Can we just clear something up about the word "America?"

(The only workable international example Brent's viewpoint has is the United Arab Emirates, and they have the complications of (a) Saudi Arabia, another nation using the "Arab" signifier in their title, (b) not being able to call the country "Arab," which refers to a people and not a land -- if it was "United Emirates of Arabia" and there were no Saudi Arabia, it might be different -- and (c) the "Arab" or "Arab nations" designation actually being needed to refer to several nations in the region. But if the entire Arabian peninsula united and called their nation "Arabia," would you sit around complaining that that was rude to the unincluded Syrians?)

Yes. Using by US or UK as an ABBREVIATION, I let people know that I'm referring to those UNITED states or that UNITED Kingdom - that's what the U. stands for. What are you getting at here, man?

It's a geographic term - by your logic "Europe" and "Asia" are useless blanket terms too.

Well, it's almost Christmas and people are getting tetchy. :)

I also want to act like a fool in shops and complain about how expensive stuff is.

I was in TK Max today and the intercom said "All our prices are displayed in pounds and euros, but at TK Max you always pay the lower price" or something stupid.

The context is something Brent D. wrote for something or other about Eve's "I never knew there were black people outside of America" comment, linked to in a recently-revived ILE thread with a really long title that boils down to "Things pop stars do that they think are cool but actually make them look like twunts." (Just do a find for "twunts" on the New Answers page.) That plus the fact that this has always really annoyed me, from the time my 9th-grade civics teacher tried it to the present day.

Re: Eve -- note how really dumb it is of Brent to pick on that statement based on this completely common use of "America" issue, when surely what was newsworthy was the greater thought being expressed.

By using US or UK as an ABBREVIATION, I let people know that I'm referring to those UNITED states or that UNITED Kingdom - that's what the U. stands for. What are you getting at here, man?

But other states or kingdoms might unite, mightn't they? The operative parts of each are that I'm in the United States of America and Tom's in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. For the same of consistency, I think we should go with the regional specification as opposed to the governmental one, just like we don't call China the PR and just like we referred to the old USSR as "Soviet."

Actually, I suppose I would be okay with pushing for full-title abbreviations, which would make USA or UKGBNI okay (just like USSR or DDR fifteen years ago, or UAE today). But in order to say "America" was outright wrong, we'd also have to start specifying with every nation, which we're obviously not going to do.

Are you thinking, "screw consistency, why can't we just call them what people agree to call them?" Well, then: "America" seems more common than "United States" outside.

And also note that people making Brent's argument never pick on people for calling Yanks and Canadians "North Americans," but not including Mexico, which is just as much geographically North American as the other two.

By similar reasoning, "UK".

duck s + 10 years = Danny DeVito in The Virgin Suicides (and he already is a thriteen year old girl)

I also, so apologise for this.