The outcome is not good for Canada and is deeply bad for several issues I care deeply about.
I do hope this drives introspection here about how our working class feels and has been struggling, and that it drives political change before we see a sweeping conservative majority in the next election.
Pretty terrible, I was hoping Kamala would win
Trump is about to destroy the lives of Americans for narcisstic greed and irrational hatred
about to destroy the lives of Americans for narcisstic greed and irrational hatred
I wouldn’t say that’s true. He’s going to start with that and cement in and spread this globally because of how economically and militarily influential the US is. He will align with crooks, profiteers, and other madmen and grifters, and others aspiring to power will seek to emulate the path. He will guarantee the climate change is not only ignored but buried while it’s effects and consequences exponentially increase in quantity, severity and irreversibility.
Honestly, this will be the reference point for a century or much more of worsening QOL for those who live in democratic republics. Empires of US influence are large ships to turn either way, and Trump’s recoronation shows the rot was deep and permanent. In historic scale US democracy was unprecedented though still short.
Hats off to those in other nations, hope someone can pick up the torch the statue of Liberty dropped.
Empathy at what my American friends are going through, and dread about our own incoming conservative wave.
In a word…
FUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!
Anxious. I’m already dreading the next 4 years. I usually like to keep informed and up to date on world news but I think I’m going to have to avoid all news for the next few years and just try to ignore what America is doing.
You know, I work a pretty stressful job, and I think a lot of that stress and anger came from, in some twisted way, a misguided faith of sorts. I did believe that people were, at the very least, capable of making the most sensible decision when given overwhelming evidence of good vs. bad choices; that they intentionally make bad choices either because they weren’t given enough information or were acting intentionally selfish or duplicitous in some way. So whenever I had to deal with someone trying to exploit a loophole or arguing about how they swear they are going to x and such place and will pay at a later time (when you know they won’t do so), it would frustrate me, because I did believe that they were capable of making better choices.
This election is proof that people are just genuinely dumb and hopeless, to a far and large extent. Choosing to omit your own vote, or willingly voting for him, is beyond imagination. We have seen so much of what he has done in the past 8 years now, at minimum. They know what he will likely do in the next 4 years. And they still chose him. Or chose not to participate.
So I’m choosing not to feel angry at people anymore, to not give a shit if they break the rules for whatever reason they justify. Because why be angry at something if you have lost faith in it being better?
I was quite put off myself, and was feeling sad for
youthem guys. To all that voted Harris, I’m sorry. To all who didn’t vote, voted 3rd party, or for the orange himself, I am now looking forward to the popcorn party.spoiler
Yes, my name checks out
This election is proof that people are just genuinely dumb and hopeless
Or that trump really does represent their ideals, and they’re just horrible people.
The turnout in the states says a lot. no one is happy. Even trump lost total votes; the Dems failed the mobilize their vote… which screams of people not thinking anything will change no matter what vote they place. It is a mirror for what is going on up here… In all likelihood the libs are out and its the cost of living and scarce jobs to blame for it. If they actually wanted to win the next election, they have already shown they could change things with a stroke of a pen and DON’T.
I’m a dual citizen from the UK/Canada.
I feel the same way after Brexit. I felt a huge sense of dread and my coworker said to me, “we work in a high paying position and we’re men, we’re mostly going to be okay. The people that voted for Brexit have just f*cked themselves and there’s nothing we can do about it.”
I do feel a lot of animosity to any Trump supporter and I feel that’s warranted. I don’t care to elaborate further. I’m thinking of dropping social media for the next six months because there’s a lot of shit going on that I have no control over and I can’t change.
I’m thinking of dropping social media for the next six months because there’s a lot of shit going on that I have no control over and I can’t change.
That was pretty much my exact thought. I still log in (obviously). But I used to doom-watch the news after work leading up to the election. And for the last couple of nights I’ve been watching reruns of Quantum Leap on Pluto TV instead.
Feels good.
OH SHIT OH FUCK
Bracing for impact on Canadian elections.
Upon hearing the news, I felt despondent and a pit in my stomach… I went to do a bit of karaoke and my mood has recovered from that at least.
Clearly political con-artistry is effective. Ford, Smith, Moe, Poilievre and any wannabe dictators of Canada who may emerge in the future, are all taking down notes.
A lot has been said about how shocking and awful the results are, and I do agree with them. I definitely do not condone any of the far-right parties, their representatives, or their policies.
But what hasn’t been said (and might be a bit controversial) is the fact that liberal parties are the biggest problem that the world is facing right now. It’s the parties that pretend to be an opposition force, but in reality they just keep shitting on voters, making broken promises, and saying “it’ll be better next time, just one more term!” They keep trying to convince people that the system works and that iterative changes will make things better. But in reality, things have actually been getting worse for 10, 15, maybe even 20 years… (the exact number depends on where you live and what you do for a living).
After a while, people stop believing in those broken promises. And the longer they refuse to put up any real opposition, the more and more they empower the far right.
In Canada, Trudeau needs to implement proportional representation NOW. If he doesn’t want to do that, he might as well just come out and endorse Poilievre, because he damn well knows what will happen if he doesn’t give people a real alternative (even he can’t pretend it’s any other way at this point). And no, ranked choice voting is not the answer here.
In the US, I have to be honest: it’s not a country anymore. It’s several countries, all jammed into one, and half of whom hate each other with no limit. And to be honest, this is how it’s supposed to work!!! This is how the constitution is framed! Federal government is supposed to be weak and state governments are supposed to fill that void, but the States refuse to actually work that way and keep looking to control a Federal government in a way that they’ll never be able to.
The USA really ought to break into constituent countries. The West Coast is a country. The Northeast is at least one country, maybe 3-4. And you can slice up the red states however you like - I honestly don’t care. Maybe this way, they can finally actually get shit done in a way that starts making people happy, because there’s far too much animosity between different and disparate parts of the “country” in its current form. It’s definitely not going to come from the Federal government.
I know that none of these things are going to happen, so things will just continue getting worse and worse over the next decade or two. Fair warning to everyone: we’re not even close to rock bottom yet.
I think it’s a total propaganda line to say nothing is getting better under liberals.
Better medical coverage, forgiving student loans, improvements to education, just few examples that benefit everyday Americans rather than billionaires. There’s so much more to making society better for everyone than just a bit more money at the end of the day. Besides if china tariffs come in big time count on everything getting far more expensive almost overnight.
You better bet none of that will happen with the current republicans at the helm.
They’ll happily screw over everyone to line their pockets and weaken the working class while selling them lies about how much better off they are with a minor raise to minimum wage or something insignificant.
I actually agree (more or less) with everything you’re saying. But the problem is, I don’t think it really matters to anyone. I think there’s still one point that people still don’t seem to be understanding:
Inflation and economic issues trump (pun not intended) all of the things you listed. We have to eat every day. And when you’re living on the edge, every meal, every time you eat, you’re constantly reminded of how precarious your life is. All the things you mentioned are great, but frankly they don’t matter when you’re just worried about whether you’re still going to be able to afford food at the end of the week.
Revolutions are not started by people who don’t have healthcare or education, or any of those other abstract things that may affect them in the future. They come from people who are hungry. And stressed. Stress and hunger really start eating your brain after a while, and people experiencing that start doing very nasty, desperate things like resorting to the kinds of demagoguery that the far-right is pushing. And this is what I mean when I say nothing is getting better under liberals - more and more people are falling into the cracks day by day, and if you don’t address this, then none of the other things don’t matter. Yes, in theory, all the economic policies that liberals propose should help with that, but if the effect is not immediate, then it’s not happening fast enough and people will continue to revolt.
I really think people who keep bringing up how this will ultimately hurt their voters need to understand this better. They’re not wrong, but I do think they’re missing the point. The standard of living in the west has been declining for a long time as I alluded above, and that’s why people are starting to do desperate things - because they’ve run out of patience and have seen the status quo for long enough, they’ll take any alternative and have no choice left but to overlook all of the criminal things these despots say and do. Maybe they do care about all those criminal things, or maybe they don’t, but what really matters is that they want drastic action to take place. They don’t want policies - they want results and they want it fast.
And I don’t think liberals understand or care to understand this. That’s what I mean when I say that liberals are making things worse. Until you stop the tide of more and more people falling behind economically, none of the things you pointed out are ever going to matter to people. You’re not going to win elections that way - even against the likes of Donald Trump.
I think liberals understand this, at some level, but they know they are powerless to do anything about it within the system they’ve built for themselves. They can’t outright say this, or they would never be re-elected.
They have completely embraced neoliberal economic policies, and thus depend on corporate money and support. The only thing they can do is toss people a bone here and there, and implement slow policies that might help over time, but won’t rock the boat now. Business do not like sudden changes, they want predictable stability as that’s what their investments and forcasting is built on.
Conservatives are also in the pocket of corporations, but they simply have no problem lying to their voters. They will point the finger, blame the other, make outlandish claims, and purposefully mislead the public while having no intention of helping them. They just want to solidify their power and line their pockets. People fall for these lies because they’re tired of the status quoe and any kind of major change sounds like a benifit. They’re shooting themselves in the foot, but they don’t know it yet.
OMG this. The worst thing too is that liberal parties block actual left parties (helped by our first-past-the-post voting system) that want to do more than incremental change while empowering the far right. Ultimately a lot of elite liberals would rather the far right win than a genuine left party. One of the MSNBC talking heads accidentally let that slip when he said he’d sooner vote for Trump than Bernie Sanders before being forced to retract by one of the other hosts.
I feel like we’re going to see an increase in this hate-filled, scapegoating rhetoric that the Republican party won votes with. All we can do now though is try to fight this kind of stuff here in Canada and try to avoid becoming the atates
Not fucking great buddy. Not fucking great.
If they enact a tariff like Trump is proposing we’re going to have to pivot hard. I’ve been in favor of Canada trying to join the shengen economic zone for a while - this may be a good opportunity.
I love that idea too - but how would this work? Can Canada be a member of Schengen without also being part of the EU?
I’d support Canada joining the EU for the single and extremely selfish reason that I would love to instantly move to a different EU country. NATO isn’t north american, EU doesn’t have to be European!
Alas, NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization - the A doesn’t mean American. That’s why Canada and the UK are members but Australia and New Zealand aren’t.
Likewise, EU membership requires being a European country. There is precedent for this, as Morocco was denied when it applied to join for that very reason: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-07-21-mn-5339-story.html / https://archive.is/hlOdB
Still, maybe Canada will luck out and that Europe thing will turn out to not actually be a requirement for joining Schengen or to join the EFTA. One can dream.
There are already non-EU members that are members and participants in Schengen.
Hmm you are right, but AFAIK all of them are EFTA members and theoretically eligible to join the EU if they wanted. That is, based in Europe.
I’ve love for Canada to join Schengen but as Canada isn’t eligible to join the EU…
Hey, if Australia can make it to Eurovision…
Shocked, saddened here.
I can’t believe Trump did so well. He’ll be the first Republican to win the popular vote since 2004. He’s a racist, sexist, transphobic, fascist, anti-science rapist, convicted felon, climate change-denier, and champion of the uber wealthy.
I guess there are many more deeply racist and sexist people than I wish to believe. It’s BS how first-past-the-post and the electoral college systems work - it’s so very easy to manipulate the system when you know the precious few key areas in advance to try to influence. Control of mainstream news and social media by the billionaire gives dis-, misinformation, and other bias so much reach to undermine democracy and voters’ rational self-interest.
Is it crazy that he’d be better if he was a five-time ultimate smackdown champion and porn superstar? Camacho actually tried to put the smartest guy on the problem.
One thing that has helped me the teensiest bit is that even though he got the popular vote, he still got less votes than he did in 2020. It doesn’t help me to know that so many people were blatantly apathetic or misogynistic or whatever we’re blaming the lack of democratic votes on, but at least he got less votes than before.
I guess there are many more deeply racist and sexist people than I wish to believe.
This. I knew that there was a great deal of racism and misogyny in the USA but the extent of it is horrifying. Having lived almost my whole life there in various states, it still took me by surprise. I dont understand it and never will. Nor do I understand how people can fall for simplistic rhetoric and scapegoating. But clearly it works.