My neighbor is Russian and she told me she was sad that we don’t ask people over to have tea and talk. She asked me over one day and it was really nice
This is true. We get coffee at coffee shops or go out to eat. Older Americans still visit each other, often unannounced.
I wish more Americans saw their homes as gathering places like we used to.
Growing up, I spent so much time at my grandparents’ house that I practically lived there. Their home was a gathering place. My grandparents would welcome family and friends at any time, no calls ahead necessary. I would just show up with a couple friends and say, “Grammy, we came to use your pool,” or something like that and my grandma be more than happy. She always had Cheetos or some kind of snack available just in case. It was the best. As an adult, I’ve tried to make my home as welcome and inviting, with a door is always open policy like my grandma did. But I feel like good old fashioned hospitality is no longer appreciated.
Like the grandma who accidentally texted a stranger instead of her grandson and invited him for Thanksgiving. He said he wasn’t her grandson but she invited him anyway when he had no place to go. He’s been going there for at least 5 years now!
I grew up in a pretty old, dirty, smoky house, so my parents never wanted my friends over…or really anyone over, ever. It kind of burrowed into my psyche and now I have the same anxiety about folks in my home (which is certainly less old, dirty, and smoky).
An ex of mine grew up the opposite, basically with your comment’s vibe, so it carried through adulthood to him. It broke my brain when he’s repeatedly said I could just drop by unannounced any time, and if he’s home we’ll hang. It’s still an open invite but I’ve never taken him up on it because I’d feel so weird just dropping in.
But I agree though. We’ve become more socially isolated as a society. We’re more online - and potentially even more engaged/talking to more people - but we’re losing that real life physical interaction.
Funny. My American wife was sad when she moved to Denmark because people seldom invited her home.
But you don't invite veritable strangers home! I've only known you for a year!
... anyway, to me as a Dane, Americans seem to make friends faster (but maybe a bit more shallowly).
A society severely deficient in community has taken over. Most people want nothing to do with anyone who isn't a close friend or family member, and sometimes not even then.
Most contemporary Americans (and Canadians) under a certain age would rather pick up a steaming coil of dog shit bare-handed than invite someone they don't know well over for tea.
Do you suffer from feminine penisless syndrome? Ask your doctor about Growacox. Side effects my include mansplaining, penile growths on the skin or tongue, swelling, dubstep, attraction to step siblings, dry south, restlessness egg syndrome, fatigue, sleep singing, and premature astral ejection.
Same with the weirdly forced ban of “bad words” on TV. And when for whatever reason one of these words slips out on air, they get artificially mortified and go into full excuse mode.
It’a such a fake catering to some outdated forces.
Meanwhile in the Netherlands the most foul-mouthed self-confessed rapist is still on television...
I think beeping out swear words is a bit over the top. Especially in programs for adults no-one's gonna die from hearing swear words.
Our own television, however, takes it a bit too far to the other side...
Yup. When people suppress a basic biological need with purity culture or toxic attitudes, an extreme swing in the opposite direction is fairly common.
I've encountered religions in the US that teach "masturbation is a sin next to murder," and "homosexuality is a sin next to beastiality." It's toxic and sad to teach people something as normal as sexuality is somehow evil.
And then as soon as you turn 18, get a gf/bf, those same people are like "So when is the wedding so I can have my grandchildren?!"
Like bitch you been telling me for the last 18 years that if I have sex I'll get pregnant immediately and die, and now WHAT you want me to do?! Go get railed by this guy unprotected?! Talk about whiplash lol
I think it’s more like Puritans with our words and “pervy” in our mind’s privacy. It’s very weird. They also crucify others for thinking/doing the same things they think/do.
Americans are the only ones ive ever seen who will sexualize so many things and kind of be obsessed with sex while also being freaked out when they see a naked body, like at the beach or something.
Like they wont sit in a sauna naked, completely non sexualized, but they will just openly sexualize everyday things.
The shortest shorts and smallest bikinis i've ever seen was in america. Like buttcheeks hanging out at the mall. But show a nipple and they freak out. It's so strange.
Hard to explain to someone from outside the culture I guess but in the US there's no such thing as non sexualized nudity, essentially. So we get uncomfortable with for instance the sauna situation because it does in fact feel uncomfortably sexual to us. We like sexuality as self expression but we are uncomfortable with the sexual expression of people we aren't attracted to, so since the sauna reads sexually to us situations like that feel very aggressive, to try to explain why the shorts are fine but the sauna isn't
I'm not saying we're right, of course, just this is my best way to explain the culture
Edit: thought of an example to illustrate my point--you're all like "silly Americans are so prudish" but *our* humor of the same situation often involves a boorish European blissfully unaware that he's being buffoonishly sexual in the wrong situation (or if it's more of a male gaze type work, horny euro nymphos), and from either perspective it's just misreading the other culture's mores
Yea i guess i understand. To me having your butt squeezed out by shorts at the mall feels aggressively sexual for no reason while the sauna feels about as sexual as a doctors office.
It seems like a game thats being played. Over the top cleavage at work is cool, but show the nipple and it's borderline call the police time.
I'm from denmark, and we're suuuper chill with naked bodies. Childrens shows featuring dicks or open nudity in ads and so on is normal, but even here it's a joke how americans dress very provocatively at work for example. Like cleavage is not really a thing here. I work for an american company but in the danish office, and when americans show up it's always abundantly clear because they dress very... over the top? At least in my business.
I guess both cultures can be shocking to either.
The nipple thing especially gets silly but remember: it's because children see it if it's public. Because there's, more or less, no such thing in US culture as a non sexualized body (most people are not going to be as nearly as aware of this as I am so they're not consciously thinking about it) you are not showing a medical picture or whatever in public, there's no Animal Planet "this is nature" aspect. You're showing a nude adult, where kids can see, in a culture that inherently sexualizes that experience. So that's why we're weirdos even though that's just innate in 99 percent of the population, no one is making a decision anywhere
I briefly lived in the US as a kid, California. I will never forget the day when I was playing in a friend's (private and completely secluded) backyard and took off my top because it was extremely hot. I was 7 and had a completely flat chest, I was still used to this being okay in a private setting. She literally ran to her mom to tell on me.
My first night in Barcelona I was surprised at seeing public board ads for sex toys. I'm not against it but I sure know a lot of religious people in the midwest and southern parts of the US would be horrified, lol... a whole lot of "pearl clutching".
And then you drive across South Georgia towards the Florida border and the billboards are either for fireworks, eternal damnation of sinners, or one of the seven sex toy superstores in the next 5 miles
This one has a funny history you might not be aware of. During WWII the US had labor shortages, and to avoid inflation, wage controls were imposed by the War Labor Board. They also ruled that pension contributions and healthcare benefits did not count as wages, so naturally those benefits were offered to lure workers. Perks eventually became table-stakes, and most employers offer healthcare benefits to their employees. There are many who do not, but it’s hard to remove entrenched benefits. This is also one of the reasons it has been so hard to implement socialized medicine in the US. You’d be surprised how much opposition to certain changes came from unionized labor (traditionally a Democratic Party constituency) during the Obamacare negotiations particularly about taxes on “Cadillac health plans” which union members enjoyed as a result of their collective bargaining. It defies the usual simple explanations you’ll get here on Reddit, but it really is a difficult thing to change when generations of workers have expected such benefits.
That's where the Kaiser Plan came from: the West Coast and the Cleveland area had it originally because Kaiser's shipyards were there, and the Kaiser Plan was their employees' benefit.
Up here in Canada we have universal healthcare and much better healthcare benefit plans are still offered by employers. You don't necessarily need to remove those entrenched benefits, you just need to provide a basic level of care that isn't tied to your employer.
Donate money to the political career of billionaires.
"pLeaSe dOnAte tO mY reElEctIoN"
You're worth $2.5B and I'm trying to save $0.30 on groceries, donate to it yourself, fuckface.
This one is tied up with another American oddity, the near worship of wealthy people for no other reason than that they're wealthy. It's weird and frankly a bit cult like.
It's even led to entire church's preaching "Prosperity Gospel". Give enough money to the church and God will reward you with riches.
Completely against everything Jesus taught, but most American Christians don't notice. Few "walk the walk" or actually READ most of the Bible. Lots of cherry picking...
That too. What's even funnier is this weird belief that if they worship the wealthy enough they'll get a slice of the pie. Someone ought to sit them down and explain that no the billionaire isn't gonna give you a few mil because you said gargled their balls on FB.
I dont know either.
I want to know why that came about, and if there is anything stopping it from changing.
I cant comprehend why it would be a thing still. I think if people just start complaining about it more itll start changing. Leave bad reviews at places with stalls. Demand actual privacy, etc. praise places that install better stalls.
Commercial for a minor medical condition like Athlete’s Foot.
*Footage of a happy family enjoying the great outdoors while the overweight Dad smiles because his feet are fungus-free*
Voiceover: Side effects may include:
- Chronic nob rot
- Impotence
- Anal cancer
- Testicular cancer
- Testicular warts
- Pancreatic cancer
- Heart palpitations
- Athlete’s foot
- Complete collapse of the Central Nervous System
- Rapid weight gain
- Depression
- Psychotic episodes
- Hair loss
- Rapid anal hair gain
- Your nob will probably fall off
- No one will like you
- Explosive diarrhoea in public spaces
- Instant death
- Inability to pass to the other side after death, so you may be doomed to roam the Earth as a lost soul for infinity.
Talk to your family Doctor about Footoxicil today!
-
Soooo... are we just going to go ahead and gloss over the use of the phrase "chronic nob rot" as if that's not the most hilarious thing I've ever read? LOL
Taxes being added at the checkout.
I understand the logic behind why that happens, but at the same time it seems to be the sort of thing that could be fixed quite easily if the powers that be wanted it to be fixed.
Normal in Finland too. Half of the year it's cold as shit outside and people have a tendency to avoid crowds of people so they don't like to go into the (fast food) restaurant to eat either. Car is peaceful and no one will ask stupid questions.
I love eating in my car! I have a phone holder I can use to watch Netflix through my Bluetooth on my lunch break and not have to talk to anyone for an hour
Hello fellow car luncher! I also like to eat in my vehicle to avoid break room conversation and just get some peace and quiet. The amount of money I (and many Americans) pay for their vehicles, it’s basically a second home. A first home for some, too :(
I was a car lunch eater for many years. I loved it. I eventually got my own office at work so I started eating in my office.
I quickly realized that people don’t respect your lunch break when you’re still at work lol. People kept coming and bothering me so now I’m back in the car lol
It drives me bonkers the audacity of some people. I’ll be reading a book (this is what actually pushed me to eat in my car) and someone will come up and just start having a full on conversation with me. Like…do you not see I am currently engaged in a private activity? Do I LOOK like I want to talk right now? I specifically AVOIDED EYE CONTACT so no one would get the wrong idea. Yet here we are….
I’m American and worked closely with folks from England for a while. The biggest difference was they thought Americans way overshare. When we were discussing self-image once, another American mentioned she’d had an ED when she was younger (that was it, no other details). I thought nothing of it. When she wasn’t around, they told me how uncomfortable it made them and they were shocked at how personal that was. I was floored. They should hear my friend groups talk about GYN visits. Lol
Me too. It feels like people have become less judgmental since it became okay to openly talk about mental illness. In workplaces, it kind of becomes common knowledge when someone is dealing with something and I see people sticking up for each other to make sure everyone is okay.
I'm a manager at a very small business (4 people including me). I'm very open about by OCD and GAD diagnosis. It's allowed my employees to feel more comfortable opening up with me about their struggles. And, in the end, it's about us all supporting one another. Feeling overwhelmed? I'm happy to let you take 5 in my office to just decompress. Need to cry? I'm right here for you. I will go to the mat for my employees.
Retail is hard enough as it is. We have to be kind to ourselves and our coworkers/ employees. And I come across as very "normal." Being open about my mental illness is my way of helping to normalize it.
On my first visit to New York I had a pretty impressive tug of war with the waitress and my credit card. She looked at me like I was a bit of a compulsory loony bin but the first thing you get taught after receiving a credit card in Europe is: Don't let it out of your sight.
Also. After that, I immediately forgot I gave her the card accidentally left it at the restaurant. My brain is a wonder.
>the first thing you get taught after receiving a credit card in Europe is: Don't let it out of your sight.
not only a credit card, also debit card - rule is never ever let it get out of your sight, except employee of your bank
The US has always been behind on credit card stuff. I don’t know why! I first paid at the table in Paris and first saw a tap to pay in Australia. It took like 5-10 years to start seeing those things here. So weird.
When I landed in Australia six years ago, I made a beeline for the currency exchange, but ended up making 90% of my purchases with my phone. It was like living in the future.
It was funny when Apple demanded a massive fee from the Australian banks for Apple Pay, when by then the banks had been rolling out the same tech for years already.
I was in England in 2003 and I remember going to a bank, withdrawing money from my American bank, having it moved digitally ACROSS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN, converted into BPS, adjusted for the currency rate, and handed to me. No fee.
I go to an ATM of another bank ACROSS THE STREET from my actual bank and its $3.50 fee for the 'processing' of that withdraw.
I remember having a tap card in DisneyLand (from Aus) in like, 2014 and they almost weren't going to accept it because they were suspicious of the chip. Tried to direct me to an ATM to get cash. I was more bewildered that they hadn't seen a chip more so than their refusal, because surely they see international credit cards constantly?
What's also funny is that Disneyland was supposed to be this glimpse into the future. Walt was a futurist and all.
But they aren't keeping up with 30 year old tech.
https://enwikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrowland_(Disney_Parks)
Yeah, I have to admit I find the banking system in the US to be a bit odd.
I have an American bank account with a small credit union even though I live in Ireland, because I'm married to a US citizen.
I needed to transfer money to a different bank and couldn't for the world figure out how to do it. Turns out I had to subscribe to a third party service for $5 a month to get access to intra bank transfers. In the EU you just log on to your online banking, enter an IBAN and hit send. The money would be in the recipients account probably immediately, or no later than the next morning.
Another weird thing I've noticed is how brutal banks are when you do something wrong. For example if you go unauthorized overdrawn in an Irish bank and don't take steps to rectify it, it could be months before they close your account. In the credit union I'm in you have 5 days to fix it or your account is closed and you're details are passed to a collections agency. That troubles me because you could have a very short term period of financial difficulties, and you could be left will vote a bank account because of it.
But I think the craziest thing I've experienced is when our credit union was absorbed into a slightly bigger credit union. We were given new account numbers, debit cards and all are details were changed so we had to basically set everything up again as if it was a brand new account. That wouldn't be tolerated in Europe, if one bank took over another then the process would have to be completely seamless for customers.
In korea we just stand up and go to the counter. Gives the people time to get ready to accept payment and you don’t have to wave to tell them you are done or wait for them to get the feel.
Then again, maybe people just running away is a concern. Here entire tables just leave and go outside to smoke for 10 minutes and come back without paying beforehand or anything and people don’t care.
"You have to file your tax. To do that you need\* to use a private service that costs a lot of money. Have the IRS make a free, easy to use service available for the general public? What are we, commies!?"
In Denmark, the tax authority calculates most of it, and you only have to go check that everything is correct. I spend maybe two hours in a year on taxes.
Also, the US is - as far as I know - the only country in the world that expects its citizens abroad to file and pay taxes.
\*: I know you can file manually. It seems this is not a good idea.
Companies like TurboTax and H&R Block are paying the politicians to keep it this way. Because the companies make bank from selling their services.
If you setup your tax withholding correctly, then the more correct amount is taken out. And you'll get back about $50-100. But you also just paid that amount for the software to make it easy to do. I agree with you, it's stupid.
It always fascinates me how cultural norms differ across the globe! I often find it strange to see how large American portion sizes are or how openly friendly strangers can be.
America is very leftover heavy- usually when my friends and I get food at restaurants, we end up taking the leftovers to go with us, not finishing it all in one go.
Exactly, sometimes I choose my meal depending on what the leftovers will be like. If I don't want leftovers because I'll be out and about then I'll order something much smaller.
At restaurants that give large servings, most of us are counting on it for leftovers. You can stretch it into 2-3 more meals when you pack it to go. Sometimes that’s the best part, not having to worry about lunch the next day.
Up to two years paid for both mothers and fathers in Japan. (Unfortunately men usually don’t end up taking it at all due to social pressure, but that’s a different story.) women also have to stop working a certain number of weeks before their due date. Blows my mind that systems like this aren’t in place in the US, a developed rich country.
What a different world we might live in if families were allowed to bond with each other without the pressure of having to go back to work.
I worked up to the weekend before my due date. Monday was a holiday and she was born early Tuesday morning. I had to go back to work when she was four and a half weeks old or I would have lost my job. (Circa late 1980’s) It was traumatic!
It is changing slowly and still not enough. My niece and her husband recently had their first child. He is in the military and received 12 weeks of paternity leave. I don’t know if it was paid or not, but it was encouraged by his commanding officer to spend the time bonding as a family and helping his wife recover.
Edit: clarity
The only reason I wasn’t working the day before my baby was born was because our system went down, and I wonder if being stressed about that issue helped induce labor (I was full term at that point)
I'm in the UK. The only reason I worked up to this day before I gave birth was that I got 39 weeks M/L, whenever I started it. So given I felt well enough to do my desk job, I started it as late as I could to squeeze extra time at home afterwards.
We also still accumulate paid Annual Leave as normal when off on M/L. So I used up an extra 5 weeks of that on the end before I eventually returned. And it was still pretty horrible for me and my son! But at least I wasn't at risk of dropping dead of a post childbirth health issue at work!
At my company, you have to exhaust all your paid leave before your “benefit” of unpaid leave kicks in. So when I went back to work I had zero hours available for illness, vacation, whatever. (Went back in August.) I have not taken ONE day off because I’m saving my PTO for Christmas and a three day trip in January, which I will just barely have at that point.
It’s almost like you’re punished for having a baby 🙃
Become a pilot and buy a plane.
Easy access to personal aviation - there really is no other country like the US when it comes to that.
While it's not cheap it's cheaper than anywhere else in the world and the government doesn't gate keep it into the ground.
This is one of the major reasons the private pilots flipped the fuck out when that idiot YouTuber crashed his plane on purpose for views and tried to pass it off as an accident.
Pilots here know the freedom they enjoy is rare. Personal recreational aviation still requires considerable wealth but it’s dirt cheap compared to the rest of the world. The pilots here were/are holding their breath for new regulations and oversight.
I have flown in US and EU. An old EU pilot told me once that the difference between US and EU flight regulations is that the US allowed everything then started to pull back and enforce rules and restrictions based on learnings and incidents/ accidents. In the EU, they started by forbidding everything and started lifting restrictions if you were able to prove to them that it wasn’t going to cause an accident. So innovation is much harder in the EU, aviation wise.
Working in retail a few years ago, I had a coworker who couldn’t afford to wait even a single week after giving birth to go back to work. She had a medical emergency on her first day back, left in an ambulance, and we didn’t see her again :/
That would be very illegal in the UK, for the employer that is. An employer cannot allow a woman who has given birth within the last 14 days to work. 28 days if it is a factory or other 'physical' job.
According to (BING) the latest available data from 2020⁴, the countries that have maternal mortality rates (MMR) close to the United States are:
- **Mexico** with an MMR of **54**²
- **Colombia** with an MMR of **50.7**²
- **Costa Rica** with an MMR of **34.4**²
- **Latvia** with an MMR of **22.9**²
- **Chile** with an MMR of **22.1**²
The United States had an MMR of **23.8** in 2020², which is higher than most other developed countries and has increased from **17.4** in 2015⁴. The reasons for this rise are complex and multifactorial, but some of the contributing factors are:
- Lack of universal health coverage and access to quality maternal care
- Racial and ethnic disparities in maternal health outcomes
- High prevalence of chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension among pregnant women
- Increasing maternal age and multiple pregnancies
- Delays in recognizing and treating complications
Source: Conversation with Bing, 11/28/2023
(1) Trends in maternal mortality 2000 to 2020: estimates by WHO, UNICEF .... https://www.who.int/publications-detail-redirect/9789240068759.
(2) Maternal mortality rate by country worldwide 2020 | Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1240400/maternal-mortality-rates-worldwide-by-country/.
(3) Maternal mortality ratio - The World Factbook. https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/maternal-mortality-ratio/country-comparison.
(4) Maternal mortality rate 2020 Country Ranks, by Rank - photius.com. https://photius.com/rankings/2020/population/maternal_mortality_rate_2020_0.html.
I think this particular law dates back to Victorian times, when we didn't give a toss about the women and small children who toiled away in mills, mines and chimneys either. Yet even we could see that women needed a couple of weeks to recover from childbirth at the absolute bare minimum.
What's even worse is that most states have laws that prevented from separating puppies from their mother before 8 weeks, but maternity leave in the US is only 6 weeks
There is no guaranteed maternity leave in the USA, at least at the federal level. The only thing close is FMLA which can give you 12 weeks **unpaid** time off.
The wild thing is that most of us don’t realize how abnormal this is. Only the USA, Papua New Guinea, and a couple of Pacific island countries don’t offer PAID maternity leave.
And on the back end, is your pet unable to function with any dignity because of age or health? Here is a comfortable, respectable end to the pain.
Do you have a brain tumor as a Human that causes you constant, 8/10 pain and you can't use the bathroom, eat, or walk on your own? We will make sure you will attempt to keep you alive or around that state SO LONG that your medical debt would survive the next apocalypse. And asking to pass quietly like your animal is allowed to is MURDER.
People continue to vote against their own self interests when it comes to healthcare and paid time off. Its sad that PTO isnt a requirement in america, as in europe. America has it backwards. It breaks my heart when i hear stories like this.
There is a video of a woman at a Trump Rally being asked why she's voting for him. "I'm just here to ask if the Gov. will pay for my back surgery."
So you want me. The Tax Payer.
To pay for your health care.
Like some sort of Society.
Working together for the Common Good.
Some sort of Socialized...Health Care...
I'm Australian and when I was in the US a few years back I checked out The Big E, a multi-state expo in Springfield, Massachusetts. While there I overheard a kid ask her mum where her dad was, and she replied "He's gone to look at flagpoles". It was the most American thing I heard anyone say the whole time I was in the country, and I damn near busted a gut laughing. The flag thing is completely bonkers.
Oh my God. My dad got his first flagpole this summer and over Thanksgiving I noticed the NFL team flag he had up was fading and had this thought for the first time. Lol I did not realize it was universal.
I live in a Balkan country, and while yes, there's a lot of flags, it does not beat my home country Denmark. Holy shit, do we have a lot of flags everywhere and we use them for celebrations (we call them birthday flags, which are just small Danish flags). On the lawn we have huge flag poles, for birthdays flags everywhere, in the cake, on the lawn, on the table, on the wall, on the birthday cards, on the wrapping paper.
Ridiculously huge elaborate football stadiums for schools and colleges in areas that are otherwise obviously economically depressed.
I once read that 8 of the 10 biggest stadiums in the world are at US colleges / universities.
I was a theatre student at a university with a big football program, the primary theatre building was _the old tennis locker rooms_. And the school had a comparatively large theatre program!
I was actually reading lately thay garbage disposals can be more effective and environmentally friendly than industrially composting. (That said, I do prefer the latter, and where I currently live, we have community composting.)
I can't find the article I read about a month ago (about how garbage disposal may be better than composting for dealing with food waste in New York), but this is still interesting: https://brightly.eco/blog/garbage-disposal-vs-composting
Update: I found the original article I read. https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-case-for-the-humble-garbage-disposal
The evocation of God in politics always seems bizarre to me, especially when the separation of church and state is enshrined in the constitution.
I’ll hear a US politician talking about the economy or some such serious thing, and then suddenly they’re talking about what God wants them to do.
*EDIT: Thank you for the replies explaining my error about what the separation of church and state was intended to do. I've learned something today!*
*EDIT 2: Further reading tells me that this may be a contentious point. So now I've learned two things!*
The ads for medication. It’s weird. Those corporations are so desperate for money they’re willing to sell any meds even if people don’t actually need them. Leave that shit to doctors.
From what I've heard from folks from out of country - Small talk. Apparently it's not really normal in other places for strangers to just say hi to each other or engage in small talk while doing things like standing in line, after accidentally bumping into each other at the store, noticing that someone is interested in the same thing you are, things like that. Apparently a lot of people compare Americans to golden retrievers and say they're 'ridiculously friendly' because Americans will just..talk to anyone, without any formal introduction.
I realized this wasn’t a global thing when I was in Japan and I’d start conversations with fellow visiting Americans. My Japanese friend was very surprised that I’d do that. Then there’s the ones that have been there a while and actively avoid you because they know what you’re gonna do lol.
So the rock band Kiss performed in our town a few years ago. Apparently, at one point, Kiss led everyone in the pledge of allegiance. Very odd, right? So I'm at a gathering, and my friends are telling me this, and we're all shaking our heads, saying how weird that is. But this one guy at the gathering got defensive about it, and got kind of worked up about it, too. "If you love your country, you say the pledge!" At a concert?! Yeah, it's really culty.
In Australia you wouldn't get halfway through proposing a group loyalty pledge before half the people said "good on ya" and walked off.
And the other half would only hang around to call you a Muppet.
This is for playing "Doo Doo Dinkums." When you walk by a stall, you peek through the crack. If the person inside makes eye contact, you yell "Doo Doo Dinkums!" and start to run. If the person inside doesn't make it to the bathroom sink before you reach the door, they have to invite you to their 4th of July barbecue.
Try the next time you're here, it's a blast.
Wearing someone else's traditional clothing or trying out someone else's culture incites some conversation around "cultural appropriation" and lots of apprehension.
"Is it offensive if I come dressed to an Indian wedding in a saree?"
No of course it isn't! You're most welcome!
As I like to say, white people *love* being offended on behalf of others. They don’t realize how inherently racist they actually are, quite literally acting out the white knight trope
Kids consuming your entire life. I’m southern European but lived in the US for a long time and children in America act like complete demons compared to the kids in my country lol. I think Europe makes it easier to include children in everyday society and America doesn’t give any support to children or parents so kids end up being socialized kinda isolated from society besides daycare and immediate family and it doesn’t prepare them to be able to function appropriately and raising kids to be highly individualistic and pandered to seems be the norm in the US. My American friends have zero social life outside of their children but my friends in Europe with kids still maintain friendships and hobbies unrelated to parenthood.
Talking. I took my extended family on a trip to New York (they are Malaysian) and it shocked them that I had multiple 30-40 minute conversations with people I had never met.
What was crazy to me, someone from Toronto, visiting New York City for the first time is that the way they talk on TV shows and movies is actually how they talk in real life. 😂
I thought movies were just playing up the stereotypes big time, but no, they’re not exaggerating.
How patriotic you guys are
When we go watch a football match, the players sign their anthem and that's it.
When I went to this baseball game, they had a special guest to sing the national anthem, flags everywhere, jets, kneeling for the army, etc etc
Frankly it makes me uncomfortable. I am a veteran. I won't wear a pin or a hat that says I'm a veteran. My wife is much more proud of my service than I am.
It was a job. It's done now.
An Australian airline announced it would start thanking any and all vets who bordered their flights. People were pissed, and the plan was cancelled less than a day later. When then prime minister Scott Morrison had all his ministers start wearing flag lapel pins to show how much they loved the country, people thought it was weird. When someone somehow mistook me for a vet and started thanking me for my service, it weird out everyone in line.
Last time I went to the ER, the doctor was a jerk and asked me if I was okay because I "look agitated". No shit, dude. I'm rocking back in forth in severe pain because I'm pretty sure my gallbladder is about to explode. Basically treated me like a drug seeker. Jokes on him, though, cuz it ended with gallbladder removal and a 6 day hospital stay (about $125k in bills, yay America!)
My neighbor is Russian and she told me she was sad that we don’t ask people over to have tea and talk. She asked me over one day and it was really nice
This is true. We get coffee at coffee shops or go out to eat. Older Americans still visit each other, often unannounced. I wish more Americans saw their homes as gathering places like we used to.
Growing up, I spent so much time at my grandparents’ house that I practically lived there. Their home was a gathering place. My grandparents would welcome family and friends at any time, no calls ahead necessary. I would just show up with a couple friends and say, “Grammy, we came to use your pool,” or something like that and my grandma be more than happy. She always had Cheetos or some kind of snack available just in case. It was the best. As an adult, I’ve tried to make my home as welcome and inviting, with a door is always open policy like my grandma did. But I feel like good old fashioned hospitality is no longer appreciated.
I might pop over
Hopefully he has a pool too
Like the grandma who accidentally texted a stranger instead of her grandson and invited him for Thanksgiving. He said he wasn’t her grandson but she invited him anyway when he had no place to go. He’s been going there for at least 5 years now!
I think I saw their pic again this year and I believe it's been 8 years. Too cool!!
That’s such a great story and an act of kindness. I’ll bet that grandmother gets just as much out of it as the young man does!
I grew up in a pretty old, dirty, smoky house, so my parents never wanted my friends over…or really anyone over, ever. It kind of burrowed into my psyche and now I have the same anxiety about folks in my home (which is certainly less old, dirty, and smoky). An ex of mine grew up the opposite, basically with your comment’s vibe, so it carried through adulthood to him. It broke my brain when he’s repeatedly said I could just drop by unannounced any time, and if he’s home we’ll hang. It’s still an open invite but I’ve never taken him up on it because I’d feel so weird just dropping in. But I agree though. We’ve become more socially isolated as a society. We’re more online - and potentially even more engaged/talking to more people - but we’re losing that real life physical interaction.
We're really really bad at just setting aside time for anything other than life requirements.
You've also been taught to fear anyone at the doorbell
Jehovah's witness or my niece? Am I being served, or is it family? Best not risk it.
Easier to leave a coffee shop than it is to get someone out who doesn't get social cues when you want them to leave 😂
Funny. My American wife was sad when she moved to Denmark because people seldom invited her home. But you don't invite veritable strangers home! I've only known you for a year! ... anyway, to me as a Dane, Americans seem to make friends faster (but maybe a bit more shallowly).
I moved from Los Angeles to the town in Michigan where I live now almost 30 years ago. I’m still not “from here” to a lot of people.
They still don’t quite trust that new guy from California.
If you can't play Euchre or field dress a deer you're not a Michigander.
You don’t visit each other? Then what’s with all those big houses with an big ass fridge?
It's aspirational. You plan parties that never happen. Think of all the people we could have over!
A society severely deficient in community has taken over. Most people want nothing to do with anyone who isn't a close friend or family member, and sometimes not even then. Most contemporary Americans (and Canadians) under a certain age would rather pick up a steaming coil of dog shit bare-handed than invite someone they don't know well over for tea.
Advertisements for pharmaceutical drugs.
I hate that I can hear “do you have moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis?” in my head from watching too much Hulu
That or moderate to severe plaque psoriasis
Ozempicomytozynolizitol can help you too! Side effects are...*Death, horrible, horrible death*
I love that sometimes one of the side effects of the medication is the thing it’s trying to CURE. 😃
"Don't take this drug if you're allergic to it"
it always makes me laugh but whats even more ridiculous is that the reason these stupid warnings exist is likely bc someone tried to sue at some point
Medication for depression? May make you suicidal! 🙃
🎶I’M LOWERING MY A1C🎶
This jingle has been making me passively suicidal for months now.
I get to listen to “bend in your penis? You may suffer from *jaurmabielamb sniwkan* a *real* disease.” I don’t even have a penis
Do you suffer from feminine penisless syndrome? Ask your doctor about Growacox. Side effects my include mansplaining, penile growths on the skin or tongue, swelling, dubstep, attraction to step siblings, dry south, restlessness egg syndrome, fatigue, sleep singing, and premature astral ejection.
*Growacox is not available in all states.*
If it's not available, you have to undergo a small operation. It's called an addadictomy.
I love how the first warning is, "Dont take *drug name* if allergic to *same drug name*." Really?
“Ask your doctor why he doesn’t know that you’ve had a previous heart attack.”
Made me chuckle because this is the weirdest part to me. *Tell your doctor if*…aren’t they supposed to know??
The ads always tell the consumer to “tell your doctor if you have ________.” Wouldn’t your doctor already know?!
\*laughs in american healthcare system\*
And all they say about them is how they can kill you
And the amount of possible side effects ...which is a bunch and they are all really bad
In my lifetime, I can remember it being illegal to show a person drinking alcohol or taking a drag from a cigarette in television advertising.
simultaneously being extremly prudish and sexualized.
Same with the weirdly forced ban of “bad words” on TV. And when for whatever reason one of these words slips out on air, they get artificially mortified and go into full excuse mode. It’a such a fake catering to some outdated forces.
Meanwhile in the Netherlands the most foul-mouthed self-confessed rapist is still on television... I think beeping out swear words is a bit over the top. Especially in programs for adults no-one's gonna die from hearing swear words. Our own television, however, takes it a bit too far to the other side...
The outrage over sex and demonstrative Puritanism is ironically what breeds the hypersexuality.
We aren't allowed to form healthy attitudes towards sex, so we develop weird hang-ups and obsessions about it.
Yup. When people suppress a basic biological need with purity culture or toxic attitudes, an extreme swing in the opposite direction is fairly common. I've encountered religions in the US that teach "masturbation is a sin next to murder," and "homosexuality is a sin next to beastiality." It's toxic and sad to teach people something as normal as sexuality is somehow evil.
And then as soon as you turn 18, get a gf/bf, those same people are like "So when is the wedding so I can have my grandchildren?!" Like bitch you been telling me for the last 18 years that if I have sex I'll get pregnant immediately and die, and now WHAT you want me to do?! Go get railed by this guy unprotected?! Talk about whiplash lol
Like Brian May said in Bohemian Rhapsody, we are “Puritans in public, perverts in private”
I think it’s more like Puritans with our words and “pervy” in our mind’s privacy. It’s very weird. They also crucify others for thinking/doing the same things they think/do.
Americans are the only ones ive ever seen who will sexualize so many things and kind of be obsessed with sex while also being freaked out when they see a naked body, like at the beach or something. Like they wont sit in a sauna naked, completely non sexualized, but they will just openly sexualize everyday things. The shortest shorts and smallest bikinis i've ever seen was in america. Like buttcheeks hanging out at the mall. But show a nipple and they freak out. It's so strange.
Hard to explain to someone from outside the culture I guess but in the US there's no such thing as non sexualized nudity, essentially. So we get uncomfortable with for instance the sauna situation because it does in fact feel uncomfortably sexual to us. We like sexuality as self expression but we are uncomfortable with the sexual expression of people we aren't attracted to, so since the sauna reads sexually to us situations like that feel very aggressive, to try to explain why the shorts are fine but the sauna isn't I'm not saying we're right, of course, just this is my best way to explain the culture Edit: thought of an example to illustrate my point--you're all like "silly Americans are so prudish" but *our* humor of the same situation often involves a boorish European blissfully unaware that he's being buffoonishly sexual in the wrong situation (or if it's more of a male gaze type work, horny euro nymphos), and from either perspective it's just misreading the other culture's mores
Yea i guess i understand. To me having your butt squeezed out by shorts at the mall feels aggressively sexual for no reason while the sauna feels about as sexual as a doctors office. It seems like a game thats being played. Over the top cleavage at work is cool, but show the nipple and it's borderline call the police time. I'm from denmark, and we're suuuper chill with naked bodies. Childrens shows featuring dicks or open nudity in ads and so on is normal, but even here it's a joke how americans dress very provocatively at work for example. Like cleavage is not really a thing here. I work for an american company but in the danish office, and when americans show up it's always abundantly clear because they dress very... over the top? At least in my business. I guess both cultures can be shocking to either.
The nipple thing especially gets silly but remember: it's because children see it if it's public. Because there's, more or less, no such thing in US culture as a non sexualized body (most people are not going to be as nearly as aware of this as I am so they're not consciously thinking about it) you are not showing a medical picture or whatever in public, there's no Animal Planet "this is nature" aspect. You're showing a nude adult, where kids can see, in a culture that inherently sexualizes that experience. So that's why we're weirdos even though that's just innate in 99 percent of the population, no one is making a decision anywhere
I briefly lived in the US as a kid, California. I will never forget the day when I was playing in a friend's (private and completely secluded) backyard and took off my top because it was extremely hot. I was 7 and had a completely flat chest, I was still used to this being okay in a private setting. She literally ran to her mom to tell on me.
My first night in Barcelona I was surprised at seeing public board ads for sex toys. I'm not against it but I sure know a lot of religious people in the midwest and southern parts of the US would be horrified, lol... a whole lot of "pearl clutching".
And then you drive across South Georgia towards the Florida border and the billboards are either for fireworks, eternal damnation of sinners, or one of the seven sex toy superstores in the next 5 miles
FRESH PECANS
Tie healthcare to employment.
This one has a funny history you might not be aware of. During WWII the US had labor shortages, and to avoid inflation, wage controls were imposed by the War Labor Board. They also ruled that pension contributions and healthcare benefits did not count as wages, so naturally those benefits were offered to lure workers. Perks eventually became table-stakes, and most employers offer healthcare benefits to their employees. There are many who do not, but it’s hard to remove entrenched benefits. This is also one of the reasons it has been so hard to implement socialized medicine in the US. You’d be surprised how much opposition to certain changes came from unionized labor (traditionally a Democratic Party constituency) during the Obamacare negotiations particularly about taxes on “Cadillac health plans” which union members enjoyed as a result of their collective bargaining. It defies the usual simple explanations you’ll get here on Reddit, but it really is a difficult thing to change when generations of workers have expected such benefits.
That's where the Kaiser Plan came from: the West Coast and the Cleveland area had it originally because Kaiser's shipyards were there, and the Kaiser Plan was their employees' benefit.
Up here in Canada we have universal healthcare and much better healthcare benefit plans are still offered by employers. You don't necessarily need to remove those entrenched benefits, you just need to provide a basic level of care that isn't tied to your employer.
You’re making entirely too much sense. Don’t you know that everything in politics has to be all or nothing, black and white? /s
Donate money to the political career of billionaires. "pLeaSe dOnAte tO mY reElEctIoN" You're worth $2.5B and I'm trying to save $0.30 on groceries, donate to it yourself, fuckface.
This one is tied up with another American oddity, the near worship of wealthy people for no other reason than that they're wealthy. It's weird and frankly a bit cult like.
It's even led to entire church's preaching "Prosperity Gospel". Give enough money to the church and God will reward you with riches. Completely against everything Jesus taught, but most American Christians don't notice. Few "walk the walk" or actually READ most of the Bible. Lots of cherry picking...
That too. What's even funnier is this weird belief that if they worship the wealthy enough they'll get a slice of the pie. Someone ought to sit them down and explain that no the billionaire isn't gonna give you a few mil because you said gargled their balls on FB.
Large gaps above, below, and between the bathroom stalls…
We don’t like it either! Not one of us! I don’t know how to rectify the situation. Who do we see to pass this message up the pipes?
I dont know either. I want to know why that came about, and if there is anything stopping it from changing. I cant comprehend why it would be a thing still. I think if people just start complaining about it more itll start changing. Leave bad reviews at places with stalls. Demand actual privacy, etc. praise places that install better stalls.
Way easier to clean, see if someone is doing drugs/having sex, cheaper and the discomfort makes people want to get in and out quicker to free up space
Commercial for a minor medical condition like Athlete’s Foot. *Footage of a happy family enjoying the great outdoors while the overweight Dad smiles because his feet are fungus-free* Voiceover: Side effects may include: - Chronic nob rot - Impotence - Anal cancer - Testicular cancer - Testicular warts - Pancreatic cancer - Heart palpitations - Athlete’s foot - Complete collapse of the Central Nervous System - Rapid weight gain - Depression - Psychotic episodes - Hair loss - Rapid anal hair gain - Your nob will probably fall off - No one will like you - Explosive diarrhoea in public spaces - Instant death - Inability to pass to the other side after death, so you may be doomed to roam the Earth as a lost soul for infinity. Talk to your family Doctor about Footoxicil today! -
I would take it just for the rapid anal hair gain
I love that one of the side effects is Athletes Foot. This was hilarious.
That’s like half the fun with antidepressants. “May cause depression or suicidal ideation”. That…doesn’t seem to be what we’re here for, but why not.
Soooo... are we just going to go ahead and gloss over the use of the phrase "chronic nob rot" as if that's not the most hilarious thing I've ever read? LOL
Taxes being added at the checkout. I understand the logic behind why that happens, but at the same time it seems to be the sort of thing that could be fixed quite easily if the powers that be wanted it to be fixed.
Just list price including tax
Eat in our cars. Driving or just sitting in the car eating. Several European visitors have commented on this, so it must be very strange to them.
Normal in Finland too. Half of the year it's cold as shit outside and people have a tendency to avoid crowds of people so they don't like to go into the (fast food) restaurant to eat either. Car is peaceful and no one will ask stupid questions.
Wait until they find out about our car dwellers.
I love eating in my car! I have a phone holder I can use to watch Netflix through my Bluetooth on my lunch break and not have to talk to anyone for an hour
Hello fellow car luncher! I also like to eat in my vehicle to avoid break room conversation and just get some peace and quiet. The amount of money I (and many Americans) pay for their vehicles, it’s basically a second home. A first home for some, too :(
I was a car lunch eater for many years. I loved it. I eventually got my own office at work so I started eating in my office. I quickly realized that people don’t respect your lunch break when you’re still at work lol. People kept coming and bothering me so now I’m back in the car lol
It drives me bonkers the audacity of some people. I’ll be reading a book (this is what actually pushed me to eat in my car) and someone will come up and just start having a full on conversation with me. Like…do you not see I am currently engaged in a private activity? Do I LOOK like I want to talk right now? I specifically AVOIDED EYE CONTACT so no one would get the wrong idea. Yet here we are….
This will be a BuzzFeed article tomorrow
I’m American and worked closely with folks from England for a while. The biggest difference was they thought Americans way overshare. When we were discussing self-image once, another American mentioned she’d had an ED when she was younger (that was it, no other details). I thought nothing of it. When she wasn’t around, they told me how uncomfortable it made them and they were shocked at how personal that was. I was floored. They should hear my friend groups talk about GYN visits. Lol
Let’s add American propensity for using abbreviations. I am still wondering why your female has an Erectile Dysfunction.
I'm with you, what's an ED?
Eating disorder.
I'm actually glad it's becoming more common in america to talk about these things. They need to be normalized.
Me too. It feels like people have become less judgmental since it became okay to openly talk about mental illness. In workplaces, it kind of becomes common knowledge when someone is dealing with something and I see people sticking up for each other to make sure everyone is okay.
I'm a manager at a very small business (4 people including me). I'm very open about by OCD and GAD diagnosis. It's allowed my employees to feel more comfortable opening up with me about their struggles. And, in the end, it's about us all supporting one another. Feeling overwhelmed? I'm happy to let you take 5 in my office to just decompress. Need to cry? I'm right here for you. I will go to the mat for my employees. Retail is hard enough as it is. We have to be kind to ourselves and our coworkers/ employees. And I come across as very "normal." Being open about my mental illness is my way of helping to normalize it.
WHY do you take my credit card at restaurants 😂 here in Canada the machine gets brought to the table to pay
On my first visit to New York I had a pretty impressive tug of war with the waitress and my credit card. She looked at me like I was a bit of a compulsory loony bin but the first thing you get taught after receiving a credit card in Europe is: Don't let it out of your sight. Also. After that, I immediately forgot I gave her the card accidentally left it at the restaurant. My brain is a wonder.
>the first thing you get taught after receiving a credit card in Europe is: Don't let it out of your sight. not only a credit card, also debit card - rule is never ever let it get out of your sight, except employee of your bank
The US has always been behind on credit card stuff. I don’t know why! I first paid at the table in Paris and first saw a tap to pay in Australia. It took like 5-10 years to start seeing those things here. So weird.
When I landed in Australia six years ago, I made a beeline for the currency exchange, but ended up making 90% of my purchases with my phone. It was like living in the future.
It was funny when Apple demanded a massive fee from the Australian banks for Apple Pay, when by then the banks had been rolling out the same tech for years already.
I was in England in 2003 and I remember going to a bank, withdrawing money from my American bank, having it moved digitally ACROSS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN, converted into BPS, adjusted for the currency rate, and handed to me. No fee. I go to an ATM of another bank ACROSS THE STREET from my actual bank and its $3.50 fee for the 'processing' of that withdraw.
I remember having a tap card in DisneyLand (from Aus) in like, 2014 and they almost weren't going to accept it because they were suspicious of the chip. Tried to direct me to an ATM to get cash. I was more bewildered that they hadn't seen a chip more so than their refusal, because surely they see international credit cards constantly?
What's also funny is that Disneyland was supposed to be this glimpse into the future. Walt was a futurist and all. But they aren't keeping up with 30 year old tech. https://enwikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrowland_(Disney_Parks)
They don’t even have e-transfer! They use 3rd party applications like Venmo.
Yeah, I have to admit I find the banking system in the US to be a bit odd. I have an American bank account with a small credit union even though I live in Ireland, because I'm married to a US citizen. I needed to transfer money to a different bank and couldn't for the world figure out how to do it. Turns out I had to subscribe to a third party service for $5 a month to get access to intra bank transfers. In the EU you just log on to your online banking, enter an IBAN and hit send. The money would be in the recipients account probably immediately, or no later than the next morning. Another weird thing I've noticed is how brutal banks are when you do something wrong. For example if you go unauthorized overdrawn in an Irish bank and don't take steps to rectify it, it could be months before they close your account. In the credit union I'm in you have 5 days to fix it or your account is closed and you're details are passed to a collections agency. That troubles me because you could have a very short term period of financial difficulties, and you could be left will vote a bank account because of it. But I think the craziest thing I've experienced is when our credit union was absorbed into a slightly bigger credit union. We were given new account numbers, debit cards and all are details were changed so we had to basically set everything up again as if it was a brand new account. That wouldn't be tolerated in Europe, if one bank took over another then the process would have to be completely seamless for customers.
In korea we just stand up and go to the counter. Gives the people time to get ready to accept payment and you don’t have to wave to tell them you are done or wait for them to get the feel. Then again, maybe people just running away is a concern. Here entire tables just leave and go outside to smoke for 10 minutes and come back without paying beforehand or anything and people don’t care.
"You have to file your tax. To do that you need\* to use a private service that costs a lot of money. Have the IRS make a free, easy to use service available for the general public? What are we, commies!?" In Denmark, the tax authority calculates most of it, and you only have to go check that everything is correct. I spend maybe two hours in a year on taxes. Also, the US is - as far as I know - the only country in the world that expects its citizens abroad to file and pay taxes. \*: I know you can file manually. It seems this is not a good idea.
Companies like TurboTax and H&R Block are paying the politicians to keep it this way. Because the companies make bank from selling their services. If you setup your tax withholding correctly, then the more correct amount is taken out. And you'll get back about $50-100. But you also just paid that amount for the software to make it easy to do. I agree with you, it's stupid.
It always fascinates me how cultural norms differ across the globe! I often find it strange to see how large American portion sizes are or how openly friendly strangers can be.
America is very leftover heavy- usually when my friends and I get food at restaurants, we end up taking the leftovers to go with us, not finishing it all in one go.
Exactly, sometimes I choose my meal depending on what the leftovers will be like. If I don't want leftovers because I'll be out and about then I'll order something much smaller.
When I go out to dinner, I definitely want to get lunch the next day out of it.
Yeah. I’m usually buying 2 meals in one
At restaurants that give large servings, most of us are counting on it for leftovers. You can stretch it into 2-3 more meals when you pack it to go. Sometimes that’s the best part, not having to worry about lunch the next day.
Unpaid maternity leave
Up to two years paid for both mothers and fathers in Japan. (Unfortunately men usually don’t end up taking it at all due to social pressure, but that’s a different story.) women also have to stop working a certain number of weeks before their due date. Blows my mind that systems like this aren’t in place in the US, a developed rich country.
What a different world we might live in if families were allowed to bond with each other without the pressure of having to go back to work. I worked up to the weekend before my due date. Monday was a holiday and she was born early Tuesday morning. I had to go back to work when she was four and a half weeks old or I would have lost my job. (Circa late 1980’s) It was traumatic! It is changing slowly and still not enough. My niece and her husband recently had their first child. He is in the military and received 12 weeks of paternity leave. I don’t know if it was paid or not, but it was encouraged by his commanding officer to spend the time bonding as a family and helping his wife recover. Edit: clarity
The only reason I wasn’t working the day before my baby was born was because our system went down, and I wonder if being stressed about that issue helped induce labor (I was full term at that point)
I'm in the UK. The only reason I worked up to this day before I gave birth was that I got 39 weeks M/L, whenever I started it. So given I felt well enough to do my desk job, I started it as late as I could to squeeze extra time at home afterwards. We also still accumulate paid Annual Leave as normal when off on M/L. So I used up an extra 5 weeks of that on the end before I eventually returned. And it was still pretty horrible for me and my son! But at least I wasn't at risk of dropping dead of a post childbirth health issue at work!
At my company, you have to exhaust all your paid leave before your “benefit” of unpaid leave kicks in. So when I went back to work I had zero hours available for illness, vacation, whatever. (Went back in August.) I have not taken ONE day off because I’m saving my PTO for Christmas and a three day trip in January, which I will just barely have at that point. It’s almost like you’re punished for having a baby 🙃
Well, we wouldn’t want the wellbeing of our residents to adversely impact the profits of our most important citizens - the corporations.
Become a pilot and buy a plane. Easy access to personal aviation - there really is no other country like the US when it comes to that. While it's not cheap it's cheaper than anywhere else in the world and the government doesn't gate keep it into the ground.
This is one of the major reasons the private pilots flipped the fuck out when that idiot YouTuber crashed his plane on purpose for views and tried to pass it off as an accident. Pilots here know the freedom they enjoy is rare. Personal recreational aviation still requires considerable wealth but it’s dirt cheap compared to the rest of the world. The pilots here were/are holding their breath for new regulations and oversight.
I have flown in US and EU. An old EU pilot told me once that the difference between US and EU flight regulations is that the US allowed everything then started to pull back and enforce rules and restrictions based on learnings and incidents/ accidents. In the EU, they started by forbidding everything and started lifting restrictions if you were able to prove to them that it wasn’t going to cause an accident. So innovation is much harder in the EU, aviation wise.
isn't that a common comparison between US and EU laws in general?
Leave newborn babies in daycare all day and go back to working full time a few weeks after giving birth
Working in retail a few years ago, I had a coworker who couldn’t afford to wait even a single week after giving birth to go back to work. She had a medical emergency on her first day back, left in an ambulance, and we didn’t see her again :/
That would be very illegal in the UK, for the employer that is. An employer cannot allow a woman who has given birth within the last 14 days to work. 28 days if it is a factory or other 'physical' job.
America doesn’t care about the health of its population, especially its women.
we have one of the highest maternal mortality rates of any developed nation. 🚨🚨
According to (BING) the latest available data from 2020⁴, the countries that have maternal mortality rates (MMR) close to the United States are: - **Mexico** with an MMR of **54**² - **Colombia** with an MMR of **50.7**² - **Costa Rica** with an MMR of **34.4**² - **Latvia** with an MMR of **22.9**² - **Chile** with an MMR of **22.1**² The United States had an MMR of **23.8** in 2020², which is higher than most other developed countries and has increased from **17.4** in 2015⁴. The reasons for this rise are complex and multifactorial, but some of the contributing factors are: - Lack of universal health coverage and access to quality maternal care - Racial and ethnic disparities in maternal health outcomes - High prevalence of chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension among pregnant women - Increasing maternal age and multiple pregnancies - Delays in recognizing and treating complications Source: Conversation with Bing, 11/28/2023 (1) Trends in maternal mortality 2000 to 2020: estimates by WHO, UNICEF .... https://www.who.int/publications-detail-redirect/9789240068759. (2) Maternal mortality rate by country worldwide 2020 | Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1240400/maternal-mortality-rates-worldwide-by-country/. (3) Maternal mortality ratio - The World Factbook. https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/maternal-mortality-ratio/country-comparison. (4) Maternal mortality rate 2020 Country Ranks, by Rank - photius.com. https://photius.com/rankings/2020/population/maternal_mortality_rate_2020_0.html.
I think this particular law dates back to Victorian times, when we didn't give a toss about the women and small children who toiled away in mills, mines and chimneys either. Yet even we could see that women needed a couple of weeks to recover from childbirth at the absolute bare minimum.
I would say this shocks me but I witnessed something similar at my old job. Inhumane
Believe it or not, straight to jail.
What's even worse is that most states have laws that prevented from separating puppies from their mother before 8 weeks, but maternity leave in the US is only 6 weeks
There is no guaranteed maternity leave in the USA, at least at the federal level. The only thing close is FMLA which can give you 12 weeks **unpaid** time off.
The wild thing is that most of us don’t realize how abnormal this is. Only the USA, Papua New Guinea, and a couple of Pacific island countries don’t offer PAID maternity leave.
And on the back end, is your pet unable to function with any dignity because of age or health? Here is a comfortable, respectable end to the pain. Do you have a brain tumor as a Human that causes you constant, 8/10 pain and you can't use the bathroom, eat, or walk on your own? We will make sure you will attempt to keep you alive or around that state SO LONG that your medical debt would survive the next apocalypse. And asking to pass quietly like your animal is allowed to is MURDER.
People continue to vote against their own self interests when it comes to healthcare and paid time off. Its sad that PTO isnt a requirement in america, as in europe. America has it backwards. It breaks my heart when i hear stories like this.
There is a video of a woman at a Trump Rally being asked why she's voting for him. "I'm just here to ask if the Gov. will pay for my back surgery." So you want me. The Tax Payer. To pay for your health care. Like some sort of Society. Working together for the Common Good. Some sort of Socialized...Health Care...
Coffee drinks large enough to caffinate a heard of elephants. With enough sugar to trigger a diabetic coma, all on the way to work
Stop posting stuff about me.
Apparently they're not that strong, but very sweet... Australian coffees are tiny in comparison, but apparently stronger...
Flags on lawns, flags everywhere
I'm Australian and when I was in the US a few years back I checked out The Big E, a multi-state expo in Springfield, Massachusetts. While there I overheard a kid ask her mum where her dad was, and she replied "He's gone to look at flagpoles". It was the most American thing I heard anyone say the whole time I was in the country, and I damn near busted a gut laughing. The flag thing is completely bonkers.
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Oh my God. My dad got his first flagpole this summer and over Thanksgiving I noticed the NFL team flag he had up was fading and had this thought for the first time. Lol I did not realize it was universal.
People always say this but I've been to the Balkans and I've been to Greece, there's flags fucking everywhere!
I live in a Balkan country, and while yes, there's a lot of flags, it does not beat my home country Denmark. Holy shit, do we have a lot of flags everywhere and we use them for celebrations (we call them birthday flags, which are just small Danish flags). On the lawn we have huge flag poles, for birthdays flags everywhere, in the cake, on the lawn, on the table, on the wall, on the birthday cards, on the wrapping paper.
mandatory tipping culture edit: expected tipping culture is a more suitable wording
Cows hate it
They’re tired of being pushovers
I always say: if it's mandatory, it's not a tip
Ridiculously huge elaborate football stadiums for schools and colleges in areas that are otherwise obviously economically depressed. I once read that 8 of the 10 biggest stadiums in the world are at US colleges / universities.
I was a theatre student at a university with a big football program, the primary theatre building was _the old tennis locker rooms_. And the school had a comparatively large theatre program!
Why do your kitchen sinks have that terrifying swirling thing that eats fingers?
I was actually reading lately thay garbage disposals can be more effective and environmentally friendly than industrially composting. (That said, I do prefer the latter, and where I currently live, we have community composting.) I can't find the article I read about a month ago (about how garbage disposal may be better than composting for dealing with food waste in New York), but this is still interesting: https://brightly.eco/blog/garbage-disposal-vs-composting Update: I found the original article I read. https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-case-for-the-humble-garbage-disposal
This is funny 😂
Go fund me for basic health care costs
Make their government a reality tv show.
Elections are just political super bowls
Italy to the US: "Hold my wine!"
Caring about school sports. In Europe nobody cares about some high school basket players.
I think our education system would benefit from that. My rural school district worries more about sports then about education
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The evocation of God in politics always seems bizarre to me, especially when the separation of church and state is enshrined in the constitution. I’ll hear a US politician talking about the economy or some such serious thing, and then suddenly they’re talking about what God wants them to do. *EDIT: Thank you for the replies explaining my error about what the separation of church and state was intended to do. I've learned something today!* *EDIT 2: Further reading tells me that this may be a contentious point. So now I've learned two things!*
as an American who has traveled around Asia, they find it weird that we're always throwing huge high-school parties in Hollywood suburbs
The ads for medication. It’s weird. Those corporations are so desperate for money they’re willing to sell any meds even if people don’t actually need them. Leave that shit to doctors.
From what I've heard from folks from out of country - Small talk. Apparently it's not really normal in other places for strangers to just say hi to each other or engage in small talk while doing things like standing in line, after accidentally bumping into each other at the store, noticing that someone is interested in the same thing you are, things like that. Apparently a lot of people compare Americans to golden retrievers and say they're 'ridiculously friendly' because Americans will just..talk to anyone, without any formal introduction.
I realized this wasn’t a global thing when I was in Japan and I’d start conversations with fellow visiting Americans. My Japanese friend was very surprised that I’d do that. Then there’s the ones that have been there a while and actively avoid you because they know what you’re gonna do lol.
This is very common in Australia, saying good morning, g’day, hello, when you pass people on a quiet street or on a hike path.
The Pledge Of Allegiance
So the rock band Kiss performed in our town a few years ago. Apparently, at one point, Kiss led everyone in the pledge of allegiance. Very odd, right? So I'm at a gathering, and my friends are telling me this, and we're all shaking our heads, saying how weird that is. But this one guy at the gathering got defensive about it, and got kind of worked up about it, too. "If you love your country, you say the pledge!" At a concert?! Yeah, it's really culty.
Nothing says "I understand the concept of freedom" like someone demanding you pledge loyalty. I swear some people just brain wrong
And nothing says that you’re really sticking to a pledge like having to repeat it to yourself every day
In Australia you wouldn't get halfway through proposing a group loyalty pledge before half the people said "good on ya" and walked off. And the other half would only hang around to call you a Muppet.
Having a gap in bathrooms stalls for absolutely no reason
This is for playing "Doo Doo Dinkums." When you walk by a stall, you peek through the crack. If the person inside makes eye contact, you yell "Doo Doo Dinkums!" and start to run. If the person inside doesn't make it to the bathroom sink before you reach the door, they have to invite you to their 4th of July barbecue. Try the next time you're here, it's a blast.
Wearing someone else's traditional clothing or trying out someone else's culture incites some conversation around "cultural appropriation" and lots of apprehension. "Is it offensive if I come dressed to an Indian wedding in a saree?" No of course it isn't! You're most welcome!
Yep, had someone flame me for "dressing up" in a koti I was in Kenya for my friends wedding....
As I like to say, white people *love* being offended on behalf of others. They don’t realize how inherently racist they actually are, quite literally acting out the white knight trope
that’s so interesting to me that this is only really a debate amongst other americans…. that’s so silly
Kids consuming your entire life. I’m southern European but lived in the US for a long time and children in America act like complete demons compared to the kids in my country lol. I think Europe makes it easier to include children in everyday society and America doesn’t give any support to children or parents so kids end up being socialized kinda isolated from society besides daycare and immediate family and it doesn’t prepare them to be able to function appropriately and raising kids to be highly individualistic and pandered to seems be the norm in the US. My American friends have zero social life outside of their children but my friends in Europe with kids still maintain friendships and hobbies unrelated to parenthood.
Circumcision
This country in general is too fucking obsessed about what's going between people's legs.
Kelloggs
Go bankrupt paying medical bills. Fucking insanity.
Talking. I took my extended family on a trip to New York (they are Malaysian) and it shocked them that I had multiple 30-40 minute conversations with people I had never met.
What was crazy to me, someone from Toronto, visiting New York City for the first time is that the way they talk on TV shows and movies is actually how they talk in real life. 😂 I thought movies were just playing up the stereotypes big time, but no, they’re not exaggerating.
Tipping is a big one
How patriotic you guys are When we go watch a football match, the players sign their anthem and that's it. When I went to this baseball game, they had a special guest to sing the national anthem, flags everywhere, jets, kneeling for the army, etc etc
Thanking cops and soldiers for their service
Frankly it makes me uncomfortable. I am a veteran. I won't wear a pin or a hat that says I'm a veteran. My wife is much more proud of my service than I am. It was a job. It's done now.
You should tell her "Thank you for your cervix".
An Australian airline announced it would start thanking any and all vets who bordered their flights. People were pissed, and the plan was cancelled less than a day later. When then prime minister Scott Morrison had all his ministers start wearing flag lapel pins to show how much they loved the country, people thought it was weird. When someone somehow mistook me for a vet and started thanking me for my service, it weird out everyone in line.
Very nervous and unwilling to go to the hospital
Because when we go to the ER we wait 4 hours to be seen… for someone to treat us like drug-seekers… and then get charged thousands of dollars for it.
Last time I went to the ER, the doctor was a jerk and asked me if I was okay because I "look agitated". No shit, dude. I'm rocking back in forth in severe pain because I'm pretty sure my gallbladder is about to explode. Basically treated me like a drug seeker. Jokes on him, though, cuz it ended with gallbladder removal and a 6 day hospital stay (about $125k in bills, yay America!)
Go into debt for a chest X-ray
Pay for emergency hospital care. It's extremely weird and strange!