🇨🇦 1/There's a couple things that have happened this week that have set off my alarm bells as a Canadian

1/There's a couple things that have happened this week that have set off my alarm bells as a Canadian.
First I overheard a conversation between some people that I would shamefully profile as upper middle class WASPs :
"I'm not worried about aliens invading I'm worried about the Americans invading"
Another conversation I had, again with someone that I would traditionally label as conservative "There's no way we'll travel to the US anymore, it's just not safe"

1/There's a couple things that have happened this week that have set off my alarm bells as a Canadian.
First I overheard a conversation between some people that I would shamefully profile as upper middle class WASPs :
"I'm not worried about aliens invading I'm worried about the Americans invading"
Another conversation I had, again with someone that I would traditionally label as conservative "There's no way we'll travel to the US anymore, it's just not safe"

3/ I guess I'm concerned because I usually temper some of my angst by telling myself that I live in a certain information silo and that I'm probably being overly influenced by partisan opinion. But now A) people I would usually consider outside my information silo are sharing the same angst and B) Usually very sober annalists are now speaking like they're from near future dystopian science fiction.

@mike I'm perhaps only /marginally/ better than average at tempering my emotions and being aware of my own cognitive biases so like you I find myself questioning the reality of my fears, but I have also come to the conclusion that the picture I had of the world having grown up when I did (b. 1968) was terribly naive when it came to the rule of law both at the individual level and the international level.

Self restraint and the rule of law was never not precarious, even in our lifetime.

@mike The return to gunboat diplomacy and the rule of might-makes-right shows the rule of law of our lifetime as somewhat the aberration in history, not the inevitable social evolution I thought it was.

@virtuous_sloth Well said. I'm a 1970 baby so not far off from you. The biggest awakening was realizing how much of our liberal democracies were dependent on people simply adhering to a tradition of doing the right thing and how much things break apart when people stop adhering to that tradition.

@mike Yes!

I realized just this year that norms trump laws!
(pun originally not intended but turn out to be appropriate)

I would look at strong US constitution defenders (like 1A advocates like Mike Masnick (Techdirt)) & think perhaps they had a point in contrast to Canada with respect to our "order and good governance" attitude and our anti-hate-speech laws being possible under our Constitution's free speech provisions.

I would think theirs was superior. But our norms are better and won out.

@mike Yes!

I realized just this year that norms trump laws!
(pun originally not intended but turn out to be appropriate)

I would look at strong US constitution defenders (like 1A advocates like Mike Masnick (Techdirt)) & think perhaps they had a point in contrast to Canada with respect to our "order and good governance" attitude and our anti-hate-speech laws being possible under our Constitution's free speech provisions.

I would think theirs was superior. But our norms are better and won out.

3/ I guess I'm concerned because I usually temper some of my angst by telling myself that I live in a certain information silo and that I'm probably being overly influenced by partisan opinion. But now A) people I would usually consider outside my information silo are sharing the same angst and B) Usually very sober annalists are now speaking like they're from near future dystopian science fiction.

3/ I guess I'm concerned because I usually temper some of my angst by telling myself that I live in a certain information silo and that I'm probably being overly influenced by partisan opinion. But now A) people I would usually consider outside my information silo are sharing the same angst and B) Usually very sober annalists are now speaking like they're from near future dystopian science fiction.

3/ I guess I'm concerned because I usually temper some of my angst by telling myself that I live in a certain information silo and that I'm probably being overly influenced by partisan opinion. But now A) people I would usually consider outside my information silo are sharing the same angst and B) Usually very sober annalists are now speaking like they're from near future dystopian science fiction.

@virtuous_sloth to digress I'm not especially fond of hate speech laws myself. I feel once you ban something it creates a curiosity that inadvertently promotes exploration of the subject being banned. However I also used to think that extremists usually hang themselves with their own words so I don't mind giving them rope. I'm not so sure about that anymore..

1/There's a couple things that have happened this week that have set off my alarm bells as a Canadian.
First I overheard a conversation between some people that I would shamefully profile as upper middle class WASPs :
"I'm not worried about aliens invading I'm worried about the Americans invading"
Another conversation I had, again with someone that I would traditionally label as conservative "There's no way we'll travel to the US anymore, it's just not safe"

3/ I guess I'm concerned because I usually temper some of my angst by telling myself that I live in a certain information silo and that I'm probably being overly influenced by partisan opinion. But now A) people I would usually consider outside my information silo are sharing the same angst and B) Usually very sober annalists are now speaking like they're from near future dystopian science fiction.

@mike Of course norms are absolutely influenced by laws. In fact, the growing understanding of the corruption of the law in the US over the last 40 years is why MAGA (or any right-wing populism) even exists.

We are only somewhat better than the US on this. I've come to believe that our poorer productivity (absolute and relative change) compared to the US goes hand-in-hand with us being more egalitarian, more collective-oriented, and less individualistic a culture than the US.

@mike There are few metrics by which the USA manages to avoid falling into the category of "fascist state," most obviously, when authorities can arbitrarily designate civil disobedience as domestic terrorism. Few conservatives think fascism is a good thing, so that's the shift you're seeing.

We're also seeing the late stage decline of the American Empire, which has been well underway for about three decades now. The problem with allowing one country to become "defender of the free world" (so-called) is that we haven't made adequate provisions for when that defender starts to truly implode.

@mike
I think Trump's attack on Venezuela, and kidnapping of Maduro, accelerated Canadian's distrust of the U.S. I thought about what I would do in the face of an invasion and I seriously considered asking my brother for my old firearms that I gave to him 40 years ago. A golf buddy was here yesterday to get help regripping his clubs and thinks a militia is needed immediately to bolster our forces. My neighbour thinks we're in a race to see what comes first - U.S troops occupying Ottawa or Trump stroking out on fast food.
This week made it clear. There are no controls on Trump's behavior. His actions are impulsive and lack any element of understanding cause and effect. You cannot deal with him in a diplomatic way because he's not rational. Common sense arguments and facts have no affect. It's hard to feel confident in the future when faced with that reality.

@mike The main #CanPol podcast Iisten to has been taking Pres. Trump seriously for a long time: https://www.readtheline.ca/podcast

For too long Canadians have thought they were immune from the dangers of the world. The last time Canada had military spending higher than 2% of GDP was while Brian Mulroney was PM; finally we're investing in hard power again. And our economic weakness vis-à-vis the Americans is another danger: the richer they are, the easier it is for them to push us around.

@paulbusch Personally I don't think small arms would do it no matter how well organized. Actually I think it would be less patriotic and more, suicidal. However we can resist in other ways.