Not the weirdest, but I didn’t realize this until it was pointed out.
The fascination with work, and how one’s employment or career is tied to personal identity. It’s a basic conversation starter, “What do you do for work?” Not “What do you enjoy doing?” or “Do you have any hobbies?” or “Where do you go to relax?” Nope.
What to you do for work.
It’s a weird question that is tied up in judgement and classism. And it’s so normal here
Trevor Noah has a section about this in a recent standup. Something likei if you ask a European what they do they answer with hobbies, americans answer with their job title.
Just my experience from germany but when people ask what you do, you usually say what Job you have and where the Company is.
Germany might be more like america then Europe in that case.
Why are you typing comments when you should be earning money for your boss?
My boss is a real asshole. I can’t stand him and he doesn’t pay me enough.
I’m self-employed
Have you tried sleeping with him for a raise?
Thought about giving him a handjob, but his weiner is shaped weird
Well then forget that promotion.
May I please be promoted to customer? They’re treated much better
I’ve found this only to be true in white collar professions. Hanging out with blue collar people, your job rarely comes up, but it’s one of the first questions with white collar people.
It’s definitely true with blue collar workers in Alberta, or at least it was when I still socialized (guess when I stopped)
I grew up blue collar and am still a tradesman. I technically live in the Midwest, but lots of Appalachian people. Of course my social circles include a vast swathe of socio-economic levels so you might still be right.
I’ll have to watch closer to see if there’s a pattern
I’d say your definitely correct when it comes to people with “low skill” or high turnover type jobs. If they work at dollar general or McDicks they don’t talk about work much. Also, there’s no such thing as a low skill job, and we all know who was essential and who could stay home for a few months
Good god, yes. This is something I had to break myself from. It is so insidious and pervasive in our culture that I don’t think most of us realize it’s even a thing.
I’ve been to a lot of outdoor birthday parties this summer, and there are so many boring dads who I will hear strike up a conversation about what’s going on at work. I usually make sure to wander in the opposite direction.
And I like my job! But the “talk about work” is usually less about interesting projects or creations and more about what has been going on with that individual’s status. Like yeah Kevin I want you to do well at work and enjoy it, but if it’s all the same to you I’m going to go get chased by kids with squirt guns instead of pretending I care about how your manager is impressed by your team’s metrics.
but if it’s all the same to you I’m going to go get chased by kids with squirt guns instead of pretending I care about how your manager is impressed by your team’s metrics.
kids sure know how to have fun. we have a lot to learn from them
More true than most realize.
After getting through a lot of shit over the past several years, and having a very good & healthy summer, I am convinced that so many of our ills (metal especially) are from this mistaken assumption that more virtual and more high tech and more consumption are positives for our health rather than negatives.
Like I said, I like my job. I have no problem explaining it to anybody who asks. But the funny thing is, nobody asks, lol. A lot times per year I get the “what do you do” question, but then they’re satisfied with that answer. Many people just volunteer their stories because they think they’re supposed (just learned behavior) to or they’re conditioned to brag about work to feel good & valid.
But despite my decent job (software for embedded linux systems — totally on brand for Lemmy!) the absolute best time I’ve spent this summer has been getting wet and muddy in the back yard. Literally.
By turning my hyperfocus and my time and some of my budget towards a big hobby project (upgrading my koi pond) I have set myself up with an activity that gives me:
- Something good to look forward to
- Results to enjoy
- Fresh air
- Physical exercise, a lot, including lots of lifting
- Lots of meditative time, even though I physically look very busy
- Exercising my instinct/desire/need to create things
- Learning new interesting things that are relevant to the real world but outside my normal area of study/work. In high school I took a hard turn away from chemistry and towards physics. Now I am all about the nitrogen cycle, organic chemistry, oxidation/reduction potential, microorganisms, and so on, in my own way.
- Opportunity to hang out with my kid and a bunch of our pets with room to run.
It is so insidious and pervasive in our culture
AmErIcAnS DoN’t hAvE A CuLtUrE
lol j/k
Yeah pervasive is right. I’d rather talk about the campaign I’m running and what my players did in our last game, but it’s taken a lot of retraining my brain to allow myself to talk about what is fun instead of what I’m “supposed” to do.
‘allow myself to [do things good for me] instead of what I’m “supposed” to do’ is like a full half of what it took to figure out how to try to enjoy life.
From my outside perspective, it’s the pledge of allegiance.
Do you really have your kids stand up every morning and swear an oath to your flag? That’s some real cult shit.
And then berate them for thinking that the ideals espoused in that pledge are real in any way.
Nothing could be more American than that pledge: it was something that was first propagated by a flag company that was trying to sell more flags.
“In 1891, Daniel Sharp Ford, the owner of the Youth’s Companion, hired Bellamy to work with Ford’s nephew James B. Upham in the magazine’s premium department. In 1888, the Youth’s Companion had begun a campaign to sell US flags to public schools as a premium to solicit subscriptions. For Upham and Bellamy, the flag promotion was more than merely a business move; under their influence, the Youth’s Companion became a fervent supporter of the schoolhouse flag movement, which aimed to place a flag above every school in the nation. Four years later, by 1892, the magazine had sold US flags to approximately 26,000 schools. By this time the market was slowing for flags but was not yet saturated.”
Don’t forget the accompanying salute
I had a teacher in elementary school that taught us that when a flag falls on the floor, you’re supposed to kiss it.
Yes, seriously.
It was just part of the normal flag-worship we were
taughtbrainwashed with.I was taught that if a flag falls on the floor you are supposed to burn it.
That is “flag law” but you also aren’t allowed to display the flag on a T-shirts, in any disrespectful manner, or a fuckin pick up truck and yet. here we are…
Let’s not even get into flag shorts and bikinis.
Hey! There’s nothing more patriotic than making people horny for America
The apparent obsession with money. Some people claim to be religious but it’s clear the Almighty Dollar is their God. I know we make jokes about needing a “profit motive”, but there is a grounding in reality. It’s truly bizarre, from an outside perspective, just what lengths and depths people will sink to in order to increase profit. I’m not saying this is an American Only thing, but it’s VERY apparent in the USA just how far people will go.
I stopped talking politics with my FIL when I realized money was his singular driving force. He really believes, and IDK where he got this, that capitalism is itself a perfect system, and that any regulation on it breaks the system. Basically laissez faire libertarianism, wrapped in a flag and wearing a cross. Considering it’s a well understood concept, in the rest of the world (and US history) that capitalism requires regulation to work safely, it’s maddening to argue anything when we can’t agree on basics.
All people with money = inherently good. All brown people = inherently bad. This is the driving socioeconomic philosophy among conservatives.
I started listening to AM radio and Fox News (their stream) to understand them. These people arent even the worst strain of propaganda consumer. But they get it from one of the two schools of austrian economics.
But even morally bankrupt people still believe in the truth. Like no matter how capitalist someone is, the Epstein connection to Trump is not going away. The money itself is not proof that someone doesn’t diddle children
Maybe, but to them the money makes it okay that Trump diddled children.
Morally bankrupt people will believe in whatever “truth” best serves their interests.
It depends on whether they hear about the abuse from their in-person social networks. the propaganda networks will never cover what trump has been doing to children
While there are right wing cults that will accept pedophiles as their leaders, for the majority of those who watch propaganda channels, child rape is the only crime they won’t abide. It goes back to their foundational beliefs on abortion.
Milton Friedman is where he got it and it’s pretty common piece of propaganda pushed by wealthy interests.
Flags. Americans are obsessed with the American flag.
I was asked this while traveling in another country. I didn’t have a good answer. FWIW, I don’t own any clothing with any flags on them.
Wearing depictions if the flag is against flag code anyway. Not a legal standard, but if someone actually cared for real, they wouldn’t use it as decoration.
Code is for the government. The people should be free to celebrate the freedom it’s meant to represent.
Sure, but if they really had the respect for it they pretend to have, they wouldn’t be wearing it.
A piece of fabric is not worthy of respect, the values it’s meant to represent are. Disrespecting the flag against it’s own code is one of the greatest statements of that freedom
Yes, but the people that wear the flag are generally the same ones that want to make burning it in protest illegal. The hypocrisy of wanting to force respect for the flag yet not respecting it yourself is what I am against.
I’m firmly in the camp of both burning and wearing it, so
Where I live almost everyone assumes you are a right wing Christian. They don’t even take into consideration that you’re not and if they figure out you aren’t they stop talking to you in most cases. I’ve never had anyone straight up call me an idiot but I’ve had good friends freeze up when they found out and then start avoiding me afterwards. You get looked at like a lizard in human skin.
To add to this, I’ve heard the talk that gets passed around before they found out that I wasnt. If you are a woman they will straught up call you a witch
Christianity (and all religions imo) are a fucking stain on humanity, they bring so much more harm than good upon us.
…christians are so overwhelmingly evil that i constantly have to stop and remind myself that some tiny minority of all the crosses and flags i see brandished about may actually be fostered in good faith, lest i judge too soon…
That is so strange. Where i live if someone under the age of 70 tells you that they are actual christian, the reaction is usually: "wait what? Really now?
You live in a more honest place. It really is like this outside cities in large parts of USA.
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TN
…You think Appalachia isn’t right-wing christian?
It’s called Pennsyltucky for a reason.
I’m a passing trans guy, and where I live is like this.
It’s just fucked walking around and know that if they knew, I would essentially lose all humanity to them. It happened with my divorce lawyer, it happens with doctors. I’m like an alien hiding in the place I was born.
I’m like an alien hiding in the place I was born.
That’s so messed up. As a southerner: sorry. I would not, and I have a lot of family that wouldn’t either, though TBH they left Mississippi…
Hey we out here even in WV. Nobody needs to feel alone.
You’re not a southerner, quit lying. You’re from the northern hemisphere. Poser.
I’m from the south-north-north-eastern USA!
First thing that comes to mind for me is the huge number of people who are religious fanatics here, which is unusual for a Western country. This is also a big part of what led us to the fascist government we have today.
I think you’ve kinda missed the lede - religious fanatics. We’ve got plenty of those. Other western countries have quite a few religious people, but they aren’t often in-your-face cross wearing, “I’m a Christian”, openly judgy Karens like they are here.
I specified religious fanatics because they’re the problem, not religious people in general.
Evangelism in America is a major problem that needs to be addressed. The sooner religion is snuffed out the faster we can begin to build community based on real life.
in Europe, someone tells me their are Christian or are wearing a cross, it’s no big deal.
in the US, it’s a massive red flag
Over there it’s usually as part of a conversation. Here it’s a cudgel.
Look at the nutjobs that were the backbone of what became America. Basically a bunch of puritan nutjobs who didn’t like how laissez faire England was becoming so they hopped on the boat to America so they could make their puritanical paradise.
Y’all are just noticing it now which is a failure of the education system. Then again we already know this.
Thoughts and prayers to America 🙏🏾
You’re not wrong. It wasn’t for “freedom of religion”, it was for freedom of their religion.
Yup. They fled to escape religious persecution and then promptly did it themselves when they got here.
The puritans were run out of England after how badly they ran it during the interregum. It was the Netherlands from whence they fled religious tolerance.
You’re right, they misspelled fuckheads.
Fuck you, Jerry Falwell. Fuck you.
I hope Joel Osteen dies tomorrow
World Champions in sports that only the US participates in. I am not a fan of football, both the “footy” version or the “NFL” but it’s always been odd to me that winners of the Super Bowl, or equivalent event, are often declared “World Champions” of their own league in an event exclusively hosted in the US.
What am I gonna do about it?
Listen here you bastard: Nothing, that’s what!
Oh wait, that’s probably why they keep doing it.
- Gun culture
- Making houses out of wood. To me, someone from a country where houses are made of brick, this is like living in a shed. Also, the USA is the hotspot of tornadoes, so it makes even less sense
- One of the richest countries in the world, and universal healthcare isn’t a thing
Making houses out of wood.
This is fine. Lumber was historically plentiful in North America, and lumber houses last just as long as stone or brick.
Lumber has several advantages over stone/concrete/brick:
- Less CO2 impact from construction activities. Concrete production is a huge contributor to atmospheric CO2.
- Greater sustainability in general. Concrete is approaching a global sand shortage, because most sand in the world doesn’t have the right qualities to be included in concrete.
- Better energy efficiency and insulation properties. Brick homes need double walls in order to compete with the insulation properties of a wood framed house that naturally has voids that can be filled with insulation.
- Better resilience against seismic events and vibrations (including nearby construction). The west coast has frequent earthquakes, and complying with seismic building code with stone/masonry requires it to be reinforced with steel. The state of Utah, where trees and lumber are not as plentiful as most other parts of North America, and where seismic activity happens, has been replacing unreinforced masonry for 50+ years now.
- Easier repair. If a concrete foundation cracks, that’s easier to contain and mitigate in a wood-framed house than a building with load-bearing concrete or masonry.
Some Northern European and North American builders are developing large scale timber buildings, including timber skyscrapers. The structural engineers and safety engineers have mostly figured out how to engineer those buildings to be safe against fire and tornadoes.
It’s not inherently better or worse. It’s just different.
You should know that this is the most batshit insane, america-centric, absolutely wrong thing I’ve ever seen someone pull off in a context like this.
and lumber houses last just as long as stone or brick.
Just because you say it like it’s true doesn’t mean it’s true! That must be hard for you to understand, though. Do you think other countries are just casting their houses wholesale out of concrete? I love this way you see the world, it’s super simple and avoids learning anything useful.
You’re commenting from a .nl instance and aren’t aware of the 400+ year old timber buildings in the Netherlands, or the fact that there’s a current project to build the tallest timber skyscraper in the world in Eindhoven?
It’s not, the reason we built with stone here is that trees were historically rare as a building material. Secondly, a concrete structure needs more quality controls, and bad concrete is less durable than wood. Nobody builds with stone and bricks are just used for non structural walls.
Is there any good reason to be this vile to a stranger?
A brick home wouldn’t withstand a tornado either. Like if a tree hits a brick house it would do significant damage to the house. And most brick houses still have a timber roof under the roof tiles so even a small tornado could lift the roof off the house.
Here is a brick house hit by a small tornado in England
Reinforced concrete is a much better material for a hurricane and tornado resistant building. Also shape of the house is important. A dome would be the best.
Houses of woods aren’t really bad or the problem, but houses of wood that are held together by osb and cardboard is odd.
Traditional Dutch houses (the ones on the canals) are wooden frames with a brick facade. The brick is fastened to the wooden beams with elaborate wrought iron wall anchors.
Most new construction is reinforced concrete, but those suckers have been standing for 400 years.
Living here, I will tell you that the insistence on building houses in a neo-colonial style in tornado alley, hurricane prone areas, or in a middle of a yearly flood plane, baffles me. We should have completely different architectural styles adpated to withstand the elements at this point. You know, what housing is supposed to be for in the first place? /rant
As always it comes down to $$$.
I live in Florida, our building codes didn’t tighten up until hurricanes cost everyone everything, and now Miami Dade in particular has some of the strictest building code in the US.
Well, that’s at least some improvement. Still, I hate that situation for you guys - nobody should have their life swept away like that.
Yeah, as I live in a very geologically active area, I’d rather not be crushed by 3 tons of brick falling in on me from the slightest earthquake. I’ll take my wobbly wooden house.
1 ton of tree feels a lot like 3 tons of brick.
Next week on Mythbusters, we crush Jamie with tons of various materials. You won’t want to miss it!
A wood-framed house isn’t necessarily weaker than a brick house.
Wood is pliable and doesn’t suddenly crumble and collapse when it’s stressed. And it weighs WAY less when it does fail.
If you’re in a tornado or earthquake, would you rather be trapped beneath 120 pounds of sheetrock, insulation, and shingles or a 2 tons of broken, jagged rock?
I’ve heard ICF (insulated concrete foam) construction is pretty durable.
Brick houses aren’t going to survive a tornado any better than wood ones. Hell, the really big ones will pull the top off of storm shelters. Wood houses are used because they’re cheaper to build. So it’s easier to rebuild after a disaster.
Mine is that every 20 years or so, America picks a country or region to decimate, colonize, pillage and take over. They treat the people in that country like refuse. Then 20 years later they move on to the next country. Throughout all this they moralize to you and police the world and try to tell other countries to stop their wars, while they enjoy the benefits of their own invasions.
We have a quota in america for weapons manufacturing. If noone needs weapons then make a new conflict. Its not super complicated but it is absurdly morally bankrupt.
American exceptionalism, especially lately.
MKULTA and COINTELPRO were pretty wild. Operation Northwoods as well. And the FBI basically admitted to assassinating Dr King. By the 1990s they learned to eliminate the paper trails, so probably no telling who actually knew what regarding 9/11 or the 20 trillion dollars that vanished into thin air during Iraq and Afghanistan
don’t forget the CONTA scandal, illegally financing violent drug cartels to flood black streets with drugs, to sell missiles to Iran and fill private prisons with black people for slave labour.
it sounds like made up BS.
Oh yeah, fairly recently (last 10 years or so) a private jet owned by a CIA shell company went down stuffed to the gills with cocaine. They were 100% responsible for the crack epidemic and the “war on drugs” aka war on POC
Ronald Reagan switching sides on the war of drugs such a twist.
and he was right “we do not negotiate with terrorists” he meant he doesn’t negotiate, he just gives them what they want
So nobody is going to address the missing Rs? Cool cool cool cool cool.
I’ve always maintained that we let 9/11 happen to drum up public support to spin up the war machine and further the conservative plot to take over the country. I don’t think we orchestrated it, but I do think we knew and looked the other way.
We did it with Pearl Harbor, so it’s 100% within the realm of possibility that we did it with 9/11.
Can you elaborate about the Pearl Harbor?
There were, iirc a number of serious trade restrictions and other measures enacted against Japan at the time that virtually guaranteed their declaring war on us. I don’t think Pearl Harbor itself was anticipated though
It’s depressing the degree with which we were taught that Japan basically just bombed the US for no reason other than they were a bloodthirsty race who yearned to go out killing for its own sake. And then we berate them for not teaching history properly.
Operation Northwoods
One thing that’s often missed about this in the hero-worship of JFK is that Kennedy’s administration desperately wanted to intervene in Cuba militarily - just because Castro was a Communist - and they had been pressuring the CIA hard to find something to justify an invasion. This was the context in which the CIA finally said “well, we can’t find anything, so how about we fake attacks on US citizens and blame it on Cuba?” It wasn’t like the CIA came up with this plan on its own out of the blue and presented it to Kennedy for approval.
To their discredit, the CIA would certainly have done this happily if Kennedy had given the go-ahead, but he said “uh, that’s a little too far.”
And then get weirdly surprised and entitled about it when someone does do something about it.
For me, it’s the American belief that their laws apply in other sovereign countries. Calling Julian Assange a traitor when he’s Australian and never held American citizenship for example. Demanding his extradition and strong-arming other countries when he’s not beholden to American laws nor constitution as a non-citizen, and believing that it’s their right to do so.
And that’s from speaking with countless American who believe that this is totally justified and above-board.
Flag heilling
