Brexit is solely related to UK membership within the European Union. It is wrong to conflate being a part of Europe with being a part of the European Union.

Throughout history the ties between what is now the UK and what is now continental Europe are deep and inseparably intertwined (both culturally and geographically); it is absurd to to claim that the UK is "always whimsical" (whatever that means) and does not reflect "true" European values, whatever those may be. Look even closer within the UK and the Republic of Ireland...how is one European and the other not?!

The UK is and will foverver be part of Europe, period. This has no bearing on your opinion of who is or is not a "true European."

Too late to edit, but continental -> contiguous. UK is already continental Europe; they're on the same plate.

The common understanding of continental Europe does exclude the U.K.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Europe

Ah ok, thanks for the clarification. I was thinking in terms of Alaska vs the rest of the US.

> "not a single true european will endorse its mistakes"

But how will a true Scotsman feel about it?

the soviet union and eastern block were europe too, stop creating absurd distinctions.

Europe -> the EU, not Europe, the landmass.

So is Europe -> Eurozone? Is EU -> Eurozone? Is Schengen -> EU?

These are all quite clearly defined. Some (many?) may think that the EU is the same as Europe, but this is plainly false.

The EU is the EU, europe already has a definition, trying to conflate it with the European Union for ideological reasons is stupid.

I would never in my life read the word Europe and think of the EU first.

And when you hear 'America' you never think of the USA either?

The two are not equivalent. America is shorthand for the United States of. Mexico is short for Estados Unidos Mexicanos. Europe is a geographically defined continent.

If I were in Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Serbia, Macedonia, or the Ukraine would it not be appropriate to say I was in Europe?

Well technically I think it depends on which side of Iceland you're standing. To the west you're on the North American plate and to the east it's the Eurasian plate.

Consider that the only country within the North/Central/South American land masses explicitly having America as part of its name is the United States of America. It makes a lot of sense really considering the global dominance of the USA relative to its neighbors that "America" is colloquially understood to refer to the USA, and not Canada, or Panama, or all of South America.