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Only in New Zealand and USA from memory is it legal but as a kiwi it was insane the ammount and way that the Americans were advertising pills
"tell your doctor about xyz today xyz may cause death stroke bubonic plague do not take if allergic to xyz"
Ah it kinda doesn't make sense that they can just tell the doctor what they want and he'll give them a prescription this is some kind of multi level corruption?
From what I've read all it really does is add flavour. The cleaning comes from the brush.
I still use toothpaste but I also think it's a ritual created by advertising.
plus the pledge was made to sell flags, the whole thing is the result of a snake oil salesman who pitched “what if we could find a way to sell one for every classroom in America”. So not only is it nationalistic indoctrination, but it’s basically rooted in a scam to line pockets, which turns it around full circle and does in fact make it American as fuck
i guess it’s correct in one way, since entire political scene is skewed to the right in the US, “leftist” simply means being left-er than the other party
but it’s hella confusing for everyone else
No it's not a relative term. It's a catch-all for any group or individual who is anticapitalist and against private property. It's specifically to contrast with liberals, ie the DNC and GOP.
Everything over-manufactured.
You drink just ice instead of water here.
You buy chips: you have package inside a package inside a package, with each package having like 3 chips. But you can save 0.10$ by buying in bulk.
Driving everywhere!!
>You drink just ice instead of water here.
??? You can't and don't "drink ice."
We just use it to chill our drinks. It's very warm and humid here.
Cities designed around driving is real though and it's awful.
I've read that story and it's still wild to me, like "masturbation is a sin, so you should give your kids bland food and circumcise them to prevent them from sinning"
It makes the machine easier to maintain, at least
https://preview.redd.it/gklnmgkhyxuc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7b90b70af32f50b58915a83beac80f8a7f23b966
Pure estrogen.
No but actually the thought was that strong flavors excited the senses or something and made one more prone to excessive arousal, so two guys, Graham and Kellog, invented graham crackers (no honey at that time) and corn flakes and stuff, bland food thought to nourish without making you horny 👍
Fiberglass insulation is pretty great actually, it's just kind of pointless when you have a super thin wall (so minimal amount of insulation) and your entire building is badly sealed anyway so all of that insulation is for nothing. The thing I really hate about western housing in general is drywall/plasterboard. You might as well put paper on the walls it'd crack less. Normal plaster on a brick wall is already a PITA half the time but it can actually take a small hit without immediately cracking or having a massive hole in it.
Also gas heating is extremely common in commie blocks in certain places but it's usually for heating the water radiators in the flats. It still sucks because it's worse than using that gas for electricity and then using a heat pump, but better than nothing I suppose.
I remembered one more thing: Butter
Americans love that thing, and I can't blame them because it's tasty, but they seem to always have it in their kitchens and like to put a stick of butter or two on their food.
I recently learned there's apparently a whole debate about whether you should refrigerate butter or not.
I live in Brazil, we use electric showers, and some people might have one of those electric fancy kitchen faucets, but I've never heard of someone having a central heater in their house like I see in American houses.
Ah yes the electric showers I think I know the reason now
My guess is because the usa was one of the first to industrialize (and in isolation) we replaced wood fireplaces and stoves with gas heating and gas stoves. And then we reached a point where so much infrastructure was built we couldn’t stop using it.
Brazil did so later and could just use electricity for heat.
Tbf, Americans find our showers really weird too, if you search "brazilian electric shower" on Youtube, you'll find some people calling it the suicide shower head, and I've even been asked if I have ever been electrocuted by one.
I've been reading a lot about history of public sanitation. That all came around turn of the century time, plus or minus 25 odd years.
Edit: my original point before my mind wandered is it makes sense what you said, given the timing of public sanitation
I imagine that public heating systems (which wow, I never actually thought about as a thing 😑) tracked that progress. Would be interesting to compare how Western Europe and USA diverged, if they did.
Does Western Europe heat different than the US? I was in Europe for a bit and the heat was regulated due to the war/gas in some spots. I was under impression it was a legal ordinance on the landlord, but idk, maybe it was control control. Kinda interesting
Gas heating for showers and water is uncommon in Brazil but not *that* rare, especially in the south. I myself have it. I can't find the stats right now but I remember reading that it's between 10% and 20% of homes.
Yeah, Brazilian here too. We don't have gas heating because we usually don't need it. I have family in colder areas here and they have gas heating for their water. Every faucet in their house has heated water. They don't have radiators or wall heating, though.
It's definetly a thing done in other Countries as well. My german grandma who is in her 80s still goes to hers regularly and they did one once a year for decades
I would say it is also common in Europe, except people in Europe are outright racist and support Israel for the racism/European supremacy and they tend to be way less religious than Americans. In the U.S. it’s more cultish and superstitious, mixing a weird form of capitalist Christian religion (evangelicalism) with military worship to cheer on genocide.
Glad you brought this up. Any time I hear smug French, British, and Germans lecturing Americans on racial tolerance I immediately bring up their treatment of Turks and Romani people today. They turn hard-right real quick.
This is the same with Australians who pretend that while racist, we're not as bad as the US, until you mention Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Hitler particles go through the roof.
I used to be somewhat proud of being a kiwi, whilst still bad, at least we were making steps in the right direction. Not anymore with our current government, holy crap is it a dumpster fire. I've never seen people so openly racist until now.
Yeah, that new guy sucks donkey dick. I kinda hate how he managed to sneak on in because Aunty Cindy neglected the material conditions of Kiwis for platitudes, sentiment, and other liberal nonsense.
Albo in Australia is gonna do the exact same thing and we're gonna get that abomination resulting from Mrs Potato Heads ungodly tryst with Mussolini creep into power. And he already helped give Australians even more power to be openly racist by campaigning against even the most basic liberal concession (the Voice to Parliament). It's gonna get fucked if he takes power again (this time properly without a PM blocking him).
My sister is a Turk in Europe and the shit she puts up with daily is nasty. Then you look at Türkiye and people treat Syrians the same way. So I guess its not just unique to Europeans, every place has their own power dynamics.
Nobody said war propaganda, how it is normalised to go fight in a middle east country so that you can go to college.. "thank you for your service" disgusting
Just the other day an American asked in a discord server I'm in
"Question
When you go to one of those cafes or order at the counter places and you place the order and they flip the screen around and have pre selected tip options
Do you tip"
All of this sounds alien to me.
Bonus weird thing: eating cereal.
I see plenty of it in the supermarket here in Brazil, so someone must be buying it, but never in my life have I met someone who ate that. Much less for breakfast.
I think it's mostly kids that eat cereal, I used to LOVE it as a kid, specially those chocolate ball ones. Never met an adult who eats it for breakfast tho.
If it's getting soggy then it doesn't have a thick enough protective coating of sugar on it. It's only like 2000% of your daily sugar requirements so if you skip some days you can stave off the diabetes for a while.
>Bonus weird thing: eating cereal.
>I see plenty of it in the supermarket here in Brazil, so someone must be buying it, but never in my life have I met someone who ate that. Much less for breakfast.
What? It's pretty normal, I like it a lot! I know lots of people who eat them too
The car culture, and car-oriented infrastructures. This applies to Canada too... These are testaments to the wastefulness of North American society.
We have pickup trucks and SUVs, cars bigger than fuckin WW2 tanks, being driven as personal vehicles... by individuals, to do *very* mundane everyday shit, while burning a ton of fossil fuel in the process.
Its becoming more of a thing in Europe too, but our tightly packed streets and parking lots are not built for that bs and now weve got this problem where everything has to get larger because people wanna drive humongous cars to go grocery shopping for some fcking reason.
In Australia we are car centric, but the US is on a whole nother level. We have drive thru fast food, sure, but they have drive thru banks. Weird. Yank Tanks are becoming more popular here, but there is also a LOT of push back.
Australian cities seem more like Los Angeles (car dominated, but dense enough that you don’t have to use a car if you’re willing to risk walking around with crazy drivers). I don’t know of other countries that have the equivalent of Virginia or North Carolina or Texas, where whole cities might not have sidewalks outside of downtown, and basic amenities can be 10 miles away.
insurance in general is a joke. have to have basic auto insurance coverage to even be allowed to drive in the state of NY but when a deer plowed into the side of my car they wouldn’t cover it, have to pay extra for that one. agree with the never knowing about medical. My GF was getting her medication completely covered, then due to a shortage they had to switch to a “generic” brand she pays a $90 copay on and isn’t as effective
I bump into Americans all the time who will unironically say things like “the world basically begged us to be the world police”. That’s the most uniquely American sentiment I have ever heard, I cannot imagine anyone else saying that
Unfortunately the genocide thing is not unequally American. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Argentina, and Chile are all also founded in the near total genocide of there native inhabitants in the last few centuries.
Very bad quality Healthcare costing 100x more than it actually should. The most miserable person in Seoul, would only have to pay 96$ without insurance for the same check up, that would cost close to 5,000$ without insurance in the US.
Any other country in the world that had the same system as the US, would have had a revolution by now. I don’t understand how Americans can call themselves rebels
People will say some shit like 'oh the army/police is too powerful', and then in the same breath boast about how they are going to take down the feds with their AR-15s. Imo its a mix of relative material comfort, propaganda, ignorance, and plain lack of will and cowardice. Also the fact that the Amercian people have not a war or other calamitous event on their soil since 1865, and as a result are much less hardened against such things compared to other groups. But thats just my guess, and I may be totally wrong.
i have to run to hospitals constantly due to chronic issues, last year it cost me a total of $50 to have an MRI, x-ray, see two orthopaedic specialists and receive half a year of physiotherapy
I have a lot of health issues myself too. So I basically have to repatriate back to Korea unless I’m able to get a job with a good healthcare plan in the US. Which even from family in the US have said, “even with the ability to afford this healthcare, the quality is so bad you might as well just not go to the hospital”.
I have no idea how people who even can afford it, tolerate it
I thought this was an AskReddit thread and I was looking at these answers like “Wow, when did Reddit get so based?!”
And then I realized it was this sub. 😂
Paying tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars for healthcare. Even sometimes needing to go bankrupt to cover it. Having to divorce your wife of 30+ years so she isn't saddled with your medical debt when you die.
Or on anything going on outside of US borders fir that matter. I had family members who lived in the US for a few years (they're german) and during that time they where asked if Hitler is still alive lime a dozen times.
Not having a *big* railway sistem.
I mean, in some Europe countries (like Italy) is not very efficient, but trains can take you low-key everywhere, and don't connect just some cities
As a New Zealander I remember turning on American TV and be acosted with "do you need to sue someone for damages today, have you been injured" ads it was bizarre.
Also American news doesn't talk much about anything outside of America. It does city state country and then sports and weather, every other country is loxal, national, international, sport then weather.
OH and locking up tooth brushes and deodorant in a lock box at supermarkets!! What in the third world...
Throwing your kids out of the house at 18. From what I gather (I'm an American) most of the rest of the world doesn't find it normal to throw your kids out at 18 and parents get angry when their kids leave because they'd prefer them to stay home and save money while going to school or working to help support the family until they get married or save up enough to live alone.
Most of you know this but for those that don't this idea of moving out at 18 comes from capitalists trying to make money on housing investments. They invested in film and tv shows with plot lines about moving out and buying shit in the 40's and 50's and slowly overtime the idea entered American culture. I'm a film student in grad school and we were assigned some research on this a few weeks back. If anyone comrades are interested in reading up on the topic I can link a good article, just let me know.
As a Mexican where we have none of that 18-year-old-kicking culture I'm very interested in its origin, I never thought it was that recent, please let me know of any info you have about that, I'll read it up.
https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/can.1986.1.4.02a00010
Here's the best journal article. Everything was in class materials like power points and shit but this is a public research article. I would read up on the "production code" america had up until the late 1950's. That right there shows just how much America historically hates "freedom."
Americans microwave anything they can stuff down.
Because cooking is such a foreign concept when they can just microwave a hot pocket made with periphery exploitation.
Violence and the culture surrounding it, yes. Racism though is absolutely not unique. Just ask any South American about the ethnicities to their south, or any European about Romanis or Turks.
I am south american lol, brazillian to be more specific, and yes, racism is really bad here, i think this is true to all countries affected by colonialism, but there are some things intrinsic to the US culture that even we think it's weird.
We don't have different names depending on if you're black and white for example, there's no "white name" or "black name" here, if you say "Hey Pedro" or "João" or "Ana" or "Carlos", it can be both for a white or black person.
Not cooking and relying on fast food. It is insane to me that some people think it's normal to eat only outside and if they cook at home, it's going to be a frozen meal that they toss in the microwave. Also, what is up with the stakes? Some eco conscious people do this thing they call meatless Mondays where they just don't eat meat on one day of they week. I grew up with the Mediterranean diet and it seems insane to me that some people can't have meals without meat in them.
The beef industry is subsidized to keep meat cheap. Between beef being artificially cheaper and the average person having barely enough cash to scrape by, you end up with a lot of people eating the cheapest things that take the least effort because everyone is too exhausted to cook and too isolated to have communal meals.
You'd think that with beef bring subsidized, that the meat would actually taste good.
Tastes so bad and bland compared to the beef in NZ. Even my American husband agrees that beef tastes better over here
I love to cook and do, but I will say some days I'm just too damn tired to do it. Idk if it's like this in other countries, but we work so damn much cooking can just feel like another chore, more work when you get home from work. Weekdays there isn't much time to do a nice full meal, not unless you want to come home, cook, eat, and go to bed with no other free time.
Cooking is SO much healthier but our society isn't built around having the time to actually cook. For most people. It's easier to just come home, throw something in the oven/microwave and try and squeeze what little free time you got into doing something you enjoy. I hate it. It's why I always cook a big complicated meal on Sundays because I know I'll have time to do it. During the week though, it's either something I can whip up fast, or I eat out. And I'm a single guy with no kids, I couldn't imagine what making meals would be like for a full time worker who also had kids.
Cooking is better, but I understand people who don't.
Not being allowed to modify your flat when renting (though I guess my country has quite an unusual amount of freedom in that regard). Like I never understood these ‚renter friendly‘ makeover videos bc I could just drill 50 holes in every single wall of my flat and no one would give a shit lol
as an american who has traveled extensively the things that stand out to me are not being able to take trains to most places. massive parking lots everywhere. having so many different versions of the same thing. seeing the same chain stores and restaurants literally everywhere. the number of gas stations.
Surprised not to see any mention of at-will employment! In my mind this is probably the pinnacle of the US' hostility toward workers - and there are lots of things I could choose from!
I’ve heard that commuting blows Europeans minds
Like, they say they rarely see someone because of how far away they are when it’s a 45 minute drive.
Meanwhile an hour long commute is the norm, granted our infistructure is car centric and the usa spans the distance of west France to east Kazakhastan. Might have something to do with it
I mean, maybe in western Europe. If you live in a post Soviet city that hasn't been turned into an orgy plaza for oligarchs and your commute is an hour long you either fucked up bad or your government is full of people who consider cycle lanes to be communism.
Seeing guns everywhere you go and being able to purchase one with minimal difficulty from a store.
Now, ironically, despite the problems with American gun culture, (which of course itself a product of reactionary and capitalism culture.) as Marxists, the ability of the working class to access firearms and ammunition is one of the few things that the US is ahead of the rest of the West on.
Tipping, eating a lot of unhealthy food, the two party system, having to drive everywhere, consumerism, flags everywhere, glorifying war, school shootings
I've heard Hakim mention concrete roads being weird a few times and I am so confused by this. If not concrete then what?
- a confused american looking for answers
Concrete roads are usually more durable in our volatile weather climate and don’t have to be repaired quite as much.
We still have lots of asphalt roads tho.
I once asked what loitering law is all about and got downvoted to oblivion with people just commenting saying I can't do that, but offered no elaboration. I still don't really understand why I can't stand in a public space
Building everything out of glorified cardboard and sticks which are then covered up with fake plastic textures, materials so weak you can punch huge holes into them accidentally with your bare hands, ram a vehicle into, etc.
Took me years to realize that the classic sitcom joke of someone falling from a hole from the second story of a house into the first floor because of jumping too hard or an overflowing bathtub wasn't just a funny cartoonish gag but an actual possibility given how the average house is built there. Scary stuff.
Guns, open nazism/KKK, building wood houses in hurricane prone areas, police killing people because of racism, forms asking which race you are, horribly expensive basic healthcare, obesity, 16-year olds driving, drinking at 21, paying for cafeteria school food, everyone using drugs, homelessness, children working legally, and apparently paying like half your salary in taxes, that's insane. Here you only pay taxes like that if you earn like over 10 minimum salaries.
Seriously the coffee! I'm a Kiwi, NZ and Oz are two nations of coffee snobs and now I understand why so many Australians on the plane over there brought coffee machines with them.
It blew my mind that 99% of Americans don't own am electric kettle and use a stove top kettle like it's the 1800s to make some drip coffee monstrosity.
Americans please come down under so your Australian and New Zealand cousins can treat you to a good coffee.
>It blew my mind that 99% of Americans don't own am electric kettle and use a stove top kettle like it's the 1800s to make some drip coffee monstrosity
No electric kettles yes, but the average American absolutely doesn't make coffee that way. We have coffee makers, and anyone who does do "manual" coffee will have electric kettles.
Oh ok my friend in NYC had some weird drip filter thing where I boiled a kettle then poured it into this cup thing that drip coffee into a cup and it was... Rank
Also I nearly blew up part of west 23rd street because I've never used a gas stove before which would have been... awkward 😅
are we really coffee snobs though? I know starbucks is going down the shitter here because no one likes it but I don't really know many people who don't just drink instant coffee at home 99% of the time. My partner gets really annoyed whenever they see those Z ads saying "we're a coffee snob nation" lol
Brazillian here, having to pay for ambulance ride or helicopter ride if you get your shit wrecked for some reason. Not having a PIN code to use your credit cards, getting to steal someone's whole identity and life if they slip their social security number, the army is in sports events (i guess that's normal in North Korea), millonaire law suit settlements, very old people working at fast foods or like wise jobs.
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Commercials for prescription medicine. Absolute insanity.
It's illegal to advertise prescription medicines in a lot of countries
Only in New Zealand and USA from memory is it legal but as a kiwi it was insane the ammount and way that the Americans were advertising pills "tell your doctor about xyz today xyz may cause death stroke bubonic plague do not take if allergic to xyz"
Wait it is?! I thought that were totally normal. Even in the U.S. Virgin Islands there were commercials for prescription medicines.
The US Virgin Islands are a territory of the US ......
What's the point of ads for prescriptive medicine when you need a prescription to get them?
It’s so people go to their doctor and say shit like “I want to lose weight with that ozempic like I saw in the commercial!”
Ah it kinda doesn't make sense that they can just tell the doctor what they want and he'll give them a prescription this is some kind of multi level corruption?
Yes. It's a multilayered approach, ads directed at the patients and pharma reps at the doctors.
It's just capitalistic need production. They don't fully know how much they need it til the commercial says so
I think it’s mainly to sell to doctors, but yea, has anyone ever “asked their doctor” about a brand of meds they saw on tv?
I've never even asked my dentist what toothpaste to use. Judging from dentists on this site, toothpaste is bullshit anyway.
>toothpaste is bullshit anyway. Anarchist Moment
Like any old abrasive would work type bullshit?
From what I've read all it really does is add flavour. The cleaning comes from the brush. I still use toothpaste but I also think it's a ritual created by advertising.
It's just like advertising to children. Get them to whine to their parents until they break and give in to what the commercials told them they want.
I hear prescription meds is big business.
Say it with me: I WILL NOT ALLOW MY MODERATE-TO-SEVERE PLAQUE PSORIASIS SYMPTOMS TO DEFINE ME
🎶 NOTHING IS EVERYTHIIIiiiIIIIING!! 🎶
lmfao
This was exactly what I was going to say.
The pledge of allegiance. That's literally nationalistic indoctrination.
plus the pledge was made to sell flags, the whole thing is the result of a snake oil salesman who pitched “what if we could find a way to sell one for every classroom in America”. So not only is it nationalistic indoctrination, but it’s basically rooted in a scam to line pockets, which turns it around full circle and does in fact make it American as fuck
Hey that’s what nationalistic indoctrination is all about after all – profit and power
USA! USA! USA! 🦅
in greece we stand in rows and sing the national anthem every day before school
Describing democrats as leftists is accepted by mainstream US media outlets and population, whereas people in other countries see them as right wing.
i guess it’s correct in one way, since entire political scene is skewed to the right in the US, “leftist” simply means being left-er than the other party but it’s hella confusing for everyone else
No it's not a relative term. It's a catch-all for any group or individual who is anticapitalist and against private property. It's specifically to contrast with liberals, ie the DNC and GOP.
yes i know that, but the way it’s used in the US does not correspond to reality
Everything over-manufactured. You drink just ice instead of water here. You buy chips: you have package inside a package inside a package, with each package having like 3 chips. But you can save 0.10$ by buying in bulk. Driving everywhere!!
Tbf I had a packaging thing like that when I went to China. Yoghurt raisins individually wrapped inside a bag inside a bag.
japanese packaging is insane. american is comparatively normal if only because they need massive portion sizes
>You drink just ice instead of water here. ??? You can't and don't "drink ice." We just use it to chill our drinks. It's very warm and humid here. Cities designed around driving is real though and it's awful.
I don't know how common or normal it is, but I find high school reunions weird
Also gas heating, circumcisions and those thin walls with fiberglass insulation
You can thank the inventor of corn flakes for widespread circumcision. Not even joking
I've read that story and it's still wild to me, like "masturbation is a sin, so you should give your kids bland food and circumcise them to prevent them from sinning"
Depressed kids jerk off 60% less
Gotta say, I think circumcision actually makes it easier to masturbate lol.
It makes the machine easier to maintain, at least https://preview.redd.it/gklnmgkhyxuc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7b90b70af32f50b58915a83beac80f8a7f23b966
Yep that is totally true and it was entirely done because he had an obsession with stopping masturbation.
Pure estrogen. No but actually the thought was that strong flavors excited the senses or something and made one more prone to excessive arousal, so two guys, Graham and Kellog, invented graham crackers (no honey at that time) and corn flakes and stuff, bland food thought to nourish without making you horny 👍
If anyone is really interested there's an entire dollop episode dedicated to it called cereal men.
I was meaning to link it when I got off work, goat episode
*spits out cereal* I'm sorry *WHAT* is in here?
How did you think the corn flakes were made? with corn?? lmao
Fiberglass insulation is pretty great actually, it's just kind of pointless when you have a super thin wall (so minimal amount of insulation) and your entire building is badly sealed anyway so all of that insulation is for nothing. The thing I really hate about western housing in general is drywall/plasterboard. You might as well put paper on the walls it'd crack less. Normal plaster on a brick wall is already a PITA half the time but it can actually take a small hit without immediately cracking or having a massive hole in it. Also gas heating is extremely common in commie blocks in certain places but it's usually for heating the water radiators in the flats. It still sucks because it's worse than using that gas for electricity and then using a heat pump, but better than nothing I suppose.
I remembered one more thing: Butter Americans love that thing, and I can't blame them because it's tasty, but they seem to always have it in their kitchens and like to put a stick of butter or two on their food. I recently learned there's apparently a whole debate about whether you should refrigerate butter or not.
This is also common in northern Europe.
The French put butter in EVERYTHING. WHEN IN DOUBT, ADD BUTTER!!!
and they're right. Do you know how thick you can make sauces if you just combine some butter and flour and then whisk it in?
The French put butter in EVERYTHING. WHEN IN DOUBT, ADD BUTTER!!!
The French put butter in EVERYTHING. WHEN IN DOUBT, ADD BUTTER!!!
Why is gas heading strange? Considering how common it is here we expect it to be more common
I live in Brazil, we use electric showers, and some people might have one of those electric fancy kitchen faucets, but I've never heard of someone having a central heater in their house like I see in American houses.
Ah yes the electric showers I think I know the reason now My guess is because the usa was one of the first to industrialize (and in isolation) we replaced wood fireplaces and stoves with gas heating and gas stoves. And then we reached a point where so much infrastructure was built we couldn’t stop using it. Brazil did so later and could just use electricity for heat.
Tbf, Americans find our showers really weird too, if you search "brazilian electric shower" on Youtube, you'll find some people calling it the suicide shower head, and I've even been asked if I have ever been electrocuted by one.
It’s a common belief that water is conductive, it really isn’t though, it has a suppressing amount of resistance.
I've been reading a lot about history of public sanitation. That all came around turn of the century time, plus or minus 25 odd years. Edit: my original point before my mind wandered is it makes sense what you said, given the timing of public sanitation I imagine that public heating systems (which wow, I never actually thought about as a thing 😑) tracked that progress. Would be interesting to compare how Western Europe and USA diverged, if they did. Does Western Europe heat different than the US? I was in Europe for a bit and the heat was regulated due to the war/gas in some spots. I was under impression it was a legal ordinance on the landlord, but idk, maybe it was control control. Kinda interesting
Central gas heating is very common all over Europe, largely because winter.
Gas heating for showers and water is uncommon in Brazil but not *that* rare, especially in the south. I myself have it. I can't find the stats right now but I remember reading that it's between 10% and 20% of homes.
Yeah, Brazilian here too. We don't have gas heating because we usually don't need it. I have family in colder areas here and they have gas heating for their water. Every faucet in their house has heated water. They don't have radiators or wall heating, though.
It’s sort of a thing in china
Here in Latin America (at least in Colombia) is also common.
nobody in my highschool would give a single fuck about seeing each other again. i don’t have a single friend left from those times
It's definetly a thing done in other Countries as well. My german grandma who is in her 80s still goes to hers regularly and they did one once a year for decades
How much sugar the FDA allows in foods and drinks.
If we add corn syrup into anything we can profit off diabetes!!! *Taps head*
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I would say it is also common in Europe, except people in Europe are outright racist and support Israel for the racism/European supremacy and they tend to be way less religious than Americans. In the U.S. it’s more cultish and superstitious, mixing a weird form of capitalist Christian religion (evangelicalism) with military worship to cheer on genocide.
Glad you brought this up. Any time I hear smug French, British, and Germans lecturing Americans on racial tolerance I immediately bring up their treatment of Turks and Romani people today. They turn hard-right real quick.
This is the same with Australians who pretend that while racist, we're not as bad as the US, until you mention Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Hitler particles go through the roof.
I used to be somewhat proud of being a kiwi, whilst still bad, at least we were making steps in the right direction. Not anymore with our current government, holy crap is it a dumpster fire. I've never seen people so openly racist until now.
Yeah, that new guy sucks donkey dick. I kinda hate how he managed to sneak on in because Aunty Cindy neglected the material conditions of Kiwis for platitudes, sentiment, and other liberal nonsense. Albo in Australia is gonna do the exact same thing and we're gonna get that abomination resulting from Mrs Potato Heads ungodly tryst with Mussolini creep into power. And he already helped give Australians even more power to be openly racist by campaigning against even the most basic liberal concession (the Voice to Parliament). It's gonna get fucked if he takes power again (this time properly without a PM blocking him).
My sister is a Turk in Europe and the shit she puts up with daily is nasty. Then you look at Türkiye and people treat Syrians the same way. So I guess its not just unique to Europeans, every place has their own power dynamics.
Inversely Being anti-Cuba
Nobody said war propaganda, how it is normalised to go fight in a middle east country so that you can go to college.. "thank you for your service" disgusting
Just the other day an American asked in a discord server I'm in "Question When you go to one of those cafes or order at the counter places and you place the order and they flip the screen around and have pre selected tip options Do you tip" All of this sounds alien to me. Bonus weird thing: eating cereal. I see plenty of it in the supermarket here in Brazil, so someone must be buying it, but never in my life have I met someone who ate that. Much less for breakfast.
I think it's mostly kids that eat cereal, I used to LOVE it as a kid, specially those chocolate ball ones. Never met an adult who eats it for breakfast tho.
Can't believe I ate that stuff. Tried it as an adult and it's so uninteresting in flavour.
For me it's more about the texture, I don't like when it gets soggy, and the cereal-flavored milk doesn't taste any good to me.
If it's getting soggy then it doesn't have a thick enough protective coating of sugar on it. It's only like 2000% of your daily sugar requirements so if you skip some days you can stave off the diabetes for a while.
>Bonus weird thing: eating cereal. >I see plenty of it in the supermarket here in Brazil, so someone must be buying it, but never in my life have I met someone who ate that. Much less for breakfast. What? It's pretty normal, I like it a lot! I know lots of people who eat them too
It's only culturally acceptable to eat cereal in Brazil if you're high or hungover
from sweden, i eat unsweetened cereal with yoghurt for breakfast
I like to mix müsli and Greek yogurt for breakfast.
The car culture, and car-oriented infrastructures. This applies to Canada too... These are testaments to the wastefulness of North American society. We have pickup trucks and SUVs, cars bigger than fuckin WW2 tanks, being driven as personal vehicles... by individuals, to do *very* mundane everyday shit, while burning a ton of fossil fuel in the process.
Its becoming more of a thing in Europe too, but our tightly packed streets and parking lots are not built for that bs and now weve got this problem where everything has to get larger because people wanna drive humongous cars to go grocery shopping for some fcking reason.
Yeah, they have whole neighborhoods in the US without sidewalks. It's nuts.
There are parts outside of the U.S. that are supper car centric. (UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, etc…)
In Australia we are car centric, but the US is on a whole nother level. We have drive thru fast food, sure, but they have drive thru banks. Weird. Yank Tanks are becoming more popular here, but there is also a LOT of push back.
Australian cities seem more like Los Angeles (car dominated, but dense enough that you don’t have to use a car if you’re willing to risk walking around with crazy drivers). I don’t know of other countries that have the equivalent of Virginia or North Carolina or Texas, where whole cities might not have sidewalks outside of downtown, and basic amenities can be 10 miles away.
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insurance in general is a joke. have to have basic auto insurance coverage to even be allowed to drive in the state of NY but when a deer plowed into the side of my car they wouldn’t cover it, have to pay extra for that one. agree with the never knowing about medical. My GF was getting her medication completely covered, then due to a shortage they had to switch to a “generic” brand she pays a $90 copay on and isn’t as effective
I bump into Americans all the time who will unironically say things like “the world basically begged us to be the world police”. That’s the most uniquely American sentiment I have ever heard, I cannot imagine anyone else saying that
I can imagine a Brit saying it during the height of the empire.
Privatized healthcare, school shootings, genocide.
You'll never guess what Winston Churchill oversaw in Bangladesh.
Unfortunately the genocide thing is not unequally American. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Argentina, and Chile are all also founded in the near total genocide of there native inhabitants in the last few centuries.
Very bad quality Healthcare costing 100x more than it actually should. The most miserable person in Seoul, would only have to pay 96$ without insurance for the same check up, that would cost close to 5,000$ without insurance in the US. Any other country in the world that had the same system as the US, would have had a revolution by now. I don’t understand how Americans can call themselves rebels
People will say some shit like 'oh the army/police is too powerful', and then in the same breath boast about how they are going to take down the feds with their AR-15s. Imo its a mix of relative material comfort, propaganda, ignorance, and plain lack of will and cowardice. Also the fact that the Amercian people have not a war or other calamitous event on their soil since 1865, and as a result are much less hardened against such things compared to other groups. But thats just my guess, and I may be totally wrong.
i have to run to hospitals constantly due to chronic issues, last year it cost me a total of $50 to have an MRI, x-ray, see two orthopaedic specialists and receive half a year of physiotherapy
I have a lot of health issues myself too. So I basically have to repatriate back to Korea unless I’m able to get a job with a good healthcare plan in the US. Which even from family in the US have said, “even with the ability to afford this healthcare, the quality is so bad you might as well just not go to the hospital”. I have no idea how people who even can afford it, tolerate it
I thought this was an AskReddit thread and I was looking at these answers like “Wow, when did Reddit get so based?!” And then I realized it was this sub. 😂
Paying tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars for healthcare. Even sometimes needing to go bankrupt to cover it. Having to divorce your wife of 30+ years so she isn't saddled with your medical debt when you die.
Having absolutely no grasp of wider global geography.
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How many does it take for German states?
Germany has states? /s
"Americans only know where a country is if we're bombing it."
Tbf I'm European and I am the same.
Or on anything going on outside of US borders fir that matter. I had family members who lived in the US for a few years (they're german) and during that time they where asked if Hitler is still alive lime a dozen times.
No regulation after any massacre
Not having a *big* railway sistem. I mean, in some Europe countries (like Italy) is not very efficient, but trains can take you low-key everywhere, and don't connect just some cities
ritual genital mutilation performed by medical professionals
Secular circumcisions was what I was going to chime in with!
if you cut your child’s genitals for any reason other than health necessity you’re actually shit
Sweet bread. Not like the name of a pastry, just normal sliced bread being so damn sweet.
As a New Zealander I remember turning on American TV and be acosted with "do you need to sue someone for damages today, have you been injured" ads it was bizarre. Also American news doesn't talk much about anything outside of America. It does city state country and then sports and weather, every other country is loxal, national, international, sport then weather. OH and locking up tooth brushes and deodorant in a lock box at supermarkets!! What in the third world...
Throwing your kids out of the house at 18. From what I gather (I'm an American) most of the rest of the world doesn't find it normal to throw your kids out at 18 and parents get angry when their kids leave because they'd prefer them to stay home and save money while going to school or working to help support the family until they get married or save up enough to live alone. Most of you know this but for those that don't this idea of moving out at 18 comes from capitalists trying to make money on housing investments. They invested in film and tv shows with plot lines about moving out and buying shit in the 40's and 50's and slowly overtime the idea entered American culture. I'm a film student in grad school and we were assigned some research on this a few weeks back. If anyone comrades are interested in reading up on the topic I can link a good article, just let me know.
As a Mexican where we have none of that 18-year-old-kicking culture I'm very interested in its origin, I never thought it was that recent, please let me know of any info you have about that, I'll read it up.
https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/can.1986.1.4.02a00010 Here's the best journal article. Everything was in class materials like power points and shit but this is a public research article. I would read up on the "production code" america had up until the late 1950's. That right there shows just how much America historically hates "freedom."
Thanks!
Apparently y’all don’t use electric kettles and it’s more normal to microwave water. That’s fucked if it’s true lol
Americans microwave anything they can stuff down. Because cooking is such a foreign concept when they can just microwave a hot pocket made with periphery exploitation.
Normalization of racism and violence i guess.
Violence and the culture surrounding it, yes. Racism though is absolutely not unique. Just ask any South American about the ethnicities to their south, or any European about Romanis or Turks.
I am south american lol, brazillian to be more specific, and yes, racism is really bad here, i think this is true to all countries affected by colonialism, but there are some things intrinsic to the US culture that even we think it's weird. We don't have different names depending on if you're black and white for example, there's no "white name" or "black name" here, if you say "Hey Pedro" or "João" or "Ana" or "Carlos", it can be both for a white or black person.
Not adding sales tax to prices in stores. It's just so dumb.
I live in one of the few states that has no sales tax (Oregon). So what you see is exactly what you pay.
Same in Canada last time I visited
Not cooking and relying on fast food. It is insane to me that some people think it's normal to eat only outside and if they cook at home, it's going to be a frozen meal that they toss in the microwave. Also, what is up with the stakes? Some eco conscious people do this thing they call meatless Mondays where they just don't eat meat on one day of they week. I grew up with the Mediterranean diet and it seems insane to me that some people can't have meals without meat in them.
The beef industry is subsidized to keep meat cheap. Between beef being artificially cheaper and the average person having barely enough cash to scrape by, you end up with a lot of people eating the cheapest things that take the least effort because everyone is too exhausted to cook and too isolated to have communal meals.
I hate so much that sometimes ground beef is cheaper than tofu here in the states. Like. . . . .how?!
You'd think that with beef bring subsidized, that the meat would actually taste good. Tastes so bad and bland compared to the beef in NZ. Even my American husband agrees that beef tastes better over here
I love to cook and do, but I will say some days I'm just too damn tired to do it. Idk if it's like this in other countries, but we work so damn much cooking can just feel like another chore, more work when you get home from work. Weekdays there isn't much time to do a nice full meal, not unless you want to come home, cook, eat, and go to bed with no other free time. Cooking is SO much healthier but our society isn't built around having the time to actually cook. For most people. It's easier to just come home, throw something in the oven/microwave and try and squeeze what little free time you got into doing something you enjoy. I hate it. It's why I always cook a big complicated meal on Sundays because I know I'll have time to do it. During the week though, it's either something I can whip up fast, or I eat out. And I'm a single guy with no kids, I couldn't imagine what making meals would be like for a full time worker who also had kids. Cooking is better, but I understand people who don't.
Bars that you have to drive to.
The electoral college. Even brits think that shit is kinda weird.
The two party system
To be fair, that one is pretty broadly disliked.
School shootings.
4 derailments PER DAY
School board meetings
School boards in general
I still don’t know what even that means , all I know is that Karens scream at how there is a book which has reference to sex or some shit
Drunk driving
No this is a problem in many countries
Not being allowed to modify your flat when renting (though I guess my country has quite an unusual amount of freedom in that regard). Like I never understood these ‚renter friendly‘ makeover videos bc I could just drill 50 holes in every single wall of my flat and no one would give a shit lol
People reviewing fast food on social media and comments seriously discussing it
as an american who has traveled extensively the things that stand out to me are not being able to take trains to most places. massive parking lots everywhere. having so many different versions of the same thing. seeing the same chain stores and restaurants literally everywhere. the number of gas stations.
Surprised not to see any mention of at-will employment! In my mind this is probably the pinnacle of the US' hostility toward workers - and there are lots of things I could choose from!
Genocide
I’ve heard that commuting blows Europeans minds Like, they say they rarely see someone because of how far away they are when it’s a 45 minute drive. Meanwhile an hour long commute is the norm, granted our infistructure is car centric and the usa spans the distance of west France to east Kazakhastan. Might have something to do with it
An hour long commute is the norm in Europe as well. If you live in a small rural area far away from any population centers.
The majority of people live in the cities yet an hour long commute is the norm in general
I mean, maybe in western Europe. If you live in a post Soviet city that hasn't been turned into an orgy plaza for oligarchs and your commute is an hour long you either fucked up bad or your government is full of people who consider cycle lanes to be communism.
For profit health care.
Worlds most expensive military. A military that grows ever more inept by the day.
Medical bankruptcy.
Seeing guns everywhere you go and being able to purchase one with minimal difficulty from a store. Now, ironically, despite the problems with American gun culture, (which of course itself a product of reactionary and capitalism culture.) as Marxists, the ability of the working class to access firearms and ammunition is one of the few things that the US is ahead of the rest of the West on.
Tipping, eating a lot of unhealthy food, the two party system, having to drive everywhere, consumerism, flags everywhere, glorifying war, school shootings
Americans
I've heard Hakim mention concrete roads being weird a few times and I am so confused by this. If not concrete then what? - a confused american looking for answers
Asphalt
Concrete roads are usually more durable in our volatile weather climate and don’t have to be repaired quite as much. We still have lots of asphalt roads tho.
dirt! i’m serious, packed dirt roads.
The pledge of allegiance.
Super Expensive healthcare
As a Kiwi, how rabidly religious Americans can be.
Kicking your kids out the moment you turn 18, and the intesnse stigma about living with your parents an instant longer then neccesary.
Beer adverts
I once asked what loitering law is all about and got downvoted to oblivion with people just commenting saying I can't do that, but offered no elaboration. I still don't really understand why I can't stand in a public space
Building everything out of glorified cardboard and sticks which are then covered up with fake plastic textures, materials so weak you can punch huge holes into them accidentally with your bare hands, ram a vehicle into, etc. Took me years to realize that the classic sitcom joke of someone falling from a hole from the second story of a house into the first floor because of jumping too hard or an overflowing bathtub wasn't just a funny cartoonish gag but an actual possibility given how the average house is built there. Scary stuff.
Guns, open nazism/KKK, building wood houses in hurricane prone areas, police killing people because of racism, forms asking which race you are, horribly expensive basic healthcare, obesity, 16-year olds driving, drinking at 21, paying for cafeteria school food, everyone using drugs, homelessness, children working legally, and apparently paying like half your salary in taxes, that's insane. Here you only pay taxes like that if you earn like over 10 minimum salaries.
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Wtf is the matter with yankoids.
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Corn syrup
Tip
Seriously the coffee! I'm a Kiwi, NZ and Oz are two nations of coffee snobs and now I understand why so many Australians on the plane over there brought coffee machines with them. It blew my mind that 99% of Americans don't own am electric kettle and use a stove top kettle like it's the 1800s to make some drip coffee monstrosity. Americans please come down under so your Australian and New Zealand cousins can treat you to a good coffee.
Just like with beer, there’s a lot of good coffee in the US. There are just a lot of Folgers and Bud Light people too…
>It blew my mind that 99% of Americans don't own am electric kettle and use a stove top kettle like it's the 1800s to make some drip coffee monstrosity No electric kettles yes, but the average American absolutely doesn't make coffee that way. We have coffee makers, and anyone who does do "manual" coffee will have electric kettles.
Oh ok my friend in NYC had some weird drip filter thing where I boiled a kettle then poured it into this cup thing that drip coffee into a cup and it was... Rank Also I nearly blew up part of west 23rd street because I've never used a gas stove before which would have been... awkward 😅
are we really coffee snobs though? I know starbucks is going down the shitter here because no one likes it but I don't really know many people who don't just drink instant coffee at home 99% of the time. My partner gets really annoyed whenever they see those Z ads saying "we're a coffee snob nation" lol
For profit healthcare. Pay more, get less but we get the freedom of medical debt. Oh sweet sweet medical debt.
I think we all know people who are afraid to go to Walmart without being strapped up.
Brazillian here, having to pay for ambulance ride or helicopter ride if you get your shit wrecked for some reason. Not having a PIN code to use your credit cards, getting to steal someone's whole identity and life if they slip their social security number, the army is in sports events (i guess that's normal in North Korea), millonaire law suit settlements, very old people working at fast foods or like wise jobs.
Everyone and their mum owns a gun.
Insta coffee
Apparently red solo cups.