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As an American, I've got a lot of issues with my country. I hate our foreign policy, the continuing influence of social conservatism in our politics, our increasingly plutocratic government, the persistence of racism, etc.... But I really do love America. I love our indefatigable optimism. I love our cultural and scientific achievements. I love our friendliness and openness to strangers. I love that in some respects, the U.S. is less racist and more progressive than some corners of Europe (mention the Roma to a random European and there is a decent chance of encountering some shocking opinions). I love the food, I love the music, I love apple pie and NASA and Medicare and FDR and American industry and gumption. I definitely don't like overt displays of patriotism - they ring shallow and cultic to me - but I do feel tenderness toward this country my immigrant parents moved to in the late 1980s. I am also an avid Anglophile and want to visit Scotland, England, Australia, NZ, etc. Going back to the discussion of class distinction and awareness in Britain, I'm fascinated by the Social Democratic direction Scotland is taking in contrast to England, which in eyes of many Scots has become a neo-liberal technocratic cesspool. At least, that's the impression of England many Scots have presented to me when I've discussed the referendum with them. It seems that in many respects England *is* drifting rightward - steadily eroding the safety net, making the UK more hospitable to the affluent. Left-wing English posters, do you feel that England has become less equitable with Cameron and even the "Third-Way" style Labour Party of Brown and Blair? (Not sure if Brown or Miliband are also Third Way)
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Jun 11, 2014 14:34
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Tiggum posted:I've never understood why it would be the other way in the UK. In Australia it's the same as if you're driving, keep left unless overtaking.
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Jun 11, 2014 14:45
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Radio Talmudist posted:I am also an avid Anglophile and want to visit Scotland, England, Australia, NZ, etc.  Radio Talmudist posted:Going back to the discussion of class distinction and awareness in Britain, I'm fascinated by the Social Democratic direction Scotland is taking in contrast to England, which in eyes of many Scots has become a neo-liberal technocratic cesspool. At least, that's the impression of England many Scots have presented to me when I've discussed the referendum with them. It seems that in many respects England *is* drifting rightward - steadily eroding the safety net, making the UK more hospitable to the affluent. Left-wing English posters, do you feel that England has become less equitable with Cameron and even the "Third-Way" style Labour Party of Brown and Blair? (Not sure if Brown or Miliband are also Third Way) There's definitely been a recent shift towards the right in England at least (though England has always been the most conservative country in the UK) which probably has much to do with the recession and problems with Labour's unpopular leadership for the last 10 years. I heard an argument on the radio recently that young people of this generation are more conservative and individualistic in their outlook than in the past, but I'm not sure I agree with that. Interestingly, however, the rise in popularity of UKIP among the right-wing and the huge decline in popularity of the Lib Dems among the left-wing will probably make it much easier for Labour to get re-elected next time. For decades we've had an issue with the left being split between Lib and Lab, while the conservatives took the right-wing vote unopposed. The position there has kind of reversed so come the next election we might see the effects of that.
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Jun 11, 2014 15:27
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redreader posted:Very much yes. I've been told that I'm lucky to be here (USA), especially if people find out I'm South African. (also yes, people here love my 'sexy british accent') since most Americans can't tell the difference between SA/AUS/NZ/UK accents. Well look at the common perception of Africa basically all being the same place, full of starving and uneducated black folk who are all dying of aids, raping women like crazy, and are also pirates sometimes. Watching ten seconds of any charity infomercial would leave you convinced that everyone there would die instantly without the rest of the world constantly dumping money and food on them. Plus you gotta love that it somehow ended up smaller than Greenland on the world map. Watching that one episode of the West Wing where they showed the accurate world map, where Africa is actually so goddamn huge everything else could fit into it literally blew my mind.
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Jun 11, 2014 15:34
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Out of curiosity, do any American posters here have ancestors that came over on the Mayflower? One of these days I want to meet an member of the unofficial American aristocracy - usually of British extraction, with last names that you will find on the residence halls of various Ivy League Colleges. People who speak with an honest to god Boston Brahmin accent. And are probably Episcopalian or Unitarian. Do these people even exist anymore?
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Jun 11, 2014 15:44
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Captain Mediocre posted:There's definitely been a recent shift towards the right in England at least (though England has always been the most conservative country in the UK) which probably has much to do with the recession and problems with Labour's unpopular leadership for the last 10 years. I heard an argument on the radio recently that young people of this generation are more conservative and individualistic in their outlook than in the past, but I'm not sure I agree with that. The British Social Attitudes Survey doesn't really agree with this 'shift to the right' meme though. Newspapers and parties have moved right (looking at you clause IV), but the people voting for them haven't. Over half the population agree with government spending as it stands, whereas 6% think the money the government spends should be slashed to reduce taxes which is the same percentage of respondents as 1985. The rest think the government should have more tax & spend policies, and 47% of people think cutting benefits would damage too many people's lives. 28% of people agree homosexuality is always/mostly wrong, down from 50% in liberal lefty 1998 (while now 48% say "not at all wrong"). Approval of the NHS has dropped from 70% in 2010 (guess what happened there) but had been on the rise since 2001. I mean look at UKIP and their support from labour voters because of their "nationalise the railway" etc policies, which is more because they don't trust the French and Germans (and the Dutch) who are currently running it, and some "oh it was better in the olden days" than any actual economic reasoning (though economics behind it are probably the best arguments for renationalising the railway system here anyway).
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Jun 11, 2014 15:58
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Radio Talmudist posted:Out of curiosity, do any American posters here have ancestors that came over on the Mayflower? One of these days I want to meet an member of the unofficial American aristocracy - usually of British extraction, with last names that you will find on the residence halls of various Ivy League Colleges. People who speak with an honest to god Boston Brahmin accent. And are probably Episcopalian or Unitarian. Do these people even exist anymore? I have ancestors who came over on the Mayflower, according to my family's genealogical records. And I am very much not part of the unofficial American aristocracy. Very few Americans could tell you their ancestors beyond their grandparents or maybe great-grandparents unless there's a historically famous person in the family tree or someone in your family is a major genealogy nut (in my case, my grandmother has binders full of genealogical research). The American aristocracy is far less "did your ancestors come over on the Mayflower" than "did your ancestors make a shitload of money." As I understand it, in the UK it's usually perceived as "I am rich because I'm an aristocrat." In the US, it's very distinctly "I am an aristocrat because I'm rich."
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Jun 11, 2014 17:34
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Cythereal posted:I have ancestors who came over on the Mayflower, according to my family's genealogical records. And I am very much not part of the unofficial American aristocracy. Very few Americans could tell you their ancestors beyond their grandparents or maybe great-grandparents unless there's a historically famous person in the family tree or someone in your family is a major genealogy nut (in my case, my grandmother has binders full of genealogical research). I had an ancestor come over on one of those ships (not the Mayflower, I forget which one) by the name of Dowelittle or similar alternate spelling of "Dolittle." They also fought in the Revolution and it would be a cool pedigree to claim but I have to reach quite far back in my family tree to find anyone by that surname. It's not at all uncommon to have ancestries like that, it means very little and was just an interesting fact that came to light during my grandmother's genealogical research. Like Cythereal said here, American "aristocracy" is very much tied to wealth and that often translates into political influence. The Kennedys, Rockefellers, Bushes, Clintons are all great examples and there are many more who aren't as politically prominent but still wield a great deal of influence through their financial contributions and connections. Your ancestry or heritage matter not at all and in fact a humble origin can work in your favor. Americans loving love to masturbate to our national myths. The poor immigrant who fulfills the American Dream and becomes a billionaire by 140-hour work weeks and sheer intestinal fortitude is probably better regarded than someone who largely inherited their wealth and connections.
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Jun 11, 2014 18:14
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Radio Talmudist posted:Out of curiosity, do any American posters here have ancestors that came over on the Mayflower? One of these days I want to meet an member of the unofficial American aristocracy - usually of British extraction, with last names that you will find on the residence halls of various Ivy League Colleges. People who speak with an honest to god Boston Brahmin accent. And are probably Episcopalian or Unitarian. Do these people even exist anymore? One of my good friends is a direct descendent of John Howland famous for falling off the Mayflower (he got back on). She's not "aristocratic" by any means.
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Jun 11, 2014 18:46
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Taliaquin posted:Drinking culture is very different here. Drinking isn't as big a deal as it is in the US and people unabashedly get hammered on weeknights. Luckily, the public intoxication laws are much more lax here, so stumbling home after a night at the pub won't land someone a criminal record as long as they're not causing trouble. So what are American city and town centres like on a Friday or Saturday night? Here in the UK, staggering home drunk after the pubs or clubs close isn't anything out of the ordinary. You'll maybe see a few fights, women stumbling and holding their heels, then pausing to vomit in a shop doorway while a friend holds their hair back, a few random guys with their shirt off singing songs (doesn't matter where you are or what season it is) and people barely able to speak or walk trying to get taxis or buses. After a serious work night out, it's not uncommon to swap stories about hilarious drunken adventures getting home, how you fell over, what ridiculous fast food you bought on the stumble home, who got thrown out of which pub, how bad your hangover was and so on. Does this kind of thing not happen in the US? Public intoxication laws would mean half of Scotland would wake up in the cells every Sunday. Danger - Octopus! fucked around with this message at 19:37 on Jun 11, 2014 |
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Jun 11, 2014 19:35
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On class in the UK: When I moved to the UK in 2003, I worked at whatever jobs I could get (jobs were plentiful, jobs in what I'd studied were not). At one of these, there was a dude who had a pretty posh accent and seemed very well educated and well-read. People called him "lord <surname>" because he was clearly upper class despite being poor. He said he was a 'fallen man' due to being an alcoholic, which is why he was working minimum wage. But yeah, maybe a british person could explain it better but in the UK, class is totally separate to wealth. You can be rich and classless, or poor and 'upper class'. In the USA they're very tightly linked, like sure there's new money and old money, but new money is still respected a lot more than it seems to be in the UK. Class in the UK is about your family, upbringing and education, as well as 'are your parents upper-class'. http://www.amazon.com/Watching-English-Hidden-Rules-Behaviour/dp/1857885082 This book is *amazing* for anyone moving to the UK. Just read it for the pub culture section alone. By the way, if you're in the uk drinking with other people, you'll be expected to buy rounds. if you go to the bar and just get one for yourself (depending on company I suppose) it can be seen as rude. People aren't buying you drinks because they like you, it's because you're part of their group. When I went out with my colleagues I'd buy a round for everyone at the table, and sometimes I just needed to buy one in an evening for 10 people, and we all bought one round and got shitfaced.
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Jun 11, 2014 19:45
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People absolutely do get hammered here in the US and there are of course plenty of people doing the walk of shame Sunday or Saturday morning....but I think there is less of a distinctive drinking culture here in the US, especially outside of cities like New York. Notable exceptions are college/university, which is basically an excuse to get drunk and saddle upon on student loan debt....and of course sporting events. I don't really know how to explain it. Most Americans drink, and quite a few drink heavily, but I think its less defined and ritualized than what you appear to be describing in your post. Plus there is a puritanical strain in American culture that disdains alcohol consumption....it isn't especially strong outside of the south, but it does exist.
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Jun 11, 2014 20:00
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Danger - Octopus! posted:So what are American city and town centres like on a Friday or Saturday night? Here in the UK, staggering home drunk after the pubs or clubs close isn't anything out of the ordinary. You'll maybe see a few fights, women stumbling and holding their heels, then pausing to vomit in a shop doorway while a friend holds their hair back, a few random guys with their shirt off singing songs (doesn't matter where you are or what season it is) and people barely able to speak or walk trying to get taxis or buses. After a serious work night out, it's not uncommon to swap stories about hilarious drunken adventures getting home, how you fell over, what ridiculous fast food you bought on the stumble home, who got thrown out of which pub, how bad your hangover was and so on. It depends on where you are, but most American cities and towns don't have town centers the way UK places tend to. There's usually shopping centers and bars and whatnot downtown, or in knots throughout the suburbs, but it can vary dramatically from place to place. It probably has to do with pubs just not being a thing in most of the US as well. There are bars and nightclubs, but American culture usually frowns on getting heavily drunk unless you're doing it in your own home or a friend's house.
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Jun 11, 2014 20:05
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Cythereal posted:The American aristocracy is far less "did your ancestors come over on the Mayflower" than "did your ancestors make a shitload of money." As I understand it, in the UK it's usually perceived as "I am rich because I'm an aristocrat." In the US, it's very distinctly "I am an aristocrat because I'm rich." True British blue-bloods are today often rich only in theory, having been subjected to generations of inheritance tax that gradually stripped the great country houses, first of their valuable tenant farms, then of their pictures and furniture. In the aftermath of WWI, the National Trust formed largely to take care of places that the families simply couldn't afford to own any more. The National Trust is now saturated with such grand houses, and very choosy about what it takes on. Both countries have lots of snobbery, but the UK, and specifically England, does indeed have a weird kind of meta-snobbery. It is considered absolutely laughable over here to be unmasked as in any way socially ambitious. I get the impression that in the US, parents who work hard to raise their children up the social and educational scale – not being remorselessly pushy, but doing everything to get them a few rungs up on the ladder – might these days be thought optimistic, but not automatically pilloried. In the UK, such parents have to be as subtle as sleeper agents. All this came to a head when Prince William found someone he seriously wanted to marry, and it became a matter for public discussion that Kate Middleton was a blatant social climber, even though it was hard to imagine what other sort of candidate might apply. It was as if everyone in the country wanted William to wed a commoner – just not any particular woman, and certainly not one who was desperate to marry a future king and had hoped to do so for years. Mainstream one-upmanship based on wealth and privilege naturally exists in the UK just as it does everywhere else, but there's a parallel line of thinking in which it's deeply shameful to belong to the middle class, that state of undignified social scrabbling (there's a comic novel called 'The Diary of a Nobody', still pretty well-known although first published in 1892, which skewers this condition exactly – despite the fact that the hero owns a six-bedroom house in Islington). It got so bad that the nobs evolved a word usage pattern to distinguish themselves from the bourgeoisie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U_and_non-U_English Among other things, 'What?' is good enough for the Queen, but 'Pardon?' is for the middle-class (or Americans); 'lavatory/loo' is posh, 'toilet' middle-class, and if given a bread roll before dinner, the aristocratic British diner tears it, rather than slicing it with a knife, applying butter to each morsel individually. This system is now vintage stuff, but you still find traces of it all over the place. There is little reason for any of it except as a caste mark, and it gradually drifts down to us drinks-coaster-using, hedge-tending, Volkswagen-driving middle-classers anyway, putting the whole country on a snobbery treadmill which is a favourite target of UK comedians, but English ones especially.
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Jun 11, 2014 20:05
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Carnival of Shrews posted:I get the impression that in the US, parents who work hard to raise their children up the social and educational scale – not being remorselessly pushy, but doing everything to get them a few rungs up on the ladder – might these days be thought optimistic, but not automatically pilloried. This attitude is very much a thing in the US, but typically it has nothing at all to do with social class ambitions. The mentality in many US families that aren't already wealthy is that your children should be better off than you were - most Americans are very much not wealthy, and it's not uncommon for children to come from homes where neither parent had much of a college education. Stories of kids being pushed incredibly hard to succeed in education and work by parents who never went to college are infrequent and often highly celebrated in American culture. It's closer to, but less extreme than, the similar achievement-oriented family culture you often hear about in Asia than European style social climbing. The cultural myth in the US is that success can be had by anyone with enough hard work. This is obviously not true, but that's the popular idea in American culture. Parents and teachers who don't push their kids to excel are often seen as lazy and generally bad influences on the kids. The impact any of this has on the social scale is purely coincidental for most American families. As has been discussed recently, social status in the US is based on wealth, and Americans tend to concentrate on wealth. Social status is often regarded as a perk of being wealthy. In general, I'd be very hesitant to describe Americans as social climbers. Women from less wealthy backgrounds actively seeking out and courting wealthy men are usually derogatively called gold diggers - the money is more important than the status in American eyes.
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Jun 11, 2014 20:14
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Drinking is totally different in the USA vs UK. In the UK I'd go to the pub with my colleagues and get loving plastered on weeknights and there was no judgement the next day apart from the odd 'lol he drank too much' but here in the USA if you drink too much you're an alcoholic. A friend of mine pointed out once that if they really want to show someone go off the rails in USA tv, they show him drinking. It's weird because drinking in the USA is both perfectly normal and not ok at the same time. There's some line when it comes to drinking in the USA that can be crossed a lot sooner than the line in the UK. (I can't explain it so well, being not-American)
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Jun 11, 2014 20:51
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Danger - Octopus! posted:So what are American city and town centres like on a Friday or Saturday night? Here in the UK, staggering home drunk after the pubs or clubs close isn't anything out of the ordinary. You'll maybe see a few fights, women stumbling and holding their heels, then pausing to vomit in a shop doorway while a friend holds their hair back, a few random guys with their shirt off singing songs (doesn't matter where you are or what season it is) and people barely able to speak or walk trying to get taxis or buses. After a serious work night out, it's not uncommon to swap stories about hilarious drunken adventures getting home, how you fell over, what ridiculous fast food you bought on the stumble home, who got thrown out of which pub, how bad your hangover was and so on. Most Americans don't live anywhere near a town center. The majority of Americans live in automobile-dominated suburbs, where you drive to a specific location. I'd say the typical young single American would drive to a mall, bar district, individual bar etc. DUIs are a much larger thing here, where punishment isn't too harsh because they're so lucrative for the arresting agency in fees, court costs, etc. For those who do live near drinking areas, it's much more subdued. I live in a city and frequent places with lots of bars. Generally people try to act normal, even if it's implicit that everyone has been drinking. Being visibly intoxicated will get you various levels of attention. You may get a talking to/welfare check from the police, or they might just follow you for a while to see if you're going to get in a car so they can pull you over. People will sneer and comment, even if they themselves are drunk. Public intoxication laws generally aren't enforced except in cases where you're being overly obnoxious or have a risk of harming yourself or others and there's nothing else the police can charge you with. People vomiting or stumbling in public are looked at with shame and pity. But then there are college towns. A significant number of American universities exist in isolated rural communities, where the university is so large and the community so small that the former totally dominates the latter. Many times these were communities where the school was founded, then the growth of the school outpaced the growth of the community so much that the community itself exists solely to serve the school. Bar districts in college towns can and often do approach or exceed the level of hedonism you described. In my local college town there was a large billboard for a bail bonding company and if you were wearing one of their shirts in your mugshot then they would give you a discount. If you're out drinking in public in the USA, it is imperative that you keep your cool and avoid being visibly intoxicated. Some level of slurring and hilarity is acceptable, but if you start being obnoxious or physically incapable people WILL notice and if it progresses beyond that you have a significant chance of being arrested. In fact, 'drunk tank' is a general slang term for holding cells in the local lockup, people arrested for misdemeanors and released quickly on bond would refer to themselves as being in the drunk tank even for non-alcohol related offenses. e: I say drinking areas because in many American towns and cities there aren't many straight up bars. Alcohol is usually served with food, and bar food in America is very good for this reason because a lot of bars have to pretend to be restaurants. I can only think of one establishment that I frequent that doesn't have a variety of food available, only hot dogs, and they got an exception because they have no space at all for a kitchen. So commonly you will find bars as singular establishments, and most Americans do some moderate drinking at places other than bars/pubs. However, there are also places where there are a high concentration of establishments that focust wholly or in part on alcohol, and these places are where you are likely to see drunk Americans in public. In more rural parts of the country, it is more common to purchase a large amount of alcohol and drink either out in nature or at someone's house. Getting shithammered in the wilderness is a lot of fun. Bars are places where you go to meet people, if you just want to hang out with your friends you're more likely to drag a couple cases of beer out into the woods and light a campfire. boner confessor fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Jun 11, 2014 |
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Jun 11, 2014 20:57
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I think as a rule Americans are uncomfortable with economic mediocrity. In the Old World, the fact that you were lower or middle class was a function of your class, which was mostly inherited and beyond your control. In the United States (at least since the 2nd World War) the idea is that your successes and failures are mostly your own. Are you poor? It’s your fault, and there are plenty of avenues available to you to improve your situation. There is a serious denial or minimization of the role birth, race or social/economic circumstances play in determining a person’s success in life. Of course many American’s don’t agree with this view and support a robust safety net and the expansion of the welfare state. We still spend a fortune on services like Social Security, Medicaid/Medicare and Welfare (often times inefficiently). People forget that a Socialist ran for president – and got almost a million votes - in prison! (Eugene V. Debs). Despite our reputation for being Social Darwinists, there is a strong tradition of support for generous government programs to ameliorate poverty and expansion of access to economic opportunities.
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Jun 11, 2014 21:36
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Popular Thug Drink posted:However, there are also places where there are a high concentration of establishments that focust wholly or in part on alcohol, and these places are where you are likely to see drunk Americans in public. A clarification on this: these places are usually touristy areas. Big cities, beach and mountain resort areas, etc. Americans typically enjoy getting drunk as much as anyone else, but it's seen as a private thing or something you do with friends in someone's house. In American culture, getting seriously drunk in public is seen as either being generally irresponsible (see: college students) or a sign that your life is spiraling downwards. Getting drunk with friends while watching football at your house, though, is considered perfectly acceptable.
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Jun 11, 2014 21:49
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That's not true at all where I'm from. Ybor city and South Tampa here in the Tampa Bay area might attract tourists but the vast majority of people there are locals, and many of them go out there every weekend. What you guys are describing going on in the UK doesn't sound much different from an average night out in Ybor, plenty of publicly drunken people and most people are there to get trashed unless they're the DD. But these are places only adults would go, it is very much frowned upon to go to a local sports bar(which are really restaurants with a bar) and get hammered to the point of obnoxiousness because people also bring their families there. But other than that people in Tampa drink heavily either out in a clubs and bars or at house parties, no one cares as long as you keep it to the areas where that kind of thing goes on. As long as you aren't causing any problems or risk hurting yourself or others the cops aren't going to bother you.
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Jun 11, 2014 22:20
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Also, by AA standards, I'm pretty sure that everyone in the UK, Australia and Canada is an alcoholic.
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Jun 11, 2014 23:42
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Liar posted:Watching that one episode of the West Wing where they showed the accurate world map, where Africa is actually so goddamn huge everything else could fit into it literally blew my mind. Because size does matter:  So yeah of course I prefer any map that represents my country as larger. Also discounting Alaska, Australia is (barely) bigger than the continental USA. PT6A posted:Also, by AA standards, I'm pretty sure that everyone in the UK, Australia and Canada is an alcoholic. It's called drinking.
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Jun 12, 2014 01:47
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Mustang posted:That's not true at all where I'm from. Ybor city and South Tampa here in the Tampa Bay area might attract tourists but the vast majority of people there are locals, and many of them go out there every weekend. What you guys are describing going on in the UK doesn't sound much different from an average night out in Ybor, plenty of publicly drunken people and most people are there to get trashed unless they're the DD. Quoted for truth. Not every American can hold there own with Brits and Ozzies. But I can, as so can anyone in my city. Then again, I come from one of the original 13 colonies. Our legacy from England is massive.
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Jun 12, 2014 01:59
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I live in Delaware, where our per capita alcohol consumption is 13.59 liters per year, which I'm pretty sure leaves the UK and Australia in the dust.
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Jun 12, 2014 02:08
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Carnival of Shrews posted:
That's pretty interesting, in the US it seems like we use random stuff from both sides. Not sure how "pudding" and "sweets" refer to the same thing. Is "pudding" mean "candy" in american?? Or alternatively, is a "sweet" somehow mean a pudding? 
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Jun 12, 2014 02:22
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cheerfullydrab posted:I live in Delaware, where our per capita alcohol consumption is 13.59 liters per year, which I'm pretty sure leaves the UK and Australia in the dust. And to be honest if any Australian lived in Delaware, we'd likely drink twice as much - what kid of hosed up place doesn't serve alcohol past 1am? EDIT: Actually Delaware is lovely, but historically people in cold places drink more - in Australia we've just started making beer designed to hydrate, because it could be 40C outside and we'd still be drinking the stuff like water. Rougey fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Jun 12, 2014 |
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Jun 12, 2014 02:27
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appropriatemetaphor posted:Not sure how "pudding" and "sweets" refer to the same thing. Is "pudding" mean "candy" in american?? Or alternatively, is a "sweet" somehow mean a pudding? It's the last one. I've no idea why, but guess it's because dessert (which is what the word pudding is used to describe, rather than specifically a pudding) is usually sweet.
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Jun 12, 2014 04:17
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Pudding, dessert, sweet, afters; for inexplicable reasons these all describe the same course. Isn't the class system great? The fact that a pudding is cooked in a dish of water is largely irrelevant, except when distinguishing steak & kidney pudding from steak & kidney pie. Of course serving either without mushy peas would be a social faux pas(/war crime), as could preparing something other than fish on a Friday.
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Jun 12, 2014 06:20
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Rougey posted:We (Australia) is at 10. Also Delaware is a humid subtropical climate, by the Koppen system. It experiences every extreme of highs and lows, sometimes 100 degree fahrenheit swings in a single year. We get everything from 3 feet of snow to 110 degrees with 95% humidity. It's a tropical, tidal swamp with Russian winters where people drink more than most Eastern European countries. Come visit, Aussies! Teriyaki Hairpiece fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Jun 12, 2014 |
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Jun 12, 2014 06:32
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cheerfullydrab posted:It's horribly hosed up, but imagine this: bars closing at 1 am, way before people are ready to end their night, leads to more after-parties. Where are you more likely to engage in dangerous over-drinking, in a bar, where you might be flagged by the bartender, where drinks cost money, where you have to drive home, or at your friend's house, where there's plenty of cheap Delaware booze and you can puke and then pass out on the couch? So far I'm waiting on the numbers to come through before making any judgement, but the laws where knee jerk reaction to the “alcohol fuelled violence”, an issue crusaded by the media and backed by a conservative government (which has since been decimated due to corruption investigations, including the Premier). Word on the grape vine is the 3am cut off is proving effective in reducing incidents for the wee hours of the morning (in the city at least), but the lockout is having no proven benefit. The sad thing is I was statistically more likely to wind up in the emergency room when I started drinking than by the time the laws were enacted, and the generation who enacted these laws were much more inclined to get in a fight and glass somebody. Also ignored is the increasing steroid use among young men and a toxic culture which has thankfully been on the decline… but noooooo the devils brew that made me do it! Roid munching cunts. It is, however, proving to be a boon to businesses outside of the precinct who are doing very well from themselves - My local pub is now open until the sun rises, it’s still an overpriced shithole, but when it’s the only game in town… Rougey fucked around with this message at 07:45 on Jun 12, 2014 |
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Jun 12, 2014 07:30
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Again, its worth reiterating that moving to London will be a much different experience than moving to anywhere else in the UK. London is one of those 'world cities' where you'll find loads of other Americans, Australians, French, Poles, Russians, Indians, Scots, Chinese, and pretty much any other nationality you can think of. Plenty of Londoners too, of course.
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Jun 12, 2014 09:06
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Cythereal posted:A clarification on this: these places are usually touristy areas. Big cities, beach and mountain resort areas, etc. Americans typically enjoy getting drunk as much as anyone else, but it's seen as a private thing or something you do with friends in someone's house. In American culture, getting seriously drunk in public is seen as either being generally irresponsible (see: college students) or a sign that your life is spiraling downwards. Getting drunk with friends while watching football at your house, though, is considered perfectly acceptable. You're a little bit off. While Americans might want an excuse to drink, there are a lot of social excuses to drink. If someone gets married, it would be almost rude not to drink a toast to their nuptials. And if someone dies, then we make a toast to their absence.
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Jun 12, 2014 09:12
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The "puritanical strain" in America doesn't prevent anyone from being a massive alcoholic, it just tells drunks they're terrible people and should feel bad, which causes them to drink even more heavily.
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Jun 12, 2014 09:20
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appropriatemetaphor posted:That's pretty interesting, in the US it seems like we use random stuff from both sides. 'Sweets' or 'a sweet' do very often refer to candy in the UK – a sweet shop will sell you cola cubes, white chocolate mice, and little shrimp-shaped things made of strawberry marshmallow. 'Sweet' to refer to dessert is definitely unposh. 'Die' versus 'pass on/away' is very distinctive over here. In the upper-middle classes and above, 'pass' is never used and the speaker will just bluntly tell you that their family member died. Use of 'tea vs. dinner vs. supper', when referring to an evening meal, is so complicated that even the British are confused, but it's basically in ascending order of snob value. Here are some middle-class British comedians sending up that most middle-class of awkward things, the dinner party: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22gCw4iDdu4&feature=kp The U/non-U thing has always fascinated me, but it's on its way out. Probably the most recent character with roots in the stereotype was Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced 'Bouquet'), star of an early 90's sitcom called 'Keeping Up Appearances', which of course saw her every effort to become posher go terribly wrong. More recently, people getting a bollocking for trangressing social boundaries have tended to be middle-classers pretending to be members of the working class – anyone with a Mockney accent, and anyone who claimed to have worked their way up from the streets when in fact they went to a good Grammar school (an academically selective state-funded school, now extinct in theory, but not in practice, as house prices in the catchment areas of well-regarded state schools simply rose until only the middle class could afford them). The idea that you're polite because you have to be, rather than because you want to treat others with respect, and that anyone not paying for courtesy can't expect to see much of it, is an unlovely feature of the UK. It maybe originates from the huge number of British people who used to work as domestic servants, sometimes in households only a few grades above them on the social hierarchy. Americans do seem to be genuinely more polite than Brits, and to actually want to be more polite.
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Jun 12, 2014 10:30
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cheerfullydrab posted:Also Delaware is a humid subtropical climate, by the Koppen system. It experiences every extreme of highs and lows, sometimes 100 degree fahrenheit swings in a single year. We get everything from 3 feet of snow to 110 degrees with 95% humidity. A swing of 100 degrees farenheit in a single year is extreme? Try 170 degrees.  Visit MN, you'll love it! On topic, I noticed pretty much no culture clash at all when I was in the UK (mainly London). It reminded me of an extremely old America. The only thing that was weird was the whole "roving gangs of chavs" thing, because brits seemed to just kind of brush it off as not a big deal when chavs were making a ruckus. Those fuckers would get their rear end beat in the US. Oh, and hoodies. I got treated like a criminal for wearing a loving hoodie. Hoodies are banned in many stores/pubs/etc. What the gently caress? Hoodies are comfortable and at least 50% of Americans own one or more.
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Jun 12, 2014 10:58
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wilfredmerriweathr posted:
The UK is the most watched nation in the world. We have something like 20% of all the world's surveillance cameras, in London it works out to a CCTV camera for every 14 people. Hoodies, hats, headscarves, anything you could use to hide your face from the eyes of Big Brother will sometimes be prohibited from being worn indoors or certain public areas.
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Jun 12, 2014 11:18
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redreader posted:http://www.amazon.com/Watching-English-Hidden-Rules-Behaviour/dp/1857885082 I bought 'Watching the English' for my mother, a Scandinavian who inexplicably fell for a Brit to the extent that she was willing to live over here; it had her in stitches and she still loves it dearly.
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Jun 12, 2014 11:24
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"Keeping up Appearances" was probably my first exposure to British culture after Harry Potter and Thomas the Tank Engine. It's kinda terrible but also endearing in its own hacky way...then again I haven't seen it in a decade so who knows. Americans, especially kids, get their knowledge of the United Kingdom from two places: our educational system, which teaches us the grand story of our founding fathers resisting the yoke of the foul tyrant King George III (rarely mentioning the nuances of that conflict, like the cost of the 7 years war and comparatively light tax burden of being an American colonist vs. living in Britain) and our state funded media channel, PBS (Public Broadcasting System). For a decades PBS would air BBC dramas and comedies and was basically the only way to see British TV.
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Jun 12, 2014 14:27
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kecske posted:The UK is the most watched nation in the world. We have something like 20% of all the world's surveillance cameras, in London it works out to a CCTV camera for every 14 people. Hoodies, hats, headscarves, anything you could use to hide your face from the eyes of Big Brother will sometimes be prohibited from being worn indoors or certain public areas. This is just enhancing my desire to wear hoodies. Besides the fact that they're comfy as hell.
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Jun 12, 2014 15:33
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ALL-PRO SEXMAN posted:Who in the world claims Manchester is part of the Midlands? Anything south of Durham is basically France as far as I'm concerned
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Jun 12, 2014 16:00
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