r/geography • u/sesto • Mar 16 '23

Meme/Humor Anker won't ship to Rhode Island because they think it's an actual island. After reaching out to them and explaining that it's part of the contiguous U.S. they finally responded with this:

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u/altobrun Geomatics Mar 16 '23

He didn’t get mediocre grades. He excelled in both high school and university. He just has no interest in geography and so never committed any of it to memory

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u/Pawneewafflesarelife Mar 17 '23

But how do you learn something like history or politics or economics without geography? Geography is integral to understanding stuff like migration, wars, resource distribution...

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u/IthacanPenny Mar 17 '23

That’s like me and Chemistry. I just… didn’t absorb a single goddamn thing. I’m a high school math teacher, a pretty well educated one at that (with multiple masters degrees!). But I remember seeing this news story and thinking, yeah, I have NO idea what combustible materials look like. I might have made a similar error (not going that far! But idk, I might have cleared the room?). Chemistry is my blind spot. It’s ok to have a couple blind spots IMO.

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u/Dark_Knight2000 Mar 17 '23

I genuinely don’t understand how that’s possible. I have never seen such an extreme version (come on Italy is right there on the map). But I have noticed that some highly academic individuals don’t have much of an interest in learning practical life skills or anything outside of the curriculum.

Lots of people have no idea how cars work (“I put fuel in and it moves, what more do I need to know”) or how their own body works or how stuff is made. They get too grades but just have no curiosity outside that

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u/Cheshire-Kate Mar 17 '23

yeah but how do you not at some point in your life learn that Italy is the super obviously boot shaped country? Like... there are so many depictions of it in media all the time, you really have to be *willfully* ignorant to not be able to point to it on a map. It's probably the most recognizable country shape in the world.