Americans have described the irrational fear they refer to as Afearican when visiting foreign countries, with some suggesting it demonstrates the “clear issue” with American society.
It’s a given that countries have their own cultural phenomena that foreign people couldn’t begin to comprehend. It’s exactly the reason why so many Brits and Americans have come to digital blows, much like the recent sour sweet clip or the the ways most Americans make their tea.
What is Afearican?
In a recent viral TikTok, a woman in a club found herself panicking after air horns sounded and confetti began to fall from the ceiling. The clip was then stitched by another TikTok account, with user @america_is_the_bad.place outlining why Afearican is just an issue.
“My first experience of this in person was when I was living in Sydney,” he explained. “I was at the pub, there were eight of us sitting around the table in the sun and a car backfired. I was there with an Italian I was seeing at the time and a bunch of her friends, one was French.
Explaining that the group was joined by two Californians, he continued: “When the car backfired, the two Californians went into fight or flight mode. One of them was physical and grabbed his chair to stand up.
“Then it was just a releasing of empathy from the rest of us at the table, realising how much fear was involved with their lives.”
Though most social media users have reported Afearican when hearing loud noices, attributing them to gunshots, other people suggested less immediate reactions. For instance, one example could be always sitting near an emergency exit without realising it.
“Someone from the U.S, enjoying freedom in a safe country, but still experiencing the fears that are rational in the U.S but are irrational in the country they are in,” Urban Dictionary penned.
Beneath the description, Urban Dictionary listed a few instances that qualify as Afearican including being concerned over the cost of an ambulance when injured.
Everyone had an experience
Perhaps unsurprisingly, lots of Americans had experiences with Afearican whether they initially realised it or not.
One person admitted: “I teach outside the us, and I was so confused the first time we had an ‘emergency drill’ bc I was like ‘fire, lockdown, earthquake? Which one?’ It turns out they only have fire drills.”
“My high school had a fire and we had to guess if it was someone trying to lure us outside to pick us off or not when the alarms went off,” someone else wrote.
A third revealed: “I was at the store a few months ago and some younger guys were screaming ‘help’ from the bathroom area and I ditched my cart and ran to the back. then they started laughing and I had a panic attack.”
