I don't think that's weird. A lot of people don't know that "the state" means "the country" unless you are specifically talking about individual states within a country. I can see how that could be confusing for somebody who doesn't know better.
I'm reminded of when I was in like 8th grade or something and I was confused about how the UK can be a country but England and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland are also countries. Similar concept.
Not one that I overheard but one that I was involved in:
I said that I didn't like bright yellow. This apparently was extremely offensive to the friend I was dating at the time and he had to convince me that I was wrong and there is no room for opinion on the matter of color preferences.
Good! Those tax breaks were a mistake. They're bringing power-hungry data centers in right when our power supply is decreasing due to the (appropriate) removal of fish-killing dams. All in the name of bringing "high-paying jobs" to rural areas, but anyone in the industry knows that data centers do not need huge numbers of employees and, for the tech industry, the pay is relatively low.
The Japanese grocery store that I frequent had a drastic remodel something like 5 years ago and I'm still salty about it. They made the store more open and westernized but reduced product offering. And some of the locations of where they've chosen to put things make no sense.
When somebody says that someone "has enough going on" that means that you should leave them be because they have enough going on, don't make it worse. It really should have been pretty clear. It's a common expression.
I've never heard that one, but I have heard people argue for a hot dog being a sandwich.