Except that you cannot see the ants nor the balloon. You only see the history (the past) and the histories (the pasts). You cannot see the current future (the futures involved) to the concurrency of a singular universe (if not many, many, universes, plural). The speed of light is a relative constant and the observable universe is a matter of many space-time universes observed by us, or by any observer anywhere, in one astronomical picture, not just a single space-time existing but too many to count. The observable universe from anywhere, any locality, any box, is relatively, finitely, simple. The reality is infinitely more boxes, infinitely more complex and chaotic.We know this. That's how astronomy works, yes.
The same can be said for you and me when we are standing ten feet apart. I see you 10 nanoseconds in the past.
The term deceleration makes no sense here.
The peculiar motion of the galaxies with respect to each other is independent of the expansion of the universe. The expansion of the universe is only measurable by the averaged motion of objects larger than galaxies.
In other words: on the canvas of the accelerating universe, small, nearby objects such as galaxies are exhibiting their own peculiar motions, some moving away, some moving laterally, some getting closer.
Think about a bunch of ants marching about in random directions on the surface of a balloon, even as the balloon is expanding. The two effects are independent. If you saw one ant walking toward another, you would not say "locally, that ant is decelerating".
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