You don’t have to know the exact population of every country. But I think for all major countries you need to be able to be within 20-30% of the right number off the top of your head to be informed.

If you think France has 300 million or China has 60 million your worldview is going to be distorted. I would’ve liked to hear Cruz’s guess. If we he would’ve said 110 million or 80 million it would’ve been excusable. If he said 30 million or 300 million he should be embarrassed by that.

Also, I would’ve accepted 40-70% Persian for the ethnic question, and he should’ve been able to name at least three more groups.

We need a middle ground between Wikipedia bros who memorize facts to play gotchya and those who think facts don’t matter.

@dhume It matters a lot if Persians are 50% of Iran or 90%.