Asklemmy

American centrism aah post

Is it okay for non-Americans to answer this?

American here, currently sitting in the AFT cafeteria of a Norwegian cruise ship just off the coast of France. Saved for years to go on this once in a lifetime cruise.

I grew up on the edge of poor. Had basics and never went hungry, but our summer vacations were camping because it was cheap. Never went to Disneyland until I was in the Army and could afford it myself.

While I agree that going abroad is definitely eye opening, even traveling to other states increases your open-mindedness. I joined the Army and was stationed in Alabama, Georgia, Alaska and Washington. Going back home and reuniting with friends who never left the state or even left the general area was kind of shocking. Never being exposed to an even slightly different environment really showed in their attitude.

While I was in the Army, I was sent to Missouri and a couple of other states I can't remember right now for a month or so for training or field problems, and short trips show how even though I was still in the same country, there were definitely societal, geographical and political differences in each place.

Expanding that to traveling other countries was also eye opening. The Army sent me to Thailand for a month. My current job sent me to Australia and S. Korea and a couple of other states for 2-3 weeks at a time. I liked hitting the tourist spots, but I really enjoyed just watching people wherever I am. Once you see that (for the most part) people are people, you start to get that just because someone's idea is different than yours, doesn't mean it's wrong, it's just different.

This post is a bit American-centric.

A better wording would've been, "Have you ever travelled outside your own country?"

Or, one could say, outside of a 1,000 km radius to an area with a different culture and language.

Something I really envy is the EU controls on food. Much of what passes for food here in the US is heavily processed, GMO, misleadingly labeled, etc.

Not American, so main question doesn't apply. Have been to a couple other countries, have family in a lot more.

I’m currently in a country where over 90% of items are made in that country.

China? It's got to be China, everywhere else has to import something other than raw resources. Hmm, maybe Cuba's another candidate, I guess.

I travel and I’ll tell you America is the MOST dangerous country outside of warzones

That's just straight up not true. The US is worst in class for the first world, but even parts of Mexico have a pretty high rate of violence.

nope. im not part of that economic class.

I've only travelled outside of America.

Had some ideas about visiting the US for Gencon, but 2025 doesn't seem like a good year for that.

Several times. I've been to Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Germany, Italy, and Egypt once. It's easy to travel in Europe if you live there.

No. I grew up poor. I was a poor young adult. Now I'm okay, but now I'm concerned with possibly ending up poor again. It's like a stone around my neck.

Got a passport though. I'd love to be able to just move to another country (I swear I will learn whatever language I gotta, do my best to integrate, and not be too "outspoken American" if that is heavily frowned upon).

I won't talk politics, but I will say after going out and seeing other countries I completely agree, it's way different than what I was told. I don't think anyone who hasn't left NA has any right to compare us against anyone.

I used to have an online friend from the US and after some time, we both liked each other and he told me that he wanted me to move to his place (I live in SEA). After a few months of chatting, I noticed something weird about him. I don't really like to talk about politics but he keep praising Trump and Maga and saying he hate how people misunderstand and insults the president.

He also said that he "feels sorry for me and can't imagine how it's like for a gay and femboy living in a country other than the US and Europe. Even in the US, people view twinks and femboys as a joke and they often made fun of so it must be a lot worse in your country". I then told him that as a twink and femboy, I don't feel like that all. All of my IRL straight friends respect me and never made fun of me. He then said my friends were just being polite to me ..

He also insulted my culture and my country. I apologized and asked him to be more considerate and polite because I feel offended and then he told me that facts does not care about your feelings and he's an American so its his culture to be more upfront and not being fake like asians.

I was so confused what is going on and felt like it was my fault and consulted my friends. They told me to ghosted him and I did.

I used to work in the hospitality industry and the Americans I met were so polite and super friendly. I'd say American tourists are the most friendliest compared to Europeans and other Asian tourists. That's why I'm confused why my online "friend" behave like that. I can't help but wondering if this a normal behaviour in the US? Were the thing he said about American cultures true?

I don't have much to say about geopolitics off the top of my head, but I used to scoff at pedestrian-friendly designs and subscribe to the idea that car ownership is freedom and roads are for cars only. Living in Germany for a few months and enjoying public transit made me perish those old thoughts.

Among developed nations, the US should not get any awards for safety, but I would argue that there's certainly worse out there without venturing into warzones.

Yeah, I’ve traveled to Europe and loved every second of it. I would say the most dangerous place I have been to was within two hours of the Ukraine border. It only felt dangerous at the time because this was right when the war started and I wasn’t sure how it was going to unfold. I made a plan to bug out quickly if I had to. The biggest problem in parts of Europe is trying not to get scammed as a tourist and there are a lot of tourists scams. It never felt unsafe to walk around at night or anything like that. 10/10 experience and would recommend.

Yup. American living in Germany for 2.5 years now, been traveling all over EU and UK…the world is a huge place and there’s a LOT of people. Most of them never think about the states and will never have any reason to. Germany may not be my favorite place, especially since i really struggle with the language so i know i dont fully understand a lot of things here. But the EU in general has a lot of things going way better.

With that said…everywhere always has its own issues as well. The grass isn’t always completely greener, if you will.

I have many times, and I agree that travel is a good thing. But don't be so quick to scoff at Americans who don't travel overseas. Traveling is expensive. The flight alone from my house to Frankfurt or Tokyo (for example) is at least $1,500 per person, and a day of travel each way. That's out of reach for a lot of people. Hell, it's out of reach for me now that I have a family to bring with me. The most basic, banal holiday overseas would easily exceed $10,000. Nevermind the luxury of being able to spend enough time there to understand local takes on geopolitics.

@lunatique@lemmy.ml

While I agree with most of what you said, the stories about Arab countries have some truth to them. I guess those who say that those placrs are safe for women come from an upper-middle class background who go there as professionals or tourists. But for women who come from poorer countries and go to work there as maids, they know the risks of being abused or killed.

I do wholeheartedly agree that more Americans should explore the world (or their own states) to expose themselves to different perspectives and norms.

https://www.deccanherald.com/world/why-maids-keep-dying-in-saudi-arabia-4-3450497

https://apnews.com/article/kuwait-city-manila-business-crime-0729fbac5fd4ab0169cc7d018b46317d

37 countries 42 states Bachelors degree in international relations and international political economy

Every place is normal. People live there. Every place has dangers 🤷🏻‍♀️

The US is huge and there is a lot to see. I know working class people who only travel as far as they can drive in a day trip. As far as America being "the MOST dangerous country outside of warzones" while it is popular to badmouth where you live (familiarity breeds contempt) I've never felt my life is in danger anywhere in the US. On the other hand I don't go into areas likely to be crime ridden and these exist in other countries too.

Yes, lots of Americans don't go beyond the Carribean and don't have passports simply because they can spend a lifetime traveling around North America. They in turn have lots of stereotypes of all the places they've never been. People think the French are all horribly hostile snobs, I found them friendly, Turkey was like Midnight Express, ummm, no, and China is a police state with agents following your every step, nope. I was more worried about wandering off and getting lost than anything else in China.

most of the world is in fact freer than them, has a better system in place for their people, and doesn’t have some of the major problems that America has

Very debatable. Every country has its own issues and restrictions. Turkey is an autocracy for instance. Vietnam is a single party state with major corruption problems, etc. Switzerland is safe but very expensive. You seem to have a narrow view of the world.

Yes, funny that you mentioned the American perception of danger.

Any time I mention visiting a country outside of western europe / the caribbean tourist hell- I literally get told I'm going to be chopped up or murdered.

I think any american willing to travel outside of the aforementioned places is someone with a mind already changed. For me it only confirmed what I already knew about the rest of the world.

And some of your replies are very correct, and a surface level conversation with most american hogs will prove it: the majority have not traveled abroad and many aren't even well versed in the states / workings of their own country.

If you don’t know less than 50% of Americans have a passport.

It reached 51% last year

I'm not a huge traveler, but I've been to the UK and parts of Europe. The Czech Republic was my favorite place, of the places I've been. Ironically never been to Canada, despite having some extended family there. I would love to go, and I love being in foreign places, but I hate getting there. Travel is awful, especially now.

I've lived in both urban and rural areas, and the fear is constant everywhere among people who have never traveled. Urban people are afraid that everyone in the country is a Deliverance KKK member, and rural people think the cities are a gang-infested war zone. What's wild is that, unlike visiting other countries, they could just hop in the car and visit the city or countryside for a weekend. They are consuming lazy media tropes and taking them as fact.

Traveling, even just regional travel, would benefit a lot of people in the USA. We have way more in common with each other than with the oligarchs.