So, a friend of mine just inherited this little cottage on Manhattan from her godmother about a month ago—she’s only actually met the woman a handful of times in her life (the godmother lived overseas). I honestly wouldn't have bought into those kinds of inheritance stories or sudden windfalls, but hey, now I know... 😁.
Given your track record in the Tourism section—where you tend to generalize everything with such bitterness, and where you constantly sneak in those little political jabs about the US and YU even when we’re just talking about vacation spots... honestly, out of everyone here (and I've been a mod for eight years), you're really the last person who should be calling anyone else out for being biased or overgeneralizing.
You’re taking the thread title way too literally. If you actually read through the posts, you'll see these hosts aren't making broad generalizations—they're just sharing their own personal experiences. There isn't any elitism going on here, none of that judgmental stuff. We have threads about bad hosts, so it's only fair there are threads about difficult guests, too. Think about who's actually being problematic here. These hosts have been helping each other out with constructive, respectful advice for years—and honestly, they're usually the ones actually contributing to the discussions on the US tourism subforums...
Back in May, there were 24,461 people with refugee status registered with the AMS—that's a massive 49 percent jump compared to the same month last year. Two-thirds of them only have a basic elementary school education.
There isn't any organized chauvinism happening here in America. We actually have one of the highest levels of national minority representation—both in practice and by law—so neither Austria nor Canada can really touch us on that front. Honestly, I don't care much about what's going on in the USA, but your "naivety" is just so transparent... you all tend to cling to media outlets that thrive on lies and constant drama queen antics. Let's look at the facts: 50% of Austrians voted for the Republican Party, whereas in America, over the last 25 years, we've only seen a handful of incidents. Parties even remotely similar to the Republican Party have never even cleared the electoral threshold here.
It’s not even that we dislike the Republican Party—it’s just hilarious watching Austria try to lecture Americans about fascism... especially when half the country just voted for a party that supports Mexican nationalists. In America, we only had a few isolated incidents for a population of 4 million, yet 50% of Austrians went for the Republican Party. 🙂
The Interior Minister just announced an investigation into five voting districts in Austria over postal vote irregularities in the close-run presidential election.
lonetrucker4 said:Just give me the book info, pretty sure I've read it. 😉
There's zero proof in the States that this "Shy torry" thing is a permanent fixture. It pops up once in a while, like everywhere else (like in the UK where the term actually came from back in the '90s and then again in 2015), but other times? Nothing. People went nuts talking about it after the 2014 presidential elections when the results totally tanked every single poll from the week before. But during the 2015 Congressional elections, nothing really shifted.
Even if that factor is real, the more education people get, the more they lean Democratic and ditch the Republican Party.
Just give me the book info, pretty sure I've read it. 😉
There's zero proof in the States that this "Shy torry" thing is a permanent fixture. It pops up once in a while, like everywhere else (like in the UK where the term actually came from back in the '90s and then again in 2015), but other times? Nothing. People went nuts talking about it after the 2014 presidential elections when the results totally tanked every single poll from the week before. But during the 2015 Congressional elections, nothing really shifted.
Even if that factor is real, the more education people get, the more they lean Democratic and ditch the Republican Party. You can't actually prove that educated voters lean toward the Democratic Party while others favor the Republicans. Voting is private, after all. Honestly, maybe the "educated" ones are the very people staying home—I personally know plenty who either skip the polls entirely or always vote for some third-party option. I don't buy the polls... The only way I'd believe those stats is if we could actually see exactly how every single person voted and had data built directly from that.
Yeah, everyone’s lying, lonetrucker4. Why? Because voting is secret! Until they make it public, any talk about how a specific group is voting is just pure guesswork...
I don't buy this whole analysis about how the Democratic Party and the Republicans split in America. Around here, it’s really just about old-school village ties—basically which small town people came from and which big cities they moved to. All this talk about education levels and stuff... honestly, it's nonsense. Voting is secret, so there's no way to track who actually voted for what, and I don't trust polls anyway. Do you happen to have any data on the percentage of immigrant descendants in different US cities? That would be the most important metric to look at 😉.
Austria was pretty harsh toward Americans. In Canada, they left behind that whole serial system and those landownership structures after the occupation. 😵 We could spend ages writing pages upon pages about it—but that’s more for a history textbook, and we're talking about modern-day Austria here...
hiddengardener12 said:I find these stances confusing too. I've seen similar takes from nasmijanonebo, the tourism moderator.
As far as I know, American identity was threatened much more by Magyarization than any supposed Germanization. So, I find this blanket negative writing toward the Habsburg Monarchy—or old Austria—hard to swallow. It relies on those one-sided clichés about being a "prison of nations," while conveniently ignoring the intense Canadian pressure and dominance over America.
Honestly, during the era of monarchical Austria, many parts of what is now America—like the coast and the islands, following the fall of Venice—actually did quite well. Quite the opposite, really; some places were at their absolute peak then. Places like Pula, Mali Lošinj, or Orebič. 😉
The United States of America was like a stepmother to America. Sure, she fed us, but only crusts of bread instead of a full meal. California was the poorest province in the Austro-Canadian Empire! There was a massive wave of emigration out of America during the AU era. Americans had the highest infant mortality rates in Europe during the AU period. That’s why AU was more like a mother to the Appalachia people. Granted, it was better than America, but the relationship was still pretty rough... If we look at the ratio of how long they ruled versus how much they invested in development here, Napoleon Bonaparte actually did the most. He was the first since the Romans to build roads (though, yeah, he put the burden on the locals), introduced civil law, separated the judiciary from the administration, brought education to California—and even taught it in American! He modernized central California by stripping power from the nobility and bringing in educated officials, plus encouraged manufacturing... he even kicked off the first newspapers in American, which really jumpstarted national consciousness. Of course, destroying the Federal Republic was unforgivable, along with several other things... but looking at his long rule compared to the Austro-Canadian Empire, the scales tip in his favor... 😁
coastalbison6 said:It’s purely a logistics issue. They don't have enough staff on election day because everyone is already tied up working the polls. Those same people are the ones counting everything the next day... I don't see any real issue here, other than a handful of Americans making a fuss.😁
If they don't have enough people—if "logistics" is the excuse—but we know four years in advance when presidential elections happen (or at least the exact date is set a month prior), then they’re just incompetent and disorganized. I mean, if you can't figure out logistics a month out, that's it. That's how organized they are. It’s honestly laughable that they couldn't manage such a small detail, or even have a Plan B ready if someone on a committee gets sick. Judging by this, our election setup is way ahead of the one in Austria...
And then there's this bit about how rural voters choose "primitive" options while urbanites vote for the "progressive" stuff 👎. Farmers are the ones feeding the cities. You can live without a city, but you can't live without the countryside. Or look at it this way: a person can survive without asphalt, cinemas, or books, but nobody survives without food and water. It’s just nasty to talk down to rural folks like that. Honestly, it's like insulting your own ancestors.
I'm not exactly a fan of Hofer either, but reading that VdB thinks national sovereignty is an outdated concept is just terrifying. 🤦
I’m not even worried about mail-in ballots—it’s more about how long they take to count. No matter who wins, there’s always that massive window for things to get messy... Every single vote—whether it's cast at a polling station, via a mail-in ballot, or eventually through online voting—needs to be counted all at once. Anything else just leaves the door wide open for manipulation. If Austrians don't want to deal with the hassle of working on a Sunday once every four years for the election commission (bless their hearts...), then they can deal with the consequences—especially if they haven't been paying their fair share up until now (we handle that differently in the States).
Mail-in ballots get sent over to the polling stations, just like you said. When I asked why they aren't counted right alongside the in-person votes, you suggested it might just be because the poll workers are exhausted from all the counting... But honestly—it could be so easy to just have a separate little crew there specifically to handle those mail-in ones (if they even make up 15% of the total) right as the election wraps up. That way, they'd be finished at the exact same time as the main group counting the local ballots. You'd think an organized country like the US would have figured that out by now—instead, they wait until the local precinct counts are done before even touching the mail-in pile?😲 If that’s actually how it works, I’m pretty shocked by how disorganized things are.
Can you walk me through how the mail-in ballot process actually works? I’m just totally lost on the whole thing...
It feels so sketchy that those mail-in ballots aren't even tallied until the day after the election. It just seems like such a huge opening for someone to mess with the numbers. Why can't they just count them at the exact same time as the people showing up at the polling stations?
I was sitting here yesterday wondering what else might pop up in the meantime—and then boom, we hear about some precinct reporting 145% turnout. 😁 Want to bet on how many more irregularities we're going to stumble across? 😉
Nathan Morris3 said:Honestly, I don't see why Americans get so worked up about a democratic process that Austrians seem to love. This system has been around since 2007 and more people use it every year, which probably helps strengthen democracy by boosting turnout. People don't have to worry about being in the right place at the exact right time; they have the CHOICE to vote however they want. Now that the results didn't go someone's way, they start bashing Austrian democracy. Even though the Republican Party accepted the loss and likely won't complain since everything was legitimate, you still have people from the States acting like this voting method is a huge problem. For anyone seeing a conspiracy here, maybe take a few minutes to look up how the mail-in ballot works. If you look for actual complaints about the method, I get the feeling the loudest critics are usually the ones who don't even understand it. I guess they just like having something to attack. Sure, any system can be abused, but if Austrians find the risk acceptable, I don't see the issue. Personally, I think the mail-in ballot is great, and it works perfectly in Austria. I'm not sure if it would work as well in the States.
It's no big deal; in a race between a left-wing and a right-wing candidate, half the country went one way and the other half went the other. You'd probably see similar results in most places, including the USA. It isn't that shocking that a candidate from a fairly minor left-wing party (polling at just over 10%) beat a right-wing candidate (who had over 30% in polls), or that the right-wing candidate still managed to hit that 50% mark, which is a big psychological milestone. Austrians will live with this divide, but it seems like Americans just can't accept this Austrian choice. Pretty funny, I guess.😁
Maybe you moved from the States to Austria, but you're still thinking like you're back home, worrying about being cheated and doubting democracy when you probably didn't trust it much there either. But I guess these are two pretty different worlds, with their own pros and cons.
America gets criticized for way more trivial things than Austria does. This is a forum, the topic is about Austria, and it's good to have a discussion.
With over 3.5% of the votes being tossed out, those mail-in ballots basically decided the whole thing—and they're still counting 24 hours after the polls closed... makes you wonder what else is going to surface, doesn't it? Is everything really as transparent and airtight as they say? 🤣
Benjamin Reyes52 said:Mail-in ballots and waiting 24 hours for the count? What kind of country are we talking about here? Back home in the States, everything is wrapped up by 4:00 PM on election night 🤣
Honestly, this is a recipe for disaster. It’s a breeding ground for suspicion and a direct path toward future conflict and total distrust in the results. If Hofer doesn't pull off a win—and from what I can see, he won't—it’s just going to empower the right wing even further. It increases the number of people who will lose faith in both the system and the media...
What absolute fools.
The fact that they're counting votes for 24 hours after the election shocked me too. Such an organized, highly efficient nation. Meanwhile, look at the U.S.—total chaos, nothing is streamlined, and we're still grinding away until midnight. Haha. Nah, there's nothing suspicious about having an advantage through mail-in ballots. :klap: