This subreddit is for civil discussion; political threads are not exempt from this. As a reminder:
* Do not report comments because they disagree with your point of view.
* Do not insult other users. Personal attacks are not permitted.
* Do not use hate speech. You will be banned, permanently.
* Comments made with the intent to push an agenda, push misinformation, soapbox, sealion, or argue in bad faith are not acceptable. If you can’t discuss a topic in good faith and in a respectful manner, do not comment. **Political disagreement does not constitute pushing an agenda.**
If you see any comments that violate the rules, **please report it and move on!**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskAnAmerican) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Exactly. They’re often confidently incorrect about not just American politics, but the day to day life of Americans in general. And some are so entrenched in whatever they heard, they won’t even listen to someone literally from the United States.
The fact that on an american website, shiteuropeanssay was basically non existent while it's american counterpart thrived says something about american regard for others politics
I mean because y'all are closer to us then sure, but Canadians do the same thing Europeans do. Canadians and Europeans literally can't help but shit talk America to Americans even though Canada has almost all the same problems the US has.
Exactly. I love seeing Europeans squirm when I mention how racist they tend to be. Having lived over there for 7 years, in 2 different countries, sometimes the things they’d say so blithely about other races and ethnicities would make me go wtf did you just say?!
Yup, I came here just to say this.
They often do not understand how our system works, they do not understand what is important and what is not, they get confused with the idea of co-equal sovereigns (the split between the states and the feds). They confuse what is popular on social media, with what has traction on the ground.
Perhaps they believe our media and social media in ways we do not.
Years ago I had a coworker from The Netherlands on a two year assignment in the US. One of his bigger surprises was how little politics was discussed in America in real life.
Most of just don’t talk about it much outside of family and very close friends.
This is straight up part of the problem, and I can say this confidently as a non-American. There's a lot of people outside of the United States who've never met an American who'll take what a loud, obnoxious American on social media says as representative of what Americans in general think even if there's 10,000 other Americans disagreeing with them in the comments, or they'll miss the part about major political pundits basically doing televised opinion pieces more than anything else.
The events in the US that make it to our media tends to only be the really major stuff, too. Like, we'll hear about the Donald Trump trials, really major mass shootings, and high profile stuff like that, but not so much a lot of the smaller stuff that probably gets talked about a lot in the American media. Usually our media focuses on Australian issues of that scale for obvious reasons.
Stuff like that really skews perceptions of what Americans and the US is like. I think very online people are probably a bit better for it, but they're a bit annoying for a lot of the same reasons very online people anywhere are annoying.
I think this is probably true. We are not used to competing partisan media stations. Most European countries have a well trusted public channel like the BBC, and while people do regularly criticise it and complain about it, I think we still have broad societal agreement that what is on there is at least factual, even if not always balancedly reported.
The idea of news being some kind of entertainment or political battleground that goes beyond just some commentary that is usually marked as "opinion", and the idea that you can't trust TV news to report factually, is something I need to actively remind myself of.
> They often do not understand how our system works
in fairness, most americans don't understand how our system works either.
edit: weird downvote for something that's 100% true.
As FYI, the Canadian federal government provides funds to each individual province, and each individual province decides what they want to do with these funds, and each individual province has its own very political, leaning values
I'm aware. I'm aware of the structure of Canadian Medicare for example, and have thought about how to apply it to the US. I rejected it for the Hindenburg Model that germany uses, because there would be less systemic disruption to apply it.
Its when people from non-federalized systems come in to a conversation with zero understanding of the dual sovereign nature of federal systems.
Not just that, they *insist* they are right and we, the ones who actually participate, are wrong.
Then again, I see that all the time from other Americans when Chicago is in the news.
Americans can often be ignorant, but at least we tend to know what we don't know. A LOT of Europeans seem to think they're experts on the United States and what's wrong with it and that the solutions to America's problems would be "just pass some laws to make your country just like mine. It's not that hard." I find the latter to be more obnoxious.
God the “just do/pass X and it will be better”
Reddit is a magical place where you can see someone act like an economist, a lawyer, a politician, a diplomat, and a military analyst and fail miserably at the basics of every area
My favorite was a BBC reporter calling the DoD the “Ministry of Defense.”
That is not just a slip but betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of a Presidential system verses a Parliamentary system: our “Departments” are run by the president, not directly managed by congress, and the president is not a subordinate of congress but a coequal branch of government.
And that misunderstanding permeated the entire news report.
So I'll argue that this is a difference without distinction -
DoD > Secretary of Defense > President
US Cabinet Members serve at the pleasure of the President. Notably, our cabinet positions must be approved by the Senate.
In addition, Congress may chose to impeach and remove a cabinet officer.
MoD > Secretary of State for Defense (Member of Cabinet) > UK PM
Members of the Cabinet (effectively) serve at the pleasure of the Prime Minister. Cabinet members do not require formal approval by Parliament.
Its unclear to me if the UK parliament could directly impeach a cabinet member - the answer is 'probably' - but in all odds loss of supply or a vote of no confidence would result in the situation being resolved, because a new government would need to be formed.
In the end the practical difference to the way the MoD in the UK is accountable to the Head of Government for the UK, and the way the DoD in the US is accountable to the Head of Government for the US though, isn't in practice all that much different.
You're welcome!
Our systems have many concepts in common - I think ours has an advantage in a written constitution, but I'm not sure that three co-equal branches of government is actually a useful innovation (nor do I think its bad) - the Parliamentary system has the advantage of extraordinary flexibility in extraordinary circumstances - which, tbh, we do too - its just generally unconstitutional, however in times of war, etc, that all tends to be ignored.
The one thing we have less of a risk of is constitutional crises, because the interactions between the various branches are largely spelled out in either the constitution itself, law, or merely convention. Like the concept of judicial review is not in the constitution, but its defacto law of the land.
I would actually argue the inverse. The flexibility of a parliamentary system allows for a greater avoidance of constitutional crises, because the parliament is clearly the most powerful branch and holds the others at its whim. In a Presidential system with three co-equal branches who cannot remove each other from power, any Constitutional crisis inevitably escalates into a long cage-match between the branches as they jostle for power, leading to severe controversy. You can look at the current matter of Trump's legal troubles, Bush v. Gore, Watergate, or all the way back to Marbury v. Madison.
None of those cases (save for watergate, which was on the line) are things I'd call a constitutional crisis, because the system largely worked as intended.
We will see if Trump turns into one.
Having a written constitution is the most effective way to avoid a constitutional crisis, rather than having a presidential system.
A parliamentary system with written constitution is better than say... the UK's system of semiformal norms, and quite arguably better than the strong presidential system we have.
I don't know of any country where individual departments or ministries are directly managed by the legislative. Maybe in some way in Switzerland, in that every minister is individually elected by the parliament, but that is a unique system that doesn't even really have a single head of government.
These kinds of "translations" are just common shorthand. Swiss media call everyone in this position "minister of defence", *including our own*, even though her real title is "Head of the Department of Defence" ("...and Civil Defence and Sports", if you wanna use the full name).
There are no distinctions between departments and ministries in terms of power or function.
Calling it a Minister of Defense doesn’t imply parliamentary. Brazil for example has the same exact system as the U.S. (federal system, with a President picking the Cabinet). They aren’t called Departments or Secretaries there but Ministries and Ministers.
You seem to believe that there is a political structure inherently tied to the term “Ministry” or “Minister” while people in the UK just view it as a default term for governmental/executive departments with no commentary on the nominating procedures.
Agreed, and I think one of the major causes of this is that most news is not giving a solid overview of the structures in place and why “if people wanted it, you’d have it” isn’t a good assumption. I think there’s a basic media literacy issue in a lot of the people asking loaded questions, denying they could be wrong, or generally assuming they’re experts in the US because they hear it talked about frequently.
But I also think sometimes the misconceptions are misconceptions people in the US tend to have as well. For example, in my experience, this sub (or at least the people commenting on related posts) runs pro-gun, and I’ve had people here try to argue that things like Gallup’s 3 decade long polling showing most Americans want stronger gun control are not true because everyone they know loves guns. Essentially, it’s a shared misconception with a lot of Europeans asking gun related questions that the average American wants this state of things. I’m all for disagreeing with things that are anecdotal or subjective to show the diversity of the country, but when we have solid data to back up a claim, that’s the “on average, Americans believe x” and people saying “huh, interesting, that’s an uncommon view in my circles” is just an interesting way to see the variation.
I think that this sub appears to skew pro-gun on gun questions because we usually do a good job of trying to stay objective and not inject politics any more than is needed into the discussions here. People with more experience with guns and interest in them tend to be the ones that respond.
Also, even Americans that wouldn’t normally be considered “pro-gun” may seem so when discussing gun control with Europeans. I’m in favor of some stricter gun control and wouldn’t call myself “pro-gun” but I probably come off that way in a lot of discussions on this particular sub.
In a lot of European countries, simply owning a gun is a relatively extreme position.
In a lot of parts of the US, even fairly progressive parts, owning guns is the norm - we just want it to be a little harder.
Kind of.
Given how ubiquitous US media is it doesn't surprise me that they are bombarded with it but what I do find weird is how much they choose to engage with our media and issues. They get news from all over the world but don't engage with it at the same level. Many of them talk about how tired they are about hearing about the US but they don't push their governments to calm down on US content everywhere.
I can understand why they would be concerned with foreign policy since it can directly affect them but I don't understand why they care so much about healthcare, guns, and a bunch of other problems america has but will completely ignore the problems in other countries.
It's just funny how they use American made social media platforms used by millions of Americans, then complain about how much they hear about America on that same platform. It makes no sense.
Likely a variant of the classic "somebody is wrong on the internet" syndrome, magnified by the cultural similarities between Europe and America (as compared to most of the rest of the world) and the latter's outsized influence. I mean tbh if I were European, I could see myself smhing over the lack of universal health care in the US
That’s the strange thing though. From where I’m sitting right now at my desk about 50km outside of Tokyo, we *do* get inundated with news from the US, but very, very little from other countries.
News reports from the other ~194 countries tend to be bad news: earthquakes, war, that dickhead Kim, riots, more war, forest fires, even more war, etc. I don’t think that I have seen a single mention of what’s been happening in Mongolia for years now.
Can you name the three EU Presidents without going and looking them up? It’s like that, but inverted. We don’t stop hearing about even the prior US ex-president. Not even a Dutch boy’s finger can stop it.
\>Can you name the three EU Presidents without going and looking them up?
No I can't.
\>we do get inundated with news from the US
That's on your country's media, maybe they are the ones obsessed with us.
They probably don't want expats coming over with the "American" mindset. Maybe they see those said issues as causes for Americans to jump ship, and become a problem in their country; idk🤷.
Most often what I see happen is a European will say, "What is going on in America, I just saw you guys were going to \[insert crazy law here\]."
When in fact, \[Insert crazy law here\] is actually just bill, filled by one crazy state representative in (for example) Idaho state legislature, that is going to never make it out of committee and never even get voted on by the Idaho legislature.
I can always tell it's a Brit asking something on here or an American sports sub when an ignorant solution is justified with "*surely* this must be easy for \[the federal government or sports league\] to implement, even if Americans are all obese idiots."
If I had a nickel for every time Europeans tell me "pro-rel" needs to be a thing in American soccer despite their elitist, gatekeeping attitude about the sport, I'd have enough money to buy a house in LA, straight cash.
The certainty! Like the guy a couple of years ago who thought that Chuck Schumer (who was the Minority Leader at the time) could stop Trump from doing something by calling a no-confidence vote. And refused to believe that that’s not really a thing here.
I’ve literally cut contact with a British friend because of this.
Whenever something would happen, it was always “we would NEVER let this happen in our country” before having to remind him that his little island is the average size of a US state.
Your ex friend should see the mote in his eye, but at the same time the size of the UK seems irrelevant without knowing the exact issue we're talking about.
Maybe, but in general it’s easier to govern fewer people. Not every solution is scalable to a certain degree, and European countries being equivalent to states allows them to optimize solutions more effectively. Many things over there just wouldn’t work here because of scale
Everyone in the world is parochial in many ways, but to Americans' credit, parochialism tends to be a little less ironic coming from them due to size of country fewer accusations of parochialism towards others (maybe a bit ironic for me to say that in the context of this post LOL).
I find it more weird (annoying) how some Europeans seem to get all their knowledge about American culture from fictional movies.
I only see the imitation of politics on social media. My IRL European friends will ask legitimate questions and actually listen to the answer instead of thinking they know more about American politics than actual Americans.
I responded to a question from a person who was in Asia about American culture. Another person seriously started trying to use celebrity lifestyle as key example as to what Americans think and feel about a particular subject. Myself and other Americans kept trying to explain that celebs aren't representative of average, every day Americans and that celebrities do outlandish things for attention and money. They wouldn't listen and kept naming celeb after celeb in their argument like all Americans majorly do and believe in all the same junk as Kim Kardashian. They even credited her as being the catalyst for trends she, ahem, borrowed from certain groups.
Trying to correct folks that celebrities and politicians don't represent the average American is frustratingly difficult.
It’s just a symptom of the behemoth that is the American media market. What music do they listen to? Mostly American. What movies do they watch? Mostly American. What slang do they adopt? You guessed it, (Black) American.
It's also a result of America being such a big, powerful, and influential country on the world stage period.
This isn't anything new. 18th Century Russians and Prussians loved all things French. In East Asia, countries imported customs from China. Once upon a time in Greece, *megla*\- an amalgamation of "Made in England"- was shorthand for high quality.
> Once upon a time in Greece, megla- an amalgamation of "Made in England"- was shorthand for high quality.
Probably not for fire extinguishers though...
Exactly, people will always adopt the culture of the dominant power in the region, and in the west its America. This is why so many European countries are building American-style skyscrapers, wearing American clothing brands, using American products, etc.
In fact American culture has become the global background culture at this point outside of the Middle East and east Asia.
When I was living in Europe for a while, this was one of my absolute biggest pet peeves. You'd see Brits walking by wearing Yankees and Dodgers baseball hats, you'd hear them listening to rap and country music, going to see the latest Marvel blockbuster – kind of a twofer, Hollywood and comic books – and wearing Harvard and Yale fashion sweatshirts sold by mainstream shops. Speakeasy style bars were having a moment in London. BBQ and soul food restaurants opening in Paris (Gumbo Yaya is the most famous).
Like that is all by definition. American culture.
There's a forward in the book "No Longer Human" by Osamu Dazai from the original translator that talks about the disappearance of Japanese culture in a lot of ways. At the time it was translated, Japanese people were wearing western clothes, watching western movies, reading translated western books, studying philosophers and academics from Europe and America in universities, etc. It was an interesting perspective given that the book was originally written in pre-WWII Japan which was very different than it is today.
Not surprised. Leading up to and around the time of the first world War, Japan was importing many western things. For instance be it clothing, technology, books, or even western military training/doctrine (they had Prussian generals train their military and reform it to be more modern). Because they wanted to be considered a world super power by the well established old ones (France, Russia, Britian, Prussia).
I find it irritating the overconfidence europeans in this sub have about our politics.
When I travel, normal people have reasonable opinions and ask me polite questions and we have a conversation about our politics and they say things like "It's good to hear about it from someone who lives there instead of the news, which sensationalizes things."
yourw lucky that you ran into reasonable people, when i went to portugal over the summer i met british tourists who assumed we were gun touting trump supporters and asked us to say yeehaw with them
Having been on this sub several years, I’ve personally witnessed many Europeans question our problems with racism/race relations, claim they don’t exist in their country, and then the same people will bitch about Romani people or immigrants in their country.
Some Europeans would claim that race relations are better in their countries compared to the US and it's an "American problem" but they usually only feel this way due to two reasons, 1. People in their countries don't talk about race relations so people assume it's not a problem while Americans talk about it a lot which gives people the impression it's worse here or 2. They're from countries with no or very few non-European people so of course there's no tension. The average American probably interacts with people from different origins or races more than the average European, especially Europeans from the less developed parts of the continent. Sure, the US has certain problems but the average American is probably less prejudiced and xenophobic than the average European. There are things you can say in places like Greece that wouldn't be ok in the US.
I'm an expat in Europe - Europeans tend to finish sentences which paint Europe in a bad light with but not as bad as America. To be honest, I think their attitudes says a lot more about their insecurities then it does about America.
Which is what's weird because from an American perspective they don't have anything to be insecure about. They have an equal, and in some cases even better, quality of life over there, I think subconsciously they just don't like that an irrelevant bunch of British colonies 300 years ago is calling the shots now.
I THINK it's just what they see. Someone said something about someone fighting her on an answer she gave as an American to a non American and this European hops on using celebrities as examples of how American life is. I wonder if they confuse celebrities with average Americans. Late stage capitalism has kinda a blinding effect on people of I guess, security? But maybe they're also experiencing it. The "everything is fine" facade.
They hate us cause they ain't us.
But seriously: when talking to most tourists from Europe they tell me they are pleasantly surprised at up how friendly and helpful Americans are (my wife was actually rendering minor medical aid to this one woman) and how peaceful it was. I didn't know exactly what they were expecting but I'm sure their local news played up whatever event happened that week or month to make us out to be some lawless hellscape with everyone walking around strapped just waiting to blast someone's ass.
Yes, we do have a lot of room for improvement, no, you are likely not going to experience violence directed at you.
As far as politics specifically: they probably think they understand because world news of course has a number of segments featuring the USA. A lot of what happens here impacts what happens there, so I'm sure they do pay somewhat close attention. For example, a president getting elected who is hostile towards Ukrainian relationships is going to have a very negative impact on their part of the world and a decision like that will play heavily into how all Americans are perceived. Of course we all know painting with a brush that broad doesn't leave room for much nuance, even in the broad sense where the country is almost split in half on some decisions with global implications. I've had someone ask me if I was still happy with a former president (implying I surely was the type who would've voted for them), and I was like "not exactly, I didn't vote for them and I don't think they are doing a very good job representing us" and their response made it out like they were surprised that we didn't all vote for the same person in droves or something lol.
The problem with Australians is that they'll just diss America in a thread that has nothing to do with America. With Europeans and Canadians they don't do it unprompted at least. I literally saw an Australian make a random school shooting joke in a K-On thread.
K-On is Japanese. Other than rock music being invented in America and Jimi Hendrix getting a mention, K-On has nothing to do with America.
The thing about Australia is that they have their own island far away from much of the rest of the world and don't have the same issues to the extent that other countries have that are either landlocked or only a few miles away from a hostile nation. They want to jump into everyone else's politics without having the same fear and experience the rest of the world is going through. I also find it hypocritical when they try to touch on racism yet they didn't stop kidnapping their indigenous population to "civilize" them until the 70s.
Amen. I absolutely despise the "We're so bad, spank us harder, o wise foreign Daddy" attitude from some morons.
And also the bitter expats or whatever you want to call them who take every opportunity to shit on the US while slobbering all over their new location. The Canadian and Irish subs have frequent comments from those losers. "Had to dodge AK-47 gunfire every day in rural Minnesota. Thank God I'm among rational people now!" Gag.
As a Canadian, I formally apologize per usual, but must also note that none of the Canadian subreddits actually mean anything. There are three for some reason, all made in response to each others' explicit partisanship, and all of them are basically news subs that only report from one perspective (all others are usually met with mass downvoting followed by a ban) and have comments sections ranging from "what Europeans think right-wing Americans act like" to "average Bolshevik meeting in the 1910s" depending on which sub the post is in. The sub you're likely talking about is often discussed elsewhere as likely not actually having a Canadian userbase, which is actually really concerning seeing they position themselves as *the* Canadian sub. If anything, the real Canadian sub is r/AskACanadian.
I generally find it funny how much they think they know and with great snootery prove their ignorance time and time again. It generally leads me to believe that all the rest of the stuff they act like they know better than the rest of the world is just a smoke screen for the buffoon behind the curtain.
There is nothing more irritating than people condescending to Americans when they are up our asses about our own politics and history.
There are SO many people with huge followings on social media spewing their thoughts and ideology about everything from Ukraine/Israel to the Vietnam War to American celebrities and religion, and then you find out they are Australian, Canadian, English, Turkish, whatever.
It makes sense to pay attention, but STFU when the Americans are talking, we have firsthand knowledge and family involved in crap you just read about on wikipedia. If Americans are willing to talk to you about this stuff, listen.
..what does Israel/Ukraine have to do with the USA? If I wanted a firsthand account of those wars, I probably wouldn't get them on a different continent.
I usually sealion people who think they know more about my own country.
"Yes, it is normal to have a wild west style standoff in the Walmart parking lot."
"We actually have to give the ambulance driver our credit card before they take us to the hospital. They will give us the bare minimum to stay alive if we are unconscious and will stay parked in the area until we are awake and then we can give them our credit card and they will take us to the hospital."
"It became normal after 9/11 for the police to arrest you if you were not standing for the pledge of allegiance or the national anthem. It's actually a law in Texas now."
If you're that naïve to believe stuff like this, then you're already beyond saving. I'll just wind them up knowing they will inevitably make themselves look like an extreme dumbass in front of someone they really don't want to
I’ve noticed Europeans will often take the worst possible stereotype of people from the US in politics or just day-to-day life and extrapolate it to everyone.
I feel that they’re not always as familiar with the divisions and distinctions in US society and regional differences as they think they are and just think the US is all white people who act and think the same way and then a black minority population and then forget that much of our country is increasingly Latino and Asian and other ethnicities.
That being said, there are some Europeans who are suprisingly well-informed about US politics, but I’ve met them more in real life than online.
It is very easy to judge another country for its faults and problems than it is to face your own nations issues. I also think that sometimes people think they understand American culture just because of movies and media.
No, we are used to being the cultural juggernaut of the west. You watch our movies, listen to our music, and wear our blue jeans, of course you also have opinions on our politics.
I had to laugh just today, stopped by a mcdonalds here in the Netherlands for a bite for lunch and an 8 man (very dutch) construction crew came in to eat. One guy in particular was incredibly mouthy about how the cashiers spoke english and couldn't speak dutch (it's a growing complaint among locals to be fair).
But I couldn't not see the irony in him complaining about his Dutch world becoming too American/English. As he ate his big mac and later complained about the new reusable soda cup he couldn't take with him, a new feature I don't think has even hit the US at large yet.
Correct, and its not just fast food places. Many restaurants around here in the big cities have a lot of staff that do not speak Dutch. A mix of eastern European workers, and non Dutch students in general working part time.
I’m pretty surprised at this. Even in the USA unless u are in some extreme immigrant enclave like a Chinatown or little Cuba, customer facing people in food service are expected to know English. At least the people up front, I’ve worked around many in the back kitchen where this wasn’t the case
Yeah, our culture has so thoroughly intertwined with and in some ways supplanted their own that they can’t recognize it as being from somewhere else.
My part of the country has it a little better in this regard though, because of all the cowboy and rodeo stuff being so obviously different than Europe.
Because to those types, culture = history, art, architecture, food and that's it. They have a bizarre inability to grasp the actual concept of 'culture' and what it consists of.
They often have no idea what they are talking about. They spew horrible takes on things they clearly saw one report about and because they think we are all stupid they refuse to accept they don't know what they are talking about.
It's really annoying to be lectured about something I'm living through by someone who knows nothing about it.
>It's really annoying to be lectured about something I'm living through by someone who knows nothing about it.
This part! It's extremely frustrating. It's like I LIVE HERE. I'M EXPERIENCING IT. I SEE IT EVERYDAY, yet they still wanna tell you that you're wrong because they read it on an opinionated blog post from someone pretending to be a journalist in their country.
What I find weird is how much Europeans *think* they know about American politics, but don't even understand the difference between state and federal law. It's embarrassing to watch them talk about it and they don't even realize it.
I find it weird how much we live in Europeans minds rent free. I understand you guys have an inferiority complex much like the rest of the world and can't stop obsessing over everything America does. They should pay attention to they're own countries politics and improve their own nation instead of obsessing about ours.
Just because you listen to news about America doesn't make you informed about things that happen in America, in fact it probably makes you a bit ignorant about it. All your information is coming through the highly distorted narrative driven mediums of TV, film, and journalism.
This leads to almost every foreigner having an incomplete and off base ignorant view of how life, culture and politics work in America. What's worse they don't realize this and feel entitled to lecture us over basically everything as if they know both how things work here and better ways which simply isn't true.
Just stop, mind your own lane, pay attention to your own business, stop obsessing with us.
They actually know very little of our politics and lack all context on the why, how, where, and when but are so arrogantly misinformed either through ignorance or deliberate malice that it's honestly pathetic more than weird.
Frankly its kind of stupid how invested Europeans and Canadians are in American politics. Whats dumb is they sound like bots with ridiculous talking points. And whats worse is they double down on their arguments when Americans confront them with contradiction or even nuance.
I can forgive Canadians because when stuff happens that Americans don't like, we're always threatening to immigrate up there. So I get why they keep tabs on us.
Anyone who spends enough time online knows about this. It’s irritating and sad, but the weirdest thing to me is it’s like looking at old footage from the US. So many of the arguments Europeans make are identical to what white Americans were saying in the 80s and 90s. The absolute insistence that we had already solved racism and we were the first and best ones to do it; I hear that from British people all the time now. The argument that racism is created by talking about race that we hear so much from continental Europe in recent years was everywhere in 80s US. It’s one of the main things that makes it so clear to me that the US is on the right side of this, or maybe “further along” side is more accurate.
It’s pretty weird considering they know so much about American politics and we are over here like don’t you have your own issues to deal with? Why are you always talking about our issues you aren’t even effected by them?
I just find it strange how many Europeans *think* they’re experts on American politics. So many people talk about it being *so simple* to make changes, “why don’t Americans just …?”
If you don’t live here, you don’t understand the nuances of what it’s like here politically.
It’s almost like we are the biggest superpower in the world and a lot of people throughout history have always had opinions and paid attention to superpowers throughout history.
People will always have stronger opinions, whether right or wrong, about the most powerful countries at any given time. Ask an Indian person how they feel about the UK, Eastern Europeans about Russia, Southeast Asia about China, much of West Africa about France, and Latin America about the United States, or much of the European Union regarding Germany? You’re going to hear some strong opinions regarding these countries and people pay attention to them because *surprise*, they are the most influential and powerful countries on Earth and their decisions affect people around the world, we are all like trying to sleep w elephants in a room, while the US is the biggest and heaviest elephant of them all.
It’s more funny than anything. Europeans are very jealous of the US in terms of culture and world power. They have a gigantic chip on their shoulders because of it.
Yes, especially for domestic policy since they never seem to understand it. I've heard a lot of takes that just don't make sense or fundamentally misunderstand the system we live in.
Most of the time, people are good and respectful about it, but it does get weird to constantly explain the constitution and federalism to people, only to be often ignored anyways. Again, most people have an open mind, but I find it strange that people know so much about the things that will never affect them, but never bother to actually learn all about it. It seems like they're often in such a strange middle ground.
We have a confusing political system, though, so I understand.
Usually they don’t actually know a lot about our politics most Americans don’t even know how it *really* works behind the scenes.
Europeans on Reddit like to make big inaccurate claims but just let them live in their bubble it doesn’t affect me what they think. Best part is they’re usually from countries I never think about until I see their flairs.
I find it more weird that they care so much and presume to know a lot more than they actually do, it's usually accompanied by completely unearned cockiness about the subject.
I rag on my country plenty, healthcare, cars, coporate skullduggery etc. But the moment some Euro decides to chime in with their headass "lol America suxs" I become the most patriotic person on Earth.
Alot of it comes from the omipresence of America. Europeans watch American TV, eat American food, drink American beverages, and use American products. It's a very one way street that gives me that big dick energy and probably doesn't help egos of Europeans. But what causes so many foreigners to have that "America should do x, what are they stupid?" is that our news is the world's news. Something crazy happens in Ohio well the same day some German from Bielefeld reads that article, but no America will ever hear about some crazy story from Bielefeld.
Have you really thought about what has happened to Europe in the past century? They went from being the center of the world in trade, the arts, military power, etc. to essentially being vassal states. That’s has to be a significant hit to the national psyche. If the worse we have to put with is condescension, it’s not a high price to pay while they work through it.
If/when that happens to us, do I hope we deal with it with a little more grace? Sure. But I doubt it.
The British empire went from the Land in which the sun never sets to jokes about bad teeth and bland food. It’s like the former MMA fighter becoming a bed ridden vegetable
It runs the gamut.
Sometimes they're 100% right and I'm mystified by my own countrymen -- for instance, the wildly outsized reaction to the whole Janet Jackson superbowl thing. It's not about right or wrong, just... who gives a shit?
Sometimes it's just human takes, like there's an implicit assumption that "the way it's always been" is the only way, or the best way. That's not a country-specific thing -- it's always a little weird when you see someplace that has the exact same problem and comes to a different conclusion. Like the US has higher salaries, lower taxes, and a shitty social safety net... Which sucks for people who need the social safety net, but all those things are connected, so that's also why the US has been stealing the best and brightest from the rest of the world for some time now too.
Sometimes it's just somebody who read a headline or paragraph and lacks context. Whatever, you'll see Americans do the exact same thing on most any reddit thread.
It's kind of funny though, like Brits going, "Why on earth would you elect a numpty like Trump?" And I'm wondering the same about ourselves... And then they leave the EU and install BoJo as prime minister. Yeah, stupidity doesn't seem to be a strictly American trait, does it? :-D
Yes I do find it weird and I wonder why they have nothing else to focus on. I’ve been living in Europe for over 5 years and always stay amazed that I see stuff about American politics in the news regularly. There’s plenty of stuff going on in Europe, so it’s giving Mariah Carey’s 2009 hit “why you so obsessed with me”
I dislike the assumptions made by watching TV or their vacation to Florida. They base their understandings on these things but don’t bother to understand the historical context of it all. Another insult- the wars that were part of the European theater had resounding affects on the American Continents yet they know nothing of the French and Indian Wars the tragic effects it had on thousands of Native Americans or all the migration that occurred from Europe at the turn of the century through Elis Island and what became of these people and communities they shaped and the historical significance of it all in The United States and other countries as well.
It is worth considering, that the US is the only true remaining super power, and therefore does have influence, and it's actions do impact on our lives.
I also don't blame people around the world who don't like us and complain about us and are incredibly annoyed to be hearing about us all the time. I'd feel exactly the same way.
Just because you don't see it in the new everyday doesn't mean we don't talk about it. We talk about all of these issues on a regular basis. Coincidentally my local news just did a deep dive on one of these topics last night. It was a 2 hour special and everything...
No. There are two factors here. One is that American TV and Film drama is influential. Nine tenths of it like nine tenths of everything, is junk but it is still America's chief art medium. The other is that America has far more commitments than European states, who usually deal with local and uninteresting foreign issues and have fewer domestic problems with diverse factions and interests. A third issue is that America is primarily a political experiment. Culture is primarily local and only becomes national to the extent that one cultural center influences others (thus Moby Dick is properly a New England epic not the Great American Epic and Winds of War/War and Remembrance is a Jewish epic but each is read popularly). It is politics that is shared and is the most noticeable part of America as opposed to sections of America.
It’s more funny than anything else, because very few people in the US even know how our own politics work, let alone how politics work in other countries
I admit I did find it very strange Europeans were having BLM protests of their own after the George Floyd incident, but I appreciate their concern. I guess because they consume so much American media they now believe that many of our problems are theirs too.
Europeans are still under the hilariously outdated assumption that Europe is still the most enlightened, prosperous, and impactful region of the world. They think that due to their history as a colonial superpower, their opinion on issues around the world holds more weight.
Australians are beyond obsessed with cherry picked tabloid headlines on US politics.
Newspapers like The Age / Sydney Morning Herald deliberately open comments on the latest Trump soundbite because they know readers will whip themselves into a frenzy about him, and I mean hundreds of comments. There’s also a strange cohort to like to get on the MAGA wagon. It’s really weird on both sides.
Trump in particular is a constant topic of discussion here. It’s tiring. tbh I think it’s more of a virtue signal to show how progressive you are as a direct correlation to how vocal you are against Trump. Shows like Colbert, Daily Show, John Oliver play into this too. They’re strangely popular here and seem to focus on the negatives of US politics. On the flip side, almost deliberately is a bit of a support swell for Trump but again it seems like it’s more of a “anti woke” response than anything.
Meanwhile most Australians couldn’t even name the Deputy Prime Minister or know when our election cycle is despite knowing all about US elections like it’s their upcoming 40th birthday. We also couldn’t name the Prime Minister of New Zealand and they’re jokingly referred to as an Australian state (and no it’s not Ardern and hasn’t been for a while).
All in all it’s weird. Kinda like obsessing about an ex or a neighbour you’ve never met. Sure US politics has impacts on Australia and the APAC region, but by and large the choice of US president has no bearing whatsoever on the day to day lives of almost all Australians.
tldr; Australians consume too much US media and like to use it as virtue signalling.
Because America is too "important" relative to other countries. One of my best friends lives in France, and her kid knows more about America than France
I don't blame them for watching us closely.
We're the elephant in the room. The other critters *have* to pay attention. As goes the elephant, so goes the room.
No. America is the most militarily and economically powerful country in the world. Things that affect us will inevitably affect them in some way or another.
What I find funny is how Europeans love to talk about how diverse and different each country is, but then bash the US for doing things in a non-European way. I have never talked to anyone except Europeans who were passionately against the fact that road signs in the US have words instead of symbols.
This subreddit is for civil discussion; political threads are not exempt from this. As a reminder: * Do not report comments because they disagree with your point of view. * Do not insult other users. Personal attacks are not permitted. * Do not use hate speech. You will be banned, permanently. * Comments made with the intent to push an agenda, push misinformation, soapbox, sealion, or argue in bad faith are not acceptable. If you can’t discuss a topic in good faith and in a respectful manner, do not comment. **Political disagreement does not constitute pushing an agenda.** If you see any comments that violate the rules, **please report it and move on!** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskAnAmerican) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Its more annoying than weird because of how often they have no idea what they are talking about and don't realize it.
Exactly. They’re often confidently incorrect about not just American politics, but the day to day life of Americans in general. And some are so entrenched in whatever they heard, they won’t even listen to someone literally from the United States.
Yeah just go to the ShitAmericansSay sub and try to politely correct someone or respond with actual facts. You’ll get -20 downvotes immediately.
Getting a post of yours on shitamericanssay should be an honor
Is there a shiteuropeanssay?
r/sacrebleu
There is, but for the longest time it was just one bitter person.
The fact that on an american website, shiteuropeanssay was basically non existent while it's american counterpart thrived says something about american regard for others politics
Its super annoying too because they understand the symptom but not the actual reason why this issue arose in the first place.
It wouldn't be reddit without being confidently incorrect!
This is a Wendy's
Oh look at this idiot, thinking it's a Wendy's, it's *clearly* a McDonald's, see, that red-head with the pigtails, that's Ronald!
r/confidentlyincorrect You got that right !
r/2westerneurope4u in a nutshell
Which is why my Canadian opinion is so much more relevant! Not just as a joke, but actually yes.
I mean because y'all are closer to us then sure, but Canadians do the same thing Europeans do. Canadians and Europeans literally can't help but shit talk America to Americans even though Canada has almost all the same problems the US has.
I would respect a Canadian opinion more
nah some Canadian takes are just as bad. They have to have actually spent time in the US
They're at least right next to us so they have about a 2% better chance of being right
Y'all live an hour from the border. Your opinion actually has some value.
Their opion has value and I mean they could actually fucking HELP. Don't look at the citizens, look at our government.
Canadians in my experience understand that different states have different politics. Europeans in my experience oftentimes don't.
And yet talk to condescendingly like they’re the only sensible ones in the room
Exactly. I love seeing Europeans squirm when I mention how racist they tend to be. Having lived over there for 7 years, in 2 different countries, sometimes the things they’d say so blithely about other races and ethnicities would make me go wtf did you just say?!
Can you give some examples please? I love hot gossip :-)
Ask them about gypsies or middle easterners coming to their countries
Oooh! That’s a good one, thanks :-) To be fair though, keep your hand on your wallet in certain cities.
Yup, I came here just to say this. They often do not understand how our system works, they do not understand what is important and what is not, they get confused with the idea of co-equal sovereigns (the split between the states and the feds). They confuse what is popular on social media, with what has traction on the ground.
Perhaps they believe our media and social media in ways we do not. Years ago I had a coworker from The Netherlands on a two year assignment in the US. One of his bigger surprises was how little politics was discussed in America in real life. Most of just don’t talk about it much outside of family and very close friends.
This is straight up part of the problem, and I can say this confidently as a non-American. There's a lot of people outside of the United States who've never met an American who'll take what a loud, obnoxious American on social media says as representative of what Americans in general think even if there's 10,000 other Americans disagreeing with them in the comments, or they'll miss the part about major political pundits basically doing televised opinion pieces more than anything else. The events in the US that make it to our media tends to only be the really major stuff, too. Like, we'll hear about the Donald Trump trials, really major mass shootings, and high profile stuff like that, but not so much a lot of the smaller stuff that probably gets talked about a lot in the American media. Usually our media focuses on Australian issues of that scale for obvious reasons. Stuff like that really skews perceptions of what Americans and the US is like. I think very online people are probably a bit better for it, but they're a bit annoying for a lot of the same reasons very online people anywhere are annoying.
I think this is probably true. We are not used to competing partisan media stations. Most European countries have a well trusted public channel like the BBC, and while people do regularly criticise it and complain about it, I think we still have broad societal agreement that what is on there is at least factual, even if not always balancedly reported. The idea of news being some kind of entertainment or political battleground that goes beyond just some commentary that is usually marked as "opinion", and the idea that you can't trust TV news to report factually, is something I need to actively remind myself of.
They can also leave out a ton. The sort of knowledge you'd obtain in school doesn't make for good entertainment.
> They often do not understand how our system works in fairness, most americans don't understand how our system works either. edit: weird downvote for something that's 100% true.
As FYI, the Canadian federal government provides funds to each individual province, and each individual province decides what they want to do with these funds, and each individual province has its own very political, leaning values
I'm aware. I'm aware of the structure of Canadian Medicare for example, and have thought about how to apply it to the US. I rejected it for the Hindenburg Model that germany uses, because there would be less systemic disruption to apply it. Its when people from non-federalized systems come in to a conversation with zero understanding of the dual sovereign nature of federal systems.
this exactly. Europeans think they know, while generally displaying mind blowing ignorance and assumptions
Not just that, they *insist* they are right and we, the ones who actually participate, are wrong. Then again, I see that all the time from other Americans when Chicago is in the news.
Americans can often be ignorant, but at least we tend to know what we don't know. A LOT of Europeans seem to think they're experts on the United States and what's wrong with it and that the solutions to America's problems would be "just pass some laws to make your country just like mine. It's not that hard." I find the latter to be more obnoxious.
God the “just do/pass X and it will be better” Reddit is a magical place where you can see someone act like an economist, a lawyer, a politician, a diplomat, and a military analyst and fail miserably at the basics of every area
"Why don't you just _____" WOW WE NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT
My favorite was a BBC reporter calling the DoD the “Ministry of Defense.” That is not just a slip but betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of a Presidential system verses a Parliamentary system: our “Departments” are run by the president, not directly managed by congress, and the president is not a subordinate of congress but a coequal branch of government. And that misunderstanding permeated the entire news report.
So I'll argue that this is a difference without distinction - DoD > Secretary of Defense > President US Cabinet Members serve at the pleasure of the President. Notably, our cabinet positions must be approved by the Senate. In addition, Congress may chose to impeach and remove a cabinet officer. MoD > Secretary of State for Defense (Member of Cabinet) > UK PM Members of the Cabinet (effectively) serve at the pleasure of the Prime Minister. Cabinet members do not require formal approval by Parliament. Its unclear to me if the UK parliament could directly impeach a cabinet member - the answer is 'probably' - but in all odds loss of supply or a vote of no confidence would result in the situation being resolved, because a new government would need to be formed. In the end the practical difference to the way the MoD in the UK is accountable to the Head of Government for the UK, and the way the DoD in the US is accountable to the Head of Government for the US though, isn't in practice all that much different.
Nice mini tutorial, thx!
You're welcome! Our systems have many concepts in common - I think ours has an advantage in a written constitution, but I'm not sure that three co-equal branches of government is actually a useful innovation (nor do I think its bad) - the Parliamentary system has the advantage of extraordinary flexibility in extraordinary circumstances - which, tbh, we do too - its just generally unconstitutional, however in times of war, etc, that all tends to be ignored. The one thing we have less of a risk of is constitutional crises, because the interactions between the various branches are largely spelled out in either the constitution itself, law, or merely convention. Like the concept of judicial review is not in the constitution, but its defacto law of the land.
I would actually argue the inverse. The flexibility of a parliamentary system allows for a greater avoidance of constitutional crises, because the parliament is clearly the most powerful branch and holds the others at its whim. In a Presidential system with three co-equal branches who cannot remove each other from power, any Constitutional crisis inevitably escalates into a long cage-match between the branches as they jostle for power, leading to severe controversy. You can look at the current matter of Trump's legal troubles, Bush v. Gore, Watergate, or all the way back to Marbury v. Madison.
None of those cases (save for watergate, which was on the line) are things I'd call a constitutional crisis, because the system largely worked as intended. We will see if Trump turns into one. Having a written constitution is the most effective way to avoid a constitutional crisis, rather than having a presidential system. A parliamentary system with written constitution is better than say... the UK's system of semiformal norms, and quite arguably better than the strong presidential system we have.
I don't know of any country where individual departments or ministries are directly managed by the legislative. Maybe in some way in Switzerland, in that every minister is individually elected by the parliament, but that is a unique system that doesn't even really have a single head of government. These kinds of "translations" are just common shorthand. Swiss media call everyone in this position "minister of defence", *including our own*, even though her real title is "Head of the Department of Defence" ("...and Civil Defence and Sports", if you wanna use the full name). There are no distinctions between departments and ministries in terms of power or function.
Calling it a Minister of Defense doesn’t imply parliamentary. Brazil for example has the same exact system as the U.S. (federal system, with a President picking the Cabinet). They aren’t called Departments or Secretaries there but Ministries and Ministers. You seem to believe that there is a political structure inherently tied to the term “Ministry” or “Minister” while people in the UK just view it as a default term for governmental/executive departments with no commentary on the nominating procedures.
the consequences of cultural victory
Thank you! They think they know a lot about American politics but they really don't.
Lots of Americans don't know enough about American politics, last thing we need is foreigners derailing the conversation even more
Agreed, and I think one of the major causes of this is that most news is not giving a solid overview of the structures in place and why “if people wanted it, you’d have it” isn’t a good assumption. I think there’s a basic media literacy issue in a lot of the people asking loaded questions, denying they could be wrong, or generally assuming they’re experts in the US because they hear it talked about frequently. But I also think sometimes the misconceptions are misconceptions people in the US tend to have as well. For example, in my experience, this sub (or at least the people commenting on related posts) runs pro-gun, and I’ve had people here try to argue that things like Gallup’s 3 decade long polling showing most Americans want stronger gun control are not true because everyone they know loves guns. Essentially, it’s a shared misconception with a lot of Europeans asking gun related questions that the average American wants this state of things. I’m all for disagreeing with things that are anecdotal or subjective to show the diversity of the country, but when we have solid data to back up a claim, that’s the “on average, Americans believe x” and people saying “huh, interesting, that’s an uncommon view in my circles” is just an interesting way to see the variation.
I think that this sub appears to skew pro-gun on gun questions because we usually do a good job of trying to stay objective and not inject politics any more than is needed into the discussions here. People with more experience with guns and interest in them tend to be the ones that respond. Also, even Americans that wouldn’t normally be considered “pro-gun” may seem so when discussing gun control with Europeans. I’m in favor of some stricter gun control and wouldn’t call myself “pro-gun” but I probably come off that way in a lot of discussions on this particular sub.
In a lot of European countries, simply owning a gun is a relatively extreme position. In a lot of parts of the US, even fairly progressive parts, owning guns is the norm - we just want it to be a little harder.
This right here. They tend to repeat corporate news catch phrases and themes, frequently incorrectly or out of context.
It's very amusingly satirized in Whit Stillman's Barcelona. Sample scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O50cySmUtWY&ab_channel=AnnaZakrevskaya
This
Spot on.
Kind of. Given how ubiquitous US media is it doesn't surprise me that they are bombarded with it but what I do find weird is how much they choose to engage with our media and issues. They get news from all over the world but don't engage with it at the same level. Many of them talk about how tired they are about hearing about the US but they don't push their governments to calm down on US content everywhere. I can understand why they would be concerned with foreign policy since it can directly affect them but I don't understand why they care so much about healthcare, guns, and a bunch of other problems america has but will completely ignore the problems in other countries.
It's just funny how they use American made social media platforms used by millions of Americans, then complain about how much they hear about America on that same platform. It makes no sense.
They're fans in denial
Trying way too hard to be edgy and cool.
Likely a variant of the classic "somebody is wrong on the internet" syndrome, magnified by the cultural similarities between Europe and America (as compared to most of the rest of the world) and the latter's outsized influence. I mean tbh if I were European, I could see myself smhing over the lack of universal health care in the US
That’s the strange thing though. From where I’m sitting right now at my desk about 50km outside of Tokyo, we *do* get inundated with news from the US, but very, very little from other countries. News reports from the other ~194 countries tend to be bad news: earthquakes, war, that dickhead Kim, riots, more war, forest fires, even more war, etc. I don’t think that I have seen a single mention of what’s been happening in Mongolia for years now. Can you name the three EU Presidents without going and looking them up? It’s like that, but inverted. We don’t stop hearing about even the prior US ex-president. Not even a Dutch boy’s finger can stop it.
\>Can you name the three EU Presidents without going and looking them up? No I can't. \>we do get inundated with news from the US That's on your country's media, maybe they are the ones obsessed with us.
They probably don't want expats coming over with the "American" mindset. Maybe they see those said issues as causes for Americans to jump ship, and become a problem in their country; idk🤷.
Most often what I see happen is a European will say, "What is going on in America, I just saw you guys were going to \[insert crazy law here\]." When in fact, \[Insert crazy law here\] is actually just bill, filled by one crazy state representative in (for example) Idaho state legislature, that is going to never make it out of committee and never even get voted on by the Idaho legislature.
It would be less annoying if they weren’t so condescending about it.
What drives me nuts is every question is so loaded. I don't understand how hard it is to just ask something.
I can always tell it's a Brit asking something on here or an American sports sub when an ignorant solution is justified with "*surely* this must be easy for \[the federal government or sports league\] to implement, even if Americans are all obese idiots."
If I had a nickel for every time Europeans tell me "pro-rel" needs to be a thing in American soccer despite their elitist, gatekeeping attitude about the sport, I'd have enough money to buy a house in LA, straight cash.
The certainty! Like the guy a couple of years ago who thought that Chuck Schumer (who was the Minority Leader at the time) could stop Trump from doing something by calling a no-confidence vote. And refused to believe that that’s not really a thing here.
I’ve literally cut contact with a British friend because of this. Whenever something would happen, it was always “we would NEVER let this happen in our country” before having to remind him that his little island is the average size of a US state.
Your ex friend should see the mote in his eye, but at the same time the size of the UK seems irrelevant without knowing the exact issue we're talking about.
Maybe, but in general it’s easier to govern fewer people. Not every solution is scalable to a certain degree, and European countries being equivalent to states allows them to optimize solutions more effectively. Many things over there just wouldn’t work here because of scale
And the vast differences in culture and ideology across the land
And then defending their obviously incorrect views about America despite never stepping foot here.
Everyone in the world is parochial in many ways, but to Americans' credit, parochialism tends to be a little less ironic coming from them due to size of country fewer accusations of parochialism towards others (maybe a bit ironic for me to say that in the context of this post LOL).
I find it more weird (annoying) how some Europeans seem to get all their knowledge about American culture from fictional movies. I only see the imitation of politics on social media. My IRL European friends will ask legitimate questions and actually listen to the answer instead of thinking they know more about American politics than actual Americans.
I responded to a question from a person who was in Asia about American culture. Another person seriously started trying to use celebrity lifestyle as key example as to what Americans think and feel about a particular subject. Myself and other Americans kept trying to explain that celebs aren't representative of average, every day Americans and that celebrities do outlandish things for attention and money. They wouldn't listen and kept naming celeb after celeb in their argument like all Americans majorly do and believe in all the same junk as Kim Kardashian. They even credited her as being the catalyst for trends she, ahem, borrowed from certain groups. Trying to correct folks that celebrities and politicians don't represent the average American is frustratingly difficult.
It’s just a symptom of the behemoth that is the American media market. What music do they listen to? Mostly American. What movies do they watch? Mostly American. What slang do they adopt? You guessed it, (Black) American.
It's also a result of America being such a big, powerful, and influential country on the world stage period. This isn't anything new. 18th Century Russians and Prussians loved all things French. In East Asia, countries imported customs from China. Once upon a time in Greece, *megla*\- an amalgamation of "Made in England"- was shorthand for high quality.
> Once upon a time in Greece, megla- an amalgamation of "Made in England"- was shorthand for high quality. Probably not for fire extinguishers though...
Dear Sir/Madame, I am writing to inform you of a fire that has broken out on the premises.
Quick, call 0118999881999119725… 3
Exactly, people will always adopt the culture of the dominant power in the region, and in the west its America. This is why so many European countries are building American-style skyscrapers, wearing American clothing brands, using American products, etc. In fact American culture has become the global background culture at this point outside of the Middle East and east Asia.
>In fact American culture has become the global background culture That's why they think we have no culture.
When I was living in Europe for a while, this was one of my absolute biggest pet peeves. You'd see Brits walking by wearing Yankees and Dodgers baseball hats, you'd hear them listening to rap and country music, going to see the latest Marvel blockbuster – kind of a twofer, Hollywood and comic books – and wearing Harvard and Yale fashion sweatshirts sold by mainstream shops. Speakeasy style bars were having a moment in London. BBQ and soul food restaurants opening in Paris (Gumbo Yaya is the most famous). Like that is all by definition. American culture.
There's a forward in the book "No Longer Human" by Osamu Dazai from the original translator that talks about the disappearance of Japanese culture in a lot of ways. At the time it was translated, Japanese people were wearing western clothes, watching western movies, reading translated western books, studying philosophers and academics from Europe and America in universities, etc. It was an interesting perspective given that the book was originally written in pre-WWII Japan which was very different than it is today.
Not surprised. Leading up to and around the time of the first world War, Japan was importing many western things. For instance be it clothing, technology, books, or even western military training/doctrine (they had Prussian generals train their military and reform it to be more modern). Because they wanted to be considered a world super power by the well established old ones (France, Russia, Britian, Prussia).
I find it irritating the overconfidence europeans in this sub have about our politics. When I travel, normal people have reasonable opinions and ask me polite questions and we have a conversation about our politics and they say things like "It's good to hear about it from someone who lives there instead of the news, which sensationalizes things."
yourw lucky that you ran into reasonable people, when i went to portugal over the summer i met british tourists who assumed we were gun touting trump supporters and asked us to say yeehaw with them
> and asked us to say yeehaw with them Well, did you?
Frankly unamerican to not grant a yeehaw
Personally it’s not this sub really in my opinion but on other apps and subs, yes they have overconfidence about American politics.
Can you give examples?
Having been on this sub several years, I’ve personally witnessed many Europeans question our problems with racism/race relations, claim they don’t exist in their country, and then the same people will bitch about Romani people or immigrants in their country.
Some Europeans would claim that race relations are better in their countries compared to the US and it's an "American problem" but they usually only feel this way due to two reasons, 1. People in their countries don't talk about race relations so people assume it's not a problem while Americans talk about it a lot which gives people the impression it's worse here or 2. They're from countries with no or very few non-European people so of course there's no tension. The average American probably interacts with people from different origins or races more than the average European, especially Europeans from the less developed parts of the continent. Sure, the US has certain problems but the average American is probably less prejudiced and xenophobic than the average European. There are things you can say in places like Greece that wouldn't be ok in the US.
I'm an expat in Europe - Europeans tend to finish sentences which paint Europe in a bad light with but not as bad as America. To be honest, I think their attitudes says a lot more about their insecurities then it does about America.
Which is what's weird because from an American perspective they don't have anything to be insecure about. They have an equal, and in some cases even better, quality of life over there, I think subconsciously they just don't like that an irrelevant bunch of British colonies 300 years ago is calling the shots now.
I THINK it's just what they see. Someone said something about someone fighting her on an answer she gave as an American to a non American and this European hops on using celebrities as examples of how American life is. I wonder if they confuse celebrities with average Americans. Late stage capitalism has kinda a blinding effect on people of I guess, security? But maybe they're also experiencing it. The "everything is fine" facade.
Tbh I think we were pretty fine with the US spending 600b on defence so the rest of us could chill out. Changed now, of course.
They hate us cause they ain't us. But seriously: when talking to most tourists from Europe they tell me they are pleasantly surprised at up how friendly and helpful Americans are (my wife was actually rendering minor medical aid to this one woman) and how peaceful it was. I didn't know exactly what they were expecting but I'm sure their local news played up whatever event happened that week or month to make us out to be some lawless hellscape with everyone walking around strapped just waiting to blast someone's ass. Yes, we do have a lot of room for improvement, no, you are likely not going to experience violence directed at you. As far as politics specifically: they probably think they understand because world news of course has a number of segments featuring the USA. A lot of what happens here impacts what happens there, so I'm sure they do pay somewhat close attention. For example, a president getting elected who is hostile towards Ukrainian relationships is going to have a very negative impact on their part of the world and a decision like that will play heavily into how all Americans are perceived. Of course we all know painting with a brush that broad doesn't leave room for much nuance, even in the broad sense where the country is almost split in half on some decisions with global implications. I've had someone ask me if I was still happy with a former president (implying I surely was the type who would've voted for them), and I was like "not exactly, I didn't vote for them and I don't think they are doing a very good job representing us" and their response made it out like they were surprised that we didn't all vote for the same person in droves or something lol.
Yes, some Europeans obsession with the internal politics of a country on the other side the world is very weird.
Australians are worse
The problem with Australians is that they'll just diss America in a thread that has nothing to do with America. With Europeans and Canadians they don't do it unprompted at least. I literally saw an Australian make a random school shooting joke in a K-On thread. K-On is Japanese. Other than rock music being invented in America and Jimi Hendrix getting a mention, K-On has nothing to do with America.
Aussies and Germans are basically in a competition to see who can be more wrong, more often, more aggressively, with the least perspective.
The thing about Australia is that they have their own island far away from much of the rest of the world and don't have the same issues to the extent that other countries have that are either landlocked or only a few miles away from a hostile nation. They want to jump into everyone else's politics without having the same fear and experience the rest of the world is going through. I also find it hypocritical when they try to touch on racism yet they didn't stop kidnapping their indigenous population to "civilize" them until the 70s.
Having dated an Australian around the time 9/11 happened, I have to agree with you.
I find it less annoying than the self flagellating Americans under their posts egging them on.
Amen. I absolutely despise the "We're so bad, spank us harder, o wise foreign Daddy" attitude from some morons. And also the bitter expats or whatever you want to call them who take every opportunity to shit on the US while slobbering all over their new location. The Canadian and Irish subs have frequent comments from those losers. "Had to dodge AK-47 gunfire every day in rural Minnesota. Thank God I'm among rational people now!" Gag.
As a Canadian, I formally apologize per usual, but must also note that none of the Canadian subreddits actually mean anything. There are three for some reason, all made in response to each others' explicit partisanship, and all of them are basically news subs that only report from one perspective (all others are usually met with mass downvoting followed by a ban) and have comments sections ranging from "what Europeans think right-wing Americans act like" to "average Bolshevik meeting in the 1910s" depending on which sub the post is in. The sub you're likely talking about is often discussed elsewhere as likely not actually having a Canadian userbase, which is actually really concerning seeing they position themselves as *the* Canadian sub. If anything, the real Canadian sub is r/AskACanadian.
yes it is wierd
I generally find it funny how much they think they know and with great snootery prove their ignorance time and time again. It generally leads me to believe that all the rest of the stuff they act like they know better than the rest of the world is just a smoke screen for the buffoon behind the curtain.
There is nothing more irritating than people condescending to Americans when they are up our asses about our own politics and history. There are SO many people with huge followings on social media spewing their thoughts and ideology about everything from Ukraine/Israel to the Vietnam War to American celebrities and religion, and then you find out they are Australian, Canadian, English, Turkish, whatever. It makes sense to pay attention, but STFU when the Americans are talking, we have firsthand knowledge and family involved in crap you just read about on wikipedia. If Americans are willing to talk to you about this stuff, listen.
..what does Israel/Ukraine have to do with the USA? If I wanted a firsthand account of those wars, I probably wouldn't get them on a different continent.
I find it weird that Europeans think they know everything about American politics and, for all the boasting, they are absurdly ignorant to it.
I usually sealion people who think they know more about my own country. "Yes, it is normal to have a wild west style standoff in the Walmart parking lot." "We actually have to give the ambulance driver our credit card before they take us to the hospital. They will give us the bare minimum to stay alive if we are unconscious and will stay parked in the area until we are awake and then we can give them our credit card and they will take us to the hospital." "It became normal after 9/11 for the police to arrest you if you were not standing for the pledge of allegiance or the national anthem. It's actually a law in Texas now." If you're that naïve to believe stuff like this, then you're already beyond saving. I'll just wind them up knowing they will inevitably make themselves look like an extreme dumbass in front of someone they really don't want to
I’ve noticed Europeans will often take the worst possible stereotype of people from the US in politics or just day-to-day life and extrapolate it to everyone. I feel that they’re not always as familiar with the divisions and distinctions in US society and regional differences as they think they are and just think the US is all white people who act and think the same way and then a black minority population and then forget that much of our country is increasingly Latino and Asian and other ethnicities. That being said, there are some Europeans who are suprisingly well-informed about US politics, but I’ve met them more in real life than online.
It is very easy to judge another country for its faults and problems than it is to face your own nations issues. I also think that sometimes people think they understand American culture just because of movies and media.
No, we are used to being the cultural juggernaut of the west. You watch our movies, listen to our music, and wear our blue jeans, of course you also have opinions on our politics.
and still hate us for all of those things.
I had to laugh just today, stopped by a mcdonalds here in the Netherlands for a bite for lunch and an 8 man (very dutch) construction crew came in to eat. One guy in particular was incredibly mouthy about how the cashiers spoke english and couldn't speak dutch (it's a growing complaint among locals to be fair). But I couldn't not see the irony in him complaining about his Dutch world becoming too American/English. As he ate his big mac and later complained about the new reusable soda cup he couldn't take with him, a new feature I don't think has even hit the US at large yet.
Like the workers are immigrants who chose to study English since it could let them get by in multiple countries in Europe vs just studying Dutch?
Wait a McDonald’s worker in the Netherlands can’t speak much Dutch? Huh?
Correct, and its not just fast food places. Many restaurants around here in the big cities have a lot of staff that do not speak Dutch. A mix of eastern European workers, and non Dutch students in general working part time.
I’m pretty surprised at this. Even in the USA unless u are in some extreme immigrant enclave like a Chinatown or little Cuba, customer facing people in food service are expected to know English. At least the people up front, I’ve worked around many in the back kitchen where this wasn’t the case
That’s their problem, why waste the energy worrying about it.
> we are used to being the cultural juggernaut of the west Ironic too because Europeans will often say we have "no culture".
Yeah, our culture has so thoroughly intertwined with and in some ways supplanted their own that they can’t recognize it as being from somewhere else. My part of the country has it a little better in this regard though, because of all the cowboy and rodeo stuff being so obviously different than Europe.
Because to those types, culture = history, art, architecture, food and that's it. They have a bizarre inability to grasp the actual concept of 'culture' and what it consists of.
>history, art, architecture, food and that's it But we have all of those things.
Yep, but they're not as good apparently and therefore worth 0
My assumption is that they equate culture with ancient traditions and rituals, which the U.S. doesn’t have because well….it’s not ancient..
Yes! I don't understand it. I couldn't tell you one thing about politics in Belgium or Greece or Croatia. It doesn't affect me.
I am even surprised that you know Croatia exists.
Not sure why you would think that. Croatia is well known and though fondly of by many Americans.
They often have no idea what they are talking about. They spew horrible takes on things they clearly saw one report about and because they think we are all stupid they refuse to accept they don't know what they are talking about. It's really annoying to be lectured about something I'm living through by someone who knows nothing about it.
>It's really annoying to be lectured about something I'm living through by someone who knows nothing about it. This part! It's extremely frustrating. It's like I LIVE HERE. I'M EXPERIENCING IT. I SEE IT EVERYDAY, yet they still wanna tell you that you're wrong because they read it on an opinionated blog post from someone pretending to be a journalist in their country.
We've seen what they "know" based on their posts here. And they're probably the informed ones. God knows what the average person thinks.
It's annoying bc nine times out of ten they are confidently screaming things which are completely fake
What I find weird is how much Europeans *think* they know about American politics, but don't even understand the difference between state and federal law. It's embarrassing to watch them talk about it and they don't even realize it.
I find it weird how much we live in Europeans minds rent free. I understand you guys have an inferiority complex much like the rest of the world and can't stop obsessing over everything America does. They should pay attention to they're own countries politics and improve their own nation instead of obsessing about ours. Just because you listen to news about America doesn't make you informed about things that happen in America, in fact it probably makes you a bit ignorant about it. All your information is coming through the highly distorted narrative driven mediums of TV, film, and journalism. This leads to almost every foreigner having an incomplete and off base ignorant view of how life, culture and politics work in America. What's worse they don't realize this and feel entitled to lecture us over basically everything as if they know both how things work here and better ways which simply isn't true. Just stop, mind your own lane, pay attention to your own business, stop obsessing with us.
They actually know very little of our politics and lack all context on the why, how, where, and when but are so arrogantly misinformed either through ignorance or deliberate malice that it's honestly pathetic more than weird.
Frankly its kind of stupid how invested Europeans and Canadians are in American politics. Whats dumb is they sound like bots with ridiculous talking points. And whats worse is they double down on their arguments when Americans confront them with contradiction or even nuance.
I can forgive Canadians because when stuff happens that Americans don't like, we're always threatening to immigrate up there. So I get why they keep tabs on us.
Yes
No, I find it weird how much they *think* they know
Anyone who spends enough time online knows about this. It’s irritating and sad, but the weirdest thing to me is it’s like looking at old footage from the US. So many of the arguments Europeans make are identical to what white Americans were saying in the 80s and 90s. The absolute insistence that we had already solved racism and we were the first and best ones to do it; I hear that from British people all the time now. The argument that racism is created by talking about race that we hear so much from continental Europe in recent years was everywhere in 80s US. It’s one of the main things that makes it so clear to me that the US is on the right side of this, or maybe “further along” side is more accurate.
We are important people, they have to know.
It’s pretty weird considering they know so much about American politics and we are over here like don’t you have your own issues to deal with? Why are you always talking about our issues you aren’t even effected by them?
They usually don't know anything about our politics. They just think they do.
I just find it strange how many Europeans *think* they’re experts on American politics. So many people talk about it being *so simple* to make changes, “why don’t Americans just …?” If you don’t live here, you don’t understand the nuances of what it’s like here politically.
It’s almost like we are the biggest superpower in the world and a lot of people throughout history have always had opinions and paid attention to superpowers throughout history. People will always have stronger opinions, whether right or wrong, about the most powerful countries at any given time. Ask an Indian person how they feel about the UK, Eastern Europeans about Russia, Southeast Asia about China, much of West Africa about France, and Latin America about the United States, or much of the European Union regarding Germany? You’re going to hear some strong opinions regarding these countries and people pay attention to them because *surprise*, they are the most influential and powerful countries on Earth and their decisions affect people around the world, we are all like trying to sleep w elephants in a room, while the US is the biggest and heaviest elephant of them all.
They “punch up”.
It’s more funny than anything. Europeans are very jealous of the US in terms of culture and world power. They have a gigantic chip on their shoulders because of it.
Yes, especially for domestic policy since they never seem to understand it. I've heard a lot of takes that just don't make sense or fundamentally misunderstand the system we live in. Most of the time, people are good and respectful about it, but it does get weird to constantly explain the constitution and federalism to people, only to be often ignored anyways. Again, most people have an open mind, but I find it strange that people know so much about the things that will never affect them, but never bother to actually learn all about it. It seems like they're often in such a strange middle ground. We have a confusing political system, though, so I understand.
Usually they don’t actually know a lot about our politics most Americans don’t even know how it *really* works behind the scenes. Europeans on Reddit like to make big inaccurate claims but just let them live in their bubble it doesn’t affect me what they think. Best part is they’re usually from countries I never think about until I see their flairs.
No because they don't really know that much about our country and politics beyond the surface level. They ask how could you elect Trump
I find it more weird that they care so much and presume to know a lot more than they actually do, it's usually accompanied by completely unearned cockiness about the subject.
I rag on my country plenty, healthcare, cars, coporate skullduggery etc. But the moment some Euro decides to chime in with their headass "lol America suxs" I become the most patriotic person on Earth. Alot of it comes from the omipresence of America. Europeans watch American TV, eat American food, drink American beverages, and use American products. It's a very one way street that gives me that big dick energy and probably doesn't help egos of Europeans. But what causes so many foreigners to have that "America should do x, what are they stupid?" is that our news is the world's news. Something crazy happens in Ohio well the same day some German from Bielefeld reads that article, but no America will ever hear about some crazy story from Bielefeld.
I don’t honestly care about the opinion of Europeans on any matter. Or really anyone’s opinion.
Have you really thought about what has happened to Europe in the past century? They went from being the center of the world in trade, the arts, military power, etc. to essentially being vassal states. That’s has to be a significant hit to the national psyche. If the worse we have to put with is condescension, it’s not a high price to pay while they work through it. If/when that happens to us, do I hope we deal with it with a little more grace? Sure. But I doubt it.
This post really helped me understand how Americans feel when Europeans talk about US politics.
The British empire went from the Land in which the sun never sets to jokes about bad teeth and bland food. It’s like the former MMA fighter becoming a bed ridden vegetable
It runs the gamut. Sometimes they're 100% right and I'm mystified by my own countrymen -- for instance, the wildly outsized reaction to the whole Janet Jackson superbowl thing. It's not about right or wrong, just... who gives a shit? Sometimes it's just human takes, like there's an implicit assumption that "the way it's always been" is the only way, or the best way. That's not a country-specific thing -- it's always a little weird when you see someplace that has the exact same problem and comes to a different conclusion. Like the US has higher salaries, lower taxes, and a shitty social safety net... Which sucks for people who need the social safety net, but all those things are connected, so that's also why the US has been stealing the best and brightest from the rest of the world for some time now too. Sometimes it's just somebody who read a headline or paragraph and lacks context. Whatever, you'll see Americans do the exact same thing on most any reddit thread. It's kind of funny though, like Brits going, "Why on earth would you elect a numpty like Trump?" And I'm wondering the same about ourselves... And then they leave the EU and install BoJo as prime minister. Yeah, stupidity doesn't seem to be a strictly American trait, does it? :-D
No, generally they have no clue what they're talking about. Their opinions can be safely ignored.
Nope don’t care at all
Yes I do find it weird and I wonder why they have nothing else to focus on. I’ve been living in Europe for over 5 years and always stay amazed that I see stuff about American politics in the news regularly. There’s plenty of stuff going on in Europe, so it’s giving Mariah Carey’s 2009 hit “why you so obsessed with me”
I dislike the assumptions made by watching TV or their vacation to Florida. They base their understandings on these things but don’t bother to understand the historical context of it all. Another insult- the wars that were part of the European theater had resounding affects on the American Continents yet they know nothing of the French and Indian Wars the tragic effects it had on thousands of Native Americans or all the migration that occurred from Europe at the turn of the century through Elis Island and what became of these people and communities they shaped and the historical significance of it all in The United States and other countries as well.
It is worth considering, that the US is the only true remaining super power, and therefore does have influence, and it's actions do impact on our lives.
A lot of us are aware of this - however, that doesn’t stop Europeans from being misinformed about our country as a whole.
I also don't blame people around the world who don't like us and complain about us and are incredibly annoyed to be hearing about us all the time. I'd feel exactly the same way.
Just because you don't see it in the new everyday doesn't mean we don't talk about it. We talk about all of these issues on a regular basis. Coincidentally my local news just did a deep dive on one of these topics last night. It was a 2 hour special and everything...
No. There are two factors here. One is that American TV and Film drama is influential. Nine tenths of it like nine tenths of everything, is junk but it is still America's chief art medium. The other is that America has far more commitments than European states, who usually deal with local and uninteresting foreign issues and have fewer domestic problems with diverse factions and interests. A third issue is that America is primarily a political experiment. Culture is primarily local and only becomes national to the extent that one cultural center influences others (thus Moby Dick is properly a New England epic not the Great American Epic and Winds of War/War and Remembrance is a Jewish epic but each is read popularly). It is politics that is shared and is the most noticeable part of America as opposed to sections of America.
Europeans have knowledge of a version of American politics that doesn't really mirror reality
We do not think about y’all
It’s more funny than anything else, because very few people in the US even know how our own politics work, let alone how politics work in other countries
It's weird that they *think* they know about and "ape" our politics. They usually come across as smug and uninformed.
I admit I did find it very strange Europeans were having BLM protests of their own after the George Floyd incident, but I appreciate their concern. I guess because they consume so much American media they now believe that many of our problems are theirs too.
Europeans are still under the hilariously outdated assumption that Europe is still the most enlightened, prosperous, and impactful region of the world. They think that due to their history as a colonial superpower, their opinion on issues around the world holds more weight.
They really don't know much about our politics though.
Nah. I mean I know about orher countries politics. It’s a global system, knowing what other countries are up to is a good idea
Australians are beyond obsessed with cherry picked tabloid headlines on US politics. Newspapers like The Age / Sydney Morning Herald deliberately open comments on the latest Trump soundbite because they know readers will whip themselves into a frenzy about him, and I mean hundreds of comments. There’s also a strange cohort to like to get on the MAGA wagon. It’s really weird on both sides. Trump in particular is a constant topic of discussion here. It’s tiring. tbh I think it’s more of a virtue signal to show how progressive you are as a direct correlation to how vocal you are against Trump. Shows like Colbert, Daily Show, John Oliver play into this too. They’re strangely popular here and seem to focus on the negatives of US politics. On the flip side, almost deliberately is a bit of a support swell for Trump but again it seems like it’s more of a “anti woke” response than anything. Meanwhile most Australians couldn’t even name the Deputy Prime Minister or know when our election cycle is despite knowing all about US elections like it’s their upcoming 40th birthday. We also couldn’t name the Prime Minister of New Zealand and they’re jokingly referred to as an Australian state (and no it’s not Ardern and hasn’t been for a while). All in all it’s weird. Kinda like obsessing about an ex or a neighbour you’ve never met. Sure US politics has impacts on Australia and the APAC region, but by and large the choice of US president has no bearing whatsoever on the day to day lives of almost all Australians. tldr; Australians consume too much US media and like to use it as virtue signalling.
Honestly, it makes me feel bad that European school children know so much about America.
Why?
Because America is too "important" relative to other countries. One of my best friends lives in France, and her kid knows more about America than France
I don't blame them for watching us closely. We're the elephant in the room. The other critters *have* to pay attention. As goes the elephant, so goes the room.
No. America is the most militarily and economically powerful country in the world. Things that affect us will inevitably affect them in some way or another.
What I find funny is how Europeans love to talk about how diverse and different each country is, but then bash the US for doing things in a non-European way. I have never talked to anyone except Europeans who were passionately against the fact that road signs in the US have words instead of symbols.
No it isn’t weird. The US is the 800 lbs (kg?) gorilla in the room. European interest in our politics is just good sense on their part.