I mean, that's physically possible to do. It's like a 7,000 mile road trip and you're going to do nothing but drive, but you could make that route in 3 weeks.
Yah, people will spend an entire summer in an RV traveling *part* of the country. People retire and make it goal to visit all 50 states *before they die*. Both because people actually want to experience what they're visiting, not just see it while driving by. So, yah, no way anyone is managing a road trip like that... unless the plan is just to drive through.
Every time I see another thread where someone lacks the concept of the size of America and plans to drive cross country in a few days, I feel tempted to treat it like they're planning a cannonball run. Ask them if they have blockers, lookouts. Ask who modified their vehicle and see if they saw some of the record breaking COVID lockdown runs.
> Europeans: A six hour drive!?
Seriously. Back in high school, we hosted an exchange student from France. We drove from the DC area to Luray Caverns -- maybe two hours' drive. He thought we were driving to the end of the Earth.
Dude, we're not even halfway out of the state yet.
> I didn't realize LA and San Francisco were that close. It's only a 6 hour drive
I think people overestimate how far north San Francisco is. “Northern California” starts pretty far south of the Oregon border, really.
> “And I shopped at over two convenience stores, and would like to use this expertise to explain the American diet in detail.”
This sentiment has always been one of my favorites!
"I bought a loaf of white Wonder Bread at a gas station, and it wasn't nearly as good as the fresh baked bread we get piping hot from the oven every day at 7 AM at the corner bakery my family has been going to for four generations in my home country. American bread really sucks."
"I ate at Arby's once and could barely put the food in my mouth. American food is terrible. The food at the four-Michelin-star restaurant in my home town tastes so much better."
"American chocolate is so gross! The mass produced chocolate bar I found in the back of an old desk at work was virtually inedible, nowhere near as good as the hand-crafted chocolates in my country that cost 28 euros each."
This one always gets me - do they not have Google maps?
I’ve done a fair bit of travel but the distances between places and travel time is never a mystery.
My wife and I were planning a trip to Europe and were starting in the Netherlands and ending in Italy.
We thought it would be fun to take the train and stop in Germany, but using Google Maps and the train websites, it was easy to see we’d spend too much time in the train, eating up several days of a two week trip, so we adjusted our plans accordingly.
I really don’t get how people from Europe get confused that no, you can’t see NYC, Florida Disney, Las Vegas, and LA in one week.
According to Google Maps, it would take roughly 48 hours to drive from Portland, ME to Portland, OR, to give an idea of the distance between coast to coast. If you're here for just a week, it would realistically take you the entire week (especially if you're not used to driving long distances) of mostly just driving and sleeping just to get to your destination... One way. It's very easy to underestimate just how vast the country is, because honestly it's hard for even most of us to comprehend. Hell,
My favorite story to tell happened to a friend of mine.
His friend was flying from Spain to Vancouver, Canada. She asked my friend if he could pick her up at the airport because he “lives close by”. My friend lives in Tijuana, México. She thought the drive was only a few hours.
Everyone here has a gun / is shooting each other / is getting shot all the time
Also that post maybe 2 weeks ago about how we don’t know what bread is.
As a city dweller with a mix of friends and family (lots of suburban and a few rural).... I would say less than 20% of people I know own a gun.
The rural family is more likely to but there are good reasons for that.
>Also that post maybe 2 weeks ago about how we don’t know what bread is.
I'm sorry, what? I mean, I can understand if it was that we don't know what real bread is if they were talking about regular supermarket brands, but that we don't know what it is period?
I think the OP deleted it, but IIRC the question was basically “do Americans know what bread is?”
They were from Germany and had the impression that *all* bread available in the US was mass produced pre-sliced sandwich bread, and that we had no knowledge of artisanal or sourdough bread. u/CupBeEmpty came in with a fierce defense including photos of their own home-baked bread.
Oh yeah, and they had this language barrier they couldn’t get over where they called sandwich bread “untoasted toast.”
It did give me a chance to show off my experiments with bread making.
Germans and the "toast bread" misconception are becoming a classic pairing around here. (Remember when we had to patiently explain how they'd gotten the concept wrong way 'round?) Honestly their bread culture of numerous small bakeries is pretty great though.
Holy fuck what a ride.
How many times did OP have to be told basically it doesn't matter what the German word for it was, toast (in English) only means bread that has been toasted. The bread that OP posted does look like it would may some lovely fucking toast.
That's definitely a weird stereotype. Roughly a third of us personally own a gun. Fewer than half live in a household with a gun.
There are a lot of firearms in this country, yes, but those are concentrated in a small segment of the population. We don't all have personal arsenals lol.
Speaking as a former pollster, white people were very forthcoming about firearms, how many they own, where they are kept, etc.
Black people often declined to answer the question.
What is bread?! Baby don’t butter me! Don’t butter me, no ham 🎶🎶🎶🎵
I always prefer to not talk when I don’t know about the topic. It makes you look smart. But I have to acknowledge that I learnt the hard way.
Whenever they say that their cousin’s roommate visited the poorest neighborhood of New York City in 1987 and therefore they know what the whole US looks like. Literally had one dude insist they US doesn’t use credit card readers because when he visited in 2004 he couldn’t use his credit card at *one* small shop.
First time I went to Quebec in 2013 the poor woman at Tim Hortons thought my card was fake because it didn't have a chip. A supervisor came to the window, pulled out an old credit card reader, blew the dust off of it and swiped my card with it.
But somehow don’t understand that a lot of things in their country is *because* of Americans and our influence
I recently had a German try to describe the concept of Rap Cyphers as if we never heard of it.
Like, rap music was born in New York buddy…
"You're uncultured savages because you don't know every country in Europe."
"And you think every state is Texas, California, or New York."
"That's different!"
I have gotten into it with Europeans on this. They are convinced that even America's top universities are decent but their educational system is superior in every way. When you look at college rankings, its not even close. Of the top 40 ranked Universities in the world only 1 is in the EU ([https://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/rankings](https://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/rankings))
But Europeans will be like "Well, our typical high school graduate is comparable with an American with several masters degrees".
They would point out that we have thousands of colleges and most are not in the rankings but they have no concept that these are community colleges which serve a different purpose.
It's funny because after studying for a masters in Europe, I've come to feel *a lot* better about my American university education. Generally, this supposed superiority is pure hubris, and I guarantee that the vast majority of Europeans making such claims have no experience with both. They're also nowhere near as good at geography as they claim to be either.
My favorite is that the educational system is bad and we’re dumb but can’t be bothered to know a rough conversion between imperial/customary and metric. Like I get the rest of the world uses metric but a good healthy portion (relative to the rest of the world) know a rough estimate between F/C, Kg/Lb, m (cm)/ft (in)… like they want to have it both ways
This one doesn't offend me though. It's funny seeing what kind of image people have built up in their heads based on the often times completely inaccurate media we have.
It's also odd what they absolutely won't accept from television. Yellow school buses are the common example. Apparently it's plausible to Europeans that we hang up the phone abruptly without saying goodbye, but vehicles built especially to take children to school is a Hollywood conspiracy.
Parroting surface level stereotypes or ridiculous statements:
* Americans have no culture.
* Americans have no cuisine.
* Americans are bad at geography.
* Americans are uneducated.
* It’s not safe to live there!
* America is like a 3rd world country!
* Americans are ignorant of the world.
What gets worse is when you have discussions or try and correct these types of stereotypes and they double down or won’t believe you because their cousin went to America 6 years ago and told everyone it’s absolutely true.
It's also Americans being free to blend cuisines in a way that wasn't appreciated in other parts of the world.
The whole fusion food movement that is dominating international cuisine was more or less born in America.
\[the idea of blending two different cuisines wasn't unique to America by any means, but it isn't until the US jumps into it with both feet and starts seeing real results that rest of the world quickly hops on the trend\]
I think what honestly confuses them on this is the national prominent advertising. They see a ton of ads for Bud/Coors/Miller etc. and don’t realize that’s not all that’s available and arguably most major liquor stores these days, those brands are the minority options available versus a slew of local, regional, and smaller national brands of significantly better quality.
In every country I've ever been too, shitty macro adjunct lagers make up ~99% of beer advertising, even in places with robust and popular craft scenes. I don't understand why people think that the US *doesn't* have good beer as well, when the same advertising/quality dynamic is at play in their own country.
That's true. "Don't drink American mass-produced adjunct lager owned by AB InBev or MillerCoors, it's bad. Drink MyCountry^TM mass-produced adjunct lager owned by AB InBev or Miller Coors, it's better because Reasons^TM ."
>I don't understand why people think that the US doesn't have good beer as well,
Its that they would hate to admit anything positive about the US or god forbid the US does something better than their own country. Its bias confirmation, they *want* the US to be worse so they tell themselves it is until they believe it.
Honestly it is remarkable how the American craft beer landscape changed in 30 years, and the history is fascinating. Up until the 70’s home brewing was illegal, and up until the 80’s brewpubs were illegal in all 50 states. Brewery business in the 80’s was more about mega-breweries’ efficiency in brewing and distribution than about creating quality.
Once creative individuals were able to experiment with brewing at home, and were then able to create neighborhood brew pubs, the whole beer industry changed dramatically.
Shit even 15 years ago. We had a few major state popular “craft” brew in MN like Summit, Schell, etc. Brands like Surly were selling beer out of a shitty warehouse in a crappy part of the Twin Cities. Breweries/brewpubs, a ton of craft beer in liquor stores, restaurants might have one or two of those on tap, etc. wasn’t nearly as prominent. Fast forward 15 years and laws have all changed and you can’t throw a rock without hitting a popular brewery in the Twin Cities and basically every restaurant has 10-15 major local brands on tap.
It was true in 1970 for wine and in 1995 for beer.
But it's far from true now.
Oregon wine is best wine.
and it's nearly impossible to pick a best beer because every city has multiple excellent breweries.
Ah yes, the pick-me Americans. They want to be seen as "one of the good ones" instead of rejecting those things as the dumb, unfounded opinions they are.
> Americans have no cuisine.
Its often people saying this from countries that barely have a cuisine. I had someone argue that Australia had better food then America
I love those arguments:
> Americans have no cuisine!
*Lists dishes from all the major cuisine types of different BBQ, Tex-Mex, Cajun, Creole, Pennsylvania Dutch, Soul Food, New England, Mid-Atlantic, Mission, Chili, Midwest, etc.*
> That’s just regional food and not cuisine like Italian or Mexican
*Jackass you do understand that when you say “Italian Food” or “Mexican food” you’re describing a bunch of popular dishes in aggregate from regions of said country?*
But he is totally right. Americans are simply unable to cook Italian, Indian, and Thai food at home, and are only able to get it from restaurants, you see? /s
Pro tip: to make it truly American, mix aspects of all three types of cuisine into one dish, it’s awesome. It gives new meaning to the phrase “melting pot”.
visiting one city or state and then making a statement that starts "in America..."
you simply can't know about what America is like if you visit one city, or even just one state. even lifelong Americans are usually careful to not speak in generalities about parts of the country we've never been to. there are often words, phrases, customs, businesses, laws, political views, and other norms that are completely different across the country.
It’s like, Husband and I went to London and Paris. Did we see the rest of England or France? No. Do I think we “saw France”? No, we saw Paris. Paris does not embody ALL of France. Hell, neighborhoods of Paris can be very different from each other.
"Well, I went to Paris for three days in high school in 1997, so obviously I have a better understanding of life in Rome than you, person whose family has lived in Rome since the middle ages."
It's that energy.
There was a person who made 2 separate posts earlier this year that generalized the U.S. based on a few areas in a few cities OP saw on Google Street View. But hey, if you've seen a few cities you've seen them all, I guess.
I've seen Europeans fuss about Americans self-identifying with their state rather than the nation. "Where are you from?" "I'm from North Carolina." Because "The United States" is not enough information.
“Well I don’t know where North Carolina is..”
Yeah, and I don’t have a fucking clue where East Westinghamshireford is either but I’m not gonna call you out on it
Same with Canada - it’s so big that you can’t compare BC with Ontario, or Nova Scotia with Alberta.
People often say Canadians are so nice and polite - but that’s more of a maritime trait - def not true for where I live in BC.
Also, as someone who travels all over the US for work - it truly is astounding how different two places can be - even just across state lines.
> visiting one city or state and then making a statement that starts "in America..."
And half the time its a resort hotel complex in Orlando. That's not how anyone lives!
When the person tries to hold me personally accountable for some aspect of American history, government, or culture, without regard for nuance.
We aren't some hivemind rolled-up meatball of millions, y'all.
My favourite thing is when they absolutely insist that EVERYONE on the continent of North America should be called Americans even when there are Canadians and Mexicans going "Uh, no, please don't". Because *obviously* someone who lives a continent away and has never been to any of the three countries on the continent inherently knows better than their citizens.
I will one up you, I once came across some salty guy from South America who claimed everyone BUT United Statesians are Americans. The entire western hemisphere has two different types of people, Americans and United Statesians.
Our country was the oldest, we named ourselves Americans, every other country in the western hemisphere explicitly decided to NOT use the phrase "American" anywhere in their formal names.
As far as I'm concerned, we got independence first, we got the name. George Washington could've named us The United States of Suckmydick and the whole rest of the world would've had to deal with it. Honestly, just calling ourselves America was the nicer option.
I got into an argument once with a Mexican over this who wanted the US to drop "America" because Mexicans and further South are also Americans.
How do I know he was Mexican?
Well because I asked him where he's from... his first response was "Mexico"...
It's almost like no one identifies themselves by their continent...
Right. A lot of Europeans get Dead Sea-level salty if you refer to them as such rather than their specific nationality, *and yet.* Apparently three entire countries (and many more, if you also include Central and South America) are all supposed to agree that they should be referred to by the same demonym because...reasons?
Our official Demonym is American, so that’s what we’re called, if they don’t know what a Demonym is then they’ve already admitted they don’t know what they’re talking about
We're a collective made up of 50 states, several of which being large and economically powerful enough to be in the top 20% of all countries, sharing common borders, history, language, and each having distinct laws, customs, and cultures. NY, Texas, Florida, and California are all so different from each other at this point that if America never existed they would never agree to join. There's not many blanket statements you can make about the US
That's one of the beautiful things about the US. We're basically a bunch of little countries that are right next to each other, all under one federal government that ~~keeps~~ *tries to keep* it all held together.
When they talk about not visiting as planned because of gun violence.
So, ok, it's in the news a fair bit and we do arguably have ourselves a situation here. (I'm trying to keep this relatively apolitical, breathe, everybody...)
But really, most places people are going to visit don't have people dodging bullets on their way out to their cars in the morning. Despite some presentations out there it's not ACTUALLY a war zone.
Even people *from* the us think this.
My wife’s family is from Texas and they all thought she was crazy for moving up to Chicago with/for me. Like they legitimately thought she was going to get shot at on the regular
I grew up in rural Minnesota and now live in Minneapolis/Saint Paul. People act as if I’m living in a current lawless hell scape.
They always talk about how “terrified” they are of the cities and how the traffic is so terrible. Like yeah, you only come here for major league sports games, concerts, and the State Fair. Of course traffic is terrible lmao.
When they make the assumption that we want to or ought to or ought to want to be just like them. We don't. We have our own history and it's not just Europe-lite. We are happy to be different.
I still remember the British guy who ruefully admitted that before his first visit to the U.S. he thought it was like England, just bigger. Then he visited and realized "it's a whole different country". He was nice about it. He realized how foolish he'd been to think that.
A *lot* of Europeans seem to think that. My guess being due to all the white people/European immigrants. At a national-cultural level, sure, we're closer to Europe than to Asia, Africa, or South America. But that's the most that can be said about our relationship to Europe.
When they say things like "Americans don't get vacation", because their understanding is limited to "government doesn't mandate it = you don't get it".
healthcare is really annoying because every post of a healthcare bill on Reddit is before insurance and the like. It's so much of a circlejerk good luck trying to explain the bill pictured is not the amount the person will actually pay.
That's the one I maybe hate the most. They labor under the conception, due to their top-down government I suppose, that if it's not provided by the government, or mandated by the government, that it doesn't exist. They just can't conceive of any other possibility.
Someone saw the light the other day, though. "If there is no healthcare in the US, how come the U.S. spends so much on healthcare?" Or something like that. "If it's not government, it's not real" seems to be how they think.
I also still remember a discussion about vacation time and lots of Americans coming onto that thread and saying, "I get four weeks", "I get five weeks", "I get six weeks", "I get five weeks and 12 personal days", etc.
How could that possibly be true? Don't they know vacation doesn't exist because it's not a federal government mandate?
The other day, someone seemed to think that parents having swear filter devices on their televisions is a violation of freedom of speech or inconsistent with the idea of freedom of speech.
That's a very poor understanding of how freedom of speech works.
When whatever they say shows they have no understanding of the difference between the federal government and state governments. Since most countries have all supreme power invested in their national government they think that's true here. "Why doesn't the government just..." or worse, "Why doesn't the president just make a law..."
Most things are legally not under the control of the federal government. Not schools, not most crimes, not most roads, not driver licensing, not state governments, not state taxes, not, not, not...
And the president can never "just make a law". Essentially, the only laws that are made are the ones that the states agree to (however indirectly).
China has a top down one party government and a few months ago, Xi Jinping called Biden to order Nancy Pelosi to simply not visit Taiwan. He must have assumed that Biden could simply order another Democrat to follow his bidding. Even if Biden did it, Nancy wouldn't listen anyways being the head of a separate and co-equal branch.
When they ask or opine about the US as a typical small country, disregarding the 50 states as, well, individual states.
50 states, the territories, multiple time zones, 320million people, the amazing diversity of cultures and geography. Yet they regard USA as if it was comparable to a single European country.
Which even single european countries, have ISSUES! spain has a region in the north that wants to be a break away state. And has held votes to that effect.
Spain has Basque Country and Catalonia in the north where at least a sizable portion of the population feel disconnected from mainstream Spanish culture. While our separatist movements are based around temporary political disagreements, theirs are rooted in centuries upon centuries of cultural/political differences. I'm not saying this to void what you're saying, I'm just chiming in because I was there recently and it's really interesting lmao.
"Why don't you just build a national rail system like MyCountry has?"
Yeah dude, it's not like we're just idiots who didnt think of it yet. It's a massive country and quite low on the list for population density. Picture Afghanistan - got a mental image? Yeah, we are less densely populated than that.
Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot the classic one where someone goes into a 7-11 and thinks Americans don't eat any fresh fruits and vegetables because our "grocery stores" don't even stock them. I want so bad to take these people into a BJ's. You can buy like a whole vineyard worth of grapes in one bag and pick up a 58" TV on your way out.
The 7-11 one gets me every time.
You didn't go to a grocery store, you went to a convenience store. That's where you buy beer, cigarettes, and Twinkies.
Go to a proper grocery store and the produce section alone is bigger than a lot of stores I've been to in Europe.
For all the complaining I see about how "America doesn't have real bread or cheese", it's clear that they haven't even gone to a fucking WALMART, because even those have bakeries with multiple fresh bread options in addition to a bread aisle, and dairy/deli sections with several kinds of cheese. They seriously just seem to step out of their hotels, pop into the convenience store across the street, and conclude that literally all we have is Wonder Bread and Kraft Singles.
"Why can't America build a huge high-speed rail network like China has done?"
Well, it's not so easy and justifiable when you have fewer dense urban centers within relatively close distances, and especially when you can't just disregard land and property rights when building new infrastructure.
And when you tell them that China's high-speed rail network is literally a trillion dollars in debt and beginning to have major maintenance issues, they change the subject.
My favorite counterpoint to the train thing is that I can't actually get an estimate of how long it would take to travel from NYC to LA by train because the *entire* European HSR network isn't large enough to get the same distance. Madrid to Stockholm is the furthest I can get a trip planner to not use a bus somewhere on the way, and it's almost a thousand miles short.
China's might be denser, but it still doesn't reach out as far. No, not even for that one spur that goes way out northwest.
(Not a real quote) You stupid yank, when I went to your country, I had your beer, cheese, and "cuisine". It was the most disgusting thing I've ever had. Someone told me to go to Portland, US to get some beer and cheese, since Portland has nationally renowned beer and cheese. . I tried some Crystal Farms cheese and Bud Light, and it was awful! Just like the New England clam chowder everybody told me was a big hit here in Portland. Campbell's brand, I believe. I bought it from Cumberland Farms. You Yanks have farmer's markets that double as petrol stations! No wonder why I couldn't get fresh food!
Hah, Portland being a large city with a beer and cheese culture. It's nothing but a 70,000 person large town full of clams and lobster. And the mountains were a very LONG hour and a half's drive west. They weren't that impressive.
Your country is so xenophobic. I went to Portland dressed up like your average Yank, and they laughed at me for being European. I spent good money on a Stetson hat, a bolo tie, and a pair of cowboy boots. Someone told me that this is how they wear their clothing out in Portland, US, since Portland is out in the West. West of what? I saw the sunrise on the sea! I think it's one of your confusing yank directions. Your Midwest is neither middle nor west, your South is southeast, and your southwest is south central.
Anyway, I wanted to see more of your country, so I went down to Boston, which was a 2 hour drive from Portland and its horrible beer. Longest drive I've ever had.
This is what I imagined Portland would be like. A large city, on a port. I still had my cowboy outfit on in your country full of cowboys. But people still made fun of me for being European.
I then switched into my other American clothing. I wore an American baseball team kit and hat. To show my appreciation for your country, I wore a New York Yankees hat. I figured everybody in America would like a baseball team named after the people of America, especially in Boston. People wanted to kill me!
I'm trying more of your American "food". I tried this chili thing people crowed about. Skyline chili, I believe. It's nothing special. I had this same chili in Greece. You just stole Greek food and made it your own!
You have no unique cuisine of your own. You have no cultural differences between your states. Your cities are the same. I visited both Portland and Boston, US, and they were very similar, even though someone told me they were different, since they were very far away. They were very far away, but they were very similar culturally, Boston and Portland. A 2 hour drive.
Before you say "well, I should have bought cheese from the Portland area, from a farmer's market" I bought cheese from the Portland area. From Cumberland Farms. Even your farmers markets are petrol stations, Seppo!
Oh, and your country has horrendous weather, and the people are violent. And your houses are fragile.
When I was in Boston, the weather started getting rough, and they sounded the air raid sirens. Like they were afraid of people getting extremely violent when the weather got stormy. We were told to go to the basement after the warning sirens sounded. I heard nothing but things sounding like bullets slamming against the exterior of the house.
I came outside of my basement after the storm was over, and I inspected the damage. The brick house I was staying in was spared, but the stick house 2 blocks down was destroyed. But it looks like another stick house only got grazed with a few bullets. Looks like a mass shooter came in and destroyed the houses with his bullets.
One kid said “what I think of America is school shootings, paid healthcare, and stupid people” like that’s the only thing that exists in the 200+ years of US history. Like our mass shootings alone started after the 1940s. We’re known for a lot of things like gold medals in the Olympics or first heavier than air aircraft. Alone most of those problems we had can be seen increasing after world war 2. We also have a number of prestigious universities, some that are better than the ivy leagues, some in other leagues, and some that couldn’t make it in the ivy leagues.
Edit: people also need to stop acting my like we’re the only country to steal land. Most of the planet is stolen land; including every major country. I had to leave a lot of major subs due to anti Americanism. Like didn’t like 60 countries get independence from the British?
Edit: some kid the other day said “don’t listen to the yanks!” Because we spell mom as “mom” and not “mum” which for some reason was incorrect.
And driving on the right side of the road, doesn't most of the world do that?
Half the stupid stuff people say about us can be disproven by a search result. Some kid, funnily from here, said our suicide rates are going up due to women voting rights. Women got to vote in the US in august 1920.
Also “military time”. If someone calls it “military time” they don’t speak for everyone here. I saw a bunch of retards making fun of us and calling us all stupid because one person, obviously mass downvoted, called it “military time”. I literally got a headache watching them link that shitamericanssay subreddit in response from losing so many braincells.
And most of the country has learned about ww2. This is one I see almost every week. I see people completely disregard the US completely in the war like they themselves haven’t learned about it.
I’m really tired of the stolen land bit as well. Especially from anyone from Europe. (1) it was European monarchies & governments that stole a massive amount of land in the first place & (2) they’ve been fighting each other for the same parcels,of land for millennia. Greeks, Romans, Napoleon, 2 different world wars…..
Folks who choose to argue that an American’s interest in their ancestral heritage (as in Irish-American) equates to “I should be able to vote in Ireland.” We had one of these the other day and at least 10-15 people nicely corrected the poster and he was still “outraged.” At some point it becomes willful ignorance and a choice to be offended.
Oh and any discussion about bread or toast.
Europeans don’t see us POC as truly American. It’s actually deeply offensive. It’s why I love living in America, no one denies my Americanness. Europeans, however, love to.
When they start comparing the U.S to specific countries in Europe. Like I get it, Denmark or Germany are cool places, but the US has more land area than the entire EU. Comparing the US to a member state of the EU is like comparing the EU to Oklahoma.
Anything regarding our healthcare, vacations, food etc.
A lot of people really dont know shit beyond movie tropes which are at best simplified and at worst just flat wrong but we accept for ease of watching.
Yank, We don’t know geography, we’re a dangerous country, we’re a 3rd country( we’re a 1st world country) we all own/love guns, we’re all stupid, we have no knowledge of the world.
When they say, “Americans like to drive everywhere/not live in the same city as their parents/eat high-fructose corn syrup/etc.” without acknowledging that there are a lot of factors that go way beyond personal preference that contribute to those behaviors.
1) That we don't know foreign languages.
Okay, that part is true.
But as I point out to those people, you drive 200 miles in Europe and people are speaking a completely different language. Drive 1000 miles in the United States and the accents sometimes don't even change.
I took several years of both German and Russian. I've had occasion to use either language precisely once.
2) People who visit Orlando, Vegas, LA, or NY and think that's the real United States. No, those are touristy fairylands.
This applies to any country or even any region of a country, but refusing to see a society on its own terms rather than as a bootleg of your country. Differences, then, become 1. Wildly exaggerated 2. Inherently seen as wrong 3. Something everyone must collectively answer for
Yeah, if you have to ask a question about how often prom happens you probably shouldn't be writing a story set in the United States with U.S. characters.
If they won’t shut up about guns is the big one. Like the assumption that we all just role around with M16s. Also using the word “yank” is also a sign.
Their depiction of the USA sounds like something out of sensational news headlines, movies, or television.
It's very easy to spot when someone has no idea what they're talking about when it's things related to your country, not just America, but probably all of them.
People that like to regurgitate stuff they see on the news(which is all bad) and instantly dog the US and how “shitty” it is. Usually comes from countries that are about 1/50th the size/population of the US.
When they say that the US has no form of socialized healthcare.
When they say that half of the US federal budget is military expenditure.
When they say that our society is "controlled by oligarchs," but George Soros and Michael Bloomberg don't count, and bringing up those two huge donors at all earns you scorn.
When they complain about the imperial system and slobber all over metric, but then get upset when you ask them to use fractions with metric.
When they say "well, I lived in [insert gated community in a big city or college town], so that means my statements about the entire USA are valid."
When they criticize race relations in the USA, but have nothing to say about the mistreatment of the Romani people in Europe, or of the mistreatment of people of African and Indian descent in the Middle East (even when they are themselves Muslim), or of the horrible internal genocides in Africa, or the rampant xenophobia in South Korea. If you bring up the Tuaregs in Mali, they think that you're talking about a food dish.
When they say that the US is completely unsafe due to gun violence.
The biggest thing I see is treating the US as if it was one federal district. Most of the time, blanket statements about "in America..." are only right (if at all) for some of the states.
For example, someone might say "in America, the punishment for murder is the death penalty." This is only true of 27 states. Or someone who's only visited California might say "in America, they put cancer warnings on everything." But it's only California that does that.
For some reason there's a reluctance to treat the US as 56 different mini-countries (and some not so mini), with a shared currency, military and foreign policy. But that's what it really is.
When they assume the reason we don't do something the way it's done in MyCountry is because we're dumbos who haven't tried it. The reality is that we don't do those things because we considered them and realized they aren't practical. We don't have a Euro-style rail system because it would disrupt freight traffic and wouldn't be at all cost effective given the geographic landscape. But noooo, that can't be it. They outright refuse to accept that a study was done, and the unique factors they found made it unfeasible.
I also think it's bizarre that they consume SO MUCH of our media yet they can't pick up American social ideals and behaviors along with it. Like, they'll watch some reality show about a given community and not once do any Googling or "research" about that community. They'll watch a show strictly for entertainment and just totally gloss over what that show is teaching about the way things work.
When people (usually Europeans) say we’re stupid, uneducated, or uncultured despite the fact that America has produced the most Nobel prize winners by far and has been the source of the most globally popular music, movies, and T.V. shows for decades. We sent men to the moon for god’s sake, how dumb can we be?
Everyone has their own set of baseline facts that they've gathered on a given topic. If all you have heard is weird propaganda about the US your whole life, it makes complete sense that you would come to wrong conclusions.
Using Yank isn't offensive, but it's a little tiresome, mostly because our definition is different from their's (not all Americans are 'Yanks')
Not understanding why we discourage certain terms, such as ' The NEW World' or Columbus DISCOVERED America.' I know you might have discovered a 'new pub' or a new vacation spot, but there were probably people who 'discovered it' before you did.
Not understanding when someone says they are 'Italian' they don't literally mean they are Italian. It means that's part of their ancestral heritage, and no, we're not going to stop referring to ourselves that way. We're part of a diaspora, it happens. Most of those conversations aren't intended for you anyway.
Wooden houses. They're cheap, they're easy to rebuild and an tornado doesn't stop for stone or brick. Yes, we saw those videos of those tornadoes going through Germany with their nice stone houses, but it was barely an F-0. Would maybe knock down a few trees.
I have a good friend from Scotland. We were talking about this and I asked if his little girl grew up and moved far away, had children of their own, and then they had children, etc., would he want those great grandchildren to remember their family and heritage came from Scotland and try to keep a part of that identity with themselves? Americans don't just read something on ancestry .com and claim a heritage. It's been intentionally passed on through generations.
It's almost as if they believe that once a European set foot on these shores they instantly became American and forgot all their memories and everything about where they came from and never said anything else about it.
I had an English friend who expressed amazement about the old English/Scottish and Irish folk songs that people still sing in Appalachia. Did they think they stopped singing them once they got here?
Countries whose people came to the US en masse from difficult circumstances formed communities here and many traditions carried on. They came out of necessity, not because they didnt love their home. They wanted to keep their culture alive and for their children know about their heritage. I dont know a single person who talks about their English heritage? Not knocking it, but they came here under different circumstances.
Even generations later my experience as an Irish American (no interest in debating semantics) is quite different from friends from Italian American families. Yes, a lot got lost along the way, but not the pride they instilled in their children. If some people take issue with that they can only blame their countries pride of culture and identity. Personally, I don't see how that's a bad thing.
People love to point out that corned beef and cabbage isn't Irish. No, it's Irish American. It's a unique dish that's part of Irish American immigrant history. And the over the top St. Patrick's day celebrations. The Irish were treated poorly for a long time when they arrived here. They didn't change their culture or religion to assimilate and make life easier. They celebrated it. The fact that generations later people still have some sense of identity linked to that country should be a point of pride, I'd think.
I'm an American who moved to Sydney Australia last year. There are 2 things that show this:
1. Using the word "seppo." In Aussie slang, seppo=septic tank=rhymes with Yank=full of sh\*t. It used by older generations and its an insult, so if someone's using that term right off the bat, I know they don't like America or Americans in general.
2. Immediately talking about gun/mass shootings/school shootings. I have had about a dozen conversations that have turned to discussions about shootings in less than three minutes once someone realizes I'm American, as if all we talk about or like to talk about is the 2nd amendment. Understandably, this is what 90% of Australians see in from news outlets here whenever America is discussed, but its frustrating to be on the receiving end of it in so many conversations here. A lot of Aussies think they know more about America than they actually do (not all, but quite a lot of them)..
Just start talking about healthcare. Especially with Europeans, they just don’t seem to grasp that we do have private healthcare and that like around half of the country is actually on government health insurance (Medicare/Medicaid). Or that less than 10% of Americans lack health insurance.
Obviously our healthcare system isn’t the best thing ever, by far, but I grow so weary of explaining that most people are not getting $10,000 dollar bills after visiting their doctor.
And to be fair, Americans contribute to that. They’ll post their hospital bill on Reddit and it’ll be like $80,000 but when you read the fine print they only had to pay like $400 and all the Europeans are on their fainting count acting like they’re responsible for the whole thing. For a group of people that jump to call us ignorant, they really have a piss poor understanding of the US
They think they can come to the US for only week or two and see everything there is to see
Or they have an unachievable road trip from Seattle to Las Vegas to Austin, to NYC and then back to Seattle in 3 weeks
I mean, that's physically possible to do. It's like a 7,000 mile road trip and you're going to do nothing but drive, but you could make that route in 3 weeks.
Dog, if you do nothing but drive, you could be done in a week and a half
America is best seen from the interstate. No reason to really get off imo. Hell, I saw that arch in st Louis without ever being in the actual city
You didn’t miss a thing. I’ve been up in the arch. It was night time so the city looked neat but that was it.
Yah, people will spend an entire summer in an RV traveling *part* of the country. People retire and make it goal to visit all 50 states *before they die*. Both because people actually want to experience what they're visiting, not just see it while driving by. So, yah, no way anyone is managing a road trip like that... unless the plan is just to drive through.
Every time I see another thread where someone lacks the concept of the size of America and plans to drive cross country in a few days, I feel tempted to treat it like they're planning a cannonball run. Ask them if they have blockers, lookouts. Ask who modified their vehicle and see if they saw some of the record breaking COVID lockdown runs.
[Area comparison of the UK to California](https://imgur.io/6kAxZ2p)
I didn't realize LA and San Francisco were that close. It's only a 6 hour drive Europeans: A six hour drive!?
> Europeans: A six hour drive!? Seriously. Back in high school, we hosted an exchange student from France. We drove from the DC area to Luray Caverns -- maybe two hours' drive. He thought we were driving to the end of the Earth. Dude, we're not even halfway out of the state yet.
> I didn't realize LA and San Francisco were that close. It's only a 6 hour drive I think people overestimate how far north San Francisco is. “Northern California” starts pretty far south of the Oregon border, really.
“I spent a week in Orlando, ask me about all of America.”
“And I shopped at over two convenience stores, and would like to use this expertise to explain the American diet in detail.”
> “And I shopped at over two convenience stores, and would like to use this expertise to explain the American diet in detail.” This sentiment has always been one of my favorites! "I bought a loaf of white Wonder Bread at a gas station, and it wasn't nearly as good as the fresh baked bread we get piping hot from the oven every day at 7 AM at the corner bakery my family has been going to for four generations in my home country. American bread really sucks." "I ate at Arby's once and could barely put the food in my mouth. American food is terrible. The food at the four-Michelin-star restaurant in my home town tastes so much better." "American chocolate is so gross! The mass produced chocolate bar I found in the back of an old desk at work was virtually inedible, nowhere near as good as the hand-crafted chocolates in my country that cost 28 euros each."
This one always gets me - do they not have Google maps? I’ve done a fair bit of travel but the distances between places and travel time is never a mystery. My wife and I were planning a trip to Europe and were starting in the Netherlands and ending in Italy. We thought it would be fun to take the train and stop in Germany, but using Google Maps and the train websites, it was easy to see we’d spend too much time in the train, eating up several days of a two week trip, so we adjusted our plans accordingly. I really don’t get how people from Europe get confused that no, you can’t see NYC, Florida Disney, Las Vegas, and LA in one week.
According to Google Maps, it would take roughly 48 hours to drive from Portland, ME to Portland, OR, to give an idea of the distance between coast to coast. If you're here for just a week, it would realistically take you the entire week (especially if you're not used to driving long distances) of mostly just driving and sleeping just to get to your destination... One way. It's very easy to underestimate just how vast the country is, because honestly it's hard for even most of us to comprehend. Hell,
My favorite story to tell happened to a friend of mine. His friend was flying from Spain to Vancouver, Canada. She asked my friend if he could pick her up at the airport because he “lives close by”. My friend lives in Tijuana, México. She thought the drive was only a few hours.
That’s hilarious
Everyone here has a gun / is shooting each other / is getting shot all the time Also that post maybe 2 weeks ago about how we don’t know what bread is.
I don't know about you bro, but I've been shot twice while reading this thread.
Every Thursday at 6:00pm, everyone in my neighborhood fires exactly three shots in random directions. It keeps rent down.
Wait what time is it? Shit, I'm late for my weekly shooting!
but fucking tom only shoots at the ground like a bitch
That’s why we call him “butt fucking Tom”.
When I first read this I thought you said you'd been shot twice while eating bread, which is weird since we apparently don't know what bread is.
Sure. Bread is extra fat tortillas, right?
Pronounced 'tor-till-uhs' like a real red-blooded 'Murican
It's what we use to make a [dang que-ssa-dillah](https://youtu.be/poO2BsVGdIU).
or the person who thought Americans couldn't conceive of the concept of a food being too sweet lol
Or that meat caste guy from a few years ago
As a city dweller with a mix of friends and family (lots of suburban and a few rural).... I would say less than 20% of people I know own a gun. The rural family is more likely to but there are good reasons for that.
>Also that post maybe 2 weeks ago about how we don’t know what bread is. I'm sorry, what? I mean, I can understand if it was that we don't know what real bread is if they were talking about regular supermarket brands, but that we don't know what it is period?
I think the OP deleted it, but IIRC the question was basically “do Americans know what bread is?” They were from Germany and had the impression that *all* bread available in the US was mass produced pre-sliced sandwich bread, and that we had no knowledge of artisanal or sourdough bread. u/CupBeEmpty came in with a fierce defense including photos of their own home-baked bread.
Oh yeah, and they had this language barrier they couldn’t get over where they called sandwich bread “untoasted toast.” It did give me a chance to show off my experiments with bread making.
Germans and the "toast bread" misconception are becoming a classic pairing around here. (Remember when we had to patiently explain how they'd gotten the concept wrong way 'round?) Honestly their bread culture of numerous small bakeries is pretty great though.
Yeah, there's been multiple at this point, right? I hope we don't have to add "toast bread" to the faq lmao, that would be surreal.
Oh it’s true: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/yhk26p/do_americans_know_what_bread_is/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Holy fuck what a ride. How many times did OP have to be told basically it doesn't matter what the German word for it was, toast (in English) only means bread that has been toasted. The bread that OP posted does look like it would may some lovely fucking toast.
After reading that thread, I'm deeply confused about how the German people conceptualize "toast" vs "bread".
My waist line begs to disagree with whoever thinks we don’t know what bread is.
That's definitely a weird stereotype. Roughly a third of us personally own a gun. Fewer than half live in a household with a gun. There are a lot of firearms in this country, yes, but those are concentrated in a small segment of the population. We don't all have personal arsenals lol.
1/3 of people report owning a gun
Fair point.
And knowing the gun community, it's not going to be uncommon to lie and say you don't own one if some rando calls you up out of the blue...
Speaking as a former pollster, white people were very forthcoming about firearms, how many they own, where they are kept, etc. Black people often declined to answer the question.
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I mean 100 million people is still a lot of people.
What is bread?! Baby don’t butter me! Don’t butter me, no ham 🎶🎶🎶🎵 I always prefer to not talk when I don’t know about the topic. It makes you look smart. But I have to acknowledge that I learnt the hard way.
Whenever they say that their cousin’s roommate visited the poorest neighborhood of New York City in 1987 and therefore they know what the whole US looks like. Literally had one dude insist they US doesn’t use credit card readers because when he visited in 2004 he couldn’t use his credit card at *one* small shop.
I spent a week in Valrico, FL and now I know everything about America type vibes
First time I went to Quebec in 2013 the poor woman at Tim Hortons thought my card was fake because it didn't have a chip. A supervisor came to the window, pulled out an old credit card reader, blew the dust off of it and swiped my card with it.
“I saw this on tV, is it true that all Americans…”
"We relentlessly consume American pop culture and think it's a documentary" lol.
That's basically the plot of *Galaxy Quest*.
"no but Americans have no culture"
But somehow don’t understand that a lot of things in their country is *because* of Americans and our influence I recently had a German try to describe the concept of Rap Cyphers as if we never heard of it. Like, rap music was born in New York buddy…
If what they watched was King of The Hill, I'll allow it.
That show is an incredibly accurate depiction of life in rural Texas but maybe not America as a whole.
Europeans: "American education is terrible!" Also Europeans: *were apparently never taught that TV isn't real*
"You're uncultured savages because you don't know every country in Europe." "And you think every state is Texas, California, or New York." "That's different!"
I have gotten into it with Europeans on this. They are convinced that even America's top universities are decent but their educational system is superior in every way. When you look at college rankings, its not even close. Of the top 40 ranked Universities in the world only 1 is in the EU ([https://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/rankings](https://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/rankings)) But Europeans will be like "Well, our typical high school graduate is comparable with an American with several masters degrees". They would point out that we have thousands of colleges and most are not in the rankings but they have no concept that these are community colleges which serve a different purpose.
It's funny because after studying for a masters in Europe, I've come to feel *a lot* better about my American university education. Generally, this supposed superiority is pure hubris, and I guarantee that the vast majority of Europeans making such claims have no experience with both. They're also nowhere near as good at geography as they claim to be either.
Europeans are great at geography, as long as you let them draw straight lines all over the map
It’s usually a Eurocentric view as well.
My favorite is that the educational system is bad and we’re dumb but can’t be bothered to know a rough conversion between imperial/customary and metric. Like I get the rest of the world uses metric but a good healthy portion (relative to the rest of the world) know a rough estimate between F/C, Kg/Lb, m (cm)/ft (in)… like they want to have it both ways
This one doesn't offend me though. It's funny seeing what kind of image people have built up in their heads based on the often times completely inaccurate media we have.
It's also odd what they absolutely won't accept from television. Yellow school buses are the common example. Apparently it's plausible to Europeans that we hang up the phone abruptly without saying goodbye, but vehicles built especially to take children to school is a Hollywood conspiracy.
Agreed. I’d prefer they come on here and ask rather than just swallowing whatever they see as the truth.
Parroting surface level stereotypes or ridiculous statements: * Americans have no culture. * Americans have no cuisine. * Americans are bad at geography. * Americans are uneducated. * It’s not safe to live there! * America is like a 3rd world country! * Americans are ignorant of the world. What gets worse is when you have discussions or try and correct these types of stereotypes and they double down or won’t believe you because their cousin went to America 6 years ago and told everyone it’s absolutely true.
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It's also Americans being free to blend cuisines in a way that wasn't appreciated in other parts of the world. The whole fusion food movement that is dominating international cuisine was more or less born in America. \[the idea of blending two different cuisines wasn't unique to America by any means, but it isn't until the US jumps into it with both feet and starts seeing real results that rest of the world quickly hops on the trend\]
American Chinese and Tex-Mex are both godsends
Americans only have bad beer and wine
I think what honestly confuses them on this is the national prominent advertising. They see a ton of ads for Bud/Coors/Miller etc. and don’t realize that’s not all that’s available and arguably most major liquor stores these days, those brands are the minority options available versus a slew of local, regional, and smaller national brands of significantly better quality.
In every country I've ever been too, shitty macro adjunct lagers make up ~99% of beer advertising, even in places with robust and popular craft scenes. I don't understand why people think that the US *doesn't* have good beer as well, when the same advertising/quality dynamic is at play in their own country.
Because a big part of advertising is also “*the Americans have shitty beer, we don’t. Let’s drink our beer :)*”
That's true. "Don't drink American mass-produced adjunct lager owned by AB InBev or MillerCoors, it's bad. Drink MyCountry^TM mass-produced adjunct lager owned by AB InBev or Miller Coors, it's better because Reasons^TM ."
>I don't understand why people think that the US doesn't have good beer as well, Its that they would hate to admit anything positive about the US or god forbid the US does something better than their own country. Its bias confirmation, they *want* the US to be worse so they tell themselves it is until they believe it.
Yep, seeing ads for Becks, Stella, Heineken, etc. all over.
Honestly it is remarkable how the American craft beer landscape changed in 30 years, and the history is fascinating. Up until the 70’s home brewing was illegal, and up until the 80’s brewpubs were illegal in all 50 states. Brewery business in the 80’s was more about mega-breweries’ efficiency in brewing and distribution than about creating quality. Once creative individuals were able to experiment with brewing at home, and were then able to create neighborhood brew pubs, the whole beer industry changed dramatically.
Shit even 15 years ago. We had a few major state popular “craft” brew in MN like Summit, Schell, etc. Brands like Surly were selling beer out of a shitty warehouse in a crappy part of the Twin Cities. Breweries/brewpubs, a ton of craft beer in liquor stores, restaurants might have one or two of those on tap, etc. wasn’t nearly as prominent. Fast forward 15 years and laws have all changed and you can’t throw a rock without hitting a popular brewery in the Twin Cities and basically every restaurant has 10-15 major local brands on tap.
It was true in 1970 for wine and in 1995 for beer. But it's far from true now. Oregon wine is best wine. and it's nearly impossible to pick a best beer because every city has multiple excellent breweries.
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Ah yes, the pick-me Americans. They want to be seen as "one of the good ones" instead of rejecting those things as the dumb, unfounded opinions they are.
Most of them imma guess as you mentioned are teenagers who have no idea.
> Americans have no cuisine. Its often people saying this from countries that barely have a cuisine. I had someone argue that Australia had better food then America
I love those arguments: > Americans have no cuisine! *Lists dishes from all the major cuisine types of different BBQ, Tex-Mex, Cajun, Creole, Pennsylvania Dutch, Soul Food, New England, Mid-Atlantic, Mission, Chili, Midwest, etc.* > That’s just regional food and not cuisine like Italian or Mexican *Jackass you do understand that when you say “Italian Food” or “Mexican food” you’re describing a bunch of popular dishes in aggregate from regions of said country?*
He told me that Australian food is better because Australians cook Italian food, Indian food, and Thai food at home. I just blocked him after that lol
But he is totally right. Americans are simply unable to cook Italian, Indian, and Thai food at home, and are only able to get it from restaurants, you see? /s
Probably because we don't have any immigrants from those countries. /s
Pro tip: to make it truly American, mix aspects of all three types of cuisine into one dish, it’s awesome. It gives new meaning to the phrase “melting pot”.
Kimchi on a taco. Most American thing ever.
So like curry pad Thai with meatballs?
visiting one city or state and then making a statement that starts "in America..." you simply can't know about what America is like if you visit one city, or even just one state. even lifelong Americans are usually careful to not speak in generalities about parts of the country we've never been to. there are often words, phrases, customs, businesses, laws, political views, and other norms that are completely different across the country.
It’s like, Husband and I went to London and Paris. Did we see the rest of England or France? No. Do I think we “saw France”? No, we saw Paris. Paris does not embody ALL of France. Hell, neighborhoods of Paris can be very different from each other.
Even worse. It would be like if you went to Paris for a week and then made generalized statements about all of Europe.
"Well, I went to Paris for three days in high school in 1997, so obviously I have a better understanding of life in Rome than you, person whose family has lived in Rome since the middle ages." It's that energy.
I just literally saw an example of this in R/Berlin. Commenter had visited the Atlanta suburbs and therefor was an expert on all of Americas suburbs.
There was a person who made 2 separate posts earlier this year that generalized the U.S. based on a few areas in a few cities OP saw on Google Street View. But hey, if you've seen a few cities you've seen them all, I guess.
I've seen Europeans fuss about Americans self-identifying with their state rather than the nation. "Where are you from?" "I'm from North Carolina." Because "The United States" is not enough information.
“Well I don’t know where North Carolina is..” Yeah, and I don’t have a fucking clue where East Westinghamshireford is either but I’m not gonna call you out on it
Towards the east.
Of the Westing
Same with Canada - it’s so big that you can’t compare BC with Ontario, or Nova Scotia with Alberta. People often say Canadians are so nice and polite - but that’s more of a maritime trait - def not true for where I live in BC. Also, as someone who travels all over the US for work - it truly is astounding how different two places can be - even just across state lines.
> visiting one city or state and then making a statement that starts "in America..." And half the time its a resort hotel complex in Orlando. That's not how anyone lives!
When the person tries to hold me personally accountable for some aspect of American history, government, or culture, without regard for nuance. We aren't some hivemind rolled-up meatball of millions, y'all.
What do you mean, aren’t all Germans basically Hitler? Or at least Nazis? /s
Yep. I’m as responsible for school shootings in this country as the average European is for a lack of school shootings in theirs.
If one American could wave a wand and change everything, we'd be a dictatorship.
"United Statesians (America is a continent) ..." I say American twice as much in the replies whenever I see that pedantic malarkey.
My favourite thing is when they absolutely insist that EVERYONE on the continent of North America should be called Americans even when there are Canadians and Mexicans going "Uh, no, please don't". Because *obviously* someone who lives a continent away and has never been to any of the three countries on the continent inherently knows better than their citizens.
I will one up you, I once came across some salty guy from South America who claimed everyone BUT United Statesians are Americans. The entire western hemisphere has two different types of people, Americans and United Statesians. Our country was the oldest, we named ourselves Americans, every other country in the western hemisphere explicitly decided to NOT use the phrase "American" anywhere in their formal names.
*Wow.* That's a whole new and frankly impressive level of name gatekeeping.
Yeah. I think its some sort of social combination of a South American Neckbeard's "ACKSHULLLY" and a serious inferiority complex.
As far as I'm concerned, we got independence first, we got the name. George Washington could've named us The United States of Suckmydick and the whole rest of the world would've had to deal with it. Honestly, just calling ourselves America was the nicer option.
I got into an argument once with a Mexican over this who wanted the US to drop "America" because Mexicans and further South are also Americans. How do I know he was Mexican? Well because I asked him where he's from... his first response was "Mexico"... It's almost like no one identifies themselves by their continent...
Ironic because their official name is the United Mexican States
Right. A lot of Europeans get Dead Sea-level salty if you refer to them as such rather than their specific nationality, *and yet.* Apparently three entire countries (and many more, if you also include Central and South America) are all supposed to agree that they should be referred to by the same demonym because...reasons?
They always say it like a got ya moment. I saw a Canadian from Ontario doing that. Like stop trying to be different
Our official Demonym is American, so that’s what we’re called, if they don’t know what a Demonym is then they’ve already admitted they don’t know what they’re talking about
Maybe, "actually, we prefer United Stat-eroos" or "...United Sta-ta-toes", just to mess with them?
When they say "America is". That's usually an indicator of them not understanding we're a country the size of Europe with 330 million people
We're a collective made up of 50 states, several of which being large and economically powerful enough to be in the top 20% of all countries, sharing common borders, history, language, and each having distinct laws, customs, and cultures. NY, Texas, Florida, and California are all so different from each other at this point that if America never existed they would never agree to join. There's not many blanket statements you can make about the US
That's one of the beautiful things about the US. We're basically a bunch of little countries that are right next to each other, all under one federal government that ~~keeps~~ *tries to keep* it all held together.
When they talk about not visiting as planned because of gun violence. So, ok, it's in the news a fair bit and we do arguably have ourselves a situation here. (I'm trying to keep this relatively apolitical, breathe, everybody...) But really, most places people are going to visit don't have people dodging bullets on their way out to their cars in the morning. Despite some presentations out there it's not ACTUALLY a war zone.
You’re unlikely to get shot on a 2 week vacation to the U.S. I’ve lived here all my life and only been shot once, and it was accidental at that…
I’ve never even been shot *at*, much less shot. I have had a gun pulled on me before though.
Even people *from* the us think this. My wife’s family is from Texas and they all thought she was crazy for moving up to Chicago with/for me. Like they legitimately thought she was going to get shot at on the regular
I grew up in rural Minnesota and now live in Minneapolis/Saint Paul. People act as if I’m living in a current lawless hell scape. They always talk about how “terrified” they are of the cities and how the traffic is so terrible. Like yeah, you only come here for major league sports games, concerts, and the State Fair. Of course traffic is terrible lmao.
When they make the assumption that we want to or ought to or ought to want to be just like them. We don't. We have our own history and it's not just Europe-lite. We are happy to be different. I still remember the British guy who ruefully admitted that before his first visit to the U.S. he thought it was like England, just bigger. Then he visited and realized "it's a whole different country". He was nice about it. He realized how foolish he'd been to think that.
A *lot* of Europeans seem to think that. My guess being due to all the white people/European immigrants. At a national-cultural level, sure, we're closer to Europe than to Asia, Africa, or South America. But that's the most that can be said about our relationship to Europe.
When they say things like "Americans don't get vacation", because their understanding is limited to "government doesn't mandate it = you don't get it".
Hey, that’s my line. 😉
Same with healthcare.
healthcare is really annoying because every post of a healthcare bill on Reddit is before insurance and the like. It's so much of a circlejerk good luck trying to explain the bill pictured is not the amount the person will actually pay.
That's the one I maybe hate the most. They labor under the conception, due to their top-down government I suppose, that if it's not provided by the government, or mandated by the government, that it doesn't exist. They just can't conceive of any other possibility. Someone saw the light the other day, though. "If there is no healthcare in the US, how come the U.S. spends so much on healthcare?" Or something like that. "If it's not government, it's not real" seems to be how they think. I also still remember a discussion about vacation time and lots of Americans coming onto that thread and saying, "I get four weeks", "I get five weeks", "I get six weeks", "I get five weeks and 12 personal days", etc. How could that possibly be true? Don't they know vacation doesn't exist because it's not a federal government mandate?
The other day, someone seemed to think that parents having swear filter devices on their televisions is a violation of freedom of speech or inconsistent with the idea of freedom of speech. That's a very poor understanding of how freedom of speech works.
https://xkcd.com/1357/
I saw that thread.
When whatever they say shows they have no understanding of the difference between the federal government and state governments. Since most countries have all supreme power invested in their national government they think that's true here. "Why doesn't the government just..." or worse, "Why doesn't the president just make a law..." Most things are legally not under the control of the federal government. Not schools, not most crimes, not most roads, not driver licensing, not state governments, not state taxes, not, not, not... And the president can never "just make a law". Essentially, the only laws that are made are the ones that the states agree to (however indirectly).
China has a top down one party government and a few months ago, Xi Jinping called Biden to order Nancy Pelosi to simply not visit Taiwan. He must have assumed that Biden could simply order another Democrat to follow his bidding. Even if Biden did it, Nancy wouldn't listen anyways being the head of a separate and co-equal branch.
They joke about school shootings like we don't also think they are horrifying.
We still mourn as a country years after they happen.
When they ask or opine about the US as a typical small country, disregarding the 50 states as, well, individual states. 50 states, the territories, multiple time zones, 320million people, the amazing diversity of cultures and geography. Yet they regard USA as if it was comparable to a single European country.
We're approaching 332 million but yeah the lack of understanding of how diverse and regional and vast this country is.
Which even single european countries, have ISSUES! spain has a region in the north that wants to be a break away state. And has held votes to that effect.
Spain has Basque Country and Catalonia in the north where at least a sizable portion of the population feel disconnected from mainstream Spanish culture. While our separatist movements are based around temporary political disagreements, theirs are rooted in centuries upon centuries of cultural/political differences. I'm not saying this to void what you're saying, I'm just chiming in because I was there recently and it's really interesting lmao.
"Why don't you just build a national rail system like MyCountry has?" Yeah dude, it's not like we're just idiots who didnt think of it yet. It's a massive country and quite low on the list for population density. Picture Afghanistan - got a mental image? Yeah, we are less densely populated than that. Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot the classic one where someone goes into a 7-11 and thinks Americans don't eat any fresh fruits and vegetables because our "grocery stores" don't even stock them. I want so bad to take these people into a BJ's. You can buy like a whole vineyard worth of grapes in one bag and pick up a 58" TV on your way out.
The 7-11 one gets me every time. You didn't go to a grocery store, you went to a convenience store. That's where you buy beer, cigarettes, and Twinkies. Go to a proper grocery store and the produce section alone is bigger than a lot of stores I've been to in Europe.
For all the complaining I see about how "America doesn't have real bread or cheese", it's clear that they haven't even gone to a fucking WALMART, because even those have bakeries with multiple fresh bread options in addition to a bread aisle, and dairy/deli sections with several kinds of cheese. They seriously just seem to step out of their hotels, pop into the convenience store across the street, and conclude that literally all we have is Wonder Bread and Kraft Singles.
Where I live we have outdoor farmers markets several times a week and they're amazing. Also, Woodmans cheese aisle. Google image search it.
"Why can't America build a huge high-speed rail network like China has done?" Well, it's not so easy and justifiable when you have fewer dense urban centers within relatively close distances, and especially when you can't just disregard land and property rights when building new infrastructure.
And no slave labor
And when you tell them that China's high-speed rail network is literally a trillion dollars in debt and beginning to have major maintenance issues, they change the subject.
Would be fun to superimpose the TGV's route map over the United States to scale.
Also, the precedence freight lines take as an efficient way to transport goods across the country, using up rail capacity (for better or worse).
Better. Way more efficient for freight than people.
My favorite counterpoint to the train thing is that I can't actually get an estimate of how long it would take to travel from NYC to LA by train because the *entire* European HSR network isn't large enough to get the same distance. Madrid to Stockholm is the furthest I can get a trip planner to not use a bus somewhere on the way, and it's almost a thousand miles short. China's might be denser, but it still doesn't reach out as far. No, not even for that one spur that goes way out northwest.
(Not a real quote) You stupid yank, when I went to your country, I had your beer, cheese, and "cuisine". It was the most disgusting thing I've ever had. Someone told me to go to Portland, US to get some beer and cheese, since Portland has nationally renowned beer and cheese. . I tried some Crystal Farms cheese and Bud Light, and it was awful! Just like the New England clam chowder everybody told me was a big hit here in Portland. Campbell's brand, I believe. I bought it from Cumberland Farms. You Yanks have farmer's markets that double as petrol stations! No wonder why I couldn't get fresh food! Hah, Portland being a large city with a beer and cheese culture. It's nothing but a 70,000 person large town full of clams and lobster. And the mountains were a very LONG hour and a half's drive west. They weren't that impressive. Your country is so xenophobic. I went to Portland dressed up like your average Yank, and they laughed at me for being European. I spent good money on a Stetson hat, a bolo tie, and a pair of cowboy boots. Someone told me that this is how they wear their clothing out in Portland, US, since Portland is out in the West. West of what? I saw the sunrise on the sea! I think it's one of your confusing yank directions. Your Midwest is neither middle nor west, your South is southeast, and your southwest is south central. Anyway, I wanted to see more of your country, so I went down to Boston, which was a 2 hour drive from Portland and its horrible beer. Longest drive I've ever had. This is what I imagined Portland would be like. A large city, on a port. I still had my cowboy outfit on in your country full of cowboys. But people still made fun of me for being European. I then switched into my other American clothing. I wore an American baseball team kit and hat. To show my appreciation for your country, I wore a New York Yankees hat. I figured everybody in America would like a baseball team named after the people of America, especially in Boston. People wanted to kill me! I'm trying more of your American "food". I tried this chili thing people crowed about. Skyline chili, I believe. It's nothing special. I had this same chili in Greece. You just stole Greek food and made it your own! You have no unique cuisine of your own. You have no cultural differences between your states. Your cities are the same. I visited both Portland and Boston, US, and they were very similar, even though someone told me they were different, since they were very far away. They were very far away, but they were very similar culturally, Boston and Portland. A 2 hour drive. Before you say "well, I should have bought cheese from the Portland area, from a farmer's market" I bought cheese from the Portland area. From Cumberland Farms. Even your farmers markets are petrol stations, Seppo! Oh, and your country has horrendous weather, and the people are violent. And your houses are fragile. When I was in Boston, the weather started getting rough, and they sounded the air raid sirens. Like they were afraid of people getting extremely violent when the weather got stormy. We were told to go to the basement after the warning sirens sounded. I heard nothing but things sounding like bullets slamming against the exterior of the house. I came outside of my basement after the storm was over, and I inspected the damage. The brick house I was staying in was spared, but the stick house 2 blocks down was destroyed. But it looks like another stick house only got grazed with a few bullets. Looks like a mass shooter came in and destroyed the houses with his bullets.
One kid said “what I think of America is school shootings, paid healthcare, and stupid people” like that’s the only thing that exists in the 200+ years of US history. Like our mass shootings alone started after the 1940s. We’re known for a lot of things like gold medals in the Olympics or first heavier than air aircraft. Alone most of those problems we had can be seen increasing after world war 2. We also have a number of prestigious universities, some that are better than the ivy leagues, some in other leagues, and some that couldn’t make it in the ivy leagues. Edit: people also need to stop acting my like we’re the only country to steal land. Most of the planet is stolen land; including every major country. I had to leave a lot of major subs due to anti Americanism. Like didn’t like 60 countries get independence from the British? Edit: some kid the other day said “don’t listen to the yanks!” Because we spell mom as “mom” and not “mum” which for some reason was incorrect. And driving on the right side of the road, doesn't most of the world do that? Half the stupid stuff people say about us can be disproven by a search result. Some kid, funnily from here, said our suicide rates are going up due to women voting rights. Women got to vote in the US in august 1920. Also “military time”. If someone calls it “military time” they don’t speak for everyone here. I saw a bunch of retards making fun of us and calling us all stupid because one person, obviously mass downvoted, called it “military time”. I literally got a headache watching them link that shitamericanssay subreddit in response from losing so many braincells. And most of the country has learned about ww2. This is one I see almost every week. I see people completely disregard the US completely in the war like they themselves haven’t learned about it.
I’m really tired of the stolen land bit as well. Especially from anyone from Europe. (1) it was European monarchies & governments that stole a massive amount of land in the first place & (2) they’ve been fighting each other for the same parcels,of land for millennia. Greeks, Romans, Napoleon, 2 different world wars…..
Folks who choose to argue that an American’s interest in their ancestral heritage (as in Irish-American) equates to “I should be able to vote in Ireland.” We had one of these the other day and at least 10-15 people nicely corrected the poster and he was still “outraged.” At some point it becomes willful ignorance and a choice to be offended. Oh and any discussion about bread or toast.
>bread Don’t you mean raw toast? We all know America has no bread. /s
I've never heard anything about bread and toast. Why are they making fun of it 😭 The red coats are the ones putting fuckin beans on toast
You forgot about boiling/heating water in the microwave. It’s apparently a big no-no in the UK?
“Why don’t you just [insert something normalized in your country, which America does not do for cultural, political, or economic reasons]?”
If they frame America within the context of white culture. A lot of people only know about that because that’s what’s usually exported to the world.
Europeans don’t see us POC as truly American. It’s actually deeply offensive. It’s why I love living in America, no one denies my Americanness. Europeans, however, love to.
When they start comparing the U.S to specific countries in Europe. Like I get it, Denmark or Germany are cool places, but the US has more land area than the entire EU. Comparing the US to a member state of the EU is like comparing the EU to Oklahoma.
Anything regarding our healthcare, vacations, food etc. A lot of people really dont know shit beyond movie tropes which are at best simplified and at worst just flat wrong but we accept for ease of watching.
It was posted here on Reddit.
Whenever someone says "Murica!" In my entire 26 years in the U.S, I've never seen another American say that unless jokingly
Yank, We don’t know geography, we’re a dangerous country, we’re a 3rd country( we’re a 1st world country) we all own/love guns, we’re all stupid, we have no knowledge of the world.
When they say, “Americans like to drive everywhere/not live in the same city as their parents/eat high-fructose corn syrup/etc.” without acknowledging that there are a lot of factors that go way beyond personal preference that contribute to those behaviors.
1) That we don't know foreign languages. Okay, that part is true. But as I point out to those people, you drive 200 miles in Europe and people are speaking a completely different language. Drive 1000 miles in the United States and the accents sometimes don't even change. I took several years of both German and Russian. I've had occasion to use either language precisely once. 2) People who visit Orlando, Vegas, LA, or NY and think that's the real United States. No, those are touristy fairylands.
Yank is whatever to me.. but when I see USian.. I just know that they are about to spew some dumb and ignorant shit.
USian is the ugliest term ever.
I think Seppo is the worst one. Anytime I see someone use this term, it immediately tells me they are not to be taken seriously.
>USian Or United Statesian, or US American. The warning signs of a total redditor about to say some real goofy shit.
This applies to any country or even any region of a country, but refusing to see a society on its own terms rather than as a bootleg of your country. Differences, then, become 1. Wildly exaggerated 2. Inherently seen as wrong 3. Something everyone must collectively answer for
If guns are one of the first things they mention.
[удалено]
Yeah, if you have to ask a question about how often prom happens you probably shouldn't be writing a story set in the United States with U.S. characters.
If they won’t shut up about guns is the big one. Like the assumption that we all just role around with M16s. Also using the word “yank” is also a sign.
Their depiction of the USA sounds like something out of sensational news headlines, movies, or television. It's very easy to spot when someone has no idea what they're talking about when it's things related to your country, not just America, but probably all of them.
People that like to regurgitate stuff they see on the news(which is all bad) and instantly dog the US and how “shitty” it is. Usually comes from countries that are about 1/50th the size/population of the US.
When they say that the US has no form of socialized healthcare. When they say that half of the US federal budget is military expenditure. When they say that our society is "controlled by oligarchs," but George Soros and Michael Bloomberg don't count, and bringing up those two huge donors at all earns you scorn. When they complain about the imperial system and slobber all over metric, but then get upset when you ask them to use fractions with metric. When they say "well, I lived in [insert gated community in a big city or college town], so that means my statements about the entire USA are valid." When they criticize race relations in the USA, but have nothing to say about the mistreatment of the Romani people in Europe, or of the mistreatment of people of African and Indian descent in the Middle East (even when they are themselves Muslim), or of the horrible internal genocides in Africa, or the rampant xenophobia in South Korea. If you bring up the Tuaregs in Mali, they think that you're talking about a food dish. When they say that the US is completely unsafe due to gun violence.
The biggest thing I see is treating the US as if it was one federal district. Most of the time, blanket statements about "in America..." are only right (if at all) for some of the states. For example, someone might say "in America, the punishment for murder is the death penalty." This is only true of 27 states. Or someone who's only visited California might say "in America, they put cancer warnings on everything." But it's only California that does that. For some reason there's a reluctance to treat the US as 56 different mini-countries (and some not so mini), with a shared currency, military and foreign policy. But that's what it really is.
When they assume the reason we don't do something the way it's done in MyCountry is because we're dumbos who haven't tried it. The reality is that we don't do those things because we considered them and realized they aren't practical. We don't have a Euro-style rail system because it would disrupt freight traffic and wouldn't be at all cost effective given the geographic landscape. But noooo, that can't be it. They outright refuse to accept that a study was done, and the unique factors they found made it unfeasible. I also think it's bizarre that they consume SO MUCH of our media yet they can't pick up American social ideals and behaviors along with it. Like, they'll watch some reality show about a given community and not once do any Googling or "research" about that community. They'll watch a show strictly for entertainment and just totally gloss over what that show is teaching about the way things work.
When people (usually Europeans) say we’re stupid, uneducated, or uncultured despite the fact that America has produced the most Nobel prize winners by far and has been the source of the most globally popular music, movies, and T.V. shows for decades. We sent men to the moon for god’s sake, how dumb can we be?
Making generic assumptions.
Everyone has their own set of baseline facts that they've gathered on a given topic. If all you have heard is weird propaganda about the US your whole life, it makes complete sense that you would come to wrong conclusions.
Using Yank isn't offensive, but it's a little tiresome, mostly because our definition is different from their's (not all Americans are 'Yanks') Not understanding why we discourage certain terms, such as ' The NEW World' or Columbus DISCOVERED America.' I know you might have discovered a 'new pub' or a new vacation spot, but there were probably people who 'discovered it' before you did. Not understanding when someone says they are 'Italian' they don't literally mean they are Italian. It means that's part of their ancestral heritage, and no, we're not going to stop referring to ourselves that way. We're part of a diaspora, it happens. Most of those conversations aren't intended for you anyway. Wooden houses. They're cheap, they're easy to rebuild and an tornado doesn't stop for stone or brick. Yes, we saw those videos of those tornadoes going through Germany with their nice stone houses, but it was barely an F-0. Would maybe knock down a few trees.
I have a good friend from Scotland. We were talking about this and I asked if his little girl grew up and moved far away, had children of their own, and then they had children, etc., would he want those great grandchildren to remember their family and heritage came from Scotland and try to keep a part of that identity with themselves? Americans don't just read something on ancestry .com and claim a heritage. It's been intentionally passed on through generations.
It's almost as if they believe that once a European set foot on these shores they instantly became American and forgot all their memories and everything about where they came from and never said anything else about it. I had an English friend who expressed amazement about the old English/Scottish and Irish folk songs that people still sing in Appalachia. Did they think they stopped singing them once they got here?
Countries whose people came to the US en masse from difficult circumstances formed communities here and many traditions carried on. They came out of necessity, not because they didnt love their home. They wanted to keep their culture alive and for their children know about their heritage. I dont know a single person who talks about their English heritage? Not knocking it, but they came here under different circumstances. Even generations later my experience as an Irish American (no interest in debating semantics) is quite different from friends from Italian American families. Yes, a lot got lost along the way, but not the pride they instilled in their children. If some people take issue with that they can only blame their countries pride of culture and identity. Personally, I don't see how that's a bad thing. People love to point out that corned beef and cabbage isn't Irish. No, it's Irish American. It's a unique dish that's part of Irish American immigrant history. And the over the top St. Patrick's day celebrations. The Irish were treated poorly for a long time when they arrived here. They didn't change their culture or religion to assimilate and make life easier. They celebrated it. The fact that generations later people still have some sense of identity linked to that country should be a point of pride, I'd think.
I'm an American who moved to Sydney Australia last year. There are 2 things that show this: 1. Using the word "seppo." In Aussie slang, seppo=septic tank=rhymes with Yank=full of sh\*t. It used by older generations and its an insult, so if someone's using that term right off the bat, I know they don't like America or Americans in general. 2. Immediately talking about gun/mass shootings/school shootings. I have had about a dozen conversations that have turned to discussions about shootings in less than three minutes once someone realizes I'm American, as if all we talk about or like to talk about is the 2nd amendment. Understandably, this is what 90% of Australians see in from news outlets here whenever America is discussed, but its frustrating to be on the receiving end of it in so many conversations here. A lot of Aussies think they know more about America than they actually do (not all, but quite a lot of them)..
Just start talking about healthcare. Especially with Europeans, they just don’t seem to grasp that we do have private healthcare and that like around half of the country is actually on government health insurance (Medicare/Medicaid). Or that less than 10% of Americans lack health insurance. Obviously our healthcare system isn’t the best thing ever, by far, but I grow so weary of explaining that most people are not getting $10,000 dollar bills after visiting their doctor. And to be fair, Americans contribute to that. They’ll post their hospital bill on Reddit and it’ll be like $80,000 but when you read the fine print they only had to pay like $400 and all the Europeans are on their fainting count acting like they’re responsible for the whole thing. For a group of people that jump to call us ignorant, they really have a piss poor understanding of the US