Invading other countries to kidnapp head of states?
They said QUIETLY annoying. Things you wouldn’t speak up about. I feel like kidnapping world leaders doesn’t qualify as that. I’m American, and it’s been about a full day now, and it’s just now setting in just how insane it is that we just kidnapped a world leader. Just…took him. Meanwhile, here in the states, we’re also kidnapping random people off the street in unmarked cars for committing the crime of being not white.
These are things that should be screamed about, not silent.
Some people are screaming. Most are not. And the words, from those screaming, are cheap. The silence of actions continues to be, and likely will continue to be, deafening.
Oh yeah that’s definitely representative of the majority of us, got us figured out you have
The big dumb cars that seem to be infecting the world.
their obsession with genome analysis / where one of their great-great-grandfathers came from.
“i am italian, german, polish, chinese and cree!” “no, you are us-citizen and don’t speak any language but english.”
The whole ethnic identity is mostly to identify where in the world you ethnically originated from to other Americans. Because almost every single person in the US is either an immigrant, or a descendent of one. So we identify to each other where we came from as Americans.
Where people go wrong with this is if they happen to be traveling internationally and take this US centric identity with them. If traveling internationally, you could be ethnically from the place you are traveling. But in that context, you’d be American. This is a part of that whole well traveled awareness thing.
The genealogy thing is their curiosity in tracing that ethnic origin with greater detail. I personally don’t find it too interesting myself, but different strokes.
Edit: I’d like to add, this is mostly in case other people reading this thread are wondering why this is even a thing. It’s truly an annoying behavior.
Really, I think a far more charitable (and common) instance of this is an american, say, travelling to Ireland and noting that they actually have Irish heritage. And then some nice local appreciates their interest and they have something to talk about. American tourists these days don’t seem any more annoying or tone deaf than, say German, Israeli, or UK tourists. If you encounter a tourist off the beaten path, then they are almost always polite, curious, and a very nice person. And if you are hanging out where the big bus tourists congregate… well, what did you expect? They are dumbasses fishing for selfies - the lowest common denominator doesnt differentiate based on nationality.
You’re not wrong, this is totally a thing. I’m a euro mutt (I coin for myself) and I can trace some lines.
It’s because were all immigrants in a young country. Even the census we take asks where we hail from. I’ve maked “American” on it the last two times. It is a deal here, and yes it can be annoying especially when you get the tropes going. “Oh my family is Italian we like big families” mean while I’m fourth gen Italian (mixed obvs) and like what, are you inbreeding to stay Italian? Your husbands last name is “smith” like, fuck off. My full first gen Italian great grandmother married a first gen polack and had one kid. One. Fuck off with your stereotypes. This bitch I’m thinking of feed her kids all the american processed foods, give no fucks about the quality of her food ingredients or where they come from, just fuck off “were Italian” bitch shut up.
Yep. And so many white people here claim native ancestry. “I’m 1/16th Cherokee” they’ll say. Usually it is Cherokee because that’s the group their parents or grandparents had heard of and told them. I think it comes from trying to absolve the guilty feelings of what the settlers did to the natives.
The genealogy conversations are just tiring and predictable.
So many! I think it was possibly, a almost pop culture trend in the 70s to claim native history tbh. So many folks I met who do this would have been teens/young adults in that time. But you’re probably right, it’s some warped cope for the atrocities committed against native people. Fucking warped.
Potentially annoying American here with a point of clarification: is it annoying just to be interested in one’s heritage, or is it Americans that make that heritage their entire personality?
the identity thing. as far as i see it’s usually white people who do this. to gain ethnic distinction?
sure its fun to find out more abt what your granparents did (unless you are german).
I think a lot of it stems from living in a relatively young, immigration heavy, multicultural country and the little conversations that arise from that.
At least in the city I grew up and still live in I have met a lot of people who either immigrated or whose parents immigrated from other countries. In high school human geography I learned it takes a couple generations for an immigrant family to fully assimilate into a new culture, so a lot of these first/second generation immigrants still have connections and traditions from their family’s old country. The history of those countries (or at least the regions modern countries occupy) stretch back hundreds to thousands of years. I think many caucasian Americans, often raised to be competitive, want that sense of history when comparing to their own family but American culture has “only” developed over the past 300-400 years. To get an older/deeper sense of heritage they have to ask where their ancestors that immigrated to the US immigrated from, and because a sense of superiority is at least some part of American culture that older heritage has to be better than the other older heritages and therefore something to be loud and proud about. Even if it isn’t actually a big part of one’s life.
All that to say yes I think you’re right about it being a matter of ethnic distinction, which I think is brought about by the circumstances of US history. I definitely get how it’s annoying.
I’m an immigrant in the U.S. When my accent gives me away, I’m often asked where I’m from, which somehow leads to the discovery that the other person is also Irish. Or Scottish. Usually Irish.
I’m not offended so much as confused. “I am Irish” carries an expectation of shared culture and experience. When that’s clearly not what’s being offered, it lands less as connection and more hollow. Offense arises when clichés or affected accents appear. That’s no longer about identity; it’s just being an eejit.
I also find it maddening, not only because it’s silly, but because the analysis is largely crap anyhow.
My mother’s family touted their “Irish heritage for three generations”, then quickly shut up when their genome analysis “proved” they were instead largely English. I’ve had to point out Ireland and England’s relative positions and ask them if they thought anyone in our ancestry might have ever moved from island to island. Maybe consider that they were from somewhere else in Europe even earlier? Now they’re “Irish” again.
Point entirely missed, JFC. They were Irish, their ancestors were maybe English, and way back, their ancestors were definitely African, but I don’t see them getting into African cultural heritage. Thankfully.
You’re United Statesians. I get the draw: they’re looking for genuine but effort-free connection, identity, and belonging in a country whose dominant culture is homogenization, commoditization, and exploitation, but their search for culture through tenuous connections to long-dead ancestors instead of family, friends, and neighbors is just as hollow and unfulfilling.
Don’t obsess about great³-Grandpa Pádraig’s life harvesting peat from the bogs; he’s long dead and probably would have hated you. Embrace what and where you are and utilize and improve what you actually have.
“English, Scotch, Welch and Irish” always drives me nuts. You can’t even pronounce one of them correctly; how is that honouring your “heritage”?
no, they’re literally 25% grape juice
They’re Americans so grape jelly.
In America, juice and jelly have the same sugar and fake ingredient contents.
I’ve always understood it to be a remnant of a culture that de-emphasized genealogy and family pedigree, and had a lot more cultural and ethnic mixing in marriages at an earlier era. In Europe, it seems like there are a lot more family crests and aristocratic titles, from centuries of families maneuvering for political power through strategic marriages and what not, and stronger cultural taboos against marrying and having children outside of one’s ethnic group (and religion), at least up until maybe World War II.
So if there’s just less to learn from DNA testing (a person who happens to already have records of all 16 of their great-great-grandparents, who all lived in the same geographical area), I’d expect there not to be much demand for that kind of analysis.
Or maybe I’m wrong to focus on the gentry and aristocratic families, and have a misplaced view of how long that kind of stuff culturally persisted in Europe.
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“germans”, “french”, “danes” weren’t a thing. up until recently. they are genetically diverse groups.
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euros aren’t all nobles. i don’t know my grandmas maiden names.
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there was a lot of movement (read: fucking around) in europe. what do these tests even mean by “dutch”?
- “germans”, “french”, “danes” weren’t a thing. up until recently. they are genetically diverse groups.
I was under the impression that the DNA kits described actual ethnic groups and showed a map of the distribution of those groups overlaid on modern political borders or region names. Here’s the page on 23 and Me’s reports, which have a lot more granular detail, mapped onto modern political borders for reference, but where any listed nation or territory may have up to dozens of different sub-groups listed.
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Jay parlay Francsays trey beein. Jaytude on laycole quart ans.
if i had the power to do so, i’d give you a french passport right away.
maybe clearing this up: germany has a hereditary citizenship. i. e. children of germans can get a german passport.
being “german” means owning german citizenship (or citizenship of the one of the former constructs the federal republic sees as its precursors), not owning a set of genes. you can have no ‘distinct european genes’ (e.g. be ainu?) at all and get citizenship for your kids, as long as you have it. you can be “genetically german” and still don’t have a passport.
jus sanguinis usually isn’t genetically defined
If it means we can get citizenship somewhere else and get out… you’re offended by us figuring out our options? Oh how inconsiderate of us
It typically doesn’t. Most countries don’t care about where your ancestors came from. Being fluent in the local language and culture will generally give you a leg up if you already qualify for immigration so I hope your family kept those alive (and not Americanized versions like Irish-Americans wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day). But your ancestry is usually completely irrelevant.
Those genetic test results absolutely don’t mean anything. If you’re culturally American with an American passport, you’re American and that’s it.
Kind of funny you specifically call out Irish-Americans, because Ireland does actually have some options for citizenship-by-descent. It’s not quite as simple as anyone with Irish ancestry can become a citizen, but it is a thing.
If you have a grandparent who was born in Ireland you’re eligible
Or if your parent was an Irish citizen at the time of your birth
So hypothetically if you have a great grandparent born in Ireland, your parent could apply for Irish citizenship, even though their parents (your grandparents) weren’t citizens and had never set foot in Ireland
And if they did that before you were born you would also be eligible
And so on down the line to your children, and their children, etc. if everyone keeps on top of it.
There’s actually a decent handful of countries with some sort of citizenship-by-descent, not a majority by a longshot, and of course every country that does offer it has different requirements and restrictions, but for some people it can potentially be a viable pathway to another citizenship.
by all means do. but don’t put that on facebook?
Why wouldn’t we give our family members a tip on how they can also get out, on a platform where they would see it?
did anyone ever get a passport because some lab result said they were 10% “genetically slovakian”?
I don’t know about Slovakian, but such places exist, yes.
There is only one country that gives a flying shit about where your great-grandma allegedly came from, and that’s Israel. For every other country you’re not figuring out any options, you’re cosplaying.
Edit: There are actually more countries that care about where your grandma was from. 17 to be exact, but some are more equal than others, some of those have more conditions put upon, and some just need you to be descendant of emigrants.This is not true. I personally acquired citizenship of Lithuania for example, solely because my grandmother was born there and left during Soviet occupation (as many did). I speak no Lithuanian, have no other connection to the country, and have never even been there.
Yeah, I stand corrected, there is slightly more than one country like that. Doesn’t really changes much since there is not a lot of those countries, but yeah, technically I was wrong.
Asking “so what do you do for a living?” when meeting someone new as if their job defines them. It’s one of the first questions Americans will ask someone when meeting them for the first time. I am American, but as I understand it, this question is far less common elsewhere in the world.
Depends on where in America, too. It literally is question #1 in D.C., but has been less so elsewhere, in my experience.
I ask, “So what do you do?”
If they answer with hobbies and interests, they’re more my kind of person. If they answer with their job stuff, well that’s just their main life thing.
If you ask an American they will assume you MEAN their job, whether it’s their “main life thing” or not, because that’s how people talk here
My default answer to that is ‘As little as possible.’
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Well aren’t you just a barrel of laughs :)
This has always gotten under my skin as well. I generally downplay it to make my job sound as common as possible, and I do not return the question. What I do for money has very little influence on who I am or what I enjoy.
I just ask, in a screaming tone, WHO DOES NUMBER TWO WORK FOR???
They usually just look at me, and assume there’s been some kind of language barrier. Nope. I’m just referencing an obscure scene that nobody remembers from Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. A film that came out in 1997. So a lot of people these days weren’t even BORN when that movie came out.
Can we get a courtesy flush?
new account - check
zero comments - check
inflammatory post - check.
deleted account - TBD…
Saying “I could care less” instead of “I couldn’t care less”. Annoyingly incorrect but not exactly a critical issue.
Oh we non-idiot Americans find the doofuses who do that annoying too
I mean, I could care less, but calculating exactly how little I care would take more effort than I care to give.
I think the best response, because it amuses me greatly, is to reply simply with “as if”
I wait to see if they figure out that I’m just pointing out 2 words they missed saying at the beginning of that phrase to make it resemble what they intended.
Having to answer constant questions about Americans.
Invading other countries, ignoring international law, supporting palestinian genocide, toppling foreign governments… i find them kinda annoying you know?
The obsession with brands. Insisting off brand medication is different when it literally HAS to be the same.
Consume consume consume! The American way!
Pretending they’re well travelled by bragging about how many states they’ve visited.
Yo, I went to South Korea once¹
¹been at airport waiting for a transfer flight to the US
But okay for real, I’ve been to China.² I’m a legit international traveller! 😏
²Was born there lol. Does immigration to the US technically count as “travelling”?
If you made it out of the airport, I’d say that counts. I’ve connected in South Korea and Taiwan several times since i was a kid, but never long enough of a layover to make it out of the airport.
No we just waited in the building for like idk 10 hours it felt like.
It must’ve been so boring since I don’t remember much if it.
But I do remember being at a store in the airport and saw something cost like 10,000 and kid-me was like: “omg why is it so expensive? is every foreign country this rich?” (keep in mind, I think I was literally the only one in my entire school and out of everyone I know, that was emigrating, at least to my knowledge, so it felt like a sort of “privilage” to kid-me)
Then my dad was like: “That Korean money, its like [$5-$10 USD]” that’s the moment I learned of the existence of other currencies, mind… blown… not everyone uses the same money.
Lol, naïve young me was so funny.
Idk why but I think I felt a bit anxious.
My mom told me to not share the fact that I was about to immigrating to the US to any of my peers, to keep it a secret because “people might get jealous”.
So in my mind I immediately thought like some “bad guy” is gonna assassinate my family if it got leaked. (I was like 7, my thoughts went wild okay lol)
I’m not sure how long I keep it in me, I think I might’ve told classmates like the last month or so… right before we left… don’t remember
So yea…
I always dwell on the past and think of alt-timelines… like what if that never happened and I was still in China… would I have found out about the internet outside of the wall?
Would I have made more friends? (since I would’ve never got the language barrier issue that damaged my self-esteem)
Would there be no bullying? I mean no racial differences… so might’ve been less conflicts…
But then again, this current timeline… this unique experience allowed me to understand multiculturalism and be more accepting of people of different national origins and different skin colors, and I understand LGBT stuff more.
So yea… this is an interesting timeline, my story has been kinda interesting… hopefully the future and ending is just as interesting if not more interesting.
Then my dad was like: “That Korean money, its like [$5-$10 USD]” that’s the moment I learned of the existence of other currencies, mind… blown… not everyone uses the same money.
I remember my experience with that. Doing the math in my head and realizing how much more expensive things were at the airport in Tokyo-Narita than the electronics shops around Bangkok.
Would I have made more friends? (since I would’ve never got the language barrier issue that damaged my self-esteem)
Do you mean learning English later than your peers? If so, I had a similar experience. I didn’t learn English until kindergarten and it made it harder to make friends. Though there were other factors (big one being my dad was paranoid about me being kidnapped by the parents of other students, so I never got to hang out with any of them outside of school), I think they outcome is largely the same. Especially if the other kids were the type to let that be a dealbreaker for engaging with you. I found it easier to get to know other students to whom English was a second language.
Would there be no bullying? I mean no racial differences… so might’ve been less conflicts…
Somehow in my case, I saw more white kids getting bullied by other white kids than I ever experienced of myself or other people of color I went to school with. Though I suppose I was one of the few in my graduating class. Also somehow I managed to gain a reputation for being one of “the least Asian” kids at the school. Of which there were maybe 10 during any given school year.
didn’t learn English until kindergarten
I went through all the way to 2nd grade in China.
My mom convince the school in NYC to put me in 2nd grade again, this time in the US in English. She told me she want to give me a better chance at improving my English…
It’s much different, when you’re 2nd grade, you’re expected to already speak the language.
I mean, I don’t think I even knew Mandarin till Kindergarden (I think the media at home was mostly HK-based, dubbed in Cantonese), yet I still managed K - Grade 2 fine
As opposed to 2nd grade with English… that was so foreign to me.
I found it easier to get to know other students to whom English was a second language.
Yea I got along with other Cantonese speakers very well. Don’t really think I had much bullying from other Cantonese speakers. Mandarin speakers were rare and I kinda felt slightly more distant from them, but still feel kinda have a connection.
paranoid about me being kidnapped
Lol my mom went all in on the “stranger danger” teaching.
Every stranger want to kidnap you. Reject candy, they want to drug you and steal organs of little boys and sell little girls into prostitution. Becareful of cars, bad guys are gonna hop out and pull you in.
Jesus chist that shit scared me.
I think Mainland China had a lot of kidnappings for some reason. Authorities didn’t do shit about it.
I kinda developed a habit of looking behind me every so often, make sure no “bad guy” is following.
I think I developed separation anxiety because of this.
I kinda get scared of teachers that would hand out candy because I think it could be poison.
But then again my mom was fine with halloween trick-or-treating? Lol?
I think Mainland China had a lot of kidnappings for some reason. Authorities didn’t do shit about it.
My parents gave me the impression that it was somewhat common in Bangkok too, but I didn’t need to worry as much because I’m not an attractive woman and/or rich looking white tourist.
But then again my mom was fine with halloween trick-or-treating? Lol?
Asian parents are so inconsistent like that. It’s weird how common it is. My parents were worried about me getting poisoned because of that whole Tylenol poisoning thing from the 80’s but didn’t bat an eye whenever the school called about my allergic reactions to peanut exposure. Even before they found out my case wasn’t life threatening. Same thing with peanuts in Halloween candy before I cared enough to read the labels to make sure I had regular M&Ms and not the peanut variety.
Comparing everything to their insignificant home town.
“Wow! Ancient aqueducts! We don’t have that back in Springfield, but we have faster table service.”
Okaaaay…
Thinking cheaper automatically means you’re getting more value out of something, (example: I got this whole cake that can feed 10 people for $15 bucks!) ignoring the quality of that thing.
Thinking something expensive automatically means you’re getting something of better quality (example: This bottle of wine is over $100. It’s definitely better than one that uses much better methods of wine production that only costs $20).
Basically, my beef is with Americans having little sense of discernment and/or lack of good taste.
I reject the assertion that this is an American thing… I’ve been in enough other countries and they’re all mostly consumerist cultures that care more about perceived social value than actual quality.
Perhaps, but America is known to export their “culture”, including consumerism. Maybe it’s tainting the world at large…
I’m American, but I’ve heard in a lot of countries they hate how we start talking to someone who is still kind of far away. Like when your friend is approaching from the other direction and you say “Hey, how’s it going?” but you have to talk more loudly because he’s several paces away.
The same variety every country finds annoying about tourists from different cultures because foreigners. Loud, demanding, not obeying local social cues or courtesies, not speaking any of the language, walking too slow because tourist, crowding, messing up local living conditions thanks to vacation rentals, drunks, etc.
Saying the state or city they’re from when asked where they are from…like the world should know what a Jackson is.
