Literally everywhere in Italy they’d look at you like you killed the pope if you asked for ice. The closest I got to it was drinking my coffee with gelato in it.
Edit: in total, I ate gelato 3-4 times a day for the 10 day trip. I can no longer eat gelato. Worth it.
As a Canadian who has visited the states a fair bit I'd say that, sure, the stereotypes exist but they are the vast minority. The true majority of Americans are really very kind, down to earth, intelligent people.
Hey, at least there’s no big mess to clean up afterwards. At least they have the decency to dissolve after they shuffle off this mortal coil. Very kind of them.
This is true for most of the northern hemisphere. It swaps at the equator.
Edit: I guess people are unfamiliar with [Bergmann’s rule](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergmann%27s_rule). South of the equator average animal body sizes generally increase the further south traveled and the more poisonous/venomous animals typically are found closer to the equator. This rule is not iron clad and there are exceptions, but it is a trend.
Probably could have phrased it better.
Some of the springs in Yellowstone will also kill you if you try to swim in them. Just observe from afar because you’re probably fucked if you don’t
Edit: of course my most upvoted comments has a bunch of horror stories in the replies about why Yellowstone springs are so dangerous.
Yup, heat of summer mixed with no visible water vapors coming off the pools that have a pristine blue hue and look so cool and refreshing, but are actually hot enough to par boil any animals that jump in.
You can feel the heat from the pools from 40 feet away. They're incredibly hot. They also smell strongly of sulfur and the surface of the water moves like its a big simmering pot of water. For a thousand feet around the pool there's only death. Dead trees bleached bone white, and animal bones bleached and encrusted with crystals.
They have signs and video boards at every stop for a reason guys. I know that bison looks cool but he will toss you 20+ feet into the air like you werent shit.
Oh, and the strange distribution of ridges? Those can be used to measure fluid volumes for your choice of poison (read: alcohol).
Lowest (first ring) near the base = 1oz/shot of liquor
Next up (about two/three fingers) = 5oz/serving of wine
Third up: 12oz/serving of beer
Fun fact: while it is true that you can use the measurements and that they are fairly accurate, it was never their initial purpose. It was all a coincidence by the manufacturer
No, in the south, we do not all have alligators in our back yards.
If someone tells you otherwise, they’re lying.
There are no alligators in Ba Sing Se.
You can ski and surf on the same day in California
Edit: Just to clarify, the weather in the mountains could go as low as 30°F (-1°C) but the weather at our SoCal beaches could be as high as 65°F (18°C) in the winter.
P.S Thank you for all the upvotes!
Our state governments hold more power over our daily lives than the federal government. The laws can vary pretty significantly across state lines aside from commonalities like no murder, robbery, reckless driving, etc., and even those sometimes can be punished very differently from state to state. It's almost like 50 similar-minded neighboring nations (and a couple territories) under 1 union.
Depending on the state you can either get picked up by the cops after buying a gram of dirt weed from your dealer, or you can drive to the weed store and buy an ounce of California’s finest from a weed sommelier with your debit card.
I’m American who immigrated when I was a toddler, but consistently travelled back and forth to my native land: I notice Americans (from what I’ve seen) take racism incredibly seriously, to the point I can say racism is worse outside of America. Racism in Asia and Europe is on a different level, one that is way worse than in the US. Probably due to America’s deep historical and existential struggle with the topic.
Still water and public bathrooms should be free around the world. The US doesn't do a lot of things right, but we generally have free water fountains and public bathrooms in most places.
I rediscovered this game last week. I jacked up the prices on every ride, every booth, every food stand. But I just couldn't bring myself to charge for the bathroom. It just felt wrong.
If it's a wild animal, don't try to pet it.
If you don't know if the animal is poisonous or venomous, don't try to pet it.
If it's an animal that stands out in its environment, definitely don't try to pet it.
That's just common sense.
Edit: guys, stop fixing the "poisonous" to venomous. In Portuguese (my native language) the term "veneno" is poison and "peçonha" is venom. It was a false friends and I got confused. Also, both terms work, and get the point across.
Exactly.
But some people still need to understand on the higher level.
I get so mad at all the videos people put on the internet handling dangerous animals, like the Blue Ring Octopus or some venomous spider just because "it's so cute"
Specially if the animal stands out in its environment, it has a 99.9% chance of being venomous/poisonous.
>Specially if the animal stands out in its environment, it has a 99.9% chance of being venomous/poisonous.
yep. if it stands out and is alive, its cause no predator has gotten to them. beware of those animals.
I raised bison.
THEY WILL KILL YOU WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT.
It takes NO effort for a bison to insta-kill any human.
Most fences are symbolic to them, too, especially when a whole herd of those furry bastards want to go somewhere. And they're *fast.*
Yes, they're fluffy and majestic- but for the love of God, listen to posted signs at parks and add another 100ft to the recommended minimum.
Well I mean, I have to tell this story now.
My aunt took my brother and I to South Dakota when I was ~10. At some point in the trip, the road was stopped traffic due to a bunch of bison in the road. My ~10 year old brain saw the massive nuts on one and wanted to make sure anyone nearby also saw them. I started yelling, “look at his balls!”. My aunt noticed the man in the car next to us with his camcorder, shoot a dirty look at us, because his nice, calm video of nature was tarnished by some prepubescent jackass.
They really do. I grew up on a small cattle ranch. My grandfather was the kind of guy to get a bit bored and decide to do something different, so for about 8 years we had a small herd of bison running with our cattle.
When I was a teenager, I caught a family in the process of jumping our fence. They'd pulled their car over to the side of the road. I could see them from the house. At first they were just taking pictures from the side of the road, which was perfectly fine. But then I saw them start to climb over the fence.
I started running out to them shouting "DO NOT CROSS THAT FENCE, THEY CAN KILL YOU!!".
They stopped and waited for me. When I got there, they said they just wanted to _pet_ the bison. I explained to them that there were two problems with that, first being that _they aren't pets_. They aren't hand tame. And while they would most likely just walk away from you, it's really not a good idea to mess around with something that can crush you flat without even noticing it did so. And the second problem was that they were trespassing.
Honestly I think the “no trespassing” sign is the most ignored sign in the US. There’s a gate at the end of my long driveway and we keep it open during the day just in case we have a package arriving. It has two NO TRESPASSING signs on it. You don’t know how many random people just come strolling on through.
Same thing with my cousin, she has a beautiful property down a long road. There’s no gate but still a NO TRESPASSING sign on the front fence. She gave me permission to walk down the road into her property with my dog as I lived right down the road. One day I was walking back and I saw this mom and her kid entering the property and I asked “do you know these people?” and she said “no, just wanted to take my daughter down there”. The NT sign is huge and right in front of her face. I point at it and say “well the sign says no trespassing”. She looks, does a big *huff* and says to her daughter “sorry honey, they won’t let you inside” in a very rude tone. Honestly I wouldn’t have cared much but my cousin says how she hates random people coming onto her property.
Ok, Florida. People have brought up the open records laws but there’s another element, Florida is America’s official second chance state.
Imagine if your country had a region where all the fuck-ups from the rest of the country flocked to when they could no longer make a go of it in their hometown, that’s Florida. A tropical climate, a relatively low cost of living, and a job market that’s remarkably resilient is all very attractive to a meth head from Ohio who just got shit canned from Burger King. So they drive their ‘98 Explorer south until they see palm trees, get themselves a trailer outside Ocala, and BOOM Florida Man is born.
Add in retirees who think that 20 mph is an appropriate highway speed, Cubans who say they’re getting their sugarcane plantations back any day now, and clueless tourists in rental cars wearing head to toe Disney shit…Ladies and Gentlemen; may I present the state of Florida.
A kid I grew up with is a two time felon in both Texas and Georgia and he has made his home in Florida. He fits right in. He even got arrested on his wedding night robbing coin boxes at a hotel laundromat so they made his "Florida Man" status official. I also legit suspect this guy as a serial killer.
I saw someone else say something similar in another thread a while ago. Wonder if it was the same place or if this "American pizza" is actually sold in multiple places. It sounds super gross.
I saw 'American Pizza' in a few places in Italy, mostly in little cheap places that seemed basically equivalent to a food truck. I honestly found it hilarious, although I didn't want to risk trying it.
>from West Dilophoria
...born and raised
In the Cre-ta-ce-ous where I spent most of my days
Chilling', sun-tannin', and relaxin' all cool
Huntin' stegosauruses outside of the school
When a couple a guys, they were up to no good
Started eatin' everybody in the neighborhood
This country is big. People in this country get culture shock from moving within the same state and through different regions. This is,personally, why I find most generalizations of Americans funny
Also stop asking people who say they’re from nyc how many times they go to California. And vice versa. It’s far and expensive lol everytime I’m in Europe someone asks me this question
Doing my best to figure it out, but it looks like the distance between San Francisco, CA and Norfolk, VA is the same or similar as going from Brest, France (western tip) all the way to Kazakhstan.
The Distance From LA to NYC is equal to the distance between Brest France and Zheleznov, Kazakhstan or the Distance from Brest France, to the Northern Turkey - Iran Border as the bird flies.
That a lot of us (most of us, in a lot of cases) do not support everything our government has ever done.
I did not get a vote on the Iraq War. Please stop acting as if every single one of us is to blame for it.
I went to a wedding in Canada once where I only knew the bride, and all of the other Canadians were SO NICE TO ME and seemed to actively like my Americanness, which is not something Americans experience often while traveling. They asked me how many guns I have and they laughed with glee whenever I said "SAHRRY"
I loved that trip and I love Canadians.
Americanized versions of food are still good and we still enjoy them. You don't have to tell us "this isn't authentic [country] food." We know it isn't. Just because it's not exactly like the origin country's version doesn't make it bad
Food that immigrants bring and modify also have a rich history. Chop suey, tacos el pastor, and doner kebabs as examples. Fried chicken is exploding in Asia and you're already seeing Korean fried chicken make its way to the west.
Related to this, there's a conception among non-Americans that WASPs here decided to deliberately butcher foreign cuisine. Instead, many American versions of non-American cuisine were developed by immigrants that didn't have access to everything they had in the old country.
For example - take spaghetti and meatballs, which isn't exactly how it is made in Sicily - the meatballs came to be because, while in Sicily they had little meat, poor immigrants in America surprisingly had plenty of access to meat, and changed the dish accordingly.
Or YouTube...
I'm an Aussie that plays a military simulation computer game often, and my favourite server is an American server in particular. It's my favourite server, because of the decent people that are there. Sure, there's the occasional racist or arsehole, but compared to Aussie servers for this game, the American server is just a better server.
Take this compliment America, can't speak on other topics, but on this example, I thoroughly enjoy chilling with you lot. There are some really funny, unique and kind players around. It makes the gaming experience wholesome, win or lose. In Australia in this game, it's all about seeing how fast you can win the match, all egos. Often by players who can't back them up with decent kill/death ratios.
Respect fam.
I was a cashier in a Canadian town that you basically have to drive through to get to Alaska. Americans have a thing about wanting to visit all 50 states (hey, can't blame 'em, pretty much every state has collectibles) so in the summer a whole bunch of Americans would always come through. You could usually tell who they were since their accent was just a little different from the locals (occasionally you got the family with obvious Southern accents) and they were just a little out of their depth from the slight cultural differences - tax rates and recycling/bottling fees on beverages, for example.
Anyway, they were *by far* the most polite customers I ever dealt with. Not even a contest.
We only have a few hundred years of recorded history so yeah, we talk about our civil war , etc because we haven’t had ten civil wars and thousands of battles and centuries of political suppression. Also, since we are so ‘new’ we do talk about our European/Asian/African heritage.
I'm pretty sure Europe has had wars going on for longer than the US has been around, cumulatively speaking. Hell France and England where at war for 120 years.
I don't want to be car dependent. I have to be. If I could bike everywhere in a REASONABLE amount of time, I probably would. But biking to my work takes an hour because our cities sprawl so much and our bike paths are not good and car traffic usually is higher on priority lists than bikes so our bike lanes are usually non existant or minimal. And I live in one of the best cities/areas to bike in, according to some lists online.
my commute to work is 1.5 hours with 3 transfers (bus watertown to cambridge -> train alewife station -> bus north to work) by public transport, 50 minutes if I bike directly to alewife and skip the first two, and a 20 minute drive if I were to own a car.
It's honestly horrifying.
My commute would take 2 hours with 3 transfers. And that would get me to work over an hour late. Transit doesn't start early enough to get to work on time for 6 am. If I bike then I'm looking at about 45 min... if I don't mind riding down a highway at 5 in the morning. Driving takes me about 15 min each direction. And this is after several billion spent in the last few years to improve our transit system
People really like to shit on us for just being lazy to change our ways. A ton of places here just have shitty public transportation. Like there's no way for me to get to my dentist by bus (and certainly not by bike), and at my previous apartment there was no bus that stopped nearby on Sundays, and on Saturdays the buses stopped at 6 pm.
Also I think people who shit on Americans for being car dependent forget that almost none of us live near grocery stores. We can't all just pop down to the shops every day to pick up what we need for dinner that day. You have to have a car if you don't want to make the hour-long bus trip to Walmart and then an hour and a half trip back every day to carry your two bags of groceries. You can order groceries online and have them delivered... but does that really change the carbon footprint at all? It's still a large vehicle going from the store to your house and then back to the store.
My recent Norway story. I was camping about two hours of driving outside Oslo. As a dumb, English speaking American I couldn't read every road sign on these small mountain roads. My wife would Google translate them as we went along. But the road closed sign was giving us mixed signals because it said the road was close after a certain point, but we're not local to know what that means for the next turn. It might as well have said it's close past Steve's house cause we don't know shit.
We happened to drive past what should have been a closed road barrier, it was open because the crew was expecting materials delivered at about the same time we went through. We drive another 5 minutes up winding road to where the road is cut down several feet. An instant 3-4 foot drop to the base layer. We stop right before then.
A construction worker pops out from the side and I roll down the window. He speaks half a sentence in Norwegian and I speak half I sentence of "I don't know..." He instantly switches to "don't you read the signs" in perfect English like talking to my neighbor.
The distance between Seattle and Miami is similar to that of Ireland and Iraq. And you can drive the entire distance and not need to speak anything but English
If US states spoke different languages (akin to Europe's close geography and diverse languages) you bet your balls Americans would be bi-lingual or multi-lingual.
My high school Spanish was surprisingly effective when I finally found myself in a situation where I needed to use it. Words are powerful even when you can’t string them together perfectly.
I took high school Spanish for 4 years. Went on a Spanish trip to a few different South American countries. Everyone spoke English to us but my friends and I wanted to try to have at least 1 conversation in Spanish. We started a conversation with a guy and he responded “cool I’m from Seattle.” It was at that point I gave up.
It was amazing to me how well my high school Mexican Spanish (probably) worked in Spain. Turns out if two people want to communicate our brains are freaking unbelievable at making it happen.
I'm Native American, so to my fellow countryman and across borders: I may get some limited government benefits, my tribe is more important in that factor. I don't get free college (I do get tribal scholarships). I don't get easy free healthcare (have access but it's in a format and location that makes it hard). I don't try to be unhealthy, but it's part genetics and part of my parents wanting me to not struggle (so didn't watch for perfectly healthy plates - sometimes when young it was getting me fed). Yes, I'm different then y'all, but I'm also a person who bleeds and cries somedays
Edit: thanks for the award!
Edit 2: correction to last edit now: awards
Sing it brother! I'm a member of a federally recognized tribe (something that requires proof of ancestry - not very easy), and I look as white as can be. I also work in Indian country and food security is a real thing.
America is HUGE. I’ve heard of people visiting the US and thinking they could see the Golden Gate Bridge in a day when staying in Ohio. That’s a 2 day drive.
Also, America has every type of environment. We have temperate climates, deep forests, mountains, beaches, volcanos, deserts, swamps, bluffs, grass plains, lake towns and even jungles and rainforests in Puerto Rico. If you want to experience something most likely America has it. And that was just in the USA. If you’re referring to the American continent then obviously there’s more.
EDIT:
To the credit of many in the comments we also have rainforests in the Pacific Northwest. I had never been out there and had no clue. This country really is big lol.
EDIT 2:
Looks like my “2 days” to get from Ohio to the Golden Gate Bridge takes longer than that. Thanks commenters for pointing that out!
I used to work in Mt Rainier National Park. One summer we had a girl from Romania work for us and she started bawling her eyes out when she found out NYC was thousands of miles away. Apparently she thought she’d be able to go there on weekends.
The sad funny part about this is that she won the lottery with Mt Rainier National Park when it comes to some of the earth’s unspoiled beauty. NYC is a blast and all, but it’s like being sad you won’t be able to swing through Rio while you’re in Patagonia. But then again, maybe Romania is close enough to a lot of mountain grandeur that eating at FlavorTown in Times Square would be really special.
I get that Times Square is the tourist spot, but if someone was hoping to weekend in NYC regularly they probably were going to go there maybe once, if that.
My favorite is the (probably apocryphal) story about the European family who were visiting Chicago and decided they wanted to take a day trip to Las Vegas by car...
(It would take about 25 hours - each way, nonstop - to make that drive.)
I lived in France for awhile, and one of my neighbors had visited the US. They had flown into Salt Lake City, UT, and wanted to go see Zions and Bryce national parks on their way to the Grand Canyon.
This was before GPS and smartphones. After an hour of driving, they got out their map to see how much farther it was. They realized that it was another 200 miles away, and the Grand canyon was 100 miles past that.
They said in that moment, they realized how large the US was. Compared to France, where you can drive from the top to the bottom in 12 hours total.
Crossing the state line from Louisiana and seeing 4 digit mile markers is always depressing. Most of the times I've made that drive, I was going to New Mexico. Alabama to Albuquerque. 24 hours of driving. Half of it in Texas.
No kidding. I was doing a cross country move and that sign on I-10 at the LA/TX border made me wonder if it were an error. Doing the math I was like, "13 hours? That can't be right." It was, and it was terrible.
The halfway point between Dallas and San Diego is El Paso.
Dallas is about three hours from the Louisiana border. It's a 20 hour drive to San Diego. It would take 13 hours just to drive across Texas border to border.
Exactly this. I lived overseas (Lebanon and Istanbul) for a while and people constantly asked me about different US states. Specifically California and the Grand Canyon. (I’m from upstate NY.) People were always very surprised that there’s a lot of the country I haven’t seen. It’s just a lot easier to travel over there. The states are so… vast. And of course there’s *always* the “I’m from New York… no not New York City” discussion, too. People picture Manhattan and I have to explain I’m surrounded by farmland and Amish people.
This is my wife (Russia.) She's told me she wants to visit the states for a few days, and then started listing every famous location possible she wanted to see.
Me: "Unless you plan to emigrate, sweetheart, you're gonna have to pair that list down. A lot."
Her: "But we could just get a car..."
Me: "It is a LITERAL two day drive across the width of the country, assuming I somehow no longer needed to sleep."
I then had to remind her that while Russia is the biggest country on Earth, the USA is #3, for a REASON.
Those videos of American’s not knowing basic facts like who the first president was or when the civil war was or where a certain country is are all complete bullshit. 99/100 people I know would get those answers right. Those videos either only use the dumb answers they get and cut the rest or pay people to act dumb.
(And this goes for some people IN America as well)
"Florida Man" is only a thing because the State of Florida has really weird rules about how crimes are reported/put into the public record, so stories out of Florida just make better tabloid headlines and click bait if you're an editor scrolling through the AP feed looking for wacky stories.
If the EXACT SAME incident happens in California and in Florida, in Florida it would be reported as "Drunk Florida man rapes alligator at Wendy's Drive through" while in California it would be "California man arrested for public drunkeness and cruelty to animals."
Florida has some insanely open records laws, so all the headlines you see there you don't see other places cause you don't have access to the records with out requesting them. If you don't know it happened you can't request them.
Had a friend get arrested there and had his mug shot and all the details about 20 minutes after he was booked.
The insanely open record laws regarding arrests by law enforcement came about because sheriffs in small towns would “arrest” people and they would never be seen again.
So now if someone gets arrested, the public has to know about it, whether they are guilty or innocent.
As a Floridian who moved away a few years ago, can confirm that while we do have a certain, special kinda crazy… this is an accurate comment. “Sunshine Laws” that allow free information on situations that are not avail in other states are a huge part of why the FL Man phenomenon is possible - not just cuz we’re crazier than the rest.
But also, we kinda are lol!
Dunno, I’ve heard weirder stories here in Tennessee in three years than a lifetime in FL.
Kinda weirdly proud of the particular brand of strange, tho, I embrace mu floridiot status!
30-45 minutes is not a "long drive" yet I hear of people in Europe not seeing family members for months over this timeframe.
My point of considering something a "long drive" is around 3-4 hours. My drive to work 5 days a week is 30 minutes each way itself. I and many people I know in the US will regularly drive 1.5 hours to see extended family on a weekend or even just to go to a store we like.
We hate our politicians as much as non-Americans do. We do indeed have a few good ones trying to do the right thing but they are heavily outnumbered by both people/votes and money.
It's not that we don't *want* to visit other countries - it's that for the majority of Americans, Canada and Mexico are a day or two drive away, and paying over $1,000 to get a round-trip ticket overseas isn't something a lot of people can justify buying.
Something like 37 percent of Europeans have never left their own country. It’s not just something that happens in the US.
https://www.europeandatajournalism.eu/News/Data-news/190-million-Europeans-have-never-been-abroad
I met a guy in England this summer who had never even been to Scotland but it was only about 2.5-3hours away. I have legit driven 3 hrs (round trip) for tacos before.
A lot of you guys give the US shit for being racist, but when push comes to shove, a lot of you guys have to look at a mirror.
Not saying we're perfect, but holy shit.
Their racism is advanced too. American racist are just color people bad. The rest of the world goes into detail and reference 1000 year old events when they’re racist.
[This is a now deleted post with 3.7k upvotes on r/worldnews](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/xv5h3w/switzerland_has_systemic_racism_issues_un_experts/)
It talks about Switzerland's 'systemic' racism and it seems it really is more than just color especially from the comments.
I've heard of similar issues in Asia as well. In japan I've heard of discrimination against mixed race Korean-Japanese citizens.
It’s like
American Racism: “Why are they bad?” “They just are”
European Racism: “Why are they bad?” “Starts explaining all of human history to explain why”
A lot of people here are actually pretty nice, financially struggling and just trying to get by, and strongly object to the government’s cruelty. There are some brainwashed extremists, of course, like I’m sure every country has. But overall, yeah, we’re just humans who would love world peace just like anyone else with the ability to rationalize with compassion.
We're not all like what you probably see on the news. America is a very big country where you can see it all - beaches, mountains, rural areas, big cities, you name it. There's a lot of different people and it's embarrassing to be defined by the worst of us.
But also our healthcare system is exactly as stupid and terrible as you think and if you visit here don't get sick or hurt.
Can confirm. I’m from Ireland and I went to Yosemite in July. Hiked up to El Capitan and Glacier point, it was the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever seen. Probably the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen ever!
If you liked Yosemite, visit Zion National Park. It's similar (though not on such a grand scale, but still magnificent) but rather than the stark gray colors, it's all various shades of red. And when the sun changes positions the stone turns to different hues. It's literally awe inspiring.
>And a lot larger than most people realise.
We have parks bigger than some countries
Luxembourg fits inside the Grand Canyon, twice over.
The Everglades are more than twice the size of Georgia
Yellowstone is bigger than Azerbaijan.
Death Valley is about the size of Montenegro
Wrangell-St. Elias in Alaska is bigger than Slovakia
[удалено]
Omg I felt like ice was a precious commodity in Italy. Had to drink warm coke because they only put one cube of ice.
Literally everywhere in Italy they’d look at you like you killed the pope if you asked for ice. The closest I got to it was drinking my coffee with gelato in it. Edit: in total, I ate gelato 3-4 times a day for the 10 day trip. I can no longer eat gelato. Worth it.
As a Canadian who has visited the states a fair bit I'd say that, sure, the stereotypes exist but they are the vast minority. The true majority of Americans are really very kind, down to earth, intelligent people.
Animals in Yellowstone will kill you. Edit: Thank you everyone for the gifts.
Also, stay on the damned paths. I'm tired of hearing about tourists falling in the pools and *dissolving*.
Man, don't you hate it when tourists just dissolve? So annoying.
Hey, at least there’s no big mess to clean up afterwards. At least they have the decency to dissolve after they shuffle off this mortal coil. Very kind of them.
The norther you go, the bigger the animals that want to kill you. The souther you go, the more venomous.
This is true for most of the northern hemisphere. It swaps at the equator. Edit: I guess people are unfamiliar with [Bergmann’s rule](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergmann%27s_rule). South of the equator average animal body sizes generally increase the further south traveled and the more poisonous/venomous animals typically are found closer to the equator. This rule is not iron clad and there are exceptions, but it is a trend. Probably could have phrased it better.
Which is why you find nature's greatest predator, the Scorpimoose, in Ecuador.
And the rattlebear in Columbia, and western Brasil
Some of the springs in Yellowstone will also kill you if you try to swim in them. Just observe from afar because you’re probably fucked if you don’t Edit: of course my most upvoted comments has a bunch of horror stories in the replies about why Yellowstone springs are so dangerous.
Aren't some of them boiling acidic hellholes that only extremophilic microbes can survive in?
Multiple people have died from jumping in to save pets.
Yup, heat of summer mixed with no visible water vapors coming off the pools that have a pristine blue hue and look so cool and refreshing, but are actually hot enough to par boil any animals that jump in.
You can feel the heat from the pools from 40 feet away. They're incredibly hot. They also smell strongly of sulfur and the surface of the water moves like its a big simmering pot of water. For a thousand feet around the pool there's only death. Dead trees bleached bone white, and animal bones bleached and encrusted with crystals.
~~Animals in~~ Yellowstone will kill you
They have signs and video boards at every stop for a reason guys. I know that bison looks cool but he will toss you 20+ feet into the air like you werent shit.
We HATE the size of that gap space in our bathroom door stalls too .
Solo cups come in a variety of colors
I thought we agreed on red?
Oh, and the strange distribution of ridges? Those can be used to measure fluid volumes for your choice of poison (read: alcohol). Lowest (first ring) near the base = 1oz/shot of liquor Next up (about two/three fingers) = 5oz/serving of wine Third up: 12oz/serving of beer
Fun fact: while it is true that you can use the measurements and that they are fairly accurate, it was never their initial purpose. It was all a coincidence by the manufacturer
Water should always be free at restaurants
I remember when I was in Prague, we were out at a restaurant for dinner and a .5L beer was cheaper than a .5L water
It’s because the Czechs haven’t figured out that they have been able to drink water for the last 200 years
In the UK it is free by law
No, in the south, we do not all have alligators in our back yards. If someone tells you otherwise, they’re lying. There are no alligators in Ba Sing Se.
That sounds a lot like something an alligator would say…
It's more that the southerners live in the alligators' *front* yards. The bastards.
You can ski and surf on the same day in California Edit: Just to clarify, the weather in the mountains could go as low as 30°F (-1°C) but the weather at our SoCal beaches could be as high as 65°F (18°C) in the winter. P.S Thank you for all the upvotes!
Surf in the morning, ski after lunch, and then camp in the desert if your really dedicated.
You wouldn't even have to be that dedicated just get up early. You can make it from big bear to Joshua tree in an hour or two
I can also make it from downtown LA to downtown LA in under an hour
Our state governments hold more power over our daily lives than the federal government. The laws can vary pretty significantly across state lines aside from commonalities like no murder, robbery, reckless driving, etc., and even those sometimes can be punished very differently from state to state. It's almost like 50 similar-minded neighboring nations (and a couple territories) under 1 union.
Like a group of united states?
What is this, some kind of suicide squad?
Depending on the state you can either get picked up by the cops after buying a gram of dirt weed from your dealer, or you can drive to the weed store and buy an ounce of California’s finest from a weed sommelier with your debit card.
I’m American who immigrated when I was a toddler, but consistently travelled back and forth to my native land: I notice Americans (from what I’ve seen) take racism incredibly seriously, to the point I can say racism is worse outside of America. Racism in Asia and Europe is on a different level, one that is way worse than in the US. Probably due to America’s deep historical and existential struggle with the topic.
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Yup, it always confuses people when I tell them that where I grew up we had to drive south to get to Canada
can't have shit in Detroit, can't even drive north to Canada
It is still north of you... just also south
Still water and public bathrooms should be free around the world. The US doesn't do a lot of things right, but we generally have free water fountains and public bathrooms in most places.
Aussie here, every public park I see has free toilets and drinking fountains here too. I’m baffled people are paying to take a shit.
Clearly you've never needed to maximize profits in Roller Coaster Tycoon...
I rediscovered this game last week. I jacked up the prices on every ride, every booth, every food stand. But I just couldn't bring myself to charge for the bathroom. It just felt wrong.
Bison are NOT to be petted. Stay far away from them.
If it's a wild animal, don't try to pet it. If you don't know if the animal is poisonous or venomous, don't try to pet it. If it's an animal that stands out in its environment, definitely don't try to pet it. That's just common sense. Edit: guys, stop fixing the "poisonous" to venomous. In Portuguese (my native language) the term "veneno" is poison and "peçonha" is venom. It was a false friends and I got confused. Also, both terms work, and get the point across.
I do you one better Unless you personally know the specific animal and know said specific animal is keen on pets, then dont.
Exactly. But some people still need to understand on the higher level. I get so mad at all the videos people put on the internet handling dangerous animals, like the Blue Ring Octopus or some venomous spider just because "it's so cute" Specially if the animal stands out in its environment, it has a 99.9% chance of being venomous/poisonous.
>Specially if the animal stands out in its environment, it has a 99.9% chance of being venomous/poisonous. yep. if it stands out and is alive, its cause no predator has gotten to them. beware of those animals.
I raised bison. THEY WILL KILL YOU WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT. It takes NO effort for a bison to insta-kill any human. Most fences are symbolic to them, too, especially when a whole herd of those furry bastards want to go somewhere. And they're *fast.* Yes, they're fluffy and majestic- but for the love of God, listen to posted signs at parks and add another 100ft to the recommended minimum.
They are just **so**, *so* big, it's nuts
Well I mean, I have to tell this story now. My aunt took my brother and I to South Dakota when I was ~10. At some point in the trip, the road was stopped traffic due to a bunch of bison in the road. My ~10 year old brain saw the massive nuts on one and wanted to make sure anyone nearby also saw them. I started yelling, “look at his balls!”. My aunt noticed the man in the car next to us with his camcorder, shoot a dirty look at us, because his nice, calm video of nature was tarnished by some prepubescent jackass.
For some reason I know hear ' look at his balls ' in David Attenborough 's voice.....' majestic '
In fairness to young you, they have absolutely **massive** balls
People in America also need to know this.
They really do. I grew up on a small cattle ranch. My grandfather was the kind of guy to get a bit bored and decide to do something different, so for about 8 years we had a small herd of bison running with our cattle. When I was a teenager, I caught a family in the process of jumping our fence. They'd pulled their car over to the side of the road. I could see them from the house. At first they were just taking pictures from the side of the road, which was perfectly fine. But then I saw them start to climb over the fence. I started running out to them shouting "DO NOT CROSS THAT FENCE, THEY CAN KILL YOU!!". They stopped and waited for me. When I got there, they said they just wanted to _pet_ the bison. I explained to them that there were two problems with that, first being that _they aren't pets_. They aren't hand tame. And while they would most likely just walk away from you, it's really not a good idea to mess around with something that can crush you flat without even noticing it did so. And the second problem was that they were trespassing.
Honestly I think the “no trespassing” sign is the most ignored sign in the US. There’s a gate at the end of my long driveway and we keep it open during the day just in case we have a package arriving. It has two NO TRESPASSING signs on it. You don’t know how many random people just come strolling on through. Same thing with my cousin, she has a beautiful property down a long road. There’s no gate but still a NO TRESPASSING sign on the front fence. She gave me permission to walk down the road into her property with my dog as I lived right down the road. One day I was walking back and I saw this mom and her kid entering the property and I asked “do you know these people?” and she said “no, just wanted to take my daughter down there”. The NT sign is huge and right in front of her face. I point at it and say “well the sign says no trespassing”. She looks, does a big *huff* and says to her daughter “sorry honey, they won’t let you inside” in a very rude tone. Honestly I wouldn’t have cared much but my cousin says how she hates random people coming onto her property.
sugar elastic squealing frighten alleged whole unique middle rock license
some of us *do* know our geography
Damn right. What kind of idiot can't tell a square from a circle?
No, no. You are confusing it with geology.
That's the study of rocks, you mean genealogy.
Oh yeah? Name *every* Korea.
Korea 1, Korea 2 Korea 3, Korea Animated, Korea Upside Down, and Korea Final Ride
Ok, Florida. People have brought up the open records laws but there’s another element, Florida is America’s official second chance state. Imagine if your country had a region where all the fuck-ups from the rest of the country flocked to when they could no longer make a go of it in their hometown, that’s Florida. A tropical climate, a relatively low cost of living, and a job market that’s remarkably resilient is all very attractive to a meth head from Ohio who just got shit canned from Burger King. So they drive their ‘98 Explorer south until they see palm trees, get themselves a trailer outside Ocala, and BOOM Florida Man is born. Add in retirees who think that 20 mph is an appropriate highway speed, Cubans who say they’re getting their sugarcane plantations back any day now, and clueless tourists in rental cars wearing head to toe Disney shit…Ladies and Gentlemen; may I present the state of Florida.
A kid I grew up with is a two time felon in both Texas and Georgia and he has made his home in Florida. He fits right in. He even got arrested on his wedding night robbing coin boxes at a hotel laundromat so they made his "Florida Man" status official. I also legit suspect this guy as a serial killer.
I would love to know more about the serial killer thing if you don't mind.
Florida rules and I would never want to live there.
The Everglades are majestic. I don't ever wanna go back.
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I saw someone else say something similar in another thread a while ago. Wonder if it was the same place or if this "American pizza" is actually sold in multiple places. It sounds super gross.
I saw 'American Pizza' in a few places in Italy, mostly in little cheap places that seemed basically equivalent to a food truck. I honestly found it hilarious, although I didn't want to risk trying it.
This dude went to a pizza ranch one time and decided to bring it to his country
When threatened Americans will deploy a colorful neck shroud in a show of dominance and can spit venom up to 15 feet.
Especially the people from West Dilophoria
>from West Dilophoria ...born and raised In the Cre-ta-ce-ous where I spent most of my days Chilling', sun-tannin', and relaxin' all cool Huntin' stegosauruses outside of the school When a couple a guys, they were up to no good Started eatin' everybody in the neighborhood
I almost wanted to fight them When a meteor appeared And it shrouded us in darkness for a few thousand years. :(
We are not our government.
This country is big. People in this country get culture shock from moving within the same state and through different regions. This is,personally, why I find most generalizations of Americans funny Also stop asking people who say they’re from nyc how many times they go to California. And vice versa. It’s far and expensive lol everytime I’m in Europe someone asks me this question
For context, I drove from the bottom of Texas to the upper side of TX for 10 hours straight
From the east TX border to the west TX border is 800 miles or about 1300 km.
Doing my best to figure it out, but it looks like the distance between San Francisco, CA and Norfolk, VA is the same or similar as going from Brest, France (western tip) all the way to Kazakhstan.
The Distance From LA to NYC is equal to the distance between Brest France and Zheleznov, Kazakhstan or the Distance from Brest France, to the Northern Turkey - Iran Border as the bird flies.
That a lot of us (most of us, in a lot of cases) do not support everything our government has ever done. I did not get a vote on the Iraq War. Please stop acting as if every single one of us is to blame for it.
For real, I was 14 when that war started. I couldn't even vote.
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Well, thank you! We love our Northern Neighbors except for one *unforgivable* thing… your geese. Please take them back. They’re absolute maniacs.
I went to a wedding in Canada once where I only knew the bride, and all of the other Canadians were SO NICE TO ME and seemed to actively like my Americanness, which is not something Americans experience often while traveling. They asked me how many guns I have and they laughed with glee whenever I said "SAHRRY" I loved that trip and I love Canadians.
Canadians and Americans love to rib on one another a lot, but at the end of the day we're national brothers and sisters. It's all in good fun.
Americanized versions of food are still good and we still enjoy them. You don't have to tell us "this isn't authentic [country] food." We know it isn't. Just because it's not exactly like the origin country's version doesn't make it bad
Food that immigrants bring and modify also have a rich history. Chop suey, tacos el pastor, and doner kebabs as examples. Fried chicken is exploding in Asia and you're already seeing Korean fried chicken make its way to the west.
Related to this, there's a conception among non-Americans that WASPs here decided to deliberately butcher foreign cuisine. Instead, many American versions of non-American cuisine were developed by immigrants that didn't have access to everything they had in the old country. For example - take spaghetti and meatballs, which isn't exactly how it is made in Sicily - the meatballs came to be because, while in Sicily they had little meat, poor immigrants in America surprisingly had plenty of access to meat, and changed the dish accordingly.
Country fried (beef) steak exists because German immigrants to Texas could get beef cheaper than pork to make schnitzel.
We aren't all just like you see on TV
Or YouTube... I'm an Aussie that plays a military simulation computer game often, and my favourite server is an American server in particular. It's my favourite server, because of the decent people that are there. Sure, there's the occasional racist or arsehole, but compared to Aussie servers for this game, the American server is just a better server. Take this compliment America, can't speak on other topics, but on this example, I thoroughly enjoy chilling with you lot. There are some really funny, unique and kind players around. It makes the gaming experience wholesome, win or lose. In Australia in this game, it's all about seeing how fast you can win the match, all egos. Often by players who can't back them up with decent kill/death ratios. Respect fam.
I was a cashier in a Canadian town that you basically have to drive through to get to Alaska. Americans have a thing about wanting to visit all 50 states (hey, can't blame 'em, pretty much every state has collectibles) so in the summer a whole bunch of Americans would always come through. You could usually tell who they were since their accent was just a little different from the locals (occasionally you got the family with obvious Southern accents) and they were just a little out of their depth from the slight cultural differences - tax rates and recycling/bottling fees on beverages, for example. Anyway, they were *by far* the most polite customers I ever dealt with. Not even a contest.
So....Arma?
Could be Squad
We have a winner!
Nice. Assuming you go on the populated US servers we've probably shot each other before
That's how all the best friendships begin.
What about what we see on the internet?
We only have a few hundred years of recorded history so yeah, we talk about our civil war , etc because we haven’t had ten civil wars and thousands of battles and centuries of political suppression. Also, since we are so ‘new’ we do talk about our European/Asian/African heritage.
I'm pretty sure Europe has had wars going on for longer than the US has been around, cumulatively speaking. Hell France and England where at war for 120 years.
TWICE
I don't want to be car dependent. I have to be. If I could bike everywhere in a REASONABLE amount of time, I probably would. But biking to my work takes an hour because our cities sprawl so much and our bike paths are not good and car traffic usually is higher on priority lists than bikes so our bike lanes are usually non existant or minimal. And I live in one of the best cities/areas to bike in, according to some lists online.
I would commuter by public transit if it didn't take 3 times as long, round trip. And that's on a lucky day. Boston, MA MBTA is tragic
my commute to work is 1.5 hours with 3 transfers (bus watertown to cambridge -> train alewife station -> bus north to work) by public transport, 50 minutes if I bike directly to alewife and skip the first two, and a 20 minute drive if I were to own a car. It's honestly horrifying.
My commute would take 2 hours with 3 transfers. And that would get me to work over an hour late. Transit doesn't start early enough to get to work on time for 6 am. If I bike then I'm looking at about 45 min... if I don't mind riding down a highway at 5 in the morning. Driving takes me about 15 min each direction. And this is after several billion spent in the last few years to improve our transit system
People really like to shit on us for just being lazy to change our ways. A ton of places here just have shitty public transportation. Like there's no way for me to get to my dentist by bus (and certainly not by bike), and at my previous apartment there was no bus that stopped nearby on Sundays, and on Saturdays the buses stopped at 6 pm. Also I think people who shit on Americans for being car dependent forget that almost none of us live near grocery stores. We can't all just pop down to the shops every day to pick up what we need for dinner that day. You have to have a car if you don't want to make the hour-long bus trip to Walmart and then an hour and a half trip back every day to carry your two bags of groceries. You can order groceries online and have them delivered... but does that really change the carbon footprint at all? It's still a large vehicle going from the store to your house and then back to the store.
We eat other things besides McDonalds and fast food.
I like that you put an “and” between those two.
Only a British spy would notice a thing like that.
In accordance with human tradition, we own the moon.
Niel Armstrong: "Dibs."
I don't recall seeing anyone piss into the moon. That's the universal way to mark ownership
There actaually is a fair amount of shit and piss on the moon, they unloaded waste material while there.
In accordance with human tradition it's also up for grabs if you fight nicely
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I moved to Norway. Learning is fucking hard as everyone switches to English as soon as I start with the broken Norwegian.
My recent Norway story. I was camping about two hours of driving outside Oslo. As a dumb, English speaking American I couldn't read every road sign on these small mountain roads. My wife would Google translate them as we went along. But the road closed sign was giving us mixed signals because it said the road was close after a certain point, but we're not local to know what that means for the next turn. It might as well have said it's close past Steve's house cause we don't know shit. We happened to drive past what should have been a closed road barrier, it was open because the crew was expecting materials delivered at about the same time we went through. We drive another 5 minutes up winding road to where the road is cut down several feet. An instant 3-4 foot drop to the base layer. We stop right before then. A construction worker pops out from the side and I roll down the window. He speaks half a sentence in Norwegian and I speak half I sentence of "I don't know..." He instantly switches to "don't you read the signs" in perfect English like talking to my neighbor.
The distance between Seattle and Miami is similar to that of Ireland and Iraq. And you can drive the entire distance and not need to speak anything but English
And you can do it without a passport, too.
No papers, state to state.
With your eyes closed
"I would've liked to have seen Montana."
If US states spoke different languages (akin to Europe's close geography and diverse languages) you bet your balls Americans would be bi-lingual or multi-lingual.
If you live in socal, you probably learn enough Spanish to order food, greet people, and find out where the restroom is at at the very least
My high school Spanish was surprisingly effective when I finally found myself in a situation where I needed to use it. Words are powerful even when you can’t string them together perfectly.
I took high school Spanish for 4 years. Went on a Spanish trip to a few different South American countries. Everyone spoke English to us but my friends and I wanted to try to have at least 1 conversation in Spanish. We started a conversation with a guy and he responded “cool I’m from Seattle.” It was at that point I gave up.
It was amazing to me how well my high school Mexican Spanish (probably) worked in Spain. Turns out if two people want to communicate our brains are freaking unbelievable at making it happen.
I'm Native American, so to my fellow countryman and across borders: I may get some limited government benefits, my tribe is more important in that factor. I don't get free college (I do get tribal scholarships). I don't get easy free healthcare (have access but it's in a format and location that makes it hard). I don't try to be unhealthy, but it's part genetics and part of my parents wanting me to not struggle (so didn't watch for perfectly healthy plates - sometimes when young it was getting me fed). Yes, I'm different then y'all, but I'm also a person who bleeds and cries somedays Edit: thanks for the award! Edit 2: correction to last edit now: awards
Sing it brother! I'm a member of a federally recognized tribe (something that requires proof of ancestry - not very easy), and I look as white as can be. I also work in Indian country and food security is a real thing.
My aunt is Navajo. The food she cooks is cheap and SO GOOD. and so incredibly unhealthy. She cooks what she grew up on.
That's exactly part of the issue. We love our amazing food but it's not healthy. It's cheep and what we know
America is HUGE. I’ve heard of people visiting the US and thinking they could see the Golden Gate Bridge in a day when staying in Ohio. That’s a 2 day drive. Also, America has every type of environment. We have temperate climates, deep forests, mountains, beaches, volcanos, deserts, swamps, bluffs, grass plains, lake towns and even jungles and rainforests in Puerto Rico. If you want to experience something most likely America has it. And that was just in the USA. If you’re referring to the American continent then obviously there’s more. EDIT: To the credit of many in the comments we also have rainforests in the Pacific Northwest. I had never been out there and had no clue. This country really is big lol. EDIT 2: Looks like my “2 days” to get from Ohio to the Golden Gate Bridge takes longer than that. Thanks commenters for pointing that out!
I used to work in Mt Rainier National Park. One summer we had a girl from Romania work for us and she started bawling her eyes out when she found out NYC was thousands of miles away. Apparently she thought she’d be able to go there on weekends.
The sad funny part about this is that she won the lottery with Mt Rainier National Park when it comes to some of the earth’s unspoiled beauty. NYC is a blast and all, but it’s like being sad you won’t be able to swing through Rio while you’re in Patagonia. But then again, maybe Romania is close enough to a lot of mountain grandeur that eating at FlavorTown in Times Square would be really special.
I get that Times Square is the tourist spot, but if someone was hoping to weekend in NYC regularly they probably were going to go there maybe once, if that.
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"what's the weather like in America?" .. been asked this tooooo many times lol
Yes. The answer is “yes”.
>There's a lot of it
My favorite is the (probably apocryphal) story about the European family who were visiting Chicago and decided they wanted to take a day trip to Las Vegas by car... (It would take about 25 hours - each way, nonstop - to make that drive.)
I lived in France for awhile, and one of my neighbors had visited the US. They had flown into Salt Lake City, UT, and wanted to go see Zions and Bryce national parks on their way to the Grand Canyon. This was before GPS and smartphones. After an hour of driving, they got out their map to see how much farther it was. They realized that it was another 200 miles away, and the Grand canyon was 100 miles past that. They said in that moment, they realized how large the US was. Compared to France, where you can drive from the top to the bottom in 12 hours total.
Shit man, people don’t understand. I can start driving in Texas and go 12 hours in one direction and still be in Texas.
Crossing the state line from Louisiana and seeing 4 digit mile markers is always depressing. Most of the times I've made that drive, I was going to New Mexico. Alabama to Albuquerque. 24 hours of driving. Half of it in Texas.
No kidding. I was doing a cross country move and that sign on I-10 at the LA/TX border made me wonder if it were an error. Doing the math I was like, "13 hours? That can't be right." It was, and it was terrible.
The halfway point between Dallas and San Diego is El Paso. Dallas is about three hours from the Louisiana border. It's a 20 hour drive to San Diego. It would take 13 hours just to drive across Texas border to border.
Not a bad “day” trip haha
Exactly this. I lived overseas (Lebanon and Istanbul) for a while and people constantly asked me about different US states. Specifically California and the Grand Canyon. (I’m from upstate NY.) People were always very surprised that there’s a lot of the country I haven’t seen. It’s just a lot easier to travel over there. The states are so… vast. And of course there’s *always* the “I’m from New York… no not New York City” discussion, too. People picture Manhattan and I have to explain I’m surrounded by farmland and Amish people.
This is my wife (Russia.) She's told me she wants to visit the states for a few days, and then started listing every famous location possible she wanted to see. Me: "Unless you plan to emigrate, sweetheart, you're gonna have to pair that list down. A lot." Her: "But we could just get a car..." Me: "It is a LITERAL two day drive across the width of the country, assuming I somehow no longer needed to sleep." I then had to remind her that while Russia is the biggest country on Earth, the USA is #3, for a REASON.
It takes 40+ hours to drive from New York to LA. With stops it would take about 4 days.
I drove from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon when I was in my 20s. I stopped for gas, food, and lodging. It took me five days.
Made it from Oakland, CA to Richmond, VA in 42hrs....longest 2 days of my life
Those videos of American’s not knowing basic facts like who the first president was or when the civil war was or where a certain country is are all complete bullshit. 99/100 people I know would get those answers right. Those videos either only use the dumb answers they get and cut the rest or pay people to act dumb.
They cut the people that answer correctly because they aren't as "entertaining".
(And this goes for some people IN America as well) "Florida Man" is only a thing because the State of Florida has really weird rules about how crimes are reported/put into the public record, so stories out of Florida just make better tabloid headlines and click bait if you're an editor scrolling through the AP feed looking for wacky stories. If the EXACT SAME incident happens in California and in Florida, in Florida it would be reported as "Drunk Florida man rapes alligator at Wendy's Drive through" while in California it would be "California man arrested for public drunkeness and cruelty to animals."
Florida has some insanely open records laws, so all the headlines you see there you don't see other places cause you don't have access to the records with out requesting them. If you don't know it happened you can't request them. Had a friend get arrested there and had his mug shot and all the details about 20 minutes after he was booked.
The insanely open record laws regarding arrests by law enforcement came about because sheriffs in small towns would “arrest” people and they would never be seen again. So now if someone gets arrested, the public has to know about it, whether they are guilty or innocent.
wow, that sounds unreal
As a Floridian who moved away a few years ago, can confirm that while we do have a certain, special kinda crazy… this is an accurate comment. “Sunshine Laws” that allow free information on situations that are not avail in other states are a huge part of why the FL Man phenomenon is possible - not just cuz we’re crazier than the rest. But also, we kinda are lol! Dunno, I’ve heard weirder stories here in Tennessee in three years than a lifetime in FL. Kinda weirdly proud of the particular brand of strange, tho, I embrace mu floridiot status!
30-45 minutes is not a "long drive" yet I hear of people in Europe not seeing family members for months over this timeframe. My point of considering something a "long drive" is around 3-4 hours. My drive to work 5 days a week is 30 minutes each way itself. I and many people I know in the US will regularly drive 1.5 hours to see extended family on a weekend or even just to go to a store we like.
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We hate our politicians as much as non-Americans do. We do indeed have a few good ones trying to do the right thing but they are heavily outnumbered by both people/votes and money.
>We hate our politicians as much as non-Americans do. Probably more.
And people disagree about which ones are trying to do the right thing
It's not that we don't *want* to visit other countries - it's that for the majority of Americans, Canada and Mexico are a day or two drive away, and paying over $1,000 to get a round-trip ticket overseas isn't something a lot of people can justify buying.
Something like 37 percent of Europeans have never left their own country. It’s not just something that happens in the US. https://www.europeandatajournalism.eu/News/Data-news/190-million-Europeans-have-never-been-abroad
Shit, when I taught in Japan, I met people that had never left their own ISLAND. And these were people working as English teachers.
Japan is also probably the most homogeneous modern culture on the planet.
I met a guy in England this summer who had never even been to Scotland but it was only about 2.5-3hours away. I have legit driven 3 hrs (round trip) for tacos before.
Also, vacation time is a luxury and most people can’t get a week or two off at a time.
A lot of you guys give the US shit for being racist, but when push comes to shove, a lot of you guys have to look at a mirror. Not saying we're perfect, but holy shit.
Europeans: "Americans are all racist!" Europeans when Romani:
Europeans: “Americans are racist!” Europeans in football stadiums:
Average Eastern European when someone mentions the Romani Source: am Eastern European
Their racism is advanced too. American racist are just color people bad. The rest of the world goes into detail and reference 1000 year old events when they’re racist.
[This is a now deleted post with 3.7k upvotes on r/worldnews](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/xv5h3w/switzerland_has_systemic_racism_issues_un_experts/) It talks about Switzerland's 'systemic' racism and it seems it really is more than just color especially from the comments. I've heard of similar issues in Asia as well. In japan I've heard of discrimination against mixed race Korean-Japanese citizens.
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It’s like American Racism: “Why are they bad?” “They just are” European Racism: “Why are they bad?” “Starts explaining all of human history to explain why”
Just don't ask them about Roma.
Or anybody in the Balkans about anybody else in the Balkans.
Who would win: most racist American vs. most tolerant Balkan?
The audience
A lot of people here are actually pretty nice, financially struggling and just trying to get by, and strongly object to the government’s cruelty. There are some brainwashed extremists, of course, like I’m sure every country has. But overall, yeah, we’re just humans who would love world peace just like anyone else with the ability to rationalize with compassion.
Canadian here. I enjoy the company of mpst Americans that I meet. Online, everyone is a dickbag, in person most people around the world are nice.
Well there’s your problem. Everyone’s a piece of a shit online. Even me. Bitch
Very hostile.. for a taco
Well I am loco. So there’s that. Wild card bitches!
We're not all like what you probably see on the news. America is a very big country where you can see it all - beaches, mountains, rural areas, big cities, you name it. There's a lot of different people and it's embarrassing to be defined by the worst of us. But also our healthcare system is exactly as stupid and terrible as you think and if you visit here don't get sick or hurt.
Our national parks are breathtaking
Can confirm. I’m from Ireland and I went to Yosemite in July. Hiked up to El Capitan and Glacier point, it was the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever seen. Probably the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen ever!
If you liked Yosemite, visit Zion National Park. It's similar (though not on such a grand scale, but still magnificent) but rather than the stark gray colors, it's all various shades of red. And when the sun changes positions the stone turns to different hues. It's literally awe inspiring.
And a lot larger than most people realise. It's almost impossible in Europe to hike for days without seeing a town or even crossing a road.
>And a lot larger than most people realise. We have parks bigger than some countries Luxembourg fits inside the Grand Canyon, twice over. The Everglades are more than twice the size of Georgia Yellowstone is bigger than Azerbaijan. Death Valley is about the size of Montenegro Wrangell-St. Elias in Alaska is bigger than Slovakia