Canada

Some of them might be real people.

Scapegoating is an extremely successful technique. Instead of dealing with the complexities of the modern world, the supposed strong man can just give people easy and reassuring answers.

Americans problems are not because of unchecked capitalism and the wilful dismantling of the scientific, legal, economic, and political systems designed to help them. It’s because Canada, led by its Mexican Drug Cartels, are taking advantage of them.

Never mind that it’s patently stupid. Never mind that the system of getting access to our raw materials for cheap so they could process them in their countries and their industries was overwhelming as good for them as it was bad for us.

Never mind reality — what matters is that an easy answer was given. It’s not them, they don’t have to confront any harsh truths, or take any painful looks in the mirror, or have to step out of their comfort zone. The Americans were given the answer to their problems by their King, and that answer is Canada.

So the “strong man” strikes at Canada to show how tough they are. And to no one’s surprise, Canada doesn’t take it lying down. We stand up for ourselves and hit back — saying that surely when they see pain they will stop and reflect.

But no, they don’t. Because our hitting back justifies our already-established status as villain. How dare Canada threaten to levy energy exports, says the King. The Canadians have no decency.

And so, feeling the pain we caused, the Americans listen to their King, and they blame us because that is the easy answer. They don’t have to think, they don’t have to pause the sportsball game or the reality tv marathon. It was Canada all along.

So yes — there may be bots and such, but make no mistake that the vocal opposition to Canada will only grow inside America as the trade war escalates.

Good thing as a Canadian I don't care what Americans THINK of us too much. They value their independence so do we.

I don't know if this is true on not but in the settings for your account it has a toggle to not allow bot comments to show up. It might only work for people that select the "bot account" option but just in case it's an auto filter I'd say try it out, I have felt like I've not seen bots since moving over from reddit

Luckily, Lemmy has a fairly effective way to deal with those. Don't block them, instead use the down arrow ⬇️ so the next buddy either doesn't see it, or sees the negative score as a warning. Unlike corporate for-profit social networks, Lemmy won't push those comments to the people that would get triggered most. Instead they'll fade into oblivion as quickly as the downvotes roll in.

I am convinced our elections were somehow rigged here in the states. At the very least, the bots changed the outcome. But now that the shit-heels are in power, there's fuck-all that can be done about it. I've resigned myself to leave. I've been wanting to at least a decade or more, but I can't rest on my comfort anymore. It's time.

I do hope Canada can overcome this. I fear for the entire world. I am rooting for you, the EU, and general sanity worldwide.

I love Nothmexico!

I’ll admit that I’m not the most patriotic American (I’m an emigrant, for one), and I’m not from a deep trump area, but I don’t know a single American, except for maybe my fox news addled dad, who doesn’t think Canada’s completely in the right. Even Vermonters who worry about heating their homes want trump to stop, not Canada.

Oh I can enrage americans? Awesome. It's going to be a good day. A not getting banned off reddit day.

LLMs will yell into the void. It's never been simpler.