Canada is so furious at the US right now
Canada is so furious at the US right now
Vox’s correspondent in Canada reports on the reaction to Trump’s tariffs.
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Trump did not campaign on a war with Canada. No one elected him to do this. Everyone who isn’t mad has brainworms.
Problem is, tens of millions of ignorant people elected him to do whatever. They just liked that he hated educated people, brown people, trans people, women, gays, foreigners, and so on. Apart from that they didn't really care about the details.
But that’s the thing, they elected him based on his campaign and he never mentioned anything like this during his campaign. If what you say is the case, why did he talk nonstop about grocery prices right up to the election? Did they like the hate? Very much, conservatives are hateful people. It just doesn’t pass the smell test. Invade Mexico? That kind of matches all his other hateful rhetoric for everyone south of the US, but a country full of white people? We only do that if your asian ally bombs us first usually.
If you're going to judge his plans based on his campaign speeches, then you deserve nothing but ridicule.
It was a full fucking YEAR before the election that he was invited to say he wouldn't be a dictator, and he declined.
“We love this guy,” Trump said of Hannity. “He says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I said: ‘No, no, no, other than day one. We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.’"
That was from December of 2023.
Oh, and how about his faithful?
“We’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections,” said Kash Patel (gain, from late 2023)
Here's an article from a month earlier: "A mass deportation operation. A new Muslim ban. Tariffs on all imported goods and "Freedom cities" built on federal land.
Every single person who voted for Trump in 2024 or didn't bother to vote at all has explicitly said they support a violent, expansionist, nazi regime. Nearly every person who voted against him did not enough to keep him from gaining power, and ARE STILL NOT DOING ENOUGH. Instead of taking up arms (literally or figuratively) against him, you are defending his voters.
Take some ownership of your problems.
Well it’s not so much a problem of my personal making, I was saying all the same things you’re saying. I talked and talked to people, which I hate doing, going down the list for why this guy sucked and why Kamala was way better than Trump, no matter how you slice it. He scammed stupid people (we have a lot of stupid people) and stupid people also tend to be bigots. He also had a billionaire buy votes in crucial areas and our courts didn’t see a problem. We’re fighting the same billionaires you’re going to be fighting when the same fucking thing happens to you. We’re all on this spaceship Earth together. If it gets nuked, that fucks you too.
I'd have less trouble believing this if there was any meaningful backlash from his supporters. Currently there isn't even meaningful backlash from his opposition, so colour me doubtful.
To be fair, even though it feels like 2 years already, it’s only been a couple months. I’m not expecting much though, so your point stands.
Edit: replied to wrong comment
He literally started this tariffs thing last time too. No one can claim to be blindsided by this.
Everyone who voted Trump - including those mad because they did not elect him to do this - has brainworms.
It's just that Americans don't care, so they wouldn't remember how Trump tried to strong-arm Mexico and Canada using tariffs in his first term. Americans will burn the rest of the world in the hopes of cheaper gas. Now, increasingly burning themselves in hopes of cheaper gas.
The threats to Canadian sovereignty feel very new and the reaction from Canada feels very different this time.
To be clear, I think Trump voters are idiots being scammed, but are too morally repugnant to be sympathetic, they 100% suck. Even if Trump stuck to the things he promised, those things would also be very bad.
I do care, I served with Canadians and have Canadian friends. I hate what we’re doing to our neighbors and am ashamed to see a flag I served twice, more and more resemble a nazi flag.
The threats to Canadian sovereignty feel very new and the reaction from Canada feels very different this time.
That much is fair to say. The disrespect amped up a thousand percent compared to just threatening tariffs like last time, which explains why the reaction feels so different.
But once again, even though the scale is increased and it might feel new to you and to many Canadians, nothing here should be a surprise. Trump praised Putin on invading Ukraine, he in no uncertain terms threatened the invasion of Venezuela, and floated the idea of bombing Mexico.
Threatening to annex Canada is surprising insofar as being a surprising choice of target. That he's deranged and bellicose towards other countries, it's nothing new. So every time he points his enshitification gaze at some other group, Americans voting far-right (or not voting at all) will still be defensive as we tell them: yes, you voted for this shit, exactly this shit, you just didn't realize you were doing because you didn't give a fuck.
Now the target is kind of a friend, so a few fucks are given. That's the only, and very minor, difference. Can I predict which country he'll threaten next? No. But he will keep at it. Over and over.
Edit to add one last thing: "They elected him based on his campaign" is a cop-out. Electing someone based on what they say (promises) instead of based on what they did (specially to others) is a form of "not giving a fuck".
I think it’s a pretty big difference, if Trump was campaigning on a strategy of invading Canada from the start, I see things playing out very differently.
if Trump was campaigning on a strategy of invading Canada from the start, I see things playing out very differently.
Obviously, but irrelevant. Like I said... Electing someone based on what they say (promises) instead of based on what they did (specially to others) is a form of “not giving a fuck”.
Trump will not campaign on being aggressive towards allies. He'll do it after securing power. During campaign, that's what the "America First" rhetoric means: vote me to strong-arm everyone I can. People voted him in for this, now we're seeing it.
There was ample evidence that he would be belligerent against allies.
I see your points, but it also seems you’re trying to make your adversary a whole lot smarter than they actually are in order to feel more righteous in your upset.
These are not deep thinkers. They are often poor and poorly educated, quick to fall for a scam. They don’t think, they believe. The best reaction is ridicule, it strikes at the heart of their biggest insecurity. Though anger is understandable and I’ll help make sure it’s heard.
I don't know why you think I'm assigning Trump voters any intelligence. I am certain they're incapable of critical thinking.
I'm not saying people are interpreting what "America First" means. What I'm saying is that the meaning of "America First" is clear to anyone who thinks it through, and it takes a moron to not to consider that eventually Trump's aggression will turn to allies, and to large swaths of his own voter base as well.
But the fact that the meaning is obfuscated in discourse doesn't change that people voted for this, because there was ample evidence of the true meaning, evidence that can only be ignored purposefully. They voted for this, they voted him for "America First". It's like driving home without thinking, with the brain fully on autopilot. People know what they're doing, even if they're not thinking it through.
People who aren’t thinking things through know what they’re doing? If you say so….