Turns out, there is more than 1.5 billion people in Africa.

But these are facts I can learn independently of its, you know, appearance on a map. And outside of this being a notable news story, I don't really see it prompting any such questions.

so it's not a question of making people feel better about the size of their country

It is, though. That's actually the only purpose this serves.

I think you might read that as dismissive, but I see some value in making people feel better. Certainly in making the US feel worse.

I don't, however, think that this will meaningfully improve anything.

Russia doesn't really have this problem anyway, it's very large in all our popular projections.

It's area should still be incorrect, though, yes? Which would mean we have incorrect ideas about its natural resources, its farmland, its cultural cohesion?