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There's no "hack". The article says the bots edited an open wiki website.


Language is a proxy of something much bigger, if we’re talking about taking up arms for.


Because my browser is an extremely sensitive piece of software and I don’t trust just anybody to provide it for me.


Least of all, a browser publisher.


That's literally just a configuration file. You can adapt it to your needs and create something even more tailored than the browser's default version.


This is not a case of vandalism by other users. Google made this change because they use the names officially recognised by the government of the US.


It is definitely a case of vandalism.


The government doesn't get to name geographic features.



Who gets to name them?


> The OpenStreetMap community operates under the “on the ground” principle, recording what is actually currently used in a particular area, giving pre­eminence to data collected in­ situ.

https://osmfoundation.org/w/images/d/d8/DisputedTerritoriesI...


Private entities get to use whatever name they want. In this case, there is the option to use the longstanding name that matches the one used by the other neighboring territory. Or to have a wait period after the name is changed unilaterally by executive order, because it'd be silly to change it back and forth. Or to put "a.k.a..." after it. Or to wait for the relevant government to update its own map and geographic names database first (https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/searc... is not yet updated as of now). Or to wait until local signage can be updated so it mostly matches the map (though I don't think Rochester will be in a rush to do this).


Well Derry/Londonderry is officially called Londonderry, but Irish republicans didn't like the London link so call(ed) it Derry. So during the troubles it was a thing to refer to is as Derry/Londonderry.


Not only the Brits. Take a look at this, especially the charts, and compare it to what us Europeans are getting - that's democracy for you.

https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-05-07/seven-ou...


It used to be the case that you would see someone posting under an avatar like that and you would dismiss their argument right away without even reading it.


They should have considered not lying in their residence permit applications. I mean, what you are saying sounds like completely reasonable reasons to deport someone. They lied because they knew their application would’ve been denied had they said the truth.


Btw - as a eu citizen they can't really deny you. So you can write whatever as a reason to move as long as you have means to support yourself.

My point is, that within EU you can freely move around with no restrictions and having to apply for residence permits.

And the case I mentioned wasn't even lying but a misunderstanding.

In Poland searching for a job is state of mind "I wish someone would hire me".

In switzerland it officialy means provably spending your full time effort on the job hunt.

The person I know couldn't find a job at first so decided to do an intensive German course (5x a week, 4h a day) to increase her hirability.

The immigration officer happily used it as a prove that she actually did not spend all her time looking for job, therefore lied.


"You know x is good based on who hates it" is too generic an argument to be useful. It applies to so many things.


It’s more specific than that: “You know x is good based on if the worst people hate it” which I agree with the author is an extremely useful argument.


It does apply to many things. That doesn't make it a bad argument, it means its a very useful argument in many contexts.


In threads about the Russian war if you mention that the US has done worse your comments are removed and people complain about "whataboutism".

In this thread, on the other hand, people keep bringing up that the US has done worse but those comments are upvoted and there is no mention of "whataboutism" in the entire thread.


This is getting too big to ignore and is leaking into mainstream popular culture.

In the most popular streaming show atm (new season of Reacher), a main plot point is CIA and State Department and Green Berets involvement in a village massacre in Indonesia in the 90s (in the land of the tv show), this is of course a reference to the CIA and State Department indirectly murdering 1 million Indonesians 1965-1966.


> US has done worse

They have not.


They have.


Which of Trump or Putin is worse is irrelevant. Trump's US is maybe on par with Putin's Russia, maybe better or maybe worse (which depends on which aspect is looked at). That cannot deter us from fighting against what is bad in both of them.

This is NOT a competition nor a championship about which dictatorship can inflict the most pain and destruction to the world.

Nobody is rooting for such a "winner".

Criticize all the despicable actions of such stinky regimes, regardless of if they are in Putin's Russia, in Trump's US, or wherever else.

We are NOT in a race to the bottom.

We shall never forget our values, as Humans and as Earth-dwellers.


the asymmetric deployment of "whataboutism!" is hypocrisy about hypocrisy


This is a thread about bad stuff the US did, so bad stuff the US did is not off-topic here.


In most modern democratic countries (I don't know about the US, since I'm European) executive and legislative branches are one and the same, so that still holds up!


> In most modern democratic countries (I don't know about the US, since I'm European) executive and legislative branches are one and the same, so that still holds up!

In the US we have had legitimate separation of powers between executive, legislative and judicial branches through much of our history and some of my lifetime (I'm almost 53).

We don't anymore.

The Republican-majority Congress has completely abdicated all of its power to the Republican executive and the Republican-majority Supreme Court barely tries to act like it is non-partisan anymore.

The non-Supreme Court judicial system is still (as can been seen by this ruling) functioning as intended, but there's a limit to how helpful that is when the top court is clearly in the bag, and if the other systems of checks and balances aren't repaired quickly it is only a matter of time until enough hyper partisan judges are installed at the lower levels to end that too.

The beginnings of the crumbling of our checks and balances pre-date the Trump era, though they've accelerated greatly during the Trump era. Even before Trump Congress had abdicated much of its power in matters of declaring war, for example.


Can you name some examples?


All parliamentary democracies.

If you have the majority, you can’t even be removed through a vote of no confidence.


"executive and legislative branches are one and the same"

That was the claim. I know in theory it is different, but also in reality here in germany I remember a scandal, where a minister of transport stopped a rule breaking other driver - big problem for the minister, because he was not allowed to do so (we have nice german word of "Amtsanmaßung" for this). So that sounds pretty separated to me.


But you have a head of state who can, in theory, remove the head of government at their own discretion, right? In the US the head of state and the head of government are the same person.


Yes in theory, the King Charles III and/or his representative the Governor General, could remove the Prime Minister, though the Governor General is chosen following advice (i.e. choice) of the Prime Minister, so I can't imagine that happening in practice.


There has been an instance of a Governor General dismissing a Prime minister.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Australian_constitutional...


The US president is head of the executive branch, one co-equal third of the entire government, also including the courts (article III of the constitution), and congress (article I).


Speaking for, and possibly misunderstanding, the situation in Ireland:

> But you have a head of state

Yes! Our president.

> who can, in theory, remove the head of government at their own discretion

Ah. No.


A king could… but that’s never going to happen.


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