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Yahoo
03-08-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Here Are 17 Extremely Toxic Ideas, Habits, And Behaviors That Are Weirdly Glorified In American Culture
As we all know, Americans do A LOT of weird stuff. While some of it might seem harmless, there are many toxic ideas and behaviors that have become popularized and in some cases, even glorified in the US... That's why when Redditor u/imwith2 asked, "What's something we glorify in American culture that's actually extremely toxic?" thousands of both Americans and non-Americans shared the most bizarre things that have been normalized in the US. Without further ado, here are 17 of their most enlightening examples: If you know any toxic behaviors, attitudes, or ideas that have been glorified in American culture, feel free to tell us about them using this anonymous form! 1."Absurd and excessive consumerism that only serves to represent status." —u/renreniii "I saw someone make an angry post online about discount stores carrying Stanley cups, because then anybody could buy one, even 'poor people', and she wouldn't be special anymore. Thankfully, the comment section tore her apart unanimously. If you want a quality tumbler in a color you like to keep cold drinks with you all day, by all means, buy a Stanley. I've probably paid close to what they cost for a good travel mug, too, but it's wild that they're a status symbol. It's a f*cking CUP." —u/ADHDFeeshie Related: 2."The notion that everyone's opinion is equally valid." —u/TheBadnessInMe "People seem to have forgotten the definition of fact vs. opinion. Opinions are subjective: by definition, there is no absolute truth to them. 'I like this movie/song/show' is an opinion. 'Tomatoes taste bad' is an opinion. Therefore, you can't be wrong. 'The Earth is (roughly) a sphere' is a fact. That is an objective truth, and you can be wrong about it." —u/eleven_paws 3."Perfect attendance, at work or school. Please stay home if you're sick." —u/austinelo "When I was in elementary school, I caught measles from another child whose mother was intent on her child having perfect attendance. Apparently, that piece of paper at the end of the year was more important than her child's or the class's health." —u/SkiPhD 4."At least in the South: Big, intimidating, and expensive weddings. It hurts everyone when something is that expensive, including the people traveling. They have to pay for their hotel bookings, dry cleaning, dog sitters, etc. Just make weddings chill." "Recently, I spent at least a thousand dollars to be a part of a relative's wedding (I was a groomsman). In between the hotel, paying for drinks at the rehearsal dinner, buying my own food the morning of, travel, and buying a suit, I was financially hurting by the end of the weekend. The groom is lucky he's family, that's all I'll say." —u/ssssskkkkkrrrrrttttt 5."Instant gratification. Not many people actually wait and save up for things anymore; instead, they buy on credit and ultimately wind up paying far more in the long run." —u/RavenForrest "Also conspicuous consumption: Consuming more stuff by buying (spending) more, eating and drinking more, having more media instantly, on demand is, by our logic, supposed to be fulfilling and rewarding." —u/Logical_Two5639 6."Individualism: We have gotten so individualistic that our communities have almost completely fallen apart. Millions of Americans are hostile to the very idea that they even need to get along with others." "Going your own way is great when it means that you don't let cultural norms shame you out of expressing yourself honestly and living your life the way you choose. It's terrible when it means you can't do the basics needed to ride on a plane, go to the theater, or buy food at a restaurant without the cops being called." —u/BangBangMeatMachine Related: 7."Treating political leaders like gods." —u/Pearl725 "The goal should be voting in someone with good policy, who's also not a horrible person. It shouldn't be about loyalty to any person or party. Things are always swinging around. People have individual opinions separate from a party identity. Voting on a single issue, voting on a single party, or just being loyal to one person in politics is not a good use of the vote." —u/ArcannOfZakuul 8."Being positive at all times." —u/BlueStarFern22 "I'm Greek and I was raised with the mentality that life is going to be hard sometimes. This year, I've had two different American friends tell me they're trying everything to be happy and positive within a week of a break-up, and it wasn't working. My suggestion that they 'be sad for a while, because that's what's going to happen, and that way you can grieve the relationship and actually heal,' was met with complete non-comprehension. The idea of sitting with sadness for a while after an objectively sad event is actually the normal, healthy response, yet it sounded completely nuts to them. I love a lot of stuff about U.S. culture, but have never met a culture so intolerant to any feeling other than happiness." —u/losethemap 9."Gun ownership culture: I was raised as a hunter and was on the rifle team in college; however, gun culture is out of hand, including the glorification of firearms in movies and media." "Many equate owning a firearm to 'being a man,' whether they live in the city or the country. I stopped owning firearms because I realized the cost of actually using one wouldn't be worth it. We need more people who think it is okay not to own a firearm." —u/iambarrelrider Related: 10."Hustle culture: People are more important than money. A person doing an honest day's work should earn enough to have access to a decent life and there should be no need for side hustles, aka second or third jobs." —u/BananasPineapple05 "I recently went to an interview and was performing well when the hiring manager asked the 'What do you do in your personal life' question, then proceeded to label himself as a gym rat who reads three books a week and consumes nothing but podcasts, before I could answer about myself. I mentioned some of my interests that were not congruent with his, and he zeroed in on the podcast thing. He said, 'So what development or business podcasts or content do you consume?' I replied, 'I'm not really into hustle porn. I was when I was younger, but I cut it out cold turkey. Most of what I consume is genuine hobbies and interests, or I just don't consume content.' I got a blank stare in return." —u/CunninLingwist 11."High school and college athletics: It's extremely toxic that 26 percent of high schoolers' parents want their children to become professional athletes one day, and some greater percent of kids push themselves to play three seasons." "I wish people would just play these games for fun in clubs during high school and college." —u/semxlr5 12."Celebrity obsession.'" —u/Addis_Thinker "I never understood this growing up, and I never had any celebrity I was into other than a passing cool vibe. I've since moved overseas, and I found that outside of soccer, the idea of obsessing over any celebrity is seen as weird. In all the cultures in all the countries I've visited, none of them compares to the US. Even in Japan and Korea, with their obsession with bands, celebrity obsession is still widely considered out of the ordinary and is deeply frowned upon." —u/SookHe 13."Competition: A little competition is good, fun, and aids productivity. But we Americans take it way too far." "I've seen two grown men passing each other in a hallway turn farting into a competition, executives commit horrible crimes in the name of competition when it wasn't even necessary for them to 'win,' and projects totally demolished by infighting. I've even been to the scene of accidents where people are bleeding out while two people are in a shouting match over who should be in charge of the crisis. Not to mention how companies defraud thousands of people just to outcompete their rivals. Americans do so many unethical things just to be competitive." —u/jdlech 14."Being prudes about nudity/human bodies." "I'm not talking about sexually explicit situations, but simply general nudity — nude beaches, sunbathing, etc. Even nipples poking out of a shirt cause many Americans to clutch their pearls! I really don't like it when people use anatomically incorrect terms for their genitalia because the anatomically correct ones are 'too vulgar.' We have bodies. Stop glorifying the shame of those bodies." —u/flugualbinder Related: 15."Cars/car-centric life: You have toxic fumes from the engines, toxic debris from the tires and brakes, and toxic fluids leaking everywhere, as well as the vast amount of concrete and pollution that is associated. All of these issues are known to affect the health of humans nearby. When we got rid of lead in gas, the population at large became less violent." "Then there is the lack of general activity. Ten thousand steps is roughly equivalent to two hours of walking. How often do doctors complain about people not being generally active? Compare those two hours of walking to the length of your commute to work and back. We need to have fewer cars, fewer parking spaces, and make everything closer together. That way we could walk more, and not spend as much of our income on transportation." —u/AbueloOdin 16."The obsession with group identity: Democrat, Giants fan, blue collar, college-educated, Christian, etc." "Sure, humans are tribal by nature, but Americans view every little box they can fit into with a kind of nationalism, more so than actually being American. It's as if their group identities are more important than their own personal ones, and even more important than safety at times. This ties into the compulsion to be in the 'winning team' no matter what. Their 'tribe' has to be on top, even if they are at the bottom of their internal social structures." —u/rulingniko 17."'The American dream.'" "It's what every person on the planet wants, besides a couple of outliers who want more, and a few who will settle for less. 'Americanizing' is just a form of 'othering,' by creating the basic assumption that this is something only 'Americans' want, meaning that what other people want must be different somehow. By inviting the notion of such a basic concept, you lay the groundwork for the 'us vs. them" rationale. The idea isn't itself a bad one, but with the wrong sort of push, you can build very bad behavior onto this foundation." —u/tsuruki23 Did any of these examples surprise you? What are some other toxic aspects of American culture that have been glorified? Tell us about it in the comments or answer anonymously using the form below! Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity. Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds:
Bloomberg
26-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Grumbling From Customers. Profits for Airlines.
Like many Bloomberg Opinion readers, I am an avid collector of airline miles. Being based in the UK, my preferred program is Avios, owned by International Consolidated Airlines Group SA, the parent of British Airways. I've been a member of the scheme for 30 years, since taking my first foreign trip as a young banker. But alongside the points, I also enjoy collecting status. Take enough flights and you ascend through tiers, unlocking perks, including dedicated check in, priority boarding and lounge access. Higher status also proffers bonus reward points, giving more currency to access free flights. For many frequent flyers, the prestige conveyed by a shiny membership card matters as much as the benefits themselves, so when BA changed in April how members achieve status – switching from a system based on miles flown to one based on pounds spent – there was a predictable outcry. Under the new rules, reaching Silver status requires accumulating 7,500 tier points – one point for each pound spent – making the climb to elite status considerably steeper.
Forbes
09-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Slack Down: Monday Morning Blues For Productivity App
Users are struggling to use Slack this morning Slack is investigating problems that are preventing some people from loading content in the corporate communications app this morning. DownDetector is reporting a sharp spike in Slack problems as Europe logs on for work on Monday morning. DownDetector shows a sharp increase in Slack outages Slack's own Status page has also acknowledged issues with the service. 'Some users may be experiencing issues loading content in Slack, particularly threads and the Activity view,' it reported at 07:25 BST. 'We're on the case and we'll be back with an update in 30 minutes.' A subsequent update added: "The work on this issue has been ongoing, but we've increased its urgency. "No additional news to share just yet, but we're focused on getting things back to normal as quickly as we can. We apologize for the continued trouble. 'We'll provide updates every 30 minutes until the impact is resolved for all users.' The problem certainly doesn't appear to be affecting all users. The service was operating normally in my brief tests this morning, suggesting it might only be affecting customers in certain regions. This is a breaking news story, more to follow.
CNA
03-06-2025
- General
- CNA
Reddit's services restored after global outage that affected thousands
Social media platform Reddit was back up after an outage that affected nearly 31,000 users on Tuesday, according to outage tracking website Reddit said on its status page that the incident had been resolved following an investigation into elevated errors. The outage affected 30,817 users at its peak, which came down to 529 users as of 3.31 p.m. ET, according to Downdetector, which collates status reports from various sources to track outages. The actual number of affected users could vary.
