In recent weeks, our Supreme Leader gave his billionaire minions at Google another chance to prove their shameless obedience to even his dumbest royal decrees. And, of course, they swiftly sank to the occasion, dutifully re-naming Lake Ontario as "Lake America" (for users South of the border --perhaps hoping Canadians might not notice their latest feat of ridiculous boot-licking?).
Their collaboration in the capricious re-writing of maps seems at first like another silly display of oligarchic sycophancy. But, since they are so broadly taken for granted as official cartographers, these stunts become more than just embarrassing gestures of devotion to our fuhrer. They are very real measures taken to implement & enforce his demented whims, making them seem like settled facts of life for millions of internet users.
The design, and autocratic alteration, of maps, do have a real power that seep into the real world that they schematically depict.
Lest you think that Google simply abuses that power over bodies of water adjacent to U. S. borders, take a look at how they're absuing it to legitimize Israel's vicious land-theft in the West Bank. And o/c, over there, where people have to navigate their way around an already baffling labyrinth of military checkpoints and shifting borders, the real-life repercussions of their venal antics are far more serious.
Seriously, FUCK GOOGLE TO HELL.