Actress Lena Dunham recently joined the ranks of those celebrities who’ve suggested they might move out of the country if Trump gets elected president. While some of these wealthy and privileged have not specified their preferred destination, and at least a couple have discussed leaving the Earth (Jon Stewart said he’ll go to another planet, Cher mentioned moving to Jupiter (and I assume she doesn’t mean Florida), Dunham and some others have mentioned Canada as their possible future home.
I might wonder why Ms Dunham chose Canada over Mexico, what her motives and desires are. I might consider that she’d want to go some place where she, as a presumably native English speaker, would be able to best communicate and fit in. I might contemplate that her fair complexion would be better served in a northern clime (especially given her mention of Vancouver. I might also consider that she may be drawn by some of the aspects of Canadian society and policy that liberals embrace (e.g. tighter gun laws, state-funded health care).
On the other hand, I might wonder about her choice, given that Canada’s government has exercised far more fiscal restraint than America’s has in recent years, or that Canada’s income taxes are less progressive than America’s, or that Canada has been embracing economic liberty (tax overhauls, tariff reductions, lower corporate taxes, etc) far more than America over the past two decades. Such things don’t fit in with the American liberal narrative, and while I haven’t researched Ms. Dunham’s publicly stated opinions on particular policies, it’s not out of bounds to make some presumptions in this regard.
But, instead, I think the best approach would be to project my own uninformed, gratuitous and tendentious opinions onto her and draw my own conclusions about her motives. After all, that’s a common modus operandi in her circles.
So, Ms. Dunham and other Canada-promisers, I hereby demand that you check your privilege! Your choice of Canada over Mexico is obviously rooted in racism and a laundry list of bigotries. After all, in this modern world, what I baselessly choose to believe about you is more valid than what you actually believe.
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