[stuckinhell]

The sooner America splits up into two or more countries the better I think. It's clear the cultural difference inside America are far beyond even different countries in Europe. I guess that should be expected given how large America is.

[onlypositive]

Most Americans agree on most things.

Cultural differences across Europe are FAR greater than anything in the US.

The problem in the US is extremists taking over the microphone.

[stuckinhell]

I don't think so. I review a lot of market research reports for my firm when making strategic decisions.

The younger generations of Americans are extremely polarized and ready to fight. They don't agree with many of the cultural norms of the older generations such keeping politics out of the work place, or common public areas of civility. They are willing to inject their personal biases into the company and literally every aspect of their life. This is not unique to the Left either.

We are seeing some necessary materials partners send out emails signatures with literal bible verses on them to our employees with pronouns in their emails.

The under 35's are really adding a lot of pain to my life right now.

Cultural Differences in America are at the level of Hungary vs Germany/UK right now, if I had to say.

[peoplearepeople]

I think it's just that people are delaying having children. Once they have children they fall in line as there's no energy for anything else

[stuckinhell]

Funny you mention that, that was a topic this week at my firm.

The number of single women in the U.S. is expected to increase 1.2% every year from 2018 to 2030, compared to a 0.8% increase for the overall population. This is likely going to result in 45% of women between the ages of 25 and 44 who will be single and childless by 2030.

If anything I expect the discord to get worse in the future.

Also if anyone knows what these single women might want from the market, I'm dying to know!

[jstarfish]

Given the state of abortion law, I wouldn't bet on "childless by choice" remaining a constant.

Play both sides: tampons and diapers.

[vineyardmike]

You say tampons but do you mean contraceptives? Mothers still use tampons.

Contraceptives are designed to prevent pregnancy. Tampons contain period blood, which happens before and after pregnancy. Diapers are for babies post pregnancy.

[Zircom]

So from that point of view, one could see conservatives constant and endless attempts on restricting abortion and birth control as trying to prevent would-be liberal voters from being politically active?

[sul_tasto]

The problem as I see it is the politicians and media stoking the flames of any controversial issue they can for profit. This ‘issue’ is an excellent example.

[psychphysic]

Even England Scotland and Wales are separate countries.

I suppose in theory the US already has a mechanism for managing this disagreement federal and state laws.

[ElfinTrousers]

I'm not an expert in UK law but I'm pretty sure that the variation in laws between one US state and another are much bigger than the variation between the four constituent UK countries.

[matthewmacleod]

There's actually quite a substantial difference between Scots law versus English and Welsh law in particular! Even disregarding substantial divergence in legislation, Scots law is a mixed civil/common law system, versus the common law system of England and Wales. I'm no US legal expert, but I'd imagine the differences are roughly on par to those found between US states. My understanding is that it's similar to the sort of difference you'd see between Louisiana's system and other states'.

[ElfinTrousers]

TIL. I'd ask now what the difference is between a barrister and a solicitor, but I'm not sure that's a thing an American is even capable of understanding.

[matthewmacleod]

At the simplest level it’s really just the lawyers who operate in the court (barristers) versus those who operate outwith it (solicitors). It’s a bit more complex and couched in tradition but that’s the gist of it. It’s actually from the same etymology as the “Bar” in the US, as in “admission to the bar” or “the bar association”. It represents a person who has “passed the bar” in the courtroom, separating spectators from participants. It’s just that the setup is a little different, with most solicitors not having a right of audience in the court.

Another difference in Scots law - no barristers but “advocates” instead.

[psychphysic]

That was sort of my point.

The idea is that Europe is much more varied than the US. Yet the UK is a country seemingly made up of countries. So difference isn't enough?

And the US already has a system to allow quite different laws to be enacted.

[ElfinTrousers]

Ah, I misunderstood. The thing is, although I believe the US government is more decentralized than your typical European government, and you're right that the various states have very different laws, the Federal government is still extremely powerful, and Federal law covers every subject that you can think of. Since the spectrum of political opinion represented is so wide, this means that any decision the Federal government makes will upset a lot of people. There basically never is a compromise decision that everyone feels at least OK about.

[channel_t]

I'd say it's more universally an extremely polarized urban vs. rural divide that isn't really defined by the borders of any particular region of the country, although more rural states like Idaho tend to carry over common rural paranoias and resentments into the political space.

[dsfyu404ed]

I think it's more socioeconomic class than geography.

A blue collar tradesman that is a partner in an urban business and nets 250k/yr probably going to have more in common ideologically with a guy who drives a tractor in BFE than he does with a techie or a doctor.

[jstarfish]

One does not gain strength through fragmentation.

Russia has been making land grabs. China is dancing around the same. Both countries have roughly similar and institutionalized culture/doctrine.

Meanwhile, the west is repeatedly encouraged to consider taking steps that reduces our global footprint and leads us away from unity. Hmm...

[dsfyu404ed]

>Meanwhile, the west is repeatedly encouraged to consider taking steps that reduces our global footprint and leads us away from unity. Hmm...

Freedom isn't free. God forbid Wall Street have to sell off a few banana republics to the Russians or Chinese.

A lot of us are sick of playing world police and world janitor. We're sick of pissing money and lives into far-off quagmires that are only tangentially related to us. Regardless of what's going on domestically there are many who want nothing to do with foreign entanglements and many more who would be fine accepting more Russian and Chinese influence overseas if it meant getting rid of a lot of their political problems at home. It's not like the US is incapable of existing as anything other than the sole superpower. We were fine the first 200yr.

[vineyardmike]

To be fair, we had a much worse quality of life pre-superpower.

America was a rough agrarian nation compared to much of Europe, then we had a civil war, then a very tumultuous period of expansion, WWI, then a major depression, WWII, then super power time…

I am personally much happier as a super power. My 401k goes upwards much more with the US economy pushed outwards, and our jobs pay better and are much more impactful. Everything is much cheaper -especially our car centric culture- due to our shadow influence over oil nations. We’re safer with a control over the globe as opposed to being dependent on another military and that nations whims.

I don’t know what you’re thinking of, but I suspect our primacy in the globe is the main distraction keeping us from tearing ourselves apart. Nations tend to go through upheaval when their quality of life plateaus or gets worse. I like America as it is and don’t want to see further upheaval.

[ElfinTrousers]

One gains strength through fragmentation if one loses dead weight in the process.

[msf1024]

But where would you split it? Regardless of what the blue/red state maps show, it's really an urban/rural split.

[stuckinhell]

No idea, but market research shows people are heavily moving around right now due to political orientations.

I can imagine the the southeast becoming completely red and the northeast becoming completely blue.