3 ms·

Who's the world? North Korea, Mozambique, Cuba...Brazil?

dalke 12y ago
The OP was commenting on the US tendency to use "American" as shorthand for mean people in the US and/or US citizens. This is annoying to some, such as Spanish-speaking people of South America, where "America" refers to what Angolophones call North and South America. This is the six continent model instead of the seven continent model. The author of the piece treated "America" as short-hand for "continental United States", so the title is doubly-wrong in that case, as it doesn't propose that American should have just two time zones. Your objection seems pointlessly argumentative. The author explains what "world" means: > My original plan was just for the United States, but there is no reason we can’t take this global, and have only 10 to 12 time zones worldwide. The OP's response is compatible with this use, which seems to be "all of the people on the world", including those living in the countries you mentioned.
- mikerichards 12y ago
  The OP was referring to the US when he said "The world doesn't give a shit what America does". The OP also is obviously incapable of knowing what "the world" gives a shit about. I guess he's bitter because he can't get a job doing remote RoR work, but obviously nobody in the US would hire him with that attitude.
  - dalke 12y ago
    You left out the quote marks in the first line. The OP likely used them to indicate that "America" is used as given in the original article, to refer to the US, even though the OP has issue with that use. The second line clarifies the problem. In reviewing the OP's history now, as it appears that you did, the OP comes from Brazil. Citizens of Brazil, in common with the rest of South America, consider "America" to be both North America and South America. This is as I suspected earlier. The result is a pretty standard response for people from South America, enough that guide books for South America will warn "Americans" about the testy response they might get from using that term as a demonym; http://www.usaisnotamerica.com/ http://www.usaisnotamerica.com/ chastises people for using that word that way, and going the other way, http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/a_fine_whine/2013/08/america_the_continent_vs_america_the_country.html http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/a_fine_whine... defends the use. As the Slate article points out, many South Americans consider the term "American", when used as a synonym for people from the US, is "unfair, imperialistic, and U.S.-centric". Viewed with that in mind, a proposal by a US citizen for the rest of the world to switch to use fewer time zones, well, that's just rubbing the cultural imperialism right in. This is a pretty standard culture conflict, where the OP is commenting on a US-centric site, and where you have little knowledge of the broader situation. It doesn't have to have anything to do with remote Ruby on Rails work. Just like the OP is incapable of knowing what "the world" cares about, you are incapable of knowing that no one in the US is willing to accept that attitude. At the very least, Brazilian ex-pats living in the US likely won't have a problem.
    - cnst 12y ago
      You didn't even mention that the term North America, when used within North America, includes only US and Canada, but not Mexico! Just in case a clarification was needed.

dalke 12y ago

The OP was commenting on the US tendency to use "American" as shorthand for mean people in the US and/or US citizens. This is annoying to some, such as Spanish-speaking people of South America, where "America" refers to what Angolophones call North and South America. This is the six continent model instead of the seven continent model. The author of the piece treated "America" as short-hand for "continental United States", so the title is doubly-wrong in that case, as it doesn't propose that American should have just two time zones. Your objection seems pointlessly argumentative. The author explains what "world" means: > My original plan was just for the United States, but there is no reason we can’t take this global, and have only 10 to 12 time zones worldwide. The OP's response is compatible with this use, which seems to be "all of the people on the world", including those living in the countries you mentioned.

mikerichards 12y ago
The OP was referring to the US when he said "The world doesn't give a shit what America does". The OP also is obviously incapable of knowing what "the world" gives a shit about. I guess he's bitter because he can't get a job doing remote RoR work, but obviously nobody in the US would hire him with that attitude.
- dalke 12y ago
  You left out the quote marks in the first line. The OP likely used them to indicate that "America" is used as given in the original article, to refer to the US, even though the OP has issue with that use. The second line clarifies the problem. In reviewing the OP's history now, as it appears that you did, the OP comes from Brazil. Citizens of Brazil, in common with the rest of South America, consider "America" to be both North America and South America. This is as I suspected earlier. The result is a pretty standard response for people from South America, enough that guide books for South America will warn "Americans" about the testy response they might get from using that term as a demonym; http://www.usaisnotamerica.com/ http://www.usaisnotamerica.com/ chastises people for using that word that way, and going the other way, http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/a_fine_whine/2013/08/america_the_continent_vs_america_the_country.html http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/a_fine_whine... defends the use. As the Slate article points out, many South Americans consider the term "American", when used as a synonym for people from the US, is "unfair, imperialistic, and U.S.-centric". Viewed with that in mind, a proposal by a US citizen for the rest of the world to switch to use fewer time zones, well, that's just rubbing the cultural imperialism right in. This is a pretty standard culture conflict, where the OP is commenting on a US-centric site, and where you have little knowledge of the broader situation. It doesn't have to have anything to do with remote Ruby on Rails work. Just like the OP is incapable of knowing what "the world" cares about, you are incapable of knowing that no one in the US is willing to accept that attitude. At the very least, Brazilian ex-pats living in the US likely won't have a problem.
  - cnst 12y ago
    You didn't even mention that the term North America, when used within North America, includes only US and Canada, but not Mexico! Just in case a clarification was needed.