made it a priority we could probably get it done art that level
2WheelTravlr 3 years ago
Okay, they're absolutely, completely and totally wrong, however, the US has a few things which make country-wide public transportation networks difficult: First, our population density is awkwardly situated with many miles/kilometers of open land between most large cities. Secondarily, our relative youth means most large cities gained their greatest population and industrialization after automobiles became an inexpensive and accessible form of transportation, making it easier to justify relatively low-cost road building instead of major funding for public transportation networks. Another minor aside, the way the US government is set up means States rights usually take precedence over Federal initiatives, this was especially true prior to the World Wars, during a time when other countries were actively developing large transportation networks. Example, our cross-country rail network was privately funded.
Michael Turnbeaugh 2 years ago
Good comments on this. One also has to take into consideration that 40% of that 10 million KM 2 is European Russia which is heavily populated only in a couple of cities. Now you have cut it down to 6 million KM 2 and then factor in the above and it explains much of the reason for our public transportation or lack thereof.
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Riley Quinn 3 years ago
I always assumed Europe had more advanced mass transport due to it being densely built centuries before automobiles. Whereas, the US is still living with a Wild West attitude of independence and a skewed attitude of toxic masculinity (real men don't use public transportation, blah, blah, blah).
Tiny Dancer 3 years ago
Was the Trump Supporter label done on purpose? That would save a lot of time in real life.
Mayrene Chester 3 years ago
Well to be fair Europe's 10million km2 is made up of many smaller countries who can have their own transport system which then links up to the bigger system. US is similar of many states but they don't seem to want to work with each other at all.
j miller 3 years ago
Somewhat misleading...does not each separate country have infrastructure to support public trans---it's not one system across the entire continent. And before anyone says the states in the USA are similar, remember that every state has different leaders and sets of rules that govern the state and they cannot cooperate to agree that water is wet!
Lena Flising 3 years ago
Europe is the third biggest continent, if you look at number of countries. Africa has 54, Asia 49 and Europe 45. Then it's a big step down to North America, which has 23, Oceania with 14 and South America with 12 countries.
Kallen Kneeland 3 years ago
I think a lot of people (esp. uneducated US residents) think "Europe" is the exact same thing as "the European Union". It confuses the heck out of them.
Marc Lauzon 3 years ago
I blame the fact they write 1,000 for thousand and 1,000,000 for million.
#20
Nordic Countries Misunderstood
#21
Getting Offended Over The Name Of A Country
Tabby_Sohee 3 years ago (edited)
Bored Panda I’m gonna need to have a serious talk with whoever decided to censor the country N***r. The COUNTRY WITH THE CAPITAL OF NIAMEY, to be clear, since it’s not letting me say it
Previously, during an interview with Bored Panda, geography and cartography expert and land surveyor Patrick McGranaghan shared his thoughts about the state of the subject. He pointed out that some students see geography in a pretty negative light. Meanwhile, geography isn’t a priority in some schools.
"I think that a lot of geography ignorance comes from the lack of geographic instruction in schools. Schools have an increasingly long list of subjects that must be taught and geography is losing its share," he shared with us.
#22
I Guess He’s Half Right
Gustav Gallifrey 3 years ago
Nick Adams was born in Australia. In 2010, Adams served as the PR consultant for The Halloween Institute, a march to make Halloween a public holiday in Australia. It was later revealed those who 'protested' were paid actors. Nick Adams is a top-shelf, class-A, bona-fide, full-blown idiot, and Australia does not want him back, thank you.
#23
I Thought The USA Was The One Bad At Geography, I Swear To God, (UK Politics Subreddit)
#24
Ah Yes, Germany Flag Fridge Magnet
"Geography has this reputation of rote memorization of things like countries and capital cities. This is not exciting to most students," the land surveyor and geography enthusiast told Bored Panda earlier. "The way to encourage geographic learning is to make it exciting.”
#25
Geography Is Hard
#26
Asian/Chinese Currency
Gini Sarver 3 years ago
i strongly recommend that you & your wife stay home, where, we all hope, that you’re safe & able to function on your own dude
#27
Amsterdam = Country
"This may be by including geography lessons in learning about different cultures around the world. Geography is a component of current events and there needs to be an emphasis on how these events are occurring in a geographic context. Geography should not be taught in isolation, it should be tied to some context such as history, the physical Earth, culture, or travel.”
#29
Definitely The Shape And Flag Of Colorado
#30
Countries On Map Of Africa Labelled Incorrectly On Gcse Geography Paper
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What do you think ?
SeaLouse 3 years ago
Get your child a GLOBE for their room. They will grow up knowing the basics of geography.
lauralett50 3 years ago
Or at least a world map. This whole post gave me a headache.
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Gavin Johnson 3 years ago
Would anyone like to know why my flat has a huge map of the world up on the wall? I have a daughter, she’s lived here since she was 6, she’s now 12. That map has been used for discussions about where certain foods come from, where humans originated from, where countries are that are in the news, how we travelled and discovered new peoples, y’know, stuff that helps a child learn about the world around them and helps them place themselves in it.
Yeah, okay. 3 years ago
Same reason I have an analog clock with Roman numerals in my kitchen. I didn't want them to be forever confused because not all clocks are digital or have easy numbers.
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Elisabeth Clark 3 years ago
At what point does dumb become too dumb to run for office ..?
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ScretSquirl 3 years ago
When I was stationed in Hawaii (25ID) I did have a couple of tourists ask where they could get their US dollars exchanged for Hawaiian money... I almost said that "2 coconuts, 5 shells, and a lava rock was the equivalent of $20 USD but I'd give them all that for $10." but decided that since I was in uniform, that probably would have been a bad idea.
Groundcontroltomajortom 3 years ago
In the UK we're not actually really taught about flags and geographical locations, unless the teacher wants to buts its not as standard. And there's very little taught about America so many have no idea of American states!
Andy 3 years ago (edited)
Not sure where you are in the UK, but certainly in the area I grew up in Scotland it's not like that. General geography was part of the learning in primary school (projects on different countries, history etc) and mandatory as its own subject for the first 2 years of secondary school.
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Sandy D 3 years ago
These are horrifying, and I haven't gotten through them all yet. But my main concern / question..... Aren't there idiots in countries other than the US. I mean, I know we unfortunately provide a huge, sadly high number of the world's idiots. But I'd feel better if there were examples of multinational idiots interest of just ours in the US. I tire of the idiocy here, and just have a shed of hope that we're not the only one plagued with excessive stupid.
Elizabeth Butler 3 years ago
Public education has been actively degraded for decades in favor of private schools, as a political goal, and the results speak for themselves.
i like japan 3 years ago
I have a book on Japan with some interesting geography. Geography that said stuff like "Tokyo is a country" and put city locations in the sea/ocean. If this were a challenge post, I'd literally post this.
Farnaz Khoshbakht 3 years ago
I mean Ok you don't want to learn about the world, at least learn about your own country it's a disgrace
LynzCatastrophe 3 years ago
We have access to more information than any other time in human history. I feel disappointed.
Verena Fiori-Jambor 3 years ago
I was asked if Germany was close to Europe by an a-grade student
Cory Tollman 3 years ago
I use to work with a person who was from Kansas City, Missouri in the USA. They grew up there. They did not know that the city is on the Missouri river. She thought it was the Mississippi river.
An Unpopular Opinion. 3 years ago
I mean, it didn't state on many of these where the posters were from, but I can assume many are 'cause the school system is failing/
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SeaLouse 3 years ago
Get your child a GLOBE for their room. They will grow up knowing the basics of geography.
lauralett50 3 years ago
Or at least a world map. This whole post gave me a headache.
Load More Replies... Gavin Johnson 3 years ago
Would anyone like to know why my flat has a huge map of the world up on the wall? I have a daughter, she’s lived here since she was 6, she’s now 12. That map has been used for discussions about where certain foods come from, where humans originated from, where countries are that are in the news, how we travelled and discovered new peoples, y’know, stuff that helps a child learn about the world around them and helps them place themselves in it.
Yeah, okay. 3 years ago
Same reason I have an analog clock with Roman numerals in my kitchen. I didn't want them to be forever confused because not all clocks are digital or have easy numbers.
Load More Replies... Elisabeth Clark 3 years ago
At what point does dumb become too dumb to run for office ..?
Load More Replies... ScretSquirl 3 years ago
When I was stationed in Hawaii (25ID) I did have a couple of tourists ask where they could get their US dollars exchanged for Hawaiian money... I almost said that "2 coconuts, 5 shells, and a lava rock was the equivalent of $20 USD but I'd give them all that for $10." but decided that since I was in uniform, that probably would have been a bad idea.
Groundcontroltomajortom 3 years ago
In the UK we're not actually really taught about flags and geographical locations, unless the teacher wants to buts its not as standard. And there's very little taught about America so many have no idea of American states!
Andy 3 years ago (edited)
Not sure where you are in the UK, but certainly in the area I grew up in Scotland it's not like that. General geography was part of the learning in primary school (projects on different countries, history etc) and mandatory as its own subject for the first 2 years of secondary school.
Load More Replies... Sandy D 3 years ago
These are horrifying, and I haven't gotten through them all yet. But my main concern / question..... Aren't there idiots in countries other than the US. I mean, I know we unfortunately provide a huge, sadly high number of the world's idiots. But I'd feel better if there were examples of multinational idiots interest of just ours in the US. I tire of the idiocy here, and just have a shed of hope that we're not the only one plagued with excessive stupid.
Elizabeth Butler 3 years ago
Public education has been actively degraded for decades in favor of private schools, as a political goal, and the results speak for themselves.
i like japan 3 years ago
I have a book on Japan with some interesting geography. Geography that said stuff like "Tokyo is a country" and put city locations in the sea/ocean. If this were a challenge post, I'd literally post this.
Farnaz Khoshbakht 3 years ago
I mean Ok you don't want to learn about the world, at least learn about your own country it's a disgrace
LynzCatastrophe 3 years ago
We have access to more information than any other time in human history. I feel disappointed.
Verena Fiori-Jambor 3 years ago
I was asked if Germany was close to Europe by an a-grade student
Cory Tollman 3 years ago
I use to work with a person who was from Kansas City, Missouri in the USA. They grew up there. They did not know that the city is on the Missouri river. She thought it was the Mississippi river.
An Unpopular Opinion. 3 years ago
I mean, it didn't state on many of these where the posters were from, but I can assume many are 'cause the school system is failing/
Load More Replies... 
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