Speaking at a town hall held Wednesday in Luang Prabang, Laos, President Barack Obama twice suggested that Americans are “lazy” when it comes to the environment and learning other cultures.

“Usually, if you see the environment destroyed, it’s not because that’s necessary for development,” Obama told the Laotian audience. “It’s usually because we are being lazy, and we’re not being as creative as we could be about how to do it in the smarter, sustainable way.”

Later Obama used similar language when discussing American culture. “I believe that the United States is and can be a force for good in the world,” he said. “But because we’re such a big country, we haven’t always had to know about other parts of the world.”

“If you are in Laos, you need to know about Thailand and China and Cambodia, because you’re a small country and they’re right next-door and you need to know who they are. If you’re [in] the United States, sometimes you can feel lazy and think we’re so big we don’t have to really know anything about other people,” he concluded.

[Image via screengrab]

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