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What gets you downvoted?
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this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2024
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Whenever I say that America is a continent instead of a country, and similar things.
Fun fact: as I discovered, "continents" are defined differently depending on which country you're in, they are not the same worldwide. In Europe, America is a big continent and includes both north and south, and the continent including Australia is called "Oceania". In "America" (USA), there's North and South America as separate continents, and the continent including Australia is called .. Australia... and yes, the USA is just America, because, yeah.
Yes, "continent" is a cultural category, and as such, definitions will vary across cultures. So if Europe considers America, north and south, to be one big continent, though they are connected by only a narrow strip of land, how is it that Europe and Asia are different continents, and nobody can quite agree where one becomes the other? They're not even on different tectonic plates, like North and South America are!
I've never heard people in an online forum go "I'm European" only to have someone argue back "Well ackchyually it's Afro-Eurasia!" And yet this pedantic argument is constantly made for the Americas.
What is it about these particular words that frazzles people's brains and makes them forget that homonyms exist? The two continents are collectively called "America", and "United States of America" gets shortened to "America". Like all other homonyms in human language, these two pronouns are distinguished by context.
It must really confuse the hell out of people that the America's Cup isn't named after the Americas, or the United States of America. The America's Cup is named after a racing yacht, which was named after the nickname for the United States of America, which was named for its location. So, I say America is not a continent, or a country. It's a boat.
Seriously, though, I'm guessing the downvotes for saying that are for pedantry.
Thank you for being a voice of reason here. I've never understood this argument, yes the same word can refer to two different things and both sides can simultaneously be right (and wrong) about the usage of the word.
It's like no one has ever met two people who share the same name, most reasonable people don't argue with random people "You can't be Joe! My friend is named Joe and you aren't him!".
And to compound the fact I've noticed that people's native languages and place of birth tend to determine where they fall on the argument. You guys realize that words can sound and be spelled similar and mean something different things in different languages and cultures, right?
Don't you know? They rewrote history and geography so they get to be the only Americans, while the continent is divided into North and South. Forget all the maps, documents, letters, and stuff that referred to the New Word as "America" for centuries. Forget about the first national documents in countries like Mexico referring to themselves as Americans. Nope. They get to steal the name because #power.
So now it's time to read the "but 'United Mexican States' is Mexico, so 'United States of America' deserves to be America", ignoring the fact that Mexico derives from the native name of a portion of Mexico City, so it's not remotely the same (see first paragraph).
This comment answers the AskLemmy about things that annoy me...
That’s the secret real reason for the Panama Canal. Divide and conquer baby.