Indigenous Canadian from northern Ontario. Believe in equality, Indigenous rights, minority rights, LGBTQ+, women’s rights and do not support war of any kind.
We move forward with the hopes of the younger generation
We are held back by the fears and anxieties of the older generation
The movement is balanced by the lack of wealth and resources of the young, who have the energy and drive compared to the vast material riches of the old, who are shortsighted and can only see their near end.
The fact that something like Facebook exists without public oversight or control is absolutely insane … if your national public rely heavily on one source for the majority of the information and communication, what do you think is going to happen? Is like saying that there is only one company that owns every newspaper across the country and they are allowed to self regulate themselves.
It’s like Joseph Goebbels said about media and communications ‘Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.’
Except this time, we’ve allowed multinational corporations at the keyboard to play the music that we all dance to
The fact that overt fascism praise is being normalized should be disturbing to everyone.
We’ve gone from Nazis, Hilter and Fascists are evil and should not be tolerated at all … to …
let’s fantasize about praising an imaginary fictional fascist authoritarian family that wins over the galaxy and rules as a dynastic family over every living being.
The conversation is constantly moving from the right, to moderate right to far right to extreme right and back again on a regular basis … the fact that we even allow this level of conversation to happen should be worrying to everyone everywhere.
As soon as you see the billionaires cashing out of the casino … it’s already too late
I’m in Canada and I have this debate often with my friends. One prime example is our federal governments Westminster system of government … where we have a house of parliament filled with elected officials from across the country, who can draw up, debate issues and pass laws … but then those laws are sent to a senate that provides ‘a sober second thought’ to everything … the senate is filled with unelected officials that are placed there by appointment.
Historically, the senate was just filled with friends and associates by the ruling government at the time … basically it meant that every democratic law in the country was first given over to unelected elites and business friendly people to water down anything that went through government … in recent decades, they’ve modernized the system and now it is still appointed people but appointed through a system disassociated with individual political parties or political leaders - apparently senators are appointed by committee
But its still filled with heavily influential people with money and monied interests … they keep arguing that any canadian citizen can be appointed but it never happens because you have to be a fairly wealthy individual, have influence and know lots of people before you could ever be considered for appointment … one of the prerequisites they point out is that individuals considered for appointment must own a minimum wealth of $4,000 (or something like that, I forget the actual figure but it was only a few thousand dollars), which most will argue is not a barrier to many in this day in age. What they don’t point out is that $4,000 in 1867 when the country was founded was equivalent to saying someone should own roughly almost a million dollars in wealth. It was always geared and built into the system to have wealthy overseers watch over the country and protect the wealth of the most powerful people.
Which makes you question, like I do with America, whether we ever did have a democratic system here in Canada
The situation you are describing is absolutely dangerous for everyone involved.
Dangerous for the unconscious and vulnerable girl who could be taken advantage of … and dangerous for the sober (or at least conscious) male who is involved in the situation.
I’m a single older man and I live in practical fear of being alone with a woman, especially younger women. I don’t want to do anything to anyone nor do I have the desire to do so … but if I’m ever caught alone with someone in a compromising situation, all it would take would be a rumor or accusation and my reputation is done for. It’s not the fault of the victims, its the fault of society where everyone is in constant fear and in a constant search for victims and predators.
This isn’t a denial that terrible things and terrible people exist or that people can be victimized, it’s just that the level of trust in the world is eroded and sometimes, all you have to do is be in the wrong place at the wrong time and your social life is destroyed by the fears and anxieties of society.
This is the reason why I absolutely avoid drinking parties and bars … I’m over 30 years sober and actively avoid any people that want to get drunk or stoned. There are far too many situations where people can be victimized in drunken events … as well as too many opportunities for people to be falsely accused. Stay safe out there.
It’s known as a plutocracy … a political system based on money and wealth
As compared to a democracy … a political system based on the will of the people.
America has always worked like the first and it’s debated as to whether or not it ever was the second.
I’ll believe it when I see it … over the past few decades, the US has shown potential but seldom done anything to change how their government is elected and held in power.
And between the two parties … they are just Lite-Conservatives and Ultra-Conservatives supported by those with the most money and monied interests
Eliminating the Electoral College is a nice idea but that’s like asking your elderly grandfather who can still drive his car to give up driving because he’s too old. Personally, I don’t think major change won’t start happening in the US, if it ever does, until about 20-30 years from now when all these ancient political dinosaurs have died off and newer generations of people start stepping in. America first has to shrug off the stench of 70-80 year old ghouls who want to hold to power for as long as possible.
Yeah America has a habit of generating hope … and then crushingly disappointing everyone
I’ll believe it when I see it … otherwise I’m not holding my breath
I don’t know why it’s such a difficult thing to grasp or agree with … just place a wealth cap on society everywhere
Let everyone be as greedy as they want to be, let them be ruthless a-holes as much as they want … just give them an upper ceiling of say $10 million … anything more that is taxed 100% and sent back to government and the public for public services like health care, education, infrastructure, etc
Why do we accept that one person gets to own $1 billion or more? Can one person realistically expect to live on and enjoy that wealth? And at that level, what is the purpose of growing it even further? What is the point of massive wealth? It only locks up wealth to a small group of people while withholding it from others.
Ultra wealth is a thing of the past when kings and dukes wanted to rule over the country side … if we want to progress far into the future, we’ve got to stop acting and living like apes fighting over the biggest pile of bananas.
What’s so difficult in arguing that wealth should be shared among as many as possible. And don’t give me that argument of being communist or socialist … I’m talking about a society that is fundamentally no different than the one we already have in the US, Canada or Europe … except for the part that you regulate wealth to an upper limit.
It would all still be the same for 90% of us and it would only severely affect a very small group of people who stand to lose a lot of wealth … it would sacrifice their wealth for the benefit of everyone else. And really, it wouldn’t hurt them at all … the only thing it would damage would be their egos, they’d still live a very well off lifestyle … it’s not like we are asking for them to give a blood sacrifice or to call for their beheading at the guillotine.
What’s so hard to understand about that?
Why bother asking the opinion or perspective of a habitual liar, charlatan and egomaniac?
When it comes to American news, I’ve filtered out this orange beanbag when it comes to national US news.
As an Indigenous person up here in Canada … that is amazing and unbelievable news.
It’s not just a win for Indigenous people, it’s a win for the entire state because it will normalize, equalize and modernize the state’s relationship with everyone
or just take two tablespoons of peanut butter and like one friend I know, balance ten tablespoons worth of peanut butter on one tablespoon and do it twice and almost completely empty out one small jar and still comfortably say that you only used two tablespoons of peanut butter.
Yeah … it’s both … and we won’t do anything until we see mass migration, wars caused by mass migration and thousands of millions of dead or dying. And even then, we’ll probably argue about it all and say that it isn’t that bad and just keeping doing what we’re doing until everything is way too far gone and millions more start dying. We won’t act seriously until we’re at the brink of complete extinction.
99% of us are good people with good common sense, it’s just that we are so easily and quickly manipulated and we don’t care most of the time.
And it’s the 1% of psychopaths with way too much power and control that are driving us all to the brink
I’m an NDP supporter … always have and always will up here in northern Ontario … but even saying that, the provincial NDP and the national NDP party all show signs of bending to the will of the largest donors and supporters. Sure we can all say that it’s worker funded but in reality, any politics or political party is supported by those with money and lots of it because they are capable of hiding their money or diffusing their money through the system … they fund directly, indirectly, market, share resources, share offices, have their professional reps work for free, etc … it’s all a system driven by money and whoever has access to the most of it will get political power.
I’ll still support the NDP in every election … but I’m not naive enough to believe that it isn’t influenced by those with money.
No worries tho … because every country is going to soon have their own authoritarian regime anyway
Modern politics in the US and here in Canada is just a bunch of corporate goons masquerading as democratically elected representatives of the people.
It no longer what political party you call them or see them in … whether left, center or right … they are all beholden to whoever holds the most money … and none of it has anything to do with how people vote.
I agree but I’ve been near homeless a few times in my life and honestly, it doesn’t really bother me that much. I grew up poor on a Native reserve in northern Ontario … we were so poor we didn’t have running water in the house … that’s where I was born and raised. So having no home, a bad home or very few conveniences doesn’t really bother me … and when you lay everything down, most people can live with it - correction, most people can SURVIVE it.
Food on the other hand is a deal breaker … if I or anyone runs out or starts missing food … we’ll become desperate and do anything for our next meal.
The only power people have is through their collective participation in the financial system. If everyone organized and just withheld all or most of their money from the system … then you’d get government to listen.
But trying to organize a ragtag mass of millions of people that can’t agree on the simplest things is like trying to suck water through a rock.
One of the best ideas I’ve ever heard is to organize everyone to just boycott one single company … any company … like Best Buy or Target … just one company and everyone participate and just run the company into the ground, everyone just ostracize and completely ignore it until it loses everything … everyone could keep going about their business, except do it anywhere else but that one company … it wouldn’t affect people much because there are plenty of stores out there. Do this for a few months and that one company would completely go under. Once everyone completely destroys one company, then move on to the next and keep hounding companies like this one by one. Do it for grocers, for electronics stores, for phone companies, for internet companies, for department stores, for banks, for gas stations … just keep dropping them one by one. Then you’d get these companies … and by extension the government … to listen to the people.
No one cares about your voice, your concerns or your beliefs … but they do care about your money and where it goes or where it stays … that’s where your political control lies.
Why do Americans and American leaders keep pinning their hopes and leadership into these ancient dinosaurs.
America used to be a source of intellectual youthfulness and vigor … but over the past few decades the political landscape just looks like a care home for millionaires who are completely disconnected from reality.