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The president of Mexico on Thursday expressed hope that Google “reconsiders” its decision to change its online maps to reflect U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that he has the authority to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico.
Shortly after taking office, Trump issued an executive order announcing he was changing the name of the body of water to the Gulf of America.
For U.S. users of Google Maps, the gulf was listed as the Gulf of America as of Thursday. Google, whose CEO attended Trump’s inauguration along with other tech moguls, said last month it has “a long-standing practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.”
But Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum warned Thursday that her government “will file a civil suit” against Google if it does not revert back to labeling the international body of water the Gulf of Mexico.
It’s stupid, but it’s not that extreme. Countries have different names for things. For example, Germany calls the Baltic Sea “Ostsee” (lit. east sea) and Lake Constance 'Bodensee" (lit. bottom sea) but those things are only at the bottom and east for Germany.
There’s a slight difference in that “Ostsee” is the common name. If the German chancellor decides to call it “Deutsche See” tomorrow, the name would continue to be “Ostsee”, because that’s how language usually works.
“Gulf of America” is just a dictator’s wish of a common name. The people of OpenStreetMap decided to use the tag “official_name:en_US” for that reason, while keeping “Gulf of Mexico” for the commonly used “name:en-US”.
I’m positive that exact thing happened. I’m sure those were not the common names throughout history. At some point, people named things from their perspective iegardless of what others, including those living adjacent to the thing called it. I’ll give you the nationalistic part; that’s the stupid part, but it’s not uncommon to have a name from a different perspective
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China calls Taiwan “Chinese Taipei.” Should Google Maps show “Taiwan (Chinese Taipei)” on maps? Because I don’t see how that would be China’s call any more than the name of the Gulf would be Trump’s call.
Is there Google maps in China? If there is, I’d be surprised if it didn’t say that. That is claiming ownership. Countries can’t own a gulf beyond the domestic waters convention. But, I don’t know, that’s a good question because a regular Chinese person would just be confused. It wouldn’t effect any policy change
I did not say in China. Google Maps says “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)” in most of the world. It sure is here in Britain.
Also, calling the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America is a clear claim of ownership.
Mexico didn’t own it before any more than the US owns it now. I don’t like the nationalistic intentions, but I can rationalize it to myself that Mexico is also part of [North] America
No shit they didn’t. And they never have. Because it was called the Gulf of Mexico before Mexico as a nation existed. It was called that because it was named after the Valley of Mexico, which was part of New Spain at the time the Gulf was named. Mexico as a country didn’t exist until centuries later.
Maybe actually read the history of this before deciding this is about anyone other than Trump claiming ownership of that gulf.
No one can own the Gulf anyway. Trump just wanted to stir shit up and people like you getting all bent out of shape are just playing into it. It’s just a name
“Mount McKinley” is “just a name” for what is supposed to be called Denali. Ask an indigenous person if they think changing the name of a sacred mountain to the name of a man responsible for one of them many genocides of their people is “just a name.”
Then ask virtually any black person if they don’t care about Trump and Republicans restoring Confederate generals’ names to military bases. Find out if they think it’s “just a name.”
Names have power and I’m amazed you don’t realize that.
I’m telling you this is what he wants: people to get all worked up and virtue signaling for MAGA