/r/AskNorthAmerica

Photograph via snooOG

Ask North Americans about life, culture, politics, mundane things, and everything in between.

Welcome!

Have some questions about life, geography, politics, and everything in between regarding North America? Well, then this is the place for you!

Please make sure your questions involve or pertain to one of the cultures or countries in North America. For example, any one of these following places are relevant for discussion:

  • Antigua and Barbuda

  • Bahamas

  • Barbados

  • Belize

  • Canada

  • Costa Rica

  • Cuba

  • Dominica

  • Dominican Republic

  • El Salvador

  • Grenada

  • Greenland

  • Guatemala

  • Haiti

  • Honduras

  • Jamaica

  • Mexico

  • Nicaragua

  • Panama

  • St. Kitts & Nevis

  • St. Lucia

  • St. Vincent & the Grenadines

  • Trinidad & Tobago

  • United States

General Rules

  1. Absolutely no hate speech, racism, bigotry or questions that have a racist agenda.

1.a Avoid unfounded or aggressive claims about countries, nationalities, and other places and identities

1.b. No questions that primarily serve as an attack on a specific country.

1.c. Avoid stereotyping unless a question inquires about stereotypes. It is not a good look.

  • No Harassment of users. This can be by means including but not limited to: posting of another user’s personal information, stalking through posting history, or personal attacks. Be civil.

  • 2.a. Do not harass OPs over their questions or content. If you have a problem with a thread, please report it to the moderation team.

  • Please follow standard Reddiquette.

  • Posting rules

    1. Please avoid asking questions that have been asked within the past week. especially within the past day.

    2. You may post questions, polls, or mundane photos (photos can only pertaining to life or nature in North America).

    3. You are allowed to ask questions about certain states and or provinces too, the question does not have to be pertaining to an entire country.

    4. No complaining about ask subs in the posts or complaining about bans from ask subs, this is not a place to vent.

    5. No low-effort or agenda-pushing questions. This is largely regarding political posts. If you already know the answer to your own question, please do not ask it.

    If you find that your question has been removed, instead of posting again…please reach out to the mod team and we will review your question to see if it deserves to be resubmitted, or if the removal of the question was justified.

    /r/AskNorthAmerica

    623 Subscribers

    2

    Vacation in the USA!

    Hey so me and my friend want to do a small town trip in the us and we want to know the best place to go? We like bars but not clubs. We want to have the local experience. Where is the best place to go to have fun but still have the authentic experiences of being a local!

    0 Comments
    2023/11/08
    21:50 UTC

    2

    Are college parties as wild as portrayed in movies?

    Is it exaggerated for cinematic purposes? It's accurate but it isn't actually common? Or it truly is like that? I'm from Argentina, parties here ain't THAT wild. Something that wild would be concerning here. Also here the period of your life in which you "party hard" is more around the end of the equivalent of high school I think. Around 16 to 20 years old. To the point where you got to college you are already "old", you're tired, and you have to much responsibilities to be partying too much that your social activities tend to be chillier and more cultural.

    1 Comment
    2023/10/12
    23:45 UTC

    0

    You guys I like have this question about Americans for a while and I don’t know the difference in ..

    So in the southern side of North America u guys have Texas that happen to be like the home of the Texas cowboys etc. like right ??

    I mean I don’t understand like who the Americans like call like the cowboys

    And like who they call red necks

    Or white trash or hillbilly

    Like umm .. I don’t understand how the Americans have like grouped all of these classes out in the country of America

    Like don’t misunderstand me like .. I’m. Not asking it as like in a non serious way .. it’s just that I really don’t know how the Americans like categories like work and I like don’t even know how to ask the question like sort of ..

    I just want to know like more about the cowboys mostly and I also want to know more about the people who do farming for a living in America ..

    I hope u understand and can explain whatever it is I’m asking .. or give me references to read about stuff and such

    1 Comment
    2023/10/03
    05:07 UTC

    2

    Chess - What's your opinion of the Hans Niemann vs Magnus Carlsen controversy?

    Hello! 1st time poster.

    Intro:

    1. My name is Nic Bentulan. I'm a dual citizen of Hong Kong & the Philippines.
    2. I was the 1 who posted the joke beads theory that Elon Musk tweeted. I didn't create the theory. I just shared it. I do have my own theory about the matter, but I think saying this theory will violate 1 of the supposed neutrality for this post.
    3. But as for bias, we in the Philippines tend to hate Magnus out of our bias for Philippine-born American Wesley So (the 2019 World Fischer Random chess champion, whom American 1972 world chess champion Bobby Fischer might consider 'the real world champion', mwahahaha), who left the Philippines in 2014 due to corruption. So there you know Gasai my bias.

    Anyway the story is ... the Carlsen–Niemann controversy

    1. In 2022Sep, Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, the 5-time & reigning world chess champion accuses 19yo Jewish American prodigy Hans Niemann of in-person (aka 'OTB' meaning over-the-board) cheating in their game at the 2022 Sinquefield Cup.
      1. Hans has a history of online cheating. - Hans cheated - or well, was caught cheating online twice, once when e was 12yo and once when e was 16yo. But Hans has no proven history of OTB cheating.
    2. In late 2022Oct, Hans sues Magnus (& 2 other parties mentioned later below).
    3. It's said in the lawsuit & elsewhere that while Magnus has stated that e refuses play people caught cheating, Magnus somehow still plays these 3 players who have been caught cheating :
      1. Indian Pranav Venkatesh,
      2. Iranian Parham Maghsoodloo &
      3. French Sébastien Feller
    4. Less 'known' in the sense it's like a 'best kept secret' (like Catholic Church's Social Teachings) is that Magnus has cheated too, both online & OTB, but Magnus was never sanctioned. However Magnus' cheating is more like 'bullying cheating' than the 'engine cheating' that Magnus is accusing Hans of. I was told that Magnus' cheating is more akin to 'fouls' in basketball or 'yellow cards' in football/soccer. But well you decide for yourself. There are a lot of videos, and most comments seem to defend Magnus.
      1. Eg when Magnus cheated 16yo Iranian-French Supergrandmaster Alireza Firouzja in the 2019 blitz world chess championship...
      2. ...Eg 1 decade after 19yo Magnus cheats the then-women's world chess champion Jewish Russian-Swiss Grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk. (Compare 19yo Hans vs 19yo Magnus...)
        1. In the 1994 Linares tournament, Magnus' predecessor as world chess champion Jewish Russian Garry Kasparov (who is anti-Putin btw) similarly cheated Hungarian & fellow Jew Grandmaster Judit Polgar, the undisputed greatest & most talented female chess player of all time (both GOAT & MTOAT in women's chess).
      3. Eg when Magnus cheats Jewish American grandmaster Danya Naroditsky twice - once in 2020May & another in 2021Dec.
    5. 99% of top players say there's not enough evidence, at least for 'reasonable doubt' that Hans cheated in that particular game. But some suspect under 'balance of probabilities'. Some also say maybe Hans cheated OTB in other games. (Yeah it's unsure if Hans cheated OTB, but it's sure Magnus cheated....)

    Main question: What's your opinion of the Hans Niemann vs Magnus Carlsen controversy?

    Sub-questions :

    1. Are you 'Team Magnus'? Or 'Team Hans' ?
    2. What do you think of your 3 compatriots in this story?
      1. Jewish American Grandmaster Hans Niemann, the 'ex-con' (but ex-convict as a minor) - Did Hans cheat in the OTB game vs Magnus? Do you think Hans cheated online more times than e claimed? Do you think Hans cheated OTB prior?
      2. American International Master Danny Rensch, the chief chess officer of chessdotcom aka chessc*m (it's a lichess joke) - In early 2022Oct, chessc*m published a report about Hans that claimed Hans had apparently cheated in a lot of online games. While they say there's insufficient evidence Hans cheated OTB, either for that game vs Magnus or for any other OTB game, they still talk about Hans' unusual OTB rise. Do you think it's fair
      3. Japanese-born American Supergrandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, who made controversial remarks on twitch about Hans. - Was it genuine? Or was it for content?
    3. What do you think of Magnus Carlsen?
      1. Was it morally right for Magnus to publicly accuse Hans?
      2. Was it stupid for Magnus to publicly accuse Hans? Brian Towers, a moderator of chess stackexchange, says it's stupid to publicly accuse someone because with private accusations, arbiters can monitor future events which will make it more likely to catch them. So arguably, public accusations are like 'war crimes' - yes they're evil, but they're also stupid because it harms your side as well.
      3. Is Magnus a hypocrite?
      4. What do you think of those people defending Magnus' 'bullying cheating'?
      5. What do you think about 'bullying cheating' vs 'engine cheating' ?
      6. Is Magnus inconsistent (or maybe some other negative adjective if you know Gasai what I mean) in refusing to play Hans but not Parham, Pranav & Sébastien?
    0 Comments
    2023/07/28
    04:01 UTC

    1

    how can somebody dumb down american politics to an English guy

    I don't even understand English politics but I'm seeing lots of Ben shapiro videos on YouTube. are "liberals" stupid? and what is a liberal also how is Biden even allowed to be president

    3 Comments
    2023/06/19
    19:28 UTC

    1

    What are your thoughts on the Islamic Sultanate of Qarsherskiy’s claim to independence from USA?

    4 Comments
    2023/06/18
    18:55 UTC

    2

    If usa went to war with uk who would canada support

    7 Comments
    2023/04/01
    18:01 UTC

    1

    Toilet paper crisis

    Why when a tornado, earthquake, pandemic or something like that happens people start to buy and stack toilet paper like crazy ?

    2 Comments
    2023/03/29
    01:20 UTC

    0

    Opinions about the current rape laws/safety in North America?

    Hello, I am a Dutch student conducting research together with my classmates on whether people in North America feel safe with the current laws surrounding rape, sexual harassment, etc. We then made a survey with some questions surrounding this topic. We would greatly appreciate your opinion.

    The survey(Google Form): https://forms.gle/3ovoGucU7MAUtXVD6

    1 Comment
    2023/02/20
    14:21 UTC

    2

    Do Americans really have to pledge allegiance to the flag?

    1 Comment
    2023/01/27
    22:05 UTC

    1

    What do North Americans like to nickname their places of habitation, whether affectionately or contemptuously?

    1 Comment
    2023/01/22
    04:12 UTC

    1

    what are the most common documents in your life where you find a question about what race/ethnicity/ethnic group you are. how do you usually answer and do you feel like it's limited in options?

    0 Comments
    2022/09/25
    01:51 UTC

    3

    why do we classify all the racial heritages into like 5-7 catch-all terms on documents, and two of those as freaking colors.

    I don't like I like the terms "race" or "ethnicity" in most situations. The way all of these systems is right now. It seems like it is just heavily seeks racial division.

    Like my drivers license says B(black) but 1. I'm American, never been to an African country. 2. My heritage is Irish, German, and Liberian( we believe. The old man was adopted).

    Why must I select from colors not actually heritages? I'm not a crayola crayon? I'm a human with ancestry, that's more than black.

    Personally, I think the term should be "genetic heritage".

    I think the default should be (at least in the context of the U.S.)

    American/Non-American national (defined by whether your born a US national or not. Followed by immediate(maternal/paternal) genetic heritage.

    For example

    American national (Y): Dutch, Australian, Filipino

    Or.

    American national (N): Laotian, Liberian

    Now ask yourself this. Which of the 5 have Hispanic or Asian heritage.

    The reality is you don't really know. All you truly know is person a. Has ancestry from the Philippines, Australia, and somewhere in the Netherlands. Person b. Has ancestry from Loas and Liberia.

    Sure, the Spaniards did colonize the Philippines for quite some time. But they've been gone for a long time to. So....are Filipinos Hispanic? If not....how far removed generation wise is nessesary for you to "not be Hispanic"? If the answer to that is whether you look Hispanic or not, then we're right back to skin tone dictating stuff.

    What if one of my Irish great grands had a Spaniard who sired their child in Ireland? Am I now Hispanic as well?

    Edit: to clarify what I meant by "you don't really know". Take Australian for example. An Australian can very well be Hispanic or Asian or neither because their ancestors could have immigrated from anywhere.

    Just like A Filipino can have Hispanic ancestry from the Spaniard colonization period, or they could have none of it.

    1 Comment
    2022/09/10
    02:18 UTC

    1

    why is user flair not here anymore

    0 Comments
    2021/11/26
    21:10 UTC

    1

    i have a question for mexico. why do you have your own language? almost all of america (including south america) is speaking Spanish.

    i mean Dont

    6 Comments
    2021/11/13
    11:34 UTC

    2

    Where are you from?

    7 Comments
    2021/08/08
    15:10 UTC

    1

    Is Greenland part of North America?/Le Grœnlande fait-il partie de l'Amérique du Nord ?/ ¿Es Groenlandia parte de América del Norte?

    3 Comments
    2021/08/06
    07:07 UTC

    2

    What do you think would happen if Russia didn't sell Alaska and California?

    3 Comments
    2021/01/22
    09:37 UTC

    4

    Can someone explain me how SSN works?

    I know it stands for Social Security Number, but in Latinamerica we don't have something similar.

    How do you get it?

    Everybody has one?

    Any exceptions?

    What is it used for?

    For what is not used?

    You have a card or just a number?

    Etc.

    I started working for a bank and they use it a lot, I want to get more involved on how is it actually used everyday by USA citizens, besides what wikipedia tells me about it.

    4 Comments
    2020/08/05
    15:08 UTC

    3

    Are you worried about the Asian Giant Hornets being located in North America?

    6 Comments
    2020/05/07
    01:33 UTC

    2

    Do you believe that it is illegitimate for courts/judges to strike down any part of a constitution as being unconstitutional unless courts/judges are explicitly given the authority to do this?

    0 Comments
    2019/09/24
    02:20 UTC

    7

    Are asian men considered to be most unattractive?

    I often hear and read a lot that asian men are not seen as attractive and they have hard time to find date. Do you agree?

    5 Comments
    2019/06/14
    14:08 UTC

    12

    North Americans living abroad, where do you live?

    I'm currently living in China, just curious to know if there are more people living abroad.

    16 Comments
    2019/05/28
    08:17 UTC

    7

    Is this Real?

    In the U.S during Obama last year, when the entire White House Press Corps were polled, none of them identifiy as politically right.

    During the Presidential Campaing (2016), about 93% of all campaing donations by American press members went to the Hillary campaing.

    Back in the 70s, about 67-73% of all American media members identified as politically left.

    Are those statements real?

    1 Comment
    2019/03/22
    21:42 UTC

    5

    Central Americans how important is CAFTA to your respected nation?

    0 Comments
    2019/03/16
    15:27 UTC

    9

    How big do cities like Chicago and Toronto feel compared to New York and Mexico City?

    Is there a noticeable size difference, or do they feel similar?

    10 Comments
    2019/03/15
    19:39 UTC

    15

    Do you identify with your country more or within the subdivision you live in?

    Or the region you live in?

    20 Comments
    2019/03/12
    05:06 UTC

    11

    What's the most common third language to learn in your country?

    Actually, it could be interesting to ask for the second, specially because Canada.

    But, what's the most common their language people learn in your country?

    In Mexico it's French for sure, it's funny when you switch from a French to a Quebecouis teacher.

    For a fourth language (or alternatives for a third) I would say Italian, German and Portuguese might be tied.

    14 Comments
    2019/03/07
    07:03 UTC

    4

    Mexicans what’s happening with the Gas crisis?

    I haven’t heard anything about it since it dropped

    8 Comments
    2019/03/05
    13:27 UTC

    Back To Top