Hilariously woke Bluesky post warns the phrase 'Canadian wildfire smoke' is OFFENSIVE and calls for this phrase to be used instead

By WILKO MARTÍNEZ-CACHERO, US REPORTER Published: 19:15, 17 July 2026 | Updated: 19:24, 17 July 2026 As millions of Americans suffered from dire air quality this week, one Canadian social media user took issue with how the hazardous weather was being described. The spat began when a woman on Bluesky, the social media platform known for having a left–leaning base, noted the dangerous outdoor conditions. She mused that she was 'not a climate scientist' but that 'Canadian wildfire smoke' had never stopped her from going outside as a child. That prompted another user, with the username El Canaco, to pitch in with what he called a 'small' and 'pedantic' request regarding her phrasing. 'Please don't call it "Canadian wildfire smoke,"' he wrote on Thursday. 'It is smoke from wildfires ravaging Canada.' He continued: 'The anti–Canada sentiment in the US doesn't need further stoking. Instead, there should be sympathy and focusing on the fact Canadians are losing their homes and livelihoods.' Users immediately pounced on his unusual request, ridiculing the language policing amid the seriousness of the fires. More than 800 wildfires have been burning in Canada this week, with winds blowing the smoke southeast toward the US. More than 800 wildfires have been raging across Canada this week. Eleven were considered out of control, according to government data 'In woke 2, wildfires will do land acknowledgments before igniting,' one Bluesky user quipped. Another said: 'This post is drenching my brain in golden light.' A fellow countryman also entered the conversation and wrote, 'As a Canadian, you can call it whatever the f**k you want. You have my permission, eh.' A fourth user joked that 'this place will never not be Scold Twitter,' referring to Bluesky's reputation as a hub for online liberals. The post about the language to describe the wildfires seemingly drew so much pushback that it had been deleted by Friday afternoon, but that did not stop the user from continuing to defend it. 'The issue is Americans directing hate towards Canadians,' he wrote. 'It's not productive. And it shouldn't be encouraged.' Another user poked fun at the platform's left–leaning user base, writing, 'oh yeah. this is bluesky.' 'Feeling more like Twitter today based on the replies,' El Canaco responded. And sure enough, on the platform formerly known as Twitter, X users were just as brutal when it came to mocking the request. One user wrote: 'It's so awesome knowing there's a place where the people who are so woke they tone police how a wildfire is described can all congregate.' 'We use smoke–first language around these parts,' another X user added. A third commenter jokingly lamented how the Canadian user was employing 'person first language for the smoke.' Others were more damning, saying that the post exemplified why they were not active on the newer social media platform. 'And this is why I never open bluesky,' one wrote. Another agreed: 'you laugh but this is 100% how bluesky is and it is miserable.' As of Thursday morning, there were 858 fires burning across Canada, according to Reuters. Of those, 11 were considered out of control, according to government data. Most of the fires were in the provinces of Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, with wind then driving the hazardous smoke into cities around North America. Washington, DC, authorities have urged residents to stay inside on Friday as the thick, hazardous haze arrived to the nation's capital Your browser does not support iframes. Detroit was considered to be the major city with the worst air quality in the world, as of Friday afternoon Bluesky, which was launched to the public in February 2024, is known for having a left-leaning user base Fifteen fires have also raged in Minnesota this week, causing Governor Tim Walz to issue evacuation orders and a peacetime emergency. More than 70,000 acres of land in the northern part of the state have been burned as a result of the wildfires, according to KSTP. As of Friday, three cities in the US had the worst air quality of any major city in the world, according to the live World Air Quality Ranking. Detroit and Chicago topped the list and were considered to have very unhealthy conditions, while Washington, DC, was third with unhealthy conditions. The ranking placed the American cities as having worse air quality than the likes of Delhi, India, Jakarta, Indonesia, or Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. DC authorities said the haze had caused very unhealthy conditions for everyone and urged locals to stay inside on Friday, WUSA9 reported. The smell of smoke could be noticeable in the nation's capital into Friday night, though the air quality was expected to clear up and return to more moderate levels over the weekend. As a whole, the National Weather Service (NWS) has issued air quality alerts in at least 16 states, from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois in the Upper Midwest to New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia along the East Coast.