1w ago

Apple deadnamed the Gulf of America and conservatives are triggered

gizmodo.com Apple Deadnamed the Gulf of America and Conservatives Are Triggered

Tech companies aren’t moving fast enough for America’s most sensitive politicians.

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.

240 comments

For people always calling the others "snowflakes" and "easily triggered", they sure do have a thin skin.
- “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.
  
  "Facts don't care about your feelings snowflake."
- It's always projection with these people.
  
  Always. Especially the pedo stuff.
- 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.
- I call them hypocrites, but they don’t care.
- Every accusation
- Wait until iOS Auto Corrects them typing Gulf of America to Gulf of Mexico but only after they hit send.

They want an efficient government not wasting time and resources on unnecessary things ...
They get a government crying over the name of a body of water.
- They say they want an efficient government not wasting time and resources on unnecessary things. What they actually want is a government that makes them feel superior to all the people they've been convinced to hate, in this case Mexicans and Leftists. Trump knows this, and gives them what they want so that he can get what he wants, which is free reign to exploit his position and his country for profit while his loyal voter base blindly supports his efforts to usher in their demise.
  
  Exactly. They just want to feel superior without actually doing anything to be better than anyone. Nobody is stopping them from self improvement. Nobody is stopping them from volunteering in ways that are really meaningful. But that's hard and takes time and effort. It feels more immediately satisfying to hate. It's just that it makes you feel emptier bit by bit as you do it. It's like using casual sex to cope with romantic loneliness, except lust actually has its place jn a healthy life.
- Their job is to do nothing and cede power and influence to unregulated, uncontrolled private interests of billionaires. It is now, was last week, and was years back. It is the merging and takeover of state power by corporate power.
  
  And, as you no doubt already know, that merger has a name. But maybe it's Roman inspired....
- It's a very important body of water, ok?!
  
  Indeed. It is the hurricane class five generating hot tub. How else could nature teach the most boneheaded MAGA-brains that climate change and global warming is real but by depopulating the coastal states...
  
  It will be a body of oil soon enough. Then the world will probably get on board with the new name.
  
  Fuck is he going to rename Lake Ontario too?! Lol

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!
- So, the Gulf of They/Them is what the rest of the world should call it? I can get behind that.
- 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.
- We need to ask them what the Gulf's pronouns are.

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.
- Time for everyone to start burner Open Street Maps accounts!
- I feel like an OSM edit is in order.
  
  Please don't vandalise OSM.

Pretty sure it's called "Gulf of How The Fuck Does This Lower Grocery Prices"
- If Apple changed the name to "Gulf of How The Fuck Does This Lower Grocery Prices" for a day in response I'd start using Apple Maps.
  I'll be happy with companies ignoring this to set the precedent that these executive orders are toothless.

Are eggs cheaper because of this?

How does this lower the cost of housing?
- https://imgur.com/a/6xGynzQ

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.
- Yeah, it started in WWI.
  https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/36579/did-the-u-s-government-try-to-rename-hamburgers-to-liberty-sandwiches
  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.
- 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.
- Yes, and sauerkraut was "liberty cabbage" before that.
  
  "Liberty cabbage" sounds very Orwellian. I guess "freedom fries" does too.
- But I don’t remember our government wasting time and official action on that. It was just a “popular” movement supported by propaganda
- They were right as well

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?
- 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.
  
  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.
  
  America is not "The United States" in the context of naming global features on a map. We have two continents call that, for example.
- Nope. But Donzo the clown runs the circus now

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.
  
  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.

Fuck, I honestly thought this was the Onion. Somebody get me out of this timeline. I withdraw consent for this simulation!

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.
  https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/restoring-names-that-honor-american-greatness/
  
  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.
  
  Technically can I name it Gulf of Trump can kiss my ass?
- 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 never will happen. We all keep calling it what it is, the gulf of Mexico. Easy.
- 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?
- 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

Should list it as "Gulf of Cuba" and watch their heads explode.
- 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.
- Thanks for the idea. I'm doing an edit on Apple maps to suggest that. 😈

Whoever obeys Nazis, I will boycott your platform. Plain and simple.

Executive orders have no control over non-government entities. They are just official instructions given to lower executive office departments on how to operate.
- President just orders the police to kill everyone, who names it wrongly...
  Now private business can decide if they want to comply or not.
  
  The police forces are managed by state governments, not federal.
  
  Private business, with wealth exceeding that of nations, then hire mercenaries and assassins, and within a week the Senate, House, Judiciary and Executive branches are empty. Now the Federal government can decide if they want to try anything.

The government can fuck right off with their Newspeak.
- This is a huge distraction to get you worked up about a meaningless name change. Elon is heiling on stage like an edgy teen for further drama. Meanwhile EO are signed en masse and action is taken by the new administration. This time Trump and his cronies came well prepared with a plan.
  
  Who says I'm worked up? You wrote a whole paragraph, I wrote a quip.

Republicans upset that nobody respects their name change? Huh. Snowflakes.

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.
— https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_of_the_Americas
- 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...
- That's a whole debate people from the US are not ready for
- 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.
- So it should really be "Ameriga"?

Is this what small government looks like? I thought these guys were all about reducing regulations and allowing businesses to do as they please, free from government restrictions.
- You don't understand. They should be free of your restrictions, you should be bound by their restrictions.
- I thought these guys were all about reducing regulations
  Did you really? Be honest.

The senator for North Mexico needs to stop being such a snowflake.

Small dick energy.

Wow Colbert was the original one to make the suggestion!
- I know this has been said a lot, especially lately, but I think this is the true death knell of satire.
  
  :(
- My favorite part is that the soviets beat us to the name

As someone who worked in mapping, many people don't realize how much this kind of BS actually comes up.
The map you see in Google / Apple maps isn't the map the whole world sees. What you see is what's culturally / legally appropriate for viewers in your region.
For example, in parts of India it's legally required that Jammu and Kashmir be displayed as being part of India on their maps. On Pakistan's maps it's legally required to be weirdly ambiguous, with a strange open border that doesn't properly close. The rest of the world gets dotted lines indicating it's complicated.
For most of the world the body of water between Korea, Japan and Vladivostok is labeled as "The Sea of Japan", but users in Korea will see "The East Sea". Is the body of water around Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, etc. the Persian Gulf or the Arabian Gulf? Depends on where you are when you ask that question.
This even has a strange effect when all the countries involved agree that a certain geographic feature is the border, but that geographic feature is a river. Some rivers, especially ones like the Amazon river keep shifting. Sediment piles up, erosion happens, and the river shifts. The river is still the border, but now someone has to go in and adjust the political border to match the river's new position.
So, if Trump does do something official to rename the Gulf of Mexico, the online mapping companies (and any offline ones that are left) will probably follow the rule and rename it... for their American users. The rest of the world will still see it as the Gulf of Mexico. It will just be yet another one of those funny exceptions the companies have to keep track of while displaying maps for a certain subset of users.
- The rest of the world will still see it as the Gulf of America.
  of Mexico** I guess?
  
  Er, yeah, that.
  
  Sorry about the ttrypo.

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.

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.
- A month of Denali left, apparently

This is foreshadowing dark times ahead.

I forgot that apple was a department under the president
- I feel sorry for Wozniak... Watching the company he helped build turn into what it has.
- Tim Apple personally donated 1 million dollars to Trump

I'm waiting to hear what they want to do with New Mexico
- Rename it to New America then in 4 years whine about New America trying to steal the light from old America because Democrats
  
  Only after they deport all the new Mexicans

Google also didn't. Oof.
- Cause most google users aren't americans and the mental illness of a few sex criminals would disrupt their service.
  
  It doesn’t matter who their customers are, Google is a us based company.
  However, hopefully they are able to depose, delay, deny this ridiculousness
  
  Users with other languages will see a different name anyway.
- 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.

Use "Oblast" instead of state for every single red shithole.
- This should include the beautiful Oblast of New America if we are anyway in the process of renaming things.
- Autonomna Pokrajina Texas

Surprised he hasn't tried to slap his name on something by EO yet, like a blue state.
"New York is such a weak name-- you know it, I know it-- I had an uncle that went to New York folks, great man, smart man. He told me once with tears in his eyes, New York could be great, but it's so sad, could be great though. So it needs a biglier name, powerful name, not weak, powerful. From today I've decided it's now called, Trump Trork."

I can't with these neogulfnouns

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.

Can the president unilaterally change the names of anything he wants? Seems like there at least needs to be a vote on this.
- Can the president unilaterally change the names of anything he wants?
  Maybe for things inside his own country. Though the affected local governments may object.
  But for bodies of water that contain international waters, and that border other countries? Fuck no he doesn't.
- That's what an executive order is isn't it? The pres just saying this is how something is without challenge
  
  An executive order is just official instructions to a lower office on how they are to operate. They have no legal authority outside of that purpose. They are not laws. They do not apply to the public or other businesses.
  It's the equivalent of a supervisor writing memo to the staff that the department break room should have tea instead of coffee. No one outside the company, or even the department, has to obey it
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Mexico#Maritime_boundary_delimitation_agreements
  Some of the gulf is international waters, and some is owned by Mexico/Cuba. But that was in a world where agreements mattered.
- Sure. There's no need for anybody else to pander to it though.

Did Dan Crenshaw contact the Gulf to ask how it wants to identify itself?
- yes, but it asked to be called "The Rainbow Gulf"... and he decided to maybe forget that ever happened.

Let's just call it the gulf of shit and dump all conservatives in there.
- At least on its northern shore, that's already pretty much the case

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?
- 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.
- 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".
  
  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).
- In the US, it's the Board on Geographic Names.
  
  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.

As a Trans person I feel soooo bad /s

Only about a third of the Gulf of Mexico is US territory, so how can the US president unilaterally rename it? Seems Mexico has the larger claim to naming rights.

Probably a good time to try and sell maps and globes to red school districts.
- You know some friend of the administration already took that spot. It was probably their idea in the first place.

Should rename it the Persian gulf or the Arab gulf and watch as people get even more confused.

Le's rename Dan Crenshaw to One-Eye Jack first
- One-Eyed Monster, Penis for short (likely literally for him given his posturing)

They haven’t updated the name in the geographical systems, so nobody is calling it that yet.

LMAO at title

What does Claudia scheinbaum have to say about this

Fuck Gizmodo, making trans insults into a joke with that headline.
- I'm trans myself and I kinda like it, flip the script, use the Right's own spells and logic against them! Make THEM the libs who get owned.
  
  Yeah? I can see that... thanks

The Gulf of Mexico didn't choose its supposed new name. This is not deadnaming. Unless there is a positive definition of the word that I'm not aware of, this attempt to rename is the opposite of the meaning. The use of the deadnaming in this context trivializes and distorts what it means. Shame on Gizmodo.
EDIT: Sorry, didn't pick up on the sarcasm.
- Its making fun of how Conservatives will deadname actual people but then throw a hissy fit when folks dont immediately change how they refer to something of little relevance. Its drawing attention to their braindead hypocrisy.
  
  Gotcha, thanks for the good-faith explanation. Sometimes I have a hard time picking up on sarcasm. Fuck them reactionary nazis.

I couldn't care less what the name of that gulf is, however, Trump is right when he says that the US is the ONLY country that pumps money into that entire region. We protect it, monitor it, and it all comes out of American tax dollars. Mexico is just riding our coat tails. I can see why he'd want to change it. Also, the name "Gulf of America" technically includes Mexico..
- We freeload off of Mexico. They give us about $160 billion more dollars in goods and services than we give them. They give us about $467 billion worth of stuff, and in return we give them about $309 billion in stuff. In exchange we mostly give them IOUs and other pieces of paper.
  Oh, and that's before we talk about the billions of dollars we steal from the Mexican government. Think of all the talented workers that move from Mexico to the US. That's millions of people raised and educated on the backs of Mexican taxpayers, who come to the US and never contribute a penny to the Mexican economy.
  The US is a giant leech sucking the Mexican economy dry.
  
  Oh brother.. sounds like you're either
  A: Ashamed to be in this country, so when are you leaving somewhere else?
  B: Don't live in this country and have spent too much time on Lemmy/Reddit where the USA is constantly attacked as the big bad wolf... until someone needs us, like Ukraine...
- We protect it
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill

240 comments