4 ms·

US citizens might not see how uniform the US is. When I first came to the US, I was amazed how different it from Europe, they look similar on TV, but when look

US citizens might not see how uniform the US is. When I first came to the US, I was amazed how different it from Europe, they look similar on TV, but when looking at it with your own eyes, thousands of tiny details reveal it. And later, when I traveled in different US cities in several US states on both coasts, I was amazed, how different part of the US are like each other. It might sound funny, the but same style of light switches in places thousands of miles apart struck me. Let alone, similar street signs, similar pavement styles, similar police cars, similar fire trucks, star-spangled flags everywhere. The US has cultural codes, the identity. I would even say that the difference for example between the US and the UK is larger than the difference between the UK and France. So, like it or not, but the US is a nation.

zhdc1 5y ago
Yep. I've lived in several countries, and from what I've seen, there's more cultural heterogeneity between many EU towns that are 100km or more apart in the same member state than there is across almost all of the US - not including obvious outliers.
- smeej 5y ago
  I've lived in half a dozen U.S. states and have visited most of the rest, and the exact opposite has stood out to me. The fact that places like Seattle, suburban Los Angeles, rural Maine, most of Nebraska, and Miami are in the same country seems almost absurd. If your experience of the U.S. has been concentrated on cities, I can see how the regions may seem similar, but things that seem absolutely normal in LA (using Uber Eats to order delivery of roasted crickets because you want a snack, for an actual example that happened to me) make a visitor from nearly anywhere other than a few major cities feel like they're on a different planet!
  - zhdc1 5y ago
    > The fact that places like Seattle, suburban Los Angeles, rural Maine, most of Nebraska, and Miami are in the same country seems almost absurd. Why? I can drive an hour away from where I currently work and experience more linguistic diversity (in terms of dialect intelligibility and actual language spoken) than I can in almost any region in the United States. And this is not, in any way, unique to where I live. Drive an hour outside of Taichung, Abu Dhabi, or Bangkok, and compare the differences in how people speak, live, &c. against Atlanta and rural Georgia. The truth is that America is incredibly, incredibly homogeneous.
  - cudgy 5y ago
    This seems like more of a distinction between urban and rural, which exists in almost all countries. LA and Miami are similar and almost indistinguishable compared to European countries which lie only 50 miles from each other.
Fnoord 5y ago
The UK consists of various countries though (4) which for example each compete in football (what Americans call soccer).
- johannes1234321 5y ago
  > which for example each compete in football Depends on cont context. In the Olympics there is a UK football team.
  - tcharlton 5y ago
    They compete as team GB, further demonstrating the madness of trying to define a nation
    - asteroidbelt 5y ago
      There’s no need to strictly define a nation. For example in the US there are Navaho people who consider themselves are Navaho or Americans depending on context. That’s fine.
    - nicky0 5y ago
      Team GB is a trademarked brand name for the United Kingdom olympic team. (I think because "GBR" is the established letter code used so GB has some brand recognition factor in an olympic context.) It's controversial since "GB" can be seen to exclude NI although the team includes the whole UK.
      - johannes1234321 5y ago
        It's even more than UK. Includes different Crown Dependencies like Isle of Man, British Ovsersea territories like Montserrat or Gibraltar. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Olympic_Association https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Olympic_Association With the British it's always complicated :)
- nicky0 5y ago
  UK isn't really made of countries in any internationally recognised sense. The "four nations" are really are just administrative regions with a trumped up sense of identity. Having different football and rugby teams is a a historical accident since those sports were invented here.

zhdc1 5y ago

Yep. I've lived in several countries, and from what I've seen, there's more cultural heterogeneity between many EU towns that are 100km or more apart in the same member state than there is across almost all of the US - not including obvious outliers.

smeej 5y ago
I've lived in half a dozen U.S. states and have visited most of the rest, and the exact opposite has stood out to me. The fact that places like Seattle, suburban Los Angeles, rural Maine, most of Nebraska, and Miami are in the same country seems almost absurd. If your experience of the U.S. has been concentrated on cities, I can see how the regions may seem similar, but things that seem absolutely normal in LA (using Uber Eats to order delivery of roasted crickets because you want a snack, for an actual example that happened to me) make a visitor from nearly anywhere other than a few major cities feel like they're on a different planet!
- zhdc1 5y ago
  > The fact that places like Seattle, suburban Los Angeles, rural Maine, most of Nebraska, and Miami are in the same country seems almost absurd. Why? I can drive an hour away from where I currently work and experience more linguistic diversity (in terms of dialect intelligibility and actual language spoken) than I can in almost any region in the United States. And this is not, in any way, unique to where I live. Drive an hour outside of Taichung, Abu Dhabi, or Bangkok, and compare the differences in how people speak, live, &c. against Atlanta and rural Georgia. The truth is that America is incredibly, incredibly homogeneous.
- cudgy 5y ago
  This seems like more of a distinction between urban and rural, which exists in almost all countries. LA and Miami are similar and almost indistinguishable compared to European countries which lie only 50 miles from each other.

Fnoord 5y ago

The UK consists of various countries though (4) which for example each compete in football (what Americans call soccer).

johannes1234321 5y ago
> which for example each compete in football Depends on cont context. In the Olympics there is a UK football team.
- tcharlton 5y ago
  They compete as team GB, further demonstrating the madness of trying to define a nation
  - asteroidbelt 5y ago
    There’s no need to strictly define a nation. For example in the US there are Navaho people who consider themselves are Navaho or Americans depending on context. That’s fine.
  - nicky0 5y ago
    Team GB is a trademarked brand name for the United Kingdom olympic team. (I think because "GBR" is the established letter code used so GB has some brand recognition factor in an olympic context.) It's controversial since "GB" can be seen to exclude NI although the team includes the whole UK.
    - johannes1234321 5y ago
      It's even more than UK. Includes different Crown Dependencies like Isle of Man, British Ovsersea territories like Montserrat or Gibraltar. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Olympic_Association https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Olympic_Association With the British it's always complicated :)
nicky0 5y ago
UK isn't really made of countries in any internationally recognised sense. The "four nations" are really are just administrative regions with a trumped up sense of identity. Having different football and rugby teams is a a historical accident since those sports were invented here.