Nobody is saying it’s too confusing. They’re saying “stop claiming that word for yourself”.
Your examples are incorrect. The equivalent would be if France was called The United States of Europe, and used the word Europeans to refer exclusively to themselves.
Then, naturally, Germans would stop using the word European to refer to themselves because others would think they were referring to France (The United States of Europe in this example).
People regularly talk about Europe when they actually mean the EU or the other way around. I think that’s the closest there is, and it’s also annoying.
The USA is one of the few countries on earth to use a continent name as part of its country name. Yet you don’t see too many people saying South Africa should refer to the entire southern part of the continent.
People also don’t seem to have a problem with using “US”, which overlaps with Mexico aka EUM (or USM in English). Like I said, it’s mostly a language and cultural divide. Are you advocating that Canadians or Mexicans should say they’re American, even if they don’t want to? In the English speaking world no one other than the USA says American.
Nobody is saying it’s too confusing. They’re saying “stop claiming that word for yourself”.
Your examples are incorrect. The equivalent would be if France was called The United States of Europe, and used the word Europeans to refer exclusively to themselves.
Then, naturally, Germans would stop using the word European to refer to themselves because others would think they were referring to France (The United States of Europe in this example).
People regularly talk about Europe when they actually mean the EU or the other way around. I think that’s the closest there is, and it’s also annoying.
The USA is one of the few countries on earth to use a continent name as part of its country name. Yet you don’t see too many people saying South Africa should refer to the entire southern part of the continent.
People also don’t seem to have a problem with using “US”, which overlaps with Mexico aka EUM (or USM in English). Like I said, it’s mostly a language and cultural divide. Are you advocating that Canadians or Mexicans should say they’re American, even if they don’t want to? In the English speaking world no one other than the USA says American.