• CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 month ago

    It’s one American in particular pushing it, so it’s a bit funny to use plural, but yes, he means it.

    • droopy4096@lemmy.ca
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      1 month ago

      as article points out: that one person is supported by a whole class of Americans - the billionaires. And those in turn are supported by not insignificant portion of American population. So plural is very apropos here.

        • droopy4096@lemmy.ca
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          1 month ago

          businesspeople differ from billionaires in that they don’t get to impact policies and they don’t run multinationals milking both sides of the border

          • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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            1 month ago

            Billionaires tend to be buisnesspeople, plenty of multinationals (most, actually) aren’t owned by a billionaire, and non-billionaires can run businesses that operate in multiple countries (again, probably most of them).

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 month ago

        Yeah, there is that legal fiction, and typical way of looking at things, so it’s not an incorrect phrasing. It’s just kinda funny.

          • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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            1 month ago

            400 million people is 400 million distinct people. Nobody could or does represent them; the idea that someone can represent “the will of the people” is propaganda. Same with every other government; they actually just have control.

            • stylusmobilus@aussie.zone
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              1 month ago

              A leader that is elected by their country, represents it. It’s a collective responsibility.

              In Trumps case, he truly represents it, in every way. Selfish, debaucherous, arrogant, can’t take criticism.

              • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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                1 month ago

                A leader that is elected by their country, represents it.

                Well, that’s basically the propaganda. Says who? God? Physics? Neither. And, elect how? Some countries have proportional representation, which neither the US or Canada do.

                At the end of the day, a state is anything that has a monopoly on the use of force. Some allocate political power within themselves through elections (of many massively different kinds), while some do it other ways.

                You could say, “okay, elections have nothing to do with it, but we’re still responsible for what we let our governments do”, which covers the “it’s a collective responsibility” bit. And there’s a strong argument for that. But, by that measure pretty much everyone sucks everywhere, which you can take however you want.