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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

PhysicalStamina (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Coming soon to theaters
#272451: Feb 21st 2019 at 1:43:09 PM

[up][up]Again, we take North and South America as two separate continents.

Like, the only people who think the name "United States of America" is supposed to refer to the entire body of land from Alaska to Chile are those who just want a reason to complain about America. At this point, everybody should know what we mean when we say it.

Edited by PhysicalStamina on Feb 21st 2019 at 4:47:19 AM

It's one thing to make a spectacle. It's another to make a difference.
RainehDaze Figure of Hourai from Scotland (Ten years in the joint) Relationship Status: Serial head-patter
Figure of Hourai
#272452: Feb 21st 2019 at 1:49:45 PM

Europe and Asia are... Eurasia. So North and South America are... America. Sure, in English you can collectively refer to them and Central America as the Americas, but that doesn't translate to every language perfectly. Which says a lot.

(Actually, AFAIK, other major European languages don't follow it)

Edited by RainehDaze on Feb 21st 2019 at 9:50:53 AM

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wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#272453: Feb 21st 2019 at 1:50:32 PM

Jesus, American police don’t follow the Peelian principles at all. Unless locking up minority kids for small amounts of weed and thereby wrecking their lives counts as “crime prevention.”

danime91 Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#272454: Feb 21st 2019 at 1:53:30 PM

[up][up][up]I think "we've always used that word" or "everyone knows it means..." are not the best defense for continuing to use a certain word or phrase.

HailMuffins Since: May, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#272455: Feb 21st 2019 at 1:55:23 PM

[up][up]That's, that's what he meant, the Usonian police force doesn't follow these principles and that's exactly its whole problem.

Although he did say "return", which I think is the wrong term, as I don't belive they ever followed these principles.

Edited by HailMuffins on Feb 21st 2019 at 6:56:04 AM

LSBK Since: Sep, 2014
#272456: Feb 21st 2019 at 1:56:25 PM

I mean, I kind of get why it would be annoying, but also think the framing of the situation - "the hubris of claiming the entire continent for yourself" does seem to be looking for something (relatively) petty to complain about.

Something that always gets me here is there are large group of people who want to just identify with the continent(s) America? Is that a thing? How big is it?

Edited by LSBK on Feb 21st 2019 at 3:58:20 AM

Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#272457: Feb 21st 2019 at 1:56:56 PM

It's a good day when we're so starved for news that American vs Usonion has come out of hibernation again to be a debate topic.

RainehDaze Figure of Hourai from Scotland (Ten years in the joint) Relationship Status: Serial head-patter
Figure of Hourai
archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#272459: Feb 21st 2019 at 1:59:17 PM

locking up minority kids for small amounts of weed

We can blame 60s and 70s era Republicans for this one, along with most of the other issues in American society.

They should have sent a poet.
wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#272460: Feb 21st 2019 at 1:59:17 PM

[up][up] [up]Sorry to be a buzzkill but there’s plenty of awful stuff going on, it just hasn’t been posted in thread.

[up] Don’t forget the 90s “tough on crime” bullshit that the Dems joined in on.

Edited by wisewillow on Feb 21st 2019 at 5:00:02 AM

HailMuffins Since: May, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#272461: Feb 21st 2019 at 2:00:37 PM

[up]x5 Doubt it, the continent is just too varied.

There has, however, been several attempts at creating a common South Americannote  cultural identity, but I don't think it ever amounted to anything.

Edited by HailMuffins on Feb 21st 2019 at 7:00:55 AM

Grafite Since: Apr, 2016 Relationship Status: Less than three
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#272463: Feb 21st 2019 at 2:01:57 PM

The main problem with the police is that it's an institution created by a society that revolves around white supremacy. It's no wonder that it's a ridiculously broken system with little accountability. In order for the police to meaningfully change, the society around it and the powers that control it will have to change significantly first.

3of4 Just a harmless giant from a foreign land. from Five Seconds in the Future. Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: GAR for Archer
Just a harmless giant from a foreign land.
#272464: Feb 21st 2019 at 2:02:02 PM

good

"You can reply to this Message!"
archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#272465: Feb 21st 2019 at 2:02:53 PM

[up][up][up][up][up] Draconian drug and petty crime laws have done significant damage in this country. Probably one of the worst legislative trends in recent history.

[up][up] There are degrees of broken. The majority of police behavior is appropriate, but obviously there’s still a very long way to go.

Edited by archonspeaks on Feb 21st 2019 at 2:07:32 AM

They should have sent a poet.
HailMuffins Since: May, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#272466: Feb 21st 2019 at 2:03:13 PM

Not sure how that's an interesting debate topic, the guy was an asshole who got his due desserts, don't think anyone'd argue that.

PhysicalStamina (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Coming soon to theaters
#272467: Feb 21st 2019 at 2:03:46 PM

I think "we've always used that word" or "everyone knows it means..." are not the best defense for continuing to use a certain word or phrase.

Never said that first one.

And maybe I was wrong to say "everyone knows what it means", but you know what can be done about that? Fuckin' learn what we mean when we say it. FS, this shit ain't complicated.

At the very least, if having an alternative to "American" is that important to you, come up with something better than friggin' "Usonian". Seriously, that is the worst attempt at a neologism this side of "selfie".

[down]It sounds like a weird name for a car.

Edited by PhysicalStamina on Feb 21st 2019 at 5:06:45 AM

It's one thing to make a spectacle. It's another to make a difference.
AzurePaladin She/Her Pronouns from Forest of Magic Since: Apr, 2018 Relationship Status: Mu
She/Her Pronouns
#272468: Feb 21st 2019 at 2:04:42 PM

[up] I don't know, it has a certain elegance to it. Unlike, say, United Statser. Which is actively painful to hear.

Edited by AzurePaladin on Feb 21st 2019 at 5:05:15 AM

The awful things he says and does are burned into our cultural consciousness like a CRT display left on the same picture too long. -Fighteer
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#272469: Feb 21st 2019 at 2:08:19 PM

For the record most people in South America rarely if ever use anything but "american" to refer to people from the US as well. It does come across as a bit hubristic to me personally, but it's whatever really. Among my gripes with the US it ranks relatively low.

HailMuffins Since: May, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#272470: Feb 21st 2019 at 2:15:40 PM

Personally, I use Usonian exactly because it gets people riled up.

The US came in me country and helped a brutal military dictatorship whose spectre haunts us to this day, I believe I'm entitled to this much.

It's petty, I know and I don't particularly care.

I also want to point out I never got into other people's cases over them using "american" as an adjective for "USA stuff".

Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#272471: Feb 21st 2019 at 2:16:07 PM

@Fourthspartan: Of course, the side-problem with the "American" nomenclature is that it leads to the usual hubris of the US taking for itself the name of the entire continent.

No, it doesn't.

When I use 'American' I am referring to people who are citizens of the United States of America, just like I use 'Mexican' for citizens/nationals of the United Mexican States. I've never seen anyone use it otherwise.

If people hear American and assume it's referring to all of South and North America that's on them. Georgraphy=/= Citizenship to a particular state.

People from France are French, people from Russia are Russian, I see no reason for America to be treated any differently.

Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Feb 21st 2019 at 5:18:11 AM

"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#272472: Feb 21st 2019 at 2:17:57 PM

Roger Stone has been legally barred from talking about his trial, at all.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/21/politics/roger-stone-hearing-instagram-amy-berman-jackson/index.html

While Stone being smacked down is nice, I would have preferred that his bail be revoked for threatening a judge. But from the sounds of it, she's put him on final notice.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Oruka Since: Dec, 2018
#272473: Feb 21st 2019 at 2:19:01 PM

So long as we know what each one means, we don't need to impose our conventions on each other.

Usonian sounds nice. I'll take it. You do you.

Sanders started with unexpected fanfare. My facebook feed is full of articles about how great and optimal he is and how everything bad we say about him here is wrong.

I haven't had time to read it and have not formed an opinion.

LSBK Since: Sep, 2014
#272474: Feb 21st 2019 at 2:22:26 PM

@Hail Muffins, honestly that sounds like borderline trolling, but I presume it doesn't actually count, so whatever.

Edited by LSBK on Feb 21st 2019 at 4:22:55 AM

wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#272475: Feb 21st 2019 at 2:23:25 PM

The majority of police behavior is appropriate, but obviously there’s still a very long way to go.

Even if you’re right, which I disagree, they are still enacting damaging policies that don’t seek to protect communities, but to punish them. In my ideal world, drug enforcement would be a minor aspect of policing, focused on production and tainted drugs. No arrests for possession or minor sales. Instead, most police work would be solving robberies, arson, violent crime, investigating and preventing harassment/abuse/assault, and white collar crime. More people lose money due to wage theft than from being mugged.

But instead, poor and minority communities are under a microscope, heavy emphasis is placed on drug crime, and plenty of murders go unsolved while detectives set up undercover drug busts.

[up][up][up] Stone blatantly threatened a federal judge and attempted to intimidate other witnesses. His bail should have been revoked. I’m very displeased he only got a tap on the wrist.

Edited by wisewillow on Feb 21st 2019 at 5:25:18 AM


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