3 ms·

This story reminds me of one of my favourite HN comments (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24949815 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24949815, by "thesh

This story reminds me of one of my favourite HN comments (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24949815 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24949815, by "theshrike79"), which I will quote here in full: -- Americans have developed a survival strategy of turning horror stories into heartwarming tales. "Homeless person turns to crowdfunding to get themselves a home!" Americans: Aww how cute! Rest of the world: What the actual fuck? "Family turns to internet for insulin supplies because they can't afford them, man drives 1000 miles to give them some." Americans: Amazing heroism! Rest of the world: How the hell does a diabetic not get their life-saving medicine? "96 year old woman flies 200 miles to queue for 6 hours to vote!" Americans: Wonderful determination! Rest of the world: Why couldn't she vote where she already was?

mettamage 6y ago
Amazing quote, thanks for posting it. I mildly suspected you weren't American. As it turns out, you speak with a soft G instead of a hard one ;-)
- skrebbel 6y ago
  I do not. I'm an Eindhovenaar by choice, not by accident.
  - mettamage 6y ago
    Haha nice. I wonder what made you choose Eindhoven, but that'd be outside of this topic/thread.
    - skrebbel 6y ago
      HN has a good culture of taking threads off topic, so I'll take that chance to plug my city a bit. Eindhoven has all the good parts of the south of NL, such as the relaxed culture, the good food, the deep aversion to bullshit, etc. Yet I find that the people here have way less of the shitty parts of Southern Dutch culture, such as the chauvinism, that weird inferiority complex, and the distrust/paranoia towards outsiders. (My theory is that this is due to there being so many expats here for the big (hardware) tech sector. They came from Drenthe 100 years ago to work at Philips, and now they come from India to work at ASML. It takes only one generation for them to mix with the locals, yet they keep an opener mind than eg the inbreds from Den Bosch) Also the usual "medium size city" perks: the place is big enough for lots of stuff to do, nice bars and cafes etc, yet small enough to be able to randomly bump into people you know. As someone who grew up on the countryside, I find that a nice balance. That said, there's an exceptionally large amount of stuff to do per capita. Eg neighbouring Tilburg is almost the same size but significantly less vibrant. Finally, it's super well connected. Notably, the direct train to Utrecht/Amsterdam goes every 10 minutes, almost like a subway.
      - mettamage 6y ago
        Haha, you put Eindhoven on the map in my mind. You make it sound like a better Haarlem. I'm living in a quieter side in the Amsterdam area. Also, 75 minutes doesn't seem so bad, knowing you have a train every 10 minutes.
quickthrower2 6y ago
As a non American the homelessness one seems to be a problem everywhere but the voting/healthcare problems quoted do seem alien to me. I’ve never been more than 10 minutes walk from where I need to vote in both countries I’ve lived in
dang 6y ago
Please don't post nationalistic flamebait to HN and especially please don't copy/paste it. It's not what this site is for. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- skrebbel 6y ago
  Dang, I'm.. a bit confused. The comment did not strike me as either flamebait nor nationalism (and I also didn't see any replies, either here or on the original, that took this "bait" and made a flamewar). I posted it in good faith because I found it a witty highlight of the misery that a reader must ignore to be able to consider a story like this a feel-good tearjerker. Obviously the comment is a commentary on a specific aspect of American culture, and obviously it takes some poetic liberties (such as suggesting that American culture is a singular thing at all, or that this is only an American thing, or using swear words). But it's not an attack. The way I read it, it neither idealizes nor rejects any country, and wouldn't at least one of those be required for it to be nationalistic flamebait? For what it's worth, I have no beef with America and I strongly doubt the author has (I do not know them personally). HN is a US-dominated site run by an American organization. America exports a lot of a culture that I want a piece of (notably, SV/startup culture, which HN is a fantastic conduit for). That's what I'm here for. Either way, I'll refrain from reproducing this particular comment in the future. But we clearly have different frames of reference, and I might take some time to fully understand yours. I believed I was well in the clear wrt HN guidelines and norms with this one.
  - dang 6y ago
    It seems to me obviously an attack. One side is presented as ridiculous and reprehensible, the other side as sensible and decent. Also, it feeds directly into repetitive flamewar tropes about the US vs. the rest of the world. I'm not saying you meant it that way! Flamebait doesn't need replies to count as flamebait - it's all about the odds, i.e. what's the expected flamewar output of such a comment in the long run. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=%22expected%20value%22%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...

mettamage 6y ago

Amazing quote, thanks for posting it. I mildly suspected you weren't American. As it turns out, you speak with a soft G instead of a hard one ;-)

skrebbel 6y ago
I do not. I'm an Eindhovenaar by choice, not by accident.
- mettamage 6y ago
  Haha nice. I wonder what made you choose Eindhoven, but that'd be outside of this topic/thread.
  - skrebbel 6y ago
    HN has a good culture of taking threads off topic, so I'll take that chance to plug my city a bit. Eindhoven has all the good parts of the south of NL, such as the relaxed culture, the good food, the deep aversion to bullshit, etc. Yet I find that the people here have way less of the shitty parts of Southern Dutch culture, such as the chauvinism, that weird inferiority complex, and the distrust/paranoia towards outsiders. (My theory is that this is due to there being so many expats here for the big (hardware) tech sector. They came from Drenthe 100 years ago to work at Philips, and now they come from India to work at ASML. It takes only one generation for them to mix with the locals, yet they keep an opener mind than eg the inbreds from Den Bosch) Also the usual "medium size city" perks: the place is big enough for lots of stuff to do, nice bars and cafes etc, yet small enough to be able to randomly bump into people you know. As someone who grew up on the countryside, I find that a nice balance. That said, there's an exceptionally large amount of stuff to do per capita. Eg neighbouring Tilburg is almost the same size but significantly less vibrant. Finally, it's super well connected. Notably, the direct train to Utrecht/Amsterdam goes every 10 minutes, almost like a subway.
    - mettamage 6y ago
      Haha, you put Eindhoven on the map in my mind. You make it sound like a better Haarlem. I'm living in a quieter side in the Amsterdam area. Also, 75 minutes doesn't seem so bad, knowing you have a train every 10 minutes.

quickthrower2 6y ago

As a non American the homelessness one seems to be a problem everywhere but the voting/healthcare problems quoted do seem alien to me. I’ve never been more than 10 minutes walk from where I need to vote in both countries I’ve lived in

dang 6y ago

Please don't post nationalistic flamebait to HN and especially please don't copy/paste it. It's not what this site is for. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

skrebbel 6y ago
Dang, I'm.. a bit confused. The comment did not strike me as either flamebait nor nationalism (and I also didn't see any replies, either here or on the original, that took this "bait" and made a flamewar). I posted it in good faith because I found it a witty highlight of the misery that a reader must ignore to be able to consider a story like this a feel-good tearjerker. Obviously the comment is a commentary on a specific aspect of American culture, and obviously it takes some poetic liberties (such as suggesting that American culture is a singular thing at all, or that this is only an American thing, or using swear words). But it's not an attack. The way I read it, it neither idealizes nor rejects any country, and wouldn't at least one of those be required for it to be nationalistic flamebait? For what it's worth, I have no beef with America and I strongly doubt the author has (I do not know them personally). HN is a US-dominated site run by an American organization. America exports a lot of a culture that I want a piece of (notably, SV/startup culture, which HN is a fantastic conduit for). That's what I'm here for. Either way, I'll refrain from reproducing this particular comment in the future. But we clearly have different frames of reference, and I might take some time to fully understand yours. I believed I was well in the clear wrt HN guidelines and norms with this one.
- dang 6y ago
  It seems to me obviously an attack. One side is presented as ridiculous and reprehensible, the other side as sensible and decent. Also, it feeds directly into repetitive flamewar tropes about the US vs. the rest of the world. I'm not saying you meant it that way! Flamebait doesn't need replies to count as flamebait - it's all about the odds, i.e. what's the expected flamewar output of such a comment in the long run. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=%22expected%20value%22%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...