The Margin: 9 things that Americans couldn’t possibly live without, according to the rest of the world

America is taking some hits on Reddit.

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The United States of America, the land of the free and the home of the overweight, loud-mouthed, evangelical, gun-loving warmongers?

The U.S. has, indeed, been the butt of many a joke from our friends (and enemies) overseas. Let’s just say the past few years have done little to stem the mockery flowing from abroad.

But what does the rest of the world really think of the American people? One commenter going by psl2020 on Reddit endeavored to find out by asking the simple question: ” All Non American Redditors. What is one thing you assume all Americans can’t live without?”

Hundreds chimed in and here’s a sampling of the most popular answers:

1. Cars

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“In European countries it’s pretty common that you can go anywhere in public transport, but I haven’t heard about any properly functioning public transportation besides New York’s subway.”

2. Fast food

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“We don’t love fast food because it’s good, we love it because we’re all completely overburdened already and it’s the only thing available when we want a quick meal we don’t have to make ourselves because fast food corporations have oversaturated the market. “

3. Material consumption

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“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.”

4. Air conditioning

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“Freezing AC. North pole AC with double ice in iced tea or iced coffee.”

5. Garburators/Garbage disposals

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“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. Why not just put your garbage in the garbage bin instead of down the sink?”

6. Flags

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“You f****s really care about showing off flags. Anywhere with lots of flags has a national identity crisis.”

7. Guns

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“From the amount of fuss they raise about them, you’d think half of them will drop dead if they lose their gun privileges.”

8. Toilet paper

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“Even before bidets became common in other countries, people used buckets and pails to clean down there with water. No paper, no waste. It’s one thing to not know how cheap it is to install one, or how convenient it is. It’s another to be aware of it, but stubbornly refuse to even try it, even defending the ‘superiority’ of TP with bizarre justifications.”

9. Soda pop

Close Up Of Boy Drinking Soda From Bottle

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“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 contains about 275 grams of sugar.”

The list goes on and on as the the jabs continued to land, prompting the Americans on the thread to step up to defend themselves, including MissKeek, who summed up much of the response.

“Wow… I know we come off as terrible humans, but this is bad,” she wrote. “I’m just commenting in hopes that people not from America can understand that while there are massive amounts of people exactly as you describe, there are so many people who just aren’t blubbery fast food gobbling, processed food hoarding, anti education gun-toting morons.”

Bip2012 also tried to downplay the stereotypes. “This reads like it was written by people who watch a lot of American TV,” he said. “Our news and TV is generally s**t. Please don’t form opinions on us through those avenues. The worst of us are the loudest.”

Is the U.S. getting a bad rap? Let us know in the comments.

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November 30, 2020 at 04:47PM

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