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Anonymous
North America is a continent. Much like Europe and Asia and Africa are all continents, despite being attached to one another.
North America is a section of the Land Mass which may be referred to as "The Americas." Central America is a smaller sub-section of these, often overlapping the southern border of North America and the northern border of South America.
"America" is a nickname for "The United States of America." This works because America is THE ONLY COUNTRY IN ALL OF "THE AMERICAS" WITH "AMERICA" ACTUALLY IN ITS NAME.
It is also, arguably, the most IMPORTANT country in North OR South America. (I say this not out of a boast, but merely in terms of population size, GNP, military strength, and influence in International Affairs, not in terms of "lol, we better than u") Because of this, it is WIDELY understood that referring to "America" is to refer to the "USA." If they were going to refer to Canadians, they say.... Canadians. If they speak of Mexico they say... Mexico. If you want to speak of all three, you say NORTH America. If you want to refer to South America you say... SOUTH America. If you want to refer to the ENTIRE landmass, you say "The AMERICAS." Notice the plural.
Is this REALLY so offensive and confusing for you people? For Christ's sake, are Canadians/Mexicans so ashamed to be our neighbors and so petty that they deny the understandable use of "America" as our nickname?
I'm pissed at a lot of American policies (I'm a New Yorker), too, you know, but for Fuck's sake, we're America. We're also North American, and in the Americas. Canada is North American and in the Americas, but not America. That's how English works, get used to it, and find something worthwhile to complain about.
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