It’s not a betrayal. Americans - particularly conservatives - have always held contempt for the Canadian government and its people. Trump said the quiet part out loud. But all those jokes about “America’s Hat” and “51st State” were coming from people who genuinely do not see Canada as a sovereign territory or an independent constituency.
Hopefully, Canadians are waking up to the reality that huge swaths of America view them with the same contempt more explicitly aimed at Mexicans, Cubans, Haitians, Indians and other browner neighbors and migrant workers. We’re an evil empire, and you collaborate with us at your own peril.
I’ve never experienced any negative opinions of Canada until the current administration. Instead, everyone I have encountered saw Canadians as remarkably similar to Americans (but much nicer) and held them in high regard.
I’ve been stunned by the change in some members of the population, especially church-goers.
People go to church explicitly to be told how to think and feel so they don’t have to, and they can feel like they belong. That this group was susceptible should not surprise anyone.
Sadly I doubt many are seeing this considering how many of my neighbours still voted for PP. I’m happy to see a Liberal minority, but disgusted by how much support the cons still have.
Canada is still awash in far-right mass media. A lot of it is coming from over the border, to boot. Until Canadians liberate themselves from the American yoke, they’re going to be force fed this trash to their detriment indefinitely.
So here’s the thing: there are apparently Canadians in this post talking about how 40% of Canadians still voted for Polievre and what that means. Yet I’m seeing more generalizations about what Americans think about Canada than I’ve ever heard Americans actually say about Canada as an American. This is a great opportunity for those of us who agree with each other to band together and understand that Americans are not all the same just like Canadians aren’t all the same. I’ll be the first to say that there are far too many stupid, fucked up people in the US, but lumping us all together isn’t helping us and it won’t help you in the long-term either.
I’m so fucking thrilled for you guys and proud that you’re not going down the same path my country is. But if you’re just going to use it to shit on other people, it’s kind of an opportunity lost.
I’ll be the first to say that there are far too many stupid, fucked up people in the US, but lumping us all together isn’t helping us and it won’t help you in the long-term either.
You don’t need to be a hive mind in order to reach the same conclusions. I’ll throw you back to the Iraq War as a comparison.
You had the neocon ice-chewing psychos in the Bush Admin who thought they were literally doing a Holy War against the evil radical islamic jihadists (nevermind that bombing Sunni Iraq over 9/11 makes about as much sense as bombing the Vatican over Ruby Ridge). Liberals very reasonably clicked their tongues at the foolishness and lambasted the Bush Admin for the waste and the fraud and the horrifying human rights abuses.
But then they… kept signing the fucking checks. They kept voting to keep the war going. When Obama got in there, they insisted they’d do the occupation “correctly”. Except “correctly” just became “minimizing US military casualties as you focus on a policy of high tech terror-bombings of anyone suspects of being an insurgent”. The anti-war protesters kept getting arrested and jailed. The whistle-blowers kept getting outed and prosecuted. The Pentagon’s budget kept growing. The number of dead civilians kept rising. But with liberals in charge, we got a rainbow flag and a Woke Military veneer and lots of Op-Eds about how much freer and fairer and more gentle the liberal occupation was.
And we never left. We still had a massive military base built up around the US embassy. We weren’t running official missions after 2014, but you still had the mercenaries operating with the support of the US global surveillance state behind them. And then Trump gets into office and blows up a Iranian diplomatic envoy on a Baghdad tarmac, nearly kicking off a new war.
That’s US policy in a nutshell. Conservatives play offense. Liberals play defense. But they’re ultimately all on Team America.
Canadians who believe they just need to bide their time until a more liberal replacement takes office are going to be sorely disappointed. Americans won’t give up any ground they’ve taken unless its clawed out of their hands.
It’s not a betrayal. Americans - particularly conservatives - have always held contempt for the Canadian government and its people. Trump said the quiet part out loud. But all those jokes about “America’s Hat” and “51st State” were coming from people who genuinely do not see Canada as a sovereign territory or an independent constituency.
Hopefully, Canadians are waking up to the reality that huge swaths of America view them with the same contempt more explicitly aimed at Mexicans, Cubans, Haitians, Indians and other browner neighbors and migrant workers. We’re an evil empire, and you collaborate with us at your own peril.
I’ve never experienced any negative opinions of Canada until the current administration. Instead, everyone I have encountered saw Canadians as remarkably similar to Americans (but much nicer) and held them in high regard.
I’ve been stunned by the change in some members of the population, especially church-goers.
People go to church explicitly to be told how to think and feel so they don’t have to, and they can feel like they belong. That this group was susceptible should not surprise anyone.
Church is bad for society
You’re not wrong! I worded that poorly. It should have read:
Sadly I doubt many are seeing this considering how many of my neighbours still voted for PP. I’m happy to see a Liberal minority, but disgusted by how much support the cons still have.
Canada is still awash in far-right mass media. A lot of it is coming from over the border, to boot. Until Canadians liberate themselves from the American yoke, they’re going to be force fed this trash to their detriment indefinitely.
A guy near my home is flying two American flags in front of his house. The thing is, we’re in Canada…
When we send our media, we’re not sending our best. :(
I’ve heard us called snow ni**ers by Americans more than once. It’s disgusting. They truly think they are exceptional.
So here’s the thing: there are apparently Canadians in this post talking about how 40% of Canadians still voted for Polievre and what that means. Yet I’m seeing more generalizations about what Americans think about Canada than I’ve ever heard Americans actually say about Canada as an American. This is a great opportunity for those of us who agree with each other to band together and understand that Americans are not all the same just like Canadians aren’t all the same. I’ll be the first to say that there are far too many stupid, fucked up people in the US, but lumping us all together isn’t helping us and it won’t help you in the long-term either.
I’m so fucking thrilled for you guys and proud that you’re not going down the same path my country is. But if you’re just going to use it to shit on other people, it’s kind of an opportunity lost.
You don’t need to be a hive mind in order to reach the same conclusions. I’ll throw you back to the Iraq War as a comparison.
You had the neocon ice-chewing psychos in the Bush Admin who thought they were literally doing a Holy War against the evil radical islamic jihadists (nevermind that bombing Sunni Iraq over 9/11 makes about as much sense as bombing the Vatican over Ruby Ridge). Liberals very reasonably clicked their tongues at the foolishness and lambasted the Bush Admin for the waste and the fraud and the horrifying human rights abuses.
But then they… kept signing the fucking checks. They kept voting to keep the war going. When Obama got in there, they insisted they’d do the occupation “correctly”. Except “correctly” just became “minimizing US military casualties as you focus on a policy of high tech terror-bombings of anyone suspects of being an insurgent”. The anti-war protesters kept getting arrested and jailed. The whistle-blowers kept getting outed and prosecuted. The Pentagon’s budget kept growing. The number of dead civilians kept rising. But with liberals in charge, we got a rainbow flag and a Woke Military veneer and lots of Op-Eds about how much freer and fairer and more gentle the liberal occupation was.
And we never left. We still had a massive military base built up around the US embassy. We weren’t running official missions after 2014, but you still had the mercenaries operating with the support of the US global surveillance state behind them. And then Trump gets into office and blows up a Iranian diplomatic envoy on a Baghdad tarmac, nearly kicking off a new war.
That’s US policy in a nutshell. Conservatives play offense. Liberals play defense. But they’re ultimately all on Team America.
Canadians who believe they just need to bide their time until a more liberal replacement takes office are going to be sorely disappointed. Americans won’t give up any ground they’ve taken unless its clawed out of their hands.