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PaperclipPerfector  6d ago (text post)   2171 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for June 26, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Anyone been watching the videos of Europeans coming to America and being surprised at how nice it is?

My girlfriend's been telling me about them. What are you hearing?

https://youtube.com/watch?v=PBagmhUrsVE?is=Vz1jY87-UpPGgjjw

People like ranch, BBQ, national parks, the friendliness, etc

It's so on the nose and makes me feel so good that my default position is that a lot of it is astroturfed bullshit. But:

  • I react like that to excellent food when I have it in other countries
  • I genuinely think that our food culture is undersung, and pretty much every euro I know who has actually visited here says it's way better than they expected
  • Nobody is being brought to the ghetto or the middle of nowhere for these WC games, there's already some good filtering in what they're actually seeing and experiencing

Their expectations are probably low for the food because America basically exports it's cheapest food culture.

I did watch a specific couple, a bearded/ripped dude and hot blonde. They look like a hot young American couple. But sound British. Didn't feel very astroturfed, and a lot of their reactions were more informational. With a minority being glowing praise, but little criticism.

I don't necessarily think it's all astro-turfed but there are very strong incentives to create this type of content, regardless of how genuine the feelings are, because natives wherever you go love it when foreigners praise their nation. Influencers know this.

There is a whole cottage industry of foreign influencers making videos about how fantastic it is in Sweden and seemingly most of their viewers aren't people from their home countries but Swedes, and Sweden is a tiny source for views.

I think it's less about the incentives to create this content, but more about the incentives to signal boost it. If 1000 people make genuine and authentic content, then the 1% most positive is going to make Americans happy and they'll all comment/like/subscribe and then the algorithms spread it so that's what gets seen. You'll see 10 really positive videos and 0 lackluster, unimpressed, and disappointed ones.

Yeah, that is what creates the incentive feedback loop to make positive content.

Yes, that too. Both contribute, but I think the majority of the effect we're seeing is the first order effect of the selection bias itself more than the second order creation that you're describing.

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