Donald Trump rebranding geographical landmarks is profoundly silly, utterly unnecessary and an obvious distraction. At a moment when working families are getting hammered by skyrocketing gasoline prices, when our nation is tangled in an escalating conflict with Iran, and when our national debt is careening toward apocalyptic proportions, arguing over the nomenclature of map coordinates feels like arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
The federal government has actual, existential business it is neglecting. Spending executive energy on topographical chest-thumping is empty political theater that makes ordinary, hardworking citizens throw up their hands in total disgust. Yet, watching the political left whip itself into a frenzy of high-minded
moral outrage over names requires an epic level of collective amnesia.
The politics of redefining language
The progressive outrage machine needs to put a sock in it. For the last decade, cultural elites have not merely suggested changing the names of a few bodies of water; they have systematically overhauled the fundamental definitions of the English language.
Take the word "woman." For millennia, across every culture and civilization in human history, the term described an adult biological female. Nobody was confused. But the language bending by the left has been so pervasive that the"Associated Press Stylebook" itself now actively instructs journalists to avoid terms like "biological female." Think about that. It is an editorial recalibration of how our media writes, masquerading as "style." Overnight, basic biology was demoted to bigotry, and newsrooms were policed into pretending standard English no longer existed. Now, that is outrageous. "Woman" has been around a lot longer than "Lake Ontario."
When definitions become political battlegrounds
Where was the sacred devotion to historical meaning when left-wing activists reengineered the word "violence”? Historically, "violence" meant physical force resulting in injury, pain or destruction. Suddenly, progressive academics declared that offensive speech constitutes physical harm, while simultaneously insisting that silence also constitutes a form of violence if you refuse to actively chant their preferred political slogans in the town square.
Consider how the left radically transformed the word "racism." The foundational understanding of racism was treating someone with prejudice or animus based on the immutable characteristic of race. Enter the progressive intelligentsia, which promoted redefining racism through policy and power, recasting it entirely as systemic disparities where only dominant groups are capable of prejudice.
I must have missed the hysterical cable news segments lamenting that core moral concepts were being rewritten by intellectual fiat. The same linguistic alchemy applied to "diversity," which was reimagined to mean strict racial and gender metrics without any concern for diversity of perspective or economic class.
From words to institutions
The cultural sensitivity police did not stop at the dictionary; they came for the sports page, public monuments, and local history.
Historic franchises were pressured into replacing the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians with sterile corporate alternatives like the Commanders and Guardians. Statues of historical figures were quietly memory-holed, their names scrubbed from public schools, street signs and municipal plazas overnight.
Why the consistency question matters
If we are genuinely supposed to be deeply tied to historical names, traditional definitions and shared heritage, why was it perfectly acceptable for government elites to dismantle and rewrite history the moment it offended their modern sensibilities?
The uncomfortable truth is that language evolves, changes and turns back on itself over time. I am personally quite fond of my childhood family vacations to the Gulf of Mexico, and, truth be told, I am still annoyed that astronomers decided Pluto isn't a planet anymore.
But spare me the selective grandstanding. The political left enjoyed a long, unchecked run of redefining American culture and vocabulary. Anyone who dared point out the absurdity was promptly branded a hateful bigot for refusing to nod along and act like they couldn't easily tell the difference between a man and a woman.
Eventually, everyday Americans had enough of the patronizing lectures and decided to push back with equal force.
Every cultural pendulum swings
But let's take a breath. Language will inevitably swing back the other way. The broader tragedy is that neither side seems to know when to knock off the petty squabbling and behave like adults in the room.
So if you genuinely cannot tolerate the reality that names, words and politics will continue to shift under your feet, you are welcome to take a long walk and jump straight into the Lake of America – or the Gulf of America, if you prefer warmer water.
I'm just the kind of biological male who wants to give you options.
USA TODAY Network Tennessee columnist Cameron Smith is a Memphis-born, Brentwood-raised recovering political attorney who is raising four boys in Nolensville with his particularly patient wife, Justine. Send outrage or agreement to smith.david.cameron@gmail.com or @DCameronSmith on X. Agree or disagree? Send a letter to the editor at letters@tennessean.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Trump renaming a lake is silly. So is the left's outrage | Opinion
