I'm not sure how far I would generalize this to Americans at large, but the attitude that the Trump administration has had toward Canada and most or all of its allies is one that's recognizable to anyone who has ever dealt with a tyrannical boss, a toxic family member, or an emotionally abusive partner. Really anyone hell-bent on abusing a power differential in their favour.
The standard for you is one of deliberately impossible perfection. Anything short of that is cause for a total over-reaction as an excuse to abuse power and inflict pain on you for its own sake. Which makes sense because the goal is to both have you cater to their every whim, and also constantly remind you of the power imbalance. Only a veneer of a reason is required, and what that is, is decided purely by them. If they can't find anything, they just increase the standard until something appears, and the reaction is the same.
Meanwhile they have no standard for their own behaviour toward you, because you don't matter. They are allowed to do and say the most egregious shit, behave in the dumbest and most irresponsible fashion, and you just have to silently take it. Push back even a bit, regardless of how restrained or polite you are, or point any of this hypocrisy out, and the abuse just gets worse.
The problem with that suggestion is that in making it, Mr Potter is making the same mistake of which he is accusing Americans, taking the whole instead of more closely examining the parts of the whole.
There are indeed many Americans, including the current president who can indeed stand so accused. But there are also many who do understand at least a good bit of what is happening, the problems with it, and the impact it is having on the rest of the world.
America is the most extraordinary, the most crucial, the riskiest, and the most complex ongoing experiment in human society and government ever attempted. As such it is both a vast hope and, to some extent, an internal contradiction. It is also a remarkably new experiment. It took over two thousand years for any group larger than a big village to try anything like it, and another two thousand before a bunch of white guys in funny suits and weird whigs decided to try to make a nation based on the idea that human beings en masse might be able to rule themselves from the bottom up.
The American story is thus both relatively short and immensely complex, and it is perhaps not to be wondered at that they have ‘gotten it wrong’ at least as often as ‘they have gotten it right’.
No nation in the world has ever had entirely clean hands, although some have certain been far cleaner and some far dirtier than others. But the project upon which we were the first nation on earth to set ourselves is, as Tom Paine noted, to begin the world anew, and the whole world became then part of it
The United States is really big. Hard to understand how big and diverse it really is. Nevertheless it has a government, that for whatever its flaws, acts on behalf of its people. And it is currently acting like a Karen.
This isn't like North Korea. If the American people think they're getting a bad rap because of the actions of their government... they can change the government so it acts differently. But even if they do, some judgment is appropriate for what has happened in the interim.
No one judges America more harshly than some Americans do. Our own right wing is constantly accusing our left wing of ‘hating America’. It isn’t true, but the truth has always been a variable quantity when it collides with politics.
Whatever happens because of our current administration, many of us understand how far wrong it has gone, but to suggest that it is acting on behalf of its people is not the case. In fact, it is currently acting only on its own behalf. The problem is that many of us have so sunk themselves in the belief that it is acting on their behalf that they find it really hard to admit otherwise.
Our political process is a complicated one. Like our legal system, it does tend to give more room for error than it might, and because of it, our legal and electoral system can take what may seem an ungodly amount of time to self-correct, even assuming that it can.
But what is happening down here is something unlike anything in our history since our Civil War. An increasing number of us are realizing that we had taken the strength and stability of our republic for granted, not understanding how fragile it is. I honestly don’t know how, or even if we can ger ourselves out of this morass. Nor am I trying to excuse what this administration, often with the complicity of far too many of us, is doing both nationally and internationally. But lumping us all together is as futile an effort as would be lumping all the citizens of any nation all together.
What people ought to be doing then, while looking at our example, is taking stock of their own systems with the understanding that any governmental system can go either well or not well, depending not just on those running it, but also on all the rest of the nation.
As the English poet John Dunne noted, “Therefor do not send to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.”
Respect is to be earned,humility is a virtue. Psycho analyze all you like,but none of us like being ridiculed,talked at like we are idiots. Yeah,they have done some good things. But so have we. What’s so wrong with standing up for ourselves. Oh wait,drop a knee! Works everytime! Not!!
It could be argued that by the definition in the article Canada is a nation full of Karens all with some perceived status of victimhood which varies according to which particular tribe of Karens they choose to align with.
The article while it makes some valid points seems to me to be a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Canada’s army (ok, militia) of entitled real estate owning pension indexed elbozo boomers is a match for any American Karenocracy. And mocking US accents is no different than the Montreal tourists pullulating Hollywood Florida in the winter complaining “why dey honly speak da Henglish ere?” IMO The caste of matrons from Rosedale and Rockliffe (and their Vancouver and Montreal equivalents) are Canada’s equivalent to US Karenocracy. The sad issue is that both groups dominate politics to an extent far above their numbers or the merits of their argument. And the mainstream parties are so afraid of losing electoral seats that they filter prospective candidates ( more obviously in Canada than the US) to ensure nobody will rock the boat or challenge party dogma. So elections generally result in a choice between a blue soyboy or a red soyboy (or their female equivalents). Not a recipe for progress is it?
Many Americans don’t know much about the world outside America. They’re a huge country that has outsized cultural, economic, and political influence - it’s easy to navel-gaze. Combine that with a notion of American exceptionalism that’s curdled into simple chauvinism, and you get the Ugly American.
These people think America is the best at everything; where things are different, they’re either silly or wrong. Where America isn’t winning, others must be cheating because tautologically Americans are always winners. Donald Trump is their exemplar and champion.
I’m afraid I see some of the same traits among a lot of Canadians, a smug certainty of superiority. You see it in Torontonians who think they’re the Centre of the Universe, you see it in Albertans who think they’re a unique conservative and free enterprise paradise. The solution is pretty simple: pull your head out of your own butt and learn more about the world around you, and be open to changing your mind.
Good points including some of the comments. I would add that in addition to some fires from WA State crossing the border there is a huge amount of American fire smoke crossing the border during the fire season — always. Apparently Yanks are unaware of this?
I 100% agree with the article BUT as someone whose name is Karen, I'm really looking forward to the day when my name is no longer a synonym for ignorant, entitled asshole. :-)
Well said. The US has always been the obnoxious, overweight, uneducated loudmouth, what's striking is the dramatic swing to a total kleptocracy and erosion of law and order. The USA used to put its constitution and balance of powers as its main element of its so called freedom and democracy. The simple fact that a career scamming bankrupt thief, who is a known pedophile rapist who can hardly string a full sentence together gets elected not once, but twice to the highest office shows its not a place that can be taken seriously, other than its sheer size. Canada and the rest of the world are best to ignore the diaper filler in chief and work on maintaining civility and order and progress elsewhere. We are all witnessing the rapid downfall of the empire.
Your broad thesis of America, in general, and Trump and his cronies in particular consistently playing the victim and weaponizing the act as a negotiating tool is right on and brutally infuriating for Canadians who are paying attention. It's as if we're all in the car on a family trip and big brother is bored so he pokes little brothers buttons until all hell breaks loose and we're forced to pull over. Except with Trump there's no adult in the car and no escaping this highway.
Canadians have had enough of the play acting from the states. They are victims of their own arrogance and ignorance. There's no escaping the USA for us. Take solace in the knowledge that Trump is heading fast for lame duck status.
This is a real ad hominem attack If you don’t know what that is, I’d encourage you to look it up. It’s a logical fallacy and carries no water or weight as it expresses your feelings of contempt but nothing more.
"What distinguishes the Karen is that they justify their own aggression as a response to a perceived injury or offence. They are not making a demand, they are seeking redress."
Great article! Been there. Arrived early to one of half a dozen side terminals at YEG,Edmonton,private flights to Fort McMuck,AB area UpGraders. Standing outside,by myself,in the Smoking Zone. This American steps into the Yellow Zone(painted tarmac) and without any prompting tells me what’s wrong with Canada. No matter how much shuffling away I attempted,he got louder and closer. I’m guessing he’s never been ‘Cowboy Slapped’, or warned of not minding his mouth. “We (Canadians) are letting in all kinds of people…” I cut him off,looked him in the eye and said “Yeah,we sure are!” As I flicked my cigarette butt at him. Totally against my ethics,I hate litter bugs! hahahaha! Another TFW,insulator! Is that even a trade? lol
I'm not sure how far I would generalize this to Americans at large, but the attitude that the Trump administration has had toward Canada and most or all of its allies is one that's recognizable to anyone who has ever dealt with a tyrannical boss, a toxic family member, or an emotionally abusive partner. Really anyone hell-bent on abusing a power differential in their favour.
The standard for you is one of deliberately impossible perfection. Anything short of that is cause for a total over-reaction as an excuse to abuse power and inflict pain on you for its own sake. Which makes sense because the goal is to both have you cater to their every whim, and also constantly remind you of the power imbalance. Only a veneer of a reason is required, and what that is, is decided purely by them. If they can't find anything, they just increase the standard until something appears, and the reaction is the same.
Meanwhile they have no standard for their own behaviour toward you, because you don't matter. They are allowed to do and say the most egregious shit, behave in the dumbest and most irresponsible fashion, and you just have to silently take it. Push back even a bit, regardless of how restrained or polite you are, or point any of this hypocrisy out, and the abuse just gets worse.
The problem with that suggestion is that in making it, Mr Potter is making the same mistake of which he is accusing Americans, taking the whole instead of more closely examining the parts of the whole.
There are indeed many Americans, including the current president who can indeed stand so accused. But there are also many who do understand at least a good bit of what is happening, the problems with it, and the impact it is having on the rest of the world.
America is the most extraordinary, the most crucial, the riskiest, and the most complex ongoing experiment in human society and government ever attempted. As such it is both a vast hope and, to some extent, an internal contradiction. It is also a remarkably new experiment. It took over two thousand years for any group larger than a big village to try anything like it, and another two thousand before a bunch of white guys in funny suits and weird whigs decided to try to make a nation based on the idea that human beings en masse might be able to rule themselves from the bottom up.
The American story is thus both relatively short and immensely complex, and it is perhaps not to be wondered at that they have ‘gotten it wrong’ at least as often as ‘they have gotten it right’.
No nation in the world has ever had entirely clean hands, although some have certain been far cleaner and some far dirtier than others. But the project upon which we were the first nation on earth to set ourselves is, as Tom Paine noted, to begin the world anew, and the whole world became then part of it
The United States is really big. Hard to understand how big and diverse it really is. Nevertheless it has a government, that for whatever its flaws, acts on behalf of its people. And it is currently acting like a Karen.
This isn't like North Korea. If the American people think they're getting a bad rap because of the actions of their government... they can change the government so it acts differently. But even if they do, some judgment is appropriate for what has happened in the interim.
No one judges America more harshly than some Americans do. Our own right wing is constantly accusing our left wing of ‘hating America’. It isn’t true, but the truth has always been a variable quantity when it collides with politics.
Whatever happens because of our current administration, many of us understand how far wrong it has gone, but to suggest that it is acting on behalf of its people is not the case. In fact, it is currently acting only on its own behalf. The problem is that many of us have so sunk themselves in the belief that it is acting on their behalf that they find it really hard to admit otherwise.
Our political process is a complicated one. Like our legal system, it does tend to give more room for error than it might, and because of it, our legal and electoral system can take what may seem an ungodly amount of time to self-correct, even assuming that it can.
But what is happening down here is something unlike anything in our history since our Civil War. An increasing number of us are realizing that we had taken the strength and stability of our republic for granted, not understanding how fragile it is. I honestly don’t know how, or even if we can ger ourselves out of this morass. Nor am I trying to excuse what this administration, often with the complicity of far too many of us, is doing both nationally and internationally. But lumping us all together is as futile an effort as would be lumping all the citizens of any nation all together.
What people ought to be doing then, while looking at our example, is taking stock of their own systems with the understanding that any governmental system can go either well or not well, depending not just on those running it, but also on all the rest of the nation.
As the English poet John Dunne noted, “Therefor do not send to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.”
Respect is to be earned,humility is a virtue. Psycho analyze all you like,but none of us like being ridiculed,talked at like we are idiots. Yeah,they have done some good things. But so have we. What’s so wrong with standing up for ourselves. Oh wait,drop a knee! Works everytime! Not!!
Small picture thinking. See my second response above.
Of course they think we are idiots. We are allying with China.
It could be argued that by the definition in the article Canada is a nation full of Karens all with some perceived status of victimhood which varies according to which particular tribe of Karens they choose to align with.
I prefer “Caste” to tribe. It captures the Canadian culture of entitlement.
Brilliant metaphor as ongoing customer service complaint.
The article while it makes some valid points seems to me to be a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Canada’s army (ok, militia) of entitled real estate owning pension indexed elbozo boomers is a match for any American Karenocracy. And mocking US accents is no different than the Montreal tourists pullulating Hollywood Florida in the winter complaining “why dey honly speak da Henglish ere?” IMO The caste of matrons from Rosedale and Rockliffe (and their Vancouver and Montreal equivalents) are Canada’s equivalent to US Karenocracy. The sad issue is that both groups dominate politics to an extent far above their numbers or the merits of their argument. And the mainstream parties are so afraid of losing electoral seats that they filter prospective candidates ( more obviously in Canada than the US) to ensure nobody will rock the boat or challenge party dogma. So elections generally result in a choice between a blue soyboy or a red soyboy (or their female equivalents). Not a recipe for progress is it?
Well said!
Many Americans don’t know much about the world outside America. They’re a huge country that has outsized cultural, economic, and political influence - it’s easy to navel-gaze. Combine that with a notion of American exceptionalism that’s curdled into simple chauvinism, and you get the Ugly American.
These people think America is the best at everything; where things are different, they’re either silly or wrong. Where America isn’t winning, others must be cheating because tautologically Americans are always winners. Donald Trump is their exemplar and champion.
I’m afraid I see some of the same traits among a lot of Canadians, a smug certainty of superiority. You see it in Torontonians who think they’re the Centre of the Universe, you see it in Albertans who think they’re a unique conservative and free enterprise paradise. The solution is pretty simple: pull your head out of your own butt and learn more about the world around you, and be open to changing your mind.
Good points including some of the comments. I would add that in addition to some fires from WA State crossing the border there is a huge amount of American fire smoke crossing the border during the fire season — always. Apparently Yanks are unaware of this?
Thank you. ‘Karen’ is the perfect description for which I’ve been looking.
I 100% agree with the article BUT as someone whose name is Karen, I'm really looking forward to the day when my name is no longer a synonym for ignorant, entitled asshole. :-)
Well said. The US has always been the obnoxious, overweight, uneducated loudmouth, what's striking is the dramatic swing to a total kleptocracy and erosion of law and order. The USA used to put its constitution and balance of powers as its main element of its so called freedom and democracy. The simple fact that a career scamming bankrupt thief, who is a known pedophile rapist who can hardly string a full sentence together gets elected not once, but twice to the highest office shows its not a place that can be taken seriously, other than its sheer size. Canada and the rest of the world are best to ignore the diaper filler in chief and work on maintaining civility and order and progress elsewhere. We are all witnessing the rapid downfall of the empire.
Your broad thesis of America, in general, and Trump and his cronies in particular consistently playing the victim and weaponizing the act as a negotiating tool is right on and brutally infuriating for Canadians who are paying attention. It's as if we're all in the car on a family trip and big brother is bored so he pokes little brothers buttons until all hell breaks loose and we're forced to pull over. Except with Trump there's no adult in the car and no escaping this highway.
Canadians have had enough of the play acting from the states. They are victims of their own arrogance and ignorance. There's no escaping the USA for us. Take solace in the knowledge that Trump is heading fast for lame duck status.
A Karen writes an article about Karenism.
This is a real ad hominem attack If you don’t know what that is, I’d encourage you to look it up. It’s a logical fallacy and carries no water or weight as it expresses your feelings of contempt but nothing more.
"What distinguishes the Karen is that they justify their own aggression as a response to a perceived injury or offence. They are not making a demand, they are seeking redress."
Great article! Been there. Arrived early to one of half a dozen side terminals at YEG,Edmonton,private flights to Fort McMuck,AB area UpGraders. Standing outside,by myself,in the Smoking Zone. This American steps into the Yellow Zone(painted tarmac) and without any prompting tells me what’s wrong with Canada. No matter how much shuffling away I attempted,he got louder and closer. I’m guessing he’s never been ‘Cowboy Slapped’, or warned of not minding his mouth. “We (Canadians) are letting in all kinds of people…” I cut him off,looked him in the eye and said “Yeah,we sure are!” As I flicked my cigarette butt at him. Totally against my ethics,I hate litter bugs! hahahaha! Another TFW,insulator! Is that even a trade? lol