• deo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    7 months ago

    Ok. I get it. There are people in the Americas that are not from the US. But do you call people from the United Mexican States “Unitied Mexican Stateans”? No, that sounds ridiculous. I think that it’s silly anyway to call everyone from either Americas “American” anyway; they are two different continents! “North American” or “South American” would be better, if you must get so broad with your adjectives (but really, continent-wide generalizations of people are rarely useful anyway). Sorry for the rant.

    • KrankyKong@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      There was a meme posted earlier that used the term “USAean”. They were referring to that i think

      • Kedly@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        Yeah I went ultra meta. The first countermeme said USAean instead of American, and then one of the topish comments was “USAean? Do you mean American?”

    • Kedly@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      1: I was making a meta joke, and this point isnt really your fault

      2: Canada takes up more of North America than the States does, and no one says “United States of Mexico”, they say Mexico. Mexico is also not a continent that is shared with other Countries. In general I’m not going to fight people referring to the States as America, but you arguement is BAD

      • deo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        7 months ago

        It’s not about size. It’s the fact that the United States of America has the word “America” in it. And I don’t refer to the US as “America” (unless I’m being cheeky, though in those cases, I spell it 'Murica), but I do refer to people from the US as “American”.

        And I know this is all kinda pedantic. I just think it’s fun to talk about words. I get the feeling you read some snark into my pervious comment, but that really wasn’t my goal.

        • Kedly@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          Oh, yeah, I totally misread your tone and point, my bad. You’re right on there not really being an better word for People of the US than American, although now that I think about it “Statesman” sounds pretty nifty

      • body_by_make@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        7 months ago

        I’m just being a little pedantic here, but Canada is only about 100k miles or so bigger than the US and much more of Canada is unlivable unless you count Texas and Florida as being unlivable, because I do.

        There’s also about 10x as many Americans as Canadians.

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Continent wide generalizations work just fine for 2 of them. Damn Australians an penguins are up to something, I’m sure of it!

      • candybrie@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        North America and South America are 2 continents in a lot of models. What definition are you using that has them as one? I’m always pretty skeptical of the ones that have Europe and Asia but then just America.

        • gmtom@lemmy.worldOP
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          7 months ago

          Yes Eurasia is 1 continent too, arguably it should be afroeurasia as well.

          • PlexSheep@infosec.pub
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            7 months ago

            It is connected by land, depending on your definition I can see the case for it, but it’s not really a useful definition.

            • gmtom@lemmy.worldOP
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              7 months ago

              ?? Plates dont equal continents? Or do you think Turkey is its own continent? And the east coast of Africa is a seperate continent to the rest of Africa?

                • gmtom@lemmy.worldOP
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                  7 months ago

                  Continents are large landmass separated by oceans. That’s the working definition, it’s not a particularly precise definition, but it’s the generally accepted one.