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My Villan Origin Story
For anyone who has been reading my newsletter for any length of time, it should be clear that I am not a fan of Donald Trump in general but definitely not a fan of his tariff policy. This is because I think tariffs hurt more Americans, by increasing the cost of goods, than it helps in the form of artificially protecting jobs in a particular industry. Free trade is a boon to both countries and leads to greater prosperity.
I acknowledge that some argue tariffs, as they are being used by Trump, are merely a negotiating tactic to get a “better deal” from other countries. Sure, maybe this is true of China, but I’m not sure how the United States can get a “better deal” from countries such as Canada and Mexico when we already have free trade agreements with them. They can “help more” with immigration, but that problem is largely one of Congress’s refusals to pass proper legislation, not the countries that neighbor us.
With all of that said, the way Canadians are acting makes me want to strap on an AK-47 with a bald eagle on my arm as I wave an American flag chanting U. S. A. If you don’t know what I’m talking about (I don’t blame you because, well, who thinks about Canada anyways), then let me fill you in.
As many of you know, the United States and Canada both have professional sports teams that play against one another in the same leagues (i.e. the Toronto Raptors in the NBA). At the start of these matchups, the national anthem of each country is played no matter the location of the game. Typically, this happens without a hitch and the game commences.
Well, Canadians have recently decided that this is the time to act like a bunch of belligerent two-year olds sprawled out on the grocery store floor kicking and screaming because their mommy wouldn’t let them buy a toy by booing while the Star-Spangled Banner is played. This has happened at Toronto Raptors games, various NHL games, and most recently before the US played in the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off.
This is all because of Trump’s tariffs.
Again, I’m vehemently opposed to Trump’s tariffs, but when I see Canadians booing our national anthem, it makes me want Trump to crank those tariffs up a notch just to spite them.
They Mock Us but They Need Us
I will admit that typically I am much more of a “globalist” (to use the favorite MAGA slur) than many others on the right. I am much more in favor of free trade agreements and military alliances that bring our country closer to others who have similar values to ours. I think our air-tight relationship with the United Kingdom has been an objectively great thing for both countries and the world as a whole.
However, it is stuff like Canadians booing that absolutely make me understand why so many on the right are sick and tired of other Western countries as a whole.
Greg Gutfeld, when asked why he is a conservative, often responds “so that you can be a liberal.” You can’t have liberty without first having order. You can’t have a social safety net without first having economic growth to pay for the social safety net. You can’t regulate an industry without first allowing for the freedom to innovate without regulations in order to create new industries. Liberals scoff at conservatives without even knowing that they rely on conservatives in order to even advocate for their policy preferences.
This is exactly how I feel about the rest of the Western world. They like to scoff at (and even regulate) the United States for a variety of reasons, but they need the United States without even knowing how much they need us.
The United States healthcare system is a favorite target of Western progressives because of how much “more expensive” it is than their own healthcare system. Any depiction of Americans from Western progressives is almost certainly going to show them as ignorant or dumb or obnoxious. Not to mention, the more serious targeted regulation that American big tech companies such as Apple, Google, Facebook, etc. have faced from the European Union.
It turns out though that without the United States, the rest of the Western world would be, as the sociologists say, screwed.
American Exceptionalism
When people hear the phrase “American Exceptionalism”, they typically think this is the idea that America is by nature better than other countries. That’s not how the term was originally intended though. Rather, American Exceptionalism meant that America was unique or the “exception” to the norm. It meant that America was different.
This difference isn’t necessarily always positive. For example, America is, and has been, a more violent place than other Western countries. Many people have attempted to determine the cause of the greater violence, but it seems to just be something that is unique about Americans and American culture.
There are instances though where the uniqueness of America leads to undoubtably positive outcomes. In fact, I would argue that the positives of American Exceptionalism far outweigh the negatives that come along with it.
Americans are significantly less risk averse than almost any other people on the planet. I mean we are the product of people who literally left everything they knew, risked their lives, and completely started over in a new place. Then, they continued this process by moving further and further west bringing civilization with them as they went. It’s not surprising that this appetite for risk has translated into America being the home of innovation.
Americans, more than any other people, are more willing to risk everything on a brand-new idea or product that could change the world. There is a reason that the most world changing companies are all American companies. There are the obvious big tech ones (Apple, Google, Meta, Nvidia, Microsoft, etc.) that have changed the world, but other American companies in different industries like finance (J. P. Morgan, Blackrock, Blackstone, etc.) and healthcare (Pfizer, AbbVie, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, etc.) have been just as innovative and world changing.
There are a few companies in the Western world that compare to these, but they are the exceptions to the rule. For the most part, Canadians and Europeans talk about their cheap healthcare on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram from their iPhone that they ordered from Amazon using the internet provided by Cisco servers running on chips made by Nvidia financed by J. P. Morgan with the assurance that they can get cancer treatment in America thanks to Merck.
And don’t get me started on the fact that American military, especially naval, superiority has made free trade even possible. As the Houthis in Yemen have recently demonstrated, the ability of ships to travel safely between places on the globe is not a guarantee. It requires there to be a power that is dominant enough to scare any potential disrupters into submission.
Good luck Canada doing that on your own.
So, Canadians, you can disagree with Trump’s tariffs, but the next time the Star-Spangled Banner is played at a sporting event in your country how about you respect it by standing up and shutting up. Heck, maybe even be grateful for the America that allows you to have the comfortable lives you live.
Oh, and by the way, a Canadian hockey team hasn’t won the Stanley Cup since 1993, so we are even better than you at your own sport.
God Bless,
Hunter Burnett
Canada 🍅🍅
Hunter’s villain origin story 👻