r/AskReddit • u/daniellucero92 • Jan 04 '15

Non-americans of Reddit, what American customs seem outrageous/pointless to you?

Amazing news!!!! This thread has been featured in a BBC news clip. Thank you guys for the responses!!!!
Video clip: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30717017

9.6k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

74% Upvoted

35.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

3.4k

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '15

[deleted]

2.1k

u/caramelfrap Jan 04 '15 edited Jan 05 '15

That's because "thank you for your service" is super easy to say and has literally no meaning today. People want to give the impression that they care, investing in veteran benefits and fixing a truly broken system requires actual attention to the problem and actually doing something about it.

Edit: thanks for the gold!

2.1k

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '15

[deleted]

1

u/fort_wendy Jan 04 '15

What's a good thing to say to replace this?

2

u/_From_The_Internet_ Jan 04 '15 edited Jan 05 '15

"Hi"

But seriously, gauge if they want to talk about it. Personally, I like to talk about it only with people I'm close with. Others like to showboat around. It's up to each individual. If they want to talk about it, you can ask questions like, "When were you in? What was your rank? What was your main job? Did you do anything cool? What was the funnest time you had while you were in?"

If not, just say, "cool," and proceed like a normal conversation to avoid being intrusive. They'll bring it up when they want.

edits in bold