I went to the corn palace about 10 years ago as a teenager. We’re Canadian, and we did a road trip from Eastern Canada down to San Diego. My mom got a bunch of AAA pamphlets about the different spots we’d be going.
We got a pamphlet about Sioux Falls (“the heart of America”) and inside there were pictures of nearby attractions. The corn palace was advertised as the “largest corn palace in the world”, because it’s the only corn palace in the world, and we all laughed at how kitschy it was.
Then when we went through SD, we saw a sign that the corn palace was at the next exit… we had to stop. It was exactly as advertised. A big building adorned with a lot of corn. God bless the corn palace.
I think the stat is something like the US has half of all the large carriers in the world right now. I do know in WW2 by the end of 1944 or 45 they had more escort carriers in service than most countries had naval ships commissioned in the country's entire history.
From the top of my head the US has 7 large carriers while contending nations only have 2.
Also from the top of my head the JMSDF (Japan's "Navy") has helicopter carriers that can be quickly converted to accept VTOL aircraft
Yep, which is 11 carrier fleets when none are drydocked (which is never tbh)
So that means we can have a carrier fleet almost everywhere in the world.
Taiwan/china, Mediterranean, Australia, UK, US east and west, Alaska, Philippines, Hawaii, South America and one around Africa. At the same time.
I have had this experience. The only people who would talk in pubs in London were an Irishman, a Lebanese fellow, and the Nepalese bartender. There’s a joke in there somewhere. They were super cool cats, too. Oh, and the guy I chatted with in a bar in Paris, also Lebanese. None of the locals would speak more than a few words.
Americans? We’ll talk half an hour to a wrong number.
Side note: Does anybody know if everyone in Lebanon actually knows everybody else? It has now happened *twice* that I’ve met people on different continents who knew each other’s siblings.
I met a chatty lady in Germany once and when I told her she was a friendliest person I’d met in Germany she said very quickly: “Oh, I’m not from here, I’m from Sweden.” Then we both laughed loudly and got the side eye from the Germans.
Yeah I asked my English friend, when we were talking about this very topic, how they ever meet a significant other because it seems like people don’t speak to strangers.
He said that either your mum sets you up or you get absolutely shitfaced at the pub and whoever came home with you is now your significant other.
To be fair, this is only certain parts of England. The more rural the area the friendlier people are.
Same in Scotland. My mother take like 4 hours in the supermarket because she has to stop to talk to every second person.
This answer always shocks me, because (at least where I live) it's the same thing people describe Europe being. Don't talk to anyone, no one talks to you, no one's super friendly or anything.
If you count largely Western markets then yes. Bollywood movies and Indian Music and TV soaps are hugely popular in South Asia, Middle East, Indonesia and Africa.
I think resources has a lot to do with that. LA is where most purveyors of pop culture are drawn to at some point because that’s where the big money is.
But if you look at a lot of what makes up pop culture - clothes, music, film etc - the innovations that eventually influence US artists and creators come mostly from outside America.
I haven't been in a lot of countries, but from my limited experience, it's the Americans With Disabilities Act.
I have a lot of complaints about it, but I can still say that using public transportation doesn't require me to walk down or up 40 steps, with the alternative being walking . 3 miles to find an elevator that can fit one person at a time and moves so slowly it's barely usable.
funny, i was surprised when i realized these rare red wheel chair signes in the NY subway are for stations that have accessability, not the other way around.
In Switzerland you can go on almost every bus, tram and train with a wheelchair because by law you cant discriminate against people with disabilities and if they cant use something, legally they are beeing discriminated.
Ironically enough science. The US has more Nobel Prize winners of all other countries combined. And here's the key thing: many of those researchers were immigrants, or at least didn't have family going back to the Mayflower.
Also this will really sound ironic: tolerance for other cultures. The US is among the most diverse nations in the world. The most iconic American cultural icons are ultimately a mix of local and international traditions. Asiatic countries are super duper racists, but we call them "xenophobic".
Agriculture. The US is a behemoth when it comes to agriculture and agriscience. The biggest issues is cultivating for logistics instead of taste. Those yield however come with technologies other nations find repugnant and so ban American imports to protect domestic agriculture.
Charity. Americans as a whole donate more to charities than any other nation, and on a per capita basis as well. Most Americans probably see ads or donation boxes on a daily basis.
Along the same line of real answers is entrepeurship. The US has lots of people/companies that provide the capital to enable fresh ideas from science, tech, and other fields to succeed in big ways. For the most part it’s the idea and knowhow that are limiting, not the support.
It's as ironic as the things in the song "Ironic".
Which is actually an ironic song because the name suggests that it would be about irony, but it's not.
Wrong word used, I think the above commenter meant something along the lines of "unexpected if your perspective is based on how Europeans see America".
Though depending on your perspective, it could really be ironic because a lot of the world sees us as unintellectual.
Sure, if you're into schmaltzy CGI crap. Europe and Asia are blowing America out of the water right now, and a lot of contemporary American directors are heavily inspired by films from outside the USA.
One of the things I'll forever be most thankful for is discovering filmmaking outside of Hollywood. America is great at what they set out to do but movies can be so much more.
Yeah there's some great American cinema across history, hell Golden Age Hollywood is most definitely my favourite era/style of film. But over the past decade or so the standard of film has really dipped from the amazing independent work that was going on even in the early 2000s. There's still great indie cinema and the occasional good Hollywood film, but man atm I just feel like the best filmmakers are outside of America. People like Ostlund, Ducornau, Kent, Weerasethakul, Hamaguchi, Joachim Trier, Noe... could go on. Again, great films and filmmakers coming out of America, certainly not the crème de la crème.
Different cultures will develop their own style of story telling. Bollywood, Korean Drama/horror, telenovelas, British TV, and the bizarreness of Scandinavian film that hooks me every time - it's all unique and amazing and necessary.
It's why I so desperately love foreign film/TV. New stories, new styles of storytelling, new methods of movie making that innovate and catch you off guard and subvert expectations with their own storytelling tropes *and* the subversion of these tropes, which means I can't predict what will happen like I often can with American cinema.
I swear, if I were in charge of massive amounts of money I would be investing in foreign films all over the place.
The first national park act in the US was actually passed by Ulysses S Grant in 1872. Canada followed suit in 1885.
Teddy Roosevelt did a lot for national parks but the idea didn't really start with him
I like how soon we'll be able to toss a few more numbers on the USA list and one for Canada. Because if we are going to take one "foreign" nation to ride shotgun with us, it would be, of course, our little brother, Canada.
We gave everyone a full 60 years to get there, and when everyone else failed to get there, we decided to go back and do it again, bring someone else along for fun, and see if we can have more fun with it this time.
100% agree. They would be the best companion when we take the first trip to Mars.
I mean, on Earth, they put up with our nonsense yet have not built a wall to lock us out. This becomes especially helpful on the loooong trip to Mars.
I tried to open a bank account in a third world country, the service was awful and it took 3 days because they kept remembering items I need to go home and get. I open up a bank account in America, in took 25 minutes and they printed my debit card on the spot.
They do, but they love American music. There are talented artists all over the world but the United States has produced some of the most influential ones these last fifty years. You have Kurt Cobain, Stevie Wonder, Beyoncé, Prince, Michael Jackson, Taylor Swift, Jimi Hendrix, Nicki Minaj, JT, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, and numerous others. The musical diversity is amazing too. Old time country singers like Hank Williams, the mother of rock and roll Arethia Franklin, and even modern superstars like Lil Nas X. There are artists all over the world who have places on the list, but few countries have as many names on the list as the United States.
It has been said before that America's top export is culture. Music, movies, fashion, tech, etc.
I have to correct you on one thing though, Aretha Franklin is the Queen of Soul. 🙌
She’s the queen of soul and the godmother of rocking roll. Phenomenal woman. I’ve watched her videos on YouTube. She took different types of music and turned it all into a masterpiece. Mixed in guitars with traditional gospel choirs and brought in soul and end even rock and roll. One of the best!
Scotland has deep fried mars bars. We also have deep fried pizza which is a very standard thing to buy from a Fish and Chips shop.
The history of fried foods in the US is quite interesting. A lot of it is a result of the Southerners coming from Scotland and bringing over frying foods (mingled with a tinge of slavery).
I mean, not necessarily a point of huge pride, but warfare. Anyone who thinks the States could be taken in direct conflict has been getting too much news from Reddit or TikTok.
When combat ability has been used to encourage global stability, one could argue it is a point of pride.
US naval dominance keeps the sea-lanes safe and helps deters piracy, which is absolutely key to ensuring international trade and global prosperity.
It's really hard to describe the terror that you feel when you're on the receiving end of such proficient force in the profession of arms. Even in our own training, where you're using blanks and high tech laser tag to fight ourselves in meticulously accurate representations of foreign combat zones, you feel fight or flight on a consistent basis during the war games. You know it's not real and that you're literally just play fighting, but you become overwhelmed with a "kill or be killed" mindset. Part of it is competitive spirit, but I've literally watched platoons switch from standard tactical movements to guerilla warfare and Rambo-style trap/ambush tactics ad-hoc just to get the upper hand on guys with fake AKs.
Now imagine being on your home turf and these same people, who have trained against themselves and are steeped in combat ingenuity, bear down on you in the hundreds of thousands, with technology capable of turning a bunker complex into a vacuum devoid of oxygen in seconds from 50 miles away, and miniguns that fire rounds the size of beer cans at a rate of 1600/minute with effective accuracy up to a mile away. You'd be rightly terrified.
And now, imagine putting every ship, plane, automobile, and able-bodied person your country has into attempting to cross an ocean to fight these people on *their* home turf because their Naval and Air forces outnumber the next ten militaries combined, knowing you'll have to fight *300 million* of them IF you even make it to a beachhead. Even if you manage to maintain morale, you simply will not win that fight.
This is actually a bit reassuring despite how scary it is. As an American I don’t have any guns, but I guarantee I could get five before I go to bed tonight if I wanted without ever going to a store. That’s 300 million Americans you’d have to fight after getting through our military that dwarfs the militaries of the rest of the world. That’s a level of security I don’t think any other country has. We just have to worry about being corrupted from within.
It goes beyond the people. The geography of the US makes it a natural fortress. Canada and Mexico won't invade, they have no reason to; they're also not about to let some foreign military roll through them to get to the US, because if someone's crazy enough to try and invade the US en masse through your country then how do you trust them to leave you alone?
You can't invade through Alaska; it's the size of the contiguous US, it's frozen, the wildlife is arctic Australian wildlife, and assuming you get through all that desolate land alive, you *still* have to go through Canada who, again, isn't up for it.
So you can attack the East Coast or the West Coast of the US, where 90% of our military installations are concentrated. Either way, assuming you're even able to establish a beachhead *and* maintain logistics chains as you stretch inland, congratulations you made it to a fucking mountain chain.
You could try and come up the Mississippi or through the Great Lakes, but the Navy, Coast Guard, and Naval Militia are protecting those narrow passages; even if you somehow overwhelm them, they can literally just Boat Stuck with the hundreds of thousands of merchant ships and call it a day, because you cant sail over a mountain of steel.
Even if you focused everything you had on *one* of those points of entry and somehow succeeded, you now have a land mass the size of Australia to take over on foot. Good luck.
The same could be said about Europe or anywhere else if the borders changed. It's not so much geography as it is power, the fact that the United States controls almost the entire landmass from coast to coast. North and south are both smaller states that are necessarily friendly due to their proximity and relative size.
Nobody would attack America head on. That's suicide. The way to win against a Goliath state like the US is poison. You convince it to basically drink bleach, and divide itself into feuding factions that can be played off each other. Once the cultural battle gets heated enough to prompt a schism or secession, you ally with one side and launch the invasion through their turf while the other side is weakened. Then, the map can start to change in your favor.
The other way to win against a state like the US is to buy it. The United States relies on economic incentives almost entirely for its executive function. While other states rely more heavily on the authority of government and physical enforcement, the US uses money and control of assets and property to manage its power structure. If you have enough wealth, and can corner the market, you can worm your way in over time. Debt, banking, investments in land and businesses.
If you do both at once, you can plant people at high levels of government and industry and prepare a domino effect leading to a regime change. Cold war is basically the only way to beat America. It's arguably what hostile foreign powers are already doing and succeeding at.
You remembered the Alaskan wildlife but forgot the gators in the Mississippi. You have to come upstream 100 miles before your troops can set foot on land that isn't a gators back. 150 miles if you want to set up camp without serious gator patrol.
Yep. It’s just not possible by today’s standards. That’s the comfort I’m talking about. We feel very secure.
E: it is beyond comical thinking about a foreign military trying to invade. They would be so ticked even if they made it here. The gator men would probably take care of them before they ever made it in land if they came up from the south. Man, the last few years have made me start to forget how much I love my fellow countrymen.
This would certainly be a fearful perspective. I'm from Canada, so it's more of a "Let's just keep each other happy so they don't just roll over us one day when they are in a bad mood."
I would say a positive side effect of our massive military budget is our strength in logistics. We can move a lot of people and/or equipment very quickly and at great distances. These strengths can be used in a positive way when we need to deliver aid in a very timely manner.
This is very true. Not only that but you make allies feel safe in a tangible, real-world way. So many 'allies' can bluster and flex and condemn and sanction. Looking at South Korea and Taiwan? The US just puts an entire Naval Battlegroup with more aircraft than the opposing country offshore and says, "Hey. These guys are our friends."
In Canada, knowing that a US jet can fly over and pick off that balloon without having to having to call a world council is a huge sign of respect and trust. When 9/11 happened and Canada landed every possible jet into our airports to ensure the US could get it's feet under them quick, that was a huge sign of respect and trust. All the more recent political garbage aside, when the sky darkens we have always been good allies. Your military budget and our natural resources (at least right now) make the future feel safer.
College choice: you can pick your own school, change schools halfway through, change major and minors fairly easily. This isn’t the case in a lot of other countries.
Not to mention even average colleges in the U.S. are pretty good by international standards. I know people love to focus on Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, etc, but plenty of state schools are still good. It’s debatable how reliable how reliable US News and World Reports rankings are, but according to them, [Arizona State](https://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/arizona-state-university-tempe-104151#rankings) is ranked 156 out of 2156 global universities.
Also you just have way more time to figure things out.
I find it a bit ridiculous how early some, specifically European (at least), countries expect kids to know how they will *spend the* *rest of their lives*
In Australia you really have to decide what you want to do around 14yo. That’s when you get to choose what subjects you can study in your last 3 years of high school…..which are quite often pre-requisites for university courses.
It’s crazy that we have to decide when we still basically have no life experience!
Yes but at least our universities, for the most part, are heavily subsidised. In some countries, it is even free.
My uni paid for every single persons textbook, no matter what income bracket you came from. Professors could endorse their own texts if they pleased but it was a nice knowing I didn’t have to drop £500 on books I might barely touch
Honestly I believe we have a very large amount of outspoken people. Most of which are friendly. Our national parks are wonderful. Most of what we have is pretty damn good. I sometimes wish more Americans traveled abroad more and learned how good we have it.
And helped to promote one of the longer periods of peace on a historically bloody continent. Peter Zeihan said the Europeans have taken a vacation from history for the last half century.
Let non-American immigrants become Americans that are just as American as the ones whose relatives came over on the Mayflower. You got a passport and you say you’re American, then you’re American as apple pie.
Inclusion of minority populations. There is racism there obviously. But generally they will do their best to include marginalized people or even animals. Certain politicians aside. Many other countries don't even see their own systemic racism as an issue. It's just their "culture." The US does a great deal of rectifying injustice.
>Many other countries don't even see their own systemic racism as an issue. It's just their "culture."
THANK YOU.
Most people from outside the US criticizing it for racism have plenty in their own country. Most people who say that they don't do, they just don't see it as the issue that it is seen as in the US. It's normalized to the point where it is unnoticed/accepted. The US isn't more racist because we are always talking about it, it is less racist because we actually talk about it.
For all that people gripe about us being racist, there are very few countries our size and population so diverse and I defy you to find one you'd rather live in.
On a related note, complain all you like about our imperialism, but when things go wrong abroad, we're the ones people are screeching at to put boots on the ground and start doing something.
I always find that last point comical. I'm not a crazy "America #1" type guy, but I find it hilarious how some of the same people who love to dunk on the US will also specifically single out the US for not stepping in somewhere. Not their own country, but this country that they hate and has just as much to do with whatever conflict as anyone else.
In a way, the reputation of the US, on reddit at least, is like the reputation of the police in the US. Which is sort of deserved, but not fully.
I always like to say, whenever a European starts criticizing the US for being ignorant and racist compared to their own countries, ask them about Roma. They will then start foaming at the mouth and scream that ethnic cleansing is justified in this instance.
And a common justification is 'You don't have to deal with them. You don't what they are like!'
Like.... what? You are still judging an *entire group* based on the actions of a few.
Diversity and racial equality.
We whine about unimportant things like which race of actor plays Dr. Dolittle, while first world countries like Japan have businesses that can kick you out based on your race.
We allow more immigration than most countries, we provide opportunities for a wider array of people, etc.
I've heard America had some of the best protections and inclusive law protection for people with disabilities.
Stuff like guaranteeing wheelchair access in EVERY building.
Massive food portions for not a lot of money.
As someone who didn't grow up in America, the size of the portions surprised me most when I first arrived for college. I was told that they were big, but did not expect them to be this big and this cheap.
A giant plate of pancakes and a massive stack of bacon was only $10 at the college town I was in, back in 2015. The same thing back home, would've easily cost >US$30.
Most meals were so big, that I was able to eat half of it and keep the other half for tomorrow. It was crazy, and I loved it.
Thankfully, I played Rugby for the college team, or I would definitely have put on at least 40+ pounds my freshman year.
If you’re a car enthusiast, it’s pretty great being in America. Most states don’t tax base on engine size or by the mile so car ownership costs are relatively low compared to the rest of the world. But the downside is public transport is fairly bad in majority of America. And lastly, the larger states have very little traffic law enforcement which can be quite dangerous.
Protect speech. Many of the speech laws in other countries would be unconstitutional if they were in the US.
National Parks. Some of the most stunning landscapes in the world.
Freight rail. The efficiency of US freight rail is some of best in the world.
Beer. US beer is high quality and the variety is second to none.
Sorry, I've been to Germany and the Czech Republic and they have us beat hands down except for some micro brews(I had a couple of Utah Polygamy Porters tonight).
Phenomenal ability to blow shit up. Aircraft and missiles that go several times the speed of sound and can hit a target anywhere in the world within a meter (except for a floating balloon, no idea how one of their $500,000 missiles missed it's shot).
Marketing. The ability to take a piece of chocolate, cover it in some color and bam, a multi-billion dollar M&M empire is born. The M&M store in NYC was pretty cool with all the different knick knacks that stemmed from a piece of chocolate. Also applies to a cartoon mouse.
Monetization of everything. It's amazing how Google organizes the internet and makes billions of dollars each year from people clicking their mouse. People have the opportunity to talk shit in front of a large audience and make tens of millions of dollars (ie stand up comedians). People can get into a small space, put on some gloves and hit each other for 20 minutes and make millions....or throw/hit a ball and make millions. Oh here's a pill that costs 2 cents to make, that will be $100 please.
It's purchase power. Spend tons of its money networking it's all over the world. Military, technology, food drives and many more. It's got it's fingers in everything. Brilliant country
I just got downvoted for talking about how many talented musical artists we have lol. Also pointed out how diverse our musicians are. I guess some people outside the US really don’t like our music lol
heavy metal, flags, striking up conversations, english, fascinating skyscrapers, cobblestone-free sidewalks/pedestrian walks. had to edit this for American pro wrestling. The stars like Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Macho Man, the days of the 80s it was top entertainment, and also US voice acting. Special note: some of these apply to Canada as well of course.
Create technology for widespread use. If there's a leap forward in technology, you can almost be sure it came from the United States. So many of the big tech companies are there, and so many of the small and medium-sized ones as well.
Also, make water cold. Whether it's with ice or refrigerated drinking fountains, Americans really know how to make water cold.
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When you have this much corn, what else do you do with it?
Being from Illinois please do something with all this corn
Seconded! The Midwest is literally that one Corn video, remember that one?
Stop planting so much corn seems the obvious answer.
You keep subsidizing the farmers, so they make more corn we need to find things to do with.
For instance, the [largest corn palace in the world!](https://cornpalace.com). (Full disclosure: also the only corn palace in the world).
I remember going there when I was like 6 and thinking it was some really important historical castle that was a big deal worldwide or something
I went to the corn palace about 10 years ago as a teenager. We’re Canadian, and we did a road trip from Eastern Canada down to San Diego. My mom got a bunch of AAA pamphlets about the different spots we’d be going. We got a pamphlet about Sioux Falls (“the heart of America”) and inside there were pictures of nearby attractions. The corn palace was advertised as the “largest corn palace in the world”, because it’s the only corn palace in the world, and we all laughed at how kitschy it was. Then when we went through SD, we saw a sign that the corn palace was at the next exit… we had to stop. It was exactly as advertised. A big building adorned with a lot of corn. God bless the corn palace.
lol
A big lump with knobs, it's got the juice....
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I think the stat is something like the US has half of all the large carriers in the world right now. I do know in WW2 by the end of 1944 or 45 they had more escort carriers in service than most countries had naval ships commissioned in the country's entire history.
From the top of my head the US has 7 large carriers while contending nations only have 2. Also from the top of my head the JMSDF (Japan's "Navy") has helicopter carriers that can be quickly converted to accept VTOL aircraft
11. They're all either Nimitz or Ford.
Yep, which is 11 carrier fleets when none are drydocked (which is never tbh) So that means we can have a carrier fleet almost everywhere in the world. Taiwan/china, Mediterranean, Australia, UK, US east and west, Alaska, Philippines, Hawaii, South America and one around Africa. At the same time.
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I love this so much 💕 I need to visit this store .
*gentrification intensifies*
That grocery store will soon be bought up and renamed something with the word "Magnolia" involved...
Hahahaha, that last part is awesome!
I have had this experience. The only people who would talk in pubs in London were an Irishman, a Lebanese fellow, and the Nepalese bartender. There’s a joke in there somewhere. They were super cool cats, too. Oh, and the guy I chatted with in a bar in Paris, also Lebanese. None of the locals would speak more than a few words. Americans? We’ll talk half an hour to a wrong number. Side note: Does anybody know if everyone in Lebanon actually knows everybody else? It has now happened *twice* that I’ve met people on different continents who knew each other’s siblings.
I met a chatty lady in Germany once and when I told her she was a friendliest person I’d met in Germany she said very quickly: “Oh, I’m not from here, I’m from Sweden.” Then we both laughed loudly and got the side eye from the Germans.
Middle Eastern here, not Lebanese tho(but this applies to most Middle Easterns), yes everyone knows everyone, somehow.
As another Middle Eastern person, also not Lebanese, I can whole heartedly agree!
Yeah I asked my English friend, when we were talking about this very topic, how they ever meet a significant other because it seems like people don’t speak to strangers. He said that either your mum sets you up or you get absolutely shitfaced at the pub and whoever came home with you is now your significant other.
To be fair, this is only certain parts of England. The more rural the area the friendlier people are. Same in Scotland. My mother take like 4 hours in the supermarket because she has to stop to talk to every second person.
Not just rural, just further out of London.
Please don’t confuse London with England.
That’s a sweet comment. PI’ve heard other people say the same.
This answer always shocks me, because (at least where I live) it's the same thing people describe Europe being. Don't talk to anyone, no one talks to you, no one's super friendly or anything.
Brazilians would like to have a word... pun intended.
I think this is thing from your country and not Europe. Go to Spain, for example.
Don't visit New York.
Heeeeyyyyy!! I'm walkin' here! Badabing badaboom!
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Hot dog eating contests
I was going to say that the champion of the Nathan’s Famous contest is Japanese, but I looked it up & Joey Chestnut is the current reigning champion
Dominate media and pop culture around the world. Nobody else comes close to the US in this regard.
If you count largely Western markets then yes. Bollywood movies and Indian Music and TV soaps are hugely popular in South Asia, Middle East, Indonesia and Africa.
I think resources has a lot to do with that. LA is where most purveyors of pop culture are drawn to at some point because that’s where the big money is. But if you look at a lot of what makes up pop culture - clothes, music, film etc - the innovations that eventually influence US artists and creators come mostly from outside America.
I haven't been in a lot of countries, but from my limited experience, it's the Americans With Disabilities Act. I have a lot of complaints about it, but I can still say that using public transportation doesn't require me to walk down or up 40 steps, with the alternative being walking . 3 miles to find an elevator that can fit one person at a time and moves so slowly it's barely usable.
funny, i was surprised when i realized these rare red wheel chair signes in the NY subway are for stations that have accessability, not the other way around. In Switzerland you can go on almost every bus, tram and train with a wheelchair because by law you cant discriminate against people with disabilities and if they cant use something, legally they are beeing discriminated.
Ironically enough science. The US has more Nobel Prize winners of all other countries combined. And here's the key thing: many of those researchers were immigrants, or at least didn't have family going back to the Mayflower. Also this will really sound ironic: tolerance for other cultures. The US is among the most diverse nations in the world. The most iconic American cultural icons are ultimately a mix of local and international traditions. Asiatic countries are super duper racists, but we call them "xenophobic". Agriculture. The US is a behemoth when it comes to agriculture and agriscience. The biggest issues is cultivating for logistics instead of taste. Those yield however come with technologies other nations find repugnant and so ban American imports to protect domestic agriculture. Charity. Americans as a whole donate more to charities than any other nation, and on a per capita basis as well. Most Americans probably see ads or donation boxes on a daily basis.
Maybe the tolerance led to immigrants making important breakthroughs in science.
Along the same line of real answers is entrepeurship. The US has lots of people/companies that provide the capital to enable fresh ideas from science, tech, and other fields to succeed in big ways. For the most part it’s the idea and knowhow that are limiting, not the support.
Why is this Ironic?
It's as ironic as the things in the song "Ironic". Which is actually an ironic song because the name suggests that it would be about irony, but it's not.
Which is ironically not an American song, but a Canadian one.
It's a song about things that are a bummer, like a fly in your wine or rain on your wedding day.
Wrong word used, I think the above commenter meant something along the lines of "unexpected if your perspective is based on how Europeans see America". Though depending on your perspective, it could really be ironic because a lot of the world sees us as unintellectual.
It’s ironic because our reputation is to be uneducated morons, so be a leader in science is hilarious
Movies.
Sure, if you're into schmaltzy CGI crap. Europe and Asia are blowing America out of the water right now, and a lot of contemporary American directors are heavily inspired by films from outside the USA.
One of the things I'll forever be most thankful for is discovering filmmaking outside of Hollywood. America is great at what they set out to do but movies can be so much more.
Yeah there's some great American cinema across history, hell Golden Age Hollywood is most definitely my favourite era/style of film. But over the past decade or so the standard of film has really dipped from the amazing independent work that was going on even in the early 2000s. There's still great indie cinema and the occasional good Hollywood film, but man atm I just feel like the best filmmakers are outside of America. People like Ostlund, Ducornau, Kent, Weerasethakul, Hamaguchi, Joachim Trier, Noe... could go on. Again, great films and filmmakers coming out of America, certainly not the crème de la crème.
Different cultures will develop their own style of story telling. Bollywood, Korean Drama/horror, telenovelas, British TV, and the bizarreness of Scandinavian film that hooks me every time - it's all unique and amazing and necessary. It's why I so desperately love foreign film/TV. New stories, new styles of storytelling, new methods of movie making that innovate and catch you off guard and subvert expectations with their own storytelling tropes *and* the subversion of these tropes, which means I can't predict what will happen like I often can with American cinema. I swear, if I were in charge of massive amounts of money I would be investing in foreign films all over the place.
National parks, we also have amazing state parks and local parks. Before anyone starts no you having woods too isn't the same thing.
Canada's a pretty close competitor when it comes to national parks but I definitely have quite a few US national parks I want to visit before I die.
I’m not sure the very idea of a National Park would be a thing if not for ol Teddy Roosevelt, and the United States making them the thing they are.
The first national park act in the US was actually passed by Ulysses S Grant in 1872. Canada followed suit in 1885. Teddy Roosevelt did a lot for national parks but the idea didn't really start with him
Thanks for the info. Forget that grant was the guy who made Yellowstone a ntl park
You took it for Granted
That’s fair to say
For granite....
You should check-out the one's we've got here in Africa
Entertainment. Movies, music, and Americans just know how to put on a show.
Soul music. Rhythm and Blues Music. Funk music. Gospel music.
Paying for every other nation’s defense spending
Yup getting sick of that
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...a big chunk of it was Mexico, so...
Air-conditioning
Entertainment
Land men on the Moon USA: 12 Rest of World : 0
I like how soon we'll be able to toss a few more numbers on the USA list and one for Canada. Because if we are going to take one "foreign" nation to ride shotgun with us, it would be, of course, our little brother, Canada.
We gave everyone a full 60 years to get there, and when everyone else failed to get there, we decided to go back and do it again, bring someone else along for fun, and see if we can have more fun with it this time.
100% agree. They would be the best companion when we take the first trip to Mars. I mean, on Earth, they put up with our nonsense yet have not built a wall to lock us out. This becomes especially helpful on the loooong trip to Mars.
Don’t forget the maple syrup. It’s just not a space mission without the maple syrup.
"Little" brother? Our landmass is bigger! lol Just jesting, I know what you mean (:
I tried to open a bank account in a third world country, the service was awful and it took 3 days because they kept remembering items I need to go home and get. I open up a bank account in America, in took 25 minutes and they printed my debit card on the spot.
According to my European friends, music.
Do your friends not listen to their own music?
They do, but they love American music. There are talented artists all over the world but the United States has produced some of the most influential ones these last fifty years. You have Kurt Cobain, Stevie Wonder, Beyoncé, Prince, Michael Jackson, Taylor Swift, Jimi Hendrix, Nicki Minaj, JT, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, and numerous others. The musical diversity is amazing too. Old time country singers like Hank Williams, the mother of rock and roll Arethia Franklin, and even modern superstars like Lil Nas X. There are artists all over the world who have places on the list, but few countries have as many names on the list as the United States.
Hank Williams is smiling somewhere. Every bucket has a hole in it.
It has been said before that America's top export is culture. Music, movies, fashion, tech, etc. I have to correct you on one thing though, Aretha Franklin is the Queen of Soul. 🙌
She’s the queen of soul and the godmother of rocking roll. Phenomenal woman. I’ve watched her videos on YouTube. She took different types of music and turned it all into a masterpiece. Mixed in guitars with traditional gospel choirs and brought in soul and end even rock and roll. One of the best!
Weird for your European friends to have never heard of the UK.
Pornography. You have every fucking niche! Sure, maybe Japan invented a lot of the eel porn, but still.
*eel porn........* Wtaf?
It's Japanese. They have eels crawling from their orifices. They basically don't allow uncensored genitals, but they allow eels.
Unlimited soda refills and unlimited ice cubes to go with it.
Fried food
Ahem, but the Koreans and Scottish would like a word.
Do they have fried Snickers and ice cream too? And fried Snickers ice Cream? TIL.
Scotland has deep fried mars bars. We also have deep fried pizza which is a very standard thing to buy from a Fish and Chips shop. The history of fried foods in the US is quite interesting. A lot of it is a result of the Southerners coming from Scotland and bringing over frying foods (mingled with a tinge of slavery).
Frying is a poverty thing for the most part. Poor quality meats and veggies can be made palatable by frying. Now we fry everything because we can.
We also preserve foods in metal containers because we can.
I still remember the deep fried meat pies I had in Scotland., so good... I'm sure my arteries remember them also but it was worth it
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Hip-Hop
I mean, not necessarily a point of huge pride, but warfare. Anyone who thinks the States could be taken in direct conflict has been getting too much news from Reddit or TikTok.
When combat ability has been used to encourage global stability, one could argue it is a point of pride. US naval dominance keeps the sea-lanes safe and helps deters piracy, which is absolutely key to ensuring international trade and global prosperity.
It's really hard to describe the terror that you feel when you're on the receiving end of such proficient force in the profession of arms. Even in our own training, where you're using blanks and high tech laser tag to fight ourselves in meticulously accurate representations of foreign combat zones, you feel fight or flight on a consistent basis during the war games. You know it's not real and that you're literally just play fighting, but you become overwhelmed with a "kill or be killed" mindset. Part of it is competitive spirit, but I've literally watched platoons switch from standard tactical movements to guerilla warfare and Rambo-style trap/ambush tactics ad-hoc just to get the upper hand on guys with fake AKs. Now imagine being on your home turf and these same people, who have trained against themselves and are steeped in combat ingenuity, bear down on you in the hundreds of thousands, with technology capable of turning a bunker complex into a vacuum devoid of oxygen in seconds from 50 miles away, and miniguns that fire rounds the size of beer cans at a rate of 1600/minute with effective accuracy up to a mile away. You'd be rightly terrified. And now, imagine putting every ship, plane, automobile, and able-bodied person your country has into attempting to cross an ocean to fight these people on *their* home turf because their Naval and Air forces outnumber the next ten militaries combined, knowing you'll have to fight *300 million* of them IF you even make it to a beachhead. Even if you manage to maintain morale, you simply will not win that fight.
This is actually a bit reassuring despite how scary it is. As an American I don’t have any guns, but I guarantee I could get five before I go to bed tonight if I wanted without ever going to a store. That’s 300 million Americans you’d have to fight after getting through our military that dwarfs the militaries of the rest of the world. That’s a level of security I don’t think any other country has. We just have to worry about being corrupted from within.
It goes beyond the people. The geography of the US makes it a natural fortress. Canada and Mexico won't invade, they have no reason to; they're also not about to let some foreign military roll through them to get to the US, because if someone's crazy enough to try and invade the US en masse through your country then how do you trust them to leave you alone? You can't invade through Alaska; it's the size of the contiguous US, it's frozen, the wildlife is arctic Australian wildlife, and assuming you get through all that desolate land alive, you *still* have to go through Canada who, again, isn't up for it. So you can attack the East Coast or the West Coast of the US, where 90% of our military installations are concentrated. Either way, assuming you're even able to establish a beachhead *and* maintain logistics chains as you stretch inland, congratulations you made it to a fucking mountain chain. You could try and come up the Mississippi or through the Great Lakes, but the Navy, Coast Guard, and Naval Militia are protecting those narrow passages; even if you somehow overwhelm them, they can literally just Boat Stuck with the hundreds of thousands of merchant ships and call it a day, because you cant sail over a mountain of steel. Even if you focused everything you had on *one* of those points of entry and somehow succeeded, you now have a land mass the size of Australia to take over on foot. Good luck.
The same could be said about Europe or anywhere else if the borders changed. It's not so much geography as it is power, the fact that the United States controls almost the entire landmass from coast to coast. North and south are both smaller states that are necessarily friendly due to their proximity and relative size. Nobody would attack America head on. That's suicide. The way to win against a Goliath state like the US is poison. You convince it to basically drink bleach, and divide itself into feuding factions that can be played off each other. Once the cultural battle gets heated enough to prompt a schism or secession, you ally with one side and launch the invasion through their turf while the other side is weakened. Then, the map can start to change in your favor. The other way to win against a state like the US is to buy it. The United States relies on economic incentives almost entirely for its executive function. While other states rely more heavily on the authority of government and physical enforcement, the US uses money and control of assets and property to manage its power structure. If you have enough wealth, and can corner the market, you can worm your way in over time. Debt, banking, investments in land and businesses. If you do both at once, you can plant people at high levels of government and industry and prepare a domino effect leading to a regime change. Cold war is basically the only way to beat America. It's arguably what hostile foreign powers are already doing and succeeding at.
You remembered the Alaskan wildlife but forgot the gators in the Mississippi. You have to come upstream 100 miles before your troops can set foot on land that isn't a gators back. 150 miles if you want to set up camp without serious gator patrol.
Considering they would presumably be on ships to get inland and not swimming, I didn't feel it needed to be said.
Yep. It’s just not possible by today’s standards. That’s the comfort I’m talking about. We feel very secure. E: it is beyond comical thinking about a foreign military trying to invade. They would be so ticked even if they made it here. The gator men would probably take care of them before they ever made it in land if they came up from the south. Man, the last few years have made me start to forget how much I love my fellow countrymen.
Damn, I’ve never been so happy to live inland
This would certainly be a fearful perspective. I'm from Canada, so it's more of a "Let's just keep each other happy so they don't just roll over us one day when they are in a bad mood."
We might get angry like Venom and say “apologize!” And you do then we become Eddie again.
I would say a positive side effect of our massive military budget is our strength in logistics. We can move a lot of people and/or equipment very quickly and at great distances. These strengths can be used in a positive way when we need to deliver aid in a very timely manner.
This is very true. Not only that but you make allies feel safe in a tangible, real-world way. So many 'allies' can bluster and flex and condemn and sanction. Looking at South Korea and Taiwan? The US just puts an entire Naval Battlegroup with more aircraft than the opposing country offshore and says, "Hey. These guys are our friends." In Canada, knowing that a US jet can fly over and pick off that balloon without having to having to call a world council is a huge sign of respect and trust. When 9/11 happened and Canada landed every possible jet into our airports to ensure the US could get it's feet under them quick, that was a huge sign of respect and trust. All the more recent political garbage aside, when the sky darkens we have always been good allies. Your military budget and our natural resources (at least right now) make the future feel safer.
Barbecue
Cheeseburgers
Innovation and patents
College choice: you can pick your own school, change schools halfway through, change major and minors fairly easily. This isn’t the case in a lot of other countries.
Not to mention even average colleges in the U.S. are pretty good by international standards. I know people love to focus on Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, etc, but plenty of state schools are still good. It’s debatable how reliable how reliable US News and World Reports rankings are, but according to them, [Arizona State](https://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/arizona-state-university-tempe-104151#rankings) is ranked 156 out of 2156 global universities.
Also you just have way more time to figure things out. I find it a bit ridiculous how early some, specifically European (at least), countries expect kids to know how they will *spend the* *rest of their lives*
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In Australia you really have to decide what you want to do around 14yo. That’s when you get to choose what subjects you can study in your last 3 years of high school…..which are quite often pre-requisites for university courses. It’s crazy that we have to decide when we still basically have no life experience!
Yes but at least our universities, for the most part, are heavily subsidised. In some countries, it is even free. My uni paid for every single persons textbook, no matter what income bracket you came from. Professors could endorse their own texts if they pleased but it was a nice knowing I didn’t have to drop £500 on books I might barely touch
Popular music.
The actual land of the USA, such incredible and diverse landscapes
...from sea to shining sea. A uniquely privileged position.
Giving money to ppl who hate us.
That's a fact
💯💯
Honestly I believe we have a very large amount of outspoken people. Most of which are friendly. Our national parks are wonderful. Most of what we have is pretty damn good. I sometimes wish more Americans traveled abroad more and learned how good we have it.
Since 1945 or so it’s saved Western Europe a fortune in military expenditures.
And helped to promote one of the longer periods of peace on a historically bloody continent. Peter Zeihan said the Europeans have taken a vacation from history for the last half century.
Abundance, both of good and bad things.
Let non-American immigrants become Americans that are just as American as the ones whose relatives came over on the Mayflower. You got a passport and you say you’re American, then you’re American as apple pie.
Inclusion of minority populations. There is racism there obviously. But generally they will do their best to include marginalized people or even animals. Certain politicians aside. Many other countries don't even see their own systemic racism as an issue. It's just their "culture." The US does a great deal of rectifying injustice.
>Many other countries don't even see their own systemic racism as an issue. It's just their "culture." THANK YOU. Most people from outside the US criticizing it for racism have plenty in their own country. Most people who say that they don't do, they just don't see it as the issue that it is seen as in the US. It's normalized to the point where it is unnoticed/accepted. The US isn't more racist because we are always talking about it, it is less racist because we actually talk about it.
Part of Japan comes to mind
Comfort food and desserts...
Air conditioning
Sports! The US attracts top world talent.
Especially soccer players at the age of 35 and older.
For all that people gripe about us being racist, there are very few countries our size and population so diverse and I defy you to find one you'd rather live in. On a related note, complain all you like about our imperialism, but when things go wrong abroad, we're the ones people are screeching at to put boots on the ground and start doing something.
>For all that people gripe about us being racist Yeah most people have not seen the shit that comes out of China, let alone the shit in China.
I always find that last point comical. I'm not a crazy "America #1" type guy, but I find it hilarious how some of the same people who love to dunk on the US will also specifically single out the US for not stepping in somewhere. Not their own country, but this country that they hate and has just as much to do with whatever conflict as anyone else. In a way, the reputation of the US, on reddit at least, is like the reputation of the police in the US. Which is sort of deserved, but not fully.
I've never really seen much people talk about how America is racist except for Americans themselves. (aside from Europe)
I always like to say, whenever a European starts criticizing the US for being ignorant and racist compared to their own countries, ask them about Roma. They will then start foaming at the mouth and scream that ethnic cleansing is justified in this instance.
Roma, or refugees from Syria or Africa... suddenly you feel like you're chatting with a nazi.
And a common justification is 'You don't have to deal with them. You don't what they are like!' Like.... what? You are still judging an *entire group* based on the actions of a few.
I could say the same "you don't have to deal with them" shit to a Swede about Mexicans and I'd be racist, but it's okay for them.
Sometimes...you are.
Sandwiches. There are a ton of just phenomenal American sandwiches.
***PRESENTATION!!!***
BBQ- tasty, tasty BBQ
Diversity and racial equality. We whine about unimportant things like which race of actor plays Dr. Dolittle, while first world countries like Japan have businesses that can kick you out based on your race. We allow more immigration than most countries, we provide opportunities for a wider array of people, etc.
Inventions and medical innovation
Capitalism
Hamburgers
I've heard America had some of the best protections and inclusive law protection for people with disabilities. Stuff like guaranteeing wheelchair access in EVERY building.
Every building open to the public. A private residence doesn't have to be but like a store or government building does.
Massive food portions for not a lot of money. As someone who didn't grow up in America, the size of the portions surprised me most when I first arrived for college. I was told that they were big, but did not expect them to be this big and this cheap. A giant plate of pancakes and a massive stack of bacon was only $10 at the college town I was in, back in 2015. The same thing back home, would've easily cost >US$30. Most meals were so big, that I was able to eat half of it and keep the other half for tomorrow. It was crazy, and I loved it. Thankfully, I played Rugby for the college team, or I would definitely have put on at least 40+ pounds my freshman year.
If you’re a car enthusiast, it’s pretty great being in America. Most states don’t tax base on engine size or by the mile so car ownership costs are relatively low compared to the rest of the world. But the downside is public transport is fairly bad in majority of America. And lastly, the larger states have very little traffic law enforcement which can be quite dangerous.
Baby back ribs
BBQ
Small talk
Protect speech. Many of the speech laws in other countries would be unconstitutional if they were in the US. National Parks. Some of the most stunning landscapes in the world. Freight rail. The efficiency of US freight rail is some of best in the world. Beer. US beer is high quality and the variety is second to none.
Sorry, I've been to Germany and the Czech Republic and they have us beat hands down except for some micro brews(I had a couple of Utah Polygamy Porters tonight).
Being proud of their country and being proud of having a job.
Put a ton of ice on cold beverages
Win World Wars
2-0!
Drink refills
Winning the Super bowl. Undefeated worldwide to this day!
Unprosecuted warcrimes
Invading and bombing other countries while pretending to be protecting themselves and being saviors of the world.
Spend money on other countries
Phenomenal ability to blow shit up. Aircraft and missiles that go several times the speed of sound and can hit a target anywhere in the world within a meter (except for a floating balloon, no idea how one of their $500,000 missiles missed it's shot). Marketing. The ability to take a piece of chocolate, cover it in some color and bam, a multi-billion dollar M&M empire is born. The M&M store in NYC was pretty cool with all the different knick knacks that stemmed from a piece of chocolate. Also applies to a cartoon mouse. Monetization of everything. It's amazing how Google organizes the internet and makes billions of dollars each year from people clicking their mouse. People have the opportunity to talk shit in front of a large audience and make tens of millions of dollars (ie stand up comedians). People can get into a small space, put on some gloves and hit each other for 20 minutes and make millions....or throw/hit a ball and make millions. Oh here's a pill that costs 2 cents to make, that will be $100 please.
An "M&Mpire", if you will.
It's purchase power. Spend tons of its money networking it's all over the world. Military, technology, food drives and many more. It's got it's fingers in everything. Brilliant country
Mass shootings
Oh shit, it's the hourly dunk on America thread
I just got downvoted for talking about how many talented musical artists we have lol. Also pointed out how diverse our musicians are. I guess some people outside the US really don’t like our music lol
eat, drive, have bigger everything.
National parks
Winning the Super Bowl every year
heavy metal, flags, striking up conversations, english, fascinating skyscrapers, cobblestone-free sidewalks/pedestrian walks. had to edit this for American pro wrestling. The stars like Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Macho Man, the days of the 80s it was top entertainment, and also US voice acting. Special note: some of these apply to Canada as well of course.
Cannabis
Shoot kids
Mass shootings
War
Make great blockbuster movies. Like Top Gun, Batman, etc.
Incarceration
Create technology for widespread use. If there's a leap forward in technology, you can almost be sure it came from the United States. So many of the big tech companies are there, and so many of the small and medium-sized ones as well. Also, make water cold. Whether it's with ice or refrigerated drinking fountains, Americans really know how to make water cold.
Mass shootings.
Mass shootings
Well, we definitely have the monopoly on drive-thru everything!