Foreign visitors ♥ America
You can see the videos all over the internet: foreign visitors for the World Cup, enjoying the US – especially the food, the free refills on soda, and the friendliness.
You can read a description here, and YouTube is filled with reports such as this one, a compilation which I’ve chosen pretty much at random:
One theme that repeats itself is shock and wonder at the sheer size of America. Similar clips have been on YouTube for years, featuring foreign tourists reacting – mostly positively – to trips to the US. So it’s not just something about the World Cup visitors.
But I’ve noticed one topic lately that I’ve never seen before in this genre of videos. It’s about seeing yellow school buses:
I spent a few years at Los Alamos National Lab. finishing a Ph.D. and spent some considerable time hanging out with Klaus from Köln, Germany. Eventually, his postdoc came to an end and several of his immediate family members came over to visit him and they rented a large van.
For something like 2.5 weeks they drove the entire west coast into Cananda, then on the way back covered much of the southwest, including Texas. Many thousands of miles. I don’t recall if they ventured into Mexico, though I’d guess they did just for the bragging rights. Talk about overdosing on the vastness of North America.
They’re getting noticed because of the World Cup, but videos of foreign visitors enjoying the U.S. — whether it’s the food, shopping, natural beauty, Americans’ friendliness and hospitality, or just the vast size and diversity of the 50 states — have been popular on YouTube for years.
We enjoy them because it’s fun to see other people discovering the countless positive aspects of our country, but also because it’s easy for those of us who live here to take them for granted — so it’s nice to be reminded.
It seems to me that most of these videos are from the south. If they had been shot from left leaning areas like New York or Los Angeles it would be an entirely different story.
I had this experience 30 years ago. Germans with matching T-shirts wandering
(in groups) across new mexico Indian reservations.
A lot of these videos are from influencers doing marketing, to the point that CBP has been reminding them that they can lose their tourist visas for making these videos. Which ones are influencers is easily discovered by looking them up on Instagram or YouTube or OnlyFans or any of the other places where they sell whatever they sell.
They may even be sincere; and that lady in the Bounty ads may even really believe that Bounty is the quicker-picker-upper, but it’s still marketing, and we probably shouldn’t confuse it for genuine favorable sentiment.
A lot of these videos are from influencers
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What share?
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to the point that CBP has been reminding them that they can lose their tourist visas for making these videos.
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They reminded how many through what conduit?
Niketas Choniates posts should come with a sad trombone soundtrack.
Wah wah wahhhhhhhhhh.
@Art Deco:What share?
Just look up anybody’s Instagram and find out. I gave you a link to one big marketing campaign and it lists like a couple dozen right there. If you want to calculate a percentage you go right ahead.
The ranch dressing girl from Sweden has been in a lot of stuff over the years; back in 2025 she was in the news for trying to sleep with at least one man in every country, in 2024 she was in the news for wanting to have a baby by Elon Musk, and in 2022 she was in the news for making enough on OnlyFans to buy a house. That German guy Freddy might be a real fan just having a good time, not sure. If not, it will come out eventually when someone takes credit for the campaign.
Maybe there’s a real Santa among all the mall Santas too, it would be the best place for him to hide. I can’t possibly check every single one. Undoubtedly some Europeans are making videos about the fun they are having in America without getting paid to say it. If you think something is too good to check, then don’t check it if you don’t want.
They reminded how many through what conduit?
All of them, through a public statement in El Pais, a major European media outlet.
I couldn’t possibly look up anyone on Instagram. I only signed up for X so I could read news links from trusted names there.
Freddy seems entirely authentic. He’s currently driving through Ohio and Pennsylvania on the back roads because he wants to see America off the interstates.
NC has obviously not interacted with any of these soccer fans and is basing his opinions off the handful of influencers included among them. As someone who has talked with them on a near daily basis for the past two weeks, they share the sentiments expressed by the TikTok influencers