Apple Deadnamed the Gulf of America and Conservatives are Triggered

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) is upset that Apple Maps still calls the Gulf of America the Gulf of Mexico. He’s so angry that he tagged Apple CEO Tim Cook on X and said he’d filed a complaint. “Hey @tim_cook, I noticed that Apple Maps still calls it the Gulf of Mexico. I sent a report through the app, but I thought you’d like to know!” said the former Navy Seal.

It sounds like Crenshaw is upset, turned on if you will, that Big Tech isn’t changing as fast as he’d like. He’s so upset that he made a cringe post in the style of a distressed suburbanite at Target. Crenshaw’s complaint typifies a behavior that I have seen in pundits and politicians of the right in recent years, the rise of a type of position and style once attributed to the left in online spaces.

Crenshaw is posting cringe and doubling down on the culture war. They are obsessed with identity politics, trying to annihilate their enemies, enforcing gender norms, and demanding that the culture bend to their whims despite the culture not being interested. These are all things they have long accused the left of doing.

hey @tim_cookJust noticed that Apple Maps still calls the Gulf of Mexico. I sent a report through the app, but I thought you’d like to know! pic.twitter.com/fA7cWtOGY1

– Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) January 21, 2025

Less than 24 hours ago, as of this writing, Trump signed an executive order titled “Restore names that honor American greatness.” Along with a host of other changes, the order said that the United States will henceforth call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Google and Apple have not updated the name.

These things take time. But just because Trump says the name is different doesn’t make it so. It is a body of water that is not only used by the United States and Mexico, and the rest of the world still calls it the Gulf of Mexico. A lot of people who don’t live in the US use Google and Apple Maps and it’s a good bet that the the name will not change for them.

Wikipedia has not yet changed the name on its entry for the Gulf. “Even if it was official, America does not own Wikipedia entries. (It) remains the Gulf of Mexico as the rest of the world calls it,” said a unnamed Wikipedia editor in the edit history of the page.

“This is a modern version of the jingoism of Freedom fries, which has nothing to do with geography and everything to do with politics,” said another Wikipedia editor, referring to a post-9/11 attempt by conservatives to rename French fries. “We have the same kind of a perennial complaint with the British Isles from a series of Irish publishers. This nothing new or special, and can be documented by itself and with a simple passing mention in the article if and when it becomes more than a sound in a press conference.”

But conservatives like Crenshaw will publicly make the request, appearing cringeworthy and embarrassing. Ignoble in victory, they now display the traits they have long accused their opponents of having.

American law has control over the Supreme Court, the presidency, and the legislature. This kind of total political victory is not enough. They want you to like it too. They want you to laugh at their jokes, take their memes seriously, and call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.

The pinned post on Crenshaw’s X account is a “Conservative Guide to the Culture War” from 2021. The second item on the list is the claim that “a winner mentality is better than a victim mentality.”

Over the next four years, I suspect we’ll see a lot more cringe posts from Crenshaw and others as winners turn into victims when every little thing doesn’t go their way. Or when it doesn’t go their way as fast as they would like.