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Meta deletes Al Jazeera presenter’s profile after show criticising Israel (www.aljazeera.com)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 34 points 3 years ago (19 children)

As an American, Trump is the first thing many of my European friends talk about

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  • [+] -9 points 3 years ago (18 children)

    Yes, but do you have to justify yourself with half the Europeans you meet that you're not one of the Trump supporters?

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  • [–] 18 points 3 years ago (15 children)

    During his presidency, yes. On a related note, when I would speak to someone in the UK during Boris Johnson, he would be careful to inject a bit of "Boris Johnson sucks, Brexit was dumb" to make his stance clear.

    Related, they sometimes assume I not only own a gun, but I'm armed at all times like some old west cowboy, depending on how little they deal with Americans day to day.

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  • [+] -9 points 3 years ago (14 children)

    Oh, so not for your entire life. Seems like it's a little different then.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Got any more goalposts you'd like to move?

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago (10 children)

    Well, of course I didn't have to clarify I wasn't a supporter of President Trump while he wasn't President....

    I pretty much have to be prepared for assumptions about any dubious American move in the global stage, and America makes a lot of dubious moves.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 years ago (8 children)

    If you want something to justify yourself about for life, I have one:

    "America is a continent with plenty of different countries, why do you people from the USA call yourselves 'American' like you owned the whole continent?"

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago (7 children)

    The use of "American" to designate residents of the United States dates back to a time when there were no other countries on the continent. If you lived on the American continent in the 1700s, you were either Indian, or an English, French, or Spanish colonist (or a slave). In the 1770s, 13 of these colonies rebelled and formed their own union. It wasn't really a country though, since each had its own money, laws, and government. To differentiate them from colonial citizens, Europeans called them Americans. Most Americans thought of themselves as citizens of their state (Virginians, New Yorkers, etc.), and in fact it wasn't until after the Civil War that they began referring to the United States as a singular entity, rather than a plural.

    Your description of America as a single continent with "plenty of different countries" betrays a very Afro-Eurasia-centric view of the western hemisphere. Unless you can point out Wisonson on a map, or tell me what the Federal Republic of Central America was, maybe keep your eastern hemisphere judgements to yourself.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago

    That description of American Colonists is exactly why there was a rebellion.

    The English treated the colonists like second-class citizens, going so far as to try to get Ben Franklin to answer for things like the Tea Party, while he was in England, and a Loyalist.

    The simplistic "rebelled over taxation" is just a representation of how the Crown and European Brits viewed and treated the colonists.

    Colonists didn't quit Britain, the Briton's quit on the Colonists.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    And therefore, lies my point: you will find a lot of people whom you'll have to copy&paste that justification for. For life. 😉

    Bonus: also beware of referring to the USA as "the United States", less you bring forth the wrath of someone from the "Mexican United States".

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago* (2 children)

    I've worked with folks from around the world (including Central and South Americans), some can be touchy about it. Had to tell them "sorry, I, as an American, don't define these terms. Blame Europeans, not me".

    "US", "America", "Americans" all have specific denotations... per EMEA, and hell, even Canadians.

    It's like nicknames - if you have one, you didn't choose it. It was earned or applied by someone else.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 child)

    Yeah... I learned Spanish in Mexico as a wee lad, the folk living North of there were called "Gringos" or "Yankees". Back in Europe, behind the iron curtain, it was "Americaniard" or "Yank", rarely "American"... even when people meant no disrespect.

    Then in Spain... (@PRUSSIA_x86@lemmy.world, you may want to see this)... "American" refers to any citizen of the whole continent... even the official dictionary itself, in it's latest update, actually states:

    debe evitarse el empleo de americano para referirse exclusivamente a los habitantes de los Estados Unidos, uso abusivo que se explica por el hecho de que los estadounidenses utilizan a menudo el nombre abreviado América (en inglés, sin tilde) para referirse a su país. No debe olvidarse que América es el nombre de todo el continente y son americanos todos los que lo habitan.

    https://www.rae.es/dpd/Estados%20Unidos

    The use of American to refer exclusively to the inhabitants of the United States should be avoided, an abusive use that is explained by the fact that Americans often use the abbreviated name America (in English, without accent) to refer to their country. It should not be forgotten that America is the name of the entire continent and all those who inhabit it are Americans.

    So yeah, kind of like nicknames... but then some places have different rules about the nicknames. 😉

    (...and then there are the actually vulgar despective nicknames, which I won't get into here)

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  • [–] -3 points 3 years ago

    Right, but my point is that there never has been a time in my life where someone hasn't equated Jew and Israeli. I've had to defend myself against that since I was a teenager and that was the 1990s. And if people blame all Americans for the crimes of what is actually a minority of those Americans, then they shouldn't do that either.

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  • [–] 12 points 3 years ago

    Yes. Europeans tend to think Americans get the government we vote for and that we must like Trump since he was the president and isn't going away. It's ignorant, but I understand that they have this notion and I will, out of compassion and tolerance, explain that I am not a deranged bootlicking reactionary and do not support forever war, Christian nationalism or corporate hegemony.

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