this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2025
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[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 children)

…People are actually discussing this seriously? IRL? Are you kidding?

Please tell me you are making this up.

[–] PassingThrough@lemm.ee 9 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I wish. I really wish. A good /s tag would have been nice but no.

I’m sorry but there are people that side with Trump on Greenland, Canada, and Panama. They think Panama will be easiest because Trump will find some loophole to annul the original treaty because we’re “being shafted with fees funding China”. Then when we get it, we’ll get all the fees and that’ll solve our national debt.

Greenland is next easiest because they “already want out from under Denmark. We can help with that.” Of course that supposedly secures our Arctic interests.

Canada is the fuzziest. They agree they want it, because “America has the means and the will to get out those resources they are just sitting on, and the ability to turn all that empty land into livable space and end the housing crisis.” But they seem to think Canadians are fed up with their leadership and “broken healthcare you wait months for” and are just going to offer themselves up.

All in all, it’s what you might expect. A bunch of people who feel they aren’t getting what they want in today’s world are looking backwards to the “good old days” of like the American West. They want more land of opportunity, frontiers to go out and stake a claim to. Legit a few of them like to think that there will be homesteader claims on any new territory the US picks up, so they can finally leave their tiny lot and go stake a claim on 10 acres of Greenland or Canadian wildland to run as their own little kingdom.

No, take that MAGAs at their word. Trust that they are exactly who they say they are, and that Trump and all he says will be attempted or at least used to make some lesser capitulation seem reasonable. Maybe he won’t take Panama, but he will threaten to until Panama cuts US trade fees significantly, things like that.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

This reminds me of people who think Musk is going to ferry them to Mars in their lifetime. It's not physically possible. It condradicts nature, and its drowns out discourse on the actual opportunities we have.

I've even seen a few people on Lemmy talk about how various institutions like the CDC have failed them... Well, this is what we get for sidelining experts for influencers. Instead of just using these shower-thought fantasies to campaign, they're actually trying to pursue them...

[–] PassingThrough@lemm.ee 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

We went from no computers to computers in your toothbrush, from pong to Cyberpunk 2077 in what, less than 50 years?

People think if that can happen, we are just one ion booster or warp bubble invention away from interstellar travel. Surely that too can happen in less than 50 “as long as we stop limiting businesses ability to invest and grow and…” all those other things they’ve been told are holding us back.

And since the CDC has been muzzled and WHO departed from, guess we’ll see if we’re magically healthier without them.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

And since the CDC has been muzzled and WHO departed from, guess we’ll see if we’re magically healthier without them.

That won't matter either.

There's very obvious evidence that some average American homesteading Greenland, or invading neighbors, is a Bad Idea, but that doesn't matter because its not penetrating people's reality bubbles filled with influencers incentivized to push this stuff for attention.

...So why would real health data matter? Trump can just claim victory and say everyone is healthier. How would the average American know otherwise? Sure, maybe they're personally miserable, but the world as they know it is telling them their leader is fighting it.

What's especially troubling is that Trump is "drinking his own Kool-aid" in this situation. I don't want to say its unprecedented, but usually despotic regimes are more self aware that that and less "Idiocracy."