Hacker News Reader

Comment by linotype | Hacker News Reader

Canada should take up the issue with Trump, not with Americans. I didn’t vote for Trump. I know only a handful of people that did. I highly doubt most of the people attending GDC did. No need to be a fair weather friend, in four years Trump will be gone and normalcy will be restored.

View on HN

America aggressively trying to question Canadian sovereignty makes Canada the fareweather friend..... Got it.

With friend like these who needs enemies.

The American ignorance on this site is really starting to drive me away.

I think the community still does its best to downvote low-effort comments like that (independent of the political position). But as a non-American it sure is annoying to see more and more of them.

Most people in the US consider Canada a friend not an enemy or the 51st state. It’s stupid that Trump and his cronies are able to kill so quickly what was a great friendship.

I think what's important to keep in mind is how, yes, the current majority of Americans are fine with Canada and don't agree with the measures Trump has imposed. The problem is when both countries citizens start bling eachother rather than blaming the opposing administration.

This is unacceptable "both sides"-ism, the US government has made direct threats to the Canadian government and people. Canadians are rightfully taking issue with it.

Part of the reason Canadians are boycotting American goods and services is to force us citizens to voice issue with their government.

At this point the issue remains with the American people to address their government.

What adminstration in the Canadian government is there for Americans to oppose?? Nobody even knows the source of the tarrif issue.

I've actually found most of the commentary on HN to be on the "holy shit what the hell is he doing, this is crazy and awful" side, as opposed to supportive of it. Which gives me hope.

There seem to be down votes in the other direction, at times, but 1) they seem to get balanced back after a while and 2) the down votes don't often come with any useful commentary, often with none at all - which, for me, I also find comforting.

I expected my comment to get downvoted due to the anger (rightfully so) from Canadians. People don’t seem to understand that most Americans didn’t vote for Trump and that those that did probably didn’t want him to attack Canada, of all countries.

Your original comment just sounded MAGA!

You've softened it considerably with the added explanation.

I think, however, most Canadians (and the rest of the world) know it's a minority opinion in the US, but that doesn't change the fact that 1) there were enough people in the US that voted him in 2) there weren't enough people in the US that voted opposing him and, most importantly, 3) it's the ensuing behaviour of "the system" that's having this chilling effect on relations - it's not individually personal.

Having said that, it's probably important for as many of the US voting public as possible to reiterate that it's not "individually personal" as often as possible to keep eroding any building notions that it could be.

Yeah I guess I’ll just have to deal with it. This site already was pretty anti-US, now it’s just ramped up. Maybe it’s time to stop reading the comments. Like there’s nothing I can do about Trump, I only have one vote in California.

If things keep going everyone like they are you, and me, are going to have to do something, or we may just be sitting by as the democracy is irreversibly damaged.

> This site already was pretty anti-US

No.

Profound.

I think non-fairweather friends are about them staying with you when you're in trouble. This is you CAUSING them trouble on purpose.

I didn’t vote for Trump.

These Canadians might be fine with you. They aren't fine with the US. Don't take it personally I guess?

A citizen's obligations to the world does not begin and end with “votes for the right person”.

What else can I do at the national level?

Trump is threatening their country, and since Canadians cannot vote in the US, there's only one effective way they can drain Trump's power, which is economic warfare. Economic downturn is well correlated with incumbents losing an election.

You are asking Canadians to put some random group of Americans' interest in front of their own self-interest. I think the ship has sailed.

The belief that has rapidly spread among the right is that Canada is somehow to blame.

I like imagining this clever retort oozing from the lips of someone who has had their birthday invitation refused after punching their 8 year old school mate in the stomach.

In this case, I believe Canadians are taking issue with the treatment they may get at the border. They don't want to be sent to detention because of a simple misunderstanding with an over zealous border security guard who is scared of losing their job if they accidentally let the left one in.

My wife was threatened with not being allowed into the country due to a DUI (in the US) from five years ago. We had to pay a $250 fee to spend three days in Victoria.

Do you feel an injustice has been perpetrated against you? The Canadian attitude towards admission vis a vis DUI convictions predates the first Trump administration by a lot.

OTOH Victoria schoolchildren used to do cross border field trips. They ended the practice during the Trump Muslim ban to avoid trauma to kids.

And this predated the Trump administration. Just seems hypocritical that other countries are allowed to police their border crossing but the US isn’t.

I doubt anyone here is saying that.

It's that the rhetoric coming from Trump which, through significant threats to the on-going employment of anyone deemed to be not enthusiastically complying with these daily-updated mandates, increases the likelihood of un-justified "bad thing" happening upon attempting to cross the border to the US.

Basically, the current regime makes it unpredictable, which increases risk. Increased risk = decreased likelihood of related action.

I'm not sure how far off topic we've gone, but "Canadian Devs backing out of attending GDC" would also have a protest aspect to it due to DJT's belligerence towards Canada.

The US is being a "fair-weather friend" in this case.

The "weather" in fair-weather friend refers to externalities, not to the behavior of your friend.

It’s called boundaries.

> ...in four years Trump will be gone and normalcy will be restored

Tell me you haven't been paying attention to what's going on in Trumpistan without telling me you haven't been paying attention to what's going on in Trumpistan.

Unbelievable.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com