To my fellow Americans; What are some things you consider to be quintessentially “American”? To users from other countries: When you think of the USA, what are things that come to mind?

27 comments

1. I like your list–though I don’t think cheating on taxes is quintessentially American.

   I’ll add

   Consumerism

   Obsession with sports year-round. Especially school-related (high school and college) sports.

   Multiculturalism, especially re: food

   Cars in general (not that cars are necessarily American now, but cars are just “required” in a way that they’re not in other places).

2. Red Solo cups too, if many of our non-American friends’ intrigue is to be believed.

3. Mentioning your ancestry to any foreigner.

4. Individualism.

5. Aircraft Carriers

6. Root beer

7. * Hollywood (high budget and production value movies)
   * National parks systems (being a country with one of the largest and most accessible parks systems)
   * Videogame culture and creation (many top game studios are in America)
   * Apple products
   * Rodeos and cowboys
   * Celebrating holidays with fireworks, block parties, cookouts
   * The only country with all 5 climate zones
   * Hurricanes and tornados, America has the most, which is one of the reasons why it also has the most natural disaster movies centered around that
   * Road trips
   * Random but America has one of the largest amount of nude campgrounds, resorts and communities.

8. Free speech

9. Road trips. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of someone taking a road trip outside of the US

10. Polio vaccines, moonshots, the internet, blue jeans, pax americana.

11. It’s more of an American vs German thing, but I describe the host of differences in brand marketing, customer service, and general business attitude thusly:

    In America, the customer is always right. In Germany, the expert is always right.

12. Constant in-fighting seems very American. It’s fucking exhausting. Wow, do those internal disagreements get dropped fast when we’re presented with an external threat though. It seems like many countries haven’t understood this about the US. They see internal division and see weakness and a lack of resolve and are then shocked by the universally supported, massive over-reaction by US when they move against it. Pearl Harbor comes to mind here, as do the 9/11 attacks. All Americans do is fight. When there isn’t an external enemy to fight, we fight with each other for entertainment.

13. The word “okay” and the fact that every culture on Earth has adopted it.

14. Suburbs, Basketball, American Football, Big cars, Softdrinks, Incredibly nice and outgoing people (in a specific way you don’t see a lot in other countries), Big cities with a grid structure, and so on

15. From what I’ve read on here, being outgoing and friendly with strangers seems to be an American thing.

16. Drive-thrus, especially in fast food restaurants.

17. Big houses. With neighbors who aren’t right on top of each other.

18. Take your personal vehicle everywhere. No exceptions.

19. National Parks System

20. Hailing from the south, definitely college football. Also BBQ cookouts.

21. I’m not American; I’m Filipino. I can only speak according to what I saw while visiting. The following come to mind:

    1) Huge open spaces,
    2) Ridiculously large portion sizes,
    3) Guns,
    4) Legal weed,
    5) Big box stores (we have those too),
    6) Car-centric infrastructure (just like the Philippines, I guess),
    7) Loud conversations,
    8) Random greetings even if they don’t know you,
    9) Buying a large drink even if there are free refills because “an upgrade only costs a few cents,”
    10) Saying you’re Filipino, Italian, Irish, etc., even though your family’s been in the States for over 50 years and you don’t speak the language and haven’t even set foot in your old country,
    11) Respecting the military,
    12) Thinking a 2km walk is unreasonable, and so on.

22. German chocolate cake, the wedge salad, Delmonico steak, a cheeseburger, Korean BBQ tacos, apple pie, spaghetti and meatballs, lobster rolls, chocolate chip cookies, pecan pie, buffalo wings, the Ruben, corn dogs, deep fried anything, S’mores, Deep dish pizza, ranch dressing, brownies, philly cheesesteak, ranch dressing, peanut butter, english muffin, cuban sandwich, chop suey, Chimichanga, chili con carne, french dressing, the fortune cookie, french roast coffee, taco salad, russian dressing, spicy tuna roll, sourdough bread, tater tots, meatloaf, chicken fried steak, crabcakes, macaroni and cheese, potato chips, popcorn, clam chowder, Po’ Boy, baked beans, nachos, hot dogs, thanksgiving dinner, garbage plates, frito pie, fried green tomatoes, election cakes, mint julips, grits.

    ​

    The United States is a culinary power house. A true melting pot of the world cuisines stacked upon themselves and refined in ways no one else imagined. There is no great culinary wonder that represents the US better than Korean BBQ tacos.

23. Country Western music.

    I hate it, but it’s quintessentially American

24. Thr movie “Sandlot”

25. Hip Hop

26. Jazz.

27. Jazz music

    Tap-dancing

    Blues music

    Baseball

    Over-the-top patriotism (especially if it shames/judges other Americans)

    Religion in politics

    An over-obscession with pro-life