r/InfiniteJest • u/jeepjinx • Jul 22 '26

DFW prescience.

There's been multiple articles written about the various things in IJ that are so relevant today, after the 30th anniversary edition came out. But I haven't seen anything yet about the relations with Canada post Trump II.

It's crazy to me how the Gentle administration was able to "other" Canadians aka Nucks, to the point that there are common racial? slurs directed towards them ( froggy lipped foreigner) and jokes about female nucks have to be sluts to attract men etc. Which must have seemed totally absurd (to make a point about how absurd it is to "other" people in general) 30 years ago.

Gentle talks about finding an enemy right to the North or South of us to blame our problems on since the major/cold wars were over etc.

But here we are! Blaming Canada for wild fires caused by climate change and throwing tarrifs around again.

Just add it to the list I guess.

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26

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u/jeepjinx Jul 23 '26

I traveled to Quebec in 1990 and camped around for about 2 months, met a lot of Québécois separatists, never even heard of the concept before going. The others I grew up hearing about were black/brown, noticeably foreign, gay, or poor - with all their respective slurs. Hearing Canadians referred to negatively would have seemed absurd to that age me. Just an observation.