40 American Norms That Baffle The Rest Of The World, As Shared In This Thread

And Supreme Court justices!

Only magas claim that

It's the puritan ancestors.

It's called, you-are-nothing-just-if-you-make-money. And despite of it, you are still nothing.

Yeah this is NOT NORMAL America!

Before 1989 ex-communist eastern-european countries were doing this, and the Soviet Union. However not all of them. Nowadays just North-Korea. Oh, the irony with the land-of-the-free ... they became that exact country, what they were afraid of in the Cold War.

When you have slaves, not citizens ....

This is changing.

Speaking about the health-not-care system.

I understand it if you own a place in a multi-unit building. Someone has to be in charge, but otherwise it's insanity and very inefficient.

When you are a country, but although not really a country ....

In Germany you are sent home, when you are sick (You have 3 days for recovering without needing a doctor's note for it). I mean, if you are stupid enough to show up at all.

Thank you for your service, but the whisky is not for you....

Lack of healthcare in general

Don’t worry; it’s moving rapidly towards fully dystopian.

The reason hyper-sexualization is popular is exactly *because* of sexual repression. When something is taboo, there will always be a group of people who rail against that taboo by going extreme in the other direction.

Usually get mine from vending machines.

It's disgusting, that USA legally allows their citizens to be paid only like 2 bucks/hour. Even fast-fashion workers in China or Bangladesh are earning more.

We are NOT opposed. Those who profit off of it are, and people need to stop voting for politicians who get on their knees for corporations.

Why are you even paying it?

I'm fine with this if an adult requests it for himself, but - child genital mutilation? No other act on the genitals of an under-age child is even faintly permissible, but hacking bits off is? Consent is not available.

We're almost at the point of dictatorship, going by what Trump & Musk have been up to so far this year.

Hm, than it's not a maternity leave, it's practically unemployment....

Let's also discuss a little discussed racket. All of the state universities where I live, students are required to live their first two years on campus. If you live on campus, you have to have a meal plan. For almost every state university here, the dorm and meal plan is more expensive than the tuition and you can't get around it. Now that I'm think about it. I wonder what would happen if I signed my kids up for classes, but never signed the housing agreement..... wld they get kicked out? mmmmmm stay tuned.

Sorry, but I would rather K-12 education was fixed first, before we start making higher education free. The free education system we do have in the US is broken . I taught college for 20 years (1990s-2010s) and was astounded at how many students could not read or write at even a 9th or 10th grade level. Their teachers just passed them on. And those teachers were probably told that they weren’t allowed to give certain grades to low performing students. Both grade inflation and a serious gap in parental/teacher partnership has left massive numbers of Americans only semi-literate by the time they reach adulthood. Going to college is inappropriate for most of those who are there.

To be fair, tuition fees in the UK are on average more expensive than the US. The bigger problem is the predatory loans students have to take out to pay them.

Clever countries realise that paying for their bright young people's education is an investment in the future success of their science and industry -> their economy.

Yep it was that way in 1960 @ Wash. State U.

I think this is more universal, and not just in USA.

It's common for vets to have a flag. If your church has a flag, that's a different story. It's not really a church. Like you would never see a Catholic, Lutheran or Synagogue flying a flag. The only ones that do that are the giant mega churches that aren't really about God so much as they are about white supremacy and Christian Nationalism.

Well it really only affects women..so..doesn't count. 😪 not here in the States Get back to work ya lazy bum!

Agreed a lot of places give way to much food. If we go out a plate is 3 or 4 meals for me.

I write the date using letters. Not 2/9 or 9/2, but October 4.

George Carlin talks stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x_QkGPCL18

*not being able to afford vacations. Especially international travel. Want to make sure Americans don’t get out of the country and find out that they don’t actually live in the greatest place on earth.

They start brainwashing the kids young.

Actually, they're Imperial and a lot of Brits still use them.

I was shocked that there's no income tax season in UK. What I find weird that North Americans have to do our own income taxes is we have to rely on the IRA or CRA definitions, and those definitions can seem very specific but are very vague all at the same time. For example, if you are claiming a disability credit, they use "infirm". Infirm means a severe disability that impacts one's daily life. A physician fills out a form of questions with you, then you hand it into the revenue agency, where they decide whether or not you qualify as being "infirm" to get the credit. An Intellectual Disability, despite being high functioning enough to work, with some accommodations and some daily help with cleaning, is enough to qualify for disability, even though you may not be as severely disabled as someone who cannot work and needs constant basic care. But you'll still be entitled for the disability credit. Every tax time, I fill this out and feel like an imposter. The wording should be clearer.

I guess it's thirsty work carrying all that excess weight.... ah I can already feel the downvotes....

We love cold drinks. We just hate watering them down with ice. Instead, we are cooling the drink itself. Ice is for cocktails. In a small amount.

The law stating that "tipped" labor may be paid less than minimum wage!

You're lucky if a place doesn't have gaps in the stall doors.

In many areas there just isn't the infrastructure for pedestrians. I tried walking in Adison, and it was horrible trying to scramble from one parking lot to another. Crossing a 4-lane road was also a nightmare, as the junctions were set up only for cars. It was about a mile walk to get half a dozen doors down!

In Danmark we only fly the flag if it is someone's birthday, it is illegal to fly the flag if it isn't someone's birthday. Whenever I see a danish house with a flag I want to go ask if they have cake.