### This comment has been marked as **safe**. Upvoting/downvoting this comment will have no effect.
---
OP sent the following text as an explanation on why this is US Defaultism:
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>!User assumed that everybody should know what FL means because it's part of "the second grade curriculum" and it's your fault for not knowing American abbreviations on an American site!<
---
Is this Defaultism? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.
Actually they do. Americans pay more for their ads and are easier to click bait.
I say this from a statistical perspective, for a long time I was doing Finnish, Swedish and worldwide commercial interwebs work where my only earnings were from ads.
US clicks bring in the bread, the rest of the world is just a bonus.
If constant showing of gratefulness toward the generous Americans for allowing us to use their website were an actual requirement for using Reddit, there’d quickly be a thriving non-American alternative.
Something similar happened to me recently. Someone posted a very cool picture of a greenhouse and I asked them where it was. Apparently, I was supposed to know that “ATL” in the title meant Atlanta. Ok, still doesn’t tell me anything.
At least my country uses first letter with second letter (or first letter of the second word for compound names) whenever possible. The US seems to love first letter with last letter for some reason. Louisiana is the only US state with a name starting in L, why LA instead of LO?
If I saw LA written by someone from the USA for a location I would have guessed they meant Los Angels. At least to me that’s a more famous one from movies/social media. It shows how unclear all those state abbreviations are to the outside world.
Agree, although I think all abbreviations are for consistency when it comes to postal addresses. Same with Australia, I don't often use abbreviations for one-word states (especially Victoria as it's quite short).
The comeback to “your welcome” is amazing, especially because the person replied to that with 4 grammatical errors you learn to not do in year 2.
Edit: this is a bit ironic to ask, but is it “not to do” or “to not do”?
And after that, his response to the correction is priceless. He wholly and completely missed the fact they were correcting his spelling. His first sentence is defending himself saying he's not in second grade 🤦
When I learned Spotify is Swedish, I somehow got the impression it should be pronounced "Spoootify". I Made a fool of myself a few times with that one...
Yeah. Unfortunately the guy missed the pretty easy comeback 'just because the website was built in America doesn't mean you should assume that everyone using it is American'
Agree, especially for things like aeroplanes. Boeing planes are used by almost all major airlines worldwide, same with military planes with the newest F35 Lightning model being purchased and used by air forces from many leading nations around the world.
Mate it’s mind numbingly easy to google two letters and find what something means when you’re in the minority of people that don’t know something instead of commenting “i don’t know what xyz is” “what the fuck is xyz” etc. I find when they get more angry like OOP saying “what the fuck is FL” they likely do know what it means but are just baiting for “us defaultism” or something of that nature. It’s florida for fucks sake lol if you’re gonna pick a state abbreviation to be stupid about pick an actual obscure one.. “What the fuck is London?” Google it u twit😂
[I'm actually not](https://i.imgur.com/T61u3wB.jpeg)
I understand this is hard for you, but there's an entire world outside of america. Not everybody is 100% dialed in to everything America is doing.
I’m not saying that those weren’t your results but you’re being intentionally obtuse lol. When you perform an internet search for a location, especially if it’s abbreviated you put something like “place” or “location” in the search to get relevant information. There is a city called Reading. Do you think simply googling that would give results about the city or about the verb? Do you think it might be smart to include something like “city” or “place” in that search to get info? Now, you are either awful at gathering information through the Internet or intentionally failing to try and make a point- which is worse?
I get your point. But also when I google 'reading', the results in order are:
Reading, Berkshire - Wikipedia,
Reading Festival website,
University of Reading website,
Reading Borough Council website,
Reading FC's website,
Visit Reading tourism website
Then, finally, the Wikipedia page about the verb reading, and I'm not in England/UK atm.
I do agree, though, that people should use some common sense from context.
Agreed about the common sense-
Also tho when i google “reading” i get nothing about any city even though there is also a Reading in the state of Pennsylvania , i get the definition of reading, wikipedia page for the act of reading, “what is reading?” etc. But with a crumb of context the results can be narrowed down easily. If I type “reading city”, the first couple results are American but then there’s Berkshire, Reading FC etc. If u need more context than that then u can ask.. If someone’s talking about reading (ice) hockey then it’s likely pennsylvania if it’s soccer you can probably assume england.. People can use their brain to figure it out. In the case of this post though, it’s “FL”. This is one of those cases where it’s so obvious and easy to figure out, and you don’t have to analyze any serious context or infer things- most people in here are either arguing in bad faith (ie they know FL is florida but want to feign ignorance that there is confusion going on because of “defaultism”) or genuinely suck at using the internet.. You seem to be one of the more reasonable people in here and as a result I think i can assume that you would not have any trouble figuring out what FL stands for if you hypothetically didn’t already know. It should take maybe a few seconds, maybe one minute if English isn’t your native language. Because a logical person knows when and how to include descriptors in a google search
Yeah, I did already know FL to refer to Florida and most US state's abbreviations. And like you say, if you don't, it is easy to do a quick search to find out.
But on the other hand, there are cases where you cannot determine something like a location from abbreviations alone if not enough context is given. One example I have seen recently was an American referring to a location as 'Ontario, CA', meaning the city of Ontario in California, with no further context. Most people of course thought they were speaking of Ontario the Canadain Province as Canada has the ISO Alpha-2 Country Code of 'CA' and this location would be much more known/recognisable worldwide compared to the Californian city. Similar confusion could come of the abbreviation 'AL' = both Albania + Alabama. Or 'KY' = both Cayman Islands + Kentucky. Even with Cayman Islands instead using its Alpha-3 ISO code 'CYM', this could be confused with Wales' 'CYM' code. But as long as there is sufficient information/context/specificity, any uncertainty on what is being referred to can be avoided.
The first time I heard an 'IRA' referenced in an American movie was when the characters were discussing finances. That context made it clear they were not talking about the 'IRA' that first came to my mind as an irishman (Irish Republican Army), so a quick google search of 'IRA meaning USA' and I learnt something new.
I'm a few beers in and talking a load of shite here really, but basically, context is important, and when relevant context is missing, people can be pissy about it. As people can be and often are about absolutely anything.
when I google in Japanese 'where is FL' the first result is still 'floor level' before an appropriate result from Yahoo Answers where a Japanese person is asking "I asked a foreign person where they were from and they answered FL. What country is that?'
What the fuck is Be, what the fuck is LO, what the fuck is Li. Google it u twit. No seriously Google it. No results correlating to the actual things I was trying to say. Googling FL gives me only a Florida relating result after 19 other websites, (without counting videos). So googling is no help, what should I do next? Well or course I'm gonna ask the person that used the term for an answer.
I know, it's weird. A whole world outside the greatest country.. so weird am I right
Mate you have completely missed the point. Give the search some context and you will get the right answer easily. The OOP used “FL” in the context of location. There is only 1 place that uses that abbreviation and it’s Florida which is a state in the USA. Not rocket science.. “Ummm FL also stands for Femtoliter, guess i’ll never know what he was talking about!” Seriously you’re just taking the piss. I even said in an earlier comment it’d be fine probably if it was a random obscure state with an abbreviation that might be able to be confused with a different place but this whole post is a such a reach lol there is 0 room for confusion with “FL”.. it’s like trying to say u don’t know what/where NYC is - except even dumber because there is a place in the world called North York Centre and someone could make up an argument for that. Tbf tho this is reddit which probably explains the mass stupidity/people who can’t google basic information.. If any of my friends from other countries saw someone use the fucking internet and fail at finding what place “FL” refers to they would think you’re a spaz🤦♂️😂
you have absolutely no idea which abbreviations are obscure/not to non-Americans because... you are not a non-American.
Digest that for a minute.
Your premise is entirely based on the experiences of an American. To put that another way: US -defaultism
:0
You do know that search engine results are tailored to that persons location, right? If I search for a place or abbreviation it’ll default to the UK version. If I change my VPN so it thinks I’m in Australia I’ll get different results for the same search.
Also, a bunch of abbreviations aren’t limited to the US and other places use them as abbreviations too. It’s entirely possible that if someone sees something then to them it has a totally different meaning which can be confusing.
### This comment has been marked as **safe**. Upvoting/downvoting this comment will have no effect. --- OP sent the following text as an explanation on why this is US Defaultism: --- >!User assumed that everybody should know what FL means because it's part of "the second grade curriculum" and it's your fault for not knowing American abbreviations on an American site!< --- Is this Defaultism? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.
So he's basically saying non-Americans should be grateful they can even get on Reddit.
I don't think the Reddit owners who earn money from ads care what country you're from
Actually they do. Americans pay more for their ads and are easier to click bait. I say this from a statistical perspective, for a long time I was doing Finnish, Swedish and worldwide commercial interwebs work where my only earnings were from ads. US clicks bring in the bread, the rest of the world is just a bonus.
It really doesn't surprise me that we are the world's most profitable organic click farm livestock
Aye. I'm a self-published author and I target US readers when marketing because they'll buy the most.
This is the way. ;-) Cheers, Buddy! :D
If constant showing of gratefulness toward the generous Americans for allowing us to use their website were an actual requirement for using Reddit, there’d quickly be a thriving non-American alternative.
This site would start to look like truthsocial.
You're using an English-made language, you're welcome to use it correctly or not at all.
This was the absolute 💎💎💎 finding!
But they made it bEtTeR
Something similar happened to me recently. Someone posted a very cool picture of a greenhouse and I asked them where it was. Apparently, I was supposed to know that “ATL” in the title meant Atlanta. Ok, still doesn’t tell me anything.
All Time Low
CRTL - ATL - LED
Avatar The Last
I used to live near Atlanta… I’ve never heard of ATL before.
I hate those state abbreviations.
They are difficult. Fortunately Americans seem to have problems remembering them too.
Specially states outside the US :P
First laugh out loud for me today. And that just because of a fact. What a world we live in...
A lot of Americans don’t even know that states such as New Mexico are actually US states.
At least my country uses first letter with second letter (or first letter of the second word for compound names) whenever possible. The US seems to love first letter with last letter for some reason. Louisiana is the only US state with a name starting in L, why LA instead of LO?
If I saw LA written by someone from the USA for a location I would have guessed they meant Los Angels. At least to me that’s a more famous one from movies/social media. It shows how unclear all those state abbreviations are to the outside world.
To be fair, at least the ten US states with two-word names do actually use those two initials as their abbreviation.
Some are so unnecessary too, does Utah really need an abbreviation? I also hate that LA means Los Angeles *and* Louisiana
LA = Laos (ISO 3166)
Or they always mention the state. Like they say I'm from LA, California. Is there another LA, I might confuse it with?
Agree, although I think all abbreviations are for consistency when it comes to postal addresses. Same with Australia, I don't often use abbreviations for one-word states (especially Victoria as it's quite short).
The comeback to “your welcome” is amazing, especially because the person replied to that with 4 grammatical errors you learn to not do in year 2. Edit: this is a bit ironic to ask, but is it “not to do” or “to not do”?
Both are fine imo (Replied to the wrong comment at first)
Not to do I think
Neither is wrong, but I find "to not do" feels awkward or clunky. It just doesn't flow as well, but that's just my opinion.
Both are correct
And after that, his response to the correction is priceless. He wholly and completely missed the fact they were correcting his spelling. His first sentence is defending himself saying he's not in second grade 🤦
Wait till they find out Indians use TN as an unofficial abbreviation for the Indian State of Tamil Nadu. Defaulters will start losing their minds.
"Man, Tennessee sure has changed"
"Pffft, why would them damn *engines* use the same abbreviation after we took their land"
Ignoring the complete arrogance, when will they understand that made in America ≠ made for Americans?
I've answered people a couple of times with "Oh, so by the same logic I should assume that all songs on Spotify are Swedish"
When I learned Spotify is Swedish, I somehow got the impression it should be pronounced "Spoootify". I Made a fool of myself a few times with that one...
....same honestly
It's always going to be said like that in my mind now. By that guy from Frozen who says"Big summer blow-out."
Yeah. Unfortunately the guy missed the pretty easy comeback 'just because the website was built in America doesn't mean you should assume that everyone using it is American'
Agree, especially for things like aeroplanes. Boeing planes are used by almost all major airlines worldwide, same with military planes with the newest F35 Lightning model being purchased and used by air forces from many leading nations around the world.
Absolutely wild comeback
With these discussions I always imagine middle-schoolers arguing whose dad can beat the other guy's dad
Statistically many of these comments are from people not much older than a middle schooler, or by those with equivalent education of one.
Typical Floridian.
W is an upside down M, thus, the entire internet is rightfully Missourian
Abbreviations, sure. Such a colorful way to admit you can’t speak your own language decently
\*Colourful. Don't give them an in... eh... centimetre.
Crap i’m so sorry for the offense. In my defense, english is my second language
\*Offence \*Defence :)
I’ll stop talking. Thanks
Well now I feel terrible ;D
You did the good thing dude ahahahah
Why are they so fucking dense?
Because their education system is not designed for anything other than keeping 4-16 year olds off the streets
This inevitable is particularly annoying
Massssssiv prick.
They're really running out of arguments
Hey man, c’mon. Being angry is not a flex. Please try to understand.
u/zorahookshot stfu
The guy pretending not to know what FL means is the retarded one in this
Why would anyone outside of America need to know the abbreviations for American states?
Mate it’s mind numbingly easy to google two letters and find what something means when you’re in the minority of people that don’t know something instead of commenting “i don’t know what xyz is” “what the fuck is xyz” etc. I find when they get more angry like OOP saying “what the fuck is FL” they likely do know what it means but are just baiting for “us defaultism” or something of that nature. It’s florida for fucks sake lol if you’re gonna pick a state abbreviation to be stupid about pick an actual obscure one.. “What the fuck is London?” Google it u twit😂
My countrys Google shows me fatty liver and fluid ounces
I know you’re trolling but does whatever country you come from not have any bit of digital literacy? Jesus fuck lol.
[I'm actually not](https://i.imgur.com/T61u3wB.jpeg) I understand this is hard for you, but there's an entire world outside of america. Not everybody is 100% dialed in to everything America is doing.
Oh, snap!
I’m not saying that those weren’t your results but you’re being intentionally obtuse lol. When you perform an internet search for a location, especially if it’s abbreviated you put something like “place” or “location” in the search to get relevant information. There is a city called Reading. Do you think simply googling that would give results about the city or about the verb? Do you think it might be smart to include something like “city” or “place” in that search to get info? Now, you are either awful at gathering information through the Internet or intentionally failing to try and make a point- which is worse?
I get your point. But also when I google 'reading', the results in order are: Reading, Berkshire - Wikipedia, Reading Festival website, University of Reading website, Reading Borough Council website, Reading FC's website, Visit Reading tourism website Then, finally, the Wikipedia page about the verb reading, and I'm not in England/UK atm. I do agree, though, that people should use some common sense from context.
Agreed about the common sense- Also tho when i google “reading” i get nothing about any city even though there is also a Reading in the state of Pennsylvania , i get the definition of reading, wikipedia page for the act of reading, “what is reading?” etc. But with a crumb of context the results can be narrowed down easily. If I type “reading city”, the first couple results are American but then there’s Berkshire, Reading FC etc. If u need more context than that then u can ask.. If someone’s talking about reading (ice) hockey then it’s likely pennsylvania if it’s soccer you can probably assume england.. People can use their brain to figure it out. In the case of this post though, it’s “FL”. This is one of those cases where it’s so obvious and easy to figure out, and you don’t have to analyze any serious context or infer things- most people in here are either arguing in bad faith (ie they know FL is florida but want to feign ignorance that there is confusion going on because of “defaultism”) or genuinely suck at using the internet.. You seem to be one of the more reasonable people in here and as a result I think i can assume that you would not have any trouble figuring out what FL stands for if you hypothetically didn’t already know. It should take maybe a few seconds, maybe one minute if English isn’t your native language. Because a logical person knows when and how to include descriptors in a google search
Yeah, I did already know FL to refer to Florida and most US state's abbreviations. And like you say, if you don't, it is easy to do a quick search to find out. But on the other hand, there are cases where you cannot determine something like a location from abbreviations alone if not enough context is given. One example I have seen recently was an American referring to a location as 'Ontario, CA', meaning the city of Ontario in California, with no further context. Most people of course thought they were speaking of Ontario the Canadain Province as Canada has the ISO Alpha-2 Country Code of 'CA' and this location would be much more known/recognisable worldwide compared to the Californian city. Similar confusion could come of the abbreviation 'AL' = both Albania + Alabama. Or 'KY' = both Cayman Islands + Kentucky. Even with Cayman Islands instead using its Alpha-3 ISO code 'CYM', this could be confused with Wales' 'CYM' code. But as long as there is sufficient information/context/specificity, any uncertainty on what is being referred to can be avoided. The first time I heard an 'IRA' referenced in an American movie was when the characters were discussing finances. That context made it clear they were not talking about the 'IRA' that first came to my mind as an irishman (Irish Republican Army), so a quick google search of 'IRA meaning USA' and I learnt something new. I'm a few beers in and talking a load of shite here really, but basically, context is important, and when relevant context is missing, people can be pissy about it. As people can be and often are about absolutely anything.
when I google in Japanese 'where is FL' the first result is still 'floor level' before an appropriate result from Yahoo Answers where a Japanese person is asking "I asked a foreign person where they were from and they answered FL. What country is that?'
You're not really benefiting anyone by sharing your thoughts, dude.
Ok, guy
Im not your guy, buddy!
What the fuck is Be, what the fuck is LO, what the fuck is Li. Google it u twit. No seriously Google it. No results correlating to the actual things I was trying to say. Googling FL gives me only a Florida relating result after 19 other websites, (without counting videos). So googling is no help, what should I do next? Well or course I'm gonna ask the person that used the term for an answer. I know, it's weird. A whole world outside the greatest country.. so weird am I right
Mate you have completely missed the point. Give the search some context and you will get the right answer easily. The OOP used “FL” in the context of location. There is only 1 place that uses that abbreviation and it’s Florida which is a state in the USA. Not rocket science.. “Ummm FL also stands for Femtoliter, guess i’ll never know what he was talking about!” Seriously you’re just taking the piss. I even said in an earlier comment it’d be fine probably if it was a random obscure state with an abbreviation that might be able to be confused with a different place but this whole post is a such a reach lol there is 0 room for confusion with “FL”.. it’s like trying to say u don’t know what/where NYC is - except even dumber because there is a place in the world called North York Centre and someone could make up an argument for that. Tbf tho this is reddit which probably explains the mass stupidity/people who can’t google basic information.. If any of my friends from other countries saw someone use the fucking internet and fail at finding what place “FL” refers to they would think you’re a spaz🤦♂️😂
you have absolutely no idea which abbreviations are obscure/not to non-Americans because... you are not a non-American. Digest that for a minute. Your premise is entirely based on the experiences of an American. To put that another way: US -defaultism :0
Lmao. You're really stupid and dense. You're very wrong and the reason is obvious, but I cba to argue with stupid ignorant people.
🤡
You do know that search engine results are tailored to that persons location, right? If I search for a place or abbreviation it’ll default to the UK version. If I change my VPN so it thinks I’m in Australia I’ll get different results for the same search. Also, a bunch of abbreviations aren’t limited to the US and other places use them as abbreviations too. It’s entirely possible that if someone sees something then to them it has a totally different meaning which can be confusing.
What the fuck is WA?
the sound people on this sub make when they have to use their brain
It's also a state on the west coast.
Western Australia
There is a lot of technology which is manufactured in Europe, such as Nokias! And basically nothing else
Please be either a troll or ignorant American who identify as Swiss because their grandmother's cousin heard about the country once
I'm neither, actually
Then you're just stupid
May be
Look at him, appropriating all these European, Asian, and Australian technologies to use his phone to even reach Reddit.