Chris is.
I’m amused that USians are so sensitive that there’s a whole-ass blocklist on Bluesky for those of us who use “USian”
Nov 28 at 5:43pmWeb
Show threadBrian NisbetNov 28
@offby1 That is quite the description!
Show threadŁukasz LangaNov 28
@offby1 7 people, that's a whole-ass Tesla Model Y!
Show threadlp0 on fire Nov 28
@ambv @offby1, XKCD 37 applies… 🙃
Show threadKagan MacTane (he/him)Nov 28
@offby1 Why in the world would someone want to use a term like "USian" instead of spelling out "American" on a platform that only allows up to 300 characters? 🤔
Show threadUniversal Basic FriendNov 28
@kagan @offby1 In my experience American means anyone from South, Central or North American regions.
Almost all of the Americans in my circle (UTAS) are from Argentina and Chile. We need a word for people from the USA to differentiate them.
Show threadArielNov 28
@coolandnormal @kagan @offby1 "seppo" is right there???
Show threadjandiNov 28

@kagan @offby1 As others said, in my timeline there's people from Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Mexico, Costa Rica, Canada, etc, apart from USians, so it came naturally to me to distinguish, using a commonly used word when alluding to people from the USA.

When I was a kid we said "yanquis" to specify, and honestly, I think USians is better.

How do you call people from America the continent?

Show threadbjb  Nov 29

@jandi @kagan @offby1

I don't know of a dedicated name for that ...
Maybe Americas is the "new world" but I don't have a name for "person from the new world".

I think of "American" as meaning "from the United States of America". But I like the idea of having a more specific name for USians ("yanquis" would be fine in my books) and using "American" to mean "from someplace in the Americas".

Show threadCharlie StrossNov 28
@offby1 I call the sort of people who'd manage that kind of blocklist Merkins.
Show threadMans RNov 28
@cstross @offby1 Don't forget about the Murricans.
Show threadD2Nov 29

@mansr I mean, murrican is ok, but lmk if you don’t see a charm to Webster’s on merkin ‘A merkin is a pubic wig’

@cstross @offby1

Show threadMans RNov 29
@InkomTech @cstross @offby1 Ah yes, I didn't think of that.
Show threadSteven HiltonDec 3
@cstross @offby1 from MERKA!!!
Show threadAlan Langford 🇨🇦🧤🧊摏Nov 28
@offby1 I gotta start using "Lower North Americans" on Bluesky!
Show threaddz🌵🦇Nov 28
@offby1 the fucking thinnest skin from LandOfTheBraveians
Show threadtautologyNov 28
@offby1 USAian or merkin. Too much reading of alt.fan.pratchett in the 90s.
Show threadmajickNov 28

@offby1 I mean, it's an irksome juvenile term—like calling "San Francisco" "Frisco"—that makes me somewhat more likely to ignore someone's opinions but I can't imagine needing a public blocklist for it.

I'ma block what I block but whining about hate speech for a whole-ass blocklist is pretty damn over the top. If I don't want to pay attention to internet fedoras, that's a me problem.

Show threadChris is.Nov 28
@majick Why do you find it irksome and juvenile?
Show threadmajickNov 28

@offby1 Deliberately selecting terms specifically to annoy and provoke people—particularly terms coined for the purpose—is effectively the world's mildest form of trolling. Unironic edgelord stuff that makes someone more readily dismissed.

As I said, choosing to block or not would be very much a me problem, not something I'd go around soliciting others to do. Turns out I don't since the annoyance at the behavior is far below my threshold.

Show threadChris is.Nov 28

@majick It’s interesting to me that you’d ascribe that motive. If you look at other replies to my post, there’s more than a few from people elsewhere in the Americas commenting that they, in fact, don’t use “American” to refer to USians at all, and also broadly don’t appreciate the continental name being co-opted by one of the more than 20 countries therein.

Perhaps the term isn’t being used to annoy USians so much as it is expressing annoyance AT them?

Show threadclewNov 28

I avoid “American” merely because it’s ambiguous!

@offby1 @majick

Show threadyour auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦Nov 28

just because you’re illiterate in the most spoken language in the Americas, doesn’t mean a word doesn’t exist.

the most spoken american language is Spanish. USian is short for unitedstatian; which is the translation of estadounidense.

estadounidenses should, at the very least, know where they fall in the hierarchy of american languages.

@majick @offby1

Show threadmajickNov 28
@blogdiva @offby1 Thanks for the reminder. It's cool that there's a cognate for the late 80's internet coinage!
Show threadvarx/socialNov 29
@majick The people I've seen using it don't seem to be using it in order to *annoy* people—I see it used because it's unambiguous.
Show threadFrank SkorniaDec 3
@varx @majick When I went to school in the UK a long time ago, I initially introduced myself as an "American" and quickly adapted to introducing myself from the US, as people pointed out that "American" covered a lot of territory that wasn't just the United States
Show threadMab_813Jan 3

@varx @majick

How is "USAmerican" misnaming?
Personally I use "US American" I mean they're not the whole continent?

Show threadUniversal Basic FriendNov 28

@majick @offby1 in a university logistics context this is actually important. We have our American team members (mostly from parts of America close to what we're studying, near the Antarctic Peninsula).

Then there's also 'the US teams', USAians who fly in and out from the USA to their own US bases and have limited contact with others.

Without a word meaning "people who come from the USA" and a separate one meaning "people who come from America" this whole situation would be unmanageable.

Show threadsiderealNov 28

@majick @offby1 I would argue that the “irksome, juvenile” thing to do would be to take a word (“Americans”) used since before the USA even existed to refer to people from all over North, South, and Central America, and then use it to only refer to people from the USA.

Only in the USA does “American” mean “from the USA.” In Europe, they call Brazilians “Americans.”

Mindblowing but sadly unsurprising that people interpret specificity and respecting other cultures as somehow against the USA.

Show threadmajickNov 28
@sidereal @offby1 Both of these things can be true. We often call people from USM "Mexicans" in English, despite the fact that they, too, are Americans.
Show threadChris is.Nov 28
@sidereal @majick https://wandering.shop/@offby1/115623777564061953
Chris is. (@[email protected])

“You’re one of us” is semantically distinct from “actually, not all of those are you”

The Wandering Shop
Show threadovni disfarçadoNov 29
@majick @offby1 us-american is just the more accurate way to call citizens of the usa - unlike "american", which refers to the entirety of the americas
Show threadmarkusNov 28
@offby1 They're spelling Americunt wrong.
Show threadIlka 🌐Nov 28
@markus @offby1 🤣
Show threadJoan of Contention 😷Nov 29
@markus @offby1 Underrated toot
Show threadJoan of Contention 😷Nov 29

@markus I was going to go for "fucking Yanks," but this beats that, hands down.

@offby1

Show threadOriel Jutty Nov 28
@offby1 "Seppo"
Show threadChris MurphyNov 28
@offby1 I think “USian” is silly but a blocklist for users of it is far far sillier.
Show threadsiderealNov 28
@offby1 Absurd. As an actual citizen of These United States I find "USian" kinda charming. These people have lost the plot.
Show threadPhil HaighNov 28
@offby1 surely that list should be called “USophobia” 🤣
Show thread🔥Cassandra🔥Nov 28
@offby1 What is a racial take against “Americans” as a whole?
Show threadCurioso 🍉 🇺🇦 (jgg)Nov 28

@offby1

I have always being genuinely amazed by US people not seeing demeaning the fact that they have to resort to a demonym intended for their whole continent because they don't have a specific one for their own country.

Nearly any other country in the world has a specific, non ambiguous word for its people. Is the USA less than them?

Show threadspacebarbarianNov 28
@offby1 I like "USian" because it speaks to the collective selfishness so common to... us.
Show threadLukefromDCNov 28

@offby1 How about "AmeriKKKan" for all those white cishet conservative Christians?

"USian" always reminds me of my Asian friends.

Show threaddas-gNov 28

@LukefromDC I think “USians ” is pronounced “You-Ess-ians”, not “ushns”.

@offby1

Show threadLukefromDCNov 28
@das_g @offby1 I've only ever seen it written never heard it spoken.
Show threadJames BrookeNov 28
@offby1
I prefer to use Yanks instead of USians. “Yanks” captures the idea that something that is somewhat intended to be an insult can be turned around into a kind of bold identity.
Also, this recognized that you have an identity that is distinctive from other North and South Americans.
I give USians 4 stars****
I give Yanks 5 stars*****
Just one Yank’s opinion…
Show threadclewNov 28
Oooo, I can guess which part of the USA you *dont* come from.
@jCarttarBrooke @offby1
Show threadmau 🏳️‍🌈 #EndFossilFuelsNov 28
@offby1 I wonder if Frank Lloyd Wright would make the list. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usonia
Usonia - Wikipedia

Show threadAndresNov 28
@offby1 puedo entender que les moleste USano pero es lo más corto y exacto. Es casi neutro pero ligeramente despectivo, si. Pero llevan décadas apropiándose del nombre del continente (al menos en Europa) y su Imperio en decadencia y ligeramente apolillado ya no da para tanto privilegio. Que aquí en España sabemos bastante de imperios en decadencia y (muy) apolillados jajaja.
Show threadUniversal Basic FriendNov 28
@offby1 Inb4 one country in Europe (my money is on Liechtenstein) decides it's called Europe and it's offensive to call Europe Europe.
Show threadJdeBPNov 29

@coolandnormal @offby1

It has already been done. For #Ireland .

And don't get us started on "La France", the "Kingdom of Denmark", "Dutch"/"Deutsch", "Holland", and "Macedonia". (-:

#toponymy #demonyms #geography

Show threadCaseyLNov 28

@offby1

I've been using "USian" for over a year, bc the US is not all of "America," and certainly can't stand in for, or speak for, all of "America."

Not even North America, much less the entire Western Hemisphere!

Show threadAdrian HowardNov 28

@offby1 @cstross Oh *that* was why I was blocked!

<hysterical giggles>

Show threadMick CollinsNov 28
@offby1 As a USian, I now feel honour-bound to use this term whenever I feel there may be someone around who'll get their feelings hurt by it
Show threadFRANK.MCCONNELNov 28
@offby1 Have been using "USAnian" for a while, but then I am one
Show threadmathewNov 29
@hairyvisionary @offby1 USAnuses?
Show threadFRANK.MCCONNELNov 29
@mathew @offby1 We have one each!
Show threadIlka 🌐Nov 28
@offby1 weird - USamerican is the correct term for USamericans, how can 1 be offended by something correct? Southamericans are not offended being called Southamericans, Europeans are not offended being called Europeans... 1 gotta be a special kind of imbicile crybaby to cry about this.
Show threadAO SmithNov 28
@offby1
Geez, there are an astounding number of big babies over here. I can think of all kinds of actually derogatory names people could reasonably call us but that isn't one of them
Show threadsunflowerinrainNov 28
@offby1
USA is only part of America, so it makes sense to say/write USian if referring specifically to people from that part.