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"Lake America"

Manopolus said:
The insane part is that Amerigo Vespucci (the guy "America" is named for) never set foot in any territory that later became part of the USA. He "discovered" the coasts of Venezuela and Brazil, mostly. So, although a disputed account has him actually reaching the Gulf of Mexico, he never went anywhere near Lake Ontario.

And then with both of these explorers (Columbus and Amerigo), you have a weird stolen valor effect with the "we discovered it" idea. Most of those claiming the heritage as being "their people" are not from Spain, Portugal, or what later became Italy (Columbus was from Genoa financed by Spain, and Amerigo was from Florence, financed by Portugal).

So... why the word they're using even sparks nationalism isn't particularly clear.

But it's best not to even try to understand uber-nationalist Trump fanboys. They're far easier to manipulate than they are to understand.

And yeah, even Trump's ancestry in particular has no association with the countries that funded it, or the Pre-Italian explorers who made the trip. His ancestry looks a lot like mine (Saxon in my case... Germany didn't exist yet, but the Trump's were from the palantate, further south, Germany did exist (barely) by the time they moved accross the pond). His actual German and Scottish ancestors didn't "discover" "America" until the 19th century. So... not sure why he's trying to associate himself with explorers from areas that later became Italy that were working for countries he has also never had any association with.

So... perhaps we should deport the "Merica!" nationalists back to Venezuela (or Spain, Portugal, Florence... wherever is fine), since that's where they apparently think they came from? I guess that's one takeaway. The name of the actual country is The United States. America refers to the whole continent, but it's a bit less nominally appropriate for the land this country actually occupies than it is for other places.

If we wanted to rename Lake Ontario for the people who "discovered" it with the usual Eurocentric bias, that would be Samuel de Champlain and Etienne Brule in 1615. So... French people.
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There is already a Lake Champlain. It is mostly in the USA with a small part in Canada. And Brule Lake is in Alberta.
 
Jack by the hedge said:
I think you mean Byzantium. Sure, a megalomaniac sometimes comes along and starts renaming things as he pleases, but that won't last. And it didn't in this case. A mere 1,400 years later "Constantinople" was consigned to the history books.
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Yeah, but it was renamed Istanbul instead of Bytanzium. Byzantium used throughout the Middle ages are a term for the Eastern Roman Empire as a whole until it fell.
And to be fair, BYzantium was not much of a city until Constantine took over.
 
He does love renaming stuff just to create a shibboleth to test the loyalty of his followers. If you call it the Gulf of Mexico, or Lake Ontario, or Artificial Intelligence you're on the naughty step.

It's Super Intelligence now because it's not artificial, apparently. Yes, you and I and everyone else might think that artificial means man-made or synthetic, but Trump knows it means fake. Many people don't know that. But you'd better get busy agreeing.
 
Jack by the hedge said:
He does love renaming stuff just to create a shibboleth to test the loyalty of his followers. If you call it the Gulf of Mexico, or Lake Ontario, or Artificial Intelligence you're on the naughty step.
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I think it's also partly because he can't remember the names of things, so changing them all to "Trump" makes it easy. It's the single word he'll always remember, it's engraved upon his heart because it's the name of the only thing he cares about.
 
TragicMonkey said:
I think it's also partly because he can't remember the names of things, so changing them all to "Trump" makes it easy. It's the single word he'll always remember, it's engraved upon his heart because it's the name of the only thing he cares about.
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I heard it was tattooed on his dick. In 8 point comic sans so it all fit.
 
TragicMonkey said:
I think it's also partly because he can't remember the names of things, so changing them all to "Trump" makes it easy. It's the single word he'll always remember, it's engraved upon his heart because it's the name of the only thing he cares about.
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South America seems to have had the wot of this.
 
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