Most euros have no goddamn idea just how huge the US actually is.
Q: Why don’t Americans travel abroad? A: That’s a 12+ hour flight I can’t afford to go somewhere I don’t speak the language. I barely live paycheck to paycheck if I’m lucky.
Q: Why don’t Americans speak other languages? A: I can drive for up to and over 1,000 miles in almost any direction and everybody still speaks English. The exception is most of Mexico. And some of Quebec, but that’s because some of them are just assholes.
Q: Is America really that big? A: All of Europe could fit inside the continental 48 states alone, with room left over for desert. We have literally every biome here, more vacation options than you could fit into a human lifetime of just visiting them all, and we import all the best stuff from everywhere else. There’s no practical reason to leave the country, and we don’t have to mess with border crossings in-country. Until recent years we didn’t need passports at all, in country. Now the TSA demands them (or the Real ID equivalent) for some security theater political bullshit reason, but that’s flying domestically only.
wieson@feddit.org 5 days ago
Empty landmass isn’t the only important thing.
I.e. Florida, the third most populous US state (21M), is about half the size of the whole of Germany.
But Germany’s most populous state (North Rhine - Westphalia / NRW) has a pop of 18M.
It’s waaaaay smaller, but the n of inhabitants is comparable.
To the point: I don’t think , it’s necessary to know the names of foreign states. But it’s good to know roughly what’s going on in the world. It is no secret, that US Americans are exceptionally caught in their own bubble.
TheBrideWoreCrimson@sopuli.xyz 5 days ago
Or, for another perspective: In terms of population, Ohio and Belgium are pretty much equal, but the former has 4x the area.