The Americas is what you mean, vs America, which implies the US. If you want to include Canada and Mexico, you say "North America". It's not difficult.
I've been all over the world, and no one has ever been confused when I say I'm from America. This push to make it seem like it's confusing is ridiculous.
My parents chose each other. Are they good people? Sure. But they had a ton of problems and split when I was in high school.
My grandmother, my dad's mom, she was a terrible person. Very difficult to be around. I'm sure that's why my dad has the issues he does. He ended up abandoning our family, and he's very... Well, he's passive-aggressive and will do almost anything to avoid conflict. Which doesn't sound terrible, but that means he avoids us when he thinks we'll confront him with anything. It was frustrating for a very long time but now I just accept that we'll never have a close relationship because of it.
He remarried about 10 years ago now. We get along okay except she's an alcoholic and has a really awful temper. After a specific incident in which she screamed at me over something very minor, I decided I was done trying to foster a relationship with her and now it's very at arms length. Oh well.
My mom, she and I are close but her issues are very much wrapped up in my brother, who also has issues. They're very co dependent, and my brother takes advantage of her. He sucks her dry of resources and refuses to do anything on his own. He's in his late 30's and it's still going on.
No, people who choose each other can be very toxic.
Well, no, there are clinical forms of depression, which are reoccurring forms, and then there's bouts of depression, which generally are caused by a specific event or change. Those types usually have fixes, but they're worse than "general sadness".
There's a major push coming to ban depression meds. I had long, drawn-out conversations with people who genuinely think exercise will fix things.
Yeah, for people without clinical depression, maybe.
Same, but with onions. I love ketchup.
Re filling my emergency fund after buying my house. It's mostly depleted now, so I'm working on getting it back up!
No micromanaging. My boss said: "I don't care how long you take for lunch, just put in your 40 hours and get your projects done on time."
Coming from previous jobs that I had to clock in/out of with strict lunch times, that was mind-blowing. Been working there 3 years now.
I have a fear of being wrongly accused/arrested for something horrific, like murder, and then when I'm taken in for questioning I do what you're supposed to and refuse to speak and ask for a layer, but that just makes everyone suspect me more and I end up in prison.
Staying calm and speaking both rationality and politely does work wonders. It disarms most irate people. I just had to use the technique on some grumpy neighbors.
If you pay attention to politics, you'll start seeing a pattern of "we're keeping you safe" as an excuse to rob you of your freedoms. This really ramped up in the USA after 9/11. It's when spying on Americans by our own government became legalized. We were afraid, and we gave up some freedoms for the idea of safety.
...and now we know we're no more safe than we were before.
The more natural light the better.
Democracy is an umbrella term. These are the types of democracy the US is:
Representative Democracy
Constitutional Democracy
Presidential Democracy
Liberal Democracy
Types of Democracy the US is not:
Direct Democracy
Parliamentary Democracy
Illiberal Democracy
Participatory Democracy
Social Democracy
So yes, it's a democracy.