International travel

Brother, do you think any country is afforded that level of differentiation by the common people? People probably know that not literally every single american supports Trump, but they will still consider any american to be “from that place” first and foremost until proven otherwise.

I am german myself and most certainly not aligned with our current government, but you bet i have to justify myself to others anyway.

Tell that to the countless brown people your country has tortured in the last decades you simpleton

Sounds like an expectation of special treatment that many Americans don’t even afford to people from other countries lol.

Most American tourists definitely don’t do this.

Yeah. Also, like, I’ve never met locals who are like that. I’m American. I travel pretty frequently. It is obvious from my accent, and also from the fact that I tell people I’m American when they ask. And also due to the confused look in my eye when someone tells me the temperature. I’ve never run into anyone who openly hates Americans visiting their country.

obviously I can’t say anything to actual statistics, but I can provide anecdotal evidence of this one time back in Europe when some very clearly American tourists were claiming to be Canadian, and the Canadians and Americans in our group were just kind of side eyeing them from a few tables over

That’s why I picked up a second language. We rarely speak English when traveling abroad now.

Yeah, sad but true

How I feel as a citizen of a first world country.

People are more likely to be interested in who you are as a person than your country’s politics.

The current political state of the US is just the icing on the shit cake. When I was a kid traveling abroad with my parents 30 years ago, Americans were considered fat, ignorant, and egotistical. That they expected the rest of the world to speak English, accept USD everywhere, and give them special treatment. That they were loud, obnoxious, ignorant, and rude.

Same experience here, and when I traveled as an immigrant, everyone was always very cordial and welcoming to me (which is more than I can say for the immigrant experience in America). I was in Brazil during Bolsonaro and found many lefties who appreciated the acknowledgement that they were still there working hard despite their country’s leadership (one of them got murdered by his father over politics). I was in Chile during the student riots under Pinera too and was welcomed by the leftists in the street throwing bottle bombs and the cops in riot gear with water cannons. The average person everywhere is involved in a continuous global struggle for human rights, education, economic equity, etc, and they recognize your empathy no matter what flavor of billionaire is currently running the country.

It really depends though. If you are an openminded american who respects the locals and doesn’t have any issues talking a stand against the shitty politics and the mess the USA calls an economic situation, then you will likely not have an issue.

If you are an obnoxious asshole who thinks the USA is the greatest place ever and that any other place is beneath you, you might experience some substantial blowback.

Most people are clever enough to differentiate those two groups.

If the US starts a war against the country you travel to that might change though.

I am Canadian. People in Europe would always ask if I was American after hearing me speak, and their faces would always lighten up when I told them I was Canadian.

In Spain it was the worst. I would sometimes overhear service staff tell each other I was American and proceed to get awful service. It got to the point that I started going in to random stores to try to (unsuccessfully) find something with a Canadian flag on it.

I will try my best to be obviously Canadian next time.

I dunno, maybe it’s just me, but anytime abroad I tell people I’m from Jersey. First and foremost I identify as. New Jerseyan. “American” and “Canadian” are so incredibly broad. Are you from Vancouver? Toronto? Are you a Newfie or from Edmonton? Shit, are you Quebecois? The same applies in the US, I don’t for a second begin to think of any of the regions as being remotely similar. Northeast, Atlantic, Midwest, West Coast, all very different places with very different people. I didn’t include the South because they’re the worst.

So yeah, I’ve kinda always just led with that. Maybe us people from Jersey are just like that though, I dunno. I won’t lie, sometimes it leads me to saying things like “I’m an hour outside of New York.” I leave off “city” because New York State may as well not even exist, it’s essentially a barren wasteland of former mining towns that are in a depressed death spiral of long, gray winters and trips to the finger lakes.

definitely a hasty generalisation.

You sound like the type of people OC is being confused with.

Eh, really depends. Some immigrants keep supporting right-wing and authoritarian leaders in their home countries, regardless of where they’re from. There are many immigrant Russians who don’t support Putin, but there are some who do. Just like there are MAGA Latinos. Same as many Balkan people who move to Austria, Germany, etc. who still support right-wing leaders whose economy- and people-ruinning policies forced them to move for work in the first place.

People are dumb, tribalistic animals.

Compelling as your anecdata is…

Most Americans who travel outside the US aren’t travelling to Europe. They are going to Cancun, or similar destinations in Mexico, where they will be surrounded by other americans. Or they will be in Canada, where it would be silly to try to lie about being Canadian.

And beyond that, a large share of American international tourists are older people - people advanced enough in their careers to drop a couple grand eating fancy cheese for a few weeks. Of course, these are the people who give American tourists a bad rap. But also, these people aren’t the sort to lie about being American.

And beyond even that - the biggest nail in the coffin for this idea is simply the fact that lying takes effort. Unless Americans consistently encountered outward hostility when introducing themselves as American (they don’t), they aren’t going to even think about lying, because why would they make their nice vacation super weird and awkward by trying to remember the names of Canadian national parks and taking about beavers to the people they meet?

That’s kinda my point. People aren’t judging me based on my nationality, because they can just notice that I’m not a dick.

I’m a) currently travelling in Europe, and b) not American. I have encountered plenty in the six weeks or so I’ve been here though. Right now I’m sitting on a riverboat that is about three quarters Americans.

I’ve found that some of the stereotypes are true. Mostly the Americans are loud. Some are loudly ignorant. Some make questionable choices - I’ve seen a few wearing the American flag on their clothes, or blatant bible references.

However, the vast majority of the Americans I’ve spent time talking to are embarrassed by the current political shenanigans. We’ve encountered a few in full throttle support, but it’s rare.

I’ve found the Canadians interesting. Most we’ve spoken with are avoiding visiting America and plan to do so for a few years yet. More than one has said they’re afraid an over zealous border guard would dent them entry, which would affect any travel plans for years into the future, so they’re not taking the chance. Sounds fair to me.

Are Americans abroad garbage? No, not all. Some are. But they do stand out like dog’s bollocks.