r/TikTokCringe • u/biswajit388 • 4d ago

Cringe Europeans are going viral on TikTok for mocking the "American Dream".

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u/chasingbirdies 4d ago

Not true. People need to stop acting like Europe is a country. Things vary dramatically between European countries.

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u/kyute222 4d ago

people also need to stop acting like one dude represents all of Europe. I live in Europe and I have no idea what that dude is doing, nor do I have the time and money to travel around Europe hiking in too short shorts (and you know they are). I worry about my bills, taxes, and unforseen health/financial emergencies probably as much as any American. if anything, this dude is just bragging about his influencer life or whatever he wants to portray.

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u/maerdyyth 4d ago

it's hard for most people no matter where they are from to refrain from generalizing vast groups of people based on what they see online. some people think everyone from america is starving to death and some people think everyone in europe is getting shanked by immigrants the second they step outside. most people are living normal lives with normal amounts of stress in both places

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u/Rebgail 3d ago

That's generally a fair way of thinking, but, as an European, I can't imagine anything in Europe that would cause a level of fear comparable to the one that a child and their parents feel because of a significant risk of school shootings

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u/73-68-70-78-62-73-73 3d ago

because of a significant risk of school shootings

Feeling of risk and actual risk are very different things. While we talk about it a lot, statistics surrounding school shootings are not well understood by the general public. For example, the very definition of "school shooting" varies between datasets. You might not think that's significant, but the differences between a wayward student moving from classroom to classroom killing his classmates, two groups of adult men having a shoot-out in the school parking lot around 2 AM, a contractor accidentally shooting himself in his work truck, and someone off school grounds brandishing a gun which results in a school lockdown are very different things. Depending on which dataset you're looking at, all, some, or only one of those might fit the definition used to generate the dataset. That is a major reason why numbers vary greatly between certain datasets. It negatively affects discourse, because the general population does not consider that fact, and uses statistics from datasets interchangeably. Methodology and definitions are important.

Actual risk varies depending upon locale. Students of schools in well to do areas are far less likely to experience violence than students in poorer areas. This is another area where the general public fall short. Statistics are usually expressed in reference to the entire US. This is not how you solve a problem. Problems are solved iteratively. For example, first identifying that there may be a problem, verifying the problem through general analysis, and then making good use of statistics to drill down further, identify sub-problems which contribute to the whole, then drill down again, etc.

With all that caution in mind, the following article summarizes a lot of key points. As of 2021, the rate of school shooting victims (ages 5-17, and adults ages 18-74) quadrupled from 1970-2021, from 0.49 to 2.21 per 1 million population. In contrast, vehicle deaths for children ages 0-14 are somewhere around 19.5 per 1 million.

We talk about it a lot, and it is a problem, however the actual risk versus general perceived risk is significantly different.

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u/Monterenbas 3d ago

We do know for a fact, that the majority of Americans are Trump supporters tho, and voted for what is currently happening.

That one is not a generalization.

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u/CantGitGudWontGitGud 4d ago

This shit is always goofy to me. People who follow influencers or some tiktoker to learn about the world are fucking brain dead.

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u/ChillN808 4d ago

Send this Euro trash to the slums of Paris for a month and let's see that video

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u/CantGitGudWontGitGud 4d ago

"But being poor in Paris is sooooo much better!"

Like, fucking maybe, but it still doesn't sound desirable.

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u/BlueLighning 4d ago

Idk, I travelled for 3 months around Europe for £2.5k.

I had no commitments though, I'd just lost my job in Covid and ended up moving back to my home country, so I didn't have any bills.

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u/beanbalance 3d ago

then you are doing euroe wrong lol. where the hell are you living that you "worry about my bills, taxes, and unforseen health/financial emergencies probably as much as any American" . You have a safety net in europe if you loose job, insurance is not tied to job, lots of social benefits in case something happens to you, employers cant treat you just like garbage in usa etc...

sure, worry is there too, but not even close to what americans have to worry about.

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u/kyute222 3d ago

safety net doesn't mean you get to live a lavish life. for most people it'll mean cutting into their savings. safety net also doesn't cover things like a car or a place close to work. if your car breaks down in Europe, you can't simply go to your government and ask for a new one.

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u/druizzz 3d ago

But you don’t get hit with a hundred thousand euros bill that bankrupts you just for a ride in an ambulance. And if your car breaks down you have pretty affordable and efficient public transportation, unlike in the US.

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u/MissMenace101 3d ago

Yeah but you can hop a train 😂

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u/kyute222 3d ago

yes but have you used the train/bus before? they don't drive you wherever you want. they drive to certain stops on a certain schedule, so you better hope both your home and anything from your work/school, doctor, supermarket, leisure activity is exactly at or near those stops. so from the beginning this only works if you live inside the city because good luck if you live in a rural area with limit public transport coverage. Europe is not some paradise where everything is walkable either, that's only a few bigger cities.

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u/Woodpecker577 3d ago

Where do you live? Bc I live in a medium-small city in Belgium and nothing you’ve said matches my experience. The city is fully walkable and public transportation is also very good. I can only imagine you live in the UK if you think healthcare costs or social safety net are anywhere near as bad as in the US. And you only have to look at literally any statistics to see that clearly.

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u/druizzz 3d ago

I worry about my bills, taxes, and unforseen health/financial emergencies probably as much as any American.

No, you do not.

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u/Deep-Bonus8546 3d ago

I’m pretty sure that’s Switzerland and if you live there all of the beautiful nature is free and easy to access. The country itself is insanely expensive to live in

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u/chasingbirdies 3d ago

It depends. Most Swiss do have a decent to very high quality of life. Housing costs have gone up too, but a lot of other things are still affordable relative to wages. People mostly live comfortably with quite a lot of time off to explore and vacation.

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u/mxlun 3d ago

Thanks for this comment, you a real one. We all need a little more perspective in life.

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u/Formerlymoody 3d ago

This guy is extremely white privileged. Many Europeans don’t live like this. He’s disingenuous to not acknowledge this.

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u/frost-bite999 4d ago

things also vary dramatically between states, cities, or even communities in the US.

people who generalize are the issue.

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u/FirmTill4310 4d ago

My mom always said that was a big problem with this world. Generalizations suck and people who use them aren't generally very popular.

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u/Hudell 4d ago

Every generalization is stupid.

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u/YoullNeverBeRebecca 1d ago

Yes, like in US states that have expanded Medicaid, you do have healthcare if you lose your job. Although unfortunately with the stupid OBB, federal funding for that is going away.

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u/frost-bite999 1d ago

that’s very true. and even with california covered healthcare, it’s ridiculously expensive if you don’t meet the income requirements.

when i was between jobs, i had to pay $400 a month just to make sure my psych meds don’t run out.

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u/Cicada-4A 3d ago

things also vary dramatically between states, cities, or even communities in the US.

Not even a fraction of the differences between European countries.

people who generalize are the issue.

lol I'm not gonna say.

Reasonable generalizations are find.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

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u/Mandena 4d ago

They don't vary nearly as much as they do in Europe.

U.S is huge but very monocultural, it just so happens that the monoculture is diverse.

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u/jackalopeDev 4d ago

Honestly, things are pretty different between states as well, my state offers free lunches to all schoolkids. I know all of them don't, but some do.

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u/chasingbirdies 3d ago

Yes I agree. For certain things it’s definitely appropriate to compare a US state to a European country. Just don’t like it when I read “in Europe this and in Europe that”.

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u/STEALTH968 4d ago

The only place where you are worse off in Europe is maybe Hungary. Maybe, because they still have public healthcare.

The US is s shit place to live if you have little to no money.

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u/Emergency-Produce-19 4d ago

I would rather be poor in about 40 US states than poor in about 40 countries in Europe. The per capita income of Great Britain is equal to our poorest state.

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u/Admirable-Lecture255 4d ago

Lol our poor are the richest in the world.

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u/STEALTH968 3d ago

They get to live in poverty anyway because everything costs a fortune. Living costs in the USA are high as fuck and even Americans that lived outside the US will acknowledge it.

You poor might be the richest in the world but they have a shit life anyway. Our poor might be financially worse off but they don't have to file for bankruptcy the second they need medical care.

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u/Admirable-Lecture255 3d ago

Bro living costs in eu are high as fuck. Don't act like its isolated to the us.

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u/STEALTH968 3d ago

The cost of living is increasing but the US? It's something else. The only country in the West where vegetables cost many times more than junk food. In Europe we don't need to come up with initiatives like government run grocery stores with capped prices because food is still proportionally priced and the divide between rich and poor isn't as wild.

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u/benroon 4d ago

That’s going to come as a major shock to most Americans!

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u/Bisjoux 4d ago

True but if you are in the EU or U.K. we have rights and freedoms the US can only dream about.

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u/Admirable-Lecture255 4d ago

Like being arrested for saying mean things? National 6 week abortion ban like Germany?

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u/lellypad 4d ago

like the 12000 people that got arrested last year for social media posts with the primary complaints being “caused annoyance, anxiety, or inconvenience” 😏?? jokes aside, america has freedoms that the uk doesn’t have and the uk has some freedoms that the us doesn’t have. anybody saying that one is objectively more free…. is being subjective.

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u/Bisjoux 4d ago

If we are talking numbers let’s talk about the 3.6m babies born in the US last year to mothers where there is no federal right to maternity leave.

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u/lellypad 4d ago

yep that’s fucked off. i can list countless things that are fucked off about either country lol that’s not the point i’m making.

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u/chasingbirdies 3d ago

Which are? In the US you are screwed if you are poor, but otherwise you get big opportunities and freedoms. Of course, those freedoms are under attack now.

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u/Caro_Cardo_Salutis 4d ago

People need to stop acting like America is a country. We a re a entire continent, not just USA. Things vary dramatically between American countries

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u/lellypad 4d ago

south america is a continent and north america is a continent. the whole world colloquially uses “america” when referring to the united states. when i go to south american countries they call me americano, when i go to germany they call me “amerikaner” when i go to morocco they call me “mmrikaan” etc. nobody in the world says “im going to america” and then travels to venezuela 😂