Earlier quoted context omitted.
Debate used to be the staunchest form of resistance. This last decade, racing to call the opposition a crybaby and declare it activism seems to be more in vogue.
No, sorry, that’s a strawman. You’re framing this as if we were talking about some nuanced policy issue, which it isn’t. The concrete situation is a president unilaterally renaming a geographical feature for no other defensible reason than hubris, in disagreement with the rest of the region. I agree with GP - there is no debate to be had over this, only rejection.
> (a) serious discussion of a subject in which many people take part
The debate I'm referring to is here, the discussion between commenters on HN about which name should be used (I'm well on the side of Gulf of Mexico as well). One does not need to see multi-sided nuance on the topic itself to engage in debate, they just need to engage in discussion about it. We can certainly choose to not have serious discussion, skipping straight to the name calling summaries instead. I'd consider that a great loss of one of the last open places on the internet where you could avoid that jump whenever something political comes up.
I agree the rename has no good reasons, causes upset & confusion, and was seemingly done out of nothing but hubris & political tactics. I disagree the way to communicate that is just by replying the president is a crybaby instead of seriously discussing these points directly. Please don't mistake that as saying we shouldn't push back or "both sides are right". It's purely about what was on the original tin - can we still have serious discussion here instead of jumping straight to how much we don't like someone as the only reason why.