• demlet@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    What I don’t get is the intensity. I can’t tell if it’s sarcasm maybe, or just a cultural difference in how people talk? Like, I can take a good ribbing about using weird units of measurement, but some non-Americans seem genuinely pissed off about it. Seems like a waste of energy for something that almost never affects you if you’re not American. I mean, most of us Americans were born with it, it’s not like we got a say or anything. We kind of have more pressing matters right now, maybe give us a few decades before we worry about our measurement system?

    • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      Interestingly enough there have already been attempts to shift to metric since at least the 70’s but it’s mostly been pushed back by conservatives.

      People are not really pissed about it but more annoyed because there are loads of loudmouth Americans out there screaming how their country is “NUMBER ONE BABY!” and whenever I have to write something with units, I always have to add conversions for Americans because they Wong understand what the entire rest of the world does,which is frankly annoying too.

      That’s why

      • demlet@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Hmm, you’re kind of sounding a little pissed though…

        I’ve been on Reddit for years and never seen Americans claiming we’re number one. Quite the opposite actually. Same here so far. Not sure where you’re hanging out that you’re hearing Americans saying that, but I would argue that it’s a minority view. As far as converting for us, I would say, don’t. The sooner Americans have to go do it themselves, the sooner everyone else in the world can stop caring about it.