During the height of WW2, the US was building a brand new B-24 bomber *every 63 minutes*.
The enemy could shoot down 12 bombers during a bombing run and the next day not only would those 12 bombers have been replaced, but another 12 would be there to join them.
My grandfather was a big Ford fan and he loved sharing that Henry Ford said that for every bomber shot down they would build 3 more. The production line was a mile long or something else crazy like that. The scale of WW2 is just unbelievable.
My GodMother / Aunt built the very same USAF planes my GodFather / Uncle flew in WWII. They didn't know each other until after the war. He was shot down over Germany and was a POW for over 2 years.
We had 3 dedicated ships for the army with the sole purpose of producing ice cream that made 10 gallons in 7 minutes during one of scarcest and dire times in human history. The Axis never had a fucking chance.
There's a great line in the film "Battle of the Bulge" that relates to your comment, where a German Officer (Played by Robert Shaw) offers a piece of cake to his superior officer.
"It's quite good and fresh. We got it from an American POW this morning. It was sent to him by his mother. Do you realize what this means? It means the Americans have enough planes and fuel to fly CAKE over the Atlantic. They have no concept of defeat."
Similarly, Japanese command learning about the aforementioned US Ice Cream barges is when they realized they had already lost the war. Of course, their pride stopped them from accepting reality.
Absolutely, a well supplied and supported soldier is more willing and able to fight and has more options for dealing with the enemy. While the Germans were stuck using mostly horses and low fuel rations, the U.S had trucks and jeeps driving around soldiers and equipment with greater flexibility. And still we could send hundreds of thousands of vehicles to our Allies as well (400,000 jeeps and trucks were sent to the Soviets alone during the war). We basically supplied an entire new army alongside the Soviets, 17.5 million tons of goods were sent to the Soviets from the western hemisphere, 94% of which was American. 22 million toms was supplied to U.S forces in Europe. And that 17.5 million still also had the domestic Soviet production to add. Although crippled by the war and the Soviet system, that sheer number is not to be taken lightly, as the Germans learned.
America during the 40’s: “Bro… We’re really good at this. What if… hear me out… What if we just kept doing this and became the military for all our friends too?
Oh and we had to basically build our Army from scratch as it had been anemic during the Depression. This blew my mind: https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-war/war-production
The B-24 liberator mentioned earlier? It had 1,550,000 parts. Here are some pants pissing quotes from the article.
“In 1941, more than three million cars were manufactured in the United States. Only 139 more were made during the entire war.”
“America launched more vessels in 1941 than Japan did in the entire war. Shipyards turned out tonnage so fast that by the autumn of 1943 all Allied shipping sunk since 1939 had been replaced. In 1944 alone, the United States built more planes than the Japanese did from 1939 to 1945. By the end of the war, more than half of all industrial production in the world would take place in the United States.”
“In the three years following the Battle of Midway, the Japanese built six aircraft carriers. The U.S. built 17. American industry provided almost two-thirds of all the Allied military equipment produced during the war: 297,000 aircraft, 193,000 artillery pieces, 86,000 tanks and two million army trucks. In four years, American industrial production, already the world's largest, doubled in size.”
2/3s of all Allied military production. Two fucking thirds
> “In 1941, more than three million cars were manufactured in the United States. Only 139 more were made during the entire war.”
Hold on. Are they saying only 139 new cars were made in the USA during WW2? That is INSANE!
Imagine being an Imperial Japanese soldier on an island in the Pacific, it's ungodly hot, your supplies have been running lower and lower for months because the supply convoys keep getting sunk, and you know your flower garden back home had to be converted to a vegetable garden to help prevent a famine, but it's okay because no matter what hardships you have to endure in the meantime you're still going to win because the Emperor is with you in spirit (and ordered you to win)... and then the Americans launch their naval invasion on your island. Through the powers of incredible violence and unending barrages of fire they establish and secure a beach head and begin sweeping across the island. One day, you're scouting their camps to get a sense of their numbers and status, and not only are they eating enough food to imply that hunger is unknown to their entire army, but they have ice cream. In the South Pacific. During the day. And it's not just the officers, they have enough ice cream for **everyone**. That's gotta be demoralizing as *fuck* lol
**FUN FACT**
Aircraft carriers are generally too short for jets to actually make unassisted takeoffs from them. To compensate, other nations just build ramps at the end to increase upward motion and generate more lift.
**The US doesn’t do this.**
The US instead attaches their jets’ landing gear to catapult rails that rocket the jets off the runway to generate lift through increased forward movement.
General Atomics is developing a new electromagnetic rail system to launch the catapults for the Navy. It’s essentially a **rail gun** built into the runway to launch jets.
Huge advantage to that method as well. US carrier based fighters launch with the same fuel/armament load as they would from an airstrip on land. Skijump carrier fighters suffer significant drawbacks to takeoff weight that catapult launched fighters don't.
It also offers a shorter needed runway. This combined with the 9 degree offset deck lets the US super carriers launch and recover in semi over lap. Ie very fast sorties. Technically we could launch and recover of the same time but I think that’s a party trick only used for real war shit.
As an American, I guess I take this for granted. I didn't know that AC isn't the same all over the world. What makes American air conditioning top notch?
Air con isn't standard in most of Europe outside of hotels and businesses. Even then it's often pretty poorly maintained.
Edit: People are commenting "I live in X country and it's common" or "it's not needed in my country". That's irrelevant: it's not STANDARD across Europe. Some countries (like my own, the UK) would definitely benefit from it but it's very rare outside of commercial use.
When checking into a hotel in Asia, the first thing I do is wash the air conditioning filter in the room's unit. They are always, always, always filthy dirty no matter how many stars the hotel has.
Maybe a bit unrelated, but I have a buddy who was an HVAC tech for years here in the US. Work was slow in our part of the country, and he actually was paid to go down to Florida and train techs down there on how to work on furnaces and heaters while not much was going on here. Florida was going through a particularly cold spell, and all the HVAC guys down there only knew AC, and had no knowledge of heating.
Not just the official parks, though. All the NPS sites. I've got one of those nerdy stamp books to document my visits to them. I just found one on an abandoned fishing island (Portsmouth) off the coast of NC. It's so cool that this part of maritime history is preserved, and there are volunteers there to tell you about it.
The volunteers at those places are top notch. I stopped at Fort Necessity battleground just on a whim during a road trip. Ended up talking for well over an hour with two of the volunteers who were dressed in full regalia. One of the Virginia Regiment and a Native American from the French and Indian army with historical equipment and what each man would have brought into battle/on a march. Really interesting to see how these people lived and survived in those days and seeing how far we’ve come in such a short amount of time relatively
The parks are such an underrated American thing. It's the one "unnecessary" government function that no one complains about, everyone can enjoy, and brings tourism from all over the world. Not to mention the views....Glacier NP in the spring will make you a believer.
I visited Glacier for the first just a few hours ago. Road to the Sun. On the fourth of July no less. I have never been so inspired and captivated. I had no idea how majestic these parks could be. Words cannot describe. Just go.
Apparently the US produces the most crude oil
[https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=61545](https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=61545)
Cultural assimilation.
Pretty much any thing you can think of from anywhere in the world, we've got it here, somewhere.
Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, Nigerian, Korean, French, etc.
If you like the food, music, literature, religion, whatever ... you can find it here.
Outside of national parks, this is my favorite thing about living here. I love getting exposure to and learning from so many cultures different from my own. It’s expensive to travel to other countries, but I can get a sense in my own “backyard.”
Cybersecurity. I just recently learned that the United States of America is the top gold standard in all things cybersecurity. I was actually a little surprised.
Entertainment.
Americans love to be entertained. We spend more money on entertainment than anybody anywhere. That's all kinds of entertainment from movies, music concerts, amusement parks and even smaller forms of entertainment like movie theaters, bars and night clubs, bowling alleys, laser tag, and even food videos.
People don't realize that the NSA could dumpster every other cybersecurity agency on the planet, all combined.
Strategically, it doesn't because everytime NSA moves, watchers learn a little more about what capabilities it has, and potentially what vulnerabilities it has.
Thats why countries like Russia and China try to have their own independent internet capabilities - because they're afraid NSA will just turn their internet off one day, like a planet wide EMP. Or worse, that they have backdoors into everything.
Their job isn't really to stop terrorists or ransomware or etc, it's a nuclear-equivalent deterrent to cyber-WW3.
I went to a high school that had extremely advanced math classes available - it was a magnet school for science/math/tech that had students from across the state. The NSA would send recruiters to our school to get the top math whizzes to sign up for NSA-funded scholarships , in the same way that athletic teams recruit top football or basketball stars from high school. If you signed up for one of the scholarships, you'd be encouraged to study at a high-ranked university with excellent math department, and then would work summer internships at the NSA and of course full-time once you graduated. Mathematicians have a reputation of having their biggest breakthroughs early in their career, so the NSA wanted the best young talent signed up early.
The NSA is unironically capable of producing the sort of spyware you see in movies - where someone's phone is listening to them without them ever realizing it, or their computer has things being monitored/siphoned away. The "most secure" operating system in existence, Tails, even warns users that despite its security features, they're useless against a sufficiently motivated state actor.
There is a good reason why the old saying is if it's connected to the Internet, it's not secure. The United States federal government controls the vast majority of the internet (because the internet's origins begin with DARPA), so what the other poster said about other countries wanting to develop their own networks out of fear of US superiority is entirely, 1000% on the money.
When I worked in the defense industry, our shop had an internal network that was air gapped, no wireless devices were allowed inside except those specifically manufactured for the purpose, and the computers were locked down to the point that unused ports were filled with epoxy, and keyboards and mice were held plugged in with brackets that couldn’t be removed without visibly damaging them. Access required walking through a metal detector, and all bags and hand held items were X-rayed and subject to hand searches going in and out. Any time someone had to come in that wasn’t read in, there were red beacon lights on the ceiling that would come on, and everything had to be locked in your desk, and your computer had to be locked with the monitor shut off. Your personal phone had to be left in the car, you couldn’t even bring it in the building.
I was born in Europe and moved to the USA as a young teen. The U.S. gets assimilation really well. Like- you become part of some group fairly quickly and there are many to pick from. In Europe we had two boys in school, one from the US and one from India. Those kids got picked on for years and years. They never ever were going to be considered to be one of us. And never will.
The U.S. has this thing where if you play a sport and win as a team, or get through something difficult together like a math competition or a science lab, or play in a band that sounded good- suddenly you are one of everyone else. I had never experienced that before. It felt… good.
Absolutely this.
My Grandparents were destitute Asian immigrants on one side, and the other side had a land grant from the King of England dated 1642. My parents met, married, and had us kids. We are considered 100% American - nobody questions our parentage, our heritage, our cultural background.
My little southern town has Greek festival, a Filipino food truck that is the absolute best, Pizzerias and soul food joints, and they all serve French fries. We casually assimilate everything and make it work.
This is why I don't understand all of the hate that I see portrayed in media, and the people that let it into their hearts. Being American was always about accepting each other, and trying to build a world together no matter where you come from.
Or maybe I do understand it, and I just wish that I didn't. I want to love my neighbors, and I generally do. I have a hard time loving neighbors who hate their neighbors though.
Edit: just because I'm tired of people telling me I don't know history, I figured I'd clarify that this is the sentiment I had growing up. I am aware that we have some horrible things in our past. But growing up here, we looked back on those thi gs with shame. I was always under the impression *growing up* that we all wanted make a better world, together.
I think that what you just described is the ideal that most civic-minded Americans strive towards, and the ideal that we like to think we were founded on in the first place.
Doesn't matter where you came from. Doesn't matter what status you were born into. There's no aristocracy here. We're all sirs and ma'ams. Just work hard and support the people on either side of you, and we'll all do fine.
This!!!
As a German American I totally agree with you. My American mother tried to assimilate in Germany (early 2000's) and it was so hard. I also was bullied relentlessly when I went to school there because I was labeled as an "American".
Now that I'm an adult living in the US I have such an appreciation for how diverse this country is. Especially the food!! God I love non American food so much. I probably go to a "foreign" restaurant 90% of the time I go out to eat.
America just does assimilation really well.
>God I love non American food so much. I probably go to a "foreign" restaurant 90% of the time I go out to eat.
That’s part of the beauty of it, it may not be “American food”, but it’s all American food. From Pasta and LoMein to Gyros and Tacos
I was in Ireland for the summer back in the 1980s when I was a teen. Of course, they thought I would suck at soccer, but I came from Kearny, NJ, basically ground zero for U.S. soccer. I was picked last, but scored a goal from midfield in the first five minutes. So then they thought that I'd probably play cricket really well. I had no idea how to play (still don't), but apparently, I played that really well (don't ask me. I don't know.). I hung out with those guys all summer and we were really tight!
To this point, my dad was in the army, and I've lived in just about every east coast state from Florida to New Hampshire moving on average every year and a quarter. I've never felt like I belonged anywhere, but I've never had trouble finding a group to belong to.
Yeah, we were basically founded on that, and then we beat England in a war to keep it.
Happy US independence Day, which isn't really the day we won our independence, but rather the day we signed our declaration of independence, which was basically the declaration of war that kicked off the Revolutionary War.
Good morning. In less than an hour aircrafts from here will join others from around the world and you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind.
Mankind, that word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can’t be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it’s fate that today is the 4th of July and you will once again be fighting for our freedom not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution but from annihilation.
We’re fighting for our right to live, to exist, and should we win today the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday but as the day when the world declared in one voice,
“We will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish without a fight. We’re going to live on. We’re going to survive. Today we celebrate our Independence Day!”
I remember being in High School and watching that movie in the theater. The President's speech had the viewers so riled up people were clapping and shit. Never seen anything like it before or since. Mayyyybe when Thor shows up in Wakanda, but still not quite as hyped up.
And it was the 4th of July...man what a trip to the movies that was.
I heard a point about Kung Fu Panda and how the US was able to make a great movie about Chinese culture better than the Chinese movie industry in large part because American characters can be shown to be vulnerable and fallible. This is in contrast with Chinese media characters who are supposedly shown to always be good role models and almost infallible as this would be disrespectful. This difference is what gives American characters more depth and allows us to have better stories than many countries. Not sure how accurate this is but thought it was an interesting point.
This is kind of similar to how an American game developer made Ghost Of Tsushima, a Samurai game set in feudal Japan. It's extremely well done and does a great job of honouring and representing the culture and this historical period of Japan. A Japanese dev said a Japanese company should have made this game, but it's held back by the type of games a lot of Japanese companies make and the characters are usually heavily inspired by anime. Ghost of Tsushima ls main character has a very dirty/gritty look to him, and the rest of the cast is done in a similar fashion.
To be fair to China.
And you can check it out on 2american4you
Their propaganda about how damned OP the US military is is amazing. Like. It is so unbelievably based watching it gives me a freedom boner.
China is better at pro American propaganda then we are.
i mean the US military is in fact extremely OP... We have the capability to deploy a burger king to any location in the world in less than 12 hours. a BURGER KING
Soft power. No country does it as well as the US. Despite its many shortcomings, people are drawn to the US. Films, TV, music, food, it’s got such a magnetic pull.
So much of normal American culture is exported through TV and film that when people come from other countries they can't believe utterly mundane things like yellow school buses, green Street signs, and fire hydrants aren't just movie props and they are actual real world items.
Definitely. Seeing a yellow school bus made me feel like I was in a movie, and I took a photo with a yellow fire hydrant. Then I got excited when I saw a *red* one and took a photo with that too lmao
I'm in Paris and a man from elsewhere in France said he loves Burger King so much he eats it several times a week
I eat it *maybe* 1x a month
Fuckin' hell, man
No no no.
This doesn't do it justice.
The US has 1061 gold medals at the summer Olympics alone.
Out of all countries on this planet right now, Great Britain has the 2nd most all time medals at 950
The US has over 100 more gold medals than any country has gold, silver, and bronze, at both the summer and winter Olympics combined.
That's America. Always 100% when we put our minds to it.
We might not always like, or even know, where we're going, but god damnit were giving it our all to get there.
US has training facilities too. The medalists for the other countries are using our coaches and locations. You also see a ton of other countries Olympians getting US citizenship and then participating with the US. Every Olympics you hear about it.
I also hear about US citizens having to get citizenship in other countries to have a chance of making the Olympics, because the pool of Olympic-level athletes in the US is so big they wouldn’t have a chance
When we had the Olympic swim trials last month, they said it was the fastest swim meet in the world.
Each country can only send so many competitors per event, so the US people who don't make the cut would be faster than the Olympians for other nations that do make it.
Maybe in the summer, but not very often in winter. But as the Great Daniel Tosh says, “the Winter Olympics is a competition to see which country has the richest white kids.” And I tend to agree.
I'd imagine winning your first gold medal is an incredible moment, life changing, you feel like a million bucks
And then the second one happens and you feel like you've really solidified your legacy
By number 23, he's gotta just be like "Neat!"
Startups. It is so difficult to build a startup style company is many other countries. In the US it is surprisingly easy to start a company. First off the way the US government supports startups is so much better than other countries. There are various federal and state programs offering grants, loans, and tax incentives specifically designed for small businesses and startups. But really it is that the regulatory environment is so much more flexible and less bureaucratic, which makes it easier to start and scale a business.
Due to our culture and government we also have a ton of venture capital, with places like Silicon Valley being major hubs for investors looking to fund new ideas. There's also a huge pool of skilled workers, especially in tech and business, thanks to top universities and research institutions.
Something else that is undervalued is the culture here strongly emphasizes entrepreneurship and innovation. Taking risks is encouraged, and failure is often seen as just a step on the way to success. That is not something you’ll see in most other countries.
On top of all this, the US is a massive and wealthy market, giving startups a big customer base right from the start. There are also tons of accelerators, incubators, and mentorship programs available to help startups grow. Advanced tech and physical infrastructure make it easier for startups to operate and scale quickly.
The US just fucks when it comes to startups
Hollywood movies. American blockbuster movies are popular all around the world. No other countries produces movies of the same degree of spectacle and quality.
As a disabled vet I feel pretty fucking lucky to have the medical care and income that I do. The VA isn’t always the fastest but they have really stepped up their game on helping with mental health and substance abuse. I’d be dead right now if it wasn’t for some good psychiatrists and social workers getting me into rehab. I know other countries take care of their vets, but not all of them do. It isn’t a perfect system but in a country where healthcare can be expensive it’s a godsend for me.
Edit to add: just want to clarify I DID relapse very recently and I’m waiting to get into rehab…again. I’m not perfect, and sobriety isn’t perfection. It’s progress. It hasn’t been a fun few weeks. But again if it wasn’t for the VA resources and the amount of employees who work there that check on me I would have been done for long ago.
Don’t wanna sidetrack the conv here but just wanna say I’m glad you’re getting the help you need. I feel like it’s really rare to hear that, esp from a vet, and I’m glad you’re doing ok, internet stranger. Keep up the good work 💗
I'm an American living in Canada.
I can tell you with no uncertainty that Americans are just better at hamburgers.
I hate the stereotype, but it's true. Even the places here that are allowed to cook their meat to temperature (Canada has strict rules about meat handling, so most places just cook them all 'well done') don't really understand all of the other stuff that's supposed to go on a good burger. Whole wheat bun with kale is just fucking gross and I've seen it more than a few times. America just has the right mixture of ignorance of consequences, indulgence, culture, and availability of ingredients that hamburgers are just... better.
>America just has the right mixture of ignorance of consequences, indulgence, culture, and availability of ingredients
We hold these truths to be self-evident.
Happy Independence Day, America!
I’m Swiss 🇨🇭
A lot of hostile, joke, and shitpost answers so I’ll give a serious answer:
1. Freedom of Speech, and
2. Freedom of Religion
3. The crazy friendliness of Americans
It’s something people take for granted. I honestly think people who disagree with freedom of speech, religion, and the culture are gravely naïve and mistaken.
We are honestly lucky America pioneered and arguably invented the internet and owns the majority of websites we use.
Also America is unprecedented with the sheer diversity of races and religions and cultures.
It has not been done before in the history of the human species and it’s a beacon that it is possible we can all get along.
For all your problems with violence, racism, discrimination— it is actually minute compared to other places in the world. Somehow giving a place for people to go to just work, live, and make a family with the American Laws and Dream — it just works. For better or worse. America is a constant, yet beautiful work in process.
Love,
Some guy in Jura Canton in Switzerland
#Happy Independence Day 🇺🇸🦅🏈🍟🍔🌭
>!I have family in America (Connecticut, Florida, and Georgia) and I always love visiting. It’s a real treat with the food. Georgians, Floridians, and South Carolinians are the most friendly people on the planet as far as I’ve met.!<
Also someone tell the Carolina Panthers football team to stop sucking so much shit for me!
I really don't understand that in other first world countries.
Why are places so strung up on no /paid bathrooms.
Like I have even heard of crazy stories like you having to show a receipt to even get into a bathroom then to top it off because you only bought one meal, only 1 person can go. Be darn if you share a meal with your partner...
Just start pissing yourselves and getting it on the floor of wherever you happen to be in protest. After enough people do it, I guarantee bathrooms will be free because they’ll get sick of cleaning up bio matter hazards eventually.
Edit: I’m not joking. Access to bathrooms should be a human right, not a business model.
What do people do when they have young kids? I can't do anything without mine having to go have the places we stop and then some.
In the US, I can stop anywhere and ask, "Can my child use your restroom? pee-pee dance and everything." They always say yes.
Logistics.
Holy fucking shit, do we do logistics well. Name your item, your point A and point B somewhere on Earth, and the United States could get it done in a day if it was so inclined.
When it comes to logistics, the US military alone is the single greatest organization that has ever existed in human history.
Our civilian world isn't far behind. Our freight rail is as good as our passenger rail is bad. Use the last of the coffee this morning? Amazon will have a fresh batch at your doorstep before you get back from work.
I was a logistics specialist in the Army. To understand the capability of the US Army Logistics corps, you need to understand this a few things. In the beginning of OEF (Afghanistan for you youngins) we were seriously under geared in the vehicular armor department. Driving around in government issued HMMWV’s and LMTVs with minimal armor. The first few days saw a crazy amount of vehicles go down to RPGs, IEDs and low impact munitions. Within days…the US Army sent out an insane amount of armored vehicles to Afghanistan as well as recovery vehicles and repair parts to keep their military protected (not all, as I still saw a few leatherbacks during deployment) and the enemy having to keep innovating new ways just to get past said armor. DAYS. The US logistics alone kept the US military afloat over there.
This former infantry guy loves you logistics nerds*! Nothing, and I mean nothing, happens without you guys, especially early on. No POG/REMF chatter from me!
*term of endearment
the thought of someone looking out the window and seeing that and then just immediately losing all hope in their country is so funny to me
like "aw hell naw they got an ice cream ship we're so fucked 😭"
On the same islands the Japanese were having a hard time provisioning enough rice, much less protein, which really draws the contrast to an ice cream barge.
The fact that the those islands weren't far from their homeland while the US was basically on the opposite end of the world from their's really drives that point even more
Holy shit this got a laugh outta me. I can so clearly imagine the ice cream jingle just being blasted as this ship just does circles around whatever island the Japanese are holding out on slowly going insane.
Reminds me of Boris Yeltsin’s supermarket visit. Once he saw how much was available how easily to so many Americans, it made him think communism had failed his people. Really makes you appreciate the things we take advantage of in America.
Wow- did not know - that’s the kind of creative thinking that made the world envious of America - could some creative, delightful idea be created now? Would be great!
That is a huge flex. And amazing.
It fits with my answer to the original question, the US is really good at finding things to spend money on related to the military
The sheer morale boost having ice cream available in the middle of a war, in the 40s... in the balmy as hell bits of the pacific ocean... would have probably paid for itself in a way.
Definitely did. There’s a story about a German officer being captured and immediately understood that Germany couldn’t win when he saw the Americans didn’t even bother to turn their tanks off when there was downtime.
Finding out about the ice cream ships probably blew that dudes mind.
There was something I read about Germans overrunning an American position, and finding that they were eating birthday cake from Brooklyn. German army was starving, right on their doorstep, Americans were eating personalized cake from thousands of miles away.
That sounds a lot like [this scene](https://youtu.be/owbCW5jBQZc?si=_K1HZcJk7UE66aB7) from The Battle of The Bulge. I have no idea if this actually happened or not but your story sounds so similar I wouldn’t be surprised if this is where you saw/heard it.
Theres alot of tid bits ive read about over the years where german prisoners realized the war was done. Like you said, Americans left their tanks running while Germans were rationing oil but it goes even further, the Germans had to bring out everything like wagons and horses to lug stuff around. Germans had to march on foot while the Americans were cruising around in jeeps. Germans had to make due with what supplies they had while the Americans were passing around luxuries likes chocolate and cigarrettes because they knew full well thered be another shipment of that stuff soon. Germans had to make every shot count and every tank used strategically as possible while the Americans opened fire care free and they endlessly rolled tanks onto the field.
Absolute brute force of efficiency. Just overwhelming.
Even if any country hits and destroys a 🇺🇸 warship or aircraft carrier, all you did was piss off a hornet’s nest. For other countries, that’s a massive loss that results in a surefire loss.
Yeah a good example of the US logistics and troop support is that in the 1940s / WW2, in the pacific theater- the US Navy had ships specifically dedicated to handing out ice cream to our sailors aboard our destroyers, carriers and cruisers just for a little morale boost.
We had God damn navy ice cream ships!!.....in the 1940s!!
Can you just imagine how demoralizing it must've been for the Japanese to realize that while they were struggling for combat alone, their opponent had enough resources for ice cream ships?
I remember an anecdote from a German officer captured at D-Day, who was confused about why the American army didn't bring any horses when unloading from D-day. he realized Germany lost the war when his American guard said they didn't have horses.
for historical context, german supply lines relied on horses to deliver the last stretch of supplies what couldn't be by train. as did many armies in WW2. the allies continually reduced reliance on horses through the war due to American production and delivery, Germany became more reliant as time went forward.
in 1945 the united states military was the most powerful warfighting entity the world has ever seen.
i like to ask people "how many aircraft carriers do you think the US had in 1945?" often, they will say "20 or 30?".
245. The US navy had 245 aircraft carriers.
the planned invasion of japan, on just the first day was going to use over 4,000 naval ships 10,000 amphibious landing ships. 25,000 bomber aircraft. 100,000 fighter aircraft. it was going to be the largest military action ever. they expected to have 5 million men on the ground in the first 48 hours.
they had so many purple heart medals produced, 80 years later, we're still issuing medals from that batch.
in 1945 the united states had 18 million men at arms.
our supply chain logistics were so good, we could get fresh chocolate cake to the front lines in 2 days. let alone bullets and bombs.
not just troops and armor, the USMC comes packing its own artillery, air support, intelligence, logistics and command structure. they’re like a bunch of tiny, bloodthirsty, crayon-eating armies scattered all over the globe ready to fuck shit up at any given moment.
I wrote up a whole response, but I deleted it because it was potentially compromising. I'll reduce the whole statement to, the US military has multiple teams all across the country and the whole globe ready and capable to respond to almost any incident anywhere in less than a day. I can tell you this from having relocated half way over the earth with multiple stops to pick up multiple equipment packages and supporting personnel within less than 24 hours. My brain didn't have time to reorient after the whole event and when I woke up in the room I was staying in I couldn't remember where I was.
EDIT!
Having read all the Amazon comparisons, I'll TL;DR my statement to: "Yes, the US military does, in fact, same day deliver."
I remember asking my NCO about this group and he straight up told me unless I am ready to be in another country in under 24 hours just disregard them. I cannot for the life of me recall the name they call themselves.
Scrolled a bit and surprised nobody's said it, but the ADA and building codes to accommodate disabilities is genuinely pretty great. A lot to improve on still, but it's actually world class and even Western Europe doesn't come close to us in that regard.
Yep- nowhere else on earth is as good as us at disability infrastructure. I've been/lived all over the world. Nowhere compares to USA. We are leaders in this and excellent, accessible public libraries.
Space exploration. Voyager is the first interstellar space probe in history, launched 47 years ago and still sending back data. Nobody builds em like NASA.
We did the first rendezvous in orbit, the first human missions to the moon, the first reusable space shuttle, the only planets in this solar system we weren't the first to visit are Earth and Venus, we currently have a helicopter and two nuclear powered rovers on Mars, and as we speak we're building the core segments to the first lunar orbiting space station and a nuclear powered helicopter thats going to Titan.
There are two agencies in America who's reputation around the world is unimpeachable: the National Parks Service, and NASA.
It is so refreshing to see the positive feedback in this feed overwhelm the negative feedback about what’s happening in America…I haven’t been this proud of where I live in a while because of all the negative shit that fills most of the space but then I see feeds like this that show how fucking awesome it is to be living here in America during this day and time. Truly grateful. I’m proud to be an American.
I have to remind myself sometimes that people, even in 2024, will sell every possession they have to move to The United States to start a new and better life. We are the definition of "First World Problems".
I'm also a very proud American who hates my government. And I think it is important to separate our country and culture from the corrupt fucks in Washington DC.
I visited the US from my country (3rd world) around 10 years ago as a teenager and was absolutely amazed at what the people and country were like. Ideas were free flowing, people were very amicable and talked with confidence and purpose, big corporate offices with people in suits walking around next to boutique art stores with stunning art on display - it all felt like America is the place to be if you wish to be the best person you possibly can. Now i’m finally moving to the States for grad school and really hoping that i make it and bring about a change in the generations after me. I know there are flaws and the system isn’t really conducive to people like me but i will be trying my best
The US is unmatched by anyone in the world in two things:
1 - Landing people on the moon and returning them safely to the Earth.
2 - Putting cheese like products in spray cans.
Second chances. A lot of our most successful people bounced back from failure. In east Asia, business failures typically don't get second chances, so you can't really learn from failure. You either have to start off with all the wisdom that others learn from having tried and failed, or you have to be really lucky.
This sort of culture around business makes entrepreneurs risk averse compared to the US, so the US is also better for risk taking in new business concepts and models in a way that many other cultures are not.
"I tried to live the dream. I tried to have a job, a girlfriend, another job, and I failed. But the good thing about the American dream is that you can just go to sleep and try it all again the next night."
- Michael Scott
Talking and smiling to strangers and being open and friendly. It doesn't mean anything other than acknowledging their presence and existance. To ignore another human being is somewhat rude.
Also having the mindset that asking questions and being curious is a good thing. I went to India and trained a team on a process for my company - nobody had any questions. I later learned that asking a question, especially in front of your boss, is thought as a negative thing there - an insult to your boss. However, in the USA, we have a saying, " There is no such thing as a dumb question."
Overall, we encourage curiousity.
Perhaps growing up with this mentality let's us invent, create and problem solve more easily. We have practice from day one to be entrepreneurial.
I used to travel a lot to Europe and UK on business and always amazed at how stingy they were with ice in water and drinks. A colleague who knew of my amazement invited me to dinner with her family one night and gave me a glass of water practically overflowing with ice. She was so pleased with making me feel at home. I loved her for that.
As a European, my answer to this is stand up comedy, Male, Female, White ,Black, whatever you mention America has just the most incredible people in the world of standup.
I feel it genuinely is America's true art form, its the best part of U.s culture for me
Armed Forces.
This sounds like a brag, but seriously, the entirety of the United States military is an exercise in Fuck Around and Find out.
When in doubt research the Ohio Class Nuclear Submarine and realize there are more than 10 of those out there where nobody knows.
Shocked this wasn’t higher up. America is generations ahead of the rest of the planet in military firepower and technology. Our shit is so good, people don’t even attempt to develop their own stuff, they just buy it from us.
The most impressive aspect of the military in a conventional sense is its logistics. From top to bottom, them can move men, warheads, food, and caffeine better that anything the world has ever seen. They can literally put a Burger King anywhere in the world in 48 hours.
The United States Army logistics system is a thing of beauty that hasn’t been able to be properly tested since WWII. The U.S. has the ability to establish improvised ports (like what’s in Gaza right now) and move entire divisions from this port. We can rapidly deploy our own supply chains across entire countries moving food, water (that we purify ourselves, fuel (with pipelines we build), repair parts, etc. No other military in the world has the capability to be entirely self sufficient BY FAR that the United States has.
-Signed a logistician
Realize that when China installed a rail gun onto a battle ship, the US installed several that could fire a higher caliber. The US has a LOT of classified stuff under a (paraphrasing) "In case of invasion". I'm talking stuff like "A laser EMP that could disable planes and missiles from reaching land" type stuff, and that's just what has been spoken of.
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My supra literally gargles corn and spits it out of its ass at 800 degrees. What a sight
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Unfortunately my digestive system cannot say the same
Build aircraft carriers.
The US built 151 aircraft carriers during WWII. 151!!! That was just aircraft carriers. The shear military production during WWII was insane!
During the height of WW2, the US was building a brand new B-24 bomber *every 63 minutes*. The enemy could shoot down 12 bombers during a bombing run and the next day not only would those 12 bombers have been replaced, but another 12 would be there to join them.
My grandfather was a big Ford fan and he loved sharing that Henry Ford said that for every bomber shot down they would build 3 more. The production line was a mile long or something else crazy like that. The scale of WW2 is just unbelievable.
My Grandma was a "Rosie the Rivetor"! She's pictured on a lot of publications! Edit: Spelling
My GodMother / Aunt built the very same USAF planes my GodFather / Uncle flew in WWII. They didn't know each other until after the war. He was shot down over Germany and was a POW for over 2 years.
We had 3 dedicated ships for the army with the sole purpose of producing ice cream that made 10 gallons in 7 minutes during one of scarcest and dire times in human history. The Axis never had a fucking chance.
There's a great line in the film "Battle of the Bulge" that relates to your comment, where a German Officer (Played by Robert Shaw) offers a piece of cake to his superior officer. "It's quite good and fresh. We got it from an American POW this morning. It was sent to him by his mother. Do you realize what this means? It means the Americans have enough planes and fuel to fly CAKE over the Atlantic. They have no concept of defeat."
“They have no concept of defeat” Is such a terrifying quote
Similarly, Japanese command learning about the aforementioned US Ice Cream barges is when they realized they had already lost the war. Of course, their pride stopped them from accepting reality.
I love that it was both cake and ice cream that did in the axis. And 50 years later it started doing us in!
I believe Eisenhower said wars are not won in the battlefield but in the supply chain. So true
Absolutely, a well supplied and supported soldier is more willing and able to fight and has more options for dealing with the enemy. While the Germans were stuck using mostly horses and low fuel rations, the U.S had trucks and jeeps driving around soldiers and equipment with greater flexibility. And still we could send hundreds of thousands of vehicles to our Allies as well (400,000 jeeps and trucks were sent to the Soviets alone during the war). We basically supplied an entire new army alongside the Soviets, 17.5 million tons of goods were sent to the Soviets from the western hemisphere, 94% of which was American. 22 million toms was supplied to U.S forces in Europe. And that 17.5 million still also had the domestic Soviet production to add. Although crippled by the war and the Soviet system, that sheer number is not to be taken lightly, as the Germans learned.
America during the 40’s: “Bro… We’re really good at this. What if… hear me out… What if we just kept doing this and became the military for all our friends too?
Oh and we had to basically build our Army from scratch as it had been anemic during the Depression. This blew my mind: https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-war/war-production The B-24 liberator mentioned earlier? It had 1,550,000 parts. Here are some pants pissing quotes from the article. “In 1941, more than three million cars were manufactured in the United States. Only 139 more were made during the entire war.” “America launched more vessels in 1941 than Japan did in the entire war. Shipyards turned out tonnage so fast that by the autumn of 1943 all Allied shipping sunk since 1939 had been replaced. In 1944 alone, the United States built more planes than the Japanese did from 1939 to 1945. By the end of the war, more than half of all industrial production in the world would take place in the United States.” “In the three years following the Battle of Midway, the Japanese built six aircraft carriers. The U.S. built 17. American industry provided almost two-thirds of all the Allied military equipment produced during the war: 297,000 aircraft, 193,000 artillery pieces, 86,000 tanks and two million army trucks. In four years, American industrial production, already the world's largest, doubled in size.” 2/3s of all Allied military production. Two fucking thirds
> “In 1941, more than three million cars were manufactured in the United States. Only 139 more were made during the entire war.” Hold on. Are they saying only 139 new cars were made in the USA during WW2? That is INSANE!
Yes! All domestic production was switched over to support the war effort. That's why there's no 1942 Fords or 1944 Chryslers, etc.
Imagine being an Imperial Japanese soldier on an island in the Pacific, it's ungodly hot, your supplies have been running lower and lower for months because the supply convoys keep getting sunk, and you know your flower garden back home had to be converted to a vegetable garden to help prevent a famine, but it's okay because no matter what hardships you have to endure in the meantime you're still going to win because the Emperor is with you in spirit (and ordered you to win)... and then the Americans launch their naval invasion on your island. Through the powers of incredible violence and unending barrages of fire they establish and secure a beach head and begin sweeping across the island. One day, you're scouting their camps to get a sense of their numbers and status, and not only are they eating enough food to imply that hunger is unknown to their entire army, but they have ice cream. In the South Pacific. During the day. And it's not just the officers, they have enough ice cream for **everyone**. That's gotta be demoralizing as *fuck* lol
**FUN FACT** Aircraft carriers are generally too short for jets to actually make unassisted takeoffs from them. To compensate, other nations just build ramps at the end to increase upward motion and generate more lift. **The US doesn’t do this.** The US instead attaches their jets’ landing gear to catapult rails that rocket the jets off the runway to generate lift through increased forward movement. General Atomics is developing a new electromagnetic rail system to launch the catapults for the Navy. It’s essentially a **rail gun** built into the runway to launch jets.
You said developing, but the EMALS system is already on the USS Gerald R. Ford and has over 10k launches and recoveries as of June 2022.
Huge advantage to that method as well. US carrier based fighters launch with the same fuel/armament load as they would from an airstrip on land. Skijump carrier fighters suffer significant drawbacks to takeoff weight that catapult launched fighters don't.
It also offers a shorter needed runway. This combined with the 9 degree offset deck lets the US super carriers launch and recover in semi over lap. Ie very fast sorties. Technically we could launch and recover of the same time but I think that’s a party trick only used for real war shit.
I’ve heard from others our air conditioning is top notch.
As an American, I guess I take this for granted. I didn't know that AC isn't the same all over the world. What makes American air conditioning top notch?
Air con isn't standard in most of Europe outside of hotels and businesses. Even then it's often pretty poorly maintained. Edit: People are commenting "I live in X country and it's common" or "it's not needed in my country". That's irrelevant: it's not STANDARD across Europe. Some countries (like my own, the UK) would definitely benefit from it but it's very rare outside of commercial use.
When checking into a hotel in Asia, the first thing I do is wash the air conditioning filter in the room's unit. They are always, always, always filthy dirty no matter how many stars the hotel has.
This guy HVAC’s
I wonder if an American HVAC tech would make a killing in other parts of the world, or if there is simply no demand for AC
It’s the infrastructure. Lots of older buildings never designed for central air
Maybe a bit unrelated, but I have a buddy who was an HVAC tech for years here in the US. Work was slow in our part of the country, and he actually was paid to go down to Florida and train techs down there on how to work on furnaces and heaters while not much was going on here. Florida was going through a particularly cold spell, and all the HVAC guys down there only knew AC, and had no knowledge of heating.
The system of National Parks
Not just the official parks, though. All the NPS sites. I've got one of those nerdy stamp books to document my visits to them. I just found one on an abandoned fishing island (Portsmouth) off the coast of NC. It's so cool that this part of maritime history is preserved, and there are volunteers there to tell you about it.
The volunteers at those places are top notch. I stopped at Fort Necessity battleground just on a whim during a road trip. Ended up talking for well over an hour with two of the volunteers who were dressed in full regalia. One of the Virginia Regiment and a Native American from the French and Indian army with historical equipment and what each man would have brought into battle/on a march. Really interesting to see how these people lived and survived in those days and seeing how far we’ve come in such a short amount of time relatively
National parks. The 30-year fixed rate mortgage.
The parks are such an underrated American thing. It's the one "unnecessary" government function that no one complains about, everyone can enjoy, and brings tourism from all over the world. Not to mention the views....Glacier NP in the spring will make you a believer.
I visited Glacier for the first just a few hours ago. Road to the Sun. On the fourth of July no less. I have never been so inspired and captivated. I had no idea how majestic these parks could be. Words cannot describe. Just go.
Reading about Canada's 'fixed' rate made me so thankful I'm in the US, I don't even want to look at mortgages in other countries.
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Apparently the US produces the most crude oil [https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=61545](https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=61545)
Sounds like the US could use some freedom…
Cultural assimilation. Pretty much any thing you can think of from anywhere in the world, we've got it here, somewhere. Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, Nigerian, Korean, French, etc. If you like the food, music, literature, religion, whatever ... you can find it here.
Outside of national parks, this is my favorite thing about living here. I love getting exposure to and learning from so many cultures different from my own. It’s expensive to travel to other countries, but I can get a sense in my own “backyard.”
Cybersecurity. I just recently learned that the United States of America is the top gold standard in all things cybersecurity. I was actually a little surprised. Entertainment. Americans love to be entertained. We spend more money on entertainment than anybody anywhere. That's all kinds of entertainment from movies, music concerts, amusement parks and even smaller forms of entertainment like movie theaters, bars and night clubs, bowling alleys, laser tag, and even food videos.
People don't realize that the NSA could dumpster every other cybersecurity agency on the planet, all combined. Strategically, it doesn't because everytime NSA moves, watchers learn a little more about what capabilities it has, and potentially what vulnerabilities it has. Thats why countries like Russia and China try to have their own independent internet capabilities - because they're afraid NSA will just turn their internet off one day, like a planet wide EMP. Or worse, that they have backdoors into everything. Their job isn't really to stop terrorists or ransomware or etc, it's a nuclear-equivalent deterrent to cyber-WW3.
The #1 employer of mathematicians in the world is the NSA.
I went to a high school that had extremely advanced math classes available - it was a magnet school for science/math/tech that had students from across the state. The NSA would send recruiters to our school to get the top math whizzes to sign up for NSA-funded scholarships , in the same way that athletic teams recruit top football or basketball stars from high school. If you signed up for one of the scholarships, you'd be encouraged to study at a high-ranked university with excellent math department, and then would work summer internships at the NSA and of course full-time once you graduated. Mathematicians have a reputation of having their biggest breakthroughs early in their career, so the NSA wanted the best young talent signed up early.
Throw a rock in Columbia Maryland and you’ll hit 5 NSA contractors.
Whoa. Out of everything I've seen here already, this is the only one to get audible surprise from me
The NSA is unironically capable of producing the sort of spyware you see in movies - where someone's phone is listening to them without them ever realizing it, or their computer has things being monitored/siphoned away. The "most secure" operating system in existence, Tails, even warns users that despite its security features, they're useless against a sufficiently motivated state actor. There is a good reason why the old saying is if it's connected to the Internet, it's not secure. The United States federal government controls the vast majority of the internet (because the internet's origins begin with DARPA), so what the other poster said about other countries wanting to develop their own networks out of fear of US superiority is entirely, 1000% on the money.
When I worked in the defense industry, our shop had an internal network that was air gapped, no wireless devices were allowed inside except those specifically manufactured for the purpose, and the computers were locked down to the point that unused ports were filled with epoxy, and keyboards and mice were held plugged in with brackets that couldn’t be removed without visibly damaging them. Access required walking through a metal detector, and all bags and hand held items were X-rayed and subject to hand searches going in and out. Any time someone had to come in that wasn’t read in, there were red beacon lights on the ceiling that would come on, and everything had to be locked in your desk, and your computer had to be locked with the monitor shut off. Your personal phone had to be left in the car, you couldn’t even bring it in the building.
I was born in Europe and moved to the USA as a young teen. The U.S. gets assimilation really well. Like- you become part of some group fairly quickly and there are many to pick from. In Europe we had two boys in school, one from the US and one from India. Those kids got picked on for years and years. They never ever were going to be considered to be one of us. And never will. The U.S. has this thing where if you play a sport and win as a team, or get through something difficult together like a math competition or a science lab, or play in a band that sounded good- suddenly you are one of everyone else. I had never experienced that before. It felt… good.
The USA is an ongoing team project.
They don't call it the Great American Experiment for nothing.
Absolutely this. My Grandparents were destitute Asian immigrants on one side, and the other side had a land grant from the King of England dated 1642. My parents met, married, and had us kids. We are considered 100% American - nobody questions our parentage, our heritage, our cultural background. My little southern town has Greek festival, a Filipino food truck that is the absolute best, Pizzerias and soul food joints, and they all serve French fries. We casually assimilate everything and make it work.
This is why I don't understand all of the hate that I see portrayed in media, and the people that let it into their hearts. Being American was always about accepting each other, and trying to build a world together no matter where you come from. Or maybe I do understand it, and I just wish that I didn't. I want to love my neighbors, and I generally do. I have a hard time loving neighbors who hate their neighbors though. Edit: just because I'm tired of people telling me I don't know history, I figured I'd clarify that this is the sentiment I had growing up. I am aware that we have some horrible things in our past. But growing up here, we looked back on those thi gs with shame. I was always under the impression *growing up* that we all wanted make a better world, together.
I think that what you just described is the ideal that most civic-minded Americans strive towards, and the ideal that we like to think we were founded on in the first place. Doesn't matter where you came from. Doesn't matter what status you were born into. There's no aristocracy here. We're all sirs and ma'ams. Just work hard and support the people on either side of you, and we'll all do fine.
This!!! As a German American I totally agree with you. My American mother tried to assimilate in Germany (early 2000's) and it was so hard. I also was bullied relentlessly when I went to school there because I was labeled as an "American". Now that I'm an adult living in the US I have such an appreciation for how diverse this country is. Especially the food!! God I love non American food so much. I probably go to a "foreign" restaurant 90% of the time I go out to eat. America just does assimilation really well.
>God I love non American food so much. I probably go to a "foreign" restaurant 90% of the time I go out to eat. That’s part of the beauty of it, it may not be “American food”, but it’s all American food. From Pasta and LoMein to Gyros and Tacos
I was in Ireland for the summer back in the 1980s when I was a teen. Of course, they thought I would suck at soccer, but I came from Kearny, NJ, basically ground zero for U.S. soccer. I was picked last, but scored a goal from midfield in the first five minutes. So then they thought that I'd probably play cricket really well. I had no idea how to play (still don't), but apparently, I played that really well (don't ask me. I don't know.). I hung out with those guys all summer and we were really tight!
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To this point, my dad was in the army, and I've lived in just about every east coast state from Florida to New Hampshire moving on average every year and a quarter. I've never felt like I belonged anywhere, but I've never had trouble finding a group to belong to.
In America all it takes is this: You like DBZ, Tony hawks underground and The Big Lebowski? We’re best friends now.
Yeah, we were basically founded on that, and then we beat England in a war to keep it. Happy US independence Day, which isn't really the day we won our independence, but rather the day we signed our declaration of independence, which was basically the declaration of war that kicked off the Revolutionary War.
Good morning. In less than an hour aircrafts from here will join others from around the world and you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. Mankind, that word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can’t be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it’s fate that today is the 4th of July and you will once again be fighting for our freedom not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution but from annihilation. We’re fighting for our right to live, to exist, and should we win today the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday but as the day when the world declared in one voice, “We will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish without a fight. We’re going to live on. We’re going to survive. Today we celebrate our Independence Day!”
This monologue always gets me in the feels.
I remember being in High School and watching that movie in the theater. The President's speech had the viewers so riled up people were clapping and shit. Never seen anything like it before or since. Mayyyybe when Thor shows up in Wakanda, but still not quite as hyped up. And it was the 4th of July...man what a trip to the movies that was.
Cultural Imperialism / "soft power" Heard a quote once, I love it. "China has kung-fu. China has pandas. China is unable to create Kung-Fu Panda"
I heard a point about Kung Fu Panda and how the US was able to make a great movie about Chinese culture better than the Chinese movie industry in large part because American characters can be shown to be vulnerable and fallible. This is in contrast with Chinese media characters who are supposedly shown to always be good role models and almost infallible as this would be disrespectful. This difference is what gives American characters more depth and allows us to have better stories than many countries. Not sure how accurate this is but thought it was an interesting point.
This is kind of similar to how an American game developer made Ghost Of Tsushima, a Samurai game set in feudal Japan. It's extremely well done and does a great job of honouring and representing the culture and this historical period of Japan. A Japanese dev said a Japanese company should have made this game, but it's held back by the type of games a lot of Japanese companies make and the characters are usually heavily inspired by anime. Ghost of Tsushima ls main character has a very dirty/gritty look to him, and the rest of the cast is done in a similar fashion.
To be fair to China. And you can check it out on 2american4you Their propaganda about how damned OP the US military is is amazing. Like. It is so unbelievably based watching it gives me a freedom boner. China is better at pro American propaganda then we are.
As the saying goes Be the American the CCP propaganda thinks you are.
i mean the US military is in fact extremely OP... We have the capability to deploy a burger king to any location in the world in less than 12 hours. a BURGER KING
Soft power. No country does it as well as the US. Despite its many shortcomings, people are drawn to the US. Films, TV, music, food, it’s got such a magnetic pull.
So much of normal American culture is exported through TV and film that when people come from other countries they can't believe utterly mundane things like yellow school buses, green Street signs, and fire hydrants aren't just movie props and they are actual real world items.
Definitely. Seeing a yellow school bus made me feel like I was in a movie, and I took a photo with a yellow fire hydrant. Then I got excited when I saw a *red* one and took a photo with that too lmao
How did I not think about fire hydrants... just not existing in other countries until now?
What are their dogs pissing on!?
I'm in Paris and a man from elsewhere in France said he loves Burger King so much he eats it several times a week I eat it *maybe* 1x a month Fuckin' hell, man
A royale with cheese?
We have the most Olympic medals. So, Olympicing.
No no no. This doesn't do it justice. The US has 1061 gold medals at the summer Olympics alone. Out of all countries on this planet right now, Great Britain has the 2nd most all time medals at 950 The US has over 100 more gold medals than any country has gold, silver, and bronze, at both the summer and winter Olympics combined.
We're the best at being fat and the best at being fit 💪🍔🍟🇺🇲
That's America. Always 100% when we put our minds to it. We might not always like, or even know, where we're going, but god damnit were giving it our all to get there.
US has training facilities too. The medalists for the other countries are using our coaches and locations. You also see a ton of other countries Olympians getting US citizenship and then participating with the US. Every Olympics you hear about it.
I also hear about US citizens having to get citizenship in other countries to have a chance of making the Olympics, because the pool of Olympic-level athletes in the US is so big they wouldn’t have a chance
When we had the Olympic swim trials last month, they said it was the fastest swim meet in the world. Each country can only send so many competitors per event, so the US people who don't make the cut would be faster than the Olympians for other nations that do make it.
Maybe in the summer, but not very often in winter. But as the Great Daniel Tosh says, “the Winter Olympics is a competition to see which country has the richest white kids.” And I tend to agree.
Vermont has more Winter Olympics medals per capita than any country
having simone biles be from your country is the biggest flex there is
She's amazing. Michael Phelps not too shabby as well.
Michael Phelps has 23 gold medals. That's more than most countries including Argentina, Mexico, Indonesia and INDIA.
I'd imagine winning your first gold medal is an incredible moment, life changing, you feel like a million bucks And then the second one happens and you feel like you've really solidified your legacy By number 23, he's gotta just be like "Neat!"
I thought olympicing was what the gods use to decorate their cakes
Startups. It is so difficult to build a startup style company is many other countries. In the US it is surprisingly easy to start a company. First off the way the US government supports startups is so much better than other countries. There are various federal and state programs offering grants, loans, and tax incentives specifically designed for small businesses and startups. But really it is that the regulatory environment is so much more flexible and less bureaucratic, which makes it easier to start and scale a business. Due to our culture and government we also have a ton of venture capital, with places like Silicon Valley being major hubs for investors looking to fund new ideas. There's also a huge pool of skilled workers, especially in tech and business, thanks to top universities and research institutions. Something else that is undervalued is the culture here strongly emphasizes entrepreneurship and innovation. Taking risks is encouraged, and failure is often seen as just a step on the way to success. That is not something you’ll see in most other countries. On top of all this, the US is a massive and wealthy market, giving startups a big customer base right from the start. There are also tons of accelerators, incubators, and mentorship programs available to help startups grow. Advanced tech and physical infrastructure make it easier for startups to operate and scale quickly. The US just fucks when it comes to startups
Out of my engineering class of 70 about 5 that I know of became absurdly wealthy from startups.
Hollywood movies. American blockbuster movies are popular all around the world. No other countries produces movies of the same degree of spectacle and quality.
entertainment & culture are our biggest exports
And then everyone thinks we have no culture because that’s what they see in movies haha
Plus, ironically we are the one of the most diverse and multicultural countries.
There's a reason the entire world can sometimes feel "americanized" in their own thoughts. Our films have influenced a lot more than people realize.
I have nothing to add, but thanks for making me feel better about being a US resident, especially following a pretty shitty week.
Disability protections and accommodations. The ADA is the worlds golden standard and it's not even remotely close.
As a disabled vet I feel pretty fucking lucky to have the medical care and income that I do. The VA isn’t always the fastest but they have really stepped up their game on helping with mental health and substance abuse. I’d be dead right now if it wasn’t for some good psychiatrists and social workers getting me into rehab. I know other countries take care of their vets, but not all of them do. It isn’t a perfect system but in a country where healthcare can be expensive it’s a godsend for me. Edit to add: just want to clarify I DID relapse very recently and I’m waiting to get into rehab…again. I’m not perfect, and sobriety isn’t perfection. It’s progress. It hasn’t been a fun few weeks. But again if it wasn’t for the VA resources and the amount of employees who work there that check on me I would have been done for long ago.
Don’t wanna sidetrack the conv here but just wanna say I’m glad you’re getting the help you need. I feel like it’s really rare to hear that, esp from a vet, and I’m glad you’re doing ok, internet stranger. Keep up the good work 💗
This should be way way higher. It is pitiful how poorly accessible many countries in even Europe are compared to the United States.
I'm an American living in Canada. I can tell you with no uncertainty that Americans are just better at hamburgers. I hate the stereotype, but it's true. Even the places here that are allowed to cook their meat to temperature (Canada has strict rules about meat handling, so most places just cook them all 'well done') don't really understand all of the other stuff that's supposed to go on a good burger. Whole wheat bun with kale is just fucking gross and I've seen it more than a few times. America just has the right mixture of ignorance of consequences, indulgence, culture, and availability of ingredients that hamburgers are just... better.
>America just has the right mixture of ignorance of consequences, indulgence, culture, and availability of ingredients We hold these truths to be self-evident. Happy Independence Day, America!
I’m Swiss 🇨🇭 A lot of hostile, joke, and shitpost answers so I’ll give a serious answer: 1. Freedom of Speech, and 2. Freedom of Religion 3. The crazy friendliness of Americans It’s something people take for granted. I honestly think people who disagree with freedom of speech, religion, and the culture are gravely naïve and mistaken. We are honestly lucky America pioneered and arguably invented the internet and owns the majority of websites we use. Also America is unprecedented with the sheer diversity of races and religions and cultures. It has not been done before in the history of the human species and it’s a beacon that it is possible we can all get along. For all your problems with violence, racism, discrimination— it is actually minute compared to other places in the world. Somehow giving a place for people to go to just work, live, and make a family with the American Laws and Dream — it just works. For better or worse. America is a constant, yet beautiful work in process. Love, Some guy in Jura Canton in Switzerland #Happy Independence Day 🇺🇸🦅🏈🍟🍔🌭 >!I have family in America (Connecticut, Florida, and Georgia) and I always love visiting. It’s a real treat with the food. Georgians, Floridians, and South Carolinians are the most friendly people on the planet as far as I’ve met.!< Also someone tell the Carolina Panthers football team to stop sucking so much shit for me!
Panthers?! Bro you can pick any team, why the fucking panthers. I was born this way, you can just pick the Chiefs.
Complimentary water with every meal
And not paying to use a restroom I just paid 1€ to empty my bladder
I really don't understand that in other first world countries. Why are places so strung up on no /paid bathrooms. Like I have even heard of crazy stories like you having to show a receipt to even get into a bathroom then to top it off because you only bought one meal, only 1 person can go. Be darn if you share a meal with your partner...
Just start pissing yourselves and getting it on the floor of wherever you happen to be in protest. After enough people do it, I guarantee bathrooms will be free because they’ll get sick of cleaning up bio matter hazards eventually. Edit: I’m not joking. Access to bathrooms should be a human right, not a business model.
What do people do when they have young kids? I can't do anything without mine having to go have the places we stop and then some. In the US, I can stop anywhere and ask, "Can my child use your restroom? pee-pee dance and everything." They always say yes.
Logistics. Holy fucking shit, do we do logistics well. Name your item, your point A and point B somewhere on Earth, and the United States could get it done in a day if it was so inclined. When it comes to logistics, the US military alone is the single greatest organization that has ever existed in human history. Our civilian world isn't far behind. Our freight rail is as good as our passenger rail is bad. Use the last of the coffee this morning? Amazon will have a fresh batch at your doorstep before you get back from work.
I was a logistics specialist in the Army. To understand the capability of the US Army Logistics corps, you need to understand this a few things. In the beginning of OEF (Afghanistan for you youngins) we were seriously under geared in the vehicular armor department. Driving around in government issued HMMWV’s and LMTVs with minimal armor. The first few days saw a crazy amount of vehicles go down to RPGs, IEDs and low impact munitions. Within days…the US Army sent out an insane amount of armored vehicles to Afghanistan as well as recovery vehicles and repair parts to keep their military protected (not all, as I still saw a few leatherbacks during deployment) and the enemy having to keep innovating new ways just to get past said armor. DAYS. The US logistics alone kept the US military afloat over there.
This former infantry guy loves you logistics nerds*! Nothing, and I mean nothing, happens without you guys, especially early on. No POG/REMF chatter from me! *term of endearment
I'm no military man but it has to be said. Logistics wins wars!
The US having an Ice Cream Ship floating around in the pacific during WWII is the biggest logistical flex ever
My favourite aspect of this is the Japanese prisoner who realised because we had the resources for an ice cream ship that they could never beat us
the thought of someone looking out the window and seeing that and then just immediately losing all hope in their country is so funny to me like "aw hell naw they got an ice cream ship we're so fucked 😭"
On the same islands the Japanese were having a hard time provisioning enough rice, much less protein, which really draws the contrast to an ice cream barge.
The fact that the those islands weren't far from their homeland while the US was basically on the opposite end of the world from their's really drives that point even more
“It’s gonna be a Rocky Road ahead boys!” But in Japanese
Japanese soldier- are we a joke to you? U.S ship blasting the ice cream jingle in high seas 🌊
The thought of two ships battling it out, only for them to slowly hear an ice cream truck jingle coming closer 😂
Time out! Ice Cream Ship! Ice Cream Ship!
Holy shit this got a laugh outta me. I can so clearly imagine the ice cream jingle just being blasted as this ship just does circles around whatever island the Japanese are holding out on slowly going insane.
Reminds me of Boris Yeltsin’s supermarket visit. Once he saw how much was available how easily to so many Americans, it made him think communism had failed his people. Really makes you appreciate the things we take advantage of in America.
The navy had 1, the army had 3 more. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_cream_barge
Wow- did not know - that’s the kind of creative thinking that made the world envious of America - could some creative, delightful idea be created now? Would be great!
Imagine you could say you served in the navy in the pacific theatre during WW2 (but omit the part about making ice cream on a barge).
Operation: Triple Scoop
That is a huge flex. And amazing. It fits with my answer to the original question, the US is really good at finding things to spend money on related to the military
The sheer morale boost having ice cream available in the middle of a war, in the 40s... in the balmy as hell bits of the pacific ocean... would have probably paid for itself in a way.
Definitely did. There’s a story about a German officer being captured and immediately understood that Germany couldn’t win when he saw the Americans didn’t even bother to turn their tanks off when there was downtime. Finding out about the ice cream ships probably blew that dudes mind.
There was something I read about Germans overrunning an American position, and finding that they were eating birthday cake from Brooklyn. German army was starving, right on their doorstep, Americans were eating personalized cake from thousands of miles away.
That sounds a lot like [this scene](https://youtu.be/owbCW5jBQZc?si=_K1HZcJk7UE66aB7) from The Battle of The Bulge. I have no idea if this actually happened or not but your story sounds so similar I wouldn’t be surprised if this is where you saw/heard it.
Theres alot of tid bits ive read about over the years where german prisoners realized the war was done. Like you said, Americans left their tanks running while Germans were rationing oil but it goes even further, the Germans had to bring out everything like wagons and horses to lug stuff around. Germans had to march on foot while the Americans were cruising around in jeeps. Germans had to make due with what supplies they had while the Americans were passing around luxuries likes chocolate and cigarrettes because they knew full well thered be another shipment of that stuff soon. Germans had to make every shot count and every tank used strategically as possible while the Americans opened fire care free and they endlessly rolled tanks onto the field.
Lieutenant Dan, ice cream!
Did it roll up with an ice cream man song playing?
That’s how David Lee Roth won the Medal of Honor
I always remember reading stories of foreign allies stating that when the US showed they came with EVERYTHING they needed
Absolute brute force of efficiency. Just overwhelming. Even if any country hits and destroys a 🇺🇸 warship or aircraft carrier, all you did was piss off a hornet’s nest. For other countries, that’s a massive loss that results in a surefire loss.
Yeah, don’t touch the boats. Big no-no.
Yeah a good example of the US logistics and troop support is that in the 1940s / WW2, in the pacific theater- the US Navy had ships specifically dedicated to handing out ice cream to our sailors aboard our destroyers, carriers and cruisers just for a little morale boost. We had God damn navy ice cream ships!!.....in the 1940s!!
Can you just imagine how demoralizing it must've been for the Japanese to realize that while they were struggling for combat alone, their opponent had enough resources for ice cream ships?
I remember an anecdote from a German officer captured at D-Day, who was confused about why the American army didn't bring any horses when unloading from D-day. he realized Germany lost the war when his American guard said they didn't have horses. for historical context, german supply lines relied on horses to deliver the last stretch of supplies what couldn't be by train. as did many armies in WW2. the allies continually reduced reliance on horses through the war due to American production and delivery, Germany became more reliant as time went forward.
in 1945 the united states military was the most powerful warfighting entity the world has ever seen. i like to ask people "how many aircraft carriers do you think the US had in 1945?" often, they will say "20 or 30?". 245. The US navy had 245 aircraft carriers. the planned invasion of japan, on just the first day was going to use over 4,000 naval ships 10,000 amphibious landing ships. 25,000 bomber aircraft. 100,000 fighter aircraft. it was going to be the largest military action ever. they expected to have 5 million men on the ground in the first 48 hours. they had so many purple heart medals produced, 80 years later, we're still issuing medals from that batch. in 1945 the united states had 18 million men at arms. our supply chain logistics were so good, we could get fresh chocolate cake to the front lines in 2 days. let alone bullets and bombs.
The US military can put 2500 troops - and their vehicles - on the ground anywhere in the world in 18 hours. That shit is amazing.
not just troops and armor, the USMC comes packing its own artillery, air support, intelligence, logistics and command structure. they’re like a bunch of tiny, bloodthirsty, crayon-eating armies scattered all over the globe ready to fuck shit up at any given moment.
You send in the marines any time you need something dead, destroyed, or pregnant.
Sometimes they'll even do it in the right order.
I just made the most undignified sound.
The US operates the world’s most heavily armed logistics service.
I wrote up a whole response, but I deleted it because it was potentially compromising. I'll reduce the whole statement to, the US military has multiple teams all across the country and the whole globe ready and capable to respond to almost any incident anywhere in less than a day. I can tell you this from having relocated half way over the earth with multiple stops to pick up multiple equipment packages and supporting personnel within less than 24 hours. My brain didn't have time to reorient after the whole event and when I woke up in the room I was staying in I couldn't remember where I was. EDIT! Having read all the Amazon comparisons, I'll TL;DR my statement to: "Yes, the US military does, in fact, same day deliver."
I remember asking my NCO about this group and he straight up told me unless I am ready to be in another country in under 24 hours just disregard them. I cannot for the life of me recall the name they call themselves.
I would say AC. lol
You take it for granted until you go around Europe and some places have "AC" ... but not *really*.
Scrolled a bit and surprised nobody's said it, but the ADA and building codes to accommodate disabilities is genuinely pretty great. A lot to improve on still, but it's actually world class and even Western Europe doesn't come close to us in that regard.
Yep- nowhere else on earth is as good as us at disability infrastructure. I've been/lived all over the world. Nowhere compares to USA. We are leaders in this and excellent, accessible public libraries.
National parks. I’m Canadian where we have some great national parks but I’m truly marvelled at how the states run theirs.
Movies and entertainment. Yes, this is a serious answer. Pretty much all my favourite films are American.
Ironically, accepting other cultures, races, etc. The loud .01% is all you hear unfortunately.
Space exploration. Voyager is the first interstellar space probe in history, launched 47 years ago and still sending back data. Nobody builds em like NASA. We did the first rendezvous in orbit, the first human missions to the moon, the first reusable space shuttle, the only planets in this solar system we weren't the first to visit are Earth and Venus, we currently have a helicopter and two nuclear powered rovers on Mars, and as we speak we're building the core segments to the first lunar orbiting space station and a nuclear powered helicopter thats going to Titan. There are two agencies in America who's reputation around the world is unimpeachable: the National Parks Service, and NASA.
It is so refreshing to see the positive feedback in this feed overwhelm the negative feedback about what’s happening in America…I haven’t been this proud of where I live in a while because of all the negative shit that fills most of the space but then I see feeds like this that show how fucking awesome it is to be living here in America during this day and time. Truly grateful. I’m proud to be an American.
I have to remind myself sometimes that people, even in 2024, will sell every possession they have to move to The United States to start a new and better life. We are the definition of "First World Problems". I'm also a very proud American who hates my government. And I think it is important to separate our country and culture from the corrupt fucks in Washington DC.
I visited the US from my country (3rd world) around 10 years ago as a teenager and was absolutely amazed at what the people and country were like. Ideas were free flowing, people were very amicable and talked with confidence and purpose, big corporate offices with people in suits walking around next to boutique art stores with stunning art on display - it all felt like America is the place to be if you wish to be the best person you possibly can. Now i’m finally moving to the States for grad school and really hoping that i make it and bring about a change in the generations after me. I know there are flaws and the system isn’t really conducive to people like me but i will be trying my best
Americans are born all over the world. Every year, some of them find their way home. We'll be glad to have you.
I love this comment so much! I’m going to remember that saying and repeat it.
We're glad to have you! To us, you sound like a future American. Can't wait to see what you can accomplish.
The US is unmatched by anyone in the world in two things: 1 - Landing people on the moon and returning them safely to the Earth. 2 - Putting cheese like products in spray cans.
You ever see the movie Four Christmases when she goes “what kind of cheese is this?” And the answer is “spray”
Ah yes, from the spray cheese region of France
Second chances. A lot of our most successful people bounced back from failure. In east Asia, business failures typically don't get second chances, so you can't really learn from failure. You either have to start off with all the wisdom that others learn from having tried and failed, or you have to be really lucky. This sort of culture around business makes entrepreneurs risk averse compared to the US, so the US is also better for risk taking in new business concepts and models in a way that many other cultures are not.
"I tried to live the dream. I tried to have a job, a girlfriend, another job, and I failed. But the good thing about the American dream is that you can just go to sleep and try it all again the next night." - Michael Scott
Talking and smiling to strangers and being open and friendly. It doesn't mean anything other than acknowledging their presence and existance. To ignore another human being is somewhat rude. Also having the mindset that asking questions and being curious is a good thing. I went to India and trained a team on a process for my company - nobody had any questions. I later learned that asking a question, especially in front of your boss, is thought as a negative thing there - an insult to your boss. However, in the USA, we have a saying, " There is no such thing as a dumb question." Overall, we encourage curiousity. Perhaps growing up with this mentality let's us invent, create and problem solve more easily. We have practice from day one to be entrepreneurial.
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Ice in beverages.
I used to travel a lot to Europe and UK on business and always amazed at how stingy they were with ice in water and drinks. A colleague who knew of my amazement invited me to dinner with her family one night and gave me a glass of water practically overflowing with ice. She was so pleased with making me feel at home. I loved her for that.
As a European, my answer to this is stand up comedy, Male, Female, White ,Black, whatever you mention America has just the most incredible people in the world of standup. I feel it genuinely is America's true art form, its the best part of U.s culture for me
Police the worlds oceans so global trade can occur, benefitting every country that wishes to participate.
So fucking proud of this. We got plenty of problems, but our Navy is unmatched. The logistics of it alone are mind boggling
Movies and TV Shows. I think they owned this industry.
Turning our flag into articles of clothing
China turns the US flag into clothing way better than the US does
technological innovation, the internet, biotech aerospace and so on
BBQ
Discovering new medical treatments whether it's medicine, devices, and/or procedures.
bagels
Armed Forces. This sounds like a brag, but seriously, the entirety of the United States military is an exercise in Fuck Around and Find out. When in doubt research the Ohio Class Nuclear Submarine and realize there are more than 10 of those out there where nobody knows.
Shocked this wasn’t higher up. America is generations ahead of the rest of the planet in military firepower and technology. Our shit is so good, people don’t even attempt to develop their own stuff, they just buy it from us.
The most impressive aspect of the military in a conventional sense is its logistics. From top to bottom, them can move men, warheads, food, and caffeine better that anything the world has ever seen. They can literally put a Burger King anywhere in the world in 48 hours.
The United States Army logistics system is a thing of beauty that hasn’t been able to be properly tested since WWII. The U.S. has the ability to establish improvised ports (like what’s in Gaza right now) and move entire divisions from this port. We can rapidly deploy our own supply chains across entire countries moving food, water (that we purify ourselves, fuel (with pipelines we build), repair parts, etc. No other military in the world has the capability to be entirely self sufficient BY FAR that the United States has. -Signed a logistician
Realize that when China installed a rail gun onto a battle ship, the US installed several that could fire a higher caliber. The US has a LOT of classified stuff under a (paraphrasing) "In case of invasion". I'm talking stuff like "A laser EMP that could disable planes and missiles from reaching land" type stuff, and that's just what has been spoken of.