Canada

Bracing for impact on Canadian elections.

Upon hearing the news, I felt despondent and a pit in my stomach... I went to do a bit of karaoke and my mood has recovered from that at least.

Clearly political con-artistry is effective. Ford, Smith, Moe, Poilievre and any wannabe dictators of Canada who may emerge in the future, are all taking down notes.

Anxious. I'm already dreading the next 4 years. I usually like to keep informed and up to date on world news but I think I'm going to have to avoid all news for the next few years and just try to ignore what America is doing.

You know, I work a pretty stressful job, and I think a lot of that stress and anger came from, in some twisted way, a misguided faith of sorts. I did believe that people were, at the very least, capable of making the most sensible decision when given overwhelming evidence of good vs. bad choices; that they intentionally make bad choices either because they weren't given enough information or were acting intentionally selfish or duplicitous in some way. So whenever I had to deal with someone trying to exploit a loophole or arguing about how they swear they are going to x and such place and will pay at a later time (when you know they won't do so), it would frustrate me, because I did believe that they were capable of making better choices.

This election is proof that people are just genuinely dumb and hopeless, to a far and large extent. Choosing to omit your own vote, or willingly voting for him, is beyond imagination. We have seen so much of what he has done in the past 8 years now, at minimum. They know what he will likely do in the next 4 years. And they still chose him. Or chose not to participate.

So I'm choosing not to feel angry at people anymore, to not give a shit if they break the rules for whatever reason they justify. Because why be angry at something if you have lost faith in it being better?

Tired. Numb.

Ukraine is fucked. Palenstine is fucked. Taiwan is fucked.

Climate is turbo fucked.

And the brain rot heads north

Concerning, to say the least.

Consider this.

Trump is...a life-long conartist, a convicted felon, adulterer, rapist, womanizer, misogynist, racist, a twice impeached President, a guy who somehow had nearly a dozen close associates found to be guilty of crimes ... Breathes

Someone who "gets along" with some of the most brutal dictators alive like they're buddies, has been caught on tape describing sexually assaulting women, who has lied over 30,000 times in a span of 4 years, who has made threats against journalists, who has publicly mocked a disabled person, who has publicly shat on veterans, who criticised a POW for getting caught... Breathes

A guy who denied COVID, who promoted unproven treatments while condemning those who wanted to safeguard public health, who rambles incoherently about topics he has little to no grasp on, who thinks everything he does is "perfect" and "nobody has done a "better job", is in obvious mental decline, has never admitted to being wrong or apologized for anything...

And so on!

Now, would you invite someone like that to dinner? Or have him work in your small business?

Probably not. Nobody would, not even if they were related to such a person.

Why then, would over half the voting public stake the future of their country on giving him a second term as President?

You don't have to like Harris, or even agree with most of her policies, but she is not a trainwreak of a human being and would most certainly be a better person for the job. Any job.

As a Canadian, to know that a garbage heap of a person like Trump could be freely given excessive power by the voting public only tells me that it could happen in Canada, even if the alternative candidate was 1000x better in every way.

North America, and democracy as a whole, seems doomed. And with rich idiots, podcast morons, and domestic terrorists actively supporting a candidate like that, I worry about the future stability of our global community. And we aren't even close to being prepared for what malicious use of AI could do during an election.

It takes far more effort and time to build a peaceful, balanced society. And less than four years to completely dismantle that progress.

Numb. Sad. Mostly numb.

I was cheering for Kamala. I wanted the US to succeed. She had the big rallies, the celebrity endorsements, the polls were saying it was neck-and-neck. It looked like sanity was going to prevail. Then Trump just basically sweeps it and it's like...oh. It's easy to call the Americans "stupid" or whatever insults I've seen flying around the internet, but there was a vote. He won the vote. Over 72 million people think that Trump and the Republican ideology lines up best with their ideology. Who am I to argue with that? I don't agree with it, but I guess that's democracy in action. Regardless of what lies were told or what disinformation was spread, people overwhelmingly went out, voted for ol' Donny, and this is the result. That's how she goes I guess...? I don't fucking know anymore dude.

My heart absolutely breaks for the people of Ukraine. I'm sure they'll lose their US support come January. They don't deserve that.

Empathy at what my American friends are going through, and dread about our own incoming conservative wave.

Nervous. Fascism is getting more popular, not less. We WILL see the same trend.

Vile. Disgusting.

I feel so bad for the minority of people there. But the majority apparently, instead of seeing "fuck yeah, Kamala, she could be beacon of democracy and progress in the world" decided "nope, orange man hate people me hate so FUCK YOU OTHER PEOPLE".

It's so sad.

Honestly terrified for what this will mean for marginalized groups in America. I'm worried that we tend to copy American trends, so what will this mean for our future?

Shocked, saddened here.

I can't believe Trump did so well. He'll be the first Republican to win the popular vote since 2004. He's a racist, sexist, transphobic, fascist, anti-science rapist, convicted felon, climate change-denier, and champion of the uber wealthy.

I guess there are many more deeply racist and sexist people than I wish to believe. It's BS how first-past-the-post and the electoral college systems work - it's so very easy to manipulate the system when you know the precious few key areas in advance to try to influence. Control of mainstream news and social media by the billionaire gives dis-, misinformation, and other bias so much reach to undermine democracy and voters' rational self-interest.

Pretty terrible, I was hoping Kamala would win

Trump is about to destroy the lives of Americans for narcisstic greed and irrational hatred

Worried about the future. I just woke up to someone yelling hate speech.

I voted Trump and I'm happy. Honda is already planning to bring more jobs here, life is good.