Are Americans or Europeans more well read? I would say Americans are...

Are Americans or Europeans more well read? I would say Americans are, simply because the SJW movement and the literature degree scam are very successful here, and many Eastern Europeans bring down the level of Europe as a whole.

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If reading bullshit ya and fantasy fiction, which surprisingly most of the mfa students i have met read almost exclusively, then, yes, americans are more well read than europeans.

The average person is probably just as pleb in either place.

thisssssss

i feel like i've seen more people reading on the subway in NYC than here but that's probably mostly because we're private people horrified of seeming pretentius whereas NYC is full of artsy libruls

I picked up reading literature when i wreckd my car, and had to take the bus every day to go to my internship. The bus was full of negroes, i was not trying to impress. Are europeans that self-consciuos?

/thread

yes. every time i'm in the US it amazes me how open people are. the flipside, i've been told, is that it's harder to make genuine deep connections, build lasting friendships, in the US. dunno if it's true

I think it's due to the fact that most of the people that i have met here seem to think that social interaction is a waste of time that keeps them from the productivity of watching netflix, or playing video games. Especially, when in their minds, they attain the same levels throught facebook or snapchat.

I have a feeling that this occurs in many other countries, but i don't have personal experiwnce to back it up.

after i've been in the US i was curious and read some articles by expats and travellers from the US, who went to germany (i live in austria but hey close enough and easier to find); because i wondered what it's like the other way around.

they felt similar about people being more private here, more open in the US; what baffled them was how quickly people get into more serios stuff, politics, religion, things considered definitely more personal and touchy in the US.

i guess you guys have more common ground, hence it's initially easier to connect, because you all speak the same language, have the same gov't, media (mostly) etc; but at the same time you're a multicultural nation and it's understood that discussion of personal beliefs, which may differ more, can lead to escalation and is best reserved for close family and friends

idk just some musings

I think it's less about social media and more about culture. There was a quote to the effect that the Old World is full of people squished together for so long that they welcome some separation, and the New World is full of fewer people over larger distances that are more excited about being able to connect more. i dont know how much of that is true but I can see that especially with the foreignors I knew

I myself love being able to open up with random people. Just the other day I was taking a trip and was excited to be able to chat with the employees of this local pizza place in the middle of nowhere, 150 miles from my city. I hadn't gone in 6 months, and I've only ever visited as a customer but they recognized me and I got to meet the guy's new dog and banter for a little while.

>was excited to be able to chat with the employees of this local pizza place in the middle of nowhere, 150 miles from my city. I hadn't gone in 6 months, and I've only ever visited as a customer but they recognized me and I got to meet the guy's new dog and banter for a little while.
i wish i could be like that but instead i'm an autismal turbosperg

i feel bad for people who try and chitchat with me, i just give yes/no answers and mumble unintelligbly, can't help it

>when you admit that liberals read more than the alt-wrong (/pol/)

>Eastern Europeans bring down the level of Europe as a whole
Eastern Europeans are p much the best read people in the world.

>eastern europeans bring down the level

you're an idiot.
eastern europe are where all the intellectuals come from,
it's not 1700 anymore buttercup

>feeling bad about reading in public

How do you survive air travel or waiting at the doctors? Do you just look at your phone? Very sad desu.

who? apart from ideology man?
genuine question desu

planes and waiting rooms are fine, it's somehow expected you entertain yourself, subways are somehow different

personally i dont care so much, i read on the subway, too. i read on my phone anways. it's not like absolutely noone does it, just way fewer people

>it's not 1700 anymore buttercup

Which is why intellectuals don't exist anymore

Zizek would probably claim to be from central Europe.

The old communist education system put a lot of emphasis on reading. You'll find that these mysterious Eastern Europeans should you ever meet one irl have read much of the classic lit of Europe. Which is a lot.

Also the US cannot win this if only because of their woefully bad literacy rates.

Do people really think that reading is pretentious? Even if they do who cares? If I ever had to take public transit I think holding a book up would be a good way to make myself inaccessible to crazy people. In my city only poor people and car thieves take the train, I don't really give two shits for their opinions to be quite honest with you my main man.

kek.

i'm from mid europe, i've met a lot of poles, slovaks, romanians, russians etc. mostly immigrants tho. maybe eastern europeans age 40 and up are well read, but those i met weren't.

also i worked with two older russian ladies (old folks home), i doubt either of them were well read, but i never asked

it's more that they think they will perceived as pretentious, i guess. we're somewhat known for being super private people here though. germans are more open. actually fucking bothers me how open they can be but i guess it wouldnt hurt for me to be a little more like that

depends if you count Muslim immigrants as European or not.

>maybe eastern europeans age 40 and up are well read, but those i met weren't.
No, even people in their teens and twenties. I imagine you were too pleb.

Syria also has better literacy than the US.

where are you getting this from t b h

Pepe why are you wearing a pickelhaube instead of a stahlhelm!? That's adorable but not historically accurate.

Proofs?

I have non pleb tastes and talk to people autisbro. If you're the kind of idiot who's all like "o u r russian did u rd dogstoyevsky??" yeah, they read that shit in middle school.

So either you asked nothing or you asked about pleb shit.

Well like 80% of the posters on mpc are like slavic lawyers who play violin so that's good enough for me.

did it ever occur to you the russians you're able to speak to hence the russians who've had enough of an education to be fluent in english are not necessarily a particularily representative group of russians

You're a bit defensive about this, friendo.

Not all Russians are European tho. Eastern Europe I know all sorts of people and I guarantee if you manage to actually talk to some about literature you will quickly find very well read people doing pleb jobs. I'm surprised you find this controversial since it's practically a Western media trope at this point.

>Eastern Europeans bring down the level of Europe as a whole.
Eastern Europeans read a lot, and are proud of their literary traditions you pleb

Im an American from an immigrant Eastern Euro family and ive been reading classics (abridged versions for kids, obviously) since I was 6/7 years old.

What's wrong with reading on the subway? It is the perfect activity if you have a long ride.. lol.

I see people reading all the time on the Paris and London metros, and I have read many books doing this. I was also living in Barcelona and plenty of times I'd go and sit outside at my favorite cafe and marathon 50 pages in the nice weather.

Also I'm from America and per capita I would think Europe is more well-read, even with Eastern Europe included.

>marathon 50 pages
almost had me there

In Romania the average person has absolutely no interest in reading any book at all in their entire life but there are some that are serious book worms and I coudn't find anyone remotely similar in west Europe.

For example:

person 1 has this books rated 5 stars on goodreads: Peer Gynt, Wutering Heights, Pornographia, Flaubert's parrot, Bestiar, Animal Farm, The master and margarita, Ghosts, The master builder, Hunger, The faster I walk the smaller I am

friend 2 has these : Mason & Dixon, In watermelon sugar, A coney island of the mind, The Crying of lot 49, Howl and other poems, The Savage Detectives, Norwegian Wood, One Hundret years of solitude, The third policeman, White Noise, American Pastoral

I'd say especially Eastern Europe included. They seem to read more than everyone else, except maybe the French.

Lick my pussy until I cum all over the floor on the wall on the covers of the bed

Im from Toronto and a STEMboy and I find that most millenial Poles, Serbs, Romanians, Bosnians i have met excel in engineering and also read good lit. My girlfriend is Romanian and her parents are senior engineers who play piano, guitar, read good lit. Just my experience. There are a lot of Eastern European engineers in this goddamn town

>planes and waiting rooms are fine, it's somehow expected you entertain yourself, subways are somehow different

>subways
>cant use your phone
>no wifi
>no room to stretch or move

I used to be on the subway from flushing queens along the seven every day into NYC, like an hour. What else am I supposed to do.

>SJW blogs, teen romance, fantasy, and YA
>well read
Are you having me on, OP?

dude wtf.

Amerifag expat here in Eastern Europe. People here read constantly on public transport. books, kindles, newspaper, whatever. Bookstores are everywhere. Everybody reads.

In the US, nobody read in public and bookstores close down left and right. Borders and B&N closed and there's very few mom and pop stores left because nobody buys books.

B&N is still open, though. My shitty town in the derp south has two used book stores.

Where are you from?

I'm from a town of 20,000 in the midwest. No bookstores. There were 5 when I was a kid. Now you have to drive 20mi to the nearest college town to find one.

Before moving here, I previously lived in Carrboro, NC. No longer any bookstores even though it's a grad student town. Chapel Hill has 1 extremist lefty bookstore and one small towny bookstore which is not much for a major university. Also, the community libraries are shit. You have to drive to Raleigh to find decent bookstores.

>extremist lefty bookstore
wut

In the UK I have never met anybody who reads seriously, I know maybe 3 people who exclusively read shit like Paluhniuk, Vonnegut and pop-sci
Most book stores are filling the space with cook books and biographies, with maybe one shelf for the most known classics
Even people on English literature programs do not read outside of their courses
We have probably the worst literacy scores of any first world country

> As a bookstore, info shop, and a community center, our mission makes us a hub for radical education and for activism in our community.

internationalistbooks.org/

I seriously doubt they discuss Austrian economic theory there.

>implying anyone that gets a lit degree actually reads the classics assigned to them.

I'm a stemfag and better read than most on the English lit courses at my UK uni:/

Europeans like to think of themselves as 'cultured' because they live in open air museums and know more trivia.

It's honestly embarrassing to have a talk with them about anything else than politics.

Why do people read self-help books? Isn't the advice way too generalised to help people who have different problems, different backgrounds, differenct cultures and different personalities? Surely reading a classic or literature would help people understand themselves and others helping them with their problems than some overly generalised book with no artistic merit written for profit.

>books by Anita Sarkesian
>well read

It depends on how private people are in your country. Mine is filled with overly loquacious people who have no sense of personal space.
I, as an introverted sperg, have gotten quite a few judgemental looks, with some people actually calling me a snob for not doing small talk.
I don't give a fuck, but it's annoying.

>pickelhaube and Prussian uniform with a Roman salute and a Swastika armband