Kats8652
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So I've noticed this big influencer push on YT that "Europeans have been lied too", because those videos are currently bringing in views and everyone needs to jump on the bandwagon for that sweet sweet ad revenue.
And while the video format is annoying and the thumbnails are usually shitty AI, they do have a Point, even though they present it with lies.
"It's the mainstream media that has lied, it's the european politicians that have lied, it's the democrats that have lied..."
No, no and no, it's People like Tyler Oliveira, right wing grifter content creators that made a living out of going to the same (predominatly liberal) cities that now host the WC and showing them in the worst most biased way possible.
Drugs, crime, poverty, "extreme wokeness (lmao)" that was what was pushed on me for years now through the YT algorithm.
Currently it's them that are thumping their chest that the US totally rocks and it's the most awesome country in the world.
And a bunch of them are now taking aim at Europe, doing the same shit to us like they did tot Blue cities, making the EU look like a crime ridden hellhole giving a platform to local extreme right wing liars pushing their narrative.
I like americans, Ive been there 3 times, only negative experiences we had was with...food...like Im sorry guys but we visited a lot of these one street "towns" with one local Restaurant and the food just wasn't that great.
Edit: This was in the west/ Midwest, One street towns in the Middle of nowhere, diners that looked like they came straight out of the 70s. I had my first blt ever in a small diner near fort Laramie in Wyoming. My first aweful "soop de jerrr" in Keystone South Dakota...
Bandlith
That's literally the flavor desert of the country. Even the water is awful.
UNHchabo
Will Buxton is a journalist that covered Formula One for most of his adult life, last year he took a job as the lead commentator for Indycar, which took him to lots of places in the US he never expected to go, and it was eye-opening for him about the diversity of culture we have in this country.
0p12
"American exceptionalism" continually presents as false pride.
RueandWoe
@op oh you are not wrong, midwest food is VEEEEERRRY dicey. There are local spots that are great, but you need to unfortunately do homework. I come from Vermont, and lived in Portland Oregon, and can say now that I live in the midwest, the food is quite mid if you are not careful.
Nyxaura
Move to phx, we have great food!
NonPoliticalChimpanzee
Never have the soup of the day
eadanke
it was the soup of yesterday too
Idsertian
If you want to skew your algorithm back towards sanity, try out Evan Edinger, a US YouTuber who's been living the UK for over a decade. He seems to have his head on straight, and does his best to negate some of the bullshit on social media he hears about. Watch enough of his vids, and your algo should start dumping the right wing crap. Or don't. I'm just a guy on the internet.
locksmith9
Okay, but if the format is anooying and the thumbnails are A.i.... why are you watching them?
zeekcheek
who would rate "american food" based on middle-of-nowhere diners?
Bystandr
Well, having been several times, I can say about the food; its great. World class, even. *IF* you know where to go. My uncle Henry, who
Bystandr
lives there took me to the best barbeque Ive ever had. Parents friends took us for a really good burger. Was in ABQ for the best tacos and
Bystandr
enchiladas. California has some remarkable restaurants, too. What did all the positive experiences have in common? We were guided there by
Bystandr
locals. Sorry you didnt find the same enjoyment.
GravyEducation
I always make the joke that its in the US Constitution that if it's made by an American citizen on American soil, we can call that food American food. Where'd ya go? Cuz there's taquerias, gyro joints, ramen, etc all on the same block as an Applebee's. I've worked for many immigrants as FoH. Vietnamese especially (two gigs). Like the whole world, ya gotta look. Do we make it hard because we do so many chain restaurants? Yes we do. But melting pot was not an accidental phrase
Nyxaura
Ong yes thank you this! Hawaiian is American, Korean, Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese! Omg have you had pho!? Also there are so many great cheese burger places. Since when does or food suck?
flightstosaturn
I am so thankful to have ranch dressing but not healthcare. 🇺🇸🥳
/s
GravyEducation
I'll do a different comment on food cuz I'm passionate about food but to address your main point. Americans are also subject to all that nonsense. I always use this when people do the rote thing of "hey every American why are you all 100% not fighting." Uh first its not feasible to do 100% fighters cuz there's different things to do in conflicts. You're seeing bad messengers and propagandists, fueled by AI. There's good ones like Jon Stewart. 1/2 Https://i.imgur.com/RSj09xg.jpg
GravyEducation
2/2 a wise imgurian also once said to me which I won't forget, if free speech online did nothing, they wouldn't be trying to stop it. So we are all here messengers and propagandists. Use the power for good. And don't let our platform make us into the type of people that wouldn't help others with the aforementioned tools and skills. Allies help allies. They don't blame others like "oh you fucked ME over! I wouldn't have cared if you didn't fuck ME!" Roll up ya sleeves and spread positive messages
ispendtomuchtimehere
as a US..don't believe everything you read..plenty of us want to eat the rich.
StarmineRendezvous
And brother I am STARVING.
Nyxaura
Absolutely ravenous
Mcknizzle
Traveled between both. Not much of a difference between all of the above between Western Europe and US. Media and politicians love comparing and slandering. Travel, have fun, and vote out haters who hate for the sake of hate
AyatollahBahloni
daguq
BTW, that is Mike Godwin of Godwin's Law fame.
UNHchabo
A scene from the first episode of the show Treme, which was made by the creators of The Wire, set in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina.
Kats8652
My mom wanted to see the Parks and visit Native American reservations, my dad wanted to live out his cowboy dreams, so we ended up in the Middle of nowhere 90% of the times.
I started to fear the "soup dus jioure" (trying to convey the accent here) and non discript dark brown sauces.
Ajierene
Sounds like you went to diners out west, diners in general aren't sources of really good local cuisine. They are nice and cheap but not a lot of skill in many of them...Def some of them are great. Itravel the US a lot and fingers definitelt have their place but aren't where I go for local cuisine. Go to a specialty place like a hole in the wall BBQ place with a line or a recommended Native American place or something like that.
GravyEducation
Soop da jerr
GravyEducation
Wait it's "da zher" like you'd say zhouzh it up
rubypilgrim
you can't go wrong with navajo fry bread. That said, what you're seeing is a food desert. A lot of Americans haven't had access to unprocessed food for so long that in many areas, processed food is the norm. You're more likely to see a tater tot than an orange.
AyatollahBahloni
Tut mir furchtbar Leid ... https://media2.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1aGlocm82b3V0N2Jnam42dW1kZHB2NXQ0YjV1bGNjdTNiamRxcWgycyZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/kcfb43I3N1GhspNQpj/200w.webp
GravyEducation
The Leid was sehr Tut
BeKindNWipeYourBehind
Imgur a very small sample size, but I have noticed a weird anti-European theme in a number of postings lately.
Algorithms are a bane on society, in my opinion. TechnologyConnections on YT did a great piece on learning to search for yourself and taking control of your feed. Makes it a shame that he said in his most recent video that Europeans "haven't discovered ceiling fans yet". (We have. Countries where it's been hot, historically, use them (if necessary).)
SecondSince
Its easy to hate what you don't have. :D
Xenarion
Is there? I can't say I ever saw that, other than against Britain maybe. It's mostly anti-USA, and propping Europe as the idea the USA will never be.
BeKindNWipeYourBehind
There's always been a weird anti-French trend, but I've seen about 3 posts lately that were more generally European: "lol, they don't have ac", "lol, wusses complaining about the heat" and stuff like that.
HMSFord
According to William Least Heat Moon's book, BLUE HIGHWAYS, you need to find the local diners that hang at least 2 or more calendars on their walls: The more calendars, the better the food. Moon only heard rumors of a 5 calendar diner.
turkizno
As a second layer, it irks me when people speak about "Europe", and everything mentioned is "actually just western europe" aka France and Germany mainly.
When it's about wages, tourism, events of the past, almost always the point is about the western side, like as if the rest doesn't exist and doesn't have a completely different experience about issues.
CraftyGiant
Gee I wonder what it could be.
Jarjarthejedi
I saw someone unironically talk about how everyone from Europe was "eurotrash" in a comment a few days ago. Called it out as bs and got downvoted. The bots seem to have been given new instructions to denigrate Europe heavily.
DutchBoeremeisie
Oddly enough, when an anti-European (specifically anti-French) post got downvoted yesterday, the OP claimed it was bots, too. /gallery/french-they-are-frying-1WkpgQJ
But I can easily believe one of the bots' aims are to further divide. That was Putin's spiel all along anyway - divide the US and Europe and tear everything down.
Xenarion
People deflecting is a common thing. I've seen a lot of people blame downvotes on their posts/comments on bots, even when they made a shitty take.
GravyEducation
From a place of love and agreement i still must make this joke. Anti-europe on imgur? America like https://media0.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1aXhsZTg1Z3R1b3VzNWgzYTRjemllancwcWtpYWh5ZGJiang0Y3dyNSZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/uUIFcDYRbvJTtxaFNa/200w.webp
Badprenup
Yeah even before Trump that stuff was pretty common here, still is.
"Dumb US, calling it soccer because that's what we called it back then and never changing it to football like we did later because they already had a sport called football by then"
"Dumb US, building their houses out of an abundant, inexpensive resource in environments where wood construction makes sense"
"Dumb US, not calling it aluminIUM even though the Brit who coined that term later said his term was stupid and wrong"
GravyEducation
If you simply mention Fahrenheit the internet just dispatches drones... yeah lol. Like um we're all people and we're all going through roughly similar problems so could we not? It's really not hard for me to adopt a conversational method when I know I'm talking to the entire world potentially... I'll do compromises like calling seasons series if I'm talking British TV
GravyEducation
Secondary joke, I shouldn't make fun of you guys in a heat wave that's not cool
Shoutrr
american are living in a propaganda riddled landscape akin to north korea. they are the freest, awesomest, bestest country on the planet, source: trust me bro. From school program to media, everything is made to make them appear as the heroes, the good guys, living in the dreamland. Everything so they don't question what is done to them and what their country does to others. Internet access exposed them to reality, it's slow, but they start to get it that they suck as a country. And that makes
GravyEducation
Okay but here's my thing is some of us always knew it and the media has always been divided between your truth tellers and your negative propagandists. So like... I just don't like the absolutist comments of all Americans. I'll 100% give you the stats on whatever you pull about 40% of us suck. But never 100%. But indeed the internet is good for discourse... but again you gotta split the dif between Twitter and eg this civil conversation on imgur
GravyEducation
Bro that was my word salad... sorry I'm stoned and I have been greatly distracted by cat sitting and my brother getting even more stoned than me. Two cats and a human to take care of rn. He's in beddy bye mode
Shoutrr
the media in general, but most importantly, the right wing media and political landscape sweat a little, because they do not want american to start to question the status quo. So they do this kind of deluded scams, and if they can convince outsiders as well, even if it's just for a sound bite or two they can display to their american audience to reassure them they didn't live a lie their whole life.
DVSBSTrD
@OP I'm amazed any European would believe that crap when they could just watch the ACTUAL news.
DonaldMerwinElbertAKATrashCanMan
What? Like fox news? ""Actual"" news are as biased as youtubers and influencers because they want the exact same thing, more people watching no matter what.
DVSBSTrD
Sweetheart, we both know Fox News legally defined itself as "entertainment".
DonaldMerwinElbertAKATrashCanMan
My point still stands, there is no "actual" news, only way to have some dubious certainty of the information is to consume several medias, not one, and give priority to the "cheaper" ones, AKA old newspapers now websites and similar, again using several sources. And ofc avoid any "social network" as source of information, all of them are poison.
DVSBSTrD
Honey, we both know that's not true.
CoalhouseWalker
Yep. Right wing media and right wing creators have been lying for a long time. The most frustrating part is that right wing Americans believe those lies too.n
ZinGir
Its pretty simple do not watch yt or streamers. look into it yourself, dont be a sheep who lissen to their fav beggars (youtubers/streamers/etc)
charondaboatman
“Diners Drive ins and Dives” is bullshit. A clean bar that’s open and steady busy at lunch time usually has good food and service. Start there. It’s what I do in Europe. I also stay away from London, Paris, Amsterdam, etc..-any large metropolitan area that’s usually rife with tourists and crime and assholes. I do the same thing here, in the U.S.. The world has a plethora of assholes, and it’s amazing how well distributed around the globe they are.
Nyxaura
Aw but Chino Bandido is one of my all time favs and that’s how I heard about them and I live in the same state, and I think Lolo’s chicken and waffles and Matt’s big bfast! (Phx AZ)
GravyEducation
Yep Charon is right about a lot of things. I think I deliver excellent service. I don't work for restaurants that don't. Not worth it. Like you watch Kitchen Nightmares or something and you're like "this is so dramatized" but no. That shit does happen! And it destroys people's spirits, I seent it. I seent the walk in crying sessions. Restaurants are just a crap shoot anywhere you go, you don't know what you're getting until you get it
Forensickle
It's about knowing what the measure is in that specific place. Some of the things people have said indicate a good American restaurant scream terrible in most European or Australian cities. I don't doubt they are right, beyond the genuine crap shoot that is everywhere, it's just very different.
Even indications of good are different in london and Paris, it's just figuring out what they are
GravyEducation
I think we all should just be of the Bourdain mindset. You can't know until you try and you can't try if you don't talk to people about it. +1
Forensickle
You can't talk to people, no one speaks that many languages! The amount of towns and villages I've had to point and mime in to order food, and having no idea what I was getting until after it was in my mouth... And then hoping you aren't sick the next day. (Which doesn't mean food poisoning either, our gut biomes just really don't travel as fast as planes, and take a bit to catch up)
Forensickle
I stopped for lunch in a village halfway between Kyiv and Pripyat in Ukraine in 2011, it was a buffet thing where they put stuff on your plate for you. I gravitated to those because menus were literally impossible even in Kyiv. I'd point to random stuff. At this plate I got a really odd look over something I pointed to, but she couldn't explain why. Turned out what I thought was a beer dumpling, and in my plate of savouries, was this super sweet raspberry thing.
christophersouthworth
Diners often have food that is designed to be eaten first, then regretted later. By that time, the customer has hopefully left the building. The term "greasy spoon" was coined (and remains relevant) for a reason. Why make it like this? Diners are often semi-rural, and folks who grew up on a farmer's diet often skipped draining grease fully, or left it in place for seasoning - don't @ me, just look up "add bacon grease" for reference.
TheFastpaws
Ya, I stay in my little corner of curated stuff on YouTube. So I do not really see the front page of grifting. I do see it when people call it out though on places like here. It is just sad how many people want to ruin the world for their grift. =\
RElGNMAN
A lie can still make a valid point because the underlying principle or human truth remains sound, even if the specific facts or events described are made up. The impact of the point depends on why the lie is being used.
Seethreepeeoh
Europeans tend to think of America as one place. Which is kinda silly when you think of it. Every place has its own identity “it’s the little differences” as Vincent said. We wouldn’t mix up Lisbon with Lisburn like Phoenix is different to Philadelphia. There’s a few yanks on here, you want to know something ask - don’t rely on the algorithm
Sherpafish
People get fast with the down votes when you point this out. I alway comment on the post of a landscape and the caption will just say 'Canada'. Like Canada is bigger and infinitely more diverse than that. Always get down voted to hell.
armswoldier
You speak the same language, you eat the same food, generally you have the same culture. The USA is not as diverse as the EU
Seethreepeeoh
Im European. And, fun fact - the official language of America is not English
Nyxaura
Idk, culture in ny is definitely different than culture in HI. Both of those places are in the US. Then you also have Alaska and Florida, those people couldn’t be any different. And then people in Wisconsin, are they no different than Texans?
armswoldier
Sure there are differences, I never stated there aren't. But e.g. Spanish and German are not even the same language root. The culture and general education in for example history will be completely different. If you believe Wisconsin and Texas are like Spain and Germany I don't know what to tell you.
MrPhreak
America tends to think of Europe as one place as well...
Seethreepeeoh
It’s more like 3 zones in a trenchcontinent
turkizno
"Country of Europe" I always lol at that
zeekcheek
not at all. what a weird thing to try to claim.
PurpleKryptonite
Oh yeah, one-street small towns have shit food.
Your best bet, if you're in an American small town, is find the Mexican restaurant. All those proud self-sufficient rural white MAGA types are totally dependent on Mexican labor, and usually one immigrant family will open a little restaurant where the actual workers eat. It's usually the best food in town.
DystopianCommandant
Interesting. I come from a one street town that had some of the most amazing tenderloin sandwiches I’ve ever had anywhere in nine different states. We had an excellent small town pizza bistro.
FellaWithUmbrella
Right wingers hate foreigners and multiculturalism, but somehow now that people all over the world are partying in crime ridden democratic led cities, it’s all ok.
erinaceus
go to the smallest taqueria you can find and see.
Kilo11
Im sure every city is like that, I live in LA I can take you to parts of town that are safe, have great food and nice kind people everywhere, I can also take you to parts of town where we would both be robbed. America isnt just one of those its both of those
Nyxaura
This is where Air bnb started out great because locals could show people the good places! But then it turned into a cash cow.
Kilo11
As a local, no fuck off im not showing you the good places, those are for us not for tourist to ruin
Nyxaura
I get your sentiment but I don’t think regular, one off tourists are going to destroy loved local places. Influencers and tv shows do imo. Homes sitting vacant or being rented out constantly do.
Kilo11
Even a single online post from a regular tourist can spread like wild fire, ill keep my secret beaches yall can go to Santa Monica and Venice, the armpit of LA
AFelineMassofEyes
Sometimes your hubcaps are just just part of the price of a really good meal.
Kilo11
Lmao
Dontstopbelever2000ismyfavoritesoap
I used to live in a mid-sized southern capital city and politicians would run ads about how "we don't want to be California" showing homeless encampments, like we didn't have tons of those all over the city too
weidermeijer
Every major city in the world has that feature.
RondomGuy
Its almost like gathering large amounts of people in one spot increases the chances of things happening in that area.
zombiejedediah
This is why Copenhagen is not a major city: I wouldn't be able to take you to any part of town where we'd be robbed.
AlwaysCloudyInGermany
Not true, many cities in Europe were safe 20 years ago. What OP fails to see, or does not want to see, is that there absolutely are problems which were not here 20 years ago. A lot of nations here move conservative because of these problems. Best example Denmark. Do you really think this is happening because of some YT videos?
Kats8652
Absolutely, but the good sides usually take a back seat to the bad sides, to push the narrative. Like see the thumbnail, I know this is bait but not everyone looks at shit like this critically.
Kilo11
I mean here certain drugs are definitely illegal but in certain parts drug use is rampant and obvious, police dont even bother because why arrest a crackhead and waste everyone's time and money when they are just gonna do the exact same thing when they get out, if people are blatantly shooting up while cops drive by then yeah in a way all drugs "are legal" as there are zero consequences
DutchBoeremeisie
Tip: if the AI thumbnail features AI generated art (like here), don't bother taking the video seriously (or even watching it).
icouldntthinkofabetterusername2
I’m disappointed and saddened by the fact that that is one of the most outrageous examples of rage bait bullshit AI thumbnails I’ve ever seen, and yet that’s not blatantly obvious to too many people.
PresldentClef
incidentally, Kilo11 is a MAGA who condones police shooting and killing babies. It's in their post history. Ironic really.
LtGenObvious
Food-wise, don't go for the only restaurants in small towns; go for independent, non-chain restaurants in cities.
Nyxaura
Checking reviews on google isn’t even super reliable lol, watching a YouTube series by will tennison! https://youtu.be/HQ_7noX-2Qg?is=PwIFAp2dOTR3PBj0
NeverEnoughFoxes
To follow on, look at the number of cars in the parking lot of these places. The more people go there, the more likely the food is going to be good.
Nyxaura
Not necessarily!! It depends on the town!
NeverEnoughFoxes
Well yes. If the town only has one non-chain restaurant this doesn't apply. It's less a rule and more a guideline.
Nyxaura
When we go out of town or trying a new place, we just look for something that just sounds good. Like Thai, Korean, bbq, Hawaiian, Chinese, Indian etc. America is more than just burgers and biscuits and grits and hot dogs. Local food magazines are a great resource too!
Nyxaura
Dude! diners drive ins and dives! Those places tend to get more traffic now but there are so many good food places on those types of shows too! American food is great, we have all types.
Forensickle
See, there is a problem for Europeans and major city Australians, a restaurant with a parking lot is an indication that it's bad, full or otherwise.
You are using a metric for good that is fundamentally alien.
I associate restaurants with parking lots as specifically designed for old people and toddlers (or on the sides of highways). A full parking lot just means better quality mush and slightly cleaner buffet sneeze guards
floatationman
Man, that is a super interesting piece of cultural divergence. Only in the denser parts of the urban core in the US will you find sit down restaurants without dedicated parking. Parking for restaurants is just so normal here. And even in the urban core, having dedicated parking is considered a competitive advantage as many folks will avoid the hassle of finding parking. I'm not saying we're as a whole a lazy people, but...
Forensickle
Oh, it's not that you are lazy, you literally can't get around without a car.
It's just a metric for food quality that is going to mess with you if you aren't used to it because it's a cultural difference that isn't really about food, so when you are looking for food you don't think about it.
Forensickle
You also need to accept that when you travel, no matter how much you research, you are going to fuck up a lot on what locals will consider "common knowledge", but that's part of travelling, bad experiences are part of it, and it's rarely the destinations fault, it's just learning, and learning always involves fucking up.
It's just always more jarring when things are almost familiar. You expect to make those kind of mistakes if you go somewhere genuinely foreign
EndocrineResearcher
For the US it depends heavily on the location. If it's suburban, parking lots are standard so pretty much every restaurant will have a parking lot. If it's in the downtown or urban core, there may not be a parking lot. Quality restaurants can be found in both settings. But I agree with OP that you should have no expectations for restaurant quality in the small, one-road towns as there is often one option. Two if you're lucky.
Forensickle
Everywhere depends on location, it's just the thing it depends on changes in each location too.
My best advice, as someone who has traveled extensively specifically for food and wine, is leave your expectations at home, you are going to fuck up somehow and end up eating shit food everywhere, and you probably won't even know why you fucked up until the third time you do, then you'll fuck up a different way in the next town/city/country. Travel is learning, and learning is making mistakes
Frankasti
Canadian here.
Downtown = no parking
Everywhere else = parking
That's about all you can deduce from it. It applies to fast food, Michelin starred places, and everything in between.
Forensickle
But in Europe it's basically everywhere, no parking. The culture discrepancy for Canadians in the US isn't going to be as extreme as for a lot of other international travellers.
The same thing in reverse is also why I think lots of Americans think restaurants in Europe suck. Our metrics for assessing what is good, that aren't even directly relate to the actual food, mess with us. And you don't figure it out until you fuck up a lot
Forensickle
Even within Europe, things that can indicate a likely good restaurant in London, can indicate a bad restaurant in Paris.
I think the only universal is if a place is full of tourists, it's not a good sign. But even then, sometimes you don't have a choice, and it just comes down to luck