Europe still being considered a continent is, to me, very reminiscent of Pluto's former classification as a planet.
If Europe is a continent, then so must be California, Greenland, Southeast Asia, Central America, West Africa, and so on. And then we need a new word for "entire tectonically distinct land mass."
Any argument involving geography/geology has no scientific basis.
Any argument involving culture is deeply rooted in western exceptionalism and imperialism.
Most other arguments amount to "well, that's the way it's always been; it's at least traditionally considered a continent." This is part of why it took so long to reclassify Pluto, even longer to change it in the textbooks, and longer still to get people to stop getting emotional over it. We have a tendency to romanticize these things and cling to our ancestors' errors. It benefits no one.
Pluto never was a planet, we just had to change the way we think and talk about it.
Europe never was a continent, we just have to exorcize the ghosts of conquistadors and british spice traders from the conversation.
imho, the only real question left on the table is whether to:
Rename the whole thing Eurasia (as is often done when much-too-gently referring to it as a "combined continental area"), or
Just call Europe part of Asia since it's so small in terms of geography and population ("Far West Asia" kinda has a nice ring to it).
