• JungleJim@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    51
    ·
    1 year ago

    It’s exhausting having Europeans assume that because I live here I A) endorse everything about it with every fiber of my being and B) have no ability to conceptualize any other way of living at all, much less a better one than my current American lifestyle.

    It’s true we don’t have a quaint medieval village on an island, but we never had invading Huns or something force us to live on a postage stamp of land and make a quaint little village there.

    • qarbone@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Honestly. Am I missing something in the picture? It’s just a city? Am I supposed to be unable to comprehend a nice, coastal city?

    • qyron@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      You and I’ll even risk most of your close circle of friends and acquaintences might understand the teasing that comes with such a picture but would that be true to the average american?

      This is the picture of a high density populated area, where there are no roads for vehicles nor wide spaces. Streets are narrow and do not form straight angles. Construction is also very old.

      If I’m to try and emulate the level of idiocy I often encountered on the days of Reddit, the average american will spout “that’s a fire hazard, with no room for parking or moving around in your car and the roads don’t make any sense”.

      It’s good people like you exist. Now you only need 1000x those numbers to make a dent in the idiocy running that country.

      • millie@lemmy.film
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        You’re literally asking for the ‘average’ of a country containing everything from desert to tundra to a variety of types of forest and just about every biome in between. We’ve got political situations ranging from state endorsed persecution and torture of minorities on the one hand to policies that are at times to the left of the European mainstream on the other.

        You might as well compare Norway and Turkey as Massachusetts and Texas. In the latter case they share a federal government, but both also ignore that government when it suits them. Like, look at the confusing legal situation around marijuana in the US. It’s legal in more and more states, but it’s federally illegal. So like, technically it’s federally illegal in states where it’s legal, but we just ignore that for most purposes. It does mean that dispensaries largely have to operate with cash, though.

        In Massachusetts it’s even weirder. We have a ballot initiative process, so the people can make new laws by making a big enough petition and putting it on the next election ballot. That’s how we passed decriminalization, then medical, then legalization. No Massachusetts politician really took up the issue and endorsed it, we just voted it in. Which forced our state law makers to basically ignore the federal prohibition.

        You could also expect to see this happen in Massachusetts if, for example, abortion were federally criminalized. We already ignore other states’ laws about things like family planning and immigration.

        The US really isn’t a monolith legally or culturally.

        • wowbagger@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          everything from desert to tundra to a variety of types of forest and just about every biome in between.

          I’m pretty sure you can find all those things just in the state of California. Meanwhile Croatia, where this photo was taken, has about the same land area as West Virginia.

  • anarchrist@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    28
    ·
    1 year ago

    Also we Americans are pretty good at paving every square inch inch of an island. We did Manhattan and are working on doing Long Island.

    • qyron@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      1 year ago

      You also just demolish everything every now and then because old is not the american way, while this side of the ocean tends to constantly maintain and improve on what already exists.

      Glass towers tend to make a boring landscape.

      • millie@lemmy.film
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        1 year ago

        Huh? I mean buildings get condemned or rebuilt sometimes, but talk like that tells me you haven’t been to Boston or New York.

        • qyron@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          I was commenting based on several documentaries on the US I’ve watched, where it was covered the building habits in the country.

          I’m aware you have older cities but the trend is to tear down and build over, new and bigger.

          • Cosmonauticus@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            Which isn’t a bad thing. Everything doesn’t have historical significance and sometimes new = improved.
            For example I’d argue the USA is much more infrastructure friendly to the disabled because of it.

    • Knightfox@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Because it is! Looking online it looks like prices in this area are around €250k for a 400-600 sqft apartment. It looks like land just outside of this area goes for ~€200k for 0.2 acres, houses go for around €500k - 1.5mil, and townhomes go for around €200k. Rents in the area are fairly affordable at ~€475 per month (one bedroom city center) but the average salary is only ~€950 per month. Also the population is only ~15k.

      The person who made the post in the image is comparing apples to oranges. My small-ish US town has a population of 10k and you can get 3 acres of land and a 2000 sq ft house for $250k. Gas station and grocery store are 10 min down the road by car. The average monthly wage is $3400 in this town.

      Basically, the average person in the pictured town would need 22 years of their full salary to pay for a townhome while the average person in my town only needs 6 years of their full salary. The American mind may not be able to comprehend this picture, but it’s not like most Croatians can live there either.

        • Knightfox@lemmy.one
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          I mean, Rovinj is as much the sticks as my town, it’s just old and on the water. There’s almost nothing there and it’s only popular as a tourist destination. According to Wikipedia cars are the primary form of transportation outside the area in this picture and it’s quite far from anything else. Also according to wikipedia much of the small businesses in this area shut down in the off season since it’s mostly a beach tourist area. The closest major city is Pula (population 52k) which is 45 min from Rovinj. In comparison the largest city in my state is 25 min away and it alone has 20% of the population of the entire country of Croatia. All that said and living in old town Rovinj is less attainable to Croatians than my example is to Americans living in my area.

        • Knightfox@lemmy.one
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Care to elaborate? I listed the average wage for the city in my original post and the average wage for all of Croatia isn’t much more (about €1100/month). Spending 40-50% of your pre-tax income to rent 400 sqft doesn’t seem like a great deal to me.

  • Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    The only responsible response to marble statue twitter is a swift unapologetic block. The next best thing is to completely clown on them.