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Trump renaming stuff is good, actually.
My initial reaction to Trump renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and reverting Denali to Mount McKinley was "this is dumb and childish".
I've changed my mind.
If you're a white man under 50, then you've experienced things being renamed as something that is done to your people, for the benefit of others.
Statues of Jefferson and Washington are taken down and statues of civil rights leaders go up. Columbus Day is referred to as "Indigenous People's Day". Robert E. Lee, once the namesake of so many things, is gradually being erased from the map. Since the 1960's, nearly every sizeable town has acquired an MLK Boulevard (usually ridden with crime). And King County, Washington recently did a "name change" in which it discarded its former namesake, former Vice President William R. King, to honor (who else) Martin Luther King.
Countries in the third world have employed this power play as well. Bombay becomes Mumbai, Madras becomes Chennai. Cape Verde becomes Cabo Verde, the Ivory Coast becomes Cote d'Ivoire, and Turkey becomes Türkiye. How long until China insists that foreigners uses its rightful name: 中国.
The indigenous names are worse. Barrow, Alaska is now Utqiagvik. Port Elizabeth, South Africa, has become Gqeberha. Apparently, the citizens of these places don't even use the new and unpronouncable names – which seem to exist only as a way to flex on white people.
Since the 1960s, name changes are one of those things that the left just took complete control over while no one was paying attention. But why should should the left get the exclusive right to rename things?
Trump is now upsetting this forgone conclusion. You rename stuff, we'll rename stuff too. And if you want control over names, you're going to have to give up something else in return. I think it's a good move.
I understand the sentiment, and I even sympathize with it, but I feel the need to take the opposite position.
People renaming stuff for ideological reasons is bad actually.
First, it's confusing and a waste of time, since everyone has to contextualize and relearn common concepts that did not meaningfully change, update maps, and generally give thought to something that wasn't an issue before. It's a problem that arises out of nothing.
Second, it doesn't convey any new information other than who is in charge, so it's a waste of time when that can be demonstrated through other means. Worse, like all symbolic wins it actually is a disincentive to doing practical good. All the ressources spent on words are ressources not spent on making whatever you care about great again. If the vanities of language are what you care about, fine and dandy, but that's unlikely to top the list.
Third, it erases our tether to the past, the names of things can often come from ancient sources that remind us of useful and interesting history, the more ancient the name, the more culture one is vandalizing by venerating their new gods.
Fourth, it's ultimately futile and amounts to suggestion, as do all attempts at linguistic prescriptivism. The ultimate judges of the quality of a new rule are the speakers, and they organically decide to adopt it. Changes imposed by fiat can sometimes be adopted, but all the rejected ones only end up as political shibboleth. Unless there is a groundswell of support to rename the Gulf, it'll end up as yet another tell like "inclusive" terminology and "democrat" vs "democratic" as relating to the party. A further marker of division instead of unity.
So ultimately, I don't even think it's a bad kind of suggestion, but it doesn't belong in policy, and the power to name things rests either in creators, discoverers, achievers, or coiners of beautiful language.
As much as I think of Trump's linguistic acumen, the man did change American English with his speech in a way people don't always realize, I don't see this particular attempt at gaudy jingoism as anything more than that. He's free to make me wrong by being so successful people call it as he wishes in his honor.
Instead of pointing at landmarks, why not create all those new cities he talked about, those would be worthy of the honor.
Fifth (or kind of, since it's related to both 2 and 4), this is going to really rile up the other side, and for nothing. This will convince everyone that Trump's next step is to do <insert batshit thing people somehow think Trump will do> and that this is the chance he's been waiting for to tear down the world and rebuild it in his own image. I think I'm never gonna hear the end of this one from the people I know.
Are these people potential Trump voters? Will they ever be allies? If not, then who cares?
That's the downside of polarization. There's no benefit to reaching across the aisle. Trump can't be shamed by these people because they will hate him no matter what he does. He could be the second coming of FDR and they would still reflexively hate him. They compared him to Hitler.
That's why riling them up about "Gulf of America" is smart politics. It makes his critics look a little crazy and it distracts them from things that matter.
You can't appease people who can't be appeased, but you can troll them.
The weird thing is Trump actually is pretty nice to people once they show a little niceness to him in kind.
This is exactly the reason Elon did the nazi salute, and I'm amazed no one else is picking up on that.
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