Started an argument with my much smarter wife because she said North and South America are not two separate continents. She was right, because continents are only defined by convention.

  • FundMECFS
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    702 months ago

    Yeah. People in the US learn about 7 continents at school. In France, we learn about the 5 continents.

    • @[email protected]
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      172 months ago

      N’importe quoi, y a la chocolatine du nord et la chocolatine du sud, ça fait 6, retourne à ton école pourrave à Paimpont (j’ai rien contre Paimpont, c’est très pimpant).

      • @AA5B
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        252 months ago

        I hope that’s really the gibberish my browser’s translate function tells me it is

        • FundMECFS
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          52 months ago

          It’s very logical.

          There’s north chocolatine (basically hillbilly way to say pain au chocolat) and south chocolatine, which according to the above commenter of extremely high IQ, means there as 6 continents instead of five.

          • @AA5B
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            42 months ago

            Maybe some of it is literal word for word translation vs accounting for grammatical differences but …

            Anything, there’s northern chocolate and southern chocolate, it’s 6, go back to your school in Paimpont (I have nothing against Paimpont, it’s very pimpant).

    • @[email protected]
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      22 months ago

      What seven, America is two and Europe/Asia is counted twice also? I’m from elsewhere and also learned 5

      • JackbyDev
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        2 months ago

        American here.

        1. North America
        2. South America
        3. Europe
        4. Asia
        5. Africa
        6. Australia (and Oceania)
        7. Antarctica
  • @Dagnet
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    2 months ago

    I remember many years ago I was playing WoW and the conversation in guild chat was about continents so I said that in my country America is a single continent. That moment an American in guild flipped the fuck out and got really mad at me even suggesting that his great country could be in the same continent as mine (Brazil) going as far as saying “that’s so fucking dumb, next you will say Europe and Asia are the same continent?!” which is funny cause eurasia is a thing, what a dumbass.

    • Masterbaexunn
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      412 months ago

      Mexico is in North America, but try telling that the common trump supporting gringo.

        • Steve Dice
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          2 months ago

          Yes, but they technically count as “the Caribbean”

      • @TheEighthDoctor
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        2 months ago

        I remember when central America was a thing.

        Edit: Apparently even considering the existence of Central America Mexico is still North America

        • Steve Dice
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          12 months ago

          North America is entirely defined by the NAFTA. Geography is mostly political.

        • Lemminary
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          22 months ago

          But it does care where we draw the line!

    • @[email protected]
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      22 months ago

      A friend of mine went from a school in the US to a French school, and when she said there were 7 continents, everyone including the teacher made fun of her.

      Dogmatism goes both ways.

    • Denvil
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      352 months ago

      According to the image on Wikipedia depicting the plates, there would then be 17 continents, although some of those 17 would be entirely ocean, or only small islands

        • rockerface 🇺🇦
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          142 months ago

          Lots of island chains are actually mountain chains partially hidden underwater. And mountain chains usually appear where two tectonic plates ram into one another, causing one of them to bunch up.

        • @Klear
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          02 months ago

          They do like to play baseball.

      • @AA5B
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        92 months ago

        I’m really surprised this is the first time I’ve seen Africa as two continents. The Great Rift Valley is well known but I just hadn’t heard going the next logical step

        • @[email protected]
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          42 months ago

          The Red Sea is actually just another rift valley along the same edge of the plate. It just filled in with water first.

        • @Klear
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          -12 months ago

          These are not continents. The image is more of an illustration of why tectonic plates are not a good way to redefine continents not be arbitrary.

      • Lemminary
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        12 months ago

        That map is pure chaotic good vibes.

    • @SmoothLiquidation
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      332 months ago

      And then India is no longer in Eurasia. Or you could say that Los Angeles is not in North America.

      • @[email protected]
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        2 months ago

        Los Angeles is not in North America

        I don’t see a problem with that.

        Plus, by tectonic plates, isn’t it America, since N/C/S America are on the same plate, right? (I don’t trust my memory of school from decades ago).

      • @[email protected]
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        62 months ago

        India is usually considered a subcontinent. West Coast is a geologic mess until resolved.

  • @SecretSauces
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    302 months ago

    There also isn’t a strict definition of when a pond becomes a lake

    • @ilinamorato
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      12 months ago

      Or when a lake becomes a sea. The Alboran Sea is smaller than Lake Superior. The Caspian Sea is a lake. Everything is made up and nothing is real.

    • @Klear
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      12 months ago

      Huh. In my language the difference is that a pond is artificial (generally for farming fish), but apparently that’s a fishpond in English and pond can be natural. TIL.

    • @MutilationWave
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      12 months ago

      Some states do indeed codify this in law, but the definition varies by state. Michigan and Minnesota for two if I’m remembering correctly.

        • JollyBrancher
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          22 months ago

          These are BODIES OF WATER, dammit!!! Not something as easily-reclassified like what qualifies as a craft brewery!

          • @kryptonite
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            2 months ago

            You don’t need reclassification to lose a lake; you just need a drought.

            Edit: I may have misunderstood you. It’s pretty late, and I should be sleeping…

  • teft
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    242 months ago

    I try to explain this to people who don’t believe south americans call themselves americans.

    • @jqubed
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      272 months ago

      This becomes even more confusing with the way people commonly talk in English versus Spanish. In English, residents of the United States of America typically refer to themselves as Americans, and in English “American” typically only refers to someone from the USA. In Spanish, it seems residents of the USA are typically called the equivalent of “United Stateser” and “American” refers more generally to someone from the continent, at least in some parts of the Spanish-speaking world. I once had an apparent native Spanish-speaker online argue that was the correct form in English as well and insisted that the official name of the country is United States (Estados Unidos), not United States of America (Estados Unidos de América), and that America never refers to the country in English. They didn’t appreciate when I asked why in international sporting events the Americans’ shirts always say USA and why the supporters chant “U-S-A” all the time.

      Languages are weird. If you’re learning a different language and try to insist that the new language behave the same as your native language, you’re going to have a hard time.

      • Steve Dice
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        2 months ago

        Mostly right but nobody in Latinamerica refers to themselves as American in any language. It would be weird.

        • Lemminary
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          42 months ago

          That one’s a weird one. We don’t explicitly call ourselves Americans in Spanish because there’s no need to but whenever this comes up in conversation it’s generally agreed upon that we are technically Americans (and then people immediately take the opportunity to dunk on USians for appropriating the word 😅).

          • Steve Dice
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            12 months ago

            Yeah, that’s my point. Being part of the continent is something that almost never comes up. We call ourselves whatever we are and it’s never “Americanos”.

    • Canadian_Cabinet
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      202 months ago

      Yep. In Spain and Latin America, there is no separation between North and South. Its just one continent: América

      • @[email protected]
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        2 months ago

        Most romance languages follow that. The 5 rings in the Olympics logo are meant to be continents.

      • @njm1314
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        112 months ago

        Right? Continent or not has nothing to do with it.

        • teft
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          02 months ago

          And yet when you tell people that you mean south americans when you say americans they always freak out.

          • snooggums
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            2 months ago

            Do those same people freak out when you refer to Mexicans or Canadians as Americans?

            It might not be a North/South continent thing.

            • Sundray
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              22 months ago

              They may eventually admit they know it’s technically correct, but you take your life in your hands if you try telling a Canadian that they are “American.” Well, not your life, but they’ll probably stop talking to you for a little while.

          • @[email protected]
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            32 months ago

            I think it’s one of those “technically” things, that isn’t useful.

            Someone from The Americas is American, technically. That’s how language works.

            But I’d venture* that 97.3% of people mean United States when they say “Americans”, or better, it’s what people mean 97.3% of the time. The only time I’ve seen people bring it up is when they’re from a South American country.

            So I’d say context and scale of detail/granularity influence the meaning in the moment.

            *Totally Made Up Stats

    • @[email protected]
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      2 months ago

      The USA isn’t the only America nor the only United States. Maybe when the government collapses we can come up with a better name.

    • DarkThoughts
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      22 months ago

      I try to explain this to people…

      You mean US citizens. I’ve had “Americans” chime in on that as well, when I explained that for people who are not from the US, that “America” is not just the US of A but all of the Americas, and that Americans are not just people from the US either.

      • @Stovetop
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        52 months ago

        Not just US citizens, but specifically the Anglophone world as a whole. I’ve been to other English-speaking country where citizens of the USA are commonly referred to as “Americans” (when they’re not called Yanks) while the continents are called “The Americas”.

        I also colloquially know that the name of the country in Japanese is simply “America” as well with its citizens just called “America-jin”

        The relevant Wikipedia article seems to have some interesting insights as to which major world languages opt for which options, but it doesn’t seem to be an overly long list of examples.

    • @NeoNachtwaechter
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      2 months ago

      Well, smart Americans call themselves Americans too, and dumb Americans call themselves Americans, even Usamericans call themselves Americans ;-)

  • شاهد على إبادة
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    212 months ago

    The borders between Europe and Asia are absolutely arbitrary and the border between Asia and Africa is the Suez Canal

      • @CheeseNoodle
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        12 months ago

        Iirc its actually based on some guy assuming a river was a cannal and using it as a geographical border and no one really checking until the border had stuck.

    • @gedaliyahOP
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      32 months ago

      I remember always questioning that one as a kid. The answer I always got was something about mountains. For some reason, I think the true history, like a lot of arbitrary divisions is probably ✨racism✨

  • @[email protected]
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    162 months ago

    You were right too, because continents are only defined by convention. And by the convention I was taught, there’s 3 Americas: South, Central, and North.

    • nocturne
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      132 months ago

      In elementary school we were taught that as well, then in middle school we were taught Central America is part of South America, but in high school we were taught Central America is part of North America.

    • @lunarul
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      2 months ago

      I just looked up my old geography textbook from 6th grade to double check if I was remembering correctly. And it’s yes and no. It was indeed North America, Central America, and South America, but they all were regions of a single continent: America.

  • @Fedizen
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    152 months ago

    there’s also like 5 definitions of “species”. Sometimes what seem like simple concepts are hard to pin down

    • @essell
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      132 months ago

      Not always, I’m simple and easy to pin down.

  • @AA5B
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    122 months ago

    And New Zealand is its own continent! I like that definition

    • @vonxylofon
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      42 months ago

      Always at war with Eastasia.

  • Laurel Raven
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    102 months ago

    Regardless of which definition you go with, someone saying North and South America are one continent but Europe and Asia are two separate continents are at the very least being inconsistent

    • @[email protected]
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      12 months ago

      There isn’t really a natural barrier between North and South America, though. Asia has the Urals.

      • Laurel Raven
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        92 months ago

        North and South America have the Darién Mountains/Darién Gap

        The Urals don’t even stretch all the way across the continental boundary

        Again: inconsistent.

  • Metostopholes
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    72 months ago

    North and South America I can see either way, but splitting Europe and Asia is insane.

  • @[email protected]
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    62 months ago

    There’s two definitions in my language. One for land mass continent (eurasia) and the other is more of a geopolitical continent if that makes sense (europe, asia)

    I think English needs the same.

  • @njm1314
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    52 months ago

    Eurasia and Oceania sure, quibble all you like that makes sense to me. But combining the Americas and pushing Africa in with Asia makes no sense to me.

    • snooggums
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      52 months ago

      Same. I think having a tiny land bridge shouldn’t be enough when the idea of a continent is to identify the largest masses of land separated by oceans, especially when disconnected land can still be a part of a contenent.

      My list would be:

      • North America
      • South America
      • Eurasia
      • Africa
      • Oceania
      • Antarctica

      I can see the combined Americas and Africa combined with Eurasia if the idea is land masses that separate oceans, but oceans are as arbitrary as continents so I don’t think that is a useful definition.