Canadians overwhelmingly oppose becoming 51st U.S. state: poll
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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.
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Americans also overwhelmingly oppose Canada becoming 51st state
I miss boring liberal America where our absurd bullshit was just ours and not leaking out into the world.
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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.
Polls generally are complete garbage.
If I become Supreme Leader of the US (it seems a lot more probable than it used to) I will make public polls illegal. If you want to poll people you need to do it in the privacy of your own home with the curtains drawn.
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Sovereign country not keen on being annexed by psycho neighbour, more news at 6.
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Can we stop posting this headline? Again and again and again?
It's not news.
If a sizable portion of the population did want to do something stupid, that'd be news.
This is... It's not even propaganda. It's just a waste of our limited time and emotional capacity for idiocy.
We should poll how many americans are willing for their state to be the 11th canadian province.
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Hell. Don't take the whole thing. Just move the boarder to the 45th parallel as opposed to the 49th.
45 and flight?
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These articles and polls, framing trump's deranged russo-imposed plans as a legit proposal, do not help at all.
They just normalize this fucking insane shit
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Surprised its only 78% that oppose. What the hell are the 22% smoking?
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These articles and polls, framing trump's deranged russo-imposed plans as a legit proposal, do not help at all.
They just normalize this fucking insane shit
Reporting on this just helps him.
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Surprised its only 78% that oppose. What the hell are the 22% smoking?
the same folks who didn't get why the piss jugs episode was so funny.
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Surprised its only 78% that oppose. What the hell are the 22% smoking?
They’re all from Alberta
