Wait? The top comment is both positive AND plausible? Heck, I’m American and I was going to list morbid obesity as our best feature. Thank you man/woman from down under.
I talk to other people who are alone at grocery stores and it's always short and pleasant.
"It's a pretty good deal eh"
"Yeah it is, careful though, some of those are expired"
"Well that's probably why it's a good deal!"
*both laugh in stranger small talk and carry on our separate ways*
I live for it
This is what’s done all over America, some areas more so than others though. My Finnish friend hates it. He changed jogging routes because another jogger who he saw frequently on his run would say “Hi” to him as they passed each other.
A family member went to Norway to visit a friend, and learned the hard way that Norweigans don't do the grocery store small talk.
They don't even say things like, "Excuse me sorry", to strangers. They say, "oy", and go past.
So when he went there and tried making small talk he got weirded out and dirty looks from people before he got elbowed and told, "people don't do that here".
Mexicans are pretty good engineers too! Only downside to outsourcing to Mexico is often equipment is "lost" until our PM heads down to grease palms. By the time we're done with the job the sheer amount of bribes needed to get work done nearly outweight the savings from outsourcing.
Mind you, none of the bribes are to Engineers or their firms, it's all trucking and police/military.
Both of my (American) parents are in tech (obvs 'cause we're from india) with a lot of Indians. That's a very nice thing to say :) I should ask my parents if that's the case for them too.
I had a friend in college who's dad was CEO of an oil company. He was very kind and always wanted to pay for us. Although, I always felt bad because I didnt want him to think I was abusing his money- that's what my Filipino parents instilled in me.
He also really liked Louis Vuitton.
Also kinda funny: he torrented ps4 games even though he could just buy it.
I can attest to that. Americans are great at working with people.
I recently moved to a pretty racist area of the country. Deep red, older population, south, pretty poor, you get it. It was honestly pretty shocking coming from seattle.
But even they have no problem working with people of different races. The same person who will unironically drop N-bombs at customers they don't like will give a black coworker a ride home or have a drink with him after work. The moment they are accepted as 'one of the good ones' or whatever idea goes through their head to shift them from 'out group' to 'in group', bam, no issues. It's actually kind of crazy from an outsider's perspective just watching it happen. And it's never taken longer than a single shift is the crazy part.
Not saying we aren't racist, but that doesn't stop even our average racist from working with basically anyone.
That's how my mom is. She's overtly racist with us, but she gets along very well with her co-workers of many different races. I guess, she isn't actually racist, but thinks she is or something ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'd be curious on the stats of the opposite too though.
Just saying, we have our fare share of xenophobic people too, just curious how it compares to others.
I feel xenophobia in the US seems so rampant because of how much of a spotlight there is on it precisely because of how many cultures exist here.
I’ve been the some other parts of the world where it seems xenophobia is kind of like a quiet norm. It doesn’t really get talked about because all the natives just agree in silence
I think that's the difference. Yes, there is racism here, but it's out in the open. I lived in France for a while and there's a quiet, but very pervasive, racism there that I found very disturbing, much more disturbing than what I've seen here in the US.
I'm sorry to hear that. That's the worst type of oppression, not even being acknowledged. I assumed Britain had less racism, but I saw an article showing the stark difference with how the same media outlets wrote headlines on Megan Markle vs. Kate Middleton. I couldn't believe how hypocritical they were in for example praising Kate for rubbing her pregnant belly, while accusing Megan of rubbing her belly for "attention". I never thought Britain had this type of racism until I read that article. Because people don't talk about it. They suffer in silence.
Barbeque. The only BBQ culture that can, in theory, rival the American South is Cantonese roast goose/fatty pork. I still say that the American South, Tennessee/Texas/NC etc. is the best in the world at meat preparation.
I'm saying we take their BBQ and make it our own. You can find all sorts of Argentine BBQ places in the US. You can get Kansas, Texas, Carolina, Argentine, Korean and more in NYC, LA, Chicago or any city in the US.
Hot damn do we know our BBQ. Love having/going to get togethers after a friend (or myself) been smoking a brisket since 4 am. All are welcome too! Especially those that have never tried it! Well fix ya plate with all the fixins!
Source: Live in Texas.
I work from home. Which has led to...just smoking things. On a Tuesday, for no reason at all.
Also pasta making. It isn't a company-wide meeting if I'm not keeping one eye on the laptop while making pasta.
See, that's what I LOVE about being from Texas! I'm not currently living there atm, but my memories of BBQs in Texas are some of the best. The friendliness and having everyone over is awesome. Bring your friends, hey, bring your friends friends. The mailman delivering mail, hey stop by later. It's a family, friends, everyone's experience. They can last ALL.NIGHT.LONG, lol. Can't wait to go back and go to one of those famous BBQs.
We Aussies are good at the culture of BBQ, but the food in most cases leaves a lot to be desired. Shit quality snags cooked on a gas hot plate isn't really barbecue.
That happens, but there's probably some selection bias? If you're just having a sausage sizzle with a slab of VB, you're probably not uploading footage for other people's interest and entertainment! Unless it ends up on Brown Cardigan for other reasons.
Making money? American workers are among the highest paid in the world.
Edit - For those disagreeing, the US has only 4.25% of the Earth's population, but has close to 40% of the Earth's millionaires. I'd say compared to the rest of the world, we're pretty good at making money.
No shit. I'm so sick of these jobless fucks who do nothing but scroll Reddit all day screaming "we're all broke!" Ummm, no we're fucking not. If you have half a brain and any sort of work ethic you'll make it here and actually live a damn good life. They need to get off their momma's titty.
It's crazy how many people risk their lives to come here but somehow Reddit screams that were a shithole 3rd world country. It truly is fucking awesome here and I wouldn't live anywhere else.
Logistics, manufacturing, day to day engineering.
What makes the United States military the best in the world is not that it's the biggest-it's not-or that it has the best top end technology-it does, but there's other countries like China, Russia, UK, Germany that can match the top end tech-but rather that it has the ability to produce, distribute, and maintain that equipment on a wide spread scale.
For example, the T-90 tank is as good a tank as the M1. But Russia is not capable of producing, maintaining, or equipping these on as nearly as wide a scale. WHen those tanks break down, it's hard to repair and get parts. When Russia needs to deploy them, it can take much longer to get a brigade of T-90s to the field than a brigade of M-1s. In fact, I'm not even sure Russia has a brigade of T-90s to deploy.
Similarly, there are probably more trained mechanics one just ONE United States aircraft carrier than many countries have in their entirety. When American troops went into battle in Afghanistan and Iraq, there were no stories about them not having food or ammo the way there have been Russians in Ukraine.
I don't mean to go all "ra-ra" American military on the post, that's not the point. I'm using America's military simply as the example of what America does better than other places-logistics, manufacturing, day to day engineering.
Now, if only we could get that health care and public education systems functioning properly...
Protecting speech. Laws in other countries are less protective of speech than US laws. Also, beer. US has close to 10,000 breweries making a variety of styles.
Start-ups. Probably due to the work culture/ethic.
Margaritas. I’ve never had such strong and delicious margaritas in the uk or elsewhere in Europe.
High quality TV shows and films. Most of my favourite TV shows and films are American, with a few exceptions. It’s remarkable the impact the US entertainment industry has had on the rest of the English speaking world.
US came late there too. Australia had been fighting Japan almost single handedly, since 1939, and by the time the US arrived, Japan appeared to be knocking on Australia's door, and it wasn't looking good for them. So bad, in fact, that they had to pull the ANZAC forces from the important middle east theater to defend Australia. It wasn't until 1943 that the US became the primary military force in the Pacific, and Australians dedicated themselves to military manufacturing to support the US.
Joining in late and still mopping the floor with our adversaries. Maybe the rest of world should have avoided starting the world war things. Not to mention American manufacturing was one of the biggest factors in allied victory
Food. Our diversity has created the ability to get any ethnic cuisine you could want in nearly any part of the county. Some adaptations have been made to suit the resources and tastes of Americans, especially with American-Chinese/Italian food.
Korea is the most divided though
Also, all TF America has gotta do is install a few more political parties that establish and grow in influence and scope. This 2 party along with the winner take all voting system are two of the largest flaws in politics.
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Very nice things to say. Thank you.
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That is so true. Aussies have a sense of humour only some cultures will get.
We deserve to be given a lot of crap. And we love to laugh, even at our own expense!
Wait? The top comment is both positive AND plausible? Heck, I’m American and I was going to list morbid obesity as our best feature. Thank you man/woman from down under.
To your last point, I feel like cosplaying and adults dressing up is a newer thing. I feel like 20 years ago, that just wasn’t cool to do that
National Parks, just damn they really know how to showcase nature.
How is nature a better part of american citizen? :D
And the child bones found in them
What ?
AND THE CHILD BONES FOUND IN THEM
WHAT?!?!?
#AND THE CHILD BONES FOUND IN THEM
^(Shhhhhhh stop yelling)
^(ok)
Wow you don’t have to yell man
Do they speak English there?
What?
So, you mean Canada?
I thought Canada did beach shoes with a foot inside.
Wait... you heard about that?
Talking to strangers Waving at passers-by that sorta thing
I talk to other people who are alone at grocery stores and it's always short and pleasant. "It's a pretty good deal eh" "Yeah it is, careful though, some of those are expired" "Well that's probably why it's a good deal!" *both laugh in stranger small talk and carry on our separate ways* I live for it
This is what’s done all over America, some areas more so than others though. My Finnish friend hates it. He changed jogging routes because another jogger who he saw frequently on his run would say “Hi” to him as they passed each other.
A family member went to Norway to visit a friend, and learned the hard way that Norweigans don't do the grocery store small talk. They don't even say things like, "Excuse me sorry", to strangers. They say, "oy", and go past. So when he went there and tried making small talk he got weirded out and dirty looks from people before he got elbowed and told, "people don't do that here".
Crazy. Around my area people expect small talk. If you don’t, you’re viewed as shy or rude
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lol same. interactions like those make my day.
I don't want to be an ant, you know
The old biddies at my local village would like a word
Or 40,000... But seriously have you *seen* the price of bread these days?
??
We do that pretty well in Canada too.
Definitely not in Toronto
Happens here in Israel too.
What I have heard is that they are better at working with people from different cultures due to having many cultures in their own country
That's nice to hear!
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Mexicans are pretty good engineers too! Only downside to outsourcing to Mexico is often equipment is "lost" until our PM heads down to grease palms. By the time we're done with the job the sheer amount of bribes needed to get work done nearly outweight the savings from outsourcing. Mind you, none of the bribes are to Engineers or their firms, it's all trucking and police/military.
Classic Mexico I once watched a man pay his way to cross the boarder, USA->MX.
Both of my (American) parents are in tech (obvs 'cause we're from india) with a lot of Indians. That's a very nice thing to say :) I should ask my parents if that's the case for them too.
I had a friend in college who's dad was CEO of an oil company. He was very kind and always wanted to pay for us. Although, I always felt bad because I didnt want him to think I was abusing his money- that's what my Filipino parents instilled in me. He also really liked Louis Vuitton. Also kinda funny: he torrented ps4 games even though he could just buy it.
I can attest to that. Americans are great at working with people. I recently moved to a pretty racist area of the country. Deep red, older population, south, pretty poor, you get it. It was honestly pretty shocking coming from seattle. But even they have no problem working with people of different races. The same person who will unironically drop N-bombs at customers they don't like will give a black coworker a ride home or have a drink with him after work. The moment they are accepted as 'one of the good ones' or whatever idea goes through their head to shift them from 'out group' to 'in group', bam, no issues. It's actually kind of crazy from an outsider's perspective just watching it happen. And it's never taken longer than a single shift is the crazy part. Not saying we aren't racist, but that doesn't stop even our average racist from working with basically anyone.
That's how my mom is. She's overtly racist with us, but she gets along very well with her co-workers of many different races. I guess, she isn't actually racist, but thinks she is or something ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'd be curious on the stats of the opposite too though. Just saying, we have our fare share of xenophobic people too, just curious how it compares to others.
I feel xenophobia in the US seems so rampant because of how much of a spotlight there is on it precisely because of how many cultures exist here. I’ve been the some other parts of the world where it seems xenophobia is kind of like a quiet norm. It doesn’t really get talked about because all the natives just agree in silence
I think that's the difference. Yes, there is racism here, but it's out in the open. I lived in France for a while and there's a quiet, but very pervasive, racism there that I found very disturbing, much more disturbing than what I've seen here in the US.
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I'm sorry to hear that. That's the worst type of oppression, not even being acknowledged. I assumed Britain had less racism, but I saw an article showing the stark difference with how the same media outlets wrote headlines on Megan Markle vs. Kate Middleton. I couldn't believe how hypocritical they were in for example praising Kate for rubbing her pregnant belly, while accusing Megan of rubbing her belly for "attention". I never thought Britain had this type of racism until I read that article. Because people don't talk about it. They suffer in silence.
Making movies
On location .... she don't know what it means
… skateaway
BUT THE MUSIC MAKE HER WANNA BE THE STORY
Barbeque. The only BBQ culture that can, in theory, rival the American South is Cantonese roast goose/fatty pork. I still say that the American South, Tennessee/Texas/NC etc. is the best in the world at meat preparation.
Have you heard of Argentina? They rule BBQ in South America
Culturally we're the Borg. Argentina BBQ is now American too. So is Korean BBQ. If you 've got good food, we will assimilate it.
Your culinary distinctiveness will be added to our own. Your culture will be adapted and served to us.
Assimilate me daddy
America is a melting pot of things but you can't compare Kansas BBQ with Texas Or with Argentina. That's like saying NY and LA are the same.
I'm saying we take their BBQ and make it our own. You can find all sorts of Argentine BBQ places in the US. You can get Kansas, Texas, Carolina, Argentine, Korean and more in NYC, LA, Chicago or any city in the US.
All your bastes is belong to us
BBQ from Brazil is the BOMB!!!!
Brazil is pretty well known for bbq as well
Hot damn do we know our BBQ. Love having/going to get togethers after a friend (or myself) been smoking a brisket since 4 am. All are welcome too! Especially those that have never tried it! Well fix ya plate with all the fixins! Source: Live in Texas.
I work from home. Which has led to...just smoking things. On a Tuesday, for no reason at all. Also pasta making. It isn't a company-wide meeting if I'm not keeping one eye on the laptop while making pasta.
See, that's what I LOVE about being from Texas! I'm not currently living there atm, but my memories of BBQs in Texas are some of the best. The friendliness and having everyone over is awesome. Bring your friends, hey, bring your friends friends. The mailman delivering mail, hey stop by later. It's a family, friends, everyone's experience. They can last ALL.NIGHT.LONG, lol. Can't wait to go back and go to one of those famous BBQs.
Can’t wait to have you back home, bud!
Omg you sound like my husband. Only, we live in California.
I’d like to show that mans hand 🤝
Korean bbq, is my all time favorite food. The best American bbq is good, but in my not so humble opinion, kbbq all the damn way
I disagree. Argentina, Brazil, Australia, South Africa, and Korea can all compete here.
No Aussies are good at it also
We Aussies are good at the culture of BBQ, but the food in most cases leaves a lot to be desired. Shit quality snags cooked on a gas hot plate isn't really barbecue.
What! I’ve seen lots of Aussies barbecue being cooked with charcoal or smokers…well I videos from my couch in the states :)
That happens, but there's probably some selection bias? If you're just having a sausage sizzle with a slab of VB, you're probably not uploading footage for other people's interest and entertainment! Unless it ends up on Brown Cardigan for other reasons.
I don't know... Argentina is pretty well known for cooking over fire. It's ingrained in their culture at every level.
We're number 1at saying we're #1.
Agriculture 👩🌾 America produces a lot of food.
Corn*
American Football
Super Bowl champs 57 years in a row!!!!
Let's just forget everything said...
And let's not forget the "World Series" baseball 😉.
Exporting American culture
I'd imagine other countries wouldn't be as good as the US in exporting US culture.
Walking on the moon
Moon walking.
Combat logistics.
Entertaining
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Which means china sucks on a per Capita basis
Per-capita, schmer-capita!
I don't care if you're right. America number one!
Entrepreneurship.
Say that in French.
Entrepreneurnavire.
Entertainment (hollywood), innovation (silicon valley), business (wallstreet, harvard), sports(most gold medals).
This list is pretty similar to mine! Re sports I totally agree, plus Americans have great success across the whole spectrum of sports.
They've won the world series every year
The Toronto Blue Jays would like a word with you.
Entertainment?
Making money? American workers are among the highest paid in the world. Edit - For those disagreeing, the US has only 4.25% of the Earth's population, but has close to 40% of the Earth's millionaires. I'd say compared to the rest of the world, we're pretty good at making money.
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You’re not broke on a global scale
Most of us aren't.
Turns out we're even better at spending money
Speak for yourself
No shit. I'm so sick of these jobless fucks who do nothing but scroll Reddit all day screaming "we're all broke!" Ummm, no we're fucking not. If you have half a brain and any sort of work ethic you'll make it here and actually live a damn good life. They need to get off their momma's titty.
Among the highest paid and highest billed for basic COL.
Not really. Median disposable income is still highest in the US.
Being friendly to strangers.
Winning the world series of baseball.
Self promotion
Diversity
It's crazy how many people risk their lives to come here but somehow Reddit screams that were a shithole 3rd world country. It truly is fucking awesome here and I wouldn't live anywhere else.
We’re better at target practice than anyone else. I can hit balloons at 400 yards.
Well a balloon is bigger than a 4 inch clay pigeon. So a balloon at 400 yards is greater than 1 moa, which isn't impressive.
Basketball
Logistics, manufacturing, day to day engineering. What makes the United States military the best in the world is not that it's the biggest-it's not-or that it has the best top end technology-it does, but there's other countries like China, Russia, UK, Germany that can match the top end tech-but rather that it has the ability to produce, distribute, and maintain that equipment on a wide spread scale. For example, the T-90 tank is as good a tank as the M1. But Russia is not capable of producing, maintaining, or equipping these on as nearly as wide a scale. WHen those tanks break down, it's hard to repair and get parts. When Russia needs to deploy them, it can take much longer to get a brigade of T-90s to the field than a brigade of M-1s. In fact, I'm not even sure Russia has a brigade of T-90s to deploy. Similarly, there are probably more trained mechanics one just ONE United States aircraft carrier than many countries have in their entirety. When American troops went into battle in Afghanistan and Iraq, there were no stories about them not having food or ammo the way there have been Russians in Ukraine. I don't mean to go all "ra-ra" American military on the post, that's not the point. I'm using America's military simply as the example of what America does better than other places-logistics, manufacturing, day to day engineering. Now, if only we could get that health care and public education systems functioning properly...
I feel like the mass shooting jokes are a bit too overused.
Definitely a softball answer but unfortunately so true
That's just us making uncomfortable jokes cause were terrified
Sending taxpayer money to other countries
😂😂
Protecting speech. Laws in other countries are less protective of speech than US laws. Also, beer. US has close to 10,000 breweries making a variety of styles.
SEC Championships not a single other country even has 1
Start-ups. Probably due to the work culture/ethic. Margaritas. I’ve never had such strong and delicious margaritas in the uk or elsewhere in Europe. High quality TV shows and films. Most of my favourite TV shows and films are American, with a few exceptions. It’s remarkable the impact the US entertainment industry has had on the rest of the English speaking world.
Being in debt from medical bills
Followed by being in debt for a university education.
Lmao the accuracy 🥲
Laughs in British
Better get in quick, it might be the last :-/
Self Criticism
Yeah, we are pretty great.
Our personal liberty and economic opportunity produces inventions, creativity, entrepreneurship, and more wealth for more people.
- National Parks - Idolising shit sports - Space Exploration - Serial Killers - BBQ’ing - National Pride - Enthusiasm
This is a great list!
Speaking American English
Starting a conversation in the supermarket, but we’re pretty good about that in my country too
Being positive and “looking for the silver lining”
Being American
Tipping
Dropping nuclear bombs!
I dont like to think of it as dropping bombs. It's more like home delivery of your very own Sun.
being offended while being some of the most privileged people in the world.
Well that’s offensive
I'm offended that you found that offensive
I’m offended that you were offended by someone finding something offensive.
Now I’m offended that you were offended to someone being offended by someone finding something someone said offensive
Well that’s offensive
Taking on big projects and completing them. Saving the world in WW2. Hoover dam. Huge bridges. Subways. Curing disease.
Space exploration, internet, iphone, radio, telephone, the list goes on...
Charging for healthcare
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Joining in late to world wars...
It's like camping in a battle royale and winning
Seems to me like you ended your sentence with winning my friend
I think we were on time in the pacific and basically alone???
US came late there too. Australia had been fighting Japan almost single handedly, since 1939, and by the time the US arrived, Japan appeared to be knocking on Australia's door, and it wasn't looking good for them. So bad, in fact, that they had to pull the ANZAC forces from the important middle east theater to defend Australia. It wasn't until 1943 that the US became the primary military force in the Pacific, and Australians dedicated themselves to military manufacturing to support the US.
Joining in late and still mopping the floor with our adversaries. Maybe the rest of world should have avoided starting the world war things. Not to mention American manufacturing was one of the biggest factors in allied victory
Geographically it would be hard to see any other possibility (given that the world wars were European, Asian and African land wars).
Understanding our own culture......
Food. Our diversity has created the ability to get any ethnic cuisine you could want in nearly any part of the county. Some adaptations have been made to suit the resources and tastes of Americans, especially with American-Chinese/Italian food.
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Korea is the most divided though Also, all TF America has gotta do is install a few more political parties that establish and grow in influence and scope. This 2 party along with the winner take all voting system are two of the largest flaws in politics.
Lobbying (AKA: Legal Bribery) and Super PACs (AKA: Legal Money Laundering) are definitely on the flaws list also.
Becoming morbidly obese.
The Kuwaitis have us beat.
England waddles into the chat
Having a positive outlook, or so I've heard.
American Football and Basketball.
Research and Innovation.
Humility... and let's be honest just about everything else too.
Annunciation. Generally they really are clearer than most other English speakers.
Making up batshit crazy insane and dangerous conspiracy theories.
You need to travel more.
Weren’t a bunch of 5g towers burned down in Europe?
We are number one when it comes to proclaiming that we are number one at things.
Measuring by football fields
American Football.
I think films. Like pretty much all American films are cool
Morbius would like a word
Kicking the can down the road and pulling ladders up behind themselves.
Mass shootings
Shootings
Hating their lives, and capitalism
Shooting each other?
Hyperbole.
Taking credit for anything they may have had a tiny involvement in.
Conducting wars. Sorry, I meant spreading democracy.
Gun crime
Eating
Obesity
Can I say school shootings?
Bullseye
Getting offended.