What are some comments from Americans you often see on this subreddit that don’t necessarily reflect most Americans irl?

33 comments

  1. While I support stronger efforts to end gun violence in the United States, I don’t actually think about, or worry about, getting shot in a mass shooting, ever.

    They happen too often, and they are particularly monstrous, involving as they do so many innocents. But the chances of being killed in a car crash or choking on something are far higher.

    This business of, “I was going to travel to the US but it isn’t safe” is laughably stupid, but, I have to say, I really don’t care whether people visit here from abroad or not. I doubt half the flamboyant paranoids who make comments like this were actually planning to come here, anyway.

  2. National politics. The politics that have a much more immediate effect on our lives are local politics, but it seems that is less talked about only because we don’t have that all in common.

  3. “I saw on TV that Americans [*some completely outrageous or unreasonable behavior from a reality show, news or sitcom*], why would you do that?”

  4. I see this a lot when the urban rural divide comes up: This notion that all rural areas are the same or all urban areas are the same, esp culturally speaking.

    Multiple times I’ve seen it asserted here that there is i.e. no difference culturally between NYC/LA/Chicago etc. or that rural areas in the northeast are like rural areas in the South.

    I think people have internalized the urban-rural divide and made it binary instead of nuanced both between urban and rural, between urban areas, and between rural areas.

  5. I remember someone saying that they wish that Kinder Eggs could be sold here. I said something about how Kinder Joy exist here and they’re pretty similar. I was downvoted pretty badly and has a bunch of people explain to me how it’s not the same.

  6. People on this sub seem to have very strong opinions about the way state flags are designed. I can assure you, most people don’t spend that much time thinking about their own state flag, let alone get worked up about the way another state’s flag looks.

  7. I’m not really afraid of being in a mass shooting since the majority of mass shootings is just gang-related and/or drug-related

  8. Since we have questions about cars seemingly daily now, I’ll say that people posting these questions seem to work from a default position of “driving is a miserable experience that no one could possibly *not* despise.” When you grow up in a car culture, it doesn’t seem automatically seem weird or like an imposition to you. I feel like most people have more of a “I don’t mind it” attitude towards driving everywhere that people posting here don’t seem to grasp (hence the “how do you live like that” tone in those questions).

  9. If you talk to most people IRL about urban design and public transportation and zoning reform their eyes will glaze over and they may not invite you over again next week.

  10. Gaps in public restroom stall door frames.

    Never bothered me before I read about it on Reddit.

  11. This sub drastically exaggerates just how different American schools are from each other. We might not have a national curriculum but we do have state curriculums and they’re pretty similar no matter where you go.

    I sure nearly all of it stems from posters being young and inexperienced with money but this sub is always super weird when it comes to anything wealth related.

  12. Cars being the main means of transportation in the US. Foreigners seem absolutely dumbfounded by it. Most Americans couldn’t care less.

  13. Every week there are a couple of questions about soccer in the United States and without fail, it gets 100 comments saying something to the effect of “nobody in the United States cares about soccer.”

    The thing is, millions and millions of people in the US care about soccer. It only seems like people don’t care about soccer when you put it into comparison with England or or some other country where soccer is absolutely the only sport anyone cares about. We aren’t like that, we have the opposite where it is a VERY varied sports landscape and some people like basketball, baseball, football, etc. and even among those sports they are split up into college and pro with fanbases that are frequently completely separate. Places like England don’t have anything close to that. People in the USA might not be able to name the biggest soccer players in the world, but it’s not like Shohei Ohtani or Conner McDavid or Nicola Jokic are household names either.

    Just because we don’t put soccer on the same popularity level as the NFL does not mean that nobody cares about soccer.

  14. OP, do you mean the commenters or the questioners? It’s impossible to respond without some clarification.

  16. Fucking sales tax not being on the price tag.

    I always hear about how dumb and poorly educated Americans are, yet we all manage to learn at an early age how to estimate sales tax in our heads.

  17. The big 2 are guns and health care. Gun crimes are just not a thing outside of high crime urban areas. Most people don’t go about their daily lives living in fear that they are going to get shot in a Starbucks.

    And about 90% of Americans have health insurance and of the 10% that don’t most are because they don’t have it voluntarily. Health care is easy to get. And while health care does look expensive on the surface, people don’t go homeless because of hospital bills. Hospital bills are almost always 0% interest and you basically get to set your own repayment plan. Get a $10,000 bill, just tell them “I can pay $20 a month” and they will be like “ok”.

  19. ​

    * Pop culture as the gage for “reality”
    * State borders and /or cultural differences

  20. 1)The people who keep posting “Oh, I assure you no American knows anything about that” to knowledge questions. Either:

    -They’re not American and are defaulting to their petty bigotries instead of firsthand knowledge.

    -They’re tediously self-loathing as Americans and assume the foreign stereotype is true.

    or

    -They themselves don’t know (for reasons from being a lousy student to simple disinterest) and because they feel that they’re average Americans, average Americans must not know.

    2) Also, when I was a small child, my father explained to me that not everyone is going to have the same interests and that’s okay. We have people who need that talk.

    No, not everyone is into MLS. No, not everyone likes “Fairytale of New York”. Stuff like that.

  21. I just don’t like when Europeans talk about us like we all do X, all believe Y, and all hate Z. Aside from living in the same country, there is very little that 345 million people all think or do the same. We’re not Borg drones. It’d be just as ludicrous for us to suggest “But but, you’re all in Europe, so you must all…”

  22. Honestly, the assumption that “city life” is a universal thing in American cities. Perhaps regionally there are “some” broad strokes similarities, but I’ve heard things like “LA is basically NY on the west cost”. Yes, I have actually heard somebody say this. Even bordering cities like Philly and Camden are vastly different.

  24. Trying to change American way of life and being critical of politics. Imagine I went to another country and insulted their political leaders and pretended to know their politics. Even if I did, it’s not my place and it would be looked at as highly inappropriate by locals.

  25. I find about 85%-90% of the questions asked here have no bearing on my life in the U S A. They’re probably mostly media driven tropes seen in movies or on TV or by international media organizations with an agenda. If you don’t think the U S A is the most desirable country to live in I suggest studying the current situation at our southern border.

  27. I think many people fail to realize that laws in the US can vary state by state. Sometimes, states that are right next to each other can have complete polar opposite laws revolving around some things.

  28. Not so much this subreddit, but politics in general. Very few people discuss politics face to face. I even did work for a former presidential candidate who I disagree with on most of his stances. Guess how many times politics came up while we did that project? zero.

  30. I think a lot of Americans on this subreddit and similar spaces on the internet are exaggerating how big of a deal it is that the United States is so physically large. Most Americans stay in the same metro area on a daily basis and traveling to another city is usually still within a few hundred miles, so the full size of the country shouldn’t really be a factor when talking about daily logistical issues

  32. People seemingly ignorant or intentionally ignorant when it comes to what the US actually looks like.

    A European will look you dead in the face and insist that towns in the US look like an interstate exit because they saw one meme on instagram, lol.

  33. Giving the server your credit card at a restaurant.

    Relax, the server isn’t going to come back with a fur coat and diamond rings that they just bought on your card.

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