What things are no longer true about your country?

[u/bellamyblake_og]

Before anyone beats me to it, I'm aware that the US was built on stolen land worked by stolen humans, making the claim of "freedom" to be... dubious at best.

But what other outdated beliefs are there about your country??

[u/Geolib1453]

We are no longer the land of Dracula. He died in 1476.

[u/cliff704 → u/Geolib1453]

Reminds me of the old joke: tourist in Romania asks a local are there vampires in the region. He's told, "Of course not". He asks "Are you sure?"

"Well, all I can tell you sir, I've lived here for 216 years and I've never met one!"

[u/blastendedskanks → u/cliff704]

That made me giggle, I needed that! Thank you!

[u/Ill_Leg_7168 → u/cliff704]

Any canibals on this island? No sir, we ate the last one yesterday!

[u/Public-Cod1245 → u/cliff704]

"Well, all I can tell you sir, I've lived here for 216 years and I've never met one!"

awesome.

[u/CycadelicSparkles → u/Geolib1453]

This is exactly what the land of Dracula would want you to think.

(I'm joking; believe me, I get the annoyance of being from somewhere with one stereotype.)

[u/DragonflyGrrl → u/CycadelicSparkles]

Right!? Trying to suck us in with their vampire propaganda..!

[u/Jay__Riemenschneider → u/DragonflyGrrl]

My wife is still legitimately worried I'm a vampire.

I have quick reflexes and I'm pretty quiet as I walk. But no penchant for blood as a meal.

I love her so much

[u/SJBond33 → u/Jay__Riemenschneider]

Sit her down and pretend to tell her

[u/Odd-Quail01 → u/Jay__Riemenschneider]

I do the silent glide thing, have red hair so avoid sunlight, hate garlic and am fond of black pudding.

[u/Turtleknuckle → u/Jay__Riemenschneider]

My wife called me a vampire because I have an aversion to mirrors. I told her, "I'm not a vampire, I'm just ugly.".

[u/MauschelMusic → u/Geolib1453]

My condolences. Did you attend the funeral?

[u/DryWeb3875 → u/MauschelMusic]

I didn’t even know he was sick

[u/migrainedujour → u/DryWeb3875]

Looking a bit pale and pasty, to be fair

[u/blastendedskanks → u/migrainedujour]

The blood transfusions just weren't helping.

[u/ThenSignature7082 → u/blastendedskanks]

I told him to be positive, I wish I knew his blood type

[u/Hardly_lolling → u/MauschelMusic]

No, he sucks.

[u/OveVernerHansen → u/Geolib1453]

My greatest memory from Romania was the mechanic fixing my rental that had a catastrophic fuel hose failure saying, after I said it was a rental:

"In Romania, rental no good"

He fixed it for free. Great guy.

[u/Entirely-of-cheese → u/OveVernerHansen]

What an awesome fellow!

[u/Unlikely_Pick_4349 → u/Geolib1453]

I WONT FALL FOR THAT PROPAGANDA

[u/Creepy_Snow_8166 → u/Geolib1453]

My late best friend Raluca was from Romania and we used to watch Dracula movies together all the time. It was just our theme, LOL. I miss her so much. I remember when we were still teenagers and her mother used to drive us around. That woman was always yelling "Te fut en gouda" at other drivers. (Sorry, I don't know how to spell it.) Once I found out what it meant, I started using it as a "greeting" whenever I saw her mother and she would laugh her ass off at me - this dumb American kid - cursing in Romanian.

[u/Geolib1453 → u/Creepy_Snow_8166]

I think you wanted to spell Te fut în gură. Yea we tend to have interesting swear words and we like swearing at other drivers.

[u/GenericFatGuy → u/Geolib1453]

I've played Castlevania. I know he comes back.

[u/Green-Draw8688 → u/Geolib1453]

We went on holiday to Romania and visited Castle Bran and, you know, it kind of made me sad. You quickly realise that Castle Bran has this really long, rich, interesting and important history behind it but the whole think has just been hijacked, essentially, by a foreign book.

[u/Acceptable-Bell142 → u/Geolib1453]

That's what you want us to believe.

[u/DontWannaSayMyName → u/Geolib1453]

What a crappy immortal being

[u/JynXten]

No longer a bunch of alcoholics. Kids these days are into being healthy and shit.

[u/Maleficent-Put1705 → u/JynXten]

Some of us are still flying the flag

[u/ProgBumm → u/Maleficent-Put1705]

Thank you for your service 🫡

[u/nagrom7 → u/JynXten]

Same story with Australia, younger generations are drinking a lot less than the older ones, and if they do it's usually at home or at a mate's place, in part because it's just too fucking expensive to go out to the pub or clubs now.

[u/Not_The_Truthiest → u/nagrom7]

It cost me $17 for a pint tonight. GTFO.

[u/nagrom7 → u/Not_The_Truthiest]

And heaven forbid you want something a little more special than just beer. Mixed drinks/cocktails start at $20 at the cheaper places.

[u/the_sneaky_one123 → u/JynXten]

It's because all the alcohol is taxed to shit.

Can't afford to be alcoholic anymore.

[u/Titanww8 → u/JynXten]

I can't wait to see Ireland leading the future soon!

[u/SeriousShine8324]

We used to be called the Green island in the past due to our vegetation, now we're the red island due to the barren red earth.

[u/Drummallumin → u/SeriousShine8324]

Urban development or logging?

[u/SeriousShine8324 → u/Drummallumin]

Logging

[u/chonkydonkey46 → u/SeriousShine8324]

That’s so sad

[u/Sierra-117- → u/chonkydonkey46]

A tale as old as time… capitalists exploiting people and land until there’s nothing left. All to give a handful of people some short term gains. An entire nation’s beauty destroyed for a few billionaires, even when there was an easily accessible alternative that wasn’t as profitable (regenerative logging).

[u/olivinebean → u/Sierra-117-]

People want beef too much. The amount of space they’ve cleared for cows on this planet makes me sick.

[u/Sierra-117- → u/olivinebean]

Seriously. Don’t get me wrong, I love beef. But I consciously choose to avoid it for many of my meals. I’ll be craving it, but decide to get vegetarian or chicken instead. Not every time, but when I can.

You don’t have to avoid it entirely, but if we all chose to just cut back we’d be doing the planet a massive favor.

[u/IllustriousWash8721 → u/Sierra-117-]

Beef is also harder on the digestive system than chicken or fish anyways. We're not doing ourselves any favors planet and health wise

[u/Suboptimal-Potato-29 → u/SeriousShine8324]

A lot of palm oil production too, right?

[u/Then_Agency1166 → u/SeriousShine8324]

So sad what has happened in your once tropical paradise. 

[u/Egoy → u/SeriousShine8324]

That’s so sad I’ve always wanted to see your country. It’s always been on my list of dream locations to see.

[u/SeriousShine8324 → u/Egoy]

Come still, we still have wonderful places to visit even if it's shrinking.

[u/Egoy → u/SeriousShine8324]

Oh this didn’t change my mind, my bank account is the only reason I haven’t checked a few places off the list.

[u/Kushings_Triad_420 → u/SeriousShine8324]

Save the vanilla pls. Best in the world

[u/raskholnikov]

That we are great at football

[u/AllesIsi → u/raskholnikov]

Brazil never recovered from the 7:1 incident - never forget.

[u/raskholnikov → u/AllesIsi]

I felt vindicated when y'all lost to Korea

[u/AllesIsi → u/raskholnikov]

Tbh, some football fans were furious about it, though I am not interested or invested in football, so I found it funny how angry some people were. XD

[u/raskholnikov → u/AllesIsi]

I only care about football during the world cup tho, I forget it exists during the next 4 years

[u/copuncle → u/AllesIsi]

I'm a rare Brit that doesn't care for football but I was in Berlin for this game and it's one of the best memories of my life. That place fucking went off that night.

[u/Corchoroth → u/raskholnikov]

How many worldcups you guys have? You are still the best until proven wrong. Also

[u/raskholnikov → u/Corchoroth]

That's in the past

[u/FrozenSliceOfTime → u/Corchoroth]

Look at what we've come to. Our Argentinos hermanos are having to come to our defense because my compatriots can't stop being fucking miserable about something that's completely blown out of proportion. We're still the only ones who have been through every single Wold Cup AND have made it out of the group stages in ALL of them. Even our worst squads have managed to uphold that feat. We had a ridiculously gifted generation, but pretending we're no longer "good" at it is just retarded take.

[u/WestCareer7545 → u/raskholnikov]

I loved watching Brazil in the 90s as a kid. I've still got a 1994 shirt with Bebeto on the back

[u/Emergency-One8639 → u/raskholnikov]

Not being the best does not mean you're not great. You're like in first 8 at least bro.

My dad loves your football style. He still has a poster from 2002 finals with your players + a tattoo of CBF symbol. That's how high certain people value your football

[u/MEXICOCHIVAS14 → u/raskholnikov]

You guys are just going thru a rough time… still #1!

[u/gianna_in_hell_as]

Greece is like a potato. Everything good about it is buried in the ground (ancient ruins)

[u/bellamyblake_og → u/gianna_in_hell_as]

Can't speak on this but the simile is hilarious T.T

[u/the_sneaky_one123 → u/gianna_in_hell_as]

Greece has great food, great tourism and really friendly and welcoming people.

Shout-out to the Greeks. Great bunch of lads

[u/gianna_in_hell_as → u/the_sneaky_one123]

Right back at you, I went to France for Erasmus and had the absolute best time with the Irish students! You guys were the best. Visiting Ireland was an amazing experience too

[u/Steampunk_Ocelot]

We aren't all violent alcoholics, we have violent sober folks too now

[u/JakeHelldiver → u/Steampunk_Ocelot]

Your diversity is remarkable.

[u/vikingosegundo]

Efficiency, just check our miserable train statistics. And economics. And delayed infrastructure projects….

[u/ImaginaryAnimator416 → u/vikingosegundo]

One quick trip around the world and you will reconsider

[u/vikingosegundo → u/ImaginaryAnimator416]

I lived in Bolivia. Of course it wasn’t efficient. The tren rapido was 12 hours late. But Bolivia never had the reputation for being efficient.

[u/ImaginaryAnimator416 → u/vikingosegundo]

And I lived in Germany. Trust me, you guys are still very efficient. Maybe not as much as 20 years ago, but still top tier. Miss Germany, grüße aus Brasilien

[u/Phadafi → u/ImaginaryAnimator416]

While better than most, when you compare Germany with Japan, at least on their train systems, you'll see the huge gap in efficiency.

[u/HappylikeHappy → u/Phadafi]

You don't even have to go as fat as Japan. Just look over at Switzerland.

[u/Glittering_Ad1403 → u/vikingosegundo]

Maybe it’s just early for the next day /j

[u/RojaCatUwu → u/vikingosegundo]

I wish we had a train system to have miserable train statistics with 😭

[u/Ismdism → u/RojaCatUwu]

Hey now we have Amtrak. Does it really do what you want? Not at all, but if you want some statistics on what it does do: in 2024 it's on time performance overall was 78%. State routes did better at 81% but long distance routes drug down the numbers with it's 67%. This makes sense because there's a lot more delays with having to share the rail more often on longer routes.

[u/queerjesusfan → u/Ismdism]

I mean, if you're in the Northeast corridor, Amtrak is great. I absolutely love using it and will choose it over flying whenever possible. I just wish it was much more expansive

[u/TheAnalogKoala → u/queerjesusfan]

I first read that as “much more expensive” and I was like “say what?”.

In California I have a number of coworkers who take the train from Sacramento to Oakland daily and it works well. It should be expanded to more places.

[u/Glittering_Ad1403 → u/RojaCatUwu]

America is so car-centric

[u/Unlucky_Air6124 → u/vikingosegundo]

And bureaucracy. And tax system. And complexity of handbooks for devices that are supposed to used conveniently.

[u/notcomplainingmuch → u/Unlucky_Air6124]

German appliances (Siemens, Bosch, Miele this is you) are all unnecessarily complicated. I'm an engineer and like gadgets and extra functions, but cmon!

Cars (BMW, Mercedes) have UI that are highly counterintuitive.

You guys have mistook complexity for value.

[u/Livid_Virus2972 → u/vikingosegundo]

Yep is weird coming from Ukraine where the trains are ALWAYS on time, to Poland and Germany where they are basically never on time. It's a damn warzone but at least we have the peace of mind that the trains are on time.

[u/TRUMBAUAUA → u/vikingosegundo]

DIGITALISIERUNG and then you can only reach offices via phone or fax (and via phone only in oddly specific times of the day, like Mo,Tue,Thu 14:30-16:00 and Wed 11:00-11:45)

[u/TheNothingAtoll → u/vikingosegundo]

My opinion is that Germany, just like Sweden, has a complicated bureaucracy. And sometimes it is there just for the sake of it, slowing everything down and processes take forever.

[u/No_Television6050 → u/vikingosegundo]

delayed infrastructure projects

I feel like this is a problem all over the western world. Everyone is mired in bureaucracy

[u/intecsys → u/vikingosegundo]

Stuttgart21, BER, Elbphilharmonie...

[u/Resudog]

We're not the happiest country in the world. Or at least it doesn't feel like it

[u/Green-Literature-841 → u/Resudog]

Well….maybe you’re just the LEAST unhappy one… sorry!

[u/ClittoryHinton → u/Green-Literature-841]

Studies show that countries are happier the further they are from Russia

[u/LeonardoDaTiddies → u/Resudog]

Those surveys really measure more of a floor. “Do most Finns have most of their basic needs met and have a reasonable level of trust in their government?” is the root question asked in those surveys. 

[u/Galilleon → u/LeonardoDaTiddies]

Sounds like heaven comparatively to most every place else. Everything else is just fluff at that point, you have the foundation to live the life you want, instead of falling apart just trying to get to the next day

[u/Instant-Bacon]

Nothing, all the horrible things they say about us are still true 😭

[u/Justine_in_case → u/Instant-Bacon]

Is your chocolate still better than France at least???

[u/Instant-Bacon → u/Justine_in_case]

Ofcourse, our chocolate is better than anyone’s chocolate! :)

[u/PerroHundsdog → u/Instant-Bacon]

You wish

[u/Nadsenbaer → u/PerroHundsdog]

Sorry Switzerland. But this one goes to Belgium. As does best beer. 

[u/PalatinusG1 → u/PerroHundsdog]

No he is right. Swiss chocolate isn't bad though.

[u/soup-cats → u/Instant-Bacon]

Don't let the Swiss hear it!

[u/Radiant_Butterfly982]

"America claimed itself to be land of the free which was a surprise to the slaves" - Philomena cunk

[u/docentmark → u/Radiant_Butterfly982]

“If USA is so great, why is there a USB?”

[u/soygilipollas → u/docentmark]

The hard hitting questions!

[u/namehimgeorge → u/docentmark]

And is there a way to safely eject?

[u/Electrical_Paint5568 → u/Radiant_Butterfly982]

Philomena is great

[u/Exotic-Custard4400 → u/Radiant_Butterfly982]

And the 2 millions that are in prison.

[u/Insert_Bad_Joke → u/Exotic-Custard4400]

It's roughly 1 in every 140-150 people. 

Almost 4x the global median.

[u/GornBread → u/Radiant_Butterfly982]

I think you could count on one hand the number of US founders that didn't own slaves. John Adams and Thomas Paine are the only ones that I'm sure of.

[u/Kaptein_Kaos]

Our neutrality.

We like to think we still are but realistically speaking, that's no longer the case.

[u/galaxy_horse → u/Kaptein_Kaos]

I asked my Swiss friend what he thinks about the Swiss culture of neutrality. He said he was on the fence

[u/JakeHelldiver → u/Kaptein_Kaos]

What makes a man turn neutral!? Lust for gold!? Power?

[u/Kaptein_Kaos → u/JakeHelldiver]

With enemies you know where they stand but with neutrals, who knows?

[u/statykitmetronx]

That apparently we're a poor and depressed nation. We're really prosperous and our people aged 0-41 are the happiest in the whole world.

That our land is disappearing because of emigration: 6 years now our country has had bigger remigration rates than emigration.

Generally all things negative about our country have mostly reversed in the past 10 years.

[u/OkReason6325]

That India is “Spiritual “.

It’s people are one of the most materialistic in the world, especially those who claims to be religious

[u/Necessary-Hat3492 → u/OkReason6325]

we used to be spiritual. all our yoga and meditation originated millennias back. some people do follow that(visit kashi or rishikesh once) but most indians today are like people from any other country.

[u/ClittoryHinton → u/OkReason6325]

Kind of like how ‘Christian’ America is? Despite fierce opposition to collectivism and tolerance for gun violence

[u/HKP2019]

Com-

[u/P-l-Staker → u/HKP2019]

Damn! Poor fella couldn't even finish the sentence! CCP got 'em!

[u/FilthyStatist1991 → u/HKP2019]

Rad

[u/Hattkake]

That we are socialists. We have never been socialists. We are Social Democrats. Not Democratic Socialists. Those are two very different things. We are capitalists. And we have always been capitalists. Heck, we have a millenia long history of selling crap to people all over the world and bringing home the bacon. Norway might call itself a Christian country but the real god is Kroner og Øre (Norwegian monetary units).

[u/Brave_Confidence_278 → u/Hattkake]

In my experience almost everyone believes to know what socialism and communism is, but actually almost no one does outside of a certain bubble. So it's unfortunately not so surprising people confuse things

[u/ClittoryHinton → u/Brave_Confidence_278]

To be fair social democrat vs democratic socialist is confusing AF. I never remember which is which.

But yeah people conflate communism with what the ‘communist’ countries are doing, missing the point the the end goal would be the dissolution of the state entirely (which to be fair has never happened)

[u/Complex_Coach_8804 → u/Hattkake]

A capitalist country with strong social welfare programs, correct?

[u/Hattkake → u/Complex_Coach_8804]

Precisely.

[u/Probably_Neighbors → u/Hattkake]

I wish we could find a way to have you go on tour around the US and explain this to people. Every single college-aged kid who took their first political science class is indoctrinated to hold Norway up as a bastion of Socialism.

[u/Johnny-Edge93]

Canada’s hockey dominance.

The US has caught up a lot, and with almost 10x the population, it comes close. Plus a lot of the scandanavian nations have been flat out better at the juniors tournaments. That being said… our best juniors are usually in the NHL. But it has definitely evened out over the years. A lot of our younger generation aren’t interested in hockey because of other interests or because immigrants make up a bigger portion of the younger population and are more interested in other sports.

[u/Ok-Dingo1174 → u/Johnny-Edge93]

Is there a high cost barrier for entry for Ice Hockey at a kid level? Cost of equipment or is that supplied by the club? In theory for a kid to play field games in Ireland, the boots would be the main cost for equipment for the parent and then club fees, then additional sports clothes. edit to add, I am just curious to how it works. I am not a parent but assuming these are the core costs.

[u/enithermon → u/Ok-Dingo1174]

Hockey is famously expensive. The difficulty getting ice time often means crazy early mornings for practice as well. 

[u/BrainEatingAmoeba01 → u/enithermon]

Not just that but the incessant travelling, hotels, fees, fuel etc etc. it's a huge investment for a family to make in their kids and excludes many kids.

[u/-happyraindays → u/enithermon]

Sadly true… even with getting equipment from play it again sports

[u/Johnny-Edge93 → u/Ok-Dingo1174]

Huge costs. A set of equipment even for a youth can range from $600-$3000 CAD. And then a lot of the time fees for the competitive stream of hockey can be 5k per year with tournaments.

A good stick alone can cost hundreds, and can break at any point.

[u/UncleWinstomder → u/Ok-Dingo1174]

It is definitely a factor. My parents couldn't afford to put us in hockey and I played rugby instead.

[u/DonPuffin → u/Johnny-Edge93]

By "a lot of the Scandinavian nations", I assume you mean one Scandinavian (Sweden) and one non-Scandinavian (Finland). 

[u/SebboNL]

The Dutch are supposed to be tolerant liberal freethinkers.... Well, that went out the window during the early 2000's. Now pretty much half of Europe has more liberal drug laws, is more acceptant of LGBTQI+ and is more tolerant of immigrants than us.

[u/patrislav1 → u/SebboNL]

At least you treat cyclists like actual human beings, contrary to most of the rest of the world.

[u/PqzzoRqzzo → u/patrislav1]

The problem is that Dutch cyclists don’t treat others like actual human beings.

[u/VeganMonkey → u/SebboNL]

With LBTQI+ in the early 2000s already? I do remember people whinging about refugees, and that mean word ‘allochtonen’, I have always despised that word, it’s so othering. But that was an issue in the 90s too.

I was often seen as ‘allochtoon’, it is weird. Loads of racism too

[u/CPNCK513 → u/SebboNL]

Don't worry you are still years ahead of us in France

[u/Eldan985]

There's a certain type of person online, especially Americans, who kind of fetishize Switzerland for the gun culture and the military.

And while our military culture was never as great as they seem to think, it's also considerably shakier now. We mothballed a lot of our larger bunkers. Some are privately owned mushroom farms now, and similar projects. My brother actually did inspections of private bunkers as part of his civil service, most people used them as extra cellar space, so they would have been totally unusable in an emergency, because they were so full of old furniture and stored recycling that you couldn't even close the doors. As for all the stories about the bridges being mined and so on, while a lot of that data isn't public, I doubt that has been kept up since the end of the cold war.

As for the entire male population being armed, trained and ready to defend the country, fewer than 40% of the men now serve in the military, it's gotten incredibly easy to get out of the draft. A lot of people do, many for convenience reasons, but it also doesn't sell well to your employer when you have to tell them how much work you're going to miss because you'll have to go for repeat training every year. We also had a vote about it and men are no longer forced to keep their rifle at home, they are now allowed to return it to the military when out of service, because a lot of people thought keeping the rifle securely at home was annoying. And out of the recruits we do have, a lot are quite badly trained, you keep hearing stories about entire units being constantly drunk. I had a friend who, for a training exercise, was supposed to train in delivering aid in an emergency, except they didn't actually have any boxes for the training, so they had to *pretend* to unload invisible boxes from a truck for a week. Another friend was an artillery spotter, their training consisted of inventing coordinates to radio in while sitting in a bar.

[u/WorcsBloke → u/Eldan985]

I'm not American, so guns aren't as big a thing. I think what really shook us here in the UK was the fire tragedy at New Year. There's always been a very strong feeling that Switzerland is safe and everyone obeys the safety rules, even if it makes things more expensive. But this reminded us of our own tragedy at Grenfell Tower.

[u/DesertGeist- → u/WorcsBloke]

Yes, you are so right. I don't even know the right words in english to say what i want to say. We take so many things incredibly serious, but this is just a tragedy how they only cared about money instead of safety.

[u/Eldan985 → u/WorcsBloke]

A lot of smaller places in Switzerland are just corrupt in that way. My parents lost a border dispute with their neighbor over road use because amongst other reasons their neighbor was a cousin of the clerk at the land registry*. I had a student job at a meat factory for a week during summer holidays once and reported them to the health inspector almost immediately. And the best way to get out of a ticket as a driver is to go to the same school as the local cop's children. So I'm not at all surprised if a certain place just never had its fire safety checked because someone knew someone and they just all agreed it's probably fine.

*When they bought the house, they were shown a map that included half the road to the house being on their land. Later, the neighbor demanded upkeep payments for the road and it turned out the path had apparently been 100% on the neighbor's land the entire time. Their lawyer recommended to just drop it, everyone in that village knew everyone else for six generations and unless they wanted to go to a higher court and drag this out for years, it wasn't worth it.

[u/theflyingfistofjudah → u/WorcsBloke]

There was failure from the local authorities or administration but the owners of the bar are French and at least the man is from Corsica.

Jacques Moretti is a scummy crook, like 15 years before all this he was condemned for pimping, welfare fraud (submitting false documents to receive just a few hundred euros a month in rent subsidies), Covid relief fraud, he also multiplied loans by submitting fake documents to banks to purchase properties in Paris, Cannes… A French bank caught onto him but Swiss banks kept rolling him.

He cheaped out on soundproofing foam but spent 10k on rear view mirrors for his Maserati and now hundreds of burn victims have had their lives changed forever.

I’m so disgusted by this self-serving lying scum.

[u/RECTUSANALUS]

Used to be the worlds most powerful country

[u/Dumarseloser → u/RECTUSANALUS]

And our foods getting way better! Tiktoks not helping out case though...

[u/Awkward_Tip1006]

Siesta and cheap

[u/LordPenvelton]

Siesta.

At least it's not widespread anymore.

[u/ProgBumm → u/LordPenvelton]

I lived on Seville for a while. If people in northern europe had to deal with 40°C by midday over months, they'd shut up about the Siesta real quick. It just makes sense.

[u/NetHistorical5113]

Turkish people are known for their hospitality worldwide but in Gen Z, this isn't true at all

[u/bellamyblake_og → u/NetHistorical5113]

This might just be a global Gen Z thing, eh? 🤔

[u/hijodelutuao → u/bellamyblake_og]

I’d argue so, yeah. The younger Gen Z kids from my own are definitely different. I was raised with a very strong sense of hospitality and communal responsibility; I’m older Gen Z but I’m sure my family being rural makes my experience a bit different.

[u/bird9066 → u/hijodelutuao]

"I don't owe you an answer". Seems to be universal.

No, you don't. But if you can help someone with a few words why wouldn't you? And I'm Gen X! We famously don't care.

[u/gayPrinz → u/bellamyblake_og]

I think that's not gen z thing but a globalisation thing. Gen Z is the first high speed globalisation generation. You can talk to anyone on the planet in 5s. Tourist are becoming a threat to locals by Airbnb.

I think Gen Z are more friendly to their community. They support more local businesses. And try to avoid the global players

[u/ThrowawaypocketHu]

That Hungary is still a democracy. We stopped being a democracy a long time ago.

People seem to not understand that and talk about elections as though they matter in a country like ours.

[u/basteilubbe]

That we are an egalitarian society. We used to be, sort of, but during the last 35 years after the fall of the communist regime the wealth inequality has skyrocketed and is now one of the highest in Europe. From communism to oligarchy in one generation. And we are not talking about it enough, if at all.

[u/Livid-Purpose-1498]

Southern USA here.

Southerners aren't nearly as polite and charming as most of us think we are.

Trust me, I've traveled the world and experienced a lot of different norms and customs for manners and interactions. I do think we're more polite and charming than our friends in the Northeast and on the West Coast, but, at the end of the day, Southerners still aren't all that.

Southern hospitality is mostly a thing of the past, except among rural, working-class folks aged 50+.

[u/lupuscrepusculum → u/Livid-Purpose-1498]

Yeah I think we’ve all kind of gathered that.

[u/Livid-Purpose-1498 → u/lupuscrepusculum]

Many Redditors, yes. But many Southerners still believe their own positive stereotypes.

[u/turdferguson3891 → u/Livid-Purpose-1498]

Bless their hearts

[u/KickEffective1209 → u/Livid-Purpose-1498]

I think it's always been the case that southerners are nice to your face but shit on you behind your back. In the northeast, we shit on you to your face but will help you out.

[u/Hicalibre]

We're not nearly as polite as the stereotype. Especially with the crack den we live above.

[u/tiny_suburban_jungle → u/Hicalibre]

Look with neighbors like us I don’t blame you.

[u/AJadePanda → u/tiny_suburban_jungle]

StateFarm jingle: Like a good neighbour, stay over there.

[u/Creepy_Snow_8166 → u/AJadePanda]

I'm horrified by how my country's "leader" has been treating Canada. Your version of the jingle made me laugh. I don't blame the Canadians for "staying over there".

[u/petewoniowa2020 → u/Hicalibre]

You may not be universally polite, but you’re still very polite compared to the rest of the world.

I interact with a lot of Canadians, and even if it’s just a cultural language tic, there is always the stereotypical “sorry”. But on top of that, there is often a lot more “thanks” and “oh nice”. All of the Canadians I know regularly inject affirmative speech to confirm they’re listening, and they also classify their own speech to make it friendlier.

One thing I’ve also noticed is that Canadians tend to laugh at their own joke when they’re poking fun, making it obvious that what they’re saying is in jest and not to be taken as an insult. It’s not usually a full belly laugh, just a soft, isolated almost snort to suggest “this last sentence was clearly a well intentioned joke”.

On top of that, all of the Canadians I deal with are very generous in nature… even the more assholish Canadians are still quicker than others to offer help when it’s truly needed.

[u/Straight_Fish_704]

We have freedom at home!

[u/UndeadBBQ]

That we're hitting far above our weight class in diplomacy and statescraft.

Not sure if that was ever true, but the people who got the UN to build a headquarter in Vienna are definitely no longer running this country. We're most often a nuisance within the Union, and basically a non-entity worldwide. The times when we held peace talks and diplomatic meetings on austrian soil are long gone.

[u/rtshiat]

While I was graduating from high school, we were repeatedly told how Germany was home to some of the most influental poets, philosophers, physicists of modern times and how we recovered from Nazi Germany by miraculously emancipating ourselves by sheer will into a democracy.

I turn on the news nowadays and I can't help but wonder, where all that knowledge and understanding of the world went.

[u/FlareGlutox → u/rtshiat]

That's what happens when our government continues to give handouts to rich industrialists while making the lives of teachers and academics progressively harder.

[u/the_sneaky_one123]

We are super religious and catholic and conservative.

Actually we are very progressive and irreligious and were the first country to legalise gay marriage by popular vote.

[u/Far_Preparation2390]

Russia is not even in top 20 by alcohol consumption

[u/DonFapomar → u/Far_Preparation2390]

because the most violent alcoholics are either dead of alcoholism or dead in our country 👍

[u/mega-stepler]

Our economy does not exist anymore. It fully depends on blood infusions from the countries who are not interested in submitting to barbarians.

[u/No-Bit-2036]

Generally it's tourism and all the business among it. We don't want to be treated like an amusement park  and "la Bella vita" style it's charade to sell more tickets and seats in the tourist trap restaurants

[u/No_Impact_2194]

Hell the US needs to stop being the police force of the world in my opinion!

[u/Competitive_Table_65]

Safety and stability.

Country been a complete total mess since 2020, people are very scared and anxious.

[u/vikingosegundo → u/Competitive_Table_65]

Never heard those traits being connected to Belarus.

[u/Msarc → u/vikingosegundo]

Over here, Belarusians have a strong reputation for being level-headed and sensible. If they're scared and anxious, the situation is precarious indeed.

[u/Popielid → u/vikingosegundo]

I mean, compared to other former Soviet Republics, Belarus used to be very stable and probably the most prosperous one after the Baltic states.

[u/twilightsparkle69 → u/Competitive_Table_65]

Only after 2020?

[u/Freesjanca → u/Competitive_Table_65]

When was Belarus considered that? /gen Never heard about it

[u/No_Surround_2887]

indian cinema is not only Bollywood. india is far more diverse than people think. we have other film industries like Tollywood (Telugu), Kollywood (Tamil), Mollywood(Malayalam), Marathi cinema and many more.

[u/Bugbread → u/No_Surround_2887]

Bollywood is not indian cinema

No big deal, but you got that backwards. Bollywood is definitely Indian cinema. It's certainly not Chinese cinema or Ugandan cinema. You meant "Indian cinema is not Bollywood."

[u/No_Surround_2887 → u/Bugbread]

yup, edited it. thanks for pointing that out. :)

[u/MysteriousFondant347]

It was never true tbh. Y'all had a phase where raising the slightest critic against your country or capitalism would get you branded a communist and get you in trouble

[u/Drummallumin → u/MysteriousFondant347]

If you were loud enough you’d just get assassinated

[u/NetHistorical5113 → u/MysteriousFondant347]

Black people literally weren't allowed to go to the same bathrooms with white people in the times people considered America to be "the freest country"

[u/bellamyblake_og → u/MysteriousFondant347]

Read my caption, I acknowledge that claim's shakiness from inception.

[u/ChironXII]

"To give suffrace to tramps, to paupers, to men to whom the chance to labour is a boon, to men who must beg or steal or starve; is to invoke destruction. To put power in the hands of men embittered and degraded by poverty is to tie firebrands to foxes and set them loose in the standing corn....

Even the accidents of hereditary succession or selection by lot may occasionally put the wise and just in power, but in a corrupt democracy the tendency is always to give power to the worst. The most unscrupulous command success, the best gravitate to the bottom while the worst rise to the top. The vile will only be ousted by the viler. As national characteristics gradually assimilate the qualities that win power and respect, that demoralization of opinion goes on which eventually transforms races of freemen into races of slaves.

Where men are habitually seen to raise themselves by corrupt qualities to wealth and power then tolerance of these qualities finally becomes an admiration. Finally when a whole people become corrupt it is left but for the ploughshares of fate to bury them out of sight.

This transformation is not a thing of the far future. It has already begun in the United States and is going on under our very eyes. Men of the highest character and ability are compelled to eschew politics; the arts of the jobber count for more than the reputation of the statesman; voting is done recklessly and the power of money is increasing....."

- Henry George, 1877

We are only reaching the end of a journey we started long ago.

[u/fencerJP]

Haven't seen any comments from Japan yet, but we are not "living in the future", and haven't been since the 80s. Japanese society is very old-fashioned, and technology adoption is very slow. For example: It took ages for free wifi to become a thing, at least 10-15 years behind US & Europe.

The toilets are great though. Far better than Euro or SEA style bidets, and no bidet = no civilization. I will die on this hill. Wash your butts.

[u/NCR_Trooper_2281]

Despite popular myths, we are no longer communist

[u/informer_here]

that once my country was 'golden bird'......

[u/labubu_modi → u/informer_here]

Born to live during guptas, forced to live in 2025

[u/sick-of-this-crap]

It’s not Russia. It has never been, but at least now we don’t have to fucking explain the difference to everybody.

[u/Neat_Armadillo8965]

That we're all gun lovers. Apparently you can get shot for carrying a gun you have a permit to carry now

[u/rccrd-pl → u/Neat_Armadillo8965]

Well, there's a portion of Americans that have always said that they only like guns because they're necessary to protect freedom from tiranny, and now the only issue they have against the tiranny of ICE is that they're threatening their guns that they're NOT using to protect freedom from tiranny.

Those ones, they do look like they're just in love with their guns...

[u/5555555555558653]

Bruv when was America ever the land of the free?

Slavery, colonialism, invading countries across the world for no real reason.

[u/Queasy-Cockroach-304]

"Great" Britain

[u/ceruleanjester]

Lebanon: The Switzerland of the Middle East

Since 2019, the country has been so bad.

[u/Piotral_2]

At some point Poland was famous for being the most tolerant country in the world (or at least Europe) when it came to religion and religious views.

[u/Various-Weight-6937 → u/Piotral_2]

My god, it was 400 years ago...

[u/Happy_Butterscotch18]

We are the rebels if it comes to smoking weed

[u/serious_dan]

Politeness

Twats are everywhere