But wait, maybe the USA is more diverse

Comparison table with colour-coded columns: Norway vs Albania (green, different in every way - language, currency, religion, government) versus Alaska vs Florida (red, identical in every way except pizza toppings). The punchline: two European countries are far more diverse than two US states.

Oh

Reddit comment: 'An example I like to bring up, as a comparison to the US soda v pop thing, is how there are 95 different words for the act of putting snow on someone's face in Sweden.'

A few more disagreeing Reddit comments

“…each state might as well be a different country. The food, clothing styles, vocabulary, accent, culture, and so much more varies between states.”

I’m from Iowa. I can only really speak for the Midwest here. Outside of slight variations in accents (well okay Minnesota definitely has its own thing in that department) and maybe the sports flags you’ll see outside people’s houses, there are no significant differences between people from my hometown and the average person from Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, both Dakotas, Montana, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Missouri, or Ohio.

The entire Great Plains region and then some is almost entirely made up of white farmers with German backgrounds they can barely remember because WWI happened (German was basically banned, so the actual linguistic diversity we had here got stomped out because freedom). We pretty much all eat at McDonald’s, watch NFL football (the real kind!!1!/s), and speak English, and a majority of the people here go to some denomination of Protestant church (though a significant minority are Catholics).

We share the same basic history (pioneers showed up, killed/forcibly relocated the natives, and set up towns) and our buildings all have the same cookie-cutter styles. This region, which is about the size of Eastern Europe, is possibly the most homogeneous place on earth (we’re number one!!1!1). That’s not necessarily a bad thing, I just wish people on this site would quit pretending we’re so fucking unique and diverse.

I recently watched a video on Youtube about New Ulm, Minnesota and the history of some war against the natives. The video was interesting, but then the guy said that the architecture of New Ulm was very German and that there were a lot of German-style buildings. But almost all buildings looked like any building in any American town and not at all like something you’d ever see in Germany. Even one of their oldest buildings, a brewery, looked distinctively American.

“I always get a kick out of Europeans who somehow think they are more worldly because they can and often do travel between EU nations, and Americans generally don’t travel between international borders as much. There is far more societal difference between California, Kentucky, and Minnesota”

That is just straight up incorrect. London, Paris and Bonn have three different languages, three different country borders, two different currencies, three different school systems, three different politic systems, three different healthcare systems, three different cuisines. What those american states have different is climate, geography and maybe a slight difference in accent and cuisine

You are simply wrong. And again, you put this emphasis on national borders, as if that is somehow significant. It isn’t. There are absolutely as stark contrast between those three American states as there are those three European states.

What are these differences that are as significant then? In those three states the population shares a language, currency, government, education system, popular entertainment, popular music and TV, celebrity culture, presidential elections, food culture and more besides. Those three cities you listed share a small overlap in music and an even smaller overlap in TV. So what are the biggest differences you would say between the states that the cities in Europe don’t have?

“I’ve been to 13 European countries and they’ve all been exactly the same”

Meanwhile me, a Dane, when I went to Germany the first time I didn’t know how to get gas or pay in a restaurant because it was so different lol. Let alone any other country being way more different.

Look, he’s obviously done his research and we may need to give him this one. He’s obviously been whale watching in the Italian fjords, watched the bullfighting in Copenhagen, and marvelled at the wide open spaces of the Swiss fens.

“European culture is all the same”

Javhol European c’est uno muito good Γλώσσα. We kõik have kulttuuri, not urozmaicony i det minste.

Scotland and Albania. Same culture.

“The differences between US states are equal to or even bigger than the differences between European countries”

Not really. Sure, there’s a lot of differences in the lives of those San Diego and the French speakers in rural Northern Maine, but the same could be said of the French speakers in the internationalist city of Geneva, and the Germans in rural Appenzell within Switzerland. Or the Sylheti community in Tower Hamlets in London, and the Scottish Gaelic speakers in the Outer Hebrides.

Sure, the US is a diverse place, but lets not pretend that European countries are homogenous. Even a country as small as Luxembourg has 3 official languages, and 10%+ of the population is Portuguese.

[OP:] Well said, in hindsight I was overstating our diversity and understating Europe. I would like to travel there one day so I’m less of an armchair traveler but peasanthood in America doesn’t leave a lot of money for travel.

“Countries in Europe do not have more differences than states in America”

I am danish, so just a random comparison, with the first country in Europe that slipped into my mind

Denmark:
Language: Danish and German
Government: Unitary Parliament, Constitional monarchy
Ethnic group: 86% Danes

Albania:
Language: Albanian, Greek, Aromanian, Macedonian.
Religion: 59% Islam
Government: Republic
Ethnic groups: 82% Albanian

And we’ll leave it at that because it’s so obvious that our cultures, geography, climate, economies etc etc are so vastly different. It should be so insanely obvious.

“The variety of cultures state to state in the US is equivalent to the variety of cultures country to country in Europe.”

In Sweden there are about 95 different words for the act of rubbing snow in someone’s face. [original in Swedish]

Just think what differences bring to your head Italian design and German design.

Please tell them that different dips for their fast food orders is not a cultural difference.

“The cultures in Miami, Austin and Las Vegas are more different than any combination of three European countries F1 races in…”

Don’t you hate it when you’re wandering around the rolling orange sunburnt hills of Spain and then suddenly someone reminds you it’s actually Norway.

I’ve vacationed in all three of these cities and plenty of Europe. The American “culture” in all three cities is indistinguishable. Guns, Jesus, Walmart and NASCAR.

…

You couldn’t find three F1 cities in Europe that are so similar.