half_fiction

Representation matters

Right, and Irish-Americans have more knowledge and understanding about Irish-American culture.

The other poster was making it seem like American culture is homogenous or like descendants of immigrants can't still retain distinct cultural traditions and identities outside of generic American. Whether or not those traditions are the same as the original country of origin is immaterial. Nobody is claiming that it is.

What I don't understand is why Americans portray themselves as Dutch when coming to the Netherlands.

Do they, though? Are there really that many Americans who think or try to pretend they are actually Dutch, instead of Americans who are have Dutch ancestry?

It honestly sounds like they are just trying to connect by sharing a commonality and something that is (probably) important to them in some way. It's an expression of appreciation. Even if the cultural traditions carried on in the US are different than in the modern-day country--so what? It doesnt make those cultural traditions less important to the people who celebrate them. I fail to understand what is wrong with acknowledging or appreciating where those traditions originated.

Is it just a matter of semantics and an objection to the label itself "(whatever nationality)-American"?

The level of authority that you're speaking with about another country's culture while clearly only having a surface-level understanding is actually wild. Maybe accept that the Americans who are telling you otherwise have more knowledge and understanding of their own culture.

Yes, that reminds me of when Florida(?) started requiring drug testing for welfare recipients and ended up spending more on the tests than whatever they saved uncovering fraud.

The Mountain Goats

You can't truly believe rich people are just inherently better at not dying of heart disease or cancer.

It's such a a ridiculously niche joke and it's soooo good.

I do this to my mom as a way to be very low-contact with her. It's a huge relief.

I used to love texting when it was only a handful of friends but these days I hate the pressure of it being ever-present in my pocket and the social expectation to answer in a relatively timely manner. (This has led me to being a horrible texter, sorry everyone.)

I miss the old days of AOL instant messenger. Your online status did all the heavy lifting to communicate when you had some free time and felt like chatting.

I'm just objecting to the fact that you're just acting like people with college degrees are somehow more equipped to not fuck up your coffee. That has nothing to do with it. If they truly keep fucking up your coffee it's because they just don't care enough and are phoning it in. People with degrees are equally capable of making you a bad cup of coffee lol.

You can't be serious. There are plenty of college grads who are stupid as fuck. Source: have worked with many.

Also, if they're fucking up your order that badly it's probably just because they hate their job and don't really give a fuck.

It's from the gymnastics balance beam final. The silver medalist is Zhou Yaqin from China.