From an American-

I’m sure by now you all have seen our government’s ‘official response’ to your wildfires. I saw that, and as an American I am beyond appalled. Please know that the public statements made by our government do not reflect the thoughts and beliefs of the majority of the American people.

When the US had wildfires, Canada sent us significant support including numerous firefighting aircraft, air crews, and support equipment. This was not a small token contribution, it made a real difference. It saved lives and property and forest. That is how neighbors and friends are supposed to help each other out, and we appreciated the hell out of it. It is not forgotten.

To hear that our ‘official response’ to your wildfires is to threaten… I have no words to describe the feeling. I am proud to be American, I love my country, but today I am ashamed. That these things are being said as representative of me and my countrymen… it is beyond shameful. We are supposed to be better than this. Better allies, better neighbors, better humans. I am ashamed and angry that my government is representing me and my fellow Americans in this manner.

I can only say that the majority of Americans do not feel this way. Forget the propaganda you see on the news (and it is mostly propaganda). The people of this country love our northern friends, we feel for you. We don’t want to annex Canada or punish you for a natural disaster or any of this crap. We want you all to be safe. We want to help.

THAT is who we are, even if we suck at electing politicians that represent that belief.

Stay safe. Be well. We love you.


Je passe ce texte par Google Traduction car mon français est médiocre…

De la part d’un Américain…

Je suis certain que vous avez tous vu, à présent, la « réponse officielle » de notre gouvernement face à vos incendies de forêt. En tant qu’Américain, j’en suis profondément indigné. Sachez que les déclarations publiques de notre gouvernement ne reflètent ni les pensées ni les convictions de la majorité du peuple américain.

Lorsque les États-Unis ont été touchés par des incendies, le Canada nous a apporté un soutien considérable, notamment en envoyant de nombreux avions de lutte contre les incendies, des équipages aériens et du matériel de soutien. Il ne s’agissait pas d’un simple geste symbolique ; cette aide a fait une réelle différence. Elle a permis de sauver des vies, des biens et des forêts. C’est ainsi que les voisins et les amis sont censés s’entraider, et nous avons énormément apprécié ce geste. Nous ne l’avons pas oublié.

Apprendre que la « réponse officielle » de notre pays face à vos incendies consiste à proférer des menaces… les mots me manquent pour décrire ce que je ressens. Je suis fier d’être Américain et j’aime mon pays, mais aujourd’hui, j’ai honte. Que de tels propos soient tenus en mon nom et en celui de mes compatriotes… c’est tout simplement honteux. Nous sommes censés valoir mieux que cela. Être de meilleurs alliés, de meilleurs voisins, de meilleurs êtres humains. J’éprouve de la honte et de la colère de voir mon gouvernement nous représenter, mes compatriotes et moi, de cette manière.

Je tiens à dire que la majorité des Américains ne partagent pas ce point de vue. Oubliez la propagande que vous voyez aux informations (car il s’agit bien, pour l’essentiel, de propagande). La population de ce pays aime ses amis du Nord ; nous sommes de tout cœur avec vous. Nous ne voulons ni annexer le Canada, ni vous punir pour une catastrophe naturelle, ni rien de tout ce non-sens. Nous voulons que vous soyez en sécurité. Nous voulons vous aider.

C’est cela, notre véritable nature, même si nous sommes incapables d’élire des responsables politiques qui incarnent ces valeurs.

Prenez soin de vous. Portez-vous bien. Nous vous aimons.

  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    Thanks for the kind words, but I’ll be frank. Wanna help? Stop making everything about yourself (individually and as a nation), go fix your country’s broken-ass system, and come visit us and buy our stuff if you like in the meantime. If you want our trust back, figure out how the worst living caricature of America achieved the highest political office a second time, and how will you collectively prevent that from happening again? Personally, I’ll come celebrate when it happens, but that will only be the start of a generation’s worth of work to rebuild what was lost.

    Yours truly,

    Canadian fed up with the constant BS from the states.

    • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.todayOP
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      1 day ago

      All 100% valid.

      Our problem is a lot deeper than politics. Painting with somewhat broad strokes- our education system does a shit job of teaching critical thinking and analytics, but does a great job of teaching kids that learning and research are boring and not fun and should be avoided when possible. Then we bathe these kids in a fire hose of short form videos (which we’ve exported worldwide- sorry :( ) and the result is generations of kids who don’t research anything and can’t pay attention to anything for more than 90 seconds.

      The result of that is that overwhelmingly Americans get election-related information by ‘push’ channels- TV, news, advertisements. Independent research into candidates is not common. And the crap we have now is the result- not just Trump but a Congress that’s too focused on re-elections and thus has no idea how to wield power or when it should be wielded.

      We’re in a bad state. It took multiple generations to get into this crap and it will take multiple generations to dig ourselves out- assuming we as a nation even have the wherewithal to realize that digging out is necessary let alone the willpower to do it. I love my country, but I’m fearful of our future, especially over the next few decades.

      Honestly I worry that USA will end up like the film Idiocracy and the rest of the world will just build a giant wall around USA to keep us from screwing anything else up :(

      • Jarix@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        What is your goal? What is it you think your words are going to accomplish? Canada isn’t the problem here, you are. Go talk to other Americans with this sentiment because they are the ones that need to hear this emotion from you.

        • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.todayOP
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          4 hours ago

          I believe that in every group, outsiders will see the group as represented by its loudest and most visible subgroup, unless other members of the group take steps to distance themselves from that subgroup.

          Fact is, we elected the dude. We regret it (according to the latest approval polls at least) but we still elected him. And Trump / MAGA are by far the loudest and most visible subgroup of Americans, at least I assume they are to the outside. Thus, someone on the outside could reasonably assume that Trump speaks for all of the country, myself included, unless some of the rest of us stand up and say ‘he doesn’t speak for us, that isn’t our message’.

          So my goal here is to do just that- even as one person, to stand up and say Trump doesn’t speak for me, his hate filled comments are NOT my message and not the message of a great many Americans. We love our northern neighbors and we have a lot more respect for you all than our leadership is showing.

          You can do with that what you will. What I hope you take from it is an understanding that we do not all speak with one voice, that there are decent people in the US and we’re not just MAGA idiots and racist hicks.

          • Jarix@lemmy.world
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            4 hours ago

            This is much better than an apology. Just start saying stuff like this instead of apologizing maybe? Might be better received ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

      • vovin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        12 hours ago

        Buddy, USA is already in full Idiocracy mode. Everyone has been watching it happen with horror for decades. Now it’s gotten so bad it’s affecting your country’s relationships with other countries. Stop posting apologies and learn how to do political activism to vote out the current fascists before it’s too late.