Language can be powerful in shaping ideas and the US has convinced the entire world that they are the “Americans” and everybody else on the 2 continents aren’t.

  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    2 months ago

    If you’d like to be pedantic, then you’d have to use USMians or U.S. Mexicans to refer to Mexicans as they are also a collection of united States.

    • rarsamx@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      Mexico (and many other countries) has an official name and a unique coloquial one.

      The US only has an official name and they appropriated the coloquial one which already meant the whole continent.

      It wasn’t an accident in language. It was deliberate.

      • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        I tend to call the USA the United States, but either you can accept the common demonym and adjective of “American” which is an entirely separate thing than the name of the country or you can not. Same for Mexico.

        You can choose how you want to address people of the USA, but it’s up to them to choose how they react to it. “Yankee” is another alternative that’s a lot easier to say, even if they don’t tend to like it.