re: What quintessentially American things blow the European mind?

They also can't wrap their heads around how rural some parts of the US are, not to mention the concept of being 30 minutes to 2-3 hours from police response.

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Mass shootings. People in other countries ask about this all the time. They really don’t understand.

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It's because the numbers are often over reported to include terrorism and drug/gang violence, whereas other countries under-report to exclude those and also exclude shootings where the victims survived. In the US a gang related shooting with 4 victims and none pass is reported. In Europe an incident where 10 are shot but only 3 pass is not recorded as a mass shooting. If we apply the same caveat and compare the US apples to apples to the rest of the world's reporting the US is under-represented due to our population and far under-represented given the amount of firearms in this country. Just like including suicides and accidental discharge as gun violence, extreme numbers are intentionally presented to push a message.

Sources

the size of our houses.
the size of our yards.

The people i used to work with in Portugal couldn't believe that i had a full size soccer goal and an entire penalty area in my backyard, a driveway big enough to shoot 3's on a basketball goal, and a wiffle ball field in my front yard. I didn't even mention to them that i also had 2 large areas in the backyard where i have my vegetables growing. And i live in a neighborhood, not out in the country where people have even more space.

I think most of them would be amazed at our outdoor setups as well, basically having another kitchen outside.



and i think the biggest thing they never really knew about until now is the size and grandeur of our football stadiums. and i think many are surprised at the history of college football and how far back it goes and the size of those stadiums. College football is just as old as English soccer. Most of them don't realize how huge college football is.

Free refills.

They are astonished that this is a thing.

-Ranch dressing
-Apparently some European gas stations don't have the little metal clip on their gas pump handles, so you have to stand there and hold it the whole time.

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Mass shootings. People in other countries ask about this all the time. They really don’t understand.

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Their mass casualty events are usually muslims running people over with trucks and knifing people… totally different.

Free speech

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none of that surprises Europe. Most of their countries have done the same thing.

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What they're surpriseed at is what took them 1000's of years to do America did in 250 years.

Kind of sadly impressive don't you think.

In the grand scheme of things America was like a fart in the wind.

And to answer your question, America is still great, just not for real Americans anymore.

Bathroom stall length
Free items at restaurants
Size of the vehicles
People openly saying whatever they want
TV's in bars and restaurants
Drive through daiquiri shops