You’re right, I did know what you meant. I was poking at you a little bit there because that’s something else Americans get blasted for habitually on the International scene. That Americans think they’re the only Americans is complete and utter nonsense but for some reason, it persists. Among my fellow Americans when discussing this dynamic, it’s recognized and we don’t understand it. There’s a whole lotta WTF or WTH?

We call ourselves American, because as you aptly pointed out, anything else is linguistically wieldy. Those who reside in the US is clunky, United Statesian just sounds stupid, US is a place not a person and doesn’t denote being a citizen, and most international people don’t know US geography enough to recognize states. I’ve had several people ask me if Tennessee is in Europe somewhere when I say I’m from there (a Guatemalan, an Argentinian, a Peruvian, an Australian and a Mexican).

But, just because we call ourselves American for ease of language doesn’t mean that Canada, Mexico and Greenland cease to exist in our minds. Or that we think they don’t matter. They very much do.

What, are you kidding me? Most of our food comes from Mexico and anybody who needs to engage in medical tourism pretty much goes to Canada.

NAFTA.

We know they’re there. They’re sovereign; well except for Greenland of course unless they’ve detached themselves from Denmark since I was in school.

You referenced California as to where in the US you lived. California is great, but it’s not representative of the rest of the nation. Not by a long shot. Neither is New York, which is also great, but also full of extremes. As is south Florida and the Seattle area.

But what do I know? I’m just an uneducated rube from Tennessee, an American colony lost somewhere amongst the Stans of eastern Europe. See what I did there with amongst? ;D