Ask Lemmy

They glorify soldiers way too much and teachers way too little

Sticker price isn't the price you pay at the till. Why? Why do you do that.

Massive gaps between the walls and doors of public lavatory cubicles. This is not some mystical, advanced technology. Get it together.

Two party system. They can't possibly represent everyone's interests. Feels more like religion to me .

Tipping

Also, losing their shit over nudity

At-will employment makes no sense to me. You go to work every day knowing you could be fired without any possibility of taking the time to find another job. It would drive me crazy.

They will say of themselves as being Irish/Italian/other-european-nationality because their great-grandfather or great-grandmother came from there.

A “politics” channel on a site called Lemmy.World that is specifically only for US politics, because America is the world.

The obsession with mutilating baby boy’s penises.

Vote for people who actively oppose universal healthcare, mandatory PTO policies, universal family leave policies, universal college-level education, etc.

City zoning.

Oh, i have to drive from single family zone to commercial district to pick up a loaf of bread. Then drive to education district to drop kids at kindergarten, and finally to business district to work. At the end of the day i hang out at bar/entertainment district with the guys from work to have a beer, but there's no public transport so I have to drink alcohol free so I can drive back home. That's only 120 miles in a day!

City design and suburbs. Like if I had to drive 40 minutes to get groceries I would prefer to starve and those suburbs look like death would be the better alternative. Also driving to go for a walk, wtf?

The way politicians and the political system nakedly serves the needs and interests of corporations and the wealthy, and not the average individual.

The way that the price you're quoted invariably gets bumped up by various taxes.

The insane system that is tipping, including the fact that a lot of workers are so underpaid that they rely on tips to get by.

The incessant adverts on TV for medical products, particularly prescription drugs.

Voting registration. I get a letter that I can vote and what the options are. Then on voting day, which is on a Sunday, because why would it be on any other day, I just walk into my town hall with that letter and my ID card, put down my crosses and leave. It's like a walk in the park, often quite literally.

Healthcare, electoral college, how supreme court justices are elected, first past the post voting system.

Edit: and the self assurance to nitpick a foreigner over the details of how justices come into their job.

Your houses seem to be made out of paper. Then you complain about strong winds..

Canadian here but still, shoes in house? Gross. Obsession with gun culture? Also gross.

Imperial unit system.

Guns. Just restrict them, it's not that hard

The "winner takes all" political system that ends with two extremist parties and a huge divide between people

Healthcare. Do I need to say anything?

The extreme divide between rich and poor

Police force. They hire lowly educated people, preferably racist, receiving barely any training, and what they do get is mostly nonsense. They then get military equipment, and the entire system is protected by a corrupt union

The amount that news organizations are allowed to lie

Their US customary units. What even is a fluid ounce, and what is it doing in my drink?

Thinking Europeans are the only other humans on Earth

Grocery baggers. I'm German - we pack our own bags over here and most customers do NOT like others to fondle their groceries. We literally do not have any "baggers" in any supermarket, and if a cashier packs a customer's bags without being specifically asked to do so (basically never happens) the customer will take that as an insult - as if you're trying to say they don't get out of your sight fast enough / that you want to speed up their departure to get rid of them, or that you don't think they're capable of that super basic, simple task. It's considered rude and condescending.

A cashier is expected to scan the stuff the customer wants to buy, take payment, hand over the receipt and change, and then leave the customer and their groceries alone.

American here. Honestly eager to hear what they have to say. It would be cool insight into things I don't even really think about! ^^

Restaurant tipping instead of decent wages; somehow the blame is on the "stingy" customer

they have an insane amount of gun and gun related deaths They don't have Universal Healthcare they don't have a federal payed leave law they don't have a maternal/paternal leave law they don't have tuition free universities they don't have decent mass transportation The use of the imperial system

It just doesn't make sense and baffles my mind for the richest country in the world to treat it's citizens like this

Okay now I'm stretching the OPs idea a little bit, but America is big.

How people live in South America never needing to learn other language than Spanish and plausibly never interacting with a foreign language outside movies. I spent some time in Chile, the place I lived in had a nice janitor. He did not speak English, I only knew a few loose words in Spanish so communication was... peculiar. Only after 2 months of awkward interactions he realised, that I probably am not Spanish native speaker and it hit me.

When your entire life in a continent where everyone speaks flavours of Spanish or Portugese, you can have successful, international career only in Spanish, participate in all kinds of rich culture only in Spanish and all signs and labels are only in Spanish, huge majority of tourists speak Spanish... it is not immediately obvious, that people may not speak Spanish.

Don't get me wrong, it's not dunking on "dumb spanish speakers". There are ton of places in Europe where people disregard English, where it's famously hard to communicate in anything other than the local language, but the fact, that other languages exist is apparent to everyone once they learn to read. Awareness that people actually speak these languages is the most natural knowledge from ground school as we learn that "Germany speaks German. Italy speaks Italian" etc. A perspective which does not involve being in constant proximity to numerous foreign languages felt like something that made no sense to me in the past until I actually came into contact with it.

Lack of history.

In LA I've been told that old buildings are demolished to build new ones.

Something 50 years old is an historic landmark there.

Saying "could care less" when that's not what they mean.

Cheap wooden houses in areas with termites

And no insulation, so you rely on expensive AC

Tipping

Very large cars. You can easily fit 5 people in a small car.. lol.

Your voting system. Registering to vote? Wtf is this? Here you get your "ticket" to vote, by mail, automatically after you turn 18, a few weeks before the election date. And you are required by law to get time off, to vote, if youre otherwise unable to make it in time.

Also paying for education.. lol. Here its all free. In fact, im getting paid to study. (Not a ton but enough to get by)

Electing positions that require specialized skills or have judiciary authority. You elect your law enforcement, your judges, your fucking dog catchers. What the fuck?? Is it so hard to come up with a meritocratic method of selecting a fucking dog catcher that you must just throw your hands up and just ask random people what to do?!

Religion.

Anti Vax.

Militarised police.

Racism.

Political corruption.

Foreign wars.

Mass shootings.

Healthcare.

Public transit.

Abortion.

UFO.

Capitalism.

Two weeks holiday.

Maternity leave.

My experience is from Canada, but Canada is in America so it should count:

• insane amounts of empty space. It's one thing to know that in America several hours drive doesn't count as "far away", another to experience it.
• guns. Not like in "them americans only shoot themselves", but like in "any hardware store carries full gamut of weapon-adjacent accessories and it's normal" wtf mates, you can't keep your murder machines confined to murder machine shops? We manage to do it with porn and sex toys in Europe (at least my part of it), sure you can too with guns?
• malls. We do have malls in Europe. I still don't get them, but it is a choice to go there. Where I lived in Canada it was the only shopping option. Why not corner shops? These suburbs waste a ton of space, no one has ever thought in a capitalist brain "hey let's put a shop closer to the people and charge them more because they burn less fuel and waste less time to get here"?
• And a very specific nitpick: calling places "european" like a point of pride while in fact they are rather not. Quebec City and Montreal I think both pride themselves on being "the most europe-like cities in north america" and... they're not europe-like? Like, ok, the old town is nice, but that's it.

Absolute hostility against pedestrians. Or not-driving in general. It seems you are unworthy of public services if you don’t own a car in the US.

Tipping and calculating your own taxes