Inspired by [this video](https://youtu.be/7Xgd79wuriQ) from JJ McCullough where he talks about various things you can see in other countries that are marketed or believed to have originated in America but actually isn’t.

24 comments

  2. Racism, xenophobia, and police misconduct are big ones that people often forget are very common in other countries too, including but not limited to Western Europe

  4. The two things that get me the most are: multiculturalism and LGBTQ rights.

    Immigration and multiculturalism have been staples of much of the world for millennia including most of Southern Europe and Asia. Immigrants have been mixing and ethnic groups living with each other forever. Anti-racism efforts also existed three thousand years ago.

    LGBTQ rights are the most bizarre for me. Even among westerners the idea was that Europe was the leader for LGBTQ rights, and for most of history even Canada and Australia surpassed the US on LGBTQ rights, but then much of Asia has been relatively progressive on LGBTQ stuff for most of history. How the US is seen by some people as the leader on LGBTQ rights always weirded me out.

  6. Canadians have this weird idea that Americans think about Canada a lot and that Americans secretly think Canadians want to join the U.S.

    Which couldn’t be further from the truth, the maximum I hear people talk about Canada is, “I’d like to visit.”

    Edit: Second one came to mind. I’ve never met or heard of anyone wearing their shoes indoors, most people are in socks or bare feet in their home. I have zero clue where this misconception came from.

  8. Keeping your shoes on indoors. God damn it, I know some people do it, but the *vast* majority don’t and I absolutely refuse to believe the percentage is any higher than other countries. No population is a monolith. I don’t even know why that’s a stereotype for us.

  11. Although I realize that serving raw ground beef actually was a common American menu item in the 1800s, it has long since become a rarity here. And that raw meat spread they eat in Belgium called filet americain is a completely foreign food to us.

    I know my Belgian relatives were trying to be polite and serve a food they thought I would be familiar with, but that stuff is unknown in the US, and probably wouldn’t even pass FDA muster.

  12. The crazy shit that people put on “American” pizza abroad.

    Our pizza does not usually have French fries, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, and other nonsense on them. Obviously novelty pizzas do.

    You can also get authentic Neapolitan pizza in the US. Ingredients have to be imported from Campania, ovens must be constructed using Vesuvian ash, meet size/thickness/preparation standards, etc. We have a lot of different kinds of pizza, from Dominos to New York to Chicago to Detroit to New Haven and many more besides.

  14. That our personal political beliefs mirror those that they have decided Americans, in general, hold. I was in China and talking to some guys at an outdoor market (and drinking). They were stunned that I pretty much agreed with them on how awful certain American leaders are/were, how American interventionism has generally been an inexcusable disaster, how some American leaders should be brought up on international criminal charges, etc.

    On the other hand it was utterly impossible to get them to even consider certain other issues. Like, we all agreed that the Vietnam war was immoral and inexcusable but they are convinced that the Korean War was started by the West and that they had to save North Korea from an unjust invasion (no amount of evidence or logic could sway them… they seemed pretty brainwashed on that topic). We agreed that the Iraq War was criminal but they would not accept my view that attacking the groups in Afghanistan that trained for this attack was acceptable. We also both agreed that it was crazy that we gave the Saudis a pass but we also all understood that it is all about greed and the power the Saudis hold due to their oil reserves.

  16. I saw pickled hot dogs in a clear jar in the supermarket in Malta. The label was in English and called them hot dogs so they weren’t sausages or anything.

  17. I don’t remember where I saw this but I’ve seen videos where some non-Americans thought we never eat fruits and vegetables.

  18. This isn’t a big deal but I did my junior year of college in Israel and there is a snack food there called American Peanuts that are really good but are not common in the US at all. I remember eating some once and an Israeli friend was like “oh, are you homesick and that’s why you got those?” he was shocked when I told him I’d never seen them in the US at all.

    But since then I’ve looked into it and they are available in the US, but mostly at Mexican markets. I’ve seen them at my local Mexican grocery store, labeled as cacahuates *japoneses*. Wikipedia says they were invented by a Japanese immigrant to Mexico. I’m not sure how the name shifted to American peanuts in Israel.

    edit: spelling

  22. Because of those stupid “American” sections at grocery stores- people GENUINELY believe we all just eat spray can cheese.
    Unrelated to food, but in the beginning when I first moved, i always got asked how many guns I owned. Theyd be absolutely shocked when I told them Ive never even seen a gun outside of movies or on police officers.
    Just like in America, the news loves to sensationalize- so whenever theres news on America you can bet its all bad news. Bad news sells, The viewers tend t believe it, and the cycle continues
    Edit to add to the news thing: a lot of people abroad genuinely believe all americans are stupid, trump lovers etc. they stereotype us as such and are therefore rude from the get go. They cant imagine that a country 330 million would have a wide variety of opinions. They use this belief to stereotype us all and to justify their often prejudices. When people do this, it just makes me think they are incapable of critical thinking

  23. I have never seen a European make a “taco” that isn’t disgusting.

    But, of course, they have to be smug and pretend that their crap is amazing

  24. I moved to Australia last year, and there’s some of “American style” foods, and the majority of them are the same as the Australian ones, just with added sugar, even if the actual American version doesn’t. In the same isle you can find “Made in the US” French’s mustard (no sugar), and right next to it MasterFoods “American Style Yellow Mustard” with added sugar. Same with peanut butter, which yes some US brands have sugar, but plenty don’t.

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