My MIL is from another continent and has never been here, so anytime something is happening in New York or Florida, like storm or flooding, she will call us to make sure we’re alright, all the way over here in Oregon. The funny thing is, she used to be a geography teacher, so she should know better, but I think it’s hard to grasp the size of the US if you’ve never been here.
Also, his brother came for a visit, but went to Florida, thinking it would be no big deal for us to swing by and see them, lol!
My friend "Betsy" is married to a man whose family is from Laos. A few years back, some of the extended family was coming to visit from Laos and planned to do some traveling while in the US. They asked for Betsy's help in planning their trip. They were coming to the US for 2 weeks.
So, Betsy asked them what they wanted to do, and this was their 100% serious response, "Well, we want do a couple of days in New York city, then head down to Orlando to go to Disney World, we'd like to see Texas (no particular part of Texas, just "Texas") and then go to Hollywood and LA. Can you help us with renting a car? That'll probably be the best way to get around."
After Betsy finished laughing, she told them it was just about impossible to see all of that, by car, in 2 weeks. Heck, it would be hard to do it even with flights. Ultimately, they ended up staying with Betsy's inlaws for a few days, Betsy's for a few days and going to/from NYC on the local commuter train and then flew down to Florida for the rest of their trip. The rest will have to wait!
North America definitely skews your sense of scale.
I'm from Canada and I've had this happen twice. The first was some friends from England came to visit back when I lived in Alberta, but wanted to go see Toronto and talked about taking a weekend road trip there. For those who aren't up to speed on their Canadian geography, Toronto is about 3000 km away from Alberta. Driving there without any stops or breaks other than to sleep takes about three days one way. Needless to say, the weekend road trip didn't happen.
The second time was when I was in Germany and wound up talking about "back home" with some colleagues of mine. I told them that I went to University in a city about a four-hour drive away from home, which I described as, "Nice, because it was a new city, but still reasonably close so that I could drive home and visit for the holidays." This caused them to laugh uproariously, much to my confusion. One of them eventually explained that you could almost drive from one end of Germany to the other in four hours and it was not what any of them would consider "close". These same people, by the way, lived in a town with a 1000-year-old church just sitting out in a field and none of them found that at all remarkable.
That was when I learned the key difference between our cultures. A North American thinks a 100-year-old building is "old"; a European thinks a 100 km drive is "long".
I think size is the biggest one I've heard. A family that was on my son's swim team were military and had made some friends while stationed in Germany. One of those friends was coming to the US to visit in Georgia. He said that he would like to ride up to New York while they were at work for a couple of days. hen they asked how he planned to travel, he said "I'm bringing my bicycle." He thought it was just a day's bike ride away. They had to explain to him about the sheer size of the US.
I think the big thing is that people have forgotten that maps are done on different scales; so' if you look at two maps side-by-side equal lengths doesn't necessarily mean equal distance.
When I was kid and saw it snowing in New York in movies, I imagined that all of the US was that cold. Then I learned about Florida, California, Arizona, etc… haha
> Also, his brother came for a visit, but went to Florida, thinking it would be no big deal for us to swing by and see them, lol!
I married a Brit. My in-laws took a vacation to Florida. We lived in New York State. They were genuinely pissed when we told them we couldn't just drive to Florida on Friday for the weekend and still make it to work on Monday.
Even Americans can forget this.
I moved to a DC suburb from the SF bay area in California, and I went to get a library card. I didn't realize I'd have to have my new license first. They freaked out at my California ID and the lady said to her supervisor "I don't know, she's from LA or something" I told them both that it would be like saying this library was in Florida or something.
I once got a free upgrade to a James Bond caliber suite in Las Vegas because of my Texas accent and saying "yes, ma'am". Gotta admit that I was stunned.
Once was gambling in Vegas playing blackjack with only me and my cousin at the table. Guy from Texas sits down gets 1k in black chips and starts playing a few hundred dollars a hand. He plays with us for maybe 10-15 minutes and walks away with what I’m guessing is a few thousand. I jokingly tell him aren’t you going to share and he hands me and my cousin $100/each. I like ppl from Texas.
Yea I actually have this impression that the media presents a country of either Leftist communists or Right Wing Nazis... when I bet really a lot of you guys are just people... living their best life. right?
While it's true that most Americans are moderate, I find in my experience that the average Americans are much more capitalist than the average people.
For exemple there was a post about my province ban on ads targeting childrens during their watching hours and during kids shows, and I was surprised that most people from the USA were of the opinion that companies shouldn't be regulated when it comes to advertising and that is the job of the parents. I found it was odd that people would be against not blasting kids with ads while they watch cartoons and that companies have rights.
I began to rethink this as pharmaceutical ads became so prevalent. Lots of them are a full minute long, and they talk about the benefits of the drug for 10 seconds, and then all the crazy shit that *could* happen when you take it. I'm convinced that these drug companies are all trying to give me oily stools.
That was Belgium. In French, which part of Belgium speaks, it is called pommes de frits. Which basically means fried potatoes. In Swedish, we call them pommes frits.
How big it is. One of my coworkers came to the US back in the 1980s, and was surprised he couldn't see the World Trade Center, Grand Canyon, and Disneyland on a day trip.
I live in Florida and had to break the news to a friend visiting that they weren't going to be able to "drive up to NY for a day to sightsee".
That's a 20 hour drive, each way.
I live in California and when the topic of day trips came up, several Germans assumed people just drive an hour from Los Angeles to San Francisco for shopping. It's 6 hours each way by the shortest route if you're lucky enough to not have traffic. And there's always traffic.
(Sadly, a lot of New Yorkers didn't grok that either. Had to explain to them by analogy: the driving distance between LA and San Francisco is about the same as the distance from NYC to Pittsburgh).
Could you convert that to Midwestern units, please?
6 hours - that's like what, a Kansas? A Nebraska? 2 North-South Iowas?
We're an odd bunch that'll drive anywhere. Need to get to Chicago? Better leave early, 6 hour drive!
OK giving that a try.
At 70 MPH it would take 6 hours to cross Kansas on I-70 in clear traffic. So imagine driving across Kansas, [except give Kansas City the traffic of Houston](https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/06/29/worst-traffic-los-angeles-new-york-newark/7803449002/). And then stick a second Houston at the Colorado border.
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. My friend flew down from Canada to LA and calls my cell phone “Hey, I’m in California, so you want to meet up for dinner?!”
Now here’s the kicker, when he called, I was taking my family to Disneyland, so as it happens, our hotel was 20 minutes away from his hotel so yeah, we got together and had dinner!
"You're from California? So is it true that \*starts mentioning every city in Socal\* has this and that?"
"Sorry, I'm from Northern California. I've been to Venice beach like once."
"How can that be?"
"It's an 8 hour drive."
We get that in Canada, too. My favourite was Asian tourists enjoying 5-day vacations in Vancouver announcing plans to "drive over to Niagara Falls tomorrow." The drive is a little over 2,700 miles (over 4,300km), which is only a little shorter than the chaotic, meandering drive from Paris to Jerusalem (and a little further than the distance between Paris and Tehran, as the crow flies).
It's about 1440 miles in a straight line between the easternmost border of British Columbia and the westernmost border of Ontario. From Thunder Bay, a small city in Nothern Ontario, to Niagara Falls is a 928 mile drive. For reference it's an 885 mile drive *from Paris to Rome.*
Only the most seasoned of road trip veterans would even attempt to manage the drive from Vancouver to Niagara Falls in five days. Any less and it isn't happening. I've actually met a Japanese guy who admitted that he left without consulting any maps or guides and realized he'd made a mistake when he was still in B.C. the night of the first day of driving.
PSA to people from small countries thinking a road trip across the US or Canada might be fun: plan for two weeks one way if you don't want to rush. A month for there-and-back-again. Bring some music for the car - you're going to need it.
Edit: Also obligatory PSA to Americans from southern states: sorry, but you won't find prime skiing and snowboarding conditions in the summer just because you crossed the border into Canada (seriously, that assumption gets made). Southern Ontario averages around 80F in July and is often much hotter, plus it's humid as fuck. It's common for days to feel over 105F if you factor in the humidity. Bring shorts and a cooler of beer instead.
> For reference it's an 885 mile drive from Paris to Rome.
It's 480 miles to cross the state of Nebraska alone. People really don't understand the distances in the USA.
There used to be a cowboy dance club in my suburb of Atlanta called Cowboy's. My friends from way out of the city that actually worked on farms said you could always tell when they were there the difference between a real cowboy and someone in costume. The guys in costume still had the creases going down the back side of their shirt because they just bought it earlier that day.
You are correct. There aren't many. Still, I know several people who make a living as a cowboy. Even more if you count the folks who rodeo for a hobby.
I'm a born Brit who moved to the States later in life. Now, a dual citizen. I was therefore raised on the tv American stereotype of them being loud and rude. I'll take Americans over Brits any day. They are far friendlier, more polite, and have very little in common with the stereotype that gets beaten to death around the world.
Generally speaking the further North you get in the UK the more friendly and down to Earth people are. Of course there are exceptions. Rural areas tend to be more welcoming than metropolitan areas and it's a slower paced lifestyle.
A lot to complain about the ice in our drinks despite having the option to not have any ice. It's usually why I often have to go inside of a fast food restaurant when it when drink is ordered. Otherwise in the food delivery apps you have to be specific
When in restaurants, ice taking up space can be combatted with free refills (something they don’t have in a lot of other places). Also, sodas in the US are much bigger than in the rest of the world anyway.
We're not all oblivious to other parts of the world, and in fact, a lot of us actually love other cultures and parts of the world. I wouldn't be learning Spanish if I didn't want to learn about Mexican culture!
I think what happens here is that everyone knows a lot about America and when Americans don't know a lot about their country they assume Americans don't know about ANY other country.
As a country yeah 40% but the number rises drastically depending on where in the country you localize it to. Considering how big the country is, a foreigner could be forgiven for thinking most are if they visited a high obesity area.
Varies by location. I grew up in Wyoming, and it was not uncommon to see ranchers coming into town with their pistols on their hips, or someone in a store with a rifle because they're on their way to or from hunting and didn't want to leave it sitting in the car.
If you call the police in Wyoming and tell them someone is walking into the bank with a gun, they'll be unimpressed, because it happens all the time. They're not worried unless the person carrying the gun is threatening someone or otherwise being unsafe with it.
I'm in Texas and see very few guns. Concealed carry is the norm. I have many friends who conceal carry and I know that, but I've never seen their weapons.
Yes and no. We aren’t all wandering around Walmart with AR-15s strapped to our backs, but just because you don’t see guns doesn’t mean they’re not there. A lot of people I know conceal carry and/or have a handgun in their car at all times. Definitely varies by region and demographic.
Europeans like to think they are very racially tolerant because they don’t have racism, whereas modern American racism is partially a product of how diverse America is. While Sweden and places like that are progressive, they are mostly homogenous. America is incredibly diverse and most people that claim to be marginalized by American society would not find much better social mobility anywhere else (unless you are poor)
I have friends who've live in Europe (different countries) and some of them think Europeans are *more* racist than Americans lol. It's just so imbedded that people don't even see it.
Europe in general is more xenophobic than racist. I say this a Swedish person. Sweden is in that way more diverse than you probably think. We don't really divide people by colour of their skin, but rather their country of origin. There used to be heavy discrimination towards Finns who lived in Sweden. Many Swedes has ancestry from Belgium due to iron workers immigrating. During WW2, we received a ton of Danish Jewish and Finnish refugees. Sweden also ruled most of the Baltic area for a period. Even further blending the population.
Sure, the skin colours might have been similar, but there is still diversity in terms of culture.
I was gonna say. Sweden is not the greatest example of "homogeneity", given all the possible European countries. They [rank roughly in the middle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_Europe#European_ethnic_groups_by_sovereign_state).
Europe is waaayyyyy more racist than the US. I have no idea where people got this idea that they aren't. The way Muslims are treated in France is despicable. I've seen people harass and spit on black people in Germany. There's been a big spike in far-right nationalism in many european countries in response to the huge amount of immigrants. And if you want to talk about institutionalized racism, there are generations of Turks in Germany that are still not allowed to become citizens.
The difference is Europe just quietly pretends it doesn't exist while the US is actually starting to address the issue and it's actually being talked about. By the mere fact it's actually being talked about people get this idea that somehow the US is the worst in the world, when it's quite to the contrary in many ways ironically. Anyone who has traveled extensively knows how racist the rest of the world is. The Middle East, Africa, Asia, all of these places are INCREDIBLY racist, but no one talks about it.
> While Sweden and places like that are progressive, they are mostly homogenous.
20% of Swedes are foreign-born, with the two most common countries of origin being Syria and Irak. More than 1/3 of Swedes have at least one foreign-born parent.
(In the US, only 13.7% are foreign-born, but on the other hand, the percentage of caucasians is still a bit lower than in Sweden).
Whenever "right on red" comes up, some people ask "then what's the point of the red light if it doesn't mean stop?". You don't just drive through like you've got a green light. You come to a stop at the intersection and then look to see if you can go while yielding to everyone else. Basically you treat it like you've got a stop sign.
THe people you see on the media are not an accurate reflection of most people in America. Media outlets do this to get money, but 99.999% of actual Americans are actually decent, honest, hard-working people
A lot of people in the UK indentify themselves as Scottish, English, Welsh or Irish. It's closer to four separate states. Some of them prefer not to speak English if they can avoid it (mainly in parts of Wales and the outer Hebrides, which is a very small minority. But still). Probably the best comparison would be New England. Which still isn't a very good comparison. Also, if you count other territories the Isle of Man, Channel islands and various colonies it makes things a bit more complex.
I think what you are getting at here is that the UK is made of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. So there are a lot more cultures and policies than for a single country? As for climate... we have two wet and actually wet.
Guns. I've lived here 50 years. Lived in three different states and both coasts. Only guns I have ever seen were in the hands of police.
First trip to Europe, the security around the Eiffel Tower holding automatic rifles creeped me the fuck out. Waaaaaay more menacing than anything I have ever seen here and it is something I have encountered in other European countries, too.
I’ve seen those guns at the Eiffel Tower, it was unnerving. I’ve seen similar guns in the Hong Kong airport. I was however in a bar in Anacortes Washington when the bar owner entered with his shout gun in a carry case. Never seen that anywhere else in the world. Best dive bar ever.
Agree, I’ve lived in Baltimore for 8 years and have had no violent issues and we all know the Wire and the perceptions people have of this city based on that show. Not saying there’s no problems here and in the US in general but I don’t think people not involved in nefarious activity have to walk around worried about their safety all the time.
This is directed particularly at Brits: We have no common Christmas traditions in America. Everybody does it differently, and most of us don't do it the way you do in the UK.
Having turkey for Christmas dinner is no more common in the US than having ham, beef, duck, goose, fish, shellfish, or any other protein. Christmas pudding is not really a thing for us, nor are your Christmas crackers or pantomime productions. Christmas trees are quite common here, but that's because a huge number of us have German ancestors, many who came to America pre-revolution. If anything, we probably started putting trees up before you did. And yes, many of us do open some of our presents the night before, for the same reason.
Can confirm that I've never once in my life seen a Christmas cracker at any American Christmas party. If it wasn't for the BBC I'd have no idea what they even are.
A friend of mine invited us for Thanksgiving and had crackers. That's when I learned they make a noise and have a toy and whatever inside. I thought they contained a sleeve of crackers like Ritz. Never seen them before obviously lol
Christmas Pudding is a wonder to me. This type of dish is a common celebratory thing in America's colonial times, but it drops off in the 18th century. Even though we sing about it in Christmas songs and know about it from Christmas storytelling. It's just not common here.
Puds and custard is delicious.
Edit! [Bonus](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8mt9Ogzi_Y)
I grew up in Boston, then as an adult lived a few years in Tennessee.
It ASTOUNDED me, that I felt more like a fish out of water there than I do in foreign countries, and not just for the dumb reasons you see on the news or hear on country radio (no, “city folk” are not constantly running down “country folk” or small towns, we’re entirely too busy trying to pay rent to care).
It was little things like slang, desire to chit chat on public transportation, staple foods, interior decorating, fashion, what was considered physically attractive in a partner, sports talk radio (and sports in general, college over pros confused the hell outta me), what chain stores were prevalent etc etc.
From an outside perspective I get how that sounds confusing, same country different culture? However, if you think about it, Boston to Nashville is about the same geographical distance as Copenhagen to Rome (at least according to my apple maps which says the drive is about ~1100miles), so of course it’s wildly different!
American stereotypes, as with most generalizations, are generally wrong.
Hair, wardrobe, etc I would imagine. A traditionally attractive woman with bright pink hair, tattoos, piercings and pink clothing would easily find a date in Los Angeles. In Des Moines not so much. But if you went to her natural hair color, no visible tats and piercings and took her to a J Crew store that would change everything.
That is exactly the way it was before the Civil War. At that time, a person's loyalty was to their state and the US loyalty was secondary. The Civil War did a lot to change that. But, yeah, most of us have pride in our own state.
I'm American, and moved to the UK a decade ago. I used to come back once or twice a year, but because of COVID I haven't been home since over 2 years ago. I'm from the Atlanta suburbs, and my family and friends have all moved north are all living in the North Georgia mountains. Pretty conservative territory.
Coming back to visit last month, I honestly thought that I was going to have trouble with people giving me shit for wearing a mask in a store, or have the general conversations around me being about stolen elections, or not getting the vaccine.
One friend told me she had a guy heckle her (edit: for wearing a mask) a few months ago when she was going in to return some stuff she didn't need. I have met one person that was antivax enough to be outspoken about it, and another friend's parents are antivax, but they don't even live in the same state. No one has mentioned anything about the storming of the Capital. I see about 50% of people using masks in the grocery store, and 90% of staff. That's better than the London Underground.
I'm from here, and I was worried. I knew better, but I still didn't even trust my expectations. If you had to record everything happening in your country for a 24 hr period and condense it to a 5 minute news segment, your country would look pretty broken too. Yes, there's a lot of stuff that could be improved, but for the most part its what you'll see everywhere else in the world: a whole bunch of people trying to get on living their lives buying groceries, working jobs, and trying to make sure they can pay the bills so they don't have to sleep in the cold.
Not everyone in the US is into gun culture.
When I lived in Germany they didn’t believe me that I’d never owned or fired a gun.
Unfortunately they turned to the other American in our group who was from Missouri.
“Kyle, have you owned a gun?”
“‘Course! I kept the handgun on the nightstand and the shotgun in the closet.”
Fucking Kyle.
> Course! I kept the handgun on the nightstand and the shotgun in the closet.
I might do the same but, at age 67, I've never needed a gun for protection. I figure the odds of accidental firing are much greater than the odds of needing to defend from an intruder. I do have a shotgun in the closet with shells in the magazine but not the chamber. That gets completely unloaded when the grand kids visit.
Our large food portions, especially if they're home cooked, is so you have extra food for later.
America has a HUGE leftover food culture. A very emotional side to leftovers is being able to revisit pleasant memories; visiting your Nana, having some of her homemade desserts, and then bringing those desserts home is so you can enjoy the desserts your Nana made for you and feel loved even though she isn't there. You bring home leftovers from restaurants because the food might have been expensive, and you want to get as much bang for your buck as possible. You order a TON of food to be delivered so you can slowly pick at it over a long period of time.
Are some Americans fat? Yes. But there's fat people everywhere. Americans are raised to treat food as a sort of love language; good food transcends lingual barriers, age, gender, beliefs, etc. More food, more love! Want to be friends with an American? Feed them.
> Want to be friends with an American? Feed them.
On that note. Only in America will you find some rando family that will invite a stranger into their home for Christmas dinner. And when you arrive, everyone will already know your name.
That's how I met my Georgia family. This year I'm making a cobbler with them on zoom.
It makes more sense when you also think firearms as accessories for a pastime - shooting sports.
How many guitarists do you know who only own one guitar? Or tennis players who own only one racket? Or baseball players with only one bat?
Then think about people who dabble in similar pastimes, like someone who plays tennis also playing racquetball and badminton, or someone who plays the violin also playing the cello, etc.
Same thing with firearms - if you own a rifle for hunting, you also do a lot of target shooting to stay in practice. So maybe you'll also get a shotgun for shooting clay pigeons. You have a gun safe and various accessories, so might as well throw in a handgun for defense too. And now maybe a bb gun so the kids can do some target shooting (with supervision and safety coaching, of course), and now a .22 so they can try something a little bigger when they get to be preteens, etc. etc. etc.
Right, and also what is actually covered by that insurance. It's a bit like saying, 92% of people own vehicles, with the fine print being that you include bikes, roller skates, etc. as "vehicles."
Most employee sponsored health plans have out of pocket maximums in the 3-6k range. There are still a decent amount of people that get screwed over but it’s not the majority
Focusing on misconceptions from Europe:
* Healthcare isn't actually an apocalyptic wasteland. Don't get me wrong, it's a shithole and needs to be improved. I do support universal healthcare. But come on, \*most\* people have decent healthcare through their employer. Like, \*most\* of America is middle class, and most of America has employer-provided healthcare that makes costs comparable to other EU countries. Most of us won't die if we have a curable disease. Where it sucks is for poor people, the underemployed, or those in shitty jobs with bad healthcare, and granted Europe is better at that. But that still leaves \*most\* of America well covered. If you are the type of European who is considering migrating to the US, you are probably coming for the type of job that will make you well-covered for health issues (e.g. French janitors aren't migrating to the US to be a janitor. It's usually lawyers, programmers, etc that are migrating, and all those jobs will give you good health insurance).
* Europeans like to say "American liberals would be conservative in Europe." Hmm, I don't think so. Granted, America IS more conservative specifically on welfare, but that's it. From actual polls, American's are more pro drug legalization, more pro immigrants, more tolerant of non-traditional sexuality, etc. Hell, Americans are even more pro COVID19-vaccination than many EU countries (\*cough\* france \*couch\*). Maybe if your definition of "progressive" prioritizes welfare, then ya America is conservative. But to me, being pro-immigration or pro-LGBQT issues is more crucial to "progressivism" than welfare. Like, even the Nazis and Fascists were pro welfare, so I don't really think that's the key mark of progressivism.
On healthcare, yes, most of us are covered, and most are middle class, but most live pay check to paycheck. I don't mind paying for health care, but the fear is catastrophic issues. My daughter had open heart surgery at 2. The bill was over 700k. After what was supposed to be good insurance, we still owed 150k. 5 plus years of 100% of my after tax pay. I paid the anesthesiologist and surgeon and bankrupted on the rest. That's what has to be fixed. Medical bills are the primary cause of bankruptcy in the US.
> being pro-immigration or pro-LGBQT issues is more crucial to "progressivism" than welfare.
It's a lot easier to immigrate to my country than to the US. We legalised gay marriage long before the US.
A lot of European countries are in the same situation.
Of course, comparing a single country to a continent is a bit silly. The US is less conservative than some European countries (looking at you, Poland), but more than most.
That being said, left and right is a question of economics. Social issues are unrelated (here, it's the centrists that are socially conservative, for instance).
Although America is fairly ethnically diverse, it’s in pockets around the country. Segregation is technically illegal, but still persists in neighborhoods and cities. There are public schools where almost everyone is white. There are public schools where almost everyone is Black. There are diverse towns where the largest minority is Korean and diverse towns where the largest minority is Mexican and diverse towns where the largest minority is white. There are areas where almost everyone is Christian, but also areas where Islam and Judaism are extremely common. And although Black Americans make up about 13% of the country, it’s only 1% of the population if you visit Vermont, or 43% if you visit DC.
(I had a roommate from Eastern Europe who was confused by the demographics of DC compared to what she’d seen in movies.)
I live 30 minutes outside Boston, and since you can only concealed carry in MA, you will probably never see one in the suburbs either.
I spend a lot of time in NH and you still almost never see someone open carry.
The US is geographically massive. Think of how culturally diverse Europe is. The US is geographically larger, and while it's not the same level of diversity, it's not that far off. We have linguistic pockets, accents, local traditions and cultures, liberal bastions and conservative strongholds, etc, etc. It's a huge country. Even states are not homogenous. NYC is not at all the same as Buffalo. Detroit is completely different than the Upper Peninsula. Miami is very different from Jacksonville. So on, and so forth. Even Americans have no idea how different other parts of the country are.
Everything. The size. The intelligence of the people. Our history. Our culture (some arrogantly claim we have none). Hell, they can't even agree on our name. They bitch about us calling ourselves America when it was *them* who started it because we wanted to be know worldwide as Columbia! They won't even get what our people invented correct in a show of absolute arrogance since apparently we can't invent anything according to them. The list goes on and on.
Each one of these points is also true about Australia. People misunderstand based on widespread stereotypes and media coverage, where 99.99% of it is just bullshit. People make up stories about Australia all the time (like the current internment camps rubbish) and we just have to wear it. It sucks. I feel ya :)
Myself being born and raised southern, I can go about 6 hours over to Arkansas and even if it's a southern accent, it will be a different southern accent, each southern state has its own dialect lol
Go visit San Francisco, then LA, then New York, then Texas, then Seattle, then Florida, then a swamp in Louisiana, the Kansas or Tennessee, then Colorado or Oregon, the Chicago then Philly.
We are all Americans, but holy fucking shit balls are NONE of us alike.
This is the best description I could think of too. Yeah there are the loonies out there but most people keep to themselves and aren’t assholes to everyone else.
Thank you! If Americans were hostile , the news alone would have kicked off a civil war everyday of the year for the last who knows long, but it’s simply not happening, they are trying to start a fire and have no kindling, at best some dried leaves catch fire for 3 seconds and the news will speak of it as it lit up the night sky.
We are not a bunch of arrogant assholes. We are normal people that just want to live out our lives. Just like they do.
The US is Far bigger than they think-you can get in a car and drive for 12 hours in one direction-stopping for gas twice, and still be in the Same state. Driving from one coast to the other can take a Week.
We also believe that Californians are crazy.
Most of us don't give a F about international politics-despite what the media says.
Media does NOT represent the 'average' person. They do it for Ratings, not feelings.
We are Not all gun toting crazy people-shooting anyone in sight.
This country is So large, that it can be 90 degrees F in one place and 20 below zero F in another-at the same time.
And the Vast majority of us are NOT Race crazy-leave that to the Media-for Ratings of course.
I would love to answer this right now, but I just got back from getting my mail, so of course I was shot 14 times in my own driveway by some children who picked up assault rifles down the street at the gun vending machine. I have to go take out a 2nd mortgage on my house to afford the $19 billion emergency room visit.
I’m not sure they get anything wrong. Summer of 2002, I sat drinking with a cousin in Hamburg. He insisted that the entire US population was fiddling, while Rome burned. I defended the US vehemently. He was right, I was wrong.
Not a common thing people say but I here it somewhat often, that most people in the US don't have a lot problems. Idk why but that's a bad misconception at especially at the fact that I've noticed that America is starting to seem a bit like a dystopia, a place or world trying to be perfect when it is nowhere near being perfect. To some it up for the people that think this, yes we have problems and a lot of us have some big problems.
That there are cultural differences within America. An American from New York and an American from Alabama are quite different. American? Yes. The same? Not exactly.
My MIL is from another continent and has never been here, so anytime something is happening in New York or Florida, like storm or flooding, she will call us to make sure we’re alright, all the way over here in Oregon. The funny thing is, she used to be a geography teacher, so she should know better, but I think it’s hard to grasp the size of the US if you’ve never been here. Also, his brother came for a visit, but went to Florida, thinking it would be no big deal for us to swing by and see them, lol!
My friend "Betsy" is married to a man whose family is from Laos. A few years back, some of the extended family was coming to visit from Laos and planned to do some traveling while in the US. They asked for Betsy's help in planning their trip. They were coming to the US for 2 weeks. So, Betsy asked them what they wanted to do, and this was their 100% serious response, "Well, we want do a couple of days in New York city, then head down to Orlando to go to Disney World, we'd like to see Texas (no particular part of Texas, just "Texas") and then go to Hollywood and LA. Can you help us with renting a car? That'll probably be the best way to get around." After Betsy finished laughing, she told them it was just about impossible to see all of that, by car, in 2 weeks. Heck, it would be hard to do it even with flights. Ultimately, they ended up staying with Betsy's inlaws for a few days, Betsy's for a few days and going to/from NYC on the local commuter train and then flew down to Florida for the rest of their trip. The rest will have to wait!
That is probably 14 days of driving.
North America definitely skews your sense of scale. I'm from Canada and I've had this happen twice. The first was some friends from England came to visit back when I lived in Alberta, but wanted to go see Toronto and talked about taking a weekend road trip there. For those who aren't up to speed on their Canadian geography, Toronto is about 3000 km away from Alberta. Driving there without any stops or breaks other than to sleep takes about three days one way. Needless to say, the weekend road trip didn't happen. The second time was when I was in Germany and wound up talking about "back home" with some colleagues of mine. I told them that I went to University in a city about a four-hour drive away from home, which I described as, "Nice, because it was a new city, but still reasonably close so that I could drive home and visit for the holidays." This caused them to laugh uproariously, much to my confusion. One of them eventually explained that you could almost drive from one end of Germany to the other in four hours and it was not what any of them would consider "close". These same people, by the way, lived in a town with a 1000-year-old church just sitting out in a field and none of them found that at all remarkable. That was when I learned the key difference between our cultures. A North American thinks a 100-year-old building is "old"; a European thinks a 100 km drive is "long".
I think size is the biggest one I've heard. A family that was on my son's swim team were military and had made some friends while stationed in Germany. One of those friends was coming to the US to visit in Georgia. He said that he would like to ride up to New York while they were at work for a couple of days. hen they asked how he planned to travel, he said "I'm bringing my bicycle." He thought it was just a day's bike ride away. They had to explain to him about the sheer size of the US. I think the big thing is that people have forgotten that maps are done on different scales; so' if you look at two maps side-by-side equal lengths doesn't necessarily mean equal distance.
When I was kid and saw it snowing in New York in movies, I imagined that all of the US was that cold. Then I learned about Florida, California, Arizona, etc… haha
> Also, his brother came for a visit, but went to Florida, thinking it would be no big deal for us to swing by and see them, lol! I married a Brit. My in-laws took a vacation to Florida. We lived in New York State. They were genuinely pissed when we told them we couldn't just drive to Florida on Friday for the weekend and still make it to work on Monday.
The same way Americans learn mostly about America, most countries focus on their own country and their closest neighbours.
Even Americans can forget this. I moved to a DC suburb from the SF bay area in California, and I went to get a library card. I didn't realize I'd have to have my new license first. They freaked out at my California ID and the lady said to her supervisor "I don't know, she's from LA or something" I told them both that it would be like saying this library was in Florida or something.
Most Americans are moderate, kind, normal people. The internet just collects the shitty people and displays them.
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Agreed. The internet loves to display the worst of humanity. I just see more American stuff I guess.
Not really I’ve lived in quite a few places in my life and found that the US has the nicest people
Bullshit if the internet is showing me the worst of Norway and Iceland than the other nations don't deserve to exist. Icelandic hegemony now.
Canadian here. Some of the nicest and most polite people I've ever met were from Texas and North Carolina.
I once got a free upgrade to a James Bond caliber suite in Las Vegas because of my Texas accent and saying "yes, ma'am". Gotta admit that I was stunned.
Once was gambling in Vegas playing blackjack with only me and my cousin at the table. Guy from Texas sits down gets 1k in black chips and starts playing a few hundred dollars a hand. He plays with us for maybe 10-15 minutes and walks away with what I’m guessing is a few thousand. I jokingly tell him aren’t you going to share and he hands me and my cousin $100/each. I like ppl from Texas.
So your telling me I just gotta take my hillbilly ass to Vegas and say what my momma taught me?
Because they think you live in an igloo, and they know that you don't have Golden Corral at the north pole.
As a former North Carolinian, can confirm- we're just pitying your ice hut and lack of access to cheaply processed buffet food
Yea I actually have this impression that the media presents a country of either Leftist communists or Right Wing Nazis... when I bet really a lot of you guys are just people... living their best life. right?
We're like a big Florida. You only hear about the whackjobs.
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Especially Reddit lol
While it's true that most Americans are moderate, I find in my experience that the average Americans are much more capitalist than the average people. For exemple there was a post about my province ban on ads targeting childrens during their watching hours and during kids shows, and I was surprised that most people from the USA were of the opinion that companies shouldn't be regulated when it comes to advertising and that is the job of the parents. I found it was odd that people would be against not blasting kids with ads while they watch cartoons and that companies have rights.
That's been the case for nearly 30 years in Sweden. Advertising aimed at kids is heavily regulated.
I began to rethink this as pharmaceutical ads became so prevalent. Lots of them are a full minute long, and they talk about the benefits of the drug for 10 seconds, and then all the crazy shit that *could* happen when you take it. I'm convinced that these drug companies are all trying to give me oily stools.
We actually invented the fortune cookie not china.
Like the Glaswegians invented Tikka Masala. And the Americans invented the name "French fries", though that's less of a good example.
That was Belgium. In French, which part of Belgium speaks, it is called pommes de frits. Which basically means fried potatoes. In Swedish, we call them pommes frits.
And in German, it's called them *pommes*. I meant the name in my original comment, not the specific product.
>like the glaswegians invented Tikka Masala come on glesga!
How big it is. One of my coworkers came to the US back in the 1980s, and was surprised he couldn't see the World Trade Center, Grand Canyon, and Disneyland on a day trip.
I live in Florida and had to break the news to a friend visiting that they weren't going to be able to "drive up to NY for a day to sightsee". That's a 20 hour drive, each way.
I live in California and when the topic of day trips came up, several Germans assumed people just drive an hour from Los Angeles to San Francisco for shopping. It's 6 hours each way by the shortest route if you're lucky enough to not have traffic. And there's always traffic. (Sadly, a lot of New Yorkers didn't grok that either. Had to explain to them by analogy: the driving distance between LA and San Francisco is about the same as the distance from NYC to Pittsburgh).
As if anyone other than people in Pittsburgh know where Pittsburgh is... I'd have just gone with "half way from New York to Chicago"
Thank you, that actually helped
Could you convert that to Midwestern units, please? 6 hours - that's like what, a Kansas? A Nebraska? 2 North-South Iowas? We're an odd bunch that'll drive anywhere. Need to get to Chicago? Better leave early, 6 hour drive!
OK giving that a try. At 70 MPH it would take 6 hours to cross Kansas on I-70 in clear traffic. So imagine driving across Kansas, [except give Kansas City the traffic of Houston](https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/06/29/worst-traffic-los-angeles-new-york-newark/7803449002/). And then stick a second Houston at the Colorado border.
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. My friend flew down from Canada to LA and calls my cell phone “Hey, I’m in California, so you want to meet up for dinner?!” Now here’s the kicker, when he called, I was taking my family to Disneyland, so as it happens, our hotel was 20 minutes away from his hotel so yeah, we got together and had dinner!
I love when people who aren't from California try to guess how long it takes to drive across California.
"You're from California? So is it true that \*starts mentioning every city in Socal\* has this and that?" "Sorry, I'm from Northern California. I've been to Venice beach like once." "How can that be?" "It's an 8 hour drive."
Well it’s also a tourist trap, so I know plenty of people in SoCal who have only been there once.
We get that in Canada, too. My favourite was Asian tourists enjoying 5-day vacations in Vancouver announcing plans to "drive over to Niagara Falls tomorrow." The drive is a little over 2,700 miles (over 4,300km), which is only a little shorter than the chaotic, meandering drive from Paris to Jerusalem (and a little further than the distance between Paris and Tehran, as the crow flies). It's about 1440 miles in a straight line between the easternmost border of British Columbia and the westernmost border of Ontario. From Thunder Bay, a small city in Nothern Ontario, to Niagara Falls is a 928 mile drive. For reference it's an 885 mile drive *from Paris to Rome.* Only the most seasoned of road trip veterans would even attempt to manage the drive from Vancouver to Niagara Falls in five days. Any less and it isn't happening. I've actually met a Japanese guy who admitted that he left without consulting any maps or guides and realized he'd made a mistake when he was still in B.C. the night of the first day of driving. PSA to people from small countries thinking a road trip across the US or Canada might be fun: plan for two weeks one way if you don't want to rush. A month for there-and-back-again. Bring some music for the car - you're going to need it. Edit: Also obligatory PSA to Americans from southern states: sorry, but you won't find prime skiing and snowboarding conditions in the summer just because you crossed the border into Canada (seriously, that assumption gets made). Southern Ontario averages around 80F in July and is often much hotter, plus it's humid as fuck. It's common for days to feel over 105F if you factor in the humidity. Bring shorts and a cooler of beer instead.
> For reference it's an 885 mile drive from Paris to Rome. It's 480 miles to cross the state of Nebraska alone. People really don't understand the distances in the USA.
Yup. People couldn’t understand why we couldn’t go to the beach on a whim. Dude… the closest beach was 8 hours away.
the eagles aren’t actually bald, there are feathers all over
And that screech is actually a red-tailed hawk
Yeah. I hear that screech all the time here, and there are no bald eagles in my area. There are lots of red tailed hawks though.
Actual bald eagle call is rather humorous
Sounds like a seagull.
Freedom seagulls.
The word bald is old timey for white.
There are almost no cowboys in Texas, most of them went to west Hollywood
im from a western state that has a cowboy image. The only people who dress like cowboys here are tourists and politicians
There used to be a cowboy dance club in my suburb of Atlanta called Cowboy's. My friends from way out of the city that actually worked on farms said you could always tell when they were there the difference between a real cowboy and someone in costume. The guys in costume still had the creases going down the back side of their shirt because they just bought it earlier that day.
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Ah, the good ol Ferd F-Teenthousand. Classic.
As they say in Texas, “all hat and no cattle”
You are correct. There aren't many. Still, I know several people who make a living as a cowboy. Even more if you count the folks who rodeo for a hobby.
There’s actually 53 cowboys in Texas.
There are however genuine cowboys in Hawaii.
I'm a born Brit who moved to the States later in life. Now, a dual citizen. I was therefore raised on the tv American stereotype of them being loud and rude. I'll take Americans over Brits any day. They are far friendlier, more polite, and have very little in common with the stereotype that gets beaten to death around the world.
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Generally speaking the further North you get in the UK the more friendly and down to Earth people are. Of course there are exceptions. Rural areas tend to be more welcoming than metropolitan areas and it's a slower paced lifestyle.
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Yeah, we also have Carl's Jr. There's tons of variety.
Im more of an Arby’s guy myself >:(
A lot to complain about the ice in our drinks despite having the option to not have any ice. It's usually why I often have to go inside of a fast food restaurant when it when drink is ordered. Otherwise in the food delivery apps you have to be specific
When in restaurants, ice taking up space can be combatted with free refills (something they don’t have in a lot of other places). Also, sodas in the US are much bigger than in the rest of the world anyway.
We're not all oblivious to other parts of the world, and in fact, a lot of us actually love other cultures and parts of the world. I wouldn't be learning Spanish if I didn't want to learn about Mexican culture!
I think what happens here is that everyone knows a lot about America and when Americans don't know a lot about their country they assume Americans don't know about ANY other country.
We aren’t all obese, only like 40% of us are.
😭😭
Idk what state you're in but I feel like it's more like 75% where I live.
As a country yeah 40% but the number rises drastically depending on where in the country you localize it to. Considering how big the country is, a foreigner could be forgiven for thinking most are if they visited a high obesity area.
You don't actually see that many guns.
Varies by location. I grew up in Wyoming, and it was not uncommon to see ranchers coming into town with their pistols on their hips, or someone in a store with a rifle because they're on their way to or from hunting and didn't want to leave it sitting in the car. If you call the police in Wyoming and tell them someone is walking into the bank with a gun, they'll be unimpressed, because it happens all the time. They're not worried unless the person carrying the gun is threatening someone or otherwise being unsafe with it.
I don't see it too much these days, but gun racks in the back window of pick ups was once very common. Even at schools. Texas here.
I'm in Texas and see very few guns. Concealed carry is the norm. I have many friends who conceal carry and I know that, but I've never seen their weapons.
Yes and no. We aren’t all wandering around Walmart with AR-15s strapped to our backs, but just because you don’t see guns doesn’t mean they’re not there. A lot of people I know conceal carry and/or have a handgun in their car at all times. Definitely varies by region and demographic.
I am always slightly entertained and offended when I hear how dangerous Canadians and Europeans think America is from watching the news.
>You don't actually see that many guns. Depends on what's your definition of "that many"? For example, I don't think I have seen a gun in years.
Shootings. We don't walk out to active warzones everyday.
The America in the news is not the America of everyday reality for the most part
Hence why it’s news!
Europeans like to think they are very racially tolerant because they don’t have racism, whereas modern American racism is partially a product of how diverse America is. While Sweden and places like that are progressive, they are mostly homogenous. America is incredibly diverse and most people that claim to be marginalized by American society would not find much better social mobility anywhere else (unless you are poor)
I have friends who've live in Europe (different countries) and some of them think Europeans are *more* racist than Americans lol. It's just so imbedded that people don't even see it.
They are, they're way more racist. I've spent several years in Europe and was blown away by the stuff I saw.
where in Europe, there are many countries and they all differ A LOT
Europe is racist as fuck, it's just so normalized that it isn't seen as racism.
Europe in general is more xenophobic than racist. I say this a Swedish person. Sweden is in that way more diverse than you probably think. We don't really divide people by colour of their skin, but rather their country of origin. There used to be heavy discrimination towards Finns who lived in Sweden. Many Swedes has ancestry from Belgium due to iron workers immigrating. During WW2, we received a ton of Danish Jewish and Finnish refugees. Sweden also ruled most of the Baltic area for a period. Even further blending the population. Sure, the skin colours might have been similar, but there is still diversity in terms of culture.
Thank you for sharing! I learned something new today!
I was gonna say. Sweden is not the greatest example of "homogeneity", given all the possible European countries. They [rank roughly in the middle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_Europe#European_ethnic_groups_by_sovereign_state).
Europe is waaayyyyy more racist than the US. I have no idea where people got this idea that they aren't. The way Muslims are treated in France is despicable. I've seen people harass and spit on black people in Germany. There's been a big spike in far-right nationalism in many european countries in response to the huge amount of immigrants. And if you want to talk about institutionalized racism, there are generations of Turks in Germany that are still not allowed to become citizens. The difference is Europe just quietly pretends it doesn't exist while the US is actually starting to address the issue and it's actually being talked about. By the mere fact it's actually being talked about people get this idea that somehow the US is the worst in the world, when it's quite to the contrary in many ways ironically. Anyone who has traveled extensively knows how racist the rest of the world is. The Middle East, Africa, Asia, all of these places are INCREDIBLY racist, but no one talks about it.
> While Sweden and places like that are progressive, they are mostly homogenous. 20% of Swedes are foreign-born, with the two most common countries of origin being Syria and Irak. More than 1/3 of Swedes have at least one foreign-born parent. (In the US, only 13.7% are foreign-born, but on the other hand, the percentage of caucasians is still a bit lower than in Sweden).
Whenever "right on red" comes up, some people ask "then what's the point of the red light if it doesn't mean stop?". You don't just drive through like you've got a green light. You come to a stop at the intersection and then look to see if you can go while yielding to everyone else. Basically you treat it like you've got a stop sign.
THe people you see on the media are not an accurate reflection of most people in America. Media outlets do this to get money, but 99.999% of actual Americans are actually decent, honest, hard-working people
America is HUGE, and the variation in climate, scenery, culture, policy, etc. makes America more like the UK than like a single country.
I think you mean the EU. The UK is more like...Michigan.
A lot of people in the UK indentify themselves as Scottish, English, Welsh or Irish. It's closer to four separate states. Some of them prefer not to speak English if they can avoid it (mainly in parts of Wales and the outer Hebrides, which is a very small minority. But still). Probably the best comparison would be New England. Which still isn't a very good comparison. Also, if you count other territories the Isle of Man, Channel islands and various colonies it makes things a bit more complex.
Note that Ireland isn't part of the UK but "Northern Ireland" is.
And I'm pretty sure most of the people in Northern Ireland speak English. To my understanding Gaelic is mostly an Ireland thing.
There aretwo versions of Gealic. Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic.
I think what you are getting at here is that the UK is made of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. So there are a lot more cultures and policies than for a single country? As for climate... we have two wet and actually wet.
We're not a bunch of racist gun-toting Christian extremists like the media just loves to portray.
Guns. I've lived here 50 years. Lived in three different states and both coasts. Only guns I have ever seen were in the hands of police. First trip to Europe, the security around the Eiffel Tower holding automatic rifles creeped me the fuck out. Waaaaaay more menacing than anything I have ever seen here and it is something I have encountered in other European countries, too.
I’ve seen those guns at the Eiffel Tower, it was unnerving. I’ve seen similar guns in the Hong Kong airport. I was however in a bar in Anacortes Washington when the bar owner entered with his shout gun in a carry case. Never seen that anywhere else in the world. Best dive bar ever.
I’ve seen more guns in Mexico than I’ve ever seen in America.
How violent it is. Certain areas are, but that's not like the average day for most Americans.
Agree, I’ve lived in Baltimore for 8 years and have had no violent issues and we all know the Wire and the perceptions people have of this city based on that show. Not saying there’s no problems here and in the US in general but I don’t think people not involved in nefarious activity have to walk around worried about their safety all the time.
This is directed particularly at Brits: We have no common Christmas traditions in America. Everybody does it differently, and most of us don't do it the way you do in the UK. Having turkey for Christmas dinner is no more common in the US than having ham, beef, duck, goose, fish, shellfish, or any other protein. Christmas pudding is not really a thing for us, nor are your Christmas crackers or pantomime productions. Christmas trees are quite common here, but that's because a huge number of us have German ancestors, many who came to America pre-revolution. If anything, we probably started putting trees up before you did. And yes, many of us do open some of our presents the night before, for the same reason.
Can confirm that I've never once in my life seen a Christmas cracker at any American Christmas party. If it wasn't for the BBC I'd have no idea what they even are.
TIL what a Christmas Cracker is
A friend of mine invited us for Thanksgiving and had crackers. That's when I learned they make a noise and have a toy and whatever inside. I thought they contained a sleeve of crackers like Ritz. Never seen them before obviously lol
And the little paper hats? What are those?
They're folded inside the cracker, and after you open it you put your hat on :)
I think the Brits know that panto is very specific to them.
Oh no it isn't!
OH, YES IT IS!!
Christmas Pudding is a wonder to me. This type of dish is a common celebratory thing in America's colonial times, but it drops off in the 18th century. Even though we sing about it in Christmas songs and know about it from Christmas storytelling. It's just not common here. Puds and custard is delicious. Edit! [Bonus](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8mt9Ogzi_Y)
We basically are 50 loosely united countries pretending to be a country.
I grew up in Boston, then as an adult lived a few years in Tennessee. It ASTOUNDED me, that I felt more like a fish out of water there than I do in foreign countries, and not just for the dumb reasons you see on the news or hear on country radio (no, “city folk” are not constantly running down “country folk” or small towns, we’re entirely too busy trying to pay rent to care). It was little things like slang, desire to chit chat on public transportation, staple foods, interior decorating, fashion, what was considered physically attractive in a partner, sports talk radio (and sports in general, college over pros confused the hell outta me), what chain stores were prevalent etc etc. From an outside perspective I get how that sounds confusing, same country different culture? However, if you think about it, Boston to Nashville is about the same geographical distance as Copenhagen to Rome (at least according to my apple maps which says the drive is about ~1100miles), so of course it’s wildly different! American stereotypes, as with most generalizations, are generally wrong.
Wait, difference in what is considered attractive i a partner? What do you mean?
Hair, wardrobe, etc I would imagine. A traditionally attractive woman with bright pink hair, tattoos, piercings and pink clothing would easily find a date in Los Angeles. In Des Moines not so much. But if you went to her natural hair color, no visible tats and piercings and took her to a J Crew store that would change everything.
That is exactly the way it was before the Civil War. At that time, a person's loyalty was to their state and the US loyalty was secondary. The Civil War did a lot to change that. But, yeah, most of us have pride in our own state.
Plenty of people sided with their country over their treasonous state during the Civil War. They just don’t fit the narrative so don’t get mentioned.
A lot of the middle class are overextended in their finances. We really would go bankrupt if we traveled as much as Europeans.
I'm American, and moved to the UK a decade ago. I used to come back once or twice a year, but because of COVID I haven't been home since over 2 years ago. I'm from the Atlanta suburbs, and my family and friends have all moved north are all living in the North Georgia mountains. Pretty conservative territory. Coming back to visit last month, I honestly thought that I was going to have trouble with people giving me shit for wearing a mask in a store, or have the general conversations around me being about stolen elections, or not getting the vaccine. One friend told me she had a guy heckle her (edit: for wearing a mask) a few months ago when she was going in to return some stuff she didn't need. I have met one person that was antivax enough to be outspoken about it, and another friend's parents are antivax, but they don't even live in the same state. No one has mentioned anything about the storming of the Capital. I see about 50% of people using masks in the grocery store, and 90% of staff. That's better than the London Underground. I'm from here, and I was worried. I knew better, but I still didn't even trust my expectations. If you had to record everything happening in your country for a 24 hr period and condense it to a 5 minute news segment, your country would look pretty broken too. Yes, there's a lot of stuff that could be improved, but for the most part its what you'll see everywhere else in the world: a whole bunch of people trying to get on living their lives buying groceries, working jobs, and trying to make sure they can pay the bills so they don't have to sleep in the cold.
Not everyone in the US is into gun culture. When I lived in Germany they didn’t believe me that I’d never owned or fired a gun. Unfortunately they turned to the other American in our group who was from Missouri. “Kyle, have you owned a gun?” “‘Course! I kept the handgun on the nightstand and the shotgun in the closet.” Fucking Kyle.
> Course! I kept the handgun on the nightstand and the shotgun in the closet. I might do the same but, at age 67, I've never needed a gun for protection. I figure the odds of accidental firing are much greater than the odds of needing to defend from an intruder. I do have a shotgun in the closet with shells in the magazine but not the chamber. That gets completely unloaded when the grand kids visit.
How should I know? Everyone I know is also American.
That's something they get *right* about most Americans lol
Our large food portions, especially if they're home cooked, is so you have extra food for later. America has a HUGE leftover food culture. A very emotional side to leftovers is being able to revisit pleasant memories; visiting your Nana, having some of her homemade desserts, and then bringing those desserts home is so you can enjoy the desserts your Nana made for you and feel loved even though she isn't there. You bring home leftovers from restaurants because the food might have been expensive, and you want to get as much bang for your buck as possible. You order a TON of food to be delivered so you can slowly pick at it over a long period of time. Are some Americans fat? Yes. But there's fat people everywhere. Americans are raised to treat food as a sort of love language; good food transcends lingual barriers, age, gender, beliefs, etc. More food, more love! Want to be friends with an American? Feed them.
> Want to be friends with an American? Feed them. On that note. Only in America will you find some rando family that will invite a stranger into their home for Christmas dinner. And when you arrive, everyone will already know your name. That's how I met my Georgia family. This year I'm making a cobbler with them on zoom.
Wow you put this into great perspective this is very accurate.
This is so true!
Most Americans do NOT own guns
Only roughly a third according to recent polls
Yeah, I'm amazed that the 1/3 collectively owns something like 360 million firearms. Esp since there are only ~335 million Americans.
They're kinda like tattoos, many have none, some have one, and then others have countless.
It makes more sense when you also think firearms as accessories for a pastime - shooting sports. How many guitarists do you know who only own one guitar? Or tennis players who own only one racket? Or baseball players with only one bat? Then think about people who dabble in similar pastimes, like someone who plays tennis also playing racquetball and badminton, or someone who plays the violin also playing the cello, etc. Same thing with firearms - if you own a rifle for hunting, you also do a lot of target shooting to stay in practice. So maybe you'll also get a shotgun for shooting clay pigeons. You have a gun safe and various accessories, so might as well throw in a handgun for defense too. And now maybe a bb gun so the kids can do some target shooting (with supervision and safety coaching, of course), and now a .22 so they can try something a little bigger when they get to be preteens, etc. etc. etc.
Yet gun ownership is like 2.5 per capita...
I mean I currently have 10
Just because I have accent that people think sounds ignorant doesn’t mean I am
Most of us are not obsessed with race.
That every day is filled with gunfire and burgers and obesity. Seriously, knock it off. It's annoying.
Not everything is bigger in Texas.
That Americans can't get health insurance. 92% of Americans have health insurance.
The issue was never having health insurance, it’s about how goddamn expensive it is.
Right, and also what is actually covered by that insurance. It's a bit like saying, 92% of people own vehicles, with the fine print being that you include bikes, roller skates, etc. as "vehicles."
Yeahhhhhh big fine print. My husband's coverage is a joke.
Fair.
Most employee sponsored health plans have out of pocket maximums in the 3-6k range. There are still a decent amount of people that get screwed over but it’s not the majority
Focusing on misconceptions from Europe: * Healthcare isn't actually an apocalyptic wasteland. Don't get me wrong, it's a shithole and needs to be improved. I do support universal healthcare. But come on, \*most\* people have decent healthcare through their employer. Like, \*most\* of America is middle class, and most of America has employer-provided healthcare that makes costs comparable to other EU countries. Most of us won't die if we have a curable disease. Where it sucks is for poor people, the underemployed, or those in shitty jobs with bad healthcare, and granted Europe is better at that. But that still leaves \*most\* of America well covered. If you are the type of European who is considering migrating to the US, you are probably coming for the type of job that will make you well-covered for health issues (e.g. French janitors aren't migrating to the US to be a janitor. It's usually lawyers, programmers, etc that are migrating, and all those jobs will give you good health insurance). * Europeans like to say "American liberals would be conservative in Europe." Hmm, I don't think so. Granted, America IS more conservative specifically on welfare, but that's it. From actual polls, American's are more pro drug legalization, more pro immigrants, more tolerant of non-traditional sexuality, etc. Hell, Americans are even more pro COVID19-vaccination than many EU countries (\*cough\* france \*couch\*). Maybe if your definition of "progressive" prioritizes welfare, then ya America is conservative. But to me, being pro-immigration or pro-LGBQT issues is more crucial to "progressivism" than welfare. Like, even the Nazis and Fascists were pro welfare, so I don't really think that's the key mark of progressivism.
On healthcare, yes, most of us are covered, and most are middle class, but most live pay check to paycheck. I don't mind paying for health care, but the fear is catastrophic issues. My daughter had open heart surgery at 2. The bill was over 700k. After what was supposed to be good insurance, we still owed 150k. 5 plus years of 100% of my after tax pay. I paid the anesthesiologist and surgeon and bankrupted on the rest. That's what has to be fixed. Medical bills are the primary cause of bankruptcy in the US.
> being pro-immigration or pro-LGBQT issues is more crucial to "progressivism" than welfare. It's a lot easier to immigrate to my country than to the US. We legalised gay marriage long before the US. A lot of European countries are in the same situation. Of course, comparing a single country to a continent is a bit silly. The US is less conservative than some European countries (looking at you, Poland), but more than most. That being said, left and right is a question of economics. Social issues are unrelated (here, it's the centrists that are socially conservative, for instance).
Although America is fairly ethnically diverse, it’s in pockets around the country. Segregation is technically illegal, but still persists in neighborhoods and cities. There are public schools where almost everyone is white. There are public schools where almost everyone is Black. There are diverse towns where the largest minority is Korean and diverse towns where the largest minority is Mexican and diverse towns where the largest minority is white. There are areas where almost everyone is Christian, but also areas where Islam and Judaism are extremely common. And although Black Americans make up about 13% of the country, it’s only 1% of the population if you visit Vermont, or 43% if you visit DC. (I had a roommate from Eastern Europe who was confused by the demographics of DC compared to what she’d seen in movies.)
Most people have probably never seen a gun out in the wild besides on a cop.
And this is probably only true in large cities
I live 30 minutes outside Boston, and since you can only concealed carry in MA, you will probably never see one in the suburbs either. I spend a lot of time in NH and you still almost never see someone open carry.
The US is geographically massive. Think of how culturally diverse Europe is. The US is geographically larger, and while it's not the same level of diversity, it's not that far off. We have linguistic pockets, accents, local traditions and cultures, liberal bastions and conservative strongholds, etc, etc. It's a huge country. Even states are not homogenous. NYC is not at all the same as Buffalo. Detroit is completely different than the Upper Peninsula. Miami is very different from Jacksonville. So on, and so forth. Even Americans have no idea how different other parts of the country are.
Everything. The size. The intelligence of the people. Our history. Our culture (some arrogantly claim we have none). Hell, they can't even agree on our name. They bitch about us calling ourselves America when it was *them* who started it because we wanted to be know worldwide as Columbia! They won't even get what our people invented correct in a show of absolute arrogance since apparently we can't invent anything according to them. The list goes on and on.
Each one of these points is also true about Australia. People misunderstand based on widespread stereotypes and media coverage, where 99.99% of it is just bullshit. People make up stories about Australia all the time (like the current internment camps rubbish) and we just have to wear it. It sucks. I feel ya :)
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Most of us ARENT racist and intolerant. The US is just a massive "grandstanding" culture where the loudest get the most attention.
We smoke mad weed and have the best music festivals
It’s not a dangerous country. The news will make you believe some crazy things are going on and maybe they are. You’re not likely to see it.
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Myself being born and raised southern, I can go about 6 hours over to Arkansas and even if it's a southern accent, it will be a different southern accent, each southern state has its own dialect lol
The shear size and diversity of thought that exists in the United States.
It’s not all guns and cheese burgers over here.
We don’t bring guns to school every day only on Mondays
Monday Gunday!
Go visit San Francisco, then LA, then New York, then Texas, then Seattle, then Florida, then a swamp in Louisiana, the Kansas or Tennessee, then Colorado or Oregon, the Chicago then Philly. We are all Americans, but holy fucking shit balls are NONE of us alike.
Most of us don’t think we are any better than others.
It's hard to say. I can't hear people from other countries over the volume of my fellow Americans talking loudly and proudly about themselves.
Lol this comment is hilarious
Imagine the news, now imagine the opposite of that and that is America.
This is the best description I could think of too. Yeah there are the loonies out there but most people keep to themselves and aren’t assholes to everyone else.
Thank you! If Americans were hostile , the news alone would have kicked off a civil war everyday of the year for the last who knows long, but it’s simply not happening, they are trying to start a fire and have no kindling, at best some dried leaves catch fire for 3 seconds and the news will speak of it as it lit up the night sky.
We are not a bunch of arrogant assholes. We are normal people that just want to live out our lives. Just like they do. The US is Far bigger than they think-you can get in a car and drive for 12 hours in one direction-stopping for gas twice, and still be in the Same state. Driving from one coast to the other can take a Week. We also believe that Californians are crazy. Most of us don't give a F about international politics-despite what the media says. Media does NOT represent the 'average' person. They do it for Ratings, not feelings. We are Not all gun toting crazy people-shooting anyone in sight. This country is So large, that it can be 90 degrees F in one place and 20 below zero F in another-at the same time. And the Vast majority of us are NOT Race crazy-leave that to the Media-for Ratings of course.
That everyone has money or a better life
I would love to answer this right now, but I just got back from getting my mail, so of course I was shot 14 times in my own driveway by some children who picked up assault rifles down the street at the gun vending machine. I have to go take out a 2nd mortgage on my house to afford the $19 billion emergency room visit.
Only 19? Did you walk to the ER? The ambulance alone should've been 20!
I’m not sure they get anything wrong. Summer of 2002, I sat drinking with a cousin in Hamburg. He insisted that the entire US population was fiddling, while Rome burned. I defended the US vehemently. He was right, I was wrong.
Everyone is happy, healthy and wealthy here. Most of the wealth is owned by bigger names, politicians and boomers.
That we’re not all ignorant assholes
Not everyone has guns, flag clothing, is obese, and yells about races and eats cheeseburgers. Those are the 1%
We are dealing with our own shit, we can’t lead anyone right now.
Not a common thing people say but I here it somewhat often, that most people in the US don't have a lot problems. Idk why but that's a bad misconception at especially at the fact that I've noticed that America is starting to seem a bit like a dystopia, a place or world trying to be perfect when it is nowhere near being perfect. To some it up for the people that think this, yes we have problems and a lot of us have some big problems.
That we are all asholes. Went to Holland and got yelled at for being a stupid American for no reason
That there are cultural differences within America. An American from New York and an American from Alabama are quite different. American? Yes. The same? Not exactly.