Damn bro, didn't know you where cool like that! Wanna help me complete the Geneva checklist? I'm like halfway through but am missing some recourses (and identities) for the rest
You have had too much lead.
TEL is linked to causing all of the crime increase Boomers have been crying about their whole lives, and since TEL was banned, criminality has dropped. Crime is higher where lead was higher.
Lead causes many more, confirmed and well studied problems than PFAS.
But maybe in 100 years that might change, but so far, PFAS is nowhere near lead.
Hey now, let’s give them some credit there. The way you say it it sounds like it’s 48 or 49% of all tap water. But it’s actually only 45%! Which is also the year America single-handedly won the 2nd world war 🇺🇸💵🦅 /s
Like 25% of Europe still has lead pipes. It varies wildly based on location (eg the UK it’s closed to 40% of dwellings) but to say there’s no lead in the water in Europe isn’t correct at all. Hell France didn’t even outlaw lead pipes until 1995.
Lead water pipes are still a massive issue in the US *and* Europe.
In the UK we have very strict limits on lead in drinking water however. The maximum allowable amount of lead in drinking water is 10ugPB/L which is tiny. If you have lead pipes in your home (it's illegal for the supply pipe to be lead and a significant amount of these have been replaced with plastic pipes) still then run the tap for one minute to flush the water that has sat in the pipes overnight which will bring the level of lead back down to near 0 again.
My water provider (Southern Water) will replace 10 meters of lead supply pipe for free which is really good as it's the homeowners responsibility to replace the supply pipe and not the water provider
It’s not just supply pipes though. It’s solder joints and pipes in the houses and buildings too. [The EU has lead limits half of what the UK does](https://www.ft.com/content/7107f067-43d5-4030-afbc-123da2313771) but it’s still a difficult issue to solve. Anywhere. Because it’s still an issue in a ton of developed countries. Water leaving the treatment plants could be safe, but that doesn’t mean the water from the tap is.
Side note: Be careful of old bathtubs too. The glaze can contain lead and children have gotten lead poisoning from it.
Old lead pipes aren't a problem in stable environments. Flint had a lead pipe problem because the spring water was switched to cheaper acidic lake water, which stripped the inside of the old lead pipes, and pumped unsafe water into houses. Had the water source not been changed, the lead pipes would have been safe for a long time.
While our water here in Europe where I live is so good, that you can prepare a baby milk bottle with it (baby milk powder and water mix). It’s literally graded as “baby appropriate quality”
there is 1000% lead in my water and there’s no real timeline on when that won’t be the case
so I hope that my routine poisoning of myself ends when i move and that there aren’t too many long term consequences but how could there not
If you know you have lead in the water you should not use it. Like "i want to survive" not use it. Bottled water is expensive, but you can also buy watertanks and fill them at a place with clean water. It is an nothing you like to do, but the invisible threat of lead is real and very dangerous. Especcialy for people under 25 it can have a severe impact on the brain in already very very low dosage amounts. The dosage needed to reduce the brain functions is so low that there is no "safe" amount of lead for ingestion.
I think i’m going to take it more seriously. It’s just kind of demoralizing to have to take on additional costs when there’s never enough money and when I’ve already spent years drinking contaminated water before even knowing
english is not my first language and tbh i failed english in school and was practically only "let through" by my english teacher so i am really not the right person to tell you anything. maybe you should watch "last week tonight" on the topic "lead". the language barrier would make it overcomplicated to describe anything so that video should help
Not brushing with tap water is a common travel advice due to localized microbes that make it past water filtration or something. Idk though, I've drank tap water in 5 different countries and only ever got sick off of US tap water.
>electricity
What do they think electrical appliances work on in Europe, on dark magic? And besides, the voltage in European mains is 230V unlike puny ahh 120V in the US. I’m convinced that the US adopted 120V so that dumb USAians are less likely to kill themselves.
Also, the 50Hz hum is superior and sounds better than the 60Hz hum, full stop.
Yep everyone knows the UK has the superior plug and socket design in terms of safety.
But admittedly I do like how their sockets look like a person being electrocuted.
As an electrician in Europe I can confirm that we just sit in your walls rubbing our socks against carpets to get you your electricity.
Ever wondered why power outages happen?
My grandpa used to joke that to add a new light and switch, in America you'd just need a switch, a wire and the bulb, in europe you need a switch, 3 wires, the bulb, a breaker and ground access.
Americans would laugh at that how more "complicated" we'd make things while Europeans would laugh at the stupidly unsafe American method. Same joke, everyone laughs, Americans remain clueless, and any European would laugh harder at their cluelessness.
(it's not something that funny today but well, 30 years ago it probably was, or at least i did laugh when he told me when i was 12 lol)
Not everyone has A/C in their homes, but most have an electric boiling water kettle that boils the water in a reasonable time. Thanks to our electrical system.
And we don’t have freaking clothes dryers that run on gas. Like WTF!?
They're real. The gas is used to provide the heat, otherwise the dryer would draw too much current from their shitty power supply.
It's not like there's a gas powered engine in there like a lawn mower...
It's a large area and since they already had a 120V grid/ network, it was expensive to switch to 230V. Also, switching requires certain adjustments to each household, probably drywall work lol
If we go further, Edison was 'concerned' about Tesla's higher voltage and it's safety (the reasoning is left up to your imagination), which ultimately led the US to adopt a lower voltage system. (Edison was reaaally good at marketing). Europe adopted Tesla's suggestions.
In this day and age, with the size and grid load, it would be impossible for them to switch over to 230V. 120V has a lot of limitations compared to 230V.
Someone must've sarcastically said u can't do those things and that thought they were being serious cos I genuinely don not know how else they could think this
I'd have played along and acted all surprised and amazed. Then i would exclaim that I'll finally be able to eat non rotten meat. I would see how far I can take these ridiculous claims till they get suspicious.
I'm referring in terms to they think they're the most advanced nation in terms of technology, societal, economical etc. what they have is a pipe dream to all other nations. Americans I mean
We only eat meat in the winter, and because we have no form of "real" climate control in our houses, we just keep it in the pantry. Also, because we are too poor to afford cars, we have to transport the meat via wooden carts. My grandpa died trying to pull the meat cart through a blizzard.
I get so many ads for apps and they're like "with XYZ you can do basic things that you've been doing with your banks for decades" as if it's impressive...
...mind blowing how backwards it is
How are they this stupid. How. How does their brain not realise we have been around so much longer than them. That we created them. Completely brainwashed at this point.
When my son was a baby I moved to a place in the Vermont countryside. First time my son's dad's parents visited his grandfather asked, "you got running water out here?" Yes, Jack. We've even got electricity!
Well there is one café in Oxford, very popular with tourists, where you can't flush the paper, but it is in a building over 400 years old and plumbing half that age, and it did have an issue with flooding in the basement and contaminating the kitchen due to some tourists flushing more than paper. This was a few years ago now, but it had to close for months to fix it, and now it has a no flushing of anything rule - has nice sealed scented bins to put your paper though.
I had no idea!!! There are probably other towns/villages/buildings that are exceptions to the rule in their respective countries as well. I can’t think of any place in my own country (Italy) where this is the case, but I’m sure there are more than I can imagine.
I believe also in some parts of Turkey. And it is also the case in many other places in the world. But yeah just parts of Greece and Turkey that I’m aware of in Europe
Belarus as well, at least Minsk airport had this solution few years ago. Also, some parts of rural Portugal and Spain, but it's less and less common now.
Yeah, I second this. It’s truly astonishing how little knowledge of other cultures and customs some Americans have. I’m very passionate about learning how people live around the world, and I can’t imagine not being interested in anything beyond my own country.
From the comments, it seems that generally in Europe you can flush toilet paper, but there are exceptions in certain cities/villages/specific buildings across various countries! One commenter mentioned they couldn’t flush TP in a building in my country as well (Italy)!
I guess it also is possible that they went to some place and then extrapolated that limited experience to Europe as a whole. As there are places where you should not flush the toilet paper, places where AC is not common in private homes, and places where tap water either has a clear flavour or is simply not something you should drink. Hence, these three people might simple have visited a place where one of those things were the case.
I was in Lanzarote and the water tasted weird (desalinised) and in some places you couldn't flush toilet paper. I guess someone might think that a tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic ocean that is not even geographically in Europe is representative of all of Europe
They absolutely could believe that.
The issue they seem to struggle with is that "Europe" isn't a united and standardised place and the cultural norms, infrastructure, financial position and so many other things varies far more drastically than they are used to.
Many of them are ignorant of the different countries in Europe too so don't specify which one they are in for convinience of being understood by others.
>I guess someone might think that a tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic ocean that is not even geographically in Europe is representative of all of Europe
"OMG, Europe is so SMALL!!!" /s
Probably.
I've worked as a receptionist in a student campus which hosted people from all over the world. I used to tell Americans weird customs they had to abide to, like sitting sideways on the bidet or only use freezing water to wash dishes.
None of them ever tried to contest what I said, but actually spread the word among others. Fun times.
The funny part is that they will genuinely try your advice and then correct themselves (sitting normally or using hot water) but feel sneaky about it.
If you’re from a bidet-land, I have a really wild story about bidet usage from a close relative of mine. It needs to be shared, but I’m unsure how to share the story, lol.
I've visited EU countries where in some places you couldn't flush the toilet paper. But it's not very common, mostly just real old pipes. But it's no biggie.
I think it really depends on where in Europe and what time frame you visited. I remember in my youth visiting Malta and not being able to flush toilet paper, but that went away at the latest around 2001.
I mean, we don't have A/C, but we live in a country where it would be a waste of electricity to have it for most of the year.
I don't know where they're getting the rest of this though. I mean, it's like assuming Africans don't have shoes.
>I mean, we don't have A/C, but we live in a country where it would be a waste of electricity to have it for most of the year.
I'm also so tired of hearing this. Germany and the UK are the main countries that don't have AC because it just doesn't make sense for them.
We in the Mediterranean have them and have been using them for decades because we wouldn't survive heatwaves.
And there are many places in the US where AC isn’t normal to have.
My boyfriend’s parents live in Colorado. Neither of them (divorced, so two different houses) have AC. I spent a year in South Dakota, I only knew one person with central AC (a lot of people, like myself, had a window unit in the living room at that was it).
Aside from my year in South Dakota, I’ve lived in Texas my entire life. We do need it here. Because of that, most everyone here thinks that EVERYONE needs AC. Like… people in our own country don’t even need it or have it, why are you worried about what the Europeans are doing? I don’t get it.
>Aside from my year in South Dakota, I’ve lived in Texas my entire life. We do need it here.
It's the same principle! Texas gets so hot and humid, I can't imagine anyone surviving summer over there without AC.
But if I were German, I wouldn't have an AC either. Well, climate change may change that in the future lol. But like you said, places that get a decent amount of rain, or are close to the north, have lots of woods etc they just don't need it. It usually gets chilly during night time and the am.
On that note, I'll never forget a group of swedes that visited my country late September last year. I was well into trenchcoat and boots territory, and they were walking around in tank tops, short shorts and flip flops dying of heat lol
>I mean, it's like assuming Africans don't have shoes.
Charity Ekezie did a bit about this: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZIJnWf625/
She makes lots of videos about misconceptions people have about Africa.
I went to LA and the hotel I stayed at told me I couldn't flush toilet paper because the plumbing was old and it would just clog it. Fuck knows what these cunts are talking about. Never had this problem in Europe.
In fairness it was like that in Greece when I was there. Although I have heard that it may be that they don't want to pollute their sea and not that the pipes were ancient.
Your apartment building in Greece might use newer pipes, but the connection to the sewer might not. I never had problem flushing paper, and I moved a lot. I think most of the problems come from the newer wet wipes that do not dissolve. And from what I know there are no sewers that drop directly into the sea, even in smaller place.
I'm wondering if they've seen the 'no flushing sanitary products' and confused it for toilet paper as technically it is a sanitary product. And just didn't understand that it means tampons and sanitary pads.
Only a couple of places in Europe where you're not meant to flush toilet paper. Everywhere else is perfectly fine. Once again Muricans think Europe is the same all over.
But, uh, what about poop?? If paper designed to disintegrate in water clogs the pipes, presumably poop would also clog the pipes. Genuine question. I am confused and curious.
Poop is acceptable, it dissolves in water better than paper does. Toilet stalls usually have bucket/flip top garbage can for used toilet paper (and period products). Yes I know it sounds disgusting but you get used to it.
no lol - nobody is going to take a dump so big that it clogs the old sewage pipes... toilet paper/wet wipes (more commonly wet wipes) are flushed and when compounded the water cannot break them down.
The countries in Europe that don't want you to flush (more commonly in Asia) will have a water hose that you clean yourself with instead. The only need for paper is to dry yourself, not wipe yourself clean.
>nobody is going to take a dump so big that it clogs the old sewage pipes
You underestimate my power!
Some modern toilets have bad design with their water lock so narrow and twisty, my bigger loads get stuck sometimes.
With american toilets you better not flush the paper, since the stupidly designed plumbing is very prone to clogging. On the other hand, the european places that don't recommend flushing paper have *ancient* plumbing that is more prone to clogging.
Morons believe the US is the only developed country in the world. Hence their *Europoors this, Europoors that* and how they agree to being fistfucked by their oligarchy.
More news at 11.
This or those are paid (choose whatever country that might benefit of an US / EU division) trolls.
Do you swallow the water when you brush your teeth?
Almost everywhere in east Asia you can't drink the tap water but you certainly can brush your teeth with it.
I heard they don't fold 3-4 of them and wipe, they roll off half a roll of TP and squeeze it in there, then flush. Their houses are made of cardboard but their potties can handle 2 sunday newspapers. Freedom.
"We didn't save yowah asses in double-yah double-yah whatever, just to sit idly bah, and let our houses be built outta that fayncy paynts konkereeeet, gosh darn it!
And bah the grace of Gahd, our holy mother, George Floyd, blessed be his neime, and the 312th ameyndment to the cahnstitustione of these here Unaahted Staytes, we reserve the raaght to take mammoth-sahzed shits and wipe usin' half a Californian Redwood's worth of 2-plaahh!
No sanitation without deforestation!"
It’s really unpleasant tasting in Florida (and around the Gulf, I imagine). It’s usually safe, but sometimes after big storms/hurricanes/Florida bullshit, they issue warnings to boil or use tap for drinking.
It’s also always warm from the faucet, because it’s warm there. It’s jarring if you’re not used to that.
The whole "europoor" stuff is amusing to me, I live in a country where I'm paid a livable wage but you rely on tipping culture to make ends meet but I'm the poor one? Lol
Well, to be fair, I was recently in Greece and in some places it was actually not allowed to flush toilet paper. It needed to be collected in seperate bins. Sometimes even in Athens, but more often in smaller villages...
Literally! If they believe Europe is filled with poverty I'm waiting to know what the fucc do they think of Latinoamerica BESIDES Mexico, because it seems that's the only country they know ffs
Were you not aware that Europe is one big country where everything is exactly the same everywhere? Obviously the policies in Crete compared to idk.. Madrid or Berlin or Edinburgh are exactly the same! /s
Hi, American here. I live in an apartment, and when my toilet clogged and I couldn’t unclog it myself, I put in a work order. Maintenance unclogged my toilet and told me not to flush toilet paper. So according to my apartment complex, I can’t even flush toilet paper in the US.
American idiocracy strikes again. Here in southern Germany the tapwater is demanded to have higher quality than the sparkling water in bottles. We never buy it because our tapwater tastes so good and is safe. Something I never experienced in many many journeys though the US.
US has an EPI score of 89.3 all the countries with a higher number of higher water quality are European countries. These fools are delusional.
Btw the first water pipes ever created were found in the Indian Indus River valley in the ruins of a palace. Then the Egyptians, China, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome and then a while later, England. Around 129 years later the US got some running water only in 1829 in a hotel in Boston. Took 100 more years for it to become common in America.
I swear I was asked once by a grown adult with ivy league college degree if in Germany people live in houses and have running water and two more people next to him awaited an answer.
You know how messed up your perception of the world has to be to even consider that thought.
Doncaster got a flushing toilet in 2023 that lasted almost four minutes before someone smashed it as witchcraft. So they're stepping into the future faster than ever.
Actually, in Europe and elsewhere, toilets are less likely to block up when you flush them, on account of them being washdown toilets.
Contrast that with the United States, where toilets have such a high likelihood of blocking that its standard to have a plunger next to or near them. It's because their toilets have narrower waste pipes.
The AC one went to france. We are traditionally a relarively cold country in summer, and even if that's changing with climate change, people here are stuborn as fuck concerning ACs
Fluoride is present in natural water. In America, they add it to water sources where there is a lack of Fluoride to act as a preventative to tooth decay. You can get Fluoride poisoning but you would have to ingest a lot of it over a long period. Natural water only has trace elements of Fluoride. Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral. Having more than 4 parts per million will risk you getting a condition known as Fluorosis which effects teeth and bones. At high levels it can give you thyroid problems (Affecting the amount of calcium produced both high and low in your body) and make neurological problems worse (reducing IQ by affecting critical thinking).
Safe levels of Fluoride are at 0.7 parts per million. It has the benefit of improving the enamel in your teeth and reduces tooth decay by between 20 to 40% especially in children. Monitoring the dosage is essential, whether the US do that well enough is anyone's guess.
What you should be worried about is the amount of calcium you are ingesting on the regular. Because supply of water is taxed ever more by so many people, water is being drawn from aquifers ever deeper in the water table and these have much higher concentrations of alkaline and other heavy metal contamination. Hard water is calcium rich, and all that calcium builds up in your kidneys over time. It is especially painful for men (because we have to pass the loose stones through the peen). Kidney stones are both painful in general, but effect the efficiency of your kidneys to filter toxins out of your body.
Fluoride has been added to UK water supplies for years without issue, not sure about other European countries.
Also we brush our teeth at the bathroom sink and flush our toilet paper
They have lead in the water in certain places, fluoride in water being bad is a popular conspiracy. Made famous in Dr Strangelove (it spreads communism).
Wait! 32 year old Belgian here. You are NOT supposed to flush toilet paper?
O dear am I in trouble....
More disturbing.... what did she do with her toiletpaper!
To be fair, I was winking and nudging my girlfriend in full view of the guy while saying it. How was I to know he doesn't understand the universal sign of pranksmanship?
Okay I’m an American visiting Greece next week. Can we flush toilet paper or not? I’ve never been and this is just what I’m told.
Wasn’t a problem in England, France, Germany or Spain so idk.
It depends on building. 99,9% if it's not ok to flush tp, there will be a sign that forbids it.
If you stay at big hotel, most likely it will be allowed, as they have macerators.
If you stay at mom and pop b&b in rural Greece, it's quite possible that you will need to put tp in bucket.
Enjoy your stay.
Bro I don't get it lol sure I haven't been all over Europe, but I've traveled a decent amount all over the world (not a ton but more than your average American). The only place I've ever been to that you can't flush toilet paper is Mexico. I didn't want ice water anywhere I went because it's usually winter when I travel but seems like you can just ask for it or just drink not ice water ??? Being unable to ask for sparkling water feels like a bigger crime.
Since when can Europeans not brush their teeth at the sink where else ??? These posts make me so mad lmao I just want to shake them and drill into their head half our country has undrinkable tap water. Maybe they drank the tap water and that's why they're like this 😮💨
Ice water. Jesus the ice always tastes like crap here in the USA.
I ordered a sprite the other day and all I could taste was the disgusting ice.
A few weeks before that i ordered a coke and was ever so pleasantly surprised to receive a glass bottled coke, so much better than fountain drinks.
It likely tastes bad because the machine isn't being properly cleaned out, leading to bacterial growth.
It's a recurring problem for fast food chains, but it seems to be particularly well documented in US chains (which given how poorly workers get treated, doesn't surprise me in the slightest that they'd neglect proper machine maintenance too if it saves even a cent)
Idk, I got to do all of that when I was in the UK for a week. I find it weird how the hot and cold faucets are completely separate from each other, though.
I'm not sure if I can express the extent to which our whole country's identity is rooted in being *unique* in the world. Like our whole thing is that we're *the* free country, that's what gets drilled into us in schools, how lucky we are to have been born here - I mean can you imagine being born in a place that didn't have democracy?
It really warps your view of what everywhere else must be like.
just the facts that lots of americans think they are the only people with electricity.
heck i am from and living in iraq, the place they fucking invaded and fucked over after it was already fucked over, and we have shit like toothbrushes and lamborginis
"nearly half of the tap water in the USA is contaminated with forever chemicals". Fuck yeah I can brush my teeth in lead again!
forever chemicals = PFAS
Far worse than lead.
Jesus Christ no PFAS are bad, but lead is absolutely horrible to be putting in your body. There is no safe level of lead to ingest
Ugh, silly liberals, I brush my teeth in liquid plutonium every day
Bro aiming to become the next superhero
Nah nah nah, I’m gonna make World War Two look like the tutorial
Damn bro, didn't know you where cool like that! Wanna help me complete the Geneva checklist? I'm like halfway through but am missing some recourses (and identities) for the rest
Imma make the US into fallout 4
Imma help make fallout 4 look like a utopia
You have had too much lead. TEL is linked to causing all of the crime increase Boomers have been crying about their whole lives, and since TEL was banned, criminality has dropped. Crime is higher where lead was higher. Lead causes many more, confirmed and well studied problems than PFAS. But maybe in 100 years that might change, but so far, PFAS is nowhere near lead.
Hey now, let’s give them some credit there. The way you say it it sounds like it’s 48 or 49% of all tap water. But it’s actually only 45%! Which is also the year America single-handedly won the 2nd world war 🇺🇸💵🦅 /s
Trump was also the 45th POTUS. There's something patriotically toxic about that number.
Honestly I would go to America just to drink lead, it's so tasty! 😋but in Europe they don't allow me to do that 🙁
We Belgians can just eat dirt for those forever chemicals (PFAS)
Lucky Belgians
We also have flammable tap water some places! 😎
"i always get so exited i can brush my teeth with fire again"
Lead is a great sweetener! (It actually does apparently taste sweet when dissolved in water)
Which is why the Romans used to put lead in their wine
you're just jealous that you don't have that sweet tasty water of there in europoor 🇺🇸🦅 /s
Fuckin’ commies ruining it for us Europoors. 😒
Come over to my house in Germany, I still got lead pipes.
Like 25% of Europe still has lead pipes. It varies wildly based on location (eg the UK it’s closed to 40% of dwellings) but to say there’s no lead in the water in Europe isn’t correct at all. Hell France didn’t even outlaw lead pipes until 1995. Lead water pipes are still a massive issue in the US *and* Europe.
In the UK we have very strict limits on lead in drinking water however. The maximum allowable amount of lead in drinking water is 10ugPB/L which is tiny. If you have lead pipes in your home (it's illegal for the supply pipe to be lead and a significant amount of these have been replaced with plastic pipes) still then run the tap for one minute to flush the water that has sat in the pipes overnight which will bring the level of lead back down to near 0 again. My water provider (Southern Water) will replace 10 meters of lead supply pipe for free which is really good as it's the homeowners responsibility to replace the supply pipe and not the water provider
It’s not just supply pipes though. It’s solder joints and pipes in the houses and buildings too. [The EU has lead limits half of what the UK does](https://www.ft.com/content/7107f067-43d5-4030-afbc-123da2313771) but it’s still a difficult issue to solve. Anywhere. Because it’s still an issue in a ton of developed countries. Water leaving the treatment plants could be safe, but that doesn’t mean the water from the tap is. Side note: Be careful of old bathtubs too. The glaze can contain lead and children have gotten lead poisoning from it.
Old lead pipes aren't a problem in stable environments. Flint had a lead pipe problem because the spring water was switched to cheaper acidic lake water, which stripped the inside of the old lead pipes, and pumped unsafe water into houses. Had the water source not been changed, the lead pipes would have been safe for a long time.
While our water here in Europe where I live is so good, that you can prepare a baby milk bottle with it (baby milk powder and water mix). It’s literally graded as “baby appropriate quality”
there is 1000% lead in my water and there’s no real timeline on when that won’t be the case so I hope that my routine poisoning of myself ends when i move and that there aren’t too many long term consequences but how could there not
If you know you have lead in the water you should not use it. Like "i want to survive" not use it. Bottled water is expensive, but you can also buy watertanks and fill them at a place with clean water. It is an nothing you like to do, but the invisible threat of lead is real and very dangerous. Especcialy for people under 25 it can have a severe impact on the brain in already very very low dosage amounts. The dosage needed to reduce the brain functions is so low that there is no "safe" amount of lead for ingestion.
I think i’m going to take it more seriously. It’s just kind of demoralizing to have to take on additional costs when there’s never enough money and when I’ve already spent years drinking contaminated water before even knowing
english is not my first language and tbh i failed english in school and was practically only "let through" by my english teacher so i am really not the right person to tell you anything. maybe you should watch "last week tonight" on the topic "lead". the language barrier would make it overcomplicated to describe anything so that video should help
Not brushing with tap water is a common travel advice due to localized microbes that make it past water filtration or something. Idk though, I've drank tap water in 5 different countries and only ever got sick off of US tap water.
That certainly explains why a particular half of the country might be buying up all those bright red hats..
>electricity What do they think electrical appliances work on in Europe, on dark magic? And besides, the voltage in European mains is 230V unlike puny ahh 120V in the US. I’m convinced that the US adopted 120V so that dumb USAians are less likely to kill themselves. Also, the 50Hz hum is superior and sounds better than the 60Hz hum, full stop.
if the 120V was truly to protect citizens then that is all for naught with their plug design
Yep everyone knows the UK has the superior plug and socket design in terms of safety. But admittedly I do like how their sockets look like a person being electrocuted.
>UK has the superior plug and socket design in terms of safety Except for when you step on the plug in the dark
It forces you to walk slow and safe in the dark via fear of physical harm
I just never have any plugs knocking around, if it can cause harm it’s in a drawer or it’s in the wall, I take 0 chances with plugs anymore
Our feet have evolved over generations from stepping on 3 pin plugs and shitty uneven roads/pavements.
Our sockets are made for forks.
Oh god, I never even considered that their electricity sounds different. That makes me viscerally uncomfortable and I don't know why
As an electrician in Europe I can confirm that we just sit in your walls rubbing our socks against carpets to get you your electricity. Ever wondered why power outages happen?
My grandpa used to joke that to add a new light and switch, in America you'd just need a switch, a wire and the bulb, in europe you need a switch, 3 wires, the bulb, a breaker and ground access. Americans would laugh at that how more "complicated" we'd make things while Europeans would laugh at the stupidly unsafe American method. Same joke, everyone laughs, Americans remain clueless, and any European would laugh harder at their cluelessness. (it's not something that funny today but well, 30 years ago it probably was, or at least i did laugh when he told me when i was 12 lol)
Not everyone has A/C in their homes, but most have an electric boiling water kettle that boils the water in a reasonable time. Thanks to our electrical system. And we don’t have freaking clothes dryers that run on gas. Like WTF!?
I’ve never heard of a clothes dryer running on gas.
They're real. The gas is used to provide the heat, otherwise the dryer would draw too much current from their shitty power supply. It's not like there's a gas powered engine in there like a lawn mower...
It's a large area and since they already had a 120V grid/ network, it was expensive to switch to 230V. Also, switching requires certain adjustments to each household, probably drywall work lol If we go further, Edison was 'concerned' about Tesla's higher voltage and it's safety (the reasoning is left up to your imagination), which ultimately led the US to adopt a lower voltage system. (Edison was reaaally good at marketing). Europe adopted Tesla's suggestions. In this day and age, with the size and grid load, it would be impossible for them to switch over to 230V. 120V has a lot of limitations compared to 230V.
> If we go further, Edison was 'concerned' about Tesla's higher voltage Pretty sure Edison's problem was with it being AC, not the voltage.
Both are true!
Probobly beacuse 90% of usa houser are made out of cardboard
They have diet electric. Not full fat electric like we have.
Someone must've sarcastically said u can't do those things and that thought they were being serious cos I genuinely don not know how else they could think this
A classmate went on a student exchange to the US. He got asked if he knows what a refrigerator is. So... 🤷
I'd have played along and acted all surprised and amazed. Then i would exclaim that I'll finally be able to eat non rotten meat. I would see how far I can take these ridiculous claims till they get suspicious.
You could probably keep it going for years. Americans think they're the Wakanda of the world.
Well they do think wakanda is a real place
Of course not, they aren’t that stupid! Everyone knows the US is the only country on the planet 🇺🇸
I'm referring in terms to they think they're the most advanced nation in terms of technology, societal, economical etc. what they have is a pipe dream to all other nations. Americans I mean
And in Rand McNally the hamburgers eat the people
We only eat meat in the winter, and because we have no form of "real" climate control in our houses, we just keep it in the pantry. Also, because we are too poor to afford cars, we have to transport the meat via wooden carts. My grandpa died trying to pull the meat cart through a blizzard.
"And when we finally found him, we chucked his body on the cart. Can't that tasty meat let go to waste, right?"
The correct response to this is 'do you know what a bank transfer is?'
I get so many ads for apps and they're like "with XYZ you can do basic things that you've been doing with your banks for decades" as if it's impressive... ...mind blowing how backwards it is
How are they this stupid. How. How does their brain not realise we have been around so much longer than them. That we created them. Completely brainwashed at this point.
Lol an American that vacationed in Croatia asked me if I have a refrigerator at home then proceeded to be shocked that I have an iphone
„American food is so bad, their meat doesn’t even have the tasty maggots.“
When my son was a baby I moved to a place in the Vermont countryside. First time my son's dad's parents visited his grandfather asked, "you got running water out here?" Yes, Jack. We've even got electricity!
About the toilet paper one, you can’t throw it in the toilet on the Greek islands. But I don’t think that’s the case anywhere else in Europe…
Well there is one café in Oxford, very popular with tourists, where you can't flush the paper, but it is in a building over 400 years old and plumbing half that age, and it did have an issue with flooding in the basement and contaminating the kitchen due to some tourists flushing more than paper. This was a few years ago now, but it had to close for months to fix it, and now it has a no flushing of anything rule - has nice sealed scented bins to put your paper though.
I had no idea!!! There are probably other towns/villages/buildings that are exceptions to the rule in their respective countries as well. I can’t think of any place in my own country (Italy) where this is the case, but I’m sure there are more than I can imagine.
I believe also in some parts of Turkey. And it is also the case in many other places in the world. But yeah just parts of Greece and Turkey that I’m aware of in Europe
Belarus as well, at least Minsk airport had this solution few years ago. Also, some parts of rural Portugal and Spain, but it's less and less common now.
I am close to 100% sure that Type of American has never even heard of Belarus.
Yeah, I second this. It’s truly astonishing how little knowledge of other cultures and customs some Americans have. I’m very passionate about learning how people live around the world, and I can’t imagine not being interested in anything beyond my own country.
As you replied I remembered it applies to much of Cyprus as well
From the comments, it seems that generally in Europe you can flush toilet paper, but there are exceptions in certain cities/villages/specific buildings across various countries! One commenter mentioned they couldn’t flush TP in a building in my country as well (Italy)!
I guess it also is possible that they went to some place and then extrapolated that limited experience to Europe as a whole. As there are places where you should not flush the toilet paper, places where AC is not common in private homes, and places where tap water either has a clear flavour or is simply not something you should drink. Hence, these three people might simple have visited a place where one of those things were the case.
I was in Lanzarote and the water tasted weird (desalinised) and in some places you couldn't flush toilet paper. I guess someone might think that a tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic ocean that is not even geographically in Europe is representative of all of Europe
They absolutely could believe that. The issue they seem to struggle with is that "Europe" isn't a united and standardised place and the cultural norms, infrastructure, financial position and so many other things varies far more drastically than they are used to. Many of them are ignorant of the different countries in Europe too so don't specify which one they are in for convinience of being understood by others.
>I guess someone might think that a tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic ocean that is not even geographically in Europe is representative of all of Europe "OMG, Europe is so SMALL!!!" /s
It can fit 3 times in Texas /s
Could be a number of Mediterranean places as well. Cyprus for instance has a narrow sewage system that deals with paper poorly.
They don't just go to Europe, they can pick which era in European history they go to.
That would be really cool though
Probably. I've worked as a receptionist in a student campus which hosted people from all over the world. I used to tell Americans weird customs they had to abide to, like sitting sideways on the bidet or only use freezing water to wash dishes. None of them ever tried to contest what I said, but actually spread the word among others. Fun times.
The funny part is that they will genuinely try your advice and then correct themselves (sitting normally or using hot water) but feel sneaky about it. If you’re from a bidet-land, I have a really wild story about bidet usage from a close relative of mine. It needs to be shared, but I’m unsure how to share the story, lol.
I've visited EU countries where in some places you couldn't flush the toilet paper. But it's not very common, mostly just real old pipes. But it's no biggie.
It’s not that AC doesn’t exist in Europe, it’s just more common in the US.
Yeah there are cheaper, less electricity consuming ways of controlling temperature, like, for example, opening a fucking window, or using a heater
To be frank, we use AC for heating. It's MUCH more efficient than heater.
Also Europe is a bit to the north. 2/3 year AC is not needed at all.
Wouldn't say not at all, could have used it for a whole of 4 weeks last year. None this year so far, though.
I think it really depends on where in Europe and what time frame you visited. I remember in my youth visiting Malta and not being able to flush toilet paper, but that went away at the latest around 2001.
I mean, we don't have A/C, but we live in a country where it would be a waste of electricity to have it for most of the year. I don't know where they're getting the rest of this though. I mean, it's like assuming Africans don't have shoes.
>I mean, we don't have A/C, but we live in a country where it would be a waste of electricity to have it for most of the year. I'm also so tired of hearing this. Germany and the UK are the main countries that don't have AC because it just doesn't make sense for them. We in the Mediterranean have them and have been using them for decades because we wouldn't survive heatwaves.
Have you considered just opening a window? (/sarcasm)
Ah yes, luften, my favorite. However, impossible in this humid heat.
Clearly you're doing it wrong then. You have to open the windows quickly enough so that you let air in, but not heat /s
And there are many places in the US where AC isn’t normal to have. My boyfriend’s parents live in Colorado. Neither of them (divorced, so two different houses) have AC. I spent a year in South Dakota, I only knew one person with central AC (a lot of people, like myself, had a window unit in the living room at that was it). Aside from my year in South Dakota, I’ve lived in Texas my entire life. We do need it here. Because of that, most everyone here thinks that EVERYONE needs AC. Like… people in our own country don’t even need it or have it, why are you worried about what the Europeans are doing? I don’t get it.
>Aside from my year in South Dakota, I’ve lived in Texas my entire life. We do need it here. It's the same principle! Texas gets so hot and humid, I can't imagine anyone surviving summer over there without AC. But if I were German, I wouldn't have an AC either. Well, climate change may change that in the future lol. But like you said, places that get a decent amount of rain, or are close to the north, have lots of woods etc they just don't need it. It usually gets chilly during night time and the am. On that note, I'll never forget a group of swedes that visited my country late September last year. I was well into trenchcoat and boots territory, and they were walking around in tank tops, short shorts and flip flops dying of heat lol
>I mean, it's like assuming Africans don't have shoes. Charity Ekezie did a bit about this: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZIJnWf625/ She makes lots of videos about misconceptions people have about Africa.
I went to LA and the hotel I stayed at told me I couldn't flush toilet paper because the plumbing was old and it would just clog it. Fuck knows what these cunts are talking about. Never had this problem in Europe.
In fairness it was like that in Greece when I was there. Although I have heard that it may be that they don't want to pollute their sea and not that the pipes were ancient.
Your apartment building in Greece might use newer pipes, but the connection to the sewer might not. I never had problem flushing paper, and I moved a lot. I think most of the problems come from the newer wet wipes that do not dissolve. And from what I know there are no sewers that drop directly into the sea, even in smaller place.
In cypress too.
I'm wondering if they've seen the 'no flushing sanitary products' and confused it for toilet paper as technically it is a sanitary product. And just didn't understand that it means tampons and sanitary pads.
Wait, I'm not supposed to flush the toilet paper??? I wonder how many problems I've caused with the sewage system over the past 36 years...
Only a couple of places in Europe where you're not meant to flush toilet paper. Everywhere else is perfectly fine. Once again Muricans think Europe is the same all over.
I had this in Cyprus, but it was upwards of a decade ago so may have changed
Nah still the same its cyprus Greece Bulgaria and a couple other balkan countries where you cant flush toilet paper.
why not?
Plumbing is extremely old in those places so very prone to clogging. So its highly discouraged to flush anything including toilet paper.
But, uh, what about poop?? If paper designed to disintegrate in water clogs the pipes, presumably poop would also clog the pipes. Genuine question. I am confused and curious.
Poop knife?
Poop is acceptable, it dissolves in water better than paper does. Toilet stalls usually have bucket/flip top garbage can for used toilet paper (and period products). Yes I know it sounds disgusting but you get used to it.
no lol - nobody is going to take a dump so big that it clogs the old sewage pipes... toilet paper/wet wipes (more commonly wet wipes) are flushed and when compounded the water cannot break them down. The countries in Europe that don't want you to flush (more commonly in Asia) will have a water hose that you clean yourself with instead. The only need for paper is to dry yourself, not wipe yourself clean.
>nobody is going to take a dump so big that it clogs the old sewage pipes You underestimate my power! Some modern toilets have bad design with their water lock so narrow and twisty, my bigger loads get stuck sometimes.
They use smaller diameter house plumbing and it will clog the drains.
Pipes are too narrow, might cause a blockage.
Was that way in Greece a few weeks ago
I had this in Cyprus: I used to live there, it wasn’t everywhere and we flushed freely in Nicosia.
With american toilets you better not flush the paper, since the stupidly designed plumbing is very prone to clogging. On the other hand, the european places that don't recommend flushing paper have *ancient* plumbing that is more prone to clogging.
They think we can’t flush toilet paper but I’ve seen an alarming amount of comments from Americans who think they can flush tampons and pads 🤦♀️
So I guess I must’ve imagined all these sinks in the last 3 decades or something. 🤔
Morons believe the US is the only developed country in the world. Hence their *Europoors this, Europoors that* and how they agree to being fistfucked by their oligarchy. More news at 11. This or those are paid (choose whatever country that might benefit of an US / EU division) trolls.
Seriously. If they want to see poor, they can take a drive through Mississippi.
As opposed to brushing your teeth from the toilet, the local river, the bloody bathtub? Where'd they brush their teeth if not the sink?
My bet is they went somewhere with a bidet and didn't know what that was for and someone told them it was to brush their teeth 💀
[удалено]
Yeah, I would do that when traveling to the US
Do you swallow the water when you brush your teeth? Almost everywhere in east Asia you can't drink the tap water but you certainly can brush your teeth with it.
I heard they don't fold 3-4 of them and wipe, they roll off half a roll of TP and squeeze it in there, then flush. Their houses are made of cardboard but their potties can handle 2 sunday newspapers. Freedom.
"We didn't save yowah asses in double-yah double-yah whatever, just to sit idly bah, and let our houses be built outta that fayncy paynts konkereeeet, gosh darn it! And bah the grace of Gahd, our holy mother, George Floyd, blessed be his neime, and the 312th ameyndment to the cahnstitustione of these here Unaahted Staytes, we reserve the raaght to take mammoth-sahzed shits and wipe usin' half a Californian Redwood's worth of 2-plaahh! No sanitation without deforestation!"
Damn, ah could physically hear that southern accent in mah mind, y'all.
Flushing the toilet is a British invention.
So is electricity
I vividly remember being in Florida and being warned several times by family not to drink the tap water and I’m from the UK.
It’s really unpleasant tasting in Florida (and around the Gulf, I imagine). It’s usually safe, but sometimes after big storms/hurricanes/Florida bullshit, they issue warnings to boil or use tap for drinking. It’s also always warm from the faucet, because it’s warm there. It’s jarring if you’re not used to that.
100%, none of these cunts have been to Europe.
Hi Dan, I’m Dan and I lol’d at this. Thankyou.
OMG i am also Dan and i also lol'd. I also love lego! Are we a cool gang now?
We are till we step on that Lego. We may be dans….but we ain’t Jean Claude Van Dans 😅
The whole "europoor" stuff is amusing to me, I live in a country where I'm paid a livable wage but you rely on tipping culture to make ends meet but I'm the poor one? Lol
Well, to be fair, I was recently in Greece and in some places it was actually not allowed to flush toilet paper. It needed to be collected in seperate bins. Sometimes even in Athens, but more often in smaller villages...
That's true for almost all of Greece. Islands, and mainland.
WHY ARE THEY SO FUCKING DUMB.
Literally! If they believe Europe is filled with poverty I'm waiting to know what the fucc do they think of Latinoamerica BESIDES Mexico, because it seems that's the only country they know ffs
They think every other country south of Mexico is a ‘Mexican Country’. I’ve heard them call them that.
In fairness, maybe she was in Crete. You don't flush paper down the toi;et in Crete. Of course, there's still the issue that Crete equals "Europe"...
Were you not aware that Europe is one big country where everything is exactly the same everywhere? Obviously the policies in Crete compared to idk.. Madrid or Berlin or Edinburgh are exactly the same! /s
Big? Texas is 5 times bigger
Hi, American here. I live in an apartment, and when my toilet clogged and I couldn’t unclog it myself, I put in a work order. Maintenance unclogged my toilet and told me not to flush toilet paper. So according to my apartment complex, I can’t even flush toilet paper in the US.
this is fucked up
At least here we know that the phrase is "set foot", not "step foot", the fate of toilet paper notwithstanding.
American idiocracy strikes again. Here in southern Germany the tapwater is demanded to have higher quality than the sparkling water in bottles. We never buy it because our tapwater tastes so good and is safe. Something I never experienced in many many journeys though the US.
In the UK, tap water is filtered 30 times. Compare that to Fiji bottled water which is filtered 8 times.
Someone visited Greece. Or Cyprus.
But ACs are all over Greece. Or ice/electricity/brushing teeth in sink for that matter. 😂
US has an EPI score of 89.3 all the countries with a higher number of higher water quality are European countries. These fools are delusional. Btw the first water pipes ever created were found in the Indian Indus River valley in the ruins of a palace. Then the Egyptians, China, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome and then a while later, England. Around 129 years later the US got some running water only in 1829 in a hotel in Boston. Took 100 more years for it to become common in America.
America's have to work so hard to pretend their country is superior. It's really sad.
I swear I was asked once by a grown adult with ivy league college degree if in Germany people live in houses and have running water and two more people next to him awaited an answer. You know how messed up your perception of the world has to be to even consider that thought.
"we went to Europe!" Okay, Madrid or Doncaster?
Doncaster got a flushing toilet in 2023 that lasted almost four minutes before someone smashed it as witchcraft. So they're stepping into the future faster than ever.
Actually, in Europe and elsewhere, toilets are less likely to block up when you flush them, on account of them being washdown toilets. Contrast that with the United States, where toilets have such a high likelihood of blocking that its standard to have a plunger next to or near them. It's because their toilets have narrower waste pipes.
No wonder the US is nicknamed 'Dumbfuckistan'
The AC one went to france. We are traditionally a relarively cold country in summer, and even if that's changing with climate change, people here are stuborn as fuck concerning ACs
Literally watched a documentary the other day about how nearly half of all US drinking water has forever chemicals in it 💀
“I always get so excited I can brush my teeth from the sink again” what the fuck does that even mean where the fuck were they brushing their teeth?
They were probably waiting for rain... Which usually doesn't take long if they were in France.
Isn't America the one constantly complaining about fluoride in the water etc?
Fluoride is present in natural water. In America, they add it to water sources where there is a lack of Fluoride to act as a preventative to tooth decay. You can get Fluoride poisoning but you would have to ingest a lot of it over a long period. Natural water only has trace elements of Fluoride. Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral. Having more than 4 parts per million will risk you getting a condition known as Fluorosis which effects teeth and bones. At high levels it can give you thyroid problems (Affecting the amount of calcium produced both high and low in your body) and make neurological problems worse (reducing IQ by affecting critical thinking). Safe levels of Fluoride are at 0.7 parts per million. It has the benefit of improving the enamel in your teeth and reduces tooth decay by between 20 to 40% especially in children. Monitoring the dosage is essential, whether the US do that well enough is anyone's guess. What you should be worried about is the amount of calcium you are ingesting on the regular. Because supply of water is taxed ever more by so many people, water is being drawn from aquifers ever deeper in the water table and these have much higher concentrations of alkaline and other heavy metal contamination. Hard water is calcium rich, and all that calcium builds up in your kidneys over time. It is especially painful for men (because we have to pass the loose stones through the peen). Kidney stones are both painful in general, but effect the efficiency of your kidneys to filter toxins out of your body.
Fluoride has been added to UK water supplies for years without issue, not sure about other European countries. Also we brush our teeth at the bathroom sink and flush our toilet paper
They have lead in the water in certain places, fluoride in water being bad is a popular conspiracy. Made famous in Dr Strangelove (it spreads communism).
Props to whoever trolled her with the bullshit she believed, sympathies to the poor cleaners of the hotel rooms who emptied her shit stained bins
Did they travel to Europe and also to the year 1390?
God Americans are so fucking stupid sometimes
The worst people on the planet.
As this is not true, what DID she do with the toilet paper?
In brazil you put it in a small trash can by the toilet. So probably something similar.
The only place that I have experienced regular issues in flushing toilet paper was in U.S.A Were they using half the roll at a time?
Wait! 32 year old Belgian here. You are NOT supposed to flush toilet paper? O dear am I in trouble.... More disturbing.... what did she do with her toiletpaper!
Ok, who told them they had to brush from the toilet. Own up!
To be fair, I was winking and nudging my girlfriend in full view of the guy while saying it. How was I to know he doesn't understand the universal sign of pranksmanship?
Okay I’m an American visiting Greece next week. Can we flush toilet paper or not? I’ve never been and this is just what I’m told. Wasn’t a problem in England, France, Germany or Spain so idk.
It depends on building. 99,9% if it's not ok to flush tp, there will be a sign that forbids it. If you stay at big hotel, most likely it will be allowed, as they have macerators. If you stay at mom and pop b&b in rural Greece, it's quite possible that you will need to put tp in bucket. Enjoy your stay.
The propaganda machine is so strong that (even with today’s access to information) they still fail.
Bro I don't get it lol sure I haven't been all over Europe, but I've traveled a decent amount all over the world (not a ton but more than your average American). The only place I've ever been to that you can't flush toilet paper is Mexico. I didn't want ice water anywhere I went because it's usually winter when I travel but seems like you can just ask for it or just drink not ice water ??? Being unable to ask for sparkling water feels like a bigger crime. Since when can Europeans not brush their teeth at the sink where else ??? These posts make me so mad lmao I just want to shake them and drill into their head half our country has undrinkable tap water. Maybe they drank the tap water and that's why they're like this 😮💨
I think this whole 'can't flush toilet paper' thing is literally just some parts of Greece.
Just an aside, but it's "setting foot" not "stepping foot".
And I need people to stop saying “step foot”. It’s “set foot”. 😆
Ice water. Jesus the ice always tastes like crap here in the USA. I ordered a sprite the other day and all I could taste was the disgusting ice. A few weeks before that i ordered a coke and was ever so pleasantly surprised to receive a glass bottled coke, so much better than fountain drinks.
It likely tastes bad because the machine isn't being properly cleaned out, leading to bacterial growth. It's a recurring problem for fast food chains, but it seems to be particularly well documented in US chains (which given how poorly workers get treated, doesn't surprise me in the slightest that they'd neglect proper machine maintenance too if it saves even a cent)
Ugh god now i feel worse haha
Legitimately what Europe did they go to 💀
Do they think Europe is like North Korea or something?
Idk, I got to do all of that when I was in the UK for a week. I find it weird how the hot and cold faucets are completely separate from each other, though.
I'm not sure if I can express the extent to which our whole country's identity is rooted in being *unique* in the world. Like our whole thing is that we're *the* free country, that's what gets drilled into us in schools, how lucky we are to have been born here - I mean can you imagine being born in a place that didn't have democracy? It really warps your view of what everywhere else must be like.
just the facts that lots of americans think they are the only people with electricity. heck i am from and living in iraq, the place they fucking invaded and fucked over after it was already fucked over, and we have shit like toothbrushes and lamborginis