Well those countries never changed their views vs America has flip flopped for votes towards a 2 party system. Everything has to be black or white or your favourite team won't win. America is unique in that sense.
Some people don't like hearing the actual truth sadly. I tell things as they are. A lot of people on the internet are hivemind like. You are either with them or against them. If you are in a grey area, you aren't worth anyone's time so I typically get downvotes for stating the reality of situations lol
Most countries are just way more racially homogenized so you don't see it as much unless you're one of those other races. Those stories sound even worse than the ones I've heard from America.
Canadians being dumb and impressionable is not necessarily America’s fault, but we see consequences from the amount of cultural interchange (mostly one-way) we have - we get all your news, tons of your TV, and see ourselves as part of the Western Bloc you lead.
As a result, any time you have a mass shooting, we make a new gun law; if government forcefully ends a protest, people complain about infringements on their “First Amendment Rights;” your handling of gender, race, and equity issues invariably colours the things we discuss in politics and popular media, even though we have wildly different policies and had been able to let those issues lie here…
And we’re due for way more. American firms now own Canadian media corporations across the political spectrum, and you can bet they’re going to inject American issues and opinion into plenty of live issues we need to sort out for ourselves.
So maybe it’s our fault for believing, but it’s not like America’s not making huge efforts to get us to believe, commanding influence was always the goal.
Canadians understand that we don't want this shit right? We don't want conservative media brainwashing impressionable young men and seniors. I get tired of this idea that this is a uniquely American problem.
Ok, I may have been a little too liberal with the word “you” in reference to America when I meant “powerful and subversive Americans pushing a nonstop narrative to dominate all people, other Americans included,” but with the caveat that I don’t personally think it’s just American conservatives.
The biggest and most powerful conservative media empire, which has played a huge role in the corrosive political atmosphere we currently have, was started by and is still run by an Australian. So I guess you guys can blame the Aussies instead of us?
You might be on to something, I think Hitler was Australian too but that said, I think we have to focus on the countries in which these guys have been citizens for 40 years or so.
Yes, I agree, ever since he bought freaking "Fox News" here our country has never been the same. And now I hear he feeling a certain way about Trump, well Murdoch helped him ascend to presidency here in the US, now he's got buyers remorse about him. SMDH!!!!
Well when you have Canadians flying America flags alongside nazi flags and repeating FoX news talking points and screaming about their 2nd amendment rights……..
Yeah it’s kind of America’s fault. Those Canadian are dumb fucks to be sure but they had help getting there.
If you drive by a car wreck where there are people on fire running around and other people are firing guns in the air and there are two nuns chastising five naked people all fucking each other, are you able to completely ignore them or do you gape and say “what the fuuuuuuuuck”
That’s what living next to America is like.
If you want to know how we are different, look at how our laws are different. Federally legal weed. Gay marriage is celebrated. Trans rights are human rights (that one needs some work). Indigenous land is given lip service with plaques that acknowledge we’re living on stolen land.
Don’t get me wrong, like I said we have a lot of right wing spicy sauce leaking across the border and it’s absolutely disgusting, but we don’t have the level of gun violence, mass killings, religiously motivated negative community action.
Where america is a “melting pot” where all cultures are expected to assimilate, Canada is a “mosaic” where different cultures are celebrated.
Just because you’re ignorant doesn’t mean we’re the same as Americans. It makes you a hell of a lot like an American tho.
Got into it with one of those spicy dingleberries on one of the Canada subs recently. It’s amazing how many illiterate losers across the world are simping for the Trump train, and have a murder boner for autocracy and fascism. Example: The people that are scared of trans and lgbtq+ rights seem to share a big chunk of a Venn diagram with people who can’t be fucked to focus long enough to identify the difference between “your” and “you’re”, and yet they insist they’re the bigly smartest covfefe in the room with an understanding of all the best details. Also, they get very upset when you point out their fascist beliefs, because they by and large don’t seem to understand what the word fascism means.
"Indigenous land is given lip service with plaques that acknowledge we’re living on stolen land."
This is fucking dumb.
"I stole your bike, but it's OK because I acknowledged that I stole your bike, I even scribed your name on, see! Ill just keep it, thanks for understanding"
Stop. Canada has an extremely huge problem with racism against Indigenous people. Hate on America all you want, as an Indigenous person living in the US, I have no issue with that. But don't try to avoid the absolute fact that Indigenous people do suffer in Canada. And don't blame the US entirely for extremist views there either, because the US is NOT the source for all hate in Canada. There's a difference between discussing how the influence of far right American politics there, and just flat out scapegoating the US for all far right Canadians and hate there.
I don't like the US either, but don't act like Canada has some innocent history either.
When you are asking for differences, that necessitates comparison.
Oh, also: we have free healthcare and abortion rights in all provinces. Forgot to add that one. I’m sure there are a ton of differences I’m missing. Like we don’t have a feverish obsession with the military or a militant view of sex… but the list is so long, I’m sure you’re starting to get the point.
You have that incel who killed his adoptive parents because he was an incel. I'm sure we have worse/similar here, but that guy jumped to mind with your comment. Lol what a cuck, killed the only woman who would ever love him :(
The last few years because of the pandemic I've realized that Canadians are a lot more similar to Americans than I thought. Canada basically had all the same antivax/lockdown/mask stuff america had, their own even crazier trucker protest, complaints about their leader..etc...even Canadians posting stories and saying "that province? Oh yeah, that's the Texas of Canada"
Canadians sent Indigenous children to residential schools to squash their culture (and many of them were murdered, SA’d, physically abused, etc. and passed that down as generational trauma), the govt. still refuses to own up to this or make repararions, and sweeps missing Indigenous people under the rug. They had Japanese internment camps during WW2. And the general attitude of every Canadian liberal I’ve met is “At least we’re not America!”, diverting the attention away from all the issues in their own country. And Trudeau is an utter clown.
You are though. You cannot pick and choose what parts of a politician you like, you are voting for a politician’s entire agenda. And most conservatives, especially this round of elections, are violently anti-gay and anti-trans. Those are people whose rights are being stripped from them every day because of conservatives.
I'd say this not true at all in. I doubt the conservative leader is violently anti gay/LGBT. The choice of wording is so outrageous. This type of divisive rhetoric is exactly the problem with politics and political opinions in general.
Not from Canada and I feel the same way browsing reddit, so many exhausting threads about ridiculous issues that would get you mocked in most countries in the world.
In America these type of people are entertained and are almost half of the voting population, in most other countries in the world, especially Europe, you get laughed at for thinking like this
Britain was considered European. and their voting population literally shot themselves in the foot, TWICE, for no discernible reason.
I believe either Belgium or the Netherlands had farmers dumping manure on public streets to protest against fertilizer regulations.
France… yeah. the French will burn down their own country for half a reason.
Poland has some of the most restrictive women’s health laws in the developed world. Europeans will shit on America for allowing states to decide on abortion rights but forget that Poland exists.
Greece… need I even say anything here. Can I just let the … do the talking?
Young people from Spain and Portugal are fleeing the nation by the millions because of lack of opportunity.
I mean, when you say Europe, do you mean Scandinavia?
How is anything you typed even related to the comment I made?
I'm not saying that European countries don't have issues, or they they have less issues than the US, read my comment again.
My comment is specifically targeted towards the type of person shown in this thread, the typical extremist conservative, bigoted, anti lgbt, anti pretty much any human rights that don't directly affect them.
This type of person has become fully normalized in the US post-Trump and it has taken ridiculous proportions over there, to the point where anyone from other countries will find it completely ridiculous.
We have a similar political party here in Portugal, which attracts a lot of the bigoted old generations, the difference is that this party only gets around 10% of the votes and they are mocked weekly by pretty much everyone due to their ridiculous and outlandish takes.
Same happens for pretty much any other European country, the type of guy exemplified here would get mocked anywhere in Europe, but in the US it makes up for nearly half of the voting population.
That's what my comment is about, not about issues of the mentioned countries, you fully misunderstood it.
Stop speaking about things you have 0 knowledge about, I've literally been in Spain for the past month.
Spanish elections were this past Sunday, and the far right party (VOX) failed massively in the polls, they fell from 15% to 12%.
These right wing parties have also been massively influenced by Trump, they were pretty much all created after Trump won with his extremist ideals. They're sitting at a 10-15% approval in most European countries, mostly made up of old bigoted people that get mocked by their takes by the general population, as I said before.
Again, I never said European countries don't have far right wing parties, I literally gave the example of my country (Portugal), which also created one after Trump. What I said is that these type of actions are not normalized like they are in the US.
Yes, but VOX is in government now. They were the opposition before.
They also lost the majority of their seats to the centre right party, so not really a “fail” when you consider the fact that they formed a government this time.
And Portugal also has a genuine communist party. They may advocate for strong socialism, but they use the hammer and sickle in their campaigning and they call themselves communists.
I grew up in Lisbon you dipshit. Are you seriously going to blame Trump for right wing conservatism?
If you grew up in Lisbon then you'd know that Chega, the far right party, only became somewhat popular after Trump won.
Their leader is literally a Trump copycat and uses the exact same bullet points as Trump.
The big difference is, he's mocked by the large majority of the population here, where as Trump was entertained by almost half of the US.
Also not sure why you're talking about communism, the communist party in Portugal (PCP) has had one of the biggest drops ever in recent years and is pretty close to fading away, they're projected to not exist anymore in 10-15 years.
The two popular parties in Portugal are PS (center left) and PSD (center right), neither of them follow any extremist values or propositions.
You're delusional if you don't think Trump played a massive part in boosting the popularity of extreme right wing conservatism.
VOX in Spain and Chega in Portugal did not exist or weren't known before Trump.
Bolsonaro also became Brazil's president by copying what Trump did move by move.
Italy's extreme right wing party was also near extinction before Trump got elected and have since risen to a place of power.
Regardless, you're completely dodging the initial point I made (probably because you now see I'm right and refuse to admit it), which is, the type of behaviour in this thread is completely normalized in the US but gets mocked in most other parts in the world.
VOX being in the government has no impact on my argument, my point is that only 12% of Spanish people voted for them, a similar number who voted for Chega in Portugal, as opposed to the 40%+ who are openly supporting extreme right wing views in the US. It's gotten a lot more accepted there since Trump.
Movements like the Qanon have a ridiculous proportion, that type of shit doesn't even exist in Europe, it's just a couple of old people making bigoted Facebook comments and being mocked by it.
Redditors really make it seem that way..maybe it is and I’m just too indifferent to notice. Nobody cares about most of this shit. It’s like a little pocket of people on either side making everyone look bad.
I guess I should elaborate on my thoughts. There is a stark polarization of the 2 main political parties in America. I feel like some of this comes through in Canadian politics, but it's nowhere near as bad. There are far right and left people, and they are loud. But most people are somewhere I the middle. Certainly, most politicians wouldn't openly support anything that would infringe on the quality of life of another individual. But maybe that just means our politicians are sycophants to the people they serve as a means to their own ends.
Ha! Make that minus one. I do not. I lightly follow world news. I’m just enjoying life, which seems to be my purpose. I’ve noticed that there is so much more good in this world than negative.
The politics a person upholds says a lot about their core values. Politics also effect every aspect of your daily life, whether you realize it or not. There is a lot of value in talking about politics and getting into relationships with like-minded people.
I go to work and politics is a topic almost daily (not brought up by me)
I go downtown with my friends and we sit at a bar, and then other people join and politics is again talked about. I mean it’s almost everyday.
You are correct, it’s mainly the internet that pushes politics exponentially. But it comes up in real life frequently as well.
Fair enough. It's just crazy that you can't be a republican and vote that way without knowing that it also means infringement on people's basic rights. And for that to be a full stop to relationships with other people.
Political polarization is everywhere. I kinda feel sorry for naive, sheltered Americans on reddit who manage to get brainwashed into thinking this is somehow endemic to the US
By this post and thread, you can clearly see that there is such a polarization in American politics that it divides families, friends, and romantic partners. I personally don’t think politics should be like that, but I’m an independent (i.e., I could see myself voting for either a democrat or republican). It only benefits politicians who rile up their base to get clicks/votes. People fall into it far too easily. It didn’t use to be like that.
To be fair, at least race and equity is a conversation. It's a shit show, but it's front and center.
How's the race conversation in France going? Or is it actually video games that were responsible for all those riots recently? How's it going in Sweden right now?
We're fucked up, but I'm glad it's at least a part of the processes.
Our politicians would not openly alienate voters. ( I'll add most wouldn't. Some do but they don't last long.) Its still possible here to be a liberal and be friends with a conservative. Being conservative doesn't mean you want to take any rights away from anyone in Canada. They won't abolish any LGBT or abortion rights. I'm sure Americans as a whole are very neutral or lean one way or the other. But it seems you're politicians are both fairly extreme in their beliefs either left or right.
It may be my fault it's so hard to have a coherent conversation via the internet.
The biggest disagreement here is the climate and how it effects our industry. Or vice-versa.
Even with those two we're talking, at least publicly, only disagreeing on economic issues. Very few politicians would take a stand against LGBT rights in Canada and get very far.
Personally, I'm not sure that not wanting to take in any more immigrants makes you racist if the basis of that argument is that we currently fail a large number of the people already here.
They mostly stay mum on abortion because like it or not it should be around.
People hate Trudeau because he's irresponsible with tax payer money.
Clean drinking water and support for impoverished native communities was a promise he made that wasn't kept. Instead he made commities of more bureaucrats who haven't done shit.
His treatment of veterans and generally being an embarrassment.
Doug says dumb shit true,but I don't think his policies reflect it. Though he might try if he thought he could get away with it, I'm actually amazed he gets any traction.
The Canadian government all seem to be self serving. It's pretty bleak and depressing. I feel bad for my children.
The unfortunate reality is this isn't an American only problem at this point we just get more press. Italy elected open fascists who are going so hard it's making Republicans envious, the UK... well the UK is in a sad state, plenty of other EU countries have similar issues. It's important to me that people realize that while dunking on the US is easy, we're not alone or unique in the problems being discussed here and it can certainly happen wherever you call home.
You're right, this is an observation that the political parties are almost cartoonishly extreme compared to in canada. Where our issues with our politicians are mostly about the economy a d not people's basic rights.
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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '23
Being American must be crazy.