Americans, what is something that Europeans have/do that makes no sense to you?
Americans, what is something that Europeans have/do that makes no sense to you?
348 comments
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Why smoking remains so prevalent. I'm sure it's not a majority that smokes, but it is massively more common anywhere I've been in Europe than here in the US. I live in a fairly large city and I will go many days in a row without seeing a single person smoking.
I just don't really get it. It's gross, it smells, it ruins your teeth and your lungs, and it's expensive. Why do it?
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In my case, and this the US, I had friends who smoked.
I was curious, bummed one, and once I got past the coughing I really enjoyed the effects, that said by the time you no longer get the "high" (for lack of a better word) you're addicted.
Fast forward 20 years and I'm still trying to quit.
Quit for 5 years cold turkey, but... Shit went down in almost every facet of my life, and I went back.
But I'm down to about a pack a week.
One in the morning, one on the road to work, and one or two during my shift if time allows.
Just need to kick it for good.
Edit: To correct typos
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Hey dude, I believe in you. You can do it again and do it for good! Don't give up.
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It's not necessarily that smoking is a larger percentage of the population. It varies, but stats show a similar percentage more or less... it is a bit higher in Europe on average than in the US on average — but both places are large with varied amounts of smokers. It's more that people are outside near each other more in Europe.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/smoking-rates-by-country
In Europe they're walking down the street, sitting outdoors at cafes, hanging out in the city center, etc. Whereas in the US, people are often driving from place to place to go to a destination, so you don't notice the smoking as much. Plus, smoking sections are a concept that exists in the US (even outside), whereas they don't in Europe. Thankfully, in much of the US and EU, most places are finally non-smoking indoors now.
This is a gross overgeneralization. It's different in different parts of the US and different parts of Europe, of course.
(FWIW: I totally agree with you that it's gross. And it's far too common to run into in Europe.)
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Why smoking remains so prevalent. I’m sure it’s not a majority that smokes, but it is massively more common anywhere I’ve been in Europe than here in the US. I live in a fairly large city and I will go many days in a row without seeing a single person smoking.
I just don’t really get it. It’s gross, it smells, it ruins your teeth and your lungs, and it’s expensive. Why do it?
this is the same in asia. sometimes people don't even smoke, they just smoke because their boss does it and they do it to fit in at work. it's really awful.
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Not the case in northern Europe by the way. I'm just as shocked when visiting countries in mid/south Europe
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It’s way too broad a comparison. In my North Eastern US state, encountering smokers isn’t that common because it’s illegal inside and anywhere near a door. So to smoke, you have to pretty much hide. And it’s become uncommon enough, smoking makes you a pariah so people seem to be breaking the official rules less often as time goes on due to social pressure more than fear of enforcement. We were out at a bar the other day and a guy smoked on the patio and it very much stood out. You could feel the vitriol for this guy in the atmosphere and after a minute he walked in to the parking lot looking embarrassed. Not that long ago a waitress would have brought him an ash tray.
But go to Kentucky, there’s no rules about smoking anywhere. Last time I was there, we went to a grocery store with an ashtray between isles. Every building we went in to smelled like the 80s.
These are both the USA. And then in Europe, you do have countries like Bulgaria, Turkey, and Greece where more than 25% of the country smokes, which is higher than anywhere in the US. But then you have Sweden with only 6% and Norway with 7% which is a little bit better than anywhere in the US.
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It really depends on the area, in some places smoking isnt really normalized anymore, in some places its the norm
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In the USA less than 9% of the population smokes now. It's probably around ~7% at this point. It's crazy that we keep putting out laws like it's a massive issue. The reality is alcoholism is way worse than it's ever been yet it's still allowed to advertise on the TV and they can sell fruity flavors...but think of the children when it comes to tobacco...
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I'm hesitant to spin valid concerns about alcohol into de-vilification of smoking. They are both vices, both unhealthy, both dangerous to the user and those around them for different reasons.
So yeah, it's valid to say we ignore the dangers of alcohol. But also yes, we should "think of the children" when it comes to tobacco.
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There are laws against smoking in public places and cigarettes are expensive. Those who smoke are in it for themselves, not a European thing.
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It's definitly a thing in some places. I travel a lot between Switzerland and Germany and the difference in how much public smoking there is, is quite extreme.
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I'm not at a level of expertise where I can say for sure how much of an effect they've had, but part of the resolution of that lawsuit in the US where it was determined that the tobacco industry knew tobacco was addictive and caused cancer was that the industry had to establish a fund that was earmarked for anti-smoking advertisements. Those commercials by the Truth Initiative warning kids about the dangers of nicotine? At least partially funded by big tobacco.
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Why do they not want to go bankrupt from major health issues?
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I was listening a podcast about cancer patient in France.
One talk was about the fact that the surgeon was planning on removing the breast tumor AND do the reconstruction directly after.
Except that by doing that the operation would have cost more than what the national social security covers, so it meant a big premium for the patient.
The "big" premium they were taking about was 600€ which is obviously outrageous. To make a cancer patient spend this much money on a life saving procedure.
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The "big" premium they were taking about was 600€ which is obviously outrageous. To make a cancer patient spend this much money on a life saving procedure.
European here: I agree with this being outrageous. It's not about the money, it's about being a civilised society.
Now hospital parking on the other hand...
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We do have some steep copayments for some treatments as well. For example, if I had to go to the hospital for a month I'd have to pay about 1000 EUR myself.
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hospital for a month I'd have to pay about 1000 EUR myself.
300 here.
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Depends on the country. There are countries where everything is covered.
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Monarchy. It's the 21st Century and y'all still pay people to live a lavish lifestyle because they are distantly related to some warlord from the 9th century
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Then again, the people in all countries pay for the lifestyle of the politicians... in addition to the bribes they get for deciding in favor of whichever corporate and/or rich person needs a specific law passed or vetoed.
At least the monarchs do what you pay them for .... entertain you.
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The King in the UK was caught with briefcases full of money declared as a 'donation'. He has also interfered in our politics including encouraging the government to buy ineffective homeopathic 'medicines'. They have also stopped the conviction of serious sex crimes royals have committed. Because the police get the power granted by royalty and can't persecute them.
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Deswegen sind die ja auch nicht in der EU
Lustig, wie jetzt im Bezug auf das Mem sowohl Norwegen als auch Großbritannien nicht in der EU sind.
Edit: Context for those who merely translated, but didn't understand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGlPbphlpBg
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Specific to Germany, but when a second cashier opens up, it's a first come first serve rush for it, rather than letting the person next inline at the original cashier take the first spot in the new one.
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Completely agree. I am German and it's utterly ridiculous.
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Demanding to have another cashier is so rude yet so many do it all the time.
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Hun barbarism! Do Germans not know how to queue?
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They do not
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From what I heard about queueing practices in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia, no, not at all. For example, a long-time queue doesn't need people, it just needs some belongings queued.
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German here, it's slowly getting better. Slowly.
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I belong to neither of these groups. But here goes it.
Europe: when ordering water, I have to specify for it not to have gas (non-carbonated). Also in places like Germany, people drink those before playing football. I don’t understand how you do it or even like it that way.
People in electric scooters are out of control. Specially in Spain. They’re the most egregious when it comes to disrespecting pedestrian crosswalks, dangerous overtaking in bike lanes and all around assholeness. You shouldn’t ride your fucking patinete in a train station crowded with people.
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People from the US: Your tipping culture is out of control. It’s good for outstanding service on certain scenarios. But not for handing me takeout or pulling out a foamy beer from a cooler.
Also , don’t tell newly-aquatinted people from the south that you’re not religious. They’ll try to tell you it’s their duty to save your soul and try to make you go to their religious services, which antagonizes them if you try to set boundaries on your personal beliefs.
Btw. I still like you both.
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Europe: when ordering water, I have to specify for it not to have gas (non-carbonated). Also in places like Germany, people drink those before playing football. I don’t understand how you do it or even like it that way.
I like the taste of TV static. Sue me!
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American here, I saw a tip jar for the cashiers in a flea market yesterday. I completely agree, it's out of control. It would be great if employers would just pay their employees properly instead of asking customers to subsidize wages.
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- No ice in their water or soda
- No refills on fountain drinks
These are the things that stood out to me whenever I have visited.
I spent a good while in Berlin once and one of my favorite restaurants was this Australian themed place by the IMAX theater just because I could get a nice big Diet Coke with ice in it. Their kangaroo sandwich also wasn’t half bad.
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It's a thing cause its not really as normalized, people don't really drink enough to get free refills in some places (although many places have free refills) and people here are generally used to warmer colas, although many people and places do add ice
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No ice is because it's cold as balls here most of the time anyway
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I'm a fucking fiend for ice in my water, like I literally will fill the cup full of ice first, then put water in the space that's left. When I visited Europe it was fucking rough getting used to never having ice. And if you asked for it (which I tried not to do, but I caved a few times) they'd give you like 3 cubes
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Or the fact that you have to pay for fucking water. It's a God damned human right but you have to pay the same for water as any other drink at restaurants in Europe. By the glass. And the glasses hold exactly one to two mouthfulls of water.
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I mean, it might just be a rumor but I hear that instead of being born with arms, Europeans are born with baguette extremities. They nibble on their baguette arms throughout the day, and they grow back while they’re sleeping.
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I mean, the Saudi monarchy has significant pull in every world government.
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we know we have made memes about it
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some of us hate it but unfortunately we're in the minority
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Not that uncommon tbh, in Norway our monarchs are of Danish descent.
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We (NL) have distantly German monarchs. Currently half our Royal Pair is from 🇦🇷 Argentina, which is neat.
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What annoys me more is that they're British (/j). But nah they're hardly foreign it's just like their grandad or great grandad, you could make an equal claim that trump is German I think (off the top of my head).
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I met up for lunch with a buddy and his partner who was visiting from Europe. I mentioned that I drink a lot of water and asked for a refill, they asked if water was free.
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It depends on the country, in Greece it's usually free, maybe in touristy places or if you order bottled water you will be charged, but otherwise most places will give you cold tap water for free.
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We usually don't give out tap water but something pricey like San Pellegrino water.
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I know that a short visit doesnt give great insight into a place, but the following 2 things were very striking to me when visiting:
1 - the smoking.. i found it disturbing just how many people were smoking 2 - the graffiti. I was surprised by just how much graffiti there was. Do people not take pride in their property enough to wash it off? I know Graffiti is common everywhere, but it seemed to be on a whole other level in europe.. like it wasnt just on the back alleys, but on the front facades of buildings too. The front door of one of my airbnbs was covered in graffiti.
There was 1 thing though that was totally the opposite though & made total sense... the dual function windows (where you turn the handle 1 way to open them like a door & another way to lean them in to provide ventilation. These were everywhere & i found them to be the most functional thing ever! I wish they would catch on in the usa.. with that said, the first time i discovered this functionality, it was accidental. I panicked as i thought i broke the window lol.
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The graffiti thing kills me. Washing it off is a waste, it will be vandalised again quickly. Think this way, repaint properly a wall takes time and money, to draw a cartoonishly large cock takes seconds and costs pennies. So many places chose to allow selected artists do some good stuff as it’s a better deterrent.
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The smoking absolutely kills me, as someone with asthma who has gotten very used to the fact that most things in the US are non-smoking now. It felt like there was a cloud of smoke basically everywhere I went in France and, to a lesser extent, England.
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No disabled access almost everywhere, even in newer buildings.
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This is one thing I think America has done right, the ADA is so nice for people with disabilities. I want everyone to be able to experience everything so having the ADA being strong is perfectly okay with me. And I think both sides agree, everyone will get old someday!
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Bear in mind, this is relatively recent in the US too. It's culturally connected with both the civil rights movement of the 1950s-1960s, and to the respect that Americans (sometimes) express for war veterans.
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This really depends on the place, but yeah some places have pretty awful mobility, like there's a path next to my house with stairs and no ramp on it
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Inwinder where in Europe it's like this. Where I've been most places are accessible
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It largely depends on the European nation. Even as a non-native, I don't tend to lump them all in one judgment, just as Europeans shouldn't lump all Americans in one judgment. Every American state is different. Reply to this comment with a European country and I'll share the thing about it that I understand the least.
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That's what I'm saying, the UK and Bosnia for example are very different places
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Belgium
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As a Dutch person, a bit off topic, but some truth in television that I found funny:
The Belgians' relationship with fries.
Last summer I was at a former military camp in the German hills, managed by Belgium when it was still operational, and we had a Belgian tour guide who'd served in the camp when it was active. He joked that the Belgian conscripts serving in that camp still got fries thrice a week, or they'd have a riot.
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The lack of a feeling of equal opportunity the secessionists all have for each other. If one group has the right to leave, I'd think all do.
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Czechlands.
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The thing I understood the least about the Czechlands is why Czechoslovakia didn't have one identity (for a lack of a better way to put it). Like it always seemed like a compound of two places, as opposed to a singular distinct body.
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How do they put up with the lack of mass shootings ?
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Growing up without the adrenaline rush when crossing school’s gates is indeed a tragedy. Heckin boring
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Yeah wheres the excitement
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It's like the abortion lottery with the most corrupted poor States working hard to enslave women's bodies to their institutionalized meat lottery of school shootings and miserable impoverished existence all to feed the insatiable appetite of the parasitic billionaires. How can those Europeans really live without getting to experience the Grand Republican Hunger Games.
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Self defense laws are pretty weird in Europe. I am spoiled on our second amendment laws, so let my bias be noted.
However, some guy can break into your house and if you defend yourself with a bat or knife, the laws there from what I hear (this isn't fact, I could be mistaken) can get you in trouble with the law. I remember reading that somewhere.
Sure it's like that in the US too but there are many protections for those who clearly have acted in self defense.
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I think the difference is welf defense in Europe is defending your person, not your property. If someone breaks in, you don't have the right to hurt them. You call the police. If they were trying to attack you or you alerting them to your presence makes them come for you, then of course you can defend yourself.
Self defence is just that. Defence of the self.
One thing that your 2a right also means is that your criminals are likely to be armed. Ours are less likely to be and certainly much less likely for petty crime. The police in Ireland, for instanc, don't carry guns.
If someone breaks into my house. I'm not approaching them with hugs. I'm calling the police and grabbing a golf club or poker or similar.
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This guy is extremely conservative and a former cop. (He doesn't fly his politics, but you can tell.) He has testified in dozens of deadly force trials as an expert witness. Here's what he has to say about defending property. Very eye opening.
“In the anti-gun Spokane newspaper, internet comments indicated that many people had the clueless idea that Gerlach had shot the man – in the back – to stop the thief from stealing his car. One idiot wrote in defense of doing such, “That ‘inert property’ as you call it represents a significant part of a man’s life. Stealing it is the same as stealing a part of his life. Part of my life is far more important than all of a thief’s life.”
Analyze that statement. The world revolves around this speaker so much that a bit of his life spent earning an expensive object is worth “all of (another man’s) life.” Never forget that, in this country, human life is seen by the courts as having a higher value than what those courts call “mere property,” even if you’re shooting the most incorrigible lifelong thief to keep him from stealing the Hope Diamond. A principle of our law is also that the evil man has the same rights as a good man. Here we have yet another case of a person dangerously confusing “how he thinks things ought to be” with “how things actually are.”
As a rule of thumb, American law does not justify the use of deadly force to protect what the courts have called “mere property.” In the rare jurisdiction that does appear to allow this, ask yourself how the following words would resonate with a jury when uttered by plaintiff’s counsel in closing argument: “Ladies and gentlemen, the defendant has admitted that he killed the deceased over property. How much difference is there in your hearts between the man who kills another to steal that man’s property, and one who kills another to maintain possession of his own? Either way, he ended a human life for mere property!” ― Massad Ayoob, Deadly Force - Understanding Your Right To Self Defense
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Self defense is of course allowed, but only so far as to prevent harm. It also needs to be adequate to prevent the harm the attacker tried to inflict. So shooting someone who entered isn't okay, you could've just held the gun at them. Which isn't relevant cause you don't have a gun and neither do they, most likely.
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Man catchers should become more common.
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Same bias as yourself. I find it stunning that the British police are so proud of the pocketknives they confiscate.
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Why some of them seem downright gleeful about every American shortcoming or perceived shortcoming.
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- Because its funny
- Gives a sense of superiority
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It's because you believe yourselves to be the supreme master race.
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No we don't lol
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Nah, just the loud idiots who get all the attention. Most of us realize how unspecial we are in the grand scheme of things.
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Half of these posts are just inverse statements trying to shit on America. Very boring.
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That raises a good question relevant to the post. Why is xenophobia so acceptable? Many seem eager to be prejudiced, especially if it makes them feel superior.
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When its in response to Americans I'd say it's probably influenced by having to put up with our decades of espousing american exceptionalism and our tendency to not care to learn it respect the traditions and cultural norms of the places we visit. It's probably not the best behavior but it's kinda understandable why they might have specific negativity towards the people that have spent so long loudly proclaiming how great they are.
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It's not really xenophobia as much as just blowing off steam about frustrations with many Americans who think that their country still is NUMBER ONE BABY, YEEEAAAAAHHH FLEXES MUSCLES GROPES SECRETARY
I actually had to deal with a guy literally like that here in Mexico.
I know not all Americans are like that. I know America is a great country. I also know that America has a shit tonne of VERY shitty yet VERY preventable issues.
Healthcare: should be universal but still destroys lives.
Education: the best and a lot of the worst yuou can get. Let's allow companies and churches to dictate what's being taught in our schools, sex baaaad, oil gooooood.
Poverty: Richies getting richer and poorer getting poorer. Let's not tax the rich, it'll trickle down!
Safety: children requiring bullet proof vests in school over "let's restrict or outright ban guns"
Racism: do I even need to put something here?
Safety: let's not train police at all, or ifwe do, train them with pseudo scientific bullshit. Let's hire racists and protect all of them even if they cross the line. What could go wrong?
Politics: "winner takes all" makes you country sway all over the place, getting more extreme with each move. each new president cuts the crap from the previous and it looks like every time a democrat slowly makes the country nicer and then a republican throws it off a cliff, rinse and repeat.
I could go on for a while but most other civilized counties don't have a list his huge at this level. Yet Americans keep shouting "WE NUMBER ONE BABY!"
Reminds me of this: https://youtu.be/z2HKbygLjJs?si=HJEdvGkcCCVMhPHq
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Its a kind of cultural thing really, doesn't make sense to me either
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Why do you have so many measurement units for car engine power?
Like, with HP and kW is enough.
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PS is Pferdestärke, which is just horsepower in German. I think CH is the same in French, and CV... Italian? So maybe the other ones also all mean HP. I don't know why they put all of them there, but maybe it's because since it's not a SI unit, there is no official abbreviation everyone knows.
Edit: Just looked it up and I was wrong, they are actually different units, even though horse related. Even HP (747.7 W) and PS (735.5 W) are slightly different. What a mess, that's why we need SI units.
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Well, I just ended up looking up horse power. So there's metric horse power, mechanical horse power, brake horse power. Most of the ones in your picture are some kind of horse power.
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For starters, I couldn't find any bugles. But I did spend a month or two over there and a few hotels had these weird showers where there was only a half pane of protection abridged to the wall. So the shower head pointed away from the coverage and there was no curtain! Every shower seemed to be just flooding the bathroom and not be in the tub. Either that or I'm an idiot. I will equally accept both scenarios
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I couldn't find any bugles
The bastards stopped selling them in Canada too.
I miss my crunchy finger hats.
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Several hotels just have poorly "designed" bathrooms. Often it's more like they tried to fit the current style somehow into the existing rooms.
When done correctly, water will stay in a certain area without sprinkling or even flooding everything else.
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Can you find an example picture of the shower situation? I'm intrigued.
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Sounds like they're describing this kind of thing:
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There's loads of Bugles everywhere I've been, we even have stuff to put in them.
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More specifically Nordic countries I guess, but surstromming. I understand even amongst them it's a niche delicacy but just fermented gelatinous fish doesn't sound like something that would be enjoyable to eat.
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Yeah there's lots of things that were originally done to survive and are now a popular dish, like in Poland cabbage and potato is used a lot since it was easy to grow
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That's not "Nordic countries", that is just Sweden.
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I'm not American but i've worked in Western Europe. I don't know why but there seems to be a lot of taxes for everything. You have to get govt permission for everything. People seem to rely on the govt to provide things rather than have some agencies fill niches that aren't filled by the govt (for example I saw signs like don't help homeless people, the govt is helping them).
I'm from an Asian country, we don't have much tax, we don't rely on the govt for anything (we can't), and we have many NGOs. I think it's similar in America.
As an Asian, there are a few things I can note about Europeans.
- Europeans seem to have lost their sense of traditions, to me as an Asian it doesn't make sense since keeping our traditions and values is a huge part of our culture and society.
- Europeans also accept blame for bad things they did in the past (which is a good thing) but I think they can go overboard to compensate for that (to their detriment). I don't think accepting blame for things in the past is a thing that's done in Asia; we rewrite history instead. It would help if we acknowledged what we did and can have better relations with others moving forward.
- Europeans identify more with nationality than ethnicity. For example, someone from Czech Republic moving to France is considered French. In North America I think they would be considered Czech-French. In Asia they would be considered to be a Czech expat living in France. Our ethnicity matters a lot.
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People seem to rely on the govt to provide things rather than have some agencies fill niches that aren't filled by the govt (for example I saw signs like don't help homeless people, the govt is helping them). I'm from an Asian country, we don't have much tax, we don't rely on the govt for anything (we can't), and we have many NGOs.
Most (but not all!) Europeans consider NGOs to be undemocratic, whereas the government is (theoretically at least) under democratic control.
Europeans identify more with nationality than ethnicity. For example, someone from Czech Republic moving to France is considered French. In North America I think they would be considered Czech-French. In Asia they would be considered to be a Czech expat living in France. Our ethnicity matters a lot.
But at what point would you stop doing so? I'm Dutch yet can trace back my ancestry to the 16th century in Belgium and northern France, what ethnicity do I have? And some have an even longer and more dispersed pedigree.
Also, you gave the example of French but what is now called France was made up from a large variety of ethnicities. Being French then is not defined as being a particular ethnicity but as belonging to the French Republic. It's a cultural thing that matters a lot to them.
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what does it mean that europeans consider NGOs to be undemocratic?
if your ancestry is from belgium/north france then you would be belgian/french with dutch nationality. I suppose when we refer to France we mean French before the 19th century immigration.
It differs a bit where I'm from. I have a friend from Malaysia who identifies as "Tamil-Malaysian" (Tamil being the ethnic group and Malaysian being the country). In HK we have a lot of ethnic minorities. Speaking frankly, if you look chinese, you would be considered HKer right off the bat, if you look any other skin colour (white, other asian, etc) you will be considered a foreigner living in HK even if your family has been there for generations. Here is a video i found as an example where some Indians who were born and raised in HK struggle to be seen as HKer
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- Most European countries are EXTREMELY conservative culturally. They are very concerned about preserving “tradition”. Specially in Southern and Easter Europe. Even Germans listen mostly to German music, French to French music etc.
- Talk to an avarage Portuguese or Dutch about colonialism… see how much they “regret” or “accept the blame” for the shit they did.
- Most countries in Europe are not mono-ethnical, and haven’t been for a long time, like hundreds and hundreds of years. This is also true of Asia in some parts, but mostly Asia has a lot of mono-ethnicity countries. Your example of France, it’s had the Bretons, Basque, Occitan, “French”, Belgians, Flemish and Germans since it’s inception as a country. It was born as a nation by subduing those identities for French maximalism. The same for Italy, Spain, Germany etc etc.
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Talk to an avarage Portuguese or Dutch about colonialism… see how much they “regret” or “accept the blame” for the shit they did.
Dutch here. Yeah, nah, we don't. Maybe some lip service is being made towards the descendants of enslaved peoples in Surinam, but otherwise not really.
When I was young the period when the Dutch VOC flowered was taught as having been a really good thing, something that we could be proud of; the fact that this was accompanied by more than one episode of mass murder was entirely glossed over. I'm pretty sure it's still mostly like that.
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- Most European countries are EXTREMELY conservative culturally. They are very concerned about preserving “tradition”. Specially in Southern and Easter Europe. Even Germans listen mostly to German music, French to French music etc.
Definitely not true for Germany.
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Tiny things, like tiny doorknobs, tiny stairs cases, tiny doors, tiny houses, tiny cars, and a tiny say in government legislation, etc.
And all the smoking! Eek. And we thought we had a drug problem in the USA. I've never seen so many people addicted to nicotine in my life when I've been there. It's everywhere. No thank you, I don't want to inhale nasty odor while eating my lunch. Jeez, WTF?
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The rest I understand, but tiny doorknobs and tiny say in legislation? Can you elaborate? I thought door knobs were a US thing and Europe had mostly handles. And what is different in terms of say in government? Do you mean the states' direct democratic votes?
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a tiny say in government legislation, etc.
wat
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And we thought we had a drug problem in the USA.
I'd rather have smokers than opioid addicts, but to each their own
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I can't think of anywhere in Europe where it is legal to smoke in restaurants.
Also the rest of your descriptions sound not based on actual personal experience but on memes from the internet.
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Tbh I’d rather have a nicotine problem than a crack problem. Never seen so many crackheads than in the US. It seems to be also quite a problem in the UK/Ireland, but in France it’s really uncommon. There are a few places in Paris but that’s about it.
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Something that always stands out to me is the roll-down window coverings. It's not that they don't make sense to me. In fact, they could be very advantageous here in the US in rough areas. It's just that they are everywhere including in seemingly low crime areas in Europe. Someone could make a killing here in the states marketing these things.
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It's usually not for security but for insulation. External cover with the window behind is the best possible cover against the sun, and it's also good against the cold. It covers sound too.
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In my area we use them mostly to keep the sun out. It's getting less effective with climate change so most of my neighbours have been installing air-conditioning as well, at least for the bedroom.
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They are not common everywhere in Europe sadly! But they are not just for protection, they are also used instead of thick curtains for darkening the room (my gut feeling tells me that they are more common in the southern European countries).
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I worked for a European smarthome company trying to expand into North America, and I put quite a bit of effort into selling the concept to Americans.
External shades and shutters are easier to install, easier to hardwire (no batteries or remotes requires), they save significant energy because they keep the sun outside of the glass, and they can be automated to track the sun throughout the day. Internal motorized shades all suck for the same reason, because they have to be whisper quiet and wireless.
The biggest hurdle is the frequency with which Americans buy and sell homes. Hardwired automated anything is a permanent installation, while every realtor in America will tell you to remove window treatments when selling because buyers might not like the fabric. Europeans tend to live in their homes much longer, and don't buy and sell homes like hermit crabs changing shells.
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That explanation actually makes so much sense. I've always wondered why shutters aren't a thing in the US.
In Europe (at least southern Europe), because every house has shutters, they're just not seen as something you personally own or that you find ugly/needs replacing. When you move houses you're just moving to another house with shutters so it's not even a factor you think about.
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How much they personally hate/dislike us.
- They've seen too many movies and make unfair assumptions about us and then judge us? Idk.
How racist they are but have no idea they are.
- They ridicule the US for our own brand of terrible racism but seem to be clueless that they and their government have their own vicious and oppressive racism.
How stuck in tradition they are.
- I feel like I don't see a lot of progress in construction, culinary arts, or caste systems (to name a few).
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I have to kind of disagree with the last point. We have no caste systems, culinary arts are pretty non important, and usually if people want something new they will go to a specialized restaurant. How did the USA change their culinary arts in the past 30 years?
Construction, it did change, and it is constantly changing. We used to use just bricks, now we use porous concrete, and wooden is becoming interesting aswell. We are not building skyscrapers because they are ugly.
Or am I wrong? I am from Czechia.
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I've literally never once met any single person that "hated" Americans, and everyone who's ever met an American says they're lovely, just like us
The best theory we can come up with is that Americans are taught from a young age that their country is the best, and no-one should be allowed to say otherwise. Hence, even the slightest criticism is seen as hate.
Europeans, however, are raised on the belief that self-deprecation is a fuckin art
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I've only been to Germany (and technically Ireland but I was just changing planes there) and didn't really find anything to be too weird or different than what I know of living in California. The biggest thing was just how all the normal shops and restaurants closed fairly early (like 6pm) and there was a red light district that opened up around that time. They even had the thing where some of the establishments had naked dancing women in the windows so you can see them from the street. I never actually went in, but I walked the whole block nearly every night when I was there at 19 years old.
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I grew up in Alaska. I live in Germany.
- Germans think air conditioning makes people sick - not because it could be dirty if poorly maintained, but because the chilled air will do... something.
- German cars can't be locked with the driver's door open; German apartments can't be unlocked if the door is closed.
- German tap water is both palatable and safe to drink; almost everyone drinks bottled water.
- In grocery stores, most Germans try to pack the conveyor belt at the checkout as tightly as possible and crowd the next person in line, as if space on the belt isn't a renewable resource.
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German cars can't be locked with the driver's door open
This is becoming increasingly common is cars produced around the world. I'm a huge fan of it, personally.
German apartments can't be unlocked if the door is closed
I have no idea what this means. Wouldn't the door always be closed if it's locked?
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Being unable to lock the car door while it's open contributed to a German car I owned in the USA being stolen. A family member thought the lock was broken and left it unlocked.
Wouldn’t the door always be closed if it’s locked?
I meant the inverse; if the door is closed, it cannot be opened from the outside without a key. American doors typically have a turnable doorknob on the outside and can be opened without a key unless deliberately locked.
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While I agree it’s way better than the US on this matter, it’s really not that simple at all lol
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Wrong post. Reread the question. And you aren't European.
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In Germany, you can be driving straight down a road and someone can pull out onto the road from a turn and you have to yield to them. It seems extremely dangerous. Also, stop lights are directly above you, instead of across the street so if you’re looking at the stop light you can’t really pay attention very well to the traffic in the intersection.
A lot of stuff makes a lot more sense but these two things seem illogical to me.
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The stoplight thing is social engineering. They do it so that you're incentivised to stop where you're supposed to, not halfway into the intersection
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I live in Germany and I have no idea what you're talking about for the first thing, maybe you mean yield-to-right in unmarked intersections or the priority road system? I'm not really sure. In either case you are just mentally inserting yield signs based on standard rules.
The stoplight thing I feel in my soul though. The amount of times I've had to stare out my sunroof to see the light above me because I stopped on the line instead of 20 feet before it.
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This might be radical, but the way they view rights when compared to Americans. Europeans believe their rights are given to them by their government, and that the government can give our take them as they see fit, while Americans view their rights as immutable freedoms given to them simply for existing.
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Imagine saying ideologies are too simplistic and ridiculous and then coming up with: "How about we just make lots of smol countries big?".
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Calling fries chips and chips crisps and cookies biscuits. So weird....
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that's mostly exclusive to the uk
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Chips? Fries are patat or friet here, depending on whether you're a heretic.
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For as much shit as you give Americans for using imperial measurements, why are you still using old units of time (seconds, minutes, and hours)? Shouldn't you have come up with something based on water by now that is divisible by 100s? At this point, it just feels disingenuous giving an American shit about "freedom units" when you're walking around talking about hours that were defined by the Babylonians 5,000 years ago.
Honestly, get your shit together.
Edit: lol Europeans woke up angry
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Shouldn’t you have come up with something based on water by now that is divisible by 100s?
Well no, we just adpoted the second in the SI system. The definition it's not based on water, but caesium.
The second [...] is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the caesium frequency, ΔνCs, the unperturbed ground-state hyperfine transition frequency of the caesium 133 atom, to be 9192631770 when expressed in the unit Hz, which is equal to s−1
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Exactly. Just as every kid learns in kindergarten. A kilogram is the weight of 1,000 cubic cms of water. A liter is the volume of 1 kilogram of water. And a second is the fixed numerical value of the caesium frequency, ΔνCs, the unperturbed ground-state hyperfine transition frequency of the caesium 133 atom, to be 9192631770 when expressed in the unit Hz, which is equal to s−1.
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There were a few attempts to make metric time. Revolutionary France tried it and Swatch Internet Time was an attempt by a Swiss watch company during early internet days, honestly it was probably a promo stunt rather than an earnest attempt, but a few things supported it, including PHP and the MMO Phantasy Star Online.
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Metric time for the win.
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This guy gets it
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there's picoseconds and there's knots
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Never heard of microseconds, nanoseconds, picoseconds etc? It's almost as if a second is a metric measurement of time. Going the other way you get kiloseconds.
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Oh sweet, my GPS tells me to turn right in 0.3 miles all the time. Didn't realize that was the definition of metric. Also seems like you're conveniently ignoring minutes and hours.
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