Canadians overwhelmingly oppose becoming 51st U.S. state: poll
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Americans also overwhelmingly oppose Canada becoming 51st state
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No shit, no one wants this. Why would we??
Fr - who, with the minimum amount of decency, would want to be part of this?
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What sane person would want to be under the control of the Orange Turd.
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It made me lol, and not in a good way: why would there even be a poll?
Its noise. The media eats it up. Meanwhile the economy is tanking and government spending is worse than it is under most democratic presidents. It's the Trump administration flak shield. It was tested last administration and it works very well unfortunately. Kick up enough dust around the well and people will talk about how bad the dust is instead of the fact that somebody just drank the well dry.
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Americans also overwhelmingly oppose Canada becoming 51st state
Hell, I wish my own state wasn't a US state.
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Yeah not only in the USA for sure. Here in Europe too. What irks me most is that it's often people who claim to be unpolitical. But they aren't really, they just don't bother to inform themselves and react on gut feelings instead. Those gut feelings can be dumb anger or dumb "Peace & Love", but if they lead to someone saying that "Putin does not seem like he wants to harm Europe" it doesn't really matter anymore, it's just dumb. What can you say to such people? "Inform yourself"?
Meet them on their level. Tell them the more salacious details about what he's already done, and that he's basically an evil bond villain playing the long game. I tell them about the radioactive poisoning, nerve agent poisonings, troll farms, election interference. Throw in a bit of nationalism, after all Putin's been goading us for years, he basically rubbed our faces in his misdeeds... Previously this was all the west, not just Europe.
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No shit, no one wants this. Why would we??
The guy down the street from me with a giant “Trump 2024” flag probably wants it. Fucking traitor.
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The guy down the street from me with a giant “Trump 2024” flag probably wants it. Fucking traitor.
Sounds like a great target for egging. Bonus points for being topical.
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Well No Shit. Why would anyone want to buy into the hot mess we've got going right now?
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Americans also overwhelmingly oppose Canada becoming 51st state
I for one support my state becoming part of Canada
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No shit, no one wants this. Why would we??
As a US-ian, I really wish you guys would keep reminding us that if you did join the US, you'd be a 51st state slightly larger and left of California.
The GOP wants nothing to do with Canada. They cringe every time they think about ya'll voting in our elections.
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On the positive side, I knew a couple where she was an evangelical Christian home-schooling their kids and he was a massive conspiracy theorist, who was suspicious of "mainstream medicine" and didn't believe in the moon landings. Over time, with the rise of the far right, QAnon, the antivax movement and Trump, these people have realized they want nothing to do with those people or their insanity. She left the church and stopped preaching at people, they sent their kids to regular schools, they all got their vaccines, and he abandoned his conspiracy theories and now accepts that he was an idiot about the moon landings and laughs at his former self. So it is possible to travel in the other direction.
I keep hoping people see the insanity and turn around like this but it never seems to happen. Well see if it happens this time.
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I love that about the Culture novels: they are socially coherent. Banks is very keen on telling us about the psychology of this utopian society.
I once tried some Delaney but dropped it as psychedelic hippie scifi. I hope I wasn't unjust in doing that, but afair it was from that time. Maybe it even was Triton. It was all confusion ("tripping") and exploring a completely desire-based, erm, exploration.
Recently I read (and barely managed to finish) Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination, which seems to fit into a similar category (Beatnik scifi?). It had way too many shortcomings, plus it was an old translation that only managed to make the latent racism/sexism more prominent. But it was also very inventive and captivating.
Yeah the hippy sexy Delaney novel was probably Dhalgren, which I don’t think I have actually finished despite a few attempts, and for reference I enjoyed Finnegan’s Wake in its entirety so it’s not like I don’t have stamina. I like all the other Delaney works, though. Triton might be a slog because the main character is self centred and childish and it’s from their point of view. It has some banger scenes, like the visit to a novelty restaurant with a nostalgic capitalist theme, and the wacko performance art at one point, and details like every candidate who gets any votes is elected and represent those voters, however few they maybe. Also main character gets a sex change to run from their problems but of course they’re still a jerk lol.
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Four in five Canadians strongly oppose the idea of joining their neighbours to the south, and a majority, 78 per cent, are concerned with the rhetoric Trump keeps pushing.
So 20% of Canadians are traitors and/or idiots.
78% is considered almost a statistical impossibility for these kinds of things. This is the polling equivalent of "every last person".
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Meet them on their level. Tell them the more salacious details about what he's already done, and that he's basically an evil bond villain playing the long game. I tell them about the radioactive poisoning, nerve agent poisonings, troll farms, election interference. Throw in a bit of nationalism, after all Putin's been goading us for years, he basically rubbed our faces in his misdeeds... Previously this was all the west, not just Europe.
So yes, inform them. I do that. More or less - time permitting. And take care that their eyes don't glaze over.
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Yeah the hippy sexy Delaney novel was probably Dhalgren, which I don’t think I have actually finished despite a few attempts, and for reference I enjoyed Finnegan’s Wake in its entirety so it’s not like I don’t have stamina. I like all the other Delaney works, though. Triton might be a slog because the main character is self centred and childish and it’s from their point of view. It has some banger scenes, like the visit to a novelty restaurant with a nostalgic capitalist theme, and the wacko performance art at one point, and details like every candidate who gets any votes is elected and represent those voters, however few they maybe. Also main character gets a sex change to run from their problems but of course they’re still a jerk lol.
Glad to hear that. Would you recommend an easy entry into Delaney's opus?
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Four in five Canadians strongly oppose the idea of joining their neighbours to the south, and a majority, 78 per cent, are concerned with the rhetoric Trump keeps pushing.
So 20% of Canadians are traitors and/or idiots.
Yeah... These headlines are always so optimistic (probably because our media is owned by americans)
"Overwhelming support for canada. Nothing to see here folks!"
Uhhhh... 1/5 canadians are literal traitors to the nation. Stand on guard against these morons. Elbows up.
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Glad to hear that. Would you recommend an easy entry into Delaney's opus?
Sure, I guess it depends on your style preferences... I prefer science fiction, so can't remember much about the sword and sorcery novels, but they're readable, and like anything Delaney does, underpinned with exploration of the power of words, ideas, power, desire.
Stay away from Dhalgren.
Nova is probably the most space opera novel with a standard structure. Good starting place.
Babel-17 is intense and weird and fairly short, about language as a weapon. Sometimes you find a copy doubled up with Empire Star which has a plot and structure that loops back on itself.
Probably my favourite is Stars in my Pocket Like Grains of Sand which is probably the most alien yet approachable family portrayal in SF. Sadly it's the first half of a duology that didn't get finished, probably because it stands alone really well.
The short story collections vary but are mostly wins for any reader.
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Hell, I wish my own state wasn't a US state.
Which state is that?
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Which state is that?
All of them I believe.