I'm not sure people actually understand why this is just sad.
It is not that I am against a nationalist and populist renaming, it is that these renames have a clearly negative impact.
They deny the identity of the local people who lived there before us (Ontario meaning "sparkling lake" in Iroquoian; Mexico being a Nahuatl expression).
They undermine the diversity and richness of the names we use. Do we really want everything to be "of America"?
That doesn't make America greater; it just makes it dumber, and boring.
It is not that I am against a nationalist and populist renaming, it is that these renames have a clearly negative impact.
They deny the identity of the local people who lived there before us (Ontario meaning "sparkling lake" in Iroquoian; Mexico being a Nahuatl expression).
They undermine the diversity and richness of the names we use. Do we really want everything to be "of America"?
That doesn't make America greater; it just makes it dumber, and boring.