Canada

Literally can not be done. Canada doesn't manufacture enough to become self sufficient (thanks outsourcing).

Oh down here we mostly just cope however we can. Or get radicalized in whichever direction seems right

We cut off our families who watch Fox.

our own little mini-DeSantis

the one who wants to de-fund the CBC so that Canadians can consume even less Canadian news.

What's the Canadian equivalent of Florida?

Some of them are flying the Confederate flag in Alberta!

Historically Europe (and the British Empire) sided with the confederacy because they saw a united USA as a potential industrial rival, whereas the south was more of a resource colony. Interestingly there was a major class divide in Europe where the working classes were anti-slavery and therefore anti-confederate wheras the upper classes saw the confederate cause being in their interest. There's a book about this called A Cause for All Nations by Don Doyle.

My understanding is that nowadays the confederate flag is used by people outside the USA who are on the fascist end of the spectrum for whom Nazi or fascist symbols are too extreme (or just illegal) in their countries.

That boat sailed with Murdoch buying out all the news companies and beaming his rags and "news" channels around the western world after he conquered Australia. He used his power to weaken laws that used to hedge against this kind of nonsense.

To be fair its global (eg.US and Hungary). Fascism always has been (eg Germany and Japan)

We have some great news media, though. I haven't found a good SA or EU or Canadian equivalent for Democracy Now

The US is the greatest threat to all life in the world with their massive Nuclear arsenal. If New York takes an ICBM, it'll affect Toronto and likely Ottawa too.

We are worried about what we would have to do if you guys starts shooting at each other. Like where would we put the refugees.

To be fair, it's because US politics at the moment is a train-wreck in progress and its hard to look away. Or, more accurately, the US news portrays US politics as a train-wreck in progress, with civil war and right-wing dictatorship just over the horizon. Both political parties and the whole media establishment are literally spending billions of dollars to attract eyeballs, so the drama of US presidential politics is off-the-scale and the whole world is watching, not just Canada.

Canadian politics at the moment is a snooze-fest by comparison. However, when crazy US-style drama does go down in Canada, like when our COVID trucker convoy noisily occupied Ottawa for a few weeks, we were glued to that instead.

For Americans, you can think of Canada as being like Minnesota. Sure, we get a dramatic event every once in a while, but mostly it's boringly reasonable, center-left, earnest, and low-drama.

I treat it like a reality TV show. The characters are pretty engaging and if I acknowledge that it's real life I get depressed

For instance, half of the content on Lemmy is American politics and news. It can be hard as a non-American to find a good balance of content that’s closer to home.