Gulf of America - Gulf of Mexico
community.openstreetmap.org
President Donald Trump just said during his inauguration that he wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Aside from the political aspects, how does that even work? How does OSM choose a source for that? I’m curious! Also, somebody executed what I thought while I wrote this post:

As of revision version #85, OpenStreetMap has the following tags for Golfo de México:

  • name:en Gulf of Mexico
  • official_name:en-US Gulf of America
  • RxBrad@infosec.pubEnglish
    0·
    9 days ago

    Such a weird thing for everyone to fixate on and lose their shit. Let our dumbass en-US selves do whatever “official” dumbass thing we have to with the name.

    Everyone else can leave it what it always was.

    Next time there’s a Democrat U.S. President, the “en-US” term will be changed back to Gulf of Mexico.

    This is stupid.

    • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
      0·
      9 days ago

      It’s true and it’s such a distraction. There is so much worse shit going on right now in the US government. I’m tired of not calling it a coup. It’s a coup. They’re trying to act like the judicial branch doesn’t get to determine what is and isn’t constitutional. So much shit.

      As bad and as cringe as it is for the “Gulf of America” debacle to happen, it’s just genuinely not worth the headspace right now.

    • renegadespork@lemmy.jelliefrontier.netEnglish
      0·
      9 days ago

      You’re right. It’s part of a propaganda strategy to trick US media to “discuss” trivial things like this instead of focusing on the real harm the administration is doing.

  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    0·
    10 days ago

    As I explained to Google (from Dan McClellan) _references do not assert from fiat what things are called. A dictionary definition is not an official definition but what a word means or what a thing is called at the moment.

    Most of the world calls it the Golfo de México or in English speaking regions, the Gulf of Mexico. Changing all the maps of the world won’t change this.

    Now granted, a state chooses what to call itself (such as the changing of The Ukraine to simply Ukraine but that is the incorporated entity that is the sovereign nation of Ukraine.

    As the US does not have sovereign control of the Gulf of Mexico, it doesn’t get to declare the name of a region of international waters.

    This whole thing just makes the GOP, MAGA, the Trump administration and by proxy the people of the United States xenophobic and barbaric as hell. It’s not a good look.

    • xor@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      9 days ago

      it was never “the ukraine”, russia just called it that because the ukraine was a region to them… like the great plains is to america…

      • zaphod@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        0·
        9 days ago

        Russian doesn’t even have definite articles, to them it was always just Ukraine.

        • Don Antonio Magino@feddit.nlEnglish
          0·
          9 days ago

          Judging from this very polemic article by linguistic anthropologist Kathryn E. Graber, the argument is that a linguistic distinction that exists in Russian (and Ukrainian) is mirrorred in other languages using the definite article. ‘Na Ukraine’ on the one hand literally means ‘on Ukraine’, ‘v Ukraine’ on the other ‘in Ukraine’. Graber goes on to say that ‘In Russian, a person is “na” an unbounded territory, such as a hill, but “v” a bounded territory that is defined politically or institutionally, such as a nation-state.’ She would then probably also argue that the same, in English, goes for names like ‘the Congo’, being named after a river. The claim that this is a Soviet-era practice (if what she means by that is that it arose during the Soviet Union), is simply not true, though. In Google Books you can find plenty of titles with ‘the Ukraine’ from before 1900. The earliest mention I found in English (though I didn’t look very well) was from 1672.

          It anyway strikes me as very performative. You can well argue that language influences the way we view the world (though, I think the way we view the world influences the language we use much more). Even so, there are obviously much bigger (concrete) threats to Ukrainian sovereignty than (to Ukrainians) foreigners using a definite article or not. Thus, it becomes less a matter of protecting sovereignty, and more a matter of simple respect to Ukrainian sensibilities. Ukrainians may take offence at you using the definite article, and you may want to prevent that by not saying ‘the Ukraine’.

  • thejoker954@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    Just like I never called french fries freedom fries, I will never call the gulf of mexico the gulf of america

  • Singletona082@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    As an american. I want the option to display it as Gulf of Mexico. Like it’s always been before that fat sack of shit was trying to win points wit hracists to distract them from the hand reaching up their ass to fuck them.

  • letsgo@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    10 days ago

    For the next four years I also propose renaming en_us to an-us.

  • Vanth@reddthat.comEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    Can we poll the community for alternate names that would enrage Trump? If it’s gonna change, let’s have fun with it.

    Gulf of Veganism and Low Cholesterol

    Gulf of Checks and Balances

    Gulf of 34 Felony Counts

    Gulf of Cheetos (let’s get those sweet advertising dollars while we’re at it)

    Gulf of Insecurity

    Kamala-Clinton Gulf

    • Die Martin Die@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      9 days ago

      Gulf of 34 Felony Counts

      We could tell these fuckers that Trump broke 34 rules and to Google “trump rule 34”, but given a) Trump’s history in the sexual department, and b) the fact most of them will actually jack off to this, I don’t think it’s a good idea

  • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.socialEnglish
    0·
    10 days ago

    Honestly, I think that we the people need to assert our own right to name things more often. I don’t recall the latest name of the Brewers stadium in Milwaukee, for example. Whatever company that paid to have them put its name on the front didn’t pay me. It’s “the new County Stadium” as far as I’m concerned.

    (I have no philosophical objection to the name, by the way. Reps of the new company can DM me, we can work out a deal.)

    • specialseaweed@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      10 days ago

      An acquaintance helped close a deal for a stadium naming rights. It had been a multi year process, the negotiations were crazy, the company deliberated forever trying to decide if this was the best way to increase brand recognition and man that shits expensive.

      So like a shit head that thinks he’s funny I started calling the stadium by its sponsor like 3 sponsors ago when I was around them. You could see the anxiety spike when I did it.

      Your comment made me think of that. It’s hilarious. They would have had a fucking breakdown if they had heard someone say that out loud.

    • Darren@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      0·
      9 days ago

      There’s a county cricket ground near me that was naked the Hampshire Rose Bowl when it was first opened 25 years ago. In that time it has been renamed a number of times in honour of a selection of insurance companies I’d never heard of before, but to pretty much everyone in the area it’s the Rose Bowl.

      So yeah.

    • zlatiah@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      10 days ago

      Frankly I agree. From my personal experience, every single native Chicagoan has been calling that particular building “Sears Tower”. Even though the name has been officially changed for more than 15 years by this point…

      And I thin OSM actually handled this quite well! The original Sears Tower name is still available as an “alt_name” tag on OSM as well, I just double-checked and yep it’s still searchable on the map

  • the_doktor@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    10 days ago

    How is it the “official name” even for en-US? Trump isn’t the be all and end all of naming things. Every single rational, thinking person in the USA, and many, many people who aren’t so rational (Trump voters), still call it the Gulf of Mexico and always will. Official, my ass.

    The early proposal of alt-name: en-US=Gulf of America seemed the most logical.

    Holy hell, I hate this cursed timeline.

    • JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      0·
      10 days ago

      Because the United States Board on Geographic Names now says so, as demanded by Trump by Order No. 3423. They are the government body that defines what places are officially called.

      But unless you are a US federal employee, as Nick Fury once said, “I recognize the council has made a decision, but given that it’s a stupid-ass decision, I’ve elected to ignore it.”

  • deathbird@mander.xyzEnglish
    0·
    10 days ago

    Literally no one ever called it “Gulf of America” until January. I appreciate the generally thoughtful conversation on OSM, but there’s no reason that declaration should be taken seriously.

  • I3lackshirts94@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    If he is just going to make executive order to change shit he doesn’t like and not follow the law. Who says I have to follow them too? Still the Gulf of Mexico to me! 😂

  • Venia Silente@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago
    • name:en: Gulf of Mexico
    • stupid_name:en-US-confederate-bootlicker: Gulf of Amerikkka

    That should suffice.

  • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    Fun fact, per the executive order, the whole body isn’t being renamed the Gulf of America, only the “U.S. Continental Shelf area bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and extending to the seaward boundary with Mexico and Cuba”. That is, less than the northern half, as indicated in this map: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_ECS_Regions_2023.png

    I hope this is due to someone intentionally wording it to sound correct, but in reality being extra screwy so that they look like fools.