to think people need to stop saying "in Europe..." as if its some homogenous mass

[toomanychilder]

I keep seeing this all time on various threads:

"In Europe nobody runs about with takeaway coffee, they sit down and drink it"
"UK food portions are so much bigger than in Europe, we are getting greedy"
"In Europe nobody says this, does that, thinks that way..."
"In Europe people dress better, drink less, eat fancier food, take time to cook, don't have strict routines, don't serve kids food..."

and so on and so on and so on. It's beyond irritating, lumping together a whole load of different countries and cultures that are completely different to each other, as if "Europe" is all one place, instead of FIFTY disparate countries of nearly 800 MILLION people.

I mean, its not even as if you could generalise in this way for all the people in France, for example, but to imagine that the people of Finland, Greece, Azerbaijan and Belgium, for example, all do anything at all the exact same way or have the same norms and values is just bizarre, isn't it?

(you can substitute "the continent" for "Europe" in many of these comments, which is even more annoying and more vague)

so aibu?

YABU for putting Azerbaijan in there.

You arenot really BU.
Brits are really different to the rest of the Europe though😂

I personally say "mainland" Since UK is Europe as well. There are lots of things which are really different in Britain to any other are in Europe.
I love the queing here. Nice and organised. Haven't seen that in other 6 European countries I have been to so far.

@Iltavilli it is geographically partially in Europe

Agree about queuing. That is very definitely a British quirk!

It's an Americanism. Can't stand it. Daily life in Spain and the UK is totally different.

I don't think I've ever heard any of those phrases. Do you live outside of Europe toomanychilder?

YANBU!
I read forums where people write "I'm from Europe", and I get the impression that they're writing with North Americans in mind.
On Mumsnet, where people tend to assume they're being read by other Britons, it seems really parochial.
Oddly enough, the Spanish also refer to Europe as if they weren't part of it. I've asked a couple of people why. One said it's because the wages are lower in Spain. Another said, "Well, you British do it."

Doesn't Azerbaijan border Iran? So it's in Asia?
Or is it in Europe as well, like Turkey?
But, I agree, there are definitely differences between the various countries.

YABU for putting Azerbaijan in there
Azerbaijan is transcontinental but more than half is in Europe, so it is classed as European for many purposes. It's not wrong.

I don't think I've ever heard any of those phrases. Do you live outside of Europe toomanychilder?

No, and I've seen it three times today on MN!!

Maybe it's because, and now please don't take it personally, the geography knowledge in UK is generally not particularly great so people just use continent rather than specific countries?

Also mainland and UK have always had massive differences. Look at witch hunts. Britain was completely different to the rest of European countries.

Also mainland and UK have always had massive differences

But they have massive difference to each other just as much, if not more!

Look at witch hunts. Britain was completely different to the rest of European countries

In what way? Germany was famous for its 16th and 17th century witchunts, as was Denmark, and that was well after the earlier witch hunts in France and Switzerland. What was completely different about the ones in Britain?

It's an Americanism. Can't stand it. Daily life in Spain and the UK is totally different.

Pot and kettle Cherry

MNers love to say “Americans do xyz” but the USA is very diverse culturally. I live in Texas, I’d have a completely different experience of America living in LA or New York for example.

The outlook on witches was different until it was brought over from Europe through Scotland.

Yes there are differences. Scandinavian countries have different habits to Med. I guess it can just be habit saying it.

Look at witch hunts. Britain was completely different to the rest of European countries

Lol, this is exactly the kind of thing “the rest of European countries” like you can say that Serbia and Italy and Germany all had the same experience with that or something.

Actually they quite did.

The outlook on witches was different until it was brought over from Europe through Scotland

I'm not being arsey but I really don't know what you mean. Witch hunting spread across the whole of Europe and then to America. The outlook on witches was different everywhere before that, obviously, in that there was a societal and religious shift away from seeing people with harmless or helpful supernatural gifts towards seeing it as evidence of satanic or anti religious harm. In what way though were witch hunts completely different in Britain compared to Europe?

Serbia was part of the Ottoman Empire at the time, didn’t exactly have any of the social context for the kind of witch hunts that came about through the reformation/counter-reformation...

I'm originally from a different country (from UK) on the edge of Europe, and it was the same. Except that in our "Europe" UK was included in the generalisations, of course - just like the country itself is probably in the UK.

MNers love to say “Americans do xyz” but the USA is very diverse culturally. I live in Texas, I’d have a completely different experience of America living in LA or New York for example

That is absolutely true, but its also true that the US is one country and does have a certain cohesiveness of culture, language, law and history that can lend itself to some (not all by any stretch) generalisations. But Europe is not and has not ever been one country or one mass, under one law and language and political system.

It’s always irritated me too. Some British people call anyone from a European county ‘European’ rather than French, German, Italian etc. Anyone from an Eastern European country isn’t Polish, Czech etc they are just ‘Eastern European’. There’s a ‘European way of doing things’ despite the fact BRITAIN IS IN EUROPE.

That is what grates on me most, the fact the U.K. is most definitely a European country but some Brits almost refuse to accept that as if Britain is its own continent .

www.luthercollege.edu/university/academics/impetus/spring-2011/the-unique-concept-of-the-witch-and-the-witch-trials-in-early-modern-england/

@OutPinked Yes. And Czechs aren't even Easter European geographically 😂

Lets face it people. Lots of Brexit voters thought the referendum meant leavin the actual continent😂

Weren't the witch hunts Vatican initiated in the 15th century? There was a specific inquisition to root out witchcraft declared by the Pope.

Nope, Copperbonnet, saying "I'm going on a trip to Europe" or Life in Europe is weird" is an Americanism. I didn't say life in New York and San Fran are the same, but Americans have a habit of saying Europe instead of the UK/Greece/wherever probably because they are used to saying America. I've never met a European who does it, unless they tongue in cheek refer to the mainland or the continent.