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This is an article of faith among building safety professionals in the US: Americans are simply careless and stupid compared to Europeans. We have nothing to learn from their low rate of fire deaths despite very different building rules – we are simply a different, less trustworthy species of human.
William Skudlarek
@willskud.bsky.social
· 9h
Congressmember in 1967: Why has Europe made much more progress in reducing fire deaths than the U.S.?
NFPA rep:
5:29 PM · May 24, 2026
We spend a lot of time talking about American exceptionalism, but there also is a force going in the other direction without contradiction. A kind of "it couldn't possibly work here because America is fundamentally different" complex
I have done many projects where I've been asked by government stakeholders about best practices, and when I include international examples, I'm always asked to cut them because there's no way something from outside the US could work here. Doesn't matter the subject, doesn't matter the example.
In America (The Book), there's a recurring sidebar by Samantha Bee called "Would You Mind If I Told You How We Do It in Canada?", and it turns out that even with Canada the answer is yes, they would mind.