this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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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.

(page 2) 48 comments
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[–] [email protected] 28 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

Good thing as a Canadian I don't care what Americans THINK of us too much. They value their independence so do we.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

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. It's like a full-time job keeping my guard up against the manipulation.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 22 hours ago

We American don't value anything but consumerism and escapism so we can remain ignorant to real human life.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 day ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I agree with you completely. It will become real people if it is not already. It is about controlling the narrative. I just wanted people to be aware mostly that it's ramped up significantly today. An obvious escalation over what has been happening the past several months. Lots of new (up to a month old) accounts and such that hadn't posted until yesterday or today.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 21 hours ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

Luckily, Lemmy has a fairly effective way to deal with those. Don't block them, instead use the down arrow ⬇️ so the next buddy either doesn't see it, or sees the negative score as a warning. Unlike corporate for-profit social networks, Lemmy won't push those comments to the people that would get triggered most. Instead they'll fade into oblivion as quickly as the downvotes roll in.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 23 hours ago

I’ll admit that I’m not the most patriotic American (I’m an emigrant, for one), and I’m not from a deep trump area, but I don’t know a single American, except for maybe my fox news addled dad, who doesn’t think Canada’s completely in the right. Even Vermonters who worry about heating their homes want trump to stop, not Canada.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 22 hours ago

Oh I can enrage americans? Awesome. It's going to be a good day. A not getting banned off reddit day.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

LLMs will yell into the void. It's never been simpler.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 23 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 22 hours ago
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