I’m an American immigrant in Germany, and looking at American culture with a bit more distance… yeah, 100%.
Personal space and general public respect are two areas where I notice it most- Germans are not an especially friendly or warm people (not a criticism, just a somewhat hackneyed observation), but they don’t require as much personal space, and even with a significantly more formal culture, strangers still yell at/aggress each other more frequently on the street, when someone’s doing something dickish or stupid, even in places big enough to be cities, but not big enough to give no fucks.
I was once awoken at ~4am by college kids drunkenly ringing everyone’s doorbells up and down my street. My first thought was, ”they’re gonna get shot.” My second thought was “they’re not gonna get shot- they’d probably be more polite if that was a risk.”
I think that explains the larger pattern as well: Americans are wary of each other. Not always, obviously, but generally speaking, anyone could be armed and anyone could be having a bad fucking day- I think that lurks in people’s subconscious and colors how people treat each other.
I’m an American immigrant in Germany, and looking at American culture with a bit more distance… yeah, 100%.
Personal space and general public respect are two areas where I notice it most- Germans are not an especially friendly or warm people (not a criticism, just a somewhat hackneyed observation), but they don’t require as much personal space, and even with a significantly more formal culture, strangers still yell at/aggress each other more frequently on the street, when someone’s doing something dickish or stupid, even in places big enough to be cities, but not big enough to give no fucks.
I was once awoken at ~4am by college kids drunkenly ringing everyone’s doorbells up and down my street. My first thought was, ”they’re gonna get shot.” My second thought was “they’re not gonna get shot- they’d probably be more polite if that was a risk.”
I think that explains the larger pattern as well: Americans are wary of each other. Not always, obviously, but generally speaking, anyone could be armed and anyone could be having a bad fucking day- I think that lurks in people’s subconscious and colors how people treat each other.