21 year old German here.
This question is for Americans who have been to Germany before (or might’ve had any interaction with Germans). And I know there are a lot of Americans on this platform who bash and hate on their own country but I hope to get an answer that’s as truthful and unbiased as possible.
So as someone who’s very sensitive I always felt like people here are way too cruel and direct. It’s a prevalent stereotype that Germans are very direct and cold. I know that a big part of this is my own perception and mental state that will cause these types of perceptions independent from the country because there will always be assholes.
But I wonder if it could be true that some of my observation might actually be because Germans might actually be more cruel. If you guys are really honest I wonder if it is possible that Americans might be slightly more nice than Germans and which country you think is actually more cruel in general. (Hope this question is not too stupid)
I mean Americans are more likely to strike up a conversation with a stranger than a German and they will probably be more polite while doing it.
As a country, the US is much crueller than Germany though. I’m not going to tell you that Germany is perfect, but there are expectations about what is acceptable that simply don’t exist in the US. If you visit the US you’re going to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of homeless people and particularly the number of homeless people on crutches, because it’s ok not to give them needed medical aid. Similarly there’s an overwhelming number of school shootings where every other country has simply stopped them via gun control. You also have basically no workers rights compared to Europe and if you’re poor it’s assumed to be your fault.
Again, you will see aspects of this in Germany, but the US simply has many of the worse aspects turned up to 11.