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Comment by loehnsberg | Hacker News Reader

Suppose you have a liberal mindset and work there, you must bend the knee and practice anticipatory obedience, or why else would you tell the world that the rocket will be ”dropping into the Gulf of America?“

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I’m a liberal and I have absolutely zero opinion about what we call various bodies of water. The hands wringing over such inconsequential monikers makes me embarrassed sometimes to be part of this party.

I believe a core tenant of the American Way is that we should be able to build great things together with people we disagree with.

Tenet, like the Nolan movie.

That's very healthy, but in this case it feels more like building things for people you disagree with, and who ultimately don't want you to disagree with them.

While I agree with your general point, as an outsider what struck me the most about Trump ordering the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America" was the pettieness of it, and as such I don't really care.

I mean, I live in Germany now, and the German name for Germany isn't Germany (except when it is because Denglish is surprisingly also used in political posters), and likewise has a different name in French (Allemagne), Dutch (Duitsland), Danish (Tyskland), Polish (Niemcy), and Czech (Německo).

Or how the body of water separating Great Britain from mainland Europe is "The English Channel" or "La Manche" (literally "the sleeve", but also name of a department of Normandy).

Seems to me that having your name localised into other languages shows a degree of respect (or at least familiarity). Pity also the French, Franzozerinen; the Anglais, Grossbritannierinen; or the Dutch.

Exonyms definitely aren't always positive — Niemcy and Německo are both from Proto-Slavic "němъ": unclear/incomprehensible speaker; muttering; mute/unable to speak.

same as Welsh!

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