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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • it’s as valid IN ENGLISH to use it to refer to the country as it is to refer to the continent(s)

    It’s really not but you already know that, just as you know the (s) is incorrect because, in English, there is absolutely no such thing as a continent called America.

    It’s not about confusion, it’s about the US acting like the center of the fucking universe.

    It’s about you being a hypocrite and accusing a group of people of acting like the center of the universe because they use a word differently in their language than you use it in yours. You are being incredibly disrespectful of other cultures by trying to impose foreign definitions on how people describes themselves.


  • when the “America” in that name actually refers to the continent too

    In English, there is North America and there is South America. Collectively, you can call them the Americas. Just “America” on its own refers to the country. It doesn’t matter what A-M-E-R-I-C-A mean in a different language. Spanish has what is fundamentally a different word, with the same spelling, to refer to something else. In linguistic terms it’s a false friend. The etymological origins are, indeed, the same, but it took on separate meanings in different languages. Nobody is confused about this, however. You’re just being an asshole.


  • I consider your comment highly offensive. You can’t tell a people what they are allowed to call themselves in their own language just because the same word means something else in another language. In English “America” refers unambiguously to the United States because there is no continent called “America.”

    I would love to see people’s reaction if France started calling itself Europe or China called itself Asia

    This comparison would work only if “Europe” meant one thing in French, and if the word “China” meant one thing in Chinese, and they both meant something entirely different in other languages.


  • My optimistic way of looking at it is like this (admittedly US-centric but, well, a lot of things about Israel are US-centric): Israel should be a global pariah state but has historically been showered with aid by the US and given carte blanche to do whatever it wants. We’re not going to flip the switch over night but America’s abstention in an important votes marks a real turning point. Not helping, but not protecting either. We’re then on the journey to eventual outright condemnation. Netanyahu, genocidal fascist, has just barely managed to remain in political power (and out of prison) over the years due to deep divisions in Israel. I think single-handedly turning Israel’s most important ally against it might be enough to convince the Israeli public to finally permanently remove him from power and prosecute him for his myriad crimes.


  • Then why did you waste time describing what you believed was the intention behind it earlier when you said

    I never said that was the intention. I said that’s what I think of it as. In practice all it does is underline a point. These same people also totally screwed up how we chose the president and vice president and failed to provide a proper mechanism for replacing a dead president.

    horribly incompetent at writing legal language

    Horribly incompetent? No. Flawless, or even particularly prescient? No. They got a lot of big stuff right; they got a whole lot wrong.



  • Indeed, the limitation in what can be amended is in practice totally powerless. I think of it as a rhetorical flourish to emphasize the importance they placed on representing states rather than people. For what it’s worth, I advocate for the full abolition of the Senate. It’s an anti-democratic institution. There’s no way to fix it without making it a clone of the House so let’s just do away with it entirely.





  • Mattresses have an enormous variance in thickness, and sheets vary considerably in the depth of the “pocket.” If your sheets can barely fit over a too-thick mattress, then they’re going to pop off when you move on them. You might just want to buy some new sheets with a deeper pocket. Alternatively, you can buy elastic straps that go under the bed and clip onto the sheets. You’ll generally either find these as a four pack of short ones that are meant to go only at the corners, or as a two pack of long ones meant to stretch under the entire bed and attach opposite sides. Get the long ones; they generally perform much better.