Smoking kills.
It’s always jarring to go to an otherwise gorgeous and cosmopolitan EU city and see the kind of cigarette litter the US has 30 years ago. Where I live in the US, cops actually write tickets for throwing butts on the ground, and people will yell at you for it. In Lisbon or Paris, there are entire parts of the city which just smell like an ash tray because of all the cigarette litter.
Why wouldn’t Europeans be ready to hear that? Pretty sure we’ve been hearing it on a regular basis since the 70’s
Most of us dislike it. But it’s also true that we have quite a lot of tobacco users. It’s just disgusting
The numbers are a bit worse than I thought https://www.datapandas.org/ranking/smoking-rates-by-country.
As usual, Sweden is doing well. So are a lot of African countries.
Just came back from France it’s out of control there seemingly.
Once years ago when I used to smoke, on was visiting Ghana and people were literally yelling at me for smoking in public. It’s illegal to smoke in public in a few African countries at this point IIRC.
It’s called: “soccer” !!
hand egg! :p
Most nations of the world refer to the beautiful game as football, or a derivative thereof. Then there’s that one nation…
Then there’s that one nation…
Sure, but we forgive Italy just because they love the game so much, they can have their own strange name for it if they want.
Italy has to be Italy :) And Juventus Football Club plays calcio, so while they do have their own awesome word they seem to be on team football ;)
Ah yes, Australia
Ah yes, Japan.
😄 Thank you. Obviously not what I was referring to, but still a point.
In Japan the most common term is sakkā, that came into use from US influence after the war. Both futtobōru and football is in use, though.
Although the official English name of the Japan Football Association uses the term “football”, the term sakkā (サッカー), derived from “soccer”, is much more commonly used than futtobōru (フットボール). The JFA’s Japanese name is Nippon Sakkā Kyōkai.
Before World War II the term in general use was shūkyū (蹴球, kick-ball), a Sino-Japanese term. With previously exclusive Japanese terms replaced by American influence after the war, sakkā became more commonplace. In recent years, many professional teams have named themselves F.C.s (football clubs), with examples being FC Tokyo and Kyoto Sanga FC.
that message may come from us or canada, the rest of the world would side with europe
Hey, don’t leave Australia and New Zealand out of club soccer, too. Soccer happens to be the preferred term in most anglophone countries.
soccer is an abbreviation of associated football. which apparently had rather upper class implications in the UK and as such the word never caught on with the hoi poloi
OK, so this may shock some, but my posh English school called football ‘soccer’. Football was what most people would call rugby. Cricket was… Cricket.
posh English school
Admit it, the braying oafs in the pub called it “ruggah”
Probably. I hated all of it and still do, so I’ve no idea what they said in the pub.
Europeans: call a game where you kick ball with foot “football”
Americans: call a game where you throw ball with hands “football”
One of these makes more sense to me… :p
Europeans came up with the word “soccer” as a shortened form of “Association football” to distinguish it from the numerous other forms of football being played (rugby etc).
So, it’s your fault anyway.
NGL I kinda forgot about rugby, fair point
It was the Brits. Europe refers to a collection of countries.
Brits are Europeans, so the statement wasnt incorrect
Europeans when it’s positive, individual culture subset when it’s something bad.
“Europeans” is too vague. Why would you refer to Europe like it’s one country?
to get engagement
the uk is also a “collection of countries”.
Yes, and as far as I’m aware it’s the collection of countries that created the term Association Football. Could be wrong though.
And we’ve since corrected our mistake.
It was not Europeans. It was the British. And it was the upper class British. Specifically at the Oxford University. The people in both continental Europe and Britain always called it football.
“Soccer” is technically a slur for lower class football.
Even the British call it football now, but the soccer slur still lives on in America and other colonies.
“It wasn’t Europeans, it was this group of people from Europe.”
A small group of people from of a single country does not represent the entire population of the continent.
The sentence "Americans say ‘aloha’ instead of ‘hello’* is just as right or wrong.
Good example
“Soccer” is technically a slur for lower class football.
America: I’m not seeing the issue here.
:P
It was not Europeans. It was the British.
My brother you need to look at a map once in a while or resit your geography exams 🤣😂.
That soccer is boring. I’m european and love playing soccer but it’s boring to watch.
That’s pretty much all sports IMO
Basketball comes to mind as a pretty good spectator sport. But I agree for Baseball and American Football at least
Can we get a sample of your username?
…a sample? Like, you want to whiff farts orrrr?
No, a little soundbite. What accent is it? French?
Aah, I see. Well, it varies based on what I’ve eaten. I ate maple sausage and scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese and chives for breakfast so I guess it’d be an American fart?
I’m afraid I don’t have one in the chamber though, so no farts to share.
Well that’s just it; it’s not boring, but watching it usually is. Professional sports was a mistake.
I think that’s just sports in general. I enjoy playing almost all sportsball games. I’d sooner watch a Pong Livestream than watch 99% of sports.
Volleyball is pretty amazing to watch (and play too)
OK now this one I agree with
The greatest spectator sport is curling 🥌. I’m not even joking.
There’s no soccer in Europe ;)
Only futbol.
Soccer is fine. It’s the flopping which makes it unwatchable.
Bro you are a full grown fucking man in the prime of your life and you just spent the last minute rolling around on the turf screaming in agony but now you’re back at 100% for the next attack?
The game really needs a rule which requires any player who goes to the turf for longer than 10s to get a sub or serve a 60s penalty.
Soccer is at least barely enjoyable.
Not like those cycling races that take 5 hours with nothing happening in them.
It really does feel like online communities get more relentlessly xenophobic when they have more Europeans. It just seems like a lot of you can’t get by without mentioning where someone’s from. Like, no, someone not seeing the value in retro computing doesn’t say anything about “the intelligence of the average Scot.” And if you can’t tell where they’re from, American by default.
How would people who live outside of Europe know what Europeans are not ready to hear? As someone who lives in the U.S. I know only a couple of people IRL who live in Europe.
The thing my European friend was not ready to hear was that all his complaining about the social programs in his home country and the high taxes and so on comes across as entitled and spoiled. Because he’s never lived without the benefits of a state that will provide healthcare and so on, he is free to complain about his privileges and glorify the U.S. as a place where individual citizens fill in the responsibilities that the government should fulfill. He sees this as an unmitigated good, because he thinks it means more civic engagement.
What he doesn’t understand is that this results in most people falling through the cracks, and until he falls through one of those cracks himself it won’t be real to him how bad it is to not be able to afford losing wages because you are sick or injured, or what it’s like when you can’t afford to see a doctor when you break a bone or get so sick you can’t leave your house.
That said, I’m not sure every European needs to hear this, or that they’re not ready to hear it - just this one person seemed to be a little delusional and to have idealized the U.S. as some kind of right-wing libertarian utopia.
How would people who live outside of Europe know what Europeans are not ready to hear?
-Goes on to do exactly that
Bröther
You take your lööps for granted, Eurøpeans. Your Sïster grows weary.
A Møøse once bit my sister…
Just ignore he was talking about one specific european he knows, that was making out the states to be superior
Opinions differ from person to person, some people here really are a bit disconnected from reality
of course, I assume most Europeans are not like my friend :-)
European racism is out of control to the point of cringe. The new world cannot hold a candle to you.
Here is a quick example. Netflix released a Norwegian movie called “Christmas as Usual” (translated). It essentially takes the concept of the American 1967 film “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner”, moves it to Norway and gives it a holiday twist. According to Netflix, this 2023 film was in the Top 10 in thirty countries. How? How is a movie concept from America’s peak civil rights battles era working for you in 2023?
My wife is European and my largest clients are European with European staff and the abundance of casual racism is hard for myself and my staff to handle. Don’t get me started on my family in-law.
European racism is out of control to the point of cringe.
Oh damn it’s all the way to cringe? Now that’s serious lol
Rapidly approaching can’t even status
Agreed. We have been sold xenophobia by our politicians and media for longer than America has existed.
Your point really doesn’t land. Netflix released a movie? Okay… And?
The film was one of the few of the time to depict an interracial marriage in a positive light, as interracial marriage historically had been illegal in many states of the United States. It was still illegal in 17 states, until June 12, 1967, six months before the film was released, and scenes were filmed just before anti-miscegenation laws were struck down by the Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia.
Makes more sense with this context.
I still don’t get it. Why is a movie’s success with an anti-racist trope an indicator of racism?
Because it should be a non-issue and not an impactful or driving feature of the film.
That feature of the film moved the status quo in 1967. It seemed like that was the point.
If a film were released in America today that pushed interracial marriage as an issue, most would find it racist because it is not a large issue in the greater culture (for the most part).
But I thought the movie only has a similar plot to this 1967 movie, which only featured interracial marriage in a positive light. Does it actually focus on interracial marriage? Because so far nobody has mentioned anything objectable.
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Wikipedia describes the origin different, so maybe the parallels were not intended:
The film is based on the true story of Holmsen’s sister, a Norwegian, and her relationship with an Indian, whom she brings home for Christmas Eve. The film was released to negative reviews.
You misunderstand. I don’t mean that it was a remake, just that it was the same concept. I think the term is “trope”.
The fact that the Norwegian film is based on a true story just makes it all so much worse.
Do you not think the problem is divided equally? Some Europeans tend to not notice casual racism, whereas many Americans tend to see racism where it didn’t exist to start with?
I think you are missing the context of the film I used as an example. All the friction and the “comedy” in the film comes from the racism. From the start, it is the point. The taxi driver picks them up from the airport and asks the main character if he is from India. When he replies yes and asks if the driver if he’s ever been there, his reply is no but he stopped in Turkey once. The when they arrive the soon to be mother-in-law assumes that the Indian boyfriend is the Taxi driver and the driver is the boyfriend. We are five minutes into the film at this point and it goes downhill from there.
That is just one easy to digest example using media. Our real life daily interactions with the staff from our European clients is a never ending source for more.
So you’re saying the film points out the casual racism in an effort to shame the people that do it, even accidentally, and using comedy as the vehicle.
Whereas you just got angry and self righteous at said film
That’s what I mean
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The scary part is that this racism is very alive in German politics right now
Hopefully someday we’ll learn to be more like USA police and judicial system.
What does the movie have to do with anything? Your in-law?
EDIT: Europeans were definitely not ready to hear this one. LOL
Nah, your example is just shit and that the new world cannot hold a candle to us is fucking insane, y’all just re-elected Trump ffs. We definitely have a racism problem in European countries as well but our Trumpian party in Germany is currently polling at 19%, which is awful enough but to claim that it’s that much better in the US is fucking nuts. I’m in an multiracial marriage myself and while my wife experiences racism in Germany, it’s to a somewhat similar extent to the US
Popcorn munching…
We have popcorn in Europe too?
Just me :p
I hear the FDA actually controls American food in a much healthier way than European even though the opposite is commonly thought.
Europeans can definitely be much louder and annoying than Americans.
Europeans can be more racist, mention muslims or Romani people.
European democracy is just as bad.
European democracy is just as bad.
Have you got a particular country in mind or are you referring to EU elections?
The politics of Italy, the UK, France, Germany, Hungary, and others all seem close to or worse than the current state of American politics. The only difference is that the US wields a lot more global influence and has no neighbors powerful enough to keep it in check (sorry Canada and Mexico, I still love you). Europe is not doing enough to prevent the spread of its own far-right/neofascist groups and the inevitable erosion of human rights.
I’m referring to the general trend in voting for far right candidates
As an European, I think the obscene amount of lobbying we allow to happen around EU institutions is something that makes “European democracy is just as bad” sound reasonable.
The first and the last one are simply not true, the second and third, sure, sometimes
More chemical food dyes are allowed by the EU.
Which fascist did whatever EU country vote for this term?
More chemical food dyes are allowed by the EU.
But their regulations are more strict overall. There are a lot of US foods can’t be imported without reformulating the product.
Which fascist did whatever EU country vote for this term?
Bruh, we literally just elected a fascist felon who tried to overthrow the government when he lost the last time who openly surrounded himself with fascists pushing project 2025. It’s not even a close challenge…
I’m not saying the US didn’t vote for one of two fascists, but the EU is as well.
People voting for fascists ≠ bad democracy.
The democracy in the USA is bad because you have a two-party system, meaning that there’s barely any choice. In the Netherlands, we have a whole bunch of political parties that share space in Parliament, so that representation is proportional to the votes.
As a result, we have both the PVV and GL-PvdA in Parliament; one is very right on most subjects, the other is pretty leftist.
Cognitive dissonance at its finest
Muslims hated us first though and some of them (that currently live here) want to destroy our civilisation in favour of their barbaric medieval religion, and their continuing growth causes me some concern about when there are enough of them around, and someone has started a sharia party, and all the imams go “you must all now vote for sharia” how many of them will follow that decree (and how many non-muslim useful idiots will too).
Not enough concern for me to start hating or discriminating against them on an individual basis, but everyone’s different and some are further down that road than I am.
I hear the FDA actually controls American food in a much healthier way than European even though the opposite is commonly thought.
What do you mean by this? Because when I look at lists of banned substances and why, or pesticide limits, the EC seems much stricter than the FDA.
I was thinking of food additives and giving animals antibiotics
Where are you getting your information on that? Last time I checked there’s a whole lot of meats the EU won’t allow to be imported from the U.S., due to the additives and antibiotics used. This is particularly relevant to pork.
Lol, Europe spanks us on both those fronts.
I don’t know enough to speak effectively to the overall point, but the banned food additive list and is only a microscopic portion of what food regulators do
You are badly misinformed on this point.
Which one he made 4 points
Evidently that one
Not this one?
Definitely not that one. Are you insane!
Yes
Yes.
Yes
Europeans can definitely be much louder and annoying than Americans.
I’m general or just in certain topics?
I’m particular thinking of my time in southern Spain lol
Brits are utter CUNTS in this way
Sincerely, a Brit
FDA
What are you smoking? We don’t even have corn syrup in our soda or chlorine in our chickens, no putrasene for chocolate, in Europe we don’t even know what tums are which seems to be a common thing to take in the US. We have chemical food dyes but just because they’re chemicals - as is everything - doesn’t mean they’re bad.
I do agree the politics are shit.
Tums is just calcium carbonate (chalk, basically) and is essentially the same as any other rapid relief antacid tablet. Google tells me that a brand called Rennie is the same thing and is apparently available in much of Europe.
Might be more commonly taken in the US because Americans tend to eat greasy, heartburn-inducing food more often.
Might be more commonly taken in the US because Americans tend to eat greasy, heartburn-inducing food more often.
Yeah that was the implication. Our food quality just doesn’t necessitate this sort of stuff.
to be fair, if youre arguing about the effectiveness of agencies like the FDA, im not sure that this is really relevant. You can make greasy, sugary, carb laden food out of the safest, purest, most well researched ingredients without any additives and it will still be an unhealthy diet. The FDA cant reasonably mandate that people have to eat their vegetables after all, at least not and actually expect people will listen to them. Im not saying that the FDA actually does do its job better or worse, I dont know that, but I feel like food quality in the sense that an agency like that can control is more a “does this stuff contain toxic ingredients” rather than “does the culture of this area like a well rounded diet”.
Might depend on the region/cuisine though and different things that set people off.
I can’t eat most Italian food without taking a Tums or some omeprazole because the tomato, olive oil, and cheeses common in those sorts of dishes just wrecks me. But spicy food I don’t struggle with much at all, so Szechuan food and Mexican food doesn’t really bother me.
The one time I tried an English style breakfast with greasy sausage and beans also had me feeling sick most of the day, and I also skipped the tomato with that one. I shudder to think of what a German currywurst might do to me.
yall need to get off the high horse and take a joke sometimes. you terrorized the entire world via colonization for hundreds of years through modern day, if people harmlessly stereotype the german or french, make fun of british people, or tease the dutch language, yall can handle it
for context, im american. we get bullied all the time, and while not all americans are fat and stupid, the combination of that many are and that we’ve terrorized the world plenty make me think a lil teasing is fair
Yes it’s perfectly fair and most of us don’t mind.
I think the issue, especially on Reddit, was the over-representation of US Americans compared to the other countries.
It gets old quite fast to get called a “surrender monkey” or a Nazi on a regular basis in a space where most of the audience is on the other side and I’m not even French or German.
On Lemmy it’s probably a bit more balanced.
I guess let’s see what happens with the Germany elections in February because that nazi line may start to ring true.
Just opened a thread on !europe@feddit.org about that, the polls look okay. The non far-right parties should be able to create a coalition.
Does the Trump election gives everyone the right to call all US citizens convicted felons?
Certainly gives everyone the right to call us a country of idiots.
Sounds derogatory and xenophobic
It is not derogatory if it is true.
You guys elected a felon.
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The Europeans have had -many- centuries longer to screw -everything- up in -every way- and then, eventually, regret it. A bit. So, like most of us humans, who learn most lessons the hard way, they have finally settled on something they can live with … and they call it civilization. With pride.
Amongst those living there who don’t know all of that history - like most humans - they assume that things got that way reasonably. And brag about it as if it was true.
Unlike the middle East - which has had -millenia- longer to learn - and which was, is, and it seems always will be, screwing everything up in every way. While they all point their fingers elsewhere. And build very large monuments to survive them.
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Some of the takes are okay, to be fair they’re not from Europe
Well for one thing, there is that one obvious thing which Americans and everyone else are also unready to hear: You need to give up fossil fuels. No more coal, no more gas, no more petrol, no more diesel. Some parts of Europe like to think they’re well on the way to that goal but even there for the most part you’ve barely begun and are moving too slowly or in the wrong direction (e.g. biofuels). The hard part cannot be put off for much longer.
people being angry at nuclear and wanting to go back to coal are the worst
I’m sad for what’s happening over in Germany
Nuclear hater are braindead
Almost all of the nuclear power stations were already at the end of their lifetime anyway.
And it’s much cheaper and faster to build renewable energy than nuclear, so that’s what we are doing.
If you think nuclear is so great and cheap, look at france, who had to bail out the EDF (company operating all nuclear plants) because it was bankrupt. When the rivers are empty in the summer they have to shut down the plants. And a few years ago they would have had to shut down portions of the country if they hadn’t got electricity from other countries because a lot of their reactors were found to have cracks in their vessels.
Shure, we Germans as a whole are still using too much fossil fuels. But the state I live in (Schleswig-Holstein) already produces more renewable electricity than it consumes each year and I also have a lot of solar on my roof and batteries in my basement.
TLDR: Nuclear is a waste of money when renewables are so much cheaper.
I also forgot to mention the newest nuclear reactor that was built in France.
They needed 17 years to build it, 12 years over their initial estimate.
And the final costs (13.2 billion) were four times as much as was initially estimated.
Just imagine how much renewable power generation could have been built with that amount of money and time.
Why’s that?
Because otherwise, a horde of raiders in spiky leather armour will cross the radioactive wasteland, roll up to your place and rip your arms off.
Unbelievable
“Why do you call it ‘football’ when they use their hands?” is the least original, least funny joke you could possibly make to an American. Also, there are more kicks in an average American football game than there are in an average rugby game, and you guys call rugby “football”
Your cops are bad too
Europe as a whole is swinging too far too the right. Y’all all are descending back into Fascism. The recent popularity of the AfD in Germany being a prime example. My own parents - who immigrated from Germany - are deeply disappointed in the direction the country is taking.
