I find Coulter too incomprehensible to respond to. I mean, what is this, third grade? “Our military is bigger than your military”? That’s how fourth grade boys argue, not how national discourse about important issues is to be handled. At least with Moore one can say that he’s wrong, with Coulter she’d have to take several steps toward sanity to become merely wrong. As it is she comes across as insane and I try to avoid letting insane people influence my opinion (and I self-identify as conservative).
My real reason for posting is that, as an American living in Toronto, I don’t find that article to be a particularly accurate description of my experiences. The joke about Canadians defining themselves as “not American” is not entirely without its truth, but it is hardly the only thing that makes Canadians Canadian. There are Canadians who are exasperated by Americans and America, and there are Canadians who out and out hate the place, but that’s hardly the entirety of Canadian culture.
Coulter’s comments about Canada defy response. Yes, Norway might be able to invade. Does Norway have plans on cornering the world market on godforsaken frozen wastelands? If not, then perhaps preparing for their invasion might not be the best possible use of resources.
Two points: First, it does become problematic to refer to citizens of the United States as Americans when discussing themin comparison to Canadians because we are all residents of the Americas. Second, I didn’t see your ire get quite so raised last time someone said Canadians were from Canadia.
A Canadian is not an American and neither is a Mexican or anybody else for that matter. They can call themselves whatever the hell they please, as long as it’s not American.
No its not, we are Americans becuase our nation is called the United States of ** America **. If you want to refer to Canadians by their continent, ** North ** America, they would be called ** North ** Americans. Only residents of the USA can rightfully refer to themselves as Americans.
And I call bullshit to that. A Canadian who calls himself/herself American is an idiot. The same would apply to a Mexican or anybody else. Why would somebody improperly identify themselves and cause confusion as to their origin, unless they have a huge hard on for all things American.
You know, sometimes words have more than one meaning. Take, oh, there are so many choices, let’s say for example ‘switch’, just because it’s the first thing that popped into my head. It can mean a control device, as in an electrical switch which opens and closes a circuit, or it can mean a thin stick used to administer corporal punishment. Two meanings that aren’t the same! Wow! That said, let’s look at what Merriam Webster has to say (and don’t bitch, it’s as pro-American-in-the-US sense a dictionary as you’re likely to find, just be glad I’m not citing the OED).
American n.
1 : an American Indian of No. America or So. America
2 : a native or inhabitant of No. America or So. America
3 : a citizen of the U.S.
4 : AMERICAN ENGLISH
Oh look! ‘Citizen of the US’ isn’t the only meaning of the word ‘American’! Gosh! Who would ever have thought it could be, what with two entire continents bearing that name???!
Now, as to your point, such as it was, I will concede that if I were travelling in Europe and someone asked me my nationality, ‘American’ would be misleading at best. However, the ordinary practice used to determine which of a word’s possible meanings is being used is to look at context. So long as it’s reasonably clear that I’m not using the nationality meaning of the word, I see no reason not to use ‘American’ as a descriptor of myself.
I agree it’s PROBLEMATIC to refer to someone not from the US as American. Nevertheless, to be from the Americas is one meaning of the word ‘American’, whether you like it or not.
TT: *A Canadian who calls himself/herself American is an idiot. *
I don’t think most Canadians do, although I agree that all of us who live in the Americas are in some sense American. However, everybody seems to realize that “American” is the only established term to refer to a citizen of the USA (what else could we use? Usan? Yoony? doesn’t really work), so applying the term to Canadians and Panamanians and most everybody else in this hemisphere too would just be confusing.
However, maintaining that only United States people have a “right” to call themselves Americans is IMHO silly. It’s only about commonly accepted usage, folks, let’s not blow it up into a “rights” issue.
IME, what some Canadians do tend to reject, and with some reason, is the use of “America” to mean “United States”. In that case, we do have a perfectly good and accepted alternative to the more generic name, so we might as well stick to it and leave “America” to retain its broader meaning.
When James Monroe proclaimed about “America for the Americans,” he sure was talking about the USA taking control of the American continent, but even then, officially and for propaganda purposes; he was referring to the whole American continent, and that other nations of America deserved freedom from Europe. And yes, that all the countries down there and up are America. It is only tradition that compels the US citizens to say that “we call ourselves American”, that is all right, as long we don’t forget it is not quite accurate.
Why, oh why don’t we have an animated raspberry smiley?
I refer to citizens of the United States of American as United Statesians for precision of comprehension in a very limited medium. As already noted here, our continent is America - from Cabo de Hornos to Ellesmere Island. You guys can’t claim it for your distinguishing label just because you have included it in your country name. Your country name is The United States of [the continent] America.
Look at popular culture for example. I bet 99 % of all song titles that have the word America, or American does not refer to any other place besides the USA.
No, I think you do it just to be intentionally rude.
I still call Canadians for Canadians, but if I see the majority adopting your term, I will refer to them as dipshits from now on. French Canadians will be known as french dipshits.
TT:No, I think you do it just to be intentionally rude.
What on earth do you consider “rude” about the made-up term “United Statesian”? I’m just as American as you are, and I don’t see anything rude about it in the least. Somewhat clumsy, unfamiliar, and more trouble than it’s worth, perhaps, but rude? Not at all.
In fact, back when there used to be a big flap on these boards about somebody’s (Aldebaran’s? don’t recall) use of the name “USers” for Americans, which many people considered an offensive and malicious variant of “users”, I always thought that we should just offer the alternative of “USan”. Short, simple, unambiguous, and non-derogatory.
Come to think of it, I hereby declare that the use of the term “USan” (capitalize the “S”, please!) or “United Statesian” (clunky though it sounds) is perfectly acceptable to Americans, at least insofar as they’re represented by me. I don’t see why The Truth should be the only one who gets to lay down arbitrary restrictions based on his personal preferences.
There’s no need to invent new words, when the word exists already.
And if somebody is going to invent new words, I certainly wouldn’t want the likes of an Alberadan person or some Canadian making up any names for Americans.
Call Americans for what you please, but I have a few names of my own which I will address these people with.
With all due respect, featherlou, that’s silly. While we can call ourselves “Americans” and be technically correct according to the dictionary, no Canadian I know uses “Americans” to mean anything other than people from the United States. Nobody overseas calls anyone “Americans” when they mean Canadians. The only time you ever hear Canadians use the term in any other way is during these stupid-ass arguments when we try to co-opt the word and/or claim Americans are arrogant for calling themselves Americans. You yourself have used the term “American” or “Americans” to refer to people or things from the United States on at least a few occasions on this message board.
Nobody in the entire world with an IQ higher than a turnip needs you to say “United Statesian” instead of “American” to know what you’re talking about. It’s a silly, ugly construction.
Note that I’m a Canadian, and not a US-worshipping Canublican type who drops to his knees whenever a U.S. conservative opens the big hole in the middle of his face, but this entire argument irritates and embarasses me. Do you really, honestly think people from Germany or Japan or Thailand or Egypt are going to start calling Americans “United Statesians”? Pretending that Americans are not entitled to use a word that has been used to describe them for longer than there’s been a “United States” is the very height of petty stupidity.
Moore doesn’t embarrass me at all. I see no reason why I SHOULD be embarrassed by Moore. Your notion that there is some sort of equivalence between Moore and Coulter is just purest bullshit.
What on earth do you consider “rude” about the made-up term “United Statesian”? I’m just as American as you are, and I don’t see anything rude about it in the least. Somewhat clumsy, unfamiliar, and more trouble than it’s worth, perhaps, but rude? Not at all.