cross-posted from: https://lemmy.today/post/21755185

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation as Liberal leader comes just two weeks before Donald Trump takes office as U.S. president while threatening to impose 25 per cent tariffs on all imports from Canada on Day 1.

Trudeau said he will stay on as prime minister until his successor is chosen, creating the prospect that Canada will have a lame duck head of government just as its biggest trading partner hits its exports with steep tariffs.

  • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat
    19·
    3 days ago

    It bothers me quite a lot that all across the world, the masses are showing unified discontent with liberal governments and friendly acceptance to fascism or fascism-light.

    Canada, France, US, UK. All places that are notable opponents of the people who are good with seizing the reins of Western social media and bending it to the opinions that they’d prefer that people hold about their liberal governments.

    • Track_Shovel@slrpnk.netEnglish
      14·
      3 days ago

      dons tinfoil hat

      I think it’s all Russian propaganda hard at work. It just seems too systematic. You can almost predict what the next talking point/rhetoric is going to be. I’ve had several occasions where I’ve seen a comment online that really seems out there or needlessly inflammatory, and then watched that comment slowly get adopted and spread to the right, only to become the drum they bang for the next 6 months. It also all seemed to start 2015ish, which somewhat lines up with the Crimean invasion.

      • Odys@beehaw.org
        1·
        1 day ago

        I think you are right. Unfortunately knowing what’s going on is not going to help us. The propaganda worked and people are truly turning hard right and pro-Russia. Something that would have sounded insane during the cold war. Often the same topics: “tax money wasted on corrupt Ukraine”, “against woke agenda”, “LGBTQ gender insanity”, “immigrants are criminals”. I tried to talk to people, but any information that contradicts what they now think is “fake”. There are still parts of the puzzle I don’t get. What turned Trump and Elon to Putin? What might Putin possibly have on Trump that could damage him? Trump can truly shoot someone in the street and people would be ok with it, like he said so himself. Elon has all the money in the world and can buy who he wants. Is it a cooperation that benefits them all? That destabilizing the West helps Putin is obvious, I suspect that what Elon and Trump get out of it is just making money and enjoying power. Where this all will end. I hope less bad than I fear. Prepare for the worst though.

      • LukeZaz@beehaw.orgEnglish
        1·
        3 days ago

        Fascist rhetoric does not require Russian propaganda to spread. If you feel this way because right-wing talking points and Russia tend to line up, that’s because Russia’s government is terribly right-wing and has been for decades. But correlation is not causation. Blaming Russia for its own fascist trending is perfectly correct; blaming the country for everyone’s fascism problems is ridiculous.

        Personally, I really dislike thinking like this. Blaming Russia for everything distracts us from problems our own countries made all on their own. It’s an overly-simplistic answer to a complicated and wide-reaching set of problems, and prevents us from properly thinking about those issues.

          • LukeZaz@beehaw.orgEnglish
            1·
            17 hours ago

            The comment I was replying to insinuated that Russian propaganda was the primary if not only factor. Which is, again, ridiculous. Besides, as far as I’m concerned, Russian propaganda is an excuse used to prevent people from realizing how many of our problems have a domestic source, and that our government is and has been insanely terrible for a long time. Is it there? Sure, but it’s far from the biggest issue. Capitalism is an excellent incubator for fascism all by itself, and you don’t need an outside push to make the decay hit.

      • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat
        1·
        3 days ago

        Somehow I don’t think taking to the streets and escalating the political violence between the people with all the money and power, and the rest of us, is going to lead us to the bright future I would like to imagine.

        There’s a reason the American Revolution wasn’t organized along the lines of assassinating Tory leaders at random, and hoping that would do it. Freedom of association, protest, organization, and the press are guaranteed for a reason, and freedom to take shots at the leaders you don’t like is not, also for a reason.