Living in a nameless nation

[TojesDolan]

Instead of doing productive things with my spare time like say, learn some good recipe from a cookbook or record some stuff on my computer, I was watching a preview (I know, it's old, but you know DVD's) from that movie "American Gigolo". The particular part "Hello I'm Deuce Bigalow, I'm american" lead me to wonder, why do the citizens from the United States of America denominate themselves "Americans", and in some parts of the world, the nation is referred to as the "United States".

Making an objective study of the word, "United States of America" doesn't state anything, really. As for "United States", unless there are still some nations with separate states in the fashion of Roman city/states, there's no reason to only refer to a particular nation "United States".

As for the term "America", the whole continent is named America, and I don't consider the U.S.A. to be a particular representative nation of the whole continent, mostly because of it's overall characteristics (considering the fact that a large portion the continent speaks Spanish with slight variations from region to region).

What am I trying to say here? The United States of America, as it is, isn't really a name, and has been used as the standard denomination for what I think is a nameless nation.

Discuss the falseness in my arguments, if you don't mind.

[DillingerEscp]

never really thought about that before... I can see what youre saying.

[Against Miik!]

I've thought about that before. Technically, when you say you are American, you could be from anywhere in the western hemispehere, just about. I think its just become a common term because its easier to say. If you are from Mexico, you can say you are Mexican, from Canada, you can say you are Canadian. But there really aren't any words to describe yourself as from the U.S., at least in the same way. Nobody is going to say i'm a United States of American, or something. So over time, it just evolved into American. It is a bit conceited though, as though we are the only ones who matter over here.

[TojesDolan]

Probably the promulgators of the constitution never thought that city/states wouldn't be fashionable in the next couple centuries.

[Against Miik!]

Actually we are just to awesome to be like everybody else. Thus, we represent, by name, half the world.

[A Spoonful Supreme]

So you want us to say that we are United States-ian?

[Against Miik!]

Originally Posted by A Spoonful Supreme

So you want us to say that we are United States-ian?

Thats the general idea.

[Riva]

Originally Posted by Fat Al

Actually we are just to awesome to be like everybody else. Thus, we represent, by name, half the world.

Enlighten me on this strange world whereby half the world, in terms of population, land, IQ, money or any other factor besides obesity, is represented by the Americas?

[Against Miik!]

Originally Posted by Riva

Enlighten me on this strange world whereby half the world, in terms of population, land, IQ, money or any other factor besides obesity, is represented by the Americas?

It's not that complicated. I just mean that as far as land and the fact that North and South America make up most of the western hemisphere, we make up about half the world, in that sense at least. Population, no, IQ, no, money, couldn't say, weight...yeah we dominate.

[Riva]

What is this Western hemisphere? There's only two clearly defined hemispheres, the North and South. Their boundary is the Equator. What's the boundary between these two?

[Against Miik!]

Originally Posted by Riva

What is this Western hemisphere? There's only two clearly defined hemispheres, the North and South. Their boundary is the Equator. What's the boundary between these two?

The prime meridian, which runs through the U.K., and the international dateline, which is chillin somewhere out in the pacific.

[TojesDolan]

Originally Posted by A Spoonful Supreme

So you want us to say that we are United States-ian?

Not really, I was just pointing out the fact that the United States of America's denomination is just some generalization, and for some reason the fact that other nations and races cohabitate in the same continent apparently wasn't a big concern among the ones that gave the U.S.A. such name.

Originally Posted by Riva

What is this Western hemisphere? There's only two clearly defined hemispheres, the North and South. Their boundary is the Equator. What's the boundary between these two?

The Atlantic Ocean, which can be considered the division of the "Old World", pretty much all Eurasia and the "New World", the american continent.

If U.S.A. wants to keep the "americans" term we can go back to naming the continent... eh, ugh crap forgot the old name of America. :-|

[Riva]

So, you're saying that half of Antarctica, the Western third of Africa, part of England, Greenland, numerous small Pacific Islands and the Americas are all part of the Western Hemisphere?

What's the point?

EDIT: Tojes, your way makes sense.

[Against Miik!]

Originally Posted by Riva

So, you're saying that half of Antarctica, the Western third of Africa, part of England, Greenland, numerous small Pacific Islands and the Americas are all part of the Western Hemisphere?

What's the point?

Well technically I guess. Whats the point of anything.

[TojesDolan]

Originally Posted by Fat Al

Well technically I guess. Whats the point of anything.

Point out the fact that the name for the U.S.A. is so general it's not even funny.

[Reaganista]

Making an objective study of the word, "United States of America" doesn't state anything, really

It actually states all you need to know and a lot more than most other countries names ever state.

there was some states in america
they united

[MattSharpIsCool]

Why must some people find the most pointless crap to prove how stuck up Americans are. Yes, because we call ourselves Americans, we obviously think we're more important than someone living in Chile.

Tway pretty much said it. What else should the US be called? Its a country made up of states that united under one name, and it happens to be located in the Americas.

Find something more relevant to argue about.

[Riva]

Originally Posted by MattSharpIsCool

Why must some people find the most pointless crap to prove how stuck up Americans are. Yes, because we call ourselves Americans, we obviously think we're more important than someone living in Chile.

Tway pretty much said it. What else should the US be called? Its a country made up of states that united under one name, and it happens to be located in the Americas.

Find something more relevant to argue about.

Ok, why is your baseball competition called the World Series when only one country plays?

[Reaganista]

the teams have no affiliation with the places they play in

[TojesDolan]

Mexico is also a Union of states in the American continent.