I agree.

It's true that there has always been a fringe separatist/anti-Canada group in Alberta (possibly in every province and territory), but they've never been as prominent as they are now; not even close.

This is a product of them being fed misinformation and disinformation from far-right and US media over decades, which accelerated during the pandemic, and is now being actively funded by the US itself with the help of the UCP & Friends.

So while there always has been (and maybe always will be) a fringe group of seppies in the province, they've been given a massive boost by the US, so much that they now pose an actual threat to Alberta and, resultantly, to Canada as a whole.

Could you explain what you think my comment was about? I'm not sure how this is supposed to relate.

I said that the common settler-colonial culture and interests of the US and Canada makes it difficult to argue something like this, which is so consistent with the values and worldview we know these states enforce on settlers, is some kind of "psyop." Psyops are a real thing, but the nature of its use online has greatly distorted the term's meaning, which is fundamentally an operation of some sort, and that means the commenter I'm responding attributed this political development to something intentional despite those shared values and not cooperative with them. Canada similarly has a vested interest in the fossil fuel industry as well as any capitalist ventures, so suggesting that a psyop would even be necessary for this to work is, honestly, ignorant. I think they and many other Canadians make this conflation because of the role that US social media has played in disinformation over the past decade of these fascist movements, but they by no means created these politics as they are strongly consistent with preexisting white American settler values.

If you read further in that thread (edit: it appears I misremembered what thread that was under, but this explains enough for this comment) you'll see that I also explained that the explicit intent of political movements like this aren't necessarily the authentic or "real" intent. So, it is also not accurate to try to explain this from the starting point that they actually want to seperate; especially so since it is obviously a bad idea. Another common mistake on here is people just accepting that others are dumber than them rather than questioning if they understand those other people sufficiently to make that call.

On top of all that, yes, the US is imperialistic, and Canada is a huge supporter of that exactly because they are both imperialistic. Yes, it is a huge stretch to say this is something manufacturered by US propaganda when it is so much more easily explained as contributory to an overall consistent fascist political shift facilitated by both or either imperial power over the past two decades in Alberta (if not the past century). Too many of you think an association or contribution is an explanation, but it is not.

Even still, complacency in the assumption that it will simply fail is a big concern.

Don't assume it will fail, make sure it does by voting against it in the referendum.

That's fine, but the point of this kind of political movement is likely not to actually pass a referendum right now, but to disrupt whatever else is going on to hinder fossil fuel extraction. Even more, failing one time isn't the end of movement like this which relies on being an "underdog."

It is obvious that it would he bad for Alberta to become a landlocked state between two imperial powers, so it's silly to presume that whomever is organizing this is just stupid rather than that they have different goals than what you anticipate.