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A Canadian friend's perspective on US behavior since the Trump regime was installed:
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One thing I've learned over the past few weeks, and it's been a bit of a sobering lesson, is that a lot of Americans I know don't actually know what's going on between the US and Canada right now, and just how seriously Canadians are taking this. So, against my better judgement, here's a timeline to explain why we're here, and why we're angry.
Nov 30th, 2018 - The United States, Canada and Mexico finalize a trade agreement. Trump personally negotiates the terms and signs the document, celebrating it as 'the greatest trade agreement in history". (This is important.)
Nov 29th, 2024 - In a face to face meeting, Trump threatens the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, that he will be imposing 25% tariffs and that if Canada wants to avoid that, it should join the US as a state.
Nov 30th, 2024 - Trump publicly calls our Prime Minister 'Governor Trudeau' and instructs his staff to only address him as Governor going forward. He again suggests Canada should join the USA.
Dec 3rd, 2024 - Trump remarks that he would split Canada into two states once annexed.
Dec 10th, 2024 - Trump posts that the majority of Canadians support annexation, despite public polling that only 13% of Canadians would consider the idea.
Dec 18th, 2024 - Trump again falsely states that the majority of Canadians support annexation and that one of his lapdogs, Wayne Gretzky, should have a leadership role in that new scenario.
Jan 7th, 2025 - At a press conference, Trump says that he would use economic force to destroy the Canadian economy to annex it.
Jan 14, 2025 - Trump again claims that most Canadians want to be American, despite new polls showing only 10% of us are open to the idea.
Jan 20th, 2025 - During his inaugural address, Trump says that the U.S. will 'expand its territory' during his second term.
Jan 23rd, 2025 - At the World Economic Forum, Trump says that Canada can avoid tariffs and economic collapse if it joins the US. He says this in front of representatives from most countries in the world.
Jan 24th, 2025 - Trump states publicly that Canada 'will' become a state
Jan 31st, 2025 - Trump announces a 25% tariff on all Canadian imports to begin the next day.
Feb 2nd, 2025 - Trump refers to Canada as its 'Cherished 51st state' and that it should join the US to avoid tariffs.
Feb 3rd, 2025 - A one month delay is agreed upon. Trump, in a conversation with Trudeau states that he doesn't think existing border treaties with Canada are valid, and need to be revised.
Feb 7th, 2025 - In a closed door meeting with his cabinet, Prime Minister Trudeau is recorded, without his knowledge, telling everyone that he believes very strongly that Trump is serious and that he stated his reason for annexation as Canadian resources.
Feb 9th, 2025 - In a Super Bowl pre-game interview, Trump says that he's serious about his threats, calling it a 'viable consideration for expanding US territory'
Feb 10th, 2025 - Trump announces an additional 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada to come into effect March 12th.
Feb 24th, 2025 - Trump publicly remarks that whoever signed the USMCA agreement is an idiot. He was the one that signed it.
March 4th, 5th, and 6th 2025 - Tariffs come into effect. Canada retaliates with it's own tariffs. Tariffs are again postponed until April 1st after a huge market backlash.
March 4th, 2025 - In an address to a joint session of congress, Trump states that the US will own Greenland 'one way or the other'.
March 5th, 2025 - US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick told Canadian finance minister Dominic LeBlanc that Trump "had come to realize that the relationship between the United States and Canada was governed by a slew of agreements and treaties that were easy to abandon."
March 7th, 2025 - Unconfirmed Memorandum and maps leaked on twitter reveal Trump is allegedly planning to annex the entirety of the great lakes and Southern Ontario, home to 13,491,332 Canadians. This amounts to 35.25% of Canada's total population and includes its largest city, Toronto. This region accounts for 38% of the Canadian economy, and its loss would make Canada's independence functionally impossible.
March 8th, 2025 - Canada's foreign minister warns European allies that their government considers Canada to be under existential threat.
March 9th, 2025 - Mark Carney, the new Canadian Prime Minister, in his acceptance speech, states that Trump is seeking to destroy Canada, and its way of life.
March 11, 2025 - President Trump threatens to “permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada” if Canada does not drop a 250% to 390% tariff on U.S. dairy products, which he doesn’t state only kicks in after a certain quantity of tariff-free U.S. dairy enters Canada, a quantity that was originally negotiated and agreed to by Trump during the USMCA in 2018.
In Trump's own words, "The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State. This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear.
Canadians’ taxes will be very substantially reduced, they will be more secure, militarily and otherwise, than ever before, there would no longer be a Northern Border problem, and the greatest and most powerful nation in the World will be bigger, better and stronger than ever — And Canada will be a big part of that. The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear, and we will have the safest and most beautiful Nation anywhere in the World — And your brilliant anthem, “O Canada,” will continue to play, but now representing a GREAT and POWERFUL STATE within the greatest Nation that the World has ever seen!"
March 11th, 2025 PT. II - Peter Navarro, a Senior Advisor for Trump is interviewed by MSNBC. When asked about the tariffs he responds with "Just tamp it down, please, over there, ok? They're throwing down the hockey gloves. Stop that rhetoric...we're not going to tolerate anything but them stopping killing Americans", insinuating that this situation was caused by Canadians killing Americans.
March 11th, 2025 PT III - Trump again publicly muses that Canada, Greenland, and the US should be one country, and questions the validity of the Canadian and American border.
To my American friends, I know most of you are amazing and generous people. You didn't ask for this, and I understand that. I hold no ill will towards you, whatsoever. But I must stress, with as much seriousness as I can, the amount of damage this has done.
We have viewed you as our closest friend and ally for a century. We thought of you as brothers and sisters. We answered the call, again and again, for any support you needed from us. Most of Canadians visit the USA so much that we've seen more of the US than we have the rest of Canada.
American products have been taken off our shelves. Canadians are cancelling travel plans to the US. Photo after photo has been shared on social media of empty flights from Canada to the USA.
This isn't a joke to us. We're not overreacting. We don't think he's just saying this shit to cause chaos or negotiate a deal. We wholeheartedly believe that our closest ally and friend is about to bring violence across our border, economically destroy us, and eliminate our way of life.
The main driver for Canada's creation in 1867 was SPECIFICALLY to not be part of America, and to end America's very public threats and plans to annex our territory.
We're angry. We're really, really fucking angry. Open your eyes to what's happening because we're tired of trying to make you understand why and asking you why it seems like none of you care. **
I still hope that there is time to repair this. I still believe that this is the result of one man's plan to burn it all down. But time is running out, and fast.
@tprophet great thread- although I’m shocked to see the number of people who still don’t understand what’s happening. At the G7 meeting Melanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs, had to explain that Trump’s threats are no joke. Marco Rubio said it’s a difference of opinion between Trump and the govt of Canada. No wonder we’re so pissed off. I don’t want to hear people apologize for trump anymore. I want to hear what people are doing to fight his tyranny.
@mgrahamwoods What's laid bare here is that the US government isn't controlled by the American people, and doesn't work in our interests. It's controlled by approximately 1,000 rich families, and works pretty much exclusively in their interests. Historically, when societies are this far gone, it ends in stuff like the French Revolution.
Said this elsewhere just tonight, but it seems relevant:
> The One Percent's propaganda and tactics to stave off the next revolution have been quite effective here. They've created multiple generations of idiots and it's become inbred now. Epigenetics is a harsh mistress when the result is for the worse.
@VulcanTourist @tprophet @mgrahamwoods lining up for tango with eugenics there, my friend.
@Iwillyeah @tprophet @mgrahamwoods
I don't think you comprehend what I said. That's a bold and incendiary accusation to make without any effort to confirm your interpretation. Further, your inclusion of "my friend" addressed to a complete stranger suggests a preemptive degree of derision or condescension that you'd probably rather not cop to explicitly.
@VulcanTourist @tprophet @mgrahamwoods I was trying to be a bit gentle rather than going off on you about it, but OK.
Calling a population of people epigentically stupid is much more likely to be used against people who have lived for generations through oppression, stress, poverty and pollution than who's grand-daddies burned crosses. It's a very dangerous game to play loosely with, and casually using it as a way to explain the bad choices an electorate had made is bad discourse.
@Iwillyeah @tprophet @mgrahamwoods
First, "stupid" is an inaccurate too-brief stand-in for a more involved discussion of the roots of self-delusion, a wonderful feature - not - dependent on the limbic brain and its degree of dominance.
Second, some recent research in epigenetics has highlighted just how much potential there is for behaviors of one generation to predispose future generations to the same behaviors. American propaganda has been a LIFELONG exposure for every American of multiple generations. It's not a trivial thing. I've been considering the effects of epigenetics for decades, and my experiences with raising cats with common mothers but different fathers has made me all the more curious.
Third, I wasn't referring to the choices made in one election, but rather choices and behaviors from no less than the last 50 years. Is there a culmination now? Possibly.
We can argue about whether that is too speculative, but I'm neither a eugenicist nor a Nazi.
@VulcanTourist @tprophet @mgrahamwoods I didn't mean to imply you were a eugenicist. I said you were lining up to dance with them, because the assertion that people are genetically 'idiots', which sounds a lot like stupid to me, is the kind of thing Nazis like.
Anything I've read about epigentic intelligence has been exploring why IQ has increased in the last 100 years. I would genuinely be interested to read what lit this interest for you, if you do ever happen to come across it again.
@Iwillyeah @tprophet @mgrahamwoods
Re: epigenetics and IQ, the first question I conceive is whether one generation's experiences with standardized IQ tests or perhaps just that form of testing more generally might lead to adaptive synaptic changes that then get subtly encoded as a predisposition? I'm not historian enough to know how testing in education and elsewhere has evolved over centuries or millennia, but I suspect most of what we recognize as "tests" is a fairly recent phenomena, perhaps even less than a century old?
@VulcanTourist @tprophet @mgrahamwoods oh, it's all so loaded. Better off observing it from a distance without taking any of it as gospel, and certainly without drawing big conclusions from it.
@Iwillyeah @tprophet @mgrahamwoods
It would need multigenerational research that doesn't seem likely given our cultural and political volatility.
Latest article on epigenetics to catch my eye:
https://www.sciencealert.com/cannabis-use-linked-to-epigenetic-changes-scientists-find
Nothing related to the earlier discussion, but the accumulation of research like this demonstrates just how fragile our DNA is and how susceptible it is to methylation changes from "innocent" behaviors.