It’s no secret that the most powerful country in the world often stands out from the rest. And if there’s one thing we can all agree on, people seem obsessed with sharing deeply held beliefs about the nation. Whether it’s hilarious memes that poke fun at the country or things America is doing right, opinions about the US are split. But as they say, with great power comes great responsibility, so why don’t we let the citizens themselves speak their minds for a change?
Well, Redditor Tell_me_why- did precisely that when they reached out to the Ask Reddit community: “Americans, what is the rest of the world not ready to hear?” The post immediately became a hit. Thousands of users wasted no time typing out the quirky things that people from other countries are unaware of, and sharing some hard truths along the way.
To get to the bottom of this question, we’ve gone through the thread and picked out some of the most surprising and thought-provoking responses to share with you all. Continue scrolling to read through these answers, as well as our interview with travel writer and blogger from the US, Megan Starr. Then upvote the posts you agree with and be sure to share your own takes with us below in the comments!
#1
The dumbest Americans often speak the loudest.
Image source: nevillebonglottom, Rodrigo Sümmer
#2
More Americans would travel if they could. There is criticism of Americans not being curious of other cultures. Some of that is valid, but travel isn’t easily within people’s means in the US. With no mandated vacation time and crippling low wages, having the time and money to travel to other countries isn’t realistic for most Americans.
Image source: Biz_Rito
#3
The only reason “Florida Man” exists is because of Florida’s laws about the accessibility of crime documentation, which makes it a goldmine for tabloid journalism.
Image source: Agent_Onions, David Veksler
#4
I went to Italy and there was a restaurant selling “American pizza” which was pizza with french fries hot dogs and more ranch than pizza. He said it’s authentic American pizza and it’s how everyone eats pizza over there. I told him I’m from America and I’ve never once seen anyone eat that… He told me i was wrong and it’s how all Americas eat pizza
Y’all are crazy too
Image source: Arik_the_Bruce, Vaishnav Chogale
#5
Despite there being an obesity epidemic, there are many MANY children who are hungry. Unfortunately, the foster care system is a worse outcome sometimes. We have many, many hungry children.
Image source: RioBlue93, Ben Wicks
#6
The government is not an accurate reflection of the people. The vast majority of Americans are moderates who have views all over the spectrum depending on the topic.
Image source: spade13F, Marco Oriolesi
#7
A lot of the world may know the origin story of America. At its core, it began as an experiment in decentralization of authority with the goal that there would be no overarching ruler deciding what you can and can’t do. That’s why the concept of states’ rights exist.
What the world may not know is how extreme that concept has become over the last 50 or so years. At this time, it’s more apt to say that your employer’s HR policybook has far more say over your life than any law, be it local, state, or federal. Things have become so skewed in favor of “job creators” that depending on who you work for, you could be free as in freedom, or you could be no better off than an indentured servant. Think about what other countries’ governments give their citizens as a right of citizenship: health care, higher education, comped maternity leave, childcare subsidies, guaranteed minimum time off, adequate public transit, just to name a few. Think about what the US government doesn’t offer: all of the above, and more. But there are some corporations who do offer equivalents to those: health insurance, tuition reimbursement, per-employer maternity leave policy (which is typically not very generous), and lately some have been extending perks like unlimited vacation (still subject to your manager’s approval), transit pass reimbursement, or private shuttles.
The truth is our government really is only good at two things, and that’s incarcerating people and findng money to build weapons with. Everything else, they delegate to “job creators”. That’s why there’s such a huge obsession with job creators here – they’re the only way most will experience even a fraction of the amenities that other nations’ citizens take for granted.
It’s a double-edged sword though. Many states are “at-will” states – meaning your employer can fire you for any reason at any time, including no reason. That, combined with everything I described above, means that most people live under the fear of losing their job. Because if you lose your job in America, you have nothing. Employers have taken this position of power and leveraged it to have near-complete control over the day-to-day operations of society, and to government, to an almost equal extent. Labor has little power over their lives and their country.
America isn’t a dictatorship. It’s a nation of a hundred thousand micro-dictatorships, each presiding over everyone on their payroll.
EDIT: made wording less unjivey
Image source: GoodOpinionHaver
#8
Most of us are just normal folks, trying to get by – it’s just 10% at each end of the political spectrum that are dingbats, but they get all the media coverage and give the rest of us a bad name.
Image source: FinsT00theleft
#9
We aren’t uncultured because we don’t travel, it’s just that our states are the size of your countries. I can drive 8 hours in my state, and still be in my state.and then you have Texas
Image source: Glittering-Clock-332, Surface
#10
Everyone likes to harp on our past of slavery but we didn’t invent, nor were we the biggest ones to do it. If we cast a light upon other countries past they would look bad also. Humans in general are incredibly sh*tty throughout time.
Image source: Sparrowhawk-Ahra
#11
Most New Yorkers aren’t psychopaths
All of us are
Image source: You8mypizza, Eddi Aguirre
#12
That someone personally spent over $400 million on a replica of Noah’s ark in Kentucky. Like actually. I’m not even kidding. It’s several football fields long.
Image source: Csj2454, Elias Null
#13
Europe has a racism problem as well. I moved from America to Europe and yall jump through so many hoops to pretend that America is the only place with racism despite how blaringly blatant it is in Europe.
Edit: obviously I know Europe is not a singular country, I just did not feel like listing all the European countries I’ve lived in or traveled too.
Editedit: If yall really wanna focus more on the fact that I said Europe instead of listing every country I’ve ever been to than on the racism thing then you’re really just proving my point.
Image source: AzzyKaz, Markus Spiske
#14
Twitter/Reddit are probably the worst representation of american culture possible. Life outside these two platforms are completely different no matter what way you spin it. Reason being, extremist opinions are the ones that get the most fake internet points, so thats all you will ever see.
Image source: WRiPSTER, Marten Bjork
#15
Children are not your retirement fund
Image source: TheeAngelness, Dmitry Vechorko
#16
80% percent of all Americans don’t have $500 in their savings account
Image source: Destinationfucked69
#17
Y’all arent as smart as you think. Dont get me wrong, we are morons. But stupidity is a human trait, not just an American one.
Image source: heyyoucrazydiamond
#18
We do **stupid**s**t. But thankfully we don’t think shark fins will make our d***s bigger.
Image source: riedmae
#19
America isn’t the best by far, but as an African American I know the racism in other big countries is way more overt, I’ve experienced it and sadly realized America is one of the few places I can live in somewhat peace
Image source: Low_Lettuce_8467, LinkedIn Sales Solutions
#20
We are not a monolith. The difference in culture between states, even COUNTIES or TOWNS can be massive. Making a generalized statement about “Americans” is really just disingenuous
Image source: Manatee_Madness
#21
America is more welcoming than most other countries.
For example, I’ve been living in Korea for almost three years. I could speak the language perfectly, interact with the community, learn the customs and traditions, and yet I still wouldn’t be considered Korean, or even be looked at as a Korean citizen. I wouldn’t belong, because I don’t look Korean.
But in the U.S, you can be from pretty much anywhere and be accepted as an American. You might look African, Asian, European, but you would be considered American. And you would belong. And it’s awesome.
The U.S is one of the most welcoming places in the world.
Image source: Bioreaver, Andrew Neel
#22
Most Americans, be they liberal or conservative, are not nearly as hateful as you might assume from reading Reddit posts or watching American news programs.
Image source: screaminporch
#23
M*A*S*H is better without the laugh track.
#24
Not all Americans have money
Edit: most don’t
Image source: Passion-Interesting
#25
We won’t stop until the rest of you are as fat as us.
Image source: BlackLetterLies
#26
Americans are not the only annoying tourists in the world. We can be bad sure, but I have met PLENTY of [jerks] from all sorts of countries visiting.
Sometimes reading through Reddit you get the sense that the only people in the world with bad travel manners are Americans.
Image source: GarbageBoyJr, David Todd McCarty
#27
The use of the Metric system is way more prevalent than you think.
Image source: Foresight2187, Sven Mieke
#28
Henry Winkler gets even cooler after happy days.
Image source: myclueis, Super Festivals
#29
Most people in the US do NOT have guns. The reason for the “There are 400,000,000 guns in the US” is because guns are counted when they are sold, but they are not counted when they are destroyed, broken or disposed of (legally or illegally) so when you have a number that only goes up, guess what. It gets really big. It’s also possible guns are double counted when one owner sells a gun to another person. Also, most gun owners own more than one gun, so you can’t just divide the number of guns by the number of people because you have that one guy with 20 guns.
So, when you come to visit, relax. There aren’t cowboys and gangbangers on every street corner.
Image source: ClownfishSoup
#30
Twitter is a very small community where just 10% of users make up 80% of the content.
Image source: user_bits
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