It’s been an eerily calm month. It’s as if everyone is collectively holding their breath ahead of Donald Trump’s January 20th inauguration for his second (non-consecutive) term. Will Day One be roiling?
This piece (and the Edgy Optimist in general) has the worthy goal of giving sober second thought to knee jerk reactions, and always trying to see things in a bigger context in order to help us keep things in proportion when something concerning happens. However I do think this piece misses a huge part of why people, Canadians in particular, have reacted the way they have to Trump's joke/casual disrespect/veiled threat.
It's not because people are somehow clinging to this abstract idea that borders are 'morally sacrosanct'. No one is upset because they don't like the idea of a line changing on a map, or because changing a line on a map would be somehow morally wrong. It's because the institutions and the norms of the polity that line represents the limits of actually matters to them.
I don't care what happens to the geographical limits of the 49th parallel. I do care if American cultural and political/institutional impetus interferes with how my own government administers policies where I live. The reality is that there is cross border contagion, even with things like trends in policies. And this can range from benign to downright pernicious.
Trump may or may not be joking when he spouts whatever, but those unconsidered words have real, damaging consequences: I work for a small family owned business whose clientele are mostly in the US. We make a custom, handmade, speciality product that costs several thousand dollars per item and requires an enormous amount of skilled labour, and those skills are NOT common. It took us the last two years to finally find and train up our staff so that our workshop can function properly, and so that we can finally expand. We were set to start a new year with a tight team of rare and talented people who may literally be one in a million.
And now that Trump has decided that hiking up prices for his own citizens by a blanket 25% is somehow a good flex that won't tank affordability for everybody, we've already had to have the heartbreaking conversation among senior staff about who we might have to fire if those tariffs are enacted. And even if they aren't enacted, the uncertainty created my Trump just SAYING he might is enough to dismantle literal years of investment in our new employees. And we're only ONE small manufacturer in Ontario. I can't imagine the tens of thousands of jobs in both countries that already at actual risk.
And quite aside from the ways that Trump's word vomit in the US may directly ruin my livelihood here in Ontario, the latest Lavendar (Pink vs Blue?) Panic fomenting in the US has had real effects on how safe me and my wife (who is trans) are in our own country. Alberta, New Brunswick, and Saskatchewan have already enacted extremely harmful anti-trans policies that came north to us in large part because of how they've been successfully enacted in many states. Places in North America where me and my wife can exist safely with our rights in tact have been disappearing in front of our eyes for the last four years; I have family in Texas I ache to spent time with, but we can never safely set foot in that state again until those policies are undone. My home province is Alberta, and because Premier Danielle Smith is intent on copying right-wing rhetoric from the UK and US to stay in power, we had to seriously consider whether it would be safe for us to go home to family this summer for our wedding. Hateful policies give permission for hateful behaviour and increases harm in vulnerable populations; More trans and queer people we know of all ages are measurably less safe now that this Pink&Blue Panic crap has been passed north over the last half decade.
You may argue that cultural influence or contagious policy trends don't have anything to do with border sanctity, but it's not actually the border we're worried about. You may be right that strong reactions to Trumps '51st state' comments are overblown and even silly, but that's not because we think he's actually going to do anything about it or that we're somehow worried about a real repeat of 1812.
The point is that him SAYING it is already having an effect, and his previous presidency already had an effect, and that the border is the most salient symbol of the unwanted and harmful cultural and political influence we're already contending with in our daily lives.
Trumps 'jokes' become real meetings about firing coworkers and real conversations about whether we're going to be harassed or physically assaulted if we go back to our home town.
Your goal may be to help us all panic a little less, which is cool, but the increased stress and risk so many people are experiencing as a direct result of this man's comments and actions is not imaginary. If that pent up concern comes out sideways when a head of state can't stop himself from saying something he should know could be inflammatory and insulting to the face of another head of state, I think it's missing the mark to say we're overreacting about the idea of a border changing, or that we all just have to chill out and remember that borders aren't, like, really real when you think about it in historical context.
I guess what I'm really trying to say is that framing this as if it's actually about borders and ideas about borders and not about people being upset at demonstrably harmful political influence (and the flippant way in which Trump continually treats it all) seems ... off topic. It doesn't expand perspective on the issue in a way that I feel is particularly relevant or helpful, at least in this case.
Being reminded that nation states and national borders are a recent construct doesn't make my feel like my job is more secure or that my wife will be more safe or that Trump (and folks in in power who agree with him) can't directly make my life much much harder. I don't think it's unfair to have assumed or hoped that an entire national border and separate sovereign government apparatus between me and him would be enough to stop that (or at least give him pause), nor unreasonable to be upset when he states clearly that he doesn't care.
Having said all that, I do appreciate the work you're doing here. Thanks for the article.
Dems just don't get it. This was Trump trolling them once again, and silly ones, like The Edgy Optimist fell for it. Obviously, it was not a serious post. Lighten up, libs....
DId you read the piece? I said it was trolling, and then wrote a piece about the nature of borders historically and in the present and future, not about Trump and Canada. Why don't you lighten up and try reading instead of reacting?
Did read it - the only ones you're trolling are your fellow democrats. Maybe lightening up yourself about Trump's trolling would do you and your ilk some good. Obviously, other commentators took your post seriously. Democrats took his trolling about McDonalds & the Garbage Truck way too seriously. There's a lack of humor among Democrats...
The point of the piece was not about Trump or Canada. If you read it, you’d know that. But you didn’t understand it. What ilk does that make you part of?
Object of Trump’s “51st state” suggestion —— most likely, DISTRACTION DISTRACTION DISTRACTION from some other presently-invisible philandery. In the firehose of falsehoods that Trump & his minions in the right wing media behemoth, will be attempting to drown all of us in, 95% will be distracting BS to keep us from noticing which of their hands are in which of our pockets. Remember that Karl Rove quote, about how they are the ones making history … and they are just delighted how we write write write to analyze what they are doing, without pushing back on their criminality in any effective way.
This piece (and the Edgy Optimist in general) has the worthy goal of giving sober second thought to knee jerk reactions, and always trying to see things in a bigger context in order to help us keep things in proportion when something concerning happens. However I do think this piece misses a huge part of why people, Canadians in particular, have reacted the way they have to Trump's joke/casual disrespect/veiled threat.
It's not because people are somehow clinging to this abstract idea that borders are 'morally sacrosanct'. No one is upset because they don't like the idea of a line changing on a map, or because changing a line on a map would be somehow morally wrong. It's because the institutions and the norms of the polity that line represents the limits of actually matters to them.
I don't care what happens to the geographical limits of the 49th parallel. I do care if American cultural and political/institutional impetus interferes with how my own government administers policies where I live. The reality is that there is cross border contagion, even with things like trends in policies. And this can range from benign to downright pernicious.
Trump may or may not be joking when he spouts whatever, but those unconsidered words have real, damaging consequences: I work for a small family owned business whose clientele are mostly in the US. We make a custom, handmade, speciality product that costs several thousand dollars per item and requires an enormous amount of skilled labour, and those skills are NOT common. It took us the last two years to finally find and train up our staff so that our workshop can function properly, and so that we can finally expand. We were set to start a new year with a tight team of rare and talented people who may literally be one in a million.
And now that Trump has decided that hiking up prices for his own citizens by a blanket 25% is somehow a good flex that won't tank affordability for everybody, we've already had to have the heartbreaking conversation among senior staff about who we might have to fire if those tariffs are enacted. And even if they aren't enacted, the uncertainty created my Trump just SAYING he might is enough to dismantle literal years of investment in our new employees. And we're only ONE small manufacturer in Ontario. I can't imagine the tens of thousands of jobs in both countries that already at actual risk.
And quite aside from the ways that Trump's word vomit in the US may directly ruin my livelihood here in Ontario, the latest Lavendar (Pink vs Blue?) Panic fomenting in the US has had real effects on how safe me and my wife (who is trans) are in our own country. Alberta, New Brunswick, and Saskatchewan have already enacted extremely harmful anti-trans policies that came north to us in large part because of how they've been successfully enacted in many states. Places in North America where me and my wife can exist safely with our rights in tact have been disappearing in front of our eyes for the last four years; I have family in Texas I ache to spent time with, but we can never safely set foot in that state again until those policies are undone. My home province is Alberta, and because Premier Danielle Smith is intent on copying right-wing rhetoric from the UK and US to stay in power, we had to seriously consider whether it would be safe for us to go home to family this summer for our wedding. Hateful policies give permission for hateful behaviour and increases harm in vulnerable populations; More trans and queer people we know of all ages are measurably less safe now that this Pink&Blue Panic crap has been passed north over the last half decade.
You may argue that cultural influence or contagious policy trends don't have anything to do with border sanctity, but it's not actually the border we're worried about. You may be right that strong reactions to Trumps '51st state' comments are overblown and even silly, but that's not because we think he's actually going to do anything about it or that we're somehow worried about a real repeat of 1812.
The point is that him SAYING it is already having an effect, and his previous presidency already had an effect, and that the border is the most salient symbol of the unwanted and harmful cultural and political influence we're already contending with in our daily lives.
Trumps 'jokes' become real meetings about firing coworkers and real conversations about whether we're going to be harassed or physically assaulted if we go back to our home town.
Your goal may be to help us all panic a little less, which is cool, but the increased stress and risk so many people are experiencing as a direct result of this man's comments and actions is not imaginary. If that pent up concern comes out sideways when a head of state can't stop himself from saying something he should know could be inflammatory and insulting to the face of another head of state, I think it's missing the mark to say we're overreacting about the idea of a border changing, or that we all just have to chill out and remember that borders aren't, like, really real when you think about it in historical context.
I guess what I'm really trying to say is that framing this as if it's actually about borders and ideas about borders and not about people being upset at demonstrably harmful political influence (and the flippant way in which Trump continually treats it all) seems ... off topic. It doesn't expand perspective on the issue in a way that I feel is particularly relevant or helpful, at least in this case.
Being reminded that nation states and national borders are a recent construct doesn't make my feel like my job is more secure or that my wife will be more safe or that Trump (and folks in in power who agree with him) can't directly make my life much much harder. I don't think it's unfair to have assumed or hoped that an entire national border and separate sovereign government apparatus between me and him would be enough to stop that (or at least give him pause), nor unreasonable to be upset when he states clearly that he doesn't care.
Having said all that, I do appreciate the work you're doing here. Thanks for the article.
Dems just don't get it. This was Trump trolling them once again, and silly ones, like The Edgy Optimist fell for it. Obviously, it was not a serious post. Lighten up, libs....
DId you read the piece? I said it was trolling, and then wrote a piece about the nature of borders historically and in the present and future, not about Trump and Canada. Why don't you lighten up and try reading instead of reacting?
Did read it - the only ones you're trolling are your fellow democrats. Maybe lightening up yourself about Trump's trolling would do you and your ilk some good. Obviously, other commentators took your post seriously. Democrats took his trolling about McDonalds & the Garbage Truck way too seriously. There's a lack of humor among Democrats...
The point of the piece was not about Trump or Canada. If you read it, you’d know that. But you didn’t understand it. What ilk does that make you part of?
Object of Trump’s “51st state” suggestion —— most likely, DISTRACTION DISTRACTION DISTRACTION from some other presently-invisible philandery. In the firehose of falsehoods that Trump & his minions in the right wing media behemoth, will be attempting to drown all of us in, 95% will be distracting BS to keep us from noticing which of their hands are in which of our pockets. Remember that Karl Rove quote, about how they are the ones making history … and they are just delighted how we write write write to analyze what they are doing, without pushing back on their criminality in any effective way.