321–330 of 382 posts
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> not a single person I grew up with is doing well What is happening in Canada to cause this?
root cause is believing anecdotes of people on the internet
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> Attempting to annex in any way shape or form is currently nothing more than the musings of an old man, the only way any territorial changes could happen are through peaceful, mutually agreed upon transfer. A possible scenario: Alberta votes for independence, and then applies to join the US - similar trajectory to how Texas went from Mexico to the US via independence, albeit likely much more peacefully Is this actua…
Rumours of an Albertan independence have been greatly exaggerated. There's astroturfed big oil preying on grade 10 dropouts on Facebook, And the rest is American CIA bullshit like they've been doing down south for decades.
I think ideal outcome for her would be for independence to be narrowly defeated-that way she doesn’t have to deal with the headache of trying to actually implement independence, but the narrower the defeat the easier it is to use it to pressure Ottawa to come to the table
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Economically not really. China and the USA are the top economies, and China is only going to get more economically powerful, alignment with one or the other in trade at least is inevitable. The EU will be making similar decisions to Canada, and I doubt Canada is going to detach from Europe.
China is completely dependant on other countries for it's economic power (mostly the US) as an export economy. They're also staring down a demographic crash, soon (10 - 15% drop with 25% of the remaining polution over 65). They are basically at their peak right now.
I wonder how much economic power matters when you have to shut down half the construction and manufacturing of a nation because there aren't enough fasteners to go around.
I feel nothing but disappointment from how far the quality of American rhetoric has fallen.
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I don’t know why you would think the US military would succeed this time when the last time it was successful in a large scale war was 80 years ago.
When was the last time it was fighting a nation-state controlled, uniformed army?
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I guess we'll find out when it happens (or not happens). The only realistic scenario I can think of when your American "brothers" would go to war across the border is if the Canadian government commences war against its own population. Then I could see the US government intervening, or US fighters independent from the government taking sides in Canada.
And where do you think the idea the Canadian government is waging war against its own population will come from? The problem is that most people think of these scenarios as something that happens overnight, when in reality consent is manufactured over time. There's a reason you don't microwave a frog.
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There were literal statements of annexation. Brushed off by some "that was a joke" but they were made. Lets not downplay that fact.
I personally can downplay them as a joke because it is a joke. The mostly likely path forward for anything like that would instead a certain oil rich province voting themselves independent and then asking the US for aid or to join. And, if it wasn't a joke, then that's even more of a reason to consider meeting your 2% NATO agreement instead of just phoning it in.
Calling them jokes is just a lie, retroactively trying to make it better.
24 000 reserves out of a population of 40 million seems like a rather small number. Norway has 40 000 in the Home Guard (Heimevernet) rapid reaction force of volunteer part time soldiers and a further 20 000 reserves. All from a population of about 5.5 million.
Vs. Finland has reserves of 870 000 from a population of about 5.6 million. Via the magic of universal male conscription: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Defence_Forces#Conscri...
And of course we don't feel the need quite so acutely as the Finns.
"We find that at present the human race is divided politically into one wise man, nine knaves, and ninety fools out of every hundred. That is, by an optimistic observer. The nine knaves assemble themselves under the banner of the most knavish among them, and become "politicians". The wise man stands out because he knows himself to be hopelessly outnumbered, and devotes himself to poetry, mathematics, or phylosophy; w…
"A peculiar disadvantage attaching to republics...is that in this form of government it must be more difficult for men of ability to attain high position and exercise direct political influence than in the case of monarchies. For always...there is a conspiracy...against such men on the part of all the stupid, the weak, and the commonplace; they look upon such men as their natural enemies, and they are firmly held together by a common fear of them. There is always a numerous host of the stupid and the weak, and in a republican constitution it is easy for them to suppress and exclude the men of ability, so that they may not be flanked by them. They are fifty to one; and here all have equal rights at start.
In a monarchy, on the other hand...talent and intelligence receive a natural advocacy and support from above. In the first place, the position of the monarch himself is much too high and too firm for him to stand in fear of any sort of competition. In the next place, he serves the State more by his will than by his intelligence; for no intelligence could ever be equal to all the demands that would in his case be made upon it. He is therefore compelled to be always availing himself of other men's intelligence."
Arthur Schopenhauer
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Of course you can. You are an adult. Your actions and perceptions define what kind of a person you are though. If you perceive your 2 year old son as your forced obligation you are a slave and other things as well. And it's by choice.
Your definition of choice is not really what I'm talking about then. I'm discussing natural obligations that have make society work. Of course you always have a choice to not fulfill your obligation and society always has a choice to cast you out, like when you don't feed your 2 year old.