Ask Lemmy

The United States isn't even similar to the United States

The countries are all huge. They are more alike one another at their borders than they are similar to themselves throughout.

Am Canadian. From what I gather they're pretty similar. We have the same scenario of lots of land, cheap energy, (relatively) young cities that could change to be car dependant as they grew. So lots of big houses, big stores, etc.

The differences: I don't think our inner cities hollowed out with white flight, don't have as much segregation (it's actually quite the melting pot), while we have plenty of car dependency I don't think it's quite as bad as the US.

We have more progressive things like universal healthcare, decent public education. The US really seems intent on not having those because, as I see it, they don't want black people to have it.

Feel free to ask anything.

more similarity between Western Canada and Western US than between Western US and Eastern US …

I assume that Canada and the USA are more similar to each other than either one is to Mexico. We speak mostly English and we are rich countries. Although some differences will depend on latitude.

As a Canadian I grew up on Americam culture. We are very much sibling countries. They are one big culture together. I know very little about Mexico.

Are we allowed to answer for the other thirty North American countries?

Mexicans regularly joke about their northern states being wannabe Americans, the pacific northwest plays host to dueling movements that insist "Cascadia" should be its own country, I say dueling because they frequently differ on if this state should be a white ethnostate or a bio-regional communist hippytocracy.

The point here is that despite having some of the most well defined borders in the world, the North American trio are basically just a set of siblings in a spectrum from largely indigenous central Americans in the south of Mexico to the last flickers of Maritime Canadian Gaelge in Nova Scotia to Anchorage probably being one of the sneakily most important cities in the world geopolitically, and with infinite multitudes of spectrums between.

Two sibling eagles and their little sister jay who's smarter than the both of them.

Arguably, Cuba and the Bahamas (at least) border the US. If we get technical, so do Russia and several island nations in Oceania.

I've been fortunate to spend some time traveling down the west coast and into the south west then to the east of the US. I've also been lucky enough to travel through the west to the east in both Canada and the US too. Outside of New York I've not really made it to the east coast though.

Big differences are in some areas like city versus rural but as others have stated the borders don't mean as much of a difference like opposite coasts within a country does. Geography certainly does seem to be more important.

Provincial /State boundaries can be a difference in some cases but more for the big cities versus the rural areas that share the borders.

Like the US in Canada the divide is often rural versus city, then primary industries beyond the French vs the English.

One big difference I did pick up in my US business trips is for large factories or businesses to be located in small town USA when in Canada the city centers would be the normal place for those types of industry. The rural Canadian areas are much more reliant on resource harvesting and tourism. They often hold their nose about tourism in some cases as a necessary evil. They really don't want hordes coming to ruin it all.

I will say the absolute vastness of the US southwest made me realize there's a lot of territory to try to unit and it's a bigger job in the US with the sheer numbers and then the differences being boiled down to 2 major groups politically that have a real say.

In Canada we have 5 main political parties and then on the provincal level they can be pretty different from each other. Eventually we will end up with just 2 parties with enough elections but that will not be in my lifetime thankfully.

I think the biggest things for me are the terror of the US gun violence that just seems to be waiting around every corner depending on who you talk to or the need to gather arms to take on the government is a daily need. I've seen just a few packing weapons and I'm not sure I trust their ability to be a good guy if the need was to arise.

Unfortunately the mass shootings daily in the US are the few times a week reality and are pretty great for gun sales I suspect. Then followed by being bankrupted by US health insurance costs or a lack of it and being ill in the US system. The cost of drugs seems pretty insane too.

I'll take the feelings of mostly being safe in Canada but others would disagree with this much like many would say the same thing about violence in Mexico. Canadian Healthcare is slow but you won't be financially ruined by it yet.

Media is pretty different depending on your leanings. We can be pretty overpowered by the US media machine. Canadians can often know more general info than Americans about their own country and history at times. Canadians struggle to know more about Canadian history than US history.

The rage filled entertainment news of the US is not as common here but we get so much of a diet of US media our folks at times will parrot the same US talking points without realizing it doesn't apply to many Canadian situations. When the vaccine objectors started protesting, they were fighting for US constitutional rights within Canada. They didn't understand the right for Manitoba to join Canada wasn't the same right as the US's declarations.

Unfortunately these idiots have taken on flying Canadian flags all the time like our US cousins, becoming a hijack of our reserved flag waving as their identity. It's ruined the previous typical flag waving we would do for Canada day and sporting events. We are not at nationalist as our southern neighbours. The rest of us look at these idiots with disdain and do not want to be associated with them. It's almost at the same level as those that fly rebel flags in the US.

I've been fortunate to meet some wonderful people in Canada, Mexico, and the US. The geography of these countries can be quite stunning in areas without a doubt.

There are many differences but there are great similarites on a individual level. To paraphrase what George Carlin said, people individually can be fantastic but it's a problem when they start to group up and when it's 2 3 7 10 14 then you can start to get real problems.

Big differences.

Even regionally in the US. I’ve been in all 50 states, all the southern provinces in Canada and Nova Scotia, Mexico, all over the Caribbean (that’s not continental NA, but the islands are in the area), and Yucatán.

Canada is probably pretty close to how generically we view the US, things work similarly, however you can see facets of the social governance poking through in a lot of places you’d never see in the US. Housing, Union work rules, and I personally find the politeness a little on the rigid formal side compared to the US’s impersonal friendliness. Also, IMO Canadians have higher expectations and are a bit more rigid in public interaction and don’t mind telling you to GTFO of the way if you’re doing something like blocking a walkway. Not rudely at all, just move over please you’re blocking the path.

Mexico varies wildly IMO. Very much more regional. Some of the cities that have lots of manufacturing are pretty cool, lots of stuff to do and relatively inexpensive, modern. Go to some of the mountainous less traveled areas and you get a lot more poverty and run down areas. People are generally still super nice, but you definitely know they’re not too used to foreigners. Metro areas like Mexico City are wild. Big disparity on display, plenty of wealth, plenty of poverty. Every modern thing you could think of like any other city. One thing about being a white guy traveling is that I got heckled by sellers and panhandlers in touristy areas, and they can be straight up assholes.

Yucatán is much more dependent on tourist money. Plenty of nice people, plenty of people just want your $. More rural. I only visited the coast there. Too many all-inclusive resorts just there for getting people drunk and corralling them for $.

The Caribbean…a LOT of poverty. Especially places like Haiti/DR. I think American’s would be shocked at the poverty in their backyard if they actually thought about it. As always, people are people, and there are lots of good people, but I definitely experienced prejudice in the Caribbean. Not just “you’re a foreigner” different, but “we don’t like whitey” different. You get treated differently, you’re often just a mark for tourist $, and people can definitely let you know you don’t belong. Americans just treat the Caribbean like a giant Senior Frog’s, they just go to demand drinks, get drunk and lay around in the sun.

The US, funny enough, can be all of these things. We’ve got plenty of serious poverty, plenty of resorts, lots of touristy areas, etc. Any place that has lots of people coming and going is going to be pretty similar. Metro areas, burbs, and bedroom towns. Get out in the plains towns and more rural areas and you definitely stand out if you’re not local, and I’ve lost count on how many times I been asked a variant of “why are you here?” But it’s nicely worded like “what brings you to town?” West coast is more superficial, indifferent and generically friendly. South is very friendly and doesn’t understand why you don’t go to church or why you don’t live there. Heaven help you if you’re from a “yankee” state or someplace liberal. That might be met with only half-joking comments about your history.

Plains states…man, I felt hopeless in the rural areas. There’s a lot of almost toxic pride in being local, in farming, ranching, whatever. But that’s all there is for some people and it’s almost like Stockholm syndrome. They can’t leave, so there’s a resigned pride in their situation and you’d better agree with it. The ones that can get out, do. Get to the smaller towns in the north central part of the country (Montana and the like) and you might actually be met with some hostility depending what the situation is. They don’t want you moving there like the rich people that have taken over in places like Jackson Hole. All that said, most people are decent regardless of the situation.

PNW is pretty chill and indifferent. Big mix of deep rural and urban attitudes.

East coast? Know what you want, know where you’re going, or get the fuck out of the way. Not that people are necessarily rude, it’s just that they got shit to do and if you’re slowing them down they’ll let you know it. Never found anyone that wasn’t wouldn’t help out though if you needed directions or something. Unfortunately there can be a steep cultural divide between poverty and the rest of the financial classes and that comes out socially as well.

The more rural states reject the metro attitudes to the extreme (like Maine, NH, etc. or even rural NY) where they haven’t been overrun by metro weekenders or people trying to dodge higher taxes. Decent people, just kinda wary of you being a “Masshole” or something.

YMMV, kinda hard to sum up whole countries and regions in a Reddit post. Just my experiences.

I think yes we are all more similar than different but as you move north, there is less income inequality and better social services, less graft and corruption.

Supermarkets in the US are like nowhere else, they are incredible.

Well, both other countries have universal health care although usa has death mass shootings, Canada apparently has death panels and Mexico has death cartel violence? Also Mexico seems to be allowing migrants to wait at their border to apply for asylum because everyone knows that the usa caused most problems with refugees and asylum seekers here.