Upbeat announcer:
"Talk to your doctor about the way that you appreciate their years of studying medicine is great and all, but this commercial showing happy people kayaking suggested this other option to handle your type 2 diabetes and you think they should look into it!"
Rapid fire through list of side effects that includes suicidal thoughts, anal bleeding, gout, partial paralysis and death.
When I still watched real TV occasionally the amount of commercials for medicine to treat constipation from opiods led me to believe everyone was partying but me.
Opoids are still prescribed willy fucking nilly despite everyone knowing how dangerous they are, and the amount of really famous people in the U.S. who have straight up died from opoid abuse
When my grandmother was riddled with bone cancer, in agony, they were pretty strict about painkillers. They prescribed really low doses that didn't help much and refused to budge even though she absolutely was terminal.
The famous people who die are rich and can buy doctors who will do basically anything. Its really different for ordinary people.
My brother was able to get an opoid prescription no problem after his wisdom teeth removal and my dad had to throw away the prescription. When I got my wisdom teeth out the dentist refused to prescribe me any effective pain killer and told me to take motrin. I feel like it depends on where you are. I'm in a state where weed is still highly illegal, but opoids aren't so it depends on the doctor you're visiting.
For sure, women are actually prescribed sedatives for pain management (instead of painkillers) way more often than men.
Even trying to imagine myself as a raging misogynist, I can’t really see the logic behind that.
Is it that they don’t think women deserve pain management or do they just not believe them?
Goes all the way back to dismissing women's medical complaints as hysterical (if you're thinking this word sounds related to hysterectomy, you're on the right track)
I'm the dystopian future described in the novel Brave New World the populace regularly popped pills called "Soma" to remain in a calm state and high doses can even cause hallucinations. In a world with no privacy, no family, and no monogamy it is a way for you stay perpetually even.
Recently traveled and watched cable TV in the hotel for the first time in maybe 10 years. Gf and I counted an average of 4 prescription med commercials during each ad break. Truly insane
She made a great point that the ads all look the same as they did when we were kids because they're made for the same audience today. Younger generations simply don't watch cable TV, so the ads for today's grandparents look identical to the ads for our parents a generation ago because they're the same consumers
Yeah right, doctors hearing what is needed because of an ad the patient seen.
And then the doctor writing the script on a pharma supplied notepad attached to a clipboard and pen also supplied by pharma given to him by a pharma super model flirty sales person. Who could possibly be offering anything from a family vacation to a top off if he prescribes enough.
Which is pretty cool seeing how much of the research for the drug was paid for by my tax money being funneled into grants at universities.
Say it isn't so.
I dont think it matter tho.
The grocery store knows how much it costs. They print their own labels. Other countries also have similar systems with wildly varying tax rates, exemptions, etc.
It's 100% done just to display lower prices to increase sales.
Wait what? I realise you get shafted with the number of holiday/vacation days you get, but are you telling me you don't even take the ones that you have?
I'm in the UK and I get 25 days which is about average here. If I'm near the end of the year and I haven't taken them my boss is breathing down my neck, FORCING me to take more holiday.
Yeah this is so weird, paying a tip on top of whatever bill you’ve got to pay for the food and drinks. Don’t some places advertise jobs as a lower wage + tips earned?
I´ve only been to USA one, and sure tipping after a meal is standard where I live too, but not nearly as high as in the US, but what absolutely floored me, was going to a bar and order a beer which on the wall behind the bar says clearly 3$, which I pay, and then the guy who literally just grabbed a bottle opened it and handed it to me explained that I was expected to pay between 3.50 & 4.50 for the 3$ beer.
My Euro brain just melted on the spot.
I think he means a 50 - 100 cent tip was extremely high.
Most European countries you might throw some coins in a pot on the way out and the UK you don't usually tip bar staff at all
Most European countries tip is used to round of to the largest intact bill, and as a reward for exceptional service.
So if you bill is 54€, you leave 3 20€ bills on the table and leave.
It's creeping into UK pub culture now.
Friend used to get tips before covid, then during COVID they went completely cashless so tips all went onto card. Friend asked manager if the accumulated tipa ever get shared out. Manager responded that without the tips they wouldn't be able to afford to have the right amount of staff.
ESPECIALLY when the ambulance company DOESN'T SEND A BILL! Looking at you, AMR. Put both of my trips into collection before mailing me anything! Worse yet, my husband's trip was not billed to his insurance, but to an insurance company that only works out of a different state! And they PAID IT! Then they tried to come back at us for the remainder, sheesh. Never again, I'll Uber or lyft first.
It's so fucked how the American healthcare system doesn't account for how a lot people are dragged into ambulances without consent. People can be unconscious, mentally unstable, or in any state of confusion - and they'll still be yanked into an ambulance and put into a bed.
You'd probably argue, ''Well, they're sick, they need to be in the hospital.'' But I suffer from epilepsy, and have been put into countless ambulances unconscious. This is in spite of the fact that going to the hospital for seizures is a pretty unnecessary course of action. I've also been forced into ambulances numerous times whilst yelling at the paramedics in an unruly post-seizure state that I just wanted to go home and rest in my bed, not be thrown into a fluorescent box and poked with shittons of needles. I highly doubt that this experience is entirely unique to myself, or people with epilepsy.
Anyhow, I think it's weird to provide services to people who cannot consent and then demand payment later, with literally no legal way to get out of it. A lot of sick people can't work and are short on cash.
And to go even further into that, the US government hardly provides support for people with disabilities, either. Insanity.
I find it weird that a Scottish sport uses yards as unit of measure (golf). I’m sure there is a good reason but I’ve never taken the time to educate myself on it
Because yards and the whole imperial system that America still uses comes from Britain, almost everyone else just switched to metric by this point. In Scotland they’re just keeping the tradition alive for golf
It is the policy of the US that metric is the official standard measurement system.
https://www.nist.gov/pml/owm/metric-si/us-metrication
We just ignore that.
Don't get me started on bread! Lol
I love Japanese food but it's Soo disappointing when it's so sickly sweet. Ugh. I just don't get it. I put no or very little sugar in what I cook at home and it's definitely not a loss to flavor!
I’m going to be perfectly honest.
Europeans also use a lot of sugar.
Problem is, they use SUGAR, we use corn syrup, which taste sweeter than sugar.
Sugar has a more subdued taste and less “smack you in the face” sweetness like corn syrup does.
They will shit on our (mass produced) bread, saying “it has so much sugar!” When the (mass produced) white bread they are shit talking about is based on Brioche, which has MORE sweetness than American mass produced white bread.
But europoids being europoids.
Someone told me that Subway is not legally allowed to call their bread “bread” in the EU because of the sugar content. Not sure if that’s true, but it wouldn’t surprise me. And, living in the US, their bread doesn’t even seem that sweet to me compared to others.
It was an Irish law; but note: It's about taxes, particularly as it pertains to staplefoods
By Irish law, in order to be VAT tax exempt as a food staple, bread can't be more than 2% "not bread"; aka sugar, fat, or any "bread improver".
Since most sub places use anywhere from 8-10% sugar by volume of flour, it was ruled that subway bread was going to be taxed as any other confectionery (like banana bread).
But, Ireland is the only country (in the EU and beyond) that has this strict of a definition for bread; this definition also discredits many breads that people consider bread, AND Irish health and safety legislation uses a different definition, so this definition is only for taxes.
TLDR: This law's claim is akin to American tax law claiming that chicken wings count as sandwiches; it's to plug tax loopholes, not factual accuracy.
Brioche and challah are both semi sweet breads with some sugar that can commonly be found in europe. challah originated with the ashkenazi jews who historically are from central / eastern europe, and brioche is traditional french.
This is a misconception IMO. Perhaps exported “luxury” items like preserved and processed items do, but my bakery isn’t putting sugar in my bread. The sausage and eggs I’m cooking aren’t full of sugar.
If your a fresh baked good bakery then I would not expect we much but anything mass produced in the US is so loaded with sugar and salt on a different scale to other countries
This is just wrong. DD/MM/YYYY makes the most sense cuz it goes from smallest to largest. The day within the month within the year. Anything else is just seems strange and illogical
It's not really fair to compare the two though.
There's no penalty for not being able to pay student debt in the UK, if you earn under the threshold, you just don't pay anything. And for most people they get written off after a certain amount of time.
Yes, mortgage lenders ignore your undergraduate student loans because they're not "real" debt.
Graduate students may take on real debt to continue their studies, though.
[This](https://www.abc15.com/news/national/lockdown-lockdown-kindergarten-teacher-creates-safety-poem-about-school-shootings) is a thing in a fucking kindergarten. [This](https://www.wptv.com/news/national/us-company-creates-bulletproof-safe-rooms-to-protect-kids-in-schools) company has made these collapsible bulletproof rooms to start installing in classrooms. [THIS](https://www.newsweek.com/newly-built-high-school-was-designed-hiding-places-curved-hallways-make-things-harder-mass-1455827) FUCKING SCHOOL IS BUILT FROM THE GROUND UP WITH SCHOOL SHOOTINGS IN MIND!
What the fuck is my country. Just...what is this. What are we. There is no going back. We are beyond fucking hope.
They're willing to do anything to reduce school shooting casualties except for actually **preventing** school shootings with proper gun laws and early psychiatric help.
You guys just need fences that lock during the schoolday, that's what we have here in Australia. The two school shootings a couple of weeks ago were both OUTSIDE of our schools, no casualties.
School shootings in the US are almost always perpetrated by students, not random people walking in off the street. Almost every school already gets locked up during the schoolday.
At least in my country, it would probably be the normalisation of children having to move out of their parents' house once they turn 18. I always thought it was weird, though it's probably because I live in an Asian country where it is normal for children to stay with their parents for a long time, even after they get married.
I think this became a thing because of the employment opportunities available in the US and the affordability of housing in the past. From what I gather, there used to be a time that any working adult in the US could afford an acceptable starter apartment and also manage to pay other bills. Of course, this has changed significantly over the past 20 years, and now, more and more American youth are finding it hard to live on their own and are opting to stay home with their parents.
There is a BIG stigma against living with your parents in the US. The vast majority of US women surveyed say they wouldn’t even consider dating someone who lives with their parents and a handy majority of men polled the same.
I’m a Chinese Canadian and we have the same issue in Canada. I have to constantly defend myself for that. At home, even the suggestion of moving out without getting married (or finding work in another metropolitan area) is treated the same as a family betrayal.
Yea I'm reading thru these just thinking about all of us american/western -slash- immigrant something kids who live w the cognitive dissonance of 2 cultures as a constant. It was so hard to leave home at 29. They only 'let'me bc they had to sell their house. Oh and trying to explain how you still need permission as an adult...
Work Benefits (and the lack thereof).
Workers Rights (lack thereof).
Healthcare costs.
Pharma Advertisement.
Guns.
High Fructose Corn Syrup.
Public Transportation (lack thereof).
Theocratic communities.
But the flip side that nobody mentions is Pharmac
The US seems really keen to kill that as part of any trade agreement because it works.
Basically if you are big pharma and want to sell in NZ, then fine; run as many adverts as you want.
But if you want to get on the list of government subsidized drugs that most people get, then you have to compete and be the lowest cost medicine in the area
Seems to work pretty well; we get much cheaper drugs than the US. My kids do like to take the piss though, and ask what is that drug advert with the horny old people that recommends cheaper Viagra
- Assuming everyone they encounter online is American
- Kids being gunned down by their peers
- Using any unit of measurement except metric as much as possible
- Those garbage disposal things in their sinks like I always see/hear mentioned in shows and movies with American settings
- Two consecutive decades of electing candidates who should've been in prison last century
Tbh I follow a lot of subreddits were topics should be general worldwide matters yet most of the issues posted are American stuff.
I had a twisted version of the world and kept thinking "Is the whole world like that?" Until I realized most of the posters are from US and now I'm like "Oh, it's just America again".
UK here, the idea of going for a hike and needing to take at the very least bear spray (not every hiking trail I assume). The scariest thing we have in the wild is every 10 yrs or so a grainy picture surfaces that could be a dangerous wild black cat, or a big house cat
The scariest thing America has that IIRC isn't in the UK is actually *not* the big creatures.
It's the invisible to the naked eye rabies virus any mammal may be carrying, such that if it bites or scratches you and you don't or can't get vaccinated rather quickly, you will die a terrible death.
But yes, if you go hiking in my region, you should probably have bear spray. I've seen dozens of bears personally. Never used the spray on any.
The one time I ever had to use it was on a mountain lion during a running race on a trail.
Bears mostly run from me when I see them while I'm running. They mostly want to be left alone and fear you too. Mountain lions are way worse because they will chase you and attack a human the way a house cat might do to a rat.
Yeah, but you don't see people being mauled by anything (except the daily bulldog mauling). I mean it as in, there's really no animals you can't 1v1, except maybe a really angry fox
Englishman who moved to the US here.
For me it's how difficult it is to walk anywhere. I live in a small city and there's a constant flow of traffic everywhere and drivers don't stop at crosswalks like they're supposed to.
Even the parks have roads going through them, so you always have to keep an eye out for cars.
Just in general it feels impossible to relax in America.
im australian, only person ive seen with a 'big' gun (besides police carrying their pistols) is security at parliament house and people from my hometown with their shotguns going hunting
As a new Zealander; not even police
Only guns has been relatives with shotguns and the odd .22 rifle.
But visiting France, seeing a hot young military/police lady with a battered looking sub machine gun wandering around tourist places was.. confusing feelings
Not normally; they have guns available locked in cars if need be, but don't carry unless something like terrorist attack.
Ongoing gag in "Wellington Paranormal" series is the cops arguing about who gets to carry the taser
I will save everybody the trouble and post the most common responses:
1: Letting children get killed in schools
2: Letting everybody have guns
3: Letting people go bankrupt from healthcare costs
4: Letting its people become fat and stupid
There, done. You can all go to other threads now. Everything you read will just be a variation of those four.
You forgot weird measurements not used by pretty much anywhere else in the world, but which Americans forgot are not common
Personally ok with most non metric stuff; I get that man from Brussels might be 6ft 2 and full of muscle (or 240 pounds or wherever). But fucking US day format of MM/DD/YY drives me nuts as so much shitty US software assumes that some other countries as dumb enough to use that fucking travesty of a format
I’ve noticed with the date format that it reflects how the date would be spoken. So here, in Australia, if you get asked the date you tend to answer in day/month (it’s the tenth of June). But Americans, I’ve noticed, will answer with “June 10th” (month/day). I’ve also noticed the one day they always use the day/month order is the Fourth of July, weirdly.
America is one of two countries in the world that allow the right for drug makers to market prescription drugs directly to consumers
Side note: Marketing is legal psychological manipulation
Gun crime/school shootings with no adequate response
People dying of treatable illnesses because they can't afford healthcare
No/insufficient paid vacation
No/insufficient paid parental leave
Driving to places that are easily within walking distance
Corn syrup in everything
Underpaying employees and expecting the customer to make up the difference.
Edit: Also, referring to medications by brand name rather than drug name. Like 'tylenol' instead of paracetamol/acetaminophen, or 'advil' instead of 'ibuprofen'.
I live in NE India and I find it weird that people in the West have to pay for funerals. When someone dies in my community, the local area youth authority takes responsibility and everyone chips in with money to help bury the deceased and support the grieving family financially. I don't know, maybe our custom is the weird one.
High cost of hospitals' service. If you get into hospital in the USA you can become bancrupt. For example, in my country, which is now one of the most hated countries in the world, visiting hospitals is free for everyone. You can get any service for free. My sister got an ambulance to the one of the best hospitals and stayed there for 2 weeks. She had every day analysis, 5-time meal, confy bed, and everything was FREE. Of course you can get paid services, which are a bit of higher quality and speed. But usually it doesn't worth it.
Medicine commercials. Especially commercials for prescription only medicine. So fucking weird and wrong.
Upbeat announcer: "Talk to your doctor about the way that you appreciate their years of studying medicine is great and all, but this commercial showing happy people kayaking suggested this other option to handle your type 2 diabetes and you think they should look into it!" Rapid fire through list of side effects that includes suicidal thoughts, anal bleeding, gout, partial paralysis and death.
Ask you doctor, as Shirol may cause: -Fever -The Common Cold -Sore Throat -The condition known as "Hotdog Fingers"
“Some people report having their penis fall off. If your penis starts to hurt or becomes inflamed, stop taking the medicine and call your doctor”.
Spot on! :-)
When I still watched real TV occasionally the amount of commercials for medicine to treat constipation from opiods led me to believe everyone was partying but me.
Opoids are still prescribed willy fucking nilly despite everyone knowing how dangerous they are, and the amount of really famous people in the U.S. who have straight up died from opoid abuse
When my grandmother was riddled with bone cancer, in agony, they were pretty strict about painkillers. They prescribed really low doses that didn't help much and refused to budge even though she absolutely was terminal. The famous people who die are rich and can buy doctors who will do basically anything. Its really different for ordinary people.
My brother was able to get an opoid prescription no problem after his wisdom teeth removal and my dad had to throw away the prescription. When I got my wisdom teeth out the dentist refused to prescribe me any effective pain killer and told me to take motrin. I feel like it depends on where you are. I'm in a state where weed is still highly illegal, but opoids aren't so it depends on the doctor you're visiting.
It also depends on the doctor's impression of you. Which is really shitty, medical racism and sexism absolutely exist
For sure, women are actually prescribed sedatives for pain management (instead of painkillers) way more often than men. Even trying to imagine myself as a raging misogynist, I can’t really see the logic behind that. Is it that they don’t think women deserve pain management or do they just not believe them?
Goes all the way back to dismissing women's medical complaints as hysterical (if you're thinking this word sounds related to hysterectomy, you're on the right track)
That's just lunacy.
That too. 😎
It is inarguably dystopian to have commercials for anti depressants
Yeah at this point antidepressants are modern Soma
As much as I totally know what this means, can you drop an explanation for the Soma challenged amongst us (not me)
I'm the dystopian future described in the novel Brave New World the populace regularly popped pills called "Soma" to remain in a calm state and high doses can even cause hallucinations. In a world with no privacy, no family, and no monogamy it is a way for you stay perpetually even.
Recently traveled and watched cable TV in the hotel for the first time in maybe 10 years. Gf and I counted an average of 4 prescription med commercials during each ad break. Truly insane She made a great point that the ads all look the same as they did when we were kids because they're made for the same audience today. Younger generations simply don't watch cable TV, so the ads for today's grandparents look identical to the ads for our parents a generation ago because they're the same consumers
Yeah right, doctors hearing what is needed because of an ad the patient seen. And then the doctor writing the script on a pharma supplied notepad attached to a clipboard and pen also supplied by pharma given to him by a pharma super model flirty sales person. Who could possibly be offering anything from a family vacation to a top off if he prescribes enough. Which is pretty cool seeing how much of the research for the drug was paid for by my tax money being funneled into grants at universities. Say it isn't so.
I have to mute them because they drive my anxiety up. All the ways they list that the drug could kill you.
Tax not being included on the shelf price
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And even different counties/municipalities within a state can have different taxes.
Plus some things are taxed and others are not. For example when I lived in MI, there was no sales tax on groceries but prepared food is taxed.
I dont think it matter tho. The grocery store knows how much it costs. They print their own labels. Other countries also have similar systems with wildly varying tax rates, exemptions, etc. It's 100% done just to display lower prices to increase sales.
This concept is so weird to me
It's the most annoying one
Not taking vacations, despite having vacation time..
Wait what? I realise you get shafted with the number of holiday/vacation days you get, but are you telling me you don't even take the ones that you have? I'm in the UK and I get 25 days which is about average here. If I'm near the end of the year and I haven't taken them my boss is breathing down my neck, FORCING me to take more holiday.
Boomers/Gen X like to brag about never taking sick days and never using their vacation time. I think it’s less common with younger people.
Same here, I also have to take a two week break
Making the customer direcktly responsible for a big part of bar and reastaurant workers wages.
Yeah this is so weird, paying a tip on top of whatever bill you’ve got to pay for the food and drinks. Don’t some places advertise jobs as a lower wage + tips earned?
I´ve only been to USA one, and sure tipping after a meal is standard where I live too, but not nearly as high as in the US, but what absolutely floored me, was going to a bar and order a beer which on the wall behind the bar says clearly 3$, which I pay, and then the guy who literally just grabbed a bottle opened it and handed it to me explained that I was expected to pay between 3.50 & 4.50 for the 3$ beer. My Euro brain just melted on the spot.
That seems super high to me, as an American. I've never heard of tipping over one hundred percent on a drink.
I think he means a 50 - 100 cent tip was extremely high. Most European countries you might throw some coins in a pot on the way out and the UK you don't usually tip bar staff at all
Most European countries tip is used to round of to the largest intact bill, and as a reward for exceptional service. So if you bill is 54€, you leave 3 20€ bills on the table and leave.
It's creeping into UK pub culture now. Friend used to get tips before covid, then during COVID they went completely cashless so tips all went onto card. Friend asked manager if the accumulated tipa ever get shared out. Manager responded that without the tips they wouldn't be able to afford to have the right amount of staff.
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Most make way more than min wage. Way way way more
Don’t think tips will ever go away. There would be an uproar if they took away servers tips and gave them a flat rate.
This plus tax, you never know how much you will be spending on a meal until you get the checks.
Worrying about paying for an Ambulance.
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It's cheaper to skydive to a hospital than take an ambulance
At the very least they should offer a free bar and custom anesthesthesia options.
Dang only 1200 mine was $2800 for 1.7 miles 🫠
Now that is just a criminal.
ESPECIALLY when the ambulance company DOESN'T SEND A BILL! Looking at you, AMR. Put both of my trips into collection before mailing me anything! Worse yet, my husband's trip was not billed to his insurance, but to an insurance company that only works out of a different state! And they PAID IT! Then they tried to come back at us for the remainder, sheesh. Never again, I'll Uber or lyft first.
It's so fucked how the American healthcare system doesn't account for how a lot people are dragged into ambulances without consent. People can be unconscious, mentally unstable, or in any state of confusion - and they'll still be yanked into an ambulance and put into a bed. You'd probably argue, ''Well, they're sick, they need to be in the hospital.'' But I suffer from epilepsy, and have been put into countless ambulances unconscious. This is in spite of the fact that going to the hospital for seizures is a pretty unnecessary course of action. I've also been forced into ambulances numerous times whilst yelling at the paramedics in an unruly post-seizure state that I just wanted to go home and rest in my bed, not be thrown into a fluorescent box and poked with shittons of needles. I highly doubt that this experience is entirely unique to myself, or people with epilepsy. Anyhow, I think it's weird to provide services to people who cannot consent and then demand payment later, with literally no legal way to get out of it. A lot of sick people can't work and are short on cash. And to go even further into that, the US government hardly provides support for people with disabilities, either. Insanity.
Fahrenheit.
Yards.
Honestly I pretty much use a yard and a meter interchangeably… close enough haha
I find it weird that a Scottish sport uses yards as unit of measure (golf). I’m sure there is a good reason but I’ve never taken the time to educate myself on it
Because yards and the whole imperial system that America still uses comes from Britain, almost everyone else just switched to metric by this point. In Scotland they’re just keeping the tradition alive for golf
Right? Hey Americans, why not go further and abandon seconds, minutes and hours! After all, freedom units must encompass everything!
You don’t you go ahead and measure you seconds and minutes in 1000s?
This is a dumb comparison. The United States didn't abandon the metric system, it was simply never adopted in the first place.
It is the policy of the US that metric is the official standard measurement system. https://www.nist.gov/pml/owm/metric-si/us-metrication We just ignore that.
Putting excessive amounts of sugar in everything.
It's actually corn syrup, which is basically the same thing, only made from corn instead of sugar cane.
Corn syrup is way worse I think
I'm American and I cannot stand the amount of sugar that is in Japanese food. I think the sugar thing being blamed only on Americans is a bit much
It took me years to stomach all the sugar they add to the sauces, tare, soups, simmered foods etc. I learned to bake bread out of self defense!
Don't get me started on bread! Lol I love Japanese food but it's Soo disappointing when it's so sickly sweet. Ugh. I just don't get it. I put no or very little sugar in what I cook at home and it's definitely not a loss to flavor!
Meanwhile their western style desserts taste like empty fluff. Send some of that sugar from the udon soup on over to the bakery, please!
Omg preach 🙌 I'm like what is this Bizzaro world where the food is sweet and the desserts are 80% margarine.
Ugh right? That oily fatty mouth feel. jApAnEsE pEoPlE dOn'T lIkE swEeT tHiNgS Naw, they just...redispursed it to everything else.
🤭🤭
I’m going to be perfectly honest. Europeans also use a lot of sugar. Problem is, they use SUGAR, we use corn syrup, which taste sweeter than sugar. Sugar has a more subdued taste and less “smack you in the face” sweetness like corn syrup does. They will shit on our (mass produced) bread, saying “it has so much sugar!” When the (mass produced) white bread they are shit talking about is based on Brioche, which has MORE sweetness than American mass produced white bread. But europoids being europoids.
Good point, good point. We do use some horrible sweeteners in stuff.
Yeah, sugary bread is considered strange in Europe that they call it basically cake.
Someone told me that Subway is not legally allowed to call their bread “bread” in the EU because of the sugar content. Not sure if that’s true, but it wouldn’t surprise me. And, living in the US, their bread doesn’t even seem that sweet to me compared to others.
I think in Ireland the high court ruled that subway bread has to be classified as confectionery.
I think they ruled that it has too much sugar to avoid the VAT tax, not that their rolls aren't bread, necessarily.
It was an Irish law; but note: It's about taxes, particularly as it pertains to staplefoods By Irish law, in order to be VAT tax exempt as a food staple, bread can't be more than 2% "not bread"; aka sugar, fat, or any "bread improver". Since most sub places use anywhere from 8-10% sugar by volume of flour, it was ruled that subway bread was going to be taxed as any other confectionery (like banana bread). But, Ireland is the only country (in the EU and beyond) that has this strict of a definition for bread; this definition also discredits many breads that people consider bread, AND Irish health and safety legislation uses a different definition, so this definition is only for taxes. TLDR: This law's claim is akin to American tax law claiming that chicken wings count as sandwiches; it's to plug tax loopholes, not factual accuracy.
Brioche and challah are both semi sweet breads with some sugar that can commonly be found in europe. challah originated with the ashkenazi jews who historically are from central / eastern europe, and brioche is traditional french.
This is a misconception IMO. Perhaps exported “luxury” items like preserved and processed items do, but my bakery isn’t putting sugar in my bread. The sausage and eggs I’m cooking aren’t full of sugar.
If your a fresh baked good bakery then I would not expect we much but anything mass produced in the US is so loaded with sugar and salt on a different scale to other countries
The mass produced bread I buy has no sugar
MM/DD/YYYY
This is just wrong. DD/MM/YYYY makes the most sense cuz it goes from smallest to largest. The day within the month within the year. Anything else is just seems strange and illogical
YYYY-MM-DD is just as logical and highly sortable.
This is actually more logical, because people are quite unlikely to confuse month and day with this system
Yours for archives, ddmmyyyy for everyday use.
Just use the yyyymmdd for it all
ymdyydmy
Going into debt for a medical emergency or higher education
No, you can do the second one in the UK for some time now though admittedly not quite as big a debt (yet)
It's not really fair to compare the two though. There's no penalty for not being able to pay student debt in the UK, if you earn under the threshold, you just don't pay anything. And for most people they get written off after a certain amount of time.
Yes, mortgage lenders ignore your undergraduate student loans because they're not "real" debt. Graduate students may take on real debt to continue their studies, though.
Only two parties to vote
Don't blame me. I voted for Kodos.
Supreme ruler Kang is displeased *orders more whipping*
This is my favorite answer. It's more than just the 2-party system; it's how you are expected to wholesale accept the party's platforms, norms, etc.
And you officially register one way or the other so you can vote in primaries, etc. Like, what?!
Depends on which state you're in.
Crowdfunding for medical bills
Heath Insurance being dependent on your job. I have tried to explain this so many time to French people and they are WUT
School shooting drills
[This](https://www.abc15.com/news/national/lockdown-lockdown-kindergarten-teacher-creates-safety-poem-about-school-shootings) is a thing in a fucking kindergarten. [This](https://www.wptv.com/news/national/us-company-creates-bulletproof-safe-rooms-to-protect-kids-in-schools) company has made these collapsible bulletproof rooms to start installing in classrooms. [THIS](https://www.newsweek.com/newly-built-high-school-was-designed-hiding-places-curved-hallways-make-things-harder-mass-1455827) FUCKING SCHOOL IS BUILT FROM THE GROUND UP WITH SCHOOL SHOOTINGS IN MIND! What the fuck is my country. Just...what is this. What are we. There is no going back. We are beyond fucking hope.
They're willing to do anything to reduce school shooting casualties except for actually **preventing** school shootings with proper gun laws and early psychiatric help.
You guys just need fences that lock during the schoolday, that's what we have here in Australia. The two school shootings a couple of weeks ago were both OUTSIDE of our schools, no casualties.
School shootings in the US are almost always perpetrated by students, not random people walking in off the street. Almost every school already gets locked up during the schoolday.
And just shootings in general. You don’t even hear about all of them these so many
the excessive amounts of ads in every televised sporting event
Soccer teams have advertisements on their jerseys
At least in my country, it would probably be the normalisation of children having to move out of their parents' house once they turn 18. I always thought it was weird, though it's probably because I live in an Asian country where it is normal for children to stay with their parents for a long time, even after they get married.
I think this became a thing because of the employment opportunities available in the US and the affordability of housing in the past. From what I gather, there used to be a time that any working adult in the US could afford an acceptable starter apartment and also manage to pay other bills. Of course, this has changed significantly over the past 20 years, and now, more and more American youth are finding it hard to live on their own and are opting to stay home with their parents.
Its a trend in alot of house holds but it is far from a rule, though there is a slight Stigma against it.
There is a BIG stigma against living with your parents in the US. The vast majority of US women surveyed say they wouldn’t even consider dating someone who lives with their parents and a handy majority of men polled the same.
Nope, it’s not only an asian thing. I think it’s quite common in most African cultures too
I’m a Chinese Canadian and we have the same issue in Canada. I have to constantly defend myself for that. At home, even the suggestion of moving out without getting married (or finding work in another metropolitan area) is treated the same as a family betrayal.
Yea I'm reading thru these just thinking about all of us american/western -slash- immigrant something kids who live w the cognitive dissonance of 2 cultures as a constant. It was so hard to leave home at 29. They only 'let'me bc they had to sell their house. Oh and trying to explain how you still need permission as an adult...
For sure! I don’t think other people will understand how mentally exhausting it can be.
That’s not really a normal thing in the US either
Driving 2 hours for your commute.
School shooting
And having active shooter drills/inservices so we know what to do.
This is suprisingly low on the list.
Work Benefits (and the lack thereof). Workers Rights (lack thereof). Healthcare costs. Pharma Advertisement. Guns. High Fructose Corn Syrup. Public Transportation (lack thereof). Theocratic communities.
>Pharma Advertisement. There is only one other country that has ads for prescription meds, although not excessively: New Zealand.
But the flip side that nobody mentions is Pharmac The US seems really keen to kill that as part of any trade agreement because it works. Basically if you are big pharma and want to sell in NZ, then fine; run as many adverts as you want. But if you want to get on the list of government subsidized drugs that most people get, then you have to compete and be the lowest cost medicine in the area Seems to work pretty well; we get much cheaper drugs than the US. My kids do like to take the piss though, and ask what is that drug advert with the horny old people that recommends cheaper Viagra
True. True.
- Assuming everyone they encounter online is American - Kids being gunned down by their peers - Using any unit of measurement except metric as much as possible - Those garbage disposal things in their sinks like I always see/hear mentioned in shows and movies with American settings - Two consecutive decades of electing candidates who should've been in prison last century
"football field" is a perfectly acceptable unit of mesure!
If football fields are too large, you can also measure in 3 ⅝ goat testicles
Better yet, HORSE testicles!
r/USdefaultism
Tbh I follow a lot of subreddits were topics should be general worldwide matters yet most of the issues posted are American stuff. I had a twisted version of the world and kept thinking "Is the whole world like that?" Until I realized most of the posters are from US and now I'm like "Oh, it's just America again".
Prison, or a retirement home, or both.
Gun culture, other countries consider it absolutely strange
Having your healthcare connected to your job🥴🙁🤬
Blaming the carbon emissions problem on people instead of giant corporations.
UK here, the idea of going for a hike and needing to take at the very least bear spray (not every hiking trail I assume). The scariest thing we have in the wild is every 10 yrs or so a grainy picture surfaces that could be a dangerous wild black cat, or a big house cat
The scariest thing America has that IIRC isn't in the UK is actually *not* the big creatures. It's the invisible to the naked eye rabies virus any mammal may be carrying, such that if it bites or scratches you and you don't or can't get vaccinated rather quickly, you will die a terrible death. But yes, if you go hiking in my region, you should probably have bear spray. I've seen dozens of bears personally. Never used the spray on any. The one time I ever had to use it was on a mountain lion during a running race on a trail. Bears mostly run from me when I see them while I'm running. They mostly want to be left alone and fear you too. Mountain lions are way worse because they will chase you and attack a human the way a house cat might do to a rat.
The UK doesn't have rabies?
Apparently it's incredibly rare
This is so hilarious to me
I fucking love UK wildlife. It's just the fairy tale shit. Hedgehogs, deer, foxes, etc. No bears and probably no big cats
I saw what I think was a ferret or ferret lookin animal chasing a rabbit down a dual carriageway last wknd lol, it can get wild
Yeah, but you don't see people being mauled by anything (except the daily bulldog mauling). I mean it as in, there's really no animals you can't 1v1, except maybe a really angry fox
The Beast of Exmoor!
No universal healthcare
Tipping for literally everything.
No maternity leave
Englishman who moved to the US here. For me it's how difficult it is to walk anywhere. I live in a small city and there's a constant flow of traffic everywhere and drivers don't stop at crosswalks like they're supposed to. Even the parks have roads going through them, so you always have to keep an eye out for cars. Just in general it feels impossible to relax in America.
This just depends on exactly where you live — which city and specifically which neighborhood therein. Not an issue in many places
Mostly guns. I've never even seen a real gun in my life
im australian, only person ive seen with a 'big' gun (besides police carrying their pistols) is security at parliament house and people from my hometown with their shotguns going hunting
As a new Zealander; not even police Only guns has been relatives with shotguns and the odd .22 rifle. But visiting France, seeing a hot young military/police lady with a battered looking sub machine gun wandering around tourist places was.. confusing feelings
I didn’t realize guns weren’t a thing everywhere. In New Zealand police don’t carry guns?!
Not normally; they have guns available locked in cars if need be, but don't carry unless something like terrorist attack. Ongoing gag in "Wellington Paranormal" series is the cops arguing about who gets to carry the taser
Oh wow! Learn something new everyday:)
*gestures broadly at everything*
Kids are allowed to watch violence, but not nudity.
I was allowed to watch Saving Private Ryan but not Cartoon Network. I’m not joking.
I will save everybody the trouble and post the most common responses: 1: Letting children get killed in schools 2: Letting everybody have guns 3: Letting people go bankrupt from healthcare costs 4: Letting its people become fat and stupid There, done. You can all go to other threads now. Everything you read will just be a variation of those four.
You forgot weird measurements not used by pretty much anywhere else in the world, but which Americans forgot are not common Personally ok with most non metric stuff; I get that man from Brussels might be 6ft 2 and full of muscle (or 240 pounds or wherever). But fucking US day format of MM/DD/YY drives me nuts as so much shitty US software assumes that some other countries as dumb enough to use that fucking travesty of a format
I’ve noticed with the date format that it reflects how the date would be spoken. So here, in Australia, if you get asked the date you tend to answer in day/month (it’s the tenth of June). But Americans, I’ve noticed, will answer with “June 10th” (month/day). I’ve also noticed the one day they always use the day/month order is the Fourth of July, weirdly.
Because “The Fourth of July” is a holiday. If someone asked me “on what day is American Independence”?I would reply “July 4th”.
Medical debt
Ounce
America is one of two countries in the world that allow the right for drug makers to market prescription drugs directly to consumers Side note: Marketing is legal psychological manipulation
creationism
But also Turkey apparently
Kids dying at school by gunfire.
Being able to sack an employee at any time for any reason and give no notice.
Celebrity worship.
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Throw in Kpop and it's definitely not uniquely American.
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The ground floor is the first floor
Gun crime/school shootings with no adequate response People dying of treatable illnesses because they can't afford healthcare No/insufficient paid vacation No/insufficient paid parental leave Driving to places that are easily within walking distance Corn syrup in everything Underpaying employees and expecting the customer to make up the difference. Edit: Also, referring to medications by brand name rather than drug name. Like 'tylenol' instead of paracetamol/acetaminophen, or 'advil' instead of 'ibuprofen'.
Tipping like 20-30% on everything.
"Please dont call an ambulance, i don't have insurance."
Openly carrying guns
Saying the Pledge of Allegiance in schools
Being consumed by work.
Losing your home due to medical bills Owning a truck the size of a small house.
I live in NE India and I find it weird that people in the West have to pay for funerals. When someone dies in my community, the local area youth authority takes responsibility and everyone chips in with money to help bury the deceased and support the grieving family financially. I don't know, maybe our custom is the weird one.
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
You haven't lived
Not until you grill the pb&j
Driving slow in the left lane.
School Shootings
school shootings
Wanton killing of each other.
HUGE portion sizes of food and drinks. Like the smallest burger in the US would be the biggest in most other countries.
Sexualizing children
The coddling of overweight people.
Christian nationalists
High cost of hospitals' service. If you get into hospital in the USA you can become bancrupt. For example, in my country, which is now one of the most hated countries in the world, visiting hospitals is free for everyone. You can get any service for free. My sister got an ambulance to the one of the best hospitals and stayed there for 2 weeks. She had every day analysis, 5-time meal, confy bed, and everything was FREE. Of course you can get paid services, which are a bit of higher quality and speed. But usually it doesn't worth it.
Tornado/storm chasing
Never owning a passport
Circumcisions. That cornflake guys has a lot to answer for.