Europeans, what is something that Americans have/do that makes no sense to you?

Between the two there is a big difference:

One is a profession that can be a particularly dangerous way of life. Orders from above put you into place far from support, with limited resources, often in contact with hostiles on a daily basis. You're often left to fend for yourself with only what you have on you against overwhelming odds. Command structures often pit you against your peers in petty internal politics around rank. The pay isn't great, and those that stick with it for the long haul to make a lifetime of it often leave scared and mentally injured. It can be a thankless job in putting your life and health on the line to achieve the overall goal.

The other profession usually involves wearing a uniform and enforcing USA's geopolitical interests in other countries.

As an American, it confuses me as well

Soldiers and patriotism...

id argue that that's not true but my roommate and his friend made me watch 30+ minutes of commentated (by my friends) WW2 footage. i had to be like "hey man with all due respect i get the appeal I think but im not really interested in the glorification of something this horrific im sorry." they were understanding but that level of interest in something so bleek was crazy.

also they were using WW2 japenese slurs and saying id walk up to that if i were there. and im like NO THE FUCK YOU WOULDNT you wouldnt even make it out of the armored car that took you there bud. people are not as badass as they think they are and soldiers arent badass they just want to see their families again we dont have to cheer them on like the opposing side doesnt also just wanna go home to their families.

ugh

While travelling in the states, I was so perplexed to see that in some car parks where you'd expect to see disabled parking that there were parking spots for veterans.

We do that because our country is founded on the "right" for moneymakers to put as much onto the customer as they can get away with. Hence things like tipping culture.

I think the toilet wall thing is because we have an expectation that every public building must have public toilets available. Places don’t want you to fuck or shoot up in the bathrooms, so they make them un-private so you hurry the hell up and leave. It’s a bit of hostile architecture, like making park benches that you can’t lie down on to keep people from trying to sleep on them. Make the “undesirables” uncomfortable enough and maybe they’ll go be undesirable somewhere else. Meanwhile it’s just a little bit less nice for everyone else as well.

I've seen this conversation many times on Reddit, and from what people say I assume there is a regional thing going on on. I'm from a part of the US where toilet stalls do not have massive gaps. There is a big gap at the bottom but too low for anyone to be seeing under unless they are crawling on the floor. Gaps along the sides are quite narrow. 1 cm at most, and nothing anyone is going to be seeing you through unless they are some kind of freak putting their eye right up to it. These stalls are prefab panels you can easily put into a room. The gaps mean ventilation for the room takes care the stalls too.

I assume stalls started this way and became normalized, and in some parts of the country they've gotten sloppier, and sloppier, and normalized these huge gaps I hear people describe but never see.

This might be my bias, but I assume these are the places where everything is a suburban stripmall wasteland, where there are no sidewalks, and where it seems to me the whole environment is increasingly dehumanized.

The US doesn't have a VAT, but a sales tax on final sale of a good. Not only that, but states, counties, and cities can issue their own sales tax on sales within their borders. There are also cases where sales tax isn't charged at the register. In the end, it is easier for companies to just charge the tax at the end, so they do.

They don't represent anyone's interests except their own.

Two party system is great for polarizing the society.

More precisely: The reason for the two party system: FPTP voting. The Brits do the same shit, and have the same problems.

The way it feels now (more cult-like than political and representing the populace) automatically and unavoidably stems from this FPTP issue. It automatically reduces the whole field to a reduced number of options, and while each reduction step takes longer than the last, this will ultimativley lead to a one-party state. It's not a question of IF, it's a question of WHEN and the REP program for 2025 to basically turn the government upside down to get unbeatable is trying to achieve this very single party state.

Two parties that are, if I'm not mistaken, the Right and the Rightest.

Didn't the USA see any leftist ideology as radical?

We technically have more than 2; but nobody ever votes for the other parties, and the other parties are almost never given the opportunity to debate or have big ad campaigns. 🤷🏻‍♂️

And to be fair: Some of those other parties are even more narrow minded than the two big ones.

The two party system isn’t really codified in law, it’s just kind of a side-effect of the way we vote and the way government is organized. Due to those two things, it’s hard to change.

It's an inevitable conclusion of our winner take all voting system. "The man with the most votes wins." If 4 candidates run, and they get 22% 22% 16% and 40% of the vote, the man with 40% of the vote wins the race, and 60% of the population didn't get the candidate they voted for.

Now imagine you've got a red, orange, green and blue party. Orange voters get together and decide "You know, the Red party's platform is pretty similar to ours, what if we didn't run a candidate next time and instead encouraged our voters to vote for the Red candidate instead? The blue candidate won with 40% of the vote, but our two parties put together would have 44%.

In the next election with three candidates, the red candidate wins 44% to 40%, prompting a similar conversation at the Green party headquarters. Soon enough there are two parties.

We're one of if not the oldest representative democracy in the world today; our constitution is 250 years old, there's some old bugs still in the code base.

Jokes on you, in the end they both represent the same interests

Basically because we were early adopters to modern republic systems. We tried something new because parliament was a bit too kingy for our tastes. But due to its simplicity it became really easy for two parties to wipe the floor with everyone else. And basically the only times they’ve changed was at the start and again shortly before our civil war. Neither party has ever had good reason to change the system, which would require massive agreement to change our constitution. So nobody does.

For example, politically I’m a syndicalist, but the democrats are pro union, pro environment, pro woman, and pro lgbt, all of which with a big asterisk but still I consistently vote for them because the greens didn’t win with Nader so they’re definitely going to lose now. So I dutifully vote Democrat because the only other party that has a chance is the republicans and they hate me and everything I believe in.

If we could do it again we’d do it better but in our defense we didn’t really have anyone to model off of

American here. Hate it, hate it, hate it.

As an American, I find it amazing that countries can have more than two active parties but also have a plurality voting system.

First Past the Post voting makes it more likely: https://youtu.be/s7tWHJfhiyo?si=X-8oz1K6iYxKhBeB

Puritans for the latter.

Bribery / slavery for the former.

While having a huge porn industry.

We have tipping in Europe, but that's mostly only done if you have a very good experience, not because you are expected to. Just pay your employees.

Keeping your gun accessible when driving your car. Needing or wanting to open carry when you go shopping. Needing to pose with your family all holding powerful guns for a Christmas photo. I don’t get it.

A modern analog I like is to high grade digital encryption.

Terrorists and criminals use it, and governments want to ban it. But that doesn't actually mean it should be banned, or that people who oppose a ban are terrorists or criminals.

Guns are the only reliable way to deal with tyrants. And while its not everytime, look at what happens to disarmed populations usually.

Also gun control started as and still is racist.

What about it? Going to go bang, explosions are fun. Shooting people bad. What else did you want to know?

-signed Bleeding heart lefty with a gun

Oh it's terrifying.

You should not compare that to employment as it is known in other countries.

Rather compare it to slavery. Doesn't it look better now? ;-)

The flip side is we can quit at anytime.

I guess that also makes it somewhat easier to get hired though? You can give your employees a chance without thinking too much about it, and if they suck just fire them.

For the most part, in my experience, don't be a fuck up and you won't get fired. Every company I've ever worked for has had very strict rules about firing people, It can take months for someone to get fired for anything short of violence, theft, or sexual harassment.

No one in a real city or suburb is driving 40 minutes to get groceries in the US.

lol that's fair. But also, the there's a cyclical relationship between suburbs and grocers. If you build suburbs, the grocers arrive. Where there are grocers, people might live and form suburbs. You really only have to "drive 40 minutes to get groceries" if you're waaaaaaaaaaaaay out in the sticks. Or, and I'm sorry to say it, what's more likely, is you live in a dense, urban area and are very near groceries, but can't afford a vehicle to get there directly, and so you've got to walk to the bus stop and wait for the bus to come around. This could definitely total 40 minutes to go get some eggs and milk. It's a fucking tragedy.

Grocery is always 5 minutes away in the suburbs. I think you underestimate the amount of stores

American here. I hate this too. I am a proponent of convenient walking locations and far better public transportation, and it doesn't look like America's gonna give a damn about those in my lifetime.

I think the thing is, in America people aren't required to register their residence with the government. At least here in Austria, we are, and that doubles as voter registration if we are eligible to vote. So there is voter registration here too, but it is compulsory.

It’s since the elections are state run, so there’s no central db. Once you register though your electoral experience is a state by state crapshoot.

Some will make you stand in line for hours forcing you to miss work, others do mail-in ballots with early voting which is kind of awesome.

oh I know we don't do it on Sunday. America was so spread out that it took days to get into and kind of town. So you go to church on Sunday then travel on the on Sunday/Monday and and vote on Tuesday.

ID card? But what about non-white people? /s

The EC is a mechanism to make the Presidential election less democratic.

Supreme Court Justices aren't elected at all. The President nominates a judge and the Senate votes to approve that person for the post.

FTtP voting is bad. It's just awful. The more you understand it the clearer that becomes.

Healthcare... no cap, we don't understand it, either. It's a mess.

Supreme Court justices aren’t elected.

The Electoral College exists because it was never the intent for the President to be elected by the public. It sticks around because changing it requires changing the Constitution, and a majority of states benefit from the status quo.

How any judge is just elected…

I remember hearing that Europe doesn't use drywall nearly as much. A benefit of drywall is cost and repairability, but is basically glorified paper, yes.

The benefit of stick frame houses is that they can be built quickly, comparatively cheaply, and actually perform much better than other types in hurricane and tornados. The US also has plenty of domestic wood production, so it's the cheapest material to build with. During the housing boom and suburban sprawl of the 50s (where modern American culture started), where everyone wanted their own house and plot of land in rhe "safe suburbs," these were all desirable.

As for the "why don't you build out of brick and stone," it's not like someone would be better off with a stone house in the event of a natural disaster or fire. Even if the structure was still standing, the damage to the foundation would condemn the house under US building code. And now not only does your insurance have to pay to build a new house, it has to pay to have the old one tore down.

Where does this come from. All Euro houses made out of harden steel and concrete?

German here. The shoe one is worse.

Shoes in the house is very regional. I live in Colorado and everyone takes off their shoes just inside the door when visiting. The only exception would be like if someone came to deliver a piece of furniture or something where they need foot protection. Maybe it’s more common where it doesn’t ever snow, to leave them on?

Also Canadian, and never understood it - but in thinking, are there any Canadian shows that show the people in their own house without shoes on?

Canadian too, I wear my shoes inside. I don't have kids, and I don't roll around on the floor, so why would I care?

They're Florida Ounces

Come visit the UK. We have fluid ounces too, but only for baking. Your drink will be served by the millilitre, unless it's beer in a pub, or milk in a home, in which case it will be served by the pint.

A shot? An eighth of a cup? Sixteenth of a pint? I mean, I get it. Metric is standard, but of all the units to pick on, the fluid ounce is probably one of our more reasonable measurements. We have acres of less-intuitive units.

That sounds like slang term for a boger.

It doesn't really matter, does it? Just look at the mL.

Flounces are the best part of US Customary units. It's all base 2/8/16, which is a hell of a lot more sensible than base 10 units.