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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   32395 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 10, 2025

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The US-Canada trade war is off on off on off! Retaliatory 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum that is. The rest are still on.

"This cannot continue," Trump wrote. "The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State. 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," he added.

“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!"

Even if Canada agreed to become a US state, Congress wouldn’t go for it because it would permanently cede every national election to the Democratic Party. Surely someone has told Trump!? Disregarding statehood as the {only way to stop this}, I’m guessing steel factories take longer than 4 years to build. An agent of chaos indeed!

So, what is the off ramp? The US annexes Canada and changes its name to Canada? Border state republicans take away Trump’s toys tariffs until he can play nicely? Global depression? Or the continuation of flip flopping tariffs to placate boredom?

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/11/trump-raises-canadian-steel-aluminum-tariffs-to-50percent-in-retaliation-for-ontario-energy-duties.html

Personally I think Trump is trolling you. He isn’t really serious about Canada as the 51st state. He knows it pisses you Canucks off (in part because it points out how provincial you are and in part because Canada defines itself as ‘not America’).

Trump thinks Canada has been ripping off the US so he is trying to engage in a bit off a game of chicken to make the relationship more equitable in his mind. Will it work? Who knows.

Note the latest skirmish wasn’t started by Trump but clearly a result of his rhetoric—yet I think Canada lost the exchange. Canadians may be better off simply laughing about the 51st state rhetoric instead of claiming they are being annexed. That’s what you do when someone is trolling you.

The effect is similar to trolling because it's not going to happen and hasn't got a warm reaction even among Trump voters.

I don't think it is true trolling though.

If it somehow became a popular policy, would Trump drop it, as if it had all just been a joke to him all along? I somewhat doubt that.

Honestly, if Canada was 110% on board with Trudeau as our leader? Trump would drop it immediately. He hates Trudeau for being sanctimonious and a huge example of the “respectable” politicians that talk down to him and consider him a threat to democracy.

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