Well I think ideally that's what different instances should help. I'm on a Canadian instance with a lot of Canadian specific communities. I've seen instances of many other specific countries. That should theoretically counter that whole experience on Reddit
Which honestly has been one of my favourite features of Lemmy so far. I can browse All to see what everyone is talking about, I can browse Subscribed to see what I care about and I can browse Local to see what Canadians care about.
I think this will remain a problem on any platform that includes enough Americans. The general public in America just seems unaware of anything outside America.
I think this stems from their education system, what they (don't) broadcast on mass-media and how normal and even laudable they consider fanatical nationalism to be (did you know they require children to swear devotion to the nation state every day at school!?).
In any case, I don't think this is a problem that any platform that wants to include Americans can avoid.
I saw this complaint on reddit a lot, but at the end of the day, it was a US based site. Of course there will be mostly Americans and they will default to that understanding.
Also, the US is a large country. It's not like Europe where you're a day trip away from 5 other countries. Most Americans can't afford travel outside the US, so they only have exposure to the many cultures within the US.
The hate Americans get for not catering discussion on a US based site to the global community is really what's strange.
Most Americans can’t afford travel outside the US, so they only have exposure to the many cultures within the US.
You can travel in a straight line over land 2700 miles from Washington to Florida without leaving the United States. Make a foray into Canada and you can travel a 4300 mile long straight line from Alaska to Florida without leaving a country that speaks majority English.
I appreciate that. What bugs me is when people don't read the name of the sub they're in though - if it's askUK or casualuk then maybe it's not the place to talk about America, particularly when it's an advice thread about laws for example.
Let me simplify this. Would you go to a forum with an address in .ar and complain that the discussion doesn't pertain to you? You wouldn't, but you are just blindly hateful of Americans for whatever reason.
America is far from a monolith. Our states roughly equate to different European countries with vastly different cultures, foods, rights and laws.
We just speak dialects that are almost all the same and roll up under one political entity. It is not so dissimilar than the EU, otherwise.
We are, in many practical terms a forced confederation with a shared Constitution. There are those, like in the EU, who want out.
Edit: the shared single language is one of our under-recognized super-powers. I can travel this huge land mass and communicate viably everywhere. It is key to our cultural impact. It is accidental, but helpful to us. Except when we have people who dislike our impact and become hostile.
If I drive 45 minutes east, I'm in something akin to the US south. Extremely conservative in specific ways. North a few hours and everyone distrusts anyone who didn't grow up there.
45 minutes west and I'm in everyone's favorite (not) failed city, San Francisco.
And those very conservative places I mentioned.. are quite different from south conservative. They drive the same vehicles, wear the same hats, but don't hold the same values.
California, for all its notoriety as being overly accepting has known pla es POC are advised against visiting. Some areas are very non-church and others are profoundly Christian or other religions.
We have enclaves of near-pure ethnic/cultural people tracing back to wherever. I'm not simply talking about Chinatown or Japan town.
We're not a monolith even within a small area. I didn't assert that the EU was. Only that we are more diverse than credited.
Particularly when the topic arises by people comfortable talking others how to be when they know nothing of the person or people.
Which Americans are you talking to? We know there are other countries and cultures. We just aren't responsible for learning deeply about all of them. No one is.
You're using some strong, broad strokes that aren't reflective of my experience at all.
Christ, yes. Every other comment or post was something that assumed everyone was in the USA, or that they were the greatest most perfect wonderful nation and all others are basically hell on earth.
Literally full of shit lmao. Who on reddit mainstream is talking about how the US is the greatest place on Earth.
Usually its the entire other way around where Reddit is acting like the apocalypse is about to start at any point.
Here's a new one for this thread. "People who complain about Americans over the dumbest things". It's straight up like you have a chip on your shoulder.
What id like to see on Lemmy is less America-hate... Or just hating on countries in general. Hatable humans live in countries, let's talk about them instead of everybody in that country. "Gunshot story? Must be America!" Gets old really quick
This, nationalism is just the worst.
You've achieved nothing by being born in a certain country, waving that flag around proudly thinking you're superior to anyone else is just something i can't understand.