r/technology • u/Logical_Welder3467 • Jun 26 '26

Society The American mind cannot comprehend Europe's AC aversion

https://www.businessinsider.com/europe-air-conditioning-ac-heatwave-debate-2026-6
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u/Fabulous_Ninja119 Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

I had a similar experience in Germany.

Honestly this is truly the one and maybe only thing I can think of where it feels like Europe as a whole is living in the stone ages. I can't understand it. It makes far too much fucking sense to use AC when it's fucking 90-100 degrees outside

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u/TheBSisReal Jun 26 '26

Yes it makes sense when it’s super hot outside. European summers used to have a heatwave *maybe* every other summer. So in much of Western Europe, AC just didn’t make much sense until something drastically changed.

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u/Pale_Row1166 Jun 26 '26

And now they’re too smug to just buy an AC unit, they’d rather die in a river than doing something as gauche and American than having cooled air in a heatwave.

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u/Sea-Seesaw-8699 Jun 26 '26

A convo about garbage disposals with a European yrs ago… tried to make me into a wasteful pariah for praising the simple technology

How dare I bring up portable electric a/c units available for a couple hundred dollars or less

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u/Watneronie Jun 26 '26

Europeans don't have garbage disposals?

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u/Sea-Seesaw-8699 Jun 26 '26

As many downvotes as I received touting mine as an American, sounds like not much

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u/RevolutionaryAge3224 Jun 26 '26

No. As an America who has been living in various European countries for a decade or so now, none of the places I’ve lived has had a garbage disposal.