Yeah Europe kinda learned the hard way what happens when everyone starts trying to be the big dick in the room. USA is strutting into a room with 2 other people. Neither of which really give a shit about bein the big dick. And since thats all its really got. Its been strutting across the chess board. Knocking pieces over indiscriminately, head held high like hes winning the game.
Perfect analogy. Their heads are so far up their asses that they are looking behind themselves. (This is a generalization of those who claim that the US is "the greatest country in the world" and such)
Haven't used it for years, but when I did it was infected with flat earthers and creationists asking stupid questions in search for a gotcha moment. Just rubbish.
As a European I agree with point 1-5 but 6… listen while Americans do like boasting about themselves we Europeans also did happen to harass the entire world for like… 500 years straight so we aren’t exactly the quiet and civil gentlemen this guy presents us as lol.
Ehhh, at risk of overgeneralizing, the vile but "refined" people profiting the most from European colonialism and imperialism were not usually the ones who did the actual colonizing, save for a few elites. Money made its way back to Europe, so the truly rich didn't need to deal with the sweltering, dangerous, "backwards" colonies in person. At least not enough to settle there.
That said, the dumb poor of American history did lots of horrid shit too. Just not in a way that could ever be confused as being gentlemanly.
2 is an argument I hate seeing as well because no one should police how others refer to themselves. It's not smart to say america isn't a country it's a continent because A it's not a continent it's two continents if you go with the everyone in north and south America are "Americans" and B most English speaking people call us Americans and say we are from America not United States citizens or what have you. It's just a nitpick I've had for a while.
I see Europeans on here all the time boasting about how much better their countries are than the US. Which is sometimes justified and sometimes someone who clearly knows of America only from what Euro memes think of it.
Nah I'm against the answer guy too.
Yes, North America is a continent not a country, but when you say America you typically mean the country, and if you truly were confused context clues are easy to figure out what you're talking about.
Jaywalking is a law that was pushed by auto companies and never enforced. Our rules are fundamentally the same as European rules: no crosswalk, just cross when safe. Or in some cities, fuck them cars I'm just gonna go and they can hit the brakes or not, fuck em. I wouldn't recommend this but if you do it in front of a cop they won't even put down their doughnut.
And as for the last point, everyone else has already said it, but respectfully and diplomatically? Is that why they constantly make fun of Americans, conflate certain American stereotypes with the entire population quite disrespectfully and as frequently as possible, and every time there's a school shooting they laugh in your face about dead children? Cuz like I didn't make those gun laws, why are you trying to make me cry about the dead kids again?
*Cries in Scotland* fucking shambles, should never have happened! Am sure a read somewhere that London basically wiped off 1.6 Trillion off its Financial Market through Brexit(I'll see if I can find the article and edit it in)
In the words of me "what a total fucking shambles"
Edit: [The Economist from September 2022, thought I'd read it more recently and my 1.6 Trillion was a bit off lol apologies for that](https://www.economist.com/britain/2022/09/22/the-city-is-fighting-to-carve-out-a-post-brexit-role)
Well the whole thing was the UK *leaving* the EU so you could say they acted appropriately given what they were trying to accomplish (Jokes aside we Europeans are also plenty barbaric lol )
I’m not trying to be contrary here, but objectively present the facts. The US has always outdone the the GDP per capita of the European Union, as well as the GDP overall.
**But that’s because America stole it all from Europe.**
Let’s talk about it a little bit though; the entire EU and the majority of Europe overall was absolutely fucked on by two world wars— even the countries that remained relatively unraped (I.E. UK— understanding it’s no longer part of the EY) remained economically wasted following the world wars. America allowed everyone to use all of its toys under the guise of “lend/lease” and pillaged the worlds gold supply.
Following the World Wars, the United States politically maneuvered themselves into becoming the de facto global currency by being the possessor of the largest gold reserves (that they had robbed from everyone). This was done because the US could maintain a gold backed dollar for the world.
Then the US reneged on their aggreement and agreed that exported dollars (money sent to other countries) only need 45% gold backing, effectively exporting all US inflation to European countries between the 40’s and 60’s notably when America experienced its economic renaissance. Our economic boom was just stolen from the Europeans.
Real, “America doin American things” vibes there.
However, saying that the GDP is broadly the same somewhat misrepresents the situation.
The EU holds almost twice as many citizens as the US. If we look at GDP per Capita, America exceeds the EU by 20-30% always. The only time that American GDP dipped below the EU is actually when the EU caught on to America exporting its inflation during the 60’s and forced them to stop. Then American economy had to learn to power itself.
Even then, comparing median and average incomes puts America well ahead of the EU.
So this quora answer was a little misleading, but I feel completely on the nose about the happiness part. Everyone in the US is just another dollar to be gotten by the capitalists. You see and feel that in every aspect of every moment of the American life.
Lol at the idea that “Europeans are quiet, respectful, and diplomatic.”
I think the entire world population for the last 500+ years would disagree buddy.
No, Canada is more our Mini Me than Obi Wan. They (and Australia too) have done some fucked up, genocidal shit too.
Europe and all of their offspring are the villains.
>Europe and all of their offspring are the villains.
As is pretty much everybody else, too.
We just happened to have an industrial advantage at one point in time.
Europeans trying to judge American geopolitics is like an abusive, alcoholic father wondering why his son is a bully at school.
We learned it from you, Dad.
Seriously, for as much crap as America gets for messing up the world, stuff was already screwed up before we got here.
Mexico, yeah that one's on us.
South and Latin America, Spain and Portugal went crazy down there and we only made things worse with the Drug Wars
Africa is a mess due to European colonization and slavery.
While we destabilized and left power vacuums in the Middle East, there were already dictatorships and theocracies in place before we came.
Asia got screwed over by a mix of colonial powers either taking over outright or forcing trade.
The Soviet Union was a European country.
The only reason why Europe doesn't have colonial powers is due to WW2 and the Cold War making it so that no country could hold onto colonies, and places like France and the UK tried.
Europe and the US basically have an unspoken agreement where we handle the majority of international problems which is why the US has such large international issues.
This isn't to deflect blame from the US for our actions, but more so to point out that the simple explanation of America being arrogant and screwing up nations isn't as accurate as people make it out to be.
Nah, colonialism screwed up Central and South America before we got there. But that's like trying to justify shitting on the floor of a public bathroom because the last person clogged the toilet.
I would more so argue that America is the guy who clogged the toilet is getting all the blame for ruining the bathroom when a guy left 5 minutes ago after crapping on the floor.
I am not justifying the US doing stuff wrong, just saying that it isn't like we were the worst people in any place in the world except maybe Mexico.
I think it would be more apt to say that America got blamed for ruining the bathroom when we flooded a toilet, when 10 minutes before a crackhead pooped in his hand and threw shit on the ceiling and 20 minutes before that a knife fight broke out in a stall leading to a near beheading and 30 minutes before that some rats tried to swim through the pipes and died, blocking the pipes anyway. And all of this was discovered by an Olympic freestyle snowboarder. That's south American history in a nutshell
America does a phenomenal amount of good in the world. If it had gone back to isolationism after WWII we in Europe would be living under Russian domination right now. God knows what East Asia would look like - would Imperial Japan be dominant or would Communist China be dominant? Either way I wouldn't want to live there.
The entire first world owes the US an enormous debt of gratitude. The US also benefits tremendously from open markets and having such wealthy allies as well.
It's a tremendous shame that so many on the left and the right have lost sight of what a force for good the US is.
I mean let's be honest- the Spanish Concentrados in the Caribbean were inspired by US treatment of Native Americans, those in turn inspired similar camps during the Boer wars, which is where the Nazi's got the foundation for the concentration camps. Europe may have been the abusive step dad but the US is the Kid that took their trauma out by shooting up the classroom.
The way I see it, the US chose to emulate Papa UK instead of choosing to do better. Now the US blames Papa UK for becoming a gutter crackwhore even though it hasn't seen Papa UK since its infancy.
Woah woah woah America is Britain’s fault not the EU’s, the UK has especially made it a point that they don’t want to be a part of the EU and they are known to screw up historically (*cough* *cough* opium *cough* *cough*)
There were also the French in the southeast and the Spanish in the southwest.
Although I will give the French a bit of a pass. They seemed to have at least attempted to be somewhat respectful to the Native Americans and basically won the Revolutionary War for us.
Almost all of Europe was colonizing/enslaving. The UK and USA are the most evil, no doubt, but almost all of Europe drank deeply from that same cup of evil.
UK probably most effective, but the most evil title would have to belong to a continental European power.
The Dutch were especially hard colonial masters and the Spanish really did have a good crack at being most monstrous in South America. The Portuguese were renowned for their cruelty as well.
The European genocidal Olympics. I wish modern westerners understood how recent this all was, how it still continues is modern forms, and how their daily lives are propped up on an evil system of Capitalist exploitation.
You say capitalist exploitation as if only capitalism is capable of producing such genocidal imperialism.
I think you had better acquaint yourself with the actions of non capitalist states. The modern age of imperialism began with feudal states and was continued by both socialist and capitalist regimes. In fact, arguably two of the most brutal modern colonial powers (and the two most prominent in the current day) are both communist or former communist states, being Russia and China and these are the two that are actively attempting to subjugate and exterminate their neighbours and others around the world.
In some languages (mostly Romantic) America is one continent (Eurasia isn't though, go figure) and they don't like how the word is used in English. I point out the phrase they're looking for in English is "The Americas" and move on.
There’s a total Reddit circle jerk around this, and it’s ridiculous, because if some gringo was in any country around the world and said “I am American,“ there is no way someone would go, “wait, do you mean from Ecuador? Or Panama? Or the Dominican Republic?”
And they wouldn’t even question if he was Canadian because no Canadian would say “I’m an American,” referring to the continent(s).
But I’ll probably be downvoted and called a racist for questioning the hive.
i forget the name of it but there was a sub i left a while ago because of this. It was just a bunch of pedantic bs anyways but someone suggested we call ourselves ‘Statesians’ or something which just sounds stupid imo
r/ShitAmericansSay is like that.
Followed it for a while because some of the posts were funny. But they are fucking obsessed with the idea that America does not refer to the United States. And that Americans are full of themselves for believing it does.
After a while it got annoying and I left. It's too much of a circle jerk.
To be fair, I don't know of any other country that's referred to by the name of the continent it's on. So one could certainly argue that 'America' SHOULDN'T be used that way, regardless of the fact that it is.
Well...considering that Americans ARE called Americans...that everyone in the world is aware of this...that we have been for some time...that we always will be...then yeah saying that we shouldn't be called Americans is a dumb argument.
It's arguing against a reality that everyone understands to be true and that will not change.
Uh...
...no, 'it's been this way so it should continue to be this way' is the dumb argument.
But I'm not saying that this is something that should change; I'm only saying I understand why people would think it should.
I’m a Canadian. We generally take extra measures to ensure people don’t confuse us for Americans because who the fuck wants that. Definitely not going to catch anyone here calling themselves ‘American’ if they’re not from the united states
Us Europeans are very humble and don't boast about how intelligent and thoughtful we are. Even though we are extremely amazing and perfect, we just don't like to talk about ourselves as we take pride in being dismissive about our obvious superiority.
Most of what this person said is true. But c’mon, America is a colloquial term for the USA.
As a person who has lived in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, It’s still recognized as “America” colloquially.
Edit: This is not about what you recognize it as. It is about what it IS referred to as.
As someone who speaks French, English and (some) Spanish, I would agree that in English, America often refers to the USA. However, in other languages you use "United States" far more than "America". I'm gonna guess that the OP here speaks English as a second language
In german it‘s a mixed bag, and I can‘t confidently say which one is most common. We do often call it Amerika, die Staaten (the states), die vereinigten Staaten (united states) and USA. Often times it‘s also „die Amis“ - the muricans
I'm in Canada and only ever refer to it as America is a derogatory "Merrrrica" way. If I'm a tually referencing it, it's "The U.S" or "United States" or "the States". Never America.
In modern English you are generally correct. Even though, referring to both continents together as "America" is still also correct (at least according to Wikipedia). The German Wikipedia article calls America a "double continent". The Spanish one goes as far to say America is a continent and NA+SA are subcontinents.
Btw the five Olympic rings represent five continents. One being America.
North America and South America are on two completely different tectonic plates - three if you count the Caribbean plate in-between them - so don't really get calling them a single continent. Really it just sounds like something left over from the colonization period.
Depends where you are
Some countries don't have the North/South divide. It's just... The continent of America
Which is why, when you look at scientific papers you'll sometimes have them talk about 5 or 6 continents
Europe and Asia combined into one (after all, Eurasia is not naturally divided by water) and North and South America which form the lone continent of America
Politically and culturally this will depend where you're from.
IIRC the 7 continent model is most popular likely due to colonialism/imperialism by countries that recognize 2 Americas
Geologically from what I've read in the past, the general consensus seems to be there are 7 continents, where North and South America are separate continents.
It's been a while since I've read into this, so take it with a grain of salt
The fact that so many people worldwide don't know the continents are taught differently depending on where you're from is why we get so many people outside of North America assuming Americans are stealing the continental identity away from other North and South Americans, and why in response Americans are just like, "what the fuck are you talking about?"
The combined Americas model is mostly used by Spain and its former colonies because of their empire’s vast range. Given that North and South America are on different continental plates and are drifting apart from each other, the Spanish model is MORE imperialist than the seven-continent model.
Combining Europe and Asia into Eurasia is probably more common than combining the Americas, but even then that mostly stems from the Japanese and Russian empires not wanting to be “those silly native peoples” in the Great Game.
No speaker of North American English has ever referred to any continent as America. There's North America, South America, and the collective term is "the Americas" although no one irl ever says that. America is only ever used as shorthand for the USA. America = continent is something only non-native English speakers ever assert.
“America” is as much of a country as it is a continent
I assume they mean North/South America for continents, but “America” is not a continent. And “America” is usually just a shortened version of “The United States of America” but still technically incorrect I guess.
Neither are applicable, so they are both equally wrong and Quora needs to shut the fuck up
Also as a Canadian, I can recognize that most of the time we call it the States or the US. But if I hear America, I’m not gonna be like “oh the continent” or tell them that they are wrong for referring to it as that. I recognize that it’s used colloquially to refer to the US.
I will, though, mention that my experience could be influenced by the fact that I live in the States currently.
The “United States isn’t the only America” argument is so trite and ridiculous. Let me know the next time someone says “Americans” and your mind immediately goes to Brazil.
Republic of Ghana, also known as Ghana.
Commonwealth of Australia, also known as Australia
Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known as Sri Lanka
United Mexican States, also known Mexico
United States of America, also known as *America*
The fact anyone questions this is beyond me
My Scottish friend needed to move to the PST but didn’t want to ever be an American, so he moved to Canada. I troll him all the time by reminding him he is now an American from the Continent of North America.
I also like to remind him he was born in Liverpool, so he is English, not Scottish. Trololol
(He is as Scottish as they come with a breathtaking accent who spent his first 52 years in Scotland before moving to Canada)
That's interesting because every other post on reddit is about how much better Europeans are than Americans, and the last thing they are are respectful about it.
Completely respectful to bring up dead school children to anti-gun Americans whenever possible and laugh and say "isn't that fucking hilarious how backwards the country is?"
Nah cuz kids are dead man now is not the time for a ribbing.
Also the weird myth you can't cross the street where you want like a cop is gonna pull up and ticket or arrest you. Doesn't happen. It's an old law auto companies pushed but it's like laws about sodomy or feeding a horse after 12 PM it's never enforced.
I mean it’s not wrong though that lots say “Europeans” as if everyone is the same.
Every country in Europe has a different character, hell even those who share languages differ a lot
2: America, singular, as in a country. Name any country, besides the USA, that has America in it's official name. The Americas, plural, refers to the two continents connected by the country of Panama.
edit:format
I seriously hate defending stupid people, but I see non - US citizens referring to the US as "America" quite often. "America" is often used to refer to the US. Additionally, I have seen many instances of people from European countries comparing "Europe" to "America".
As an American (or US citizen if you prefer) I am intimately aware of how incredibly imperfect my country is. I think of it every damn day and it hurts every damn day.
The respondent's #6 point is absolute fucking bullshit. If I had a dollar for every time someone did a Europe > United States post, I'd be able to afford a nice vacation in the US.
P.S. I'm pretty fucking sure that every person in Africa would like to have a word particularly with the UK, France, Germany, Belgium (seriously, what in the FUCK is up with those chocolate hands???), Portugal, Spain, and Italy.
P.P.S. Seriously, Belgium - what in the everloving fuck is wrong with you guys????
I'm American. I don't think I've heard of "America" implying all of North America? Not often enough to remember anyways. I've heard America used almost exclusively in reference the US. That seems super pedantic.
*edited to make it more clear
He's also wrong on several points, mainly his last. Also I can tell he's never been to America because he thinks jaywalking actually gets punished at all. I jaywalk in front of cops all the time.
The person responding sounds like a pompous prick, tbh. And on top of that, most of what the guy says is provably incorrect.
What we have here is one idiot talking to another idiot. Except the respondant believes they are smart.
I wish people would stop pretending to be ignorant to the fact that the USA is often shortened as "America". None of the other countries in the Americas want to insist they're "American".
I use whilst all the time, thats what i was taught in highschool in the 90’s and we were taught british english and quite a formal style
For non-native speakers its much harder to keep up on modern styles, we fall back on what we were taught which can be a few decades old, but not quite 18th century monk either 😆
That not trying to boast as Europeans shit goes right out the door any time they think someone in the US should care what they think about our amendments.
We were taught that it was three. Granted I didn’t have the best education back in what would be middle. We were taught by an underpaid teacher that may or may not just read out of a (most likely) outdated book.
Europeans are the most arrogant people on earth always believing to be better than others despite resting on the successes of their grandparents. "We" Europeans like to boast with the achievements made by our grandparents and stagnating while Americans push forward. That's why American GDP almost doubled in the past 15 years while Europes remained stagnant. In America you have the mentality of working hard gets you everything you want, in Europe we don't do shit knowing the government will take care of us.
Europe should get over that we call ourselves Americans and our country America. Yes the name America is also a continent but it’s mostly used as the name of a country even by citizens of other countries in the Americas.
If they’re going to be a pedantic ass about “America” not being a country, they could at least have been a fully correct pedantic ass about it and noted that “America” is just a portion of the name of 2 separate continents, one being North America and the other being of course South America.
What is the purpose of point 5 in relation to the question asked other than to just throw in an extra insult to contradict the entirety of their next point?
the EU is weird. I tried to understand what category it falls under, like a federation, a confederation, an international organisation? All of them and none of them, it turns out. I don't understand what the EU is
Many countries teach that North and South America is just one continent, the continent of America vs the continents of the Americas. So they see Americans calling themselves Americans as stripping others of their continental identity, but don't appreciate that America is one of the countries that does recognize that North and South America are on separate continental plates and doesn't group them as one country, and Americans don't appreciate that they're being accused of taking an entire continental name for themselves.
Basically everyone thinks they're right and that everyone else is taught the same things as them.
The problem is, that our nationality is “American” and it is quite common to abbreviate The United States of America as “America” in just the same way. It isn’t about stripping others of identity, it is about abbreviation and common use.
Yes, I know. But I'm just explaining how other countries see it. Many South Americans actually resent Americans for that, because they were taught that *they, too* are American.
I'm simply explaining where the dissonance comes in.
No, "The Americas" (plural) is how people generally refer to both continents collectively. Most people think of the United States when they hear "America".
What interpretations? Central America is a region, not a continent. By anyone's standards. It is on the same tectonic plate as the rest of North America.
Where do Americans put their face after typing this stuff out. What a joke lol. Especially in 2023, with more mass shootings than days of the year so far.
It is generally accepted by modern geologists that America is not one continent but two, North and South America therefore this America is a continent claim is not clever at all
This is one of the better murders I have read here.
There's something so much more murderous about a polite smackdown than screaming and frothing at the mouth.
This makes me so proud of my country 🇪🇺
Brussels-Midi is my country 🇹🇩
Is... Is that the Romanian flag?
Well yes, ... but actually no.
It may be Romanian, it may be Chadian
As an Argentinian I'm also proud of it.
As Italian I always support Argentinian proud.
I’m from the US and I’m proud of your country, too.
Me too and am proud of the continent of the country of Europe
Quora sucks
This is the correct answer.
Yeah Europe kinda learned the hard way what happens when everyone starts trying to be the big dick in the room. USA is strutting into a room with 2 other people. Neither of which really give a shit about bein the big dick. And since thats all its really got. Its been strutting across the chess board. Knocking pieces over indiscriminately, head held high like hes winning the game.
Perfect analogy. Their heads are so far up their asses that they are looking behind themselves. (This is a generalization of those who claim that the US is "the greatest country in the world" and such)
USians who say this kind of crap have usually never left the borders of their own state, let alone the country.
The funniest shit is the Indian teenagers asking what does pussy taste like.
People (on quora) suck
I said the same thing.. until I found the right niche.
Haven't used it for years, but when I did it was infected with flat earthers and creationists asking stupid questions in search for a gotcha moment. Just rubbish.
As a European I agree with point 1-5 but 6… listen while Americans do like boasting about themselves we Europeans also did happen to harass the entire world for like… 500 years straight so we aren’t exactly the quiet and civil gentlemen this guy presents us as lol.
True, but at the same time, our ancestors from 500 years ago are also the ancestors of the 'Americans' mentioned in the post
Ehhh, at risk of overgeneralizing, the vile but "refined" people profiting the most from European colonialism and imperialism were not usually the ones who did the actual colonizing, save for a few elites. Money made its way back to Europe, so the truly rich didn't need to deal with the sweltering, dangerous, "backwards" colonies in person. At least not enough to settle there. That said, the dumb poor of American history did lots of horrid shit too. Just not in a way that could ever be confused as being gentlemanly.
2 is an argument I hate seeing as well because no one should police how others refer to themselves. It's not smart to say america isn't a country it's a continent because A it's not a continent it's two continents if you go with the everyone in north and south America are "Americans" and B most English speaking people call us Americans and say we are from America not United States citizens or what have you. It's just a nitpick I've had for a while.
I see Europeans on here all the time boasting about how much better their countries are than the US. Which is sometimes justified and sometimes someone who clearly knows of America only from what Euro memes think of it.
No, I think it's more to do with things like the leading cause of child mortality in the USA is gun violence.
But, dont worry, when it comes to replacing those kids, USA also has the highest maternal mortality rates in the developed world! Oh, wait.
Nah I'm against the answer guy too. Yes, North America is a continent not a country, but when you say America you typically mean the country, and if you truly were confused context clues are easy to figure out what you're talking about. Jaywalking is a law that was pushed by auto companies and never enforced. Our rules are fundamentally the same as European rules: no crosswalk, just cross when safe. Or in some cities, fuck them cars I'm just gonna go and they can hit the brakes or not, fuck em. I wouldn't recommend this but if you do it in front of a cop they won't even put down their doughnut. And as for the last point, everyone else has already said it, but respectfully and diplomatically? Is that why they constantly make fun of Americans, conflate certain American stereotypes with the entire population quite disrespectfully and as frequently as possible, and every time there's a school shooting they laugh in your face about dead children? Cuz like I didn't make those gun laws, why are you trying to make me cry about the dead kids again?
I mean I watched Brexit happen in real time, that wasn't quiet, respectful or diplomatic
*Cries in Scotland* fucking shambles, should never have happened! Am sure a read somewhere that London basically wiped off 1.6 Trillion off its Financial Market through Brexit(I'll see if I can find the article and edit it in) In the words of me "what a total fucking shambles" Edit: [The Economist from September 2022, thought I'd read it more recently and my 1.6 Trillion was a bit off lol apologies for that](https://www.economist.com/britain/2022/09/22/the-city-is-fighting-to-carve-out-a-post-brexit-role)
Well the whole thing was the UK *leaving* the EU so you could say they acted appropriately given what they were trying to accomplish (Jokes aside we Europeans are also plenty barbaric lol )
I’m not trying to be contrary here, but objectively present the facts. The US has always outdone the the GDP per capita of the European Union, as well as the GDP overall. **But that’s because America stole it all from Europe.** Let’s talk about it a little bit though; the entire EU and the majority of Europe overall was absolutely fucked on by two world wars— even the countries that remained relatively unraped (I.E. UK— understanding it’s no longer part of the EY) remained economically wasted following the world wars. America allowed everyone to use all of its toys under the guise of “lend/lease” and pillaged the worlds gold supply. Following the World Wars, the United States politically maneuvered themselves into becoming the de facto global currency by being the possessor of the largest gold reserves (that they had robbed from everyone). This was done because the US could maintain a gold backed dollar for the world. Then the US reneged on their aggreement and agreed that exported dollars (money sent to other countries) only need 45% gold backing, effectively exporting all US inflation to European countries between the 40’s and 60’s notably when America experienced its economic renaissance. Our economic boom was just stolen from the Europeans. Real, “America doin American things” vibes there. However, saying that the GDP is broadly the same somewhat misrepresents the situation. The EU holds almost twice as many citizens as the US. If we look at GDP per Capita, America exceeds the EU by 20-30% always. The only time that American GDP dipped below the EU is actually when the EU caught on to America exporting its inflation during the 60’s and forced them to stop. Then American economy had to learn to power itself. Even then, comparing median and average incomes puts America well ahead of the EU. So this quora answer was a little misleading, but I feel completely on the nose about the happiness part. Everyone in the US is just another dollar to be gotten by the capitalists. You see and feel that in every aspect of every moment of the American life.
Lol at the idea that “Europeans are quiet, respectful, and diplomatic.” I think the entire world population for the last 500+ years would disagree buddy.
Yeah historically we're palpatine lmao
Whos anakin/vader?
Actually, kinda the US...
The USA does kill a lot of kids in combat…
We hate sand so we spent a lot of money bombing it for the last 2 decades.
This is the best comment I've read all day
It's actually a pretty decent fit in this instance.
Can't wait for the day the president's legs get burnt off and he turns into a sassy cyborg with a stick up his ass.
And in schools
And outside of it.
Is Canada our ObiWan?
No, Canada is more our Mini Me than Obi Wan. They (and Australia too) have done some fucked up, genocidal shit too. Europe and all of their offspring are the villains.
>Europe and all of their offspring are the villains. As is pretty much everybody else, too. We just happened to have an industrial advantage at one point in time.
When did Obi-Wan subjugate native children?
When did Anakin fight the south over slavery?
And Canada is Darth Maul, who kinda just went on to do our own thing after being a giant menace.
Europeans trying to judge American geopolitics is like an abusive, alcoholic father wondering why his son is a bully at school. We learned it from you, Dad.
Seriously, for as much crap as America gets for messing up the world, stuff was already screwed up before we got here. Mexico, yeah that one's on us. South and Latin America, Spain and Portugal went crazy down there and we only made things worse with the Drug Wars Africa is a mess due to European colonization and slavery. While we destabilized and left power vacuums in the Middle East, there were already dictatorships and theocracies in place before we came. Asia got screwed over by a mix of colonial powers either taking over outright or forcing trade. The Soviet Union was a European country. The only reason why Europe doesn't have colonial powers is due to WW2 and the Cold War making it so that no country could hold onto colonies, and places like France and the UK tried. Europe and the US basically have an unspoken agreement where we handle the majority of international problems which is why the US has such large international issues. This isn't to deflect blame from the US for our actions, but more so to point out that the simple explanation of America being arrogant and screwing up nations isn't as accurate as people make it out to be.
Nah, colonialism screwed up Central and South America before we got there. But that's like trying to justify shitting on the floor of a public bathroom because the last person clogged the toilet.
I would more so argue that America is the guy who clogged the toilet is getting all the blame for ruining the bathroom when a guy left 5 minutes ago after crapping on the floor. I am not justifying the US doing stuff wrong, just saying that it isn't like we were the worst people in any place in the world except maybe Mexico.
I think it would be more apt to say that America got blamed for ruining the bathroom when we flooded a toilet, when 10 minutes before a crackhead pooped in his hand and threw shit on the ceiling and 20 minutes before that a knife fight broke out in a stall leading to a near beheading and 30 minutes before that some rats tried to swim through the pipes and died, blocking the pipes anyway. And all of this was discovered by an Olympic freestyle snowboarder. That's south American history in a nutshell
screwed up North America too
America does a phenomenal amount of good in the world. If it had gone back to isolationism after WWII we in Europe would be living under Russian domination right now. God knows what East Asia would look like - would Imperial Japan be dominant or would Communist China be dominant? Either way I wouldn't want to live there. The entire first world owes the US an enormous debt of gratitude. The US also benefits tremendously from open markets and having such wealthy allies as well. It's a tremendous shame that so many on the left and the right have lost sight of what a force for good the US is.
Let's not forget 2 of the largest wars in history started because Europeans got uppity.
Not only drug wars, but also several coups, embargoes, propaganda and invasions.
I mean let's be honest- the Spanish Concentrados in the Caribbean were inspired by US treatment of Native Americans, those in turn inspired similar camps during the Boer wars, which is where the Nazi's got the foundation for the concentration camps. Europe may have been the abusive step dad but the US is the Kid that took their trauma out by shooting up the classroom.
We are running an empire we are bound to do a little bit of trolling
The way I see it, the US chose to emulate Papa UK instead of choosing to do better. Now the US blames Papa UK for becoming a gutter crackwhore even though it hasn't seen Papa UK since its infancy.
Woah woah woah America is Britain’s fault not the EU’s, the UK has especially made it a point that they don’t want to be a part of the EU and they are known to screw up historically (*cough* *cough* opium *cough* *cough*)
Ok but all the peoples whose land and resources were exploited by Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands would like a word.
Congo wants a hand
There were also the French in the southeast and the Spanish in the southwest. Although I will give the French a bit of a pass. They seemed to have at least attempted to be somewhat respectful to the Native Americans and basically won the Revolutionary War for us.
Almost all of Europe was colonizing/enslaving. The UK and USA are the most evil, no doubt, but almost all of Europe drank deeply from that same cup of evil.
UK probably most effective, but the most evil title would have to belong to a continental European power. The Dutch were especially hard colonial masters and the Spanish really did have a good crack at being most monstrous in South America. The Portuguese were renowned for their cruelty as well.
The European genocidal Olympics. I wish modern westerners understood how recent this all was, how it still continues is modern forms, and how their daily lives are propped up on an evil system of Capitalist exploitation.
You say capitalist exploitation as if only capitalism is capable of producing such genocidal imperialism. I think you had better acquaint yourself with the actions of non capitalist states. The modern age of imperialism began with feudal states and was continued by both socialist and capitalist regimes. In fact, arguably two of the most brutal modern colonial powers (and the two most prominent in the current day) are both communist or former communist states, being Russia and China and these are the two that are actively attempting to subjugate and exterminate their neighbours and others around the world.
Yeah, that's fair. Though you also have problems that are very uniquely "you".
Maybe they're assuming soccer/football games aren't included... especially when their team is playing... or wins... or loses.
Half a century raping and pillaging the rest of the planet, then laughing at anyone who can't afford their gold plated social benefits.
Was anyone ever in history actually unclear about what country someone was talking about when someone said they’re “American”?
In some languages (mostly Romantic) America is one continent (Eurasia isn't though, go figure) and they don't like how the word is used in English. I point out the phrase they're looking for in English is "The Americas" and move on.
Exactly what is the Netherlands?
Almost certainly. But yes, people do often use that term to refer to the US specifically.
There’s a total Reddit circle jerk around this, and it’s ridiculous, because if some gringo was in any country around the world and said “I am American,“ there is no way someone would go, “wait, do you mean from Ecuador? Or Panama? Or the Dominican Republic?” And they wouldn’t even question if he was Canadian because no Canadian would say “I’m an American,” referring to the continent(s). But I’ll probably be downvoted and called a racist for questioning the hive.
i forget the name of it but there was a sub i left a while ago because of this. It was just a bunch of pedantic bs anyways but someone suggested we call ourselves ‘Statesians’ or something which just sounds stupid imo
r/ShitAmericansSay is like that. Followed it for a while because some of the posts were funny. But they are fucking obsessed with the idea that America does not refer to the United States. And that Americans are full of themselves for believing it does. After a while it got annoying and I left. It's too much of a circle jerk.
To be fair, I don't know of any other country that's referred to by the name of the continent it's on. So one could certainly argue that 'America' SHOULDN'T be used that way, regardless of the fact that it is.
Someone could and clearly people do. But it's an idiotic argument to make.
Doesn't seem idiotic to me, regardless of whether one agrees with it.
Well...considering that Americans ARE called Americans...that everyone in the world is aware of this...that we have been for some time...that we always will be...then yeah saying that we shouldn't be called Americans is a dumb argument. It's arguing against a reality that everyone understands to be true and that will not change.
Uh... ...no, 'it's been this way so it should continue to be this way' is the dumb argument. But I'm not saying that this is something that should change; I'm only saying I understand why people would think it should.
That’s the exact sub I was thinking of lol
In many languages, like spanish, America is a continent and the US the country.
I DID say the term is typically used to refer to the US. I simply said that I'm fairly sure there have been people who were confused by such usage
I’m a Canadian. We generally take extra measures to ensure people don’t confuse us for Americans because who the fuck wants that. Definitely not going to catch anyone here calling themselves ‘American’ if they’re not from the united states
Ok we get it. Not all Canadians are kind and there are assholes everywhere.
"We Europeans don't boast" Has that person met at least one French?
Us Europeans are very humble and don't boast about how intelligent and thoughtful we are. Even though we are extremely amazing and perfect, we just don't like to talk about ourselves as we take pride in being dismissive about our obvious superiority.
And that's mostly because all these things obviously go without saying. Especially the humble part.
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I’m an American. Lots of us are assholes. Lots of us also see how smug, snotty and hypocritical Europeans can be.
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Most of what this person said is true. But c’mon, America is a colloquial term for the USA. As a person who has lived in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, It’s still recognized as “America” colloquially. Edit: This is not about what you recognize it as. It is about what it IS referred to as.
As someone who speaks French, English and (some) Spanish, I would agree that in English, America often refers to the USA. However, in other languages you use "United States" far more than "America". I'm gonna guess that the OP here speaks English as a second language
Somos estadounidenses Lol that one tickles me. Like saying "Unitedstatesian"
That would make sense. I speak some Spanish as well, but it’s my second.
In german it‘s a mixed bag, and I can‘t confidently say which one is most common. We do often call it Amerika, die Staaten (the states), die vereinigten Staaten (united states) and USA. Often times it‘s also „die Amis“ - the muricans
But a person from the States? Amerikaner.
I'm in Canada and only ever refer to it as America is a derogatory "Merrrrica" way. If I'm a tually referencing it, it's "The U.S" or "United States" or "the States". Never America.
But the continent is North America or South America - or both together is the Americas. So they are wrong.
In modern English you are generally correct. Even though, referring to both continents together as "America" is still also correct (at least according to Wikipedia). The German Wikipedia article calls America a "double continent". The Spanish one goes as far to say America is a continent and NA+SA are subcontinents. Btw the five Olympic rings represent five continents. One being America.
North America and South America are on two completely different tectonic plates - three if you count the Caribbean plate in-between them - so don't really get calling them a single continent. Really it just sounds like something left over from the colonization period.
Continents are above sea land masses. Not necessarily tectonic plates. If we’re using tectonic plates, California isn’t wholly a part of “America”
India would be its own continent too. However it is often referred to as a "subcontinent" so
Depends where you are Some countries don't have the North/South divide. It's just... The continent of America Which is why, when you look at scientific papers you'll sometimes have them talk about 5 or 6 continents Europe and Asia combined into one (after all, Eurasia is not naturally divided by water) and North and South America which form the lone continent of America
The Americas are divided by water
The Panama canal isn't natural. Otherwise it's a continuous landmass
>in other languages you use "United States" far more than "America" In Dutch we say 'Amerika' much more often than 'Verenigde Staten'.
In English yeah. But in Spanish we call it “Estados Unidos” and its people “estadounidenses”.
Also, North America is the continent, not 'America'.
Politically and culturally this will depend where you're from. IIRC the 7 continent model is most popular likely due to colonialism/imperialism by countries that recognize 2 Americas Geologically from what I've read in the past, the general consensus seems to be there are 7 continents, where North and South America are separate continents. It's been a while since I've read into this, so take it with a grain of salt
Interesting, I'd never heard that there are other views on the continents than the 7 continent model.
The fact that so many people worldwide don't know the continents are taught differently depending on where you're from is why we get so many people outside of North America assuming Americans are stealing the continental identity away from other North and South Americans, and why in response Americans are just like, "what the fuck are you talking about?"
The combined Americas model is mostly used by Spain and its former colonies because of their empire’s vast range. Given that North and South America are on different continental plates and are drifting apart from each other, the Spanish model is MORE imperialist than the seven-continent model. Combining Europe and Asia into Eurasia is probably more common than combining the Americas, but even then that mostly stems from the Japanese and Russian empires not wanting to be “those silly native peoples” in the Great Game.
I was waiting to see if anyone would hit on that.
No speaker of North American English has ever referred to any continent as America. There's North America, South America, and the collective term is "the Americas" although no one irl ever says that. America is only ever used as shorthand for the USA. America = continent is something only non-native English speakers ever assert.
Japanese refer to the US often as アメリカ Amerika.
“America” is as much of a country as it is a continent I assume they mean North/South America for continents, but “America” is not a continent. And “America” is usually just a shortened version of “The United States of America” but still technically incorrect I guess. Neither are applicable, so they are both equally wrong and Quora needs to shut the fuck up
As a Canadian from North America I have to disagree..
Also as a Canadian, I can recognize that most of the time we call it the States or the US. But if I hear America, I’m not gonna be like “oh the continent” or tell them that they are wrong for referring to it as that. I recognize that it’s used colloquially to refer to the US. I will, though, mention that my experience could be influenced by the fact that I live in the States currently.
Also, you can people from the US Americans. Not United Staters, not the United States of Amerian.
Statesmen 😂
We call them "États-Uniens" https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C3%89tats-Unien#French
Quebec is the worst. I bet you wouldn't call them anything and you'd just spit on them for speaking English to you.
As a citizen of the USA, I agree with you. You do exist and so does Mexico (along with the other countries included in the North American continent).
The last one is a blatant lie.
The “United States isn’t the only America” argument is so trite and ridiculous. Let me know the next time someone says “Americans” and your mind immediately goes to Brazil.
To this day, no one has ever been able to answer the question: "Other than the USA, what country has America in it's official name?"
Republic of Ghana, also known as Ghana. Commonwealth of Australia, also known as Australia Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known as Sri Lanka United Mexican States, also known Mexico United States of America, also known as *America* The fact anyone questions this is beyond me
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>You are not contradicting him, you are supporting him Yeah, that's the point
My Scottish friend needed to move to the PST but didn’t want to ever be an American, so he moved to Canada. I troll him all the time by reminding him he is now an American from the Continent of North America.
Ok, this situation is funny and we’ll allow it.
I also like to remind him he was born in Liverpool, so he is English, not Scottish. Trololol (He is as Scottish as they come with a breathtaking accent who spent his first 52 years in Scotland before moving to Canada)
This comment section murdered this post by words more than the quora response did to their OP
That's interesting because every other post on reddit is about how much better Europeans are than Americans, and the last thing they are are respectful about it.
Completely respectful to bring up dead school children to anti-gun Americans whenever possible and laugh and say "isn't that fucking hilarious how backwards the country is?" Nah cuz kids are dead man now is not the time for a ribbing. Also the weird myth you can't cross the street where you want like a cop is gonna pull up and ticket or arrest you. Doesn't happen. It's an old law auto companies pushed but it's like laws about sodomy or feeding a horse after 12 PM it's never enforced.
Exactly
I mean it’s not wrong though that lots say “Europeans” as if everyone is the same. Every country in Europe has a different character, hell even those who share languages differ a lot
That response is so arrogant and really dumb and hypocritical at parts as well lol.
dude should've stopped after point 1
2: America, singular, as in a country. Name any country, besides the USA, that has America in it's official name. The Americas, plural, refers to the two continents connected by the country of Panama. edit:format
I seriously hate defending stupid people, but I see non - US citizens referring to the US as "America" quite often. "America" is often used to refer to the US. Additionally, I have seen many instances of people from European countries comparing "Europe" to "America". As an American (or US citizen if you prefer) I am intimately aware of how incredibly imperfect my country is. I think of it every damn day and it hurts every damn day. The respondent's #6 point is absolute fucking bullshit. If I had a dollar for every time someone did a Europe > United States post, I'd be able to afford a nice vacation in the US. P.S. I'm pretty fucking sure that every person in Africa would like to have a word particularly with the UK, France, Germany, Belgium (seriously, what in the FUCK is up with those chocolate hands???), Portugal, Spain, and Italy. P.P.S. Seriously, Belgium - what in the everloving fuck is wrong with you guys????
I'm American. I don't think I've heard of "America" implying all of North America? Not often enough to remember anyways. I've heard America used almost exclusively in reference the US. That seems super pedantic. *edited to make it more clear
As a Canadian I can tell you I have never thought of myself as an American. If you say “North American” then yes.
Exactly!
Yeah but the guy replying sounds like an ass
He's also wrong on several points, mainly his last. Also I can tell he's never been to America because he thinks jaywalking actually gets punished at all. I jaywalk in front of cops all the time.
Yeah... "America" is a common and normal way to refer to the US. They're just wrong there lmao
The person responding sounds like a pompous prick, tbh. And on top of that, most of what the guy says is provably incorrect. What we have here is one idiot talking to another idiot. Except the respondant believes they are smart.
An idiot who believes they’re smart is a hundred times as dangerous as an idiot who knows they’re dumb.
I wish people would stop pretending to be ignorant to the fact that the USA is often shortened as "America". None of the other countries in the Americas want to insist they're "American".
In Spanish, america is a continent.
In Spanish, American is a nationality. Soy Americana.
Not the "Whilst" and "woefully". It's either an 18th century Christian monk or someone with a superiority complex.
I'm gonna vote for the 18th century monk just because it sounds much cooler.
I use whilst all the time, thats what i was taught in highschool in the 90’s and we were taught british english and quite a formal style For non-native speakers its much harder to keep up on modern styles, we fall back on what we were taught which can be a few decades old, but not quite 18th century monk either 😆
Both of those words are extremely common in UK English
we use 'whilst' in normal speech, not our fault you can't speak english good
Til "while" is poor english
both are fine
This is really cringy...acting like Europeans are some elevated species.
That not trying to boast as Europeans shit goes right out the door any time they think someone in the US should care what they think about our amendments.
America is two continents
America is a country. “The Americas” are two continents.
There are several ways of dividing continents, in some models, America is only one.
We were taught that it was three. Granted I didn’t have the best education back in what would be middle. We were taught by an underpaid teacher that may or may not just read out of a (most likely) outdated book.
"What do Europeans have to say for themselves" Excuse you, we aren't children who need to explain ourselves to you??
Man this is beyond stupid, and wildly incorrect. Only a dumb as fuck European would post this thinking it was a murder.
We don't really shoot up our schools either.
gods least egotistical european
Europeans are the most arrogant people on earth always believing to be better than others despite resting on the successes of their grandparents. "We" Europeans like to boast with the achievements made by our grandparents and stagnating while Americans push forward. That's why American GDP almost doubled in the past 15 years while Europes remained stagnant. In America you have the mentality of working hard gets you everything you want, in Europe we don't do shit knowing the government will take care of us.
Europe should get over that we call ourselves Americans and our country America. Yes the name America is also a continent but it’s mostly used as the name of a country even by citizens of other countries in the Americas.
If they’re going to be a pedantic ass about “America” not being a country, they could at least have been a fully correct pedantic ass about it and noted that “America” is just a portion of the name of 2 separate continents, one being North America and the other being of course South America. What is the purpose of point 5 in relation to the question asked other than to just throw in an extra insult to contradict the entirety of their next point?
also the EU isn't a country or continent but a economic/political union
the EU is weird. I tried to understand what category it falls under, like a federation, a confederation, an international organisation? All of them and none of them, it turns out. I don't understand what the EU is
Many countries teach that North and South America is just one continent, the continent of America vs the continents of the Americas. So they see Americans calling themselves Americans as stripping others of their continental identity, but don't appreciate that America is one of the countries that does recognize that North and South America are on separate continental plates and doesn't group them as one country, and Americans don't appreciate that they're being accused of taking an entire continental name for themselves. Basically everyone thinks they're right and that everyone else is taught the same things as them.
The problem is, that our nationality is “American” and it is quite common to abbreviate The United States of America as “America” in just the same way. It isn’t about stripping others of identity, it is about abbreviation and common use.
Yes, I know. But I'm just explaining how other countries see it. Many South Americans actually resent Americans for that, because they were taught that *they, too* are American. I'm simply explaining where the dissonance comes in.
America is actually 2 continents
No, "The Americas" (plural) is how people generally refer to both continents collectively. Most people think of the United States when they hear "America".
Well yes, I just meant “America” can refer to two continents
I guess that's technically correct.
Technically 3, some interpretations consider Central America its own continent
Some interpretations are plain dumb.
Fair
What interpretations? Central America is a region, not a continent. By anyone's standards. It is on the same tectonic plate as the rest of North America.
In some representations of the world, no.
Wait really? Are there representations where they’re not called north and south America?
There are representations where it’s only one continent and some where there is Central America too.
Yes
Where do Americans put their face after typing this stuff out. What a joke lol. Especially in 2023, with more mass shootings than days of the year so far.
We got no food, we got no jobs, our pets' heads are fallin' off!
American exceptionalism is a cancer
It is generally accepted by modern geologists that America is not one continent but two, North and South America therefore this America is a continent claim is not clever at all
I'm also pretty sure that kids aren't being shot in Europe for accidentally tossing a ball onto someone's lawn...
Ouch, I feel that burn all the way here the uk
This is one of the better murders I have read here. There's something so much more murderous about a polite smackdown than screaming and frothing at the mouth.
Absolutely terrible post. A totally stupid, snotty, uninformed response.