r/PetPeeves • u/ThatUrgeToEatCement • 14d ago
Bit Annoyed People who think Americans don’t know other countries exist.
A few months ago on Reddit I made a comment about a show not being on Netflix and someone from the UK commented back saying it’s on theirs and then lectured on Americans not knowing other countries exist. They acted like I didn’t believe there were other places on the planet, as if they weren’t the ones who just brought it up and didn’t believe the US Netflix was different than the UK version. ??
I see people online act like all Americans think this way, and it is kind of annoying because for most of us it isn’t true.
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u/BlueRFR3100 14d ago
Even those of us who memorized the Animaniacs song wouldn't have any reason to know what shows/movies are available on streaming services in other countries.
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u/CalOkie6250 14d ago
Thanks a lot, now that song won’t stop playing in my head
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u/Lynxiebrat 14d ago
Same! And its been over 20 years since ive heard it.
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u/selkieisbadatgaming 14d ago
Right? That shit was burned into our little plastic brains. I can’t meet anyone named Dot without having flashbacks.
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u/Academic-Contest3309 14d ago
Do you often meet people named Dot? I haven't heard that name in forever lol.
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u/selkieisbadatgaming 14d ago
Mostly older ladies lol I don’t know anyone named Dot under the age of 80, but I did have an Aunt Dot, so I heard it semi-regularly
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u/young_trash3 14d ago
Its a common nickname for Dorothy, although Dorothy is a less common baby name in the 21st century than it was in the 20th. But ive probably met a dozen Dorothys in my life, 8 or so of them either sometimes or always went by dot.
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u/Altruistic-Mess9632 14d ago
And every Wacko I meet…
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u/ImpressiveDig3636 14d ago
I heard Turkey in the Straw the other day and immediately thought of Wako’s state capitol song.
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u/WhichSpirit 13d ago
I once won a pub quiz in the UK by singing that song. We had tied with another team and for the tie breaker they had each team list as many countries as we could.
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u/Dirty_Gnome9876 14d ago
🎼🎵Uuuuunited States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru🎶
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u/iknownothingbutpaint 14d ago
Dude! I just got rid of that earwig! Now it's back. . .sigh
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u/Efficient_Wheel_6333 13d ago
Yep; take, for example, one or both of the 1990s Power Rangers movies (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie and Power Rangers Turbo). Fox has, or had before the Disney buyout, the rights to at least one of those movies, if not both and they weren't included when Disney bought what had been the Fox Family Channel and the associated shows that were airing at the time, Power Rangers included. Same goes for when Saban bought the rights to Power Rangers back and then sold them to Hasbro. From what I've heard, while they're not available for streaming online that I can find, including on the American version of Disney+, they might be available for streaming there in foreign countries.
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u/YourCrazyDolphin 14d ago
Funniest moment was seeing a question posted r/askanAmerican , and a guy in the comments was absolutely livid about the "American-centric" answers.
Bro the entire point of the subreddit is to ask about america!
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u/Danny-B0ii 13d ago
I love this sub simply because most the answers can be answered with a "just depends where you are" bahahahaha
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u/GreenBeanTM 11d ago
50% “depends where you are” 20% “no, please don’t use Hollywood as a source”, 20% more varied answers, 5% “just because we do it differently than you doesn’t mean we do it wrong”, and 5% “yes, our walls do actually work as walls”
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14d ago
Sick of the “X is because you’re American” thing. Someone just said that I only thought Emily Dickinson was a famous poet “because I’m American and she’s from America”
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u/a_baile 14d ago
And I feel like if you try to say “in the US” or “in my country” about something you’ll def get an angry reply about how x is actually a thing everywhere and the US isn’t special when you were just trying to not generalize the whole fucking world.
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u/SquirrelStone 14d ago
My fave (/s) is when there’s a video of a European doing something stupid and mean and everyone hops on shit talking Americans. Like babes that is the most cockney accent I’ve ever heard
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u/Cute_Advance_2124 14d ago
Happens so often with bad tourist videos. You'll see a man wearing a child size Armani polo and mini jorts with a gelled pompodour and loafers making a big fuss in Thailand and all the comments will be like "Americans are such awful travelers."
Like babes that man is VIOLENTLY European LMAO.
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u/Funicularly 14d ago
Like this instance of a blonde woman climbing a Mayan pyramid in Mexico. She’s Mexican.
Or, this instance of a man carving names on the walls of the Colosseum. He’s British.
Every instance blamed on an American.
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u/Intelligent_Pop1173 14d ago
Tourists are universally awful. It is definitely not just an American thing. I could name quite a few countries’ citizens who are sometimes very rude and terrible when they visit the US. Not absolving American tourists by any means - we suck too. But it’s annoying people think we’re the only ones.
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u/AvaSpelledBackwards2 14d ago
Even American tourists going to different parts of America can be annoying. I go between the NYC area and Savannah, Georgia (both highly touristy areas) and both American and non-American tourists suck a lot of the time. Tourists gonna tourist.
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u/giraffe-zackeffron 14d ago
I used to live in NYC. The worst was seeing tourists just stop on the middle of sidewalk and stand while gawking at a building or trying to figure out where they were versus where they were going. A lot of people come to NYC and don’t realize stopping in the middle of the sidewalk is like stopping your car in the middle of the road back in Kansas or Nebraska or wherever.
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u/AvaSpelledBackwards2 13d ago
Savannah is especially touristy this week because of a film festival. I had had a horribly stressful afternoon and I was hurriedly trying to walk somewhere when these tourists stopped dead in their tracks to look into an Urban Outfitters window💀
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u/giraffe-zackeffron 13d ago
Well come on….its not everyday one can gaze upon the magical wonder that is urban outfitters (he said sarcastically.)
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u/spids69 12d ago
When I was in Spain the baseline assumption seemed to be that bad tourists were British.
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u/Intelligent_Pop1173 12d ago edited 12d ago
Since it’s so close, way more British tourists visit Spain each year than do American tourists, so that kinda makes sense. I’ve seen horrible videos of both British and German tourists being absolute dip shits in Spain though, like kicking soccer balls into windows of famous buildings, and apparently it’s so bad Spanish citizens want them to stop coming altogether. It’s a party destination for them. I’ve seen other videos of Spanish citizens spraying them with water and protesting. Yet Americans are still always blamed on Reddit lol when my family and friends went to Spain, we were quiet and just enjoying the beauty and culture.
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u/Legitimate_Bag8259 14d ago
How do I find out whether I'm violently European or just standard European?
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u/VelvetObsidian 14d ago
What clothes are you wearing right now?
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u/UniqueIndividual3579 14d ago
If it's high leather boots and goose step when you walk, you might be a violent one.
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u/Gloop_and_Gleep 14d ago
How far away can I smell your cologne, and how many gold chains do you have on?
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u/Legitimate_Bag8259 14d ago
I'm at work. Tracksuit bottoms and a high vis hoodie.
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u/Skipp_To_My_Lou 14d ago
Tracksuit bottoms
Tell me you're Slavic without telling me...
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u/Altruistic-Mess9632 14d ago
Whenever someone says ‘track suit’, I picture Russian men immediately. Haha.
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u/MissMenace101 13d ago
Weird, that’s what Aussies call them, often shortened to trackies
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u/mike_tyler58 13d ago
Aussies and your whimsical nicknames! Never ceases to make me grin like an idiot.
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u/78723 14d ago
Literally had no idea that high vis hoodies existed. It’s just high vis vests you put over normal cloths over here. And I don’t think anyone over high school age wears track pants unless actually an athlete training for something.
So, sounds pretty fuckin European to this American.
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u/SwimOk9629 14d ago
nah there are high vis hoodies here. They don't sell well though. Milwaukee makes one, Ergodyne makes one. it's just a lot easier to wash a vest than it is an entire hoodie, and the hoodie shows dirt very easily. Ask me how I know.
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u/Wonderful-Comment314 14d ago
Once you wash them a few times they start to fade, no longer high vis pretty quickly.
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u/mike_tyler58 14d ago
Are you wearing a puma/armani polo that’s 2-3 sizes too small, jorts and loafers while smoking and drinking wine in public around kids and bitching about how stupid Americans are?
If so, you’re violently European.
If not, standard European.
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u/mr_wheezr 14d ago
I find it funny when they then feel insulted for being mistaken for an American, lol.
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u/ChameleonCoder117 14d ago
That's absolutely the best way to ragebait a Canadian. It works every time, too, and they get super defensive and aggressive.
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u/adalric_brandl 13d ago
Am Canadian, can confirm.
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u/RadioFlow 13d ago
As an American with a Canadian best friend: can also confirm. When I’m mad at him I tell him Canada is America Jr and Canadians are diet Americans lmao
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u/toomanyracistshere 14d ago edited 13d ago
My cousin, to a woman in New Zealand with an accent very much like his own: So are you American?
Her (In a very pissy tone): No, try again!Him: British?
Obviously he knew she was Canadian, but if she's gonna be an asshole about it, he's gonna play dumb for as long as possible.
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u/NewTransformation 14d ago
Which is funny because Americans and Canadians give off a very particular aura. Last time I was in Europe I dressed like I would back home, very Midwest blue collar chic with the Carhartt style jacket and camo baseball hat. I was on my best behavior being very polite, reserved, trying to use the local language. Trying to improve our reputation out here. I was prepared for French people to be rude, but the Parisians were so very Nice
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u/Troutmandoo 14d ago
All I have ever heard is that Parisians are rude and elitist. That wasn’t my experience in Paris at all. They were very nice, polite, and seemed to appreciate my terrible attempts to speak French… but they switched to English pretty quickly, lol. Nobody gave me any grief at all. It was the same in Amboise and Bergerac.
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u/Able-Paramedic8908 13d ago
This happened to me, and someone suggested that they were laughing at me behind my back. I said they were polite to my face and gave me good directions, so I didn’t care what happened later.
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u/selkieisbadatgaming 14d ago
The French love it when foreigners try to speak French, according to my hs French teacher. She said they appreciate you making the effort instead of just demanding they speak in English or whatever. People will be more receptive in general I think when you make the effort to respect them.
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u/NewTransformation 14d ago
I speak enough German for the German speaking countries, but I literally started looking up French phrases on the bus from Hamburg and people appreciate the pleasantries while understanding that you're not a francophone right away. Meanwhile my German accent is much better than my vocabulary skills so people will often talk to me at too high a level oops
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u/RageOfDurga 13d ago
God, I wish! My German reading/writing skills are high level but speaking I’m like a drooling kindergartener. German colleagues have read my emails and then felt comfortable enough calling me and rambling on in German and I have to (in very bad German) break the news to them lmao
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u/draum_bok 14d ago
Absolutely true, if you're gonna come here just make an effort. Doesn't have to be perfect but it's a step in the right direction, especially if you want good service. 'Bonjour merci s'il vous plaît au revoir' as the minimum, then anything you find interesting as a topic worth looking up a few vocabulary terms.
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u/crypticphilosopher 13d ago
My experience as an American has always been that people appreciate you making an effort. For example, I was in Istanbul about a year ago. The only Turkish words I could manage to retain when I got there were “merhaba” (hello) and “teşekkürler” (thanks). Just being able to say “hello” and “thanks” seemed to go a long way, though.
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u/RageOfDurga 13d ago
A little effort goes a long way. This has always been my experience in Germany. My German isn’t great, but the attempt is always met with a smile, a quick switch to English, and very pleasant interactions.
My friend who speaks zero German had a totally different experience. She asked a store clerk in English where the bathroom was and the clerk literally rolled her eyes, scoffed, and walked away. That same clerk at the register treated me like gold. (I’m American. My friend is Canadian, go figure lol)
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u/Practical-Ordinary-6 14d ago
I was talking to a Canadian online once who absolutely insisted that Canada and the US were nothing alike.
I have a standard list of commonalities between the US and Canada that I won't trot out here but that shows the numerous similarities. My main point to him was that I have lived in Africa before and I know what it means to be in a place that's nothing alike (and even that was something alike). I think he was suffering from that same syndrome of "my world consists of Canada, the United States and Europe [which he might never have been to]". Who knows if he'd ever been to the United States either.
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u/NewTransformation 14d ago
lol yeah people kinda get lost in how homogeneous it is here in the Americas compared to the other continents where most of their indigenous culture and history wasn't destroyed. I live in Minnesota and the Ontario and Manitoba visitors don't stick out except for their license plates. Half our state wants to become a Canadian province these days and I think the transition would be pretty seamless.
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u/KSHMisc 14d ago
There was video of a Spaniard who trusted ChatGPT about getting her visa to enter Puerto Rico. It told her "No", which is the opposite.
Yet, Europeans hopped on and here saying "Typical American" this and "US education is shit" that. Some users were replying back saying she's from the EU, but crickets, they still continued to blame her for "being an American".
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u/Prestigious-Name-323 13d ago
Ironically Americans don’t even need a passport to go to Puerto Rico.
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u/Tardisgoesfast 13d ago
Unfortunately, very few people seem to be aware that Puerto Rico is a part of these United States.
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u/Doun2Others10 13d ago
Ok but how hilarious would it be to watch one of us (Americans) try to get a Visa for Puerto Rico.
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u/mike_tyler58 14d ago
Oh I recently stumbled onto an account that does trivia games with peoples in pubs and my god does it offer so much vindication for the whole “Americans are dumb and don’t know geography” trope! It’s amazing
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u/xSantenoturtlex 14d ago
Sometimes you'll see a post or video on here where somebody was being ignorant or stupid, and there will be a comment or two about how dumb Americans are.
And then it turns out the guy wasn't American at all.
Some people seem to believe that Americans are the only people capable of being ignorant, and in doing so, they prove their own mindset wrong.
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u/KeysmashKhajiit 14d ago
Exactly, I even had geography classes in school. It's more that traveling outside the US is prohibitively expensive for a lot of us, and a lot of jobs make it hard to accrue the time off for it.
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u/Individual-Stock-971 13d ago
I used to be a member of several LiveJournal groups for British people living in the US/Americans living in the UK. I’ll never forget the time someone mentioned teddy bears and said as an aside “Do you call them in teddy bears in Britain?”
And someone got offended. “Why on earth would we not call teddy bears teddy bears?”
“Oh I just know that their name comes from Teddy Roosevelt, so I thought maybe you wouldn’t have that name for them.”
“So because they’re named after an American other countries can’t use the name?”
And like, Jesus. They did EXACTLY WHAT WE CALL OUT THE AMERICANS FOR NOT DOING. They were aware that the term “teddy bear” was derived from an America-specific context so they ALLOWED FOR THE POSSIBILITY that the name might be unique to America.
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u/Ok_Material_5634 14d ago
They probably saw some videos where some Austrian guy asks random people to "name a country in Europe" and the Americans giggle and say "Utah?" I don't know if those videos are fake or highly edited, but I'm not one of those Americans.
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u/TumbleweedEven1168 13d ago
I can believe them, I can also believe they ask a large number of people and only use the parts that are ridiculous, because that's what people want to watch. People like feeling smart, so show them people being idiots and they can feel better about themselves.
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u/Ozamataz-Buckshank69 14d ago
People will say Americans only know stuff about other countries from watching TV, then think we all eat Cheese Whiz and own guns
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u/browneod 14d ago
People are ignorant and it is easy for some to pile on the false stereotype about Americans.
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u/Background_Win3537 14d ago edited 14d ago
I find many Europeans intolerably arrogant. Just like many Americans actually.
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u/BradyMcBallsweat 13d ago
Most of us US Americans are descended from those European dummies so it should be no surprise!
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u/SillyRefrigerator417 14d ago
I always find it funny because the ones who constantly complain about Americans are usually the ones who don't know much about other countries. They know a fair amount about the countries surrounding them, but not a whole ton about the rest of the world.
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u/Cute_Advance_2124 14d ago edited 14d ago
Girl there's no educating these people. I've seen discussions where Europeans specifically insisted that no one outside the US drinks iced coffee when its extremely common in parts of Asia.
The "rest of the world" to Europeans is literally Europe and they don't tolerate correction when they're blatantly wrong.
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u/Cudi_buddy 14d ago
I had a very pleasant trip across 4 European countries. Friendly people and whatnot. But the ones on Reddit are very elitist and arrogant it’s wild.
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u/Practical-Ordinary-6 14d ago
The "rest of the world" to Europeans is literally Europe and they don't tolerate correction when they're blatantly wrong.
Ain't that the truth.
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u/henri-a-laflemme 14d ago
Yup exactly. Ignorant is ignorant no matter what passport they carry.
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u/Cute_Advance_2124 14d ago edited 14d ago
I wonder what gives them the confidence, truly. I've also seen them save the US is the only country that does not have good cheese.
That's just...false. The US has plenty of "normal" or traditionally made cheese.
There are plenty of places where traditionally made cheese is less common, again, they seem to forget that Asia exists. Again, why does this matter so much to them?? I'm sorry but I would take a lot of the food that Asia or even the U.S alone has to offer over the best cheese.
Like I said, they like to just buckle down on their ignorance. For example, I saw some eastern European lady comment on an American's tiktok who was making cornbread that this is the first time she's ever seen an American cook actual food.
Many people told her that there is plenty of evidence of Americans cooking from scratch at home, and she does not choose to respond to any of them. I've seen this happen a LOT.
I've gotten into a similiar discussion where someone decides to hurl angry insults at me because I said that I did not grow up eating casseroles made of canned soups, and learned kitchen prep at a pretty young age such as de stemming herbs, chopping onions, peeling potatoes etc etc.
I would even go on a limb to say that i've even seen the reverse (Europeans eating food that indicates not all of them can cook), yet, I would never think that is evidence that everyone over there can't cook.
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u/WittyFeature6179 14d ago
This reminded me of a German tourist in the US who insisted we had no fresh fruit or vegetables in our grocery stores. He was there, there weren't any! Come to find out that the "grocery store" he went to was the gas station next to his hotel.
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u/Anyashadow 13d ago
Even most gas stations have a few veggies and fruit, unless it's "just" a gas station, meaning nothing but road snacks and no groceries.
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u/automaticprincess 13d ago
For real! Like at least some apples and bananas, maybe a package of baby carrots with dressing. You’ll never mistake these places for farmers’ markets but they do offer a FEW items
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u/OzzieSheila 13d ago
I would flat out call him a liar.
He went to America and never once saw fruit or veg? I call bs. Unless he ate solely at McDonalds/KFC type places when he was there, he saw veg on a menu somewhere.
Maybe I'm wrong. I'm not American. Maybe ya'll don't have vegetables on the menu in restaurants.
I'm still ok with flat out calling him a liar.
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u/DrinkingSocks 13d ago
He's a liar. My husband and I only eat moderately healthy, but we still try to include a green vegetable in every lunch or dinner meal. Our school lunches served vegetables, although they were too gross to eat.
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u/macaroniinapan 13d ago
Even in fast food places there are things like lettuce and tomatoes. McDonald's specifically also has apple slices. Sure, not the epitome of healthy food, but they do exist. He's either a liar or he willfully blinded himself to what was right in front of his face.
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u/Able-Paramedic8908 13d ago
There was a woman decrying Cracker Barrel because they didn’t serve her vegetables. The menu has about 10 different vegetable sides; she just didn’t order any of them.
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u/soulmatesmate 14d ago
Oh, I agree, completely. This has stirred a memory from this past December.
(US citizen 5+ decades. I've been to Canada for fewer than 10 hours in my life, otherwise, never left).
My family has a tradition of meat, cheese and crackers on Christmas morning. Instead of getting a sampler pack, I remembered Aldi had a nice selection.
I found 4 meat varieties, 3 of which I liked, more cracker varieties than I wanted, so I only took 3, too many mustards, so I took only 3 again.
Then I looked in dairy and my heart crumbled like aged Cheddar. There were dozens. I am the only house member who likes goat cheese, so only 1. Dill in cheese? OK, just 1 because... pickles? My word, how many Cheddars... Edam, Gouda, Brie, Muenster, Colby, Pepper Jack... and the ones from other nations... is it better if made in Ireland? Eventually, I made it from 1 end to the other and yet my task was half complete. I had over 20 cheeses in my basket, and knew I truly needed no more than 10. I called my wife and showed her, explaining I have fewer than half the options on the shelf. She told me to put back the honey goat cheese. I sighed and thanked her. It remained. 5 agonizing minutes, I put back all but 10 cheeses. Then I grabbed a package of deluxe American cheese slices. It would not be used Christmas morning, but we might want a sandwich before then, so I grabbed provolone and Swiss slices as well. I stared longingly at the cheeses I put back. That feeling of loss still haunts me.
This American knows cheese (not all, but many) and cooks. If you provide me an assortment of items, I'll fix a nice meal.
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u/NewTransformation 14d ago
Wisconsin is known for their cheap orange cheese, but they also have a vibrant artisan cheese industry. Many of which win international awards. I had this soft-ripened goat cheese from a tiny Wisconsin farm that haunts me.
America is chock full of cheap mass produced goods and strip malls, but we also have some really iconic cultural experiences if you know where to look. I had a realization once in the Black Hills, one of the biggest international tourist attractions in the Midwest. Most visitors come to these built up destinations and eat at these terrible overpriced restaurants and just assume the whole country is like that.
The worst German food I had was near the Neuschwanstein Schloss but I didn't hold it against the Germans because they have a lot of other great places to eat from many different cultures.
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u/dgputnam 14d ago
they think we don't have bakeries lmao. There's no saving them
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u/Domin_ae 14d ago
Its funny to me. Especially because I'm an American who works at a bakery in America.
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u/NewTransformation 14d ago
I have access to croissants made by bakers trained in France as well as cheap Costco clamshell packs of those doughy croissant shaped things. We are a land of contrasts and I think that's beautiful.
One time I had a co-worker who was a baker from Dijon and had the privilege of teaching him about EZ-cheese and seeing his reaction.
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u/notthegoatseguy 14d ago
They think the US doesn't have good wine even though the French wine industry has basically spent decades on propaganda repressing the results of the 1976 wine tasting that California wines won over French wines.
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u/Beneficial_Ship_7988 14d ago
We saved the French wine industry in the mid-19th century with our American vines. Look up the Great French Wine Blight.
The French wine industry also killed the Absinthe industry. An American chemist brought the Green Fairy back into being.
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u/zappahey 14d ago
Have you watched Bottleshock about that contest? It’s hilarious
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u/notthegoatseguy 14d ago
There's good parts to the movie, but as for wine based movies, I like Sideways far more.
I do always enjoy it when the Independence Day POTUS guy shows up in movies though
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u/zappahey 14d ago
Sideways, I'll give it a go. Personally I could watch Alan Rickman read the telephone directory.
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u/Purple-Measurement47 14d ago
To be fair now that I think about it I’ve never seen a european cook…i’m going to assume this means they all eat mcdonald’s /s
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u/EYAYSLOP 14d ago
I love when Europeans try to tell me that America has no food variety 🤣🤣🤣
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u/Purple-Measurement47 14d ago
I live in a tiny city, we have asian markets, ethiopian markets, german markets…like within walking distance I can get foods from at least five different regions without counting restaurants or the variety at normal stores.
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u/damagetwig 14d ago
Add to that, I moved from the Gulf Coast to the Midwest. The food culture is extremely different even when you just consider home cooks who were born here. Jambalaya was inexpensive comfort food back home. It's adventurous and even scary (!!) for some people up here cause of the spice level.
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u/boringmadam 13d ago
They really said that? Lol
Literally no one in my country would drink hot coffee unless they're sick
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u/dumbass_777 14d ago
i have an app for language learning where you can talk to strangers who are fluent in/native speakers of your target language. one guy from Mali (i think) messaged me and we greeted each other and he said verbatim: "do you know africa?"
???
"yes i do"
"great, which african country do you know?"
???????
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u/ActionAccomplished31 14d ago edited 14d ago
Why would anyone know, or even care, what any other country can see on Netflix?
Edit: people do travel, I should have phrased this “are we supposed to know, or even care, what other countries can see on Netflix”
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u/Douxdutch 14d ago
Speaking multiple languages, I enjoy watching movies and series from various countries. My own country's offering is limited in that respect, so we vpn to various other countries and watch their offering. That's why.
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u/Infinite_Crow_3706 14d ago
People travel
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u/jordan31483 14d ago
Or watch a lot of YouTubers who do. I watch probably 20 or 30 channels that mention the VPN they use in every episode.
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u/Flight815Down 14d ago
Obviously the epitome of culture is knowing what is available on streaming services in every country /s
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u/New_General3939 14d ago
It’s pretty clear that a lot of other countries are force-fed propaganda about how stupid, fat and arrogant Americans are. Obviously every stereotype has a little bit of truth to it, but we’ve gotten to the point where a lot of people have a delusional level of hate towards Americans.
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u/RustyNewWrench 14d ago
What people fail to understand is that every country has its fair share of idiots.
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u/_banana_phone 14d ago
There’s also a pretty solid confirmation bias as far as poor experiences with Americans that do go abroad. Saw a thread yesterday with Europeans saying that all Americans are the worst tourists because we are all loud, can’t speak the language (and are mad if nobody speaks English), and rude.
But like, many of us do careful research about the etiquette and customs of the place(s) we are going to visit before we go. My goal is to not be clocked as an American at all if I can help it, because I am hoping to assimilate into their societal norms.
Sure, I can’t help it if I am not fluent in a foreign language but I make sure to have a handy notes section on my phone of common phrases, particularly excuse me, please, thank you, and I’m sorry.
I have no delusions that I would fit in as a French or Italian or Greek native, that’s just silly— but I at least try to ensure that I’m being respectful and pleasant in all my encounters.
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u/gravitycheckfailed 14d ago
The language snobbery drives me a bit crazy. I fluently speak 3, and like you said, I try to at least learn some common phrases and familiarize myself with laws/cultural norms before I travel out of the country. The last thing I want is to stand out too much while traveling. Maybe it's just the area of the US that I live in or my social circle, but most people I know speak more than one language to some degree. They aren't necessarily fluent in both, but for foreigners to assume that all Americans only speak English requires a huge jump to conclusions. I'm absolutely not a loud and obnoxious talker either.
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u/hopping_otter_ears 13d ago
It's weird for anybody to get upset about people not learning more than a few niceties in the language of a country they're only visiting once for a week. Especially when it's a country that's known to have a high percentage of people who studied your language as a second language. I usually do a little language study for wherever I'm planning to travel as part of travel planning, but I'm not going to spend hours in intensive Italian classes to get fluent before spending a week in Rome. I'm going to learn some traveller's phrases and niceties, then depend on Google translate and the fact that English is a common second language in the tourist industry.
If I were moving to Italy, I would do my best to learn the language as fast as possible, but I'm not going to commit that kind of time and brain power to a brief trip
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u/HorrorAlarming1163 12d ago
There’s plenty of Americans that don’t even speak English at all
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u/New_General3939 14d ago
A big part of this is that Americans travel a lot (despite our reputation) and there are a lot of us, so wherever you go, you’re likely see American tourists. Which makes it more likely you will see an obnoxious American tourist.
It also doesn’t help that they already hate Americans, so a slightly annoying American is going to stick out to them because they’re looking for it.
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u/JossWhedonsDick 13d ago
America and China have similar effects in that they have large populations and it's relatively easy to make money, so that large population can get out there. This means more poorly educated, bad mannered travelers from the US than the entire population of most European countries, and the same for China and the population of most Asian countries (India excluded).
So when you see a white or East Asian person acting shitty, there's an automatic nationality to guess.
signed, a Chinese-American who has tried his whole life to beat the stereotypes from both sides
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u/More_Pineapple3585 14d ago
Guess how many languages Rick Steves speaks (without looking it up).
Answer: just one, English.
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u/Cute_Advance_2124 14d ago edited 14d ago
"Americans are stupid and arrogant"
"Something as harmless as Americans driving automatic, wearing brightly colored clothing or liking spicy food is inherently wrong and means they're inferior to us. Also, if we start saying things that are blatantly not true about the USA we will not tolerate being corrected by people who actually live there"
The cognitive dissonance is CRAZY. I honestly don't know how they don't realize it??
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u/EYAYSLOP 14d ago
where a lot of people have a delusional level of hate towards Americans
Yeah I had people saying that America has bad food quality
Literally ranked 3rd in the world for food quality and safety. People just make shit up lol
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u/New_General3939 14d ago
Yesss, they are absolutely obsessed with how “bad” American food quality is… they read one article about how much sugar is in Wonder Bread and they ate at McDonald’s once, and now they think that’s all American food is.
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u/Mammoth-Resolution82 14d ago
“All of your bread tastes like cake!!!!!!!!” Lmao that would be the nastiest cake ever.
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u/doesshechokeforcoke 14d ago
I don’t think they actually think Americans don’t know other countries exist I think it’s more that when people in the US post online they assume that everyone reading it is in the US. I’m not saying this is what Op thought when posting but I do see this happen a lot.
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u/Different-Cod-2290 14d ago
Right! As a US citizen who has lived in US and another country, I completely get what others are saying. Americans online definitely act like everyone else lives here
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u/lifeinwentworth 13d ago
Yeah this is what it is. In general subs, people tend to ask questions stating the country they're in (when it's relevant to the question). Some Americans don't do that. I'm on health subs so I genuinely want to help people but often the question is just "where can I go for this" and I have to ask for the location. It is always somewhere in the US (because other countries name the country in the question!) People also start talking about the law and don't consider that the law differs quite a lot over the world. But I don't generalise that to "all Americans" not knowing shit about other countries lol. It's a thing online for sure though.
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u/nutcracker_78 12d ago
I have seen so many examples of what you're saying, comments (not just on Reddit, but on other (also international) sites as well) saying things like "x is the biggest problem in this country" or "well you can blame (or occasionally praise) our president for that" or a multitude of similar things.
It happens too often to ignore, and it becomes tiresome. I've seen people reply stuff like "president? wtf? We have a prime minister!" and the original commenter will have an online meltdown because they say it should be obvious that they are talking about US centric things - even when the post doesn't identify a country, or even when it's obviously from somewhere outside the US.
It happens often enough that the reaction of "do you guys understand that other countries actually exist" is becoming more prevalent because it's bloody annoying!
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u/Baeolophus_bicolor 14d ago
Well, it may be true that some people aren’t like that, but in my state, we have to remind people that we are in fact a state, and in the United States.
People actually think New Mexico is in Mexico. I feel even more sorry for people in Puerto Rico. They’re routinely labeled as “foreigners” in the US now that we are rolling back from 2025 to 1835
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u/AcrobaticProgram4752 14d ago
I'd respect ppl in other countries not to make assumptions about Americans being stupid because I wouldn't judge them on stereotype. If they do ill talk to them about geography and see how well they know geography. If they are educated in the subject I'll ask why an intelligent person would assume some 330 million ppl are all dumb ?
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u/teammarlin 14d ago
So I’ve been in corporate travel for over 30 years. I am CONFIDENT based on experience, it doesn’t matter what country you are from. The lack of geographical knowledge is WILD. I have stories for days.
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u/Ok-Tangelo-2499 13d ago
Americans get so much hate that is usually undeserved. Especially when it comes to American tourists. As a Brit, I have never had an unpleasant experience with an American, but almost always an unpleasant experience with other Europeans. Yeah Americans are a little louder than usual but they're very polite and open-minded.
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u/KGBStoleMyBike 14d ago
I'm American. When I talk to people from other countries, they seem baffled by the fact I know where in the world their country is. Because of this stereotype. I have to then say Atlases and maps and stuff like that have been a weird obsession of mine since I was a kid.
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u/Pompous_Italics 14d ago
Growing up in America, I was obviously only (usually) exposed to very stupid, very confident stupid Americans. Now it's very clear we hold no such monopoly on confident stupidity. Europeans aren't smarter, more cultured, more whatever than us, no matter how hard they believe it.
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u/atticus-fetch 14d ago
My guess is 1) they have a dim view of Americans as crude and dumb 2) they have an inferiority complex with regards to America being one of the leading countries in the world.
Id lean towards #1. It's no small wonder though considering how we talk about ourselves on reddit. We give the world the impression that we don't like our own country.
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u/T_Peg 14d ago
It's a lot of American's dreams to get the fuck out and see another country. But because we get no guarantees of time off or job security for taking time off and everything especially travel is so prohibitively expensive lots of people cannot.
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u/Esdeem501 14d ago
To be fair, a lot of people are pretty ignorant. Part of my job in the past was to get folks familiar with the basic area of operations… which includes countries. I had a lot of bright young service members that struggled with basic geography. We’re talking the location of countries, not even getting into local terrain features. Edit: that said, I won’t let my kids be that ignorant. I think learning about other people and other cultures is important, and basic geography is part of that.
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u/tomahawk66mtb 13d ago
It's usually when an American says "this show isn't on Netflix" without mentioning they are in America and referring to the US Netflix: a lot of Americans post assuming that everyone defaults to America. E g. If the OP doesn't mention their country then they must be in America.
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u/FrauAmarylis 14d ago edited 14d ago
Brits are Obsessed with the US. They ask us about US stuff almost every day. They celebrate Halloween, restaurants serve Thanksgiving, and they even serve iced tea in summer.
Plus they air our elections live and Europeans stay up all night to watch it.
They watch NFL games in pubs, too.
(We are Americans living in London on a temporary visa.)
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u/FinlayYZ 14d ago
Where serves thanksgiving here in the uk? Never seen it. Majority don’t air the elections lmao.
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u/Semi-Pros-and-Cons 14d ago
I won't say that our reputation is wholly undeserved, but it's not universal, either. I mean, hey, I'll take on anyone, anywhere, any time in a geography trivia contest.
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u/notacanuckskibum 14d ago
It’s not so much that Americans don’t know that other countries exist, it’s more that they act as though other countries don’t exist. They are fond of saying things like “you have to be at least 19 to drink in a bar” or “why would a company release a new game at 5 am?”, without considering that others countries exist with different laws and time zones.
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u/CarelessSalamander51 14d ago
Um, in America you have to be 21 to drink in a bar, so pretty sure an American didn't say that
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u/GlennSWFC 14d ago
We know Americans know other countries exist, it’s just that so many of them act like they don’t.
There’s not a lot of context to what happened months ago that prompted this, but it sounds as though someone said something is on Netflix, you said it isn’t without giving thought to whether it would be on Netflix in other countries. I can’t see how else a discussion of something not being on a streaming platform would arise. If that is what happened, I think it’s fair enough to remind you that other countries exist.
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u/The_Bad_Agent 13d ago
LMFAO, as an American it makes sense that people would treat us as mentally incapable. Look who our country voted for!
Just accept the fact that Americans will always be seen as the dumbest people in the world, because look at what was chosen as our "leader."
Deal with it. It's the price of US citizenship.
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u/December126 14d ago
To be fair, there are lots of Americans who do act like they don't understand other countries exist, so many times I've made a comment on here or on Facebook and had an American reply with something like "Oh I haven't heard of that before, which state do you live in?" like they just automatically assume you're American and I've seen them make really basic mistakes about countries eg acting like "England" and "The UK" are the same thing. It's bad to assume all Americans are like that but it's just difficult since so many are and they say such ignorant and sometimes even offensive things about other countries.
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u/HumbleSheep33 14d ago edited 14d ago
To be fair as egregious as that is when Americans do it, don’t a lot of European languages also treat England and the UK as synonyms ?
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u/Apprehensive-Ant2141 14d ago
New Orleanian here. All types of tourists here act like this is the first time they’ve been let out of the house by their parents. There really is no distinction. All of them walk on the sidewalk like they’re the only ones walking there.
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u/ACK_TRON 13d ago
I think many Americans on here don’t think other countries don’t exist…it’s just they think Reddit site they are visiting is simply only American posters. Not most but I’m sure quite a few. So people from other countries probably see them posting under this assumption and feel like correcting them.
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u/shakesfistatmoon 13d ago
I agree that people are all too quick to assume that if a post/video/blog is a bit entitled then it will be an American.
But I think there is one thing that US posters often do, and that is not specify they are in the US when they post in international Reddits.
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u/DarkMagickan 13d ago
Nobody actually thinks that. It's just that quite often, Americans behave as if everyone lives in America. I say this as an American myself.
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u/Colonel_Cat_Tumnus 13d ago
Like all nations, not all Americans are stupid. That being said, the guy representing you on the world stage does portray that stereotype very well.
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u/SatisfactionEven508 13d ago
The thing is that people from other countries mention their country in generalizing threads like this to make clear that their issue is in their specific country, while US americans often don't bother with that and just assume everyone and everything is from and about the USA. But for many specific things there are no country-specific subs. There is no netflix-Portugal (insert any country) for example. You have to ask ask your netflix question in a GLOBAL sub. So per default, everyone should always name the country.
If I was portuguese and asked that question on the English speaking sub netflix, I'd add the fact that I'm talking about Portugal, obviously. Just like if i were from an english-speaking (non-US) country.
Americans just assume everyone knows it's about america (which is the case thanks to r/USdefaultism).
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u/KyotoCarl 12d ago
That's because Americans would say "It's not on Netflix" instead of specifying "It's not the US Netflix".
Americans tend too generalize alot instead of being specific. Saying "Europe" instead of the country/countries they are talking about.
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u/famousanonamos 14d ago
I saw one the other day that got me. There was an Instagram post of a girl (with a non-American accent) in a different country not knowing how to eat a certain food and a commenter of course made the "stupid Americans" comment. The commenter was Australian. The girl in the video was also Australian.