Around ~2008 I was in a Barcelona hostel and met a guy there. He started speaking and I interrupted him excitedly…“Oh you’re American!!”.

He looked down…the weight of pain curdled the air around us. You could sense deep sorrow welling beneath the surface of this man. He paused for what felt like an eternity to compose himself,

He looked up with a piercing, but harrowing, stare and said “No, I’m Canadian…”

I’ll never forget that moment. That sheer depth of emotion is something I haven’t experienced before or since.

Did I silently murder this poor Canadian soul? How do Canadians cope with the mistaken identity?

  • OttoVonNoob@lemmy.ca
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    6 months ago

    This may be ranty, so sorry in advance. Canadians and Americans are very different. They are our brothers and we love them.That being said politically, socially and culturally we are very far apart. I would not be offended if someone thought I was American but I would correct them. I belive the equivalent would be if someone said “Oh your a Scott?” neighbour’s for over a 1000 years but not the same. I’m assuming your British sorry. Also, to add we do have a growing presence of “We should be part if America” weirdos. Who would say something like “Canada has no culture”.

    • blargerer@kbin.social
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      6 months ago

      How much traveling have you done? I’m Canadian and don’t want to join America or something, and there are meaningful differences. But as someone that’s traveled a decent amount, we are way more similar than different. Even England and Australia feel way more alien than most places I’ve been in the the US do. (I’ll admit that one time I was in super rural Tennessee that it also felt quite alien)

      • OttoVonNoob@lemmy.ca
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        6 months ago

        I do alot of traveling south, see alot of hockey and football games. I’m not saying it’s alien, it probably is the closest thing we have to a brother. That’s why I said we love them, Yada Yada Yada. But we are different and that view is becoming skewed. Also, I can almost say with certainty your from Ontario. As a Maritimer, Quebecer, Northerner, Indigenous or BC’er. Would probably say how wildly different it is. As we are both huge countries with mosaics of local cultures. But Ontario has a similar culture to Illinois, Minnesota or other northern states. Also, rural states are funny… Stopped at a roadside dinner in Minni a month ago and posters of Biden with Devil horns everywhere and no one flinched…

    • CashewNut 🏴󠁢󠁥󠁧󠁿@lemmy.worldOP
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      6 months ago

      I’m assuming your British sorry

      This may be ranty, so sorry in advance. But Scots are British. They’re not English but they are British. Haha. :p

      Canadians and Americans are very different.

      I respectfully disagree…

      1. You sound the same.
      2. I asked who you guys would support in a war between UK and America - You seemed to support the US more.
      3. Your humour is more American than British. Do you even banter?
      4. You literally ride moose into battle.
      5. You think it’s acceptable to tickle beavers.
      6. You love guns.

      About the only thing that seems un-American is that fox Justin Trudeau and it seems you’re planning to vote him out next election. How, why? Have you seen that face? He isn’t a man! He’s a god!

      So Canadian == American.

      • magnetosphere@kbin.social
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        6 months ago

        6a - Canadians go shooting in forests
        6b - Americans go shooting in schools, shopping malls, or other public places

        I’m American. I’m allowed to make dark jokes about how screwed up our society is.

        • DerisionConsulting@lemmy.ca
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          6 months ago

          I think that everyone can make jokes about the mass shooting events, as long as it’s not about any one specific event, and at least until you guys stop having about 12 per week.

          You guys are actually doing pretty good this year, only 12 in the past 15 days!
          And only 54 kids killed by guns this year so far, that’s only like 1 every 8 hours.
          https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/

      • Kbin_space_program@kbin.social
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        6 months ago

        Trudeau looks great, gives decent speeches.

        Absolutely spineless and rudderless when it comes to actual decisions.

        So now we’re on track to get a guy that makes Mike fucking Johnson seem like a upright and well adjusted individual.

      • OttoVonNoob@lemmy.ca
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        6 months ago
        1. I mean accent is such a strange thing to say is similar. You can’t compare a new York accent to Toronto. This video is a good sum https://youtu.be/9XpVHbFsLDQ?feature=shared

        2. I mean if we support you guys, we’re dead and we gained you guys 3 hours xD. Also, politically speaking I don’t think anyone on Lemmy is deciding our international relations.

        3. I grew up with Mr Bean on the CBC and Monty Python movies on CBC on Sundays.(Showing my age) I can’t say for sure ether way but that’s a wild assumption xD.

        4.??

        5.??

        1. We have 70 less guns per person than the states.

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian_guns_per_capita_by_country#/media/File%3AWorld_map_of_civilian_gun_ownership_-_2nd_color_scheme.svg

      • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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        6 months ago

        The only thing you got wrong here is in tickling a beaver … riding a moose into battle is less dangerous than tickling a beaver who can snap at you like a weasel and rip your finger off in the blink of an eye.

        • nyan@lemmy.cafe
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          6 months ago

          The UK had no beavers for hundreds of years, so it makes sense that its denizens wouldn’t know that beavers aren’t ticklish. 🫠

      • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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        6 months ago

        1 - it’s like Australia vs UK, if you aren’t around it then you can’t spot the difference. Look up Nova Scotians talking and Texans talking then play them back to back. There are some differences

        2 - Weird

        3 - We banter and watch British comedies. Don’t really care for American comedies

        4 - how is that not different? If you were comparing us to Finland it might be a similarity

        5 - ?

        6 - No we don’t

        How, why?

        The other guy promises to favour India in immigration and give express citizenship to those people