Even though both Europe and the USA belong to the Western World and agree on most fundamental democratic principles, they don't see eye-to-eye on everything. According to a recent study, Americans and Europeans often have different perspectives on the way of life - individualism, the role of government, free expression, religion, and morality.
However, Reddit user IBringTheGinger wanted to know how these differences manifest themselves in everyday life. So they created a post, asking Europeans to list the funny problems that are too American for them to understand. It immediately blew up, and, as of this article, has nearly 64K upvotes and 57,5K comments. Scroll down to read some of the most popular first world problems and let us know if you agree with them!
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Here is one I can't understand:
Strong violence on tv: No one bats an eye...
Nipple slip: Everybody loses their minds.
"Since Reddit is US-centric, I've seen many posts and comments about problems that seemed typically American to me such as being broke because of student debt or postponing going to the doctor because you can't afford it. So I was curious to see if other Europeans like myself ever felt the same way or if they had heard about other 'American problems' that I didn't know about," IBringTheGinger told Bored Panda.
Why doesn't the guy with the most votes just win the election?
The amount of attention their post got really surprised IBringTheGinger. "From what I've seen on r/AskReddit, how many upvotes you get can be extremely random depending on the day and hour you post at and there's nothing you can do about it. I never managed to get past like 300 upvotes before. Almost 60k comments is just crazy."
Even though they knew a lot of the things that were mentioned in the replies such as problems in the healthcare system or excessive swearing-censoring on the TV, they made IBringTheGinger understand the different culture better. "I learned about others and seeing all those issues combined in one place really made me realize I'd never want to chase the American dream myself. Well, not if I wouldn't be hugely compensated for it at least, like a job offer or something. But I doubt that would ever happen anyway."
Why tipping is considered part of someone's paycheck.
So the Customers have to feel Guilt about Poverty, not the Employers
You Americans eat like you've got free health care.
Have you seen the ridiculous large portions we get here? In most European countries that's considered a meal for at least a family of 4 at minimum!
Why the big amount of flat-earth and antivax people?? Is your education system not doing well??
The Flat Earth Society exists across the globe- ahem, disc... :D
Don't forget about the creationists.... you know.... the TENS OF MILLIONS of Americans who think that Earth was imagined into being 10,000 years ago and nothing existed before that. Imagine being in a business meeting whose entire view of the Universe is based on a bloody fairy tale.
Whereas evolutionists believe that for absolutely no reason the universe was created when nothing exploded and then in the most inhospitable environment magically a single element was created which somehow, again magically, turned into a living cell which consumed food that didn't exist to then replicate itself and after gazillions and gazillions and gazillions of years we ended up with... ??? Total Bucking Fullshit.
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We just keep the anti-vaxxers here so that when another world war starts we can put em on the frontlines.
I never met flat earther, but I once met elderly lady who believed that garbage (like plastic) is thrown to the outer space and meteorites are this garbage falling back to Earth. It was impossible to talk some sense into her.
As a matter of fact, our education system isn't doing well at all because we have a Sith like party who like to keep certain voters as dumb as they can get.
No, our education system is NOT doing well at all. It’s underfunded, the teachers are underpaid, and education, and science and FACTS themselves are best assault. Murrika’s “freedom” means people have the “right” to breed kids and then withhold facts and science from them with religious “home schooling” (indoctrination). Our society is so strongly acculturated to religion that even when people decide to exit organized religion, they will still embrace pseudoscience and woo because it “feels right” (in other words, it’s familiar and they never learned how to do critical thinking). We have a strong thread of anti-intellectualism here and it’s growing stronger thanks to the current political administration and the insanity of our duopoly system that would be happy to make sure there are only two choices of political parties so long as corporations maintain their power and the plutocratic oligarchy is continued.
Does not the Education system keep a check on children home schooled are being taught?
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Don't forget creationists and young-earthers. I suspect that's where a lot of this credulous nonsense got started.
Exactly. When you acculturate an entire civilization to believe in magic, you don’t just turn that off. The people who leave organized religion will scramble to find as familiar a replacement as possible. For many people that replacement is conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, and general woo.
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No, our education system is NOT doing well. Teachers are underpaid & understaffed with severely outdated supplies (if there are supplies at all,) and it certainly doesn't help that half of the children are hungry because they can't afford school lunches/breakfasts and get shamed for being past due when their parents literally can't afford food.
Flat Earthers and Anti-vaxxers are a global problem..not just a American one. After all..lunatics have no country of their own.
If I recall correctly, the current strain of anti-vaccine hysteria was invented by an American “physician” who claimed vaccines caused autism. It doesn’t. He literally lost his license to practice medicine because of the huge amount of damage his b******t hypothesis created. The USA exports so much toxic b******t and this is but one example.
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No, it's not. Our education system is constantly undermined by economics and religion
So is everywhere else, where not only that people can't choose which religion they want to "believe", what's worse they cannot choose atheism.
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There are too many cats around the world for it to be flat. They love pushing things off the edge.
It's really not. All the money that should going into social services such as education are going into the back pocket of a handful of billionaires and millionaires.
If you look into it it has to do with the huge amount of conservatives
Some idiot died today trying to prove the earth is flat. All he had to do was go out into the desert and look at the horizon to see how the earth curves LOL I hope he didn't breed...
The guy who started and perpetuates the anti-vax movement is from Europe and there are anti-vaxxers in Europe as well.
I thought he was an American “physician”. Which guy are we talking about?
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In order of your questions: (1) I don't know (2) no it is not
It’s retards that think there smart when there stuped or killing there children at the age of 3
I think it is (in part) a joke to some people (believing in flat-earth and anti-vax)
Our education system is complete s**t in all honesty, especially if you want to go to college. Coming from a high school student.
Too much emphasis on college education, when people major in subjects which won't lead to jobs and only what they gain is an enormous student debt; not everybody is made for college. What should be promoted are vocational schools teaching craftsmanship and that means good paying jobs.
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It’s been present in the USA for generations. It’s getting worse. If this is a phase, when will it stop?
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There’s a lot of Americans so there’s going to be a lot of people that believe dumb things.
America always has to have the larger share of anything, whatever is more than, bigger than, is always American. What amuses me is the amount of haunted houses/places they have, more per mile than anywhere in the world, for a country so young.
The flat-earth thing is stupid, but vaccines are toxic chemicals that do nothing but create violent children.
...violent children!! I always blame parents for that, they got the kid from a start and that's when the character is formed.
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Australia and South Africa have a large anti-vax contingent and it's been growing in the UK as well. It's not a problem of education, rather its willful ignorance. At least one study has shown the in the US most anti-vaxxers are upper middle class, college educated white women.
The best thing for kids is to be brainwashed by their parents.
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No, it's not. Our education system is pathetic. Instead of teaching children how to learn, how to search, research and think critically, our schools have to tiptoe around religious wing nuts and people for whom opinion is more important than the truth/facts.
Opinion should be based on facts, proven truth.
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I find flat-earthers rather amusing and well...frickin anti-vaxxers!!! 😠😠
It’s called The Internet, YouTube, and a plethora of weirdo conspiracy theorists. That’s it.
The system is not perfect, but it's alright. It just turns out there are quite a few morons. But those morons are not limited to America lol
Ironic comment, considering that this person is likely unaware of the $3 billion in damages already awarded in the virtually secret Vaccine Injury Compensation Program - vaccine court, which hears an estimated <1% of cases of vaccine injuries; and the fact that the payouts don't come from the vaccine industry but from taxpayers; and the fact that the vaccine industry isn't required to test is products: you are the test. Any substance, let alone medicine, poses a risk of complications, and so it is important to allow personal choice - as if this weren't already the proclaimed ethos of the "free" world. But, the average person is so brainwashed into supporting this scam with the most banal non-arguments conceivable that reason and commonsense seem to have no effect.
well flat-earth is BS, but vaccination is absolutely unconscious - it does not work in any country cause it is the mirror of the collective mind which is quite superficial
I don't think you used the right word with "unconscious"... it doesn't make any sense.
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I find the American English for want of another way to describe it, of a very low standard. There are of course intelligent people on that continent but i wonder on the majority and their general standard of general knowledge. The majority are convinced that the world begins and ends with America.
There are no more conspiracy people per capita in the US than in Europe.
Just as is conservative madness, Penny Orchard.
Load More Replies... Americans tend to believe in fantasies more than Europeans. That's why we have more creationists, flat-Earthers and anti-vaxxers. That's also why we're the country that created Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Netflix.
So apart from having a lot of anti-science fools, you also pride yourself with having created the most privacy invading molochs on Earth.
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21 Drinking age like whaaaat you can vote , go join the army , get married , have children and drive but you're too immature to drink ???!!???!
The idolization of politicians. They are public servants, similar to a courthouse clerk or a city hall coordinator. They are not rock stars. You don't need to scream their name, buy their merch, fully commit your life to them and believe everything they say. Just... treat them like public servants. Sure, they get power and position but hold them accountable when they abuse it. Don't let corporations and politicians take over, the political system is created by the people, FOR the people. It just... boggles the mind.
Not being able to afford to study
Not being able to afford to pay medical bills
Not being able to afford school lunch
Not being able to have schools without security guards
Not being able to drink water straight from the tap
Not being able to walk because you are morbidly obese
toddlers involved in politics
Their obsession with celebrities, media and “perfect” looks. How often do I read comments from Americans saying:”Bad European teeth“ while in reality they are totally healthy, just aren’t bleached.
People going bankrupt for getting sick. Stupidly expensive "education". Gun control. No repercussion for police brutality.
Why are you paying taxes for?
It's crazy that American police can straight up murder people based on their skin colour and there's no repercussions for it. In my country if the police uses a gun even once, even to just injure a suspect, there's massive investigation launched into whether that use of force was called for
I'm too European to understand how swearing and curse words are such a big deal in movies and songs, but violence and guns are taken with a grain of salt
You have $4.50 in your pocket. The fancy drink is advertised at $3.99. Do you have enough money to buy it? Dunno!
You have to always calculate tax and tip like we're some kind of math geniuses or something!
The American Dream. Basically every other developed county is living the ‘American Dream’ while Americans really just think they are, but if you describe the way their country works to someone it sounds like you’re describing a third world country.
And whenever to tell someone that there’s something wrong with how the USA does things, people do one or more of the following: A. Yell at you “if you don’t like it, then leave!” (mindless nationalism, not patriotism)... B.They refuse to believe it’s better anywhere else... C. They tell you that any place with a seemingly better system is still actually worse because it’s “socialism” (and they are fully convinced by obsolete and never correct Cold War propaganda to reject anything that has the scent of “USSR” on it, whether legit or not)... D. They go as far as comparing the USA to some third-world hellhole or theocracy just to make the USA seem better by comparison (sinking to that low a bar is really f*****g revealing!!!).
The confusing Imperial measurements system and US customary units.
I don't understand the concept of punching holes in the wall. If you tried that here in Ireland, you'd just break your hand.
Double standards. E.g. being prude but having the largest porn industry in the world, praising religion but disregarding Christian values IRL.
The fact that Americans refer to a 24h clock as “military time” you mean just regular time?
Also, suing culture. Got injured? Sue! Fell down some stairs? Sue! Fight with neighbour? Sue!
I will NEVER understand why you guys allow children to not be guaranteed free health care and dental care! Why aren't you up in arms over this, protesting in the streets? They're CHILDREN, why on earth would a rich country not guarantee free health care to all children?! I don't get it.
They won't even protect their children from getting shot dead. We had one school shooting in the UK and even gun owners were so sickened they supported the changes in the law. In the US children getting shot in the face is less horrifying than not being allowed to walk around showing off a gun.
Having to take out a second mortage because you twisted your ankle in the wrong state.
Why Americans are so proud of being American and their obsession with military. Like what did they do other than being born American? What good does military do other than wasting money they could use for e.g. health care.
European here, why are all your houses made from cardboard if you have a problem with hurricanes? My country has no natural problems and our houses are made from reinforced cement.
Not using the metric system. Counting in football fields/moon landings instead... I don't get it.
You're not the only one but, alas, it's one of those: "it is what it is" things.
Why do you guys wear shoes in the house??
Or put their feet with the shoes on, on the bed!! I mean, hygiene people!!
While watching Chelsea vs Manchester United yesterday on NBCSN, during halftime there was a Good Rx commercial where the guy is asking a woman if she would like to fill her prescription, he pulled up the phone and showed her that the same pill can cost from $10 to $90 depending on the area. And that Good Rx can help her fill the prescription with the cheapest prices. Now someone please explain to me how in the ever-loving f**k is it possible for a drug to cost 10x more depending on your location !? Don't they have constant prices like in the rest of the civilized world !?
First off: What makes you think we have a civilized world here? The Civil war here is still going on in some people's mind albeit not physically. In answer to your question about the Rx pricing: Yes, it does depends where you live because we here live the good life of out of control predatory greed.
Joining the army for college money and free healthcare. Also how religious they are
The religion stuff has always bugged me. It annoys me how people dont see freedom from religion as part of our freedom to religion. Not to mention Christianity is everywhere
Expensive required textbooks that you HAVE to buy to take a university class
How much do I tip? 10%? 15%? Do I tip everywhere? Why isn’t the tax included? Why does the tip vary? Why are the waiters so underpaid?
Also, why do you have to do your tax bill? You could literally go to prison but it’s like a guessing game from what I heard?
In the Netherlands we do our annual taxes in an online app where most of the data is already entered. All you need to do is check, enter your deductibles and hit "Send" and you're done. But that isn't possible in the US because some greedy software companies managed to block the IRS from setting up a similar system as a free service.
Being scared of the police.
How strongly Americans feel about the flag. I saw a photographer get torn to pieces online because someone was standing on the tiniest bit of the flag and people went fuc**ng ape s*it. In the UK most people probably couldn’t spot if the Union Flag was round the wrong way.
Nipples, or in general the hyper-sexualization of nudity.
I love going to my local sauna. Everyone is naked. Boys and girls. You might see your boss or teacher naked. It's just completely normal, and I love it. But for my American friends, when I tell them, the first thing they ask is if people have sex orgies there or how I avoid getting a boner. 😖
Don't know if it's already mentioned but your delivery drivers just leaving packages outside your front door. I can't wrap my mind around this, how did this ever came acceptable?
Here you sign for deliveries. If you're not there they'll leave a note when they'll come again. If still not delivered you can pick it up yourself. Also if you didn't sign for delivery it's marked as not delivered.
This is not an american problem, it happens as well in Europe..Trust me, I am working in the logistics business for over 30 years :-)
Student debt. I pay €20/Semester tuition in Austria.
We do have student loans in Norway, too, but that's to pay for food and rent. The interest rates are low, however, and I've never heard of anyone not being able to pay it back.
Many people do not vote because they cannot get time off work to do so.
30 degrees fahrenheit
They say "it's like 70 degrees outside" and I never understand if it's cold or hot!
Note: this post originally had 102 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
I have one for you... children beauty pageants... that's legalised child abuse... wtf is that?
Children's beauty pageants are f****d up and a paradise for pedophiles
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I have a double opinion about this post. Part of me thinks this is good because we have a chance to find out about each other's cultures and discuss important topics, yet, the other part tells me this is just another one of the America-bashing material. And it horribly polarises the world, as if there's only U.S.A vs. EU. I dunno, I agree most of these are dystopian problems, but honestly, I'm a bit tired of all this bashing. It's more useless than it seems.
Agreed. We've got lots of problems and probably criticize ourselves more than other countries. If we were to bash another country like this we'd be labeled insensitive American louts.
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Extremely expensive education and healthcare, because all the money goes to the armed force ... and putting so much money to the armed force in the territory who wasn't attacked since Pearl Harbour.
Drives me nuts when their military is worshiped domestically as "protectors". From who? They are guarded by 2 oceans. NOBODY can touch them militarily yet they act as if soldiers overseas dying in other countries is somehow protecting them. SEAL teams attacking Jihadi extremists who want to attack America? Sure. But having bases all over the world and being the world police? Dumb.
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Guns. I’ve heard the arguments and I still don’t get it. Children are being murdered on a regular basis.
Tiny Dynamite, please stop trolling everybody. If America is so terrible, you're not going to change anything by just calling the US f****d up.
Some of these are true, but I don't understand why there are SO many posts making fun of Americans. Surely we can't be the only country that has problems. If there was to be a post making fun of the UK, our "insensitivity" would probably get added to this post. We realize our country is not doing great, but it's kind of unfair that every other country is on our back as well.
Sure, but some problems are unique to America. Like all the stuff about health care costs.
Load More Replies... if the U.S. is so horrible, why do so many people from other countries want to come live here?
Because they also believe the lies that are shown in TV programmes and films that show everyone to be rich and beautiful. I used to teach Tibetan exiles in India who could watch TV for an hour a day. They drooled over those programmes because America looked perfect. On the other side of the mirror, 600,000+ are homeless there.
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Half of Americans agree that most of these are serious problems. I don't think most Europeans get how politically fractured the US really is. There's a slight correlation between political ideology and whether you see these as actual "problems". Also, we actually do use the metric system here. We just have to layer a thin veneer of Imperial units over everything for about half the population.
"I don't think most Europeans get how politically fractured the US really is". You mean the place with Brexit and recent riots in the streets of Greece and France etc? That's the place where everyone agrees?
Load More Replies... Almost all of these issues are cause by one of two things; unregulated capitalism or overly zealous religion
The USA is one of the most Globally Prominent countries in the Media... of Course it's Stupidity is going to be Revealed more. Every country has its Stupid Aspects and I'm so tired of "USA bad, Europe good"
Look at the Whole Brexit mess... my Country isn't doing much Better. Indonesia dumps the most Plastic of all. N Korea literally Executes political Enemies. But wait, USA puts the Month before the Day...
Load More Replies... Lack of public transit wasn't mentioned for some reason. Since everyone is driving the streets look almost empty compared to Europe, especially after dark. Just looks eerie to me)
Oh, this one is the result of car companies and lobbyists, if I understood correctly. There are documentaries about this.
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Every country has it's good and bad. As an American this was hard to read. I understand a lot what is said but I also don't need to see people bashing my country.
But the USA bashes other countries all the time (not just the current president but past ones, too, but ESPECIALLY the current president) and insists it is the best country in the world. And none of the problems listed here are false; these show the reality of America, not the dream.
Load More Replies... The biggest impression I get from this post is how quick Europeans are to stereotype others. See, not so nice is it?
The irony in this sentence.... anyway, yeah, generalisations and stereotypes suck.
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I want to read more of these. It is interesting to see how America is seen from the outside. Sometimes I wonder if we in America have some type of Stockholm Syndrome lol
It's not all one or the other though. I'm outside USA, and some of these do confuse me, but others are applicable in other countries (ie student debts). I just think maybe this article is a little polarizing...(heh heh I used a 'z' in polarising, a random american/UK spelling difference that didn't seem to make the list)
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Why are Americans so set against a free health care system despite the rest of the world proving it works?
Because people are afraid of change, and the health care industry has spent billions of dollars to appeal to that fear.
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Almost every question can be answered by "Unchecked Capitalism." Every horrible problem in America comes down to the reality (or the illusion) that simply pulling yourself up the bootstraps means you will have zero problems.
So all the undeniable evidence is there. American society is totally r******d, inefficient, paranoid, childishly and hypocritically prudish, violent, lazy, unhealthy, backward, behind the times, illogical and just plain f****d up.
calling themselves americans when america is a whole continent, with 35 countries
Great video about US Americans made by American lady living for years in Prague / Czech republic. It's spoken in Czech so you have to turn the English subtitles on. The title says it all: Americans are strange. https://youtu.be/VpQYmrQktao
As an American I ask ALL of those questions myself. And I still don't have any more insight. This country is fubar.
You are free to leave at any time. I bet you won't. That makes you a hypocrite.
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This is really making me wish it was easier to move out of this country and convince all of my friends and family to come with me.
Americans thinking everyone in Africa is black, when I went there a while back they were shocked that i was white and from South Africa......Also we do not have wild animals running up and down the street.........................
Some of them were kinda dumb, but everyone’s different, people and countries too. So idk why they have to complain about how we’re different. Oh well...
The quality of our American life began to plummet with Reagan and has continued, making all the European observations here true. (I also agree with the ones about the flag, which preceded him). The Electoral College and Republicans and their donors are holding the country hostage with the help of ignorant racist, sexist fools who don't mind that they are being cheated of a decent life so long as people of color and women suffer more. I just hope Sanders wins big, and that it's not too late.
well - honestly the USA is one of the most crazy and psychologically as well as emotionally distorted countries in the world - it is a very dangerous fact for our planet the most powerful country is acting and feeling like a psychopath - sorry to say that but it is true - most of media in the USA are lying - to see the whole theatre around Trump is ridiculous - what a challenge for the collective hipocrisy
Ooh. Why does England have a royal family that gets paid big bucks for just being royal when Parliament is actually in charge & don't get paid the same?
Some of these are over generalized & don't apply to the entire US population. Some I agree with.
I'm an American an I wonder why new drugs that are curing ailments overseas aren't quickly approved here.
Because our government is interfering, that's why. The Federal government is highly inefficient, and the FDA, which has to approve all drugs, moves slowly. That is why many Americans want LESS government in our lives, not more.
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"My country 'tis of the thee, sweet land of artillery.." But seriously tho, people here are ridiculously obsessed with guns.
Where do I start? Let's start with killing. The US Government has a higher defense budget than the next ELEVEN highest budgets COMBINED. The US manufactures in the ballpark of 10 MILLION guns every year, and the US has more firearms in private hands than any other nation on Earth by a WIDE margin. American media and entertainment is just SOAKED in brutally violent imagery, while showing a nipple or saying a swear word is enough to get you fined or arrested. Outside of an ACTIVE war zone, there is no country on EARTH where they spend more time killing each other, talking about killing each other, fantasizing about killing each other or simply preparing to kill each other. The whole country is full of sociopaths.
At least for Germany - when you tell an Amercian, that you are German, they will always have story to tell about them, their relatives, their neighbours... who comes from germany oder has been here. - is it the same for other countires? ---- and 4-way-stop signs. Why? eather give the right of way for one direction or install traffic light. OOOOR use a roundabout, but of, they don't know how to drive through these :)
What i really don't understand about us citizens is that way of always acting. Most of them are dramatizing every little thing in their life,and playing roles, like they are on a stage. I find it pretty sad.
That's what BP is for, haha. Everyone complaining and virtue signalling.
Load More Replies... No doubt our USA has both good and bad things, like every other country. But here's a question for all non-Americans on here: if we're so questionable, why does so much of the rest of the world passionately embrace our culture? Why do so many of your people beg for our Levi's Jeans, Nike shoes, Apple products & access to our social networks? Those ones I sort of understand, but they also embrace the stupidest parts of our culture, our fast food, our diabetes-giving Coca-Cola & Starbucks, our dumb pop music and sitcoms. We don't embrace brands from other cultures nearly as much as the billions around the world embrace brands from ours. Of course US culture is itself a hodge podge of things, much of which was borrowed heavily from many other cultures, but we seem to have a knack for packaging and marketing culture into things that a major chunk of the rest of the world wants. Does that raise questions about us or them?
We wouldn't have so many problems if the rest of the world would stay the hell home and fix their own problems. They all think this is the land of plenty. Yeah, plenty of people escaping the problems of their own countries. -and then they want us to change to fit their notions of what we should be and what we should provide for them.
Nobody, absolutely NOBODY ever asked your country to come and fix their problems. And while you might have a lot of immigrants, you are not number one destination for immigrants in the world. That is actually Europe.
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They have TV programmes such as 'Naked and Afraid' and then blur the breasts and genitals as though we mustn't see them because we might be offended! Also, I believe that one girl even sued the TV station because a programme was aired and they had failed to censor her vagina in one scene! How hypocritical is that?
HAVE ANY OF YOU EVEN BEEN TO THE USA?!?!?! OR ARE YOU JUST GOING ON HEARSAY???? Practically none of this is correct.
Ah yes. These things are exactly what I myself hate about country. I cannot tell you how badly i want to leave.
Well, you might need a good financial plan, but you actually can leave. Pick your favourite country, find out about their visa requirements and maybe start looking for job offers in your country of choice. Some companies in some countries even have you covered with a place to stay/live. But most will not provide flight costs, sadly. Still, you can try.
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I don't get why in America ( and not only), you get in to the elevator on ground floor, and it's called the first floor. The next floor above is called the second. When the first floor above the ground level should be first floor, not second.
The ground floor has a floor. So, it's the first floor of the building, unless you want 1 to be the top floor and count up as you go down, which is of course silly. So, the first floor you encounter being called the first floor makes perfect sense to me.
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The USA did not enter WW2 until after they were attacked at Pearl Harbour.
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Anyone can start a post on Boredpanda. Why don't you do it?
Load More Replies... I have one for you... children beauty pageants... that's legalised child abuse... wtf is that?
Children's beauty pageants are f****d up and a paradise for pedophiles
Load More Replies... I have a double opinion about this post. Part of me thinks this is good because we have a chance to find out about each other's cultures and discuss important topics, yet, the other part tells me this is just another one of the America-bashing material. And it horribly polarises the world, as if there's only U.S.A vs. EU. I dunno, I agree most of these are dystopian problems, but honestly, I'm a bit tired of all this bashing. It's more useless than it seems.
Agreed. We've got lots of problems and probably criticize ourselves more than other countries. If we were to bash another country like this we'd be labeled insensitive American louts.
Load More Replies... Extremely expensive education and healthcare, because all the money goes to the armed force ... and putting so much money to the armed force in the territory who wasn't attacked since Pearl Harbour.
Drives me nuts when their military is worshiped domestically as "protectors". From who? They are guarded by 2 oceans. NOBODY can touch them militarily yet they act as if soldiers overseas dying in other countries is somehow protecting them. SEAL teams attacking Jihadi extremists who want to attack America? Sure. But having bases all over the world and being the world police? Dumb.
Load More Replies... Guns. I’ve heard the arguments and I still don’t get it. Children are being murdered on a regular basis.
Tiny Dynamite, please stop trolling everybody. If America is so terrible, you're not going to change anything by just calling the US f****d up.
Some of these are true, but I don't understand why there are SO many posts making fun of Americans. Surely we can't be the only country that has problems. If there was to be a post making fun of the UK, our "insensitivity" would probably get added to this post. We realize our country is not doing great, but it's kind of unfair that every other country is on our back as well.
Sure, but some problems are unique to America. Like all the stuff about health care costs.
Load More Replies... if the U.S. is so horrible, why do so many people from other countries want to come live here?
Because they also believe the lies that are shown in TV programmes and films that show everyone to be rich and beautiful. I used to teach Tibetan exiles in India who could watch TV for an hour a day. They drooled over those programmes because America looked perfect. On the other side of the mirror, 600,000+ are homeless there.
Load More Replies... Half of Americans agree that most of these are serious problems. I don't think most Europeans get how politically fractured the US really is. There's a slight correlation between political ideology and whether you see these as actual "problems". Also, we actually do use the metric system here. We just have to layer a thin veneer of Imperial units over everything for about half the population.
"I don't think most Europeans get how politically fractured the US really is". You mean the place with Brexit and recent riots in the streets of Greece and France etc? That's the place where everyone agrees?
Load More Replies... Almost all of these issues are cause by one of two things; unregulated capitalism or overly zealous religion
The USA is one of the most Globally Prominent countries in the Media... of Course it's Stupidity is going to be Revealed more. Every country has its Stupid Aspects and I'm so tired of "USA bad, Europe good"
Look at the Whole Brexit mess... my Country isn't doing much Better. Indonesia dumps the most Plastic of all. N Korea literally Executes political Enemies. But wait, USA puts the Month before the Day...
Load More Replies... Lack of public transit wasn't mentioned for some reason. Since everyone is driving the streets look almost empty compared to Europe, especially after dark. Just looks eerie to me)
Oh, this one is the result of car companies and lobbyists, if I understood correctly. There are documentaries about this.
Load More Replies... Every country has it's good and bad. As an American this was hard to read. I understand a lot what is said but I also don't need to see people bashing my country.
But the USA bashes other countries all the time (not just the current president but past ones, too, but ESPECIALLY the current president) and insists it is the best country in the world. And none of the problems listed here are false; these show the reality of America, not the dream.
Load More Replies... The biggest impression I get from this post is how quick Europeans are to stereotype others. See, not so nice is it?
The irony in this sentence.... anyway, yeah, generalisations and stereotypes suck.
Load More Replies... I want to read more of these. It is interesting to see how America is seen from the outside. Sometimes I wonder if we in America have some type of Stockholm Syndrome lol
It's not all one or the other though. I'm outside USA, and some of these do confuse me, but others are applicable in other countries (ie student debts). I just think maybe this article is a little polarizing...(heh heh I used a 'z' in polarising, a random american/UK spelling difference that didn't seem to make the list)
Load More Replies... Why are Americans so set against a free health care system despite the rest of the world proving it works?
Because people are afraid of change, and the health care industry has spent billions of dollars to appeal to that fear.
Load More Replies... Almost every question can be answered by "Unchecked Capitalism." Every horrible problem in America comes down to the reality (or the illusion) that simply pulling yourself up the bootstraps means you will have zero problems.
So all the undeniable evidence is there. American society is totally r******d, inefficient, paranoid, childishly and hypocritically prudish, violent, lazy, unhealthy, backward, behind the times, illogical and just plain f****d up.
calling themselves americans when america is a whole continent, with 35 countries
Great video about US Americans made by American lady living for years in Prague / Czech republic. It's spoken in Czech so you have to turn the English subtitles on. The title says it all: Americans are strange. https://youtu.be/VpQYmrQktao
As an American I ask ALL of those questions myself. And I still don't have any more insight. This country is fubar.
You are free to leave at any time. I bet you won't. That makes you a hypocrite.
Load More Replies... This is really making me wish it was easier to move out of this country and convince all of my friends and family to come with me.
Americans thinking everyone in Africa is black, when I went there a while back they were shocked that i was white and from South Africa......Also we do not have wild animals running up and down the street.........................
Some of them were kinda dumb, but everyone’s different, people and countries too. So idk why they have to complain about how we’re different. Oh well...
The quality of our American life began to plummet with Reagan and has continued, making all the European observations here true. (I also agree with the ones about the flag, which preceded him). The Electoral College and Republicans and their donors are holding the country hostage with the help of ignorant racist, sexist fools who don't mind that they are being cheated of a decent life so long as people of color and women suffer more. I just hope Sanders wins big, and that it's not too late.
well - honestly the USA is one of the most crazy and psychologically as well as emotionally distorted countries in the world - it is a very dangerous fact for our planet the most powerful country is acting and feeling like a psychopath - sorry to say that but it is true - most of media in the USA are lying - to see the whole theatre around Trump is ridiculous - what a challenge for the collective hipocrisy
Ooh. Why does England have a royal family that gets paid big bucks for just being royal when Parliament is actually in charge & don't get paid the same?
Some of these are over generalized & don't apply to the entire US population. Some I agree with.
I'm an American an I wonder why new drugs that are curing ailments overseas aren't quickly approved here.
Because our government is interfering, that's why. The Federal government is highly inefficient, and the FDA, which has to approve all drugs, moves slowly. That is why many Americans want LESS government in our lives, not more.
Load More Replies... "My country 'tis of the thee, sweet land of artillery.." But seriously tho, people here are ridiculously obsessed with guns.
Where do I start? Let's start with killing. The US Government has a higher defense budget than the next ELEVEN highest budgets COMBINED. The US manufactures in the ballpark of 10 MILLION guns every year, and the US has more firearms in private hands than any other nation on Earth by a WIDE margin. American media and entertainment is just SOAKED in brutally violent imagery, while showing a nipple or saying a swear word is enough to get you fined or arrested. Outside of an ACTIVE war zone, there is no country on EARTH where they spend more time killing each other, talking about killing each other, fantasizing about killing each other or simply preparing to kill each other. The whole country is full of sociopaths.
At least for Germany - when you tell an Amercian, that you are German, they will always have story to tell about them, their relatives, their neighbours... who comes from germany oder has been here. - is it the same for other countires? ---- and 4-way-stop signs. Why? eather give the right of way for one direction or install traffic light. OOOOR use a roundabout, but of, they don't know how to drive through these :)
What i really don't understand about us citizens is that way of always acting. Most of them are dramatizing every little thing in their life,and playing roles, like they are on a stage. I find it pretty sad.
That's what BP is for, haha. Everyone complaining and virtue signalling.
Load More Replies... No doubt our USA has both good and bad things, like every other country. But here's a question for all non-Americans on here: if we're so questionable, why does so much of the rest of the world passionately embrace our culture? Why do so many of your people beg for our Levi's Jeans, Nike shoes, Apple products & access to our social networks? Those ones I sort of understand, but they also embrace the stupidest parts of our culture, our fast food, our diabetes-giving Coca-Cola & Starbucks, our dumb pop music and sitcoms. We don't embrace brands from other cultures nearly as much as the billions around the world embrace brands from ours. Of course US culture is itself a hodge podge of things, much of which was borrowed heavily from many other cultures, but we seem to have a knack for packaging and marketing culture into things that a major chunk of the rest of the world wants. Does that raise questions about us or them?
We wouldn't have so many problems if the rest of the world would stay the hell home and fix their own problems. They all think this is the land of plenty. Yeah, plenty of people escaping the problems of their own countries. -and then they want us to change to fit their notions of what we should be and what we should provide for them.
Nobody, absolutely NOBODY ever asked your country to come and fix their problems. And while you might have a lot of immigrants, you are not number one destination for immigrants in the world. That is actually Europe.
Load More Replies... They have TV programmes such as 'Naked and Afraid' and then blur the breasts and genitals as though we mustn't see them because we might be offended! Also, I believe that one girl even sued the TV station because a programme was aired and they had failed to censor her vagina in one scene! How hypocritical is that?
HAVE ANY OF YOU EVEN BEEN TO THE USA?!?!?! OR ARE YOU JUST GOING ON HEARSAY???? Practically none of this is correct.
Ah yes. These things are exactly what I myself hate about country. I cannot tell you how badly i want to leave.
Well, you might need a good financial plan, but you actually can leave. Pick your favourite country, find out about their visa requirements and maybe start looking for job offers in your country of choice. Some companies in some countries even have you covered with a place to stay/live. But most will not provide flight costs, sadly. Still, you can try.
Load More Replies... I don't get why in America ( and not only), you get in to the elevator on ground floor, and it's called the first floor. The next floor above is called the second. When the first floor above the ground level should be first floor, not second.
The ground floor has a floor. So, it's the first floor of the building, unless you want 1 to be the top floor and count up as you go down, which is of course silly. So, the first floor you encounter being called the first floor makes perfect sense to me.
Load More Replies... The USA did not enter WW2 until after they were attacked at Pearl Harbour.
Load More Replies... Anyone can start a post on Boredpanda. Why don't you do it?
Load More Replies... 