Since winning in November, President-elect Donald Trump has sent a series of increasingly escalating threats toward our neighbor to the North, culminating in his comments this week that Canada should become the 51st state.
From ribbing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to threatening high tariffs, Trump seems intent on making the nation kowtow to his administration.
And it has the farthest right posters online lusting after a long dreamt moment.
The day of the rake.
“Maple Anschluss! Day of the Rake! Greater Alaskan Mandate! Avenge 1812!” wrote Social Construct on Gab this week.
“DAY OF THE RAKE IS COMING” hyped a poster on 4chan’s firearms forum.
“Maple Anschluss” is a play on the German term for Hitler’s annexation of Austria, and while you may think cheering for Nazi-inspired invasions of sovereign nations is the worst of it, the Day of the Rake stems from an even darker sentiment.
It’s a play on the Day of the Rope, which is a phrase from the white supremacist fever dream novel The Turner Diaries. It’s a book beloved by the far-far-right; Timothy McVeigh had a copy on him when he was arrested after the Oklahoma City bombing.
The phrase refers to the day when, fictional far-right militias—having taken over California—lynch politicians, journalists, and women, executing any supposed race traitor.
During the first Trump administration, it became a popular anti-media slogan, pushed by his most fervent supporters.
And Canada, having a lot of arboreal iconography, well… leaf became shorthand for Canadian posters online. The Day of the Rake is when America takes all them under heel.
On 4chan, users have been touting it as Trump’s rhetoric ratcheted up, posting stock images of people raking up their backyards in the fall.
“Canada will be brought to heel,” wrote a poster.
“Day of the rake soon,” added another.
Some Canadians pledged to fight back.
“if the burgers invade I'm … picking off every burger occupier I can until I get drone striked,” wrote one.
Others were resigned.
“Its not gonna come to a fight. Were gonna get Twitter bullied/memed into a state,” said another.
But it’s not just happening on the farthest reaches of the internet. On Rumble, streamer styxhexenhammer666, with over 150,000 followers, titled a recent video “the Day of the Rake Approaches.”
Styxenhammer666’s discussed Trump’s recent disses of Trudeau, mocking the tizzy it sent Canadians into. And while he admitted Trump was trolling, he would support the U.S. marching into Canada and trying to make happen.
“I don't think Congress is going to declare war on Canada,” he said, despite his personal belief the continent should be united.
But Canadian viewers of the stream weren’t entirely against it.
“Ordinary Canadians get the joke because they know Trudolf is a joke. However, this Canadian, for one, would be grateful if Trump saved us, with some regime change,” wrote one.
But Styxenhammer666 is (most likely) right.
It’s long been prophesied on online forums but never happened.
Years back on Patriots.win, posters shared their hopes for it, to which at least one Canadian was willing to wage meme war.
On the yellow background of America’s “Don't Tread on Me” Gadsden flag, they superimposed a goose with the fighting words.
“Fook around and find oot.”
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