AAA: Ask America Anything

[starla]

More questions ...

The thing with ambulances. Is it true that folks will try to avoid taking ambulances to avoid the crippling (no pun intended) costs? Is this something that only affects poor or unemployed people, or is this like a general thing that might even affect the middle class? Like if you received a serious but non-life-threatening injury (say maybe broken bones, in bad pain, mostly immobile, but conscious and stable), would you consider trying to avoid taking an ambulance?

I wouldn't call an ambulance unless it was absolutely necessary. As in I was at risk of dying before I could make it to the hospital and I needed the EMTs to keep me alive for the drive. There really is no other reason to take one IMO. But more to your point, once you're in the ambulance you have no idea how much anything is going to cost. Could be a couple hundred bucks in a place where there's city service and a nearby trauma center, could be thousands if it's a private company and a busy night for emergency rooms and you keep getting waived off to the next hospital. And it gets even more insane than that. In some places there's no law that says they have to take you to the closest hospital that can treat you.

Also, is there a state or city that people tend to look down on the most? Or a state or city that is the most hated?

Mississippi is probably the state I look down on the most. For most hated I'm going with Silicon Valley. It's personal though because I've lived there, but man those people are full of themselves. Florida and New Jersey are also perennial favorites for general disdain.

Also a lot of Americans that I have met abroad tend to be very very enthusiastic about things in foreign countries. Like they will talk about this sandwich place they found that has the best sandwiches with amazing dips, and they will talk about how the people are so awesome and the friendliest people they have ever seen, and the countryside they've seen is so beautiful, and the show was amazing, and everything is the best thing, and they are doing fantastic, and all will be wonderful forever. Is that sort of positivity common, like as a default setting? I saw flashes of it when I was in the US (mainly from service workers), but I swear it's a thing for Americans abroad. (Not all of course, but enough that there's a pattern.)

Uh, I guess that's just how we are? I mean, I also like things? And sometimes I talk about them? If you're comparing us to the British, we are much more upbeat, positive, and optimistic IMO.

[starla]

Are vacations really that shit in the U.S, like where you'd be lucky to string together two weeks of unpaid leave?

I forgot to address this.

People taking unpaid leave can usually take two weeks if they just ask for it. But they can't afford it. People with paid leave can probably take two weeks if they really want to though their boss will gripe about it, but nobody is going to do your job while you're gone so any rejuvenation you get from your vacation is going to be undone when you walk back into work and find a billion things added to your to do list. The venn diagram of people with paid leave and people who have someone to fill in adequately while they're gone has very little overlap.

[HighlyIrregular]

Also, is there a state or city that people tend to look down on the most? Or a state or city that is the most hated?

Republicans seem to hate California. California also gets made fun of for Proposition 65, the CA law that requires special health warning labels like:



New Jersey seemed to get dissed a lot a few years ago. Corrupt politicians and I think other stuff. I'm not sure if that changed.

Georgia was hated two years ago for some policy but I forgot what.

I think West Virginia is the poorest state and gets looked down on somewhat. Limey compared it to Wolverhampton.

People know that Chicago is dangerous.

[SomeInternetBloke]

This thread is too deep for me. I'm starting to feel uncomfortable and out of my depth. I'd better stick around then.

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Also, is there a state or city that people tend to look down on the most? Or a state or city that is the most hated?

Republicans seem to hate California. California also gets made fun of for Proposition 65, the CA law that requires special health warning labels like:



New Jersey seemed to get dissed a lot a few years ago. Corrupt politicians and I think other stuff. I'm not sure if that changed.

Georgia was hated two years ago for some policy but I forgot what.

I think West Virginia is the poorest state and gets looked down on somewhat. Limey compared it to Wolverhampton.

People know that Chicago is dangerous.

I'm fine with people thinking Chicago is dangerous. If people are afraid to move here (or can't deal with the cold weather), it's going to help keep rents/housing costs down. For what it's worth I think people are way friendlier here than in Delaware County, PA where I grew up.

Click this link for some fun... I mean, one answer to your question. My favorite is that people from Florida hate Florida the most. For the record, I'm from NM and my least favorite state used to be TX (as the article states). Now it's a tie between Florida and Arkansas, Oklahoma close behind.

https://digg.com/2020/which-state-hates-which-state-map

The hatred for Indiana is accurate. It seems to be the place white Chicagoans move to if they get too afraid of black people. The Indiana Dunes are cool though.

[HighlyIrregular]

Also, is there a state or city that people tend to look down on the most? Or a state or city that is the most hated?

Kensington, a neighborhood in Philadelphia PA, is lovely this time of year.

[SomeInternetBloke]

Why?


I've heard that in one state they're giving away pickup trucks.

[Utisz]

edit: I'm me so ... would you please unpack the intended meaning of "integration"?

Seems I missed this. I don't know if integration is the right term, but that's what they refer to for schools and housing. I guess I mean to what degree are things "targeted" to different groups, like this is a black school, this is a white cereal, this is a latino event, etc.

I think this might have 3 causes: (1) people research where they are going and tend to go to places they think they will like. I loved Rome, but I also researched the hell out of visiting there, stayed in a great spot etc. I didn't find the shittiest place in Italy and stay there for a week. (2) People are paying to be there, they've bought the experience. So in rating it, just like anything you buy on Amazon, the ratings for products tend to be pretty high. I bought it, so it must be okay, that sort of thing. (3) Americans tend to judge things and do so in very good or very bad terms. Not a lot of subtlety, unfortunately. We judge people, we judge places. We like to share our judgments. And like Amazon product ratings, they are high or really low, not a lot of 3/5's out there apparently.

That makes sense.

I wouldn't call an ambulance unless it was absolutely necessary. As in I was at risk of dying before I could make it to the hospital and I needed the EMTs to keep me alive for the drive. There really is no other reason to take one IMO. But more to your point, once you're in the ambulance you have no idea how much anything is going to cost. Could be a couple hundred bucks in a place where there's city service and a nearby trauma center, could be thousands if it's a private company and a busy night for emergency rooms and you keep getting waived off to the next hospital. And it gets even more insane than that. In some places there's no law that says they have to take you to the closest hospital that can treat you.

Mississippi is probably the state I look down on the most. For most hated I'm going with Silicon Valley. It's personal though because I've lived there, but man those people are full of themselves. Florida and New Jersey are also perennial favorites for general disdain.

Republicans seem to hate California.

Yep, I would have said California and Florida as being sort of political piñatas.

starjot's link suggests a more mundane reality of it being more regional.

Uh, I guess that's just how we are? I mean, I also like things? And sometimes I talk about them? If you're comparing us to the British, we are much more upbeat, positive, and optimistic IMO.

I buy that. I think Americans are more upbeat than your average European.

There's this sort of apocryphal idea in Ireland that Irish people have to be careful with greetings in the U.S. In Ireland, when people ask you how you are, it's most common to say something like "not too bad", or "can't complain", which (apparently) would raise eyebrows in the U.S. as being very negative. On the other hand, if in Ireland you were to respond like "doing great", it would raise eyebrows.

People taking unpaid leave can usually take two weeks if they just ask for it. But they can't afford it. People with paid leave can probably take two weeks if they really want to though their boss will gripe about it, but nobody is going to do your job while you're gone so any rejuvenation you get from your vacation is going to be undone when you walk back into work and find a billion things added to your to do list. The venn diagram of people with paid leave and people who have someone to fill in adequately while they're gone has very little overlap.

Also pretty messed up, I think.

People know that Chicago is dangerous.

Watching "City So Real" at the moment, and this kind of surprised me (not sure why).

I've heard that in one state they're giving away pickup trucks.

If you haven't seen the documentary "Hands on a Hard Body", you should definitely check it out.

[Utisz]

More questions!

What's your overall impression of what foreigners think of you? Or what has been the reaction you've gotten abroad? Or what's the biggest misconception (positive or negative) you think that foreigners have of you?

Is U.S. exceptionalism, in particular, a "real thing"? Do people really identify with the idea that the president is the "leader of the free world", or that the U.S. is generally the greatest country on earth? Or is it just something more romantic than brain-felt?

Do folks really drive mobility scooters around large supermarkets? Like if you go to Walmart, what are the odds you bump into a morbidly obese person on an electric scooter? Never happens? Happens most times?

Aside from U.S. presidents and founding fathers, who are the most universally "admired" people in U.S. culture would you say?

[starjots]

More questions!

What's your overall impression of what foreigners think of you? Or what has been the reaction you've gotten abroad? Or what's the biggest misconception (positive or negative) you think that foreigners have of you?

My abroad time is limited. Canadians I met seemed to like us. Italians I met were nice too, given the language differences, I assume they mostly liked our money. Anything more would be me projecting -- after the last few years I'd think the world would think we were daft, for example.

Is U.S. exceptionalism, in particular, a "real thing"? Do people really identify with the idea that the president is the "leader of the free world", or that the U.S. is generally the greatest country on earth? Or is it just something more romantic than brain-felt?

This is real and it's bugged the shit out of me for decades. Let me put it this way. I was raised religious and was taught at a young age that god created everything in 6 days just like it says in Genesis. Then I got older, grew a brain, and paid attention in biology. Did I chuck out the whole creationism like I did Santa Clause at age 4 or whatever? No, i wanted to hang onto it, so I didn't think too much of it, or did the whole, 'maybe a day of creation is really a long time' or 'maybe god just nudged shit around' etc. Mental gymnastics to justify bullshit fed into my central nervous system by somebody else at a tender age.

That's what everybody in the USA gets 24/7 with american exceptionalism. No President has the balls when giving a speech not to mention 'well fuck yea, we are the greatest nation... blah blah... when we put our mind to it... leader of the world...' It's just incessant. It's a given. The starting point of how we see ourselves. I don't know what fucker started it all, I suspect is was one founding father or another tooting his horn and all the backwood breeders (I'm talking 1800s and backwood breeders would be 90% of the population - and in 1800 we were exceptional in some ways) took up the refrain. And this exceptionalism just sticks in there and gets in the way of so much rational thought.

Another problem is, folks who break free from this bullshit tend to be slingshotted out of reality like a rocket getting a gravity assist as it rounds Jupiter. They overreact. Then you get - the US sucks totally, but those fuckers in Thailand do everything right! I.E., intellectuals assume a Dawkin-esque hostility to the US which isn't entirely justified IMO. It's small picture thinking.

Do folks really drive mobility scooters around large supermarkets? Like if you go to Walmart, what are the odds you bump into a morbidly obese person on an electric scooter? Never happens? Happens most times?

50% chance of happening where I live on any given visit. That's probably low. Sometimes they aren't fat but they often look pretty unhealthy, they just don't walk so good I guess. Late night infomercials (that could be a thread) often tout the scooter lifestyle for older people. Hurts to walk? Fuck that, get on a scooter. Never mind not walking enough might be what screwed your mobility in the first place.

There is a virtuous cycle at work here. Most affordable food in big stores is dog shit with a nice label on it, thanks to our decades old policy of promoting the shit out of growing corn (high fructose corn syrup in everything), soybeans (in everything), and preservatives. Eat a bunch of this shit and skip the exercise to watch the scooter commercials, your body goes sideways. But you DID watch the scooter commercial, so get your ass on it and drive around the store and put some more of the dogshit in your cart. Honestly, I see this as a failure of government for our crap basic food supply.

Aside from U.S. presidents and founding fathers, who are the most universally "admired" people in U.S. culture would you say?

To the go getter types, entrepeneurs, people who make money, start businesses in their garage -- it's a religion here for sure. I admire Elon Musk for being straight out of a sci-fi story. There are so many influencers and such admiration is surely fragmented. Sports heads have plenty of admiration fodder, for example -- many sports to choose from.