"Americentricity" by Itchy Feet

[u/tinyviewcomics]

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[u/TwiggyPeas]

It takes 13 hours to drive across my state, and there are 50 states. America is stupid big

[u/aarontgp → u/TwiggyPeas]

So... Texas, then.

[u/renoceros → u/aarontgp]

Or California. Or Alaska (which is over 40 hours!)

And 10 more states are ~10 hours - the US is just big

[u/Elpsyth → u/TwiggyPeas]

The US is smaller than Europe.

Edit: You can downvote as much as you want, it won't change that the US covers less km2 than Europe

[u/imArsenals → u/Elpsyth]

Yes but the US is one country and Europe is 44 lol. If you want to go tip to tip in just Texas, that can be 16 hours. How many countries is that in Europe?

Also, if you remove Alaska and Hawaii but also remove Russia, the US is actually larger than Europe. It’s not a flex, but obviously European transit such as trains are significantly better. So, traveling around Europe isn’t necessarily “impressive” in terms of “wow you’ve been abroad!”.

It makes perfect sense why an American would have only traveled around America. It’s large but also very diverse in things to do, people, food, geography, etc.

[u/Elpsyth → u/imArsenals]

The driving argument is just stupid.

You can drive 16 hours in Sweden and still be in Sweden. You can do that in France Spain Norway Finland and Russia too. And close enough in Ukraine, Germany, Poland and Italy.

Now how long can you drive on the original east coast states?

Core Europe is 10.18 Million km2 US WITH Alaska and Hawai is 9.8 Your math is off.

If we add the equivalent of Alaska and Hawai to Europe you get 12.5 km2 for Europe.

The allegations on US level of geography are definitely not beaten here.

And yet Europeans travel extensively outside of Europe, despite living in a geographic area bigger than "Stupidly big US"

[u/imArsenals → u/Elpsyth]

Core EU without Russia is roughly 6.2. Your 10.18 figure is including Russia. Obviously Europe would be smaller than that if you removed the islands as well. Continental US is roughly 8.1, hence bigger than Europe when you remove Russia.

Going from state to state is still the same country is the point. Going from country to country in Europe is not. That’s great that you can list 4 (not counting Russia) where that isn’t the case, but it’s still the case that unless you specifically go to Mexico or Canada, you can drive across the entire continent and never traveled abroad. There’s 40 other EU countries where driving 16 hours could run you through multiple. You could easily do Germany Austria Switzerland and Italy for example. Which is why the driving argument completely holds in this case.

[u/Elpsyth → u/imArsenals]

Europe is not the EU. Another allegation Not beaten. The russian part of Europe is still European, if you want to remove it we need to remove Texas and California from the US. See how stupid it sounds?

The point that people make is that US citizen do not leave the US because the country is big. Which is irrelevant when European systematically leave Europe for travel despite living in a bigger area than the US. No European consider themselves well travelled by going to the neighbouring countries.

The driving argument is as stupid as your biaised definition of what Europe is, and you have not answered my question regarding the easy coast ;)

[u/imArsenals → u/Elpsyth]

Idk what allegation you’re even referring to. I’m talking about the continent of Europe, I’m well aware of what EU is and not every country in Europe is a part of the EU. It’s still 27 countries to 1 though.

The removing Russia point isn’t stupid, because it’s by far the largest country, far away from everything, with tons of inhabitable land, and crosses into Asia. And let’s be real, not many Europeans are driving into Russia right now. It’s also one of 43 other countries lol.

But sure, if you want to keep Russia and remove islands that you can’t drive to, Europe is obviously bigger but not ~that~ much bigger.

I didn’t ignore your east coast point, I directly addressed it by saying that sure while those states are much smaller, it doesn’t matter because driving through all of them is still the same country, thus it doesn’t fulfil the definition of traveling abroad. I can go from Cali to Washington DC, be in the same country the whole time, and that same distance would have gotten me through what like 10 EU countries?

If going to border countries doesn’t make you seem well traveled or whatever (something I never said), that would mean US to Canada or Mexico shouldn’t fulfil the requirement either too, right? Which is an argument against you btw? lol

Really my only point was that it makes sense why an American may not have traveled outside of the US, especially at a lower number than a European, and even then roughly 3/4 of them have. Not sure why you’re so intent on being a dick unprompted.

[u/Elpsyth → u/imArsenals]

The allegations that US geography education is shit. Which you embodie perfectly I would say.

As you did not know that Alaska and Hawai were already counted in, you also are blissfully unaware that only the European part of Russia is counted in, which make no sense to remove as the rest of the country is not part of the equation so no your argument is nonsensical.

And again, no. Many countries are massive. China is roughly the same equivalent and Russia (both Asia + European part) is bigger. Yet their inhabitant have no issues going abroad when they have the same means or equivalent to US citizen. The US population refusal to go abroad is willingfull and not a by product of its size.

[u/imArsenals → u/Elpsyth]

Nothing I said shows a misunderstanding of geography. I know that only the European part of Russia is counted, nothing I said suggests otherwise. I have no idea what you mean that Alaska and Hawaii* were already counted in, I gave you the figure not including them, and never gave a figure with them. I gave many reasons why you could reasonably remove Russia and also arguments even if you don’t. I don’t think you’re great at reading.

China Russia etc are much closer to more amounts of countries than the US are. You yourself said it isn’t well traveled to only go to border countries btw. 3/4ths of American’s have traveled abroad. They probably should travel abroad more though! I was simply saying it could make sense why they have traveled less than Europeans. That’s all. Bringing in those other countries is irrelevant to the conversation.