Marie 🇨🇦

Western countries routinely destabilize non-Western countries and then wonder why there are so many refugees

That's an option?? Thanks, I'll look into that!

Eh, figure skating is at least as expensive.

While we definitely have some assholes, I always found it to be the exception, not the rule.

I was poor as dirt as a kid and had to bust my own ass to afford it, was surrounded by OBSCENELY wealthy people... Who were really nice to me.

Yes, I'm crabby.

Not thrilled with the way blocking works here.

Blocked someone who felt the need to come at me with that nonsense, now getting inundated with other replies to her.

I don't have the spoons for that shit.

When I moved to the USA in 2006, it was already CLEARLY on the path to the current situation, but no one cared to hear about it.

Much easier to be offended by a foreigner saying "this is how you get Nazis", than to look at what's happening, I guess.

But sure, blame Trump. Anything but society.

And much like men who shout about how they're not the problem... Americans should be more focused on addressing the issue in their tracks, rather than prioritizing how they, personally, are perceived by everyone outside that group.

We don't want to hear it. Sorry, not sorry.

Much like the problems of predatory men/toxic masculinity aren't going to be solved without addressing the culture supporting it... downplaying everything that led to Trump winning ALSO won't solve the problem.

This will not die with him.

It smells exactly the same as "not all men" and "but I'm one of the good ones!".

Trump didn't happen in a vacuum, and 2/3 of that country didn't have enough of a problem with him to vote against him. Full stop.

30% approval rating right now is INSANE.

This also didn't come out of nowhere.

I wish that "well meaning" Americans would understand just how sick many/most Canadians are of hearing "don't blame me/us/is just one man/the majority don't support this", etc.

If you're going to randomly engage a Canadian in that vein, don't be surprised when we don't want to hear it.

(Cont..)

It’s both funny and cosmically correct that the U.S. men’s hockey chodes will have to sit through 2+ hours of rambling from their addled little king while the U.S. Women’s team gets to skip the speech and party with Flavor Flav in Vegas

Oh god. I can't even imagine.

I had to leave all the "international" RV camping groups I was in on Facebook, because literally everything turned into "let me talk about my guns".

Ugh.

I was gaslit for over a decade whenever I'd point out "this is how you get Nazis", or talk about the very real parallels that were cropping up.

A country can't spend that much time and effort on completely dehumanizing entire groups for decades, then blame it on one person who wasn't even active.

Sigh.

This is not about "how Canadians feel", it's about actual lived experience and observation down there.

"He" didn't do this. He's merely a symptom of a much, much bigger problem, not the disease itself.

Where we are right now was clearly where things were heading even back in 2006.

Now, I have to think... If I was a raging bigot, I think I'd go elsewhere, you know?

If I was the kind of person that screams about "chemtrails", not sure I'd want to stay somewhere that's all about education, conservation, respect, etc.

But .. No.

See, the weird thing here is that literally every Provincial or National Park employee we've ever met has been a nerd. Usually environmentalist, etc.

The parks often have a pride flag somewhere - if not right at the entrance - and there's usually one of the "all welcome" progressive signs posted.

*part

That absolves an awful lot of Americans of the past they played in the current situation.

More than 2/3 of your country didn't have a problem with Trump, last election.

1/3 voted for this, another 1/3+ didn't have enough of a problem with the rise of fascism to bother doing the bare minimum to prevent it.

The bomb scares and such did not account for much of the latter.

It's why the social safety nets are garbage, and a big part of why there isn't universal healthcare.

"I don't want my taxes to pay for single moms/POC/poor people/the gays/disabled people/immigrants/etc, so I'll go without!"

That's not stolen elections, but definitely*contributed to* trump's wins

Ok?

I lived down there for 12 years, this isn't about the last election, or the last 3 elections.

It's about how - for a huge percentage of Americans - people are far too quick to vote even against their own interests, if it means holding someone else down.

I sometimes wonder if literally virtue signaling - in the opposite direction - would help meet decent people, but I figure it would just get us targeted by the nasties.

Maybe I'll fly like... A Klingon flag or something... And test the waters. I have no idea how many fellow nerds there may be?

See, we get the same sort of thing, but with "Fuck Trudeau" flags.

Sure, he hasn't been in office for a while, but I guess they haven't gotten around to printing up "fuck Carney" signs.

The Canadian team got to go home to Canada.

The American team, for the most part, had to go home to the USA.

When Canadians vote, they vote to make lives better.

When Americans vote, they vote to make lives worse *for others*.

... So I guess that tracks.

Henceforth, I will be describing the way that U.S. men’s hockey spectacularly squandered good will, brand recognition, and fan loyalty as “pulled a Target.”

They pulled a Target.

I love camping. We live in Ontario, we have GORGEOUS provincial and national parks everywhere.

I just hate knowing that we're always surrounded by absolute shitweasels when we go!

Goddamnit.

This one time, a couple came over to our site and was chatty, seemed nice, we dropped our guard a bit (we're not people people!)... Then out of nowhere, the husband just dropped a big racist bomb out of nowhere.

The wife looked like she wanted to disappear into the ground, and that was that.

Probably better to focus the screams at trying to stop them from being that way, rather than declaring yourself not a problem tbh.

Are "Forest Nazis" just campers (WAY TOO MANY far right morons in camping spaces!!), or is this a thing?

Also, I kinda love that I'm reading this right as I'm taking a break from writing about bear safety.