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Yes. Yes. We played video games or read books or had to have our parents drive us to a park or walked the whole way (no sidewalks) there.
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Because our officials are incompetent. Yes. Yes.
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See above on lobbying from oil and car companies.
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Because the word “commie” is scary to Americans from decades of indoctrination and the “nuclear family” having their own home is the biggest lie in the “American Dream.”
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Because of zoning laws. Refer to the above about incompetent officials. Yep, it is simply not possible and legal.
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Americans care way more about appearances than actually having things be useful. What can I say, we’re fucking coddled.
Hope this helps. It’s valid to still be baffled at such.
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The European mind can’t comprehend.
About ten years ago I met a group of American exchange students at some high school event. The city (in Europe obviously) had* the most incompetent, mismanaged, underdeveloped, dysfunctional public transit system I had ever seen… and the Americans had nothing but praise and adoration for it. I couldn’t understand why, until I stumbled across Not Just Bikes and learned how fucking dire the situation is over there. The transit system is still the same, maybe worse, but this new perspective gave me a measure of appreciation. We’re not quite as fucked.
The European mind can’t comprehend.
We got lawns from France and England.
A classic English garden is quite different from an American lawn. An English garden has flowers and bushes and ornaments. It is very well maintained though, that is true, too maintianed maybe. The grass part is also pure grass with no room for “weeds”. But the English make it look “orderly and autistic” while the Americans just make it look “sterile”, no life, no inspiration, no spirit, no joy, no color, no vegetables, nothing.