3 ms·

It's not "The Americas". It's America. It's a continent. It was named after Amerigo Vespucci. The fact that English speakers, led by the citizens of the Unit

It's not "The Americas". It's America. It's a continent. It was named after Amerigo Vespucci. The fact that English speakers, led by the citizens of the United States of America, in practice claim the name America for themselves and want to push the point of North and South (never quite agreeing what north is depending on the political point being made), doesn't mean that there's objective validity to it. Just a egocentric convenience and the superpower influence.

jgwil2 4y ago
You're being very pedantic about something that's fundamentally arbitrary and culturally defined. What makes your preferred usage the correct one?
- isaacremuant 4y ago
  OP was categorical and wrong. I'm specific and right, but in the wrong place (HN is Reddit nowadays, preach to the choir or downvotes). It's not preferred. It's historically accurate and I'm not the one with the burden of proof. He asserted the wrong thing, but that didn't make you question him.
  - jgwil2 4y ago
    Hmm, I'd say the burden of proof is on you since you're the one arguing that one common usage among many is "right" and all others are wrong.
    - isaacremuant 4y ago
      Then you're being purposely blind and not reading the comment that started it all https://news.ycombinator.com/context?id=35569350 https://news.ycombinator.com/context?id=35569350 This is so funny (and trivial). It really shows how people in this site and in most of these Reddit like forums operate nowadays. Hegemonic views can't be challenged and are the default and logic will not be used.
Dylan16807 4y ago
> Just a egocentric convenience and the superpower influence. This is completely wrong, unless your argument is something like there being only two continents. Which is fine but pretty far from how continents are normally defined and you should probably use a different word. By far the most egregious continent border is Europe vs. Asia, and Africa is connected to those two just as much as the Americas are connected. > never quite agreeing what north is depending on the political point being made You get the same political fussiness around every continent border. But the geographic boundary is pretty well decided to be Panama.
- isaacremuant 4y ago
  [flagged]
- Dylan16807 4y ago
  To the flagged reply: There are multiple ways to count the continents, but the particular reason you mocked for listing two americas was just wrong. I'm not trying to force you to do it my way, but I want you to use basic logic. And I don't know what your point is about central america. Nobody calls central america a continent.
  - jgwil2 4y ago
    Just to add to that, the poster's point is literally contradicted right in the cited article (Spanish wikipedia article on continent): > En realidad no existe una única forma de fijar el número de continentes y depende de cada área cultural determinar si dos grandes masas de tierra unidas forman uno o dos continentes, y en concreto, decidir los límites entre Europa y Asia (Eurasia) por una parte y América del Norte y América del Sur (América) por otra.
    - isaacremuant 4y ago
      Yes. That's done to appease the anglos because Historically, it doesn't work like that and, fun fact, nobody but me jumped at OP who said, for all intents and purposes, "the Anglo way is the only way" but when I come with the non Anglo centric view, that's when the users jump and come quickly to correct people. It's just a great exercise of how these sites work. And that goes for more consequential stuff than this.

jgwil2 4y ago

You're being very pedantic about something that's fundamentally arbitrary and culturally defined. What makes your preferred usage the correct one?

isaacremuant 4y ago
OP was categorical and wrong. I'm specific and right, but in the wrong place (HN is Reddit nowadays, preach to the choir or downvotes). It's not preferred. It's historically accurate and I'm not the one with the burden of proof. He asserted the wrong thing, but that didn't make you question him.
- jgwil2 4y ago
  Hmm, I'd say the burden of proof is on you since you're the one arguing that one common usage among many is "right" and all others are wrong.
  - isaacremuant 4y ago
    Then you're being purposely blind and not reading the comment that started it all https://news.ycombinator.com/context?id=35569350 https://news.ycombinator.com/context?id=35569350 This is so funny (and trivial). It really shows how people in this site and in most of these Reddit like forums operate nowadays. Hegemonic views can't be challenged and are the default and logic will not be used.

Dylan16807 4y ago

> Just a egocentric convenience and the superpower influence. This is completely wrong, unless your argument is something like there being only two continents. Which is fine but pretty far from how continents are normally defined and you should probably use a different word. By far the most egregious continent border is Europe vs. Asia, and Africa is connected to those two just as much as the Americas are connected. > never quite agreeing what north is depending on the political point being made You get the same political fussiness around every continent border. But the geographic boundary is pretty well decided to be Panama.

isaacremuant 4y ago
[flagged]
Dylan16807 4y ago
To the flagged reply: There are multiple ways to count the continents, but the particular reason you mocked for listing two americas was just wrong. I'm not trying to force you to do it my way, but I want you to use basic logic. And I don't know what your point is about central america. Nobody calls central america a continent.
- jgwil2 4y ago
  Just to add to that, the poster's point is literally contradicted right in the cited article (Spanish wikipedia article on continent): > En realidad no existe una única forma de fijar el número de continentes y depende de cada área cultural determinar si dos grandes masas de tierra unidas forman uno o dos continentes, y en concreto, decidir los límites entre Europa y Asia (Eurasia) por una parte y América del Norte y América del Sur (América) por otra.
  - isaacremuant 4y ago
    Yes. That's done to appease the anglos because Historically, it doesn't work like that and, fun fact, nobody but me jumped at OP who said, for all intents and purposes, "the Anglo way is the only way" but when I come with the non Anglo centric view, that's when the users jump and come quickly to correct people. It's just a great exercise of how these sites work. And that goes for more consequential stuff than this.