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I drove from Montréal to Orlando, on the highway and various exits in town, you see :
- NY State: Target, Hobby Lobby, JC Penney, Home Depot, etc
- PA State: Target, Hobby Lobby, JC Penney, Home Depot, etc
- WV State: Target, Hobby Lobby, JC Penney, Home Depot, etc
- VA State: Target, Hobby Lobby, JC Penney, Home Depot, etc
- NC State: Target, Hobby Lobby, JC Penney, Home Depot, etc + Jesus ads + SOTB Pedro ads
- SC State: Target, Hobby Lobby, JC Penney, Home Depot, etc + Jesus ads
- GA State: Target, Hobby Lobby, JC Penney, Home Depot, etc
- FL State: Target, Hobby Lobby, JC Penney, Home Depot, etc
That is amazing that you see so many JC Penneys still in business
During their last bankruptcy, one of the mall groups (Simon?) bought them to add to their portfolio of dying / dead mall brands.
I assume it’s some ploy to rent their own mall space to failed brands they own.
i want to start a trend of writing european place names like american films do:
- Leipzig, SN
- Nice, PACA
- Luleå, BD
- Louisville, America
such a great comment, call it out!
i was watching an american TV show, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and the plot has them go to Riga, i think it was. and in the dialogue, the chsracters say something along the lines of “we need to go to Riga, a town near Poland” i can’t remember the specifics, but i felt incredibly patronised, especially when as you say, sometimes all you get is a couple of letters to know which US state we’ve travelled to, because of course we’re in the US.
and to make matters worse, these are internagional spies, mercenaries and diplomats talking to each other. you knpw where Riga is!People might learn something, because I have no clue what SN, PACA or BD means. You’d need an extra part for the small villages to make it work though: Some place, XYZ (Country)
SN is Sachsen, PACA is Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.
and BD is Norrbotten
And (country)?
Edit: i expect Sweden, but could be Finland, do not know if another language has å.
Luleå is in Sweden (on the coast, last real city when going North).
Å is shared between Swedish, Finnish Norwegian and Danish. It’s ä/æ and ö/ø that differ, with Swedish/Finnish having ä/ö and Norwegian/Danish having æ/ø.
Swedish Finnish Norwegian Danish å å å å ä ä æ æ ö ö ø ø Å isn’t really a native letter of finnish, it’s only used in swedish loanwords.
Most annoying thing about ‘å’. Danes adopted it as a replacement for the digraph ‘aa’, to distance themselves from Germans. And slapped it at the end of the alphabet. But later dropped its use, since they were habituated to ‘aa’ anyway. So now ‘Aarhus’, where ‘aa’ technically stands in for ‘å’, must be sorted at the end of a list, but ‘aardvark’ at the beginning.
In the middle of our street
People who don’t understand sarcasm will get genuinely mad about this post, and I’m here for it
I like that all the states are shown to be all blobby and fat looking. Perfection.
When people can’t tell if you’re joking, it’s a problem with your sub, not the joke
I mean maybe they were being a brat on purpose and you were the one who didn’t get it
Poe’s Law - without a clear indicator of the author’s intent, it is impossible to create a parody of extreme views that someone won’t mistake for the real thing. You cannot tell the difference between extreme satire and genuine stupidity or fanaticism because real-world opinions have become just as ridiculous as jokes.
three photos of roads across the US
“without a clear indicator of the author’s intent, it is impossible…”
Again, I can’t tell if you’re serious with this reply or if this is another joke
eh, I’ll take it just because I think this is funny
I can’t stand when I get somewhere in the US in geoguessr because 80% of the country looks identical
Should have included Texas, looks totally different (our traffic lights are horizontal instead of vertical almost always)
German here. While it does look massively different here we have these walls around the Autobahn to lower the noise from the cars. And since they’re mostly everywhere it also looks the same everywhere: Autobahn, walls, sometimes trees or otherwise green.
(rush hour ofc looks different and is the same every damn day and we just keep on doing it)
On the other hand I have to say aside from the streets there’s a huge variety in scenery, here as well as in the states.
I’d say the big difference between north american and european roads is just the fact that in europe 3 lanes per direction is generally the maximum, ignoring junctions.
Meanwhile in the US and even canada you get significant stretches (generally in urban areas too, wonderful) where you have 4+ lanes per direction!!!We also tend to have vastly smaller junctions in general, both on highways and on smaller roads. The absurd size and higher frequency of interchanges on american highways can make the amount of roads almost quadruple in some areas, just an endless sea of flyovers…
Autobahn is out of the city experience. Stroads on OP picture are basically half of every American city.
This is so unfair. There are NUANCES and DIFFERENCES between the states!
For example, the billboards in Illinois have a washed-up football player advertising a hair regrowth product, while the billboards in Indiana are for strip clubs, weed dispensaries in other states, and telling you hell is real.
I was messing around with a steetview app one time and I was pretty fascinated by the fact that basically anywhere on the globe, clicked at random, looks incredibly similar to somewhere that I’ve been. Click randomly in Ukraine, “huh, I’ve definitely been on country back roads in the US that look basically just like this.” Click a spot in Kazakhstan, I’ve seen places in the Midwest that look pretty similar. Click something in a more tropical spot in search of something altogether different, “you know I’ve been to some coastal towns that look a lot like this.” Click a spot in a French mountain range, “This doesn’t look all that different from parts of the Rockies.”
It brings to mind one of my favorite quotes:
“If I have one message to give to the secular American people, it’s that the world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don’t know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same.”
- Marjane Satrapi
I will say having driven across the US it does feel very different at different points, but yes, stroads are everywhere from deserts to mountains to plains and coasts
The natural geography is different but anywhere united statesians actually build stuff it’s all the same crap
Same pharmacies, restaurants, gas stations, clothing stores, internet providers etc. Different names for the newspapers but same owners of everything
Having lived and traveled both “places” (and speaking in jest):
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America’s cities are vastly more uniform than European ones, especially the mid-size ones. The approach goes big box stores > strip malls > suburbs > trendy strip malls > abandoned downtown > highrise downtown complex. In Europe, it’s more quaint medieval village > commercial area > medium density living > high density living > medieval city core
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America’s landscapes are vastly more uniform than European ones, outside of a few highlights. Driving cross-country is city > farm land > more farm land > desert > National Park (yay!) > desert > farmland > city. Europe is more city > shrubs > border wait > mountains > border wait > lake > valley > border wait > city
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Europeans think of any European country as an equivalent to America as a whole. That’s simply stupid. America as a whole is equivalent to Europe as a whole, and American states roughly equivalent to European countries. States are on average half as big as countries in Europe, but America as a whole is roughly equivalent to the EU. So, yes, a European should know what the capital city of Florida is if they expect an American to know the capital of Poland. (Only Germans and people from Montana can reliably tell you the state capital of Montana, though.)
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American regional cultures are almost as diverse as European ones. Europeans seem to think that it is the language barrier that keeps regional cultures intact and diverse, but an American from California and an American from Texas use the same language but might as well be from different universes. People from Utah think drinking coffee is sinful and drown their uncaffeinated selves in thinly diluted sugar while next door in Colorado climbing 14ers (4300 meter mountains) is a social event that requires crowd control and permitting.
American regional cultures are almost as diverse as European ones.
Not even close. Almost every European country has it’s own language (sometimes more than one), and often times regional dialects within countries aren’t even mutually intelligible.
In Europe, the differences in traditions and expectations for how to act are massive, with different stories, different educational systems and different political systems. Half of Europe even lived in a different economic universe with the Soviet union just up until 40 years ago. Many European peoples still retain traditional crafts and lifestyles - it’s not “quaint little villages”, it’s a living heritage that it takes both specialized skill and understanding to maintain.
Spain is its own cultural universe spanning the globe, with media that never touches the English-speaking world; Albania and others have been Muslim-majority for 500 years (to say nothing of Turkey); Russia borders Finland in the West and Japan in the East. I could go on but I really think you’re vastly under-estimating how different European countries are from each other, and exaggerating the differences between American states.
That’s not to say that America doesn’t contain diverse cultures, but it’s your minority cultures within and across states that provide the flavor. But put succinctly: do think Minnesota is to South Carolina what Denmark is to Slovenia?
Yeah, that’s an absurd claim.
Americans watch the same TV channels. They shop in the same national retailers. There are some small differences in regional cuisine, but burgers, pizza, tacos, fried chicken, etc. are common everywhere. The same musicians are popular everywhere. The same 4 sports are the popular ones everywhere.
There are regional festivals celebrated in Europe that have been celebrated since before Europeans set foot in the Americas. The regional foods are completely different. Even though football is the most popular sport in most places, the number 2 sport varies greatly. There are bands and singers that are popular across Europe, plus a lot of American cultural exports that are popular too. But there are lots of regional kinds of music that are popular within certain countries.
The fact that Mardi Gras in New Orleans is so popular shows just how homogenous the culture is. To Europeans, Mardi Gras is just a very typical American-style festival. And yet, it draws Americans from other states because it’s considered to be so unique.
Of note, Minnesota and SC are almost twice as far away from each other as Denmark and Slovenia 😂 I live in the US and the idea that our cities’ cultures are as diverse as those found among all the nations of Europe is laughable. There’s plenty diversity within the US between cities, but it’s a totally different beast, and every city is also surrounded by homogeneous suburbs
That’s what I was trying to get at. And I don’t want to take anything away from America, there are reasons why some of the best cultural exports in terms of music, sports, film and books come from the USA and I think the multiple swathes of cultural incubators that cut across geographical boundaries help a lot with that.
The second to last point makes no sense, since the capital of Montana plays no role in international geopolitics, so it’s useless information. Poland is not the biggest international player either, but at least it’s not just part of a federation
The last point does not mention Montana?
If you mean the point above that, then the comparison is between Poland and Florida. Florida’s large Cuban community has been a driver of the support of Republicans in Congress. It is both a reason why the President is a Republican right now, and why America is thinking of invading Cuba. So, yes, Florida is very important to international geopolitics.
if you meant Montana, then let me point out that the population of Montana is somewhere between Cyprus and Luxembourg and has the geopolitical clout of either.
But their point still stands that your state capitals have no real geopolitical influence. Outside of a few big cities there is absolutely no need to know the individual American cities on a global scale.
Leipzig has a really strong scene of zionists which is one of the reasons that the left party of Germany has a problem recognising the need to stop weapon shipments to Israel, but I don’t expect a random american to know that Leipzig exists.
Whose state capitals? I am European.
It’s as a European that I say Europeans have to get over internal differences and stop thinking European countries are equivalent to the big players in the world.
The UK thought it was super special and better than the rest, and it got exactly what it deserves. We Europeans are probably better off forgetting the “geopolitical clout of Poland” and considering it embedded in that of Europe as a whole. It’s no coincidence that Europe’s enemies fan the flames of nationalism in European countries.
Just dropping in to say that I, as an American, also look at Europe as though it’s one country with individual states. I don’t think that’s a universal rule, but I think a lot of Americans do that, in part, because we mostly hear about politics in terms of the “European Union”.
Occasionally the news is at the country level… France’s nuclear reactors… Spain suggesting development in the military… Denmark starting conscription… but the regulations we hear about, such as regarding carbon emissions or GDPR are in terms of the EU as a whole.
Tbf you also get very little international news in total
If you ever need to drive the point home, half of our states are only important to the people who live in them. Sure, California or New York is comparable to say, France or Germany, and impact the world stage; but our deep South or Midwest is probably more comparable to the Balkans or the Baltics, etc. I’m sure they’re lovely, of course, but… they aren’t exactly a focus.
I say that, given an American can probably pick correctly where Spain, France or Germany are, roughly, but fuck us to know where Latvia or Albania are. Europeans are forgiven if they can’t figure out which of our fucking rectangles is Wyoming.
Why, it’s easy! Wyoming is the rectangle above the Best Rectangle!
Europeans think of any European country as an equivalent to America as a whole. That’s simply stupid. America as a whole is equivalent to Europe as a whole, and American states roughly equivalent to European countries. States are on average half as big as countries in Europe, but America as a whole is roughly equivalent to the EU. So, yes, a European should know what the capital city of Florida is if they expect an American to know the capital of Poland. (Only Germans and people from Montana can reliably tell you the state capital of Montana, though.)
I tried to make a very similar point in one of the European communities on Lemmy earlier this year (in response to a post about Americans being bad at European geography) and basically the whole community jumped on me for it. Watch your back. They’re rabid over there if you dare suggest that a US state is comparable to a European country. :P
I mean most American states are shaped as rectangles, have nothing notable in terms of geography or culture to tell them apart, and are under 2 million inhabitants.
It’s like if Europe had Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and then 15 more of that, but they’re all shaped the same and speak the same language and their capitals are made of cinder block and plaster.
I mean most American states are shaped as rectangles,
Objectively false!
and are under 2 million inhabitants.
Objectively false!
I don’t know why anyone is upvoting you
You’re objectively right, I was being hyperbolic. It’s a lot of states that are rectangle-shaped with quite small populations though. I mean if I had given the cutoff of “4.3 million inhabitants”, then that would cover half of all states.
And easily more than half at least one 90 degree angle.
Europe also has a lot of small states to be fair, and I don’t think we can expect people in general to keep track of all these.
This isn’t really relevant to the conversation, but your comments made me curious and I’ve just discovered that San Marino is actually a full 61km2. I had no idea, I thought it was about the same size as Monaco. The other mildly interesting tidbit is that Luxembourg is about the same size as Rhode Island - and both fill the role of “vortex of unknowable financial hijinks” for their respective region. I wonder what it is about small regions that breeds both tax havens and a shockingly high density of chocolatiers.
Yeah these small independent states are really strange. At least Rhode Island isn’t landlocked, but Luxembourg depends on all of its neighbors using it to launder money, and I’m not sure why that’s tolerated. Maybe it’s the chocolate.
I’ll explain. People get annoyed because you are proudly ignorant of 2000 years of history and tons of cultural differences.
The issue was never about cultural differences or history (though I would argue that different US states have quite different cultures, too) - it was purely about geographical knowledge. In that case specifically it was Europeans ragging on Americans for not being able to find smaller European countries on a map. I tried to compare being able to point to a country like Moldova as a European to being able to point to Kansas as an American and that was apparently the wrong thing to suggest, let me tell you, but the point I was trying to make is that of course Americans aren’t going to be as well-versed in European geography as a European, because we simply don’t need to know where those countries are regularly. Meanwhile I’d wager most Americans can point to Kansas or Colorado on a map, but I wouldn’t expect Europeans to be able to.
They’re like states, if the states each spoke their own separate languages and had spent the bigger part of the last 2,000 years constantly at war with each other.
Europeans think of any European country as an equivalent to America as a whole.
Half of the problem with that phrase is that this line of thought is far more common from Americans than Europeans. No European think France = US in any other context than geopolitically, maybe. But a lot of US citizens do think that way. The phrase “Americans think 200 years is a long time, and Europeans think 200km is a long distance” is of US origin. It’s literally the result of US ignorance that compares the geographical distances of a single European state, like Germany or France, to the entire extent of the continental US. Europeans are perfectly aware that 200km are 200km anywhere on the planet. Whether you are driving to another country or another state, it is irrelevant.
The other half of the problem is that the political dynamics of the European Union are fundamentally different to the United States federation. Just by the fact that the US was forged in war while the EU is an economics first agreement. Their nature is vastly different and not comparable at all. Maybe one day in the future the EU will just be a federation of states, a single country with a single constitution, but today that’s not the case. There’s no executive power in the EU that can override a country’s authority. That alone sets them so very far apart.
Appreciate the warning! I think the real problem is that Europeans never accepted they are becoming a single political entity and still don’t necessarily consider themselves European. I think that’s sad, as Europeans are extensively closer to each other than to nations outside of Europe. Also, the EU is a decent model for how smaller entities can work with larger ones without being suffocated or absorbed.
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I bled red, white, and bald eagle from reading this post.
I’ve driven through a lot of the USA. I also took a road Trip in central Europe once. I totally agree with this sentiment about USA. Very sick of living here and hoping to have the opportunity of emigrating to somewhere in Europe soon, I just want to try it once. I may regret not trying more than trying and failing to live there.I live in Germany now and have taken the opportunity to visit other European nations. I’ve also done a coast to coast road trip of the US.
Overall Europe has way better smaller cities and villages. They are actually liveable and have their own charm and feel. The largest cities are comparable to the largest US cities. They offer different things to those that live their and visit, but overall comparable.
Although the suburban sprawl of the US is an absolute hellscape and is just about the ugliest type of community imaginable.
Once you get outside of the suburbs though. The US natural landscapes wins hands down. There’s a reason people from across the world visit Yellowstone. Not to mention the amount of empty space especially out west is something I truly miss. At least in Germany the greatest distance between any two buildings is 10km. That’s the most remote you can get in the entire country. True wilderness is definitely something I miss
We do get a lot of German tourists coming to visit the northwest of Scotland - quite often a queue of campervans with their fancy license plates queuing up in Inverness. You can be stood on top of a mountain in the northern highlands, and not see any evidence of another human being from horizon to horizon. Which is also terrifying in a way - the traditional “Land’s End to John O’Groats” cycle does include quite a long way away from civilisation if your bike decides to have a mechanical.
German tourists always most welcome here, ofc. Even more welcome if you bring some konigsberger klopse and some robust dunkelbiers with you; will swap you for whisky, we’ve got loads.
That’s funny and all but literally the only way I can tell apart Lithuania, Latvia and Esthonia is by using esoteric shit like the shape of power lines, the crosswalk and bus signs, and the angle of the km signs in highways. At least for the US I can gauge how racist the place looks from 50-100 before I make a guess.
you do realize those countries are, all together, the size of the state of Georgia.
man this side of the street is so similar to the other side of the street
The Stroads that lead into and come off of the Interstate system have all become the same strip mall. If you want to see the interesting parts of the US, drive the old highway system and not the freeways.
Houston in the 70s, I just saw this shot in a recent episode from Wendover. Not that it’s like, a different city or anything, but the same area has far fewer parking lots and is somewhat more walkable now. Still a lot of parking lots, but definitely improved at least:
Fewer people know about the extensive pedestrian tunnel system underneath downtown Houston:
It’s equal parts shopping mall, liminal space, and 70s engineering marvel.
Never heard about it.
But now I am intrigued.
And now I am terrified of being trapped in there.
Never going in. Ever.
