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Comment by floppyd | Hacker News Reader

This is a very weird sounding pretense. Why does it matter if Africa in particular is bigger on the map compared to other countries and continents? How does area matter in general? It's not like we can infer anything useful from area comparisons. Also the map that is proposed (with the kinda-oval shape) is a map that I've seen a lot in school right next to now more common Mercator, and I'm from now here close to Africa.

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I hope it's not sticking my neck out too far to claim that a large majority of people think the Mercator projection is accurate, or they don't think about accuracy at all and take it for granted. For example, it makes Russia insanely enormous, and therefore more fearsome than it deserves.

Who is afraid of Russia based on the perceived size of Siberia?

Yes, this is one of the most bizarre arguments I've seen in some time.

Are Americans afraid of Canada or Greenland because it appears quite large on a Mercator map? Are we more likely to send aid to Asia because it is in fact a larger continent than Africa?

It matters, especially for the perception of the less educated and less traveled (that happen to vote).

It matters how?

You think voters will increase support for Africa (whatever that means) if their perceived size of the continent is increased?

Look at Trump and his first term Electoral College map. He was sincerely butthurt about winning an overwhelming majority of the USA by square foot, and losing the popular vote.

You're not going to get a rational answer to the question.

I agree that's the level of rational thought that has gone into this argument.

So, whatever about Africa, it does seem like maybe this distortion has real consequences.

Noted very stable genius Donald Trump: "I love maps. And I always said: 'Look at the size of this. It's massive. That should be part of the United States.'"

It's not totally implausible that the grossly oversized depiction of Greenland on Mercator (it's shown as being larger than the US) actually had some impact on his asinine desire to annex Greenland.

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