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I definitely think Europeans and others from homogeneous or smaller countries struggle to understand the variety and diversity of culture of the United States.

morlockabove 6y ago
In europe, the surrounding countries are your equivalent to the different states in the us
- momokoko 6y ago
  That isn’t really accurate. There is much more diversity in individual states depending on where you are than in most European countries. That statement is kind of what I mean. I don’t think most people outside, and to some extent inside the US, appreciate how much diversity of culture exists in the US.
  - dukeyukey 6y ago
    I think morlockabove meant that thanks to the size of the US, the density of different cultures in many orders of magnitude higher in Europe than the US. Th cultural difference between Texans, Washingtonians and a New Hampshireite is minuscule compared to France and Germany, let alone France and somewhere like Estonia.
    - momokoko 6y ago
      I believe it misses the fact that there are very different cultures within Washington or Texas. For example, Austin is very different from Houston and even north Houston is very different from south Houston. Eastern Washington is completely different culturally than western Washington(Seattle etc). No where else in the world has the massive amount of diversity that the US does at the scale of the US. It’s not even close anywhere else so it is difficult for both US residents and people of other countries to fully comprehend.
      - WitCanStain 6y ago
        That seems incredibly unlikely. So unlikely that I'm going to say it's not true. There are certainly cultural differences across the US but you'll have a very hard time convincing people that these differences are greater than those that exist between Finland and Italy, say. Or between Cameroon and Kenya.
      - morlockabove 6y ago
        Sounds like a fully general counterargument
      - tpm 6y ago
        The European Union has the scale of the US and arguably more diversity given there are a few more languages spoken and each one is associated with a different culture. And that's only a part of one continent, and there are more continents.
      - dukeyukey 6y ago
        I completely believe there are differences, but are they really that different compared to areas of similar size in Europe, where you might go through a dozen different languages, different religions, massively varying political party support? And if you look at India or Indonesia, the cultural diversity becomes even more again.
        momokoko 6y ago
        Yes. Significantly different. Do you realize that metropolitan areas in US are not even 50% white or Christian or likely any of the other stereotypes people have of the US outside of the US. Many cities in the US provide documentation in often 4 or more languages. Schools employ large teams of specialists for teaching English as there are significant amounts of schools where less than half of the student population is a native English speaker. Cable TV in most areas offers packages of programming in many different languages. In the US, network television is broadcast with a simultaneous Spanish language audio. This homogeneous white, English speaking, Christian view of the US may have been true in the 1960s, but outside of the rural US, this is no longer valid.
  - Melting_Harps 6y ago
    > That isn’t really accurate. There is much more diversity in individual states depending on where you are than in most European countries. You ever been in Spain, Italy, Germany or France? This is simply not true, in Spain they have so many different languages, in the others they have incredibly dialects that seem like entirely different languages and can be only as short as 25km away from one another--something like Badish vs schwabish vs Alemansich vs Hoch Deutsch. You have to live in places like Hawaii (which I did) before you get anything close to the stark differences I'm talking about, where they have an entirely different set of culture and language (Hawaiian pidgin) to see what is so pervasive all throughout Southern and Central Europe.

morlockabove 6y ago

In europe, the surrounding countries are your equivalent to the different states in the us

momokoko 6y ago
That isn’t really accurate. There is much more diversity in individual states depending on where you are than in most European countries. That statement is kind of what I mean. I don’t think most people outside, and to some extent inside the US, appreciate how much diversity of culture exists in the US.
- dukeyukey 6y ago
  I think morlockabove meant that thanks to the size of the US, the density of different cultures in many orders of magnitude higher in Europe than the US. Th cultural difference between Texans, Washingtonians and a New Hampshireite is minuscule compared to France and Germany, let alone France and somewhere like Estonia.
  - momokoko 6y ago
    I believe it misses the fact that there are very different cultures within Washington or Texas. For example, Austin is very different from Houston and even north Houston is very different from south Houston. Eastern Washington is completely different culturally than western Washington(Seattle etc). No where else in the world has the massive amount of diversity that the US does at the scale of the US. It’s not even close anywhere else so it is difficult for both US residents and people of other countries to fully comprehend.
    - WitCanStain 6y ago
      That seems incredibly unlikely. So unlikely that I'm going to say it's not true. There are certainly cultural differences across the US but you'll have a very hard time convincing people that these differences are greater than those that exist between Finland and Italy, say. Or between Cameroon and Kenya.
    - morlockabove 6y ago
      Sounds like a fully general counterargument
    - tpm 6y ago
      The European Union has the scale of the US and arguably more diversity given there are a few more languages spoken and each one is associated with a different culture. And that's only a part of one continent, and there are more continents.
    - dukeyukey 6y ago
      I completely believe there are differences, but are they really that different compared to areas of similar size in Europe, where you might go through a dozen different languages, different religions, massively varying political party support? And if you look at India or Indonesia, the cultural diversity becomes even more again.
      - momokoko 6y ago
        Yes. Significantly different. Do you realize that metropolitan areas in US are not even 50% white or Christian or likely any of the other stereotypes people have of the US outside of the US. Many cities in the US provide documentation in often 4 or more languages. Schools employ large teams of specialists for teaching English as there are significant amounts of schools where less than half of the student population is a native English speaker. Cable TV in most areas offers packages of programming in many different languages. In the US, network television is broadcast with a simultaneous Spanish language audio. This homogeneous white, English speaking, Christian view of the US may have been true in the 1960s, but outside of the rural US, this is no longer valid.
- Melting_Harps 6y ago
  > That isn’t really accurate. There is much more diversity in individual states depending on where you are than in most European countries. You ever been in Spain, Italy, Germany or France? This is simply not true, in Spain they have so many different languages, in the others they have incredibly dialects that seem like entirely different languages and can be only as short as 25km away from one another--something like Badish vs schwabish vs Alemansich vs Hoch Deutsch. You have to live in places like Hawaii (which I did) before you get anything close to the stark differences I'm talking about, where they have an entirely different set of culture and language (Hawaiian pidgin) to see what is so pervasive all throughout Southern and Central Europe.