Many things. To say some…Billboards with lawyers advertising for things like demands after accidents. Like dozens one after another on the road.
So much sugar in everything. Last time I was there had to throw to the bin a yogurt. Was so sweet It was awful. Prices of “fresh” food.
Tips for everything. Going to a restaurant and have to tip like 20% of the bill, or even more, is crazy.
Wáter consumtion. Like big golf camps completely green in the middle of a desert (Vegas). When asked about It, people there just answered “no problem, we have the Hoover Dam for that”.
Lack of public transport outside four or five big cities. And that just walking on the streets in some places is very strange fot the people living there. I was asked ten years ago in Palo Alto if I was Russian because I was not driving, just walking on the street!!
I became curious if you had been in Vegas when you mentioned billboards with lawyers. That’s a Las Vegas peculiarity (although it may be a peculiarity elsewhere). Where I live in the States has no billboards and it’s great.
Canadian checking in.
Biggest oddity to me is that the default for restaurants is one bill, and waiters get annoyed if you ask them to split it by person.
Like why would I want to either:
- do math correctly splitting the bill while trying to leave; or
- be worried I ordered something more expensive than the average and unfairly make others cover it?
It’s complete insanity to me.
That may vary. In my country if you want to split the bill some places will give a different number for each person but the most common is everyone at the table calculating how much each consumed and taking turns to pay your part whilst the waiter add all to make sure that the bill was all payed.
But in the US I was very surprised when the waiter asked at the end if we wanted a separate bill and they knew what each one ordered and they came back with 4 bills. I was very impressed. Granted I didn’t when to that many places in group so not sure how common it is.
This hugely depends. Most places will happily split it.
Yeah, this one is interesting to me. I go out with friends, and we split the bill every time. They’re even happy to split it differently for couples and singles. Never been an issue. Maybe it’s a regional thing??
It was an option on the POS we had. Just ask at the beginning and it gives you the option to start split. I’m pretty sure you could do it in process too but I just always asked at the beginning. I live in BC.
Split meaning equal shares, or split as in each person pays for what they ordered?
Ah, good point. I was referring to each pays for what was ordered. Although, I think equal splits are typically not an issue either. I do live in a pretty touristy area - no clue if that affects it somehow.
I think this largely depends on the system they’re using for billing. In Canada, most restaurant systems bill by seat anyway, so it’s easy to print multiple receipts or a combined one. A lot of systems in the US bill by table, so the waiter is the one who has to do all the math.
Paying with a CC in Canada was a new experience for me and my wife. We loved that they run the card at the table and then leave it with you along with the receipt. I’ve had reservations at some restaurants about the waiter disappearing with my credit card.
Interestingly enough that’s mostly in the Northern states I live in the south east and we split all the checks every time we go out. Whenever I go to new York the waiters get all pissy though like it’s some monumental task. They couldn’t even manage to keep their trash in trash cans until recently though so maybe they will catch up one day.
It’s the tipping culture. If you have to split the bill, the presumption is everyone will tip poorly under the assumption that someone else will tip well. Having worked several food service gigs, I can say that is accurate.
Guns. Paying for being medically treated / not having a proper healtcare system. Weird relationship to Socialism.
Weird relationship to Socialism
Cold war really messed US up, mentally
Yea, somehow understandable.
It’s not the healthcare that bothered me most, although it did.
It’s the cognitive dissonance around the unavailability of healthcare in order to avoid anxiety over the fact that a traffic accident can bankrupt you with no relief. Ignoring the risk takes some serious mental gymnastics and basic math failure to get there, but when brought up in this environment - where a TV show about a teacher who has to cook and sell meth to get hospital money is actually a plausible plot where no one actually examines the mercenary care at all and the main character just pays it - it’s just a part of their existence.
Not understanding that few other people live like this - cubans don’t live like this - is absurd.
When I watch “alone”, it’s so depressing at the end when they ask them what they’ll do with the money they won. And they say “pay for my wife’s cancer treatment”. Like omg America
When I watch “alone”, it’s so depressing at the end when they ask them what they’ll do with the money they won. And they say “pay for my wife’s cancer treatment”. Like omg America
probably more noble than the ending to squid game lol
Why were Cubans emphasized out of all people?
Because cubans are considered a poor, third world country (despite the definition being something different) and because USA considered them an example of evil communism. Sure, communism then was far from ideal, but at least now they have healthcare (according to OP)
A natural impoverished (by us) enemy just a stones throw away.
What’s natural about a blockade?
obviously nothing, but we did it anyway and forced a nearby country into near starvation, thankfully they were resilient enough to hold out but not before we labelled them our enemy
It really is a tremendous injustice. Hopefully with global shifts in power they get some breathing space. The world would grow with a growing and prospering Cuba. They’ve had and have a lot to offer.
Maybe that explains the amount of mental health issues in the population?
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Probably because you until the 80s you could get thrown into an assilym and given a labotomy or worse.
yeah idk about this one, it wasn’t good but the asylum shit was killed in the 50s from what i can remember. Obviously we didn’t do much after that, but it probably wasn’t as bad. Most of those people probably just ended up in prison to be honest. Again for lobotomies, it looked like we stopped doing that in the mid 50s, by the 60s probably entirely.
Also the reason mental healthcare sucks is that we don’t have enough practitioners right now. It’s a bit of a problem.
Yeah, as an American it’s disturbing and makes it hard to believe we can change things. You’ve described it very well.
The brown paper-bag thing with alcohol in public. I mean, everybody and their dog knows what’s in there, right?
And the fact that people ask if you need help if you decide to NOT take the car but instead walk the 5 minutes to somewhere.
As someone that sold liquor for a while, if the bag is dropped and the bottle shatters, the brown paper holds up a bit better when you’re cleaning that shit up compared to the thin plastic that rips when you breathe on it,
Everyone does know. I can’t speak for all states/counties/cities/etc, but the brown bag thing is mostly a legal grey area for allowing folks to drink in public. Most of the time drinking isn’t legal to just do while walking around and can be given fines by cops. However this can be problematic for additional resources being redirected from more important crimes. So as long as the cops don’t see a label or the whole bottle/can, then they can ignore it as “it could be anything.”
For example, in the summer people in my state like to go tubing down sections of rivers. While tubing you can have coolers and stuff, however open drinking of beer or other such drinks isn’t legal. So if cops were to be watching the river and clearly see the labels it can mean that they order you to get out and hand them over and/or be fined. But everyone makes sure to put their cans/bottles in foam cozies, and therefore it is a low-key unofficial understanding that as long as you aren’t smashed and/or causing lots of problems everything is good. The same also applies to other places like lakes and the beach (at least in my state). But if you are super drunk and/or being an asshole, then the cops will use that as probable cause to actually search the bag/cozies and all that.
I cannot even begin to imagine not having the Freedom©®™ to crack open a bottle of wine for a picnic
That’s insane
Tubing down the Delaware with my water bottle full of beer 😎
Tipping
Oh we realize, but it’s difficult to stop once it’s been ingrained in the culture. Not only that, employers took advantage of that and therefore tipped employees have a much lower minimum wage.
Technically they have the same minimum wage. If they don’t get back up to minimum wage in tips, the employer is legally required to make up the difference. The issue is most people don’t know this, and so employers get away not doing it. This is one of the many forms of wage theft, the most common form of theft in the US.
Which means tips up to minimum wage are just extra money in the bosses’ pocket.
Or the servers do know that and don’t want to collect on a few extra bucks to lose their job the next day.
And minimum wage isn’t a liveable wage in most of the US now. Well, unless you split rent amongst 4 working people in a single bedroom apartment. That’s only an exaggeration in some of the US.
Another Canadian.
All-green money is weird, about as weird for us as ours is for you. Once I knocked over some products in a store and then picked them up. The staff acted like that was saintly, so I guess other people just make a mess and move on? Drive through liquor stores are weird, and seem like an invitation to drink and drive. Paying at a hospital is weird just in concept, although thank god I’ve never had to deal with it down there.
Uhh, other than that it’s been pretty similar in the places I’ve been. Etiquette around “sorry” is famously different, but aside from giving me away as Canadian it has little impact.
Edit, to add a couple positive things: Amazing Mexican food and barbecue not only exists but are ubiquitous. Coding jobs pay good money.
Everyone has an air conditioner, although Canada might be the weird one there.
In Australia it’s customary to thank the staff members attending your table. So when they top up your water, or lay out cutlery for the next course, or clear plates, you say ‘thanks/thank you’. Same for people clearing glasses in bars. It’s like a millisecond pause in your conversation to thank the staff member; it’s basically cell memory, you don’t think about it. They may or may not acknowledge it with a smile or ‘you’re welcome/no worries’. . It’s just a basic manners thing.
I and my partner were doing it in the states and it was clearly unnerving the staff. Lots of puzzled looks or ‘thats ok hun’ like they had to reassure me that it was part of the service.
Do people just ignore staff there? Is paying a tip at the end the only acknowledgment that they exist?
You are not supposed to interact with Help!
Just kidding and not American. If saying ″thanks″ for things like those would yield similar reaction, I would be confused as well. Seems so intuitive to say it.
I’m American and always thank the staff pretty much no matter where I am, I don’t think I get puzzled looks
Maybe it was the location (I’m in Tennessee, for example) or your accent (assuming you have an Australian accent)
I’m really curious where you were that you had that experience? I was brought up with the thank you reflex and have lived all over the states and have never had a situation of note arise from saying thank you too much.
Everyone has an air conditioner, although Canada might be the weird one there.
It depends on where you are. In Texas or central California where it gets hot as hell? Yes, huge AC units attached to every building. In Huntington Beach where the weather is always perfect, or the PNW where it only gets hot a few weeks per year? AC is rare.
Once I knocked over some products in a store and then picked them up. The staff acted like that was saintly, so I guess other people just make a mess and move on?
sometimes it happens. Depends on the person and where you are sometimes.
Generally if someone accidentally knocks something over they’ll put it back, though it’s not uncommon that stuff gets put back in the wrong place, i’d say that’s more common.
I’ll try to avoid stuff you know is weird.
- Adjectives. You can’t just have a thing. It has to have an adjective. For example: Milk. I wanted to buy milk. I get to the milk section, and there’s no such thing. There’s x milk and y milk and about a dozen other variants. Where is the basic milk (it turns out, I wanted “4% milk”) in this damned place?
- Fresh produce. In fairness you’ve gotten loads better on this one after subsequent visits, but beyond some basic staples like potatoes, carrots, corn etc it was really limiting what fruit and vegetables you could get in the supermarket. Also: baby carrots are weird.
- Your cheese is radioactive yellow. Cheese is not supposed to be that colour - but you seem expect it to be for some reason, so your producers add yellow colouring to their cheese.
- Your eggs are weird. I’m not sure what yous guys do to to them, but it’s like you blast away half the shell and are left with a porous super-white textured inner shell. They need to be refrigerated and last a fraction of the time they’d last if you just left them alone and sold them as they are laid.
- Your bread tastes weird. Maybe it’s sugar or preservatives in it, I don’t know. Bread is meant to have a really short ingredients list like flour, water, salt yeast and maybe a touch of oil and sugar. Take a look at the ingredients on your bread and it’s 5 lines long.
- Portions! Your food portions are ludicrous. I’d much rather pay half the price for half as much food as they offer on the menu.
- Money. You have this weird unconscious pecking order thing in your culture where you value people more based on their bank balance. You show a weird unconscious level of respect to someone who is rich. And similarly, unconsciously look down on someone poorer than you. Not in a mean way - just as a “I’m better than this person” way that is hard to quantify. You are aware at some level roughly how rich everyone you deal with is. I see this trait far less in people under 20. I hope there’s a cultural shift on this one, because money on its own is a weird way to measure someone’s worth.
- Your police are run by the local counties. I think your schools also? I know you have state and federal police also, but most places only have police and schools at those levels.
- I’ll mostly stay clear of health, because you know your health system is weird. But I will say that it’s weird that very few of your hospitals are run by government. They’re mostly run for profit. Health is meant to be a government service.
- Outside a few cities, you barely have public transport of any sort. LA is a mega metropolis, and it’s train network is a joke for that level of population - something like 100 stations for 18 million people?
- You have no idea what’s going on. Most of you couldn’t name the UK Prime Minister (this one has been hard to keep track of, in fairness), the German Chancellor or any of the G20 leaders aside from USA and maybe Canada/China. You don’t know about geopolitics beyond whatever you guys are doing. Your world news is literally stuff USA is involved in.
- I’ll finish on a weird one: you guys are lovely. This may because I’m white and have an exotic accent to you guys, but almost everyone I’ve ever encountered from the USA in or out of the country has been wonderful. You don’t seem to think of your fellow countrymen you meet as ‘good’ by default. There’s a lot less connection and respect to each other than other nations I’ve been to.
We’re not neighbors with 43 countries, so we don’t have as much immediate exposure to everything going on around those countries. For one, because it’s not going on around us, like it is for you. That said, I thought I had you with the Prime Minister comment. Of course it’s Boris Johnson. Doh! It seems you’ve had 4 prime ministers in 2 years? What’s going on with that? Like I said, we don’t really get exposure to what is happening over there, so unless we specifically go looking for it, I guess we’re out of the loop. We know what’s going on in Mexico and Canada though.
I just sort of assume my instance gives away my location - I’m in Australia, not the UK. Not that we can talk, we also churned through about 5 prime ministers in five years a while back.
But I could still talk about any number of issues going on around the world, because our news covers topics around the world. Yours doesn’t. It’s too busy talking about your election and recently a hurricane. Which I know about as it was in our news.
That’s not a criticism, I actually sought out world news while I was there, and there just weren’t any local sources of it.
- Your police are run by the local counties. I think your schools also? I know you have state and federal police also, but most places only have police and schools at those levels.
This might be dependent on state but any place I’ve ever lived has had 3 kinds, state police, county “sherrifs department” police and town/city police. To hear theres a part of the US with sherrifs department police is odd to me, usually the state police would take that role in rural areas without their own police department in my experience.
Money. You have this weird unconscious pecking order thing in your culture where you value people more based on their bank balance. You show a weird unconscious level of respect to someone who is rich. And similarly, unconsciously look down on someone poorer than you. Not in a mean way - just as a “I’m better than this person” way that is hard to quantify. You are aware at some level roughly how rich everyone you deal with is. I see this trait far less in people under 20. I hope there’s a cultural shift on this one, because money on its own is a weird way to measure someone’s worth.
Others have written on this far more eloquently than I have, and so I will use their words to help explain this.
‘It ain’t no disgrace to be poor, but might as well be.’ It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters. The meanest eating or drinking establishment, owned by a man who is himself poor, is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this cruel question: ‘if you’re so smart why ain’t you rich?’ There will also be an American flag no larger than a child’s hand glued to a lollipop stick and flying from the cash register.
- Kin Hubbard
Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say, Napoleonic times.
- Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five
In fairness for number 11, many Americans can’t even name their own government officials, expecting to know about other countries is a tall order.
Adjectives. You can’t just have a thing. It has to have an adjective. For example: Milk. I wanted to buy milk. I get to the milk section, and there’s no such thing. There’s x milk and y milk and about a dozen other variants. Where is the basic milk (it turns out, I wanted “4% milk”) in this damned place?
you guys are out there buying NULL milk??
Your cheese is radioactive yellow. Cheese is not supposed to be that colour - but you seem expect it to be for some reason, so your producers add yellow colouring to their cheese.
american cheese or cheese more generically? I assume more generically but i’ve seen this mentioned a few times and not specified lol.
They need to be refrigerated and last a fraction of the time they’d last if you just left them alone and sold them as they are laid.
“So what’s the deal with washing and refrigeration? Soon after eggs pop out of the chicken, American producers put them straight to a machine that shampoos them with soap and hot water. The steamy shower leaves the shells squeaky clean. But it also compromises them, by washing away a barely visible sheen that naturally envelops each egg.”
huh, basically just seems like a different approach to solving the problem. Prevention of disease and what not.
Your police are run by the local counties. I think your schools also? I know you have state and federal police also, but most places only have police and schools at those levels.
schools are run locally, though they all adhere to state standards. Sometimes it depends on the schools, some of them are run by the state directly, with a local school board, others are private.
I’ll mostly stay clear of health, because you know your health system is weird. But I will say that it’s weird that very few of your hospitals are run by government. They’re mostly run for profit. Health is meant to be a government service.
is this true? there are a lot of non profit hospitals, i can’t think of any “for profit” hospitals off the top of my head though. https://www.aha.org/statistics/fast-facts-us-hospitals
i did find this stat, which appears to show that there are more non profit hospitals.
Outside a few cities, you barely have public transport of any sort. LA is a mega metropolis, and it’s train network is a joke for that level of population - something like 100 stations for 18 million people?
the obvious answer here is that it’s not for 18 million people. Public transit is almost never intended to get 100% of society from one place to another. It’s just to relocate mass traffic from the roads to something more efficient.
You have no idea what’s going on. Most of you couldn’t name the UK Prime Minister (this one has been hard to keep track of, in fairness), the German Chancellor or any of the G20 leaders aside from USA and maybe Canada/China. You don’t know about geopolitics beyond whatever you guys are doing. Your world news is literally stuff USA is involved in.
in our defense, Britain is basically the size of a small state… So with local politics alone we’re basically dealing with the entirety of the EU, and probably more. Also, we don’t really live next to anywhere exciting, so world news isn’t really super relevant to us. We have canada up north, they exist, we’re friendly. Mexico to the south, we’re relatively friendly too, but they have an organized crime problem, and beyond that it’s sort of just outside of our bounds.
Canada and mexico are considered “domestic” policy for us lol.
Eggs look like this:
They don’t need to be washed with hot water and soap, they’re perfectly good as they are.
Sorry about the hospital thing. By “for-profit”, I meant you had to pay to go there. That’s completely alien to everyone in the first world. We have private hospitals as well, and yep: lots of them are (or claim to be) non-profit also.
Actually you’re not wrong about for profit hospitals here. Many of them are getting acquired by private equity firms(look into PE acquisitions across this country it will make you sick) and those are for profit hospitals.
from what i saw when i looked into the egg washing thing. It’s two different solutions to the same problem. The same problem ultimately being unsafe eggs. From what i can recall the europeans generally treat chickens against them, whereas the US generally treats eggs against them (by washing them)
presumably the US does it because either, we started doing it, and it worked, or it’s just more flexible. I know japan ended adopting it after they got a particularly bad batch of infected eggs causing a pretty bad health spook. Other than that i don’t think it’s happened anywhere else.
Sorry about the hospital thing. By “for-profit”, I meant you had to pay to go there. That’s completely alien to everyone in the first world. We have private hospitals as well, and yep: lots of them are (or claim to be) non-profit also.
yeah fair enough, it just bothers me when people say for profit when it’s literally not lol. It’s getting money in either scenario, it’s just taxes from one, and people who pay for insurance and operations directly in the other so.
I’ll try to address some of this, as I’m able. 🙂
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Yes, many many milks, we can’t agree on what is best. Personally I like a quality almond milk, for its nutrients & no sugars and huge bonus it’s shelf stable. Great for emergencies.
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I think the dearth of fresh produce is related to Americans not doing a lot of cooking. Most Americans have a simpler diet, and the stores need to concentrate on a number of things they know will sell. Baby carrots are actually awesome, you’re going to appreciate this – IIRC baby carrots are an innovative way to reduce food waste, sell crop. A farmer had ugly, misshapen, perhaps slightly molded or otherwise undesirable carrots. But most of it was good! So they cut off the bad parts & whittle it down to a nice, uniform, attractive shape & size. Baby carrots were born! Kids like them, they’re ‘snackable’…idk, I like them & I like the green effort.
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Yes, food dyes are thrown into everything. RFK recently did a little rant about the yellow dye, some coal runoff chemical. He’s absolutely right, it’s not cool. I always say you go back 200 years & some people were starving, food of any kind was great. Now we throw red dye into ketchup solely because the ketchup isn’t red enough. Disgusting.
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Natural eggs have some waxy layer on it, a protective layer. So your eggs look dirtier but are actually healthier, can withstand low/no refrigeration. IIRC. Our eggs have that layer removed, they’re required by law to be ‘washed’. Yes, I also think it’s bullshit.
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It is definitely the sugar & preservatives.
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As our bellies have grown, so has everything else. If you find old houses with old cabinets & old plates, you’ll find the dinner plates are much smaller than we have today! We have been programmed to consume. Search ‘dinner plates have gotten bigger’ and read for yourself.
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Yes, our police forces get down to counties. Towns. Idk, I would say that this should provide a more personal & immediate presence. Also in the American spirit, keeping these matters fractured & separate (but also working together, and deferring to increasing levels of authority as needed) allows for the most freedom. You don’t like how things are run in this town? Well move to another one. Same with the states. I see people moving towns because they want a better school for their kids. It allows for choice.
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Yeah, pretty much. TBF, though, our brains can only process so much. And what can we do about the European stuff, anyway?? We’ve got our jobs, maybe our families, our homes, 334M fucking people of our own with various beliefs scattered across 50 diverse states, heavy taxation without representation (hint, hint), our own problems…then somebody comes up to you…“Did you hear what happened in Fuckistan this morning? 🥺” NO! 😂🙃
Thankfully, with the internet, we can look into any world events we want to & educate ourselves that way. I do, I am politically more involved than most. But no, I cannot name current ministers, chancellors, presidents… I hear their position & that’s enough for me. Not my monkeys, not my circus, you handle yours & I’ll handle mine.
12 . Thanks! I think at heart we’re very cordial people generally speaking. But onto that second, contradictory part: I absolutely agree. I live in a generally good area, but I also see a lot of…other…people. There’s a saying, people were a lot more polite & considerate when duelling was legal. Looking around, I think things have become far too ‘civilized’, the people too soft & dumb, our food as you’ve pointed out is poisoned, mental & physical illnesses abound, the people haven’t seen real hard times, there is no clear & present danger to unite & fight so they make up stupid things to get offended by & fight each other, they’re protected from the natural consequences of their actions…I see it. Often. This & more culminates in disrespect & disconnects. Unlike other nations, partly because of our freedoms & partially because our legal system lacks balls, we tolerate a lot of bullshit behavior. As they say, if you tolerate something, expect more of it.
As an American, I kinda assumed that subconscious rich/poor thing comes into play with tourists. We “know” how much it costs to come visit this country and we really do want to make it as pleasant as possible, partially because most of us really do love the place even though it has problems, and partially because we want to be a “good value” for their money.
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#8: Police
State police enforce state level laws, and Federal agencies enforce federal laws.
The whole semi-autonomous thing. If a state and the Feds both have their own laws against something they could each try to arrest somebody, but there could also be a situation where one might not have a law while the other one does. For example , weed is still illegal under Federal law. The Federal government has mostly chosen not to enforce these laws, but it could. Many states have legalized weed to varying degrees.
So there could be a situation where somebody is smoking weed in a state that has legalized it. The state police have no power to arrest that person, but the Feds do.
I’m sure this has all made it more confusing.
it turns out, I wanted “4% milk”
As a lifelong American, I don’t think we have 4% milk (reliably). Growing up we had Skim, 2% and Whole. Looking it up Whole is defined as 3.5%
I did look up a local store online and I was able to find it, but not universally at every store.
You’re right, of course - I heard the same stuff referred to as “whole milk”. But the only thing you’re correcting about the wider point is the appropriate adjective. Which I find very funny. 😀
It’s interesting that you picked this one out. I thought the money one in particular was going to be a controversial take.
is the appropriate adjective
I just found it interesting that the thing you were looking for, most Americans wouldn’t have heard of. It makes me wonder why America has at least 3 milks.
If we ignore the 3.5% v 4% distinction and assume what we call Whole Milk, you just call Milk; what do you call Skim Milk? Or 2% Milk? And if you don’t have them, why do we?
As for the money question, I was curious to see if other non-Americans felt the same. I agree that there is a subset of people who believe that. That subset may be quite large, but I’m not sure how it’s perceived from an outsiders perspective. If you ask me, I don’t think it’s common, but I imagine some loud folks may make it appear that way. But I also acknowledge I’m an American in America, so maybe I don’t notice it.
There’s a health food craze in the US that stemmed out of rampant body shaming. Which might be largely because of American portion sizes. And they think that nutritional fat makes you fat. It doesn’t. Excessive calories make you fat. And even that has caveats, but it’s the best rule of thumb.
When did we start splitting milk? I know part of it is to make cream and high fat stuff while repurposing the skimmed off grass water. ::Googles:: WWII as a means of selling the byproduct of butter. Okay. Then in the 50s physicians started calling it health food despite the fact that the fat is used in your body during the digestion of many fat soluble vitamins such as A, D, E, and K, and thus skim milk is pretty close to the opposite of health food.
And the money thing is kind of rampant. It’s a big reason why things with larger price tags, like Rolex watches, are thought to more impressive by Americans than equivalent or better watches. Rolexes do have a very high quality, but then the mark up on top makes it strictly something I do not respect, and others do not share that opinion with me. Same for a lot of things.
Low/no fat milk, which is not healthier but is marketed as being so, is quintessentially American
In Australia and New Zealand: we have skim milk, and call 2% milk “Hi-Lo” - sometimes I see it branded “lite milk”. Then there’s regular milk. It has 4% fat, but you need to read the fine print on the side of the bottle to learn that. I’ve heard it called “full cream milk”, but usually in a cafe setting when ordering coffee.
My brother in the USA had something called half-and-half in his fridge. I think that one was 8%? You guys would know better than I. We don’t have whatever it is.
Huh, I’m Australian and have never heard of hi-lo milk.
Full cream and light are the two most popular kinds where I am.
Also, you can’t have a milk discussion in Australia without mentioning extra dollopHalf-and-half is supposed to be “half milk, half cream” and is used primarily in coffee instead of heavy cream.
Use it for cheese sauces as well! They come out creamy and silky.
If you want a sauce that just won’t break, add a single slice of the singles cheese, or 1/8 tsp of sodium citrate if you can find it, to 8 cups of cheese sauce. It won’t change the flavor or color, but will create a silky smooth sauce that doesn’t break like nacho cheese sauce.
Sodium citrate is an absolute game changer for cheese sauces.
3,5% milk is also the standard milk here in central europe and it says so on the packaging. People call it simply “milk”, but it clearly says 3,5% milk on the branding.
Whole milk also often called “Vitamin D Milk”
You got something against vitamin D, buddy??
American flags everywhere. Like EVERYWHERE. I get a bit of national pride but holy crap, every other house in the street is flying a flag, clothing has flag patterns, bumper sticker American flag, it’s everywhere. And no, it wasn’t even close to July 4.
It’s like Americans are afraid they might forget what country they’re in if they aren’t in sight of a flag at all times.
It’s kind of a warning marker. You dip into a small neighborhood with flags all over the place and it’s not near 4th of July You’ve stumbled into a very anti-immigrant, anti minority* area. Their weaponizing patriotism.
Edit: f’ing dictation
On the rare occasion you see a Union flag in Britain I usually say “oh my god we’re in Britain!”
Yeah every time I see an american flag, I’m like yeah, I know where I’m at. I saw a Greece flag under the American flag at a house and I thought to myself, it would’ve looked much nicer with just the Greece flag.
They probably did that to prevent “concerned citizens” from attacking their property.
But then people would be confused and think Greece was invading.
Murica! Fuck yeah!
I called this out after my first trip to the US, and then I came back to the UK just in time for the coronation weekend. Hahaha we definitely outdid them a bit in terms of flags which shut me right up. Especially working for an American employer for some reason, we went all out with a work do in the UK, union flags galore.
The difference is all our flags went away again straight after the coronation.
That’s pretty standard for country celebrations I’d bet - around Australia Day we have plenty of people flying flags, but the day after it’s back to normal
It’s worse now. Israel flags are everywhere now too.
Low effort patriotism
Fragile nationality
like there is a good kind
Examine photos of of Germany after 30 Jan 1933, you will see plenty of similarities.
Extreme focus on sports, wearing sportswear (both men and women do this), always “exercising”, mentioning calories on a menu card (a Caesar salad contains 1200 calories!).
I think this is a good thing. I would like to keep track of the calories I consume. (Do I? Nah, I just eat whatever looks healthy)
calories are an arbitrary metric anyways, wood has a ton of calories but you can’t digest it, so they’re a very vague guideline at the very best, and misleading at worst
They’re still helpful in sorting out a 600 calorie meal that’s going to keep someone on track to lose weight versus a 1200 calorie meal that is going to make them gain weight. Even if it’s not exact, it’s a useful guideline.
There’s not really much actual solid research which demonstrates that calorie-counting is an effective method of weight loss.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/stop-counting-calories
Moreover, there’s not really much solid research which demonstrates that weight loss should even be the focus of improving our health. People who are considered “overweight” based on their BMI score (which is another completely arbitrary and unhelpful metric) should not be focusing on weight loss.
The thing that people should be focusing on is simply any type of regular physical activity. It doesn’t particularly matter much what that activity is, it’s far more effective to choose an activity you enjoy.
Agreed on BMI but you’re missing the point on calories. If people want to lose weight the simplest way is to count calories. Run a caloric deficit, lose weight. Doesn’t get any more simple than that. It doesn’t matter if it’s not 100% accurate if it works.
Yeah. No.
As much as science knows anything, it knows that having too much body fat is bad for your health. Even the article you just linked states weight loss as its goal.
BMI is a crappy measure of body fat, fair; bodybuilders and athletes often have very high BMIs while having very little fat, but it’s not “arbitrary” either. Doesn’t matter much, since we have tools to measure body fat percentage directly. No need to use BMI at all.
Also note that article says to eat less “processed” food, but doesn’t explain what that actually means. Is bread processed? How about a salad? How much dressing do I have to add to lettuce before it counts as “processed”? No answers here.
There’s something to be said for the caloric availability of any given food, but it’s pretty silly to say that you shouldn’t consider them at all. People who are trying to lose weight need some measure of how much they’re eating so they can be sure they’re eating less. Until we have a better one, calories aren’t going anywhere.
As for exercise, it is definitely important, but it simply isn’t realistic to out-train a bad diet. It’s not at all reasonable to say that exercise is more important for weight loss, and anyone who’s actually lost a ton of weight will tell you as much.
An obesity crisis will do that
The flags on the cars.
this isn’t very common, and is relatively new. This didn’t happen at all before trump basically.
I did always see sports flags pre Trump, but they were small and not obnoxious, just like a Bills fan type of thing. Since COVID hit I now see them sometimes in Canada for antivax stuff, and the Fuck Trudeau ones that dumb people favour.
yeah, it’s an odd thing. It is probably related to covid, now that i think about it.
Most of us know that’s weird.
What about drive-thru liquor stores!
Literally sitting in my car waiting for my take out order (canada)
What I mean is, just sitting in a parking lot not doing or waiting for anything. I came to realize after moving here that it’s probably the lack of 3rd spaces in the US. And because the country is so car-centric, the only place really where someone can take a minute just for themselves is in their car.
What does 3rd spaces mean? I’m not familiar with that phrase
Places that people coalesce other than work or home. A bar, a church, sport stadium, a park.
Ahh i see i see. Money makes those so much easier to find
Canadian here, British Columbia.
Going to a Wal-Mart in a small-ish town and counting 38 CCTV cameras across the outside front of the building. Ours, in a city with 28× the population, has only 6.
Inside that same Wal-Mart, going into a checkout line without first checking out the customers, and the very next guy ahead of us was an open carry: a semi-auto (AR-15 like looking weapon) slung over his shoulders, a handgun in a holster on his waist, and a lump on his right ankle above his boots. And two knives on his belt. Dude looked like he was ready for some urban warfare.
The sheer amount of infrastructure decay. Sure, even Canadian towns that haven’t seen economic good times look run down and dilapidated, but American towns really kick that up a notch. Most small-town buildings look like they haven’t seen a makeover since the Carter administration.
Unusually authentic Mexican food. Up here 90% of Mexican places are run by white dudes who make semi-authentic “fusion” dishes that are mainly just spicy. Cross the border and less than 15 minutes in, there is one family-run chain (Rancho Chico, Rancho Grande) with super-cheap 100% authentic foods run and staffed solely by Mexicans. And like, holy shit, that’s good food.
The sheer number of people who support and vote for a party who will do absolutely nothing for them, and will enact policies that will drive them even further into poverty and destitution just so their Parasite-Class campaign donors can get even more obscenely wealthy. Conservative voters are just weird, man.
Unusually authentic Mexican food. Up here 90% of Mexican places are run by white dudes who make semi-authentic “fusion” dishes that are mainly just spicy. Cross the border and less than 15 minutes in, there is one family-run chain (Rancho Chico, Rancho Grande) with super-cheap 100% authentic foods run and staffed solely by Mexicans. And like, holy shit, that’s good food.
A friend’s boyfriend is a Mexican citizen working on immigrating and he explained it to me once that for non-citizens it’s far easier to start a business than to get a job, so many immigrants end up starting shops or restaurants related to their culture as they slowly work their way through the immigration process. This has led to absolutely amazing Mexican and Latin American cuisine in every corner of the country as well as lots of brilliant ethnic stores specializing in hard to get items for people from that culture. I live in a small town of about 12k and have 1 Mexican store, 1 Mexican ice cream shop and 3 Mexican restaurants! In rural Wisconsin!
it’s far easier to start a business than to get a job
Also why so many Koreans run donut shops or nail salons, and why 7-11’s are almost universally franchised by Indians. They’re all relatively easy businesses to start, can be run out of any strip mall near a neighborhood, and all have the potential to hire and train your family members. And if your cousin owns a donut shop (and you’ve worked there enough to know how it works,) you can go open your own across town. Because if you come in on a work visa, your ability to stay in the country is held hostage by your employer. But if you start your own business, that’s not an issue.
Yes, I don’t think Americans realise how good they have it with Mexican food. Ditto with barbecue.
The sheer number of people who support and vote for a party who will do absolutely nothing for them, and will enact policies that will drive them even further into poverty and destitution just so their Parasite-Class campaign donors can get even more obscenely wealthy. Conservative voters are just weird, man.
I mean, we have deep blue (Conservative) ridings too.
Oh we realize it. We don’t take kindly to anyone who doesn’t take it seriously. Have you ever seen the old Pace salsa commercials where they’re going to lynch the guy who brought salsa from NYC? That’s how serious we are about Mexican food and BBQ.
Dude, thank you for saying that about the Mexican food. I’ve been saying this online for a while and it’s not well understood how good it is all the way across the US, even in small towns. Now, there are regional differences, as you would expect, but it’s only a bit worse than Mexico and way better than just about anywhere else in the world
Americans don’t play about Mexican food. We want it high quality, high quantity, and we’ll support it
a semi-auto (AR-15 like looking weapon) slung over his shoulders, a handgun in a holster on his waist, and a lump on his right ankle above his boots. And two knives on his belt. Dude looked like he was ready for some urban warfare.
Ironically, the lump might have been what gets him into trouble. If he’s concealing a firearm without a permit, it can land him with some pretty hefty penalties. And if he has a permit but is printing (meaning the concealed weapon is visible through his clothes, like a lump) then it can also land him with some penalties.
It’s dependent on where you were, as each state has their own concealed carry laws. But in general, you’re not allowed to conceal a firearm without a permit. And if you do have a permit, you’re not allowed to have that concealed firearm be visible (even indirectly, like printing.)
Plus if you’re open carrying, Walmart internally bans them anyways. They’re a private business, and have the authority to dictate what people are or are not allowed to do while in their stores. The company has a blanket policy against open carrying, and (assuming they’re not barred from doing so by state law) the dude should have been told to leave his guns outside (like in his car) or be trespassed.
And if he has a permit but is printing then it can also land him with some penalties.
I can’t find anything in a quick search the specifies printing as being illegal. In fact, a quick search brings up the opposite, that printing is not a legal definition and the discussion around it by laypersons often becomes muddled with confusion between printing and brandishing.
States will vary, but did you have a particular one in mind regarding the specifics of printing? Some of the search results I get mention some anti-printing laws but none I find get more specific than that.
The company has a blanket policy against open carrying,
I guess the Omak, WA store didn’t get that particular memo. I did see another guy with a piece on his belt during that same visit, but this dude is the one we got into close proximity to. Scared the bejesus out of my wife, who has never gotten close to any firearm except for those carried by the RCMP.
To name a few:
Calling yourself Americans, after the entire dual continent. There are two continents and many other countries in the Americas, you know… [I know you know. And, what are you supposed to call yourselves, ‘USAians’? ‘Americans’ makes more sense and is easier to roll off the tongue. But it’s weird.]
Holding the door open for me. Smiling at me on the street. Those are sure signs of a swindler, but it’s the norm in the USA. [I am not suggesting USA folks are swindlers, only that those actions are what swindlers in much of the world use. USA people are generally super nice and a genuine pleasure to be around.]
Turning right on red light. Red means stop. It’s weird and confusing.
Edit: I added a third thing.
Edit2 in []
Regarding the red stoplight:
In Germany we have a rule that you may turn right if theres a sign permitting you to do so. In that case the traffic light is to be treated like a STOP-sign.Functionally the same but inverted in the states, there are signs that tell you when it’s NOT allowed. Just a matter of which is more efficient, signing when it’s allowed or signing when it’s not.
I’d prefer the need to look for the sign instead of hoping nobody ripped it off.
Why would it really matter as long as you can see that it’s obviously safe to do so?
Because more information is better than less.
hoping somebody ripped it off? Of what? A tree? Those signs are literally huge. What next you cant get through a stoplight if it has no power because it has no clear signalling?
Those signs are the size of an A4 paper in Germany. Stop assuming everything has the same size as stuff in the US…
you’re driving through america expecting the signs to be the size that they are in germany? That seems weird.
(partial /s)
The A in USA stands for “America”
You can even turn left on a red if it’s from or into a one-way street. I think that is state specific though
Aww c’mon, I was gonna deliver this in a much more conspiratorial tone!
It’s pretty much everywhere except for NYC and Montreal Island.
Don’t you mean “from AND into”?
No I don’t. You can turn left on a red from a two-way into a one-way in Oregon and Washington. When I went to school on the east coast the locals informed me that it’s not true everywhere.
Yikes!
The technical term is 𝕌𝕊𝕠𝕟𝕚𝕒𝕟 just so you know
Calling yourself Americans, after the entire dual continent
But we never use “America” to refer to North and South America collectively. You can say “the Americas”, or just “North and South America”. And there’s no adjective that means “of the Americas”; you can say “North or South American”. But just “American” unambiguously means “of the USA”.
I’ve always wondered if disagreement over this comes from the fact that in some parts of the world, North and South America are considered to be one continent just called “America”, whereas we consider them to be two separate continents. And we don’t have a word for the pair of continents, any more than we have a word for Europe and Africa together. (I mean we do have “Eurasia”, which kind of pokes a hole in the hypothesis, but maybe that’s a special case because a brief glance at a map makes it clear it’s pure fantasy to count those as separate continents.)
Yeah, I always wonder how often there’s a need to refer to inhabitants of two continents together as a single entity. Like, if you say someone is South American or North American, that is never confused with being someone specifically from the US. When would those terms be insufficient?
i propose america squared
No replies on the holding the door and smiling being the sign of a swindler? That actually sounds like you live in an exceptionally hostile place. I’m swedish, as in people not exactly known for showing a lot of warmth to each other in public, and I always hold the door, and smile at people very often. The smiling part might be somewhat unusual here in Sweden too, but not unusual as in bad or a sign of a swindler. Most people seem to appreciate these behaviors, or I’m absolutely delusional and everyone secretly views me as a swindler.
Calling yourself Americans, after the entire dual continent
This is one (small) reason why many USAians will tell you their state if you ask where they’re from.
It is very much state pride as well, and force of habit; most Americans don’t travel out of country much (for a few reasons) so we don’t often have to tell people where we’re from who don’t already have a good grasp of American geography.
Also, frankly, people can usually tell we’re American before we tell them, for better or worse. Might as well give you a bit more specificity.
With regards to right on red. It (legally at least) requires that you must first stop at the light. So if you are turning right the idea is that you are supposed to first check for active traffic and treat it as if it is a stop sign. If someone ahead of you is waiting to turn right and then goes. Then you are supposed to pull up and then stop again before turning. Though in practice a lot of people will at best treat it more like a yield sign and just roll through without stopping. In super low traffic times or places where traffic is a non-issue (like a rural road where as you pull up to the light you can clearly see open roads without anyone) then this isn’t really an issue aside from learning bad habits. Though heavy traffic places are much more of an issue.
Calling yourself Americans
Wait until you find out what the citizens of indiana are called, here’s a hint, it’s hoosiers.
We are far from the only people that refer to us as Americans.
Very true. I added context as you commented. I’m not putting you down for it. It’s the term that makes most sense. It’s just weird. Not wrong or dumb or stupid or anything else insulting. It’s just a weird term to use, even though it’s the one that makes most sense. I honestly meant no disrespect or offense. I actually like USA and its people (I mean, there are crazies everywhere, but they don’t define the rest of you). I genuinely apologize if I offended you. Seriously, mate, I meant no offense at all.
Edit: clarity
No problems at all, I just see this opinion a lot and think its weird when people think we’re the only ones that say it, when it seems pretty common for other nationalities to do it too.
Shoes. Indoors, in your own house, on your furniture?!
That is divisive even within the country.
I was raised in small town Ohio and taking your shoes off, especially in a strangers home (occasionally not in your own because of practicalities like going back and forth to unload the car), was considered part of common etiquette along with not wearing hats indoors.
Both of those things really depend on your family though as I’ve definitely met people that just don’t care.
I don’t like walking on my carpeted areas in my shoes, but I don’t mind walking in the laminate in shoes. Easier to clean imo.
Yeah as someone living in Canada that seems wild to me. I can’t imagine they still do that in places with snow, that would be madness.
How can you guys get any work done around the house if you’re constantly swapping shoes?
Hard agree, but you won’t gain any friends by mentioning this to Europeans. I guess they just stopped for tea after bringing in a single grocery bag, then change back into their shoes to get the rest of the bags, followed by a nice cigarette outside, another shoe change, and some black pudding for dinner.
You buy shoes that are easy to swap - like no need to use hands kind of easy. You can also go barefoot at home, because the floor is clean.
I don’t really do this but I knew people who did growing up so I’ve got experience:
Laced shoes go on for big outdoor trips. If you’re walking around your yard or the immediate area it’s loafers/flip-flops/Crocs/etc, something you can slip on/off easily as you come in/out the house
It’s not really much of a time investment at all except if you live where it gets rainy and muddy, because then youre gonna put on more hardcore outdoor shoes like wellies
Cascadian here to confirm. Throw on an insulated flannel and a pair of muck boots and you can stay in your pjs when you chore in and out.
I bought a pair of Ariat western style work boots last winter exactly for this situation. I didn’t want to track all the water and pine needles all over my floor, but I was sick and tired of spending 1.5 minutes lacing up my work boots every time I went outside. It’s still a little bit of a pain, but much better than floozie shoes while doing manual labor, or dealing with boot laces a dozen times in a work session.
Pffft
Just go barefoot everywhere
on your furniture?!
Carpet counts as furniture?
Otherwise, no, I don’t tend to walk on my tables, chairs, and couch very often. If I do need to do that for some reason I tend to do it barefoot for the grip, tho
