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.

  • JaggedRobotPubes@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    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.

      • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        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.

      • sgtgig@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        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.

        • VerifiedSource@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          Government employees and institutions are bound to act according to executive orders. They are binding. You’re correct they can be challenged in court. EO need to fit under existing laws. EO are often instructions on how to implement an existing law.

          Press releases are not binding and might even be outright lies.

          • jj4211@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            To be precise, it’s like your CEO sent out an email telling everyone they must do something or another. Deviating from them without a court or law backing you up means your services will no longer be required, but generally shouldn’t be facing criminal charges.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Real question here: It is titled “Restoring Names that Honor American Greatness.” - Has the Gulf of Mexico ever been named “Gulf of America” in any reasonable historical context, or is this just the usual made-up “fact” from Donald the Jester?

    • AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      Actually, the Gulf of Mexico appears called like that around 1500 AD, when the United States were not even an idea of a nation. So no, it never was called like that because it was named centuries before the US existed.

      • ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        In this vein, I’m ok with calling it Gulf of America, the (super)continent, so long as the denonym for people of the USA also changes, since it’s a continent.

        • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 months ago

          Agreed, I’ve been trying to move away from the terms “America” and “American” when discussing specifically The United States or it’s people.

          Not doing so is often at insult to the majority of people living in the Americas.

        • callouscomic@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          Agreed. We should no longer be referred to as Americans, and instead let’s call ourselves the Shitholes.

        • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          It’s weird how people seem to think that demonyms should match the name of the country exactly…

          Should we also say “united kingdomer”?

          • callouscomic@lemm.ee
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            2 months ago

            No. We say English, for England, and Irish for Ireland, and Scottish for Scotland, and Welsh for Wales. French for France. German, Germany. Italian, Italy. Japanese, Japan. Canadian, Canada. Australian, Australia. Brazilian, Brazil. Mexican, Mexico.

            I mean come on.

            • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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              2 months ago

              “British” isn’t a thing?

              How colonial of you to determine that you get to tell other people what they should be called.

              • frazorth@feddit.uk
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                2 months ago

                “British” isn’t a thing?

                Not really, no.

                A Scott wouldn’t because it would associate them with England, a Welshman wouldn’t, because it would associate them with England.

                And I wouldn’t, because someone might think I’m Welsh or Scottish. 🤷

                • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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                  2 months ago

                  "Well I’m going to call you british because you’re from the british isles. "

                  This is my point - you don’t get to define how others refer to themselves.

              • Saleh@feddit.org
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                2 months ago

                British does refer to the English blokes though. Don’t call a proud Scotsman that you think him to be British.

      • Jerkface (any/all)@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        America is not “The United States” in the context of naming global features on a map. We have two continents call that, for example.

        • AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          Sure, but the name Gulf of Mexico, actually named Golfo de México since it was a Spaniard who named it, doesn’t come from the country of Mexico, but of the Mexica civilization (aztecs for many but called mexihkah in nahuatl), the name comes from the even older name “seno mexicano” (seno meaning gulf or bay).

          If any, the other known name was Gulf of New Spain, but I suppose Turd would rather die than call it such name.

  • friend_of_satan@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    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?

    • Klear@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      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”.

      • Laser@feddit.org
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        2 months ago

        Did you know that Confucius was one of the rudest people to ever live? He never said “thank you” or “please” in his entire life.

        Point is this is just Golf of Mexico in another language. Maybe not 100% literal, but it associates the site with the country Mexico, not America (which Mexico is a part of, but I’m not sure MAGAts understand or want to understand the nuance).

        • Klear@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          The point is that the Czech name for the gulf has nothing to do with how Americans are calling it, it’s not even the same language. Why should be care Trump calls it different? He’s not our president, you know.

          • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Yeah, it’s not like we English speakers call Germany Deutschland. And it’s not like we call the Persian Gulf the Iranian gulf after Iran changed it’s name.

            To a certain degree countries respect other countries’ rights to nominative self determination. It’s actually pretty similar to how we respect people’s nominative self determination. When a country we interact with regularly significantly changes their name we generally adapt, but we typically do so in our own language, and we often don’t bother if they don’t mind the nickname we use.

            Geographic features on the other hand, we usually need a good reason. There’s a reason they’re typically officially called whatever they’re actually called. The back and forth over the naming of Denali is weird in part because most Americans barely remembered it’s existence between name changes.

          • Laser@feddit.org
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            2 months ago

            I never claimed otherwise 😉 a country named “America” doesn’t exist to my knowledge.

    • vin@lemmynsfw.com
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      2 months ago

      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.

      • EpeeGnome@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        I just checked there, and they have not renamed it, nor have they listed the new name as a recognized alternate name.

        Whether of not an executive order can override the government agency specifically granted that authority by congress is of no concern to them. By law, the Board of Geographic Names is the final authority on geographic names. If they don’t go along with this change, then the Trump admin would have to file an inter-government lawsuit about it.

    • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      That post also prompted me to check Google maps, and I got Gulf of Mexico, thankfully. However I’m sure there will soon be a US version with the proper denomination so that the new masters of the land can be placated.

    • endeavor@sopuli.xyz
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      2 months ago

      Cause most google users aren’t americans and the mental illness of a few sex criminals would disrupt their service.

  • graycube@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Google Maps still calls it Gulf of Mexico also. And they still call that mountain “Denali”. It isn’t just Apple that didn’t drop everything to push out a software update to hundreds of million of devices in less than 24 hours for nonsense.

      • olympicyes@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        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.

        • VerifiedSource@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          Mexico has two states named Baja California and California Sur at the gulf of California.

          If anything California should be renamed to something less Mexican like Triumphia. Renaming the major cities to City of Angels, Saint Francis, Saint Joseph, Sacrament, Saint Doug, Ash Tree would then follow suit.