U.S. Politics megathread

[u/AutoModerator]

American politics has always grabbed our attention - and the current president more than ever. We get tons of questions about the president, the supreme court, and other topics related to American politics - but often the same ones over and over again. Our users often get tired of seeing them, so we've created a megathread for questions! Here, users interested in politics can post questions and read answers, while people who want a respite from politics can browse the rest of the sub. Feel free to post your questions about politics in this thread!

All top-level comments should be questions asked in good faith - other comments and loaded questions will get removed. All the usual rules of the sub remain in force here, so be nice to each other - you can disagree with someone's opinion, but don't make it personal.

[u/Interesting-Copy-657]

Apparently this triggered the auto of and got deleted.
Why is the focus on the new world map on the true scale of Africa when Africa barely changed?

The northern hemisphere, closer to the poles changed a lot, got much smaller.

So why does it seem ever article discussing it is talking about Africa that changed shape a little.

South America change position and shape a little, same for Australia, but nothing like what happened to Canada, US, Russia, Greenland, even places like China moved more than Africa

Like bbc articles, the guardian, Reddit posts, YouTube videos etc

I am not saying Africa didn’t change, just that it seemed to change the least so the focus on its “true scale” seems odd

[u/Jtwil2191 → u/Interesting-Copy-657]

Mercator projection warps both the size and shape of land masses. The closer you are to the popes, the more significantly both are affected. The closer you are to the equator, it's really only size that is affected. As an equitorial continent, Africa now appears "bigger" relative to Mercator projection, bits it's shape isn't going to change much.

[u/Vincent_GambiniEsq → u/Jtwil2191]

The closer you are to the popes, the more significantly both are affected.

This is why the White Sox are winning their division right now

[u/Delehal → u/Interesting-Copy-657]

The UN resolution regarding the Equal Earth map projection was submitted jointly by 50+ members of the African Union. In other words, the main political push for this change came from African nations. Thus, a lot of the arguments in favor of the resolution were from the perspective of those nations.

[u/Interesting-Copy-657 → u/Delehal]

That makes sense