Using the Word "American"

[Webb5432]

Dunno. I'm Canadian. We consider the United States the "Americans" because a) they are called the "United States of America" (key point, "America") and b) America can easily be considered the poster boy/girl for North America due to their culture and influence on the world abroad. Canada and Mexico find it hard to compete with that, and while I can't speak for Mexico, I find the people of the United States more than a little backward. But, they probably see Canada the same way, so we're even.

People probably get upset because they dislike the idea that the U.S.A. has taken on the main role of representing North America, and in the wake of the financial crisis, war on terrorism, etc., I know a lot of Canadians (and a few Europeans) who find that the U.S. has made some, well, questionable decisions. As for people in the U.S., they probably don't like the name because they have heard how the rest of the world considers their stereotype (look it up, I`m not stating it) and do not wish to be lumped into the same group.

That`s just my guess, anyway.

 

[DoPo]

Stop calling us all Europeans and we'll stop calling you all American

I never understood that, could you explain why? What would you expect me to call you, expecting me to be able to guess your country is like me expecting you to guess what state I'm from (Europe may be more diverse but I'm terrible at telling races apart so I was trying to give a comparison from my point of view). I guess to me getting mad someone called you European is like getting mad someone called you western.

Or is it some sort of national pride thing?

I can't speak for him, but for me Europe is far more diverse than the USA. I'm not saying the people in the US are all the same, but you have far more in common with one another than the European countries. Try being surrounded from all sides by people that don't share your currency, language, beliefs or even religion. And beyond those people, there are more that share neither of those characteristics with you or your neighbours. Well, the EU at least smoothed out the currency thing. Somewhat. The countries have different strengths, different issues, different lifestyles. Not entirely different to how the USA is but you can see a big difference between Greece and France, for example. A lot, if not most, of the Europeans cannot understand fully or at all countries from the same continent as themselves. Sometimes their very neighbours. Something that, I hope, is not the case in the US - people from another state would not appear totally alien to you.

For me it's not really a matter of national pride. I don't have much of it anyway. "European" would imply that there is no real difference between me, the Norwegians and the Italians. And there is. I don't speak Norwegian or Italian, for one.

You want to know what to call them, ask people where they are from. I have no problem with that. I will not feel offended at all.

 

[Legiondude]

Argentine, here. And here it pisses us off because they took over our CONTINENT'S name for them, and we see it as a way of saying "Yes, there's the rest of the continent, but we're the important thing, that why you can refer to the continent as just our country"
The entire continent is Americo Vespucio's eponym, not just the USA.
Knock it off and get another word already. Michael Moore expressed my very same concern about it and suggested the word should be "Usamericans"
And start calling your country by IT'S name, not that of a friggin continent. The petulance of it is obnoxious. Problem is, me saying this will only make them go "Oh, noes! They wants tak or freedm and patrtsm, those annoing latin fags, minutemen kill them nao plzkthnxlol let's call ourselves that ever more often to piss dose fukks off"

Nobody....talks...like that here...And Usamericans makes no sense and it still includes "Americans" so it's hardly anything solved

And aha! I found the REAL problem(link) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uBcq1x7P34] here guys

...Unfortunately I forgot how to embed videos

 

[FalloutJack]

Why do so many people on the internet get upset at that word? "American" has referred to the people living in the US since its formation. In fact, the word referred to those people for over a century before the country was founded. Why do people get so worked up over it?

In my opinion, every argument on the internet over the use of the word is overrated, and possibly also the ones OFF the internet. You KNOW what people mean. Enough nit-picking.

 

[Ieyke]

here in México the USA is very resented

Coming from a Texan, pfffffffttt.
I'm not sure if I should laugh or facepalm.

Why don't you build a wall to keep all the Americans out?

*massive eyeroll*

Oh a Texan.

You do know that illegal immigrants don't come to America because they love it so much more than home? I mean, maybe you think money == love, but you can resent what you have to do to get money to survive.

Pfffft
I know soooo many Mexicans who don't want anything more to do with Mexico than eating Mexican food.

 

[TehCookie]

Americans are the best, no wonder you want to be called that /troll.

It may be different in your native tongue, but there is North America and South America which are different continents. If you are referring to everyone who lives on one you use North American or South American.

Now if you want to say you are American without using north or south you are shortening the full name which is exactly what people of the United States of America do! In case you didn't realize America is part of the country's name and we are lazy and don't feel like saying the entire thing. I think being lazy Americans we should shorten our name further to merikkan and change the flag to a beer can and a gun and the subtitle "FUCK YEAH!". That should clear up all confusion and show our national pride. I never understood why people are so hung up on names, as long as there isn't a previous negative connotation you can call me whatever you want.

Please don't tell me some one is going to take the latter half seriously instead of a parody.

 

[T3hSource]

Stop calling us all Europeans and we'll stop calling you all American

Hail to that lol
I also like seeing on US media how people claim that Europe is a country.

Ontopic,I was joking about that with an Argentinian friend on chat,technically he's American,because he's in South America.
I haven't seen nor understand well people that are offended by this.I guess this is just the aftermath of the influence of the US nation in internet and nerd culture.

 

[Nuke_em_05]

It's kind-of annoying, and can be confusing, but I wouldn't say upsetting.

If "American" exclusively means a person from the United States, then shouldn't "South American" mean a person from anywhere between California and Florida?

The problem is, of course, that the U.S. chose to use the same name as the continent that it occupies without the good sense to occupy the entire continent first, like Australia.

There isn't really a name for a person from the U.S. that would distinguish them well, so we have to default to the continent level.

 

[Yopaz]

We can't call residents of USA anything but Americans. Saying Residents of the united states works, bu it's far too long, besides, everyone know what nationality we mean when we say American. There's Canadians to the north (then Americans in Alaska way north) then there's Mexicans to the south.

Now if you happen to be a resident of The United States who get upset by someone using the term American, I have seen the term European thrown around a lot here. That means you toss a lot of countries that don't even have the constitution in common unlike USA which got one valid constitution. Yeah, that's right, you get upset by us generalizing using a broad term, yet you do the same except you go even broader! Stop being hypocrites.

 

[Sparrow]

Here's the funny thing. They are. Imagine that. Some folks hail from a big chunk of land with a variety of folks who all look just slightly different enough from one another that I can't ever distinguish their nationality. Better nail me down and call me a racist.

No, they are not. Having visited Spain recently and Germany when I was 9 or 10, I can most definitely say they are not the same. Sure, humans are all the same and all that bullshit, but you've decided to ignore one crucial thing.

Oh wait. That's right. This isn't about race. It's about, of all stupid things, Nationality.

Nope. Close, but no cigar. The word I'm looking for is culture. Architecture, history, art, food... when it comes down to it, culture goes some way to defining a person. As a result, culture is going to influence a person's life and how they live it. Not only does culture distinguish one country from another, but it can also alter it's residents lives in small or huge ways.

Do you want to know what's wrong here? Humans. I don't give a damn WHAT you people call one another.

You seem to be implying you're not human. If you truly are not, I commend you on your ability to grasp English and use a keyboard.

But for the love of all that is good and sensible, please... have some dignity.

Again, you seem to be trying to say you're not a human. You're not above your regular fellow man, don't preach as if you're the only one able to grasp the concept of dignity.

Watching two feeble idiots calling each other names from across an imaginary line is about as entertaining as watching two greased-up deaf people wrestle for the last hearing aid on Earth. Sure, it sounds slightly funny at first... but then it just gets depressingly tragic.

Because you're totally above arguing of any kind, I take it? Please, almighty messiah, teach us of your ways.

I admit, I'm not a fan of watching people argue over trivial things but at least they're driven in some way. Driven to defend their nationality, driven to make their point... whatever. It's better than the aimless apathy you seem so willing to spread.

Much like this species. May our reign be short, and swiftly forgotten.

I bet you'd be a hoot in philosophy classes. Look, I don't know how old you are but I'll give you this piece of advice anyway: apathy is neither attractive nor useful in any way. You don't want all of humanity to die, I know that and you know that.

TL;DR - Don't be so bloody ridiculous.

 

[Furioso]

There is a difference between "Oh yea those, Americans" and something like "Oh yea that guy is an American," you can make anything derogatory if you say it a certain way

 

[TehCookie]

I can't speak for him, but for me Europe is far more diverse than the USA. I'm not saying the people in the US are all the same, but you have far more in common with one another than the European countries. Try being surrounded from all sides by people that don't share your currency, language, beliefs or even religion. And beyond those people, there are more that share neither of those characteristics with you or your neighbours. Well, the EU at least smoothed out the currency thing. Somewhat. The countries have different strengths, different issues, different lifestyles. Not entirely different to how the USA is but you can see a big difference between Greece and France, for example. A lot, if not most, of the Europeans cannot understand fully or at all countries from the same continent as themselves. Sometimes their very neighbours. Something that, I hope, is not the case in the US - people from another state would not appear totally alien to you.

For me it's not really a matter of national pride. I don't have much of it anyway. "European" would imply that there is no real difference between me, the Norwegians and the Italians. And there is. I don't speak Norwegian or Italian, for one.

You want to know what to call them, ask people where they are from. I have no problem with that. I will not feel offended at all.

So the reason you hate it is because you are interpreting it a different way. Instead of seeing it as a person who lives in Europe who's country I cannot identify you see it as they're all the same.

However what should I use when I'm saying something like "I was jealous when the Europeans got Xenoblade Chronicles, but I'm happy it's finally coming to America."?

 

[SamuelT]

I can't speak for him, but for me Europe is far more diverse than the USA. I'm not saying the people in the US are all the same, but you have far more in common with one another than the European countries. Try being surrounded from all sides by people that don't share your currency, language, beliefs or even religion. And beyond those people, there are more that share neither of those characteristics with you or your neighbours. Well, the EU at least smoothed out the currency thing. Somewhat. The countries have different strengths, different issues, different lifestyles. Not entirely different to how the USA is but you can see a big difference between Greece and France, for example. A lot, if not most, of the Europeans cannot understand fully or at all countries from the same continent as themselves. Sometimes their very neighbours. Something that, I hope, is not the case in the US - people from another state would not appear totally alien to you.

For me it's not really a matter of national pride. I don't have much of it anyway. "European" would imply that there is no real difference between me, the Norwegians and the Italians. And there is. I don't speak Norwegian or Italian, for one.

You want to know what to call them, ask people where they are from. I have no problem with that. I will not feel offended at all.

So the reason you hate it is because you are interpreting it a different way. Instead of seeing it as a person who lives in Europe who's country I cannot identify you see it as they're all the same.

However what should I use when I'm saying something like "I was jealous when the Europeans got Xenoblade Chronicles, but I'm happy it's finally coming to America."?

Try using 'Europe.'

'Cause it's where we live, but not who we are.

 

[CMDDarkblade]

If the former colonies of New Spain are angry that the former British colonies rebelled from their mother country first and took the term "Americans", maybe the former colonies of New Spain should have rebelled first or put the term "America" in their country name. No other country has the word "America" in its title, therefore citizens of the United States of America get to call themselves "Americans".

 

[Legiondude]

It's kind-of annoying, and can be confusing, but I wouldn't say upsetting.

If "American" exclusively means a person from the United States, then shouldn't "South American" mean a person from anywhere between California and Florida?

The problem is, of course, that the U.S. chose to use the same name as the continent that it occupies without the good sense to occupy the entire continent first, like Australia.

There isn't really a name for a person from the U.S. that would distinguish them well, so we have to default to the continent level.

No, worse than that. Our Founding Fathers chose the most general name possible. The United States [on the continent/of] America(Also because everywhere else was de jure part of 4 other nations: Spain, Portugal, Britain, France). United States of America didn't describe a nation, it describes a GROUP of nations.

Though the Constitutional convention of 1787 later put the boot to that...

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Do they

What

I had no idea

I don't understand how that's offensive.

 

[TehCookie]

So the reason you hate it is because you are interpreting it a different way. Instead of seeing it as a person who lives in Europe who's country I cannot identify you see it as they're all the same.

However what should I use when I'm saying something like "I was jealous when the Europeans got Xenoblade Chronicles, but I'm happy it's finally coming to America."?

Try using 'Europe.'

'Cause it's where we live, but not who we are.

No shit sherlock, who said otherwise?

Why is Europe better than people who live in Europe (also read European)? Is mentioning that people live on that continent offensive to you?

 

[Pyro Paul]

here in México the USA is very resented

Coming from a Texan, pfffffffttt.
I'm not sure if I should laugh or facepalm.

Why don't you build a wall to keep all the Americans out?

*massive eyeroll*

Oh a Texan.

You do know that illegal immigrants don't come to America because they love it so much more than home? I mean, maybe you think money == love, but you can resent what you have to do to get money to survive.

Did you know that most illegal immigrants acctually come to America because they Love it so much more then Mexico?

Given the very poor education system, a corrupt political and police system, Socioeconomic class inequality and the ever growing gap between the Lower classes and the Upper classes, a near inhumane prison system, often inhospitable health care, and rampent deadly violence from drug cartels, orginized crime, private Milita, and gangs that run often unchecked through great parts of the country... I really wouldn't blame them.

the fact that you have an internet connection almost already proves that you have a bias outlook on the state of affairs your country holds.

 

[Porygon-2000]

Huh. You learn something new everyday,
Anyway, at least down here, use of the word America almost always means the US, unless it Is further explained, like South America. It's not that we're bad people who want to offend everyone below the Rio Grande! We're just the most linguistically lazy bastards you will ever see wielding the English Language. And I have YouTube videos to back that up!

 

[Deathmageddon]

Because when you say Americans it sounds like you are referring to the people of the entire continent and the people in at least México don't like to get associated with the gringos as we call them, we'll refute North American too since that includes Canada and México

I think you missed the point here, it is called the United States of AMERICA, after all. It makes sense to shorten it to America.