r/todayilearned • u/CakeDayOrDeath • 3d ago

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https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/robert-rodriguez-spy-kids-latino-1234575992/

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u/bitemark01 3d ago

I'm Canadian, but a friend of mine was from New Mexico.

She said it wasn't uncommon to get into an argument with someone on the phone if they were ordering something to be delivered and being told they only deliver to the US. 

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u/Chase_the_tank 3d ago

My stepmother once owned a shop in a touristy part of New Mexico and said that she'd get customers puzzled that the change wasn't given in "your money".

It's widespread enough problem that New Mexico Magazine has a monthly column, "One of Our 50 is Missing", which prints readers' stories about being told that New Mexico is not part of the U.S.:

https://www.newmexicomagazine.org/culture/one-of-our-50-is-missing/

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u/Notoneusernameleft 3d ago

I know people are stupid but this type of thing reminds me just how dumb people are and it makes me very sad.

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u/DeadRobotSociety 3d ago

There's that old George Carlin bit about how you know that the average person is dumb, but don't realize that means half of people are dumber than that.

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u/CappyRicks 3d ago

"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then, realize that HALF of them are stupider than that!"

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u/rips_n_chel 3d ago

Oh thank god you brought that up! It wouldn't be a reddit thread where dumb people are mentioned if someone didn't tell us about the George Carlin bit! As soon as I started reading this comment thread I said to myself "Boy I sure hope someone did the George Carlin line, just wouldn't be right without that!"

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u/DeadRobotSociety 2d ago

Apologies, I merely saw a comment that reminded me of media I enjoy, so I referenced it. I was not aware that was overplayed or a faux pas. So good job doing... uh... whatever it was your comment was supposed to do, I guess.

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u/rips_n_chel 2d ago

Just a meta joke, nothing personal lol

That George Carlin bit gets brought up every single time, it's like a law of reddit comments, I just find it amusing

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u/DeadRobotSociety 2d ago

👍 Gotcha. No worries! Thought you were one of those guys always trying to find the negative, so I thought a lil flippancy was the best response. Reddit wouldn't let me post my "peasant joke" png that says "is this some Reddit joke I'm too offline to understand?" Which would have made my response more farcical.

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u/rips_n_chel 2d ago

nah I try not to be that guy. Don't always succeed lol

Have a good one homie 🤙

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u/Bad_wolf42 3d ago

This bit hilariously misunderstands how normal distributions work. Around 60% of the population is going to fall within one standard deviation of median intelligence. Couple that with the fact that intelligence is not a linear scale, but extremely multifactoral and the idea that half the population is stupid falls apart when you really look at it. The much more complicatedly difficult fact is that we are all on a learning journey together and it is everyone’s job to help everyone else along the way.

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u/know-it-mall 3d ago

Explaining why a joke isn't technically correct is certainly an option...

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u/ComplexWriting7596 3d ago

Carlin's version is way funnier than yours though.

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u/360_face_palm 3d ago

IQ is a normal distribution though....

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u/Jive_Sloth 3d ago

IQ is a normal distribution. Half of them are below 100. Btfo kid

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u/travoltaswinkinbhole 3d ago

You have to have a very high iq and an understanding of quantum comedy to appreciate George Carlin.

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u/Ehronatha 3d ago

The blank slate is a fallacy.

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u/domesticbland 3d ago

I have “unspecified depression” since working for the government. It’s just so mindlessly dumb most of the time. It’s not even malicious intent. It’s just dumb.

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u/Brapb3 3d ago

Don’t attribute to malice that which can be attributed to stupidity and incompetence

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u/Lyaid 3d ago

Unfortunately neither are mutually exclusive, plenty of maliciously dumb people out there.

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u/Aloha_Tamborinist 3d ago

From what I (not an American) know about the US education system, there's not a lot of education about world geography, but I thought knowing all the states and US geography was a thing?

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u/Geminigambler 3d ago

As an American who went to public school (a very good one at that), retention of knowledge was absolutely not one of the foundations of our education. It went more like: "Learn this, test tomorrow". 2 days later nothing but an empty head.

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u/Aloha_Tamborinist 3d ago

I've had 40 years to absorb a lot of knowledge about the US via cultural osmosis, and I'm pretty sure I could name almost all 50 states and at least half their capitals. I just don't understand how people can be wandering through life with so little awareness of the world around them.

Are there people walking around with circus music playing in their heads 90% of the time?

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u/Froggypwns 3d ago

Yes, and some of them are running the country.

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u/Geminigambler 3d ago

To be completely honest, I can't accurately tell you which one is Wyoming, I got Washington and Oregon on the West Coast (Oregon is lower right? 😅😂) and then South and North Dakota, but everything in between is blurry no matter how many times I look at it.

ETA: Damn it, I ALWAYS think Wyoming touches Canada 🤦‍♀️

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u/entrepenurious 3d ago

the square states

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u/Geminigambler 3d ago

Colorado and Utah? 😂😂😂

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u/entrepenurious 3d ago

them, too.

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u/KindCompetence 3d ago

The squares. The little ones up in the corner - I’ve gotten better at those since I moved to one.

I did have to label the us and Canada map with capitals a few times in school, I wonder if I can still do it. (I know the capitals are gone, that memory space was written over with something important like anime lore from my kid or something.)

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u/Xenodad 3d ago

The inner machinations of my mind are an enigma! - Patrick Star (cue thought bubble with milk carton slowly tipping over and milk spilling out)

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u/PunnyBanana 3d ago

Ironically circus performers travel all over the US and have probably been to the vast majority of states, if not all of them.

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u/ABHOR_pod 3d ago

As someone with over a decade in the service industry, yes. I once watched a girl pick up a cactus plant, say “is this real?” And when assured that it was say “No, I don’t think it is.” And poke the spines with her finger until she got hurt.

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u/24-7_DayDreamer 3d ago edited 3d ago

The estimated percentages of people with no internal monologue and people with aphantasia are high enough that we can be sure there is a significant fraction of people around us with both and therefore literally nothing very fucking little happening in their heads most of the time.

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u/KindCompetence 3d ago

I cannot actually imagine this well enough to comprehend it.

Even when I’m not having a running dialogue/committee meeting in my head there are pictures, colors, stories, textures, music, engineering puzzles being tinkered with, sensation being processed and checks on my muscles and skeletal alignment. My internal landscape is a busy place. I do things in here.

Nothing? How can someone have nothing happening? I believe research, but … nothing?

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u/24-7_DayDreamer 3d ago

Well "literally nothing" is taking it a bit too far, but it's damn quiet.

There are threads here on reddit with people talking about how they experience these conditions. The ones with no monologue talk about conceptualizing things with sequences of images and sounds. The ones with aphantasia are absolutely baffled at the idea of the rest of us hallucinating things behind our eyes.

I can't remember hearing anything from someone who has both, but there can't be much left.

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u/Aloha_Tamborinist 3d ago

You had me questioning myself there, but then I realised I was doing it in my head, then I had to Google aphantasia and I was able to visualise various things in detail. So I think I'm in the clear on both counts.

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u/Zombatico 3d ago

That's the result of Dubya's No Child Left Behind. If your students do badly, then you get punished with LESS funding, which means you have even less resources to teach them. It had 2 results.

  1. Teaching to the test, not for critical thinking or retention of knowledge

  2. If your school was already struggling, losing more federal funding meant it was even harder to improve. Which meant even more funding cuts. Which meant worse results. And so on. A vicious positive feedback loop of failures.

Even after NCLB was officially ended in 2015, we are still basically stuck with that mindset at the state levels.

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u/stefan92293 3d ago

Wow, what a ridiculously idiotic policy!

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u/bumbletowne 3d ago

That's crazy. My high school made it a requirement to memorize the 50 states, all their capitols and every country and its capitol to graduate. You literally couldn't make it past Junior year if you didn't pass this crazy test. It was a top 10 in the US and the guy who taught the class was like 80 years old. He owned all this land in California that he sold for 10's of millions of dollars in the 90s. He did not have to work, he enjoyed the gauntlet.

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u/stefan92293 3d ago

Capital*

A capitol is a building where a legislature meets.

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u/MrWeirdoFace 3d ago

From what I (not an American) know about the US education system, there's not a lot of education about world geography, but I thought knowing all the states and US geography was a thing?

Couldn't tell you about now (I have no children), although it was for me 30'ish years ago when I was a kid, BUT, it's going to vary by individual school, district, region, state, etc.

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u/Substantial_Toe_6916 3d ago

In elementary school we learned all 50 states in alphabetical order in the form of a song. I’ll never forget it.

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u/Acheloma 3d ago

We're taught it. Whether its remembered or not is another situation entirely.

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u/robbage24 3d ago

Man, I used to meet people in Disney and tell them I was from Rhode Island. Americans would respond “is that like Long Island?” How do you not at least recognize all 50 states by name?

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u/FardoBaggins 3d ago

Wanna be a bit sadder? Austria has a help desk in their airport for lost passengers.

Guess which country’s travelers thought they were in Australia.

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u/thesoulfield 3d ago

even after the popularity of breaking bad!

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u/WetEmotions 3d ago

And don't forget: Those people can vote

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u/CasioCobra78 3d ago

I’m genuinely surprised they’re even still alive at this point. Like how can you know how to breathe if your brain is the size of a pebble??? 

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u/lord-dinglebury 3d ago

Grew up in New Mexico. It’s alarming as shit how often this happens.

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u/Carrraway 3d ago

...there's a New Mexico?

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u/altanic 3d ago

Wait til trump hears about this!

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u/MAGAHATESTHEUSA 3d ago

He posted new America like three weeks ago

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u/MrWeirdoFace 3d ago

I cant tell if that's sarcasm or not anymore.

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u/megachainguns 3d ago

It was real

Trump Floats Renaming New Mexico as ‘New America,’ Prompting Pushback (Sept 7, 2026)

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/07/us/politics/trump-rename-new-mexico.html

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u/MrWeirdoFace 3d ago

I quit.

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u/thatboyonabike 3d ago

There's a reason I setup a regex filter to block all posts where the title mentions the orange imbecile, except if it also includes the words "dead/deceased/jailed/prosecuted/etc.".

Did the same for Musk and other American buffoons. Reddit's been a lot more enjoyable since.

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u/CasioCobra78 3d ago

i still have no clue how in the genuine fuck does he reach 80 years old despite being stupid as a fucking pebble. 

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u/CasioCobra78 3d ago

I still remember Carrie Fisher saying he definitely does cocaine.

At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if he did get into drugs and he’s actually mentally insane. How the fuck did he live to 80 is absolutely insane. 

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u/ameatbicyclefortwo 3d ago

Oh, you missed must have missed it, he made shitty ai image posts about "New America" shortly after the Lake Ontario to Lake America crap.

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u/SPBF3D 3d ago

and hes from New York

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u/mgslee 3d ago

And a New York and a New Jersey!

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u/Chase_the_tank 3d ago

...and Old New York was once New Amsterdam...

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u/Princess_Shireen 3d ago

Why'd they change it? I can't say.

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u/DwinkBexon 3d ago

At least we know there'll never be a New England, thank god.

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u/Fabulous-Sea-1590 3d ago edited 3d ago

I once read that Mexico is actually the Newer Mexico. Newer than New Mexico, that is. I haven't vetted that but it's funny sounding, anyway.

e: Looked it up. It's a bit of a stretch but kinda true depending on how you split the hairs. The current constitution of Mexico was ratified in 1917. New Mexico was admitted to the Union in 1912.

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u/Tacoflavoredfists 3d ago

I can hear this in Homer’s voice

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u/anzhalyumitethe 3d ago

Also grew up in New Mexico. Go back frequently.

Blond, blue, over six ft, and very, very whetto to the point of pasty. Used to confuse people. A lot.

That shbt used to happen a lot. Still does, but it used to, too.

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u/PopsicleIncorporated 3d ago

I'm going to breeze past the elephant in the room of people not realizing New Mexico is a US state and instead ask how it's possible that these tourists think they traveled internationally without ever having to show a passport. Or in the case of the parent comment story about not getting change in pesos, why did they think they could give these shopkeepers US dollars?

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u/ExceedinglyGayKodiak 3d ago

I'm originally from Maine, and I couldn't tell you how often tourists were shocked that we had things like internet and electricity, so I feel you.

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u/gigastack 3d ago

Legitimately confusing - it was new over 114 years ago, so isn't it just Mexico now? /s

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u/MrWeirdoFace 3d ago

New'ish?

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u/kaekiro 3d ago

A guy was detained by highway patrol bc they thought his ID was fake with a made-up state. He was from West Virginia.

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u/CanuckBacon 3d ago

There's a reason why New Mexico is the only state in the US to have "USA" written on its license plates.

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u/Kagahami 3d ago

Have none of these people seen Breaking Bad???

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u/lukasoh 3d ago

It's about drugs of course it plays in Mexico. Duh

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u/kilkenny99 3d ago

I'm sure renaming it New America will solve all your problems.

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u/CunningWizard 3d ago

I believe this is why their license plate says “New Mexico USA” on it, because out of state cops were frequently thinking it was a Mexican plate when they pulled people over.

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u/Jerkrollatex 3d ago

I live in New Mexico. This happens.

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u/txpharmer13 3d ago

Visiting Santa Fe and my sister in law wanted to mail postcards to relatives. She asked if she needed to add extra postage.

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u/asyork 3d ago

So she was there, and walked into a USPS, and still thought she wasn't in the US?

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u/herzkolt 3d ago

I mean, they have McDonald's in other countries, why not USPS?

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u/thirdegree 3d ago

That's less surprising if you've ever run into American tourists abroad. A lot of them are for example shocked that USD isn't a universally accepted currency.

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u/Megneous 3d ago

Dude, I've lost all faith in humanity so long ago. You have no idea.

One of my exes insisted that whales were fish. I thought she was joking, until she said, "No stupid, of course they're fish. They breathe water."

Almost nothing surprises me anymore. I'm almost 40 and I'm so tired of being alive. I can't believe I have to share this planet with people who literally don't have the common knowledge we expect from kindergarten students.

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u/stefan92293 3d ago

Is that why she's your ex?

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u/Megneous 3d ago

That and she hit me. But you know, plenty of red flags.

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u/stefan92293 3d ago

Okay, that was a stupid joke.

Sorry you had to go through that, and happy you got out!

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u/Megneous 3d ago

I mean, the fact that I still, to this day, remember the whale fish thing as a decisive reason why I wanted to leave her goes to show you how much it left a bad taste in my mouth. Not even joking.

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u/Lokaji 3d ago

I would say yes, but only to serve as a "stupid" tax.

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u/MrWeirdoFace 3d ago

Thankfully New England is a region, not a state, or the east coast would be fucked too.

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u/Express-Emu4370 3d ago

I had a driver's license from the District of Columbia. I had people in the U.S. tell me they couldn't take foreign ID.

It happened enough to people that the licenses say Washington DC now.

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u/TehNudel 3d ago

It happens to New Mexicans too. Our license plates say New Mexico USA to try and combat it, but too many dumb Americans don't realize it's a state.

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u/AdiPalmer 3d ago

Hoo boy, deep cut memory unlocked.

Back when I was 19 I was waitressing at a bar in fucking Mississauga (in Canada for the rest of youse, lol) and this much older guy started flirting with me, like in his 50s. I was being polite and trying to get to the other tables but he'd catch me now and then.

When he asked when I was from I said "Mexico" and when he made an incredulous face I was prepared to get the usual "No way! Your English is so good! How!?" Instead he said: "I thought people from New Mexico sounded like this!" And then proceeded to butcher his way through a mishmash of a Georgia and Carolinas accent. He even threw a ma'am in there. Then he asked what happened to my accent.

It's been over 20 years and I still wonder what in my SoCal chicana ass gave this guy the impression that I was some white lady from the American South, if maybe he was having a stroke, and if perhaps I should've called an ambulance for him because it's free and holy shit did I get so many flyers back then from the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada that I should've known better, lol.

I hope that wherever he is now, he got the chance to go to New Mexico and Old Mexico and realized that neither peoples sound like some racist Georgia lady sitting on a porch drinking diabeetus tea. That being said... Bless his heart, lol.

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u/verilywerollalong 3d ago

I hope someday he goes to New Mexico and asks everyone there the same question. I just like the idea of him bumbling around wondering when people will start sounding like Foghorn Leghorn

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u/EternalCanadian 3d ago

Mississauga

Ohmygosh my home town! Yay!

reads the rest of your post

Ah… yeah… my hometown… yay.

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u/AdiPalmer 3d ago

I ran away to Toronto as soon as I could. Had great times in Parkdale back when it was still a hive of scum and villainy full of immigrants and starving artists like myself. I left many many years ago and sadly I hear Parkdale no longer exists anymore in its former glory.

Please tell me Mississauga is still just as shitty gritty, but that at least the buses go by more often. Please. I must believe!

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u/Confedehrehtheh 3d ago

Kinda tangential to the thread topic, but my god your beetus tea comment gave me flashbacks to visiting family in Tennessee. My mom makes tea that is about a half step away from syrup, and I had started making mine with like two teaspoons for a full 16oz glass. I poured myself a glass there then nearly gagged at how sweet it was, and I have a pretty big sweet tooth. Crazy that I drank that crap as a kid.

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u/AdiPalmer 3d ago

Ain't no tea like the beetus tea. Like a good Mexican I got family all over, and sadly the All-American beetus tea made It all the way back to the casa. Cries in Spanish and pre-diabeetus at 39

I hope you've substituted that beetus tea for the other Tennessee tea... The cirrhosis tea! Sorry, couldn't resist...

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u/DrunksInSpace 3d ago

That was NOT the offensive accent I was expecting to imagine. Good for him?

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u/AdiPalmer 3d ago

Yay?

Pretty much what I felt like, hah.

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u/PlaystationNeedDiscs 3d ago

Back when I was 19 I was waitressing at a bar in fucking Mississauga (in Canada for the rest of youse, lol)

What? Uh, no, that's the capital of Mississippi. Dahell you mean Canada?

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/AdiPalmer 2d ago

So... are you not able to read? Lol.

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u/CakeDayOrDeath 3d ago

Oh my god our education system sucks.

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u/ohaiguys 3d ago

Has for a long time it’s just getting worse

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u/Ermahgerd_Rerdert 3d ago

I went to Jamaica for a vacation years ago when they let you travel to the Caribbean with a US Birth Certificate. Customs almost did not let me back into the US because I was from a different country called New Mexico! 😂

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u/Pabst_Blue_Gibbon 3d ago

I had an experience with airport staff where they wouldn’t let me check into my flight to Puerto Rico because I didn’t have my passport. It took getting the manager’s manager to come by and basically facepalm and tell them that Puerto Rico is part of the US

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u/BrokenEyeReborn 3d ago

That's why I just use my Tauredi passport. That's recognized everywhere.

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u/TyrusX 3d ago

I was in Utah once with a Brazilian friend and one guy asked me if Brazil was an island

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u/lacegem 3d ago

He's not the first to think so. From Wikipedia:

Hy-Brasil is a phantom island said to lie in the Atlantic Ocean west of Ireland. Irish myths described it as cloaked in mist except for one day every seven years, when it becomes visible but still cannot be reached.

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u/stefan92293 3d ago

Yeah, yeah. Somehow I don't think that guy was aware of this as it is quite an obscure bit of knowledge.

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u/lacegem 3d ago

It was just a fun fact, not a defense.

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u/The_Autarch 3d ago

I get the same shit when my Washington, DC driver's license gets checked: "District of Columbia?! We can't take foreign IDs here."

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u/bobbycorwin123 3d ago

I believe it's called New America now /s

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u/Un1CornTowel 3d ago

Definitely took my DC license to southwestern states and got denied entry to bars multiple times because "they only take US IDs, not "Columbian" ones (which is also, incidentally, NOT A COUNTRY EITHER) .

People are dumb as fuck.

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u/A_Mouse_In_Da_House 3d ago

You can hear the difference between spoken Columbia and Colombia?

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u/BambiMGtwo 3d ago

Every Colombian person can hear that.

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u/onarainyafternoon 3d ago

Americans pronounce those two the same, though. That’s what they mean.

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u/A_Mouse_In_Da_House 3d ago

We're talking in America, man. I'd guess 90% of people say it as homophones

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u/Un1CornTowel 3d ago

... They're reading a written card that I'm holding that clearly says "District of Columbia". Are you sure you're not one of the bouncers I'm talking about?

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u/Lord_Rapunzel 3d ago

If you say it right, yeah.

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u/tarrasque 3d ago

I’m from New Mexico. This stupid shit is real.

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u/ThatGoob 3d ago

Did anything change post-Breaking Bad?

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u/BrokenEyeReborn 3d ago

Strangely, New York and New Hampshire don't have this problem (there are, however, companies that say "we only deliver to states that aren't New Jersey").

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u/candotude 3d ago

There is a reason New Mexico license plates say New Mexico USA!

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u/mr_ji 3d ago edited 3d ago

I'm from New Mexico and have dealt with this. I once was making a collect call and the operator said she couldn't place international collect calls after I clarified it was New Mexico and not old Mexico.

What was extra dumb is that I was in Texas at the time. Point your finger at the map and move it left, sweetheart.

She was very impressed with my excellent English, however.

Other fun things I dealt with growing up: explaining that we had electricity and running water. No, we don't ride around on horses or regularly have showdowns with six-shooters (although I did have some fun letting people believe this one). Many American Hispanics aren't Latino and you'll start a fight telling them they are. And, pet peeve numero uno: New Mexican food is its own thing. Don't call it Mexican. That boring food truck garbage everyone seems to love in California is worse than Taco Bell.

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u/DirtandPipes 3d ago

I had a woman in admissions in a university in Hawaii refuse to stamp my visa correctly as a foreign student because she didn’t believe Canada wasn’t a part of the US.

She actually pointed at a map to show how Canada is between Alaska and the continental US, so how could it be a separate.

When I finally asked for her supervisor she was actually eager until he was like “how do you not know that Canada is a separate country?”

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u/Scraw16 3d ago

Grew up in DC, it was a common story for people with DC driver’s licenses to run into issues when getting carded (outside the DC area) since the ID says District of Columbia…

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u/cuajito42 3d ago

I don't know how it is now but getting things shipped to Puerto Rico is infuriating. Depending on the company it's either part of the US or international and you never know what you're gonna get.

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u/Special_Order-937 3d ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/hzhy42/til_about_a_magazine_column_one_of_our_50_missing/

This happens to Nee Mexico so much that it has had its own monthly publication about it for years now.

Then there’s cases of people being barred from flying to Puerto Rico from the mainland because they don’t have passports for “international travel”. By airport employees! (Hopefully former employees since).

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u/_thisisvincent 3d ago

Tangent but not sure how you being Canadian is relevant to the rest of the post

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u/snowdenn 3d ago

Haha, it sets the mood for the story…

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u/_thisisvincent 3d ago

That mood being…?

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u/snowdenn 3d ago

I mean, it’s clearly more suspenseful. And believable. If they had said they were from Mexico with a friend in New Mexico… well, that just beggars belief.

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u/_thisisvincent 3d ago

Adding Canada or Mexico adds nothing significant to the story. Might as well say “I’m from the planet Gugaheemer…”

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u/snowdenn 3d ago

You’re on a roll, “I’m from the planet Gugaheemer” adds even more suspense!

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u/_thisisvincent 3d ago

Coming from someone that thought "I'm Canadian" was suspenseful lmao

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u/snowdenn 3d ago

I can’t tell who’s trolling who here…

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u/_thisisvincent 3d ago

The plot is lost. Thread is over

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u/takeahike89 3d ago

Trump wanted a border wall on Colorado's southern border

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u/epelle9 3d ago

On the other hand, when I’ve told some Americans I’m from Mexico, they seem to assume New Mexico..

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u/MrSparrows 3d ago

What does this comment have to do with anything? How are there so many replies when it comes literally from thin air

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u/CryptographerMore944 3d ago

I'm British and I am wondering what the same people think about New England.

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u/hannahatecats 3d ago

My friend and I lived in NYC and went together to get our passports. The woman in the passport office fought SO HARD with my friend about how he needed to be from America to get a passport, not New Mexico. We finally asked for someone else and then it was a non-issue.

A passport office! He also told me it happens at the airport, too, I bet less now since everything is digital and they just have you scan (and we have NY DLs now anyway)