I’ve opened Lemmy today to lots of anti Canadian sentiment on any recent comments about how messed up 'murica is and it’s constant attacks on Canadian sovereignty.
Don’t get sucked in. Let them yell into a void. The online campaign has begun in earnest on Lemmy and it’s time to point it out and recognise it for what it is.
These are not real people. They are actors trying to affect our decisions as always happens when American exceptionalism is challenged. Our government had the balls to stand up and say no. We have the balls to do the same. They do not like it and will attack you for it.
Don’t fall for the bait.
Lol wut. I think its bots. Very few people hate Canadians.
Give it a few months. The right wing propaganda machine always finds a way.
https://youtu.be/pbfBzWJVbX4?1ZZlJ3W-TpmkAfqk already done decades ago
I was so sure that was going to be a South Park clip.
I wanted to ask - Where on the fediverse are people seeing this? I took a quick peek at lemmy.world/c/politics and lemmy.world/c/world (in particular https://lemmy.world/post/26969666 ) and I didn’t see anything like what this post is describing there.
A lot of the comments from this post point to examples from Spez’s site or Musk’s site, which would make more sense to me. But lemmy? C’mon…
If I had to guess, it would be hexbear.
Not so sure - yes don’t feed the trolls but we can’t just let them control the narrative. When Elon starts posting made-up polls on Twitter showing Canadians want to join the US, we need to have started the precedent already that that is a lie. I say, don’t give up any space for free.
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Some of them might be real people.
Scapegoating is an extremely successful technique. Instead of dealing with the complexities of the modern world, the supposed strong man can just give people easy and reassuring answers.
Americans problems are not because of unchecked capitalism and the wilful dismantling of the scientific, legal, economic, and political systems designed to help them. It’s because Canada, led by its Mexican Drug Cartels, are taking advantage of them.
Never mind that it’s patently stupid. Never mind that the system of getting access to our raw materials for cheap so they could process them in their countries and their industries was overwhelming as good for them as it was bad for us.
Never mind reality — what matters is that an easy answer was given. It’s not them, they don’t have to confront any harsh truths, or take any painful looks in the mirror, or have to step out of their comfort zone. The Americans were given the answer to their problems by their King, and that answer is Canada.
So the “strong man” strikes at Canada to show how tough they are. And to no one’s surprise, Canada doesn’t take it lying down. We stand up for ourselves and hit back — saying that surely when they see pain they will stop and reflect.
But no, they don’t. Because our hitting back justifies our already-established status as villain. How dare Canada threaten to levy energy exports, says the King. The Canadians have no decency.
And so, feeling the pain we caused, the Americans listen to their King, and they blame us because that is the easy answer. They don’t have to think, they don’t have to pause the sportsball game or the reality tv marathon. It was Canada all along.
So yes — there may be bots and such, but make no mistake that the vocal opposition to Canada will only grow inside America as the trade war escalates.
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People don’t have to believe the misinformation they repeat, as long as they believe it justifies some action that will benefit them. For example, the more depleted the Colorado river basin gets, the more British Columbia will turn out to be full of terrorists and cartels, or its leaders plotting to disrupt the Frasier River, or whatever else… It’s not like the details matter.
What matters is that the people in the place with the thing you want are evil now.
I don’t rule out hostilities directed at Canadians on lemmy being something directly fomented by bots or including bot participation. But that’s a rather low-value influence operation. I’d wager at least some is just a side effect of the vector that concerns me more: the faithful spreading a gospel aimed at Americans to manufacture American consent for something.
I am convinced our elections were somehow rigged here in the states. At the very least, the bots changed the outcome. But now that the shit-heels are in power, there’s fuck-all that can be done about it. I’ve resigned myself to leave. I’ve been wanting to at least a decade or more, but I can’t rest on my comfort anymore. It’s time.
I do hope Canada can overcome this. I fear for the entire world. I am rooting for you, the EU, and general sanity worldwide.
For sure. For what it’s worth I’m pretty new too. If this place continues to grow it will be a bigger target for misinformation campaigns so it’s wise to be vigilant
The degree of traffic that happens in online discourse hits an 11 during these events; some are engaged in good faith, some are actors and useful stooges, but most are LLMs (and sometimes legacy low effort bots that are much easier to spot, great for confirmation bias); the technology for drive-by commentary has never been “better” than now, and a dozen or so unique system prompts and not even a dozen RTX-4090s is more than enough to create a false consensus across the entirety of a platform.
Musk has 200,000 of even higher end ones (H100s). Get ready for this to be on all the time.
Unfortunately some of them are real people, I’ve had voice conversations with people who believe the bullshit line that “Canada and Mexico are taking advantage of us” that’s coming out of these figureheads they blindly follow.
They have zero critical thinking abilities, and that means they can’t be reasoned out of their position by showing them facts or asking them to prove their logic.
It’s true - I can remember a year ago, maybe two? Back when he was still on Fox News Tucker Carlson was constantly on about how we were under a tyrannical dictatorship and how Americans should “free” us. This “not viable as a country” thing is just another attempt at justifying their aggression and it’s just as hollow and stupid. The lies and fallacies just cycle through until something sticks, it’s the goals that remain the same.
The truth is, they want us out of the way because our multiculturalism and socialism are threats to their siloed reality. We’re too similar to them, too successful. We’re a living repudiation of everything they believe, of all the lies they need to be true to justify their cruelty and bigotry.
We were never going to be allowed to live in peace, for no other reason than we are a constant reminder of the truth.
The amount of disinformation towards Canada in the red states is insane, and has been going on for a while.
People are literally being brainwashed, it’s downright scary.
At first I did believe that if Trump ordered an invasion of Canada, Americans would be so against it that it wouldn’t happen but now I’m not so sure. MAGAts have gone from not thinking about Canada at all to thinking we’re personally fucking each and every one of them. It’s insane, like it’s all happened within a month.
Democrats are better but a lot of them just wave off the idea of invasion as “a Trump distraction”. Some (CNN…) just laugh about it and say we’d make them more progressive
Exactly. I’m genuinely scared.
Good thing as a Canadian I don’t care what Americans THINK of us too much. They value their independence so do we.
Yeah but having the sentiment out there can still harm our own politics by giving rise to the people within Canada who support fascism (indirectly or directly). I don’t know anyone who gives a fuck that Americans might not like us but I know at least a few who think that our government should be following in the footsteps of Americans, and given that I live in a fairly liberal city, I can only imagine it’s much worse in some of the other areas.
This is how it started with trump in America. The social media brigades and odd social networking that just seems illegitimate. It’s sad watching CA Europe getting bombarded with the same methods they used in America. I’m watching it happen to you guys the same way it happened here.
Start planning now. Observe silently and don’t participate in their theater. It’s meant to entice you they are fueled by reaction to it. Observe silently and plan so that you can always be ready. They will always turn any real talk into pointless debate. There is never a way to talk a real conversation with these people and that’s on purpose. I’ve been dealing with these people since 2016.
We American don’t value anything but consumerism and escapism so we can remain ignorant to real human life.
I don’t know if this is true on not but in the settings for your account it has a toggle to not allow bot comments to show up. It might only work for people that select the “bot account” option but just in case it’s an auto filter I’d say try it out, I have felt like I’ve not seen bots since moving over from reddit
I’ve only ever met friendly fun rational folks with a passion for hockey who are warm, inviting and willing to fight for what’s right. I’ll put this sentiment out here: don’t mistake kindness for weakness. Keep up the good work Canada.
Anti-Canadian Americans, and their treasonous stooges up here in Canada can eff aboot and find oot.
Canadians can do tough. I’ll half starve myself for the rest of my natural life out of spite. These lazy hate mongers that think we’re going to cave if we don’t eat a Big Mac should google Canadian soldiers and the history of the Geneva conventions.
Sure it’s going to be tough to do without all those American products. I think more and more Canadians every day are saying “who cares”. If I can’t find a non American substitute, I’m going to simply not buy it at all.
Elbows up, my friends. It’s gonna be a long winter but if anything, we’re used to winters.
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I’m not seeing a lot of this thankfully — makes me wonder if a lot of these anti-Canada posts are coming from a particular instance I’ve already blocked.
It’s just ramping up on the bot farms, they’re really looking for angles to blame Canada for bird flu and just being rude (irony, I know).
It’s been slow to get traction, most people don’t care and don’t want a political fight this soon after the election.
I don’t think the bot farms will be targeting the six of us on Lemmy who are all relatively technically inclined. Probably aimed at the masses on the larger platforms.
First thing that came across my mind when i read this post, “oh thats what hexbears up to now.”
???
I mean like them or not I don’t think Hexbear users would be doing that. They’d be excited to see the isolation and collapse of the US empire.
Idk what they stand for. I never actually understood what they valued or were trying to accomplish. To me, they seemed like trolls who had nothing better to do than pick an arguments on the interent with no real goal except to pwn the internet. They just annoyed me and i blocked them
Theyre the only instance i have blocked, and since i hadnt seen anything that OP was referring to, i assumed it was them
Edit:typos
They’re communists, basically. Some are anarchist. That sort of thing.
Communist and anarchist are so far apart on the political spectrum that your comment helps me not at all
What? Communists, at least Marxists, ARE anarchists in a way. The main difference between them and what we usually call Anarchists is that communists believe we need to create a transitional system of socialist government that will slowly “wither away” into a communistic society - a moneyless, stateless society. i.e. a form of anarchy. Anarchists believe that no state can ever be trusted and we should overthrow the current system directly to a anarchic system. Of course there are many types of anarchists but the ones most people think of are “Anarcho-Communists”. There are other types like Anarcho-Capitalists which are like even more extreme libertarians, but that’s even more niche. The biggest, most typical group that use red/black flags are Anarcho-Communists.
Yea maybe i just need a poli sci degree to understand what you’re saying because what i heard was, anarchist believe that communist will devolve into an anarchy which makes no sense to me.
I thought communism was a state of commune. Everyone contributes and everyone benefits, but there is still very much rules to abide by. Anarchy means no government, no rules, fuck the system
Edit: this is probably why i can’t understand what hexbear stands for
Canada’s still part of the West. Therefore, evil and bad according to those folk.
The world will only be a better place if these people self identify more quickly. I mean, it would be better if they do not exist but, since they do, I am very supportive of them expressing their opinions so that I do not have to waste time discovering them.
Don’t fight it, lean into it. Fuck with their heads. But lean into it in a back handed way that fucks with them. They have a prepared Rolodex. Go outside of it and you win
No, don’t give them any energy. Save it for what’s necessary and useful.
No, give them so much energy they burn out. They should shut up not us.
I was making this one elsewhere but I’ll restate it. I don’t know many people in real life that admit left leaning opinions publicly anymore. But I hear right leaning points daily.
That isn’t too say these people are Republican or conservatives or even right leaning. But their talking points are out there everywhere. That’s because these views are littered everywhere like ammunition. There is no ammunition for left leaning issues because the risk adverse nature of the left makes it harder to find effective points and quips that are easy to spread.
Saying ‘don’t give them energy’ I think is wrong. Instead find the fun in making them exhausted. That’s their move. Have fun shit posting. Give their energy back
I love Nothmexico!
As someone who lives in America, I would like to say, please keep it up my Canadian friends! The more the rest of the world buys and builds their own, the more you undermine Lil Donnie’s Fascist Clown Show, and create better options for everyone in the long-term.
Breaking U.S. tech dominance is one of the best ways the put some equality back in the world.
As a fellow American, I have nothing but love for our Canadian neighbors!
Whatever happens the next few years, I can only hope we get the opportunity to have an election and vote some adults back in, and start repairing relationships. Yes, I threw up a little with that. 😒.
Definitely not the case that all USians are following the current mad prez…
Heck, Canada remains a favourite for many from the US still, see https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/03/12/donald-trump-transphobia-us-family-seeking-asylum/ (and good luck to them!)
As a Canadian, I’m worried that this stoking of anti-Canadian sentiment among the right wing in the US is a pretext to an invasion to try to make good on the “51st state” promise.
Entirely possible. We’ve seen it before with other countries and now it’s been turned on us. We never should have been so close with the US. Now it’s time to disentangle.
I’m guessing whomever/wherever you’re seeing is either defederated or, more likely, blocked by me. In any case, pay them no mind if you do see them.
This guys right, we gotta try not to feed the trolls.
Also don’t be a sucker! https://youtu.be/vGAqYNFQdZ4
No feed them. “Dont feed the trolls” is how the left has been losing so much political and social capital the past decade. People are all conflict adverse they’ve forfeited so much ground online and socially. I can tell you all the talking points on the right, I couldn’t tell you any on the left let alone anyone who is a good source of information because “doing feed the trolls” results in no left leaning voices or spaces that matter. Instead over feed them. The one thing the left has going for it is there are more of us. We need to use that to our advantage. The advantage being if we realized this, we could have 10 messages for everyone of theirs. Which is what the right has done instead for the past decade. They flood every space they can. Hell I still see them on over passes, in the news, on podcasts, in comedy. Take it all back. Stop the mentality that we win when we don’t engage. We don’t. We win when they’re exhausted not us
I enter civil discourse with opposing views all day erryday, but that’s a nice point. We need values but I think the order of operations should be to engage civily, agree to disagree, then finally block so they don’t feel empowered by their position.
I disagree, I think there’s a lot of people who think they need to bring some kind of argument and logic that will blow them out of the water. Meanwhile they’re having fun because their strategy is to exhaust you until you block them. But people never learned how fun it is to exhaust them back. If we’re all so smart, everyone keeps saying they’re idiots, then beat them at their own game. But if you block, you lose. Get them to push themselves back into their corners by having them hit the block button.
In theory I’d love that, I give into the trolling but try to keep it to a minimum.
Children are watching and when everyone is slinging shit, they just see shit covered adults and that’s almost worse than losing a voter. Losing the next gen
I think the risk is that kids love it too though and what happens is they see one side getting beat up and the other side being funny and having a great time. That’s what lost a generation in my mind. In my world, lots of young men just no longer even admit to being left leaning publicly. It’s an embarrassment. And here is why it’s important. If they do say they are, then there is 10 people around then slinging shit at them because those people saw all the people online giving them ammunition. But because the left are risk adverse, there isn’t the same ammunition. There isn’t the same resources to let them know to fuck off. Representation is important. Saying we can just ignore things and not engage could end up hurting over the long term.
