posted in Asklemmy

NightOps@NightOps@nord.pub

Is US defaultism real or a farce?

I’ve seen posts online or memes about it, mainly discussing American people who think the internet as a whole is US-centric despite the topic at hand taking place in another country (nothing to do with America), for example: someone wrote the date format as 30/10/2020 (using the EU format) but some American was like “THE CORRECT WAY IS 10/30/2020” when they fail to realize that user is not American at all.

Is US defaultism real when they travel abroad? They assume the $ is legal tender worldwide in countries where their own currency is used more (the only thing that’ll work is exchanging it but not for direct transactions). I’ve heard an American woman went on a tirade whilst in France as the cashier refused a $20 bill when the prices are in EUROS (WTF?) or being like “SPEAK ENGLISH!” in non-English speaking countries.

Nangijala@Nangijala@feddit.dk

Replying to @⁨NightOps@nord.pub⁩

In my opinion, Americans and Canadians have a very similar attitude when abroad. They are loud and opinionated which can be both good and bad and they sometimes feel a bit like elephants in a china shop. They have no idea that how they behave, which is perfectly polite and normal in their own countries, is considered extremely clumsy and borderline rude in ours.

Americans are showmen by nature. They can’t help it (Canadians have a bit of a similar streak in that regard). It feels very fake in my culture even though I understand that you kinda have to be a showman in America in order to fit in. I consider myself pretty out going and loud by Danish standards, but next to an American or a Canadian, I become very mousy. They are just that extreme when put in the nordic context.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. I knew a couple of Americans who were really chill and didn’t try to “sell” me anything. One of them was an extremely introverted, but deep thinking writer, who might as well have been scandinavian himself because he never wanted to take up space and he was very soft spoken. Another was technically a total showman, until you learned that he had raging ADHD and had to stand up and move around while he spoke. He was very down to earth and real when you looked past his yoga poses during his talks. He had hated the hectic world in the city and built a cabin in the woods for him and his family. The third, ironically, became obsessed with our food culture, which shocked the hell out of me because our food culture is notoriously repulsive to foreigners. This woman lived entirely of rye bread, pickled fish, salty licorice, potatoes and every other food group that we pickle. All the pickled food. She looked like a feral animal at lunch time and was like: Gotta get my fill while I’m here because once I’m back in the States, I’ll never eat this good again.

We respected her immensely.

Most americans (and canadians) I have met irl have been good people, even with the showmanship. I have met a handful of truly ignorant and obnoxious assholes, but I have mostly forgotten about them while I remember the nice ones more.

Online americans are obnoxious af, though.

Edited ⁨⁨Oct⁩ ⁨14⁩, ⁨2026⁩, ⁨11:08⁩⁩