[JohnKemeny]

> comparing individual European countries that were relatively cohesive and healthy until recently, to the whole of the USA

Isn't USA a country? How is a country-by-country comparison "typical Reddit ignorance"?

I'm gonna use my typical Reddit ignorance to guess you are indeed from the USA.

[1659447091]

I don't know much about "Reddit ignorance" as I don't use it except for a couple programming languages. But I understand the argument/point trying to be made.

Many states in the US are as large as countries in Western Europe. Both Texas and Alaska are larger than France in land size.

If the US broke apart, California and Texas would take 2 slots in the top 10 world economies (by GDP) with NY at 11 and Florida behind them beating out Spain. Less known states (in terms of world recognition) beat out many countries too. Illinois beating Switzerland & Pennsylvania running about even. Ohio, Georgia, Washington (the state, not dc) N. Carolina soundly outpacing Belgium, Sweden & Ireland. etc

For size, population and GDP, the combined countries of west Europe (that is fuzzily grouped together for these purposes) is comparable to the collection of states in the US. Thus, should either be compared by similar US State to single European country, or USA to the Western Europe conglomerate of countries.

That is how many Americans see the US. Culture, customs and even beliefs and language* can vary between states in ways one would think they are in a different country. This way of American's seeing the US vs Europe also relates to geography, sure, most Americans can't point European countries on a map and name them, but how many people outside NA can locate & name US states that are not CA, NY, or maybe TX?

* yeah it's pretty much all english, but there are a few distinctly different version of english where some could have trouble understanding each other (as can happen in large countries). Some 13% speaks Spanish. While it's all Spanish, Texas Spanish is not the same as California Spanish; try using your very limited Texas Spanish in Spain if you want funny looks.

[JohnKemeny]

I get what you're saying: stuff in the USA tend to be on the large side, but that's not what makes a country. The USA speaks more or less one language. In Europe, English is literally only spoken in UK. Other countries speak different languages and it is in fact very rare for two countries to speak the same language.

Moreover, USA have their supreme leader and (the former) constitution. In Europe, each country has their own parliamentary setup, presidents/ministers, their own legislature, fiscal politics, etc.

Of course someone from USA is of the opinion that Europe is some small homogenous entity, while each us state is unique in its own way, that's not at all surprising.

[1659447091]

It's not only about language. Many are English as a 2nd, 3rd or even 4th language in Europe. There are hundreds of languages spoken in the US, as in Europe. And if one doesn't look too closely the EU can remind one of the US, particularly with the Schengen Area.

And to be fair, our Supreme Leader is also getting away with being Supreme Leader by proxy of western European states that keep capitulating to his whims on specific things; our hell is their hell. US states ave their own equivalent of parliamentary setup, presidents/ministers, their own legislature, fiscal politics, etc. In some states women have bodily autonomy, in others they are a miscarriage away from being suspected criminal.

> Of course someone from USA is of the opinion that Europe is some small homogenous entity, while each us state is unique in its own way, that's not at all surprising.

If you are suggesting that is my view, then you completely misread what I wrote.

Americans seeing each state as its own little country neatly grouped together in a geographical region does not equal Americans seeing Europe as a single country. I was pointing out why the individual states can be comparable to individual countries in Europe based on size, population, laws and economies.

[hopelite]

I don’t know what it is with you reddit people. You’re like a proto-religion, a kind of cult or something yet unclassified but related.

The simplest things are incomprehensible to you due to seemingly emotional states of mind, like that comparing the Netherlands to the USA is a nonsensical exercise in performative intelligence.

You were told the USA is a country and the Netherlands is also a country; thus you cannot even realize that violating the two is logically and realistically insane. In sure you’ve seen Idiocracy, right? It’s like that scene where the “cabinet” keeps repeating the phrase about “Brawndo being what plants crave” as the protagonist is trying to explain the use of water to grow plants.

I wish you well and hope you can break free of the little boxes you’ve been conditioned to think in by your masters.

[JohnKemeny]

Oh boy did that hit a nerve. The reddit remark was tongue-in-cheek.

But I will use that same perspective to guess that you are from the US of A (a proto-religion, a kind of cult or something yet unclassified but related).

> I wish you well and hope you can break free of the little boxes you’ve been conditioned to think in by your masters.

Hehe, I invite you to spend some time in Europe some time in your life. I believe it will be eye opening.

[potato3732842]

Because each state in the US has it's own flavor of regulation (and culture) impacting most of the factors that affect life expectancy most greatly.

Your access to booze, cigs and healthcare is very different in NM than it is in MA.

[agubelu]

It's also a very US-centric thing to think that the US is the only country with significant differences between its internal subdivisions.

[NekkoDroid]

> Because each state in the US has it's own flavor of regulation (and culture) impacting most of the factors that affect life expectancy most greatly.

You can also say the same thing about the individual states in Germany.

[hopelite]

That is not at all the same in Germany. German states do not have sovereign jurisdiction over their territory. It is a common illusion of Europeans about how America at least is supposed to work, even if things are rather penetrated currently due to such ignorant perceptions and the propaganda that was pushed by the ruling class to cause your kind of confusion.

Think of it this way, the USA in its current corrupted form is far more like the EU that has been effectively conquering the sovereign countries through simply elbowing and corrupting its way into power through its weight. The USA is supposed to be more like the EU was up to about 2010, even though this corrupted and rotten state of the EU was always inevitable, because it was the very objective of the bait and switch operation, that especially the young of Europe have no clue they were conned with to deprive them of their freedom.

You should maybe read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution as a starting point and then think about how they outline a structure that is different than what exists today in the USA and especially how it is extremely different from the illegitimate and proto-tyrannical EU.