That’s Crazy!

What’s The Worst Thing That Could Happen?

Minnesota and Greenland. Two places I have no desire to visit. I’m sure they’re perfectly nice places with wonderful people. However, I grew up in Canada. My desire to visit slightly more southern Canada and slightly more northern Canada is exactly zero. In fact, I could do that by visiting Windsor, Ontario, and Iqaluit, Nunavut. Hard pass.

Again, I’m sure they’re perfectly nice places with wonderful people. However, this isn’t about where I want to vacation but rather what can be learned from the recent news stories about Greenland and Minneapolis.

Skimming the headlines tells us that Trump wants to buy/invade Greenland and that ICE is enforcing the law/conducting Gestapo raids in Minneapolis, and people are protesting/rioting in response.

I’ll let you decide the proper framing based on your political leanings and relationship to truth and skepticism.

I’m more interested in what some of the actions tell us. Specifically, what can we learn about people’s ability to weigh risk and reward?

Let’s Punch a Nazi!
Framing this in the least political way I know how, Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent. It’s a tragedy. If for no other reason than she had kids. I’ll let others parse the video footage and frame it how they will. I’m more interested in what she was thinking.

I don’t need video footage for that, just good old-fashioned logic.

There are two possibilities:

1. She believed America is threatened by fascism

2. She didn’t believe that

If America really is threatened with fascist takeover and ICE represents the new Gestapo, then good for her for standing up to evil.

Except…

What did she think was going to happen when she started taunting Gestapo agents? If a couple of unarmed lesbians could end fascism, World War II could have been ended by Eleanor Roosevelt and one of her female pals.

If the point wasn’t to stop them but to highlight the “ongoing injustice,” couldn’t she have done that from the sidewalk?

If she didn’t think America is becoming a fascist state but simply believed that the laws are unjust, was there a more rational approach to protesting? (Hint: the answer is not “no.”)

Again, protesting from the sidewalk would seem to be a rational approach. Disagreeing with a law is not a license to interfere. If I think the speed limit is too low and I drive faster than permitted, does that give me the right to ignore the police when they try to pull me over? Would a high-speed chase be an effective way to protest traffic laws, or would there be a good chance that someone, likely me, would be injured or killed?

I am not blaming the victim. But being a victim does not excuse you from responsibility for your actions. I have the right to do what I want with my money, and if it’s stolen, I’m a victim. Even if my money is stolen because I left it on my front lawn overnight, I’m still a victim. I’m just a very stupid one.

What happened in Minneapolis is a tragedy. It’s also what can happen if you spend your time LARPing as a member of “the resistance.”

This far and no further! Unless…
The response from NATO countries to Trump’s desire to acquire Greenland, while not ruling out the use of force, has led the leaders of some NATO countries to engage in similarly foolish behavior.

Earlier this week, Germany joined other NATO allies like Sweden, Canada, and the Netherlands in sending troops to Greenland.

German politician Peter Beyer stated, “that the deployment is not meant to spark a confrontation against the U.S., but a measure to ensure the common security interests of all NATO partners.”

I’ve read the statement several times now, and it makes no sense to me.

But then I don’t really need it to, because once again, we are faced with two possibilities:

1. NATO leaders believe that Trump will use force

2. They don’t believe it

If it’s #1, what’s the thinking here? We believe the US is going to invade, and we haven’t maintained our militaries for decades, but we think we can still stop the world’s last remaining superpower with a couple of hundred men?

Perhaps they can ask America for a loan to buy weapons from American companies to defend the American-backed international order from America.

Nobody is that dumb. No, I think what we’re seeing is Kabuki theater, politicians thinking “nobody believes the US will invade, so let’s show our citizens we’re willing to stand up to imaginary threats.”

And if they’re wrong? Well, high-stakes poker is a lot of fun if you’re playing with other people’s money. Or lives.

Is Trump a neo-fascist bent on the military takeover of an ally’s territory? I don’t think so. I could be wrong. I don’t have a crystal ball like so many opposing Trump seem to think they have.

That’s beside the point, though. This isn’t about politics or right or wrong. Or Left or Right, for that matter. This is about FAFO. It’s about “play a stupid game, win a stupid prize.”

It’s about risk and reward.

It’s not impossible that 20 years down the road, we look back on Rene Nicole Good as we do Anne Frank, or on the politicians sending troops to Greenland as we do Churchill and FDR. Heroes who stopped the spread of fascism.

It’s not impossible, but I doubt it.

Most likely, we’ll look back on this time as we look back on the 1960s. Some good things happened, some bad things, but I have bills to pay, my kid needs braces, and I’m much rather talk about who’s going to win the Super Bowl.

Politicians will be politicians; there’s nothing I can do about that. But it’s sometimes possible to get through to individuals.

So, listen up!

Here’s my advice. Stay home. If you really feel strongly about what’s happening, write your congressman. Not enough? Fine, go to a protest. But leave your SUV in a parking lot and stand on the sidewalk.

If you absolutely must, throw a Danish flag on your X profile beside the Hamas and trans ones. You can even write in your bio that you “fight fascism.”

You’ll accomplish about as much as yelling at ICE does, and the only downside will be that sane people think you’re a virtue signaling moron.

But we already think that anyway.

Phil is a freelance writer, Canadian Navy veteran, and classical liberal. He has lived and worked in both Canada and the United States and currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia where he writes on politics, individual rights, free speech, and anything else that catches his fancy.

As you may have picked up from this article he’s now trying his hand at humor. You can find some of what he finds funny here.

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