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.

#1 You Can Only Pity Such People

Image credits: aaravaryaman

#2 When You Dont Know What You’re Talking About

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#3 Blindly Playing Yourself

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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.

#4 Virtue Signalling

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#5 Yahoo Answers Might Be Gone, But We Still Have Quora

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#6 More Liberian Flag Confusion

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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 They Don’t Teach Flags In High School Geography?

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#8 Ah, Yeah. I Swear It’s Always Us Americans Who Don’t Realize There’s A Country Called Georgia

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#9 Ah Yes, “Time-Zones”

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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 America Is The Whole Globe

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#11 Imagine Being This Uneducated

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#12 Canada Is A Country In Eastern Europe! Read A Book, Bro

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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 Someone Didn’t Pay Attention In Geography Class

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#14 I Posted A Picture On Another Subreddit About A River In The Country Georgia And This Person Had A Lot To Say

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#15 Dunno What To Say

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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 Where Is Ukraine?

Image credits: https://old.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/wlwp11/where_is_ukraine/

#17 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

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#18 Geography

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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

Image credits: Innocent_Killer

#20 Nordic Countries Misunderstood

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#21 Getting Offended Over The Name Of A Country

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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

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#23 I Thought The USA Was The One Bad At Geography, I Swear To God, (UK Politics Subreddit)

Image credits: an_reddit_man

#24 Ah Yes, Germany Flag Fridge Magnet

Image credits: Tatarkingdom

“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

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#26 Asian/Chinese Currency

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#27 Amsterdam = Country

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“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.”

#28 Peace And Harmony

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#29 Definitely The Shape And Flag Of Colorado

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#30 Countries On Map Of Africa Labelled Incorrectly On Gcse Geography Paper

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