Like, can you name just a few large cities in certain regions, none at all, wtf is the USA, etc.

The USA is geopolitically isolated in a rather unique way on the global stage where this is an interesting perspective.

  • MeetInPotatoes@lemmy.mlEnglish
    11·
    6 months ago

    I am from the USA but I want to say that for any foreigner who’s seen the movie Groundhog Day (or news about the occasion), the answer is Punxutawney.

  • Today@lemmy.world
    5·
    6 months ago

    Ask it the other way, too. What’s the smallest European city Americans can name?

    • pixelscript@lemmy.mlEnglish
      3·
      6 months ago

      It would have been Fucking, Austria. But it finally broke under the pressure and was renamed. I have not dedicated any brain cells to remembering what exactly its new name is, which I guess is the intended effect.

    • davidgro@lemmy.world
      3·
      6 months ago

      Vatican City.

      I’ve likely seen some smaller ones in places like Tom Scott videos, but can’t name any offhand.

    • shuzuko@midwest.socialEnglish
      2·
      6 months ago

      Amalfi, Italy. My great grandpa was born there, though he immigrated with his family to the US pretty young.

    • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.socialEnglish
      2·
      6 months ago

      Probably the smallest that could be called a city is Dieppe, because a Huguenot ancestor of mine was from there. The smallest municipality that I can think of easily is John o’ Groats, which is reasonably well-known for its location.

  • Schlemmy@lemmy.ml
    5·
    6 months ago

    Pflugerville. My mother has lived there for a while. She moved back to Europe when she got pregnant.

    • TheRealKuni@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      6 months ago

      Saganough, Michigan, for the sono. Not sure how small it is.

      Saginaw, Michigan had a population of 44,202 in the 2020 census.

  • burgersc12@mander.xyz
    3·
    6 months ago

    Jackman, Maine. Went once, not a very interesting place, about 1000 people there, in the middle of fucking nowhere

  • SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml
    3·
    6 months ago

    For me it’s mostly places in the middle of nowhere that popped up on Google Maps because they had the same name as a city this side of the pond that I was looking for. I know there are several tiny Londons, a tiny Prague, and iirc even a tiny Poland

  • smb@lemmy.mlEnglish
    2·
    6 months ago

    i’ve been to the USA once so this might not count… but i think i knew “Salem” before visiting the US (but did not visit Salem though) so it might as well count.

    However very long after knowing Salem exists i saw a documentation about something in the area that possibly caused halluzinations in the peoples minds, the documentation suggested this was a likely cause for the cities history, but those effects were why i knew about Salem in the first place. i don’t remember what it was, think some plant, but don’t remember exactly.

    however this is the smallest city i could name in the reagion you asked for.

    well, but: I don’t see a geopolitical isolation there, they even want to build walls to start isolating themselves. and i don’t see anything unique in that situation either. newzealand, iceland, madagasca just to name a few are more isolated geopolitically and much more unique in so many ways too.

    could you help me to see the geopolicically isolation and uniqueness you are talking about?

    • j4k3@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      6 months ago

      It is the distance and lack of opposition that create the geopolitical isolation. Canada and Mexico are both irrelevant on their own as rivals. The USA is the primary trade partner of both and hold major sway over both. No other power in all of history has had this level of isolation.

      The lack of significant boarders and tensions means people have a very different outlook about traveling and foreigners. I’ve moved over 2k miles twice in my life, and I have been to most of the USA; all but 3 States. I have never been to Europe, and things like foreign languages have no real appeal because they lack application and practical use.

      The boarder bullshit in the USA is a distraction tactics to suck in the imbeciles for populist nonsense. There is no actual boarder issue other than the complete lack of reasonable laws protections and reforms that would be enacted if Congress actually did their jobs. The USA has a tenth the laws and protections of Western European countries and Japan. This is why the billionaire oligarchy exists; loophole exploitation. These then fund the populists to squawk their bullshit distractions. None of their message has any relevance. It is the rallying call of convenient idiots and the ultra wealthy.

      This place is unique in the way we face inward. It is really because the average person just can’t afford to escape, and it is a long way to get there. We have an enormous range of diverse regions within the USA.

      I don’t know any small towns or cities in Europe, but my personality type is no one to remember names like this. I’m more curious about other’s perspectives. I can never leave where I am now, as I am disabled. I’m exploring my own way instead.

  • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
    2·
    6 months ago

    I visited NYC for less than a week.

    Des Moines , Iowa.

    For Canada it’s probably Sherbrooke or jonvive Jonquière.

    Bonus game: name the linking theme and specific things that link those places. Hint: it’s not french things.

    EDIT: Famous metal bands come from there. Slipknot from Des Moines, Gorguts from Sherbrooke, Voivod from Jonquiere

  • Kindness@lemmy.ml
    2·
    6 months ago

    Bluff, Utah. Met a bloke online who told a joke off it, which only made sense after searching for “A bland bluff in Utah.” Which brought up another town.