Ask Lemmy

What I've noticed is while there's absolutely corruption at high levels in America, amongst the rich, there's almost no situation where (say) you have to sneakily hand over an extra $20 at the DMV to get your driver's license. Or slip your nurse at the hospital an extra $50 to make sure she cares for you appropriately. Or get a lavish gift for teacher so you can get the grade you need to get into the right school.

I mean, here or there people can try that stuff, but it's still a legit scandal if it happens, it's not baked into society.

Whereas that sort of casual greasing-of-hands with an extra $5 here, extra $20 there $50 there at every single level even amongst not-rich folks can supposedly be common in heavily corrupted societies.

Yeah, there's corruption--but it's pretty over-our-heads for everyday stuff. It's not baked into everyday interactions we have if we go down the street to the grocery store, or want to get a Passport done.

Police officers don't get elected, but the sheriffs do. I think this is mostly a holdover from when the only real law within a hundred miles of a town was the sheriff.

I do agree that electing judges is odd. My state doesn't even allow us to vote on electing them anymore, but just on retaining them in office. I've always voted "No" just because I don't think it's appropriate.

Now if you want to get really weird, most areas also elect their coroner and there usually is no skill or education requirement to be elected.

Haha yup, the sepo take on how they do everything like that boggles my mind.

"Look at this nice chunk of meat I have!"

"Ooh, that would be great to baste, season, and grill. I bet it would be delicious?"

"Eh, it's easier just to throw it in a pot of water."

People from a place get to name the place. Americans named it America as a shorthand for USA.

Its no less weird than any other country name, which are similarly arbitrary.

Sorry i do not understand that parte about "abductions", what do you mean? And about "giving away" personal information it is the opposite, at least most americans and (north)europeans are "closed" to themselves. Europeans from southern countries are more like us latin americans, friendly and open.

I’d say at least the europeans I know more readily give away personal information, i.e. stories, anecdotes, details about themselves and their lives. In latin america you never know who’s out to get you, what with many abductions being perpetrated by family, friends or other close ones. Particularly money is a no-go topic in public spaces.

this seems more like an american thing to share information?

Milk in tea is only universal for English/Irish breakfast tea(idk how popular they are outside wester Europe but in England/Ireland if someon says tea they mean breakfast tea and will specify otherwise)for something like chai or eal grey 1/3~(anicdotally) of people who drink it wouldn't have mik, and the milk isn't hot it's normally fridge-cold to room-temp the tea bag is steeped in just water, the point is to sweeten the rea and cool it down

If it's milk being added to tea that surprises you, it is a regular drink in south and south-east asia, not unique to the west. The latter especially has this drink called "teh tarik" that uses condensed milk and is awesome but diabetes-inducingly sweet.

American. I normally drink my tea black, but milk is nice with earl grey on occasion.

And typically, the milk isn't hot. You pour it in already steeped tea, like you would if you drank coffee with cream.

That said, I do occasionally steep my earl grey entirely in steamed milk and add a little vanilla and it's just a nice treat. But I'm not looking for a bitter flavor at that point either.

Honestly, I thought putting milk & sugar in your tea was bonkers until I tried it from my British friends. It works with traditional English teas, but not really with American/orange pekoe teas.

There are some English teas that are so bitter that they need sugar in order to be palatable.

Good old cultural cringe :\

In North America and Europe for some reason people refer to elders by their first name? We would never in 1000 years think of doing something like that, it’s considered extremely rude. We either use their surname (like Mr.X) or Uncle/Auntie.

In America at least, this is a change in the past 100 years for us, too. If you look at older American media--TV shows, books--you'll start to see depictions of children calling older people/neighbors "Mr. Lastname" or "Mrs. Lastname" and such. Like, if you watch some American black and white shows with kids in it, you'll see "appropriate child behavior" of that era modeled, and it's pretty heavily focused on kids being cute and obedient and chirping "Hello Mr. Smith!" or whatever at the mailman, and absolutely not using first names casually with adults or adults in authority. Heck, I think even older episodes of Sesame Street modeled it, and Mr. Rogers.

I realize there's no reason for non-Americans to be up to date with older American media, but there was absolutely a time within living memory when calling an older adult by their first name casually was pretty rude. I was born in the 1980s, and the shift away from being overly formal with older adults kinda happened somewhere around there because I remember both the "old" and the "new" being modeled around me.

I'm not sure all the cultural reasons behind the shift--there's probably a reason for it, I'm just not educated enough in that realm to know what it is for certain.

Or maybe I'm slightly too young. Perhaps someone from Gen X will understand what was going on there better, they would've been slightly older than me and have better memories of that period.

I’ve worked in Western Europe. I don’t know why but there seems to be a lot of taxes for everything. You have to get govt permission for everything.

Could you expand on "get govt permission for everything"? I'm from Germany, and I honestly can't remember when I last got "government permission", if ever. Maybe my driver's license?

Could you elaborate on the lost sense of traditions?

Also I don't agree with you about the 'nationality not ethnicity' thing, but that really may vary, and I don't think it would be possible to debate that, as we'd first have to define the difference between nat. and eth., they seem to be ~the same thing to me.

I'm totally with you. But to add to that there's something that I quite don't understand why it's popular both in America and in Latin America (dunno about other regions). Drug dealers, Mafia, violent criminals, narcos, capos, etc in media, be it documentary-style or fiction. Even in shows where they are meant as the bad guy protagonist lots of people tend to idolize them