SreudianFlip @ SreudianFlip @sh.itjust.works

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2 yr. ago

It's not unreasonable to prefer people from a country that isn't trying to colonize you. Even 'the good ones' don't get that, which illustrates the point.

We have a long history of supporting refugees from the land of the free white supremacy.

Those folks aren't colonizing us.

People downvoting you are failing to recognize that while we are a colony of the English throne and have germanic overlords on our money, the current colonization process by the USA is through capitalism, entertainment, and geopolitics.

Much of canadian resentment comes from the wearing away of our differences by sheer bulk of exposure exacerbated by the typical lack of awareness by colonizers of their own personal role in this damaging process and its effects, interpersonally.

Colonizers often deny their association with the process.

Oh maybe some visitors or US migrants understand intellectually. But culture is not very conscious behaviour, and the heroic individualism and assumptions of cultural supremacy that they bring will rankle most Canadians at some point.

Also take off yer fukan shoes in my house, eh!

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.

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.

This is the premise that makes Iain M Banks' Culture series of novels so compelling.

Even though it is a massive interstellar Type2 society that is "fully automated luxury communism" many people are going to be problematic, angsty, and childish. The result is an always interesting plot.

A more thorough exploration of someone living in a relative utopia but being a long streak of misery by nature is Delaney's novel Triton. Main character is a jerk and you get to explore why, while extremely cool things are happening all around.

Word has been broken since v.5.1a. But you’re right about Excel.

David Eby comes across as department head in a midsize firm. Bureaucratic, bland, but competent in some ways.

He's kind of all over the map, instead. Full of surprises. Carney seems like that too.

Look down at the North Pole. Alaska, Russia, Greenland, Canada. Shipping lanes and oil. Lots of oil.

Putin wants it all. Trump is either a Russian asset or playing the same game, looking ahead 20 years.

The individualism that is a consistent cultural framework around all of the US whinging about 'don't blame me' is where the blame lies. Your collective commitment to eschew any collective responsibility. This is fertile soil for fascism, because apathy is all that's needed for the takeover.

And then the crying and screaming becomes an even bigger export.

Indeed! And thanks. I was more responding to potential readers of the thread who might be in a vulnerable state of mind, but a block is now appropriate.

Oh for fuck sakes, the nazis were nazis long before they revealed any mass murder plans. In many ways the original nazis were more circumspect than this group of shit gibbons.

Just read any reasonably serious definition of fascism, which ‘nazi’ is a synonym for in casual international English.

He’s been quacking like a duck for years, and now that he waddles like one the bootlickers are all “ooh, just an awkward swan!”

Jihad is just a compact word for "get the fuck out of my country you invader or else". Maybe you know an english word that carries all that weight?

Fukan hell, have to repeat this:

Canada is twice colonized, by brits and yanks. We feel it. We joke and gripe about it. We mostly put up with it and it's hard to explain to outsiders or newcomers, but especially to americans, who do not see themselves as colonizers and scoff at the notion.

But do not underestimate how a hundred years or more of threats (yes the latest bullshit is nothing new really) and dismissive subtle put downs and cultural erasure just gets under your skin.

It winds up being a cliché that we define ourselves in opposition to the USA.

To be Canadian is to NOT be American, no joke. And we are proud.

So stop fucking speculating or wondering or talking like it will ever happen. We will jihad the shit out of you if you invade.

It's important to read the resumes of those you hire. In Smith's case, she went from university to agitprop then to radio shock jock before politics.

In other words, all she's ever done is blahblahblah persuasion and rhetoric. She's never been employed making anything other than misinformation and wealth for the wealthy.

She's a trained professional... liar.

Not surprisingly, another Albertan great deceptor with an empty resume runs the national rich-get-richer party.

Pelosi=left?! Get rekt.

Well yes, but it's a big spectrum right? Most workplaces are authoritarian so we have habituated. A shitty boss who schedules you badly is not a slave owner. The cons are pro-oligarch, believing that merit is demonstrated by wealth and sometimes breeding. All the parties accept a monarchy even a bit, sorry Bloc, and have a traditional leadership structure so some authoritarian tendencies are everywhere.

Conservative parties throughout history have trended toward either aristocratic stratification and sometimes despotic populism. It's not even close, and disingenuous to both-sides it. Tankies would be the closest comparison.

Every time TFG goes golfing it costs you a quarter or so.

Fuckin' hard work, my friend. As Joe Hill said, "Don't mourn, organize!"