Pavan, Week #5 - Amerinited Amerates Amerof America
Have you ever been to the Gulf of Mexico or Lake Ontario? I hear that they’re beautiful and astonishing places, but according to Google Maps, you can’t visit them. If you live in America and try to view these places by scrolling to their locations, different names appear. You see the Gulf of America and Lake America. Sure, you can still search for their old names manually, but isn’t discovering places by exploring a map part of the fun?
In the past year or so, Trump has and continues to call for the change in names of famous locations across America, even if they border other countries as well. Many believe that this is just his way of distracting Americans from other issues. However, he might actually believe that this is beneficial. Who knows? It certainly doesn’t seem like a pressing issue to me, especially when America has much larger issues on its plate, like the fact that the national debt has surpassed $40 trillion.
Just the other day, Trump, once again, called for the renaming of New Mexico to New America. Not only does this not make any sense, since NM is literally sitting right next to Mexico, it also effectively erases history and our ties with other nations. The land of NM used to be a part of Mexico and calling it New America tramples on this reality. Renaming the state also infringes on the identities of New Mexicans, who would effectively have to call themselves New Americans (although I doubt many people would partake in this even if the name changed).
We give things a name for important reasons. It could be used to show relation, cultural significance, or it might even just be in plain fun (fun that captures people’s hearts). When you replace a name with something else for the sole purpose of it being America-themed, you are throwing away a unique name packed with history, forcing people to lay their eyes upon a name made in a hasty, egotistical decision. These names carry real weight and should not be changed on random whims (or tantrums, your call).
I love the title and how it really captures your topic, it drew me in when I read it! Personally, places like New Mexico with its heritage in its name reminds me of other place like New York (originally New Amsterdam). New Amsterdam was named that because it used to be a Dutch colony and they were honoring where they came from by naming it after their capital. After the English took it, it was renamed to be after King James who was the Duke of York at the time. In both of these instances, it stayed true to its origins that made its group special. Trump had done the opposite of this by attempting to cover up surrounding cultures and histories with a sort of Manifest Destiny mindset of America. Similar to the English, Trump has placed the English or the white American above other groups of people, showing how history and actions repeat themselves time and time again.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit, the title was really creative. I enjoyed how you utilized the title as a metaphor to showcase the incredibly arbitrary and illogical renaming of these geographic locations to an “American theme”. On the point of whether it was on whim or not though, I think there are a few possible reasons as to why Trump and his administration have been doing this. First, I think it’s definitely a move to cover up. If you have watched the dead cat strategy by Zach D Films, you would know how oftentimes in the media, something dangerous or attention worthy can be almost immediately covered up by an even crazier headline. And in the current political state, I’ve seen this happen almost too many times. First with the Epstein files (which Trump himself had involvement in), then with the Israel-Palestine complications, and then with the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Second, I think it’s a bit of an internal strategy. As we know, Trump relies heavily on far right voters, and these include the nativist, White, Christian, and predominantly older audience, which he possibly hopes will be pleased or will follow him if he mirrors these agendas with these name changes. Therefore, the name changes would be a display of “patrioticness” while obviously someone who thinks critically about such actions would immediately realize it is nothing more than a political strategy. Finally, I think it is also an attempt (albeit poorly executed one) to position the U.S. as a superpower that does not take “no” for an answer. His rhetoric mirrors this, threatening to invade Canada, take over Greenland, etc. So in conclusion, I think this strategy is a mix of dead-cat tool usage, an attempt to connect to his voters, and a push to position America as a dominant hegemony.
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