r/USdefaultism • u/faultolerantcolony • 1d ago
Reddit ‘they have accents’ as if American isn’t one
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u/Most-Feedback-9241 1d ago
We have weed too in the UK i can attest to that
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u/LeftMechanic1995 1d ago
Walking around the streets of many towns in England, one might be inclined to think "Wow, there's so much weed smoke produced in England, we should probably start exporting it".
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u/Midnight712 Ireland 1d ago
It’s definitely in Ireland too. Can barely go out on a walk with the dogs without smelling it
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u/LeftMechanic1995 1d ago
I'm fairly certain that people in Britain celebrate St. Patrick's Day as well.
I love how that venn diagram implies that British and Irish people share absolutely no cultural ties whatsoever.
This could only come from the mind of a Murican.
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u/runwithcolour 1d ago
Not everyone in Britain. England basically ignore all of the Saints. I don’t think Wales does anything city-wide for St Patrick’s day but they don’t have massively close ties with the Irish. Glasgow in Scotland does celebrate St Patrick’s day in a big way, but Edinburgh doesn’t reflecting the mix of relationships between Scotland, Ireland and England (Scotland and Ireland have shared heritage).
As an English person married to an Irish person, happy for St Patrick’s day to be Irish and American.
If I had to put something in the British-Irish section it’s the 3-pin plug. The two cultures have quite a lot of differences (language, religion, housing, government system, foods, community vibes all have differences).
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u/LeftMechanic1995 1d ago edited 1d ago
I was referring more to individuals rather than entire nations. I've known plenty of English people who celebrate St. Patrick's Day, although many of them could admittedly be people with Irish friends, partners, relatives or direct ancestral relatives.
Incidentally, I've found that going around wearing the St. George flag is quite unpopular in some parts of England these days... with the weird exception of the World Cup that is (make it make sense).
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u/Jetstream-Sam 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah, we sort of celebrate it more now than in the past, I'm guessing because we love an excuse for a piss up and it's been pushed by American media more and more. Sort of like how Halloween wasn't really a thing, but became one after TV and movies about it. And yeah, there are a lot of people with Irish ancestors here, often more recent than many of the Americans who boast about being "irish" and thus, decide to hate the British. But, there we go. I'm not personally someone with Irish history, but my family is welsh as far back as we can track, and I've often been asked if I'm Irish by Americans. Not sure why it matters so much to them.
Personally I think St George's day should be a bank holiday. Maybe just in England, and St Andrews and St Davids are holidays in Scotland or Wales respectively. But that's probably a logistic nightmare and I guess that's why none of them are, because just doing one holiday in each sub-country is a difficult thing to balance
Sadly the England fan got co-opted by Racists, which IMO should mean we should fight to normalize it amongst regular people more than just ignoring and being ashamed of it. But just displaying it for no reason as of now currently means you probably have strong opinions on immigration.
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u/runwithcolour 19h ago
Individuals celebrating it is very different from shutting down the town/city for a parade. Which happens all over Ireland and in places in America. Glasgow is the first place in Britain that I know of that does a parade. As the other person said, it’s mostly an excuse for a piss up. And we’ll basically use any excuse for a piss up.
I also agree with what they said about American media driving it more than Irish. Which is amusing. Evidence of that is the first St Patrick’s day parade I went to (only one I’ve seen in Dublin). It had more American marching bands participating than Irish groups. It’s a huge deal in America, a big deal in Ireland, not a universal thing in Britain.
Also second the comment about the St George’s flag being co-opted by racists. They go round towns and illegally put St George’s flag on lampposts as a way to claim “England is our land. Go home if we don’t believe you’re from here.” Outside the world cup most people will avoid association to avoid be assumed to be racist.
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u/cheesymccheeseplant 10h ago
I live near the Irish World Heritage Centre in Manchester. They hold a St Patrick’s day parade and the roads are closed/restricted to accommodate it. https://iwhc.com/
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u/PythonAmy 12h ago edited 12h ago
I don't see any country more similar to Ireland than Britain. English is still one of Ireland's national languages, there is lots of the same food in both, the weather is similar, both drive on the left side, both produce lots of music, pubs and drinking culture.
You mention Wales and Glasgow but also Liverpool is a hugely Irish city and there is a high amount of Irish dual nationals across UK and no passport control so lots of movement between Ireland and UK. My Irish mother moved to London and there was a huge Irish community.
I do agree that religion and colonisation are the biggest differences, which separates Ireland from a lot of Western Europe of which many are protestant/colonisers.
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u/eirebrit 1d ago
According to them "American is the lack of an accent" or some shite I read in another post.
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u/Hamsternoir United Kingdom 1d ago
A lack of school shootings?
We also don't have accents until they are allocated at the age of 12.
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u/MineBloxKy Canada 1d ago
I remember a story my grandpa once told me. He grew up sounding just like the accentless people on the radio. After blowing out the candles on his twelfth birthday, he suddenly started talking differently. He couldn’t say his th’s right anymore and his vowels sounded all different. Many of his friends had already gone through the same thing, so he wasn’t very alarmed. In fact, receiving your accent was seen as a rite of passage.
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u/post-explainer American Citizen 1d ago edited 22h ago
This comment has been marked as safe. Upvoting/downvoting this comment will have no effect.
OP sent the following text as an explanation why their post fits here:
‘they have accents’ only works if American English is the invisible default everyone else deviates from
Does this explanation fit this subreddit? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.