I mostly see size pointed out to people who try to draw comparisons between USA and another singlular European country.
Comment on What common American habits do people find quietly annoying?
bstix@feddit.dk 6 days ago
The size bragging.
No, Texas isn’t that big. Texas is about the same size as France.
USA also isn’t that big. Europe is larger than USA.
Sure it’s big and all, but the main difference is really just that there are fewer people in USA than in Europe. It has a lower population density, making everything seem further apart.
The reason I find it annoying is that the most obnoxious types have a tendency to use it to validate their own opinions on every fucking topic. Obviously we tiny Europeans just can’t comprehend the scale of their American way of doing things in the most backwards and old fashioned manner.
I’ve met plenty of American immigrants. Most of them are really nice and humble and appreciate learning how stuff works here. However some will eventually encounter something that doesn’t make sense to them, but rather than learn, they’ll cave in on trying to explain in the role of the world conquering strongman why it just won’t work in the scale that they’re used to in America, as if that would make any sense to do in that situation.
It’s delusional.
OlPatchy2Eyes@slrpnk.net 6 days ago
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Europe is also more concentrated than the US. Sure you are bigger, barely in terms of acreage, but you’re also clumped together. We spread the fuck out so travelling from the tip of Washington State to the tip of Florida is a much longer car trip than traveling from Finland to Portugal, for instance. Not sure that the latter trip would actually be possible, but if it were, I suspect it would be at least 1000 miles shorter, and you’ll notice that I didn’t use Alaska, which would significantly increase the distance. We can actually drive to Alaska currently. That may change if the orange moron decides to invade Canada.
bstix@feddit.dk 6 days ago
It’s certainly possible to drive from Finland to Portugal. It takes a little more than two days of constant driving. About the same as Seattle to Miami.
I’m not sure I follow the importance of this, unless you’re into long road trips. I would choose a flight in both cases, or a least spread the drive over several weeks for the adventure.
Most people only ever know their local area. And even that can be more than enough. People who live in New York or London don’t have a chance of knowing every street in their cities. They only know the routes that make sense in their lives. They only get to experience wherever they happen to be throughout their lives. Does it then matter which city is bigger, when you can only ever experience a fraction of it in a lifetime?
Neither EU or USA has any city in the top 20 of largest cities world wide anyway. All the really big cities are in Asia.
My point is that I don’t think it makes any sense to claim any value in being from some place that has the largest land or population or cities. They’re just facts that have nothing to do with the individual person.
It matters a lot more to me how people behave, what they are capable of or what they know. I’m not impressed with anyone who simply bases their self worth or identity on being from some place that has something that is bigger than some other place. Maybe patriotism is the real explanation.
And that’s the thing that annoys me about Americans, because quite a few of them seem to have a superiority complex over it. It’s perfectly fine to be proud of what your fellow countrymen have achieved, but it doesn’t automatically reflect back on the individual.
Or put differently: “Oh wow, the Grand Canyon is really impressively grand. Now, which part of it did you make?”
ABCatMom@lemmy.ca 6 days ago
On the flip side, as a Canadian, I always get a chuckle out of European tourists who think they can drive from Montreal to Vancouver in a day.
StickyDango@lemmy.world 5 days ago
I used to work on a local mountain in Vancouver and I once had someone ask about taking a day trip to Niagara Falls. What.
ABCatMom@lemmy.ca 5 days ago
😂 I love it!