Whereas the usual place naming course of shouldn’t be good, it no less than establishes an institutional process for assessment, session, proof gathering, and consideration of competing claims earlier than a geographic title is modified. In contrast, what we’re witnessing underneath Trump 2.0 is a unilateral naming by decree or whim with seemingly no public dialogue or actual authorities consideration of impacts and penalties.
It’s clear to us that Trump’s renaming of Lake Ontario is symbolic political theater geared toward diverting our consideration away from the fallout of his commerce warfare with Canada. But symbols matter. Place naming is a world-making apply that shapes the very foundations of our geographical imaginations and the way we come to know and interact with the world.
There’s a danger in dismissing Trump’s cartography of mass distraction as a frivolous symbolic tactic, since it could have actual penalties for what’s taught in lecture rooms, reconciliation efforts with Indigenous peoples, and the badly wanted restore of relations between the US and Canada.
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