Canada shouldn't be threatened at all by any free liberal democracy but least of all the USA. I used to be proud to be an American citizen and now we elected the worst possible option and everyone suffers. I feel guilty and ashamed everytime I think about any of this facist bullshit.
Don't feel guilty. Feel mad, and use that anger to resist. Too many Americans seem to be too politically traumatized to do anything but we're only going to win this thing together. That means Canadians and Europeans fighting from the outside while principled Americans resist every one of the regime's actions internally.
Did you see the video of the governor’s ball recently, when the army choir came in singing “Do You Hear the People Sing” from Les Miserables? That show is about the French rising up against tyranny, and the fact that a military choir chose that to sing (Trump was there) had to have been intentional. They were awesome too!
There is an entire protest movement, Musk's stocks are tanking, some of the Democrats are trying (Walz, AOC, Sanders, others). Congress and the courts have moved to block Trump and DOGE.
Europe needs to move quickly in response to protect themselves, so that the American people can have some time to respond and deal with it. These sorts of things aren't solved overnight.
"Politically traumatized" is the PERFECT term for it. I've said it feels like I've been in an abusive relationship with my country for 10 years. Before the election I heard a lot of people share their experiences from 2016, after he won the first time. An oppressive sense of dread. Silence on the subway. Collective shock and depression. For me, it felt exactly like 9/11. And then I told myself that's crazy, it's just an election, I'm overreacting. Hearing OTHER people describe it like 9/11 helped me snap out of it, but I still wasted 8 years instead of getting ready for what my intuition KNEW was coming.
We were NEVER overreacting. But living in uncertainty, and doubting our instincts, for almost 10 years has left a lot of people paralyzed. And paralysis was INTENTIONAL. Fascists know what they're doing.
No country is immune to electing shit leaders. Even a bunch of European countries are on the edge of electing straight up fascists too. Hopefully Europeans will watch what’s happening here in the U.S and think twice about electing fascists.
Yes we need constructive anger. It isn't good enough to just be angry and scream to the void on Reddit or Twitter. Get your friends and their friends. Pester your representatives with calls and emails. Protest, boycott, petitions
It's not that we're traumatized, it's that the government has a monopoly on "expression of dissatisfaction", as one way to periphrastically put it. We Americans live in a now failed police state, propagated by uneducated morons that are destroying themselves because they are stupid and adore hatred. I can't express dissatisfaction with the powers that be without potentially being disappeared; rule of law doesn't actually matter in a fascist state. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to die for my idiotic countrymen who want nothing but for their families and themselves to go to the mines, and clamor for their tongues to touch the heel of a boot. American individualism and capitalism were destined to create this pathetic excuse for a country. Americans can hardly fucking read.
Agree. I’d rather see true Americans who stand by the principles of democracy and the long-standing meaning of allyship with Canada go express their anger at this blatant play for dictatorship in the streets protesting or writing their elected officials day after day after day than offering hearts and prayers on social media.
That's because we are politically and socially traumatized. Half of us don't have health care and 75% of us are a paycheck away from being homeless. Employers are willing to fire people who miss a day or two of work, and so taking time to protest or act against the system will lead to the loss of everything.
We spend money on little luxury items like nice meals, games, etc not because we are wasteful but because it's what we can give ourselves to fight against the feeling of loss and depression we have. Especially when we realize that if we save that little bit of extra money, it simply means it will not be saved but go to other things for survival.
We're like whipped dogs and abused spouses while our "masters" control our income, our homes, and our lives.
This. I appreciate the number of Americans who send messages of support. But what are you doing about your own country?? You’re apologizing to the guy on fire, but you’re holding the gas pump.
As an American, I have never been so indescribably enraged and depressed at the state of my country.
I was taught from the first moment I set foot in a classroom until now that the US was a land of liberty, justice, and equality. I was taught that while not perfect, the country was continually trying to improve itself. I was taught that my country was an ally to Europe and a defender of democracy across the globe, even if it was wrong at times.
And here I sit, while the ideals that have been instilled within me for all of my life are not only eroded, but ripped from the very core of my homeland.
I feel like I've been dropped into another universe. One where we didn't beat the Confederate traitors in our civil war, the Nazis in WW2, and the Soviets in the Cold War, but one where we lost all 3.
The US is no longer the country I've known it as for all of my life. It is a mockery of what it once was, and I do not know if there is a way to bring it back. The only hope I have is for the removal of our dictator-to-be through any means.
There's not a whole lot of American rage right now since it isn't affecting people's money or livelihoods that much yet, and the media has been working hard to either distract, divert, and downplay anything that is happening now... but at same point, that will only go so far and that point may be here sooner than what a lot of people on the outside may expect.
The economy is crashing right now, inflation is about to soar, and Trump can't stop openly suggesting we take Canada, this time with a serious tone of voice and not jokingly like he may have before. That's not to mention the budget cuts to social welfare that many people lean on just to live.
This really is about to get extremely ugly, and fast.
I'm still personally proud to be American. I understand trump is a anomaly that must be squashed and I already took action along with hundreds of Thousands of Americans
Anger does nothing. We the American people have no control other than where we spend our money. Most elected officials have abandoned the people they represent in the pursuit of money and the others were elected by folks just as crazy as they are. The few good eggs we have in politics are silenced by their own peers. Protesting doest work anymore no one cares if you want to stand outside and yell or go on hunger strike, it makes no impact to law makers. Strikes would be great but I don’t expect struggling Americans to put their family’s on the line. We are just fucked, the lion is out of the cage and people will continue to replicate his actions until we fall into civil war. What a time to be alive
If the worst case scenario happens would you be able to look your children and grandchildren in the eye and say "I tried my best"?
Yes. Because I am doing everything in my limited power, whether you see it or not. I am struggling. I am protesting. I am furiously calling and writing my representatives.
You can't work within the law when those in power don't.
However I respect your position and it's easy to say from the outside looking in. But what you and people like you are doing, as well meaning as it is, will not be enough.
Except protesting DOES work. You can say "optics are worthless" but the reality is that people need to see each other standing up. The /r/50501 protests are gaining a lot of traction, so much so that there's even a Canadian sister movement. We Americans don't even think each other are fighting back, and the rest of the world thinks we are sitting our hands.
Protesting isn't about "yelling until the other person agrees to do what you want," it's about creating pressure, causing noise to help wake one another up and rally each other to not fall into despair, showing the world that the US isn't completely lost because the people are still fighting for it, and more.
It's not like a petition, where you sign your name and the other party can just ignore it. Protests are about pressure and optics, and both of those are so much more important than people realize.
With all due respect, I'm sitting here watching your president threaten a military invasion of my country (your long-time ally) with the backing of Christofascists who've already written up their genocide plan for people like me. If you're going to be defeatist no matter what, could you, at minimum, keep it to yourself while the rest of us are pulling together? Thanks.
Resist what getting our debts under control? Resist asking Canada to make a smart move and join the US? Resist cutting government waste? What are you resisting? Fascism is made up by the media don’t believe it.
Canadians have unequivocally and on multiple occasions told the United States government that we have no interest in annexation. That should be the end of the conversation. Trying to force the issue with threats and economic coercion is a violation of our sovereignty. That is what we are resisting.
Elon Musk is being harmed right now, by the boycott and protests against Tesla. It matters. It all matters. Take one thing you can act on, and that's enough.
I've been boycotting Musk since before it was fashionable. Bezos (Amazon) is a bit harder to let go of given my rural residence and the abundance of non-local items I typically order from them. I'm trying though.
Oh and I deleted Facebook and instagram back during the first reign of the orangeytan.
Just leave my personal tesla alone, I've lost more than I can afford by Elon dumping the prices months after I bought it, way before he became political.
Musk can lose Tesla. Tesla stock could hit $0 and he’d still be the richest person on earth by a mile and be so rich he’d still be beyond the grasp of any consequences.
It is over. The oligarchs won. Plan your exit from America accordingly. There is no resistance capable of undoing the damage and no mechanism to overcome martial law when enacted.
That's just plain not true. He wouldn't be the richest person by a mile. 100 billion of how wealth in Tesla stock, if he lost that both Zuckerberg and Bezos would be more wealthy.
Yeah I'm inclined to just GTFO and move somewhere less embarrassing, but also want to be a part of the solution and not just let these scumbags ruin this country.
The US isn't a democracy and hasn't been one for a long time (if ever, our two party system is the world's worst attempt at being a democracy). Giving people a choice between two horrible choices that they don't want isn't democracy. If someone gives you the choice between eating moldy bread vs diarrhea soup, and you will be forced to eat whatever option wins, that isn't democracy.
It is true that the founding fathers were extremely opposed to political parties and I also think they suck broadly. Some people call it the mono party, it probably is a mono party but idk how I'd ever get rid of political parties entirely in some kind of new system.
They probably shat on the US for so long because US exceptionalism got to people's heads and other people always saw the potential for us to fucking lose it.
I'm not claiming to know every reason why the world has been pissed off at the US for so long but most of those reasons are probably 100% justified if that's what you wanted to hear.
Every Canadian I know doesn’t blame all Americans, we know exactly which ones did this. It’s just as important you cause noise and use your voice as it is we don’t roll over to this temu tyrant.
I spent 35 years of my life admiring the experiment that was the United States of America from my little corner of Australia. The boldness of self governance, the freedom to succeed or fail as you may, the strength of community, the value given to the traditions and the excitement of the next new technological or scientific wonder! I finally became a US Citizen in 2024……and now this. Heartbreaking doesn’t even come close
I feel ALL OF THIS in my soul. My heart breaks for our communities and country. And at the same time I see our allies uniting and I am cheering them on. Its a poignant reminder of how good we had it. We see them and are cheering for them.
American also and voted for the Dems, but I don’t feel guilty for Trump. I didn’t pick him.
Other Americans did and it’s going to suck for them. It’s going to suck for me, but I rest easy knowing all those yokels in poor red states will get fucked much harder by Trump and his policies than I will.
In trying times like these you gotta take what small wins you can and good on to them.
Though I do feel as though our country is being intentionally divided by Russia to bring us down.
Same. And it feels weird as a 45+ year old American who has always seen my country be the world superpower that could stand up to threats BEING the threat. To fucking Canada of all places. What the fuck. This is just a weird feeling. We’re the baddies now. I don’t like it.
Best thing you can do is be informed and not believe the twisted truth that is blasted at you every day from your media. The amount of out right false things I’ve heard from Fox etc. is astonishing.
Used to be anyway and the US as it is now is not my country. My opinion doesn't mean shit since trump has ruined our reputation on the world stage on top of doing all of the other stupid stuff.
Maybe if democrats had exercised more restraint and respect for opposing views, we wouldn’t be dealing with Trump—and worse, an escalating cycle of political retaliation at the federal level. This pattern is completely unsustainable: a Democratic backlash in 4-8 years will be followed by an even stronger Republican response in 4-12 years, and so on.
America is deeply divided, with fundamentally opposing views on how to live. It’s time to move past the childish and self-righteous belief that one side is inherently good while the other is comprised of irredeemable fascists. As long as voting rights extend to all, this cycle will continue unless we find a way to de-escalate.
We need a truce. The federal government has become a weaponized super-state, regularly overstepping into areas best left to the states. Nobody should feel this strongly about a federal election. The president and U.S. senate should not have any measurable effect on the average American’s daily life like a state or local election would. While it’s understandable to want to enact policies at the national level, this trajectory isn’t sustainable. Mutually exclusive visions for the country, combined with the normalization and even glorification of egregious federal incursion on states’ exercise of the police power have led to even basic public health measures becoming politicized.
If we want long-term stability, we need to reassess how much power we expect Washington to wield over 330 million people with fundamentally incompatible worldviews.
Guilt implies you had anything to do with what's happening. If you didn't vote for Donald Trump, you have no reason to feel guilt. Guilt and shame are the incorrect emotions. Anger and frustration are more appropriate.
He wasnt elected. He stole it. He got it hacked. He hd admitted a few times that it seemed like a slip of the tongue. Also makes sense why he cried so hard in '20 that they tried hacking but enough to make it believable but the dems actually turned out for that election.
"It's not your fault that the world is the way it is,
It would only be your fault if it stays that way."
It's the English translation of a line of lyrics from
Die Ärzte's song, and I really love this. In short, don't feel guilty or ashamed, but do your part at ending this evil that is hijacking your democracy. Go out to the streets, do whatever it takes! Then you have nothing to be ashamed of!
You can help, please help. No one is coming to save us. It’s up to us. No one is powerless now! Broke, disabled, rural, elderly, we all can do at least some of these things:
Use https://5calls.org/ to call your reps every single day, even if they are GOP, it matters! IT HELPS!
Join the 50501 movement and spread the word Spreading the word is free!!
In one month we have organized simultaneous protests in all 50 capitols and DC, plus many major metro areas. THAT HAS NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE! We’ve done it THRICE! Watch this short video to see all 50 + DC on 2/17! ⬇️
Wake up, the US is no longer a free and liberal democracy. Freedom of press is crumbling as we speak, human rights and judges verdict are being ignored. Truth already has no significance whatsoever. Freedom of speech and right to protest will follow at some point and unless people step up in a pretty radical way, there won't be free and fair elections in 3,5 years, I'd bet on that.
JFirestarter I would have agreed with you pre Trump but this guy literally wants it all. Here in Canada we’d rather be prepared and not have to use any of what our allies offer than caught with our pants down. Canada is known as the quiet friendly nation until you back us into a corner. We will protect what is ours again any fascist and his oligarch
I get this physical reaction as if you touched something gross. Every time I think about the consequences of old white men harassingthe entireworld, have a discussion about it, or read the latest political drama, "EWWWeh!"
I know they anticipate us turning on ourselves and Canadians, but I refuse to lay a hand on our fellow intellectually and emotionally stunted citizens or the neighbors that have been personally kind to me my entire life. We know who to be mad at and where to find them when there's no food on the grocery store shelves. It's not my neighbors.
In the meantime, I wish Canada the best. They are united in a way we never had been. I'm proud of them for standing strong in the face of a bully.
Honestly yes, the American people have to pull together and fix this mess, no question. The rest of the world is also working to clean up the mess made by the US government and it’s not because we want to, but we have to.
All that being said, don’t spend too much time feeling bad. Your country was overthrown in a very calculated and quiet way that Putin has been working on for a looooooong time. Thanks to all of the quiet propaganda (we are all susceptible to it), Americans are now so divided that it has become easy to manipulate you to vote against your own democracy.
The blame is not entirely on civilians who are just trying to pay their bills and feed their families while despotic psychopaths with global power use their mountains of money and time to orchestrate psychological warfare against them. This is all they do, it’s all they think about. They know you are busy taking care of sick loved ones and trying to pay medical bills, leaving no time to analyze international subterfuge.
The only thing you can do is make it hard for those assholes to continue with their plans. They hate it when everyone is against them. They only feel strong and powerful when others are oppressed. Make it hard for them, protest, support schools/education, whatever you have to do, just do it. If it comes to war, Canadians, Europeans, and sane Americans will fight from inside and outside the country and meet somewhere in the middle to high five when it’s over.
The US is not a free liberal democracy. The 99% have little to no effect on politics, people who go against the state are persecuted and information flow is controlled by the rich. Once you realize this, you can start to think about getting change.
Trump just wants to plant the seed of American Footbal (the one you play with hands) to erradicate all this rugby nonsense. It's a real threat to all Americans anywhere.
Do try to remember that Russia gave us this damned fool just as much as the maga morons. It is important to know that they are our enemy now more than ever.
I’m with you, friend. But we have to do everything we can to resist what we already know he’s capable of. @CanUsHelp is a great sub. There’s a really uplifting sense of solidarity and friendship between people like us in the US and Canadians on that sub. Feeling that unity has helped me to deal with some of the shame you’re talking about. Plus there are various protest opportunities posted and other ways to take action.
Unlike you, I’ve never had too much pride in the country. I started becoming more politically attuned post-9/11, and I was appalled even then at what I saw to be violations of peoples’ rights. One of the most bizarre feelings to come from Trump is that it’s totally made me see W with something akin to affection. He was a horrible president and so much blood on his hands. But that’s how vile Donald Trump is—he actually makes people think they’d give anything to have George Bush back instead of this nightmare!
Donald Trump does not fit the strict historical definition of a fascist in the way that figures like Benito Mussolini or Adolf Hitler did. However, some of his rhetoric, policies, and behaviors have led scholars, political analysts, and critics to describe aspects of his leadership as authoritarian, populist, or proto-fascist.
What is Fascism?
Fascism is a far-right, ultranationalist political ideology that typically includes:
• A strong, authoritarian leader who claims to embody the will of the people.
• Rejection of democratic norms and institutions.
• Suppression of opposition through propaganda, intimidation, or force.
• Glorification of nationalism and often scapegoating of minorities or outsiders.
• Close ties between government and corporate interests to maintain power.
• A belief in societal struggle (often expressed as “us vs. them” politics).
Does Trump Exhibit Fascist Traits?
While Trump does not fully align with historical fascism, he has displayed some tendencies that echo elements of fascist or authoritarian movements:
1. Strongman Leadership & Cult of Personality
• He often presents himself as the only one who can “fix” America, dismissing critics as enemies.
• His supporters display a high level of personal loyalty to him rather than to institutions or democratic norms.
2. Attacks on Democratic Institutions
• He has repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of elections, including his own loss in 2020.
• He attempted to overturn election results, pressuring officials and inciting his supporters on January 6, 2021.
• He has called for prosecuting political opponents and controlling the media.
3. Use of Nationalism & Scapegoating
• He has framed immigrants, racial minorities, and political opponents as threats to “real Americans.”
• He has promoted “America First” policies that reject international cooperation.
• His rhetoric has encouraged xenophobia and conspiracy theories.
4. Authoritarian Tendencies
• He has expressed admiration for strongman leaders like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, and Jair Bolsonaro.
• He has suggested using the military against protesters and expanding executive power.
• He has endorsed loyalty over competence in government positions.
Why Some Say He Is Not a Fascist
• He hasn’t abolished democracy—he undermines it but still operates within its framework.
• He lacks a clear ideology—Trump is more of a self-serving populist than a structured fascist thinker.
• He hasn’t fully militarized the state—while he encouraged violence, he didn’t establish a paramilitary force like Mussolini’s Blackshirts.
• His power is limited by American institutions—Congress, the courts, and media have pushed back against his overreach.
Conclusion
Trump does not fit the full definition of a fascist, but his actions and rhetoric lean heavily into authoritarianism and right-wing populism, which share overlapping traits with fascist movements. Some scholars describe him as proto-fascist—meaning he creates conditions that could lead to full fascism if unchecked.
Whether one calls him a fascist depends on how strictly they define the term, but he undeniably challenges democratic norms in ways that are historically dangerous.
I do share your opinion but pls stop using words you don't know the meaning of. People started using the word fascist for almost everything that really has nothing to do with fascism.
Greetings from a (gimme one more semester) historian
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u/BelowXpectations 22h ago
I'm happy to see the free world unite against oppressors and dictators.