Last Saturday, I was excited to watch Team Canada take on the United States in a hockey matchup that I contend featured the most talented collection of players to ever take the ice.
However, I got a sinking feeling just before the game when thousands of fans at Montreal’s Bell Centre began booing as the U.S. anthem was sung (Montreal crowd boos US national anthem at USA vs Canada hockey game ).
As a competitive athlete with plenty of first-hand knowledge of what usually happens when one team provides the other with “bulletin-board material” (disrespectful commentary that provides extra motivation to the offended team), I was worried that the U.S. team would respond with elevated levels of emotion and aggression.
The U.S. players would surely want to punch Canada in the face. And so they did – literally, with three fights in the first nine seconds of the game (3 hockey fights in first 9 seconds of USA vs Canada ), and figuratively with an impressive shutdown of the high-powered Canadian team in a 3-1 U.S. win.
The boobirds were, of course, directing their chirps at U.S. President Donald Trump for his threats of crippling tariffs on his formerly friendly northern neighbour … but they unwittingly played a role in a Canadian loss.
In a similar vain (typo intended), Canadian politicians, media personalities, and countless thousands of social media warriors have been giving the U.S. president and his followers all sorts of bulletin-board material by incessantly insulting him.
How do you think Donald Trump would respond to personal attacks? Did you think he would apologize and make nice? Of course not.
Any first-year psychology student would be able to predict that the new U.S. administration would respond to such attacks (accurate or not) by wanting to punch Canada in the face. And that is what they are doing.
Canada’s prime minister and his team have helped set the stage for this political pugilism by badmouthing Trump and his followers in recent years (LILLEY: Trudeau insulted Trump for years, now places are reversed).
Trump & Co. want to punch our lights out. And their millions of supporters are loving every minute of it.
I saw it happening in the lead-up to last November’s election – Barrage of attacks on Trump could backfire . For a high percentage of humans, personal attacks serve as inspiration.
Canadians have been insulting MAGA nation for years, and now they believe it is pay-back time.
Can it get worse? Of course, it can – especially if the personal attacks continue at such outlandish levels – and the consequences are tariffying.
It is important to stand up to the Trump administration, but we need to do it with class. The focus should be logical discussion of how, for example, 25% tariffs on Canadian goods going into the U.S. would cause great pain to many Canadians AND U.S. residents.
Insults are not Trump’s kryptonite; they do not make him weaker. Rather, they just make him angry, fired up, and wanting to hurt you. The Increrdible Trump may not possess the physics genius of Dr. Bruce Banner, but he now has super powers, and his rage is felt by friend and foe alike.
I encourage all of the Trump haters to do as Dr. Banner did and seek a path of peace through yoga and meditation.
Indeed, those who have been hurling insults at Trump should seek Solace Through Focused Utilitarianism (STFU) and turn your attention to elevated dialogue devoid of personal attacks.
STFU could, in fact, be Canadians’ superpower – one that would ultimately diminish the destructive powers of the Incredible Trump.
Thankfully, tonight’s championship hockey USA/Canada rematch is in Boston, but if you sneak across the much-discussed border to watch the game, consider being respectfully quiet during the U.S. anthem so our boys have a better chance of winning.
