this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2023
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Pretty bad comparison
Germany might be the worst European country for your example. I'm sure most Americans could name at least a few German provinces just from German prevalence in Western culture. France or Italy? No way.
US states also have considerably more autonomy than most of their European counterparts. It's not at all an exaggeration to say US states operate as their own nations while the federal government mostly just handles international matters.
This is true. Even as an American I doubt I could properly name all the Midwest and New England states on my first try.
I'm not American but I do live in Europe and I only know Bavaria as a province of Germany.
Can't compare all the 50 states to full blown countries as most of them have low population. California though has like 60 million people, so everyone should know that one (and people do, it's movies)
Sure you can. The least populated US state(Wyoming) has about 50,000 more people than the least populated EU country(Malta). Every single state absolutely can be comparable to at the very least small countries. California alone has one of the highest GDPs in the world.
I feel like the majority of Americans could name at least Bavaria, Saxony, or Hamburg if asked.
24 US states have populations of over 5 million, ten of which being over 10 million. Like you said, states like California, Texas, Florida, and New York all have populations in the tens of millions. It isn't like they're all just hollow areas of land
From the US: I know those names, I didn't know they were provinces. I thought they were cities to be honest.
I think you're really overestimating how much most Americans think about Germany. The first result on Google says only 20% of Americans can name all 50 of our own states, and a shockingly large amount of Americans really don't know anything about the world outside of 100 miles of where they were born.
I'm betting we're gonna run into a selection bias issue here, but can you name any Chinese provinces? Or Argentinian ones? I'd guess most Americans think about China more than Germany these days, and couldn't name any Chinese provinces besides the major cities at most, and even then I wouldn't be surprised if they knew none of those. Germany really doesn't come up in conversation any more than Argentina, other than many a few more people coming back from vacation in Germany.
I'm admittedly terrible at European geography, but I'm not exactly ashamed of not being able to name all the countries in Europe, since it's generally not relevant information for me. I'm sure I'll learn more about it when I plan to travel there.
Part of the problem, yes.
It's a fairly reasonable comparison.
Just trying to throw away the concept of size is probably the most unfair thing here. You are trying to change the conversation so your argument appears valuable. Then you kind of piss that attempt at goal post moving by claiming that while size is irrelevant, somehow shape is. What a strange move.
You make a good point on the US state vs Country comparison, I think that certainly plays a much larger part than size or even population. But if you wanted to argue that point, rather than dismiss relevant concepts or inserting ridiculous ones - you could rebut with a question like "can you name the subjects of the Russian Federation?" Or, if you are in a fighting mood (which...clearly), you could just respond that American exceptionalism has them overvaluing the relevance of US States on the global scale.
The shape thing wasn't really meant to be taken seriously...
You're the one being defensive here, so I won't bother arguing with someone that starts out as hostile as that
Haha, hostile. I merely pointed out your failed points then suggested a better means of sharing your valid point - going as far as agreeing with you... that's hostile? Yeah, okay.
That's not the part that was hostile, but if you can't see that yourself, I won't be able to help you either
yeah, but for example: Luxembourg - the last grand duchy in the world, one of four institutional seats of the european union, capital city is an UNESCO world heritage site, has a 1000 years of history.
Idaho - potatoes. wait... maybe it's Iowa? or Ohio?
edit: really seems like people can't take a joke, lmao
No one under a monarchy has actual pride in their people and country, why should we care that the city was founded from a royal whorehouse by people we're also descended from anyways?
The fuck are you talking about?
Something bootlickers can never understand.
Idaho and Iowa and Ohio all had rich histories going back tens of thousands of years before Europeans destroyed them lmao. You're just upset they don't have 1,000s of years of white history.
Also it's funny you mentioned Ohio in your comment because the Ohio Mounds became a UNESCO heritage site like a month ago
Oh, so you know all that history? And how much of that culture is still prevalent? And how much impact did it have on the rest of the world?
Those Mounds are barely 1000 years old. Ireland has similar structures and they are about 4000 years older.
But who cares anyway, in the end the history of America is bound to the history of Europe because the majority are descendants of Europeans while the natives were suppressed and eradicated.
I studied pre-Columbian America for five years in University so yes I absolutely know that history lol.
"All" that history? There's no such thing. But it doesn't help that the majority of it was burned down or killed by colonizers a few hundred years ago.
You are literally proving my point about Europeans destroying American history
Studying 5 years of primitive history? What are you going to do with it?
Tenochtitlan was the capital of an empire of 5 million people that only fell apart in 1521 because of disease brought by colonists. What are you going to do with the history of which Hapsburg married which cousin?
Jesus, shut the fuck up. We get it, you don't think any culture other than your white European culture is worth studying.
Why are Americans so obsessed with race?
Because we're literally talking about the native people's of the Americas and their cultures, who happen to be not white and colonialism was spurred on in part due racism.
Hem and haw as much as you like but race and racism plays a large part in how and why contemporary America exists today.
Poland - borscht and poverty. wait... Maybe it's Ukraine? or Belarus?
Sweden - vikings? wait... Maybe it's Norway? or Denmark?
Germany - Fascists? wait... Maybe it's Italy? or Hungary?
France - bread? wait... Maybe it's Netherlands? or Germany?
Yes, it's easy to trivialize something you know nothing about. Now maybe it's not interesting to you, but to the horror of history YouTubers- everywhere has history, and the history of some random inbred monarchs isn't exactly relevant or interesting to everyone.
I'd say pierogi is more synonymous with Poland. Also it's economy is one of the greatest successes of a post Warsaw nation. It out performs the former East Germany in several metrics.
All three produced Vikings. Though the ones that harassed England were mostly Danish Vikings with some arriving from Norway and Sweden later on.
Germany and Italy both had fascism. Italy invented it during WWI.
And Baguettes and croissants and frig legs! Germany does have some...interesting bread varieties.
European history is a lot more than just some inbred monarchs. The language you speak, the political system you use all came from Europe. Your insults come across like a teenager ranting at his parents that he's smarter than them.
Baguettes and croissants are also bread...
I think you don't understand what I said. I am not insulting Europe, I am European. I am criticizing your closeminded perspective on what you don't know about.
Of course, and the history of every US state is a lot more than just potatoes.
If you're talking about the US, a constitutional bicameral presidential republic, with three branches and a judiciary of your peers, was first done in the US. In fact most modern constitutions are inspired by the American constitution.
More countries have used the Canadian constitution than the US as their framework.
Yes, amazingly, literally everything is inspired and influenced by things in the past, since the US founders were influenced largely by European cultures they were influenced by Europe. But of course, all those European cultures were even more significantly influenced by Levant cultures. Why learn European history that was just savages a few thousand years ago when you could learn Levant cultures?
What comparison is that lmao