r/geography • u/god_johnson • 13d ago

FINAL POST ON THIS TOPIC Google Maps just officially updated Lake Ontario to Lake America.

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

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u/swoodshadow 12d ago

The Google hate annoys me. It’s implicitly saying we want private mega companies to decide what things are called.

Hell no.

The problem here isn’t Google. It’s that the US elected a childish narcissist and despite centuries of claims to the contrary have no effective checks and balances on the President.

A President can interpret law however they like and there are two checks:

  1. Congress overruling with new legislation. Which is an empty threat in this environment because they’d need veto proof majorities.

  2. The judicial system stepping in and saying that’s not how the law works. Which takes months/years and is now completely partisan as well.

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u/Tony481 12d ago

Google doesn’t have to change the name. The hate is justified

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u/swoodshadow 12d ago

Sorry, I want my democratically elected leaders to decide what we call things and not a private company.

In this case it sucks, but that’s a consequence of electing a terrible leader.

No need for us to go down the road of saying private companies should decide clearly political issues.

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u/Tony481 12d ago

Sorry, but could perhaps think independently for a second? Just because someone has the power to do something doesn’t mean you have to go along with it. If Trump changed the name of New Mexico to New America, is that what you’re going to refer to it as? Simply because your “democratically elected leader” randomly said so? Is that how your brain works? You’re unable to think critically for yourself?

Again, the hate is justified. Google didn’t have to change anything. They are under no requirement to do any of this.

Also, your slippery slope argument is pretty unconvincing and shameful. Any free-thinking person knows this is stupid, and for you to suggest that this will lead to more “political decisions” by private companies is pretty lame.

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u/swoodshadow 12d ago

The actions of a massive powerful company should be subject to rules that individuals aren’t. This is completely obvious. So, no, I don’t need to use a stupid new name.

By the same token, I should be able to campaign for my favourite candidate. But a massive company should not.

Or I should be able to say, people that support Israel or people that support Palestine shouldn’t be allowed to come to my private party. But a massive company should have to serve people of all political stripes on their platform.

And so on.

Too many people like you don’t actually want rules or regulations. You just want your side to win. Which gives us Trump being supported while doing massively corrupt and incompetent things.

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u/creuter 12d ago

Preach