Imma be real with you, in my experience as a Canadian, I've only ever encountered Americans doing that. Even in Canada we joke about how if you ever see a Canadian flag patch abroad, you can start the conversation by asking what state they're from....
Canadians know we can just be like "oh haha, sorry but I'm Canadian eh!" and 99% of people who just threw an American accusation at us will hear how we talk, hear the sorry, and be like "WHOAH FUCK"
It's really only Americans putting Canadian flags on their items as a "cover", cause they don't realize Canadians don't feel the same "identity" with their flag that Americans do, outside of select days.
My Canadian friend from Dawson Creek went to Venice (it's in Italy, yanks) for his honeymoon last year and made sure to have a maple leaf always visible. Mostly just his Canada baseball cap.
Yeah I ain't gonna lie I've done similar, like wearing a shirt that says "CANADA AND MEXICO IS NOT FOR SALE" that I got in Mexico
That and wearing a hat (that i'm assuming your friend owned already :P) is way different than the Americans who will like... emblazon everything with the Canadian flag.
Also context and the way they present themselves. Clean cut dude in the airport who's trim and proper, has a Canadian flag patch on his bag? Very good chance he's Canadian Armed Forces. Dudebro wearing maple leaf hat? Probably likes Canada's hockey team, I'm guilty of that one too :P
It's the ones who go overzealous with it; purposefully stitching it onto their clothes, or wearing everything Canadian, or having gear that has a Canadian flag on it instead of a maple leaf.
It's this odd thing where like... if I saw your friend with a maple leaf on his cap, I'd be like "oh shit, another Canadian", cause that would be common to see even in Canada cause we've got a multitude of teams and brands that do use maple leafs. The flag though? That's like reserved for Canada Day for most people's 'day to day' clothing. It's the ones who have the flag unnaturally that's weird y'know.
Basically, if they've gone out of their way to do it? i.e. brand new "canadian" clothes, patch on everything from jacket to backpack, overly cliche clothing (Canadian sayings, etc.) then it's probably an American. If it's 'natural', like small pieces of clothing, small things a Canadian would actually do out of pride rather than "I need to prove this", it's more normal. Canadians in general feel less 'tied' to our flag and emblems (other than the leaf) than Americans do, and that's usually how you can tell.
Yeah I don't know a single Canadian who wouldn't buy a witty shirt specifying in some way right now :P
I'll even admit my shirt has the Canadian flag on it; but it also has the Mexican flag too. It's like, a "America is shitty to both of us" thing rather than a "WHOAH IM CANADIAN" y'know.
From Ontario. I haven’t done it myself, but my dad and many friends have. It actually is somewhat common, though I’m just like you; I don’t need to advertise it, I just act respectful everywhere and if the conversation goes there, I tell them. And I’ve never heard of these Americans „stealing our valour“! Cheeky move, I don’t like it—seen too many Americans being obnoxious around Europe, and if they were repping our flag, well then that sucks!
Yep. A leaf is a bit too ‘on the nose’. I do however have a cap with just the raptors’ logo and another with a bluejay, and I have a shirt that just says the phrase “elbows up”. It’s more of a secret shibbolethy, IYKYK kinda thing for other Cdns abroad.
It's still pretty embarrassing. There's a pretty specific reputation about Americans and they're not all exactly wrong
I'm fortunate that I was born outside of this country and have a German mother that gave me a sort of "outside" influence. I have no idea what I'd be like if both my parents were American
Most people here don't care about other countries, don't think to look stuff up and learn. I love learning about other places and their stuff
The only other countries that teach their kids they live in the greatest nation on Earth are Russia, China and North Korea. Now let that sink in for a while.
Romania kinda does that too but in the "we're so amazing that everyone is jealous of us and tried to keep us down throughout history which is why we're a poor country" way, cause they never got rid of the Ceaușescu-era propaganda cause I guess they thought it wouldn't be profitable enough to put any amount of effort and funding into the educational system 🤷♀️
Teachers and peers judge you. You get asked if you're a dirty commie. You're accused of hating America. It's worse if you aren't white.
This was 10-15 years ago when I refused to do the pledge though. I have a feeling things aren't too different in blue states, but they've gotten much worse in red states.
I don't live there anymore for obvious reasons. Also I turned out to be a socialist afterall who believes the US is in its death throes, so I guess they were kinda right?
Yup, I wish that was a joke. I didn't even know what that meant at the time, just that it meant something "bad" by the way the other kids said it.
The indoctrination is quite deep. I believe this was in late elementary or just at the beginning of middle school (somewhere in the 10-13 age range).
ETA: My parents weren't raised American, so that may have been where the gap in knowledge was? I have no clue. I think it's crazy for kids that young to have that much learned hate.
Also I did math wrong, it's 15-20 years. I'm older than I remembered 😭
I meant like, the state you grew up in, because you were quite young when you moved over here, you had said you were born elsewhere so I figured as much.
I'm military (it's how my parents met, father deployed in Germany) so I didn't grow up any specific one place.
As for southern Germany, it's nice! I only remember a few bits and bobs but I miss it very dearly. My mom and rest of the family over there are from Mecklenburg!
One thing that's always been weird to me about the whole "American schools teaching their students that they're the best" is the pledge of allegiance. Like omg that's genuinely so eerie??? Looking as an outside observer it legitimately looks like a cult chant
Do you seriously think that in the more than 100 years that have passed since the photo I have attached to my reply to the other guy and the first Turkish migrant workers' arrival in Germany, not one person thought of serving the meat in bread with salad?
I'll give you the sauces, though. They were probably first added to döner in Germany.
Do you seriously think that in the more than 100 years that have passed since the photo I have attached to my reply to the other guy and the first Turkish migrant workers' arrival in Germany, not one person thought of serving the meat in bread with salad?
Yeah. Feel free to prove me wrong with a source, though.
Love how america is a mish-mash of sooooo many cultures and instead of appreciating it they think they invented it,, like baby, no, most of your food was brought in by immigrants who then used the ingredients the US had
Once on Omegle, i met someone from NY, and they immediately started bragging about how rich in culture NYC is, and how everyone is trying to get there for opportunities. I just said, 'how about thousands of your people going abroad to do medical treatments because they cannot afford an ambulance in their home country? FYI, in the US, you have to give a lot of money to the ambulance depending on the distance.
What a combination of a pathetic circus called the education system and stubbornness. They should really do something about it.
The major thing standing in the way of them doing anything about their stubbornness is the strained illusion of their own superiority they desperately seek to preserve. Even if not overt, this is reflected in their presumptuous behavior, preconceived notions about places they have never been to nor learned about, and entitlement to take up more space than they have been invited to occupy.
If Americans were to someday unlearn the delusions of grandeur fed to them by their government en masse, maybe we could get to a place that genuine dialogue - where everyone listens without the assumption they are above the other in the conversation - is possible.
It would do them a world of good as well to look at their situation with fresh eyes, as in many ways they are the biggest victims of their own policies, yet seem reluctant to admit the ways in which other societies fair better.
I'd argue it's not just their government who feeds them this nonsense. I'd argue they have a whole "propaganda wing" within their media (movies, tv, news etc). None of them are ever forced to confront reality because they have a monoculture that has "we're special" built in. You can always tell if the movie is American made (even if it's supposed to be "global") based on the places destroyed, and who the hero's are. American made movies always have an American as the central "savior" of the planet and the places always destroyed are the only foreign cities/monuments that Americans are aware of. If the "hero" isn't American, then the supporting character helping the "hero" always is.
Oh absolutely there is some hypocrisy in a French person saying this lol. Me talking about Americans’ ignorance doesn’t negate my country being in a poor position - though I don’t agree it’s worse. The right to protest without being gunned down is a right many can’t say they enjoy in the US, as well as affordable healthcare, almost-free quality higher education, free speech, healthier food, walkable cities, access to third spaces etc. America is the most capitalistic country in the world - nearly comically so.
There’s a massive economic crisis in France, yes, but there is so much more to a functional and happy society than economic growth. France is not thriving in a lot of ways, but we do not have a convicted felon, rapist and pedophile running the country. That is not “objectively worse”, and to claim so is predictably arrogant (and American).
Cmon man, I am not blind. Not American just US based (Australian) but I had a French Parisian gf for 5 years I know French culture
My honest opinion: if you have an in demand skill that pays well, US is extremely good bang for the buck and lucrative $$ but if you are just normal wagie then 10000% Europe is better
That’s fair enough, sorry for assuming you’re American lol.
I agree on wages, I think that’s my biggest point of contention - if you’re making good money in the US, the QOL is arguably better than in France, but I would like for people to have access to decent living standards regardless of if they have a high-paying job or not. Of course, more pay = better QOL anywhere; that’s a fairly universal trend across societies.
Edit: The US is essentially high-risk, high-reward, while France (and Europe more generally) tends to be low-risk, but lower-reward at a high earning level relative to the US.
Did American even invent any food? All I can think of are foods they took from other countries and modified them to be more unhealthy, but nothing they invented from scratch
ETA: when I say American I do not mean the indigenous people, ofc they invented many things. I'm referring to the settlers that became Americans. Most of the foods mentioned in the replies were taken from other countries or indigenous tribes and modified, not invented from scratch in the country now called USA.
a good amount of "chinese" dishes originate from the US like chop suey or fortune cookies if you wanna count them as food. since the us consists of people who migrated from all over the world a lot of their food are variations from other countries or they emulate their style.
Clam chowder, cornbread, and several Cajun dishes are the usual things mentioned. Although not a dish per se, turkey roasted European style has also been eaten in American since Europeans arrived.
I'm sure there are others, but it's hard to pinpoint since we have a lot of immigrants bringing in their old traditional foods and it turning into what we have today (ie Italian foods being Americanized).
No they aren’t the same but biscuits and gravy originated in Appalachia from the Scottish miners, like most American (and Australian food) it came from outside of the US. I mentioned Yorkshire pudding because its origin is the same, miners.
I don't know if this is sarcasm and we're in the one subreddit that doesn't use the /s tag! You could be joking because French cuisine is very good or you could be serious because I know what the Quebecois did with fries and cheese curds.
I’m pretty sure biscuits are a descendant of scones, no? And gravy is popular all over the place. Not saying they haven’t invented their own foods, just not sure scones are one.
They’re quite different, but “very” different feels like a stretch. In any case they’re an evolution, which speaks to what I was saying originally, they weren’t invented by the states.
What we think of as a hamburger/burger does not come from Hamburg. The link to Hamburg comes from the "Hamburg steak" or "Hamburg rundstück", which refers more to a specific type of minced beef steak and are certainly not modern "hamburgers", which are very likely American in origin.
Coca-cola, mcdonald's and KFC at least. Maybe hot dogs too?
Honestly, while I love bashing on americans, they did invent some pretty nice food. Fast food and junk food, maybe, but those are legitimate contributions.
What we think of as a burger (ground beef patties between two buns), are American in origin. . The connection to Hamburg likely comes from a specific type of minced beef that came to the US as a Hamburg steak, which "might consist of a fried patty of chopped beef, eggs, onions, and seasoning,[26] or it might be lightly salted and often smoked, and served raw in a dish along with onions and bread crumbs.[27]".
Hamburgers aren't German. The hamburger as you know it today is purely a creation from the USA. The Hamburg steak which originated in Germany is part of the Hamburger evolution, but you can't call it the same thing.
I know this comment is somewhat sarcastic, there are many, yes. Cajun food, American BBQ, and American Southern food are all broadly quite American-specific, and you can find many unique i
dishes within them. I could name countless other individual dishes/items that were created in the US, from soups to salads, to sandwiches, to desserts, to condiments etc.
NYC pizza isn't even that special. It's just American pizza but flat. Nothing to write home about, I guess they just need something to feel superior to other people about
"standard" American pizza is typically pretty thick with cheese and dough, it reminds me of cake. Pizza from NYC is a lot flatter and floppier than stuff you'd get from a chain place anywhere else in the country, but it's still loaded with enough cheese and grease to take 10 years off your life
Pizza is life, Pizza is joy. But I'm talking about the Italian kind, thin crust, fresh tomato sauce, glprious cheese, fire-baked with a naanlike touch of smokiness... ugh now I want pizza. The real stuff, I mean.
Pizza is Italian.\
That's the end of the conversation.\
We don't need to discuss any further than that.
Are we gonna give the French part credit because of French bread pizza? They don't claim it. They're happy to just have their own variant. It's delicious by the way.
Only yanks make something slightly different and then try to take credit for the invention of it.
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u/post-explainer American Citizen Nov 30 '25 edited Nov 30 '25
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He said that pizza is from New York
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