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submitted 2 days ago by BeamBrain@hexbear.net to c/chat@hexbear.net

because growing up, I only ever heard that word from neoconfederate types, and so I'm conditioned to associate that word with "the South shall rise again" bullshit

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[-] Pili@hexbear.net 25 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

You gotta reframe it just a little bit and associate it with the words "the Global South shall rise again" now.

[-] thelastaxolotl@hexbear.net 52 points 2 days ago

I think Fidel Castro had a part in making popular yankee as an insult since at least in latam he was the main dude that used it as an insult

And i know that since pre-fidel cubans used to say gringo to refer to americans but Fidel would instead use yankee during his speeches

[-] NephewAlphaBravo@hexbear.net 37 points 2 days ago

i-get-it if fidel called me a yankee it'd sting

[-] thelastaxolotl@hexbear.net 30 points 2 days ago

He may be gone but Raul Castro and Miguel Diaz Canel can still call you a yankee

[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 17 points 2 days ago

I'm certain they called some of those DSA members yankee after they left.

[-] VILenin@hexbear.net 12 points 2 days ago

Oh my god I completely forgot about the DSA clown troupe adventure in Cuba.

[-] Dolores@hexbear.net 39 points 2 days ago

because growing up, I only ever heard that word from neoconfederate types

this is precisely why i use yankee for all usamericans, its shorter than usamerican and it pisses off the literal worst crackers

[-] spectre@hexbear.net 18 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

"usamerican" needs to be part of the Hexbear style guide, and it needs to be enforced.

(Or "Yankee"is fine too)

[-] vovchik_ilich@hexbear.net 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Usian works too IMO, but yeah yaKKKee is better

[-] Alunyanners@lemmygrad.ml 16 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

lmao fucking yankee 🤭

[-] TraschcanOfIdeology@hexbear.net 31 points 2 days ago

Literally all of Latin America uses it as a pejorative for any American, along with gringo. We get exploited and brutalized by Americans from the north and the south, you're all Yankees to us.

[-] Vampire@hexbear.net 18 points 2 days ago

growing up, I only ever heard that word from neoconfederate types, and so I'm conditioned to associate that word with "the South shall rise again" bullshit

It's not likely that anyone but yourselves will care about the finer subdivisions of different kinds of yankee

[-] sexywheat@hexbear.net 36 points 2 days ago

Yeah whenever I've called Americans Yanks they always get confused and think I'm talking about the sportsball team, but it's definitely not confusing to the rest of the world.

[-] SpiderFarmer@hexbear.net 32 points 2 days ago

Those jedi mindtricks don't work on Americans. We're too dumb.

[-] NaevaTheRat@vegantheoryclub.org 20 points 2 days ago

Yankee -> Yank -> sceptic tank -> seppo.

Rhyming slang is great, come have a butchers I'm not telling porkies you old raspberry.

[-] wtypstanaccount04@hexbear.net 22 points 2 days ago

In Japanese ヤンキー (katakana for Yankee) is used as a term for delinquents and bad-behaving teenagers

[-] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 10 points 2 days ago

Whence {元|もと}ヤン motoyan for an ex-delinquent. Guess where I learned that word from!

Sent from Mdewakanton Dakota lands / Sept. 29 1837Treaty with the Sioux of September 29th, 1837

"We Will Talk of Nothing Else": Dakota Interpretations of the Treaty of 1837

[-] xj9@hexbear.net 27 points 2 days ago

Its not an insult, that's just what you're called

[-] GenderIsOpSec@hexbear.net 11 points 2 days ago

no no it's both theory-gary

[-] BelieveRevolt@hexbear.net 10 points 2 days ago

In many languages, "yankee" or some variant of it is used to refer to Americans in general, like "yanqui" in Spanish or "jenkki" in Finnish.

[-] duderium@hexbear.net 11 points 2 days ago

Koreans sometimes say “yanknom,” yankee bastard, so you can also use that.

[-] Meh@hexbear.net 4 points 2 days ago

When a Yankee is eating

[-] Lemmygradwontallowme@hexbear.net 19 points 2 days ago

Fine, we'll call the likes of ye seppos, like @erika3sis said

[-] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 6 points 2 days ago

I specifically have my sort of ill-defined "tripartite division" idea, which is to say that of the people who self-identify as "Americans", that Seppo refers really more to capitalists and their lackeys than to anyone else, whereas American per se refers basically to class conscious members of what's often called the "American diaspora", and Usonian refers to... honestly everyone else.

The country is however called Seppoland and its people may be called Seppolanders.

This terminology is a bit opaque and hard to explain well, so I tend not to use it around others very often.

Sent from Mdewakanton Dakota lands / Sept. 29 1837Treaty with the Sioux of September 29th, 1837

"We Will Talk of Nothing Else": Dakota Interpretations of the Treaty of 1837

[-] BobDole@hexbear.net 18 points 2 days ago

Yeah, if you’re trying to insult an American, “yank” or “yankee” isn’t very cutting.

[-] xj9@hexbear.net 22 points 2 days ago

White people just assuming everything is a slur very-normal

[-] frauddogg@hexbear.net 6 points 2 days ago

And this is why I just call whites crackers regardless of where in settlerdom they were spawned

[-] Justice@lemmygrad.ml 18 points 2 days ago

Yankee just means American (as in USAian)

Before the US civil war it was already a term for all Americans. Once the confederacy declared "independence" they wanted to drop all ties to the US government and its citizens. Thus, Yankee became a (an attempt anyway) derogatory term for those who remained US citizens who at the time were basically all located above the Mason-Dixon line. And it's just sort of stuck since then. Those outside the US context just use it for every American. The most famous usage is probably the Vietnamese anti-American propaganda saying like "Go home, Yankee! Your government doesn't care about you!" and stuff like that

On a personal note or whatever, half my family is from the deep south, so I also grew up understanding it as a sort of derogatory term used for those from the northern states. It's pretty fucking weird to realize eventually that your family members are using an "insult" from the pro-slavery rebel government towards you (not me but my dad. So, also kind of at me...). Not to credit them too much though because I doubt they know really what they're saying in that respect and they do it as a joking thing mostly from what I saw. Of course sentiments of "war of northern aggression" and "MLK was a troublemaker" (heavily censoring that second one...) are still alive even among people that most outside observers probably wouldn't clock as super racist upon casual observation. When you're their nephew or grandson though, well, I can only confirm all the assumptions people have towards white southerners. (No, not literally everyone, obviously, before someone comes yelling at me. But it's a big percentage that are seemingly fine with everything from casual slur usage to aggressively wishing death on people. Obama being in office in particular sent my uncle down a pretty wild path)

[-] Verenata@hexbear.net 16 points 2 days ago

We can go back to just using American if you'd like?

[-] BeamBrain@hexbear.net 23 points 2 days ago

You can call me whatever you like

spoilerExcept "liberal"

[-] Verenata@hexbear.net 20 points 2 days ago
[-] hamid@vegantheoryclub.org 11 points 2 days ago

They're called yanks because that is all they do all day

[-] Voidance@hexbear.net 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Yankee soldier
He want to shoot some skag
He met it in Cambodia, but now
He can't afford a bag

[-] thefartographer@lemm.ee 5 points 2 days ago

The only time I heard the word "Yankee" used outside of baseball was when my dad got upset with me for wearing a Piggly Wiggly hat

[-] jadedbell@hexbear.net 2 points 2 days ago

I didn't even realize they were talking about all Americans lol

[-] blindbunny@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 days ago

As a southerner I use it to talk about northerners. I used "carpet bagger" to talk about a politician around a bunch of South westerners the other day and none of them knew what it was.

this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2024
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