Donald Trump is a megalomaniac with Putinesque delusions of grandeur. But regardless of his apparent means to attach with less-educated People (successful non-college-educated white voters 66-32), he’s additionally very silly.
And that’s seemingly on the root of his obsession with Greenland (and to a lesser extent, Canada).
Every part about Trump’s life has revolved round being the largest, the best, the largest. He clearly has his eye on his historic legacy, and no president is remembered for his tax cuts for billionaires. He desires one thing that might cement his place within the historical past books, and a geographic enlargement suits the invoice.
In his first time period, Trump supplied to commerce Puerto Rico for Greenland, which many learn as extra of his normal racism—buying and selling brown Puerto Ricans for white Greenlanders. But there’s one other believable clarification, and it’s all about measurement.
Take a look at how massive Greenland is! Think about slapping Ol’ Glory on all that! Why, nobody may take a look at a map with out pondering, “THANK YOU, SIR, MR. TRUMP” whereas pantomiming a patriotic salute!
The factor is, that map, which all of us have deeply imprinted in our brains, is a lie. It’s a bald-faced lie that not solely gives a distorted view of the world, however continues the ages-old custom of minimizing the southern hemisphere.
This map known as the Mercator Projection. It distorts the dimensions of land mass the additional away from the equator one will get with a purpose to keep a uniform sq. grid—useful for 18th-century navigation.
The Northern Hemisphere is additional away from the equator, in comparison with the Southern Hemisphere, therefore the exaggerated view of the north.
Take a look at Russia. It appears huge! May you consider that in actuality all of Russia may match inside Africa? Check out the precise measurement of nations:
The U.S., Alaska, Canada, Europe, China, Scandinavia, and Russia are all considerably smaller than the Mercator Projection would have us consider. Russia appears hilariously puny in actuality. Africa and Brazil look smaller as compared, whereas the Mercator Projection shows them precisely. Whilst you would possibly suppose that Canada is way larger than the U.S., in actuality, they are nearly equal: Canada is 3.855 million sq. miles, whereas the U.S. is 3.810 million sq. miles. Loopy, huh?
After which there’s Greenland, which is legitimately an enormous chunk of actual property, however nowhere close to the map-dominating characteristic that has Trump salivating about conquest and glory.
In fact, none of this issues in any possible way. Trump isn’t getting Greenland. But it surely was a pleasant excuse for me to jot down a couple of matter (the Mercator Projection) that has at all times fascinated me, and which few folks find out about. And it’s humorous to me that Trump’s megalomania could be fueled by a distorted map.
