I would have said the same thing until I saw this new meme format.

I’m not gonna pretend that the billions squandered and the environmental damage was worth the meme, but those are sunk costs so at least we get this out of it?

I’m not sure why you deleted that, because you’re absolutely correct.

If not for being targeted, my own country would have elected a shitbird and we’d have become the lone US toady as the world isolated both of our countries, while the Americans treated us like an open pit mine.

So it’s not that I think my countrymen are inherently superior. The Albertans who want to create a landlocked country — deeply vulnerable to American bullying — are acting dumber than the poverty stricken folks supporting Spraytan.

And it’s not that I don’t trust democracy, I do trust that it’s reflecting will of the people. The American voters have shown a lack of priority to respecting their own commitments worldwide and a dislike of the world order that placed them at the centre. So while many in the country do have that commitment, their inability to keep the deplorables out of power means that the rest of the world can have no illusions about depending on them going forward.

It’s not just money, it’s the realization that we are nothing to them. It’s the betrayal of seeing someone you thought was a friend stab you in the front without remorse.

So I do believe it is different this time. Perhaps history will reveal you to be correct — PP yipping about being “Americas best friend” indicates at some think the old status quo will return — but I don’t think so.

I’d throw in greed and ignorance into the mix but yes

Oh, you misunderstand me.

Absolutely yes, people will continue to trade with the US after a few years. Hell, they are still doing it today!

What’s different is the level of dependence the rest of the world will enable in the future. Their special status no longer applies; and there is no trust they will be good actors in the future.

Long term cooperation will be built in anticipation of likely irrational and volatile behaviour. Something like the integrated North American auto industry or aligning with the US as primary defence contractor or intelligence, these mistakes will be not be repeated.

There will continue to be trade, but across the world a higher priority will be given to domestic production and alternative suppliers for critical products. For example Canada had been slowly retreating from our protectionist policies on dairy — but instead I expect these to now be strengthened. I expect to see a stronger push away from reliance on the US for military equipment, semiconductors, financial and digital services, and more.

I need to hire you to summarize my lengthy pretentious blathering into a nice concise sentence. :)

From my perspective in Canada, there’s nothing the US can do to unfuck this situation.

Let’s say folks unseated Comrade Spraytan somehow and reversed all of his policies. I would still never trust their country again with economic or security dependence in the way that much of the world has enabled in the status quo.

It was the American voters who selected this foolishness, not once but twice. They and their country will not be trusted for a generation or maybe longer. They threw away a very good thing for them because of abject greed, and now it’s gone forever.

“Schadenfreude” would be a great name for a roller coaster

An obscenely rich asshole — one who is currently dismantling the democratic institutions of a country where many my friends and family live — is asking who derives who derives joy from his company collapsing around him.

The answer to his question is… us. We do. The punchline is that the people taking joy in his self-inflicted failure are the entirety of his former customer base and beyond.

When I posted this in bsky last night it found some extremely modest virality so I thought some folks here might enjoy as well.