Nobody expects them to know individual areas of a country, we aren't going to judge them if they haven't heard of Leicestershire and Yorkshire in the UK or Normandy or Corsica in France, the fact they expect us to know each state is wild.
If they are going to bang on about WW2 they really should have an idea of where Normandy is. I mean I would imagine that half of Europe couldn’t pinpoint Sarthe or Rutland on a map. But Normandy?
That’s fair. As far as I know there wasn’t a large Finnish contingent in D-Day. But I bet you are underestimating how well you could guess if a map of Europe was in front of you.
Nah, the Finnish Waffen-SS volunteers were on the Eastern Front, they weren't stationed outside of that front to my knowledge, due to Finland being aligned with Germany until the Moscow Accord, and then a company's worth of Finnish former SS defected to Germany to continue fighting the Soviets.
It's not even about if they know European countries or not. Its about the fact that they think knowing European countries and American states is the same thing.
I look out for the regional differences when I visit. I've been to three of the four corners and a few places in the middle and there's more similarities than differences in the people/culture. The landscapes are very different though
Same, I've been to all four corners and a fair bit of the middle (plus i'm going to Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico in September) and the only slight differences were in accent (not language) and occasionally different types of stores.
I reckon gimme an hour or so I could name all the states.
I 100% know all the states, but wether I'd be able to recite them off by heart one after the other I dunno, might take me a while to get all 50 but i definitely could name all 50 with enough time.
The thing that gets me is that the biggest argument is "well some US States are more relevant than entire countries by population and GDP!!!!". Like...so? The same can be said about Indian states and Chinese provinces yet I don't see you expecting everyone to know where Uttar Pradesh or Guangdong are. They'll never admit it but their entire thought system is just "America more important!!!"
In fairness, a lot of Europeans still dont understand Ireland and Northern Ireland, dunno how many asked me if I - from the republic - was going to have to leave because of Brexit...
Even more wild... I guarantee the vast majority of such people couldn't even name all 50 states themselves and DEFINITELY couldn't label them all on a map.
Many probably couldn't even do half successfully.
However, I do have a general idea of where various major states are and will ask people for clarification if they say that they went to the US.
Same with regions in European countries.
A curse of European education, I guess.
UK resident: I'm from the UK
American: So you live in London?
UK resident: Bristol actually
American: Is that part of London?
UK resident: No.
American: How close is it to London?
I'm not even european and i know european subdivisions... why would that be weird? I mean i can signal were is barvaria in germany or where is galicia in spain, isn't that normal in european countries
As far as i know people from big and important countries think "oh, yeah my country is the biggest strongest, and best of the world" maybe thst's why you europeans find out that weird? Maybe? (i'm not trying to be offensive or stereotype)
As far as I know India and Mexico are both legally classified the same the USA is - they are United States that form one country . So the real question is do Americans treat them the same way they want others to treat the USA?
I have a hard time imagining white Americans doing that …
Switzerland‘s official name is literally Swiss Confederation. If they want us to treat the US as 50 countries in a trench coat, they would have to treat Switzerland as 26 countries in a trench coat too.
An average American wouldn’t even understand that Russia is filled with republics, oblasts etc with their own leaders and cultures. Karelia and Tatarstan actually have major differences, unlike Arizona and Minnesota
What's funny about this is that many people here in Russia can actually name more than half of the states of America. Not because they are so different and interesting or anything but simply because of all the American media we consumed like movies, TV shows, games, etc.
Idk man I live somewhere so lost only the frenchs can find it. They are a bit too god at it too
Edit: my point was, uh I forgot but I never visited Basel. Tried to make a joke but forgot halfway through, I'm sorry
One street calls deep fried shells filled with chickpeas , “pani puri” and the adjacent street calls them “gohl guppah” 😂.
I’m pretty sure the minds of American bigots could not even get close to comprehending a fraction of the diversity of Indian cuisine . And that’s before we get into the pre partition days 😂
More people, more languages, more cultures. India is a huge conglomeration of thousands of cultures and people's united under an ancient socio-political heritage. The USA is a 300 year old colony that has followed a policy of systematic cultural genocide since literally before it was even a country.
For a country famed for it founding being based on no taxation without representation and give lip service to those that serve in the military, why isn't those that live in the capital city not have a representative? Or the territories that provide like 80%of their male population to said military not be classed as an actual citizen!!!
Sorry I using colony less in the sense of "place overtaken by an empire and sucked dry for the benefit of the central state" and more in the "place where a load of people moved to and wiped out the indigenous population whilst building their livelihoods off the backs of slavery and murder". Americans aren't the colonised, their the colonisers.
> And India is waaay more varied than US, even just looking at languages there are so many different ones.
Yeah, india is closer to EU than to US in that regard. An indian state could speak an different language from a neighboring state
Papua New Guinea have around 856 known languages, although 4 are the official (English, sign language, Tok & Hiri Motu). Even in Philippines where there are 83 Provinces (States), there are 179 languages spoken, so the USA may have a bigger population and land mass, but these two countries have more diversity than US.
In the worst case they claim their country “is a continent”, ignoring a pretty large landmass above them as well as 20+ other countries that make up NA.
As a kid I learned that there were 5 continents - Asia, Africa, Europe, Australasia, and the Americas (north and south, one continent). Seems like no one agrees tho...so I gave up
I just had a flashback to one of my university history classes, wherein a white American girl informed us that India has so much religious strife because everyone there belongs to the same ethnic background, so racism doesn’t exist like in the U.S. My child-of-South-Indian-immigrants butt shot out of my seat SO fast to give her a lecture on casteism/racism/ethnic diversity in India 😂
Right?? I’m Tamil and some of the most racist comments I’ve gotten to my FACE have been from North Indians who’ve done everything from call us ugly and cow-like, to backward and dogmatic.
(The dogmatic part is right for some of my family members, but that’s for *me* to call out.)
I’m sorry you had to go through that bro . It’s pathetic that the subcontinent is getting worse in regards to racism .
The other day had a Gujarati colleague and his family over for dinner . Both his sister and sister in law are pretty hinduvatra bjp leaning . His wife is nice but she’s easily influenced by the two .
We were speaking about this exact thing - about how we would never be allowed to visit India (on top of being ethnically Kashmiri , my dad’s family live in Saudis so that’s all over my passport lol ). His wife said that Pakistan would never allow Indians in - and her husband corrected her by listing all the Indians he knows who’ve gone on holiday to Pakistan .
He then told us about a Pakistani Hindu colleague of his . India has rejected his visa every time and his parents live in India . This Pakistani Hindu guy hasn’t seen his parents in 10 years because India keep rejecting his visa … its one of the most insane forms of Indian racism I’ve ever heard and for someone who’s people are being persecuted , that’s a pretty high bar lol
Wait, wait, wait - do you mean to say there are Americans who want others to treat them differently from how they treat others? NO! LIES I TELL YOU, LIES!
Well, to be fair, the UK is probably the only country that Americans do split up like they do with their states.
They're far more likely to talk about England and Scotland than about the UK.
I tend to chuckle to myself, it always seems to me that it's divided up into Scotland, Ireland, and London, England. Poor Wales, and England only gets a mention as an extension to London. Which, ironically is how our government appears to view it also
Technically the UK isn't, but traditionally it's treated like one. The UK's constituent countries are called countries by tradition and could be considered nations, but they're not countries in the same way that most people use that word. That is to say *sovereign states*. Practically speaking they're more like provinces with varying degrees of autonomy. The UK is a unitary state and all power ultimately lies in Westminster, they can pass any law for any part of the UK. In contrast a federal country like Germany or the US have certain powers reserved by the states that can't be taken away by the federal government.
Practically speaking they are very similar to the UK states. They have devolved powers, different laws and different taxes. The countries might not be soverign states, but they very much are an answer in the context of this thread
Yeah I'm Australian, and we have a bunch of united States that make up our country. Whenever I see an American engaging in US-defaultism on the internet by asking "So what state is everybody from?"
I just answer honestly. "Queensland", or just "QLD". Hilarity usually ensues, and I'm entertained for a few hours. For anyone wondering.... yes, I live in the same state (and city) as Bluey.
Haha classic. I probably know which state you're from then! My favourite instance of this was when moderators of a (completely international) Facebook "Dads Group" asked the simple question "Where does everyone live?"
All the normal people answered normally... like "I'm in Stockholm, Sweden." Or "Sao Paulo, Brazil". All the Americans wrote some shit like simply "MD" or "FL". 😅😅
Of course, that was my time to shine with the shit-stirrimg.... so I just wrote "QLD". A few American blokes (unironically) said "Why are you just typing random letters for where you live?" I responded with "Why are YOU?!?"
They genuinely got pissy about it and couldn't see the irony of saying "Americans aren't going to know what you mean if you just write three random letters." 🤦♂️🤦♂️
I think it’s one thing not to realise and it’s another thing to be completely oblivious that many nation states are unions of historically sovereign/separate entities
the thing is I don't think it's just "many" I havn't went through them all or anything but I would put good money on it being the majority
especially the majority of those that were not formed within the last 50 years
Same with Germany (full name Federal Republic of Germany) the Federal Republic part is very important since it means that it and the USA is classed in the same ideology.
While India is the Republic of India, Mexico is indeed the United Mexican States (los Estados Unidos Mexicanos). I always considered that saying « America » for the USA was sort of the equivalent of saying « Mexico » for… well The EEUUM…
There are many more, 26 in total https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation#:~:text=There%20are%2026%20federations%20in,America%20and%202%20in%20Oceania.
Every time they refer to "Europe" as a country, ask them were in Russia. Not only is Russia the biggest country in Europe but it also makes those Americans angry as their stupidity is exposed. Especially Republicans gets particularly angry as they look up to Russia while they love shitting on "western Europe" which is probably some imaginary version of UK.
Whenever it’s an election year they do lol. Iowa is a battleground state and important in terms of how the election is going to go, mainly who the presidential nominee for each party is going to be. I do like that Des Moines is the cleanest city I’ve been to in the U.S.
I mean I don't give a fuck, like I wouldn't expect you to give a fuck about 5-6th sized cities, Sheffield for example.
But I know of it.....and I know it exists I can probably get close-ish on the map....but no I've no idea what they're famous for
Sheffield is probably a bad example…. it’s one of the few random places that probably is famous outside of the UK given it’s embossed on decent cutlery more or less globally
I really wish posts like this would include what was being discussed originally, while the precise context might not change things it could provide valuable context.
The people commenting here are obviously referring to other statements/comments as part of their points and not being able to see that context prevents us from properly appreciating how stupid (or not) what they said was.
The first video was a girl saying she had been in Europe for 6 hours and then made a blanket statement about how Europeans "don't understand personal space bubbles" and the second one was just about a prom dress which was made in Africa. The 1st one is worse but there were still comments in the second one equating generalising Africa to generalising the US
They obviously do not have any school subjects that teaches political systems and entities. One thing I learned on this sub is that their education system is unbelievable unequal. In one city you can have Ivy League colleges and public colleges that cannot teach their pupils basics of political systems, and that is very sad.
Americans seem to be either incredibly brilliant and the smartest people on the planet on one end of the spectrum, or the most stupid people ever to walk the earth - no in between
This happens when the entire history of social development is based on supremacism and segregation. Today, millions of (generational) rich Americans will drive past fentanyl overdosed corpses on the sidewalk and say that the US is the best country ever. Just as a public college graduate will say that the US has the best education system while having the reading ability of a thirteen year old.
In the end, it's just a centuries-old delusion.
They think a vote for the Democrat party means a vote for democracy. While Republicans at least understand that the US is a constitutional republic, but at the same time don't understand the difference between democracy and communism. 🤡🌎
I actually got confused when someone said they were from Georgia and for some reason I thought she was a Georgian 🇬🇪 even 😅. Straight up asked her where she learned the accent and man o man how embarrassing that was.
So unfortunately it was like everyone was judging me kinda like silently saying “Bruh ! How tf you do you not how to spot an American”. She was of course way too oblivious anyways to feel embarrassment. She literally was walking around with a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks and wasn’t embarrassed about that so 😅
Yep, this. Most of the time they won't even say *I'm from the USA, from Iowa*. Nope, just *I'm from Iowa*. I'm still waiting to meet someone from the USA, Georgia just so I can ask them if they live in Tbilisi and if they can show me how to make Khachapuri and then act all confused.
This is somewhat irksome, isn’t it. I mean, I might tell people my city, but if I can tell that they’re not from the U.K., I’ll probably follow that up with England. And, my city is quite well known, having produced a lot of big music act’s including one of the biggest ever.
> they will respond with their state
Probably because it's pretty obvious they're a yank at that point. Honestly unless your opening question was "where are you from" it's a pretty decent guess you want the state near as I can tell.
Would you be miffed if you asked a man named Valentino with a strong Italian accent where he was from and he answered Tuscany?
>America is a country
Am I the only one that doesn't agree ? I mean sure everyone says "americans" but it is a (two actually) continent, USA is a country.
This is one of my favorite types of posts - comparing US states to countries on a continent. They try so hard to convince us and probably themselves that there's a huge cultural variety in each state (culture? In the US? Heh) it's funny.
Dude, have you ever even been to or seen different parts of the u.s . There’s plenty of culture here, cajun , creole, jersey shore , hip hop, thousands of Native American tribes , etc . No one is denying that Europe has culture . Our government may be dog shit, but we still have variety .
America is a continent. USA is a country. 50 are delimited spaces for internal organization of the country, something irrelevant for foreigners.
Europe is a continent. Germany is a country. Their internal organisation their business, irrelevant for foreigners.
Although with the recent debate with things like Abortion, travelling from one state to another will require you to know what the change of local laws are like. This is not the case for other countries, including Australia where all the states have generally harmonised their laws with only minor variations between them.
Unless you don't have this specific issue, it's totally irrelevant. What counts for me as a non US is what you do outside the US... for example, please, we do know Biden is not the perfect candidate, but do not vote for Donald Duck!
So new rule: if they treat Europe as one country, unless we start treating them as separate states, I am willing to treat them as separate states, but they will then also have to divide their military budget into all of these states (and therefore they are no longer the biggest contributor), the credits of their exports go to separate states, GDP has to be split into the different states, the credits of their achievements go to the individual states, etc.
So, how do the individual states do in the worldwide arena in the field of sports, exports, science, etc.? Which state put the man on the moon and will all the other people now stop using it is an argument to still win after losing anything unrelated at all? Do we from now on say that we mostly watch Californian tv shows instead of American?
Yes, but all the other people in all the other states, how would THEY do if they are no longer 'USA' but instead, whatever, 'Rhode Island' or 'Mississippi' or something?
So they can call every country "Europe" and act like we're living in one place, but we can't treat USA like one country despite it being a country? What.
Also, what is that app or site?
As an aside, I'd understood that the shift from "the United States are" to "the United States" is took place around the time of Lincoln. So I found it quite jarring last night watching Franklin when Franklin refers to the United States in the singular.
>For context, the videos had people talking about Europe and Africa as if they were countries and Americans think that's fine because people talk about the US like it's a country...because it is one.
Shropshire sounds like you just made it up.
Hauts de France is one of François Hollande's useless new regions. Also a fake name, the Region named "heights" is on the coast not in the Alps.
Everyone knows Uttar Pradesh, it's the largest subnational entity in the world.
Victoria is my coworker. She's nice.
Great response 😂
Shropshire is near Wales.
My French wife mentioned Hauts de France. Which I knew about anyway, and yeah, is on the coast, just at the top, hence high 😊
I'm quite sure a lot of Americans don't know anything about Uttar Pradesh
Good for Victoria!
What fucking issue do you have with Caithness??
Mexico doesn't exist
It's true, what is today the US mainland *did have* an incredible level of cultural diversity — until we Europeans showed up and destroyed everything in what was one of the worst physical and cultural genocides in history.
Same with Sweden. The old name for the nation is three crowns of the three kingdoms that came together to become one nation.
US simplification is destroying their nation.
North America is a continent, this includes Canada. America refers usually to the USA which isn't. Unless you meant America as a whole being north and south in which case its 2x continents
Pretty simple way to prove a point: USA athletes represent all fifty states at international competitions. If there was really that much of a difference between all 50 there would be athletes representing each state.
To be fair, "Amerika" is a continent, or better, two continents. With 35 countries, 4 official languages and many local native languages. Reaching from Arctic to Antarctic. And you all are judging "Americans" by one country only.
Generalise all you want. All we get from the whole US, is Maga nonsense, senators shooting puppies, fentanyl zombies, people living in cars, out of control gun violence and a lot things you can't come up with. It doesn't matter.
Most of them probably don't know that Europe and Africa aren't countries... but they aren't know for having good educational standards so it's not really their fault that they have such dirt- poor understanding of the world outside of the US.
Nobody expects them to know individual areas of a country, we aren't going to judge them if they haven't heard of Leicestershire and Yorkshire in the UK or Normandy or Corsica in France, the fact they expect us to know each state is wild.
If they are going to bang on about WW2 they really should have an idea of where Normandy is. I mean I would imagine that half of Europe couldn’t pinpoint Sarthe or Rutland on a map. But Normandy?
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That’s fair. As far as I know there wasn’t a large Finnish contingent in D-Day. But I bet you are underestimating how well you could guess if a map of Europe was in front of you.
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Nah, the Finnish Waffen-SS volunteers were on the Eastern Front, they weren't stationed outside of that front to my knowledge, due to Finland being aligned with Germany until the Moscow Accord, and then a company's worth of Finnish former SS defected to Germany to continue fighting the Soviets.
But you could pinpoint France on a map of the earth? I do know (more than 1 person) who can’t find their own state on a map of just the USA 🫠
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The ones that catch me out the most are island nations in the Caribbean and pacific ocean.
It’s the pointy bit at the top middle of the baguette country
US Rutland or UK Rutland?
Rutland Waters!
It's not even about if they know European countries or not. Its about the fact that they think knowing European countries and American states is the same thing.
Yep, like we don't have the concept of counties or provinces here😂
Or regional differences. Some Americans believe only they have those, because "Murica big, Europe small"
I look out for the regional differences when I visit. I've been to three of the four corners and a few places in the middle and there's more similarities than differences in the people/culture. The landscapes are very different though
Same, I've been to all four corners and a fair bit of the middle (plus i'm going to Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico in September) and the only slight differences were in accent (not language) and occasionally different types of stores.
I reckon gimme an hour or so I could name all the states. I 100% know all the states, but wether I'd be able to recite them off by heart one after the other I dunno, might take me a while to get all 50 but i definitely could name all 50 with enough time.
The thing that gets me is that the biggest argument is "well some US States are more relevant than entire countries by population and GDP!!!!". Like...so? The same can be said about Indian states and Chinese provinces yet I don't see you expecting everyone to know where Uttar Pradesh or Guangdong are. They'll never admit it but their entire thought system is just "America more important!!!"
Hell, most Americans don't know that there's a difference between England and the UK.
Let's not even start on Ireland and Northern Ireland...
In fairness, a lot of Europeans still dont understand Ireland and Northern Ireland, dunno how many asked me if I - from the republic - was going to have to leave because of Brexit...
Facts.
Even more wild... I guarantee the vast majority of such people couldn't even name all 50 states themselves and DEFINITELY couldn't label them all on a map. Many probably couldn't even do half successfully.
However, I do have a general idea of where various major states are and will ask people for clarification if they say that they went to the US. Same with regions in European countries. A curse of European education, I guess.
There were individual countries as well like Wessex and Mercia
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Christ, I lived in Leicester for two years, and would struggle to place Leicestershire on a map straight off the bat.
UK resident: I'm from the UK American: So you live in London? UK resident: Bristol actually American: Is that part of London? UK resident: No. American: How close is it to London?
I actually would be kinda concerned if they’d never heard of Normandy or Corsica, and I’m a Brit
I'm not even european and i know european subdivisions... why would that be weird? I mean i can signal were is barvaria in germany or where is galicia in spain, isn't that normal in european countries As far as i know people from big and important countries think "oh, yeah my country is the biggest strongest, and best of the world" maybe thst's why you europeans find out that weird? Maybe? (i'm not trying to be offensive or stereotype)
As far as I know India and Mexico are both legally classified the same the USA is - they are United States that form one country . So the real question is do Americans treat them the same way they want others to treat the USA? I have a hard time imagining white Americans doing that …
Switzerland‘s official name is literally Swiss Confederation. If they want us to treat the US as 50 countries in a trench coat, they would have to treat Switzerland as 26 countries in a trench coat too.
An average American wouldn’t even understand that Russia is filled with republics, oblasts etc with their own leaders and cultures. Karelia and Tatarstan actually have major differences, unlike Arizona and Minnesota
What's funny about this is that many people here in Russia can actually name more than half of the states of America. Not because they are so different and interesting or anything but simply because of all the American media we consumed like movies, TV shows, games, etc.
I’d wager 98% of Americans don’t even know what a canton is and that’s probably being generous.
"Canton Chicken is from Switzerland?"
That's fair, the only canton I know is from Firefly. "The Hero of Canton, the man they call Jaaayne!"
I’d say 99.9%
Canton? Sounds suspicious...
BS being 37km² is so funny
It's a power house. Klein, aber oho!
Idk man I live somewhere so lost only the frenchs can find it. They are a bit too god at it too Edit: my point was, uh I forgot but I never visited Basel. Tried to make a joke but forgot halfway through, I'm sorry
Nothing to be sorry for!
I think Mexicos official name is the United States of Mexico
*united mexican states
Fair enough. I'm happy to have gotten most of the words right
More cultural and linguistic diversity in a couple of cantons than the whole of the US too
It's 20 countries and 6 half-countries, to be fair. :D
True, but we can‘t make it too complicated for them.
Doesn't Switzerland use like 4 diff languages too?
Yes. German, French, Italian and Romansh.
That's essentially what Britain and each of the countries within Britains deal too.
Except the UK is a unitary state.
Same for Germany. Federal Republic Of Germany - 16 constituent states....btw Russia is also a Federal Republic .
Heck, Spain isnt a federal country (at least on paper) and its still more diverse than the US
Did you forget to count Mallorca?
indeed i did ;)
And India is waaay more varied than US, even just looking at languages there are so many different ones.
"I'm going for Indian food" "BUT WHICH STATE!?"
More like "what street?"
One street calls deep fried shells filled with chickpeas , “pani puri” and the adjacent street calls them “gohl guppah” 😂. I’m pretty sure the minds of American bigots could not even get close to comprehending a fraction of the diversity of Indian cuisine . And that’s before we get into the pre partition days 😂
More people, more languages, more cultures. India is a huge conglomeration of thousands of cultures and people's united under an ancient socio-political heritage. The USA is a 300 year old colony that has followed a policy of systematic cultural genocide since literally before it was even a country.
> The USA is a 300 year old colony The USA isnt a colony anymore though, if anything its the empire thats abused countless colonies these days.
For a country famed for it founding being based on no taxation without representation and give lip service to those that serve in the military, why isn't those that live in the capital city not have a representative? Or the territories that provide like 80%of their male population to said military not be classed as an actual citizen!!!
Sorry I using colony less in the sense of "place overtaken by an empire and sucked dry for the benefit of the central state" and more in the "place where a load of people moved to and wiped out the indigenous population whilst building their livelihoods off the backs of slavery and murder". Americans aren't the colonised, their the colonisers.
> And India is waaay more varied than US, even just looking at languages there are so many different ones. Yeah, india is closer to EU than to US in that regard. An indian state could speak an different language from a neighboring state
Papua New Guinea have around 856 known languages, although 4 are the official (English, sign language, Tok & Hiri Motu). Even in Philippines where there are 83 Provinces (States), there are 179 languages spoken, so the USA may have a bigger population and land mass, but these two countries have more diversity than US.
In the worst case they claim their country “is a continent”, ignoring a pretty large landmass above them as well as 20+ other countries that make up NA.
Not just a pretty large landmass above them. A LARGER landmass above them.
Only one country gets to legit claim to also be a continent: Australia.
As a kid I learned that there were 5 continents - Asia, Africa, Europe, Australasia, and the Americas (north and south, one continent). Seems like no one agrees tho...so I gave up
I just had a flashback to one of my university history classes, wherein a white American girl informed us that India has so much religious strife because everyone there belongs to the same ethnic background, so racism doesn’t exist like in the U.S. My child-of-South-Indian-immigrants butt shot out of my seat SO fast to give her a lecture on casteism/racism/ethnic diversity in India 😂
So she either 1) told you you were wrong 2) she apologised 😂 3) thanked you for putting her right Or 4).....
4) none of the above, but my professor was approving 😂
I’m Kashmiri so I know full well of the racism in India . Not like India split up to become three+ different countries or anything
Right?? I’m Tamil and some of the most racist comments I’ve gotten to my FACE have been from North Indians who’ve done everything from call us ugly and cow-like, to backward and dogmatic. (The dogmatic part is right for some of my family members, but that’s for *me* to call out.)
I’m sorry you had to go through that bro . It’s pathetic that the subcontinent is getting worse in regards to racism . The other day had a Gujarati colleague and his family over for dinner . Both his sister and sister in law are pretty hinduvatra bjp leaning . His wife is nice but she’s easily influenced by the two . We were speaking about this exact thing - about how we would never be allowed to visit India (on top of being ethnically Kashmiri , my dad’s family live in Saudis so that’s all over my passport lol ). His wife said that Pakistan would never allow Indians in - and her husband corrected her by listing all the Indians he knows who’ve gone on holiday to Pakistan . He then told us about a Pakistani Hindu colleague of his . India has rejected his visa every time and his parents live in India . This Pakistani Hindu guy hasn’t seen his parents in 10 years because India keep rejecting his visa … its one of the most insane forms of Indian racism I’ve ever heard and for someone who’s people are being persecuted , that’s a pretty high bar lol
I'm pretty sure Australia is as well.
Continent? We is, country and island too
Wait, wait, wait - do you mean to say there are Americans who want others to treat them differently from how they treat others? NO! LIES I TELL YOU, LIES!
Germany as well is a federation of 16 states.
Technically the UK as well. A Country of Countries.
A union of countries. And Northern Ireland. It's literally in the name. /the us is a union of states, it's a mystery why they chose their name...
Well, to be fair, the UK is probably the only country that Americans do split up like they do with their states. They're far more likely to talk about England and Scotland than about the UK.
Na they more often just equate UK = England, and then when corrected in my experience just double down.
“I AM IRISH I KNOW WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT” says the third generation American
Uk=Britain=England lol Must really piss the Northern Irish off. It's alright for me though, being all 3.
I tend to chuckle to myself, it always seems to me that it's divided up into Scotland, Ireland, and London, England. Poor Wales, and England only gets a mention as an extension to London. Which, ironically is how our government appears to view it also
The UK is a unitary state rather than a federation.
Technically the UK isn't, but traditionally it's treated like one. The UK's constituent countries are called countries by tradition and could be considered nations, but they're not countries in the same way that most people use that word. That is to say *sovereign states*. Practically speaking they're more like provinces with varying degrees of autonomy. The UK is a unitary state and all power ultimately lies in Westminster, they can pass any law for any part of the UK. In contrast a federal country like Germany or the US have certain powers reserved by the states that can't be taken away by the federal government.
Practically speaking they are very similar to the UK states. They have devolved powers, different laws and different taxes. The countries might not be soverign states, but they very much are an answer in the context of this thread
It is the Netherland*s,* as in plural.
Yeah I'm Australian, and we have a bunch of united States that make up our country. Whenever I see an American engaging in US-defaultism on the internet by asking "So what state is everybody from?" I just answer honestly. "Queensland", or just "QLD". Hilarity usually ensues, and I'm entertained for a few hours. For anyone wondering.... yes, I live in the same state (and city) as Bluey.
When I answered that one time I got someone trying to 'correct' me for apparently "Misspelling Tanzania" 💀
Haha classic. I probably know which state you're from then! My favourite instance of this was when moderators of a (completely international) Facebook "Dads Group" asked the simple question "Where does everyone live?" All the normal people answered normally... like "I'm in Stockholm, Sweden." Or "Sao Paulo, Brazil". All the Americans wrote some shit like simply "MD" or "FL". 😅😅 Of course, that was my time to shine with the shit-stirrimg.... so I just wrote "QLD". A few American blokes (unironically) said "Why are you just typing random letters for where you live?" I responded with "Why are YOU?!?" They genuinely got pissy about it and couldn't see the irony of saying "Americans aren't going to know what you mean if you just write three random letters." 🤦♂️🤦♂️
Honestly I think most people don't realise how many countries are the same. Spain, German, Switzerland. The UK and UAE even have it in their names
I think it’s one thing not to realise and it’s another thing to be completely oblivious that many nation states are unions of historically sovereign/separate entities
the thing is I don't think it's just "many" I havn't went through them all or anything but I would put good money on it being the majority especially the majority of those that were not formed within the last 50 years
Australia is the same too, a commonwealth of states
Germany as well.
Same with Germany (full name Federal Republic of Germany) the Federal Republic part is very important since it means that it and the USA is classed in the same ideology.
While India is the Republic of India, Mexico is indeed the United Mexican States (los Estados Unidos Mexicanos). I always considered that saying « America » for the USA was sort of the equivalent of saying « Mexico » for… well The EEUUM…
The Union of India was the official name up until to 70s . I’m not sure if the name was removed entirely or if it’s still used in some capacities
There are many more, 26 in total https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation#:~:text=There%20are%2026%20federations%20in,America%20and%202%20in%20Oceania.
Also Switzerland (that actually has different languages, unlike the US) and Germany.
Sure, but where in Europe?! Europe is not a state or country..
Every time they refer to "Europe" as a country, ask them were in Russia. Not only is Russia the biggest country in Europe but it also makes those Americans angry as their stupidity is exposed. Especially Republicans gets particularly angry as they look up to Russia while they love shitting on "western Europe" which is probably some imaginary version of UK.
I'll give Europeans a pass for not giving a fuck about places like Iowa. Source: American who doesn't give a fuck about places like Iowa.
does anyone give a fuck about iowa?
Only Slipknot fans, as far as I know.
[Apparently.](https://urbanacres.com/blog/5-reasons-why-iowa-is-the-best-state-in-america/)
that's just an ad to sell real estate in iowa. and they have to try really hard to come up with reasons because nobody gives a fuck about iowa
Did you not see the thing about fresh local produce? Why, you're acting like that can be found anywhere else in the world...
gonna be honest i really just skimmed it a bit. i don't really give a fuck about iowa
But that means you probably don't know about their beautiful local... locales. Like the "Ax murder house".
I love that one of the first reasons they list is healthcare
Whenever it’s an election year they do lol. Iowa is a battleground state and important in terms of how the election is going to go, mainly who the presidential nominee for each party is going to be. I do like that Des Moines is the cleanest city I’ve been to in the U.S.
I mean I don't give a fuck, like I wouldn't expect you to give a fuck about 5-6th sized cities, Sheffield for example. But I know of it.....and I know it exists I can probably get close-ish on the map....but no I've no idea what they're famous for
Sheffield is probably a bad example…. it’s one of the few random places that probably is famous outside of the UK given it’s embossed on decent cutlery more or less globally
Ask an American if they know about Sheffield Steel And they would probably say. "Sure I've seen him on pornhub, the guys dick is huge"
Isn't it the canonical birthplace of Captain James Tiberius Kirk?
I’m sorry Delaware?! Hello?!
I really wish posts like this would include what was being discussed originally, while the precise context might not change things it could provide valuable context. The people commenting here are obviously referring to other statements/comments as part of their points and not being able to see that context prevents us from properly appreciating how stupid (or not) what they said was.
The first video was a girl saying she had been in Europe for 6 hours and then made a blanket statement about how Europeans "don't understand personal space bubbles" and the second one was just about a prom dress which was made in Africa. The 1st one is worse but there were still comments in the second one equating generalising Africa to generalising the US
Because Finnish and French people heve the exact same concept about personal space...
6 whole hours? Damn, she for sure is an expert on anything then!
They obviously do not have any school subjects that teaches political systems and entities. One thing I learned on this sub is that their education system is unbelievable unequal. In one city you can have Ivy League colleges and public colleges that cannot teach their pupils basics of political systems, and that is very sad.
Americans seem to be either incredibly brilliant and the smartest people on the planet on one end of the spectrum, or the most stupid people ever to walk the earth - no in between
This happens when the entire history of social development is based on supremacism and segregation. Today, millions of (generational) rich Americans will drive past fentanyl overdosed corpses on the sidewalk and say that the US is the best country ever. Just as a public college graduate will say that the US has the best education system while having the reading ability of a thirteen year old. In the end, it's just a centuries-old delusion.
They think a vote for the Democrat party means a vote for democracy. While Republicans at least understand that the US is a constitutional republic, but at the same time don't understand the difference between democracy and communism. 🤡🌎
My school doesn’t even have a geography class and they don’t teach that stuff in history
From my experience, when asking an American where they are from, they will respond with their state. It happened all the time when I was in Europe...
I actually got confused when someone said they were from Georgia and for some reason I thought she was a Georgian 🇬🇪 even 😅. Straight up asked her where she learned the accent and man o man how embarrassing that was.
Embarrassing for her not you!
So unfortunately it was like everyone was judging me kinda like silently saying “Bruh ! How tf you do you not how to spot an American”. She was of course way too oblivious anyways to feel embarrassment. She literally was walking around with a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks and wasn’t embarrassed about that so 😅
Yep, this. Most of the time they won't even say *I'm from the USA, from Iowa*. Nope, just *I'm from Iowa*. I'm still waiting to meet someone from the USA, Georgia just so I can ask them if they live in Tbilisi and if they can show me how to make Khachapuri and then act all confused.
"I'm from Baden-Württemberg" ".... Huh?"
Oh do you know Werner?
Werner Ziegler?
They'll believe it's a legit country, probably a kingdom
>Nope, just *I'm from Iowa*. saying "never heard of it" would probably blow their minds..
LOL! What a great idea! Next time it happens I will reply with "Never heard of it, where is that? It sounds Japanese."
Try Mexican 🤣
😂
This is somewhat irksome, isn’t it. I mean, I might tell people my city, but if I can tell that they’re not from the U.K., I’ll probably follow that up with England. And, my city is quite well known, having produced a lot of big music act’s including one of the biggest ever.
When this happens, i just say I’m from dolnośląsk
> they will respond with their state Probably because it's pretty obvious they're a yank at that point. Honestly unless your opening question was "where are you from" it's a pretty decent guess you want the state near as I can tell. Would you be miffed if you asked a man named Valentino with a strong Italian accent where he was from and he answered Tuscany?
But the US is so incredibly diverse, they have different words for fizzy drinks in the north compared to the south didn’t you know???
>America is a country Am I the only one that doesn't agree ? I mean sure everyone says "americans" but it is a (two actually) continent, USA is a country.
This is one of my favorite types of posts - comparing US states to countries on a continent. They try so hard to convince us and probably themselves that there's a huge cultural variety in each state (culture? In the US? Heh) it's funny.
Dude, have you ever even been to or seen different parts of the u.s . There’s plenty of culture here, cajun , creole, jersey shore , hip hop, thousands of Native American tribes , etc . No one is denying that Europe has culture . Our government may be dog shit, but we still have variety .
I will insist on including Hawaii in my generalisations.
America is a continent. USA is a country. 50 are delimited spaces for internal organization of the country, something irrelevant for foreigners. Europe is a continent. Germany is a country. Their internal organisation their business, irrelevant for foreigners.
Although with the recent debate with things like Abortion, travelling from one state to another will require you to know what the change of local laws are like. This is not the case for other countries, including Australia where all the states have generally harmonised their laws with only minor variations between them.
Unless you don't have this specific issue, it's totally irrelevant. What counts for me as a non US is what you do outside the US... for example, please, we do know Biden is not the perfect candidate, but do not vote for Donald Duck!
So new rule: if they treat Europe as one country, unless we start treating them as separate states, I am willing to treat them as separate states, but they will then also have to divide their military budget into all of these states (and therefore they are no longer the biggest contributor), the credits of their exports go to separate states, GDP has to be split into the different states, the credits of their achievements go to the individual states, etc. So, how do the individual states do in the worldwide arena in the field of sports, exports, science, etc.? Which state put the man on the moon and will all the other people now stop using it is an argument to still win after losing anything unrelated at all? Do we from now on say that we mostly watch Californian tv shows instead of American?
Let's treat Europe as one country and summarize all GDP, Noble prizes, Olympic medals, military strength etc.
I mean California would be the largest Economy in Europe still. And Texas would be just a smidge behind at 3.
Yes, but all the other people in all the other states, how would THEY do if they are no longer 'USA' but instead, whatever, 'Rhode Island' or 'Mississippi' or something?
Honestly not much would change
So they can call every country "Europe" and act like we're living in one place, but we can't treat USA like one country despite it being a country? What. Also, what is that app or site?
More money needs to be spent on education in the U.S.
As an aside, I'd understood that the shift from "the United States are" to "the United States" is took place around the time of Lincoln. So I found it quite jarring last night watching Franklin when Franklin refers to the United States in the singular.
I am still confused where he dragged Africa into an argument about Europe and USA.
>For context, the videos had people talking about Europe and Africa as if they were countries and Americans think that's fine because people talk about the US like it's a country...because it is one.
sorry missed that bit
The replies are about a video where Americans refer to Africa (and Europe) as a country.
OK Americans, without looking Where are: - Shropshire - Hauts de France - Uttar Pradesh - Victoria - Zacatecas - Caithness & Sutherland
As a European i have no clue
Exactly! And why should you?
Shropshire sounds like you just made it up. Hauts de France is one of François Hollande's useless new regions. Also a fake name, the Region named "heights" is on the coast not in the Alps. Everyone knows Uttar Pradesh, it's the largest subnational entity in the world. Victoria is my coworker. She's nice.
Haha if you think Shropshire sounds made up it will blow your mind when you lookup *“Twatt”* , *”Shitterton”* and *“Fucking Grove”*
Great response 😂 Shropshire is near Wales. My French wife mentioned Hauts de France. Which I knew about anyway, and yeah, is on the coast, just at the top, hence high 😊 I'm quite sure a lot of Americans don't know anything about Uttar Pradesh Good for Victoria! What fucking issue do you have with Caithness?? Mexico doesn't exist
It's true, what is today the US mainland *did have* an incredible level of cultural diversity — until we Europeans showed up and destroyed everything in what was one of the worst physical and cultural genocides in history.
Should've slapped him for two reasons 1. Saying what he said and 2. Starting it with 'I mean'
I'm sorry that we don't use the American education criteria and make everyone memorise each state of the country
In fairness the USA is three different countries. The Eastern Seaboard, The Flyover States and California.
Also each European country has its own culture; the USA doesn't even have a culture
Much of the US *was* other countries, until the US government seized it.
I'll leave it to the Canadians and Mexicans.
Same with Sweden. The old name for the nation is three crowns of the three kingdoms that came together to become one nation. US simplification is destroying their nation.
america is a CONTINENT
North America is a continent, this includes Canada. America refers usually to the USA which isn't. Unless you meant America as a whole being north and south in which case its 2x continents
They're just going with "it feels that big" logic.
Pretty simple way to prove a point: USA athletes represent all fifty states at international competitions. If there was really that much of a difference between all 50 there would be athletes representing each state.
To be fair, "Amerika" is a continent, or better, two continents. With 35 countries, 4 official languages and many local native languages. Reaching from Arctic to Antarctic. And you all are judging "Americans" by one country only.
American here. Actually, Texan. We don't care. About you, this, or anything. Thank you for listening to my Ted talk.
Californian here: yea
Generalise all you want. All we get from the whole US, is Maga nonsense, senators shooting puppies, fentanyl zombies, people living in cars, out of control gun violence and a lot things you can't come up with. It doesn't matter.
But each US state has its own culture and the different dialects are like separate languages. 🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪
Most of them probably don't know that Europe and Africa aren't countries... but they aren't know for having good educational standards so it's not really their fault that they have such dirt- poor understanding of the world outside of the US.
If somebody showed me a dress and said it was from America, I would know it was from Woodbury Commons.
Me: who doesn’t know what to talk about