sethboy66

Toothpaste my guy, it’ll clean up scratches real good.

I have personally written code for quantum computers to save time due to algorithmic complexity; I was a college student at the time.

So if their usefulness is stuck in the unknowable future then I’m a time traveler.

ME: A 12 yo Navy brat living in Italy, on vacation at a Palermo resort.

The waiter (addressing a table of 10-13 yo kids): I can take your order while drinks are self serve; soft drinks are over there, wine and whisky to the left of that.

ME: Wine it is then.

I don’t know what the legal drinking age was at the time (mid-2000s), but if it was above 13 it certainly wasn’t really enforced.

I don’t understand your reply; I think you misunderstood my comment. OP is from Ireland (Europe), I’m saying that he is the one with Euro-identity bias, not you. From his locality within Europe, American shops appear ‘rundown’ in presentation, and there’s an implied suggestion that this is a uniquely American thing (within the global North-West). With that comes the bias that since he’s in Europe, the rest of Europe (or global North-West in general) would share this perspective.

I’ve had this same bias myself, having grown up in Italy I had assumed that was generally representative of Europe and there were many things I thought of as purely American that were actually common in parts of Europe.

Based on your and the other guy’s comment this sounds like European/Old-World identity bias (and a bit of availability bias); Assuming that other countries within one’s group-identity are very similar and [non-European country] is a lone standout when it comes to some aspect that one just learned they differ on. It’s so common to see these kinds of comments on posts of the form ‘why do American’s do this one weird thing different than everyone else’.