Someone Asks “What’s An Obvious Sign That Someone Is American?” And 30 People Don’t Hold Back
Sometimes all it takes is a second to guess where a person is from, be it their looks, their accent, their behavior, or something else that gives it away. Often affected by customs, cultural norms, or widespread behaviors, they tend to do things they might not even realize are representative of their home; but for people around them, they are pretty clear telltale signs.
Redditor u/Frosty-Ad3575 recently turned to the ‘Ask Reddit’ community, seeking to learn what things people consider obvious signs that someone is American. Netizens’ answers covered everything from the way people stand to how they greet each other, among other things, so scroll down to find them and see what might give away that a person comes from the United States.
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Claiming to be of a certain nationality (e.g. Irish), but can't even locate the eponymous country on a map.
They'll use any form of measurement other than metric. Freedoms per eagle is a popular one.
They assume everyone knows about american geography, politics, news etc. but they know nothing about any other country.
Ok, the US is a pretty large country, but there are other large countries that have citizens more aware of what's going on globally.
My SIL was concerned that the conflict in Israel was too close to central Germany, where my nephew was
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That's a lot of generalizations about 300-something-million people. We're not ALL that bad. Some of us even have a decent education. I can even read and spell my name (without a dictionary...usually).
Exactly. Though for everyone, it's probably safe to assume that you don't know what's going on in a country you aren't in and aren't from.
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"War is God's way of teaching Americans geography." - Ambrose Bierce
We have 50 states. Think of them as countries. We have 50 countries to think about before we check across the pond.
you have one country - it's not impossible to check out a country that you are visiting before you get there
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Pretty accurate, they really do seem to assume they are the centre of the world and everyone knows or cares about their c**p, yet they are usually pretty ignorant of anything not American.
That is a huge generalization about a country with over 300 million people. Maybe dont be so ignorant yourself huh?
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And many of my fellow Americans don't know anything about America itself.
True. There are so many who only know what the Orange Jesus tells them...
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I don't think they do that since a lot of them are not aware of it themselves.
Works both ways. We had European relatives ask to meet up for lunch in the middle of Pennsylvania when we lived in the south of Virginia, an 8 hour drive minimum. But it looked "close" on the map.
As Canadians having travelled in the US, coast to coast to coast, through about 45 states, spending various amounts of time in most of them, we are frequently astounded how little Americans travel even within their own country. We constantly meet people who have never left their home state.
I never understood this why would people in another would speak English. And why would any other country take US dollars.
It can be hard to find global news in the United States, most news sources are geared toward local, national, and then a tiny bit of world news. Also most of our world news deals with wars and conflicts so it's depressing.
While I generally agree with this observation, it's ironic that these types of articles on BP and other sites are more often focused on the US than most other countries combined. So, we get much (most?) of the scrutiny because of our position on the world stage. Fair or unfair, right or wrong, it's just what it is right now.
I think this response has just a little too much non-"American" spice in it. The very questions is tilted, the question should be "... someone from the United States." America includes North, Latin and South areas. Not just people from the United States. Our reference to ourselves as "'Merican" is much more than 50% self satire.
we have an ocean between us and you can go from country to country in an afternoon. We can drive for days and days and still be in the same country.
when it comes to knowledge size really doesn't matter
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This is such a polite way to say it. It's more like "They mock, ridicule and loudly deride people who don't know 'murican stuff - and then act equally rude that anyone else could POSSIBLY expect the 'muricans to know anything about another country."
What is it like? Going through life being so negative and critical of things you clearly don't know about?
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Everyone "knows that Australia is in Europe, near Germany" lol
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Okay, point to where Colorado is on a map. We also hade to memorize all the states and capitals in like 5th grade. Hey Europeans, what's the capital of Nevada? It's not Las Vegas....
While it's true many Americans are woefully ignorant of matters outside their country that can also be said of Great Britain and France. Large countries tend to look inward while smaller countries like Canada and Holland look outward and are more globally aware. Probably because they have a dependency on the rest of the world for trade and protection. You want to know your friends and customers ....
Canada is literally larger than the USA. It's second largest country IN THE WORLD
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Referring to 'Europe' as if it were a country.
I'm Canadian and the biggest giveaway to me that someone is American is simply in their spelling. For example, we would spell it "the colour grey", and Americans would spell it "the color gray." We use paycheque instead of paycheck, and neighbour instead of neighbor. Our vernacular is very British.
The bald eagles told us the U's were superfluous, so we just ran with it.
Talking about the extortionate cost of healthcare and the struggles of navigating the health insurance system.
When asked where they’re from. They instantly say the state not the country.
When I lived in Estonia, a local once told me that if anybody smiled and said hello unsolicited on the street they knew “that person was either drunk, crazy or an American.”
I laughed and said, “In this case, it might be all three!”
Not to be rude or offensive as I am American and this, but we are fat.
Anything under 4 hours is “close by”.
jayhitter:
Everything is Europe is around the corner if you're from the US. I can drive the whole day and not leave my state but in Europe I can pass through 4 countries in that same time frame.
Me thinking in Swedish 🤔 maybe 4h across, but not lengthwise.. Then 23h by car
As an American man, I’ve been told repeatedly by European and Asian friends that we simply take up space (not by being fat) as though we’re entitled to it. Men in other countries apparently don’t claim the same personal space we do.
I've found that men from many countries do this. It's more a male thing than country thing, more are more likely to feel entitled to the space around them, and feel safe to occupy it, whereas women are taught the opposite from childhood - take up less space, accommodate the people around you
Apparently the CIA trains American agents to not lean on things if they go undercover in foreign countries because Americans lean on anything they can while standing around.
I was in Germany this past summer and I realized smiling at everyone you make eye contact with is very American. When I went to London on the same trip they seemed less weirded out by it but would awkwardly return the smile.
I was taught to always start with a disarming smile. Never realized it was American.
The casual openess and friendliness of US citizens is one of the positive traits we could learn something from
Immediately asking someone what they do for a living when meeting them. Our jobs and work are our entire identity.
To me - it is the habit of choosing convenience over all else (note that my observations are mostly of people who consider themselves middle class). Small example - if you need to wipe down your kitchen counter, Americans always reach for a paper product while back in India, it would always be a cloth towel. Reason for Indians to use cloth - it is reusable and hence, economical. Americans using paper - it is more convenient. Transport - wait a half hour extra for train or drive... the Americans in my group always chose to drive and the Europeans and Asians chose public transit. Lunch at work - most Americans in my group but lunch every day, even if it is a simple deli sandwich. Most non- Americans bring homemade lunches. Now I don't make value judgement about how people spend their money but the way they gravitate towards convenience first and only then consider finances, environmental impact, etc.
If you are from Europe and have spent some time in the US you will make that observation. Drive-through for everything, even for banks, was very weird to me. (To be fair, lots of American cities and places have s****y Public Transportation to begin with. Often enough the car is the only alternative)
At least in Finland, I find them as quite friendly, easy to get with and genuine. They aren't afraid to ask questions if it is not clear to them and say the things that matter. Of course shoes, laughter and the way they carry themselves without thinking much about what others would say.
That's cos Finland is one of the best places to live with great people also
In the touristy cafe-restaurant I worked at:
1. If they asked me for the nicest spot we had
2. If they asked me my recommendation without seeing the menu first
3. I would walk to the table, and they would say right away "hey how are you doing?". This one threw me off a lot at first. Why is this person asking me how I'm doing?? I'm just there to take the order. I got used to it, and I think they found my awkwardness to it cute.
4. They would ask my name when I greeted them and took their order
NB I'm Northern European
Here in Portugal everyone is greeted with "Bom dia! Tudo bem," basically "Hello! How are things?" I find that Americans do not do it as often.
Americans outside America will often claim that people are Scottish-ing or Italian-ing wrong because their great great great grandfather came from Scotland/Italy.
I have been corrected on my Scottishness by an American who claimed direct descent from a famous Scot who had no children.
On the other hand I also find Americans to be incredibly open and friendly and kind and generous.
US tourists seems to be of two opposite types.
I was born in Scotland, and I grew up in Australia. I like to refer to myself as Australian coz I've been here my whole life.
I was told, "Americans carry water bottles around like they're worried they'll never have access to clean water ever again."
I’m half Italian and my biggest pet peeve with American culture is Americans are averse to walking
Inb4 “American cities aren’t walkable”. That’s true to a point, but Americans a big country. There are still walkable places and even in the instance where something is, people prefer to drive. I used to walk 30 minutes to class from home and people thought I was crazy.
I also used to be an Uber driver. Many people I picked up were college students that didn’t want to make the 10-15 minute walk from the off campus dorms. I’ve had friends ask to drive to places that are only 10 minute walks. It’s kind of pathetic.
Once again depends on Where's they are from. My friends from NYC are still not big on driving after living in Europe for years.
They cut their food, then switch the fork to their right hand and put the left under the table while eating.
XL shirt on an average guy (6 ft 172 lbs / 1.82m 78 kg) also trousers with enough room for another person.
Good taste in music, intolerance of monarchy, and near cult-like worship of pizza.
Expecting to drive to everything.
well, without sidewalks, bike lanes and the strange zoning laws this is just the common thing?
Baseball cap... even on an infant riding in a pram.
Here in Australia plenty of people wear baseball caps. It's not an American thing guys
Note: this post originally had 49 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Stop attacking Americans. It's not funny anymore and has gone past a joke into blantant xenophobia. Yes, there are people there who act entitled and lack understanding of other cultures, but those people exist in every country in the world. I'm British and can confirm they certainly exist here as well. Some British people still act very entitled in Europe. I saw people getting upset at Schipol airport because they had to wait in the bigger queue when going through immigration like they didn't vote for it.
I totally agree, BP is starting to cross an ugly line with with these constant articles about the US.
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Thank you, all non-USA pandas who respond to these articles with nuance, reason and actual empirical knowledge of the topic
I'm originally from the United Kingdom and I find listicles like this just flat out cruel. I actually just wrote a note to BoredPanda letting them know that they are alienating their reader base and ruining the integrity of this site with cruel listicles like this. They'll probably never read it though because they couldn't care less about their readers.
Load More Replies... Jesus freaking Christ, BoredPanda. What the hell has happened to this site? It is nothing but AITA listcles and nasty stereotypes aimed at your readers. You have totally lost what this site used to be. Do you think it is funny to constantly stereotype and attack your readers from a specific country? Must be nice to get paid to insult people, Migle. Do you even listen to your readers anymore or care what they have to say? I have family in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Denmark and let me tell you there are entitled people all around the world. Stop alienating and insulting your readers--it's freaking petty and immature. I'm sorry, BoredPanda writers can't even call themselves writers when all they do is copy-and-paste c**p like this from Reddit.
wait, but they do write some little drivel in the middle that no one ever reads because why would you? (i fully agree, they are not writers, they are click bait posters). I wish I had the drive to submit a " 140 dumb things that "writers" on BP believe"
Load More Replies... Couldn't be bothered reading to the end. Nothing new, and most aren't exclusively American.
Pretty sick of the American bashing theme on BP. Not the first time (or tenth). Think I’m done with this site.
I really wish BP would go back to cute animal pictures and wholesome threads. I'm tired of the xenophobia. I'm tired of recycled Reddit posts. I'm tired of the angst. I'm tired of the nonsense. The Bored Panda community is by far the best. If BP loses that, it's nothing. A shame BP seems to be trying to "unalive" itself.
This, I started coming here because of the cute stuff. I don't want to see nonstop AITA things about people being horrible. I don't want to see stuff torn off of reddit!
Load More Replies... I was kind of hoping this list was going to be more like "Americans eat slices of pie starting with the corner, not the crust" or "When Americans count on their fingers, they use their thumb last, not first" or "Americans will ask for the salad before the main course, not after" or other quirky things (I don't know if these are actually true about Europe, I've just heard them) that would be interesting, and not the standard "Americans are loud, fat, and only speak English" stuff that's been beaten to death here.
The worst part of these is you just KNOW BP would be too terrified to run even half as many articles about other nationalities.
The worst part is they'd actually probably defend those countries, and then go right back to America-Bashing.
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Wow 90% of these are completely untrue. Most of these take obscure stereotypes, add in a little vitriol, and regurgitate. This list is garbage.
Read the first three. Someone please give Miglė Miliūtė and Mindaugas Balčiauskas a cookie.
How to know if someone is non-American, they are obsessed with how Americans measure things or what we call things. Yes we know you call a different sport Football, no we are not going to call our game "American Football" in our own country when talking to other Americans.
It is not racist. Americans are not a race. Its xenophobic.
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It’s like they’re obsessed with us, can’t leave us alone. “We’re all better and too cool for Americans, but let’s group together and tear them down like jealous high schoolers on the regular” I mean what else does this behavior say. I lived overseas for years and loved it! They can say whatever they want, our culture has permeated everywhere I travelled to. They tease our military presence, but who would your country call if someone bombed your country? I don’t think my country is the greatest, we’re actually in shambles…but the xenophobia towards us in BP is ridiculous and I’m over it. Get off our d***s.
How do we report these as being bigoted and inappropriate? BP censors some ridiculous stuff, but when it comes to writing bigoted and xenophobic articles, that's just fine, apparently. Maybe it's time to just ditch this site.
Scorched Goat, I've tried countless times to report how nasty and cruel listicles like this are, but BoredPanda does nothing. If you want to try, you can click on the "contact" button. Once in the "contact" page, select "report post". You can provide the URL of this article and explain how you find it xenophobic and hurtful. Maube even enough people write something, they'll stop posting things like this.
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Seems more like a passive aggressive list of things Americans do that bother others.
I live a New England East Coast City VERY popular with tourists from all over the world. It's not Boston either. We can spot tourists a mile away by the way they dress, act, talk, and how they observe things. For whatever reason, they seem to know I live here because people always stop and ask for directions or recommendations. And yes, some of them are annoying. But I also know that they aren't a true representation of everyone from their county. This site has gotten so anti- American that I'm about done with site.
Ah, yes the "'Americans are so ignorant" they laugh, as they make ignorant generalizations." Look, I'm the first one to make fun of my nation and it's people but many of these are asinine, lack self-awareness, and/or just massive assumptions or projections. Thank you to those that offer thoughtful, useful criticisms. That understand that while we don't have nearly the largest population that we're a massive country that operates less like a country, like yours, and more like the EU or UN. That we're not homogenous and the differences between Americans are some of the most extreme. We can take criticism and friendly ribbing, but reading the same tired, lazy comments from the same type of people we're generalized as can be annoying. I'm sure you can understand, for which I thank you.
Just started posting. I love my country. There's a lot of s**t I don't agree with, but I was raised to respect everyone, until they give u a reason not to. Really easy to judge people. Keep that in mind.
aaahhhhh this was so stupid, i guess i must be REALLY bored that i didnt just ignored it
I have never met anyone from USA here in Sweden that was not nice, friendly and open to our culture. Of course you can tell they are not from here - but that is part of the charm.
I just skip these ones. Honestly I don't care if someone pegs me as American. I am American and glad to be American. I dont care what Europe thinks lol.
It took me a long time to realise, but Americans speak English with correct grammar. Australians will um, ah, and finish a sentence in the middle, even politicians. Londoners abbreviate everything, so for instance the sentence "do you have a light?" Is simply pronounced "I". Indians run words in sentences together so a complete sentence becomes one word. But Americans speak complete sentences with perfect grammar.
I'm American and welcome humorous or interesting critiques, even if they might hurt my feelings. This is just dumb.
In addition to anti-American, there also seems to be an anti-capitalism bias here. There have been several times when someone would post that capitalism is horrible, I would respond that yes, it's got its issues, but what alternative do you propose?, only to have my reply mysteriously disappear (as this one probably will).
that is not a thing. No one I know has a loyalty to a burger brand. you either talked to the 3 people who do or are making things up. again this is not a thing.
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You accept the premise that Americans are rude and horrible and we need to be more like some other people group. I disagree with that premise and so find your post to be absurd.
Load More Replies... So you think that constantly bashing and stereotyping part of your reader base is alright? Hmm, I'm not even from the United States and I find the amount of listcles BoredPanda posts stereotyping readers from the U.S. pretty darn disturbing and I'm liberal as all hell. Also, telling people to calm down when they are fed up and annoyed isn't very nice.
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The problem is that we accept criticism from ourselves. If I said your country was terrible, listed a bunch of fake reasons, without ever going there, generalizing your country's entirety, then would you be mad? The people who can criticize a country are the people from/in that country, the same reason why if I criticized china with generalizations, I would be called a racists.
Load More Replies... Stop attacking Americans. It's not funny anymore and has gone past a joke into blantant xenophobia. Yes, there are people there who act entitled and lack understanding of other cultures, but those people exist in every country in the world. I'm British and can confirm they certainly exist here as well. Some British people still act very entitled in Europe. I saw people getting upset at Schipol airport because they had to wait in the bigger queue when going through immigration like they didn't vote for it.
I totally agree, BP is starting to cross an ugly line with with these constant articles about the US.
Load More Replies... Thank you, all non-USA pandas who respond to these articles with nuance, reason and actual empirical knowledge of the topic
I'm originally from the United Kingdom and I find listicles like this just flat out cruel. I actually just wrote a note to BoredPanda letting them know that they are alienating their reader base and ruining the integrity of this site with cruel listicles like this. They'll probably never read it though because they couldn't care less about their readers.
Load More Replies... Jesus freaking Christ, BoredPanda. What the hell has happened to this site? It is nothing but AITA listcles and nasty stereotypes aimed at your readers. You have totally lost what this site used to be. Do you think it is funny to constantly stereotype and attack your readers from a specific country? Must be nice to get paid to insult people, Migle. Do you even listen to your readers anymore or care what they have to say? I have family in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Denmark and let me tell you there are entitled people all around the world. Stop alienating and insulting your readers--it's freaking petty and immature. I'm sorry, BoredPanda writers can't even call themselves writers when all they do is copy-and-paste c**p like this from Reddit.
wait, but they do write some little drivel in the middle that no one ever reads because why would you? (i fully agree, they are not writers, they are click bait posters). I wish I had the drive to submit a " 140 dumb things that "writers" on BP believe"
Load More Replies... Couldn't be bothered reading to the end. Nothing new, and most aren't exclusively American.
Pretty sick of the American bashing theme on BP. Not the first time (or tenth). Think I’m done with this site.
I really wish BP would go back to cute animal pictures and wholesome threads. I'm tired of the xenophobia. I'm tired of recycled Reddit posts. I'm tired of the angst. I'm tired of the nonsense. The Bored Panda community is by far the best. If BP loses that, it's nothing. A shame BP seems to be trying to "unalive" itself.
This, I started coming here because of the cute stuff. I don't want to see nonstop AITA things about people being horrible. I don't want to see stuff torn off of reddit!
Load More Replies... I was kind of hoping this list was going to be more like "Americans eat slices of pie starting with the corner, not the crust" or "When Americans count on their fingers, they use their thumb last, not first" or "Americans will ask for the salad before the main course, not after" or other quirky things (I don't know if these are actually true about Europe, I've just heard them) that would be interesting, and not the standard "Americans are loud, fat, and only speak English" stuff that's been beaten to death here.
The worst part of these is you just KNOW BP would be too terrified to run even half as many articles about other nationalities.
The worst part is they'd actually probably defend those countries, and then go right back to America-Bashing.
Load More Replies... Wow 90% of these are completely untrue. Most of these take obscure stereotypes, add in a little vitriol, and regurgitate. This list is garbage.
Read the first three. Someone please give Miglė Miliūtė and Mindaugas Balčiauskas a cookie.
How to know if someone is non-American, they are obsessed with how Americans measure things or what we call things. Yes we know you call a different sport Football, no we are not going to call our game "American Football" in our own country when talking to other Americans.
It is not racist. Americans are not a race. Its xenophobic.
Load More Replies... It’s like they’re obsessed with us, can’t leave us alone. “We’re all better and too cool for Americans, but let’s group together and tear them down like jealous high schoolers on the regular” I mean what else does this behavior say. I lived overseas for years and loved it! They can say whatever they want, our culture has permeated everywhere I travelled to. They tease our military presence, but who would your country call if someone bombed your country? I don’t think my country is the greatest, we’re actually in shambles…but the xenophobia towards us in BP is ridiculous and I’m over it. Get off our d***s.
How do we report these as being bigoted and inappropriate? BP censors some ridiculous stuff, but when it comes to writing bigoted and xenophobic articles, that's just fine, apparently. Maybe it's time to just ditch this site.
Scorched Goat, I've tried countless times to report how nasty and cruel listicles like this are, but BoredPanda does nothing. If you want to try, you can click on the "contact" button. Once in the "contact" page, select "report post". You can provide the URL of this article and explain how you find it xenophobic and hurtful. Maube even enough people write something, they'll stop posting things like this.
Load More Replies... Seems more like a passive aggressive list of things Americans do that bother others.
I live a New England East Coast City VERY popular with tourists from all over the world. It's not Boston either. We can spot tourists a mile away by the way they dress, act, talk, and how they observe things. For whatever reason, they seem to know I live here because people always stop and ask for directions or recommendations. And yes, some of them are annoying. But I also know that they aren't a true representation of everyone from their county. This site has gotten so anti- American that I'm about done with site.
Ah, yes the "'Americans are so ignorant" they laugh, as they make ignorant generalizations." Look, I'm the first one to make fun of my nation and it's people but many of these are asinine, lack self-awareness, and/or just massive assumptions or projections. Thank you to those that offer thoughtful, useful criticisms. That understand that while we don't have nearly the largest population that we're a massive country that operates less like a country, like yours, and more like the EU or UN. That we're not homogenous and the differences between Americans are some of the most extreme. We can take criticism and friendly ribbing, but reading the same tired, lazy comments from the same type of people we're generalized as can be annoying. I'm sure you can understand, for which I thank you.
Just started posting. I love my country. There's a lot of s**t I don't agree with, but I was raised to respect everyone, until they give u a reason not to. Really easy to judge people. Keep that in mind.
aaahhhhh this was so stupid, i guess i must be REALLY bored that i didnt just ignored it
I have never met anyone from USA here in Sweden that was not nice, friendly and open to our culture. Of course you can tell they are not from here - but that is part of the charm.
I just skip these ones. Honestly I don't care if someone pegs me as American. I am American and glad to be American. I dont care what Europe thinks lol.
It took me a long time to realise, but Americans speak English with correct grammar. Australians will um, ah, and finish a sentence in the middle, even politicians. Londoners abbreviate everything, so for instance the sentence "do you have a light?" Is simply pronounced "I". Indians run words in sentences together so a complete sentence becomes one word. But Americans speak complete sentences with perfect grammar.
I'm American and welcome humorous or interesting critiques, even if they might hurt my feelings. This is just dumb.
In addition to anti-American, there also seems to be an anti-capitalism bias here. There have been several times when someone would post that capitalism is horrible, I would respond that yes, it's got its issues, but what alternative do you propose?, only to have my reply mysteriously disappear (as this one probably will).
that is not a thing. No one I know has a loyalty to a burger brand. you either talked to the 3 people who do or are making things up. again this is not a thing.
Load More Replies... You accept the premise that Americans are rude and horrible and we need to be more like some other people group. I disagree with that premise and so find your post to be absurd.
Load More Replies... So you think that constantly bashing and stereotyping part of your reader base is alright? Hmm, I'm not even from the United States and I find the amount of listcles BoredPanda posts stereotyping readers from the U.S. pretty darn disturbing and I'm liberal as all hell. Also, telling people to calm down when they are fed up and annoyed isn't very nice.
Load More Replies... The problem is that we accept criticism from ourselves. If I said your country was terrible, listed a bunch of fake reasons, without ever going there, generalizing your country's entirety, then would you be mad? The people who can criticize a country are the people from/in that country, the same reason why if I criticized china with generalizations, I would be called a racists.
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