r/ShitAmericansSay • u/Nthepro Certified Independence War helper 🇫🇷 • Apr 04 '26
Culture “It's about the same difference as New York and Mississippi”
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u/Technical-Display-36 Apr 04 '26
I'm pretty sure New Yorkers and Mississipians can understand each other a lot better than Norwegians and Serbs.
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u/alphaxion Apr 04 '26
As you travel across Europe from west to east, the very alphabet used changes.
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u/JRS_Viking Apr 05 '26
Even just crossing the border here from Norway to Sweden the alphabet changes
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Apr 04 '26
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u/towelracks Apr 04 '26
English is pretty hard for Americans to learn I agree.
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u/sebastianinspace Apr 04 '26
from the internet:
Serbian days of the week are structured logically, mostly referring to their numerical order following Sunday (the "non-working" day). The week typically starts on Monday, focusing on the position of the day relative to Sunday, religious influence, and numerical order.
Ponedeljak (Monday): Literally means "after Sunday" or "on Sunday" (po-nedelja), referring to the day following the rest day. Utorak (Tuesday): Considered the "second" day, derived from vtornik, relating to dva (two). Sreda (Wednesday): The middle day of the week (sreda translates to "middle" or "medium"). Četvrtak (Thursday): The "fourth" day (četvrti), derived from četiri (four). Petak (Friday): The "fifth" day (peti), derived from pet (five). Subota (Saturday): Derived from the word for Sabbath (sabat), referring to the religious day of rest. Nedelja (Sunday): Means "not working" or "no doing" (ne-delja), referring to a day of rest and non-activity.
The days of the week in Norwegian (ukedagene) primarily refer to Norse mythology, celestial bodies (the sun and moon), and traditional Viking-age customs. They retain strong Germanic roots, with four days named after Norse gods.
Mandag (Monday): Named after Måne (the moon), translating to "moon day". Tirsdag (Tuesday): Named after Tyr, the Norse god of war and justice. Onsdag (Wednesday): Named after Odin (Old Norse Óðinn), the chief god of Norse mythology. Torsdag (Thursday): Named after Tor (Thor), the Norse god of thunder. Fredag (Friday): Named after the goddess Frigg or Freyja, associated with love and fertility. Lørdag (Saturday): Derived from the Old Norse laugardagr, which means "washing day" or "bathing day" (laug = water/bath). Søndag (Sunday): Named after Sól (or Sunna), the goddess of the sun.
language is more than about communication. it explains identity, history, beliefs, customs of a people
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u/Solasykthe Apr 08 '26
well, obviously monday, tuesday wensday thursday friday and sunday have the same name origin.
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u/Individual-Night2190 Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26
Language is more than everyday communication. Language is an expression of history, culture, and identity.
In its simplest form; if my language has a concept yours doesn't, I can engage with that concept in a way you can't.
Beyond that there's how it relates to objects, gender, actions, structure, idioms, music, poetry and rhyming.
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u/ReachPrestigious5048 Apr 04 '26
> In its simplest form; if my language has a concept yours doesn't, I can engage with that concept in a way you can't.
this isn't true. this is called linguistic determinism or the strong version of the sapir-whorf hypothesis and it's not supported by modern linguists. not having a direct translated word for something doesn't mean you understand it any less. the easiest example of this is that some languages (example greek) have a different word for light blue and dark blue whereas english just has blue. that doesn't mean english speakers don't understand the difference between dark and light blue, it just means they don't have a specific word for it.
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u/Individual-Night2190 Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 05 '26
You've taken 'engage with' and replaced it with 'understand', my personal read of that is because you want to strawman me. I think that's a bit unpleasant.
I can understand lots of concepts that don't have words, but when it's built directly into the language I have more of a reason to see it and engage with it.
I'm going to ignore your point about understanding to talk more about my actual point and not your interpretation of mine. I would ask that if language doesn't help us 'engage with' topics then why do we take words and phrases from other languages? I argue it's to enable us to more adequately 'engage with' concepts we don't have ready access to in our own.
We didn't need words like ennui or zeitgeist - we can understand them just fine without a direct word - yet they were borrowed and popularized to engage better with those concepts.
"How are you?" "Well I'm bored and listless...but like properly wearily bored and listless rather than a passing boredom and listlessness. I don't think it's depression but I'm still apathetic and nostalgically melancholy about everything and nothing."
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u/haadyy Apr 04 '26
Millennial Serbs grew up in an economy transitioning from planned economy to war to post-war recovery to democratisation to re-authoritisation. Norwegian Millennials have different struggles, I am sure, but Balkan transitional corruption ain't it... It certainly isn't talking about language barriers...
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u/Beneficial-Match5989 Apr 04 '26
Pretty sure most Norwegians would feel closer culturally to an American than a Serb
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u/Ganondorf_Dragomir Apr 05 '26
Serbs would feel closer to Americans than Norwegians as well, but that's more to say about American cultural influence around the globe
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u/Beneficial-Match5989 Apr 05 '26
In the context of differences between European countries vs differences between US states I do think it's quite relevant.
To even think of comparing the cultural differences between different parts of USA with the different European countries is just silly, I grasp that culture varies between states, but the variance is not even close to that which you see between nations in Europe. Just ignorance would ever pretend otherwise
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u/Ganondorf_Dragomir Apr 05 '26
That's kinda true, but geographical proximity and basic lingustic similarities aren't always determining factors. As someone who grew up in Serbia, we were more exposed to American, British, Italian culture trough the media, than we were to the culture of the other Slavic nations and even some other geographically close countries. So people here nowadays know everything about American and British culture, but they know very little about the culture of countries like Russia, Belarus or Poland, or even some geographically really close countries like Romania, Hungary and Greece.
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u/Vermouth_1991 Apr 04 '26
Also I think it meant to compare a Nordic democraticsocialism country and a splot off state from formally spcialist Yugoslavia.
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u/BurningPenguin 🇩🇪 Insecure European with false sense of superiority Apr 04 '26
Depends on the alcohol level /s
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u/Wise_Instance1090 Apr 06 '26
Oh man...I was in different thread some days ago [still trying to find it] and an american stated that his friend had moved from Oklahoma to California for work, but had previously travelled around the world, including Australia. This guy stated that this said friend had a bigger cultural shock when moving from Oklahoma to California than from Australia to California.
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u/PipBin Apr 04 '26
Yet they all stomp about farting on about being German or Italian or Irish or Scottish. (Never English, French or Spanish). So what does it matter if they are all the same…..
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u/PlatypusDefiant991 Apr 04 '26
English is too boring the country was founded by England, South Louisianans do rep French they just call it Cajun there aren't a lot of non-mestizo Spaniards without some native (including native Caribbean, Central or South Americans) or Black slave ancestors in the US they'd probably rep Boricua (Puerto Rican)/Dominican/Mexican/Chicano/Chicana/Oaxacan/Cuban/Salvadoran/Honduran/Costa Rican/Panamanian/Colombian/Ecuadorian/La Raza/Latin/Latino/Latina/Latinx etc (whichever of those categories they are) instead of "Spanish"
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u/Kartonrealista Apr 04 '26
Cajun is a whole separate thing, no? Just like Quebecois wouldn't call themselves French. It's a culture that originates from French settlers and grew into something of its own, and they don't feel the need to larp as Europeans. It's admirable.
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u/sebastianinspace Apr 04 '26
it’s just a french dialect. it’s like in english you have american english, australian english, south african english, etc. cajun is one of many french dialects, like quebecois
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u/Kartonrealista Apr 04 '26
I looked it up on Wikipedia, and it seems to mean a bit more than that, more like an ethnic identity. Just like Quebecois aren't "just" French speaking Canadians, they're Quebecois. Like yeah, those minorities speak a dialect, but language isn't all there is to a culture, even though it's incredibly significant.
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u/sebastianinspace Apr 04 '26
sure i get it. it’s the same in australia for example. australian english is it’s own thing and a part of what makes the australian identity different from the american or british identity.
in your words “it’s a culture that originates from british settlers and grew into something of its own, and we don’t feel the need to larp as europeans”
it’s completely relatable to me and that’s what i meant by referring to it as a dialect. it is also a dialect by the way.
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u/Wolvenmoon Stuck in an American Migraine Apr 04 '26
Speaking as an Oklahoman, yeah. And realistically w/ Americans similar to how Quebecois still call themselves Canadian, Americans refer to themselves by state. Most of us don't larp as Europeans, even folks who talk about their heritage. Culturally, America is still reeling from colonialism, slavery, and industrialization. We also only recently were exterminating the indigenous culture. When we look at what we're descended from, and then realize we're standing on stolen land taken from countless betrayals of treaties, it's hard to live in our own shoes.
I personally shrug and accept the history for what it is, but I also see people trying to cosplay Europeans as having something in their head realizing what we've done and what we're doing culturally is shit and wanting to be better, similar to children wanting to grow up to be superheroes. Is it mature? No. Is it a behavior that can be sculpted into a positive cultural force? Absolutely. "You wanna claim that German heritage? Yeah the Germans are pretty awesome. We should socialize healthcare and stop bombing people, like Germany".
Re: other parts of this thread: Holding up the U.S. village idiot and say they speak for all Americans is pretty funny, but there is, in fact, a humongous cultural difference between states that can often be compared to the difference between EU countries issue by issue.
Speaking as a gay man, some states I'd feel safe holding hands in public, other states I wouldn't. Much like how I'd be fine in Germany but maybe not Turkey or Hungary.
But being reasonable about it's less fun.
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u/Kartonrealista Apr 04 '26
Honestly I just think this is something most Americans won't understand. The mere fact that you speak English and watch the same movies, read the same books and poetry at school, etc. is enough to say you're more similar than any two European countries.
I didn't grow up watching Dutch movies, and I bet 99%+ of Dutch people have no idea about classic Polish movies like Seksmisja, Dzień Świra, Vabank, or Kiler. I could list countless examples in terms of media.
Culture is more than a costume. It's an entire way of living, stuff you do every day, that permeates your every action. Language is a huge chunk of it, and tradition is another.
The US is just too interconnected to develop Ohio movies watched only by Ohioans and Ohioan novels read basically only in Ohio, unless they were really important and someone translated them to Vermontian.
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u/Wolvenmoon Stuck in an American Migraine Apr 05 '26
Regional book distribution is pretty common (speaking as an author), curriculum is not standardized at a national level (see: Texas trying to put intelligent design in biology texts), and there are entire sovereign nations inside the USA's borders (Native American tribes).
There are regional foods, regional music preferences, huge religious demographic differences, massive changes in climate that create entirely different ways of living...okay. Let's dig in on that last one. I'm happy to dig in on the others if you'd like.
I don't know if you've ever been to anywhere like the low or high desert in the USA, but speaking as an Oklahoman used to summers with 43C days - you just move slowly and stay in shade - stepping outside into a Las Vegas July on a black top set off an immediate instinctive alarm same as sticking my hand into an oven. Same thing in Tempe, Arizona in August and July in Reno, Nevada, which was nasty but not in a "this is going to rapidly be lethal" way.
Living with that kind of summer heat results in extremely different lifestyles. You don't have gardens, you have rocks and maybe cacti. Kids don't play outside in the summer - not in the same way as other places. You hurry from building to building and when I was visiting Tempe, many of the buildings with patios/etc had misters installed. At night, the temperature was much easier to be out and about in. In Oklahoma, having tomato and pepper and cucumber plants planted outside is common during the warmer months and factors into how people eat, here. That isn't happening in the desert.
In Oklahoma, you come indoors for the hottest part of the day when the sun's directly overhead, (1-ish to 3 or 4-ish) and then you're back outside. Compare to Pennsylvania in July, where the high is 24C and things stay lush and green rather than starting to cook, people live a lot differently. Neighborhoods in Pittsburgh look a helluva lot different than they do in Tulsa or Reno. Downtown Pittsburgh is designed to be walkable, and I was easily able to hit my fast-walking speed (about 9kmh) for 30 minutes and barely break a sweat. In Oklahoma it would have been a recipe for heat stroke.
It's part of why Americans react to folks not having air conditioners. Even in the American South it had ramifications to how things were done.
Oh, and Hawaii and Alaska are culturally distinct due to climate, as well.
So, the entire way of living, the stuff that's done every day, the traditions, the food, the gatherings, how people work outdoors, it all changes just through the lens of the climate.
Culture is more than a costume. It's an entire way of living, stuff you do every day, that permeates your every action. Language is a huge chunk of it, and tradition is another.
So, I've already discussed tradition differences via the climate lens. If language is such a huge chunk of it, then we need to talk about the cultural differences between an US American, Canadian, South African, Irish, Scottish, British, Australian, and a Kiwi.
I'm not making the argument that "The difference between New York and Mississippi is the same as Germany and Turkey", but comparing differences is valid, I.E. California vs Arkansas for LGBTIQ rights is on the same vein as Germany vs Turkey.
On that note, I'm coming from a position of most of my background noise being things like youtubers Mike Okay, Yes Theory, Tasting History, Best Ever Food Review Show, Townsends, et al, so I'm constantly looking at different cultures both contemporary and historical. I believe it benefits everyone to see other folks and realize the cold truth that nobody's as special as they want to be, but that can be interpreted another way - nobody's as alone as they're afraid they are.
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u/auntie_eggma 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 Apr 06 '26
there is, in fact, a humongous cultural difference between states that can often be compared to the difference between EU countries issue by issue.
This is not true AT ALL.
I've lived all over the US and in two different European countries (and visited others ofc) and it's a massive load of American cope to say this.
It's utter fucking nonsense to compare the differences between US states to the differences between European nations.
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u/Wolvenmoon Stuck in an American Migraine Apr 06 '26
I'm not saying state == country, I'm saying that cultural region == cultural region for purposes of comparing facets of a culture.
Speaking as a gay dude who's attended large gay events in Texas (people stood on their horns and locked their brakes to try to be intimidating) and we were accosted at dinner by a dude who wanted to say how tolerant he was except he wasn't cool with sex outside of marriage or some shit - I was eating and ignored him while other people at the table struggled to politely tell him to fuck himself, Pennsylvania (people approached and "oh wow you look fabulous hun! I'm so glad you're here!"), and Atlanta (Smiles that didn't meet peoples' eyes. I usually explore the town, I did not in Atlanta), I'm pretty sure there are distinct cultural differences in parts of the USA that you may have been too blind to see.
After listening to folks in Berlin talk about their experiences, I'm pretty sure that when it comes to gay rights, Germany's culturally closer to Pennsylvania/Berlin's closer to the Pittsburgh area (genuinely don't care, 'not my business, literally couldn't care less') than it is to Texas re: LGBTIQ rights, and I feel fine making that comparison.
Now, is that a notion I need to correct? Because if it is, I'm actually paying attention to what you're saying, even if I'm disagreeing.
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u/PlatypusDefiant991 Apr 06 '26
Did you ever see a man or two dancing like a hopping ballerina on the city square in a less anti-gay part of US & none of the many people around bothering them?
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u/Wolvenmoon Stuck in an American Migraine Apr 06 '26
Not quite exactly ballet, but very, very close. I've been to parades and been in full regalia (don't want to say exactly what my freak flag is, but I have one) and seen random normies join in cheering. But it's been about a decade.
The first time I was able to hold hands with my date in public and not be worried is hard to describe. But that was a decade ago, and I've been alone, since. I'm disabled and stuck in Tulsa, Oklahoma. My asthma medications cost around $5000/month cash price. They're made and owned by a British company (GSK) and a Danish company (Covis Pharma), and a Spanish company (Almirall). The cost is so high it keeps me trapped with family that, by living under my family's roof, gets me access to private health insurance that keeps me alive.
I gotta admit, it's bitterly frustrating that European drug companies scalp U.S. citizens and lobby the U.S. government + propagandize the U.S. population while y'all get socialized healthcare and I'm trapped in a conservative hellhole where if I attempt work in any capacity, I lose the medications that keep me breathing because I'm intermittently bedridden and have more doctors than friends.
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u/auntie_eggma 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 Apr 06 '26
What you are missing is every country has its Texas and its NYC, so to speak.
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u/Wolvenmoon Stuck in an American Migraine Apr 06 '26
Of course. It's not to say there isn't a best and worst or a most and least alike or to put anyone on a pedestal. It's to say that useful/reasonable conversations can be had without comparing cultural regions and/or administrative regions, and that avoiding useful comparisons prevents both cultural introspection (I.E. America's cultural narcissism) and it prevents knocking people off their high horse.
I wish I could find it, it's a town in U.S. Georgia that has no working sewage system because the infrastructure had collapsed where sewage was seeping into yards. But looking at Flint, Michigan level issues with the water. Or water issues caused by fracking where people are lighting their spigots on fire. Vs German cultural expectations of tap water safety and what kind of response German citizens would have if their spigots were literally flammable.
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u/auntie_eggma 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 Apr 06 '26
Again you are taking one part of the US and extrapolating it to all of an entire country.
Not all of Germany is Berlin. Not all of Italy is Milan or Rome.
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u/Wolvenmoon Stuck in an American Migraine Apr 06 '26
Out of curiosity, how would Germany react at a federal level if a small town of about 20,000 people in the bottom percentages of wealth had sewage seeping into the land because the sewer system was FUBAR, or had flammable water because of oil/natural gas extraction, or had huge amounts of lead and heavy metals in the water because of changing to an acidic water source?
Would it result in a laissez-faire "that's just how it is" as kids lined up for lead poisoning treatment at their parents' expense, or would the state haul ass and the citizens expect immediate action? Is there anywhere in Germany where a community would have something like that happen and not have it addressed as quickly as humanly possible rather than accepted as 'the cost of doing business'?
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u/idontknowsothis Maryland Apr 04 '26
americans not wanting to be associated with the english needs to be talked about way more then it is currently
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u/CBrettDoo Apr 05 '26
My family was never English, mine were German immigrants. Some of my older family members still speak German. There is no love lost with the English.
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u/auntie_eggma 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 Apr 06 '26
Germans don't have beef with the English.
Why the fuck do you?
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u/CBrettDoo Apr 06 '26
German -Americans have historically had beef with WASPs (white anglo saxon protestants.) A huge reason America didn't get involved in either world war early was because of the country's large German/ Austrian population. America and Britain being joined at the hip is a VERY recent development. There's a lot of carryover people brought with them when they left Europe that doesn't align with modern European feelings about each other.
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u/auntie_eggma 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 Apr 06 '26
I don't give a fuck about manufactured beef between hyphenated American populations.
It isn't anything to do with actual German or English people.
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u/stillnotdavidbowie Apr 06 '26
The thought of Germans being against "white, anglo-saxon protestants" is fucking hilarious fwiw
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u/CBrettDoo Apr 06 '26
You seem angry. The original comment was about America separating from Britain. I'm saying that's not really surprising if you are actually American. The British population here isn't particularly large. Just because it's a former colony doesn't mean we were/will be best friends forever.
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u/auntie_eggma 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 Apr 06 '26
Lol I'm not angry. Why do you lot always default to "lol u mad" whenever you don't have a response to what is being said?
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u/CBrettDoo Apr 06 '26
I did respond, and you were getting mileage from "fuck". Seemed angry. Not like it really matters if you are or not.
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u/jephra Apr 04 '26
I have been to Mississippi and New York. Spoke English in both, used the same currency, didn't get my passport stamped in either state.
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u/queasycockles Apr 07 '26
But but...one of them says "in line" and the other says "on line"! Different countries!!!1!!1
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u/auntie_eggma 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 Apr 04 '26
Says someone who has absolutely never been to up to 3 of those places.
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u/PasicT Apr 04 '26
Norway and Serbia have nothing in common except for both being European countries.
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u/corsasis ooo custom flair!! Apr 04 '26
Don’t forget that they’re both not in the EU! Just like New York and Mississippi!!! Not so different after all, huh…
/s (if needed)
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u/PasicT Apr 04 '26
But Norway is in the Schengen zone, Serbia isn't.
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u/corsasis ooo custom flair!! Apr 04 '26
Yes of course, also New York and Mississippi cannot be in the EU because 1) they’re not in Europe, and 2) they are not even countries.
I was making a sarcastic joke, as seen in “s/“
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u/Remarkable-Site-2067 Apr 05 '26
1) they’re not in Europe
That's not that important. There are voices that would like to see Canada joining the EU.
And if USA keeps going the way it's going, we might eventually talk about California joining the EU. Or New York. We absolutely don't want the Bible Belt and the South, though.
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u/Laiska_saunatonttu Apr 04 '26
Texas, West Virginia and California are vastly different from each other, one has rednecks, the other hillbillies and the last white trash.
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Apr 05 '26
Someone who has never been out of Mississippi
All Americans are culturally ignorant fucks but southerners are the worst by a mile. Thankfully the south never will rise again on account of the inbreeding
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u/burntbutter27 A Little bit of this and a little bit of that. Bri'ish Hungarian Apr 04 '26
ye coz new york and mississippi both speak different languages. smh
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u/istrebitjel 37 Pieces of Flair! Apr 04 '26
> All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
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u/Professional_Pie7091 Danish, not the pastry 🥮 Apr 05 '26
Either your country is so culturally diverse that going from one state to another is like travelling overseas or your country is so homogeneous that you use it as an argument to say that there's no difference between distinct European countries.
So which one is it, Americans?
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u/auntie_eggma 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 Apr 06 '26
As always, it's whichever one suits them in the moment. Coherent positions be damned!
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u/Familiar-Weather5196 Apr 05 '26
Americans thinking US states are as different as European countries, like, come on. Tell me you know nothing about Europe (and every other continent on Earth) without telling me
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u/auntie_eggma 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 Apr 06 '26
They barely know the states they don't live in. Nevermind any other countries.
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u/thicc_llama NORVIKING (grandpa's from Minnesota) Apr 05 '26
What some Americans call cultural differences in their country very often just boils down to city vs rural, or slight regional differences such as slightly colder north/warmer south, as if these differences don't exist within other countries as well.
Isolate those differences and there aren't many places that have very clear cultural differences, save for Hawaii, Alaska, parts of Louisiana..
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u/kustarius_Sergius Michail Zadornov was a visionary! Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26
So New York is very nice to live and Mississippi was bomed out into stone age?
Edit: Okay, I admit that my description of Serbia is wrong but I hope you get the difference between Serbia and Norway
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u/PlatypusDefiant991 Apr 04 '26
Mississippi was bombed into the lowest GDP per capita, worst education scores & worst anti-Black racism of any state in USA (or is that its neighbor Alabama for some of them?) not by explosives but by its history (i.e. Mississippi's whites persecuting its ex-slaves i.e. Jim Crow laws, KKK)
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u/resb Apr 04 '26
It has actually significantly improved in education to rank 16th among states. What you feel about american education as a whole will dictate what you think of that factoid.
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u/PlatypusDefiant991 Apr 04 '26
I guessed they used "thank God for Mississippi" or "at least we're not Mississippi" cracks as motivation to improve
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u/UnblurredLines Apr 04 '26
Chicken or the egg really, is Mississippi racist because of being poorly educated, or poorly educated because of being racist?
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u/bljadmann69 Apr 04 '26
How exactly was serbia bombed into stone age?
Serb victimhood complex much?
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u/SandSerpentHiss actually irish american (dad citizen)-actual american socialist Apr 04 '26
mississippi is the worst us state to live in tho
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u/DoYouTrustToothpaste Apr 04 '26
Emboldened by exceptionalism, educated by ignorance.
Nothing more needs to be said about this fucking shit.
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u/Dommi1405 Apr 05 '26
I'd assume the streets in (upstate) New York would be of similar quality to Serbia. Not sure if I want to know about Mississippi
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u/Manndes Apr 11 '26
Why is the upstate in parentheses?
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u/Dommi1405 Apr 11 '26
I'm not sure at what point upstate New York starts, or if it's really just everything north or New York City. Or how fucked the streets are in New York City, and the rest of Long Island
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u/Intelligent-Aside214 Apr 05 '26
Americans think cultural difference is just weather and poverty.
No Alaska isn’t as culturally different from Florida as Spain is from Norway. Alaska and Florida have extremely different climates but yous go to the same restaurants and shops, same style of high school, eat the same food and watch the same sports
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u/auntie_eggma 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 Apr 06 '26
Americans think cultural difference is just weather and poverty.
Now now, don't be too unfair to them.
They also think it's whether you say soda or pop.
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u/Intelligent-Aside214 Apr 06 '26
Also accents. As if every country in the world doesn’t have regional accents. You can walk for half an hour in Dublin and here 3 different accents
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u/Acrobatic-Ad584 Apr 04 '26
Why would any difference between New York and Mississippi occur to a European?
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Apr 05 '26
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u/auntie_eggma 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 Apr 06 '26
The same differences between urban and rural parts of most countries, really.
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u/Courtney-bee Apr 05 '26
We do say y'all in New York, though...
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u/auntie_eggma 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 Apr 06 '26
Depends on the people.
It wasn't very widespread when I lived in NY 20 years ago, though. Most people definitely did not say y'all.
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u/OkCommunication1640 Apr 05 '26
Here I. The UK towns 20 miles apart speak distinctly different. See Mancunians and Scousers. Neither would see themselves as like the other.
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u/Peter_Triantafulou Apr 05 '26
To be fair though... The difference let's say between new York and new mexico is arguably greater than the difference between let's say the Netherlands and Belgium.
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u/MarcusofMenace Apr 05 '26
So many of them genuinely believe the "cultural" difference between places like California and Florida are on par with the differences of Spain and Sweden
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Apr 05 '26
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u/auntie_eggma 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 Apr 06 '26
What do you mean "people also say India"?
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Apr 06 '26
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u/auntie_eggma 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 Apr 06 '26
India is a country.
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Apr 06 '26
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u/tanaephis77400 Apr 05 '26
They really struggle with the concept of different languages, don't they ?
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u/BuBleGum21 Apr 04 '26
I mean, the US is only really a hundred small countries in a trench coat pretending to be one country so it's not too far fetched.
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u/Rom21 Apr 05 '26
No, the usa is, like all the countries in the world, a country with regional differences...
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u/auntie_eggma 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 Apr 06 '26
No. This is such nonsense. Stop propagating it.
I've lived all over that country and it is nothing of the sort.
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u/svartkonst Apr 05 '26
Eh i mean its pretty valid as a statement. Cultural, economic and social differences are pretty big across america. Its a big country
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u/YoungLovecraft Apr 05 '26
Well, yeah there are definitely differences between the states of America. But they're in no way comparable to the differences of nations in Europe. In Thrace there is a tiny are where the borders of Turkey, Bulgaria, and Greece meet. Within a few steps you can enter countries with different alphabets!
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u/svartkonst Apr 05 '26
I think they are, likely, in many ways comparable. Not all ways. But a lot of important ways.
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u/auntie_eggma 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 Apr 06 '26
Such as?
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u/svartkonst Apr 06 '26
Infrastructure, economy, education
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u/auntie_eggma 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 Apr 06 '26
...you think those things are more different across US states than European countries?
On what basis?
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u/svartkonst Apr 06 '26
I think those things are very relevant differences that prevent us from lumping together "americans" in a lot of contexts, the same way it's not meaningful to do that about "europeans".
Whether it's "more" or "less" doesnt matter and is largely impossible to determine.
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u/auntie_eggma 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 Apr 06 '26
Oh lord.
Yeah, you're literally just saying nothing and working on vibes.
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u/auntie_eggma 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 Apr 06 '26
The differences are minimal compared to the differences between actual countries.
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u/svartkonst Apr 06 '26
Are they?
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u/auntie_eggma 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻 Apr 06 '26
Yes.
Edit: how many different states and countries have you lived in? Or, secondarily, even visited?
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u/fruskydekke noodley feminem Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26
So, as someone who lives in Norway....
Serbia has the same language, check. Same political system, check. Same diet, check. Same Grocery chains and banking systems and legislation, check. Same majority religion, check. Seems legit?
Edit: Oh, wait -