Ask an American!

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Is this stupid?

Yes
2
13%
No
3
20%
BANANA
10
67%
 
Total votes: 15

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keenmaster486
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Ask an American!

Post by keenmaster486 »

Well... most of our members are not from the U.S., right?

So I thought it might be fun to have a thread where the non-U.S. members can ask the Americans questions about our quirky country.

Admins, shut this down if it's stupid, I don't care; just throwing it out there :)

Who wants to start?

(btw, maybe we should stay away from politics and focus on pop culture.)
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lemm
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Post by lemm »

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Post by Keening_Product »

It has always surprised me that some Americans think nobody knows anything about their country while correctly identifying their country as the leading world superpower.

US power is hard to ignore for most people. We have had to follow yanks into wars, put up with their troops and bases on our soil, and so on.

Awful trade agreements mean that in many countries US pop culture is the dominant pop culture.

Even the small garg gets through - I don't think anyone sells pumpkin spice anything in Australia, but I sure know a hell of a lot about it.

The thread idea isn't silly, but I think you will be surprised how much many of us non-Americans already know.
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Post by Levellass »

Exactly how often did you have to say the Pledge of Allegiance? 'cause that is just weird.
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Post by keenmaster486 »

Keening_Product wrote:It has always surprised me that some Americans think nobody knows anything about their country while correctly identifying their country as the leading world superpower.
Oh yeah, no, don't get me wrong; I know you all already know quite a lot, as is obvious from the well-informed posts that have been made in other threads. This thread is just for the things that might confuse you, not having a unique perspective from the inside.
Levellass wrote:Exactly how often did you have to say the Pledge of Allegiance? 'cause that is just weird.
You know, it used to be once a day in elementary school but I'm not sure whether that's done any more. These days it's somehow thought to be wrong, and atheist activists hate the "under God" provision. Wait... checking Wikipedia I remember now: it's still recited in schools but students cannot be forced to comply.

I can still recite it word for word though.

Why the Pledge? The biggest thing I can think of is just pure patriotism. You know how much Americans love their country, and we want to pass that on to future generations.

Edit: you may get alternate opinions on these questions. That's great; I think that falls right into the purpose of this thread.
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Post by Roobar »

Yes, I have a question... Why do you still have the "Because I'm American, I own the world" attitude?
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Post by nanomekia »

Because we're idiots that's why.

(Also American. Also willing to answer questions.)
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Post by keenmaster486 »

We have that attitude? Well, at least, I don't...

We own our stuff and our overseas land, assets, and troops. We don't own the world and it would indeed be idiotic to have that attitude.

But we are the most powerful nation in the world. We're acutely aware of that, so maybe that kind of arrogance stems from that fact sometimes?

Edit: Wait a minute, are you talking about individual people? In that case, I would just say that yeah, we tend to be very arrogant in general. Something I often decry in our society. Nanomekia, then, got very close saying that we're just idiots.

I forgot one:
lemm wrote:Did you ever think you'd see the day when middle school children chant, "Build a Wall!"
Ever since Trump started doing his thing and being so popular, it was inevitable.

The wall isn't actually necessary. Proper enforcement of existing laws (the same laws that haven't been enforced for the past so many years...) would take care of it just fine. But the wall is much more fun, and makes us feel like evil supervillains or something. Plus if the President actually pulls off a miracle and forces Mexico to pay for it, then it feels like we dropped a car on the annoying chihuahua or something. It's an emotional satisfaction thing really.


...anyway, let's stick to pop culture (edit: or just culture in general). Too easy to fall into political arguments that have better threads for them elsewhere.
Last edited by keenmaster486 on Sun Nov 13, 2016 20:04, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by MoffD »

Levellass wrote:Exactly how often did you have to say the Pledge of Allegiance? 'cause that is just weird.
Used to do it every week for Boy Scouts, now not nearly as often unless there's some ceremony for some specific organization/party/holiday (4th of July Independence as an example.)
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Post by nanomekia »

keenmaster486 wrote:We have that attitude? Well, at least, I don't...

We own our stuff and our overseas land, assets, and troops. We don't own the world and it would indeed be idiotic to have that attitude.

But we are the most powerful nation in the world. We're acutely aware of that, so maybe that kind of arrogance stems from that fact sometimes?

Edit: Wait a minute, are you talking about individual people? In that case, I would just say that yeah, we tend to be very arrogant in general. Something I often decry in our society. Nanomekia, then, got very close saying that we're just idiots.
Yeah, I was thinking of it as referring to us as individuals and not one homogeneous mass. If it is in fact the latter then yeah, you're more correct than I am.
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Post by ScarletFlame »

You shouldn't be too hard on yourselves, the US has a really influential culture for a good reason, it's where everything is.
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Post by Benvolio »

If the dominance of US culture is what brought Commander Keen to the world, then I'm all for it.
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Post by Levellass »

Why, why WHY do you vote on Teusdays? Perhaps the single most worst day to vote on? Is it something like a 'If you don't value your vote enough to make a sacrifice' sort of thing?
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Post by troublesomekeen »

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Thursday are out because of (American) Football. :dopefish I don't think Wednesday would be any better. Voter turnout is always garg.
There's some strange early-voting that has been going on in recent elections though.
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Post by keenmaster486 »

Pffft... beats me. Wikipedia says it was chosen because it didn't interfere with the Sabbath and most town's market day (Sunday and Wednesday), which makes sense, but why not make it Saturday then? Yeah, it doesn't make sense. But that's the way we do it and we like it!

It's like they just sat around, threw votes in a hat, and chose a random day just because.
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