I hate to take the bait... Ross Douthat of the NYT writes that Canada should consider Trump's "invitation" to join the US--because 1) Canada would have more geopolitical heft as part of the US, and 2) that Canada's national project is reducible to knee-jerk anti-Americanism. Let's consider... 1/ - ThreadSky

nordiquesfancorner.substack.com • 48 days ago

I hate to take the bait...

Ross Douthat of the NYT writes that Canada should consider Trump's "invitation" to join the US--because 1) Canada would have more geopolitical heft as part of the US, and 2) that Canada's national project is reducible to knee-jerk anti-Americanism. Let's consider... 1/

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nordiquesfancorner.substack.com•48 days ago

2/ The first point is easily dealt with. Does Douthat believe that Canada, with an independent military, parliament, diplomatic service, and judicial system, currently enjoys more or less domestic and international policymaking independence than North Dakota?

nordiquesfancorner.substack.com•48 days ago

3/ Douthat claims that Canada should "want to participate in the great drama" south of the border (apt description; no thank you). But why, in Douthat's mind, should there be such a receptive and broad market for anti-Americanism? Why is it so clearly appealing?

nordiquesfancorner.substack.com•48 days ago

4/ His characterization of Canadian identity as merely vapid anti-Americanism mirrors his own vision of conservatism as a morally and ideologically empty container for anti-liberalism without any unifying ideas or values. This is not a recognizable conservatism, but a boring pose

nordiquesfancorner.substack.com•48 days ago

5/ Of course, Douthat's job is not to produce interesting takes, but to drive clicks and irritate liberals by pretending to have controversial views. Fair enough; I guess I would say this is a dishonourable way to earn a living as a writer, but it is and should be legal.

nordiquesfancorner.substack.com•48 days ago

6/ Two better questions for Douthat: 1) If your neighbours, in the midst of a violently abusive marriage predicated on mutual self-loathing, invited you to join for a menage a trois, would you want to join them? Would you board a sinking ship at the moment of its scuppering?

nordiquesfancorner.substack.com•48 days ago

7/ And 2) We are often invited to consider what we would have done "during the Holocaust." A more useful question for Douthat to consider: What boring, smarmy op-eds would he have written about Czechoslovakia in 1935 if he thought they might annoy liberals?

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