The expression would make sense if used when you genuinely mean someone who has citizenship, but its current usage is just a synonym to “elderly folk”.
Someday OP…
Someday you’ll learn that some words have different meanings in different contexts…
Someday commenter…
Someday you’ll learn about subtle discriminatory biases in language, which are often implicit and non-intentional, and how they have significant culturo-political effects.
Which reminds me, why don’t more people refer to Elon Musk as an African American?
This whole borrowed/discovered outrage at normal terms from people who aren’t even the subject of the supposed slight (in combination with people who ARE the subject, and ARE NOT offended) is so tiresome.
I don’t usually hear people referring generally to senior citizens in other countries though, and even if they did, wouldn’t they still be senior citizens, just citizens of their respective country instead of America?
My point is about people living in the US who do not have US citizenship.
Also being stateless is less rare than you’d imagine.
Definition 2 of Citizen from Merriam-Webster:
an inhabitant of a city or town especially : one entitled to the rights and privileges of a freeman
The term is used out of respect, not out of nationalism.
