As opposed to the northern/southern hemisphere that has:
- a clear reference point (equators)
- traditionally we don’t model a rotation north/south
Western/eastern hemisphere
- doesn’t have a clear reference (Greenwich?)
- traditionally we model rotation on the north/south axis so western/eastern would depend from the time
The only explanation I have is dog whistle for some sort of “western supremacy“ 🙄
There’s truth to what you’re saying but it also doesn’t matter. If it were instead designated as “North Atlantic” or with any arbitrary label, you would still have a subgroup of those people thinking their superior and giving us phrenology, eugenics, Nazism etc and believing in _______ supremacy. The underlying problem doesn’t go away.
It doesn’t sound simpler to you that people would naturally call what’s west of them “western” and what’s east of them “eastern”?
Like, if you’d pick any random place they’d do it the same way
If you’re mad other places adopted the European “point of view” for east/west, then logically your problem isn’t with Europeans. It’s the other places that just use the European definitions.
You’re mad at the only group who has a logical reason to use it, instead of all the places using it for no reason except to try and fit in with Europe.
Like, if Japan said China was the West and America was the East…
Nobody would give a shit.
See: what China calls itself