History teaches us that maps and the names, territories and landmarks they include or exclude always have political consequences, Cornell science and technology studies scholar Christine Leuenberger writes in an opinion article for MSNBC.
“President Donald Trump has generated a steady stream of headlines since returning to office by renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” and Lake Ontario “Lake America,” while also calling for other changes to the maps Americans use every day,” Leuenberger writes in the piece. “It’s easy to dismiss these moves as political theater, just more fodder for social media outrage or late-night comedy…Maps may appear to be objective and unbiased representations of the world, but they are inevitably, inherently selective."
