241

Europeans, what is something that Americans have/do that makes no sense to you? (programming.dev)

submitted 1 year ago by likeaduck@programming.dev to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

600 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] jantin@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago

My experience is from Canada, but Canada is in America so it should count:

insane amounts of empty space. It's one thing to know that in America several hours drive doesn't count as "far away", another to experience it.
guns. Not like in "them americans only shoot themselves", but like in "any hardware store carries full gamut of weapon-adjacent accessories and it's normal" wtf mates, you can't keep your murder machines confined to murder machine shops? We manage to do it with porn and sex toys in Europe (at least my part of it), sure you can too with guns?
malls. We do have malls in Europe. I still don't get them, but it is a choice to go there. Where I lived in Canada it was the only shopping option. Why not corner shops? These suburbs waste a ton of space, no one has ever thought in a capitalist brain "hey let's put a shop closer to the people and charge them more because they burn less fuel and waste less time to get here"?
And a very specific nitpick: calling places "european" like a point of pride while in fact they are rather not. Quebec City and Montreal I think both pride themselves on being "the most europe-like cities in north america" and... they're not europe-like? Like, ok, the old town is nice, but that's it.

[-] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Corner shops used to exist in small towns, but they were killed by malls, big box stores, and online shopping.

[-] RGB3x3@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

And car-centric infrastructure. It's dumb to drive somewhere for a single shop, so people wanted an excuse to drive their expensive cars. Hence the one stop mega mall, where you can find everything you could want to load your car up with.

[-] mtchristo@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

Canada is huge . and their cities are mainly built on flat ground hence the spaciousness. Add to that the dependency on cars. And you get huge swaths of unwalkable cities.

When it comes to the absence of corner shops. Its mainly due to strict urban zoning. Where they don't mix commercial and residential activities

this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023

241 points (90.8% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27258 readers

1945 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

6) No US Politics.

Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.