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[Hanslanda]

Also, my WTF of the day:

America has culture. o.O

It's always frustrated me how Americans are so egocentric and refuse to believe that many of these things aren't universal laws of reality.  Absolutely cannot conceive of life being different in other places.  Maybe that's just Indiana.  Things have gotten much better since the internet took off, but still...  it's a major pet peeve of mine.

I just thought America was bland and stole most of it's culture from other places. It turns out we're kind of unique-ish, in some ways.

For note, I didn't expect South Africans to eat Taco Bell and watch Family guy, or Japanese people to sit on chairs at a table for dinner. I understand that culture is different everywhere. I just didn't think we had one really.

[Flying Dice]

It can be sort of difficult to tell at times, because a fairly substantial portion of our culture (mostly the obvious, surface-level aspects like food and dress) are derived from our parent cultures. Put another way, a larger than normal part of our "original" culture is composed of preconceptions and ideals, rather than physical manifestations of culture. There is most certainly an American culture, but it's heavily tied into our history (and lack thereof), and isn't quite as easy to define, so a certain breed of net-goers use their usual tactic when faced with complexity and beat the same dead horse joke instead of thinking.

[misko27]

US interventions in Latin America, that depends. I could name a few. Taxis ARE driven by foreigners, but in my experiance they often know the city, or enough that it doesn't show. I thought Crisp bacon was personal preferance though.
 
There are regional things too though, in my area trains are absolutely depended upon for everyday life.

[Karlito]

The page seems kind of dated, like it was written in the 1990s (dead links to geocities pages?). A fair number of them (20-30%) didn't really apply to me, but I'm young and probably sort of counter-culture. In fact, I probably share more popular culture with internet using teens in other countries than I do with Americans in my parents' generation.

[Xantalos]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drFbCSk8Za4

[Karnewarrior]

The page seems kind of dated, like it was written in the 1990s (dead links to geocities pages?). A fair number of them (20-30%) didn't really apply to me, but I'm young and probably sort of counter-culture. In fact, I probably share more popular culture with internet using teens in other countries than I do with Americans in my parents' generation.

I think the whole world is sort of headed this way, a sort of fade-in of cultures that should help make it ever more peaceful.

I doubt war will stop but it's already slowed down and as we find more ways to communicate with people in other countries they should get less common and less lengthy as well.

Also I feel bad for any country that conquers America. They'd be gone within weeks.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Also I feel bad for any country that conquers America. They'd be gone within weeks.

We are America. Lower your tourism restrictions and surrender your culinary art. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.

...I only had to change the first two sentences of that....

[Karnewarrior]

Also I feel bad for any country that conquers America. They'd be gone within weeks.

We are America. Lower your tourism restrictions and surrender your culinary art. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.

...I only had to change the first two sentences of that....

Only one, the part about tourism and culinary arts.

America is the borg collective. We've assimilated most of humanities cultures and picked (mostly) the best bits. We are like the good guy borg if the good guy borg had bipolar disorder and had a inbred cousin. that they dated.

[Flying Dice]

Also I feel bad for any country that conquers America. They'd be gone within weeks.

We are America. Lower your tourism restrictions and surrender your culinary art. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.

...I only had to change the first two sentences of that....

Only one, the part about tourism and culinary arts.

America is the borg collective. We've assimilated most of humanities cultures and picked (mostly) the best bits. We are like the good guy borg if the good guy borg had bipolar disorder and had a inbred cousin. that they dated.

Borg that all look like Baron Harkonnen and invade tiny single-system polities while ignoring the Federation in the quadrant.

[Loud Whispers]

FULL VOLUME OR DEATH

Thank me later.

I was looking at Audie Murphy's Medal of Honor citation, and it has the following line in it- "The enemy tanks, losing infantry support, began to fall back." I know he's a bad-ass and all, but STILL.  How the hell do you kill enough enemy soldiers, by yourself, to make enemy tanks retreat? 
Also looking at some other soldiers.  Semo Hahai, who had entire airstrikes called down upon him, and took an explosive round to the FACE, some guy (Forgot his name) who managed to get at least several hundred Germans to surrender single handedly, and so on.

Simo Häyhä, and they were Russians, and he didn't get them to surrender - he killed them.

Ahhh, the Tarkin Attack. Works great on loads of protestors clogging up important landing sites.

Also, my WTF of the day:

America has culture. o.O

We're rapidly becoming the Are You A ... Empire here at Metaverse. Here's the latest counterpoint to my E-Z home test for Americans. You may want to contrast this one with the Scottish one. Justin is a lawyer, who does an odd bit of singing and other things musical on the side.

Oh ok

He believes he is the only person in England who actually likes the French.
--M.R.

Definitely American. Not to mention he's claiming things that we either invented ourselves or imported from other European countries first as American. The only thing American there on that list is American TV.

"You don't expect to hear socialism seriously defended, except by pensioners like Tony Benn and eccentrics like George Galloway."

What the fuck, NHS? It's all the outrage >:|

"University or college is subsidised by the State - the headline rate that students are required to pay is £3000 per year (even at Oxford and Cambridge), and there are special arrangements for those from genuinely poor families."

I suppose I can simply ignore all of this outdated misinformation then. Ah well, at least I can keep watching my American Game of Thrones. Shiggy.

I always seen it spelt Simo Hayha, but yes. Yes he is. Finland is a scary place. Full of scary people. Simo Hayha is the scariest person in a scary land filled with scary people.

Anyone that snipes without a scope in five foot deep snow against a regiment of counter-snipers in the dead of winter with snow in their mouth is a bad motherfucker. Anyone that survives this is the BADDEST motherfucker.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad

Read with popcorn and prepare for manly patriotism, tonight, we dine in communism!

But yeah seriously, if the allies let Russia occupy Germany after WWII there wouldn't be a Germany today. They really wanted some revenge.

[misko27]

I did a report on stalingrad once. Put quite simply, it was the bloodiest, worst damn battle in the entire war, and the turning point of the entirety of the eastern front.
 
To sum it up best, here is a German film on it:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6thQKSNBSo
 
There WAS no stalingrad after that battle. And Paulus became the highest ranking German officer of the entire war to surrender, against hitler's orders, no less.
 
Wait here, I have more stuff on this.
EDIT:
Last message sent from Paulus:” Troops without Ammunition or Food … Effective command no longer possible … 18,000 wounded without any supplies or dressings or drugs … Further defense senseless, Collapse inevitable. Army requests Permission to surrender in order to save lives of remaining troops” (italics added). Hitler's response was to make him a field marshal, with the expectation he would take his own life. He did not.

Of the 96,000 Germans who surrendered, only 5,000 were ever repatriated to germany.

[Siquo]

Definitely American. Not to mention he's claiming things that we either invented ourselves or imported from other European countries first as American. The only thing American there on that list is American TV.

Well, yeah, but that doesn't make it any less "cultural". If it's part of your culture, it's part of your culture. It's also quite possible that the US still has habits it took from another country, that the original country doesn't have any more, and even if they do, it's still part of their culture.

For instance, we (NL) had colonies, and quite a few Indonesian things (words, food) are now integrated into Dutch culture. (The site is a bit old, but the Netherlands is pretty much spot on for people my age (33))

[kisame12794]

Woah, when the fuck did I get 38 days logged in? Damn.

[Karnewarrior]

Woah, when the fuck did I get 38 days logged in? Damn.

71 days for me.

[The Merchant Of Menace]

221 and 6 hours for me.

* The Merchant Of Menace vanishes again.