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Why are we changing maps? (from The West Wing)

SaltLakeUsersGroup
Comedy
YouTube
3 HN users recommended this comedy video3 months2021–2026 score 3
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN links it in any thread on map projections and the Mercator distortion of country sizes, often calling it a favorite scene.

A short clip from The West Wing in which staffers meet a group advocating the Peters projection and challenge the Mercator map. It was shown as geography humor at a Salt Lake GIS user group meeting.

“my favorite scene from The West Wing” (HN, 2021)

3 recommendations · 1 citations · 1 critical · Comedy

5 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@gundmc May 2021 Recommends
on HN thread The True Size of Africa (2015)
This reminds me of my favorite scene from The West Wing where they talk about how misleading the Mercator projection is with regard to the size of Africa. [this video]
West Wing scene on Mercator distortion
@randcraw Jun 2023 Recommends
on HN thread Maps Distort How We See the World
There was a memorable scene from "The West Wing" on the biases imposed by most map projections, in particular, how Mercator makes North America look huge: [this video]
West Wing scene on map projection bias and Mercator distortion
@sircastor May 2024 Recommends
on HN thread Princeton astrophysicists re-imagine world map (2021)
Coincidentally, yesterday I saw (again) “The West Wing” scenes[1] that express this problem (and the related social issues). It was the first learned about map projections and I think if they aren’t already an explicit topic in school, they ought to be. I find it very interesting. [1] [this video]
West Wing scenes about map projection problems and related social issues

Citations, criticism and jokes

@paganel Jan 2026 Pushes back
on HN thread Is liberal democracy in terminal decline?
Hopefully, yes. Also hilarious how even on this downward trajectory the liberal order's main propaganda entities (like the FT here) run with geeky and nerdy stuff like charts (?!), that will show 'em!! A true sign that they know nothing of the real (ideological world). Just the other day they (the FT, that is) were also running with that mantra of "Trump is invading Greenland only on account of him getting messed up by the Mercator map projection!!", which was straight West Wing [1 ]heavy-liberal territory. Like I've said, they know nothing of the real world. [1] [this video]

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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