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100% agree. Except that USAians believe that they live in a meritocracy.

stickfigure 11y ago
We USAians believe that Theranos will either work out a viable business or run out of money and close doors. It may not be a perfect meritocracy, but it's more so than most of rest of the economies of the world.
theklub 11y ago
Only the naive ones think that.
learc83 11y ago
The accepted English demonym is American, and it has been for the last 200 years. Did you think you would be misunderstood if you said American? The USA is the only country in the world with the word America in the name. Part of the world does consider North and South America to be one continent, but most of the English speaking world does not. Therefore in English there is no ambiguity when referring to someone as an American. You'll also note that no one has any issue with Australians calling themselves Australian, despite the fact that Australia is not the only country on the Australian continent.
- redwood 11y ago
  I agree with just about everything you said except that Australia is really just home to one country. or am I about to learn something new?
- redwood 11y ago
  I agree with just about everything you said except that Australia is really just home to one country. or am I about to learn something new? Oh I see the shelf includes other islands
  - learc83 11y ago
    Yes, Papua New Guinea is part of the Australian continent. East Timor and parts of Indonesia are as well depending on who you ask.
- kevin_thibedeau 11y ago
  There is something to be said for Usonian. Americans will never adopt it themselves but maybe the barbarians at the gate can pick it up.
  - hguant 11y ago
    > Something to be said for Usonian Yeah, that it's an ugly, ungainly bastardizaton of language. American as referring to someone from the US has been correct English usage since before the United States was a nation state.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- deciplex 11y ago
  Glad to see I'm not the only one who gets infinitely annoyed by these pissant attempts to mangle the English language and belittle Americans. It's really simple: * United States of America : America * American of the United States : American There is, without question, no argument to be made that "USAian" or any other profoundly stupid proposed demonym for Americans, is superior to what we've already got, on grounds of social justice, language consistency, nor clarity of meaning. And I can't think of any other people where a visible portion of the global population will insist on using a demonym for them, that the people in question would themselves soundly reject. Not at least without being called out as racist which, in this case, while you may not be able to call this racism as such, it's close.
dang 11y ago
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10984334 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10984334 and marked it off-topic.

We USAians believe that Theranos will either work out a viable business or run out of money and close doors. It may not be a perfect meritocracy, but it's more so than most of rest of the economies of the world.

theklub 11y ago

Only the naive ones think that.

learc83 11y ago

The accepted English demonym is American, and it has been for the last 200 years. Did you think you would be misunderstood if you said American? The USA is the only country in the world with the word America in the name. Part of the world does consider North and South America to be one continent, but most of the English speaking world does not. Therefore in English there is no ambiguity when referring to someone as an American. You'll also note that no one has any issue with Australians calling themselves Australian, despite the fact that Australia is not the only country on the Australian continent.

redwood 11y ago
I agree with just about everything you said except that Australia is really just home to one country. or am I about to learn something new?
redwood 11y ago
I agree with just about everything you said except that Australia is really just home to one country. or am I about to learn something new? Oh I see the shelf includes other islands
- learc83 11y ago
  Yes, Papua New Guinea is part of the Australian continent. East Timor and parts of Indonesia are as well depending on who you ask.
kevin_thibedeau 11y ago
There is something to be said for Usonian. Americans will never adopt it themselves but maybe the barbarians at the gate can pick it up.
- hguant 11y ago
  > Something to be said for Usonian Yeah, that it's an ugly, ungainly bastardizaton of language. American as referring to someone from the US has been correct English usage since before the United States was a nation state.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
deciplex 11y ago
Glad to see I'm not the only one who gets infinitely annoyed by these pissant attempts to mangle the English language and belittle Americans. It's really simple: * United States of America : America * American of the United States : American There is, without question, no argument to be made that "USAian" or any other profoundly stupid proposed demonym for Americans, is superior to what we've already got, on grounds of social justice, language consistency, nor clarity of meaning. And I can't think of any other people where a visible portion of the global population will insist on using a demonym for them, that the people in question would themselves soundly reject. Not at least without being called out as racist which, in this case, while you may not be able to call this racism as such, it's close.

dang 11y ago

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10984334 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10984334 and marked it off-topic.