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Cars and guns. Flags and freedom. Fast-food and air-conditioning. That’s what the United States is all about—or at least the stereotypical version of America, according to the internet. No matter how hard people try, it looks like there are some stereotypes that Americans just can’t shake.

Whether because of pop culture or anecdotal experiences with tourists, some foreigners have a very clear-cut picture in their minds of what American everyday life is like. Even though it actually varies so much. And redditor Pfl2020 wanted to find out what exactly non-Americans think that Americans can’t live without.

Check out some of the most interesting responses to their thread and remember to give the ones that you relate to a big ol’ upvote as you scroll down. We’d also love to hear your opinions on what you associate Americans with, dear Pandas. And if you’re from the US, share your thoughts and feelings about these stereotypes in the comments.

For instance, I personally associate Americans with extremely warm and friendly people, delicious homecooked meals, great education, excellent four square skills on the playground, flags, and… powdered donuts (yum!). I’m pretty sure there are unfriendly Americans out there, but I’ve yet to meet one in person. (They could be a myth conjured up by jealous Canadians.)

#1

The belief that they’re more free than the rest of the world.

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    #2

    The believe that America is the greatest of all democracies while it is just another empire on its way down...

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    #3

    30 Things Americans Can't Seem To Live Without, As Observed By Non-Americans Medical debt

    victorianfolly , Tyler Report

    It’s best to think of cultural stereotypes as incredibly rough guidelines that sometimes help us navigate life, but you should never think that they’re completely accurate representations of reality. Life’s too complex and deep to be summed up in a couple of throwaway phrases.

    Not all Americans are overweight, own a gun, only speak English, and tip their waiters all the time. But does the country have a problem with obesity? Yes, it does. According to the CIA, 36.2 percent of all Americans were considered to be obese in 2016. And the US ranked twelfth in the world by obesity. But it would be unfair to ignore that in such a vast country there are plenty of fitness enthusiasts and healthy eaters out there, too.

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    #4

    A sense of superiority and a denial of the truth of their own history.

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    #5

    30 Things Americans Can't Seem To Live Without, As Observed By Non-Americans Fast food. I remember watching a piece about how fast food is sometimes the cheapest option for poor families. They literally can't afford to eat healthily.

    RyzenRaider , Calgary Reviews Report

    #6

    30 Things Americans Can't Seem To Live Without, As Observed By Non-Americans Flags. You really care about showing off flags. Pro tip: Any place with lots of flags has a national identity crisis.

    gullman , Best Picko Report

    Some stereotypes are nearly perfectly true, however. Like how much Americans love cars. They're not the only ones, though. The US really does have a car obsession and ranks fourth on Planet Earth by the number of motor vehicles per capita, but it falls right behind—you’ll never believe it—New Zealand. That’s right, our loveable Kiwis own more cars, on average, than Americans do. Who needs eagles when our hobbit protagonists could have headed to Mordor in a Volvo?

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    Plenty of Americans really can’t live without cars because they rely on them for their day-to-day lives. Those who argue against this would point to the fact that, in 2019, Americans also took a whopping 9.9 billion trips on public transportation. Which sounds very impressive...

    ...Until you realize that there were 328.2 million people living in the US that year and that they'd each end up using public transportation just over 30 times each, on average. All year. So there's some truth to the stereotype about loving cars after all. But it's not the entire story. Nor the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Not by far.

    #7

    The goddamn Imperial System of Units.
    I don't even live in the US but a lot of content on the internet is American and it annoys me when I need to multiply miles by 1.6 to get kilometers.

    TarunVader_10 Report

    #8

    30 Things Americans Can't Seem To Live Without, As Observed By Non-Americans A car. In European countries, it’s pretty common that you can get anywhere by public transport, but I haven’t heard about any properly functioning public transportation besides New York’s subway.

    avadakabitch , llee_wu Report

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    #9

    30 Things Americans Can't Seem To Live Without, As Observed By Non-Americans Bumper stickers informing others of their opinions.

    AmJusAskin , Michael Pereckas Report

    #10

    High Self confidence. Good thing in most people. Bad thing in flat earthers and antivaxxers

    Chk232 Report

    #11

    30 Things Americans Can't Seem To Live Without, As Observed By Non-Americans Material consumption. This is true in most places but from my observation it seems to go to another level in America. Everyone spends so much time discussing the latest thing they bought and how great it is.

    TauCeti2050 , greychr Report

    #12

    30 Things Americans Can't Seem To Live Without, As Observed By Non-Americans Insurance. If they get sick without it, they're [screwed]. Meanwhile, if I have an health issue in Europe, I'll get free assistance in case of emergency and pay a small fee (usually between 30€ and 70€) for a routine visit.

    Zek_ , looseid Report

    #13

    30 Things Americans Can't Seem To Live Without, As Observed By Non-Americans A house. Even if you can't afford it. No flat — a house. Big house with two living rooms: one for family, one for ????

    Iseult-benoit , daryl_mitchell Report

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    #14

    Mentioning someones race/culture/sex etc. constantly

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    #15

    Overly-fat-saturated and sugary foods.

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    #16

    War? Jk but I read somewhere in all layout history you’ve only had 17 years when you weren’t at war with someone or the other

    Babebodysuit Report

    #17

    News telling them who to be angry and outraged with this week.

    Moodog5853 Report

    #18

    30 Things Americans Can't Seem To Live Without, As Observed By Non-Americans Air-conditioning. That's usually the first complaint that American migrants have in Germany.

    HabseligkeitDerLiebe , Sagar Verma Report

    #19

    30 Things Americans Can't Seem To Live Without, As Observed By Non-Americans Guns, walmart, and deep friers

    Hachater , Mike Mozart Report

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    #20

    30 Things Americans Can't Seem To Live Without, As Observed By Non-Americans Soda pop. Spent some time in the southwest. Everyone had these enormous refillable beverage containers they would refill with soft drinks multiple times a day. While I agree it is important to stay hydrated, the jugs i saw held 1.75 quarts, and that much fountain drink could contain more than 200 grams of sugar.


    LOUDCO-HD , Mike Mozart Report

    #21

    30 Things Americans Can't Seem To Live Without, As Observed By Non-Americans Garburators, garbage disposal. Every time an American was house hunting on House Hunters International, the Americans always wanted a garburator and would be disappointed if the kitchens didn't have one.

    Queef_Quaff , Chris Winters Report

    #22

    Fahrenheit... it’s such nonsense. Celsius is where it’s at!

    maymee-masters Report

    #23

    30 Things Americans Can't Seem To Live Without, As Observed By Non-Americans A credit card. Not sure why people use it over there, possibly because of their weird credit system that seems to be so essential to their lives, or because of their even weirder mindset of liking to spend money they don't have. Probably both.

    Joe-misidd , Håkan Dahlström Report

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    #24

    30 Things Americans Can't Seem To Live Without, As Observed By Non-Americans Ice. What's the deal with ice machines and them being such a big deal in any TV show or movie set in a hotel or motel?

    halfshoe , Mike Mozart Report

    #25

    30 Things Americans Can't Seem To Live Without, As Observed By Non-Americans Paper plates. Used in your own home? That’s quite bizarre to me.

    Notaelephant , Donald West Report

    #26

    Military.

    h2man Report

    #27

    Loans or debts of some sort, especially in their younger years. And i think Americans literally can't live without insurance.

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    #28

    30 Things Americans Can't Seem To Live Without, As Observed By Non-Americans Red solo cups, they are such an American thing

    IIIHenryIII , hannabreezy Report

    #29

    30 Things Americans Can't Seem To Live Without, As Observed By Non-Americans Cheddar cheese, and jumbo everything

    -butter-toast- , Joakim Jardenberg Report

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    #30

    Automatic transmissions.

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    #31

    Buying expensive [crap]. Everytime I see someone talk about their bad living situation, I check out their profiles. Most of the time it´s people with Iphones, Macs, expensive 4K TVs, going out drinking every Friday (before the rona), high end fashion, etc. And they complain about how they can´t afford food, how they can´t afford assurance, to pay their medical bills, etc. Why the [hell] do y´all have to have all the expensive [crap], when there are cheaper options?

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    #32

    Corruption. It scares the [hell] out of me how the system overlook things when it's a judge or cops.

    georgeisamazed Report

    #33

    30 Things Americans Can't Seem To Live Without, As Observed By Non-Americans 7/11's barrel-sized beverage cups of soda. What the [hell] is that about?

    And how is it cheaper than a small cup in europe?!

    raasra , Seamus Walsh Report

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    #34

    Customer service. They love complaining. Which I truly understand now. Most of the service here is subpar. Everything moves around money. People working are stressed out and people who needs service mostly feels the same way. I’m surprised whenever I encounter a happy worker around here.

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    #35

    Extra-large everything.

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    #36

    Thanksgiving ritualistic family torture

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    #37

    Corporate products. Half the words out of your mouth are from advertising campaigns - and you don't see how f***ed that is. You glorify Oreos, when they taste like synthetic cardboard and fondant.

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    #38

    Pick-up trucks.

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    #39

    30 Things Americans Can't Seem To Live Without, As Observed By Non-Americans Drive-thrus.

    Blysse102598 , Paul Sableman Report

    #40

    "Justice". Like: "You did something I consider wrong, so f**k you, you deserve everything bad that could happen to you."

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    #41

    30 Things Americans Can't Seem To Live Without, As Observed By Non-Americans A microwave. It looks like 90% of Americans don’t know how to boil an egg.

    olliver_with_a_twist , David Shane Report

    #42

    Convenience. Where I am from all the shops close early, and things will take days to be delivered. From what I read on hear, it sounds like you can just get whatever you want any time of day.

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    #43

    Starbucks and Twitter

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    #44

    I experience Americans as very superficial (not sure if this is the right word to be honest). I think it might create turmoil if you take this away from American society and people actually would tell each other what they really think about each other. Just my experience of the "fake-smile"-syndrom.

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    #45

    30 Things Americans Can't Seem To Live Without, As Observed By Non-Americans Sugar

    floreNzTARR , Lisa Risager Report

    #46

    Ice in their water or very cold water

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