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A tornado picked up an SUV in Smithville, MS and lifted it so high, it struck the top of a water tower. That vehicle did not touch the ground for another 1/2 mile. They don't understand that houses are going to fall apart no matter what they're built of, and that it's better to have debris made of wood instead of bricks and stone
Drywall has a 1 hour fire rating. That’s plenty long for fire trucks to get there and put it out. It’s 2024, not 1711.
https://www.nationalgypsum.com/who-we-are/blog/fire-resistance/whats-difference-type-x-vs-type-c-gypsum-board
I've also seen this on home renovation videos online when someone tears down drywall. People in the comments will be freaking out about the "cardboard" walls. People will talk about how they'd have holes all over their house if they had these "cheap" walls and, like, are they currently running into their walls all the time with such force it needs to be brick to stay up? That seems more concerning than drywall.
The weirdest part is this is almost always on a video of someone ripping out or modifying a wall they don't like, not on putting in walls or insulating or anything, and the commenters think it's bad this wall is easily removed or altered by industrious homeowners instead of costing an arm and a leg to get professionals to come make the changes.
Ok but okinawa japan builds out of reinforced concrete and they do not have the same issues with hurricanes ripping the roof off that Florida and Louisiana do.
Okay but we're talking about tornadoes not hurricanes? Two different beasts. Tornado debris can penetrate walls with ridiculous amounts of force, and will rip the roof off whatever they want.
[here's a 2x4 penetrating cinderblock at a measly 34mph.](https://youtu.be/LAMVgQOKqIU?si=RNBYhgFqEDZdrOca)
[Here is some damage from the F4 Riviera del Brenta tornado in Italy](https://citynews-veneziatoday.stgy.ovh/~media/original-hi/30290546707957/foto-tornado-2.jpg)
You might also look at the [2021 South Moravia tornado](https://idsb.tmgrup.com.tr/ly/uploads/images/2021/06/25/124511.jpg)
Examples are sparse of concrete buildings being hit by tornadoes because they simply don't happen often im those regions. But when they do, they are just as devistating. Even if you have walls still standing, you would not want to be inside the blender of debris that would be the inside of that structure. I say this also as someone who does live in a reinforced concrete home, including roof, nowhere near tornado country.
If you truly want to be safe from a tornado, forget the house, you need a reinforced subterranean shelter.
That's true. Tornados can have significantly higher wind speeds.
I was talking about for hurricanes as it's a related topic, but I agree completely about tornadoes.
A) Okinawa is not a state.
B) I'm not talking about building codes, I'm talking about what 90% of buildings are made out of.
I have no idea if it's legal/desirable in the okinawa building code to make a wood frame house.
What I'm telling you is that they don't make wood frame houses, in general. Okinawan houses are made of steel reinforced concrete. An average house looks like this: https://www.okinawanderer.com/img/2018/02/001-3.jpg
And surely it's not controversial to tell you that reinforced concrete handles high winds a lot better than wood frame and shingles.
People assuming everyone in the US uncritically believes it’s the “greatest country on earth”, waves the flag everywhere or are just generally in your face patriotic. Especially when it’s about things like how common it is to see a flag that the US doesn’t actually seem out of step with most of our peer countries on, at least in my experience.
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Please, tell me the long list of countries that are greater. And I'll tell you all of the flaws, many worse, that they have compared to the USA lol.
Bro, just stop.
In the tourist areas near Buckingham Palace during the King’s birthday celebrations? I’ve been here for 13 years and can assure you that very few people put up a Union Jack unless it’s for a specific occasion.
Much more prominent when the football’s on, but again that’s for a specific occasion. Outside London, I’ve seen some flying the Union Jack or St George at their home but it’s nowhere near as prevalent as it is in the US.
Near Hyde Park, Kensington Palace, and the museums. Makes sense. It’s a touristy area during the King’s birthday celebrations so they’ll be much more prominent than usual.
This seems to especially apply to European tourists, but the wild life will kill you without a second thought. Don’t for one second think that the bison at Yellowstone will stand still for a selfie; they’ll turn you into a human football and punt you into a parked car just for funsies.
Or bears? Or deer? The white tailed deer was close to disappearing at one point but now it's one of the most common wildlife species because of the effort we put into rebuilding their population and we've been reintroducing and promoting wild breeding in bears for decades
Edit: said red tail deer at first, corrected to white tail
There's a map the circulates occasionally on Reddit and elsewhere that shows the distribution of wolves in Italy over time, with the numbers being pretty abysmal in the 70's but are now much improved as of 2020. So, possibly in Italy?
It's either that they have no caution at all or that they think a deer is going to slit your throat as you sleep. This really isn't just Europeans though, a lot of people from cities do this. It's just that in Europe, even rural people don't have this wildlife.
This can also be true within many of the larger states. For example, in California, forget about visiting LA, San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, and Yosemite all in a single day.
i’d love to see them try😂😂they wouldn’t even make it out of the north east in the first 24 hours if they start in NYC let alone the Midwest, Prairie and then Arizona
When they "correct" me for referring to myself as American 😬😬 because "You know you're not the only country there, right??" Ask ANY person from any other country in the Americas if they've ever referred to themselves as American.
There's never any ambiguity when someone says something negative about America. Like when someone says "All Americans are fat and stupid" or when terrorists are screaming "Death to America!" I don't see any Argentinians pointing to themselves and asking "Are you talking about me?"
To paraphrase the late Paul Mooney, the American is the most copied nationality on the planet, bar none.
Everybody wants to be American but nobody wants to *be* American.
An Argentinian keeps saying that he's American too and that it isn't fair we "took" the name American from everyone else. Telling him his country didn't even exist yet made him say nuh uh basically because "people were living there"
i hate when Latinos are like “you’re not Americas, we’re all Americans.” like no we’re all not. People in the U.S. of America are Americans. If you live outside of it then you’re not. If you wanna be an American, come to America OR create your own country in the Americas named America.
I mean, I will use estadounidense when I talk to them because I know this is the preferred term. I'm not gonna lecture a Colombian on their native lingo. But when they use *my* language I will correct them that in English, especially *my* American dialect of English, the word for "from the united states" is "American". Yes it's confusing. Sorry, that's just how English works. Honestly the only people who have room to criticize us are the Guyanese (who speak English natively) and I've never heard one of them try to call themselves Americans unless they are guyanese-americans.
This bleeds over into their habit of implementing grammatical conventions from their native languages into English and getting very defensive when they're called out.
Like, they get real pissy when I tell them that the dollar sign comes *before* the amount, not after it.
yeah same. it’s great that they use a different demonym in Spanish. I’ll say estadounidense when speaking Spanish. but in English or some other language I speak, i’m going to say American
I’ve spent a lot of time in Central America and 90% of people I’ve interacted with just say Americano, even when speaking amongst themselves.
Maybe it’s different in South America.
As a Latino, I honestly haven't heard that said with any seriousness. I've heard it mentioned in jest.
But, that same argument could be used to say that Mexico can call itself the United States. Mexico is technically the United States of Mexico, but they just go by Mexico.
I haven’t heard it TOO much. at least not from Latinos in the U.S. but some loud and mad people do. it’s not a big deal but an annoying thing to say. Also Mexico is officially the United Mexican States but yeah, they can also be called the United States but of course that would get confusing
"United Mexican States" is just a matter of formatting. "Estados Unidos" appear together in the official name, which translates directly to "United States".
At least from my personal observations, it seems Chileans online have this gripe about the "American" label more often than other Latin American nationalities.
The Latinos whom are completely adamant they are ‘Americans’ are the Argentinians followed by the Chileans and to a lesser extent Brazilians. Tell an Argentinian they are Hispanic will guarantee you will see them go absolutely beserk.
No, but I don’t see how wtf DC does on a daily basis impact their lives so much they feel the need to follow our politics so closely without actually understanding how our politics work or how the different cultures within the US underscore how/why our politics is the way it is.
Well that's not what they were saying though is it? How/why doesn't change the fact that your political decisions directly affect other countries policy making. I kind of get where you're coming from, but I could make an argument that the cultural and political shift in the US after Obama has absolutely altered politics in Europe, which in step obviously changes people's lifes.
I live in the UK, and the number of Brits I’ve encountered that have given me unsolicited opinions about American politics and “solutions” to our problems that underscore they don’t actually know how our system system works and the history of issues and laws is incredibly high.
Ugh, the first time I went to Ireland was in 2016 right after Trump got elected and so many people wanted to talk to me about Trump. Including random salespeople! A guy I was trying to buy a sim card from was telling me he thinks Trump might not be do so bad. Then an acquaintance (who later turned out to be a weird pickup artist grifter type) was trying to tell me that it's good the Trump will ruin everything cause it will 'shake everything up' and it won't effect him, and I'm like 'it'll effect me? And my family!?'
I actually like this one.
It's REALLY clear that a lot of people just accept whatever they see. I would MUCH rather they come to a place like this and ask than do that.
It shows they questioned what they saw and took time to go confirm it or be corrected.
Any variation on, "Americans think Europe is a country." I can't decide if they really think we think this or if it's one giant joke/troll. But, it drives me crazy.
I don't get how they don't get that it's shorthand. If I just went to France, I'd say I went to France.
I've had a couple folks on Reddit alone "correct" me when I refer to Europe, just in case I happen to be unaware that Europe isn't a country. I'm convinced at this point that some of them really do think that we are that dumb.
To almost the same extent, a European who says "I went to America" and refers to only one state should be looked at the same way, then. Europe isn't one country, but the EU blurs some of the distinction, especially when you don't have to deal with customs to cross from one country to another.
The EU blurs absolutely none of the distinction. You’ve equated the Schengen zone with all of Europe, which is already a big mistake (the UK and Ireland are Europe, but you have to deal with customs, as is the case with most of Eastern Europe). In Europe when you cross a border, the language changes, the customs change, the time that people eat dinner changes. This isn’t the case between states in the US, where our biggest divide is rural/urban. I’ve never changed states and felt culture shock. That has happened to me repeatedly now that I live in and travel mostly within Europe.
what bothers me is it feels like they're implying Europe is the only continent with distinct countries in it. I'd be willing to bet people who say this would say, "oh I can't do that date, I'll be in Asia!" [or "Africa"]
the reason Americans talk about travel to Europe is because it's a different continent than the one we're on. we don't need to give our trip itinerary. while there are many countries someone could be visiting, one thing all trips to Europe have in common is a long as fuck flight to a different part of the world. sometimes all you're trying to communicate is "I'll be extremely far away."
They just hate being generalized and likened to their neighbors. Like I can get it if say someone went to Spain and Italy and literally nowhere north, and there are absolutely people who go to these 2 and call it their Europe trip.
But think about the strongest stereotypical state rivalry in the US for example (California/Texas maybe?) or the rivalry between the west and east coasts then compare it to here.
People of neighboring countries over here that actually share borders can often share legitimate contempt for each other. Theres also a lot of pride involved in the uniqueness (and sometimes, self proclaimed, superiority) of cultures and histories of individual countries. Also consider the different wars, rebellions, territorial disputes, conflicts, etc etc. Many of which may have happened long ago, but are absolutely still part of the psyche and has had a long term effect of 'we're not like them'.
**TLDR**: It's not rooted in them being pedantic (although it might feel like it), its rooted in a long, long history of competing, hating, fighting, killing, and stealing from each other lol.
It’s because Americans will sometimes reference some minor cultural shock or experience in a particular country and then extrapolate it to every other country in Europe.
What is common in one country is often pretty unusual for another, so while we (usually) don’t actually think you are so dumb that you really think Europe is a country, it’s the assumption that European countries are synonymous with US states that gets a reaction. Sort of like when non Americans take stereotypes of Texas then imagine it works for the whole of the US… only worse.
I mean obviously it’s not all Americans but I hear the phrase “countries like Europe” at least once a week which showed either poor geography or a poor grasp of the English language, neither of which is very becoming
"There are more countries in North America than just the US, so stop being ignorant and ignoring them". I can feel my IQ dropping every time it gets brought up.
When Europeans brag about how many languages they know and judge you for only knowing one or two at most. Europe is crammed together. Traveling to different countries in Europe is easy, here in the US the land is so big we have almost 0 opportunity to be exposed to any language other than Spanish, and even that is pretty low chances. The highschool classes to teach language is pitiful at best, you can take 4 years of Spanish and still not know Spanish,
Most Europeans don’t know multiple languages, although a lot will know their own and 1 other, usually English. Some do, I knew a Portuguese guy who was as flawless in English as Portuguese and spoke 3 other languages pretty well, but most people are anywhere near that.
>Europe is crammed together. Traveling to different countries in Europe is easy
Exactly! Our states are the size of European countries. If each US state spoke a unique language/dialect, then most Americans would probably have some understanding of at least the languages spoken in the states closest to them.
But we don't! I think the fact that the vast majority of Americans all speak English (with only minor regional variations in vocabulary) is one of our greatest strengths... even though that means most of us ONLY speak English.
Assuming the cheap, mass produced, lowest common denominator products that get distributed worldwide are what everyone consumes in the US…… yes, of course we all eat Wonder Bread with spray cheese while drinking Bud Light and Coca-Cola every single day. /s
Obviously you aren’t gonna get the locally crafted, small shop, quality ingredient, delicious stuff all the way on the other side of the ocean, and those types of places aren’t gonna have the kind of advertising budget for you to be able to recognize their brand… but those types of places are all over the country, anywhere even remotely urban or suburban.
I’m a uk person and actually, I love spray cheese and Coca Cola and bud light, they are so bad for you and complete crap but soooooo good! And yes I agree, it’s like pointing at the cheapest food in any country and declaring that’s their staple
The comment wasn't even about how we eat. It was talking about how Europe only gets the cheapest most marketed stuff we produce.
For instance the only American beer in Europe is probably something like Budweiser or Bud light. Yet in my area alone there are probably 20 local breweries all with dozens of varieties of locally crafted, high quality beers. Then Europeans will claim American beer sucks, while only having the shittiest American beer available.
1) Telling me "Americans have no culture" (which a couple English men said to me when I visited the UK).
2) Making fun of people who feel affiliation with the country their grandparents/ancestors come from. Even two or three generations on, your ancestry can profoundly affect your life, in terms of sex roles in your family, what you eat, who you are expected to marry, the music your family listens to, your family legends/stories, your religion/the importance of religion in your family, the holidays you celebrate, whether you're ridiculed based on stereotypes, whether you're made fun of for having a "weird" last name, and more. We might have lost the ancestral language because our grandparents wanted their children to be "Americanized" or because our family members were punished for speaking it, not because we're dumb.
The culture one really irks me as an African American because many of our cultures here made it through all of the attempts at erasure. So many groups have had institutions try to strip away their culture and customs. To have people still spout what could be considered colonialist propaganda is wild.
And with the ancestry point, to me, that’s a form of people trying to be in touch with their culture imo. Those same people who claim we have no culture then turn around and say “no not like that”. Like pick a lane.
Okay rant over
When foreigners, mostly Europeans, act all superior to Americans.
For instance, acting like Americans are such racist and overall bigots while Europeans are such tolerant and enlightened people. They just ignore how they treat their own minorities (cough cough gypsies, cough cough look at Europeans after soccer games).
Also when foreigners, again mostly Europeans, that always talk about how shitty our system is and how much better than are than us. Mostly regarding healthcare, time off, stuff like that. Guess what? We're footing the bill for your defense! You're welcome, without us see what stuff you have. Also they ignore the problems in their system when acting so much better.
Lastly when foreigners, (and don't be shocked when I say this) again mostly Europeans, act like they are so much smarter than us. Sit your ass down you elitist snob.
i hate when Europeans think all Americans are racist. It just screams ignorance.
1. we’re not all racist. there’s really few truly racist people around. they’re a dying breed (thankfully).
2. The US is bound to have ethnic and racial and cultural tensions because we are a melting pot of these things. Europeans are so used to just having White people in their countries. It’s also funny how they don’t realize how xenophobic or racist they can be. Especially towards Middle Easterners
Europeans can be so racist that they are racist against other Europeans. I remember hearing British people complaining about Poles and Romanians in the run-up to Brexit. Then they try to say, it's okay if they're Gypsies.
Most POC Americans whom have spent any considerable time in Europe can vouch for the fact that much of Europe is about 4 to 5 decades behind the U.S. & Canada in race relations.
Completely agree. It's very disrespectful to go to someone else's country and bitch about it. I don't know if that has occurred yet to those people or not. We \*know\* it's not perfect here. Traveling is an opportunity to appreciate other people/cultures and not take them at face value. That idea has clearly flown over some visitors' heads.
What really confuses me is the Europeans that move here long-term (even immigrate) and still complain incessantly. With that being said, I've never met someone from eastern Europe that complained. It's always western Europeans and Aussies.
People (not just Euroeans, many American also make this mistake) seem to completely discount medicare/medicaid, which the US spends a ton of money on (comparable to at least a couple European countries healthcare spending, can't remember the exact countries).
Our system provides healthcare to the very old and the very poor, not to the middle class (unlike a lot of our benefits that our popular, which are more targeted towards the middle class. 30 year mortgages, child tax credits, etc).
Could the system be improved? Almost certainly. But it would require taking on somewhat sympathetic lobbies like doctors themselves (who get paid more in the US than international counterparts). Also, it would probably look more Germanic or French (ie some use of health insurance) than British (single payer).
Healthcare policy is rather complex and a lot of people understand very little of it.
Imagine how many nice things could we have if we weren't so busy spending so much on defense, or \*ehem\* defense of Europe.
Yeah, don't criticize our foreign policy when our foreign policy is giving you the life that so many Americans want for themselves.
I just wanna point out that while that number is insanely high, it is JUST THREE PERCENT (3%) OF OUR GDP. We spend 3% of our GDP on our defense budget so that we can keep our part of the NATO treaty, and they fuck off and reap the rewards
Of course, a country with a much larger population gives more people free health care, but the US system is definitely better, according to the data, and although it is the most expensive in the world, it is in the upper midfield worldwide, even worse among industrialized countries, and the US has a lower life expectancy and a higher mortality rate among births compared to other industrialized countries. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/best-healthcare-in-the-world
You don’t see more people per capita though. You also spend significantly more on healthcare per head of population, so if it’s not better something must be going wrong.
Having said that in healthcare outcomes the UK ranks 9th and the US 11th so neither is particularly impressive compared with other wealthy countries and despite spending far more per head of population, as well as (obviously) in total, US healthcare as measured by outcomes does not seem to be better.
Lol, tell them how many Americans get government healthcare in the USA compared to their countrys population. They often say I'm just making up the numbers lol
That’s why per capita is used as a way of comparing different sized populations, because big differences in population sizes make comparisons like the one you’ve just boasted about a little meaningless.
Europeans who brag about the Number of Countries they've been to (almost all European countries, tinier than most of our states).
Ummm, we have 50 states and not that many people make it to All of them. I'm in my 40s and I have 9 [boring] states left to see.
But, I'm really impressed that you're from a country that borders 9 countries and you can visit 3 in a day. /s
I don't think the average European mind can fathom how incredibly large the US even is. It took me less time to drive from the eastern coast of Ireland to the western coast than it would take me to drive from STL to Kansas City (all in the same state).
Yes, while someone in the Middle East told me exactly how many of their country could fit inside California.
So they were completely aware!
They also tend to refer to English as "the language of the Internet" and don't take offense when people speak it, nor get offended that visitors haven't taken time to learn their language, as they admit it's not a portable language.
Unlike Europeans who will try to argue how portable and useful their languages are....
Americans have a tendency to be monolingual compared to Europeans who are often bilingual. But if you could imagine that every US state had their own language, of course many if not most of us would be polyglots! Languages are much easier to learn when you're exposed to them. So you're a Brit trying to learn German? Well that's an easy and relatively inexpensive trip to immerse yourself. An American trying to learn German on the other hand will pay thousands for the "full immersion experience." Of course, many Germans will speak English with you, but that's beside the point.
Youre really explaining the obvious.
I've lived in Europe, which I thought was obvious, and We both have lived in other countries on other continents where People speak lots of languages And Dont have these attitudes.
Youre making the wrong comparison!
I'm comparing Europeans to other countries that have polyglots and nearby countries speaking different languages.
Europeans are always going to be on the defense.
>I don't think the average European mind can fathom how incredibly large the US even is.
Similarly, I don't think the average American mind can fathom how much smaller/denser other countries are. Every time I see a Fun Fact™ about how "Texas is about the same size as France, but France has more than twice the population of Texas", my immediate reaction is LOL THAT SOUNDS FAKE
I think if you've been to a lot of countries it is worth bragging about...unless you live in the Schengen Area and haven't visited many countries outside of it.
"Why is the food so big and full of chemicals? You eat like you have healthcare."
Because you can't grow watermelon in North Dakota and there aren't a lot of dairy farms in New Jersey. A country this big with this many people needs food that lasts long journeys plus has any sort of shelf life. Maybe a mother of 3 needs the extra large thing of cheese to feed her kids, or some dude cooks with it, or this other guy just hates going to the store and likes to buy in bulk. We have options because we're good at making food that feeds people efficiently (even if not healthily), and we don't appreciate the accomplishment that is enough. Hell, we've made excess, and we can have fun with it. Ask anyone from Texas.
The people who claim Americans don't have "real" bread when in all actuality the people who say that have either never been to the U.S or are so dense they somehow miss the giant **BAKERY** sign in the grocery store.
You don't understand; the only REAL bread is the exact recipe their local bakery makes. No other carby foodstuff on earth is real bread. Just the one. It's amazingly lucky for them that they happened to be born in the only place with real food and this does not in any way indicate a limited perspective or suggest that maybe what is standard to them could be a foreign variation rather than The One True Real Thing to someone from some other place.
I was arguing with a European about us "not having bread" on tiktok. She said she went to NYC and couldn't find ANY fresh bread anywhere. So I posted a screen recording of me googling bakeries in NYC and stopped scrolling for her after I passed around 100 options.
She said none of those counted because they probably didn't have the specific variety of rye bread from her region of whatever Scandanavian country she was from.
I’m starting to really get fed up with the, “Is X thing I see in every American movie real?” questions. In this case, the high school questions - Yes, yellow school buses are real, school lockers are real, prom is real, pep rallys are real, cheerleaders are real, sports are a huge part of school life, highschool parties are real. If you’ve seen it in more than one movie, it’s not make believe, it’s based on our actual lives. Ask questions like, “What’s homecoming?”, not, “Is homecoming real?” and people will happily talk about their lives.
"The names of our towns and cities is based on the cultures which colonized the parts of the country they inhabited
Fuck right off. In England the place names are Norse, Anglo-Saxon, Norman & Roman. Nobody is claiming to be Anglo-Viking.
Most of the English have ancestors from elsewhere. My great-grandparents were Irish for example. None of us claim any other ethnicity. None. What does it matter where your great, great grandfather was from? It has zero influence on you, your personality or your behaviour. That comes from your upbringing and that was American" - an English person
What I said "We are saying our heritage, our ethnicity. Not our nationality. Unless we have dual citizenship, we are not claiming any other nationalities. Nationality and ethnicity mean very different things. "Nationality" means "What country's on your passport and birth certificate?" and "ethnicity" means "Who were your ancestors."
I know nationality can also mean ethnicity But we are using nationality to mean "what country do you have a citizenship in "
The names of our towns and cities is based on the cultures which colonized the parts of the country they inhabited. So in the East and NE of the US, names came from various existing English and other cities and towns and this is why you see "New X" where X was the Old World city. Or we named them after historical figures or from words from so and so indigenous american tribe that lived/lives there."
Europeans tend to be annoyed when Americans generalize Europe in any manner, but then they generalize the best parts of Western Europe as all of Europe when comparing with America.
“Donald Trump is one of us.”
🙄
I can make it from Santa Monica to New Jersey in just under fifty hours. Best I can do. I’m curious to see how long it would take to get from Anchorage or Yellowknife to Key West, but it’s not a major “gotta-do.”
Yeah, but why would the time to drive from a town in another country to Miami be relevant to the size of the US? Might as well discuss the drive time from Cabo San Pablo to Barrow.
Europeans with strong opinions on US gun laws. Especially if they have no idea how our laws actually work.
File under "does the whole country work like this one video I saw?" Which is an annoyance someone else has already elaborated on in this thread.
And we're just as thrilled about as the rest of the world is. It's an atrocity that our government has been paid by lobbyists to allow to continue. Don't get it twisted, we all hate it.
“We all hate it” no we don’t all hate it and that’s the problem. A non insignificant portion of this country literally fetishizes guns. Sure they don’t think we should mow down schoolchildren, but they think their right to their pew pew machine is more important than those children. Nothing changes because not enough people care. if a politician even wants to, say, stop selling guns in WALMART, people will accuse them of trying to take all guns away. This country has a violence problem.
It’s not really just a criticism of Americans, just English speakers generally. It’s just not a very fair criticism for the reasons you gave. As an English speaker, even if you are fluent in French, visit Spain, Germany or Poland and you’ll probably still end up speaking English.
people asking me when I lived in the UK, "How is London?" vs people from the UK saying, "we're thinking of landing in New York and do that for the night then take the train over you in in Californi in the morning and scoot on back home.
Ya'll need to pump the breaks!
that’s just hypocrisy. you don’t even have to go back 100 years to see how fucked up foreign policies were in European countries.
I was just thinking to myself yesterday about the UN Security Council votes to condemn Israel’s genocide and war on Gaza. I take a neutral stance on the topic but I don’t support US involvement at all because it’s none of our business.
However, everyone gets mad when the U.S. vetos any resolutions, or votes No, or abstains.
BUT
Why is no one talking about India and China doing the SAME thing when it came to Ukraine???
It’s all dependency on whether or not the resolution benefits your country’s foreign policy. in war and international politics, it’s all about your own country. The countries who yell “human rights violations” are the same ones who make them but just hide them.
Or worse, when they start blaming you for it personally
(While the whole time many of their governments/military were actively participating in, funding, and fighting in the same things they blame and criticize America for)
When they ask where I'm from, I say NY, and they respond with something assuming I mean NYC. NY is huge, and I'm from upstate. NYC is such a small portion of the state, and according to most of us, the worst part of the state. We do not like being grouped in with the citidiots that ruin NY on a daily basis.
For me it’s the “no you’re not Irish/German/Italian, you’re *American*” attitude from many Europeans I’ve encountered that suddenly doesn’t apply to non-white Americans. From my experience they’ve been more than happy to label me, a Korean-American born and raised in Idaho, as a Korean rather than an American.
Are either of your parents Korean though? I don’t think their issue is with second or even third gen immigrants. It’s with people like me, who have been here since the 1800s, saying they’re “Irish” or “German”
Fun to notice that 90% of the complaints are about Europeans. Not surprised.
As a NYC resident and frequent encounter of overseas tourists I'd like to applaud the Aussies.....you guys are usually rad.
I’m an American who lives in France. I hate when Europeans make assumptions, but I also hate when Americans push back on that with the same kind of erroneous assumptions, like a lot of people in this thread are doing. At the end of the day most Europeans legitimately know next to nothing about the US and most Americans legitimately know next to nothing about Europe and both groups of people should probably learn a little more and speak a little less, including people in this thread.
When they start a question with “Do Americans __?” or “Why do Americans __?”, as if all 345 million of us do and think the exact same thing. I guess we're all robots. 🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖
I am an American living in Germany. Recently, in a pub, someone who was drinking "Jack and Coke" while wearing blue jeans and a baseball hat while listening to American music tried to convince me that "America has no culture".
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"Why do you build your houses out of cardboard?" Whenever a major tornado makes the news.
A tornado picked up an SUV in Smithville, MS and lifted it so high, it struck the top of a water tower. That vehicle did not touch the ground for another 1/2 mile. They don't understand that houses are going to fall apart no matter what they're built of, and that it's better to have debris made of wood instead of bricks and stone
Drywall is made out of gypsum which is moderately fire retardant.
Drywall has a 1 hour fire rating. That’s plenty long for fire trucks to get there and put it out. It’s 2024, not 1711. https://www.nationalgypsum.com/who-we-are/blog/fire-resistance/whats-difference-type-x-vs-type-c-gypsum-board
That is actually a decent explanation thanks chief
I've also seen this on home renovation videos online when someone tears down drywall. People in the comments will be freaking out about the "cardboard" walls. People will talk about how they'd have holes all over their house if they had these "cheap" walls and, like, are they currently running into their walls all the time with such force it needs to be brick to stay up? That seems more concerning than drywall. The weirdest part is this is almost always on a video of someone ripping out or modifying a wall they don't like, not on putting in walls or insulating or anything, and the commenters think it's bad this wall is easily removed or altered by industrious homeowners instead of costing an arm and a leg to get professionals to come make the changes.
And almost always interior walls… why would you need stonework between your living room and your home office?
You are getting ripped off. Drywall is much cheaper than brick and mortar.
Ok but okinawa japan builds out of reinforced concrete and they do not have the same issues with hurricanes ripping the roof off that Florida and Louisiana do.
Okay but we're talking about tornadoes not hurricanes? Two different beasts. Tornado debris can penetrate walls with ridiculous amounts of force, and will rip the roof off whatever they want. [here's a 2x4 penetrating cinderblock at a measly 34mph.](https://youtu.be/LAMVgQOKqIU?si=RNBYhgFqEDZdrOca) [Here is some damage from the F4 Riviera del Brenta tornado in Italy](https://citynews-veneziatoday.stgy.ovh/~media/original-hi/30290546707957/foto-tornado-2.jpg) You might also look at the [2021 South Moravia tornado](https://idsb.tmgrup.com.tr/ly/uploads/images/2021/06/25/124511.jpg) Examples are sparse of concrete buildings being hit by tornadoes because they simply don't happen often im those regions. But when they do, they are just as devistating. Even if you have walls still standing, you would not want to be inside the blender of debris that would be the inside of that structure. I say this also as someone who does live in a reinforced concrete home, including roof, nowhere near tornado country. If you truly want to be safe from a tornado, forget the house, you need a reinforced subterranean shelter.
That's true. Tornados can have significantly higher wind speeds. I was talking about for hurricanes as it's a related topic, but I agree completely about tornadoes.
I encourage you to research building codes in those states. They are very similar.
A) Okinawa is not a state. B) I'm not talking about building codes, I'm talking about what 90% of buildings are made out of. I have no idea if it's legal/desirable in the okinawa building code to make a wood frame house. What I'm telling you is that they don't make wood frame houses, in general. Okinawan houses are made of steel reinforced concrete. An average house looks like this: https://www.okinawanderer.com/img/2018/02/001-3.jpg And surely it's not controversial to tell you that reinforced concrete handles high winds a lot better than wood frame and shingles.
To be a pedant, i assure you that okinawa meets the definition of a state, even if it's not typically referred to as such
I would like to see a definition by which okinawa is a state. It's a province. It's no more a state than your city or county is.
People assuming everyone in the US uncritically believes it’s the “greatest country on earth”, waves the flag everywhere or are just generally in your face patriotic. Especially when it’s about things like how common it is to see a flag that the US doesn’t actually seem out of step with most of our peer countries on, at least in my experience.
You're forgetting the fact that the US _is_ the greatest country on earth.
In many areas, yes that is true
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Do we live in the same country?
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Please, tell me the long list of countries that are greater. And I'll tell you all of the flaws, many worse, that they have compared to the USA lol. Bro, just stop.
I've just been to London the last week and saw a decent amount of Union Jacks flying in the breeze just like at home.
In the tourist areas near Buckingham Palace during the King’s birthday celebrations? I’ve been here for 13 years and can assure you that very few people put up a Union Jack unless it’s for a specific occasion.
People do fly England flags though, especially when the football's on.
Much more prominent when the football’s on, but again that’s for a specific occasion. Outside London, I’ve seen some flying the Union Jack or St George at their home but it’s nowhere near as prevalent as it is in the US.
Only when the footballs on*
Huh? They said "football's on." What do you think they apostrophe is for?
I saw them there as well as along Gloucester Road
Near Hyde Park, Kensington Palace, and the museums. Makes sense. It’s a touristy area during the King’s birthday celebrations so they’ll be much more prominent than usual.
What have you experienced outside America and where?
This seems to especially apply to European tourists, but the wild life will kill you without a second thought. Don’t for one second think that the bison at Yellowstone will stand still for a selfie; they’ll turn you into a human football and punt you into a parked car just for funsies.
They wiped out the majority of their wildlife and ecosystems so they struggle comprehending that wild animals can be dangerous
Has there beem wolf reintroduction in Europe like there has been in the US?
Or bears? Or deer? The white tailed deer was close to disappearing at one point but now it's one of the most common wildlife species because of the effort we put into rebuilding their population and we've been reintroducing and promoting wild breeding in bears for decades Edit: said red tail deer at first, corrected to white tail
Yes
There's a map the circulates occasionally on Reddit and elsewhere that shows the distribution of wolves in Italy over time, with the numbers being pretty abysmal in the 70's but are now much improved as of 2020. So, possibly in Italy?
'They' are likely your ancestors too.
If you're not following Tourons of Yellowstone on Insta, you're missing out.
It's either that they have no caution at all or that they think a deer is going to slit your throat as you sleep. This really isn't just Europeans though, a lot of people from cities do this. It's just that in Europe, even rural people don't have this wildlife.
That tourist can see everything from NYC to the Grand Canyon within a day. The US is massive. Good luck, though.
This can also be true within many of the larger states. For example, in California, forget about visiting LA, San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, and Yosemite all in a single day.
i’d love to see them try😂😂they wouldn’t even make it out of the north east in the first 24 hours if they start in NYC let alone the Midwest, Prairie and then Arizona
When does that actually happen?
If someone refers to Americans as “US Americans” or “Usian” when speaking English I can almost guarantee they’re insufferable.
When they "correct" me for referring to myself as American 😬😬 because "You know you're not the only country there, right??" Ask ANY person from any other country in the Americas if they've ever referred to themselves as American.
There's never any ambiguity when someone says something negative about America. Like when someone says "All Americans are fat and stupid" or when terrorists are screaming "Death to America!" I don't see any Argentinians pointing to themselves and asking "Are you talking about me?"
Also, you do live in the americas. So either way it’s right.
And also, we have the word America in our country's name, unlike the rest of the countries here.
Which also makes it worse when they say that's why we should use USian...in a country that borders The United States of Mexico
Only a matter of time before they start claiming that we "stole" the name United States from Mexico.
As if they want the baggage that often comes with introducing yourself as “American”.
To paraphrase the late Paul Mooney, the American is the most copied nationality on the planet, bar none. Everybody wants to be American but nobody wants to *be* American.
An Argentinian keeps saying that he's American too and that it isn't fair we "took" the name American from everyone else. Telling him his country didn't even exist yet made him say nuh uh basically because "people were living there"
And generally terrible bores as well
They get so offended when we say "America " instead of "the united states of America "
First colonial revolt means that we get dibs on the continent name as a moniker
i hate when Latinos are like “you’re not Americas, we’re all Americans.” like no we’re all not. People in the U.S. of America are Americans. If you live outside of it then you’re not. If you wanna be an American, come to America OR create your own country in the Americas named America.
I mean, I will use estadounidense when I talk to them because I know this is the preferred term. I'm not gonna lecture a Colombian on their native lingo. But when they use *my* language I will correct them that in English, especially *my* American dialect of English, the word for "from the united states" is "American". Yes it's confusing. Sorry, that's just how English works. Honestly the only people who have room to criticize us are the Guyanese (who speak English natively) and I've never heard one of them try to call themselves Americans unless they are guyanese-americans.
This bleeds over into their habit of implementing grammatical conventions from their native languages into English and getting very defensive when they're called out. Like, they get real pissy when I tell them that the dollar sign comes *before* the amount, not after it.
yeah same. it’s great that they use a different demonym in Spanish. I’ll say estadounidense when speaking Spanish. but in English or some other language I speak, i’m going to say American
I’ve spent a lot of time in Central America and 90% of people I’ve interacted with just say Americano, even when speaking amongst themselves. Maybe it’s different in South America.
As a Latino, I honestly haven't heard that said with any seriousness. I've heard it mentioned in jest. But, that same argument could be used to say that Mexico can call itself the United States. Mexico is technically the United States of Mexico, but they just go by Mexico.
I haven’t heard it TOO much. at least not from Latinos in the U.S. but some loud and mad people do. it’s not a big deal but an annoying thing to say. Also Mexico is officially the United Mexican States but yeah, they can also be called the United States but of course that would get confusing
"United Mexican States" is just a matter of formatting. "Estados Unidos" appear together in the official name, which translates directly to "United States".
At least from my personal observations, it seems Chileans online have this gripe about the "American" label more often than other Latin American nationalities.
Every Mexican or Tico I’ve ever talked to just says Americano. Must be a South American thing.
The Latinos whom are completely adamant they are ‘Americans’ are the Argentinians followed by the Chileans and to a lesser extent Brazilians. Tell an Argentinian they are Hispanic will guarantee you will see them go absolutely beserk.
If they jump into politics right away.
When you actually start to follow European politics, it's not that much prettier on the other side of the pond either.
I’ve been told by Brits that what happens in DC directly impacts their lives. When I ask how I get sputtering nonanswers.
Overall American politics does affect the politics of other countries. Are you saying it doesn't?
No, but I don’t see how wtf DC does on a daily basis impact their lives so much they feel the need to follow our politics so closely without actually understanding how our politics work or how the different cultures within the US underscore how/why our politics is the way it is.
Well that's not what they were saying though is it? How/why doesn't change the fact that your political decisions directly affect other countries policy making. I kind of get where you're coming from, but I could make an argument that the cultural and political shift in the US after Obama has absolutely altered politics in Europe, which in step obviously changes people's lifes.
I live in the UK, and the number of Brits I’ve encountered that have given me unsolicited opinions about American politics and “solutions” to our problems that underscore they don’t actually know how our system system works and the history of issues and laws is incredibly high.
Even so, they're not wrong when they say it affects their life...
Maybe they should focus more on themselves so their internal politics isn’t reliant on a completely separate country?
they can’t complain about our politics when their’s is just as bad😂
Ugh, the first time I went to Ireland was in 2016 right after Trump got elected and so many people wanted to talk to me about Trump. Including random salespeople! A guy I was trying to buy a sim card from was telling me he thinks Trump might not be do so bad. Then an acquaintance (who later turned out to be a weird pickup artist grifter type) was trying to tell me that it's good the Trump will ruin everything cause it will 'shake everything up' and it won't effect him, and I'm like 'it'll effect me? And my family!?'
"Is this thing I saw on the internet true? Is america all like this one specific video I saw on social media" 🤮
I actually like this one. It's REALLY clear that a lot of people just accept whatever they see. I would MUCH rather they come to a place like this and ask than do that. It shows they questioned what they saw and took time to go confirm it or be corrected.
Right, but more often than not they could question it just a *little* bit more and figure it out for themselves.
Idk i love these questions lol
Any variation on, "Americans think Europe is a country." I can't decide if they really think we think this or if it's one giant joke/troll. But, it drives me crazy. I don't get how they don't get that it's shorthand. If I just went to France, I'd say I went to France.
The funny thing is how often the same people will say, "as a European," and then say something that's very much limited to their own region.
And they often never specify what country they are exactly, just the mysterious MyCountry^TM
I've had a couple folks on Reddit alone "correct" me when I refer to Europe, just in case I happen to be unaware that Europe isn't a country. I'm convinced at this point that some of them really do think that we are that dumb.
It's one part intentionally misrepresenting Americans, one part believing their own lies.
To almost the same extent, a European who says "I went to America" and refers to only one state should be looked at the same way, then. Europe isn't one country, but the EU blurs some of the distinction, especially when you don't have to deal with customs to cross from one country to another.
The EU blurs absolutely none of the distinction. You’ve equated the Schengen zone with all of Europe, which is already a big mistake (the UK and Ireland are Europe, but you have to deal with customs, as is the case with most of Eastern Europe). In Europe when you cross a border, the language changes, the customs change, the time that people eat dinner changes. This isn’t the case between states in the US, where our biggest divide is rural/urban. I’ve never changed states and felt culture shock. That has happened to me repeatedly now that I live in and travel mostly within Europe.
what bothers me is it feels like they're implying Europe is the only continent with distinct countries in it. I'd be willing to bet people who say this would say, "oh I can't do that date, I'll be in Asia!" [or "Africa"] the reason Americans talk about travel to Europe is because it's a different continent than the one we're on. we don't need to give our trip itinerary. while there are many countries someone could be visiting, one thing all trips to Europe have in common is a long as fuck flight to a different part of the world. sometimes all you're trying to communicate is "I'll be extremely far away."
They just hate being generalized and likened to their neighbors. Like I can get it if say someone went to Spain and Italy and literally nowhere north, and there are absolutely people who go to these 2 and call it their Europe trip. But think about the strongest stereotypical state rivalry in the US for example (California/Texas maybe?) or the rivalry between the west and east coasts then compare it to here. People of neighboring countries over here that actually share borders can often share legitimate contempt for each other. Theres also a lot of pride involved in the uniqueness (and sometimes, self proclaimed, superiority) of cultures and histories of individual countries. Also consider the different wars, rebellions, territorial disputes, conflicts, etc etc. Many of which may have happened long ago, but are absolutely still part of the psyche and has had a long term effect of 'we're not like them'. **TLDR**: It's not rooted in them being pedantic (although it might feel like it), its rooted in a long, long history of competing, hating, fighting, killing, and stealing from each other lol.
It’s because Americans will sometimes reference some minor cultural shock or experience in a particular country and then extrapolate it to every other country in Europe. What is common in one country is often pretty unusual for another, so while we (usually) don’t actually think you are so dumb that you really think Europe is a country, it’s the assumption that European countries are synonymous with US states that gets a reaction. Sort of like when non Americans take stereotypes of Texas then imagine it works for the whole of the US… only worse.
I mean obviously it’s not all Americans but I hear the phrase “countries like Europe” at least once a week which showed either poor geography or a poor grasp of the English language, neither of which is very becoming
"There are more countries in North America than just the US, so stop being ignorant and ignoring them". I can feel my IQ dropping every time it gets brought up.
Usually people from Latin America that don't realize that in the US we use the term "The Americas" for that
exactly. America = USA. The Americas = North and South America + the Caribbean Islands
They know. They’re just playing the victim to act self righteous.
Meanwhile Mexicans call us Americans.
Same with French
Is there a word in English to say from the USA? In Spanish we use “Americano” and “Estadounidense” interchangeably, but the former is more common.
“Give me a reason to give a shit about Guatemala.”
When Europeans brag about how many languages they know and judge you for only knowing one or two at most. Europe is crammed together. Traveling to different countries in Europe is easy, here in the US the land is so big we have almost 0 opportunity to be exposed to any language other than Spanish, and even that is pretty low chances. The highschool classes to teach language is pitiful at best, you can take 4 years of Spanish and still not know Spanish,
Most Europeans don’t know multiple languages, although a lot will know their own and 1 other, usually English. Some do, I knew a Portuguese guy who was as flawless in English as Portuguese and spoke 3 other languages pretty well, but most people are anywhere near that.
>Europe is crammed together. Traveling to different countries in Europe is easy Exactly! Our states are the size of European countries. If each US state spoke a unique language/dialect, then most Americans would probably have some understanding of at least the languages spoken in the states closest to them. But we don't! I think the fact that the vast majority of Americans all speak English (with only minor regional variations in vocabulary) is one of our greatest strengths... even though that means most of us ONLY speak English.
Assuming the cheap, mass produced, lowest common denominator products that get distributed worldwide are what everyone consumes in the US…… yes, of course we all eat Wonder Bread with spray cheese while drinking Bud Light and Coca-Cola every single day. /s Obviously you aren’t gonna get the locally crafted, small shop, quality ingredient, delicious stuff all the way on the other side of the ocean, and those types of places aren’t gonna have the kind of advertising budget for you to be able to recognize their brand… but those types of places are all over the country, anywhere even remotely urban or suburban.
I’m a uk person and actually, I love spray cheese and Coca Cola and bud light, they are so bad for you and complete crap but soooooo good! And yes I agree, it’s like pointing at the cheapest food in any country and declaring that’s their staple
What matters is how most of your working class eats. And the comparisons with Europe are appalling
That varies hugely from person to person and area to area. The food deserts in low income areas are a major concern though.
The comment wasn't even about how we eat. It was talking about how Europe only gets the cheapest most marketed stuff we produce. For instance the only American beer in Europe is probably something like Budweiser or Bud light. Yet in my area alone there are probably 20 local breweries all with dozens of varieties of locally crafted, high quality beers. Then Europeans will claim American beer sucks, while only having the shittiest American beer available.
Even then, there's a big difference between cheap Walmart wheat bread and wonder bread. Same price point, not the same product.
They say they are afraid of being shot. A person is much more likely to die in a car accident, freeways are scary.
Collision jokes would make more sense than shooting jokes but the latter is more detached from reality to anyone else.
1) Telling me "Americans have no culture" (which a couple English men said to me when I visited the UK). 2) Making fun of people who feel affiliation with the country their grandparents/ancestors come from. Even two or three generations on, your ancestry can profoundly affect your life, in terms of sex roles in your family, what you eat, who you are expected to marry, the music your family listens to, your family legends/stories, your religion/the importance of religion in your family, the holidays you celebrate, whether you're ridiculed based on stereotypes, whether you're made fun of for having a "weird" last name, and more. We might have lost the ancestral language because our grandparents wanted their children to be "Americanized" or because our family members were punished for speaking it, not because we're dumb.
The culture one really irks me as an African American because many of our cultures here made it through all of the attempts at erasure. So many groups have had institutions try to strip away their culture and customs. To have people still spout what could be considered colonialist propaganda is wild. And with the ancestry point, to me, that’s a form of people trying to be in touch with their culture imo. Those same people who claim we have no culture then turn around and say “no not like that”. Like pick a lane. Okay rant over
"Americans have no culture" is the most brain dead take in existence. It was dumb in the 1800s, it's inexcusable after the 20th century
“Americans have no culture” While wearing Nike, posting on instagram, listening to hip hop & using American slang.
And going home to watch a Hollywood movie on an American owned TV steaming service
When foreigners, mostly Europeans, act all superior to Americans. For instance, acting like Americans are such racist and overall bigots while Europeans are such tolerant and enlightened people. They just ignore how they treat their own minorities (cough cough gypsies, cough cough look at Europeans after soccer games). Also when foreigners, again mostly Europeans, that always talk about how shitty our system is and how much better than are than us. Mostly regarding healthcare, time off, stuff like that. Guess what? We're footing the bill for your defense! You're welcome, without us see what stuff you have. Also they ignore the problems in their system when acting so much better. Lastly when foreigners, (and don't be shocked when I say this) again mostly Europeans, act like they are so much smarter than us. Sit your ass down you elitist snob.
i hate when Europeans think all Americans are racist. It just screams ignorance. 1. we’re not all racist. there’s really few truly racist people around. they’re a dying breed (thankfully). 2. The US is bound to have ethnic and racial and cultural tensions because we are a melting pot of these things. Europeans are so used to just having White people in their countries. It’s also funny how they don’t realize how xenophobic or racist they can be. Especially towards Middle Easterners
Europeans can be so racist that they are racist against other Europeans. I remember hearing British people complaining about Poles and Romanians in the run-up to Brexit. Then they try to say, it's okay if they're Gypsies.
Most POC Americans whom have spent any considerable time in Europe can vouch for the fact that much of Europe is about 4 to 5 decades behind the U.S. & Canada in race relations.
Completely agree. It's very disrespectful to go to someone else's country and bitch about it. I don't know if that has occurred yet to those people or not. We \*know\* it's not perfect here. Traveling is an opportunity to appreciate other people/cultures and not take them at face value. That idea has clearly flown over some visitors' heads. What really confuses me is the Europeans that move here long-term (even immigrate) and still complain incessantly. With that being said, I've never met someone from eastern Europe that complained. It's always western Europeans and Aussies.
People (not just Euroeans, many American also make this mistake) seem to completely discount medicare/medicaid, which the US spends a ton of money on (comparable to at least a couple European countries healthcare spending, can't remember the exact countries). Our system provides healthcare to the very old and the very poor, not to the middle class (unlike a lot of our benefits that our popular, which are more targeted towards the middle class. 30 year mortgages, child tax credits, etc). Could the system be improved? Almost certainly. But it would require taking on somewhat sympathetic lobbies like doctors themselves (who get paid more in the US than international counterparts). Also, it would probably look more Germanic or French (ie some use of health insurance) than British (single payer). Healthcare policy is rather complex and a lot of people understand very little of it.
Imagine how many nice things could we have if we weren't so busy spending so much on defense, or \*ehem\* defense of Europe. Yeah, don't criticize our foreign policy when our foreign policy is giving you the life that so many Americans want for themselves.
I just wanna point out that while that number is insanely high, it is JUST THREE PERCENT (3%) OF OUR GDP. We spend 3% of our GDP on our defense budget so that we can keep our part of the NATO treaty, and they fuck off and reap the rewards
We give free healthcare to more people than the UK has. And it's far better
Of course, a country with a much larger population gives more people free health care, but the US system is definitely better, according to the data, and although it is the most expensive in the world, it is in the upper midfield worldwide, even worse among industrialized countries, and the US has a lower life expectancy and a higher mortality rate among births compared to other industrialized countries. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/best-healthcare-in-the-world
You don’t see more people per capita though. You also spend significantly more on healthcare per head of population, so if it’s not better something must be going wrong. Having said that in healthcare outcomes the UK ranks 9th and the US 11th so neither is particularly impressive compared with other wealthy countries and despite spending far more per head of population, as well as (obviously) in total, US healthcare as measured by outcomes does not seem to be better.
Lol, tell them how many Americans get government healthcare in the USA compared to their countrys population. They often say I'm just making up the numbers lol
That’s why per capita is used as a way of comparing different sized populations, because big differences in population sizes make comparisons like the one you’ve just boasted about a little meaningless.
Europeans who brag about the Number of Countries they've been to (almost all European countries, tinier than most of our states). Ummm, we have 50 states and not that many people make it to All of them. I'm in my 40s and I have 9 [boring] states left to see. But, I'm really impressed that you're from a country that borders 9 countries and you can visit 3 in a day. /s
I don't think the average European mind can fathom how incredibly large the US even is. It took me less time to drive from the eastern coast of Ireland to the western coast than it would take me to drive from STL to Kansas City (all in the same state).
Yes, while someone in the Middle East told me exactly how many of their country could fit inside California. So they were completely aware! They also tend to refer to English as "the language of the Internet" and don't take offense when people speak it, nor get offended that visitors haven't taken time to learn their language, as they admit it's not a portable language. Unlike Europeans who will try to argue how portable and useful their languages are....
Americans have a tendency to be monolingual compared to Europeans who are often bilingual. But if you could imagine that every US state had their own language, of course many if not most of us would be polyglots! Languages are much easier to learn when you're exposed to them. So you're a Brit trying to learn German? Well that's an easy and relatively inexpensive trip to immerse yourself. An American trying to learn German on the other hand will pay thousands for the "full immersion experience." Of course, many Germans will speak English with you, but that's beside the point.
Youre really explaining the obvious. I've lived in Europe, which I thought was obvious, and We both have lived in other countries on other continents where People speak lots of languages And Dont have these attitudes. Youre making the wrong comparison! I'm comparing Europeans to other countries that have polyglots and nearby countries speaking different languages. Europeans are always going to be on the defense.
Did you like your time spent here? In Ireland I mean.
>I don't think the average European mind can fathom how incredibly large the US even is. Similarly, I don't think the average American mind can fathom how much smaller/denser other countries are. Every time I see a Fun Fact™ about how "Texas is about the same size as France, but France has more than twice the population of Texas", my immediate reaction is LOL THAT SOUNDS FAKE
I think if you've been to a lot of countries it is worth bragging about...unless you live in the Schengen Area and haven't visited many countries outside of it.
"Why is the food so big and full of chemicals? You eat like you have healthcare." Because you can't grow watermelon in North Dakota and there aren't a lot of dairy farms in New Jersey. A country this big with this many people needs food that lasts long journeys plus has any sort of shelf life. Maybe a mother of 3 needs the extra large thing of cheese to feed her kids, or some dude cooks with it, or this other guy just hates going to the store and likes to buy in bulk. We have options because we're good at making food that feeds people efficiently (even if not healthily), and we don't appreciate the accomplishment that is enough. Hell, we've made excess, and we can have fun with it. Ask anyone from Texas.
The people who claim Americans don't have "real" bread when in all actuality the people who say that have either never been to the U.S or are so dense they somehow miss the giant **BAKERY** sign in the grocery store.
You don't understand; the only REAL bread is the exact recipe their local bakery makes. No other carby foodstuff on earth is real bread. Just the one. It's amazingly lucky for them that they happened to be born in the only place with real food and this does not in any way indicate a limited perspective or suggest that maybe what is standard to them could be a foreign variation rather than The One True Real Thing to someone from some other place.
good point. no where else on the planet will you find real european bread except europe…and even that is only in some countries there
I was arguing with a European about us "not having bread" on tiktok. She said she went to NYC and couldn't find ANY fresh bread anywhere. So I posted a screen recording of me googling bakeries in NYC and stopped scrolling for her after I passed around 100 options. She said none of those counted because they probably didn't have the specific variety of rye bread from her region of whatever Scandanavian country she was from.
It was NYC. They might have it.
I’m starting to really get fed up with the, “Is X thing I see in every American movie real?” questions. In this case, the high school questions - Yes, yellow school buses are real, school lockers are real, prom is real, pep rallys are real, cheerleaders are real, sports are a huge part of school life, highschool parties are real. If you’ve seen it in more than one movie, it’s not make believe, it’s based on our actual lives. Ask questions like, “What’s homecoming?”, not, “Is homecoming real?” and people will happily talk about their lives.
Only thing I've never heard being real is hanging out in the hallways between classes. Yet that happens in every movie and show it seems
But that is real? We always did it at my school at least
Between classes? Not like after or before school, or during lunch? Cause my school you had 5 minutes between classes; we didn't have time for that
yeah i had 5 minutes and would often stop to talk to my friends. not like they were very deep or long conversations but they happened
I got 5 too but I was always too busy getting to the next class, with so many people around I never had any time to waste.
"The names of our towns and cities is based on the cultures which colonized the parts of the country they inhabited Fuck right off. In England the place names are Norse, Anglo-Saxon, Norman & Roman. Nobody is claiming to be Anglo-Viking. Most of the English have ancestors from elsewhere. My great-grandparents were Irish for example. None of us claim any other ethnicity. None. What does it matter where your great, great grandfather was from? It has zero influence on you, your personality or your behaviour. That comes from your upbringing and that was American" - an English person What I said "We are saying our heritage, our ethnicity. Not our nationality. Unless we have dual citizenship, we are not claiming any other nationalities. Nationality and ethnicity mean very different things. "Nationality" means "What country's on your passport and birth certificate?" and "ethnicity" means "Who were your ancestors." I know nationality can also mean ethnicity But we are using nationality to mean "what country do you have a citizenship in " The names of our towns and cities is based on the cultures which colonized the parts of the country they inhabited. So in the East and NE of the US, names came from various existing English and other cities and towns and this is why you see "New X" where X was the Old World city. Or we named them after historical figures or from words from so and so indigenous american tribe that lived/lives there."
Europeans tend to be annoyed when Americans generalize Europe in any manner, but then they generalize the best parts of Western Europe as all of Europe when comparing with America.
“Donald Trump is one of us.” 🙄 I can make it from Santa Monica to New Jersey in just under fifty hours. Best I can do. I’m curious to see how long it would take to get from Anchorage or Yellowknife to Key West, but it’s not a major “gotta-do.”
Yellowknife is _deep_ into Canada my guy.
And Anchorage is past Canada.... Edit: just looked it up. Anchorage to Key West is 81 hours of driving. Yellowknife to Key West is 62 hours
Yeah, but why would the time to drive from a town in another country to Miami be relevant to the size of the US? Might as well discuss the drive time from Cabo San Pablo to Barrow.
Europeans with strong opinions on US gun laws. Especially if they have no idea how our laws actually work. File under "does the whole country work like this one video I saw?" Which is an annoyance someone else has already elaborated on in this thread.
drawbacks of social media and ignorance
All we need to know is that your gun laws make more than one school shootings per day possible
And we're just as thrilled about as the rest of the world is. It's an atrocity that our government has been paid by lobbyists to allow to continue. Don't get it twisted, we all hate it.
“We all hate it” no we don’t all hate it and that’s the problem. A non insignificant portion of this country literally fetishizes guns. Sure they don’t think we should mow down schoolchildren, but they think their right to their pew pew machine is more important than those children. Nothing changes because not enough people care. if a politician even wants to, say, stop selling guns in WALMART, people will accuse them of trying to take all guns away. This country has a violence problem.
American gun laws are objectively stupid to anyone who doesn’t fetishize the idea of killing another human being.
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It’s not really just a criticism of Americans, just English speakers generally. It’s just not a very fair criticism for the reasons you gave. As an English speaker, even if you are fluent in French, visit Spain, Germany or Poland and you’ll probably still end up speaking English.
I’ve been around Europe and noticed that the further east one goes, the more the people seem to love Americans. I wonder what’s over that way?
W A R
Don’t have a specific example of this but almost blatantly dismissing me because they think I’m stupid or what not 😐
people asking me when I lived in the UK, "How is London?" vs people from the UK saying, "we're thinking of landing in New York and do that for the night then take the train over you in in Californi in the morning and scoot on back home. Ya'll need to pump the breaks!
Whenever Europeans start criticizing American foreign policies or politics in general.
that’s just hypocrisy. you don’t even have to go back 100 years to see how fucked up foreign policies were in European countries. I was just thinking to myself yesterday about the UN Security Council votes to condemn Israel’s genocide and war on Gaza. I take a neutral stance on the topic but I don’t support US involvement at all because it’s none of our business. However, everyone gets mad when the U.S. vetos any resolutions, or votes No, or abstains. BUT Why is no one talking about India and China doing the SAME thing when it came to Ukraine??? It’s all dependency on whether or not the resolution benefits your country’s foreign policy. in war and international politics, it’s all about your own country. The countries who yell “human rights violations” are the same ones who make them but just hide them.
Or worse, when they start blaming you for it personally (While the whole time many of their governments/military were actively participating in, funding, and fighting in the same things they blame and criticize America for)
Nothing that a visitor would ask. It is when life-long residents ask those questions that I have to walk away to keep from being rude to their face.
When they ask where I'm from, I say NY, and they respond with something assuming I mean NYC. NY is huge, and I'm from upstate. NYC is such a small portion of the state, and according to most of us, the worst part of the state. We do not like being grouped in with the citidiots that ruin NY on a daily basis.
For me it’s the “no you’re not Irish/German/Italian, you’re *American*” attitude from many Europeans I’ve encountered that suddenly doesn’t apply to non-white Americans. From my experience they’ve been more than happy to label me, a Korean-American born and raised in Idaho, as a Korean rather than an American.
Are either of your parents Korean though? I don’t think their issue is with second or even third gen immigrants. It’s with people like me, who have been here since the 1800s, saying they’re “Irish” or “German”
Fun to notice that 90% of the complaints are about Europeans. Not surprised. As a NYC resident and frequent encounter of overseas tourists I'd like to applaud the Aussies.....you guys are usually rad.
I’m an American who lives in France. I hate when Europeans make assumptions, but I also hate when Americans push back on that with the same kind of erroneous assumptions, like a lot of people in this thread are doing. At the end of the day most Europeans legitimately know next to nothing about the US and most Americans legitimately know next to nothing about Europe and both groups of people should probably learn a little more and speak a little less, including people in this thread.
When they start a question with “Do Americans __?” or “Why do Americans __?”, as if all 345 million of us do and think the exact same thing. I guess we're all robots. 🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖
When people ask questions where the information is known yo be true (ie do Americans really not get medical treatment because it's too expensive?)
Anyone/Europeans that think we will leave NATO, leave Europe, etc etc. If you use this unironically, I consider you nothing more than a jester.
I am an American living in Germany. Recently, in a pub, someone who was drinking "Jack and Coke" while wearing blue jeans and a baseball hat while listening to American music tried to convince me that "America has no culture".
Say “we aren’t in Kansas anymore” or think Kansas City is in Kansas. (There is a Kansas City in Kansas but it’s not the one you are thinking of).
None. I really can't think of any time that that sort of thing really bothered me.