this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2026
68 points (75.0% liked)

No Stupid Questions

45367 readers
872 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here. This includes using AI responses and summaries.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 148 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)

Invading other countries to kidnapp head of states?

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They said QUIETLY annoying. Things you wouldn't speak up about. I feel like kidnapping world leaders doesn't qualify as that. I'm American, and it's been about a full day now, and it's just now setting in just how insane it is that we just kidnapped a world leader. Just.....took him. Meanwhile, here in the states, we're also kidnapping random people off the street in unmarked cars for committing the crime of being not white.

These are things that should be screamed about, not silent.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 106 points 1 week ago (3 children)

The assumption that the American legal, political, and cultural context is the "default." They say "X is illegal" without specifying jurisdiction. They assume a "right wing" or "left wing" party must be like their Republicans or Democrats. And so forth.

[–] RisingSwell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 38 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's funny hearing Americans say they hate liberals, and me being able to agree except meaning the exact opposite. Liberal party is right wing for me lol

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Thorry@feddit.org 25 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Yes, this is also very noticeable in media. They can have some kind of aliens in a future sci-fi universe that somehow have a legal process and trial that exactly mirrors the American way of doing things. For Americans that's just normal, not realising this is absolutely not the norm in the rest of the world. Same thing with malls, hospitals, roads and many more things.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] SaneMartigan@lemmy.world 93 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The big dumb cars that seem to be infecting the world.

[–] phr@discuss.tchncs.de 87 points 1 week ago (59 children)

their obsession with genome analysis / where one of their great-great-grandfathers came from.

"i am italian, german, polish, chinese and cree!" "no, you are us-citizen and don't speak any language but english."

load more comments (59 replies)
[–] DarkDinner@quokk.au 78 points 1 week ago (6 children)
[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I haven't heard of a school shooting in a long time. I can't tell if that's because they stopped happening, or if it's because they happen so often that it's not even considered newsworthy anymore.

[–] IvyisAngy@lemmy.world 48 points 1 week ago (1 children)

... yeah it's the second one. The US does not go a week without one really, you'll find reports of them on local channels along with the traffic reports, weather forecast and car accidents. It rarely makes national news.

I want off the ride. To be sure.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 35 points 1 week ago (4 children)

There are multiple mass shootings per day in the United States. This page keeps track as they come in.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 64 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (14 children)

Asking "so what do you do for a living?" when meeting someone new as if their job defines them. It's one of the first questions Americans will ask someone when meeting them for the first time. I am American, but as I understand it, this question is far less common elsewhere in the world.

[–] frostedtrailblazer@lemmy.zip 25 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I feel it’s a bit tacky as a first question, but if I’m not asking it at some point I personally feel like I’m not making a real effort to know someone.

For a lot of people I think it’s just their go-to ice breaker since most people have a job or some kind of education they are involved in.

I personally really enjoy hearing about many people jobs since they really open my eyes to a different lifestyles and working environments out there, or I might get the scoop on workplace drama stories.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] mech@feddit.org 22 points 1 week ago (6 children)

There are worse first questions.
Like the "Where are you from? No, I mean originally" you get asked in Germany if you aren't white and straight-haired.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Also, "where do you go to church?"

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago

I just try not to be around people that would ask that

load more comments (11 replies)
[–] brap@lemmy.world 54 points 1 week ago (17 children)

Saying “I could care less” instead of “I couldn’t care less”. Annoyingly incorrect but not exactly a critical issue.

[–] morphballganon@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago

Oh we non-idiot Americans find the doofuses who do that annoying too

load more comments (16 replies)
[–] deafboy@lemmy.world 51 points 1 week ago (1 children)

new account - check

zero comments - check

inflammatory post - check.

deleted account - TBD...

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 26 points 1 week ago (2 children)

TBF I myself might create a throwaway for asking a controversial question. And they're not trolling imo.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] ohulancutash@feddit.uk 48 points 1 week ago

Not using indoor voice.

And pretending to be anything but american.

[–] SeaSgt@lemmy.zip 48 points 1 week ago

Their support of pedos.

[–] remon@ani.social 42 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The fake friendliness, especially in customer service.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 22 points 1 week ago (3 children)

That's required by the employer.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 31 points 1 week ago

Alright then, the fake friendliness that their employers require. Especially in customer service.

load more comments (2 replies)

Having to answer constant questions about Americans.

Invading other countries, ignoring international law, supporting palestinian genocide, toppling foreign governments... i find them kinda annoying you know?

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 37 points 1 week ago (1 children)

"Quietly" annoying? That's a tough one.

[–] Honytawk@feddit.nl 18 points 1 week ago

Yeah, nothing about Americans is quiet.

And we should inform them!

[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 31 points 1 week ago (8 children)

Americans are mostly super loud. You can hear them from forever away like they're competing to be the loudest in any space. ~ someone originally from the US that had this pointed out to me.

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] CombatWombatEsq@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago (8 children)

Pretending they’re well travelled by bragging about how many states they’ve visited.

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] bstix@feddit.dk 29 points 1 week ago (4 children)

The size bragging.

No, Texas isn't that big. Texas is about the same size as France.

USA also isn't that big. Europe is larger than USA.

Sure it's big and all, but the main difference is really just that there are fewer people in USA than in Europe. It has a lower population density, making everything seem further apart.

The reason I find it annoying is that the most obnoxious types have a tendency to use it to validate their own opinions on every fucking topic. Obviously we tiny Europeans just can't comprehend the scale of their American way of doing things in the most backwards and old fashioned manner.

I've met plenty of American immigrants. Most of them are really nice and humble and appreciate learning how stuff works here. However some will eventually encounter something that doesn't make sense to them, but rather than learn, they'll cave in on trying to explain in the role of the world conquering strongman why it just won't work in the scale that they're used to in America, as if that would make any sense to do in that situation.

It's delusional.

[–] ABCatMom@lemmy.ca 35 points 1 week ago (2 children)

On the flip side, as a Canadian, I always get a chuckle out of European tourists who think they can drive from Montreal to Vancouver in a day.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] saltesc@lemmy.world 28 points 1 week ago

Comparing everything to their insignificant home town.

"Wow! Ancient aqueducts! We don't have that back in Springfield, but we have faster table service."

Okaaaay....

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 27 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Voting. You guys are really bad at voting.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] TabbsTheBat@pawb.social 26 points 1 week ago

Quietly annoying? I feel like the rest of the world has been making most of their grievances with the US habits/culture heard

[–] karashta@piefed.social 25 points 1 week ago

Lmfao at the super salty person. 

As an American, I find all of these criticisms largely true and things I also find annoying about us and our culture.

[–] starlinguk@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago (5 children)

The obsession with brands. Insisting off brand medication is different when it literally HAS to be the same.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] Zier@fedia.io 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

AMERICANS ARE LOUD DRAMA QUEENS.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] mech@feddit.org 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

When you sit in a crowded German café and there are 2 Americans in it, you can be sure they'll be louder than everyone else combined.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 19 points 1 week ago

Talking loud

[–] AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.ca 18 points 1 week ago

I'm American, but I've heard in a lot of countries they hate how we start talking to someone who is still kind of far away. Like when your friend is approaching from the other direction and you say "Hey, how's it going?" but you have to talk more loudly because he's several paces away.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago

The same variety every country finds annoying about tourists from different cultures because foreigners. Loud, demanding, not obeying local social cues or courtesies, not speaking any of the language, walking too slow because tourist, crowding, messing up local living conditions thanks to vacation rentals, drunks, etc.

[–] SLVRDRGN@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Thinking cheaper automatically means you're getting more value out of something, (example: I got this whole cake that can feed 10 people for $15 bucks!) ignoring the quality of that thing.

Thinking something expensive automatically means you're getting something of better quality (example: This bottle of wine is over $100. It's definitely better than one that uses much better methods of wine production that only costs $20).

Basically, my beef is with Americans having little sense of discernment and/or lack of good taste.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›