The Economist maintains a "democracy index" for all countries. "Extent to which citizens can choose their political leaders in free and fair elections, enjoy civil liberties, prefer democracy over other political systems, can and do participate in politics, and have a functioning government that acts on their behalf. It ranges from 0 to 10 (most democratic)."
The US dropped one level in 2016 and never came back. Next update May 2025.
Not surprising. While there has been some movement in the positive direction (like Syria - though we still have to see how this will last) we see more movement in the other direction like Hungary, Poland (in a lesser extend), etc. No doubt in small part due to social media, allowing fake news and dumb simplicity to spread much more easily beyond the local social bubble.
Are they doing this because they legitimately believe the country they operate within is somehow on par with Iran and China? Or is it because they simply don't like the leader of the administration.
This seems like childish nonsense from an elite class that doesn't like the lack of deference they're expected to be shown.
It only highlights that the classification was never meaningful in the first place.
The US is currently experiencing a ~~coup d'état~~ self coup. The current Republican admin has systematically fired government employees that didn’t vote Republican, any employees viewed as “enemies” have been fired and the admin even locked out a large swath of workers or figureheads that could challenge them - and a large portion of those actions have been explicitly illegal. None of that even covers the extreme targeting of civil rights in only the last two weeks. Dropping the US rating is not “childish nonsense” unless you are simply tuned out of what is actively happening.
> I'm tuned into what's happening. I do not subscribe to your hyperbolic interpretation of them
I don’t blame you. They are very careful to shift the boundary a little bit each time, to keep most frogs not aware that the water is slowly coming to a boil. They distract also with the pure idiocy like blaming DEI for plane crashes and impossible decreets which are immediately shot down by the judge.
If you’re going to argue semantics, a “self-coup”.
SCOTUS is corrupt and in league with the over-throwers and, again, most officials that would allow legal action outside of SCOTUS have been removed and replaced with loyalists.
Lastly, get off your high horse. US citizens are in serious trouble right now and even if you aren’t currently one of the targeted groups you’re going to be affected by it. If you are actually paying attention, which I doubt, denying what’s happening isn’t going to help anyone.
Hey, it's highly possible you're much more informed about this than I am. From what I've seen the past few days though, it appears as if #lon & co are getting more and more access to more and more critical data, offices and "gov't infrastructre" WHILE booting out those that are currently in control of those resources.
I don't know that "suing the administration" is really gonna do much. Not least of all because of what a slow process that is, even more so relative to the speed at which the admin is making these moves. Not saying they SHOULDN'T or it's not a lever that should be pulled but... IDK, I'm really trying myself to find the line between hyperbolic overreaction and feeling like I'm just burying my head in the sand to what's happening.
When the leadership of a country is actively smashing all checks and balances and bribing &/or coercing the other normally (in a democracy) independent branches of government and society to bend to the will of the executive, the country is moving towards autocracy, and both citizens and business need to watch their sixes.
Reclassifying this administration as "sensitive" seems an extremely mild response to the situation.
Perhaps because they have decided that it is cheaper for them to comply with the "childish nonsense" of changing toponyms for political reasons than to stand their ground. Just like operating in Saudi Arabia is worth labeling Persian Gulf as Arab Gulf.
I don't have a problem with wanting to rename the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America but I do have a problem with Trump and a lot of other people using the term America or American to refer solely to the United States. That is not what the term means and that's not the name of our country.
We could be called America if we want but someone would have to propose a name change and it still wouldn't completely co-op the use of the word America to stop having it refer to this entire hemisphere. We all understand that Columbia is a country but Columbia is also a term to refer to this hemisphere which is why we have a place in the United States called Washington district of Columbia. No one confuses that as being a part of the nation of Columbia.
So in the terms of it being the Gulf of the Americas, It absolutely is it's not completely encompassed by one country. We as a nation need to stop calling ourselves Americans as an exclusionary term simply referring to United States citizens. All of us in this hemisphere are Americans but have a different nationalities.
“In English, the unqualified term "America" often refers to the United States of America as a synecdoche, with "American" typically referring to people and things from that country. […]”
Regarding the gulf naming, “Gulf of North America” would seem somewhat appropriate, if a mouthful.
Colombia is the country in South America. This country was almost named the United States of Columbia at its founding. I like the Spanish translation of Americans being something like Unitedstatesians.
I don't think Google Maps classifying three of the largest countries in the world by area as "sensitive", whatever that is supposed to mean, helps the situation.
Yes Colombia is a country but it also refers to the land that is credited to being discovered by. Columbus. Which is why there are many places named with Colombia outside of the country that has it's name.
Curious that Columbus discovered so many places that already had lots of people in them. I suppose military and colonial might (and disease) have something to do with why his name stuck. Power is the power to make history.
I won't dispute your moral reasoning, but realistically this has as much a chance of succeeding as calling the current year 02025¹: it will mostly just annoy people.
> but I do have a problem with Trump and a lot of other people using the term America or American to refer solely to the United States. That is not what the term means and that's not the name of our country.
You're conflating America with the Americas.
The Americas is the collective name of the continents.
America is just shorthand for the United States of America.
Just like Mexico is shorthand for its official name, the United Mexican States.
And there's no confusion because there's basically never any situation where somebody wants to refer themselves as an inhabitant of the Americas, the same way nobody calls themselves Eurasian. It's too large an area to be useful. It's two continents (in most cultures). Geographically at the largest scale, people tend to refer to themselves as North Americans, South Americans, Latin Americans, and so forth.
+1. To expand on this point, this is different in English vs. Spanish, which is where a lot of confusion comes from.
In English, America is always the United States, and the Americas is always the continents. American always means United States-ian. There is no word for "someone from anywhere in the Americas".
In Spanish, traditionally, America is the continents, and Las Americas is nothing. Americano traditionally means "someone from anywhere in the Americas".
However, because of the influence of English, people sometimes use Las Americas to refer to the continents and Americano to refer to United States-ians. So it's a little more complicated in Spanish.
Hemisphere is a half of a sphere, typically we speak about northern and southern hemispheres in context such as the winter and summer being flipped depending on the hemisphere, or the Coriolis Effect etc. At first I thought you refer to America as a hemisphere, because you could divide Earth into two such hemispheres, sharing poles, that one of them is dominated by Americas (land-wise). But then you say "Columbia is also a term to refer to this hemisphere" and I'm lost. I googled "Columbia hemispheres" and couldn't find anything interesting.
I once asked a Canadian if she identifies as American. She did not, in 2014. As a European, I've unfortunately only had the chance to ask that question once. Would love to hear other Canadians' thoughts.
> I don't have a problem with wanting to rename the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America but I do have a problem with Trump and a lot of other people using the term America or American to refer solely to the United States.
"The United States" isn't the name of our country either, does that bother you? Does "US" or "The States?" Those aren't the name of the country either. It isn't in any way exclusionary, it's just a hell of lot shorter and easier to say.
People who call themselves Londoners aren't being exclusionary when they're in the UK anymore than are the Londoners who use that to describe themselves in Canada.
They, like Americans in the US, are simply describing what they are, not limiting what other people aren't or can't be.
Kleenex was a popular brand. It was zeitgeist or cultural momentum. It isnt clear what process would result in a self recognized legal name change of the USA.
> when did the self-recognized legal name change of tissue paper take place?
Gradually, when they didn't enforce their trademark via lawsuits / etc. There's no line in the sand at which point you lose a trademark and it becomes generic. At some point you file suit and fail, or don't even try, and "it is known".
the product formed from taking tree fiber and creating thin sheets of semi-translucent paper, frequently used with a toilet or for blowing one's nose, has no legal name.
Google is not an authority. Nor does Google claim to be. "Sensitive country" means a specific thing. Rachel Ulatowski is incorrect in her insinuations on what it means.
The US dropped one level in 2016 and never came back. Next update May 2025.
[1] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/democracy-index-eiu