Non-Americans who have been to the US.. What is the weirdest thing about America that Americans don't realize is weird?

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British.
I found a lot of things weird, but I did go to Florida like 8 times so it’s to be expected and maybe some of these are exclusive to that state.
I found it weird that alcohol seemed to be sold only in liquor stores. But you can buy a machine gun in Walmart.
The food. Don’t get me wrong it’s nice and all but the quantity. Take sizzlers, you go in order your main meal then get an endless buffet for free. Like I couldn’t eat my steak when it arrived as I was full from the buffet.
syrup all over breakfast items and people bigger than id ever seen were gorging and then taking a box home too.
enthusiasm: grown ass adults whooping and hollering as we were queuing for rides. I’m a man child myself but it was startling.
Jaywalking. Wtf
To throw out some positives. Everyone I met was lovely and nothing like the nut jobs we get to see online. People were polite, friendly and accommodating.
Beautiful nature and national parks.
- You definitely cannot buy a machine gun in Walmart...
  
  I definitely saw guns. Maybe shot gun?
  
  There are plenty of guns sold, machine guns haven't been sold as new since 1986 and have had a special process for purchase since the 1930s.
  
  I guess when I say machine gun I’m meaning (incorrectly) a rifle like an AR-15. Whether it be single shot (is that semi-auto) or automatic. Although I believe you can’t get autos as that’s why people use bump stocks; I again guess.
  
  Bump sticks are ineffective as a way to increase fire rate and are a gimmick. They are notoriously unreliable. If you want to be scared, look up binaries triggers(or don’t) but they aren’t really used in crime. Other than a case here in my state, and I believe one other. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not the scary looking guns that kill most people. The majority of gun reported shootings, are suicides, or, inner city crime. Neither of which I condone by any means, however, people are not walking around with bump stocks.
  
  An AR-15 is a semi-automatic sporting rifle. A machine gun is something like an M249 SAW or an M60, and not available to most people. You can get a permit from the ATF, but from start to finish the gun will cost you around $60,000.
  
  But can it kill multiple people really fast and do they sell it at Walmart? I know the answer to the first one but I genuinely don't know if they sell those there. I have seen guns though lol
  
  To my knowledge Walmart doesn’t sell AR-15’s. They don’t sell guns at all where I live, but apparently they might sell shotguns in other parts of the country. As far as your first question goes, that’s not relevant to if it’s a machine gun or not, which it is not.
  
  It's not but it does have the same purpose.
  
  It does not.
  
  It's purpose isn't to kill lots of people really fast? Because that's all I have seen them used for
  
  There are plenty of guns sold, machine guns haven't been sold as new since 1986 and have had a special process for purchase since the 1930s.
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearm_Owners_Protection_Act
  See the section on "Ban on new automatic firearms"
- I found it weird that alcohol seemed to be sold only in liquor stores. But you can buy a machine gun in Walmart.
  That might be a Florida thing(?) Definitely not an Ohio thing.
  The food. Don’t get me wrong it’s nice and all but the quantity. Take sizzlers, you go in order your main meal then get an endless buffet for free. Like I couldn’t eat my steak when it arrived as I was full from the buffet.
  Yeah buffets aren't all that common... But they're probably more common here (especially in touristy spots) than other countries.
  syrup all over breakfast items and people bigger than id ever seen were gorging and then taking a box home too.
  enthusiasm: grown ass adults whooping and hollering as we were queuing for rides. I’m a man child myself but it was startling.
  Fair.
  Jaywalking. Wtf
  Yeah... Especially in touristy spots and very urban spots some people don't care. I'm assuming you've witnessed Florida man that cuts across 6 lanes of busy traffic.
  I think the average American normally only jaywalks if the street is pretty much empty and they don't feel like waiting 3 minutes for the light to change.
  
  I think there may be a misunderstanding. The concept of jaywalking is nuts to me, and many Europeans. The USA has made it illegal to… walk? In the Netherlands, we don’t even have a word for this. It’s just walking. Traffic participation while not in a car.
  
  Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a documentary. Ignore the cartoons. Oil companies bought up and paved over our trolleys in the 1920s and invented jaywalking to prioritize cars. It was a way to punish and imprison poor people, and likely, considering the rest of the history of this country, was predominantly enforced on people of color
  
  Absolutely, oil and car companies. And they were behind the push for highway bypasses (conveniently running through immigrant and PoC neighborhoods) and suburbs (many of them redlined and outright racial exclusionary.
  
  Surely there's some sort of "you can't just jump out in the middle of traffic" law though? That's basically what our jaywalking laws "do" (in the limited cases where they're enforced).
  There are of course the exceptions where someone gets a bit power trippy.
  
  There’s just a general “don’t do absurdly dangerous traffic things” law that regulates that you can’t skateboard on the highway and such. Do people need a law to tell them that they can’t throw themselves into traffic? And does it work?
  
  I mean, it's also illegal to try and kill yourself, or do various other dangerous stuff. So... Maybe?
  Plus, it's not so much about the pedestrian safety as it is keeping traffic moving by stopping pedestrians from just walking out in front of cars wherever they please. I'm not sure how that precedent is set, since I assume most other countries also give pedestrians the right of way (in the places they're supposed to cross).
  
  It depends on the place and the cop that is present, but jaywalking isn't often enforced. It's a law to try to protect people from crossing the street and getting injured by cars that may not see them crossing. Instead of crossing anywhere, they are supposed to cross at a specific area where cars already are supposed to stop. Since jaywalking is against the law (even if it isn't enforced well), it will stop some people from crossing the street in the middle of a road, and it may save a few lives. It's kinda dumb, but if it helps a few people, I have no problem with it.
  
  I'm an american who has been to a lot of different american cities. It very much depends on the city for jaywalking. Its hard to predict too. Somewhere like manhattan idk why they even bother putting lights up tbh. But other places if you jaywalk people will look at you like ur crazy.
- Most of these vary by state, save for enthusiasm, jaywalking, and the national parks, which are universal, haha. My Canadian bf is amused by how excited I get to go biking/skiing/other outdoor activities :)
  
  save for enthusiasm, jaywalking
  Nope! Almost no jaywalking in the Seattle area. It was a culture shock to me. Everyone uses crosswalks, and cars will come to screeching halt on a major road if you’re standing anywhere near a crosswalk as they drive by. I guess it’s probably because you can’t see shit once winter rolls around, so it’s better to be safe than dead.
  
  That sounds nice. I was standing at a crosswalk for almost 15 minutes today walking home with my son in his stroller as cars were just flying by not taking a second glance. Last year 4 people died in seperate cases in that crosswalk. It's nuts.
  
  It is nice. It’s been a welcome change from my hometown. They also have neon flags on sticks at most crosswalks. You grab one from the bucket, wave it around while crossing, and drop it in the bucket on the other side when you’re finished. I always grab a few if I notice the other side of the street doesn’t have any. Those flags would have all been stolen on day one in my hometown.
  
  Because it used to be enforced. You would actually get jaywalking tickets. Also tickets for drivers who don't stop for pedestrian crossings. So if you go to a marker for pedestrians (with or without lines) the cars will stop and let you cross. Nobody is slowing down for random bozo in the middle of the street though, so there's no point in jaywalking. It takes longer to cross that way.
- Most grocery stores sell alcohol in Florida, but only the beer and while variety. Hard liquor is only available in liquor stores. FL is actually a lot less restricted on that than many other states.
  
  Yeah. In Maryland all alcoholic beverages are in a liquor store. Walmart legally does not sell beer or wine there. Not gas stations. Nor anywhere other than the "packy store".
  Its hella inconvenient.
- Beautiful nature and national parks.
  as an american, this is one of the things i'm most proud of, the sheer amount of geographical variety we have in this country is incredible. I dont think there is anything quite like this country anywhere else in the world.
- Alcohol sales vary hugely between states. In some states, you can get hard liquor at Wal-Mart while in others you can only get it at state run stores.
  The rules about licensing mean some areas gas stations usually don't even sell beer, while in other places they have giant walk in beer freezers.
  Some states or counties have dry laws where they don't sell alcohol on Sundays, or maybe no hard alcohol, or maybe you have to wait until noon to be able to buy it.
  It's all over the place.
  As for the Wal-Mart machineguns, I think you've gotten enough replies on that detail, but again gun sales are something with huge variety. Some states have put restrictions in place where a Wal-Mart theoretically could still sell guns but doesn't because of the hassle, and gun stores end up being few and far between, while other places basically just have the Federal minimum in place.
- The alcohol thing is really just an east coast thing, and Utah.

689 comments