StingingVelvet wrote on Jun 13, 2012, 08:56:
Mr. Tact wrote on Jun 13, 2012, 07:34:
ochentay4 wrote on Jun 13, 2012, 06:44:
Sorry I was that hard. But some comments are really really stupid. If I'm a politically correct asshole for correcting someone who thinks that US Residents are the only AMERICANS in the fucking continent, then ok.
This is not meant as a provocation of any kind, I don't know the answer to this question: Are there residents of any country other than the US that actually refer to themselves as "Americans"? I assume people in Canada think of themselves as Canadians, in Mexico as Mexicans, in Columbia as Columbians, in Brazil as Brazilians, etc, etc..
And if it is "improper" in some way for residents of the US to call themselves "Americans" what should we call ourselves?
Exactly. Americans comes from the fact United Statsians sounds fucking retarded, and that America is in our country name. Mexico is not Mexico of America on a map.
The pretentious need to point out American could technically apply to over a dozen countries is just another example of people jumping to feel superior.
Well, it started when someone had apparently never heard of the term "Americas" before. It's a common term for international businesses to refer to North and South America together, as often these will be handled by a headquarters in the US while another HQ in Europe or Asia handles the other territories. Occasionally people use it for just North America (Canada, US, Mexico), because North is too long to type or something. But, eh; Penny Arcade made a big deal about the term once too.
Also, many South Americans do refer to themselves as Americans (americanos), and do say United Statsians (I forget the word here, something like estadounisen), which I guess sounds less terrible in Spanish.