If you and your Brazilian friends thought you were defending the honor of your culture, the torrent of hate I have received - when I did not insult anyone - has done quite the opposite.
You objected to my conventional use of a word. I explained the fact that it's common usage and widely understood. (That's why Mexicans are offended by "Gulf of America.")
I didn't insult anyone. You started the wave of bigoted insults against me.
I learned the continents to be "North America" and "South America." I knew enough about other countries to know how Britons et al. use the word "America. I knew enough about other languages to know their words for people from the USA. I even knew the Portugues one - having been to Portugal. /1
It's hard to explain the outrage over Trump's "Gulf of America" unless "America" is commonly understood as meaning the USA rather than 2 entire continents.
People in Upstate New York don't throw a tantrum when "New Yorik" is used to mean the city of New York specifically.
"America" is often used by Britons, Australians, New Zealanders, etc. to mean the USA. I just used the word that way, and I was hit by a flood of hate.
Apparently you didn't know that Portuguese is an imperialist language, or that many languages use a cognate of "American" for U.S. residents.
I never denigrated any nationality. I just used a word in an entirely conventional way.
For that, I was hit was a flood of hate from Brazilians using an ethnic slur against me and calling me stupid and ignorant - while they displayed their own ignorance about geography and language.
If Brazilian schools don't teach that the continents are called "North America" and "South America," not one big continent called "America," they are failing.
"America" is often used to mean the USA in English-speaking countries.
So the president who thinks he can remake the whole global trading system by bending every other country to his will can't exercise any influence over the government of a small country that he's paying to house people he views as undesirables. Got it.
It's sad when people resort to ethnic slurs because their feelings are hurt by commonplace terminology.
It's a safe bet that the people bashing me for my conventional use of the word "America" - as though I stole it from them - do not call themselves "Americans."
