@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange
2026-08-08 06:33 UTC
Replies (32)
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@0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange 2026-08-08 06:43
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange @catsalad@infosec.exchange my Dutch husband said the worst part of American restaurants for him was all the fake, forced smiles
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@abartlet@mastodon.nzoss.nz 2026-08-08 06:44
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange So one place tried the walking off thing for my passport. That was a hard no.
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@jaj@mastodon.social 2026-08-08 06:59
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange I don't understand why anybody would want to go to the US
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@david_chisnall@infosec.exchange 2026-08-08 09:56
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange them walking off with your credit card & no tap to pay This one still bugs me. In the UK, there was an anti-fraud campaign in the ‘90s that pointed at this as one of the biggest sources of card cloning or outright theft (the simplest version just got a load of fake cards made and the waiter would bring back a fake card. If you noticed, they’d apologise and tell you they were mixed up in the back and bring the right one, if you didn’t then they had your card). By the time I was old enough to have a credit card, it was fully ingrained in me that you never let the card out of your sight, you never put it into a machine that isn’t already showing you the purchase amount. Then I went to the USA and having minimum-wage (minimum tipped wage, which is a whole other ludicrousness) staff just wander off with your card was normal.
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@graymattergrcltd@infosec.exchange 2026-08-08 11:01
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange Ya. As a Canadian, the flag thing is ick. For me the problem is I get accused of being American because of my Canadian accent, and I have to dodge all kinds of hostile behaviour until I explain that I live in Canada, in the time zone one hour earlier than EST (What? There’s another time zone earlier? Yep and yet another a half-hour earlier than that in the same continent). That is the secret handshake that proves I’m really Canadian. ONce I’m known as Canadian, shoulders relax, smiles appear, and the topic of conversation gets normal again. Canadians have a long history of wearing Canadian flags on clothing and personal items not to signal Canadian-ness but to signal not-American-ness. Americans have figured out that they get treated better abroad if they signal Canadian-ness to hide their American-ness, so they wear Canadian flags. Then they do not-Canadian things, like apologizing to inanimate objects, and it effs it up for everyone. Of course most midwesterners, like Minnesotans, are honourably Canadians. And of course, we have our own American-funded fascists who did the truck convoy to Ottawa and threatened to take over the government. They covered everything in Canadian flags and all other Canadians avoided Canadian flags for years. Until, of course, Trump started threatening to invade, annex, claim mineral and oil rights in Canada and our relationship with the US forever changed from buddies, mates, and neighbours to icy politeness, making new friends globally, and keeping an eye on the crazy uncle who won’t step away from the booze and keeps trying to open the gun cabinet. But then the Canadian response was based on a great Canadian hockey legend, not American blood and soil patriotism. Elbows Up! Anyway, Canadians have been side-eyeing our neighbours for some time now, and the rest of the world is only now catching up.
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@benno@eigenmagic.net 2026-08-08 06:38
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange Also the use of "entree" to mean "main course".
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@ben@social.ben.ie 2026-08-08 06:45
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange and the TVs
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@typeswitch@gamedev.lgbt 2026-08-08 06:46
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange if you talk to people who visit or immigrate to the US about unexpected parts of the experience, many do bring up those points ... (another one for me is how in US restaurants they are always trying to get you out of there as quickly as possible.) but i think most people don't realize that reverse culture shock is a thing until they experience it, like you have.
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@loke@functional.cafe 2026-08-08 06:47
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange when I come back to Sweden it always feels weird. It's because nothing has really changed over there, but you have. You feel like an alien, things around you are strange yet not unfamiliar. It's weird. For me, it's based enough that if I ever go back to Europe, I'd probably stay in a different country nearby.
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@muddle@infosec.exchange 2026-08-08 06:50
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange The flags everywhere just convinced me that the residents are liable to forget what country they're living in at the drop of a hat.
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@RootCause@infosec.exchange 2026-08-08 07:23
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange I can handle everything but the card. Lots of restaurants have flags or other indicators of their origin, I don’t mind that. I prefer huge portions over overpriced and small ones obviously 😛
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@Madagascar_Sky@mastodon.social 2026-08-08 07:33
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange Your slander against portion sizes will not be stood madam! I shall see you in court!
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@ainmosni@social.ainmosni.eu 2026-08-08 07:41
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange The flags in general creeped me the fuck out over there, even in Canada. National flags flown by non-governmental entities is just something that makes me nervous. In the Netherlands, and my current home of Germany, putting the national flag on your clothing, especially on a bomber jacket, is a way to show that you're a nazi. Of course, when 5 guys opened up in both countries, they thought it would be cute to give their staff bomber jackets with the country of the place on the sleeves... Sigh... I wonder if any of them ever got punched because of that when wearing it outside of work.
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@Corb_The_Lesser@mastodon.social 2026-08-08 07:46
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange And noise. There's a local breakfast place here with a great reputation. People line up on the sidewalk. Inside, it's a brick-walled box with continuous high-decibel music AND panel TVs. You cannot hear the person on the other side of the table. Painful. I don't get it.
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@attoparsec@clacks.link 2026-08-08 07:52
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange But also: root beer!
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@ohyran@social.piewpiew.se 2026-08-08 08:15
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange when we visited the US me and my husband had to ask the waitor what the correct amount of tip was. And then had to explain that we don't have that where were from or when it happens its not as formalised so its vague at best. Since going to a restaurant was so uncomfortable we just stopped and mostly ate ready made meals from a shop. The idea that I am meant to judge the staff based on some metric I don't understand is dehumanising
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@m3t00@app.wafrn.net 2026-08-08 08:20
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange it felt oppressive back in '86 after 2
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@retrofan64@oldbytes.space 2026-08-08 08:24
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange I hear those weirdos eat with the fork and knife in the wrong hand too.
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@markmevans@techhub.social 2026-08-08 08:28
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange I’m a US citizen and all the flags freak me out. They’re everywhere. Random businesses, peoples’ houses, bumper stickers, t-shirts, patches on jackets. It’s like we’re afraid we’ll forget where we are or think we’re special because of where we’re were born. As George Carlin said, “Flags are symbols for the symbol minded.”
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@richardstocks@infosec.exchange 2026-08-08 09:12
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange I still struggle with the main course being called an entree.
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@dianshuo@mstdn.io 2026-08-08 09:17
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange as a non left-pondian I can say that going out in the US is horribly anxiety inducing in terms of “how it works”. Also the bills all being the same size. Is contactless at least a thing now?
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@xs4me2@mastodon.social 2026-08-08 10:03
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange And thank you for your service…
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@vivo@troet.cafe 2026-08-08 10:47
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange as a European I miss sidewalks so much.
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@tomdewar@mas.to 2026-08-08 11:02
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange you forgot to mention the shit they call chocolate
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@metalfabs@mastodon.social 2026-08-08 11:20
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange I feel spoiled in Canada having the Interac system. The banks here are an oligopoly, but a positive outcome from that is they got together and made a system to allow payment directly with debit cards, without having to worry about what bank you're with. So most of the time in real life I pay directly from a chequing account. Just a little bit of money that doesn't go through American financial institutions. And immediately painful if overspending.
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@cpfenix@mastodon.world 2026-08-08 12:32
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange The pickling salt in restaurant food has kept me cooking at home for years. Now if we go out for a meal it has to be a Farm to Table. Otherwise my body throbs from the high sodium.
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@wibble@ohai.social 2026-08-08 12:37
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange I visited North Carolina once and found The Land of the Free weirdly keen on constantly watching and ignoring people all at once, a feeling I'd only felt before in East Berlin which, at the time, was also obsessed with flags.
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@mose@infosec.exchange 2026-08-08 14:08
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange "Absolutely, definitely, yep, yeah... Flags?" Aside from the collection of flag poles in front of many chain restaurants, (why does McDonald's have their own flag?) I don't think I've noticed the flag thing in restaurants. I have a feeling I'm going to start seeing it everywhere now, because that does sound like a thing we'd do.
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@gneilyo@mastodon.online 2026-08-08 17:24
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange And now they’ve started adding fees to cover the cost of providing adequate compensation to their staff. They could do the sane thing and just raise the prices, but American restauranteurs are a reactionary lot. They are quite incensed that workers have organized to get the local minimum wage increased to something approaching livable. No, they’re passing that expense on to you in hopes you’ll join them in hating their employees.
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@develin@troet.cafe 2026-08-08 18:32
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange to me the worst part was people rationalizing that they get the best service because of how tips work.
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@Unixbigot@aus.social 2026-08-08 22:42
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange I wouldn’t go to America again unless I could afford to do this: https://aus.social/@Unixbigot/117062265136901138
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@tootbrute@fedi.arkadi.one 2026-08-11 07:08
@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange you have to tip? That's communism