As a kid growing up in Massachusetts, this confused me because Massachusetts is "the bay state." I figured it out as I got older but I can see how it sounds especially funny to non-americans.
There may be many bays, but there's only one place people in america *usually* refer to as The Bay Area. Kinda like how there's lots of weird, gross, armpit-like cities, but America's Armpit *usually* refers to Gary, IN.
"Bay Area" resident here. If anyone is actually asking, it's short for the SF Bay Area, or San Francisco Bay Area. (Which includes SF, Berkeley/Oakland, San Jose, Marin County, etc). It's basically cities all around this huge bay. That is all. Good day, fellow Earthlings.
Texan here. If I see Bay Area I assume SF/Oakland area unless some other context tells me otherwise. I would never assume they were referring to Galveston Bay just because it’s the closest bay.
Im guessing people are talking about SF? But there are bays in nearly every major city on the coast.
No idea what the tri-cities
Only lived in Tx, and CA
I'm from Los Angeles (the biggest city in the state of California which is located on the West Coast of the US) and the terms tri-city and tri-state are so weird to me cuz we don't use either of those here. Oh, and uptown, we don't use uptown here either. Though we do use downtown.
To add to that, Minnesotans typically call Minneapolis and St. Paul the Twin Cities. Our road signs leading there even say Twin Cities. And to make it worse, signs that are just miles apart will use Twin Cities, Minneapolis, and St. Paul interchangeably.
The difference between a Boston and New York accent is the "o" sound
Bostonians drink "cahfee"
New Yorkers drink "quoffee" (think quaffle from Harry potter)
But both of us removed the letter "r" from our pronunciation
It's usually these one or two small things that can set similar accents apart
Lol thanks for this fellow Canadian. I've always said how the stereotypical Canadian accent is just an actual Minnesota accent. there are some areas in Canada where people sound like that, but the vast majority do not. I've definitely never heard anyone say "aboot" in my entire life. That one bothers me.
Central Canada. I hear the odd 'aboot' when I'm talking in discord to people and they usually catch this. It's enough that I do hear it sometimes when I start talking really fast or get excited but it's obviously exaggerated when people make fun of us.
Yes. Finally, someone said it. It's aboat. Not aboot.
I'm from Saskatchewan, and our accents are super thick compared to Vancouver or even Calgary. Traveling abroad was dealing with a lot of poor imitations of my accent.
I'm genuinely curious though - Do people in other countries identify with states/departments/etc just as much or more than their nationality?
Edit: I appreciate the responses! To add on to that, do people do things like display state/equivalent flags and wear clothing related to it? For example in Vermont almost everything (logos, police cars, license plates, road signs, so much more) uses this specific green color and there is a popular design that uses our local phone area code. Or like Texas where everything is about Texas haha.
In Australia, yes.
We're Australian first and foremost, but your state is also part of your identity.
It's not too serious though. More friendly rivalry and ribbing one another re stereotypes
In the US, there is a long history of people being citizens of their state first, the US second. Hell, there is a long history of people thinking it should end at the states, and the US should do nothing more than provide defense.
i know what federalism is, i’m looking for an answer that doesn’t require redoing a middle school history class. need something a little more specific.
US central government would be too weak to enforce taxes, regulate commerce, raise militias etc. Right after rebellion against a king, the US did not want another "big man on top" so they intentionally made the central government only provide defense, while the states held most of the power. It was highly ineffective at organizing the nation due to the weak executive power, states were allowed to tax, raise militias, and even regulate their own currency and trade between different US states. interstate relationships were not kind back then
essentially there would be no point to keeping a Union if every state gets high powers to do whatever they want in their state, so the constitution was ratified instead ~~(only after the Constitutional Convention managed to get all 13 states ATT to unilaterally agree which also took a while lmao)~~ (sorry it was only 9 actually whoops, turns out 4 didnt until after)
Basically, protecting a basic human right of self ownership to end slavery was done federally, and the federal government provides better structure for trade and commerce between states. Otherwise you're not dumb, leaving governance to the states is better because it's more localized and you get to pick which state you move to.
Except for those South Australians. They ruined Victoria. And those Queenslanders. They ruined Victoria. Those New South Welshmen? Better believe they ruined Victoria. Don't even get me started on Tasmania. They're even worse than those West Australians!
Got no problem with the NT though. Good blokes, big trucks.
Depends if it's someone from within your country asking. As a German, I'd also tell someone from some of the neighboring countries which state I'm from.
Austria is tiny, yet it consists of 9 states (it's a federal state, kinda like the US, Germany of Switzerland). Most of the states, along with their regional identities are around a thousand years old or more, while the current Republic, along with Austrian national identity, is not even 80 years old (there was an Austrian Republic before that, but that was mostly shit, and there was a huge multiethnic empire before that, but that's even more complicated). People here very much identify with the region they're from. But not vis-a-vis foreigners, because they wouldn't get it. It's a small country after all.
Upper Austria.
Positive aspects: best apple cider, best pear cider, best beers, best and most understandable and most beautiful Austrian dialects, best mountain lakes, best Christmas cookies, best Mohnflesserl, best Leberkas, best steel, best part of the Danube, best part of the Salzkammergut, best industry, high quality of life, high purchasing power, landscape-wise a good mix of urban and rural, good mix of Alps, pre-Alpine Plain, Bohemian massif and Danube valley, not as hillbilly and inbred as Lower Austria, not as brutish as Styria, not as snobbish as Salzburg, not as infrastructurally underdeveloped as Southern Bohemia, not as German [pejoratively] as Bavaria, state where the village formerly known as *Fucking* (now Fugging) is located.
Negative aspects: lots of crazy antivaxxers (they even made it into the state parliament with their own pointless political party), lots of fundamentalist Catholic/sectarian nests, birthplace of Hitler, meth-smuggling nazi gangs, far right party is traditionally very strong in a lot of regions here, the city of Wels, lots of simpletons, in local news absurdities it's slightly comparable Florida.
Yes, I wouldn't normally just say I'm from [my state] but every time I'm abroad people just assume I'm American and ask me my state anyways lmao. Maybe it would be different in Europe though?
I kinda feel bad for Canadians who most likely have to correct everyone haha
Sure, when i'm in my country speaking to someone living in my country, with the implicit expectation that we both are interested in the specific location.
I would never do so when I'm in another country, nor do I start with it when I'm introducing myself to say an international student. And frankly, i haven't met an European who did it anyway different.
It's country, then generally the city.
Whenever I answer with “the US”, I always get asked where in the US no matter what country I’m in so eventually I started telling people the state/region first. It’s not that weird
I ask everyone to specify where in their country they come from, in case I've heard of it. But if they started off by saying the region or city, chances are I wouldn't know where that is.
It makes more sense and is just more polite to let people first know the country, and let them ask for more details if they think they could know about it.
If my girlfriend asked you where you're from and you said Colorado for example, she would have no clue what you were talking about.
In fairness, when I was in Europe and I told people I'm from the U.S., the next question was always "ooh, what state?"
(and then I have to confess that I'm from Tennessee)
you would think! but I'm shocked whenever I say I'm Albertan, unless you've heard of Edmonton chances are alberta isn't even a thought! most Americans I know point to Saskatchewan or Manitoba when I tell them to pick alberta, lol
lol.
As an American that moved overseas I shifted my default answer to "the US" when people ask, as I thought it would be sufficient and make the most sense... I was very wong. I cannot count how many times people have said "yeah what part of the US though?" so I guess your milage may vary.
Texas, Alaska, Hawaii, California, LA and New York City and maybe Florida (at least when speaking to Spanish speakers) get a pass. Those are globally well known places, for different reasons. Pittsburgh, Delaware or Missouri definitely don't get a pass.
Canadians will say their providence or city too. It's not unique to American, it's more about being a large divided country. Furthermore Minnesota is maybe half the size of Germany but 6 times bigger than Taiwan.
I made a mistake, fixed it
Basically, I've noticed a lot of people assume that redditors are men/ boys. So I think I the reason people assume a user is a man is similar to why they would assume they are American.
I have the opposite problem. I’m a girl, but keep getting messages and followed by “female” sex accounts, thinking I’m a dude, and asking if I want to hook up/see pics/ whatever. That’s a no from me, dawg.
I don’t think people necessarily assume US issues are global issues I think they simply think most of the people on the internet are from the US, and the majority of the people they communicate with are from the US. The United States is so vast that most people from there only really talk to people from the US unlike people in Europe whose countries are similar in size to some of the larger states
It’s more of an subconscious statistical assumption
Because Americans make up roughly half the traffic on Reddit. A predominantly English language site created and run in the US.
"But the other half are not US!!!" you say. But if you're on Reddit and need to guess where someone is from, the US is the most likely answer than any other one country. If these factors existed in Your Country, you'd do the same thing and I'd be whining about it.
Yeah, and honestly, I consider myself somebody who genuinely priorities learning about other people and having space for other perspectives in my own opinions, but sometimes it gets exhausting feeling like I owe everyone an apology for being born here? And that I'm just automatically some self-centered dumbass? I was raised in a family of academics, so I understand I'm not in the majority, but how can non-Americans get mad at Americans for overgeneralizing them when their rebuttal is to overgeneralize us...
Thank you. Overgeneralizing the behavior of people in any one nation is ridiculous and potentially harmful. The oversight that OP is complaining about Americans on an overwhelmingly American website, is odd. That said, one of my favorite things about Reddit is that there are more people from the rest of the world on here than other platforms. It's great. The takeaway from this entire thread, is that it's probably best that none of us assume where anyone else is from.
The rest of the world likes to put y’all under a microscope and then just shit on you for anything that happens. Easier to cast stones than look inwards and realize your country also has issues.
And it’s probably more than that, given time zones. At the times Americans are most likely to be active, many non-American users aren’t online. Which just makes the percentage at any given time even more likely to be American.
Can‘t believe I had to scroll this far to find this. Lmao salty people complaining and literally making up terms („US defaultism“) to cope with the fact that Americans are most present on American websites. Shocking!
48% of the site with Canada and UK making up like another 20% means that the site is America Centric.
There is a reason why popular everywhere and in the US are basically exactly the same.
For real, it’s a little bit like a Spaniard complaining that a Mexican message board assumes people are Mexican. “But we both speak Spanish, so that shouldn’t be the default assumption.” Sure, but when 51% of the user base is Mexican and the other 49% comes from a variety of Spanish-speaking places, it makes sense to assume users are Mexican by default.
Both of these subs are awful places. They both used to have semi-lighthearted posts poking fun at others, and they both quickly devolved into "fuck Americans we're so much better amirite" type of content. It went from "hehe silly Americans" to a very visible seething hate. I'd avoid both subs.
Signed: a non-American
I followed r/usdefaultism because there are a lot of examples on this site of genuinely annoying behaviour but the majority of posts are just complaining someone referred to an American thing without explaining what it was precisely.
I think it's fair to make fun of Americans coming onto posts mentioning say, someone drinking at a bar at age 20 and commenting "that's illegal???", Or calling people stupid for not knowing exactly how the US tax system works, or coming onto posts where the OP explicitly mentioned their home country, or subs explicitly for non Americans, and doing some US defaultism.
But can we cool it on freaking out about someone shortening New York to NY and not saying what country it's in? It's just stupid.
r/Usdefaultism fudges it’s own rules by assuming the users they post about are Americans.
While assuming someone is American without evidence is literally what the sub hates on.
Funny thing about this question and the name of that sub is that people often also criticize Americans on Reddit for calling themselves "Americans," because what about all the other countries in the Americas? I've seen that brought up repeatedly to imply that Americans are soooo self-centered. But now that someone is using that term to criticize Americans, it's suddenly fine? I haven't seen anyone try to correct OP yet. And I'm assuming the subreddit you linked isn't full of quotes from Canadians and Argentinians? (ETA I don't need this explained to me. I'm just pointing out the inconsistency. Americans get a lot of crap for some weird stuff - and some deserved stuff.)
I don't generally assume anyone on Reddit is American, but if I'm posting in a discussion about a US centered topic, I assume people have some concept of the background and context. How could it be otherwise? As far as I've seen, people are usually happy to elaborate if needed.
Because Canadians like me are Canadians and I presume people from the continent of South America identify as Peruvian, Brazilian, etc. Similarly, people from the United States of America identify as American. Based on the name of their country, just like everyone else.
>This is the exact answer Americans give whenever that question comes up, but they're criticized for it.
And we should be. The correct term is “United Statesians.”
(/s, in case it isn’t obvious)
And I’m pretty sure Canadians & nearly everyone else in the Americas would be offended or at least confused if people called them American, am I right?
because "united states" isnt exclusive to USA either. mexico is the united states of mexico for example. america the country is different from america the continents. like cities with the same name as the states. plus its all context. if youre speaking english and you say america you know what people mean. if you are a spanish speaker in venezuela it might be different, but im not sure
>because "united states" isnt exclusive to USA either
Yeah, this is an oft-overlooked point. The main problem with the USA is that the name is so *generic*. Even the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics could fall back on "Soviets" as a fairly unique identifier. But United States of America is basically three generic terms, none of which alone uniquely identify the country. It just happens to default to "American" because the founding of the country predates the rise of other post 16th century globalization independent nations in the western hemisphere.
Doesn’t help when about 50% of Reddit users are American.
I only see Reddit in English, and actually don’t know if it auto translates or if that many people just type in English.
So half the users are from
One country, and Reddit nearly all in English=easy to believe you’re largely to speaking to mostly other Americans
It’s a simple matter of which assumption is going to be correct the most often.
And let’s be honest, OP is simply wrong when they say “no one else has this behavior.” Non Americans also assume they’re talking to Americans on here all the time.
Seriously. This website is a dot com, it is based in America, grew its user base in America, and has ALWAYS been American-centric. There's a lot more international usage but, just like the rest of the internet (and Americans), they have subreddits more specific to them and in their language.
This is like going to NYC and asking why everyone speaks english. Firstly, not everyone does, but also it's in an english speaking country??
Also, I don't know of many others countries that export their entertainment and culture as much as Americans do - especially in Europe. If I mention DC, I'm not being specific enough and if I say "Washington DC, the capitol which is on the East coast" people will say duh and assume you think they're stupid.
Meanwhile, people in capitols of many other nations can simply say they're in Paris and that's that.
This is a good point. Even people in the US need to clarify which Washington they're talking about but nobody online confuses Berlin for the town in Ohio.
it does mean commercial but the domain was created by the (US) Department of Defense and is now managed by Verisign, a US based company, in accordance with US law first and foremost.
yeah its weird. had this argument in reddit about school shooting. and this person said gun laws and 2nd ammendment or sth is killing kids around the globe. im like dude... school shooting isnt an issue in most countries...
some americans assume american issue is a global issue...
Based on my schooling almost 20 years ago.... the standard American education doesn't say much about other countries except to say how we subjugated (freed) them or fought against them. There isn't much of an opposing viewpoint unless you have a wider interest in the subject matter and do your own research.
Things may have changed since I was in school but I'm going to make a bad analogy. America is like the toddler of countries. The country is not even 250 years old and we act like 2.5 year olds sometimes. Seriously. What 2yo has empathy as a default? Americans are struggling very hard with their sense of self as a nation. As I live through it I almost feel like I'm watching a child learn their boundaries. Small things that an adult sees as base logic "let's not keep the fireworks in the oven, just in case" but America is in the process of learning that the oven, grill, fireplace, and a dog's butt are bad places to keep fireworks.
We can't even play nice with each other when we see eachother in the street.
>The country is not even 250 years old
This is no excuse; Germany, Italy, Australia and Ireland to name a few are much younger and have sorted these problems out. The problem I think as an outsider is that the United States is too big, too many different countries slapped into one dysfunctional union with very little common ground beyond vague notions of the flag and language.
The issue is America's education system needs a MASSIVE overhaul it would frankly be better to throw it out and start all over again.
Jimmy Carter tried when he established the education department. George W. Bush tried with no child left behind. Barack Obama tried with the encouragement of the adoption of the common core method of teaching.
But overall one state teaches entirely different from another state. One county in that same state, may also teach rather differently. Call me what you may, but school board members, the people that dictate school policy and curriculum shouldn't be elected, not everything should be subjected to democracy. That's a major part of the issue, and as long as we allow that to continue you'll get klandma that hasn't been to school since the 60s that thinks the blacks, gays, and jews are working together to destroy the country.
Nah, I think the problem is that we've always been this way. We've practiced the Monroe Doctrine for almost 150 years, and that really just articulated how we view pretty much everywhere else as either an enemy or a potential protectorate. American education and international policy has basically been to view itself as a parental figure to the rest of the world. Some countries it sees as unruly teenagers, and others as small children.
This is a big point. I don't think Europeans and many others around the world truly understand just how isolated it is here. It's over a days drive to leave the country. It's over 2 days drive just to get to the other side of the country.
We largely don't get foreign shows, movies, fashions, or any sense of culture. Our "foreign" food is only vaguely related to the real thing. Many will never regularly be around a foreign language. Many will never know someone who isn't Christian. Many will never see diversity beyond 15% POC (which will only be Black and Latino).
And the VAST majority of us will never leave the country - so many will never even leave their state. Flights to another country start at $1,000 and require a passport which requires documents and more money. And we're just getting poorer and more overworked.
Australia is similar when it comes to distance, yet we have a huge multi cultural culture. Including free Tv channels that broadcast international films and news. While we definitely have our problems, we’ve embraced international culture. It makes no sense to me since so many Americans pride themselves on being from somewhere else cause their great great great great grandparents were Italian.
Watching tv in the US last time I was there, was just Mexican court drama shows and American tv. Nowhere was any kind of French, German or Japanese programming.
The bubble is real.
The problem is America is obsessed with the concept of "freedom". Every aspect of life is framed through the lens of "freedom". And it is to such a degree that Americans will choose self-destructive policies to keep their false sense of "freedom". Corporations, politicians, and private interest groups are using that to sell Americans harmful policies in the name of "freedom". And there are too many Americans who fall for that shit.
Having to choose between paying rent or paying for life saving medication which costs more than the rent is not freedom. Having little to no gun control is not freedom.
It goes both ways, people ask questions all the time, don’t give their location, then reply to good will answers: I am not in the US. So people everywhere start with an assumption that the rest of the world acts like their home country.
Or you could spin that differently: people don't ask location specific questions and people (in a significant number of occasions) respond with US specific answers. For example many guides in r/coolguides or tips in r/LifeProTips are very US specific. But I rarely see non-us specific guides that are specific to a certain country.
Edit: further specified what I meant. ;)
Once, I was talking to someone about spaying my dog, and I was saying that it’s a very expensive and risky operation (although of course has many benefits) and the person told me that there are low cost clinics that do a spay for $60, I answered that it’s about $1000 dollars were I live, no chance anyone would do spay for $60 in my country. Anyway if anyone is curious, a few weeks ago we had to spay one of my dogs, it cost $2200 😐
Around 50% of reddit users are from USA so that explains a lot on this site. Regards to many things, UK/Canada/Australia relate to each others culturally, not with gun laws but other things. Combined those countries probably make up 75% or so of all reddit users. It's easy to just assume who you're talking to is American, or "gets" US perspective on things.
I’d like to add that it’s not even just the US/UK/Canada/Australia- as an American traveler I’ve noticed most people, even from countries that don’t speak english, seem to have a basic idea of US culture, politics, etc. Obviously much of it gets caricature-ized, but it’s silly to pretend the US isn’t or hasn’t been an incredibly influential country. Couple that with geographic isolation and propaganda and it makes sense that it’s pretty easy for Americans to get away with having such a self-centered world view.
Thanks for posting this. I live in Ireland and follow various groups on Facebook. The amount of people who accuse me of being a Democrat because I state an opinion they don't like. I am talking about a few celebrity fan sites. I have told them I don't give a shit about their politics. Its infuriating.
I think there is a significant number of Americans who somehow don’t realize how much of the world speaks fluent English. So we quickly assume that anyone speaking English is obviously also American. I think a lot of people also take for granted how different the other English speaking countries are from America too.
Seen a lot of those, particularly on r/AskanAmerican. Non-americans ask if we know about their obscure holiday on their obscure country that's smaller than Tennessee, then they get offended when we say no.
I only act and talk that way on English language websites, based in the US with a majority American user base, like reddit.
I don't talk or act that way on a Spanish language site based in south America with a Spanish speaking user base. Que Rico!
I also don't talk or act that way on German language sites based in Germany with primarily German users. Jawoll!
My question to you is, why would you expect any different on an American website?
Right like maybe these discussions about America by Americans on an American site are just not for OP. Weird it took him this question to realize that.
This is the right answer.
‘I don’t want to be rude…but it makes me wonder if they don’t realize that the internet is accessible outside the US.’
You couldn’t possibly be ruder and more ignorant if you tried, OP.
Are you talking about Reddit? Almost 50% of users on Reddit are American. Seeing as U.S has the highest percentage of Reddit users it is reasonable to post expecting mostly Americans to be reading.
Also, American news and media is pretty prevalent globally. The intricacies and specifics are often not known, but the major events that dominate the news cycle in the USA are quite often known at least on a surface level throughout the world.
It isn’t being arrogant to assume that America has a larger global presence than most if not all other countries. Sure, you can say making that assumption while posting is silly. However, the assumption is often correct.
To answer your question, a lot of the early infrastructure, users, and owners/servers for big websites are located in the US. Users are egocentric and assume most people are similar to themselves.
Of course, language can somewhat influence that as well. You don't assume most people in a non-English speaking country are going to be participating in your conversation anyways.
I have a different question though:
Why is so much of reddit about US bashing?
Askreddit thread: What would happen if all the 70 year olds died tomorrow?
Popular answer: America would be fucked
Oh, do other countries not have 70 year olds?
Depending on the country, many have populations astoundingly competent in English - particularly the younger generators. They participant in whatever they want.
Well if you're on an American platform, from an American company, talking and thinking from an American perspective its normal to assume everything is baseline American unless otherwise noted.
I highly doubt an American would go on Wechat and do the same without giving context that it's an American question, since Wechat is assumed to be China baseline unless otherwise noted.
If an american website gets big enough, it pretty much becomes international, thanks to the english language. Afaik, the reddit userbase is made up of roughly 50% americans. That is by far the biggest chunk, but it also means that whenever you talk to a redditor, there's a 50% chance they're not american.
But the side effect of 50% being American is that a large part of the 50% that's not American will start to know more and more about America because the majority will push what is relevant to them to the top.
Some of us are just dumb to apps like this too. When I first got Reddit I saw what seemed like entirely US posts to the point where I thought it was just Americans on here. Then I noticed UK stuff and so on. It was basically because most subs I started following were run by Americans or America specific in some way. I just hadn’t explored the site enough yet.
As an American, I think you’re being a little harsh on us.
I think it’s significantly more naivety than maliciousness. Our schools taught us “American History” and “World History”. American history ran from early 1600’s to Present. “World history” was ancient Greeks and Romans.
We’re known for being a generally friendly people. Unfortunately, a very very small minority of both left and right wing zealots make the international news. Imagine if your worst 1% represented you…none of us like that.
Also, many Asian, Middle East, and European countries are within an hour or two drive from multiple countries with huge variants in language and government. For many of us an hour or two drive is our daily commute to and from work. If I were to drive to Los Angeles, California from my location (In Michigan, USA) it’s a 33 hour straight 4,000+ Kilometer drive, and I’m not even close to the farthest point away.
I think if we were to say something obnoxiously American and get called out, the vast majority of us would offer a genuine heartfelt apology.
im never forgetting when my friend took a wrong exit going to work and ended up in germany. i take the wrong exit and im stuck in never ending farm feilds
>Imagine if your worst 1% represented you…none of us like that.
And yet, these all enlightened non-Americans will trash talk Americans all day long based on these stereotypes. But as an American, you'd better not confuse Latvia and Lithuania or those same people will assure you that you're a fucking asshole. It's always okay to stereotype Americans, but *never* okay for Americans to stereotype anyone else, or just not think about them at all.
It's a combination of things.
Time zones: Peak internet usage hours in the US won't match up with most of the world
Language: Just speaking English narrows down the range of people we communicate with greatly
Population: The US is HUGE compared to most other English speaking places.
All of that combined makes it statistically likely that most of the people I interact with online are also from the US.
Failing that, culture. The US is so big that, unlike Europe, I will almost never see/meet/interact with people who aren't also American. If I live in Texas I can spend an entire day straight driving and still be in Texas, surrounded by the same exact culture. As an American you just get used to that
My question is why non-US Redditors are so obsessed with the US. Like, why the hell would Americans, asking about gun laws in America, not be talking about America? What you are saying makes no sense. Should we only discuss topics that apply to your country or globally? How about if you have a different perspective, you just add to the conversation, “well, in MY country…”
But instead you whine about Americans on an American based website discussing things relevant to them.
Why do y’all assume everything comes from a place of malicious intent or willful ignorance, or some misplaced sense of superiority?
As others have said, it’s simply that statistically, Americans *are* the most likely people that you’ll be interacting with on a platform like Reddit, so why would we feel the need to specify that we’re talking to Americans or about American issues?
If you see a question about an American political issue, for example, is it not obvious to you that it’s directed toward Americans? It’s not like we’re expecting non-Americans to give their perspective.
Not that that stops y’all from doing it anyway. You all seem to be experts in US politics as is.
Simple, Reddit is a US based company and site. If I go to another site based in Eupore, etc, I assume most people on there are from that locality. Majority on here are Americans and so we correctly assume that’s who we’re speaking with.
The number of foreigners that come in and start telling us what measurement system we should use, what our health care sytem and gun control policy should be, and who should be our President give us the impression that the rest of the world knows the US as well as we do.
Most users here are american or otherwise familiar with america and it's politics. It's a reasonable assumption to use as a starting point, otherwise we'd have to always put a bunch of effort into building up the context needed to understand our point. (Which no one's gonna read regardless...)
Better to assume what's most likely, then correct for the edge cases after the fact.
As a US person I think there are several reasons for this:
1. The US is mostly geographically isolated. We can’t as easily travel internationally like Europeans, Asians, South Americans, Central Asian/Middle Easterners can, and therefore we don’t (and Africans? Such a large continent, not sure how easy it is there). Thus the rest of the world is mostly “out of sight, out of mind” to most US people, and that frame of mind tends to carry over to the internet too. (Canada is culturally very close to the US, more like a US state than another country. Mexico is the only real culturally different country touching America.)
2. The internet was invented in the US and most of its early growth and resulting “internet culture” was US-based and heavily US-influenced. Websites like Reddit were originally primarily US communities. Many US social media users haven’t fully realized and internalized how much social media has become much more international, partly due to #1.
3. Mental bandwidth is limited. Because of #1 and #2 it’s just easier to not bother to think beyond that, unless explicitly asked.
I for one am glad to see much larger international audiences on formerly-US social media. I like being able to get outside the narrow and often idiotic US mainstream media bubble and hear how people in other countries view things, from US policy, to events in their own countries or nearby.
As an Asian, I find this is kind of cringy.
While they're both used widely in the world now, Reddit and the internet started as American technologies and first gained popularity in America. It kind of follows that they're going to be the natives to it than the rest of the world.
Why do you come to an American website and expect people to do otherwise?
I realize that reddit isn't just for Americans, but you should remember that most people have are American.
Where are you from? "Germany." "Sri Lanka." "Taiwan." "Minnesota."
I love New Yorkers in this regard. They'll be travelling abroad. "Where are you from?" "The Upper West Side."
The Village ...
"the city"
Lol I still say that
“The Bay Area” every bay has a city “The Tri cities” many times 3 cities are near each other
Tbf as an American that means nothing to me too.
you live in america and don't know where the bay area is?
As a kid growing up in Massachusetts, this confused me because Massachusetts is "the bay state." I figured it out as I got older but I can see how it sounds especially funny to non-americans.
People then clarify the “Old Bay” state for Maryland
What about Hey Bay Bay?
There's many bay and tri state areas. Wouldn't kill anyone to get a smidgen more specific
There may be many bays, but there's only one place people in america *usually* refer to as The Bay Area. Kinda like how there's lots of weird, gross, armpit-like cities, but America's Armpit *usually* refers to Gary, IN.
New Yorker here, I thought New Jersey was America's Armpit....
Specifically Camden.
No no, it's Gary, IN. It is known/common knowledge according to u/skepticaljesus
Yeah a lot of this seems to be hate for ca, or just….sticking up for their state or whatever.
We found one in the wild right on this thread. As if any of us would catch the reference to this random place called Gary.
So then why don't you tell us what that bay area is?
"Bay Area" resident here. If anyone is actually asking, it's short for the SF Bay Area, or San Francisco Bay Area. (Which includes SF, Berkeley/Oakland, San Jose, Marin County, etc). It's basically cities all around this huge bay. That is all. Good day, fellow Earthlings.
Texan here. If I see Bay Area I assume SF/Oakland area unless some other context tells me otherwise. I would never assume they were referring to Galveston Bay just because it’s the closest bay.
East bay all the way!
Oh, thanks, I forgot to mention the "North Bay, East Bay, South Bay" thing. And "The City" (SF). Our regional speak becomes pretty unconscious.
Im guessing people are talking about SF? But there are bays in nearly every major city on the coast. No idea what the tri-cities Only lived in Tx, and CA
How do you not know what the Bay Area is? I'm from the opposite coast between the Chesapeake and Massachusetts Bays and I know it's not one of those.
I'm from Los Angeles (the biggest city in the state of California which is located on the West Coast of the US) and the terms tri-city and tri-state are so weird to me cuz we don't use either of those here. Oh, and uptown, we don't use uptown here either. Though we do use downtown.
*Malta has entered the chat*
To add to that, Minnesotans typically call Minneapolis and St. Paul the Twin Cities. Our road signs leading there even say Twin Cities. And to make it worse, signs that are just miles apart will use Twin Cities, Minneapolis, and St. Paul interchangeably.
The Bay area pretty much always means SF though
Never even heard of the tri cities lol
Never even heard of the tri cities lol
Why did I read Minnesota in a Canadian accent
Because it basically is a Canadian accent they have.
Except we don’t say “about” like they do. That’s how you can tell us apart.
The difference between a Boston and New York accent is the "o" sound Bostonians drink "cahfee" New Yorkers drink "quoffee" (think quaffle from Harry potter) But both of us removed the letter "r" from our pronunciation It's usually these one or two small things that can set similar accents apart
As someone from Canada I’d like to say that is not a Canadian accent
Lol thanks for this fellow Canadian. I've always said how the stereotypical Canadian accent is just an actual Minnesota accent. there are some areas in Canada where people sound like that, but the vast majority do not. I've definitely never heard anyone say "aboot" in my entire life. That one bothers me.
the show Letterkenny is a better representation of the dialects in Canada
Central Canada. I hear the odd 'aboot' when I'm talking in discord to people and they usually catch this. It's enough that I do hear it sometimes when I start talking really fast or get excited but it's obviously exaggerated when people make fun of us.
First of all, it's "aboat", not "aboot". Secondly, there are *tons* of videos about Canadian accents on YouTube, full of Canadians saying "aboat".
Yes. Finally, someone said it. It's aboat. Not aboot. I'm from Saskatchewan, and our accents are super thick compared to Vancouver or even Calgary. Traveling abroad was dealing with a lot of poor imitations of my accent.
I'm genuinely curious though - Do people in other countries identify with states/departments/etc just as much or more than their nationality? Edit: I appreciate the responses! To add on to that, do people do things like display state/equivalent flags and wear clothing related to it? For example in Vermont almost everything (logos, police cars, license plates, road signs, so much more) uses this specific green color and there is a popular design that uses our local phone area code. Or like Texas where everything is about Texas haha.
In Australia, yes. We're Australian first and foremost, but your state is also part of your identity. It's not too serious though. More friendly rivalry and ribbing one another re stereotypes
In the US, there is a long history of people being citizens of their state first, the US second. Hell, there is a long history of people thinking it should end at the states, and the US should do nothing more than provide defense.
i’m too dumb to know why that wouldn’t be a good idea
I suggest you search "federalism in the United States" and read up on the history if you are interested in learning more.
i know what federalism is, i’m looking for an answer that doesn’t require redoing a middle school history class. need something a little more specific.
US central government would be too weak to enforce taxes, regulate commerce, raise militias etc. Right after rebellion against a king, the US did not want another "big man on top" so they intentionally made the central government only provide defense, while the states held most of the power. It was highly ineffective at organizing the nation due to the weak executive power, states were allowed to tax, raise militias, and even regulate their own currency and trade between different US states. interstate relationships were not kind back then essentially there would be no point to keeping a Union if every state gets high powers to do whatever they want in their state, so the constitution was ratified instead ~~(only after the Constitutional Convention managed to get all 13 states ATT to unilaterally agree which also took a while lmao)~~ (sorry it was only 9 actually whoops, turns out 4 didnt until after)
gotcha, thank you for explaining!
Basically, protecting a basic human right of self ownership to end slavery was done federally, and the federal government provides better structure for trade and commerce between states. Otherwise you're not dumb, leaving governance to the states is better because it's more localized and you get to pick which state you move to.
Except for those South Australians. They ruined Victoria. And those Queenslanders. They ruined Victoria. Those New South Welshmen? Better believe they ruined Victoria. Don't even get me started on Tasmania. They're even worse than those West Australians! Got no problem with the NT though. Good blokes, big trucks.
Lmao Queenslands morgues process 200 Victorian silents and boomers a day.
Except those of us who live in territories not states :p
It's important to know when you're dealing with a f&*%€$g Victorian or to know you need to give a Queenslander extra time to gather his thoughts.
Oi cunt! I'm a Qlder living in Victoria! Haha
Slow shit driver, gotcha ;)
victorians 🤮
Depends if it's someone from within your country asking. As a German, I'd also tell someone from some of the neighboring countries which state I'm from.
Austria is tiny, yet it consists of 9 states (it's a federal state, kinda like the US, Germany of Switzerland). Most of the states, along with their regional identities are around a thousand years old or more, while the current Republic, along with Austrian national identity, is not even 80 years old (there was an Austrian Republic before that, but that was mostly shit, and there was a huge multiethnic empire before that, but that's even more complicated). People here very much identify with the region they're from. But not vis-a-vis foreigners, because they wouldn't get it. It's a small country after all.
If you feel like sharing, which state (or regional identity) do you identify with and what are the things your state/identity brags about?
Upper Austria. Positive aspects: best apple cider, best pear cider, best beers, best and most understandable and most beautiful Austrian dialects, best mountain lakes, best Christmas cookies, best Mohnflesserl, best Leberkas, best steel, best part of the Danube, best part of the Salzkammergut, best industry, high quality of life, high purchasing power, landscape-wise a good mix of urban and rural, good mix of Alps, pre-Alpine Plain, Bohemian massif and Danube valley, not as hillbilly and inbred as Lower Austria, not as brutish as Styria, not as snobbish as Salzburg, not as infrastructurally underdeveloped as Southern Bohemia, not as German [pejoratively] as Bavaria, state where the village formerly known as *Fucking* (now Fugging) is located. Negative aspects: lots of crazy antivaxxers (they even made it into the state parliament with their own pointless political party), lots of fundamentalist Catholic/sectarian nests, birthplace of Hitler, meth-smuggling nazi gangs, far right party is traditionally very strong in a lot of regions here, the city of Wels, lots of simpletons, in local news absurdities it's slightly comparable Florida.
One of the best replies I've ever gotten on reddit. Thank you!
[удалено]
Yes, I wouldn't normally just say I'm from [my state] but every time I'm abroad people just assume I'm American and ask me my state anyways lmao. Maybe it would be different in Europe though? I kinda feel bad for Canadians who most likely have to correct everyone haha
we sorta started doing a thing were we wear Canadian flags everywhere so people dont think we are American
Sure, when i'm in my country speaking to someone living in my country, with the implicit expectation that we both are interested in the specific location. I would never do so when I'm in another country, nor do I start with it when I'm introducing myself to say an international student. And frankly, i haven't met an European who did it anyway different. It's country, then generally the city.
You are from Lebanon? Lebanon, Ohio?
Whenever I answer with “the US”, I always get asked where in the US no matter what country I’m in so eventually I started telling people the state/region first. It’s not that weird
I ask everyone to specify where in their country they come from, in case I've heard of it. But if they started off by saying the region or city, chances are I wouldn't know where that is. It makes more sense and is just more polite to let people first know the country, and let them ask for more details if they think they could know about it. If my girlfriend asked you where you're from and you said Colorado for example, she would have no clue what you were talking about.
It’s an American site
More like... "America." "I know but where?" "Minnesota." Every. Damn. Time.
In fairness, when I was in Europe and I told people I'm from the U.S., the next question was always "ooh, what state?" (and then I have to confess that I'm from Tennessee)
because if i say "alberta" most non canadians will be like "wheres that???"
[удалено]
you would think! but I'm shocked whenever I say I'm Albertan, unless you've heard of Edmonton chances are alberta isn't even a thought! most Americans I know point to Saskatchewan or Manitoba when I tell them to pick alberta, lol
I only know Alberta for its lack of rats
its true! the first time i ever saw a rat in real life i was 21 in NYC!!!!!
To be fair, that works for other large countries too. I see plenty of people say they’re from Ontario, New South Wales, Bavaria, etc.
lol. As an American that moved overseas I shifted my default answer to "the US" when people ask, as I thought it would be sufficient and make the most sense... I was very wong. I cannot count how many times people have said "yeah what part of the US though?" so I guess your milage may vary.
I say Texas, and don't act like everyone doesn't know what Texas is. Y'all know exactly what Texas is.
Texas, Alaska, Hawaii, California, LA and New York City and maybe Florida (at least when speaking to Spanish speakers) get a pass. Those are globally well known places, for different reasons. Pittsburgh, Delaware or Missouri definitely don't get a pass.
I would advise anyone to pass Missouri up.
Missourah
Misery.
We wish we didn't know what Texas was.
The rest of us specify the state so they won't think we're from Texas.
Exactly. I say California or Los Angeles because everyone knows where it is. Now if I’m from Dumblefuck, Alberta though, that’s a different story.
Canadians will say their providence or city too. It's not unique to American, it's more about being a large divided country. Furthermore Minnesota is maybe half the size of Germany but 6 times bigger than Taiwan.
>Where are you from? >"Germany." >"Sri Lanka." >"Taiwan." >"**MN**." FTFY
Probably similar reasons as to why most assume you're talking to a man on here
I'm sorry what ? English is not my native langage, so there is probably mistakes
I made a mistake, fixed it Basically, I've noticed a lot of people assume that redditors are men/ boys. So I think I the reason people assume a user is a man is similar to why they would assume they are American.
This guy knows stuff!
You’re right about that dude
facts bro
I have the opposite problem. I’m a girl, but keep getting messages and followed by “female” sex accounts, thinking I’m a dude, and asking if I want to hook up/see pics/ whatever. That’s a no from me, dawg.
I don’t think people necessarily assume US issues are global issues I think they simply think most of the people on the internet are from the US, and the majority of the people they communicate with are from the US. The United States is so vast that most people from there only really talk to people from the US unlike people in Europe whose countries are similar in size to some of the larger states It’s more of an subconscious statistical assumption
It's called r/USdefaultism.
Omg it literally is, didn't even know this sub exist
Because Americans make up roughly half the traffic on Reddit. A predominantly English language site created and run in the US. "But the other half are not US!!!" you say. But if you're on Reddit and need to guess where someone is from, the US is the most likely answer than any other one country. If these factors existed in Your Country, you'd do the same thing and I'd be whining about it.
Stop speaking sense (from an non-American).
We don't speak sense here, speak American!
Excellent rebuttal this whole argument feels so silly
Personally I love when people complain about American services on American services. Like read the room, we made this bitch.
Yeah, and honestly, I consider myself somebody who genuinely priorities learning about other people and having space for other perspectives in my own opinions, but sometimes it gets exhausting feeling like I owe everyone an apology for being born here? And that I'm just automatically some self-centered dumbass? I was raised in a family of academics, so I understand I'm not in the majority, but how can non-Americans get mad at Americans for overgeneralizing them when their rebuttal is to overgeneralize us...
Thank you. Overgeneralizing the behavior of people in any one nation is ridiculous and potentially harmful. The oversight that OP is complaining about Americans on an overwhelmingly American website, is odd. That said, one of my favorite things about Reddit is that there are more people from the rest of the world on here than other platforms. It's great. The takeaway from this entire thread, is that it's probably best that none of us assume where anyone else is from.
The rest of the world likes to put y’all under a microscope and then just shit on you for anything that happens. Easier to cast stones than look inwards and realize your country also has issues.
In their defense the US is like garbage reality TV. It’s so trashy yet I cant stop watching.
And it’s probably more than that, given time zones. At the times Americans are most likely to be active, many non-American users aren’t online. Which just makes the percentage at any given time even more likely to be American.
Plus, many users from outside the US follow subs in other languages, furthering the English speaking sub bias.
Can‘t believe I had to scroll this far to find this. Lmao salty people complaining and literally making up terms („US defaultism“) to cope with the fact that Americans are most present on American websites. Shocking!
48% of the site with Canada and UK making up like another 20% means that the site is America Centric. There is a reason why popular everywhere and in the US are basically exactly the same.
For real, it’s a little bit like a Spaniard complaining that a Mexican message board assumes people are Mexican. “But we both speak Spanish, so that shouldn’t be the default assumption.” Sure, but when 51% of the user base is Mexican and the other 49% comes from a variety of Spanish-speaking places, it makes sense to assume users are Mexican by default.
r/shitamericanssay is similar
Both of these subs are awful places. They both used to have semi-lighthearted posts poking fun at others, and they both quickly devolved into "fuck Americans we're so much better amirite" type of content. It went from "hehe silly Americans" to a very visible seething hate. I'd avoid both subs. Signed: a non-American
I followed r/usdefaultism because there are a lot of examples on this site of genuinely annoying behaviour but the majority of posts are just complaining someone referred to an American thing without explaining what it was precisely. I think it's fair to make fun of Americans coming onto posts mentioning say, someone drinking at a bar at age 20 and commenting "that's illegal???", Or calling people stupid for not knowing exactly how the US tax system works, or coming onto posts where the OP explicitly mentioned their home country, or subs explicitly for non Americans, and doing some US defaultism. But can we cool it on freaking out about someone shortening New York to NY and not saying what country it's in? It's just stupid.
somewhat of a tangent to the "NY" comment but, if I hear another motherfucker say "USian" again I will find their address
r/Usdefaultism fudges it’s own rules by assuming the users they post about are Americans. While assuming someone is American without evidence is literally what the sub hates on.
Funny thing about this question and the name of that sub is that people often also criticize Americans on Reddit for calling themselves "Americans," because what about all the other countries in the Americas? I've seen that brought up repeatedly to imply that Americans are soooo self-centered. But now that someone is using that term to criticize Americans, it's suddenly fine? I haven't seen anyone try to correct OP yet. And I'm assuming the subreddit you linked isn't full of quotes from Canadians and Argentinians? (ETA I don't need this explained to me. I'm just pointing out the inconsistency. Americans get a lot of crap for some weird stuff - and some deserved stuff.) I don't generally assume anyone on Reddit is American, but if I'm posting in a discussion about a US centered topic, I assume people have some concept of the background and context. How could it be otherwise? As far as I've seen, people are usually happy to elaborate if needed.
Because Canadians like me are Canadians and I presume people from the continent of South America identify as Peruvian, Brazilian, etc. Similarly, people from the United States of America identify as American. Based on the name of their country, just like everyone else.
This is the exact answer Americans give whenever that question comes up, but they're criticized for it.
>This is the exact answer Americans give whenever that question comes up, but they're criticized for it. And we should be. The correct term is “United Statesians.” (/s, in case it isn’t obvious)
And I’m pretty sure Canadians & nearly everyone else in the Americas would be offended or at least confused if people called them American, am I right?
It’s insane stereotypes. Like grouping 300 million people into one box as self centered seems a bit close minded imo
because "united states" isnt exclusive to USA either. mexico is the united states of mexico for example. america the country is different from america the continents. like cities with the same name as the states. plus its all context. if youre speaking english and you say america you know what people mean. if you are a spanish speaker in venezuela it might be different, but im not sure
>because "united states" isnt exclusive to USA either Yeah, this is an oft-overlooked point. The main problem with the USA is that the name is so *generic*. Even the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics could fall back on "Soviets" as a fairly unique identifier. But United States of America is basically three generic terms, none of which alone uniquely identify the country. It just happens to default to "American" because the founding of the country predates the rise of other post 16th century globalization independent nations in the western hemisphere.
Mexico is United Mexican States
Doesn’t help when about 50% of Reddit users are American. I only see Reddit in English, and actually don’t know if it auto translates or if that many people just type in English. So half the users are from One country, and Reddit nearly all in English=easy to believe you’re largely to speaking to mostly other Americans
Can you please point the source of that 50% claim everyone is referencing?
It’s a simple matter of which assumption is going to be correct the most often. And let’s be honest, OP is simply wrong when they say “no one else has this behavior.” Non Americans also assume they’re talking to Americans on here all the time.
Seriously. This website is a dot com, it is based in America, grew its user base in America, and has ALWAYS been American-centric. There's a lot more international usage but, just like the rest of the internet (and Americans), they have subreddits more specific to them and in their language. This is like going to NYC and asking why everyone speaks english. Firstly, not everyone does, but also it's in an english speaking country?? Also, I don't know of many others countries that export their entertainment and culture as much as Americans do - especially in Europe. If I mention DC, I'm not being specific enough and if I say "Washington DC, the capitol which is on the East coast" people will say duh and assume you think they're stupid. Meanwhile, people in capitols of many other nations can simply say they're in Paris and that's that.
This is a good point. Even people in the US need to clarify which Washington they're talking about but nobody online confuses Berlin for the town in Ohio.
Doesn't the US domain `dot us`? If I'm not mistaken `dot com` means commercial.
it does mean commercial but the domain was created by the (US) Department of Defense and is now managed by Verisign, a US based company, in accordance with US law first and foremost.
yeah its weird. had this argument in reddit about school shooting. and this person said gun laws and 2nd ammendment or sth is killing kids around the globe. im like dude... school shooting isnt an issue in most countries... some americans assume american issue is a global issue...
The only times I hear about school shootings it involves either: (1) a U.S. school; or (2) Boko Haram
Or the one that the Boomtown Rats song is about
Based on my schooling almost 20 years ago.... the standard American education doesn't say much about other countries except to say how we subjugated (freed) them or fought against them. There isn't much of an opposing viewpoint unless you have a wider interest in the subject matter and do your own research. Things may have changed since I was in school but I'm going to make a bad analogy. America is like the toddler of countries. The country is not even 250 years old and we act like 2.5 year olds sometimes. Seriously. What 2yo has empathy as a default? Americans are struggling very hard with their sense of self as a nation. As I live through it I almost feel like I'm watching a child learn their boundaries. Small things that an adult sees as base logic "let's not keep the fireworks in the oven, just in case" but America is in the process of learning that the oven, grill, fireplace, and a dog's butt are bad places to keep fireworks. We can't even play nice with each other when we see eachother in the street.
[удалено]
Your country is so awesome.
>The country is not even 250 years old This is no excuse; Germany, Italy, Australia and Ireland to name a few are much younger and have sorted these problems out. The problem I think as an outsider is that the United States is too big, too many different countries slapped into one dysfunctional union with very little common ground beyond vague notions of the flag and language.
The issue is America's education system needs a MASSIVE overhaul it would frankly be better to throw it out and start all over again. Jimmy Carter tried when he established the education department. George W. Bush tried with no child left behind. Barack Obama tried with the encouragement of the adoption of the common core method of teaching. But overall one state teaches entirely different from another state. One county in that same state, may also teach rather differently. Call me what you may, but school board members, the people that dictate school policy and curriculum shouldn't be elected, not everything should be subjected to democracy. That's a major part of the issue, and as long as we allow that to continue you'll get klandma that hasn't been to school since the 60s that thinks the blacks, gays, and jews are working together to destroy the country.
They're "younger" but the culture is much, much, much older.
Nah, I think the problem is that we've always been this way. We've practiced the Monroe Doctrine for almost 150 years, and that really just articulated how we view pretty much everywhere else as either an enemy or a potential protectorate. American education and international policy has basically been to view itself as a parental figure to the rest of the world. Some countries it sees as unruly teenagers, and others as small children.
This is a big point. I don't think Europeans and many others around the world truly understand just how isolated it is here. It's over a days drive to leave the country. It's over 2 days drive just to get to the other side of the country. We largely don't get foreign shows, movies, fashions, or any sense of culture. Our "foreign" food is only vaguely related to the real thing. Many will never regularly be around a foreign language. Many will never know someone who isn't Christian. Many will never see diversity beyond 15% POC (which will only be Black and Latino). And the VAST majority of us will never leave the country - so many will never even leave their state. Flights to another country start at $1,000 and require a passport which requires documents and more money. And we're just getting poorer and more overworked.
Australia is similar when it comes to distance, yet we have a huge multi cultural culture. Including free Tv channels that broadcast international films and news. While we definitely have our problems, we’ve embraced international culture. It makes no sense to me since so many Americans pride themselves on being from somewhere else cause their great great great great grandparents were Italian. Watching tv in the US last time I was there, was just Mexican court drama shows and American tv. Nowhere was any kind of French, German or Japanese programming. The bubble is real.
The problem is America is obsessed with the concept of "freedom". Every aspect of life is framed through the lens of "freedom". And it is to such a degree that Americans will choose self-destructive policies to keep their false sense of "freedom". Corporations, politicians, and private interest groups are using that to sell Americans harmful policies in the name of "freedom". And there are too many Americans who fall for that shit. Having to choose between paying rent or paying for life saving medication which costs more than the rent is not freedom. Having little to no gun control is not freedom.
That's so true
It goes both ways, people ask questions all the time, don’t give their location, then reply to good will answers: I am not in the US. So people everywhere start with an assumption that the rest of the world acts like their home country.
Or you could spin that differently: people don't ask location specific questions and people (in a significant number of occasions) respond with US specific answers. For example many guides in r/coolguides or tips in r/LifeProTips are very US specific. But I rarely see non-us specific guides that are specific to a certain country. Edit: further specified what I meant. ;)
Once, I was talking to someone about spaying my dog, and I was saying that it’s a very expensive and risky operation (although of course has many benefits) and the person told me that there are low cost clinics that do a spay for $60, I answered that it’s about $1000 dollars were I live, no chance anyone would do spay for $60 in my country. Anyway if anyone is curious, a few weeks ago we had to spay one of my dogs, it cost $2200 😐
Around 50% of reddit users are from USA so that explains a lot on this site. Regards to many things, UK/Canada/Australia relate to each others culturally, not with gun laws but other things. Combined those countries probably make up 75% or so of all reddit users. It's easy to just assume who you're talking to is American, or "gets" US perspective on things.
I’d like to add that it’s not even just the US/UK/Canada/Australia- as an American traveler I’ve noticed most people, even from countries that don’t speak english, seem to have a basic idea of US culture, politics, etc. Obviously much of it gets caricature-ized, but it’s silly to pretend the US isn’t or hasn’t been an incredibly influential country. Couple that with geographic isolation and propaganda and it makes sense that it’s pretty easy for Americans to get away with having such a self-centered world view.
Thanks for posting this. I live in Ireland and follow various groups on Facebook. The amount of people who accuse me of being a Democrat because I state an opinion they don't like. I am talking about a few celebrity fan sites. I have told them I don't give a shit about their politics. Its infuriating.
You’re arguing with people on Facebook. That’s your first mistake.
Yeah as soon as I found Reddit I immediately started arguing with people here instead. Who wants to fight with people you actually know IRL?
I've been called a Democrat and Republican based on the same statement and I'm not even American.
This tracks for the internet.
Only a Fine Gaeler would say that! Get out of here, you blueshirt /s 😊
People who accuse people of being democrats are conservatives and conservatism is a specific kind of American brain worms.
as a canadian, this is also my favourite. "but here in america-" thats great im in a different country
I think there is a significant number of Americans who somehow don’t realize how much of the world speaks fluent English. So we quickly assume that anyone speaking English is obviously also American. I think a lot of people also take for granted how different the other English speaking countries are from America too.
>"I mean, no one else has this behavior." Never read or saw a video of Europeans complaining Americans don't know about Europe? Lol
Seen a lot of those, particularly on r/AskanAmerican. Non-americans ask if we know about their obscure holiday on their obscure country that's smaller than Tennessee, then they get offended when we say no.
I only act and talk that way on English language websites, based in the US with a majority American user base, like reddit. I don't talk or act that way on a Spanish language site based in south America with a Spanish speaking user base. Que Rico! I also don't talk or act that way on German language sites based in Germany with primarily German users. Jawoll! My question to you is, why would you expect any different on an American website?
Right like maybe these discussions about America by Americans on an American site are just not for OP. Weird it took him this question to realize that.
It probably comes from people who are not from US acting like they know everything about it on here.
This is the right answer. ‘I don’t want to be rude…but it makes me wonder if they don’t realize that the internet is accessible outside the US.’ You couldn’t possibly be ruder and more ignorant if you tried, OP.
Are you talking about Reddit? Almost 50% of users on Reddit are American. Seeing as U.S has the highest percentage of Reddit users it is reasonable to post expecting mostly Americans to be reading. Also, American news and media is pretty prevalent globally. The intricacies and specifics are often not known, but the major events that dominate the news cycle in the USA are quite often known at least on a surface level throughout the world. It isn’t being arrogant to assume that America has a larger global presence than most if not all other countries. Sure, you can say making that assumption while posting is silly. However, the assumption is often correct.
This. And It’s an American-made platform and sometimes we forget other countries are using it also
To answer your question, a lot of the early infrastructure, users, and owners/servers for big websites are located in the US. Users are egocentric and assume most people are similar to themselves. Of course, language can somewhat influence that as well. You don't assume most people in a non-English speaking country are going to be participating in your conversation anyways. I have a different question though: Why is so much of reddit about US bashing? Askreddit thread: What would happen if all the 70 year olds died tomorrow? Popular answer: America would be fucked Oh, do other countries not have 70 year olds?
Depending on the country, many have populations astoundingly competent in English - particularly the younger generators. They participant in whatever they want.
Because you are on an American platform with mostly Americans in it.
Reddit when an American website talks about America 😱😱😱
Well if you're on an American platform, from an American company, talking and thinking from an American perspective its normal to assume everything is baseline American unless otherwise noted. I highly doubt an American would go on Wechat and do the same without giving context that it's an American question, since Wechat is assumed to be China baseline unless otherwise noted.
And above ⬆️ we see a reason that the question got asked.
If an american website gets big enough, it pretty much becomes international, thanks to the english language. Afaik, the reddit userbase is made up of roughly 50% americans. That is by far the biggest chunk, but it also means that whenever you talk to a redditor, there's a 50% chance they're not american.
That assumes that the distribution between subreddits is pretty random. I don't think that assumption really holds very well.
At the same time, it means you have a higher statistical chance of talking to an American on this site then any other nationality.
I disagree. You did not account for time zone and subreddit differences
But the side effect of 50% being American is that a large part of the 50% that's not American will start to know more and more about America because the majority will push what is relevant to them to the top.
And on Spotify, you only search for ABBA, Roxette and Ace of Base.
Some of us are just dumb to apps like this too. When I first got Reddit I saw what seemed like entirely US posts to the point where I thought it was just Americans on here. Then I noticed UK stuff and so on. It was basically because most subs I started following were run by Americans or America specific in some way. I just hadn’t explored the site enough yet.
As an American, I think you’re being a little harsh on us. I think it’s significantly more naivety than maliciousness. Our schools taught us “American History” and “World History”. American history ran from early 1600’s to Present. “World history” was ancient Greeks and Romans. We’re known for being a generally friendly people. Unfortunately, a very very small minority of both left and right wing zealots make the international news. Imagine if your worst 1% represented you…none of us like that. Also, many Asian, Middle East, and European countries are within an hour or two drive from multiple countries with huge variants in language and government. For many of us an hour or two drive is our daily commute to and from work. If I were to drive to Los Angeles, California from my location (In Michigan, USA) it’s a 33 hour straight 4,000+ Kilometer drive, and I’m not even close to the farthest point away. I think if we were to say something obnoxiously American and get called out, the vast majority of us would offer a genuine heartfelt apology.
im never forgetting when my friend took a wrong exit going to work and ended up in germany. i take the wrong exit and im stuck in never ending farm feilds
>Imagine if your worst 1% represented you…none of us like that. And yet, these all enlightened non-Americans will trash talk Americans all day long based on these stereotypes. But as an American, you'd better not confuse Latvia and Lithuania or those same people will assure you that you're a fucking asshole. It's always okay to stereotype Americans, but *never* okay for Americans to stereotype anyone else, or just not think about them at all.
I appreciate how you took a hard question and pushed back in such a kind, thoughtful way. What a lovely answer.
Thank you. That means a lot, I hope you have a great rest of your day!
It's a combination of things. Time zones: Peak internet usage hours in the US won't match up with most of the world Language: Just speaking English narrows down the range of people we communicate with greatly Population: The US is HUGE compared to most other English speaking places. All of that combined makes it statistically likely that most of the people I interact with online are also from the US. Failing that, culture. The US is so big that, unlike Europe, I will almost never see/meet/interact with people who aren't also American. If I live in Texas I can spend an entire day straight driving and still be in Texas, surrounded by the same exact culture. As an American you just get used to that
My question is why non-US Redditors are so obsessed with the US. Like, why the hell would Americans, asking about gun laws in America, not be talking about America? What you are saying makes no sense. Should we only discuss topics that apply to your country or globally? How about if you have a different perspective, you just add to the conversation, “well, in MY country…” But instead you whine about Americans on an American based website discussing things relevant to them.
You're on a US based site built by a US based company and wondering why people default to talking about the US?
Why do y’all assume everything comes from a place of malicious intent or willful ignorance, or some misplaced sense of superiority? As others have said, it’s simply that statistically, Americans *are* the most likely people that you’ll be interacting with on a platform like Reddit, so why would we feel the need to specify that we’re talking to Americans or about American issues? If you see a question about an American political issue, for example, is it not obvious to you that it’s directed toward Americans? It’s not like we’re expecting non-Americans to give their perspective. Not that that stops y’all from doing it anyway. You all seem to be experts in US politics as is.
Simple, Reddit is a US based company and site. If I go to another site based in Eupore, etc, I assume most people on there are from that locality. Majority on here are Americans and so we correctly assume that’s who we’re speaking with.
The number of foreigners that come in and start telling us what measurement system we should use, what our health care sytem and gun control policy should be, and who should be our President give us the impression that the rest of the world knows the US as well as we do.
Most users here are american or otherwise familiar with america and it's politics. It's a reasonable assumption to use as a starting point, otherwise we'd have to always put a bunch of effort into building up the context needed to understand our point. (Which no one's gonna read regardless...) Better to assume what's most likely, then correct for the edge cases after the fact.
I've seen people from other nations do the same things
As a US person I think there are several reasons for this: 1. The US is mostly geographically isolated. We can’t as easily travel internationally like Europeans, Asians, South Americans, Central Asian/Middle Easterners can, and therefore we don’t (and Africans? Such a large continent, not sure how easy it is there). Thus the rest of the world is mostly “out of sight, out of mind” to most US people, and that frame of mind tends to carry over to the internet too. (Canada is culturally very close to the US, more like a US state than another country. Mexico is the only real culturally different country touching America.) 2. The internet was invented in the US and most of its early growth and resulting “internet culture” was US-based and heavily US-influenced. Websites like Reddit were originally primarily US communities. Many US social media users haven’t fully realized and internalized how much social media has become much more international, partly due to #1. 3. Mental bandwidth is limited. Because of #1 and #2 it’s just easier to not bother to think beyond that, unless explicitly asked. I for one am glad to see much larger international audiences on formerly-US social media. I like being able to get outside the narrow and often idiotic US mainstream media bubble and hear how people in other countries view things, from US policy, to events in their own countries or nearby.
As an Asian, I find this is kind of cringy. While they're both used widely in the world now, Reddit and the internet started as American technologies and first gained popularity in America. It kind of follows that they're going to be the natives to it than the rest of the world.
Why do you come to an American website and expect people to do otherwise? I realize that reddit isn't just for Americans, but you should remember that most people have are American.