What's wrong with saying I'm American?

[Kelinfort]

This is semantics at its finest.

I'm quite sure 9/10 people in the U.S. will assume I'm of Irish descent when I say, "I'm Irish". Maybe if I had an accent, they'd be confused. But seriously now.

omg, I even have a freind who has an italian flag, who says he is italian and talks about "how this isn't even real italian food"

I see this silly shit all the time, cause hes not italian and I remind him every time he trys to act like it.

So? Why does it really matter to you? He's a little too into his heritage. He doesn't believe he's an Italian citizen.

[The United Colonies of Earth]

It's somewhat inaccurate, especially to those from the rest of America (the fused continents, not the nation).

[Bezombia]

That's always fascinated me, because the USA is not by any means the only country that calls itself "United States". For example, the formal name of Mexico is "The United States of Mexico". We call them "Mexico" and "America" because it's unambiguous - this would not be the case if we decided to, in English, refer to America only as The United States.

Well, America is ostensibly the name of not only a country, but two of the seven continents (two of six inhabited) on the earth.
The distinction is valid.

True. Which brings up the unique situation of both "America" and "United States" being ambiguous - we really should just start calling ourselves "USAians". Hell that's even faster to type than Americans.

[Terralessii]

Actually, United Kingdomians are called British, and Brits do have nationalists. I live in the UK, and trust me. There is even a political party. UKIP, look it up.

It's my understanding that British nationalism is of the same level as Yugoslav nationalism, and Soviet nationalism - that is, national "loyalty" to the state of Britain, rather than the belief in the existence of a national identify - or in other words, that it's more patriotic in nature.
If I'm wrong, feel free to correct me.

Erm I'm not sure I understand correctly what you said, so if what I'm going to say makes no sense feel free to say it!
UKIP in particular (but there are more, neo-nazi minor parties and other big independence parties even within the UK, like Plain Cymru and the SNP) says that the UK is one independent entity and that's the reason why they want out of the EU. It is patriotic but it's also xenophobic, in that they want to limit immigration, they wanna basically close the borders and have Britain for Brits.

[Aelex]

>What is colonial era
>What is French and Indian War
>what is American Revolution
>what is Manifest Destiny
>What is Civil War
>What is slavery debate
>what is World War I
>What is Edgar Allen Poe
>What is the creation of the cinema industry
>What is roaring 20s

But go ahead and keeping laughing at someone else's cultural like an asshole, even though your ignorance has been sufficiently demonstrated.

>European slaughtering natives then creating colony before sending their scums and religious extremists to settle here so they can finish the job?
>A war which was fought mostly on sea and thus has little to do with America but rather with the immemorial conflicts between french and british?
>The French doing the fight for you so you can free yourselves from an oppressive overlord? Quite funny how WE don't brag too much about it and yet YOU are still jeezing your pants because you did the same for us in WW2.
>The worst exemple and representation of Colonialism along the "White man's burden", both of them leading to mass murders of poor savages so greedy capitalists could stole their lands.
>The proof that the country of "freedom" had always intended that freedom was only a white man thing.
>A debate which was ended everywhere in the western world since 50 years before you had it.
>A war where you litteraly did nothing but to give the ally a "moral buff" when you entered it, at the "little" drawback of causing a german zerg rush.
>Someone who was completely unknown before Baudelaire translated his works
>A French thing. Created by the Frères Lumières. It was already an industry before the American started to do it too.
>The result of you not getting killed 1/20 of your population or getting 1/3 of your industry plundered by the fights.

No I'm not saying that it's nothing, because it's not, but it's far from being an as rich and interesting culture as the English, Italian, French, German or Spanish one.

[North Calaveras]

omg, I even have a freind who has an italian flag, who says he is italian and talks about "how this isn't even real italian food"

I see this silly shit all the time, cause hes not italian and I remind him every time he trys to act like it.

So? Why does it really matter to you? He's a little too into his heritage. He doesn't believe he's an Italian citizen.

YES HE DOES

[Cymrea]

What IS wrong is when Americans say they are something else.

Disagree. Denying someone's freedom of cultural identity is wrong, particularly in a country that prides itself on freedom.

America is still considered a land of immigrants, and when those immigrants are recently arrived from other countries, it's natural to want to retain their cultural identity. Same holds true for first-generation Americans born to immigrants. And then there are those who, regardless of when they or their forebears arrived in the States, identify most strongly as simply American. None of them are wrong. And don't mistake a celebration of ancestry as disloyalty, either.

[Sino nations]

[
Im Just Joking Here,Denonym of People Of US Should Be Yanks.

That's offensive to Dixies.

1861
Yanks vs Dixies

[North Calaveras]

>What is colonial era
>What is French and Indian War
>what is American Revolution
>what is Manifest Destiny
>What is Civil War
>What is slavery debate
>what is World War I
>What is Edgar Allen Poe
>What is the creation of the cinema industry
>What is roaring 20s

But go ahead and keeping laughing at someone else's cultural like an asshole, even though your ignorance has been sufficiently demonstrated.

>European slaughtering natives then creating colony before sending their scums and religious extremists to settle here so they can finish the job?
>A war which was fought mostly on sea and thus has little to do with America but rather with the immemorial conflicts between french and british?
>The French doing the fight for you so you can free yourselves from an oppressive overlord? Quite funny how WE don't brag too much about it and yet YOU are still jeezing your pants because you did the same for us in WW2.
>The worst exemple and representation of Colonialism along the "White man's burden", both of them leading to mass murders of poor savages so greedy capitalists could stole their lands.
>The proof that the country of "freedom" had always intended that freedom was only a white man thing.
>A debate which was ended everywhere in the western world since 50 years before you had it.
>A war where you litteraly did nothing but to give the ally a "moral buff" when you entered it, at the "little" drawback of causing a german zerg rush.
>Someone who was completely unknown before Baudelaire translated his works
>A French thing. Created by the Frères Lumières. It was already an industry before the American started to do it too.
>The result of you not getting killed 1/20 of your population or getting 1/3 of your industry plundered by the fights.

No I'm not saying that it's nothing, because it's not, but it's far from being an as rich and interesting culture as the English, Italian, French, German or Spanish one.

all the cultures you pointed out are results of things like the roman empire and greeks to a large extent...so...stop acting like other cultures are somehow so unique and weren't formed from other now extinct ones.

[Unified Heartless States]

We could always annex North and South America and that issue would vanish .

I think most latins would approve this, things just can't get worse around here.

I've made similar statements in an attempt to piss off Mexicans, that the USA should just annex Mexico, and this is pretty much the reply I get back. Maybe it's time America got really involved in helping Latin America.

[Sam Hyde]

>What is colonial era
>What is French and Indian War
>what is American Revolution
>what is Manifest Destiny
>What is Civil War
>What is slavery debate
>what is World War I
>What is Edgar Allen Poe
>What is the creation of the cinema industry
>What is roaring 20s

But go ahead and keeping laughing at someone else's cultural like an asshole, even though your ignorance has been sufficiently demonstrated.

>European slaughtering natives then creating colony before sending their scums and religious extremists to settle here so they can finish the job?
>A war which was fought mostly on sea and thus has little to do with America but rather with the immemorial conflicts between french and british?
>The French doing the fight for you so you can free yourselves from an oppressive overlord? Quite funny how WE don't brag too much about it and yet YOU are still jeezing your pants because you did the same for us in WW2.
>The worst exemple and representation of Colonialism along the "White man's burden", both of them leading to mass murders of poor savages so greedy capitalists could stole their lands.
>The proof that the country of "freedom" had always intended that freedom was only a white man thing.
>A debate which was ended everywhere in the western world since 50 years before you had it.
>A war where you litteraly did nothing but to give the ally a "moral buff" when you entered it, at the "little" drawback of causing a german zerg rush.
>Someone who was completely unknown before Baudelaire translated his works
>A French thing. Created by the Frères Lumières. It was already an industry before the American started to do it too.
>The result of you not getting killed 1/20 of your population or getting 1/3 of your industry plundered by the fights.

No I'm not saying that it's nothing, because it's not, but it's far from being an as rich and interesting culture as the English, Italian, French, German or Spanish one.

Well if you wanna play the oppression and atrocity card, I believe the English, Spaniards, and Germans have a lot to answer for, hmm?

[Bezombia]

It's my understanding that British nationalism is of the same level as Yugoslav nationalism, and Soviet nationalism - that is, national "loyalty" to the state of Britain, rather than the belief in the existence of a national identify - or in other words, that it's more patriotic in nature.
If I'm wrong, feel free to correct me.

Erm I'm not sure I understand correctly what you said, so if what I'm going to say makes no sense feel free to say it!
UKIP in particular (but there are more, neo-nazi minor parties and other big independence parties even within the UK, like Plain Cymru and the SNP) says that the UK is one independent entity and that's the reason why they want out of the EU. It is patriotic but it's also xenophobic, in that they want to limit immigration, they wanna basically close the borders and have Britain for Brits.

Essentially I'm saying that from what I know, British nationalism is based on the belief in a common populace of Britain, and not based on the belief on some ethnic "British" people. This is similar to Yugoslav nationalism and even American nationalism (in all three cases, the "nationalism" is actually just renamed patriotism, in which someone is loyal to the people of their country rather than the country of their people).

[North Calaveras]

What IS wrong is when Americans say they are something else.

Disagree. Denying someone's freedom of cultural identity is wrong, particularly in a country that prides itself on freedom.

America is still considered a land of immigrants, and when those immigrants are recently arrived from other countries, it's natural to want to retain their cultural identity. Same holds true for first-generation Americans born to immigrants. And then there are those who, regardless of when they or their forebears arrived in the States, identify most strongly as simply American. None of them are wrong. And don't mistake a celebration of ancestry as disloyalty, either.

have you seen the mexican loyalists in california? you know the ones who have there little parades waving their flags and practically saying "fuck you" to the united states?

[Kelinfort]

So? Why does it really matter to you? He's a little too into his heritage. He doesn't believe he's an Italian citizen.

YES HE DOES

He said to you that he's an Italian citizen?

Are people in foreign nations who drink coke, wear blue jeans, and wave the American flag believing themselves to be US citizens?

[Imperializt Russia]

You're basically right Beno.
There isn't really a "British" nationality anymore, we've been very much a melting pot like the US, it's just happened over a couple thousand years instead of a couple hundred.

[Kelinfort]

Disagree. Denying someone's freedom of cultural identity is wrong, particularly in a country that prides itself on freedom.

America is still considered a land of immigrants, and when those immigrants are recently arrived from other countries, it's natural to want to retain their cultural identity. Same holds true for first-generation Americans born to immigrants. And then there are those who, regardless of when they or their forebears arrived in the States, identify most strongly as simply American. None of them are wrong. And don't mistake a celebration of ancestry as disloyalty, either.

have you seen the mexican loyalists in california? you know the ones who have there little parades waving their flags and practically saying "fuck you" to the united states?

Yeah, no.

God, do you have to celebrate America all the time and completely ignore your heritage, else you're foreign scum?

[Alyakia]

The core of the issue here, to recap, is that nationalism is based only upon the existence of a nation, and not upon the existence of a nation-state. This is why you can be nationally Irish even if you've never set foot in Ireland. It's also why, for example, someone born in Northern Ireland could accurately be referred to as "British" even though Northern Ireland does not exist on the island of Great Britain.

ireland is my favourite example of how names matter and how sometimes names are made to deliberately fuck with other people and be strongly political in nature. like, i'm 90% sure that if i asked people in this thread what the legal name of the two states on the island of ireland are most would get it wrong.

[North Calaveras]

YES HE DOES

He said to you that he's an Italian citizen?

Are people in foreign nations who drink coke, wear blue jeans, and wave the American flag believing themselves to be US citizens?

No, which is precisley the point...

[North Calaveras]

have you seen the mexican loyalists in california? you know the ones who have there little parades waving their flags and practically saying "fuck you" to the united states?

Yeah, no.

God, do you have to celebrate America all the time and completely ignore your heritage, else you're foreign scum?

when did I imply or say anything of the sort?

[Kelinfort]

He said to you that he's an Italian citizen?

Are people in foreign nations who drink coke, wear blue jeans, and wave the American flag believing themselves to be US citizens?

No, which is precisley the point...

...

One more time: what's the problem with celebrating foreign heritage? By all accounts, your friend is not advocating Italian nationalism. Nor does one have to be Italian to know authentic Italian cuisine. I really see no problem with your friend.

[Aelex]

all the cultures you pointed out are results of things like the roman empire and greeks to a large extent...so...stop acting like other cultures are somehow so unique and weren't formed from other now extinct ones.

The fact is, even if these country originated from Greek and Latin culture or rather have been influenced by them, they evolved and became tangibly differents. They also influenced heavily each others, just look at the English's one; it has been so influenced by the French one that even English as a language still bear traces of it, yet English and French culture are totally and completely different, if not even antagonistics, of one another.
American's culture, well... It's not so much a real culture than a melting pot. Because of that and the relative youngness of America, it didn't reached even the knee of any other European's one.

Well if you wanna play the oppression and atrocity card, I believe the English, Spaniards, and Germans have a lot to answer for, hmm?

Well, even us, French, and the Italian get our fair share of it. But that's not really the point I was making.

[North Calaveras]

No, which is precisley the point...

...

One more time: what's the problem with celebrating foreign heritage? By all accounts, your friend is not advocating Italian nationalism. Nor does one have to be Italian to know authentic Italian cuisine. I really see no problem with your friend.

there is nothing wrong with celebrating it...to an extent but when your waving your ancestors flag around yet I never see you with an american flag, it makes me wonder where your loyalty really lays.

[Aurum Reich]

What IS wrong is when Americans say they are something else.

Disagree. Denying someone's freedom of cultural identity is wrong, particularly in a country that prides itself on freedom.

America is still considered a land of immigrants, and when those immigrants are recently arrived from other countries, it's natural to want to retain their cultural identity. Same holds true for first-generation Americans born to immigrants. And then there are those who, regardless of when they or their forebears arrived in the States, identify most strongly as simply American. None of them are wrong. And don't mistake a celebration of ancestry as disloyalty, either.

Nothing wrong with denying someone they have no real claim to. Only an imaginary claim based on not liking America enough and being a special tumblr snowflake.

[Nusantara Republic]

I personally think there is nothing wrong with you saying that you're an American. It's just a coincidence (or not) that the USA is named after the continent it lies on, and that probably made people living in Latin America somewhat offended.

A friend of mine who lives somewhere in California visited Brazil sometime ago. He met a man on the street and he was asked, "Where did you come from?" My friend answered that he came from California, and the Brazilian angrily said, "I've never heard of a country named California."

My friend then told me about it and he said he was just expressing his nationalism. I guess he had a point, but the Brazilian is right as well. Not everyone in the world memorizes all 50 states of the US.

To finish it off, you may say your from America or from California or something, but either way, there's gonna be at least someone who feels offended with your response. So basically, you're screwed.

[Banana Nanica]

The poverty rate in Brazil is less than half what it is in Nicaragua (Nicaragua is 43% Brazil is 21%). And I'm sure Brazil has a better "safety net".

Nicaragua: 6 million population
Brazil: 200 million population

You do the math. We have many Nicaragua-states.

One of the biggest issues being adressed in our past presidential election was that 1/3, ONE THIRD of brazilian families were receiving the welfare benefit for people living with less than around $10,00 dollar/month. Said benefit is more $10,00 monthly per child in the family.

Evo Morales isn't even Socialist.

And I heavily doubt the existence of the Lula mafia.

Edit: I do aknowledge that Chavez was probably funding the Kirchners though.

You are frighteningly ignorant, or worse, one of their supporters.