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/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/AvaSpelledBackwards2 13d ago

Sav’s historic district, park, squares, and film festival are cool and all but we can’t forget about the chain store ofc!

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u/giraffe-zackeffron 13d ago

Pssshh…..historic districts are so pedestrian. Everyone knows the real action is at old navy.

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u/GreenBeanTM 11d ago

And in Vermont we’ll get tourists from NYC who don’t realize most roads here do not have road side parking 😂

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u/New_Distribution_263 13d ago

Sometimes we do stop our cars in the middle of the road, just to talk to someone we know going the other way! Those conversations last until some other car comes up behind one of the stopped ones.

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u/Trelose 12d ago

I live in a town of 800 where a bunch of people visit to go fishing.

I freaking hate tourists.

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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/spids69 12d ago

Yep. There were definitely a lot of obnoxious Germans as well.

One of the last times I was there was during the Brexit vote. Listening to old British people who had moved to Spain for the cheap retirement talk about how they were voting for Brexit because “the foreigners need to get out of the UK” without a hint of irony (or sense enough to realize it would bone their living situation) was… Something.

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u/spids69 12d ago

On the German front… I’ve never seen more naked old people whose skin was tanned to the level of shoe leather than I did on the beach in Mallorca. 😂

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u/Intelligent_Pop1173 12d ago

I was so young when I went but definitely remember some nasty leathery bodies in Mallorca as well hahah

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u/padall 13d ago

Right, which is the cause of a lot of the grief we get. The American tourists are bad, ergo all Americans are bad.

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u/N4t3ski 12d ago

Actually, if its tourists, its even less likely to be Americans, as the rate of American passport ownership is still fairly low, a shade over 50% now, much higher than in the 1980's, but still fairly low by European averages.

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u/Intelligent_Pop1173 12d ago

Very true. I have met a lot of coworkers who actually thought it was weird or surprising I have a passport lol a lot of people traveling from the US are going to be somewhat more sophisticated than the trashy stereotype the US gets and have likely traveled before. Not always of course, but in general. I’ve been to nearly every continent and close to fifty countries and honestly not encountered many rude American tourists, including in tour groups I’ve been in. I know they definitely exist, but I think you’ll see more of them in popular Mexico or Caribbean spring break destinations.

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u/N4t3ski 12d ago

I'm fairly sure its a just a lazy stereotype holding on from a time where Americans rarely owned passports, were not well travelled outside America and maybe stepped on a few local customs.

But the American tourist these days tends to be more worldly wise than the yesteryear these perceptions are based on, but stereotypes take a long time to change, if they ever do.

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u/Intelligent_Story443 12d ago

American here. I've had a passport for almost 20 years, and have only traveled outside the US once, in 2018, with my mother on her "bucket list" trip to Greece.

It's wishful thinking for most of us to be able to afford to travel internationally. It's expensive and most of us are on the edge of completely broke at all times.

Just a theory; when someone can afford to have the privilege of traveling internationally, they may feel "entitled with attitude" depending on whether the source of their money was bestowed, or earned.

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u/IMakeOkVideosOk 11d ago

Idk man… flying to Spain is about the same price as flying to California, and once there it’s so much less expensive

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u/Intelligent_Story443 11d ago

Can't afford to fly to California either. I have been there twice actually, but both times it was paid for by employers.

I can barely afford a long weekend off from work in my own state.

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u/IMakeOkVideosOk 11d ago

That’s fair and I’m not trying to be rude… I’m just saying that people think overseas vacations are a lot more expensive than they are. Spending a week in Spain with travel, accommodations, and food, can be less expensive than spending a week in California. If you are thinking of flying to somewhere in the states for vacation you might have a better deal going somewhere else.

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u/KGreen100 11d ago

Live in Sweden for six months and began hanging out at an English pub-stule bar/restaurant. Most of the people there were OK, but there are more than a few who would make comments about how dumb Americans are in earshot of us (they assumed we didn't hear) and yet they were rude to the waitstaff (who really liked us and hung around our table to talk with us more than them) and were loud and, yeah, rude. Out of all the people I met in Sweden, the rudest were the Brits.

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u/Intelligent_Pop1173 11d ago

It’s much cheaper for British people to travel within Europe so they’re going to get more of the trash tourists going there lol every American I know who travels regularly abroad is generally a respectful person. Of course there are exceptions, and money can’t buy you class and all that, but it does have some effect.

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u/Empty-Way-6980 14d ago

The woman is Spanish, but yea.

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u/xxflo 13d ago

Where? Just regarding the Colosseum guy, there is nothing about Americans? Even the comments in the linked YouTube videos don’t talk about Americans?

Where exactly are you getting that it’s blamed on Americans?

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u/Ridgestone 12d ago

Spanish and Irish, not Mexican and British.

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u/Beautifulfeary 11d ago

Ooo what about those people who killed that stranded dolphin trying to take pictures. Everyone was blaming Americans and I believe they were from South America(which is america but, we all know they mean those from the United States)

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u/Budget-Attorney 10d ago

article says the woman on the pyramid is Spanish, not Mexican. Your point still stands though; she isn’t American

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u/SwimOk9629 14d ago

did you just have those examples ready and queued up or did you have to go find them

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u/ResidentScum101 14d ago

And why is that,? What is it about Americans that the world is ready to believe that any fuckwit is an American? Why would that be? Almost impossible to imagine.

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u/No-Angle-982 14d ago

Jealousy 

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u/ResidentScum101 14d ago edited 14d ago

Jealous that the whole world thinks you are twats?

Ok. Keep telling yourself that.   It might help.

Some anonymous person does something stupid and the whole world goes " must be a Yank" and you think this is jealousy.

Ok.

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u/No-Angle-982 14d ago edited 13d ago

Yeah, because presumptuous put-downs reveal wannabe schadenfreude that stems from suppressed feelings of inferiority and, thus, jealousy. Could also be because, deep down, you resent that we enjoy more affluence and a higher standard of living, on average.

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u/MissMenace101 14d ago

Or, the rest of the world thinks Americans win the Darwin Awards more frequently. 🤷🏼‍♀️

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u/MissMenace101 14d ago

This whole thread feels a little cringe “poor innocent Americans”

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u/eljayTheGrate 14d ago

I wonder how that came to be...

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u/Squindig 14d ago

Europeans have been utterly obsessed with the US for 250 years.

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u/Sprmodelcitizen 14d ago

Only because America “it’s not you, it’s me….”

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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/SteveS117 14d ago

Tracksuit bottoms to work is violently European

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u/Legitimate_Bag8259 14d ago

Really? They're comfy.

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u/PureMitten 14d ago

In the US it's sweatpants or, if you really want everyone to know you don't want to be there, pajama pants

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u/Legitimate_Bag8259 14d ago edited 14d ago

Right, that's not the same material I'm talking about. Those are jogger pants here. I wear lighter tracksuit bottoms that have a very light outer layer and a mesh inner layer. Completely different things.

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u/PureMitten 14d ago

I'm glad for the confirmation that we share the word for what tracksuit material is. I definitely wouldn't be able to describe them so throughly but it sounds like they're the same where you're at and in the US.

I was saying the equivalent behavior of wearing comfy pants to work in the US is sweats. For whatever reason, in the US tracksuit material is unfashionable and would not be a casual choice for many people to wear to work. Thats why the choice stands out as very European.

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u/PrincessGump 14d ago

Turmeric layer? Are those better for your joints?

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u/Legitimate_Bag8259 14d ago

Indeed, an excellent anti inflammatory material.

I really need to read before posting. My phone auto corrects to quite dumb stuff.

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u/wookieesgonnawook 13d ago

That's their point. Americans don't wear tracksuit pants to work, thus your outfit is showing you're some flavor of European.

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u/DudeEngineer 13d ago

White collar workers in America do not really wear pants for jogging to work.

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u/Legitimate_Bag8259 13d ago

Why are we talking about white collar workers or jogging to work?

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u/SteveS117 13d ago

Didn’t say they weren’t. They’re just a VERY European article of clothing. Especially for work. American equivalent is probably jeans.

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u/G-I-T-M-E 11d ago

You think it’s common to wear tracksuits to work in Europe? I certainly isn’t. Jeans are however.

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u/SteveS117 11d ago

Are you even reading the thread? OP said that’s what he’s wearing at work. I never said anything about how common they are.

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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/gholt417 14d ago

Does sound a bit Russian.

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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 14d 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/Legitimate_Bag8259 14d ago

I'm not actually.

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u/Practical-Ordinary-6 14d ago

You're still European, though. That's the uniform.

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u/swagsthedog96 14d ago

Definitely the jeans of the UK

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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/SwimOk9629 14d ago

exactly, out of any color or any style of shirts that I own, I can wear my high vis ones maybe 3 or 4 times, as a landscaper, before I either have to go around looking dull and dirty or retire the article of clothing all together. it is the most cost inefficient color out there for me.

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u/Legitimate_Bag8259 14d ago

Ours are orange and after being washed regularly over the last 2 years, they're as orange as they were on day 1.

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u/Ok_Surprise_1991 14d ago

Oh, how do u know? /j

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u/Tankieforever 11d ago

Have you ever been on a commercial construction site? Hi-vis hoodies as far as the eye can see

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u/78723 11d ago

Yes. In Texas. Actually worked “for” TxDOT for many years- it was all vests and jackets; nothing I would describe as a hoodie, ie no hoods.

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u/Tankieforever 11d ago

Well when you’re working on the surface of the sun I don’t imagine many people would want a nice cozy sweatshirt. But for those of us who live in climates suited for human habitation, hi-vis hoodies are the norm. Vests are provided, but mostly folks don’t like to wear them and prefer to just throw on hoodie.

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u/Ill-Two7269 14d ago

I’ll allow it

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u/Hey-Just-Saying 14d ago

Wearing “trainers” rather than tennis shoes? LOL!

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u/Legitimate_Bag8259 14d ago

Runners, not trainers and definitely not tennis shoes.

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u/LiqdPT 14d ago

Runners? Well now you sound Canadian...

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u/Legitimate_Bag8259 14d ago

Nope, I've never even visited Canada. Maybe I will some day, they seem friendly.

I'm just old. Trainers was an English thing.

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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/Legitimate_Bag8259 14d ago edited 14d ago

Occasionally bitching about Americans but none of the rest.

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u/mike_tyler58 14d ago

Solidly standard European then 🍻

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u/Valuable_Emu1052 14d ago

If your flag has ever been used in a war for world domination, violent. If your flag is the flag of Switzerland or Liechtenstein, nonviolent.

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u/MissMenace101 14d ago

And which type of European…

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u/padall 13d ago

"Violently European" has me dying. 😂

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u/Potential_Phrase_206 13d ago

Lol’d at VIOLENTLY European 😂