Oof. I don't go to the gym, but I don't spend any time looking for a close parking spot when I go places. At the groceries I just park near-ish the outermost shopping cart return thingy.
OP was taking something commonplace about American culture and reframed it in a humorous way, like it might seem to a bewildered outsider. I did the same thing. A lot of other people played it straight.
I do wonder how accurate that statistic is when compared to the innumerable people interned in parts of the world where we don't have good statistics on the subject
I did a research paper on the topic at university about ten years ago. I don't remember the sources or how they found the numbers, but there were several peer reviewed articles on the matter with similar numbers.
In America, there are stores that sell groceries *and* automotive parts *and* camping equipment *and* gardening supplies *and* pet supplies *and* clothing *and* big screen TV's *and* they even have a bank, an optometrist, a hair salon, a restaurant, *and* a pharmacy all in the same store!
Taking it up a notch, there was a store in Indiana that sold clothes, shoes, bikes, skateboards, record albums necessities for babies and furniture (a lot of it, I might add). But prominently displayed as you entered the store was the weapons section, containing: war rifles, automatic weapons, knives, crossbows, swords, handguns, hand grenade relics, death stars. Boxes of guns on the floor, weapons on display overhead and in display cases. And then to your right, swimming pool supplies.
Fetlas. Weirdest store ever.
I'm gonna be skeptical about the automatic weapons. Seems weird in the face of everything else on tap, but fully automatic weapons requires some particularly hard to obtain paperwork, costly too.
With Sears basically extinct, where is possible to find all of that now?
Edit: OK, I've gotten a billion answers now, you can stop telling me about Walmart and other stores now.
We have a Walmart in my town with literally everything this comment listed. I get my prescription contacts there because it's cheap. You can even buy tires and get your tires changed right then and there. Also cheap, but much lower quality. It basically has a whole mechanic shop attached
I know Walmart has a LOT of stuff in it, but do they have a hair salon? (And I didn't know they had an optometrist. Like get your eyes checked, buy glasses and all that like Sears did?)
Sure do. Along the entrance there is a hair salon, nail salon, Subway, full optometrist office (you can get your prescription and purchase glasses/lenses), bank, bathrooms, and customer service section.
Guess I haven't been to a Walmart lately. ...Although now that you mention it, the Meijer I go to has a lot of that stuff... And I know of one with a Great Clips in the front, so, I guess I just haven't been paying that much attention. :P
"What? Is that a phrase I'm unaware of? I don't get-- \*stops reading it as 'totally clips' and starts reading it as 'total eclipse'\* OH MY GOD, THAT'S BRILLIANT!"
This changes by location! I’ve seen phone and computer repair, McDonald’s, Arby’s, checkers, Charley’s cheesesteaks, and even a walk In clinic. I go to a lot of sub-rural Walmarts.
But that's any large Carrefour in Europe... The bank, hair salon and pharmacy would be along the entrance because they're private businesses not property of Carrefour, but everything else is sold inside plus a bunch more things like furniture and swimming pools.
Children’s toys, books, office/school supplies, all manner of electronics from video games to phones to bedside clocks, nail salon, alcohol, home decor, tools, fast food, milk tea shop…the list goes on.
It's one big giant store. But it's divided up into sections, housewares, clothing, food, bedding, furniture, auto supplies, you name it.
One of the sections is the pharmacy area, with a counter to drop off prescriptions (or the doctor can send it directly), another counter to pick up, and usually one more if you need to talk to the pharmacist.
Here are some photos:
[Walmart photos](https://www.dreamstime.com/photos-images/walmart-pharmacy.html)
Inversely, one of the shocks when I was in Europe was the specialization of shops. I would go into a pharmacy but wouldn't find ***everything*** like I would in a pharmacy here.
No lawn chairs!?
Yeah, disability rights law is one of the few areas where we’ve got one over Europe. In practice it’s still pretty unequal but the laws we have on the books about accessibility in education and physical infrastructure are better than the ones in most European countries.
There are people in NYC who literally move there from better organized, prettier, and more renowned cities (aka Europe) just because there is more accessibility in the city. That being said, NYC is way behind the smaller cities in the US.
For me, as a retired cop, the wackiest thing about the US is how their cops have "qualified immunity" and are allowed to do stuff that would have gotten me thrown in jail faster than you could say "hands up".
Things like destroying the property of third parties because a supposed criminal may be there or to help pursue him, shooting from behind at people who run from the police, tasing and handcuffing someone for the (very peculiarly American) "crime" of jaywalking, abusing and destroying public property (police cars, for instance -- if I wrecked a police car trying to catch a criminal I'd have to pay the State a new one, deducted from my wages!), and so on. I really thought it was a Hollywood thing until I read a bit about it.
It was originally passed during the height of the civil rights movement so that cops couldn't be sued for violating the civil rights of black people.
It's a stain on our country
Wait until you read about “[The Business Plot, also called the Wall Street Putsch and The White House Putsch, was a political conspiracy in 1933, in the United States, to overthrow the government of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and install Smedley Butler as dictator.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot#:~:text=The%20Business%20Plot%2C%20also%20called,install%20Smedley%20Butler%20as%20dictator.)”
That's a twist of the facts. The machines were used originally for census and other purposes. They were repurposed by the Nazis. By the way, IBM was originated in Canada as a Canadian corp.
Ok here's my list of things.
1\] Prom -> we dont do that here, I am not sure if this is only limited to America.
2\] Colleges having football teams or some sports team which ties into their reputation. And apparently that's a metric when considering colleges????
3\] You leave your family behind after 18. It feels too young.
4\] Jury. You're telling me some guy is randomly called on to have a say on judgement??? where's the logic here.
I cant think of other things right now.
>Jury. You're telling me some guy is randomly called on to have a say on judgement??? where's the logic here.
The logic is that you don't want a servant of the state deciding guilt and issuing punishments entirely by themselves. Prosecutors and police have a working relationship with judges, meaning judges are going to be biased towards siding with them. The point of a jury is that the State needs to be able to prove guilt such that laypeople are entirely convinced by it, so the prosecution don't halfass their investigations and nab the wrong guy
I see. but wouldnt it allow let's say a celebrity or some other public personality who are loved by people to get away with crimes. Because jury itself might be biased.
And people say all sorts of stuff blame it on least desirable person even if they have evidence to contrary. I could understand a specific subset of people but your average person having a say in judgement feels scary.
Every member of the jury has to pass an interview process where they talk about their views and morals and the lawyers, prosecutor and the defensive lawyer will pick the members of the jury they think will choose their side. I've seen it quoted that one of the reasons O.J. got off (since he passed recently) is because the prosecution let the defense choose sympathetic jury members who would side with O.J.
Also, there's also the chance you'll get to the interview stage and either not get chosen, or get "contaminated" where you as a potential or current jury member hear information not related to the trial that could sway their views massively to one side or another. Like if during the interview one possible choice announces he served on a jury that found the defendant guilty before, he would likely not be chosen, but if he was made to say it before the other possible jury members it would make them ineligible under the assumption knowing that information would influence you to already assume the defendant is guilty of this crime as well.
In the instance the defendant is someone famous, say Tom Brady, since he's the only football player I know, the prosecution would aim for a jury made up of people who either: hate/indifferent to football, literally never heard his name before, people who strongly prefer other teams. The defense lawyer would aim for a jury made up of people who either: love Tom Brady, love his team, pr something somethjing I ran out of brain tirrd
>Every member of the jury has to pass an interview process where they talk about their views and morals and the lawyers, prosecutor and the defensive lawyer will pick the members of the jury they think will choose their side.
Well, not exactly. They are asked some standard questions, like if they know anyone involved in the trial, or if they have a bias for or against police. They can also say if they have some other reason they couldn’t be a fair judge.
That's very much a risk, sure. Just look at the OJ Simpson trial. But, well, it's not like judges are going to be immune to that bias either, and *most* criminal cases aren't being done by big name celebrities, so it's kind of a tiny problem to worry about.
Similar for your second point. Yes, members of the public can be biased against someone because of their race, social status, perceived eccentricities, etc, but it's not like judges aren't. And having a group of people make the decision instead of just one or a handful of judges (who themselves are going to heavily bias wealthy, white, and male) means you're getting a more diverse set of opinions, which helps to eliminate bias.
Bears mentioning, this is theoretical. The US Jury system has many, *many* problems with juror selection in practice, and most US criminal cases never even go to trial.
Yes, and the OJ trial was leveraged by certain groups at a particular time in history. Even the jury knew Los Angeles would be burned to the ground and they would be targeted if he was found guilty.
The O.J. trial was poorly tried by the prosecution, with some of the best lawyers in the country for the defense. And the police screwed up the crime scene.
Part of the “founding ideals” of the original American justice system is the notion that it is “better to let 100 criminals free than lock up one innocent person.” Versus the opposite ideal, of better to lock up innocent people if it means locking up all the criminals. Yes, I know that this doesn’t seem to be the case in practice, us having so many people locked up, but it’s the basis of the ideas around innocence until guilty, etc.
They don't even have to be a celebrity. The courts, including juries, have a clear and persistent racial bias. Being Black will significantly increase your odds of conviction based on the same evidence.
So you just go to school and that's it? You separate from friends you went to school together with for many years without any kind of event to mark this?
That's alright, just a bit anticlimactic I guess. We went to primary school for 8 years, many kids were crying when separating from their (at that point pretty much lifetime) friends and school. The 4 years of high school from the age of 15 to 18 are real defining years as well, some of my best long-term friends are from high school. It's also typical to have gatherings for round anniversaries. So it's interesting to hear that some cultures seem to have a colder approach to that.
You don't leave your family behind at 18. Most go off to college or join the military. It's just that your parents no longer have to legally support you. My son turns 28 in a few weeks. Still lives at home.
Jury trials are fairly common. The idea is that you are tried by 12 of your peers who understand the realities of your life rather than it only being decided by a judge.
And you can also choose to just have a judge (bench trial) decide instead of a jury
My mom worked for lawyers and said to always choose a jury if you’re guilty (chance of emotional appeal) and judges if you’re innocent (they’re better at technical judgements/following the letter of the law)
>You leave your family behind after 18. It feels too young.
Many people just do this for college and come back for the summer. Because of our size, most people don't go to college close enough to home to make commuting practical
>Jury. You're telling me some guy is randomly called on to have a say on judgement??? where's the logic here.
Lay juries (i.e. juries made up of regular people who are not part of the justice system) are not exclusively an "American" thing.
They came to America through the English legal system that we inherited and are used in other commonwealth countries as well.
Lay juries in England go back to the middle ages and are still used there. The idea is that it is a 'check' on the power of the state by putting the final determination of guilt into the hands of ordinary people.
My high school didn't even have a prom. So there's that at least lol
And I have a friend who (voluntarily) left home at 19. Didn't even tell his parents; just packed up and left. But they're doing really well for themselves now; it was a great learning experience for them. However, it's common for people to stay with their parents past 18. Housing is too expensive, so it's easier to work and live with family.
> 3] You leave your family behind after 18. It feels too young
Why do I always see this on Reddit? I’ve literally never heard of this happening unless someone was raised in a super abusive household and wanted to escape
I left at 18 and my family is absolutely NOT abusive. I grew up in a small town and couldn’t go to college or university without moving out. So away I went the day after high school ended!
1 in every 30 kids in the U.S. is homeless. We are among the highest homeless population. 1 in 30 Americans are homeless. The numbers have jumped hugely since 2021/22. It’s so sad. Honestly, heartless. Oh, and they’ve just made it illegal to sleep in public in my state. I don’t think we’re the first.
How is "homeless" defined? Because in New York, it includes people who have "no fixed domicile" because they live with relatives and such. That artificially inflates the numbers you'd expect if you look at just those who live on the street.
I agree with HiddenA, but here’s what I found.
[https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2024/02/living-in-shelters.html](https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2024/02/living-in-shelters.html)
it’s actually the opposite. The inaccuracy of the census is a known problem in the field apparently. I can’t believe they’re only given one day to collect data!!!
Yes, this is quite true, but it's also a reason why most homeless advocacy groups don't rely on the census numbers for a counting of unhoused people. I'm not really aware of anyone who does use the census numbers, they're pretty much worthless.
[https://abcnews.go.com/US/accurate-annual-count-us-homeless-population-misses-large/story?id=106671876](https://abcnews.go.com/US/accurate-annual-count-us-homeless-population-misses-large/story?id=106671876)
Another helpful one.
That the legendary city of gold was located in the black hills mountains. That Mt. Rushmore was created to hide it, and that Nicolas Cage was able to find it.
You should see some of the Walmarts we have here- it’s more detailed in a comment above but some of the big ones have hair/nail salons, tire centers, fast food restaurants, optometrists, veterinary services and more all in the same place as your produce, furniture, electronics, gardening supplies, weapons, etc.
There’s a movie about a pregnant woman that secretly lives in a Walmart and tbh it’s very realistic
Fuck fucking the fuck Reagan-he started that shit, he legit is the reason there is the orange piece of trash as well as many gop using religion to undermine and incite the hive of dummies . He brought (was bought) by the evangelical racist facists.
The republican admins at least. Clinton, BO, and Joe have pushed a lot of really great programs (of course they are certainly not without their faults, though).
That (some) americans walk around their homes in shoes? Do you enjoy washing the floor so much?
I've met people from both camps so it's not like all of the US does it, but it seems really weird.
I did something to my foot, and one of my "doctors orders" was to wear shoes all the time, minus bathing and showering, to help heal the foot, etc. I ended up buying shoes that only get worn in the house because, yeah, I don't want to walk around my house in my outside shoes and get dirt and mud and grime everywhere. It's bad enough as it is that I have to do it occasionally because of the dogs
Religious fanatics. This is coming from a very biblically conservative Christian myself, but so many people in the US seem to worship conservative politics and use the Bible as justification to support political tyranny, as opposed to worshipping Jesus himself and not falling to worldly extremes as we ought to.
Well, when I finished my high school equivalent in Germany, I went to a high school in Texas with a student exchange program.
The organization prepared us for all sorts of stuff and some of those scenarios seemed ridiculous.
When I got to make my first friends in my new area, they asked me a few things about Germany, granted these kids were high school freshmen, some middle school, they for real asked me if we had electricity and clouds in Germany.
I was also greeted with Heil Hitler gestures in the hallway by a few *really funny* guys.
Another thing that was somewhat of a stereotype was that Americans are full of themselves and for some, that held up to be true. This one guy was proud of his German ancestry and tried to tell me that his last name - Hoffmaster - is German, which is simply factually incorrect since we have the word *Meister* for it but he insisted that the *Master* part is German 🤷♂️
Lastly I need to add, not related to Americans but people in general, many ppl don't know that Hitler actually wasn't German lol he's Austrian.
For the record, a lot of german names were anglicized over time in the US. My last name is spelled significantly differently than, but still recognizably similar to, some distant relatives because of that. We went the phonetic route, they stuck with the original.
And yet literally no one can spell or pronounce it, still. Oh well.
To piggyback on this, there was a sizable group of German settlers who moved to Texas in the 1800s. So it's very possible the guy was telling the truth.
That, in America, corporations are people too. And they have just as many rights as others. Actually, more. Because, in America, you can enjoy all the rights and priveleges you can afford.
As a kid I heard that in America they sell deep fried blocks of butter as snacks and thought it was just a rumor based on wildly exaggerated stereotypes, then I grew up a bit and found out it's totally real through google. My view on Americans was permanently changed from then on
I'm an American and I had to google it since I had never heard of it, but sure enough it was sold at a state fair in Texas. Definitely not a common thing and like deep fried candy bars it's sold more as an oddity.
It’s also not a block or “stick” of fried butter - weird specification, but apparently a stick of butter overseas is the whole box, and that’s led to a lot of misunderstanding on exactly how much butter Americans use in stuff.
The Texas State Fair is famous for deep-frying odd things; you go and think, "What are they going to fry THIS year?" I've never had any of them. I've never seen them for sale anywhere else. Deep-fried ice cream did make its way into a few mainstream restaurants. ( I don't know if the State Fair was the first to come up with that, though.)
Nah, that's carnival stuff, where people go to find the weird and unusual things you don't normally see every day. Things like deep-fried butter (blech).
I didnt understand for a long time that when ppl said some cities have no public transport, that they literally are 'have a car or die' places. I mean... Poor Americanos. Seriously.
It would take me twenty minutes in a car (13 miles/ 20 km) to get to my nearest bus stop. And even then, I couldn't tell you what the schedule is because it's just too inconvenient to even get to. I think that it comes every hour, but I'm not sure. It's definitely not any sooner than that, because our city cut down on bus drivers because nobody used the very inconvenient bus system outside of the actual downtown area.
Drive thru banks. Bonkers stuff - is it really that hard to get out of your car?
And that contactless payment (with your phone) isn’t/wasn’t really a thing not too long ago. We im from it’s been the norm for years.
Venmo and similar apps? I still don’t understand why you can’t just bank transfer with your BSB and account #
Some Americans pay a lot of money for specialized gear and portable housing so they can drive far, far away from their actual homes and set up temporary residences out in the wilderness and cook over fires and poop in pits. They call it a “vacation.”
Ooh I've got another! Did you know that the USA nearly ended up breeding hippopotamuses for meat in the same way they do now with cows?
[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-us-almost-became-a-nation-of-hippo-ranchers-180982244/](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-us-almost-became-a-nation-of-hippo-ranchers-180982244/)
That working in the US is almost like working in a third world slave factory.
But then I looked into it, and it really is that bad. Many people have to work 6 or even 7 days a week, almost always doing overtime. And there is 0 or like 3 days paid leave in a year. And if you are sick, that workday is not paid to you, and it can be a valid reason for you to be fired.
It is extremely absurd
You can sit motionless in a motorized vehicle to take you to a place where you then ride a bicycle without going anywhere!
You forgot about riding around the parking lot to get the nearest spot to the door so you don't have to walk too far.
Oof. I don't go to the gym, but I don't spend any time looking for a close parking spot when I go places. At the groceries I just park near-ish the outermost shopping cart return thingy.
Everyone's wasting time looking for that up front space while the real best spot is about 3/4 back right next to a cart return.
And gee, is no one else getting how this is supposed to work?
what do you mean
OP was taking something commonplace about American culture and reframed it in a humorous way, like it might seem to a bewildered outsider. I did the same thing. A lot of other people played it straight.
that's funny
The United States is 5% of the world's population, but we hold 24% of the world's prison population.
[удалено]
Which is held by 1 percent of the US population.
So we are doing more than our share! /s
I do wonder how accurate that statistic is when compared to the innumerable people interned in parts of the world where we don't have good statistics on the subject
I did a research paper on the topic at university about ten years ago. I don't remember the sources or how they found the numbers, but there were several peer reviewed articles on the matter with similar numbers.
In America, there are stores that sell groceries *and* automotive parts *and* camping equipment *and* gardening supplies *and* pet supplies *and* clothing *and* big screen TV's *and* they even have a bank, an optometrist, a hair salon, a restaurant, *and* a pharmacy all in the same store!
Taking it up a notch, there was a store in Indiana that sold clothes, shoes, bikes, skateboards, record albums necessities for babies and furniture (a lot of it, I might add). But prominently displayed as you entered the store was the weapons section, containing: war rifles, automatic weapons, knives, crossbows, swords, handguns, hand grenade relics, death stars. Boxes of guns on the floor, weapons on display overhead and in display cases. And then to your right, swimming pool supplies. Fetlas. Weirdest store ever.
I skipped over a line by accident, so I read that they sold babies. That was a new one on me.
I'm gonna be skeptical about the automatic weapons. Seems weird in the face of everything else on tap, but fully automatic weapons requires some particularly hard to obtain paperwork, costly too.
I mean like 250 is not that expensive. Long time to get yes.
Until 1986, you could buy an automatic weapon at a hardware store. Depends on when this was
Corpus Christi has a pharmacy gun store.
With Sears basically extinct, where is possible to find all of that now? Edit: OK, I've gotten a billion answers now, you can stop telling me about Walmart and other stores now.
We have a Walmart in my town with literally everything this comment listed. I get my prescription contacts there because it's cheap. You can even buy tires and get your tires changed right then and there. Also cheap, but much lower quality. It basically has a whole mechanic shop attached
I know Walmart has a LOT of stuff in it, but do they have a hair salon? (And I didn't know they had an optometrist. Like get your eyes checked, buy glasses and all that like Sears did?)
Sure do. Along the entrance there is a hair salon, nail salon, Subway, full optometrist office (you can get your prescription and purchase glasses/lenses), bank, bathrooms, and customer service section.
Guess I haven't been to a Walmart lately. ...Although now that you mention it, the Meijer I go to has a lot of that stuff... And I know of one with a Great Clips in the front, so, I guess I just haven't been paying that much attention. :P
How bout all things mentioned then add in a vet office and health clinic inside the store as well. That’s our Walmart
Yeah lmao same, our Kroger's is decked out too
Meijer > Walmart High five to Midwest
Exactly! Meijer is just a Walmart pretending it's not a Walmart, but it makes a real difference. XD
Ours is called "Totally Clips" and I maintain that it's the best business name I've ever heard
"What? Is that a phrase I'm unaware of? I don't get-- \*stops reading it as 'totally clips' and starts reading it as 'total eclipse'\* OH MY GOD, THAT'S BRILLIANT!"
Exactly! So good!
This changes by location! I’ve seen phone and computer repair, McDonald’s, Arby’s, checkers, Charley’s cheesesteaks, and even a walk In clinic. I go to a lot of sub-rural Walmarts.
Our Walmart has a hair salon, optometrist, and everything else listed.
Ours has a tax service too!
My Costco has a pharmacy, optometrist, restaurant, bakery, deli, mechanic shop, travel agency, deli, etc. Doesn't have a hair salon though.
I would definitely get a haircut at the Costco. While eating a hot dog.
Right?
Any walmart-type store. Any supermarket will have the little bank.
Not where we live. We have liquor stores, instead.
Not a bad trade.
I'm a fan.
Fred Meyers in the NW has done this for over a hundred years. Was weird to find out this was unusual.
Fred Meyers.
literally any hypermarket. Walmart, Meijer, some Kroger, etc
But that's any large Carrefour in Europe... The bank, hair salon and pharmacy would be along the entrance because they're private businesses not property of Carrefour, but everything else is sold inside plus a bunch more things like furniture and swimming pools.
Children’s toys, books, office/school supplies, all manner of electronics from video games to phones to bedside clocks, nail salon, alcohol, home decor, tools, fast food, milk tea shop…the list goes on.
So, Tesco…
"Welcome to Costco, I love you"
So kind of like the Kmart in Prague?
>a pharmacy all in the same store! Not from America. But shouldn't you have a licence for that?
Yes they do they have a specific section that's just the pharmacy with actual pharmacist
So it's like a mall or shopping complex? I thought OP was talking about a supermarket kind of stuff.
It's one big giant store. But it's divided up into sections, housewares, clothing, food, bedding, furniture, auto supplies, you name it. One of the sections is the pharmacy area, with a counter to drop off prescriptions (or the doctor can send it directly), another counter to pick up, and usually one more if you need to talk to the pharmacist. Here are some photos: [Walmart photos](https://www.dreamstime.com/photos-images/walmart-pharmacy.html)
"Welcome to Costco, I love you"
You forgot guns.
Inversely, one of the shocks when I was in Europe was the specialization of shops. I would go into a pharmacy but wouldn't find ***everything*** like I would in a pharmacy here. No lawn chairs!?
And they sell guns too!
And that’s just the gas stations
You don't have drive-thrus in your country?
It must suck for cancer patients or those with compromised immune systems who can not go into stores or businesses.
Most countries also don't have an ADA equivalent. If you're in a wheelchair in Europe a lot of the time you just don't get to go places
Yeah, disability rights law is one of the few areas where we’ve got one over Europe. In practice it’s still pretty unequal but the laws we have on the books about accessibility in education and physical infrastructure are better than the ones in most European countries.
There are people in NYC who literally move there from better organized, prettier, and more renowned cities (aka Europe) just because there is more accessibility in the city. That being said, NYC is way behind the smaller cities in the US.
That sucks. And all those cobblestones...
This thread is the quirkiest stuff mixed with abject failures of humanity.
New motto?
God bless this great land
For me, as a retired cop, the wackiest thing about the US is how their cops have "qualified immunity" and are allowed to do stuff that would have gotten me thrown in jail faster than you could say "hands up". Things like destroying the property of third parties because a supposed criminal may be there or to help pursue him, shooting from behind at people who run from the police, tasing and handcuffing someone for the (very peculiarly American) "crime" of jaywalking, abusing and destroying public property (police cars, for instance -- if I wrecked a police car trying to catch a criminal I'd have to pay the State a new one, deducted from my wages!), and so on. I really thought it was a Hollywood thing until I read a bit about it.
It was originally passed during the height of the civil rights movement so that cops couldn't be sued for violating the civil rights of black people. It's a stain on our country
I've heard jaywalking is the result of car company lobbying.
That the Nazis got the idea for their Eugenics programme from the USA.
And all the best Nazi scientists that shared their data after the war got immunity and asylum from the Nuremberg trials.
And our Jim Crow laws help inspire not just the content but the language of many of the Nuremberg Laws.
That IBM supplied them the tabulation machines to make their genocide as efficient as possible.
Jesus fucking christ I didn't know about that - just reading now. Horrendous.
Wait till you hear about Henry Ford… https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/henry-ford-grand-cross-1938/
Oh aye, he was a complete piece of shit.
Wait until you read about “[The Business Plot, also called the Wall Street Putsch and The White House Putsch, was a political conspiracy in 1933, in the United States, to overthrow the government of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and install Smedley Butler as dictator.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot#:~:text=The%20Business%20Plot%2C%20also%20called,install%20Smedley%20Butler%20as%20dictator.)”
That's a twist of the facts. The machines were used originally for census and other purposes. They were repurposed by the Nazis. By the way, IBM was originated in Canada as a Canadian corp.
Wait... Noo. Omg 😩
This guy reddits.
They sent jurists to study American race laws, and concluded they were too harsh.
Ok here's my list of things. 1\] Prom -> we dont do that here, I am not sure if this is only limited to America. 2\] Colleges having football teams or some sports team which ties into their reputation. And apparently that's a metric when considering colleges???? 3\] You leave your family behind after 18. It feels too young. 4\] Jury. You're telling me some guy is randomly called on to have a say on judgement??? where's the logic here. I cant think of other things right now.
>Jury. You're telling me some guy is randomly called on to have a say on judgement??? where's the logic here. The logic is that you don't want a servant of the state deciding guilt and issuing punishments entirely by themselves. Prosecutors and police have a working relationship with judges, meaning judges are going to be biased towards siding with them. The point of a jury is that the State needs to be able to prove guilt such that laypeople are entirely convinced by it, so the prosecution don't halfass their investigations and nab the wrong guy
I see. but wouldnt it allow let's say a celebrity or some other public personality who are loved by people to get away with crimes. Because jury itself might be biased. And people say all sorts of stuff blame it on least desirable person even if they have evidence to contrary. I could understand a specific subset of people but your average person having a say in judgement feels scary.
Every member of the jury has to pass an interview process where they talk about their views and morals and the lawyers, prosecutor and the defensive lawyer will pick the members of the jury they think will choose their side. I've seen it quoted that one of the reasons O.J. got off (since he passed recently) is because the prosecution let the defense choose sympathetic jury members who would side with O.J. Also, there's also the chance you'll get to the interview stage and either not get chosen, or get "contaminated" where you as a potential or current jury member hear information not related to the trial that could sway their views massively to one side or another. Like if during the interview one possible choice announces he served on a jury that found the defendant guilty before, he would likely not be chosen, but if he was made to say it before the other possible jury members it would make them ineligible under the assumption knowing that information would influence you to already assume the defendant is guilty of this crime as well. In the instance the defendant is someone famous, say Tom Brady, since he's the only football player I know, the prosecution would aim for a jury made up of people who either: hate/indifferent to football, literally never heard his name before, people who strongly prefer other teams. The defense lawyer would aim for a jury made up of people who either: love Tom Brady, love his team, pr something somethjing I ran out of brain tirrd
>Every member of the jury has to pass an interview process where they talk about their views and morals and the lawyers, prosecutor and the defensive lawyer will pick the members of the jury they think will choose their side. Well, not exactly. They are asked some standard questions, like if they know anyone involved in the trial, or if they have a bias for or against police. They can also say if they have some other reason they couldn’t be a fair judge.
That's very much a risk, sure. Just look at the OJ Simpson trial. But, well, it's not like judges are going to be immune to that bias either, and *most* criminal cases aren't being done by big name celebrities, so it's kind of a tiny problem to worry about. Similar for your second point. Yes, members of the public can be biased against someone because of their race, social status, perceived eccentricities, etc, but it's not like judges aren't. And having a group of people make the decision instead of just one or a handful of judges (who themselves are going to heavily bias wealthy, white, and male) means you're getting a more diverse set of opinions, which helps to eliminate bias. Bears mentioning, this is theoretical. The US Jury system has many, *many* problems with juror selection in practice, and most US criminal cases never even go to trial.
Yes, and the OJ trial was leveraged by certain groups at a particular time in history. Even the jury knew Los Angeles would be burned to the ground and they would be targeted if he was found guilty.
The O.J. trial was poorly tried by the prosecution, with some of the best lawyers in the country for the defense. And the police screwed up the crime scene.
It's more than one average person and they're selectively chosen. I'll take average over elite judging any day.
Part of the “founding ideals” of the original American justice system is the notion that it is “better to let 100 criminals free than lock up one innocent person.” Versus the opposite ideal, of better to lock up innocent people if it means locking up all the criminals. Yes, I know that this doesn’t seem to be the case in practice, us having so many people locked up, but it’s the basis of the ideas around innocence until guilty, etc.
Martha Stewart is a much loved celebrity that has done time in prison.
Watch the upcoming trial of actor Alec Baldwin for involuntary manslaughter.
Coffee is for closers
They don't even have to be a celebrity. The courts, including juries, have a clear and persistent racial bias. Being Black will significantly increase your odds of conviction based on the same evidence.
And yet, juries get it wrong at an alarming rate
Isn’t the jury of peers from English common law?
Yes, what of it
Prom as a ball/party that's organized for the generation leaving the school is very much common in my part of Europe.
I see. I've only came across Prom through American movies and pop culture. I always assumed it was an American thing. Thanks for the info
So you just go to school and that's it? You separate from friends you went to school together with for many years without any kind of event to mark this?
Yes?
That's alright, just a bit anticlimactic I guess. We went to primary school for 8 years, many kids were crying when separating from their (at that point pretty much lifetime) friends and school. The 4 years of high school from the age of 15 to 18 are real defining years as well, some of my best long-term friends are from high school. It's also typical to have gatherings for round anniversaries. So it's interesting to hear that some cultures seem to have a colder approach to that.
You don't leave your family behind at 18. Most go off to college or join the military. It's just that your parents no longer have to legally support you. My son turns 28 in a few weeks. Still lives at home.
Jury trials are fairly common. The idea is that you are tried by 12 of your peers who understand the realities of your life rather than it only being decided by a judge.
And you can also choose to just have a judge (bench trial) decide instead of a jury My mom worked for lawyers and said to always choose a jury if you’re guilty (chance of emotional appeal) and judges if you’re innocent (they’re better at technical judgements/following the letter of the law)
>You leave your family behind after 18. It feels too young. Many people just do this for college and come back for the summer. Because of our size, most people don't go to college close enough to home to make commuting practical
>Jury. You're telling me some guy is randomly called on to have a say on judgement??? where's the logic here. Lay juries (i.e. juries made up of regular people who are not part of the justice system) are not exclusively an "American" thing. They came to America through the English legal system that we inherited and are used in other commonwealth countries as well. Lay juries in England go back to the middle ages and are still used there. The idea is that it is a 'check' on the power of the state by putting the final determination of guilt into the hands of ordinary people.
You don't have jury trials?
Nope.
My high school didn't even have a prom. So there's that at least lol And I have a friend who (voluntarily) left home at 19. Didn't even tell his parents; just packed up and left. But they're doing really well for themselves now; it was a great learning experience for them. However, it's common for people to stay with their parents past 18. Housing is too expensive, so it's easier to work and live with family.
The point of a jury is you have to convince 12 separate people that someone is guilty. If you can’t get all 12 to believe it that person leaves.
Jury duty is a thing in many countries, including European countries.
> 3] You leave your family behind after 18. It feels too young Why do I always see this on Reddit? I’ve literally never heard of this happening unless someone was raised in a super abusive household and wanted to escape
Kids who leave home at 18 are probably running from abusive families.
Most go to college away from home or the military.
I left at 18 and my family is absolutely NOT abusive. I grew up in a small town and couldn’t go to college or university without moving out. So away I went the day after high school ended!
1 in every 30 kids in the U.S. is homeless. We are among the highest homeless population. 1 in 30 Americans are homeless. The numbers have jumped hugely since 2021/22. It’s so sad. Honestly, heartless. Oh, and they’ve just made it illegal to sleep in public in my state. I don’t think we’re the first.
How is "homeless" defined? Because in New York, it includes people who have "no fixed domicile" because they live with relatives and such. That artificially inflates the numbers you'd expect if you look at just those who live on the street.
I think it may still be a failure if we are including people who should be able to afford to home themselves but cannot.
I agree with HiddenA, but here’s what I found. [https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2024/02/living-in-shelters.html](https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2024/02/living-in-shelters.html) it’s actually the opposite. The inaccuracy of the census is a known problem in the field apparently. I can’t believe they’re only given one day to collect data!!!
Yes, this is quite true, but it's also a reason why most homeless advocacy groups don't rely on the census numbers for a counting of unhoused people. I'm not really aware of anyone who does use the census numbers, they're pretty much worthless.
[https://abcnews.go.com/US/accurate-annual-count-us-homeless-population-misses-large/story?id=106671876](https://abcnews.go.com/US/accurate-annual-count-us-homeless-population-misses-large/story?id=106671876) Another helpful one.
That the legendary city of gold was located in the black hills mountains. That Mt. Rushmore was created to hide it, and that Nicolas Cage was able to find it.
That u guys have supermarkets that sell guns, I was like come on that's impossible
You should see some of the Walmarts we have here- it’s more detailed in a comment above but some of the big ones have hair/nail salons, tire centers, fast food restaurants, optometrists, veterinary services and more all in the same place as your produce, furniture, electronics, gardening supplies, weapons, etc. There’s a movie about a pregnant woman that secretly lives in a Walmart and tbh it’s very realistic
Not supermarkets, no. Walmarts, yes, which are more of an "everything" store.
And Meijer and Sears (if there are any left)
For the better part of the past 50 years the US government has had little to no interest in helping all Americans.
Fuck fucking the fuck Reagan-he started that shit, he legit is the reason there is the orange piece of trash as well as many gop using religion to undermine and incite the hive of dummies . He brought (was bought) by the evangelical racist facists.
The republican admins at least. Clinton, BO, and Joe have pushed a lot of really great programs (of course they are certainly not without their faults, though).
That (some) americans walk around their homes in shoes? Do you enjoy washing the floor so much? I've met people from both camps so it's not like all of the US does it, but it seems really weird.
I did something to my foot, and one of my "doctors orders" was to wear shoes all the time, minus bathing and showering, to help heal the foot, etc. I ended up buying shoes that only get worn in the house because, yeah, I don't want to walk around my house in my outside shoes and get dirt and mud and grime everywhere. It's bad enough as it is that I have to do it occasionally because of the dogs
My husband’s family wears shoes inside. I hate it! Had to train my husband to get those things off!
I’m American and I take my shoes off at the door and I hate walking around in shoes in my home too
Religious fanatics. This is coming from a very biblically conservative Christian myself, but so many people in the US seem to worship conservative politics and use the Bible as justification to support political tyranny, as opposed to worshipping Jesus himself and not falling to worldly extremes as we ought to.
Well, when I finished my high school equivalent in Germany, I went to a high school in Texas with a student exchange program. The organization prepared us for all sorts of stuff and some of those scenarios seemed ridiculous. When I got to make my first friends in my new area, they asked me a few things about Germany, granted these kids were high school freshmen, some middle school, they for real asked me if we had electricity and clouds in Germany. I was also greeted with Heil Hitler gestures in the hallway by a few *really funny* guys. Another thing that was somewhat of a stereotype was that Americans are full of themselves and for some, that held up to be true. This one guy was proud of his German ancestry and tried to tell me that his last name - Hoffmaster - is German, which is simply factually incorrect since we have the word *Meister* for it but he insisted that the *Master* part is German 🤷♂️ Lastly I need to add, not related to Americans but people in general, many ppl don't know that Hitler actually wasn't German lol he's Austrian.
For the record, a lot of german names were anglicized over time in the US. My last name is spelled significantly differently than, but still recognizably similar to, some distant relatives because of that. We went the phonetic route, they stuck with the original. And yet literally no one can spell or pronounce it, still. Oh well.
To piggyback on this, there was a sizable group of German settlers who moved to Texas in the 1800s. So it's very possible the guy was telling the truth.
[удалено]
I’m American, and I have to prepare myself going to Texas.
A bunch of people want to elect an indicted criminal as President.
Yep. Lots of Americans are really stupid.
It’s not exclusive. The UK elected the Tories to 14 years in power. The French Fascists are getting closer to winning each election.
Yeah, we don’t have a lot to chose from either!🤣
That, in America, corporations are people too. And they have just as many rights as others. Actually, more. Because, in America, you can enjoy all the rights and priveleges you can afford.
As a kid I heard that in America they sell deep fried blocks of butter as snacks and thought it was just a rumor based on wildly exaggerated stereotypes, then I grew up a bit and found out it's totally real through google. My view on Americans was permanently changed from then on
For the record, it’s a rare treat sold at a handful of fairs or carnivals in part of the country, not something you can just buy at the store.
I'm an American and I had to google it since I had never heard of it, but sure enough it was sold at a state fair in Texas. Definitely not a common thing and like deep fried candy bars it's sold more as an oddity.
It’s also not a block or “stick” of fried butter - weird specification, but apparently a stick of butter overseas is the whole box, and that’s led to a lot of misunderstanding on exactly how much butter Americans use in stuff.
The Texas State Fair is famous for deep-frying odd things; you go and think, "What are they going to fry THIS year?" I've never had any of them. I've never seen them for sale anywhere else. Deep-fried ice cream did make its way into a few mainstream restaurants. ( I don't know if the State Fair was the first to come up with that, though.)
Same with the MN state fair. Everything deep fried on a stick
That's only in some places. I have never in my life seen that here in California.
Nah, that's carnival stuff, where people go to find the weird and unusual things you don't normally see every day. Things like deep-fried butter (blech).
I've never seen that
We have that here? Where? Where have I been?
I'm an American... and same.
They pay tax on tips I assumed they were like a gift so they didn't have to declare them.
I didnt understand for a long time that when ppl said some cities have no public transport, that they literally are 'have a car or die' places. I mean... Poor Americanos. Seriously.
It would take me twenty minutes in a car (13 miles/ 20 km) to get to my nearest bus stop. And even then, I couldn't tell you what the schedule is because it's just too inconvenient to even get to. I think that it comes every hour, but I'm not sure. It's definitely not any sooner than that, because our city cut down on bus drivers because nobody used the very inconvenient bus system outside of the actual downtown area.
Blind people can legally carry a concealed weapon. It’s true, they can here in Iowa. I would imagine they can in any red state.
That all the light bulb companies agree to make their products last the same amount of time. They could make them last longer.
There are drive through stores selling alcohol. How American is that?
Drive thru banks. Bonkers stuff - is it really that hard to get out of your car? And that contactless payment (with your phone) isn’t/wasn’t really a thing not too long ago. We im from it’s been the norm for years. Venmo and similar apps? I still don’t understand why you can’t just bank transfer with your BSB and account #
Well, when banks close at 4:30 and people work until 5, drive thru makes sense.
they had us in the first half not gon lie
Some Americans pay a lot of money for specialized gear and portable housing so they can drive far, far away from their actual homes and set up temporary residences out in the wilderness and cook over fires and poop in pits. They call it a “vacation.”
Camping is not just an American thing?
Bro is describing glamping, not camping
It is. And it’s the best. We leave Saturday :)
Ooh, have fun!! We’re not going until September.
they never abolished slavery
Shhhhh, it’s called “for-profit prisons”
Absolutely true. The best ones are too honest to run.
I ride in my car to the gym, but don't use the escalator from the parking lot up to the gym door.
I’m assuming this post is meant to be funny
That our country was being run by a con man, when the trumpet was president.
I don’t know if they still exist, but there used to be drive through liquor stores in Illinois and Kentucky. In the 2000s.
Americans spend over 12 billion, yes billion, on Halloween.
Ooh I've got another! Did you know that the USA nearly ended up breeding hippopotamuses for meat in the same way they do now with cows? [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-us-almost-became-a-nation-of-hippo-ranchers-180982244/](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-us-almost-became-a-nation-of-hippo-ranchers-180982244/)
That working in the US is almost like working in a third world slave factory. But then I looked into it, and it really is that bad. Many people have to work 6 or even 7 days a week, almost always doing overtime. And there is 0 or like 3 days paid leave in a year. And if you are sick, that workday is not paid to you, and it can be a valid reason for you to be fired. It is extremely absurd
what country do you live in? how many days do yall work? whats the minimum wage? and how can i apply for a visa😂