Welcome to /c/funny, a place for all your humorous and amusing content.
Looking for mods! Send an application to Stamets!
Keep it civil. We're all people here. Be respectful to one another.
No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia or any other flavor of bigotry. I should not need to explain this one.
Try not to repost anything posted within the past month. Beyond that, go for it. Not everyone is on every site all the time.
Other Communities:
/c/TenForward@lemmy.world - Star Trek chat, memes and shitposts
/c/Memes@lemmy.world - General memes
For me, it’s the American belief that their laws apply in other sovereign countries. Calling Julian Assange a traitor when he’s Australian and never held American citizenship for example. Demanding his extradition and strong-arming other countries when he’s not beholden to American laws nor constitution as a non-citizen, and believing that it’s their right to do so.
And that’s from speaking with countless American who believe that this is totally justified and above-board.
I notice American's habitually cannot mind their own business.
From my outside perspective, it's the pledge of allegiance.
Do you really have your kids stand up every morning and swear an oath to your flag? That's some real cult shit.
Don't forget public meetings, as grown-ass adults.
And then berate them for thinking that the ideals espoused in that pledge are real in any way.
Nothing could be more American than that pledge: it was something that was first propagated by a flag company that was trying to sell more flags.
First thing that comes to mind for me is the huge number of people who are religious fanatics here, which is unusual for a Western country. This is also a big part of what led us to the fascist government we have today.
I think you’ve kinda missed the lede - religious fanatics. We’ve got plenty of those. Other western countries have quite a few religious people, but they aren’t often in-your-face cross wearing, “I’m a Christian”, openly judgy Karens like they are here.
I specified religious fanatics because they're the problem, not religious people in general.
What am I gonna do about it?
Listen here you bastard: Nothing, that's what!
Oh wait, that's probably why they keep doing it.
As a German I don't understand why the USA basically do have two political parties. I know there are technically other parties but they have no impact.
Because first past the post electoral systems always result in a 2 party system due to defensive voting.
Because Americans didn't listen to George Washington, when during his farewell address he strongly cautioned against "alternate domination" of a 2 party system.
Because Americans are woefully uneducated, dis-interested, and preoccupied.
And because now that it's entrenched, the two parties will collude even past the death of the country to keep it that way
This comment from another post here on Lemmy says it all.
I was listening to the 5-4 podcast recently and they repeatedly stressed the point that Trump has lost ≈90% of lower court decisions and won ≈90% of Supreme Court decisions, which is an absurd swing. I’ll try to dig up a source on it though. Still it’s blatantly obvious that the SC has completely abandoned the rule of law and the constitution.
Without rule of law, we're no longer a country.
It is actually 2 flavors of the same party. The USA is a one-party state, controlled by the capitalist party.
EDIT: lol you can downvote me while you decide whether you want to vote for the Israel-defending-capitalist-that-ran-on-"securing"-the-border or the other Israel-defending-capitalist-that-ran-on-"securing"-the-border 🤪
Because they don't do proportional voting like you Germans or we Austrians do, most of their elections (and all federal ones) have one winning candidate in a state or congressional district.
And there is mostly not even a requirement for 50% of the vote, but the candidate with most votes wins. That creates the two party system.
The parties in the US are much broader than in our countries, it's very common for different members of the same party to vote against each other.
for me it's the whole "don't tread on me" and gun culture rhetoric. Americans seem to be "don't push me" but when they actually get pushed they're all "uWu please more daddy" it's odd.
I can explain this one. Growing up in America, you're constantly told that you're a patriot simply because you were born here—like just existing in the same country where Jefferson, Franklin, and Washington lived 250 years ago somehow makes you part of their legacy. It's pushed on you so early and so hard that you don't even question it. You just go to school, and the first thing you do is stand and pledge allegiance to the state—together, as a group. It’s ritualistic. It functions like a cult mechanism. That’s how it gets ingrained.
Most Americans do not have an understanding that they are being tread on.
Not the weirdest, but I didn't realize this until it was pointed out.
The fascination with work, and how one's employment or career is tied to personal identity. It's a basic conversation starter, "What do you do for work?" Not "What do you enjoy doing?" or "Do you have any hobbies?" or "Where do you go to relax?" Nope.
What to you do for work.
It's a weird question that is tied up in judgement and classism. And it's so normal here
MKULTA and COINTELPRO were pretty wild. Operation Northwoods as well. And the FBI basically admitted to assassinating Dr King. By the 1990s they learned to eliminate the paper trails, so probably no telling who actually knew what regarding 9/11 or the 20 trillion dollars that vanished into thin air during Iraq and Afghanistan
Making houses out of wood.
This is fine. Lumber was historically plentiful in North America, and lumber houses last just as long as stone or brick.
Lumber has several advantages over stone/concrete/brick:
Some Northern European and North American builders are developing large scale timber buildings, including timber skyscrapers. The structural engineers and safety engineers have mostly figured out how to engineer those buildings to be safe against fire and tornadoes.
It's not inherently better or worse. It's just different.
World Champions in sports that only the US participates in. I am not a fan of football, both the "footy" version or the "NFL" but it's always been odd to me that winners of the Super Bowl, or equivalent event, are often declared "World Champions" of their own league in an event exclusively hosted in the US.
The apparent obsession with money. Some people claim to be religious but it's clear the Almighty Dollar is their God. I know we make jokes about needing a "profit motive", but there is a grounding in reality. It's truly bizarre, from an outside perspective, just what lengths and depths people will sink to in order to increase profit. I'm not saying this is an American Only thing, but it's VERY apparent in the USA just how far people will go.