What Annoyed You Today?

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Over on FB, I belog to a WWII group that has international members (much like here) and during the course if a recent conversation, I was corrected by a few European members regarding the term "American".
They explained that a person from the United States should be called a "Statesian" because the use of "American" can be used for anyone from North America: Canada, U.S. or Mexico (which I thought was part of Central America, btw) and that a person from the U.S. referring to themselves as an "American" is arrogant and could be seen as offensive to others. :(

Is this for real??
 
Over on FB, I belog to a WWII group that has international members (much like here) and during the course if a recent conversation, I was corrected by a few European members regarding the term "American".
They explained that a person from the United States should be called a "Statesian" because the use of "American" can be used for anyone from North America: Canada, U.S. or Mexico (which I thought was part of Central America, btw) and that a person from the U.S. referring to themselves as an "American" is arrogant and could be seen as offensive to others. :(

Is this for real??
Never heard that reasoning. It's not a common thought here at least. We frequently call the USA "America" and the people living there "Americans".
 
Yes, I agree. Here in Poland, calling someone "American(s)" we mean somebody living in the USA usually. In the same way, if we say "America" we mean the USA mostly. Therefore Canadians live in the Canada and Mexicans in Mexico. However if we talk about the "America" in a geographic sense, it is used the name "the North America", "the Central America" or the "South America" most often. Thanks to that we don't have any trouble to tell the difference between the different meanings. Certainly none of the names is abusive/offensive in any way.
 
Yes, I agree. Here in Poland, calling someone "American(s)" we mean somebody living in the USA usually. In the same way, if we say "America" we mean the USA mostly. Therefore Canadians live in the Canada and Mexicans in Mexico. However if we talk about the "America" in a geographic sense, it is used the name "the North America", "the Central America" or the "South America" most often. Thanks to that we don't have any trouble to tell the difference between the different meanings. Certainly none of the names is abusive/offensive in any way.
Here, here. Could not agree more.
 
Over on FB, I belog to a WWII group that has international members (much like here) and during the course if a recent conversation, I was corrected by a few European members regarding the term "American".
They explained that a person from the United States should be called a "Statesian" because the use of "American" can be used for anyone from North America: Canada, U.S. or Mexico (which I thought was part of Central America, btw) and that a person from the U.S. referring to themselves as an "American" is arrogant and could be seen as offensive to others. :(

Is this for real??
You been woked!
 
Something else our esteemed professor seems to be missing, is that many nations go by a common denominator in their much larger title.
Mexico, for example, is officially known as "Estados Unidos Mexicanos" which literally means "United States of Mexico.

Very few nations have the name of their continent in it's official title, the U.S.A. being one.
Another would be the Federated States of Micronesia, which is better known as Micronesia. While not a continent, it is a geographic region.

The irritating part, is that he's assuming that it's being done under the auspices of "cronyism", "imperialism", "capitalism" and other revived catch-words, but the Founding Fathers referred to themselves as Americans.

They should just leave it alone, FFS.
 
A friend emailed me this link about the "Statesian" issue.
He assured me it's not satire, this person is very serious.
It's time to abolish the use of "American" when we mean "United Statesian." – Hidden Power of Words Series, #26

Noting the age of the artical, this weirdness isn't something new...
Seems like the professor is a "Statesian" himself.
Sometimes I long for the time before the Internet when we did not have all the bullshit ( although wouldn't have wanted to miss you lot).
 
Yeah. I was not much bothered by it first as it mostly was political nonsense, but with the pandemic it opened my eyes in that it's really a lot of dangerous BS. Every idiot with an opinion gets a platform and the more controversial the opinion, the more people he will reach.

I've quit most social media over the last 1.5 years.
 

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