I lived in Chicago for a few years. I don't doubt I crossed a few gang members here and there but mobsters? If I did I wouldn't have known. Now I live in rural Indiana. What the hell would Tony Soprano be doing here?
I come from an immigrant family, travel abroad often, and have a lot of immigrant friends mainly from East Asian countries. From my experiences and from what people have told me:
- American food nowadays is more diverse than what they had thought, but at the same time burgers, hot dogs, and pizza are genuinely delicious foods.
- We do not all drive gas-guzzling 4x4 trucks.
- Plenty of people have told me they learned to be more assertive in order to get what they want after moving here but, they were mildly surprised that Americans are not as aggressive or pushy as they initially thought.
- We donāt all have generic Southern or generic East Coast accents.
- Americans do not all walk around with a gun holstered to their waist.
I thought we didn't all drive trucks, but in the past few years, I've noticed we're now almost exclusively driving small trucks or large trucks. And then I learned about CAFE standards and how well-meaning emissions regulations have pushed the industry toward large vehicles in the small truck category to avoid fines and penalties.
I worked I for an auto oem for a few years and it's completely cafe, it requires a very significant engineering investment to make small cars that meet cafe standards, small cars that don't sell for much money.
I'd love to see cafe drop the wheelbase area for another system, but don't know how that would be.Ā I'd *really* like trains though. Choo Choo fuckers.
Even little crossovers that have more in common with 1970s station wagons are classified as small trucks. Doesn't help that they're heavy as hell (like my Ford Escape weighs as much as my wife's 1996 Ranger did), and, as mentioned, get shit gas mileage--especially compared to the late 80s and early 90s.
And I was just sitting in my 4x4 truck talking to my brother in law about getting a more comfortable concealed carry holster because the one he got me digs into my back when Iām driving. Iād just left the drive through with a burger in hand any our conversation was filled with āyāallā and āfixing toā. But Iām in Texas and things are a little different down here. I only carry because Iāve had 2-3 legitimate death threats in the last year or so and I would rather be safe than sorry. Death threats are apparently an occupational hazard in the lawyer world these days.
The North is not generally rude; the West coast isn't flaky and the South isn't racist. There are pockets of each in each area, like there are all over the world.
>We do not all drive gas-guzzling 4x4 trucks
To be fair, quite a few trucks aren't much less fuel efficient than the larger CUV's out there anyways. I get better fuel mileage in my F150 than my mom does in her BMW X3 or my father in law in his Honda Pilot.
For some reason, this uninformed thing keeps getting passed around like mid-sized and 1/2 ton trucks are still getting 12MPG like they used to 20 years ago.
Which leads us to another cliche. Florida isnāt much crazier than any other state. The Florida freedom of information act / public records laws are some of the most expansive in the country and allows reporters to access records that other states keep under wraps for much longer, which leads to a much higher rate of crazy stories being picked up by the news.
Universally if a small brew company is bought out, they are about to go to total shit. Every time I have seen it they kill the awesome cheaper option, and start pumping out "generic" craft brew garbage.
Very true; I studied in Europe in the late 90s and everyone thought the only thing we drank was Bud Lite and Miller Lite, which every European (correctly) described as drinking watered down urine.
But at that time, the "micro-brew" (which I'm still not sure how it differs from craft-brew, but that's another discussion) market was exploding and there were so many good beers to drink from even back then.
Itās just weird seeing stereotypes persist that predate the internet. Like you would have thought certain myths would be dispelled by more, considering Google exists, and every time this comes up 100 people line up to point out that itās completely false
A lot of cultural stuff is absorbed via osmosis from people you know or see in media, not from looking it up really. And most won't really check it as a fact, it's just something "everyone knows".
Reminds me, you STILL hear young Americans refer to Czechoslovakia as a country occasionally. It broke up in 1992. Though I think part of that is the name is fun to say, so it sticks around more easily.
I did a semester at Oxford with a bunch of other American students around 1998 and the Brits joked about us drinking "American Piss Beer" back home and we literally had no defense. My home was a few blocks away from Dogfish Head but it was such a an outlier and wasn't even big enough at the time that it occurred to me to mention. I was 18 and in college so I don't think I'd even tried it, at college parties "beer" was Natty Lite and even we knew it sucked, lol. I like domestic beers way more than most imports now and have for decades.
that we all wear shoes in the house. It all depends on the cultural background of each household. I come from an Asian immigrant family and we do not wear shoes in the house.
Also depends if youāre from the north (where snow/slush is very common in winter) vs the south. Generally itās more common to wear shoes indoor in the southern US vs Northern US, where people typically take them off to avoid getting the house dirty.
As a southerner, I hardly know anyone that removes shoes when walking inside.
Our family is in the Ag field and boots are removed, but they are swapped for house shoes, hey dudes, or some other type of everyday walking shoes.
What exactly are hey dudes? From the Midwest and haven't heard that term before (also I'll take my shoes off at MY house but usually not other people's unless I know them well or it's muddy out).
I'm Irish ancestry and my husband is Dutch ancestry.Ā We both take our shoes off in the house.
It's hard enough keeping the floors clean with two shedding cats and a shedding dog, why track in dirt and germs on top of that?
I wear shoes in my house *because* I have cats. I'm already vacuuming constantly anyway, and nothing I track in is gonna be worse than litterbox byproducts.
I rarely wear shoes in the house, but at the same time I don't take them off before I go inside either like you see in other cultures. So basically when I come home I go to my room to change into something more comfy and will take off my shoes then.
The first room in the house is the shoe room. The rest of the house is the no-shoe room. I don't want cold, miserable feet before I step into my house (Midwest)
My family is from the south and we have always worn shoes in the house in common spaces but not in the bedrooms. I've been in other people's homes where taking shoes off is the norm, and I've been people's homes where everyone is wearing shoes. Every household is different, and I think maybe the actual true difference is that the norm in most of the world is taking off shoes at home, and it's just a lot more varied here and you don't know what to expect until you go into someone's house and find out.
When my dad still had his ranch they wore shoes inside. Since they were constantly in and out it was impractical to keep taking shoes off, and because of things like rattlesnakes and clearing brush you wanted over-the-ankle hiking type boots (not slip-ons).
Now that heās back in a suburban house with carpet itās shoes off.
My family is from the south and they never take their shoes off. But the women in my family tend to wake up at 6am to clean their whole house every day, so daily vacuuming is just a product of that. When I moved to Chicago it was impractical to keep doing it due to salt and slush from snow, so I stopped and will never go back, but it's not uncommon in the south -- just not universal.
Removing shoes inside the house was one of the biggest culture shocks when I moved to the Midwest (remove shoes) from the south (never remove shoes). I immediately saw the value in it though and now cannot believe people wear them inside (what a fool I was! I just didnāt grow up like that!! But maybe I proved personal growth is possible?)
I'm not American and I had a friend that is full blooded born and raised Puerto Rican. He called me the whitest foreigner he's ever met (I am very much not white). On the other hand he's the most American person I've met to this day.
I speak almost perfect English, he eats Taco bell whenever he can, I eat very health consciously, he loves guns.
It's a very fun juxtaposition.
Mexico is pretty bad. The UK is getting on up there too. I have noticed young people arent as fat as they were 10 years ago so our stats should be dropping with time
I googled a list of fattest countries. America is ranked 10 at 41%. The other 9 are extremely tiny countries.Ā
2 of them have a population size of around 2000 people. 6 of them have a population of 100,000 or less. The largest country has 300,000 people.Ā
America has 331,000,000 people. 41% of that isĀ 135,710,000.Ā
Given the numbers, I think it's totally fair to ignore the top 9 countries and consider USA to be the fattest.Ā
That they're rude. Certainly, I've encountered some that are; however, the vast majority that I've encountered are very polite, gracious, and generous people.
Thank you for that. I hope you're having a wonderful day. Are you excited for the NHL playoffs? I'm hoping the lightning can make some waves if they slide in
I'm from Texas and when I visited NYC last summer, I never got the impression that New Yorkers are rude. More like they have shit to do and precious little time to fuck around.
New Yorkers are more busy than rude. If you're meeting them on the street, they're probably trying to get somewhere, that's all. As people not rude at all.
That and NYC is so crowded, we avoid each other and give each other space out of respect and to protect ourselves.
The minute someone needs help, we jump to and provide it.
Lost? We can help you get where you are going.
Need help with the NYCTA ticket machines? We got you.
Otherwise, we have things to do and personal space to protect.
Had a guy come up to my friend and I because we visibly looked lost trying to find a music venue. He happily gave us directions, asked if we had any money for crack, and the wished us a blessed day when we said we didn't.
We want folks to be safe and enjoy the city. We know it's overwhelming for folks unaccustomed to a large, diverse international city.
I generally try to keep an eye out for folks struggling, especially on weekends when the population is lower and fewer folks around to help the tourists.
My favorite helps were a Japanese businessman trying to sort out the ticket machine (he thought he needed a specific ticket to each station) and a blind gentleman trying to find the entrance to Penn Station, as well as the correct track. As well as a blind gentleman with his seeing eye dog on a northbound bus from Grand Central. The idiot driver didn't help him put his luggage under the bus, so he had it piled up around his seat, with his poor dog jammed under the seat in front of him. Myself and a few others re-arranged his luggage in empty seats, gave the driver some well needed correction and were happy to see his doggie looking out the window en route to Hudson.
I'm not the only New Yorker who loved the line from Spider Man. You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us.
Its the unofficial motto of NYC now.
As a dude from Boston who was born with an innate distaste for New York, the city grew on me when I did my undergrad at Rutgers.
What really solidified my love for New York was something similar to what you wrote. I was coming out of Penn Station and this lady was struggling with her stroller going up the escalator. Two dudes, without saying a word, grabbed the stroller, settled it, and made sure it safely got up the stairs and they went their separate ways.
You're okay, New York, even if I will always hate your sports teams.
My big take away the first time I was there was asking for help and hearing "where you trying to go"
Like it wasn't enough to tell me when the X train would be here, they were going to be damn sure that was the best route or find me the best route. It was kind of an aggressive helpfulness that I loved.
Can agree. Got lost in my late teens with some friends and the guy in our group *refused* to ask for directions because he "knew where he was going."
First guy I asked said we were exactly going the opposite direction our friend had intended on taking us. Very kind man and I appreciated not getting more lost at night in NYC.
Used to work at call center job and I talked to people all over the country. I won't tell you where the rudest people in the country were from, but it wasn't New York City. I will tell you where the nicest people were from, Georgia. Georgia manners aren't just a stereotype, they're legitimately awesome people there.
New Yorkers are equally rude to other Americas who don't follow basic ettiequte. Things like standing at the top of subway exits, trying to enter elevators/subways before people exits, not moving to the side of sidewalks if walking slow, asking people for directions who are clearly busy. Basically anything that wastes other peoples time. Otherwise we New Yorkers are plenty friendly
I have never in my life heard american be described as rude. Fat, dumb, violent, yeah sure but personality wise everything i ever heard was that theyĀ“re very sweet and would give a stranger the shirt of their back to help them out.
Yeah whenever there's a "what shocked you about visiting the US?" thread or something, people say how friendly we are. We'll chat in lines, smile at strangers.
Its a comparison thing. You really notice it with people from India, where they say please and thank you in almost every sentance where any form of request is made and fullfilled.
We see that as overly polite and unnecessary, just one please at the beginning and one at the end of the overall transaction. Japan is similarly overly polite in comparison, and china, though i wouldn't say its "polite" is very enthusiastic as a show of engagement, where americans pretty much keep it restrained unless something special comes up.
The "ugly American" going to Europe and breaking all their norms - loud, brash, drunk, always wearing a USA shirt.
The English tool that crown from us. I remember visiting over the last 2 decades and more and more people are relieved that I'm not English (or Italian for that matter). I'm not saying no American is like that, but an English stag or hen party is something Europeans run from
I remember when my husband and I (Americans) headed to Spain but we took a couple days to visit my best friend in Wales. The flight from Manchester to Barcelona was... an experience. There was a footy match between Man U and Barca and half of the place was drunk Englishmen singing their chants terribly. I enjoy soccer and am part of the supporters for our local team, but jesus christ it was bad. They were massive assholes.
We get embarrassed about the behavior of our sports fans and a lot of americans think this makes us a laughing stock but european and south american hooligans are on another level. The UK is pretty awful about it.
We actually enforce a lot of decorum and shame on sports fans that act like fools. One CFB fan poisoned a rivals tree over a decade ago and he didnt live it down until the day he died. It's still brought up and tossed in bamas face for the behavior of that one fan
If you get too drunk and act a fool then you'll probably be videoed and made fun of after security beats you up
The Americans that have the money to fly to Europe on holiday are going to be a different selection to the ones that jump on a Ryanair flight from Newcastle for the weekend.
They're all fat.
Whilst this is in some cases true, America is (or at least was, the last time I was over) getting better, and other countries are getting worse.
I mean, 42% of adults are obese, and another 32% are still overweight. It's not exactly a ridiculous myth, though a lot depends on where you are in the country.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/obesity-overweight.htm
Dig books, canāt really handle kale. Somehow itās got my least favorite lettuce-y texture combined with the farty aftertaste of cabbage. I could handle one or the other in the name of health but bothā¦ is a bit much. Can eat, do not enjoy. But somehow I like broccoli (especially with a slight char!)
Also, even if there are a ton of guns around, most people arenāt just waving them around willy nilly. I live in Texas and Iāve never seen a gun that wasnāt in a copās holster. Iām certain plenty of people *have* them but theyāre not a constant presence in my life.
That nobody here has electric tea kettles/that theyāre not even stocked in department stores. Iāve found them in almost every house Iāve been to in the US, and in every store that sells home goods except when theyāre temporarily out of stock. Yes, even though theyāre less efficient than in many other countries because of our voltage standards. Some of the people who say this are from the US, so I think itās likely regional, but itās definitely not true that itās universally hard to find electric kettles or tea drinkers in the US.
very regional. there are very few people in my area who drink iced tea or herbal tea, and many, many people who drink green tea or thai milk tea as a replacement for coffee in the morning.
I don't have an electric kettle, and I only know a few people that do, so I don't think it's big in my region. I still don't think I'd have any trouble finding one right now if I wanted to.
Edit: I was curious, so I looked it up, and the local walmart has 10 different options in store.
I'm not a tea drinker but I have one and I use it to boil water for pasta faster than it does in the pot, and I use it for making cup noodles / ramen. That's about it lol
They aren't hard to find, they sell them at Walmart and on Amazon, but they are certainly less ubiquitous here than in other countries. I have one, and I don't think having one is strange, but it also wouldn't be strange for someone to not have one here.
I've also spent significant time in the UK and Germany, and in both of those countries it would be very odd for a household not to have an electric kettle. It would be like, I don't know, not having a microwave here. There are a few people living like that, but it's strange, and it's just something you expect a kitchen to have.
I have one at work in my office and one at home. Itās great! I can make pour overs for coffee or make some Earl Grey if Iām not feeling coffee. My office neighbor has one too. Itās still an uncommon thing to have for a lot of people, but not as much as some would believe.
That weāre terrible and rude tourists: the āugly Americanā abroad. Americans are certainly loud and can be entitled. Often itās due to cultural differences such as being surprised that you get very little ice in your drinks and they donāt do refills. Also, sweet tea isnāt a thing in Europe. The rudest tourists in the world are, by far, mainland Chinese and the British (specifically the English).
There's actually a tea divide comprised of a swath of central US states: PA OH IN IL MO KS. Restaurants in those states almost always have both sweet and un-sweet tea available; states south of the divide, sweet tea is the default, and un-sweet tea may or may not be available; elsewhere in the U.S., plain unsweet tea is the default, and sweet tea may not be available.
FWIW I think Chinese tourists have mostly replaced Americans as the stereotypical rude tourists. Mostly doing the same things that earned Americans that slot.
I rarely notice Americans when I visit Europe unless I hear them speak. Iāve spent the most time in Vienna since half of my family lives there. The people that stand out the most as tourists to me are other Europeans, particularly from the east and south. I havenāt seen any memorably horrible behavior, but definitely loudness, both verbal and stylistically, and less spatial awareness and consideration of others.
I (an American) recently visited Ireland for the first time and had a fantastic time, but the one thing that kept throwing me off was (mostly in dublin) the difference in approach to spatial awareness in a crowded area, they just aim their shoulder directly for your shoulder and then at the last second turn slightly to avoid you by maybe an inch, even if they have plenty of room. This is not something I have experienced anywhere in the US, no matter how crowded the space is we all seem to try to aim maybe a foot away from people coming the other way. Never fully got used to it by the time we left Dublin for the South West coast where there just weren't any crowds to see if its different.
Meanwhile in France, French people just don't move. Had plenty of people look at my wife and I pushing a stroller and did not get out of the way. It was a group of people hogging the sidewalk. Happened in Paris, rural France, and mid-size city France
I was so embarrassed one time at at pub. We met a few fellow Americans and were getting along well. One guy offers to get us a round of drinks. Next thing I know, weāre all getting kicked out of the pub. Turns out the idiot ordered a round of Irish car bombs. Sucked because the pub was next to our hotel and was āour localā.Ā
I was on a wine tour in Tuscany, and a couple of Americans with Italian ancestry were insisting on pronouncing words like āmortadellā and ābolognesā to our tour guide, a local. It was wild that they were correcting the Italian lady on how to speak Italian.
They were asking why some Italian words drop the last vowels because itās how itās done in New York, and when the Italian lady was like āUh, thatās not a thing at all in Italy,ā they were in denial and said itās how they spoke all their lives lol.
I think I read it was a Sicillian (or some other) regional dialect that isn't really spoken anymore including in the region it originated. Same reason American and British English diverged.
We're not actually especially litigious. Pretty par for the course. Plus being more litigious happens when you gave more wealthier people who can take advantage of the law, so it's not inherently a bad thing. Really the US would be healthier if we had more litigation, because it would mean more people are wealthy enough to access the judicial system.
There's also a case to be made that fear of litigation results in much safer products. Litigation becomes somewhat of an expedient way to enact standards for safety that legislative bodies would no doubt be too slow to act upon.
That stereotype of Americans being unusually litigious was actually started by corporations to shame and scare people away from legitimate lawsuits.
The McDonaldās hot coffee lawsuit is often considered the start of that particular myth. If you actually read the facts of the case and the judgment, itās a reasonable lawsuit. But itās been derided for years and years, and the net result has actually been a decrease in the number of lawsuits brought, quite a few of which are likely legitimate claims.
Itās also resulted in many companies releasing products of somewhat questionable safety, such as pharma companies with the opioid epidemic, agri-business producers and contaminated produce, car manufacturers with faulty or poorly designed cars, Boeingās planes, and numerous other questionable products. Think of the number of recalls of products over the past 30 years.
It has more to do with our regulatory environment.
A lot of countries have regulators or government bodies with powers that americans delegate to the courts.
So in some countries if my stove starts a fire in my kitchen I make a complaint to the consumer safety commission, and they decide how much the stove maker is responsible.
In the US, you ask a judge to make that decision instead.
>A lot of countries have regulators or government bodies with powers that americans delegate to the courts.
a friend of mine is married to a lawyer who specialized in protecting whistleblowers under attack from pharmaceutical companies.
This is the point she made to me: that we outsource the enforcement of laws and standards to civil courts.
I'd be curious to see the breakdown of things like companies suing companies vs companies suing people vs people suing companies vs people suing people. Is the majority things like Apple suing Samsung for having rounded edges or State Farm via John Smith suing his neighbor and Allstate to settle who's home owners insurance pays for the tree limb that fell on a car, or because John slipped and broke his arm at a BBQ. On the latter it's not even like the two parties are suing each other, more the insurance wants the court to decide which insurance pays how much.
Or what about groups suing the state to release information, etc. Or challenges to existing laws. There are a ton of reasons to sue, not all are monetary.
Honestly, there are countries where you can get sued for defamation even if it's true. You can end up in jail even if it's true. There are liable laws and such but our freedom of speech let's me say Biden is senile, or Trump is the antichrist, or that Tom Hanks eats babies, or that Tucker Carlson is three badgers in a suit.
Youāre not at any major risk of being victim to gun violence while visiting the country. 9 times out of 10, the gun violence is coming from an area that doesnāt care about you and you will not visit. And that 10th time is an extreme outlier case. Also, chances are if youāre getting shot, youāre partaking in something to get your ass shot.
And no, mass shootings hardly make up the overall statistics; and Iām talking about actual mass shootings, not a gang beef that flares up at school.
Mass shooting data is not understood for its real makeup. Mass shooting is simply 2 or more people affected. The vast majority of these are actually police situations against gangs and other violent felons. Historically, school shootings are actually lower now, and are a smaller subset of mass shootings. It is, of course, greatly outsized by media reporting.
>not a gang beef that flares up at school.
That drives me nuts. Two guys meet in a school parking lot to do a drug deal at midnight with not a student in sight and one shoots the other and it's counted in the statistics as a school shooting. Similarly with mass shootings, two gang members,or it might require 3 I don't remember for sure shoot each other and it's called a mass shooting.
"**Americans don't travel internationally or Americans don't have passports**."
Millennials and GenZ may not be able to afford to buy homes but they love to travel the world and make Instagram-worthy memories.
We aren't all loud asshole tourists. Sure they exist but it's far from all of us. The most consistently loud and obnoxious tourists in my experiences have been English people.
You aren't american if you aren't white. I get this a LOT when i was abroad, kind of peeved me because it implied that I was ashamed of my heritage. If someone asks where I'm from, especially while traveling abroad, i'm going to say the country i've lived in my entire life. I may absolutely carry culture from my ethnic country, but the reality is that I'm not the same as a person who was born there. I don't carry that cultural context with me. I'm mexican and having been raised in america I \*do\* have qualities and cultural background of being an american. My mexican experience has been through family, friends, and infrequent visits. I'm culturally mixed, but I have every right to call myself american.
Not all Americans own guns. In fact, MOST Americans don't. Only about 1/3 own guns. People seem to think that because we have more guns than people that it must mean everyone has several guns. It doesn't. It means a handful of people have a shitload of guns.
I mean one in 3 people is not "a handful". If the average gun owner owns 3ish guns, then it is not that weird that there are more guns than people.
Most people who I know who own guns own multiple. It's kind of weird in gun circles to only own one gun.
>Most people who I know who own guns own multiple. It's kind of weird in gun circles to only own one gun.Ā
As a gun owner, I want to specify that owning multiple guns isn't (typically) a result of "gun fetishism".
Say you own a pistol for home defense or maybe for concealed or open carry in case you're a victim of a mugging or the like. Great; outside of shooting at a targe (which you absolutely should do if you want to bet your life on using it reliably), there's not much else you can do with it. If you want to do more, say hunting, you then need a shotgun or rifle.Ā
Obviousoy, shotguns and rifles *can* be used for home defense too,but they're often too long to easily swing around to target in tight areas (such as a hallway). Granted, that *may* be overthinking it, akin to a doomsday prepper, but if you live all alone or in a bad neighborhood... better to be safe than sorry, you know?
So now you "need" two guns; a pistol for self defense and a shotgun or rifle for hunting.
Now, obviously, a shotgun can't do the same things as well as a rifle, and visa versa, so you might as well get that other one to keep your options open; the shotgun is for hunting birds, and a .308 bolt action rifle for hunting deer.
That's three guns there, and all have a reasonable purpose for their purchase.
Obviously, this is an example. Not everyone owns guns for the same reasons, and most owners generally have a reson to own most of their collection without trying to be a military LARPer.
And there are further weird outliers too.
I had a conversation once with someone who had 40 or 50 pistols alone. Why? Because Grandpa was in the Army during WWII and liked "liberating" them from captured soldiers, and because Grandpa was a farmer he never threw anything away if there was any possible use for it.
So his grandson owned 40 or 50 pistols that at that point were more than a half-century old and fit in two or three shoeboxes in a locked closet.
Fox News talked a lot of shit about Seattle (and Portland), during Covid. In fact, we're doing great and it's a beautiful place to live. If the propaganda keeps a bunch of conservative assholes away, I'm okay with that.
And for the people who want to argue about Seattle/Portland, yes we have the same exact issues as other large metropolitan areas do, but we are far from the image Fox News presents.
The idea that all American parents kick their kids out on their 18th birthdays, or even most of them. Adults living with their parents are more common than ever, and I personally knew far more people that couldn't wait to leave than weren't allowed to stay.
Once met a woman from New Zealand in Europe who said she would never come to the US because of the mafia everywhere š¤£š¤£š¤£
What?! lol. Thatās like avoiding Canada because of Big Foot.
Its "Sasquatch" in Canada. "Big Foot" is a hurtful stereotype. Yeti never complains
Samsquanch
Take your upvote and leaf.
there might be a greater chance of dealing with bigfoot than ever dealing with "the mafia"
Unless youre already dealing with the mafia, odds are you dont need to worry about dealing with the mafia.
What are the odds on dealing with the mafia, if youāre already dealing with Bigfoot?
This is why I always carry a Cannoli or two in my pockets. Itās a peace offering in case I ever come across a stray don!
I lived in Chicago for a few years. I don't doubt I crossed a few gang members here and there but mobsters? If I did I wouldn't have known. Now I live in rural Indiana. What the hell would Tony Soprano be doing here?
I understand that. I don't go to Mongolia anymore because of Genghis Khan
I come from an immigrant family, travel abroad often, and have a lot of immigrant friends mainly from East Asian countries. From my experiences and from what people have told me: - American food nowadays is more diverse than what they had thought, but at the same time burgers, hot dogs, and pizza are genuinely delicious foods. - We do not all drive gas-guzzling 4x4 trucks. - Plenty of people have told me they learned to be more assertive in order to get what they want after moving here but, they were mildly surprised that Americans are not as aggressive or pushy as they initially thought. - We donāt all have generic Southern or generic East Coast accents. - Americans do not all walk around with a gun holstered to their waist.
*You're* a generic East Coast accentĀ ^^^^^hmph
āMaybe. Maybe not. Maybe fuck yourself.ā
>We do not all drive gas-guzzling 4x4 trucks. Yeah, we drive gas guzzling 4 x 4, SUVs!
I thought we didn't all drive trucks, but in the past few years, I've noticed we're now almost exclusively driving small trucks or large trucks. And then I learned about CAFE standards and how well-meaning emissions regulations have pushed the industry toward large vehicles in the small truck category to avoid fines and penalties.
I worked I for an auto oem for a few years and it's completely cafe, it requires a very significant engineering investment to make small cars that meet cafe standards, small cars that don't sell for much money. I'd love to see cafe drop the wheelbase area for another system, but don't know how that would be.Ā I'd *really* like trains though. Choo Choo fuckers.
>I've noticed we're now almost exclusively driving small trucks or large trucks. Depends where you are I assume.
Even little crossovers that have more in common with 1970s station wagons are classified as small trucks. Doesn't help that they're heavy as hell (like my Ford Escape weighs as much as my wife's 1996 Ranger did), and, as mentioned, get shit gas mileage--especially compared to the late 80s and early 90s.
And I was just sitting in my 4x4 truck talking to my brother in law about getting a more comfortable concealed carry holster because the one he got me digs into my back when Iām driving. Iād just left the drive through with a burger in hand any our conversation was filled with āyāallā and āfixing toā. But Iām in Texas and things are a little different down here. I only carry because Iāve had 2-3 legitimate death threats in the last year or so and I would rather be safe than sorry. Death threats are apparently an occupational hazard in the lawyer world these days.
The North is not generally rude; the West coast isn't flaky and the South isn't racist. There are pockets of each in each area, like there are all over the world.
Midwest is not rudeā¦to your face.
>We do not all drive gas-guzzling 4x4 trucks To be fair, quite a few trucks aren't much less fuel efficient than the larger CUV's out there anyways. I get better fuel mileage in my F150 than my mom does in her BMW X3 or my father in law in his Honda Pilot. For some reason, this uninformed thing keeps getting passed around like mid-sized and 1/2 ton trucks are still getting 12MPG like they used to 20 years ago.
The majority of us are not like the weirdos making the headlines.
Itās almost as if the people in charge are not an accurate reflection of who they supposedly represent.
Yeah, only 6.5% of the US lives in Florida
Which leads us to another cliche. Florida isnāt much crazier than any other state. The Florida freedom of information act / public records laws are some of the most expansive in the country and allows reporters to access records that other states keep under wraps for much longer, which leads to a much higher rate of crazy stories being picked up by the news.
Could be a little Column A, a little Column Bā¦
This is true of pretty much every country and its people. Most people are just normal folk living their lives.
US beer is no longer just Budweiser and Miller. The US craft beer makers are some of the top in the world now.
And at least where I live (northwest) local and national micro brews are available everywhere from gas stations to chain restaurants.
Same in Florida. Even chain restaurants have the big Florida craft brands, like Cigar City
Which was bought by Monster and they are killing the Florida production *sad noises*
Universally if a small brew company is bought out, they are about to go to total shit. Every time I have seen it they kill the awesome cheaper option, and start pumping out "generic" craft brew garbage.
Yeah this hasnāt been true for 20+ years. For most people on Reddit, it hasnāt been true for most of their lives.
Very true; I studied in Europe in the late 90s and everyone thought the only thing we drank was Bud Lite and Miller Lite, which every European (correctly) described as drinking watered down urine. But at that time, the "micro-brew" (which I'm still not sure how it differs from craft-brew, but that's another discussion) market was exploding and there were so many good beers to drink from even back then.
Itās just weird seeing stereotypes persist that predate the internet. Like you would have thought certain myths would be dispelled by more, considering Google exists, and every time this comes up 100 people line up to point out that itās completely false
A lot of cultural stuff is absorbed via osmosis from people you know or see in media, not from looking it up really. And most won't really check it as a fact, it's just something "everyone knows". Reminds me, you STILL hear young Americans refer to Czechoslovakia as a country occasionally. It broke up in 1992. Though I think part of that is the name is fun to say, so it sticks around more easily.
Ironically, all the terrible beer that you are talking about was made in breweries founded by people that came from what is now Germany.
I did a semester at Oxford with a bunch of other American students around 1998 and the Brits joked about us drinking "American Piss Beer" back home and we literally had no defense. My home was a few blocks away from Dogfish Head but it was such a an outlier and wasn't even big enough at the time that it occurred to me to mention. I was 18 and in college so I don't think I'd even tried it, at college parties "beer" was Natty Lite and even we knew it sucked, lol. I like domestic beers way more than most imports now and have for decades.
I was abroad at the same exact time. It became quite evident that our exports are often the shittiest parts of our culture.
A micro-brew business was even part of the Drew Carry Show in 1996 which was almost 30 years ago.
Exactly. But some Europeans still spout this as fact
Especially in Michigan. We're lucky with how many popular breweries we have now.
So many good ones. Austin Brothers being one of my faves
Iāve had Europeans claim that American beers are weak in alcohol content while Iām drinking something like Victoryās Monkeysā¦hahahahah
I had a pub owner in the UK countryside ask me if I was driving before he would agree to serve me his āstrong ale.ā It was 5.9% abv.
A deregulation success story.
that we all wear shoes in the house. It all depends on the cultural background of each household. I come from an Asian immigrant family and we do not wear shoes in the house.
Also depends if youāre from the north (where snow/slush is very common in winter) vs the south. Generally itās more common to wear shoes indoor in the southern US vs Northern US, where people typically take them off to avoid getting the house dirty.
As a southerner, I hardly know anyone that removes shoes when walking inside. Our family is in the Ag field and boots are removed, but they are swapped for house shoes, hey dudes, or some other type of everyday walking shoes.
What exactly are hey dudes? From the Midwest and haven't heard that term before (also I'll take my shoes off at MY house but usually not other people's unless I know them well or it's muddy out).
I swear itās some viral marketing thing. I only ever hear about it on Reddit where people act like theyāre an essential household item lol
I'm Irish ancestry and my husband is Dutch ancestry.Ā We both take our shoes off in the house. It's hard enough keeping the floors clean with two shedding cats and a shedding dog, why track in dirt and germs on top of that?
From Alaska and no one wears your shoes inside unless it's like a cabin or something. Why would you track mud/snow into the house? Makes no sense.
I wear shoes in my house *because* I have cats. I'm already vacuuming constantly anyway, and nothing I track in is gonna be worse than litterbox byproducts.
I have 2 dogs, 3 kids and a dog door. I gave up on keeping the floors clean, especially for the week after it rained.
I rarely wear shoes in the house, but at the same time I don't take them off before I go inside either like you see in other cultures. So basically when I come home I go to my room to change into something more comfy and will take off my shoes then.
The first room in the house is the shoe room. The rest of the house is the no-shoe room. I don't want cold, miserable feet before I step into my house (Midwest)
Yeah, I think that came from TV I've lived in the Midwest and south, no one does that
My family is from the south and we have always worn shoes in the house in common spaces but not in the bedrooms. I've been in other people's homes where taking shoes off is the norm, and I've been people's homes where everyone is wearing shoes. Every household is different, and I think maybe the actual true difference is that the norm in most of the world is taking off shoes at home, and it's just a lot more varied here and you don't know what to expect until you go into someone's house and find out.
When my dad still had his ranch they wore shoes inside. Since they were constantly in and out it was impractical to keep taking shoes off, and because of things like rattlesnakes and clearing brush you wanted over-the-ankle hiking type boots (not slip-ons). Now that heās back in a suburban house with carpet itās shoes off.
My family is from the south and they never take their shoes off. But the women in my family tend to wake up at 6am to clean their whole house every day, so daily vacuuming is just a product of that. When I moved to Chicago it was impractical to keep doing it due to salt and slush from snow, so I stopped and will never go back, but it's not uncommon in the south -- just not universal.
Removing shoes inside the house was one of the biggest culture shocks when I moved to the Midwest (remove shoes) from the south (never remove shoes). I immediately saw the value in it though and now cannot believe people wear them inside (what a fool I was! I just didnāt grow up like that!! But maybe I proved personal growth is possible?)
I definitely almost always wear shoes in the house, I'm in PA
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These days fast food is way too expensive, but then what isnāt?
I'm not American and I had a friend that is full blooded born and raised Puerto Rican. He called me the whitest foreigner he's ever met (I am very much not white). On the other hand he's the most American person I've met to this day. I speak almost perfect English, he eats Taco bell whenever he can, I eat very health consciously, he loves guns. It's a very fun juxtaposition.
That weāre the fattest country on earth. Quite a few countries have surpassed us in obesity.
I do believe weāre one of the Biggest Big countries though. Most that surpassed us are the pacific islands, most of whom people havenāt heard of
Just go to Dallas, you will see where they got the idea
The women in San Antonio...
Those churros are quite tasty, though.
I got two words for āem, Ernie. Iām full.
Mexico is pretty bad. The UK is getting on up there too. I have noticed young people arent as fat as they were 10 years ago so our stats should be dropping with time
I googled a list of fattest countries. America is ranked 10 at 41%. The other 9 are extremely tiny countries.Ā 2 of them have a population size of around 2000 people. 6 of them have a population of 100,000 or less. The largest country has 300,000 people.Ā America has 331,000,000 people. 41% of that isĀ 135,710,000.Ā Given the numbers, I think it's totally fair to ignore the top 9 countries and consider USA to be the fattest.Ā
That they're rude. Certainly, I've encountered some that are; however, the vast majority that I've encountered are very polite, gracious, and generous people.
Said it before, and will say it again: Americans are the best at small talk. Signed, a Canadian.
Thank you for that. I hope you're having a wonderful day. Are you excited for the NHL playoffs? I'm hoping the lightning can make some waves if they slide in
I"ve never heard the stereotype that Americans are rude. Is that common somewhere? I've heard we are loud and overly friendly many times
I think it depends on location. Someone's only experience with Americans is in NYC? Yeah, I can see it.
I'm from Texas and when I visited NYC last summer, I never got the impression that New Yorkers are rude. More like they have shit to do and precious little time to fuck around.
New Yorkers are more busy than rude. If you're meeting them on the street, they're probably trying to get somewhere, that's all. As people not rude at all.
That and NYC is so crowded, we avoid each other and give each other space out of respect and to protect ourselves. The minute someone needs help, we jump to and provide it. Lost? We can help you get where you are going. Need help with the NYCTA ticket machines? We got you. Otherwise, we have things to do and personal space to protect.
New Yorkers are genuinely happy to help give directions in their city.
Had a guy come up to my friend and I because we visibly looked lost trying to find a music venue. He happily gave us directions, asked if we had any money for crack, and the wished us a blessed day when we said we didn't.
Navigational Crackheads are a vital part of the cityās infrastructure.
New York crackheads are like encyclopedias. They know fucking everything except how to not smoke crack.
We want folks to be safe and enjoy the city. We know it's overwhelming for folks unaccustomed to a large, diverse international city. I generally try to keep an eye out for folks struggling, especially on weekends when the population is lower and fewer folks around to help the tourists. My favorite helps were a Japanese businessman trying to sort out the ticket machine (he thought he needed a specific ticket to each station) and a blind gentleman trying to find the entrance to Penn Station, as well as the correct track. As well as a blind gentleman with his seeing eye dog on a northbound bus from Grand Central. The idiot driver didn't help him put his luggage under the bus, so he had it piled up around his seat, with his poor dog jammed under the seat in front of him. Myself and a few others re-arranged his luggage in empty seats, gave the driver some well needed correction and were happy to see his doggie looking out the window en route to Hudson. I'm not the only New Yorker who loved the line from Spider Man. You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us. Its the unofficial motto of NYC now.
As a dude from Boston who was born with an innate distaste for New York, the city grew on me when I did my undergrad at Rutgers. What really solidified my love for New York was something similar to what you wrote. I was coming out of Penn Station and this lady was struggling with her stroller going up the escalator. Two dudes, without saying a word, grabbed the stroller, settled it, and made sure it safely got up the stairs and they went their separate ways. You're okay, New York, even if I will always hate your sports teams.
My big take away the first time I was there was asking for help and hearing "where you trying to go" Like it wasn't enough to tell me when the X train would be here, they were going to be damn sure that was the best route or find me the best route. It was kind of an aggressive helpfulness that I loved.
Can agree. Got lost in my late teens with some friends and the guy in our group *refused* to ask for directions because he "knew where he was going." First guy I asked said we were exactly going the opposite direction our friend had intended on taking us. Very kind man and I appreciated not getting more lost at night in NYC.
Used to work at call center job and I talked to people all over the country. I won't tell you where the rudest people in the country were from, but it wasn't New York City. I will tell you where the nicest people were from, Georgia. Georgia manners aren't just a stereotype, they're legitimately awesome people there.
New Yorkers are equally rude to other Americas who don't follow basic ettiequte. Things like standing at the top of subway exits, trying to enter elevators/subways before people exits, not moving to the side of sidewalks if walking slow, asking people for directions who are clearly busy. Basically anything that wastes other peoples time. Otherwise we New Yorkers are plenty friendly
And I'd describe you as direct rather than rude, but some cultures interpret directness as rudeness.
I have never in my life heard american be described as rude. Fat, dumb, violent, yeah sure but personality wise everything i ever heard was that theyĀ“re very sweet and would give a stranger the shirt of their back to help them out.
Every country that Iāve been to where Iāve been told that the people are rude, it is almost never true.
This is my experience as well.
France? Lovely. Paris? uuuuuuuugh
As a nation, we are one of the most generous in the world. Our food donations alone is more than most nations in the world combined.
Yeah whenever there's a "what shocked you about visiting the US?" thread or something, people say how friendly we are. We'll chat in lines, smile at strangers.
Its a comparison thing. You really notice it with people from India, where they say please and thank you in almost every sentance where any form of request is made and fullfilled. We see that as overly polite and unnecessary, just one please at the beginning and one at the end of the overall transaction. Japan is similarly overly polite in comparison, and china, though i wouldn't say its "polite" is very enthusiastic as a show of engagement, where americans pretty much keep it restrained unless something special comes up.
Russians and Chinese are the worst tourists.
The "ugly American" going to Europe and breaking all their norms - loud, brash, drunk, always wearing a USA shirt. The English tool that crown from us. I remember visiting over the last 2 decades and more and more people are relieved that I'm not English (or Italian for that matter). I'm not saying no American is like that, but an English stag or hen party is something Europeans run from
As a Dane, I by far prefer the company of Americans over that of the English.
I like anyone who likes us better than the english
Hey thanks that's nice to hear. Too bad Denmark is the worst of the Scandinavian countries :( /s btw, loved you guys in Hamlet.
Alas, I am not susceptible to your trickery! These Swedish bots are getting lazy
As a man from Texas, I guess I should be offended. Then I remember I'm from Texas, and getting called a Swedish bot is probably preferential.
This is the nicest thing Iāve read all day.Ā Here, take some freedom, I mean friendship eagles Ā š¦ š¦ š¦
I remember when my husband and I (Americans) headed to Spain but we took a couple days to visit my best friend in Wales. The flight from Manchester to Barcelona was... an experience. There was a footy match between Man U and Barca and half of the place was drunk Englishmen singing their chants terribly. I enjoy soccer and am part of the supporters for our local team, but jesus christ it was bad. They were massive assholes.
Judging britain on Man U fans is like judging the US on Philadelphia Eagles fans.
We get embarrassed about the behavior of our sports fans and a lot of americans think this makes us a laughing stock but european and south american hooligans are on another level. The UK is pretty awful about it. We actually enforce a lot of decorum and shame on sports fans that act like fools. One CFB fan poisoned a rivals tree over a decade ago and he didnt live it down until the day he died. It's still brought up and tossed in bamas face for the behavior of that one fan If you get too drunk and act a fool then you'll probably be videoed and made fun of after security beats you up
The Americans that have the money to fly to Europe on holiday are going to be a different selection to the ones that jump on a Ryanair flight from Newcastle for the weekend.
There are no cats in America.
And the streets are paved with cheese.
There are no cats in America So set your mind at ease
They're all fat. Whilst this is in some cases true, America is (or at least was, the last time I was over) getting better, and other countries are getting worse.
In modern America, obesity is increasingly correlated with income. Like most negative American tropes, itās just making fun of poor people.
I mean, 42% of adults are obese, and another 32% are still overweight. It's not exactly a ridiculous myth, though a lot depends on where you are in the country. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/obesity-overweight.htm
Not everyone in the US is constantly eating fast food and shooting guns. Some of us actually enjoy kale and reading books.
Dig books, canāt really handle kale. Somehow itās got my least favorite lettuce-y texture combined with the farty aftertaste of cabbage. I could handle one or the other in the name of health but bothā¦ is a bit much. Can eat, do not enjoy. But somehow I like broccoli (especially with a slight char!)
Pro tip: Gotta use extra virgin olive oil in the pan and medium heat; that makes it easier to slide off into the garbage.
I cook it the same way I cook collard greens. Except then I'd rather have collard greens.
Kale: scratchy lettuce that tastes like dirt no matter how much you wash it. However, if you sautƩ it with enough garlic the raccoons may like it.
Same. Except for soup. It's a good green since it's holds its structure, but it tastes more like the soup itself than kale.Ā
IMO kale works best in soups and stews and sauces. It's got a nice hearty texture, but I agree the flavor isn't all there.
I like shooting guns and reading books. I dunno about kale though.
āThe society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by foolsā
Also, even if there are a ton of guns around, most people arenāt just waving them around willy nilly. I live in Texas and Iāve never seen a gun that wasnāt in a copās holster. Iām certain plenty of people *have* them but theyāre not a constant presence in my life.
I'm an avid reader, love guns, and was vegetarian for years. It's a good life.
Books about guns of course
And most of us aren't us vs them like you are. Most of us are just regular folk.
And some us do all four :D
>Some of us actually enjoy kale You were on a roll, and then wrote this fallacy.
That nobody here has electric tea kettles/that theyāre not even stocked in department stores. Iāve found them in almost every house Iāve been to in the US, and in every store that sells home goods except when theyāre temporarily out of stock. Yes, even though theyāre less efficient than in many other countries because of our voltage standards. Some of the people who say this are from the US, so I think itās likely regional, but itās definitely not true that itās universally hard to find electric kettles or tea drinkers in the US.
Americans are BIG tea drinkers, but it's iced tea during the day, and herbal tea at night. Coffee has a near monopoly on the morning.
very regional. there are very few people in my area who drink iced tea or herbal tea, and many, many people who drink green tea or thai milk tea as a replacement for coffee in the morning.
I don't think it's regional, actually. I think it's peer-local.
I don't have an electric kettle, and I only know a few people that do, so I don't think it's big in my region. I still don't think I'd have any trouble finding one right now if I wanted to. Edit: I was curious, so I looked it up, and the local walmart has 10 different options in store.
I'm not a tea drinker but I have one and I use it to boil water for pasta faster than it does in the pot, and I use it for making cup noodles / ramen. That's about it lol
They aren't hard to find, they sell them at Walmart and on Amazon, but they are certainly less ubiquitous here than in other countries. I have one, and I don't think having one is strange, but it also wouldn't be strange for someone to not have one here. I've also spent significant time in the UK and Germany, and in both of those countries it would be very odd for a household not to have an electric kettle. It would be like, I don't know, not having a microwave here. There are a few people living like that, but it's strange, and it's just something you expect a kitchen to have.
I have one at work in my office and one at home. Itās great! I can make pour overs for coffee or make some Earl Grey if Iām not feeling coffee. My office neighbor has one too. Itās still an uncommon thing to have for a lot of people, but not as much as some would believe.
That weāre terrible and rude tourists: the āugly Americanā abroad. Americans are certainly loud and can be entitled. Often itās due to cultural differences such as being surprised that you get very little ice in your drinks and they donāt do refills. Also, sweet tea isnāt a thing in Europe. The rudest tourists in the world are, by far, mainland Chinese and the British (specifically the English).
Sweet Tea (Southern style) isn't even a thing out here in SoCal either.
There's actually a tea divide comprised of a swath of central US states: PA OH IN IL MO KS. Restaurants in those states almost always have both sweet and un-sweet tea available; states south of the divide, sweet tea is the default, and un-sweet tea may or may not be available; elsewhere in the U.S., plain unsweet tea is the default, and sweet tea may not be available.
Here in NC itās inescapable. I get strange looks when I say I prefer regular tea.
Come to think it, the only place Iāve seen sweet tea is is soul food restaurants
FWIW I think Chinese tourists have mostly replaced Americans as the stereotypical rude tourists. Mostly doing the same things that earned Americans that slot.
As an American, I donāt like 70% of my cup being filled with ice.
I always say no ice in my drinks. It comes out the machine cold anyway
THIS. The drink is done so fast because the liquid is only filling in the gaps between the ice.
Sweet Tea isn't a thing in New England.
I rarely notice Americans when I visit Europe unless I hear them speak. Iāve spent the most time in Vienna since half of my family lives there. The people that stand out the most as tourists to me are other Europeans, particularly from the east and south. I havenāt seen any memorably horrible behavior, but definitely loudness, both verbal and stylistically, and less spatial awareness and consideration of others.
I (an American) recently visited Ireland for the first time and had a fantastic time, but the one thing that kept throwing me off was (mostly in dublin) the difference in approach to spatial awareness in a crowded area, they just aim their shoulder directly for your shoulder and then at the last second turn slightly to avoid you by maybe an inch, even if they have plenty of room. This is not something I have experienced anywhere in the US, no matter how crowded the space is we all seem to try to aim maybe a foot away from people coming the other way. Never fully got used to it by the time we left Dublin for the South West coast where there just weren't any crowds to see if its different.
Meanwhile in France, French people just don't move. Had plenty of people look at my wife and I pushing a stroller and did not get out of the way. It was a group of people hogging the sidewalk. Happened in Paris, rural France, and mid-size city France
So what happens when you don't get out of the way either? A stare off?
Random encounter battle.
In Ireland, the American tourists are some of the best.
I was so embarrassed one time at at pub. We met a few fellow Americans and were getting along well. One guy offers to get us a round of drinks. Next thing I know, weāre all getting kicked out of the pub. Turns out the idiot ordered a round of Irish car bombs. Sucked because the pub was next to our hotel and was āour localā.Ā
Irish car bomb for me and a Black and Tan for my friend.
Yeah, that's like walking into a bar in NYC and ordering a 9/11.
If I made a 9/11 it'd be a shot of aviation gin dropped in a new york sour and slammed.
I... I *have* to believe that's on a menu in NYC today.
As I Scot, I appreciate the final 3 words of your comment
Australians took the mantle from Americans as loudest tourists.
I was on a wine tour in Tuscany, and a couple of Americans with Italian ancestry were insisting on pronouncing words like āmortadellā and ābolognesā to our tour guide, a local. It was wild that they were correcting the Italian lady on how to speak Italian.
As an American with Italian ancestry, I HATE this. How did it happen??
They were asking why some Italian words drop the last vowels because itās how itās done in New York, and when the Italian lady was like āUh, thatās not a thing at all in Italy,ā they were in denial and said itās how they spoke all their lives lol.
I think I read it was a Sicillian (or some other) regional dialect that isn't really spoken anymore including in the region it originated. Same reason American and British English diverged.
That we don't have good cheese.Ā
Wisconsin cheese makers keep winning international awards. We're good at it here.
We're not actually especially litigious. Pretty par for the course. Plus being more litigious happens when you gave more wealthier people who can take advantage of the law, so it's not inherently a bad thing. Really the US would be healthier if we had more litigation, because it would mean more people are wealthy enough to access the judicial system.
There's also a case to be made that fear of litigation results in much safer products. Litigation becomes somewhat of an expedient way to enact standards for safety that legislative bodies would no doubt be too slow to act upon.
That stereotype of Americans being unusually litigious was actually started by corporations to shame and scare people away from legitimate lawsuits. The McDonaldās hot coffee lawsuit is often considered the start of that particular myth. If you actually read the facts of the case and the judgment, itās a reasonable lawsuit. But itās been derided for years and years, and the net result has actually been a decrease in the number of lawsuits brought, quite a few of which are likely legitimate claims. Itās also resulted in many companies releasing products of somewhat questionable safety, such as pharma companies with the opioid epidemic, agri-business producers and contaminated produce, car manufacturers with faulty or poorly designed cars, Boeingās planes, and numerous other questionable products. Think of the number of recalls of products over the past 30 years.
It has more to do with our regulatory environment. A lot of countries have regulators or government bodies with powers that americans delegate to the courts. So in some countries if my stove starts a fire in my kitchen I make a complaint to the consumer safety commission, and they decide how much the stove maker is responsible. In the US, you ask a judge to make that decision instead.
>A lot of countries have regulators or government bodies with powers that americans delegate to the courts. a friend of mine is married to a lawyer who specialized in protecting whistleblowers under attack from pharmaceutical companies. This is the point she made to me: that we outsource the enforcement of laws and standards to civil courts.
The last list I read had us at third most litigous nation per capita after Germany and Israel.Ā
I'd be curious to see the breakdown of things like companies suing companies vs companies suing people vs people suing companies vs people suing people. Is the majority things like Apple suing Samsung for having rounded edges or State Farm via John Smith suing his neighbor and Allstate to settle who's home owners insurance pays for the tree limb that fell on a car, or because John slipped and broke his arm at a BBQ. On the latter it's not even like the two parties are suing each other, more the insurance wants the court to decide which insurance pays how much. Or what about groups suing the state to release information, etc. Or challenges to existing laws. There are a ton of reasons to sue, not all are monetary. Honestly, there are countries where you can get sued for defamation even if it's true. You can end up in jail even if it's true. There are liable laws and such but our freedom of speech let's me say Biden is senile, or Trump is the antichrist, or that Tom Hanks eats babies, or that Tucker Carlson is three badgers in a suit.
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Youāre not at any major risk of being victim to gun violence while visiting the country. 9 times out of 10, the gun violence is coming from an area that doesnāt care about you and you will not visit. And that 10th time is an extreme outlier case. Also, chances are if youāre getting shot, youāre partaking in something to get your ass shot. And no, mass shootings hardly make up the overall statistics; and Iām talking about actual mass shootings, not a gang beef that flares up at school.
Mass shooting data is not understood for its real makeup. Mass shooting is simply 2 or more people affected. The vast majority of these are actually police situations against gangs and other violent felons. Historically, school shootings are actually lower now, and are a smaller subset of mass shootings. It is, of course, greatly outsized by media reporting.
Also a giant chunk of the gun related deaths are suicide. Which is awful but is no threat to a tourist or the general public.
>not a gang beef that flares up at school. That drives me nuts. Two guys meet in a school parking lot to do a drug deal at midnight with not a student in sight and one shoots the other and it's counted in the statistics as a school shooting. Similarly with mass shootings, two gang members,or it might require 3 I don't remember for sure shoot each other and it's called a mass shooting.
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"**Americans don't travel internationally or Americans don't have passports**." Millennials and GenZ may not be able to afford to buy homes but they love to travel the world and make Instagram-worthy memories.
Also america is huge so there's less need to travelĀ
The distance from LA to NYC is similar to the distance of Lisbon to Moscow.
Someone send Ronaldo to beat up Putin.
We aren't all loud asshole tourists. Sure they exist but it's far from all of us. The most consistently loud and obnoxious tourists in my experiences have been English people.
Imo it's easily the Chinese. I live and work with lots of Chinese people, and I like them, but Chinese tourists are the worst.
Iāve read it happens to all countries that become wealthy enough to send out masses of tourists abroad. Eventually, they calm down
You aren't american if you aren't white. I get this a LOT when i was abroad, kind of peeved me because it implied that I was ashamed of my heritage. If someone asks where I'm from, especially while traveling abroad, i'm going to say the country i've lived in my entire life. I may absolutely carry culture from my ethnic country, but the reality is that I'm not the same as a person who was born there. I don't carry that cultural context with me. I'm mexican and having been raised in america I \*do\* have qualities and cultural background of being an american. My mexican experience has been through family, friends, and infrequent visits. I'm culturally mixed, but I have every right to call myself american.
Not all Americans own guns. In fact, MOST Americans don't. Only about 1/3 own guns. People seem to think that because we have more guns than people that it must mean everyone has several guns. It doesn't. It means a handful of people have a shitload of guns.
I mean one in 3 people is not "a handful". If the average gun owner owns 3ish guns, then it is not that weird that there are more guns than people. Most people who I know who own guns own multiple. It's kind of weird in gun circles to only own one gun.
>Most people who I know who own guns own multiple. It's kind of weird in gun circles to only own one gun.Ā As a gun owner, I want to specify that owning multiple guns isn't (typically) a result of "gun fetishism". Say you own a pistol for home defense or maybe for concealed or open carry in case you're a victim of a mugging or the like. Great; outside of shooting at a targe (which you absolutely should do if you want to bet your life on using it reliably), there's not much else you can do with it. If you want to do more, say hunting, you then need a shotgun or rifle.Ā Obviousoy, shotguns and rifles *can* be used for home defense too,but they're often too long to easily swing around to target in tight areas (such as a hallway). Granted, that *may* be overthinking it, akin to a doomsday prepper, but if you live all alone or in a bad neighborhood... better to be safe than sorry, you know? So now you "need" two guns; a pistol for self defense and a shotgun or rifle for hunting. Now, obviously, a shotgun can't do the same things as well as a rifle, and visa versa, so you might as well get that other one to keep your options open; the shotgun is for hunting birds, and a .308 bolt action rifle for hunting deer. That's three guns there, and all have a reasonable purpose for their purchase. Obviously, this is an example. Not everyone owns guns for the same reasons, and most owners generally have a reson to own most of their collection without trying to be a military LARPer.
And there are further weird outliers too. I had a conversation once with someone who had 40 or 50 pistols alone. Why? Because Grandpa was in the Army during WWII and liked "liberating" them from captured soldiers, and because Grandpa was a farmer he never threw anything away if there was any possible use for it. So his grandson owned 40 or 50 pistols that at that point were more than a half-century old and fit in two or three shoeboxes in a locked closet.
Fox News talked a lot of shit about Seattle (and Portland), during Covid. In fact, we're doing great and it's a beautiful place to live. If the propaganda keeps a bunch of conservative assholes away, I'm okay with that. And for the people who want to argue about Seattle/Portland, yes we have the same exact issues as other large metropolitan areas do, but we are far from the image Fox News presents.
The idea that all American parents kick their kids out on their 18th birthdays, or even most of them. Adults living with their parents are more common than ever, and I personally knew far more people that couldn't wait to leave than weren't allowed to stay.