In this instance , as the USA is so huge and diverse, I'll also include ''State'' as well as your country? For me it's the general assumption that the UK or Great Britain is ''England''... I live in England, altho' born and raised in Scotland, it's very much more irritating for those who live in other countries in the uk as part of the sovereignty ..Wales, Scotland, Ireland.. to be continually referred to as England..when outsiders really mean the UK... The fact we're ruled by one government, really is just where the similarity ends!! Wales speaks English and Cymraeg as their native language..Ireland and Scotland speak English and Gaelic In a way, it's like the USA..being constantly referred to as Hawaii or similar So what assumptions about you country or State irritates you..
@Holly Saunders I can't even enumerate the number of stupid assumptions about Alaska. We are about 1/5 the size of the rest of the U.S. and there are no roads in most of the state. The MOST stupid assumption is that many of us live in igloos. My sister-in-law didn't want to come to Alaska because "there is no shopping." She lives in suburban Ames, Iowa, and having been to both Iowa and Alaska, I can say that the shopping here is far preferable to that of Iowa.... Some of the tourists are confused when they cannot hear the barrels of oil rolling through the pipeline when 600,000 barrels of oil pass through it daily.
It annoys me when people from other countries believe everything they hear about the United States from CNN, but then it annoys me, even more, when Americans believe what they hear from CNN. Why does everyone think of the United States as America, anyhow? If I lived in Canada, Mexico, or Central or South America, that might annoy me.
I remember some time ago, referring to Canada.. to a Canadian as North America ..I thought she was going to have a fit, she was apoplectic with rage, ''how dare I say they were American '' and on and on.. for days.. I kid you not!!
I have wondered why it's considered politically & morally incorrect to make fun of ANY group of people, but southern rednecks. The constant joking gives the rest of the country & world the assumption that we are all closed minded homophobic racist with no teeth. This is not true, but the reason those who make the jokes get by with it is because rednecks don't ask the government to legislate protection for them. They prefer the government to stay out of their business. They are fiercely independent and rebellious with their Scottish / Irish roots. They don't give a crap what anyone else thinks anyway. The REST of the jokes are true.
The term redneck started with farmers because the back of their necks were always sunburned. My mother was from NJ and said they had rednecks there too, but they called them a$$holes.
I don't know if everyone thinks so but I can understand it to some extent. People are not always precise in using their language, especially in everyday speech. ("Sharp thinking is painful. That's why a rational man avoids it whenever possible.") And because precision and differentiation is not always needed, they tend to be vague and they effectively are, as psychologists put it, "cognitive cheapskates" being content with stereotypes and clichés. People often mean no harm when they say "America" when they actually mean the USA. It has to do with the dominant role the US have played over decades and even centuries in the world and with "America" being part of its official name (USA). If you don't mean the US, you'd immediately specify and say South America, Central America or Canada to avoid confusion. In most cases people mean the US, though. Ironically, this lack of differentiation reminds me of a map of Europe and Asia I saw in the 70s which was used in Western Europe. Every tiny country in Western Europe was plotted from Portugal all the way eastward to the Iron Curtain beyond which you'd only see a shaded area and "Communist Empire" (or something similar, I can't remember) printed in oblique letters. Apparently, there was no need to outline all the states in Eastern Europe. It was all Russian territory. I didn't mind, though.
those whom are self shown experts on everything, yet never been in my country and portray themselves a legal scholars on the US, I WILL SAY VERY LITTLE SHOWN ON THIS SITE AS IT IS ABOUT THE BEST THERE IS!