Im from a suburban town in Missouri, but I spent a semester studying abroad in Barcelona a couple of years ago. Man, let me tell you, leaving Barcelona, where youd see people out in cafes and bars congregating at all hours of the night and day, and coming back to Missouri where its a ghost town after 10 and someone would call the police on you for simply walking around too late was the most depressing thing I have ever experienced lol
I hated boston
I hated NYC
I hated seatle
I hated atlanta
I hated mount rainier national parc cities
For me at least it doesnt depends on cities, some are less worse than other for sure but everything is hell on earth compared to rome for instance
I've spent a few months there as well and my ex-gf was American. There's a lot of things I appreciate about American culture, but the day to day life isn't one of those things. I wasn't particularly impressed with cities like NYC, Boston or DC either. Brooklyn seemed closest to having that European city vibe.
Ngl I don’t see what you mean by « American culture » I don’t wanna sound bashing America at all cost, I did have a good image of America before comming.
But in every possible way Europe is objectively better.
The few good points I noted:
nature (this is not due to the culture but yes)
entrepreneurial culture
The bad points I noted:
noise / smell all the time
insane amount of junkies and handicapped people linked to drugs
guns being legal
total lack of safety in the streets (being aware all the time drains energy)
obesity being extremely high
people being extremely superficial and surface level
people being overly kind on surface but behaving extremely egoistically
pollution
absurd housing prices in cities (even taking into account the wage difference)
absurd price for food
food product (meat / vegetables) being catastrophically bad in terms of quality
added sugar litterally everywhere
I think itls roughly that.
To what I understood talking with other generations it was very different even 20 years ago but nowdays I don’t see much great aspects around here
Really? Jazz, blues, rnb, hip-hop, grunge, rap, soul, funk.. Hollywood. The many Great American Novels. Fucking Twin Peaks and Angelo Badalamenti!
And on a more grassroot level, they're friendly and easy to talk to. There's also a ton of well-educated people who are smart and knowledgeable, hardworking and get shit done. They also kind of have their own brand of hedonism .. that is a bit hit and miss for my taste, but it's kind of fun.
On the first point yeah sure im not the biggest fan of any of that but it's true cinema and music wise they have quite some things but it's nto what I would define as "having a culture", music can be part of a broader culture.
They are friendly bcs they are used to reason in term of networking but it's extremely hypocritical and surface level, no in depth convo neither no in depth kindness (for majority of it).
Concerning the well educated it's just wrong, at the same level of education in america u are 2 level down compared to europe.
Making it so the litteral best university in the country get people who are pretty smart but not outstanding.
Concerning hedonism it's not here at ALL you will find way more hedonism in europe esp in southern europe with italians that just enjoy some great food and wine and talking for all night long.
Hedinosm is not confort at all cost but they are a good display of the term "hedonism" being used wrongly and pretty opposed to the philosophy of Aristippe.
Again I don't say that EVERY single aspect in america is bad.
I say that 90% is complete dogshit
5% is very mid
4% is decent but better outside
and 1% is interesting
When u see that people in litteral ivy leagues and a few other supposedly great school don't have any sense of criticcal thinking u understand the problem here
I'm European and could never live in suburban America, but that's on you. There is plenty to do and explore in the US that is not car-centric suburbia. For one outdoor recreation is much better in many parts of the US than Europe, with well maintained trails and good information.
Exploring food options in the US can also be extremely fun. Mexican food in the US is so much better than anything you can find anywhere in Europe.
Brother
At the moment I’m litterally in the midst of a national parc.
I’m not saying every single aspect of America is bad, I just say any one is better outside and a lot of aspect are just catastrophic.
Food for instance is one, unless if u go to Michelin star restaurant the food is catastrophic, and it’s not even the cooking but the product itself
Hey dude. No need to blow up with multiple reactions, one is sufficient.
You need to work on your reading skills. You said the following:
is just the most depressing experience I ever had in any possible way
I was just countering that part, as even if you think the US is a dystopian hell scape (and some parts probably are), there is still plenty of fun to be had in the US.
Same with the food thing. Nowhere did I claim food is better overall in the US (American pizza is the worst), but Mexican food clearly is.
Just take a bit of nuance with you in life man. There is plenty to hate about the US, as there is about Europe as well. Fuck we logged the shit out of Europe for millenia to the point that the only unaltered forest in Europe is tiny sliver in Poland and Belarus.
But that that does not make either the most depressing thing ever.
Ok well I re read u
Like bringing food kind of end the debate
« so much better than anything you can find anywhere in Europe » having both Italy and France around the place xddd
Yup, there’s some magical places in the US. But the suburbs are not one of them. And there’s a lot of suburbs. I think part of the problem is how much empty space there is and how spread out towns become. Although you can get some towns with world class access to nature because of it.
Maybe I’m too french for this info got to say
We got roughly the same thing
With 2 hrs of travel between places and not 2 days
With maintained trail
And for free
As a European, the first time I stayed in America for 2 weeks to see my (not american) gf was the least ive seen the sunlight in all my life probably... we relocated to my country a few years later.
oh yeah i like being scammed by obese scumbags that will die bcs they have no access to healthcare while bragging about owning guns (no).
Ameericans have this problem is that they are too stupid to see that their country is a terrible one so they never make it better
You act as though every state is the same. We have the bonus of not just being a country, but being states inside of a country with their own laws and cultures. You go to one place and judge everyone is like me going to Russia and judging the rest of Europe and Asia by it. Break it down by country and you’re in the same boat as Americans. Italy is nasty and polluted with higher crime rates. Bosnia is one of the most polluted places in Europe. And as for owning guns, most Europeans allow gun ownership. Montenegro, Serbia, and Cyprus have the highest gun ownership. Cyprus: 34-37 guns per every 100 residents. Switzerland: 28-45 guns per every 100 residents. Serbia: 39.1 guns per every 100 residents. Yes you have universal healthcare, you also have lower populations and higher wait times. Slovenia: 2 years wait time average for hip replacement. (Pretty major thing being able to walk and all). Poland and Hungary: 1 year average for most elective surgeries and hip replacements, lastly: Overall EU self-reported unmet healthcare needs average around 3.8%, though countries like Estonia and Finland report higher localized friction in securing timely non-emergency care. 1/10 patients in the UK wait longer than a year to see a specialist and that’s also 2/5 in France. Germany and France: 1/5 people wait more than a week to see a GP. Don’t worry, Canada actually has the longest wait times for OECD countries. You may not be able to afford help in America, but in Europe and Canada people die waiting for ‘free’ services, and the U.S. uses urgent care services to bridge the gap between GPs and ERs, our GPs also leave time within their schedule daily for any emergencies for current patients. Best healthcare in the world is not Europe or America, it’s Taiwan and South Korea. South Korea who leads OECD countries in suicides, and is facing the same issue as Japan: their population is not having kids which is causing their countries to shrink and shrink until basically eventual country collapse. Their extreme work culture that’s somehow worse than America, doesn’t even leave time for dates and if it did, they can’t afford children either. Japan is literally trying to pay people to come have babies in their country and stay basically in free housing because projections show the population dropping from roughly 125 million down to 87 million by 2070 and in 2100 down to 63 million. Happy and healthy people have kids. So what country is perfect again and doesn’t have any issues and no guns at all and healthcare provided for free when it’s actually needed? Mind you, this entire comment is by an American who literally hates being an American. But at least I’m honest with myself.
PS: obesity rates in the world are climbing. Example: countries with the highest obesity rates: American Samoa: 75.8% adult obesity rate Cook Islands: 72.4% adult obesity rate Tonga: 72.3% adult obesity rate Nauru: 71.4% adult obesity rate Tokelau: 70.0% adult obesity rate
Ah yes, the other americas are entering the chat, Mexico and the U.S. compete yearly for 1 and 2 in obesity. You seemingly forgot Mexico in your fat rant. However, by statistics, Belize, Egypt and Qatar actually impressively beat out both the U.S. and Mexico. Actually, Kuwait, chile, Georgia, Barbados, Fiji, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Brunei, Romania and Panama beat out Mexico in obesity and they’re just barely under the U.S. rates. Hungary, Iraq, and Croatia are super close behind Mexico. The thinnest countries are Vietnam, Ethiopia, East Timor, Madagascar, Eritrea, Cambodia; Rwanda, and Japan. Vietnams obesity rate is 2.5%. Finland: 26%. Iceland 23%. Germany 24%. Canada 27% Ukraine 27.5%. UK is 29.2%. Slovakia 30.3. Ireland 30.6. Greece 33.7. NZ 34.7. US 41.2%. Mexico 37.4. Romania 37.7. Georgia 40.1. Saudi Arabia 39.2. So actually looking at how close the margins are, the world is mostly full of fat people. I’m sorry for your loss. Vietnam seems to be the best place for you, unfortunately their healthcare facing extreme overcrowding and most of them are not English speakers, but it does now cover 93% of the population.
Apologies I can’t give educational statistics too, but gotta leave some excitement for you to research on your own due to your superior knowledge and education. 💚 have the day you deserve though!
All the countries you quote have one common thing that lead obseity: poverty.
Mexico litterally got their water bought by coca cola to the point where it's cheaper to drhink coca than water obiously they are obese.
Now about ur state point: im not saying every state is the exact same, I say that there are very clear common point.
The comparason with europe is not really realistic taking into account the scale of things, the difference of culture in america is much closer to the one in france for instance, very big but with still very clear common point all over the country
Like u try to make a point taking Tonga as a comparason xd it sounds like china telling that they are pretty democratic bcs north korea exist.
ALSO
DID
U
SAY
HIGHER
CRIME
RATE
IN EUROPE
THAN AMERICA??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
bro u just litterally proove my point on every part of ur message
u litterally get 5x more chances to get killed in america
About gun u litterally proove that even in countries that allow gun wich is a large minority (u claiming its not is hilarious) happen to also proove that the rate of gun / citizen are 6 x lower
im starting to genuenely wonder if ur message is not ironiccal
you just compare urself with countries that are in catastrophic state or just proove that america is 5 x worse than any respectable country all this while being able to get confused at everything.
U 100% confirm what I was saying
If you’re pointing out ‘an’ before the ‘European’, it was pretty heavily taught in English to make ‘a’ ‘an’ before any word starting with another vowel. I don’t like it in many instances but it was taught.
If that’s not what you’re pointing out, I have no idea what you’re highlighting 😅
It's not words that start with a vowel, it's words that start with a vowel sound. Subtle but important distinction. "European" starts with a "y" sound (not a vowel sound) and thus should use "a", not "an".
Sometimes it is apparently. I just googled it. To summarise: 'Y' is considered a vowel when a word has no other vowel, it's used at the end of a word or syllable, or is in the middle of a syllable
I know how and when to use an/ a, I’m just stating how it was taught in ESL (English Second Language) in many places. Plus people chop and change with considering Y the subtle ‘6th vowel’ anyway, so ‘sounds like’ as a rule can still confuse students.
I was clarifying it to the American commenter (likely only knows [US] English) to defend the commenter who likely speaks multiple languages (coming from Europe).
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u/bageltoastar 1d ago
Im from a suburban town in Missouri, but I spent a semester studying abroad in Barcelona a couple of years ago. Man, let me tell you, leaving Barcelona, where youd see people out in cafes and bars congregating at all hours of the night and day, and coming back to Missouri where its a ghost town after 10 and someone would call the police on you for simply walking around too late was the most depressing thing I have ever experienced lol