The era of deep economic, security and military ties between Canada and the United States "is over," Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday, after President Donald Trump announced steep auto tariffs. "The old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over," Carney said.
I’ve been seeing “comfortable” a lot, but I think honestly it’s less comfort and more confusion. I know it’s popular to portray us all as lazy, drinking our Big Gulp slushies and watching sportsball, but that’s not the whole picture.
We all know it sucks, we might call our reps, our friends might go wave some signs…but ultimately we’re culturally unaccustomed to organization, and that part cripples meaningful resistance. As the commenter below me stated, “lack of civic culture” and “hyper individualism” nails it.
Okay, we all want different things, we all struggle at wildly different randomized shifts because most of us are one missed paycheck away from disaster, how do we know who our friends are? No no, not the “Yeah man, that sucks lol idk.” friends, the ones who will actually fight with you?
Consequently, we’re suffering a massive lonliness epidemic where a lot of people not only have very little civic ties, they don’t even have a network of reliable companionship! A lot of this is simply thanks to suburban dominance and nowhere left to meet that’s not charging admission.
I don’t think that’s particularly a take on americans being lazy but a general issue where developed world populations tend to be more obedient because of they’re stuck in the zone of comfortable compliance.
China is by far the most extreme example of this. It’s a complete autocracy but also the economy is great and consumerism rampant.