Hacker News Reader

Comment by motorest | Hacker News Reader

> This is exactly the same issue AP was protesting, in reverse, with the kicker that Mexico has no sovereignty over the US.

You somehow got it entirely backwards. The Trump Administration decided it was a good idea to rebrand random geographical areas with nationalistic names and force that change upon the world. The world woke up to see this "freedom fries" nonsense forced upon them through the likes of Google Maps. In the very least, Google must not change the experience for anyone else accessing their service outside of the US.

Ask yourself this: why would anyone in the world be subjected to these whimsical nationalistic banana republic renaming stunts?

View on HN

This is a common problem. In Korea, the Sea of Japan is the "East Sea". In Iran the Persian Gulf is the "Arabian Sea." Do we waste our time worrying how maps are labeled for consumers in Iran or Korea?

What's different here is an objecting nation (Mexico) is interfering with names and expression that are used in another country, namely the US.

You think Gulf of Mexico is a better name. You're entitled to you opinion, particularly if you live in the US. But what if you lived in Mexico and the US government sued you for using your preferred name in Mexico? And you think that I have it backwards?

> In Korea, the Sea of Japan is the "East Sea".

That's perfectly fine. If the Trump Administration wants to force-feed Gulf of America onto the US, let that show up within the US.

Don't force that nonsense onto anyone else though. Let's contan that banana republic nonsense within the borders of banana republics.

> Ask yourself this: why would anyone in the world be subjected to these whimsical nationalistic banana republic renaming stunts?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Google_LLC_(2...

> > Ask yourself this: why would anyone in the world be subjected to these whimsical nationalistic banana republic renaming stunts?

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Google_LLC_(2...

Wikipedia says that's "an ongoing federal antitrust case brought by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) against Google LLC on January 24, 2023 [that] accuses Google of illegally monopolizing the advertising technology (adtech) market in violation of sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890." How does this answer your parent's question?

Theoretically, if you can make Trump happy and show you are on his side, Trump could make that case disappear.

Or, more realistically, Trump will still screw them over anyway, scorpion & frog style.

Large companies are bending over backwards to curry favor with Trump (see Meta settling and paying millions on a case they were winning and almost certainly would win).

“why would anyone in the world be subjected to these whimsical nationalistic banana republic renaming stunts?”

Maybe because everyone in the world is subjected to these whimsical nationalistic banana republic renaming stunts.

How do you think the names of geographical areas came about in the first place? Did everyone in the world get a vote on the official Geographical Naming Commission? Oh wait. What should we call this official commission? What language should be the official language for the naming commission?

The overblown outrage over this issue is absolutely silly.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com