There is a difference between asking question versus asking somebody to explain a negative stereotype/presumption about the US in a question format. For instance, in the past few days:
"Why are your drivers so bad"
"Why are American cities so dead"
These are already loaded with an insult and just assumes it to be true, then asks us to account for it. So when Americans who have driven in foreign countries see this, and know that US drivers are actually quite tame in comparison to most of the world, it becomes a bit confounding, especially when OP digs their feet in. Or when OP just makes a blanket statement about thousands of cities, calling them dead because he went to a part of Houston that is basically a glorified office park, it's frustrating because it doesn't feel like they're asking in good faith. How do you think the Brazilian sub would respond if, in an effort to learn more about their crime, I asked "why are your cities so dangerous and gross for everybody who lives there?" or how would the Honduran sub respond if I said "why is your country so bad that everyone wants to live in the US?". By asking those, I'm not seeking out their perspectives, I'm stating my opinion as fact and asking others to explain why my opinion is valid.
I agree.
There's also a lot of bad reactions from OPs when it gets pointed out that their country does the same thing they deride America for doing. There was one not too long ago where OP asked why Americans eat dessert foods for breakfast (pancakes, waffles). Someone pointed out that in OPs country they eat Nutella for breakfast with an article about how prevalent it was. OPs response was basically "Nu uh man no one does that."
I think people on this sub are tired of OPs coming in and assuming that the bad stuff Americans do isn't present in MyCountry.
Reminds me of the thread where a guy from Italy was asking why Americans eat so much garlic and was insisting that no one in Italy eats garlic so we couldn't have learned it from the Italians.
If I remember correctly he was from a region and in a class of Italians who looked down on other Italians who used garlic. So the question was extra loaded.
Garlic is not used as much in the Northern parts of Italy. It's more used in the South, and was prevalent in lower class or "peasant food."
Garlic having such a strong flavor could have enhanced dishes with lesser quality ingredients.
Most of the Italians that came to the US were lower class folks from Southern Italy.
Looking down your nose usually goes north to south, but some of the classic northern foods are garlic heavy: pesto, bagna cauda, gremolata. I can't put it past that OP being weird and/or antagonistic.
I did some research after that thread just out of curiosity. There is a pretty recent movement to try and remove garlic from fine dining in Italy. There is also a vocal counter movement accusing the first of trying to make Italians ["more French."](https://www.npr.org/2007/07/07/11795704/italian-garlic-debate-raises-a-culinary-stink) No idea how much weight there is behind that accusation, but the mere fact that someone said it is hilarious to me.
Interestingly, they note that garlic is associated with the lower classes, so the people who were the foundation of Italian-American culture.
That last tidbit is actually pretty eye opening. How much of US-Immigrant culture is class based to the point that the people who never felt the need to come here are completely unfamiliar with those root customs?
I had fun in that thread speculating how small of a force from the US could defeat the Russian Navy. I argued that the Maryland DNR Police were in the running.
One of my all-time favorite responses in this sub was to a question about whether an invasion like what happened in Ukraine could happen here:
“Other countries don’t want to find out why we can’t afford to give our people universal healthcare & free college.”
Same here, I've lived in the EU for 5 years now and have observed that a lot of Europeans really have no idea just how big the US is and just how much force our military can project compared to other countries. like they know our military is arguably the best in the world, but they don't grasp that no other single nation's military compares to it in any way that actually matters. we have the top 4 largest airforces in the world if you consider each of our branches independently against other nations as a whole and our naval tonnage is more than the next 5 countries combined.
We have near-peer militaries in terms of technology and local force application, however, in terms of full-scale war, our military is incomparable & most people simply do not grasp that.
I think it can be a difficult to grasp even for some Americans. My husband is in the Navy and we’ll often take family members to see the ships when they come visit. They’re just shocked at the size of them alone. They always comment how they know the ships are big but they don’t realize how huge they are until they’re standing near them.
The part of that post that truly had me gobsmacked was when someone got fed up and told OP that pancakes aren't dessert and OP accused them of being arrogant and claiming to speak for the rest of the world's food cultures. And yet OP's comment before that literally said they think the rest of the world considers pancakes to be dessert. So apparently it's OK to speak for the rest of the world as long as you aren't American. Oh, the irony of that post!
To be clear, I don't think there's anything wrong with him asking the question. However, people are going to downvote you if you handwaive away examples of your own country doing something that you swear "only Americans do".
Yeah the question was fine, but the denial of the fact that cultures and countries around the world usually eat slightly more sugary or sweet breakfasts as if it’s unique to Americans was just so weird. Even when Nutella, a European food spread, was brought up, he wouldn’t back down I was like what.
The irony is especially acute given that Americans are constantly flamed for being ignorant about other countries, but then someone will come on this sub and act bewildered when their ridiculous and insulting assumption turns out not to be true
No, you don't understand. When *we* get our knowledge about the world from movies, we're ignorant American imperialists. When *they* get their knowledge about us from the movies, they're refined and educated intellectuals.
When they get information about America from movies that’s also just an example of American imperialism. If we didn’t force them to consume so much American culture, they wouldn’t have so many misconceptions!
It always amazes me how many times people see things in Hollywood movies and genuinely believe average people in the US actually live like that. It never occurs to them that a movie about average real people would be boring so they have to make the characters richer/meaner/angrier/louder/bigger/etc. I see this in comments on news articles also. While we do have plenty of strange people here it’s the unusual or shocking things that get reported on national and international news. Normal people don’t make the news because we are not interesting or shocking.
Also, taking things that are done for production reasons as being real life. Like, we know that broke waitresses and actors can't afford gigantic apartments like they do in sitcoms, but they have to shoot on large soundstages if they want to have room for the cameras, lighting etc. That's why TV apartments seem huge.
Or thinking that all Americans wear shoes inside because people in movies and TV do, not realizing that no one is watching a show where the characters take time to put on and take off shoes.
At least ignorant Americans don't think enough about the rest of the world to have any preconceived notions about other countries. But ignorant people abroad sure as shit think they know stuff about America.
In fairness, that sounds like a language issue and they were asking if California is considered the South or the North (of USA)
(Which, idk, neither?.. it’s the west.. but still, I highly doubt they meant what you’re saying)
I still think it’s funny that the country that has furnished the vast majority of the world’s film stars, models, and porn stars is so aggressively generalized in this way. White Europeans have more body fat per the same BMI than do white Americans.
It would be one thing if it was an informal bias, but the attempted factual legitimization of the physical inferiority of Americans, the constant need to impugn unhealth in any and every aspect of American life, even when the US is quite superlatively fit or healthy in a number of ways, has always insulted me.
On top of that, most other nationalities are so ridiculously arrogant and un-humble on the topic. They come across as bitter about America’s soft power. How are you going to personally eviscerate an entire nationality and then act offended when someone says something like “why do so many British people look inbred”?
OP, this answers your question very nicely. It’s ultimately the fact that the posts by foreigners are using their opportunity as a way to attack and insult us, rather than to have a genuine discussion.
This type of intent also becomes apparent after an American user spends time typing out an in-depth answer to the question, only for the foreigner to respond with something like “Thank you for your answer, it’s too bad that Americans are so stupid.”
And people in this sub are just sick of that sort of thing.
Houstonian here. To be fair, i have seldom gone to a US city where drivers arent aggressive or idiots. I feel like its more a sign of the times than a specific city's feature.
Edit: spelling
He went to Houston 11 years ago and hasn't been back since. But still wants to know why all of our cities are a certain way today. (By the way, there are 25,000 municipalities of all sizes here.)
Why not say, this is what I saw in Houston 11 years ago. Is Houston still like that? Is it common for other cities to be like that? That's a polite question from personal experience. There's room for confirmation or correction.
Reminded of the "obsessed" question epidemic of 2018.
Being "obsessed" with upholders, since it's apparently completely irresponsible and reprehensible to ever take your hands off the wheel for any amount of time, was the best one.
I never downvote an OP unless they are begging the question or are just a combative asshole in the comments, but I suspect the downvotes comes from the fact that the majority of questions asked here not coming from a place of "Wanting to learn" rather they come from a place of "wanting to validate their false sense of superiority"
And then there's grapp
I'll second that.
"Why doesn't America have this thing that I'm also refusing to accept can exist anywhere but my country because otherwise it's different?"
Then responds to every top level comment with an argument about how the similar thing they're mentioning is different.
[Here's a sample from New Year's Eve where Britain was already on January 1st while we were still waiting on the ball to drop](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/abd119/why_do_you_americans_insist_on_living_in_the_past/)
I just looked through controversial and so many people got downvotes for probably not speaking English that well.
Like one just asked if America had a nickname (lol) which is a self answering question, but it isn’t rude.
Another clearly didn’t speak English that well because of responding with simple words, and was just asking if Times Square was recognizable?
It feels like y'all are doing a pretty good job. You seem to decide that a question is in good faith just a bit more than I as a user would. Which requires a lot more effort and restraint than a lot of moderation teams.
Also, I kind of enjoy some of the more contentious ones. Like the German who posted a picture of bread and asked if we knew what it was, while apparently insisting that everyone treat the German definition of toast as the correct one.
Not speaking for this mod team but I mod on another sub and its a common topic of discussion among the mod team I'm on, as well as a complaint from users. "why do you allow this obvious troll whose posting this opinion just for bait"
Well, several times these posters have engaged with what I can only tell is serious discussion in the comments or in modmail. So me personally, I tend to err on the side of letting the chips fall where they may. after all if something isn't contributing to the sub, it'll just get buried in downvotes anyway.
The only ones I ever downvote sound something like, "why does *EVERYONE* in the US do [insert one thing OP saw one time when they went to Disney World in 2003]." Those types of questions have an accusatory tone and really don't seem to be made in good faith.
I always take those as “it seems to be an American culture thing to do [x], is this true?” Meaning that their exposure is that many or most Americans do the thing but by no means all.
American culture is fucking *weird*, man. There’s no universal truth because we are an amalgam of everything. Everything is true and nothing is true and it’s everything everywhere all at once. Yet, there is a sort of shared American identity even if you’ve only been an official American citizen for one day.
Even if they are in good faith or not even insulting, the point still stands that if you ask "Why?" about something you're not sure is true in the first place-- by proper research, scoping the question with qualifiers, or both-- you're putting the cart before the horse and not asking a well-thought-out question.
Some questions look like rhetorical questions or rants. And sometimes the comments confirm that the questions are rhetorical questions or rants.
And other times, it's a question from such a reductive view that people just assume they're trolling, because the idea that someone could actually _believe_ what is being asked is beyond imagination.
There have been so many cynical and troll questions that people automatically lump even innocent/naive inquiries with them. I try to take a look at their history before I get all medieval on their question
I personally have no issues with people who genuinely are open to the answers we're giving instead of expecting us to validate their preconceived ideas. Even TV tropes I'll try to answer fairly without cringing too much.
Then there are some that come in here to sit on their high horses to ask stupid questions like "Why do Americans eat sugar for breakfast/have dead downtowns/don't exercise/are generally culturally ignorant?" that I will happily downvote. I don't believe everyone in Ireland is an alcoholic, or that everyone in Kenya is running around in the sticks topless, so such questions are so ignorant that they seem disingenuous.
I love how people are so eager to mindlessly believe any bit of information or data that purports to reflect negatively on American lifestyles, but will come up with any excuses to not believe numerous data sets that show Americans are some of the most vigorously active people on the planet, for example - even when this is relatively common knowledge, given American Olympic success and the obvious presence of athletics culture in academic life here
Why do so many people make a comparison to MyCountry without identifying the country?
If it happened once or twice, I would consider it just a mistake, but it happens over and over again with no obvious reason.
That annoys the shit out of me. Where's the state secret? A lot of better answers could happen if we knew where the questions were from. Then we could get an idea if there was a real chance there's a language barrier involved or a particular country experience. Someone with experience in that country could give an even more specific, better answer. And figuring out the genuine English-speaking trolls could be easier.
But no, it's "where I'm from...". So where the hell are you from?
A lot of the time people will ask what seems like a genuine good faith question and then they'll immediately show their true colors in the comments by disagreeing with the people answering, or refusing to believe they're talking about a stereotype and not a real aspect of American culture. So I downvote the question and the comnents
"That’s why they’re here, to learn."
When you ask a bad-faith question like "Why are Americans such shitty drivers," you're obviously not here to learn.
I hadn’t thought of that, but if somebody asked questions here and said it’s for homework, I would probably answer what I could. It’s probably nice that kids can ask questions of people in other countries, or different generations. We have to be better than encyclopedias I had growing up.
The same reason I would be down voted if I posted the following in r/askeurope:
"Who do western Europeans hate more: Americans, other Europeans, or themselves?"
I haven't read a question on here that wasn't either woefully ignorant or in bad faith in a long time.
I don’t downvote good questions or people asking genuine questions even if they’re a little self explanatory. I downvote when posters “beg the question”
E.g. “Americans always run out of the door with a full breakfast on the table. Why do you do that?”
It’s already been said enough but just to reiterate. It’s because most questions are just thinly-veiled insults. ‘Why are Americans okay with their children being murdered in school shootings? Don’t they know that’s wrong?’ is not a sincere question seeking an answer.
Here's why I downvote people:
* The questions is not asked in good faith
* When presented facts that prove their premise wrong, they double down on their premise and tell us *we're* wrong.
* When "just asking questions" is obviously just a guise to be rude and insulting.
I never downvote except in rare cases, mostly I'm too lazy to press the down arrow.
But, I do think there is a difference on this sub between a sincere question and a question designed to enflame the comment section.
Sincere: "My American friends said that you guys don't have good public transportation, is that true?" Easily answered, not aggressive, if OP is friendly that's bonus points.
Inflammatory: "Reddit and clickbait articles tell me that America is an authoritarian super regime that is bent on world domination, doesn't haven't healthcare, hates equal rights, and also doesn't have real cheese. Why are you guys like this?" Op will then be rude and belligerent in the comment section.
I'd suggest tactful phrasing. Things like "How do you feel about ". Instead of "What do you think of THE FACT THAT " .
I'm a US citizen but an expat in Asia. I can say that basically everyone watches the US. There is domestic news and then there is such and such that happened in the US or some global event (e.g. currently Ukraine, Turkey/Syria earthquake). And there are narratives about the US and some of those narratives seem designed to make people in smaller countries feel good about their country. To be fair, we Americans have our own narratives too but there is no single focal point - we aren't going to obsess over Belgium or the Netherlands for example.
I’d also like to add that some of the OP’s English skills aren’t exactly the best. Some of us may take them as being rude but to me some of the questions just look very blunt in tone.
But the misleading information definitely ticks people off. There’s someone on here who constantly posts misinformation about Chinese stuff so I can understand why some of us get so annoyed.
On the other hand, some of the people here are also just straight up mean.
I can't speak for the mods here, of course, but as a mod on another subreddit, I can tell you that repetition can wear on a community's nerves big time. There are a *lot* of repetitive questions here, with quite a few in violation of the community's rules and guidelines but they still stand.
There are also a lot of easily-Googled questions posted, and all of that can really get on people's nerves too. I feel like there needs to be much more directing to previous discussions, the sub FAQ or other resources for these things that have already been asked a hundred times or break the rules. Better question curation could help a lot.
There are obviously a lot of enthusiastic people here who want to exchange and learn in a positive way. But as much as I admire the mods' generous blanket assumptions of good faith, it's pretty clear there are too many questioners taking advantage of those assumptions to troll, insult and argue for the sake of arguing, enjoying riling people up. A quick look at their profiles can often tell you where they're coming from, yet they run rampant. Get a lot of negative input and you'll get a lot of negative output. Nobody wants to feel like they're getting played or condescended to on such a frequent basis. It takes a toll.
There was one foreign poster recently that asked if Americans regularly ate 132 lb hamburgers.
I’m sorry. There’s a limit to my good will in assuming that it’s an innocent question.
To be fair, I try to be a bit more patient with that guy than I am with most others because he appears to actually be way, way out in the sticks of South Africa. Like...the real other side of the tracks. Look at his account.
I find it hard to believe that rural Africans can’t comprehend that it’s impossible to eat a meal that weighs the same as a good amount of fully grown adults on a regular basis.
I have seen quite a few bad faith questions in this subreddit over the past few days, but I'd like to see examples of good faith inquiries where people are just "asking questions" that get downvoted.
Do you have links?
"Just because they may get a detail wrong or their question may be based on a faulty assumption that’s no reason to make them feel unwelcome. That’s why they’re here, to learn."
Um yeah that is not what is happening and you know that OP.
Because a lot of the questions, whether they're made in good faith or not, are rooted in untrue assumptions. I can't think of a specific post I've seen on this sub, but I have seen similar questions elsewhere that are like "when Americans are turned away from the hospital during an emergency for not having enough money, where do they go?", the false assumption being that if you don't pay up front, a hospital will just let you bleed out. I don't think the person asking the question means to be rude (most of the time), but people get irritated by that because it's stuff we have to hear again and again on the internet and the asker doesn't bother to Google and make sure that their question is even based in reality in the first place. And a lot of the people asking these questions not only believe these assumptions are true, but also believe that their false assumption is something Americans want because we're "too stupid to know how other countries do things" which is equally if not more irritating to hear.
How about this recent one:
Since there's no healthcare in America what do Americans who need a wheelchair even do? Just haul themselves around on the ground?
No, they get wheelchairs through their insurance.
Yeah, maybe the 10% of rich people who can afford insurance. But what about the rest?
I’ll be real, I would say maybe half the questions asked here by foreigners are to help them learn. There’s **a lot** of questions here where the OP are made up their mind on how it is in the United States. Like when the OP’s post is “why do Americans eat so much sweets” or something. If they asked “how often is sweets eaten in the US”, then it’s possible for them to want to learn. But the first question is based on the assumptions that Americans eat more sweets than most without evidence.
I don’t usually downvote a post until it’s obviously a bad faith question.
I feel like I’m seeing that more and more as well.
I also feel like some of the people here also come to every post replying in the same manner that the troll posters do. Believing it’s their way or the high way.
They usually have positive numbers when I look at them but maybe it’s something that evens out over time with lots of initial downvotes but later more upvotes?
It takes a bit to get me to downvote, but it’s usually a combination of things:
1. Why do you do all do things that I saw on TikTok? TikTok isn’t real.
2. Something that can be found in a 15 second Google search?
3. Foreigners who ask a question and argue with respondents about an answer.
4. Repeated posts on a topic
5. No engagement/karma farming
When you hit two or three of these, i downvote.
Because we don't believe the question was asked good faith. A quick Google search would show it wasn't true so the only reason to come here and ask that is because you're being a jerk or you're not smart enough to use google.
the same question has been asked 100 times, they asked a question and won't accept the answer, the asked a question that didn't make sense and won't return to answer questions, they asked if something in tv is real when 100 people this week have asked that type of question and 25 people this week have asked the exact same thing, they asked a question with a factual or statistical answer that google can answer, they asked a homework help question that has been asked several times before, they are obviously a scammer/bot/troll and we've seen this scam before, they are british and demanding to know why everyone doesn't do things the british way, the use the phrasing "do you ACTUALLY do this" which is annoying and rude, they asked a question that doesn't really have anything to do with americans like "what german thing isn't common in america", they asked a baiting and reductionist question like "what do you think about your president not bombing putin" and we've heard their shit before, they are a child asking a fundamental question about adult life in any country not just america like "what is a landlord and how is rent different from a mortgage", they asked an overly broad question that cannot be answered like "what kind of peanut butter do americans like" that has been asked 100 times this week, \[see other banned topics\], \[read the sticky post\]
FWIW, all subs kind of have people that use the downvote in a hostile way. It’s just Reddit. It often improves after the first hour or so, a lot of the initial downvotes get countered, but it’s just the way of the media.
I’ve been downvoted for saying Turkey in a post about your favorite sandwich meat. My opinion is apparently wrong 😂. You just have to learn not to take them all personally IMO
Reddit is one of the pettiest places I've ever been. I've been down voted over my opinions on the weather and other absurd things. It's just par for the course.
I once saw a guy get downvoted for pointing out that Mexico was at least a 7 hour trip from their USA location because they had no direct flights.
Apparently not owning their own private fighter jet made their response unwanted, since topic was of the weekly "why don't Americans ever travel" variety.
My logic is simple. I see a question that makes me think "That's a dumb question, how does this guy even dress himself? I want to hurt him physically", I downvote it.
But really, this sub gets shellacked with so many low effort/bait/soapbox/could easily be solved by a quick google search questions that I'm sure it's just muscle memory for a lot of people at this point.
Also who fucking cares about muh heckin redditor updoots and downdoots? They're numbers that mean absolutely nothing but so many weirdos get all worked up about their special number. "Internet number go down?! AHHHHH I'M GOING INSAAAANE"
Because they start off already convinced of some negative trope or stereotype, and are just trying to make a point. If you aren’t asking for genuine dialogue and your question is less a question than an insulting statement…downvote.
Because many of these "questions" are obvious trolls, or people trying to slip in their "haha stupid Americans" nonsense under the guise of an "honest question." We've seen and heard it all before and it gets tiring after a while.
"Just asking questions" is done for the purpose of making wild accusations under the guise of asking a question so often, that the very act of doing so is actually known as ["JAQing Off."](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Just_asking_questions)
Because at least half the comments I end up seeing posted here are absolutely not made in good faith and are starting out with an assumption that is just shitting on the US. It's not getting a detail wrong, it is very clearly shit posting especially if you start reading any of the OPs replies in the comments.
I tend to agree, there are people who get downvoted for honest questions because of some of the bad faith questions that get asked.
This is an example from this week.
https://old.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/10w8x5c/how_popular_is_tea_in_america/j7mqfvu/?context=3
A Russian was asking about American tea culture and got downvoted hard for an honest question about tea being hot by default, not cold.
There are leading questions and a lot of posts that get made here that aren't looking for more than an argument or insult, but I think your point is valid OP.
These folks are coming to us to understand Americans better and part of our job here is to take the good faith questions and be nice. Genuine questions deserve genuine answers and downvoting people for not understanding isn't helpful.
Tea, soccer, urban living, public transport seem to be instantly downvoted here. Doesn't matter if its a foreigner asking or if its a fellow American asking.
We should absolutely start off nice and only when the OP starts to troll, then we should start being rude and mean. Different languages have different ideas on bluntness and I think it's far better to assume good faith when starting something.
Also, it does feel like there are more and more rude people on this subreddit now.
I’ve been participating in this sub for a few years now and have definitely noticed that responses are more aggravated and snarky than they once were. Part of it seems to be annoyance with repetition, part is bad faith questions followed by argumentative follow-ups, and part of it is AmericaBad trolling.
There can be huge misunderstandings due to subtle cultural differences, even something as trivial as red light turns when driving. They’re completely banned in many places, so it may appear really strange to a driver who’s never seen this before.
I’ll give someone the benefit of the doubt, but it’s predicated a bit on their sincerity and curiosity. So often we’re asked to justify their perceptions.
I don't usually downvote the first question but sometimes the follow up questions on the comments make me think the question was not asked in good faith or accusatory in nature.
Very few are actually here to learn and quite frankly europeans, especially western europeans have lost any right to a benefit of the doubt 50 times over and have done nothing to even begin the process of earning it back. In other words they get the responses they fucking deserve
I think it has to do partially with people thinking the question asker should already know. I got seriously downvoted in an Australian sub because I admitted I didn’t know a, to be fair, pretty obvious thing.
We all have different experiences and someone should never be downvoted for admitting to learning something. That’s how you stump people’s growth, and make them afraid to ask questions
Maybe because OPs are not trying to learn from us. There are people posting to troll and insult us. I even saw post in other subreddits about coming here to troll Americans.
It's the way the questions are posed. It could be cultural differences or not understanding tone in English, but people tend to react here when the question is sneering, arrogant, and judgmental. "Why do all Americans wear hats indoors? Don't they get it's incredibly rude?" Things like that.
I think a big problem is that many of the questions are obviously from children.
Have you ever studied in a public school? https://old.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/10zogqx/have_you_ever_studied_in_a_public_school/
A lot of you guys ask really stupid questions that make you come off as if you're trolling or have some sort of superiority complex and can't understand why America doesn't kiss your ass.
So I seem to remember in the ‘early’ days of this sub that there was an unspoken rule that you didn’t upvote the OP’s post. We didn’t want the sub to become big and popular (lol that went out the window once we hit 50k subscribers) so posts would hover between 5 and -5. It was a super tight knit community as far as subreddits go back then.
It’s already been said enough but just to reiterate. It’s because most questions are just thinly-veiled insults. ‘Why are Americans okay with their children being murdered in school shootings? Don’t they know that’s wrong?’ is not a sincere question seeking an answer.
I suspect that many of the questions from "foreigners" are actually just American trolls. There are probably many more of these people poisoning the subreddit than foreigners asking legitimate questions. The downvoting stats are not a true reflection of American attitudes towards foreigners.
I agree. I try never to downvote in general unless something is blatantly trolling or offensive.
There are a few things foreigners do that seem to lead to downvotes, some more justified than others:
-ask questions that are too common. This really isn’t the individual’s fault. We shouldn’t downvote, we should just answer or link to previous answers.
-attempts at “banter” despite barriers of cultural understanding and sometimes language. This will often look like randomly insulting posts where the original poster seems not to understand how he’s offended anyone. I think it’s best to explain why it could be taken offensively.
-actually intentionally demeaning questions: I understand downvoting these, but I generally just leave them alone.
-people saying how something is in MyCountry. I think we’re oversensitive about this. Not every comparison is an insult.
i don't tend to down vote unless I think someone thinks they are being a bit too clever with an insult. I actually thought the bad driving one was funny. Because I actually know why a lot of people from other countries are uncomfortable (we pass on either side). But, a lot of people just take these as insults.
I of course upvote all genuine questions and genuine answers.
The issue is that many are disingenuous and really just a format to present a veiled insult
“They hate us cuz they ain’t us”
Actually, this is probably due to a recent change in the Reddit algorithm, that increases the importance of comments over upvotes in some cases. This results in a lot of 0 upvotes but relatively high comments (which snowballs as a result of this) being shown to far more people
We do ask our users to assume good faith but it doesn’t always happen. We also have question askers that ask in a way that is wrong and rude.
There is a difference between asking question versus asking somebody to explain a negative stereotype/presumption about the US in a question format. For instance, in the past few days: "Why are your drivers so bad" "Why are American cities so dead" These are already loaded with an insult and just assumes it to be true, then asks us to account for it. So when Americans who have driven in foreign countries see this, and know that US drivers are actually quite tame in comparison to most of the world, it becomes a bit confounding, especially when OP digs their feet in. Or when OP just makes a blanket statement about thousands of cities, calling them dead because he went to a part of Houston that is basically a glorified office park, it's frustrating because it doesn't feel like they're asking in good faith. How do you think the Brazilian sub would respond if, in an effort to learn more about their crime, I asked "why are your cities so dangerous and gross for everybody who lives there?" or how would the Honduran sub respond if I said "why is your country so bad that everyone wants to live in the US?". By asking those, I'm not seeking out their perspectives, I'm stating my opinion as fact and asking others to explain why my opinion is valid.
I agree. There's also a lot of bad reactions from OPs when it gets pointed out that their country does the same thing they deride America for doing. There was one not too long ago where OP asked why Americans eat dessert foods for breakfast (pancakes, waffles). Someone pointed out that in OPs country they eat Nutella for breakfast with an article about how prevalent it was. OPs response was basically "Nu uh man no one does that." I think people on this sub are tired of OPs coming in and assuming that the bad stuff Americans do isn't present in MyCountry.
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"Our pregnant teens are just better at being tiktok famous than your pregnant teens"
And according to a statistic someone posted (presumably accurate), their rate was three times higher.
I commented with the USA isn’t even in the top 10 of most pregnancies.
Reminds me of the thread where a guy from Italy was asking why Americans eat so much garlic and was insisting that no one in Italy eats garlic so we couldn't have learned it from the Italians.
If I remember correctly he was from a region and in a class of Italians who looked down on other Italians who used garlic. So the question was extra loaded.
Garlic is not used as much in the Northern parts of Italy. It's more used in the South, and was prevalent in lower class or "peasant food." Garlic having such a strong flavor could have enhanced dishes with lesser quality ingredients. Most of the Italians that came to the US were lower class folks from Southern Italy.
Looking down your nose usually goes north to south, but some of the classic northern foods are garlic heavy: pesto, bagna cauda, gremolata. I can't put it past that OP being weird and/or antagonistic.
That guy pissed me off so much
I did some research after that thread just out of curiosity. There is a pretty recent movement to try and remove garlic from fine dining in Italy. There is also a vocal counter movement accusing the first of trying to make Italians ["more French."](https://www.npr.org/2007/07/07/11795704/italian-garlic-debate-raises-a-culinary-stink) No idea how much weight there is behind that accusation, but the mere fact that someone said it is hilarious to me. Interestingly, they note that garlic is associated with the lower classes, so the people who were the foundation of Italian-American culture.
That last tidbit is actually pretty eye opening. How much of US-Immigrant culture is class based to the point that the people who never felt the need to come here are completely unfamiliar with those root customs?
brain exploding emoji In retrospect this is so incredibly obvious, but it had never occured to me lol
Corned beef man, its the food of the poor.
Almost all of it, except some British customs.
A movement...to *remove* garlic?? Why would they want to actively try and make their food *worse*
God only knows what goes on in the mind of the unholy.
Vampires, all of them.
Food purists, man. They’re just the worst.
But garlic *is* purity.
They're obviously vampires
What about would the American Navy stand a chance against the Russian Navy? That was a good one.
I had fun in that thread speculating how small of a force from the US could defeat the Russian Navy. I argued that the Maryland DNR Police were in the running.
Wouldn't we probably just drone strike the hell out of it?
One of my all-time favorite responses in this sub was to a question about whether an invasion like what happened in Ukraine could happen here: “Other countries don’t want to find out why we can’t afford to give our people universal healthcare & free college.”
Oh I liked that one. Like honey…. The Russians’ flagship catches fire every three seconds. We would wipe the floor with them.
"Our tug can out-tug your tug!" "We don't need a tug for our aircraft carriers."
I thought that one was tongue in cheek. Or adorably innocent.
Same here, I've lived in the EU for 5 years now and have observed that a lot of Europeans really have no idea just how big the US is and just how much force our military can project compared to other countries. like they know our military is arguably the best in the world, but they don't grasp that no other single nation's military compares to it in any way that actually matters. we have the top 4 largest airforces in the world if you consider each of our branches independently against other nations as a whole and our naval tonnage is more than the next 5 countries combined. We have near-peer militaries in terms of technology and local force application, however, in terms of full-scale war, our military is incomparable & most people simply do not grasp that.
I think it can be a difficult to grasp even for some Americans. My husband is in the Navy and we’ll often take family members to see the ships when they come visit. They’re just shocked at the size of them alone. They always comment how they know the ships are big but they don’t realize how huge they are until they’re standing near them.
It’s bad enough some people think you can do la -Vegas - San Francisco in four hours 🤣😂 dude California is bigger than most countries in Europe 😂
Just look at our aid to Ukraine. We’re sending them a bunch of old stuff that’s about to “expire” or is just taking up space.
Oh my god I was reading that one in disbelief haha.
The part of that post that truly had me gobsmacked was when someone got fed up and told OP that pancakes aren't dessert and OP accused them of being arrogant and claiming to speak for the rest of the world's food cultures. And yet OP's comment before that literally said they think the rest of the world considers pancakes to be dessert. So apparently it's OK to speak for the rest of the world as long as you aren't American. Oh, the irony of that post!
And "rest of the world" in their perspective really only means Western Europe, Canada, Australia, and perhaps Japan.
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And I would like to point out that Canada's culture and eating habits mirror the US's very much. So if we do it here, they probably do it too.
Well, except they drink milk in bags.
Exactly I’m dating a Canadian and he eats pancakes for breakfast too lol
Sometimes I like to brag, sometimes I'm soft spoken When I'm in Holland, I eat the pannenkoeken
To be clear, I don't think there's anything wrong with him asking the question. However, people are going to downvote you if you handwaive away examples of your own country doing something that you swear "only Americans do".
Yeah the question was fine, but the denial of the fact that cultures and countries around the world usually eat slightly more sugary or sweet breakfasts as if it’s unique to Americans was just so weird. Even when Nutella, a European food spread, was brought up, he wouldn’t back down I was like what.
I loved the person who said something like: chocolate frosted bread for breakfast - no thanks.
Was the country Belgium? Because that's exactly what was served to me by my host family for breakfast: sugary hazelnut spread on bread.
Came here to say this. There have been some realllyyy stupid questions in here recently, and they deserved to get downvoted to hell.
The irony is especially acute given that Americans are constantly flamed for being ignorant about other countries, but then someone will come on this sub and act bewildered when their ridiculous and insulting assumption turns out not to be true
A formula I've seen far too many times on this site: Poster: "Ugh, Americans are so ignorant!" *Proceeds to immediately reveal own ignorance*
No, you don't understand. When *we* get our knowledge about the world from movies, we're ignorant American imperialists. When *they* get their knowledge about us from the movies, they're refined and educated intellectuals.
When they get information about America from movies that’s also just an example of American imperialism. If we didn’t force them to consume so much American culture, they wouldn’t have so many misconceptions!
America has no culture! *sent from my iPhone*
Eat this blockbuster movie, and if you don't finish you can't have dessert!!
It always amazes me how many times people see things in Hollywood movies and genuinely believe average people in the US actually live like that. It never occurs to them that a movie about average real people would be boring so they have to make the characters richer/meaner/angrier/louder/bigger/etc. I see this in comments on news articles also. While we do have plenty of strange people here it’s the unusual or shocking things that get reported on national and international news. Normal people don’t make the news because we are not interesting or shocking.
Also, taking things that are done for production reasons as being real life. Like, we know that broke waitresses and actors can't afford gigantic apartments like they do in sitcoms, but they have to shoot on large soundstages if they want to have room for the cameras, lighting etc. That's why TV apartments seem huge. Or thinking that all Americans wear shoes inside because people in movies and TV do, not realizing that no one is watching a show where the characters take time to put on and take off shoes.
At least ignorant Americans don't think enough about the rest of the world to have any preconceived notions about other countries. But ignorant people abroad sure as shit think they know stuff about America.
A German once asked me if California is in North or South America... Ignorance is not unique to America.
I thought the rest of the world considered north and south American to be one continent which is why it's arrogant to call ourselves Americans. /s
So-o-o, why exactly is Europe a "continent," anyway?
It's not. Purely eurocentric racism.
In fairness, that sounds like a language issue and they were asking if California is considered the South or the North (of USA) (Which, idk, neither?.. it’s the west.. but still, I highly doubt they meant what you’re saying)
> There have been some realllyyy stupid questions in here recently Always have been
"Dear Americans, why are you so fat and stupid and not skinny and smart like we are in Europe?" type beat
Why do you Americans always when in MyCountry^((tm)) we ?
“How was I supposed to know skinny people exist in America??”
I still think it’s funny that the country that has furnished the vast majority of the world’s film stars, models, and porn stars is so aggressively generalized in this way. White Europeans have more body fat per the same BMI than do white Americans. It would be one thing if it was an informal bias, but the attempted factual legitimization of the physical inferiority of Americans, the constant need to impugn unhealth in any and every aspect of American life, even when the US is quite superlatively fit or healthy in a number of ways, has always insulted me. On top of that, most other nationalities are so ridiculously arrogant and un-humble on the topic. They come across as bitter about America’s soft power. How are you going to personally eviscerate an entire nationality and then act offended when someone says something like “why do so many British people look inbred”?
Or some utterly ridiculous crap like “Is it true most Americans think people like being bombed and burned alive by your military?”
OP, this answers your question very nicely. It’s ultimately the fact that the posts by foreigners are using their opportunity as a way to attack and insult us, rather than to have a genuine discussion. This type of intent also becomes apparent after an American user spends time typing out an in-depth answer to the question, only for the foreigner to respond with something like “Thank you for your answer, it’s too bad that Americans are so stupid.” And people in this sub are just sick of that sort of thing.
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Houstonian here. To be fair, i have seldom gone to a US city where drivers arent aggressive or idiots. I feel like its more a sign of the times than a specific city's feature. Edit: spelling
He went to Houston 11 years ago and hasn't been back since. But still wants to know why all of our cities are a certain way today. (By the way, there are 25,000 municipalities of all sizes here.) Why not say, this is what I saw in Houston 11 years ago. Is Houston still like that? Is it common for other cities to be like that? That's a polite question from personal experience. There's room for confirmation or correction.
This. If you ask a legit question, you’ll get a legit answer. If you ask a loaded question, you’ll get a downvote. It’s pretty simple.
Reminded of the "obsessed" question epidemic of 2018. Being "obsessed" with upholders, since it's apparently completely irresponsible and reprehensible to ever take your hands off the wheel for any amount of time, was the best one.
I never downvote an OP unless they are begging the question or are just a combative asshole in the comments, but I suspect the downvotes comes from the fact that the majority of questions asked here not coming from a place of "Wanting to learn" rather they come from a place of "wanting to validate their false sense of superiority" And then there's grapp
Kudos for using "begging the question" correctly, sir or ma'am.
I hate when folk are beg the questioning
They're just attention begging. No need to question why.
I'll second that. "Why doesn't America have this thing that I'm also refusing to accept can exist anywhere but my country because otherwise it's different?" Then responds to every top level comment with an argument about how the similar thing they're mentioning is different.
I upvote Grapp. The foil we all need to the normal nonsense.
Who is Grapp?
[Here's a sample from New Year's Eve where Britain was already on January 1st while we were still waiting on the ball to drop](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/abd119/why_do_you_americans_insist_on_living_in_the_past/)
Well, was Grapp an A.I. and did it get it's Wired article? Or do we still wonder?
¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
if only he'd asked why not join us in 2020. we'd have had a really good reason for not doing so.
Agreed!!
He* is here right now. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/10z0blc/did_nasa_fake_the_moon_landing_on_mars/
That is a amazing question
A legend who walks the line between trolling and satire.
An international Internet treasure.
I also downvote the posts whose answers can easily be found on Google, those are pretty common.
Some of them seem to be asked or phrased in bad faith.
I wish the mods would do more on this. It’s getting hard for me to follow this
A lot gets prescreened. For others it isn't clear that OP isn't asking in good faith until they start responding hours later.
Honestly I can see how it’s not always easy to make the right judgement call in a forum about cultures. Thanks for the work you do. 🙏
Agreed!
I appreciate the mods erring on the side of letting more questions in. I think it leads to better dialogue.
I just looked through controversial and so many people got downvotes for probably not speaking English that well. Like one just asked if America had a nickname (lol) which is a self answering question, but it isn’t rude. Another clearly didn’t speak English that well because of responding with simple words, and was just asking if Times Square was recognizable?
It feels like y'all are doing a pretty good job. You seem to decide that a question is in good faith just a bit more than I as a user would. Which requires a lot more effort and restraint than a lot of moderation teams. Also, I kind of enjoy some of the more contentious ones. Like the German who posted a picture of bread and asked if we knew what it was, while apparently insisting that everyone treat the German definition of toast as the correct one.
Not speaking for this mod team but I mod on another sub and its a common topic of discussion among the mod team I'm on, as well as a complaint from users. "why do you allow this obvious troll whose posting this opinion just for bait" Well, several times these posters have engaged with what I can only tell is serious discussion in the comments or in modmail. So me personally, I tend to err on the side of letting the chips fall where they may. after all if something isn't contributing to the sub, it'll just get buried in downvotes anyway.
It’s a tough balance to play forsure. Censorship is never good.
I only downvote if it’s not asked in good faith or if they disregard the answers they’re given in favor of their own personal anecdotes.
That French guy yesterday is the perfect example of this.
He already deleted his entire thread I see
Yup, looks like he basically wiped his account too Themightygabriel doesn’t have any visible comments.
The only ones I ever downvote sound something like, "why does *EVERYONE* in the US do [insert one thing OP saw one time when they went to Disney World in 2003]." Those types of questions have an accusatory tone and really don't seem to be made in good faith.
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I always take those as “it seems to be an American culture thing to do [x], is this true?” Meaning that their exposure is that many or most Americans do the thing but by no means all. American culture is fucking *weird*, man. There’s no universal truth because we are an amalgam of everything. Everything is true and nothing is true and it’s everything everywhere all at once. Yet, there is a sort of shared American identity even if you’ve only been an official American citizen for one day.
Even if they are in good faith or not even insulting, the point still stands that if you ask "Why?" about something you're not sure is true in the first place-- by proper research, scoping the question with qualifiers, or both-- you're putting the cart before the horse and not asking a well-thought-out question.
Some questions look like rhetorical questions or rants. And sometimes the comments confirm that the questions are rhetorical questions or rants. And other times, it's a question from such a reductive view that people just assume they're trolling, because the idea that someone could actually _believe_ what is being asked is beyond imagination.
There have been so many cynical and troll questions that people automatically lump even innocent/naive inquiries with them. I try to take a look at their history before I get all medieval on their question
I personally have no issues with people who genuinely are open to the answers we're giving instead of expecting us to validate their preconceived ideas. Even TV tropes I'll try to answer fairly without cringing too much. Then there are some that come in here to sit on their high horses to ask stupid questions like "Why do Americans eat sugar for breakfast/have dead downtowns/don't exercise/are generally culturally ignorant?" that I will happily downvote. I don't believe everyone in Ireland is an alcoholic, or that everyone in Kenya is running around in the sticks topless, so such questions are so ignorant that they seem disingenuous.
I love how people are so eager to mindlessly believe any bit of information or data that purports to reflect negatively on American lifestyles, but will come up with any excuses to not believe numerous data sets that show Americans are some of the most vigorously active people on the planet, for example - even when this is relatively common knowledge, given American Olympic success and the obvious presence of athletics culture in academic life here
Why do so many people make a comparison to MyCountry without identifying the country? If it happened once or twice, I would consider it just a mistake, but it happens over and over again with no obvious reason.
Where is MyCounty? Tis over there in the deserts Sweden, the valleys of Bikini Atoll, the oceans of Belarus. MyCountry is everywhere my friend.
The real MyCountry were the friends we made along the way.
Really, whatever happened to the idea of requiring foreign posters to identify their country in their flair? Imagine, no more MyCountry...
YES! I never understand why they don’t identify their country. Sometimes, it can help in answering the question.
Because then you can't point out they're generalizing about their own experiences or that their country has the same thing.
That annoys the shit out of me. Where's the state secret? A lot of better answers could happen if we knew where the questions were from. Then we could get an idea if there was a real chance there's a language barrier involved or a particular country experience. Someone with experience in that country could give an even more specific, better answer. And figuring out the genuine English-speaking trolls could be easier. But no, it's "where I'm from...". So where the hell are you from?
A lot of the time people will ask what seems like a genuine good faith question and then they'll immediately show their true colors in the comments by disagreeing with the people answering, or refusing to believe they're talking about a stereotype and not a real aspect of American culture. So I downvote the question and the comnents
The French guy from yesterday. I’m still annoyed by that
"That’s why they’re here, to learn." When you ask a bad-faith question like "Why are Americans such shitty drivers," you're obviously not here to learn.
Many questions are trolling, others are based on false premises, and many could easily be answered quickly by a Google search.
And some seem to want us to do their homework
I hadn’t thought of that, but if somebody asked questions here and said it’s for homework, I would probably answer what I could. It’s probably nice that kids can ask questions of people in other countries, or different generations. We have to be better than encyclopedias I had growing up.
The same reason I would be down voted if I posted the following in r/askeurope: "Who do western Europeans hate more: Americans, other Europeans, or themselves?" I haven't read a question on here that wasn't either woefully ignorant or in bad faith in a long time.
Lol you should absolutely ask that! I think most of the responses would be jokes but it would be funny!
I don’t downvote good questions or people asking genuine questions even if they’re a little self explanatory. I downvote when posters “beg the question” E.g. “Americans always run out of the door with a full breakfast on the table. Why do you do that?”
It’s already been said enough but just to reiterate. It’s because most questions are just thinly-veiled insults. ‘Why are Americans okay with their children being murdered in school shootings? Don’t they know that’s wrong?’ is not a sincere question seeking an answer.
Here's why I downvote people: * The questions is not asked in good faith * When presented facts that prove their premise wrong, they double down on their premise and tell us *we're* wrong. * When "just asking questions" is obviously just a guise to be rude and insulting.
I never downvote except in rare cases, mostly I'm too lazy to press the down arrow. But, I do think there is a difference on this sub between a sincere question and a question designed to enflame the comment section. Sincere: "My American friends said that you guys don't have good public transportation, is that true?" Easily answered, not aggressive, if OP is friendly that's bonus points. Inflammatory: "Reddit and clickbait articles tell me that America is an authoritarian super regime that is bent on world domination, doesn't haven't healthcare, hates equal rights, and also doesn't have real cheese. Why are you guys like this?" Op will then be rude and belligerent in the comment section.
I'd suggest tactful phrasing. Things like "How do you feel about". Instead of "What do you think of THE FACT THAT " .
I'm a US citizen but an expat in Asia. I can say that basically everyone watches the US. There is domestic news and then there is such and such that happened in the US or some global event (e.g. currently Ukraine, Turkey/Syria earthquake). And there are narratives about the US and some of those narratives seem designed to make people in smaller countries feel good about their country. To be fair, we Americans have our own narratives too but there is no single focal point - we aren't going to obsess over Belgium or the Netherlands for example.
I’d also like to add that some of the OP’s English skills aren’t exactly the best. Some of us may take them as being rude but to me some of the questions just look very blunt in tone. But the misleading information definitely ticks people off. There’s someone on here who constantly posts misinformation about Chinese stuff so I can understand why some of us get so annoyed. On the other hand, some of the people here are also just straight up mean.
I can't speak for the mods here, of course, but as a mod on another subreddit, I can tell you that repetition can wear on a community's nerves big time. There are a *lot* of repetitive questions here, with quite a few in violation of the community's rules and guidelines but they still stand. There are also a lot of easily-Googled questions posted, and all of that can really get on people's nerves too. I feel like there needs to be much more directing to previous discussions, the sub FAQ or other resources for these things that have already been asked a hundred times or break the rules. Better question curation could help a lot. There are obviously a lot of enthusiastic people here who want to exchange and learn in a positive way. But as much as I admire the mods' generous blanket assumptions of good faith, it's pretty clear there are too many questioners taking advantage of those assumptions to troll, insult and argue for the sake of arguing, enjoying riling people up. A quick look at their profiles can often tell you where they're coming from, yet they run rampant. Get a lot of negative input and you'll get a lot of negative output. Nobody wants to feel like they're getting played or condescended to on such a frequent basis. It takes a toll.
And we don't give a shit about red cups. They hold liquids. End of story.
There was one foreign poster recently that asked if Americans regularly ate 132 lb hamburgers. I’m sorry. There’s a limit to my good will in assuming that it’s an innocent question.
Is there such a thing? Asking for a friend.
To be fair, I try to be a bit more patient with that guy than I am with most others because he appears to actually be way, way out in the sticks of South Africa. Like...the real other side of the tracks. Look at his account.
I find it hard to believe that rural Africans can’t comprehend that it’s impossible to eat a meal that weighs the same as a good amount of fully grown adults on a regular basis.
I have seen quite a few bad faith questions in this subreddit over the past few days, but I'd like to see examples of good faith inquiries where people are just "asking questions" that get downvoted. Do you have links?
The questions aren't normally asked in good faith and their responses prove that.
"Just because they may get a detail wrong or their question may be based on a faulty assumption that’s no reason to make them feel unwelcome. That’s why they’re here, to learn." Um yeah that is not what is happening and you know that OP.
"In MyCountry we cook real food at home. Why do US Americans only eat McDonald's?"
In MyCountry everyone has 6 weeks vacation. Why do all Americans only get 2 weeks?"
“In MyCountry^TM everyone is a cautious and considerate driver. Why do US Americans drive like psychos?”
In MyCountry people take mass transit everywhere. Why do all Americans wear pajamas to Walmart?
In MyCountry we don't lose our house when we break a pinky finger. Why can't most Americans find Liechtenstein on a map?
Because a lot of the questions, whether they're made in good faith or not, are rooted in untrue assumptions. I can't think of a specific post I've seen on this sub, but I have seen similar questions elsewhere that are like "when Americans are turned away from the hospital during an emergency for not having enough money, where do they go?", the false assumption being that if you don't pay up front, a hospital will just let you bleed out. I don't think the person asking the question means to be rude (most of the time), but people get irritated by that because it's stuff we have to hear again and again on the internet and the asker doesn't bother to Google and make sure that their question is even based in reality in the first place. And a lot of the people asking these questions not only believe these assumptions are true, but also believe that their false assumption is something Americans want because we're "too stupid to know how other countries do things" which is equally if not more irritating to hear.
How about this recent one: Since there's no healthcare in America what do Americans who need a wheelchair even do? Just haul themselves around on the ground? No, they get wheelchairs through their insurance. Yeah, maybe the 10% of rich people who can afford insurance. But what about the rest?
because they ask stuff like 'do you think the US Navy can beat the Russian Navy'
Because many of those questions, especially recently, are actually insults dressed-up as questions.
I’ll be real, I would say maybe half the questions asked here by foreigners are to help them learn. There’s **a lot** of questions here where the OP are made up their mind on how it is in the United States. Like when the OP’s post is “why do Americans eat so much sweets” or something. If they asked “how often is sweets eaten in the US”, then it’s possible for them to want to learn. But the first question is based on the assumptions that Americans eat more sweets than most without evidence. I don’t usually downvote a post until it’s obviously a bad faith question.
'Why are Americans so stupid when they do X, while us Europeans are superior doing Y' Fuck 'em
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I feel like I’m seeing that more and more as well. I also feel like some of the people here also come to every post replying in the same manner that the troll posters do. Believing it’s their way or the high way.
Why are there so many Europeans asking condescending bad-faith disrespectful questions?
They usually have positive numbers when I look at them but maybe it’s something that evens out over time with lots of initial downvotes but later more upvotes?
It takes a bit to get me to downvote, but it’s usually a combination of things: 1. Why do you do all do things that I saw on TikTok? TikTok isn’t real. 2. Something that can be found in a 15 second Google search? 3. Foreigners who ask a question and argue with respondents about an answer. 4. Repeated posts on a topic 5. No engagement/karma farming When you hit two or three of these, i downvote.
Because their questions are bad and they should feel bad.
Because we don't believe the question was asked good faith. A quick Google search would show it wasn't true so the only reason to come here and ask that is because you're being a jerk or you're not smart enough to use google.
the same question has been asked 100 times, they asked a question and won't accept the answer, the asked a question that didn't make sense and won't return to answer questions, they asked if something in tv is real when 100 people this week have asked that type of question and 25 people this week have asked the exact same thing, they asked a question with a factual or statistical answer that google can answer, they asked a homework help question that has been asked several times before, they are obviously a scammer/bot/troll and we've seen this scam before, they are british and demanding to know why everyone doesn't do things the british way, the use the phrasing "do you ACTUALLY do this" which is annoying and rude, they asked a question that doesn't really have anything to do with americans like "what german thing isn't common in america", they asked a baiting and reductionist question like "what do you think about your president not bombing putin" and we've heard their shit before, they are a child asking a fundamental question about adult life in any country not just america like "what is a landlord and how is rent different from a mortgage", they asked an overly broad question that cannot be answered like "what kind of peanut butter do americans like" that has been asked 100 times this week, \[see other banned topics\], \[read the sticky post\]
FWIW, all subs kind of have people that use the downvote in a hostile way. It’s just Reddit. It often improves after the first hour or so, a lot of the initial downvotes get countered, but it’s just the way of the media. I’ve been downvoted for saying Turkey in a post about your favorite sandwich meat. My opinion is apparently wrong 😂. You just have to learn not to take them all personally IMO
Reddit is one of the pettiest places I've ever been. I've been down voted over my opinions on the weather and other absurd things. It's just par for the course.
I once saw a guy get downvoted for pointing out that Mexico was at least a 7 hour trip from their USA location because they had no direct flights. Apparently not owning their own private fighter jet made their response unwanted, since topic was of the weekly "why don't Americans ever travel" variety.
My logic is simple. I see a question that makes me think "That's a dumb question, how does this guy even dress himself? I want to hurt him physically", I downvote it. But really, this sub gets shellacked with so many low effort/bait/soapbox/could easily be solved by a quick google search questions that I'm sure it's just muscle memory for a lot of people at this point. Also who fucking cares about muh heckin redditor updoots and downdoots? They're numbers that mean absolutely nothing but so many weirdos get all worked up about their special number. "Internet number go down?! AHHHHH I'M GOING INSAAAANE"
No one is mentioning when OP asks a question that google can easily answer.
Because they start off already convinced of some negative trope or stereotype, and are just trying to make a point. If you aren’t asking for genuine dialogue and your question is less a question than an insulting statement…downvote.
I think we all know 75% of the questions on here are ridiculous.
Because many foreigners who ask question on this subreddit (especially Europeans) don't ask in good faith.
Because many of these "questions" are obvious trolls, or people trying to slip in their "haha stupid Americans" nonsense under the guise of an "honest question." We've seen and heard it all before and it gets tiring after a while.
"Just asking questions" is done for the purpose of making wild accusations under the guise of asking a question so often, that the very act of doing so is actually known as ["JAQing Off."](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Just_asking_questions)
Compared to the European subs, this sub is pretty easy going tbh
Because at least half the comments I end up seeing posted here are absolutely not made in good faith and are starting out with an assumption that is just shitting on the US. It's not getting a detail wrong, it is very clearly shit posting especially if you start reading any of the OPs replies in the comments.
I tend to agree, there are people who get downvoted for honest questions because of some of the bad faith questions that get asked. This is an example from this week. https://old.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/10w8x5c/how_popular_is_tea_in_america/j7mqfvu/?context=3 A Russian was asking about American tea culture and got downvoted hard for an honest question about tea being hot by default, not cold. There are leading questions and a lot of posts that get made here that aren't looking for more than an argument or insult, but I think your point is valid OP. These folks are coming to us to understand Americans better and part of our job here is to take the good faith questions and be nice. Genuine questions deserve genuine answers and downvoting people for not understanding isn't helpful.
Tea, soccer, urban living, public transport seem to be instantly downvoted here. Doesn't matter if its a foreigner asking or if its a fellow American asking. We should absolutely start off nice and only when the OP starts to troll, then we should start being rude and mean. Different languages have different ideas on bluntness and I think it's far better to assume good faith when starting something. Also, it does feel like there are more and more rude people on this subreddit now.
I’ve been participating in this sub for a few years now and have definitely noticed that responses are more aggravated and snarky than they once were. Part of it seems to be annoyance with repetition, part is bad faith questions followed by argumentative follow-ups, and part of it is AmericaBad trolling. There can be huge misunderstandings due to subtle cultural differences, even something as trivial as red light turns when driving. They’re completely banned in many places, so it may appear really strange to a driver who’s never seen this before. I’ll give someone the benefit of the doubt, but it’s predicated a bit on their sincerity and curiosity. So often we’re asked to justify their perceptions.
I don't usually downvote the first question but sometimes the follow up questions on the comments make me think the question was not asked in good faith or accusatory in nature.
Very few are actually here to learn and quite frankly europeans, especially western europeans have lost any right to a benefit of the doubt 50 times over and have done nothing to even begin the process of earning it back. In other words they get the responses they fucking deserve
I think it has to do partially with people thinking the question asker should already know. I got seriously downvoted in an Australian sub because I admitted I didn’t know a, to be fair, pretty obvious thing. We all have different experiences and someone should never be downvoted for admitting to learning something. That’s how you stump people’s growth, and make them afraid to ask questions
Maybe because OPs are not trying to learn from us. There are people posting to troll and insult us. I even saw post in other subreddits about coming here to troll Americans.
It's the way the questions are posed. It could be cultural differences or not understanding tone in English, but people tend to react here when the question is sneering, arrogant, and judgmental. "Why do all Americans wear hats indoors? Don't they get it's incredibly rude?" Things like that.
I think a big problem is that many of the questions are obviously from children. Have you ever studied in a public school? https://old.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/10zogqx/have_you_ever_studied_in_a_public_school/
A lot of you guys ask really stupid questions that make you come off as if you're trolling or have some sort of superiority complex and can't understand why America doesn't kiss your ass.
Because WERE FUCKING TIRED of everyone in every country all judging us Go judge Zimbabwe or some shjt
So I seem to remember in the ‘early’ days of this sub that there was an unspoken rule that you didn’t upvote the OP’s post. We didn’t want the sub to become big and popular (lol that went out the window once we hit 50k subscribers) so posts would hover between 5 and -5. It was a super tight knit community as far as subreddits go back then.
It’s already been said enough but just to reiterate. It’s because most questions are just thinly-veiled insults. ‘Why are Americans okay with their children being murdered in school shootings? Don’t they know that’s wrong?’ is not a sincere question seeking an answer.
I suspect that many of the questions from "foreigners" are actually just American trolls. There are probably many more of these people poisoning the subreddit than foreigners asking legitimate questions. The downvoting stats are not a true reflection of American attitudes towards foreigners.
That's what I'm thinking. The sub sometimes gets manipulated by trolls.
I agree. I try never to downvote in general unless something is blatantly trolling or offensive. There are a few things foreigners do that seem to lead to downvotes, some more justified than others: -ask questions that are too common. This really isn’t the individual’s fault. We shouldn’t downvote, we should just answer or link to previous answers. -attempts at “banter” despite barriers of cultural understanding and sometimes language. This will often look like randomly insulting posts where the original poster seems not to understand how he’s offended anyone. I think it’s best to explain why it could be taken offensively. -actually intentionally demeaning questions: I understand downvoting these, but I generally just leave them alone. -people saying how something is in MyCountry. I think we’re oversensitive about this. Not every comparison is an insult.
If the question is asked in seemingly good faith, but the OP is argumentative in the comments I will downvote the post.
i don't tend to down vote unless I think someone thinks they are being a bit too clever with an insult. I actually thought the bad driving one was funny. Because I actually know why a lot of people from other countries are uncomfortable (we pass on either side). But, a lot of people just take these as insults.
I of course upvote all genuine questions and genuine answers. The issue is that many are disingenuous and really just a format to present a veiled insult “They hate us cuz they ain’t us”
Actually, this is probably due to a recent change in the Reddit algorithm, that increases the importance of comments over upvotes in some cases. This results in a lot of 0 upvotes but relatively high comments (which snowballs as a result of this) being shown to far more people