for me it's the whole "don't tread on me" and gun culture rhetoric. Americans seem to be "don't push me" but when they actually get pushed they're all "uWu please more daddy" it's odd.
this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2025
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I can explain this one. Growing up in America, you're constantly told that you're a patriot simply because you were born here—like just existing in the same country where Jefferson, Franklin, and Washington lived 250 years ago somehow makes you part of their legacy. It's pushed on you so early and so hard that you don't even question it. You just go to school, and the first thing you do is stand and pledge allegiance to the state—together, as a group. It’s ritualistic. It functions like a cult mechanism. That’s how it gets ingrained.
Most Americans do not have an understanding that they are being tread on.
Operation Northwoods
That it spreads globally even though everybody else looks down on it and calls Americans dumb. It makes sense considering that it's the most consumer oriented but it's still weird.
- Gun culture
- Making houses out of wood. To me, someone from a country where houses are made of brick, this is like living in a shed. Also, the USA is the hotspot of tornadoes, so it makes even less sense
- One of the richest countries in the world, and universal healthcare isn't a thing
Making houses out of wood.
This is fine. Lumber was historically plentiful in North America, and lumber houses last just as long as stone or brick.
Lumber has several advantages over stone/concrete/brick:
- Less CO2 impact from construction activities. Concrete production is a huge contributor to atmospheric CO2.
- Greater sustainability in general. Concrete is approaching a global sand shortage, because most sand in the world doesn't have the right qualities to be included in concrete.
- Better energy efficiency and insulation properties. Brick homes need double walls in order to compete with the insulation properties of a wood framed house that naturally has voids that can be filled with insulation.
- Better resilience against seismic events and vibrations (including nearby construction). The west coast has frequent earthquakes, and complying with seismic building code with stone/masonry requires it to be reinforced with steel. The state of Utah, where trees and lumber are not as plentiful as most other parts of North America, and where seismic activity happens, has been replacing unreinforced masonry for 50+ years now.
- Easier repair. If a concrete foundation cracks, that's easier to contain and mitigate in a wood-framed house than a building with load-bearing concrete or masonry.
Some Northern European and North American builders are developing large scale timber buildings, including timber skyscrapers. The structural engineers and safety engineers have mostly figured out how to engineer those buildings to be safe against fire and tornadoes.
It's not inherently better or worse. It's just different.
You should know that this is the most batshit insane, america-centric, absolutely wrong thing I've ever seen someone pull off in a context like this.
and lumber houses last just as long as stone or brick.
Just because you say it like it's true doesn't mean it's true! That must be hard for you to understand, though. Do you think other countries are just casting their houses wholesale out of concrete? I love this way you see the world, it's super simple and avoids learning anything useful.
You're commenting from a .nl instance and aren't aware of the 400+ year old timber buildings in the Netherlands, or the fact that there's a current project to build the tallest timber skyscraper in the world in Eindhoven?
A brick home wouldn’t withstand a tornado either. Like if a tree hits a brick house it would do significant damage to the house. And most brick houses still have a timber roof under the roof tiles so even a small tornado could lift the roof off the house.
Here is a brick house hit by a small tornado in England
Reinforced concrete is a much better material for a hurricane and tornado resistant building. Also shape of the house is important. A dome would be the best.
Living here, I will tell you that the insistence on building houses in a neo-colonial style in tornado alley, hurricane prone areas, or in a middle of a yearly flood plane, baffles me. We should have completely different architectural styles adpated to withstand the elements at this point. You know, what housing is supposed to be for in the first place? /rant
As always it comes down to $$$.
I live in Florida, our building codes didn't tighten up until hurricanes cost everyone everything, and now Miami Dade in particular has some of the strictest building code in the US.
Well, that's at least some improvement. Still, I hate that situation for you guys - nobody should have their life swept away like that.
A wood-framed house isn't necessarily weaker than a brick house.
Wood is pliable and doesn't suddenly crumble and collapse when it's stressed. And it weighs WAY less when it does fail.
If you're in a tornado or earthquake, would you rather be trapped beneath 120 pounds of sheetrock, insulation, and shingles or a 2 tons of broken, jagged rock?
I've heard ICF (insulated concrete foam) construction is pretty durable.
Yeah, as I live in a very geologically active area, I'd rather not be crushed by 3 tons of brick falling in on me from the slightest earthquake. I'll take my wobbly wooden house.
1 ton of tree feels a lot like 3 tons of brick.
Next week on Mythbusters, we crush Jamie with tons of various materials. You won't want to miss it!
Sigh. Where to start...?
and I'm American
From my outside perspective, it's the pledge of allegiance.
Do you really have your kids stand up every morning and swear an oath to your flag? That's some real cult shit.
I had a teacher in elementary school that taught us that when a flag falls on the floor, you’re supposed to kiss it.
Yes, seriously.
It was just part of the normal flag-worship we were ~~taught~~ brainwashed with.
I was taught that if a flag falls on the floor you are supposed to burn it.
That is "flag law" but you also aren't allowed to display the flag on a T-shirts, in any disrespectful manner, or a fuckin pick up truck and yet. here we are...
Nothing could be more American than that pledge: it was something that was first propagated by a flag company that was trying to sell more flags.
"In 1891, Daniel Sharp Ford, the owner of the Youth's Companion, hired Bellamy to work with Ford's nephew James B. Upham in the magazine's premium department. In 1888, the Youth's Companion had begun a campaign to sell US flags to public schools as a premium to solicit subscriptions. For Upham and Bellamy, the flag promotion was more than merely a business move; under their influence, the Youth's Companion became a fervent supporter of the schoolhouse flag movement, which aimed to place a flag above every school in the nation. Four years later, by 1892, the magazine had sold US flags to approximately 26,000 schools. By this time the market was slowing for flags but was not yet saturated."
And then berate them for thinking that the ideals espoused in that pledge are real in any way.
First thing that comes to mind for me is the huge number of people who are religious fanatics here, which is unusual for a Western country. This is also a big part of what led us to the fascist government we have today.
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