MsElui

one thing that keeps catching me out even now (9 years in) is that so many cultural references are completely nothing to me. I dont mean current pop culture - but the kind of thing like Morecambe and Wise, Paul Daniels, The Multi colored swap shop etc. You know them from your childhood and know exactly what is being referenced by the name or situation BUT cannot recognize or have any context for the equivalent in the USA as i didnt grow up with it and it wasnt part of British Culture. So people reference these equivalents in the US and it means absolutely nothing to me. That does feel weird when everyone else is misty eyed or in hysterics etc at the reference.

And the reverse is also true - there are situations where i want to use a popular catchphrase/joke/reference from back in the day - but its just not worth it as it will go right over peoples heads here.

johnwoo

I've been here so long, any British cultural references after about 1980 mean nothing to me.
I'm originally from West London, and when I hear young Londoners talking I can barely understand them. Even more so anyone from the Tyneside.

johnwoo

This.

kodokan

This! I knew intellectually that the US was very church-going, but had assumed it was more of a cultural, social thing to be part of the community, a bit like going to a UK church for the Carol Service and the mince pie party afterwards even if you're an atheist.

I was very surprised to discover that no, they really, truly mean it, and that most of them genuinely believe the universe is being controlled by a supernatural being. Not in that UK slightly self-effacing 'well, no one really knows of course, but I like to think...' way, but wholeheartedly, and openly talk about it as total fact.

Nutek

Scares the crap out of me.

RoadWarriorFromLP

There are a few of these in New Zealand:

mrken30

I do wonder if there are any real life flat earthers in the US. I know about the creationists, that's scary.

SultanOfSwing

Oh yes. Also people who believe in ghosts, that aliens abduct people (although I do think there is a very high probability that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe, even if it hasn't contacted us, or likely doesn't even know about us), that the Illuminati are real, that there is a New World Order presided over by reptilian aliens, people who believe things like homeopathy and psychics are real, the list goes on.

That's not just confined to the US though, there are nutjobs all around the world. Case in point - Derek Acorah, David Icke, Uri Geller ...

Pulaski

Undoubtedly, but contrary to Nutek and MrKen, I don't believe that it is, in any definition of the word I am familiar with, "scary". People can believe whatever TF they like as far as I am concerned, so long as they don't physically threaten me or my family.

SultanOfSwing

It's not scary. Trouble is, most people who believe weird shit like that have a problem keeping it to themselves, which can be annoying. Annoying ranks higher on the list than scary for me.

Nutek

I find it overbearingly obtrusive, both in media and politics.

But then I believe all religion to be a bunch of vindictive crap that it's followers seem incapable of keeping to themselves.

mrken30

It's scary when they decide to teach creationism in schools instead of real science. As for faith healing, thats just crazy talk. If I'm sick I want real medicine.

Not sure about ghosts, there seems to be more spiritualist churches in the UK compared to the US

Probably not much worse than Chinese medicine, eating Tiger claws to cure a cold, or something as ridiculous.

kodokan

The way the annoying manifests for me, is that people who have strong supernatural beliefs tend to be really boring thinkers and conversationalists. Because such a large part of their self-identity doesn't stand up to critical analysis, this habit of 'la la la, just won't think about it' spills over into other areas of their life, and they don't develop any sort of rational thinking filter when it comes to politics, current events, gossip about the neighbors - anything, really, where it benefits to switch on a 'yeah, but is that reeeeeally likely?' perspective.

I didn't encounter this in the UK. People I knew there seemed to manage to reconcile religious belief with complex thought. They mostly seemed to have thought very deeply about religion, often with much angst, concluded there was no rational basis for it, but decided that they still preferred to believe it was how life worked. Most religious Americans seem to deliberately shy away from thinking about it too hard, as if they're frightened the whole house of cards will come tumbling down and everything they purport to stand for will be revealed as a lie.

zzrmark

Sorry, late to the party, again!
I had a good old chuckle and a major WTF moment when I took my test. After passing my ridiculously easy test and exiting the building with my shiny new licence in my grubby mitts I witnessed one of the DMV examiners stood by the passenger door and shouting at her driver to let her into the car.
I had seen the driver in question earlier on in the waiting room accompanied by her daughter, I reckon the daughter was in her late seventies!!! I came to the conclusion that the driver had forgotten that she was supposed to be driving an examiner round the course and was probably wondering why some strange woman was hollering at her from the passenger side of the car...

I assume she passed, I think Florida likes giving old scrotes a licence as the really old ones refuse to die by other means and just keep going otherwise...

SultanOfSwing

Yes, very much so. There is a contingent of people - the 'Coast to Coast AM' crowd, for want of a better sweeping generalization , who will not listen to reason, even when properly presented in a non-confrontational way and just fall back on the "well, you can't know everything ..." trope.

Can't listen to reason, won't listen to reason, and yes, when it spills over into real life it can become detrimental.

I didn't encounter it in the UK either. In fact, when I 'came out' as an atheist (as someone who had identified as a Christian for years prior), I had a great many heated, yet friendly discussions with friends who still were religious, and we always ended up on good terms. I tend not to talk about religion, or my lack of it, to people I don't know really, really well out here because their beliefs seem to be more deep seated than I was previously used to, and people can get really quite defensive and prickly when they find out you're an atheist, even a non-vocal-unless-provoked one.