I've driven through a lot of the USA. I also took a road Trip in central Europe once. I totally agree with this sentiment about USA. Very sick of living here and hoping to have the opportunity of emigrating to somewhere in Europe soon, I just want to try it once. I may regret not trying more than trying and failing to live there.

People who don’t understand sarcasm will get genuinely mad about this post, and I’m here for it

I drove from Montréal to Orlando, on the highway and various exits in town, you see :

• NY State: Target, Hobby Lobby, JC Penney, Home Depot, etc
• PA State: Target, Hobby Lobby, JC Penney, Home Depot, etc
• WV State: Target, Hobby Lobby, JC Penney, Home Depot, etc
• VA State: Target, Hobby Lobby, JC Penney, Home Depot, etc
• NC State: Target, Hobby Lobby, JC Penney, Home Depot, etc + Jesus ads + SOTB Pedro ads
• SC State: Target, Hobby Lobby, JC Penney, Home Depot, etc + Jesus ads
• GA State: Target, Hobby Lobby, JC Penney, Home Depot, etc
• FL State: Target, Hobby Lobby, JC Penney, Home Depot, etc

I was messing around with a steetview app one time and I was pretty fascinated by the fact that basically anywhere on the globe, clicked at random, looks incredibly similar to somewhere that I've been. Click randomly in Ukraine, "huh, I've definitely been on country back roads in the US that look basically just like this." Click a spot in Kazakhstan, I've seen places in the Midwest that look pretty similar. Click something in a more tropical spot in search of something altogether different, "you know I've been to some coastal towns that look a lot like this." Click a spot in a French mountain range, "This doesn't look all that different from parts of the Rockies."

It brings to mind one of my favorite quotes:

“If I have one message to give to the secular American people, it’s that the world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don’t know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same.”

• Marjane Satrapi

I've spent some summers in Europe over the past few years. Americans don't know what you are missing:

Greece:

Italy:

Spain:

Having lived and traveled both "places" (and speaking in jest):

• America's cities are vastly more uniform than European ones, especially the mid-size ones. The approach goes big box stores > strip malls > suburbs > trendy strip malls > abandoned downtown > highrise downtown complex. In Europe, it's more quaint medieval village > commercial area > medium density living > high density living > medieval city core

• America's landscapes are vastly more uniform than European ones, outside of a few highlights. Driving cross-country is city > farm land > more farm land > desert > National Park (yay!) > desert > farmland > city. Europe is more city > shrubs > border wait > mountains > border wait > lake > valley > border wait > city

• Europeans think of any European country as an equivalent to America as a whole. That's simply stupid. America as a whole is equivalent to Europe as a whole, and American states roughly equivalent to European countries. States are on average half as big as countries in Europe, but America as a whole is roughly equivalent to the EU. So, yes, a European should know what the capital city of Florida is if they expect an American to know the capital of Poland. (Only Germans and people from Montana can reliably tell you the state capital of Montana, though.)

• American regional cultures are almost as diverse as European ones. Europeans seem to think that it is the language barrier that keeps regional cultures intact and diverse, but an American from California and an American from Texas use the same language but might as well be from different universes. People from Utah think drinking coffee is sinful and drown their uncaffeinated selves in thinly diluted sugar while next door in Colorado climbing 14ers (4300 meter mountains) is a social event that requires crowd control and permitting.

i want to start a trend of writing european place names like american films do:

• Leipzig, SN
• Nice, PACA
• Luleå, BD
• Louisville, America

Ok but I'm stealing 'tumblypoos' cause it's weirdly adorable.

I will say having driven across the US it does feel very different at different points, but yes, stroads are everywhere from deserts to mountains to plains and coasts

I can't stand when I get somewhere in the US in geoguessr because 80% of the country looks identical

You can do this with Europe too

I swear GTA San Andreas have better distinction between Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas.

Wonderful. Everything from "I'm about to learn you a thing" to "check republic".

Just a bit too obvious though.

This is so unfair. There are NUANCES and DIFFERENCES between the states!

For example, the billboards in Illinois have a washed-up football player advertising a hair regrowth product, while the billboards in Indiana are for strip clubs, weed dispensaries in other states, and telling you hell is real.

"check republic"? No one uses checks anymore.

Should have included Texas, looks totally different (our traffic lights are horizontal instead of vertical almost always)

This is so ridiculous and absurd it HAS to be satire. Either that or Poe's Law got me. This just seems too hyperbolic and flippant to be somebody being for real and genuine

Funnily enough, “Check Republic” is the exact thing Americans should do

I have been (for longer than a couple of months) in Tampa, New Orleans, LA, they are different but all speak American English Tampa & New Orleans feel older, and out West does feel different.

The highway system is federal and those interstate roads all do look the same.

And all of the medium sized cities do have some road (here in Tampa it's Dale Mabry) that you could pretty much plop down into any other medium sized city, switch them without anybody noticing. Miles of strip malls. Impossible to cross safely on foot.

I bled red, white, and bald eagle from reading this post.

The Stroads that lead into and come off of the Interstate system have all become the same strip mall. If you want to see the interesting parts of the US, drive the old highway system and not the freeways.

I used to play Geoguessr and I absolutely hate playing the state streaks map because every single state looks exactly the same. I would have to go through miles and miles and miles of suburban subdivisions that were mazes just to find a phone number and just go off that, which you're not really meant to do. Literally the only thing that was different was the area codes.