I keep telling dad that I just don’t care. He continues to inform me about USA politics. It’s not like either of us can vote. I walk away when he starts.
That sounds miserable. I’m sorry your dad can’t respect your boundaries/wishes.
US politics affects whole world. their current elections in November could end up pretty much bad, and will affect the rest of the world. large part of EU public oppinon, local elections, and politics today, is under US influence. it is important how the US will be shaped in next four years, because it will affect rest of us.
Canadian here, not my family but some people here keep talking about it, that either Trump is a stupid idiot, or that Trump is a savior, the same people in Canada who have a Trump flag, talk about hunter laptop, 2A, etc.
I was at a flea market the other day and saw someone selling Trump knickknacks like little engraved lighters and stuff. Can’t believe it.
I’m sorry but, as dumb as the US versions are, I can’t imagine invoking an amendment to another country’s constitution.
Believe me it’s as pathetic as it sounds.
Easiest way to get laughed out of the courtroom when you attempt to use it as a legal defense.
Back when Trump was running the first time I had to unfollow a lot of people on Twitter.
Still over a quarter of a year left until elections, too!
Add on another 4 years if Trump gets in.
Whether you chose to care or not, the upcoming US election will have an impact on your life; regardless of where you live. Arguably more so this year than most past elections. While you can’t vote yourself; you can have some influence (both directly and indirectly) on your social group, which may or may not contain Americans.
It is also good to generally stay informed of what’s happening in the world. Particularly with countries that have great influence over the majority of the planet.
Besides that; it can be quite difficult to find topics that interest/affect you both. Perhaps your father is trying to find common ground and bond over a topic that impacts both of you.
It never impacted me before so I doubt if it will this time. For me to influence the USA election I’ll have to expose myself more to that circus.
I read plenty of internation news via rss which is something I can control (turning off the app when I’ve had enough).
As for bonding - dad has always been like this. He has something to share and it doesn’t matter that everyone around him is getting annoyed. Still, this isn’t as bad as when he was “born again”, that was hell.
Have fun being blindsided by not having rights anymore. I used to be like you. I’m glad I’m not like that anymore.
Yeah, ok. First thing Trump is gonna do is march his troops into Canada and enslave the population. /s
So you wanna be blindsided by war then? I’m not saying that it’ll happen, but ignoring the politics of neighboring countries is ignorant. You don’t have to follow everything all the time, but being aware of politics around you is still healthy. If you need an example, gaza vs israel and ukraine vs russia. The US is in turmoil and that affects other countries as much as the US.
I do read plenty of international news via rss (perhaps you missed my comment on that). I’m well aware of the shitshow that is USA politics. Not sure how the USA military could gather on the USA/Canada border without everyone in the world knowing. Please stop with TEOWAWKI fantasy/wetdream.
Don’t be fooled that not seeing any direct and obvious signs of American influence means there isn’t any. For one of many, American economic decisions WILL incluence your national and local economy. Prices of goods, availability and type of jobs. These things are and will be influenced by who wins the US election.
How come neoliberals always tell immigrants, minority groups, etc to enjoy some form of death camp or other if they don’t do the thing you tell them to do?
You’re not even listening to what this person is saying, just making vague threats based on nothing.
Where on earth are you that is unaffected by us politics?
His mom’s basement.
That is a toxic trait - I am sorry that he is not respectful of your wishes:-(.
Thank you.
Do you guys talk a lot to each other apart from that? If you do, then he’s the fault. But if you don’t, he might be trying to reach out to you and grabbing at straws. People do this sometimes.
I don’t want to assume but from the tone of your message it sounds like the latter. I can’t really tell though.
We do talk about other stuff but it’s getting more difficult to avoid USA politics.
Others have hit on one possible reason - US policy tends to have global implications. Other possible reasons include morbid curiosity (it’s hard to look away from a disaster and there have certainly been some dramatic twists this year) or potentially liking (or being repunged) by one of the candidates.
How does he frame the conversation? Is it an intellectual curiosity, is he afraid of the ramifications, is it something he’s personally invested in?
He is afraid of the ramifications which I really don’t get. Dad is retired so employment isn’t an issue. No stock investments. We get very little products “made in the USA”. None of us have a passport and can’t afford to travel for vacations. I really can’t see how this will change anything for my family on a daily bases.
I don’t think you deserve downvotes for potentially missing world politics and power dynamics.
Extreme outcomes include a hot war with China, but more probable outcomes including messy trade outcomes for parties that aren’t directly involved.
For example, in the 1973 oil crisis OAPEC directly targeted Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This list was later expanded to include Portugal, Rhodesia, and South Africa. It wound up impacting global oil prices. For example.
A modern possibility might be metals needed for batteries. China processes 67% of global lithium supply, along with 73% of cobalt, 70% of graphite and 95% of manganese.
Thanks. I turned off scores so I didn’t know I was getting downvotes.
One of my most used apps is an RSS reader. I do read a fair amount of international news from a variety of sources so I do have an idea of what is going on.
Dude. We’ve had Hulk Hogan ripping his shirt off, Biden tagging out to his tag team partner, and an assasination attempt…and we haven’t even hit the primarys. It’s fucking JULY!!! This whole thing is just like one bad episode of pro-wrestling, except its results aren’t predetermined and affect everyones lives.
I almost expected Vince McMahon to make an appearance in between human trafficing women. (If you don’t get this reference, vince and trump are good friends, but vince has been caught doing very bad things to women…)
If the trump shooting had happened in Austin TX, I would have expected vince to say “IT’S ME AUSTIN…IT WAS ME ALL ALONG!!!”
Followed by everybody saying “Aw son of a bitch!”
And that’s the Republican side. On the democratic side we have the first debate, Biden calling Zelensky ‘Putin’ at a Nato summit, etc followed by louder and louder calls to step aside. Then he did step aside and Kamala hit the ground running. Now Trump can’t decide if he’ll actually debate her or not, Republican pundits are no longer fans of his VP pick, etc.
The fact that there are Republicans criticizing something trump did gives me a glimmer of hope for the future.
My mom consumes Trump rage bait practically all day every day. Every conversation with her derails into a tirade about how shitty and dangerous Trump is within 5 minutes.
It’s clearly affecting her mental well-being and gets so tiring I avoid calling her now.I’ve noticed that with dad, many conversation shift to Trump even if it has nothing to do with politics.
I know this is very common for UK people
My family has never been that political, but I have many, many friends like this. Most of them are from commonwealth countries, like Britain and Australia, and they’re all Donald Trump haters, which I’m not going to be against but which there’s definitely a right and wrong way to go about.
One of these people was an absolute giant in the world of British influencers. One day they made a statement right before Donald Trump’s first election, saying “if you say anything positive of him, I’ll never speak to you again”. A few days later I said something like “…in the very least he [lists a random bright side]” and she cut me off forever. That’s the last I heard of her, because she managed to piss people off enough to throw herself into obscurity, and I was never able to get into contact with her again.
Another such a person was Australian. Would constantly ask for favors for certain things (which I wouldn’t hesitate to do) and would campaign against Israel and Donald Trump on the side. She had an extremely oversimplified view of government, enough to say American police were outright cartoon villains. It was impossible to talk to her or around her, but she ended up cutting me out anyways later on because I have another friend who has some issues upstairs and at one point got defensive against him and she took it wrong because she thought I was a therapist (there was a misunderstanding where people thought I was a therapist because I mentioned taking classes which would give me increased validity if I ever became one).
The rest aren’t as on the offense about it, but you can see in them that they seem to care. If you’re non-American and are going to be passionate about American politics, be discussive about it or prepare to be dismissed. I detest the royal family and British colonial history in general, but you don’t see me playing the Anakin game when it comes to that.
You are living under a rock if you don’t think American politics will affect you.
