Reddit is by far the board I spend most time on that would be applicable for this, but there are things you only get from here, and I thought ti woudl be interesting to start this little list.
So I’ll start with Tim Tebow. I would never have heard of him from normal media over here, but the SDMB has made it perfectly clear to me that he’s some “American Football” religious loon who is constantly praying, and generally making a name for himself by demonstrating his christianity.
Anyway the floor is open, who has similar things to say?
The degree to which gun ownership is ingrained into the everyday life of perfectly normal people. Most of the gun-related stories that show up in news, especially non-US news, is of the mass shooting/crazy gun culture :eek: OMG!!! type.
The gritty details of US politics. Again, international reporting tends to hit the highlights and major topics only.
A lot of information on the internal working of its politics (in much plainer English than other sources), on the religious makeup of the country, and also and while not really a US subject about religions which one’s more likely to encounter Over There than in smalltown Over Here (for example, Barcelona now has a visible Hindu population, but I’ve never seen one in my home towns). A lot of regional information which exists in other places, sure, but which I can’t fathom where else would I have found it (such as the existence of places where “Judge” is closer to meaning “City Major” than to being a member of the judiciary). Legal information, combining the technical terms with explanations in plain English.
There’s a lot of threads about some prominent individual or another which prompt “who?” as the first reaction. And some baseball player who does not play footie for Barça and is not the grandson of a prominent Catalan politician (Pujols, not Pujol).
Probably a lot more than just this, but off the top of my head:
Support for gun ownership amongst intelligent people who understand statistics etc (and also some excellent new reasons in favour of gun ownership I had never considered).
The degree to which atheists are persecuted and generally mistrusted in the US. In my wildest dreams I would not have been able to imagine it.
That’s depressing. Not because I really have a problem with either one, but the idea that when people think of the U.S., that’s what they think about. Not Ellis Island or great universities or The American Dream… or even cars, burgers and Hollywood. Guns and religion. Lovely.
The gun culture isn’t something that you learned about on the SDMB though, right? It’s pretty much common knowledge.
I knew about the puritanical culture, but had no idea that it followed people to work. The thought of discussing religion, or wondering what church colleagues attend is, well foreign.
Yeah I have to agree with this. I have zero idea of any of the religious beliefs of my coworkers. I’ve read stories on here where people are asked about their religion at work and then their coworkers look at them, open-mouthed in horror that they are atheist.
It’s funny that those are the stereotypes of Americans. And yet this is not my America. I don’t think I know anyone that owns a gun, and I never discuss religion with anyone. The stereotypes simply aren’t true in my corner of the world.
People who read the Dope. I hope everyone understands this is a skewed view of the country. There are plenty of things that people have reported as common place in America that I have never encountered. The Dope has hot button issues. Some of them are hot button issues for the country too. But that doesn’t mean that they impact everyones lives everyday. The only religious talk or even thoughts I have are when I’m on here. My job requires having a gun but I am in no way part of a gun culture and neither is anyone in my circle of friends or family.
Yeah, members of my family have rifles for hunting and in the appropriate season they’ll talk about bagging game but the idea that every house is packing a glock and everyone’s walking around with concealed carry? Not around here they’re not. I spend far less time thinking about guns than you non-americans spend thinking I think about guns.
OK, here’s another thing: the amount of time devoted to electing a president. Holy fucking shit.
You guys are in perpetual election mode. As soon as one ends, it seems you start gearing up for another. I think the last Canadian federal election campaign lasted 6 weeks.
From a media perspective I guess I understood the longevity of the campaigns, but spending time here I am way more familiar with just how much thought, and effort, and contemplation, and reflection, and second guessing, and debate, and… holy fucking shit.