• Random Dent@lemmy.ml
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    5 hours ago

    It’s actually been quite nice here in Canada lately, in the last few years we’ve been quite politically divided but once Trump started talking about annexing Canada it seemed like everyone I know came together to be like he can fuck right off lol.

    Our household is still refusing to buy anything American or go anywhere near the place until (at the very least) Trump is gone and the US can demonstrate that something like this won’t happen again.

    • Sheep Herder@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      To be fair. Respected and loved are two different things. I don’t think the rest of the world respects the US more than 1 year ago, just saying.

        • Random Dent@lemmy.ml
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          5 hours ago

          As a non-American, I can say that amongst the people I know it was the re-election of Trump that really did it. The first time you could write off as an anomaly - he managed to fool enough people at just the right time or something like that, and then you guys got rid of him after a single term. Pretty bad but shit happens.

          But then after that he showed everyone exactly who he was for eight years straight and then he got in again. And since then he’s really been ramping it up to insane levels of fascist nonsense and nobody’s kicked him out or even made a serious run at removing him from power yet. When I talk to people the vibe is very much “What the hell is going on over there?”

          TBH I don’t know why he wasn’t over as soon as the “Grab 'em by the pussy” tape was leaked. I feel like that would have tanked most candidates.

          • Log in | Sign up@lemmy.world
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            4 hours ago

            TBH, I lost a fair bit of respect for America when they nearly elected the clearly-none-too-well-informed George W Bush and then pushed him over the line with clearly broken legal shenanigans.

            But Trump makes Bush Jr look clever, knowledgeable, statesmanlike and wise. I didn’t think that was even possible, but it’s not even a narrow thing.

            Trump’s a complete moron, has the emotional maturity of a toddler, the charm of a slug and the kindness and bonhomie of General Hux.

      • Random Dent@lemmy.ml
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        5 hours ago

        I’ve been saying for a while that George W. Bush was the one who sold the doors and windows to the house. Trump is just the inevitable crack head that climbed in and started living on the sofa.

        • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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          5 hours ago

          The removal of democratic checks and balances has been furthered by every president since Reagan.

      • Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Trump is a result of American culture, not driving it.

        Trump is a representative of America, not an outsider.

        Trump happened again secondary to the diseases of hate and greed, not in advance of.

        • piefood@feddit.online
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          2 days ago

          To further expound: In a healthy political ecosystem, Trump would not be able to get anywhere near any political office. He would have been immediately voted down as the cruel joke that he is. It’s only because America is so evil and toxic that he was elected twice.

        • trajekolus@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          “the diseases of hate and greed” - is found elsewhere too. Which is why Fascism is also on the rise in Europe and elsewhere.

          • beveradb@sh.itjust.works
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            2 days ago

            I agree and that rise saddens me, but in Europe, I still generally have confidence that the majority of countries’ populations respect general decency, human rights and lack of corruption enough to keep the hate and greed mostly at bay. In the US, it’s now long past hope - the corruption runs so deep, so broadly that it’s taken over, and that means the country is doomed to be somewhere I never wanna live.

            • 0x0@lemmy.zip
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              10 hours ago

              I still generally have confidence that the majority of countries’ populations respect general decency, human rights and lack of corruption enough to keep the hate and greed mostly at bay.

              And yet fascism is on the rise 'cos dumbass illiterate bigoted motherfuckers exist in the EU too.

            • Nico198X@europe.pub
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              23 hours ago

              also have better political and electoral systems to resist the kind of capture we see now in the US

    • TheLowestStone@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      I’ve been trying to convince my wife to leave since 2016. I’m 99% sure the main reason she won’t agree is because she will burst into flames if she ever admits to being wrong about anything.

      • TheCriticalMember@aussie.zone
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        2 days ago

        When I married my wife in 2005 she told me she’d NEVER leave her home and family. Took her to Australia for the first time in 2015 and within an hour of landing she was ready to move, which we did in November 2015, right before trump 1.0. Now since last November she’s looking into Australian citizenship and says she’s never going back. Don’t give up hope!

          • TheCriticalMember@aussie.zone
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            20 hours ago

            Mostly it was moving from the Midwest to a sub-tropical beach paradise. Which I thought (but definitely didn’t say) was kinda funny, because her reason for saying she’d never move was family. But pretty much all the reasons she’s been glad we did move are related to trump and what the US has become.

            • sneekee_snek_17@lemmy.world
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              19 hours ago

              Politics have been a convenient correlation, but I’ve been convincing my wife to move further and further north to more climate-change resilient areas

              Almost like that poleward range shift is gonna affect humans just like any other animal

              • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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                5 hours ago

                You still can’t have Canada though. But if you’re nice and promise not to annex the country, we might let you in.

                • sneekee_snek_17@lemmy.world
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                  4 hours ago

                  We (me much more strongly than my wife) are considering leaving altogether.

                  One reason I advocated for the twin cities as our “final” stopping point was because the boundary waters are a very porous border and I know i could get my family across with relative speed and low risk

                • sneekee_snek_17@lemmy.world
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                  4 hours ago

                  (Also I’m 100% cool with the expectation of reasonable cultural conformity and aside from dropping the occasional “ope” and “lemme just squeeze right by ya” I’ll blend right in)

              • TheCriticalMember@aussie.zone
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                19 hours ago

                Hope it works out for you. Due to certain financial outcomes, I’m pretty much stuck where I am, for better or worse. Will have to be satisfied that my teenaged daughters never had to live in trump’s America.

  • HubertManne@piefed.social
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    2 days ago

    nowhere more than in the us. Ugh these flag wavers. If you want pride in the country the country first has to act and function in a way that elicits pride!

    • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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      2 days ago

      I think a lot about something I read years ago. It said something like, “Some people love their country the way a child loves a parent. The parent is the smartest and the best and perfect. Some people love their country the way an adult loves a peer. They see the strengths, the potential, but also the weaknesses and problems that need to be addressed.”

      Conservatives are generally children. Driven largely by emotion with a very simple moral framework. Much like you will likely struggle to explain to a toddler that taking the other kid’s toys, screaming constantly, and shitting in the sandbox won’t make a lot of friends, explaining politics to a conservative is likely to be an ordeal. They don’t care. They have feelings and that is their reality.

      It’s also kind of funny how conservatives are the ones who typically say “reality doesn’t care about your feelings”. Everything is projection.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        The qons are very much into performative bullshit that they think is patriotism. They’ll cry about how someone kneeling while a song plays and a piece of cloth is displayed at a sportsball game hurts “the troops”.

        Then they’ll proudly vote for a party that treats the men and women of the military like a used Kleenex, and embrace a figure like Taco who called them suckers and losers.

        They’ll blather about free speech, then cry about Hollywood airing shows they don’t like. They’ll talk about liberty and The Constitution, but want xtianity to be put on a pedestal.

          • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            Xtianity

            You know, it’s hilarious how the rabid xtians often get up in arms over that on some more “normie” moderated platforms I am on/have been on.

            They would repeatedly say I violated the TOS and would try to get comments taken down and/or me banned. They would claim this is “offensive” to xtians.

            When this is THEIR abbreviation for Christ, and has been for centuries, FFS. Of course, these are the very same dipshits that get “offended” about things like someone telling them in a secular setting like a shopping mall or big box store or printed on something like a coffee cup: “happy holidays”. These people have zero historical context for fucking anything. For decade upon decade, primarily xtians would tell each other “happy holidays” to cover xmas and New Years.

            And no one got butthurt about it (except for maybe a few fringe anecdotal crazies that I knew, but these people also believed in crazy shit like Marilyn Manson removed a rib to blow himself, or that the profit from arcade games went to the Satanic church. I wish I was kidding. In other words, people fixated on trivial nonsense and conspiracy theories.).

            Then, introduce Faux “News”, and they blow up shorthand like “happy holidays” into a “war on xmas”. Of course, you have the attendant bullshit to go with it where again, their own abbreviation for Christ, X, being used in places like xmas, xtians, and xtianity drives them fucking crazy and they run around trying to cancel (irony) anyone that uses these abbreviations and short hands. I guess everyone now needs to tell these fucking snowflakes “Merry CHRISTmas and Happy New Years” and really emphasize the CHRIST part of that phrase, instead of just “happy holidays”, or else they’ll melt into a puddle, the poor dears. Gosh, if ONLY our secular government and our national culture would cater to xtians just a little fucking more…

      • HubertManne@piefed.social
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        2 days ago

        Man over the years that projection thing just gets more and more. Which is just crazy when they spend most of their time accusing their opponents of things we eventually find out they are actively doing at the time.

    • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 days ago

      the country first has to act and function in a way that elicits pride!

      ask not what you can do for your country, but what your country can do for you

      • HubertManne@piefed.social
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        1 day ago

        to you. Seriously though. Every time I see a god bless america it annoys me. America be worthy of gods blessing.

        • MiddleAgesModem@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          It annoys me too, as an American. Particularly one who doesn’t believe in the Judeo-Christian god, or any god for that matter.

          It’s just religious chauvinism.

    • Lukaro@piefed.zip
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      2 days ago

      I’ve always said I’m happy to have been born where I am and I feel privileged, not pride, for that. Unfortunately I’ve been feeling less and less privileged recently.

      • MiddleAgesModem@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I’d rather live here than maybe 80-90% of other places, but if I could’ve chosen where I was born, it would not be here. Anywhere with universal healthcare is better.

      • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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        1 day ago

        They love the hit of Dopamine they get. There’s lots of ways to do that, but they’ve socialized themselves to get their fix in response to political outrage.

        FoxNews knows this, so they oblige by offering various outrages all day, every day, so MAGA Nazis can stay constantly cranked up.

        They’re addicts, it’s as simple as that.

    • Kühlschrank@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Probably only hardcore MAGA. Actually probably not them because they wouldn’t believe an MSM article that claimed Trump was hurting the image of the USA, even if they could read

      • OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        They probably believe it but think it’s because Trump is playing hardball and making them pay their fair share and that’s why they’re mad.

    • chunes@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      It is to me. That means the popularity came back after the Bush years and after Trump’s first term. It’ll come back after 2028 too because people have the memory of goldfish.

    • mister_flibble@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      Basically the same way the douchey rich kid who’s tolerated because he’s got a Playstation AND an N64 is “popular”.

        • Sunflier@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Golden Eye - pyramid level, slaps only, no odd job - was the height of gaming that the industry has yet to recapture.

          • 0x0@lemmy.zip
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            10 hours ago

            The egg’s been captured already, give it a rest, tomorrow’s Thursday.

          • TheCriticalMember@aussie.zone
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            19 hours ago

            I liked Duke Nukem 64. Me and my mates would play that non-stop. Goldeneye was never worth playing because the guy who owned the N64 was unbeatable.

        • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Playstation AND an N64

          Ha, well, these days it’s hard to be sure. I see some kind of weird penchant for collecting things like cassettes now, and among a much younger set than I would have ever imagined. I’ve not priced a N64 or an original PS1 in a while, but it seems like they are old enough now to start becoming collectible?

          A great term I’ve run across recently is “anemoia” - nostalgia for a past you’ve never even experienced. I think I see some of that in Gen Alpha, anyway. Actually, quite a lot of it…

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    But Taco said we were hot, and we weren’t hot when Biden was in office, because “worst president evar” or somesuch.

    I have to trust dear leader and not any kind of real data, just like I believe him when he says we had the worst economy ever under Biden, in spite of all the evidence.