Stephanie Barnes
When you’ve lived in one place for most of your life, the systems that are in place and the way things are done might seem like the right and only way. However, there is a big world out there and everyone takes a different approach.
In a recent Reddit thread, users chimed in to discuss the big and small things that happen in America but are strange in the rest of the world, after someone asked:
“Redditors from foreign countries, what’s something us Americans aren’t ready to hear?”
The responses range from accents and sugar consumption to things like military fetishization and the lack of free healthcare. These answers definitely show how different things are in other parts of the world.
Here are 20 of the most popular answers.
1. Let’s talk about trains
Why don’t you have more trains?
2. Food waste
The amount of food you waste is insane.
3. Lobbying
Lobbying is essentially legal bribery.
It baffles me how every elected official is essentially sponsored by a bunch of companies or “movements” that are essentially comporations in disguise.
Also, corporations don’t care about you. At all.
4. Healthcare
It’s okay to have healthcare not tied to your employment with a massive fat middleman in between.
5. Bathroom stalls
American bathroom stalls are exposed as fuck, a grown man could crawl under one of em and the vertical gap has a big enough gap to make full on eye contact with anyone walking by.
6. Inferior food
A lot of your favourite food brands make better versions of their products here. America often gets the short end of the stick.
7. World Series
The world series only happens in the U.S.
8. All the sweetness
You all eat too much of sugar.
9. President
Treating your president like someone you worship is bizarre.
10. Taxes
The way you add tax to everything at the till is mental. Just tell me what it costs on the fricking label!
11. Houses
Building houses out of cardboard is a bad idea!
12. Accents are real
You DO have an accent.
13. Tipping
Tipping is rude and unnecessary here.
14. Freedom
When only the rich can access most of what you call freedom, it’s not freedom.
15. It’s you!
You are the foreigner for me and around 220 countries.
16. English isn’t the only way
The worst part is when they make fun of or belittle foreigners for their accents or incorrect choice of vocabulary when they only speak English and said foreigner speaks 2 or more languages already.
17. The voting system
Your voting system is unfair, obsolete and less democratic than most countries.
18. Military
Your fetishization of the military is a little weird.
19. Pledge Allegiance
If any other country had kids “Pledge Allegiance” every morning at school and play the national anthem before every single sporting event, you’d joke they were as bad as North.
20. More parties!
You guys need more than two major parties. In fact, you need an entire range: left, centre-left, centre-right and right. Democracy means that you need to give the people a better freedom of choice than just choosing a different side of the same coin.
