• OldSoulHippie [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    11 hours ago

    I’m not defending the name change, and there’s no way this was on Trump’s mind, but I was once told that central and South Americans largely identify as “American” in the way that their continent is also named “America”. My Spanish teacher told us that if we ever found ourselves in a Latin American country, it was uncouth to say you were “American” instead of a citizen of the U.S. because of this

    I have no idea how true this is, or if my 20 year old information is true or still relevant. All I’m saying is I’m surprised nobody is cynically spinning this as “well, it’s more inclusive to the other countries that make up the Americas and some share a border with the gulf”

    • joaomarrom [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      10 hours ago

      I have no idea how true this is, or if my 20 year old information is true or still relevant.

      In Brazil we mostly use “americano” to talk about people from the US, although “estadunidense” is also relatively common, especially among leftists, so a US citizen calling themselves American would be okay. Lots of us identify as Latin American, and we’ll often say “we’re all Americans” but it’s more like a joke than actually identifying as such.

      Having said that, however… any Brazilian who calls the United States “América” in Portuguese, has just about a 99% chance of being a complete fucking right wing aspiring comprador dumbass. It’s one of the most telling signs that someone has terminal gusano brain.

      • OldSoulHippie [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        10 hours ago

        Interesting! Thanks for clearing it up a bit. I don’t like holding onto wrong information. My Michigan ass education can only go so far haha

      • OldSoulHippie [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        10 hours ago

        I’d back that. Why not?

        I really wonder if the next lib president is going to change it back or not. They never “fix” stuff the Republicans do so I would be surprised. I could see them spinning it like I mentioned above just out of sheer laziness