Someone Online Asked “Americans, What Is A Good Thing About Your Country?” And 30 Folks Delivered

Dolly Parton obviously

I am a naturalized US citizen, have been living here for 12 years now and I am still in awe and disbelief on the how amazing public libraries are here

US has 63 national parks and thousands of state parks. They preserve some of America’s most beautiful places.

The endless diversity of delicious food brought by immigrants from around the world.

We are HUGE! You can go on pretty much any kind of a vacation you want without leaving the country: beach, mountains, desert, snow, high culture, big city, small rural town, sports, music. The only limit is your time and your budget!

The Smithsonian Institution. It's 20+ museums (and a zoo), all for free, in Washington DC/NYC/VA, run by the government. I just think it's neat.

The Americans with disabilities act.

I didn't realize how much reserved parking spots by the door, wide sidewalks that must be clean, handicap bathrooms, and having ramps at the entrance were important until my brother became wheelchair bound.

You go to a restaurant, and they just give you a gigantic glass of ice water for free.

Yellowstone.

Yellowstone is like being on an entirely different planet at times, with a ridiculous amount of flora and fauna that either want to eat you or build a nest in your car- not to mention the eldritch geysers and springs.

It's absolutely essential viewing and God bless Teddy Roosevelt.

For the most part, we are very friendly. You can have a friendly little chat or interaction with a stranger anywhere like you’re good friends. I just got back from a two week backpacking trip through the nordics and, no offense because I love and respect their culture, I felt completely invisible the entire time. No one is friendly there, partially because it’s considered weird to talk to strangers. But the coldness is palpable. Made me a little relieved to get back to the US where people actually smile or chat with you instead of just being as cold as possible.
Also we tend not to hate tourists because of where they’re from the way that some (definitely not most, but some) people immediately made assumptions about Americans and were actively mean because of it. Like yes, there are some dirtbag American tourists. Unfortunately I’ve met them. But the vast majority of us are not like that and shouldn’t be treated like that immediately. Americans don’t really see tourists when they come here and actively try to be mean because of what country the tourist is visiting from, the way (some, but not all) Europeans do when they see Americans

The fact that I can p**s and moan about and criticize the government and/or president and not fear (official) retribution

The natural aspects of it are quite beautiful. & there are very diverse natural aspects.

In general, despite how the media might portray it or how much the US is criticized for racism, the US is by far the most culturally diverse country, most other countries dont have as big of an issue with racism because they are mostly homogenous and the outliers are typically well integrated.

If you see a black man, an asian, a caucasian and an indian all hanging out in america nobody will bat an eye. But if you have that same group in France or Germany? In France everyone there was staring at us like we were little green aliens having a picnic.

30-year fixed-rate mortgages

According to my mom who grew up in China as the communist regime fell she thinks the freedom in America is pretty great (like you can pick your own job and the government doesn't pick it for you) and she kept reminding me of this growing up in America

As an immigant, I've always felt at home.

We make some of the worlds best hot-smoked meats, namely central-Texas brisket, Carolinas smoked pork, and everything in between.

I’ve traveled around much of the world and eaten everywhere, our smoked brisket is in a league of its own.

I can literally see every type of climate without leaving the country.

Access to public education for children with special needs is a right guaranteed by law, and those protections are stronger and the educational service for special needs children are better than in most of the rest of the world.

The ADA is also pretty amazing, and the United States is a lot more accessible than most other countries. Some of that's because the buildings are newer, yes. But it's really nice to go on vacation and know that your hotel will be able to accommodate you, tour buses will be able to accommodate you, most tourist attractions will be able to accommodate you, etc.

Our bureaucracies.

I know most people like to b***h about things like the DMV, and the IRS. But, the system of American bureaucracies are doing more to make the world a better place than they get credit for. The amount of money and manpower dedicated to data collection and deciphering is hard to fathom, and we’re the only ones doing it for the entire world.

Agencies like the DOT do massive amounts of testing on everything from train tracks to seat belts. Testing that goes far above and beyond what nearly any manufacturers do. The increase in road and travel safety in the past 100 years is unbelievable. And we share all of our data with every nation.

The NOAA collects weather data used by every news channel, every weather agency, every government and military force, etc. The data we collect, and the research we’ve done on meteorology have taken weather prediction times from 1 day to about 10 days in the past century. The impact on life saving, and crop saving, this has had has impacted billions of lives.

The DOE studies and regulates every nuclear facility on the planet. Our inspectors monitor every plant, every weapons cache, every warship worldwide. Either directly, or through NATO.

Military initiatives like DARPA have created things like GPS satellites. We made them. All of them. We maintain them. Everyone else just gets to use them. And, everyone does.

We aren’t perfect. Far from it. But, our intense efforts to collect and interpret data in every field; from food and drugs, to technology, to medicine and hospitals, building codes, chemical classification, the list goes on and on and on; have been an unparalleled contribution to our species.