Google Maps renames Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America

submitted by soundsituation from (files.catbox.moe)

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[–]In-the-clouds 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Because of censorship of catbox.moe at the DNS server level, this is how I viewed the image. In Linux terminal:

curl -L -H "Host: files.catbox.moe" --insecure https://108.181.20.39/oot16e.jpeg -o oot16e.jpe

[–]farmer 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Another trick is change the DNS to not be censored.

Catbox works using Woodynet as DNS 9.9.9.9 or nine.nine.nine.nine

Woodynet will keep your snoopy isp from knowing where you are looking.

[–]In-the-clouds 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

That could sometimes work. However, the Catbox FAQ says even Quad9 (9.9.9.9), with IBM as a founder, sometimes blocks the file sharing website:

Quad9 actually pulls an aggregate list of URL blacklists and uses them for their filtered DNS service. Catbox is frequently added to no-name blacklists for various reasons. How to resolve? - Use Quad9's alternative DNS server 9.9.9.10, or switch to another public DNS server.

[–]Hematomato 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

Yeah, if you're accessing it from the U.S. If you flip on a VPN, you'll find that it's the Gulf of Mexico to every other country.

The U.S. Board on Geographic Names reports to the Secretary of the Interior, who reports directly to the President, so it turns out the President can rename any or all of the geographic features of the U.S. with the stroke of a pen. I wonder if Trump has set a precedent where, whenever a new party comes into power, all the mountains and rivers and shit get new names.

Perhaps every four years, the name of the Mississippi River will flip back and forth between the Martin Luther King Jr. River and the Go Back To Africa River.

[–]Karce33 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I'm Canadian, eh, and I see this

https://ibb.co/QF18L360

[–]In-the-clouds 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I do not have a VPN, but I tried accessing Google maps with a proxy.... but it was forbidden. No map loaded.

[–]Nonbinaryandroid 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I think Obama was the first President to use this power in my memory. At least with controversy. Prior to that I can't recall any cases where this was used.

The gulf of Mexico rename is kind of ridiculous so I suspect it will get reversed by the next democratic president and become a kind of political football.

I don't think you'll see president's use this power to overtly change the name of many things. There's no material benefits to changing names so it is all political, and i think most people find it ridiculous so the political consequences are likely negative for most cases.

I think the big one in the US was the Mt. McKinley/Denali. Locally it seems most people call it Denali so Obama changed the name to that to pander towards native interests. Outside of Alaska though people only know of the mountain via a map so they saw the name change and simply pandering and not something that the Alaskan locals were largely already fine with. Trump changing it back plays into the "make America great again" crowd by reversing the Obama era changed.

Going forward it seems to me such name changes are only useful as a political distraction. For example if you are up for election but being criticized for some economic misteps that aren't going to be immediately easily understood by the average voter but do have the potential of hurting your election chances, you can change the name of some geological feature and create a media storm that will move the discussion towards that. For example in the case it's a Democrat they could make a decree that Mt. Rushmore should be renamed as it's native name Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe and create a media distraction for some time despite it being utterly immaterial to the state of the country whether you call that mountain by it's common English name or not.

Overtly political changed that don't involve a change to some native name probably won't work as well as I doubt changing the name of the Mississippi to the George Floyd memorial river or the "Jesus saves America River" would have any positive political repercussions for anyone.

However I will make a request to Mr. Trump to change the name of the Geand Teton range, which clearly is offensive to all Americans being in damnable French language. To a more proper English translation of "Big Tits". Which is clearly the correct choice which will make everyone happy. And save America!

[–]Hematomato 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

it is all political, and i think most people find it ridiculous

This is the part where I wish I shared your optimism. It seems there's nothing too ridiculous for the American public these days. We fight endlessly over issues like "Did Elon Musk do a Nazi salute" or "Should we boycott Hogwarts Legacy," and it's pushed almost all non-ridiculous discussion out to the margins of our political discourse.

It seems like renaming all the mountains and rivers is exactly the kind of issue that will drive a base to the polls. People will cast their vote specifically to piss off their next-door neighbor by metaphorically spray-painting "Team Red" or "Team Blue" over Lake Superior.

I do agree that we've gone far too long without acknowledging the Big Tits Range in our native tongue.

[–]Nonbinaryandroid 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I think most of that is limited to internet insanity. I think basically the internet when it was fairly unregulated and still the "wild west" did reflect a lot of actual public opinion of the young and educated which the democrats with Obama properly picked up on while the Republicans ignored it. But when smart phones became common basically everyone started going online the barriers to entry became basically zero and I think the online discourse shifted to entirely different demographics. Younger. Less experienced and stupider. As well as a mix of older people who don't understand the internet well jumping in at this point and being horrified by what they see calling for more restrictions on things understandably.

But for what the Internet was in 2008 it's no longer that in 2025. I think the Democrats banked too much on it being their primary campaign tool but the demographics have shifted again. They've got a core following of their online zealots but that is nowhere near the mainstream. I think they are largely just blind to that though as it's easy to create a false sense of reality on the internet.

The ridiculous discussions and purity spirals and bannings essentially push the online discourse to the fringes, since many proper political organizations have chosen to recruit and pander to the online zealots they get dragged in that direction as well, but as recent election results show, that is not a very good long term strategy.

Just look at sales for Hogwartd Legacy to see how pathetic any such boycott attempts were. A bunch of mentally unstable clinically online types hate you? OK so what. They don't matter. If you pander to them, you lose your main audience, and you can't make them happy either so you lose them as well. If you ignore them they whine about it online and then kill themselves eventually when nobody listens to their whining. The correct choice is obvious for any business.

But yes renaming things is a purely political move that could be used to stoke partisan divisions but it's not something I think the average person is going to care much about.

With the whole "Gulf of America" thing. I think it's stupid to change it. It's basically just Trump throwing his base a bone with a "fuck Mexico" vibe. But that only works since it's a more outwardly focused change that doesn't really play heavily into domestic partisan interests. As if it's called "Gulf of Mexico" or "Gulf of America" is entirely irrelevant to anything.

It really is nothing new though. Politically motivated names are basically a part of American local politics at least for a long while. How many US cities have "Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard" or a "Cesar Chavez Way" despite having no historical ties to either?

It's all just virtue signaling as I see it.

[–]In-the-clouds 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I doubt changing the name of the Mississippi to the George Floyd memorial river or the "Jesus saves America River" would have any positive political repercussions for anyone.

That river could soon look like this. When Trump succeeds in splitting Israel, God will split America. And Jesus will not save the most wicked nation, because it has forsaken him. But he will save the people who live in America who also turn away from sin and turn to him for salvation.

[–]twolanterns 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Google maps also show the location of Bioshock's Rapture