There are a whole lot of Canadians that have a perfectly valid irritation at being conflated with Americans-they're not American. It is really annoying being continually mistaken (sometimes aggressively so) for the 800lb gorilla next door. I'm never going to get pissed at the West Indians that hate being called Jamaican because that's the only island people remember. It would drive me batshit. However, they gotta keep their hands off reggae. It's a thing.

Just like how we don't have voodoo in Jamaica, but people figure if it is good enough for one island we probably all do it. Thanks, mate.

Wait, there's no voodoo in Jamaica?

I wonder if I can change my b-day plans.

There was still no point in this guy in China being an ass to the poor clerk, irritated at being mistaken for an American, or not. Adults are responsible for the way we act.

ETA to clarify "adults".

I was mostly reacting to Vortex hating Canadians. That's a lotta people to hate, for what I see as a perfectly reasonable emotional reaction. Being mistaken for another culture is tiresome, especially when it's one that feels like it's threatening to subsume your own.

I get the NZ defensiveness too, for the same reason. Or why I always prickled when people called me African American. It matters, dammit. Labels matter.

Being mistaken for another culture is tiresome, especially when it's one that feels like it's threatening to subsume your own.

Absolutely, but they are often assholes about it, and I don't base this opinion on more than one incident or observation. A polite "I'm canadian, actually" is fine, but I more often saw outbursts and sharp words.

I'm really curious what they serve in McD's in India, where cows are sacred.

The Maharaja Mac! (Which I thought was mutton-based, but that article claims it's chicken.)

On Big Bang Theory, Koothrappali said the Maharaja Mac was chicken!

I'll admit that we ducked into a McDonald's in Paris after a very frightening attack by a French bag lady outside Guard du Nord. And being cheated out of change at the pay toilets at Notre Dame, and being pushed and rudely treated by two French teenagers atop the Eiffel Tower, AND being there on a Tuesday, when the Louvre was closed and DH having to wear his prescription sunglasses on a cold, cloudy day because his glasses had gotten smashed in a club in Camden the night before.

We don't have fond memories of Paris.

It was almost like the scene in Gotcha where the kid escapes East Berlin and walks into a McDonalds in West Berlin and orders "American" everything.

I get the NZ defensiveness too, for the same reason.

Yeah, that's fair. And occasionally pretty amusing.

Incidentally, there's a TV show here, a humorous news wrap-up kind of deal, that has a segment where they challenge ad firms to come up with ads for some odd products. One week they did an ad promoting the invasion of New Zealand. (The slogan ran something like "100% Pure. 100% No Army. 100% There for the Taking.")

The Gruen Transfer!

bt, I love that show. The recent one about the mining ads was really interesting. That show? Would never fly in America. We like our fear-based advertising just fine, thanks. No need to see, much less discuss, what is behind it.

I can deal with people being irritated or angry about cultures subsuming their own. What I'm not keen on is the smug sense of superiority that the guy in China had. There's a difference, right?