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This is the 6th post I have seen this week along the formula (1) I am from Europe and I went to America. (2) Americans do things in a way I find unusual and/o
by lainga 9y ago
This is the 6th post I have seen this week along the formula
(1) I am from Europe and I went to America.
(2) Americans do things in a way I find unusual and/or distressing.
(3) The cause must be a character flaw shared by all Americans (security and puritanical reasons...?).
- pwython 9y agoEh, when someone says "it sure feels strange, and very difficult to get used," it doesn't have to be negative. You can take it as a "character flaw" jibe, but it's really just an observation. source: American that is still in shock by septic tank users that have to throw their feces-paper in the trashcan.
- Crisco 9y agoI lived in the Dominican Republic for a few years, and it was a little weird to me at first, but after a while you get used to putting dirty paper in the trash. I never once had to deal with a clogged toilet. After moving back to the USA it was just as weird to put paper in the toilets (though drinking the same water you bathe in was the weirdest part). I think people exaggerate the weirdness and difficulty of adjustment, because in both instances it took me a week at most to get used to either way.
- adventured 9y ago> though drinking the same water you bathe in was the weirdest part Surely you mean the water that enters the house via plumbing, is used for both bathing and drinking from via a faucet. As opposed to drinking bath water. Is the weirdness of that because they don't drink tap water in the Dominican?
- BeeOnRope 9y ago> Is the weirdness of that because they don't drink tap water in the Dominican? Yes, almost nowhere in Central America would you (or locals) drink water from the tap. Things like brushing your teeth are a grey area.
- wstrange 9y agoUnless you are on well, you don't drink tap water in most places in the DR
- mixmastamyk 9y agoThe fact that the vast majority of people don't travel more than a week or two (if ever) probably contributes to the lack of perspective.
- tzs 9y ago> source: American that is still in shock by septic tank users that have to throw their feces-paper in the trashcan. What? Where/when/why is that necessary?
- andrewwharton 9y agoGreece/present day/crap plumbing. https://www.worldnomads.com/travel-safety/europe/greece/toilets-in-greece-water-safety https://www.worldnomads.com/travel-safety/europe/greece/toil...
- jjeaff 9y agoWhen you have an undersized septic tank, this can become necessary. But not necessary for most.
- stephengillie 9y agoI grew up near Tacoma, WA with a septic tank. Every house on the street has one. We had to have a septic truck come out and pump it every few years. Otherwise it was just like sewer. They did put sewers in about 15 years after the houses were built, and mandated hooking into it on the next septic tank pumping. But the tanks are left underground, as removing them would leave a 20 foot hole in the backyard of each house. In short, what's this about tossing your stool in the trash?
- poulsbohemian 9y agoWhen I lived in a house with a septic tank, I was shocked at how much of a non-issue it was. Even with a family, the tank really didn't need to be pumped more than every 5+ years at the most, and was very inexpensive. Never backed up or had any issues.
- jjeaff 9y agoThat's only if your septic tank is improperly sized or otherwise malfunctioning. Around 20% of homes in America have their own septic tank. And essentially all of them flush their toilet paper like everyone else.
- ridgeguy 9y agoMy home is on a septic tank. We flush TP. No problem so far (18 years).
- nashashmi 9y agoI'm interested in knowing what percentage of users are not in America. It seems that it's increasing. We've always enjoyed here to mean America. I guess it won't be for long.
- legitTrolling 9y agoYou are correct in your assessment, that this is subtle trolling. HN has been flooded by low quality user participation, and an explosion in downvote privileges. Pretty sure HN is suffering from serious forum sliding, and it's just time to move on to some other aggregator. Too bad lobste.rs is run by pushcx now, and not jcs anymore.
- jklinger410 9y ago>Pretty sure HN is suffering from serious forum sliding, and it's just time to move on to some other aggregator. Has to be a better solution than this imo.
- OtterCoder 9y agoIf there is, it's been a long time coming. The Eternal September started in 1993, and has been repeated across every social site or service ever created since then. The only way to avoid the flood is to leave before they arrive.
- purple-again 9y agoNo doubt diversion of purpose clashes as well. I don’t particularly care what the owners thought HN would be or how they think it should be run. I found a better reddit (because tech and politics was already most of what I was interested in) and so I stayed here doing what I did on Reddit. The whole ‘SV startup’ thing is just an annoying undertone I have to filter out (yes I know what ycombinator does) as I navigate the site.
- whatyoucantsay 9y agoThank you for your comment! It confirms so much of what I've been thinking for the past few years that someone with your stated interest in politics and disinterest in "The whole ‘SV startup’ thing" would see this site as a "better reddit". The HN I once loved is well and truly dead. May this site serve its current demographic well.
- bambax 9y agoPuritanical reasons would be a character flaw, maybe, but not security. From the other comments it seems the main reason is easiness to clean. But my point was about the fact that the author of the article was shocked that latrines in Pompei were public and shared, while in the US toilets are almost as public as in Pompei (not exactly as much, but still too much for someone from a different culture).
- f1notformula1 9y agoReplace with: (1) I am from $region_X and I went to $region_Y (2) $region_Y'ers do things in a way I find unusual and/or distressing (3) The cause must be a character flaw shared by all $region_Y'ers (<insert stereotypes of choice here>). and your statement is still valid about this formula. I think we tend to preferentially notice them when we're in one of the two regions involved, but in general the world (and so the internet) is full of this sort of semantically null comparisons about culture and stereotypes. I've started seeing these as idle chatter akin to "Hey, look at that weirdly painted bus". At most I'd respond with "oh heh cool" but I'm not going to spend any more of my energy trying to explain choices of bus colors to anyone.
- lemiffe 9y agoPHP dev? ;)
- hiccuphippo 9y agoAnother stereotype? It could be Perl or Bash.
- tyingq 9y agoOr Ruby, or TCL...
- new_hackers 9y agoor PowerShell
- RbrtM 9y agoI didn't know that there are still people out there that program in Perl or Tcl??
- tyingq 9y agoBooking.com is mostly Perl and doing gangbusters. Tcl is, for example, the lingua franca for F5 load balancers. I have more examples, but both are far from dead.
- davidw 9y agoI'm from America, lived in Europe, and definitely prefer European toilets at the office. It's an actual room that gives you real privacy.
- matte_black 9y agoThis notion of privacy probably results in people taking way longer to do their business. Americans don’t have time for that shit.
- gautamdivgi 9y agolol - that reminds me of the quote from the boss baby justifying wearing a diaper.
- jessriedel 9y agobambax's comment is particularly silly too: "It seems, Americans don't trust one another to sit alone in a toilet". One could just as easily remark that "It seems Europeans must be so childishly shy about normal bodily functions that they must build walls from floor to ceiling in order to pretend that they don't happen". But obviously, both versions are stupid.
- pbhjpbhj 9y agoBoth may be stupid, but perhaps also true of a large enough portion of the population as to provide the reason for those differences?
- jessriedel 9y agoThere are a million possible reasons, some cultural but very many economic or historical accident. In principle it would be possible to try and infer something about culture from this, but it's overwhelmingly obvious that this excercise is indulged in so people can gleefully confirm their existing beliefs.
- benpiper 9y agoApparently the very private Puritan outhouses were really time machines which they used to time travel to the 20th century and help pass the ADA.