the Separatism seminar: Hal's deflation — too hapless to be a serious threat
The total anti-U.S. insurgency so far’s been too hapless and small-potato for her theory to work. The odd pie- and guano-bombardment, stretching mirrors across lonely roads, even demapping officials and botulizing the occasional peanut jar. None of this is exactly bringing anyone to his knees.
Context
The theme's own skeptical corrective, from its most apolitical narrator: the meta-extortion theory requires an insurgency menacing enough to make O.N.A.N. gang up on Canada, but "the total anti-U.S. insurgency so far's been too hapless and small-potato" — "pie- and guano-bombardment, stretching mirrors across lonely roads, even demapping officials and botulizing the occasional peanut jar." "None of this is making Canada or Québec look like any kind of serious threat." The seminar ends unresolved, the grand theory undercut by the pettiness of the actual acts — the gap the real Entertainment, once found, will close by giving the insurgency a weapon that finally does bring "anyone to his knees."