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A little ridicule is appropriate when people assert that trying to make good-faith negotiations like adults actually shows "a complete lack of respect". Maybe I'm the one being fussy but I actually get very tired of people claiming to take offense at fundamentally normal behavior. It's normal to spitball and fantasize, it's normal to negotiate, it's normal to have stipulations and reservations, it's normal to ask for something and it's normal to say no. What's not normal is the idea that even asking is inherently disrespectful. Come on, user Bombadil said that a lack of understanding is deserving of ridicule, this is one step away from saying it's not my job to educate you. Maybe I'm the one being fussy, maybe I'm the old man now decrying social mores -- but I think the attitude of hostile ridicule is actually a big problem today and itself deserves ridicule.
Alternative hypothesis: you may have a very unique idea of what constitutes normal. The modern first world has a very, very strong norm of borders not moving, for obvious reasons. What Trump has been doing with Denmark and Canada is like shitting on the pavement and then being surprised that everyone's offended or mocking: doesn't everyone shit? Yes, but in a very different place and manner.
It's not normal to spitball about annexing territory, and hasn't been normal to negotiate the possibility since the 1940s, especially when you accompany those 'negotiations' with obvious threats.
We have a strong norm against wars of conquest, conveniently imposed by the West only after it won World War II and arranged the world to our taste. Even then, borders change all the time. It is literally basic normal diplomacy to negotiate land deals with other countries, although they are not usually on the same scale as what Trump proposed with Greenland. Consider: Hong Kong returning to the Chinese, exclaves and enclaves along the Indian-Pakistani border, the reunification of East and West Germany, the brief union of Egypt and Syria in the 60s. Nobody considers it ridiculous when Belgium and the Netherlands swap territory. America was built on land deals, I don't think anybody serious would propose that the Louisiana Purchase is absurd.
It was all very normal: America has interests in Greenland, Denmark has a lot of debts there, maybe we can do a deal? The European overreaction looks even more ridiculous now that a deal has in fact proven possible, because Trump, it turns out, is not immune to reason and compromise.
American People: What do we need mining equipment in Greenland for?
Trump: What do you mean what do we need mining equipment in Greenland for? Why in the hell do you think we just spent all that money on nuclear weapons? The whole purpose of nuclear weapons in the first place was to get the Danish nice and tipsy topside under our defensive umbrella so we can take 'em to a nice comfortable desk with pen and paper and, you know, they can't refuse giving us Greenland, because of the implication.
American People: Oh, uh... okay. You had me going there for the first part, the second half kinda threw me.
Trump: Well dude, dude, think about it: Denmark is out in the middle of a Hobbesian State of Nature with some dude she barely knows. You know, she looks around and what does she see? Nothin' but realist conception of international relations. "Ahh, there's nowhere for me to run. What am I gonna do, say 'no'?"
American People: Okay. That... that seems really dark.
Trump: Nah, no it's not dark. You're misunderstanding me, bro.
American People: I'm-I think I am.
Trump: Yeah, you are, because if Denmark said "no" then the answer obviously is "no"...
American People: No, right.
Trump: But the thing is Denmark's not gonna say "no", Denmark would never say "no" because of the implication.
American People: ...Now you've said that word "implication" a couple of times. Wha-what implication?
Trump: The implication that things might go wrong for Denmark if they refuses to give me Greenland. Now, not that things are gonna go wrong for Denmark but Denmark's thinkin' that it will.
American People: But it sounds like Denmark doesn't wanna give Greenland to you...
Trump: Why aren't you understanding this? Den-Denmark doesn't know if it wants to give Greenland to me. That's not the issue...
American People: Are you gonna invade them?
Trump: I'm not gonna invade Denmark! Why would I ever invade Denmark? I feel like you're not getting this at all!
American People: I'm not getting it.
Trump: Goddamn.
[notices Europe staring at them]
Trump: Well don't you look at me like that, you certainly wouldn't be in any danger.
American People: So they are in danger!
Trump: No one's in any danger!
lol ok that’s pretty good
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Did anyone ask the Cajuns? Nowadays the idea of just buying another part of a country is considered inappropriate.
You are proving my point. All of your examples are the rectification of borders after an act of colonial aggression, or sorting out some weird issues where it's not clear how a border runs through a town and some buildings end up where they don't want to be.
Like it or not, that is very different from, "I have loads of money and a big stick. You have land. I think you see where this is going, but it can go easy or hard. Your choice."
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