Why is it that Americans refer to 24 hour time as military time? I understand that the military uses the 24hr format but I don’t understand why the general public would refer to it like that?

It makes it seem like it’s a foreign concept where as in a lot of countries it’s the norm.

  • Throwaway
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    1 year ago

    “American Exceptionalism” also known as “Europeans are obsessed with America and can’t understand why American’s don’t follow their orders, meanwhile the Danes count like Barbarians and the UK hasn’t picked a system”

    • lepthesr@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I could give a shit about following orders, it’s a lot easier dealing with international business/trade/politics.

      If everyone is on the same page, things are easier. I like the metric system. I’m a mechanic and my life is often hell because of the differences.

    • DrQuint
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      1 year ago

      Ah yes, the two halves of the world, America and Europe.

      • Throwaway
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        1 year ago

        On the english-speaking internet? Pretty much, plus the Aussies and Canadians.

    • Turun@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      You can make a “I hate you so much” “I don’t think about you at all” meme out of it if you want, but the fact is that American media, most notably Hollywood has an immense cultural impact in the western world. People are often confronted with the weird system that Americans use, but not the other way round, let alone come across something like the danish numbering system. It’s less obsession and more unpleasant regular occurances that lead to such strong opinions about the American system.

      • Throwaway
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        1 year ago

        Well then make your own movies and shows then. Im not really seeing the problem.

        • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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          1 year ago

          We are, and plenty of em.

          They just aren’t in English.

          So if we look for English content, we encounter fantasy metrics where you guys measure in the feet of a long dead king, and the idiotic AM/PM system that goes from 11 AM to 12 PM and then to 1 PM.

          • HamSwagwich@showeq.com
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            1 year ago

            Why are you so obsessed with what Americans use for measurements? They aren’t forcing or even asking you to use it

          • Throwaway
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            1 year ago

            Ok, then why blame us? “Oh no. Someone put up a sign for burgers and when I went inside, they had burgers! Im going to blame them!”

          • Throwaway
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            1 year ago

            Also, plenty of countries use both 12 hour and 24 hour time. Its not hard.