Summary
Rep. Dan Crenshaw criticized Apple Maps for not renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, as mandated by Trump’s recent executive order titled “Restoring Names that Honor American Greatness.”
Crenshaw’s complaint reflects broader conservative frustration, as tech platforms and the global community continue to use the original name.
Critics compare the move to past nationalist gestures like renaming french fries “freedom fries,” accusing conservatives of embracing identity politics and culture wars despite their political dominance.
The name change is unlikely to gain international traction.
Fuck, I honestly thought this was the Onion. Somebody get me out of this timeline. I withdraw consent for this simulation!
Pretty sure it’s called “Gulf of How The Fuck Does This Lower Grocery Prices”
Hey everyone, I just signed a lemmy order changing the name of maralago to gaping jizz hole. Enjoy!
Thank you for your service, sir/madam. You’re already a better executive than some presidents I can think of, thinking of what the people want.
As the first matter of business I need to immediately address, my resignation. No one man is equipped to weild the power of the lemexcutive for much longer than I have.
Farewell lemmings. Until we shit post together again.
Good night, sweet prince(ss)! Though your reign in this (lemmy.) world was short, your reign in our hearts will last at least a few more minutes!
I feel like an OSM edit is in order.
Use “Oblast” instead of state for every single red shithole.
Who’s gonna tell him?
The earliest known use of the name America dates to April 25, 1507, when it was applied to what is now known as South America. It is generally accepted that the name derives from Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian explorer, who explored the new continents in the following years on behalf of Spain and Portugal, with the name given by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller.
Waldseemüller
It’s a good thing the continent wasn’t named after him instead!
Then again, having a swim in the Gulf of Waldseemüller sounds kind of nice.
For all the non-Germans, Herr Waldseemüller or one of his ancestors probably was a miller at a lake in the forest. That’s what the components of his name say, and we already have a body of water here.
That’s a whole debate people from the US are not ready for
Brazilians also Americans.
Venezuelans also Americans.
Canadians? Yep Americans
Having a step dad from Buenos Aires, I’m offended you forgot Argentina. But they have their own kind of crazy MAGA there, currently…
Sorry if this has been asked elsewhere, but who even has the legal right to rename the gulf? It doesn’t belong to USA, right? So we can’t just rename it, right? If we did, everybody else in the world would keep calling it The Gulf of Mexico, right?
If we did, everybody else in the world would keep calling it The Gulf of Mexico, right?
Most countries don’t call it “The Gulf of Mexico”. For example in my country it’s “Mexický záliv”.
Every sovereign state can publish maps require everyone to use it as reference for further publication in its own territory. Hence you’ll see different maps on Google for different regions. There’s a UN committee to coordinate these and also to publish international water area names.
Anyone else remember “freedom fries”? That’s what we were supposed to call french fries when conservatives were upset that the French were not supporting the US invasion of Iraq.
It’s even stupider when you remember that fries are from Belgium.
And that “frenched” is the way they’re cut, not that they have anything to do with the country.
They were right as well
Yeah, it started in WWI.
From a 1976 interview with German-American T. Max Kniesche, who moved to San Francisco in 1907, and worked in restaurants and cafes there:
Teiser: What was it like in San Francisco for Germans during the first world war? You were working at a clearly German restaurant. […]
Teiser: Did you change the kind of food that you served, or the decorations?
Kniesche: Well, the hamburger steak was Liberty Steak. French-fried potatoes were Liberty Potatoes. [laughter] We called it Liberty, but the liberty wasn’t there. Anyhow, everything went to “Liberty.” [laughter]
“Mission Accomplished” might be one of the greatest all time. And to think I thought that would be as low as it could get for our country.
Holy shit yes. I remember making fun of the doofus Bush Jr. But holy fuck do I wish him back compared to the current shit show.
Yes, and sauerkraut was “liberty cabbage” before that.
“Liberty cabbage” sounds very Orwellian. I guess “freedom fries” does too.
It predates 1984 by over 30 years!
Remember how if you didn’t want our boys coming home in flag draped coffins then you “Didn’t support out troops?”
Remember all the white flag and surrender jokes? Yep, the exact same starting point.
There is no gulf with that name anywhere in the world.
You’ll have to go back and figure out what you mean. Feel free to let us know once you find the name of a real gulf.
With all the other bullshit, I missed this EO being made. Jesus fuck.
Wait, this is an official thing, not a joke? Is it a law thing?..
What???
Executive Orders are closer to press releases than they are to law. They can say pretty much anything - whether those things are enforceable or even consistent with reality is up to the courts.
Executive Orders are more like a corporate memo to the government. It’s not a law passed by congress, but it can direct the government in how to administer existing laws or regulations.
Ahem. Umm, conservatives are angry that others are not calling something what THEY want it to be called?
Hmm. So… I just feel like… perhaps, there’s a similarity here. Some people… want to be referred to a specific way… but usually conservatives have a problem with that.
How about the rest of the world rename it to the “Gulf of Snowflakes” and see what America does
Well that just wouldn’t make any sense, they hardly get any snow down there!
The three foot snow drift against my back door here in New Orleans would beg to differ.
Tbf, nothing like that has ever happened here before. I wonder if any kind of change is causing this? Hmmm.
What are the odds that a snowflake would rename the Gulf of Mexico and then it immediately actually snows on the Gulf of Mexico?!
On a serious note, hope you all are doing OK down there and it will melt ASAP.
Thanks, I think everything will be alright if people just stay off the roads for a few days. We’re used to driving through water but not on ice.
New Orleans, Louisiana is currently covered in snow, I think Gulf of Snowflakes might actually be accurate right now.
I stand corrected
They currently have blizzard warnings, or they did yesterday.
So, the Gulf of They/Them is what the rest of the world should call it? I can get behind that.
We need to ask them what the Gulf’s pronouns are.
That’s literally what the headline is. “Deadnaming” is a term for referring to transgender people by their previous names, rather than their current names.
Should list it as “Gulf of Cuba” and watch their heads explode.
Thanks for the idea. I’m doing an edit on Apple maps to suggest that. 😈
Alternatively, call it the Gulf of Texas and grab some popcorn for the infighting.
Honestly that makes more sense than Gulf of America because at least it is a bit more descriptive. Looking forward to Mexico renaming Gulf of California next.
It’s also known as the Sea of Cortez
Wait, that really happened? I thought the gulf of Mexico renamed shit was just memeing. Google maps still shows the proper name instead of the tantrum name.
The president ordered it. There is no legal mechanism to compel private companies to use the new name.
There is no legal mechanism to compel private companies to use the new name.
There is also no legal mechanism to require any other country on the planet to pay attention to Trump’s stupid and pointless attempt at renaming it.
If anything they’ll just show the new name to people in the US.
Google Maps does a lot of regional fuckery to comply with local lunatics. Indians see Kashmir as part of India, for example.
I mean, that’s every multinational company.
My job has international offices and during stand-ups, we get things like “Hey EU needs this thing. So figure it out engineers.” And we do the bare minimum to meet the requirements because bro I’m just trying to code and make a paycheck.
Have u ever been to Kashmir?
Nope.
I do vaguely remember seeing the bonkers border ceremony in a Michael Palin travel show from about 30 years ago. Seemed competitive, yet oddly friendly.
Not familiar with the show but that was definitely the Atari border ceremony at wagah in Amritsar, Punjab and not Kashmir.
Either way, don’t try to equate anything happening near Kashmir to what is happening here. Those are land borders with people living on either side with very real tangible “everyday” problems to whatever pax Americana you have going on in the US.
Technically can I name it Gulf of Trump can kiss my ass?
I’ll cosign
Edit: co-sign? Fuck it…I’m going to bed
It never will happen. We all keep calling it what it is, the gulf of Mexico. Easy.
I thought the gulf of Mexico renamed shit was just memeing.
I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing a lot of “I didn’t think he would really do ____” in the coming weeks and months.
I was under no such illusions. He has no one to stop him this time around.
I mean, in this case, he has the rest of the English-speaking world to stop him with stupid renaming. If everyone just refuses to call it anything other than the Gulf of Mexico, it’s not like he can do anything about it, especially if they’re outside of the US.
It will be interesting to see what openstreetmap do - they have an “on the ground principle” that says to look at what the local signs say when naming something, but the data is tagged with a load of references to NOAA pages on historical treaties that the US signed (which obviously used the normal name for that area)
Fuck, is he actually trying to null out some treaties?
Pretty sure he’s going after all of them.
I thought “we’ll build a wall and have Mexico pay for it” was just shit-talking, too.
Trump has the habit of saying shit like this. His opponents will say “Oh god the cringe, it hurts”. His supporters will say “Oh shit, I didn’t think that we have to actually implement this? This will cause all sorts of expensive problems.”
To be fair, that was just shit talking. He may have started building the wall, but Mexico didn’t pay for it
I can’t with these neogulfnouns
For people always calling the others “snowflakes” and “easily triggered”, they sure do have a thin skin.
Maybe, but this is all a distraction from the actions that matter. They don’t want to debate the anti-trans stuff or the immigration stuff, which is objectively bad. They want to debate people not going with a made up name for a thing, which has no objectivity. The longer they can argue about this the less time there is to discuss anything important.
Its not just being thin skinned. It’s a strategy of distraction.
Every accusation
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were so sensitive” is my response to these types IRL.
what’s funny is Trump didn’t directly change the name. that takes time. the relevant naming-people have to take it up and formally do it. All Trump did was order them to, and, uh, that only affects goverment things.
Everybody else, Apple included, are going to be using the familiar name. because Trump is a moron.
They’ll follow suit. Apple is not the company people think it is. Tim was at the information along with all the other oligarchy. I know people well make excuses like he had to and blah blah blah. But no he did not. This a a openly gay man who chose to go support people who hate him why because he loves money more.
Don’t count on it, Apple and Google were both at inauguration
I don’t know… Isn’t naming (and even country boundaries) already localized based on where the users are? Isn’t a possible scenario that Apple and others could show Gulf of America to US users and Gulf of Mexico to everyone else without even spending too much effort?
Yeah there’s already support to name things differently based on your locale. If you have an English locale you see “Germany”. Inside German it’s called Deutschland and if you’re in a Spanish speaking place it’s Alemania.
You could probably distinguish between en-us and en-gb to have different names in the USA and UK.
So yeah I totally think it’s possible.
I meant something even more radical than translating language. This is Google maps changing borders for disputed territories depending on what side of the dispute the user is: https://theweek.com/speedreads/451127/google-maps-changes-chinas-borders-based-viewers-locations .
I imagine Apple has similar policies too where they adhere to local regulations or just don’t want to piss their users in any country, so they just show everyone what the want to see.
So yes, they do have the tools to do it and on top of that they also have a consolidate tradition of doing it.
Great, now I have to chose between correct geographical names and the reasonable spelling words.
No
“Facts don’t care about your feelings snowflake.”
It’s always projection with these people.
Always. Especially the pedo stuff.
I call them hypocrites, but they don’t care.
Apple is not beholden to executive orders… No private company is.
I mean yes they could be if the order affected them. I mean as everyone famously says they are beholden to the rules of the country they are in.
EOs are not laws and can only direct the federal government’s actions. The President has no authority to unilaterally control a company, except for scenarios where it is interacting with the federal government. Just like the “two genders” EO, it only applies to the federal government. States and companies can continue to support non-binary and other options for sex and gender identity.
One can more or less envision the President as the CEO of Federal Government, Inc. and executive orders as internal memos to the employees.
If you don’t work there, following the memo is not your problem.
But if you do any kind of business with someone who does work there, you can be hit by the secondhand effects.
No, executive orders are not laws, and they apply only to the federal government. The reason for that is the president is not a king, and so their word cannot be law. That requires congress to make the law, and the Supreme Court to uphold it, if that law is challenged.
