wampus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-2tpwW0kmU

Yeah, the drop in travel and drop in spending on American stuff is sharp -- not sure the specific %, but it's definitely up there. What's interesting is that it's a "spontaneous" reaction from many Canadians, not so much a result of leadership. Like, yes, Trudeau made a speech or two that were fairly clear on the sentiments, but people'd already been booing at hockey games / cancelling trips etc before that. Sorta like our armed forces reserve applications going bonkers / crashing the website frequently due to volume, without any specific reason.

But these things are still driven by what seems like mass paranoia / potentially media trends, to some extent - especially as there's been few 'real' controls/measures implemented. Canadian media is heavily skewed/oriented towards the USA, so we've seen a fairly constant blast of negative Trump/American perspectives. Social media makes it really easy to fan those xenophobic flames -- like you'd just need a small batch of bots/agents upvoting/downvoting posts to shift the herds perspective on sites like reddit, as, if they catch posts 'early', that'd essentially allow control of which comments are visible, allowing for control of the discussion. The anti-american stuff feels a lot like a social media trend in this respect -- like people 'spontaneously' recording themselves dumping buckets of ice water on their heads, or taking photos of 'planking', or some random dance move, or stealing stuff from public washrooms, etc. Those sorts of things were basically coordinated through algorithms on social media, moreso than people rationally/objectively deciding to do them. It's not like people across the country woke up one day and all thought "I know how to support ALS research, I'll film myself dumping a bucket of water on my head!". It was a nonsensical behaviour pattern spurred on by oligarch controlled algorithms, demonstrating the power of those algorithms to manipulate the masses.

Very difficult, as most traded goods pass through US boundaries via train/truck.

More "regular" trade agreements between individual states is generally more likely going forward I imagine, but the sort of integrated supply chains that we've all benefited from in North America for like.... decades and decades... is pretty well toast.

Eg. the US wants to build their own cars, in country. This means Canada and Mexico will likely also need to build their own cars, in country. Mexico has a bit more of an opportunity to build up integrated supply chains with countries in south america, though they tend to be a bit less stable -- the proximity is a win. It'd be really cool to see if they did though -- not sure what sorts of free trade agreements are around in the south, honestly.

Canada is busy trying to shore up agreements/trade with areas like asia and europe, as those are 'sorta' the same distance/calculus as shipping things via sea to mexico / south america.

It'd also be interesting if the waning of the US hegemony results in more western countries trading with traditionally 'blockaded' countries. Cuba has long been a Canadian vacation spot, but trade with Cuba has been limited due to US pressure. Given the current state of things, I don't see why Canada wouldn't increase trade there. And given the state of Cuba currently, it could be really beneficial for both country's people.

I'm mostly familiar with the Canadian situation due to my locale.

What I'd say on this front, is that the government of Canada has generally taken preformative steps so far in regards to the issues in the USA. There's a lot of chest thumping and pageantry. Our largest province, Ontario, recently re-elected a fairly hard right Conservative politician -- one who is well known for doing things against the public interest (like selling off what little green/parkland exists around toronto, to his developer buddies)... he was re-elected because he draped himself in pro-Canada trappings. He's the guy who made the "Canada is not for sale" hats more popular. Branding yourself as captain Canada works for elections currently -- which is why, for example, its very likely we'll see a Liberal party returned to power federally, even though until very recently they were looking at a significant routing (that, plus them changing to Carney, who is probably the most right-wing/conservative leader of the Liberal/"centrist" party in history).

When I say preformative, I mean things like... there have been no explicit calls from our government to businesses/industry to follow suit on untangling supply chains or shifting trade relationships explicitly -- they've taken some steps to try and lay ground work for further diversification of international trade, but haven't pushed any levers, outside of allowing market forces to do their thing. Our banking regulators, for example, happily remain within Microsoft's cloud ecosystems -- and they have seemingly no interest in the financial industry outsourcing all of their websites to foreign countries / the USA. Many of our levels of government have made overtures of "buy local" procurement policies, but when you ask for details they're all just "planning/reviewing/considering", without direct action on the table. It's not what you'd expect, given the 'rhetoric' of it being an existential threat / crisis. Our politicians are full of sound and fury, but they aren't bothered enough to take direct action at this point.

If you rely on concrete / verifiable data points from our government, trade and relations are deteriorating, but there's no overt cautions/warnings/mandates to take action. Media posts that hype up the fear by changing words feed into the public paranoia, and ignore the relative calm seen in our government agencies.

I ain't American. I'm from one of the countries most irked by America at present (Canada) -- if you look at my @, I'm on a Canadian lemmy server.

But its still true that Russian propaganda is mostly about disrupting allied nations and fostering civil unrest / animosity between countries. They have literally stated that they seek to amplify things like race-oriented conflicts and stories, because it helps to destabilize western countries (so things like Tiktok, where any anti-black event is automatically on the front page, is part of that routine -- compared to other nations, where it shows more benign things, such as "child prodigy plays piano"). Things like "BuyCanadian" campaigns are likely supported/partially funded by Russian interests -- because it's not just "avoid american products", but "avoid all traditional allies" in tone. Sorta like how Russia didn't need specific 'agents' in the US, but could instead fund "influencers" that were saying things that promoted Russian geopolitical goals.

Is there a reason to be concerned about what's going on in the states? Yes. Doesn't mean that we should hype up negativity beyond reason / create anti-american echo chambers.

Oh, wait, ok, let me go do up a massive post with a ton of cited sources and detailed research in order to support an online opinion about the general feeling I get when seeing these sorts of articles -- specifically ones where the social media site (this lemmy OPs post) re-words the title of the article from "travel update" to "travel warning", and aims to get people going on about how the USA is evil.

Or, no, I won't bother. It's an online opinion meant to draw some additional thought / criticism towards these sorts of posts, and the intentions behind them.

Yeah, it's not too surprising that it'll have slightly different contexts in different regions.

Yeah, so it definitely gives the vibe of social media over hyping / trying to drive further wedges into western relations and opinions. Which is basically a Russian goal / propaganda tactic...

As another poster commented, the actual article doesn't call it a 'warning'. So, this does look like social media/bubble hyping up the issue.

For starters, the question wasn't, as far as I know, asking how the ideology / stance fairs in terms of implementation / reality. Like you can give a description of what a communist believes, without having to try and explain Communist Russia / China.

In terms of medicare/dental care, yes, there are soc lib fisc con people that do believe that. Likely not people in the USA, where everything skews right wing -- their soc lib is more like "I have a black friend! I'm not racist!". In more sane countries, there are a good number of people who fall into that ideological mindset, who do support public utilities/health initiatives -- it's pretty common here in Canada, based on people I've spoken with.

Like a soc lib fisc con person I know, has previously suggested that we ought to change how roads / cars are handled -- arguing that cities shouldn't have anywhere near as many cars, and that common "paved" roads should be essentially relegated to highways/freeways due to the cost and ecological impact. In their take, city budgets are often bloated by road repair costs due to the over-engineering of what's required for regular residential activity. Using other road materials would dramatically increase sustainability -- and even if it results in more 'maintenance' cost/road tolls for car users who still insist on using cars, that's up to the consumer. I don't know if they were talking nonsense, but that's the sort of thing I sometimes hear people in the soc lib fisc con camp say.

Not sure -- but it's plausible that the media/bubbles are hyping up that sort of event, even if it's an outlier. Like there are millions of visits to the US from Canada on a regular basis -- one lady got put in a detention area, as a result of having wonky paper work on a longer term work visa (something most regular tourists/travellers don't have to worry about).

As far as I know, travel advisories aren't issued as a result of 'cost to insurance companies', but rather danger/risk to citizens travelling to those countries, imposed by governments. Travel insurance providers look at those, and determine risk/coverage based on that sort of information. So no explicit warning, implies there's no significant risk, for most visitor types.

Advising something like "If you use X as a gender, make sure to carry additional paperwork/figure out additional rules", isn't something that's going to cause a "generic" family to worry about going to Disney Land.

Eh, it's a start I guess. But there's no where near enough information on that site to make it really useful from my perspective.

Telling me how the labels work is great and all, but if I'm looking for different product types it's really difficult to know if there even is a Canadian option available, somewhere.

Like if I want a new appliance -- Fridge, dishwasher, clothing washer/dryer, oven -- what brands have Canadian supply chains/production? If I'm going to a bank, which ones rely on US tech giants extensively, vs use Canadian supply chains? Which coffee shops are Canadian (I'm surprised ppl are still cool with Starbucks it seems)? Which chains are primarily owned by US interests -- or which chains are primarily Canadian? I mean, even The Bay was US owned -- despite being "Canadas" oldest company.