c/enoughmuskspam I think?

The Great Filter is not climate or pestilence or asteroids, it’s authoritarians.

It’s great that you want to throw in with defense of our country. You do understand that any USA person who does that would have to check their head for attitudes right? And there would be a high trust bar to vault.

Regarding self-reported individualism: maybe? Definition and study quality matters. The experience of difference is markedly clear, especially to those of us with family on both sides of the border.

And also, ideology is like halitosis, it’s always someone else’s problem, eh?

Responsibility for society starts at young adulthood, which is a fuzzy line because it varies per person. Bizarre that you would try to dissociate being a member of a culture and society without acknowledging participation and maintenance and responsibility… but very “American.” It capitulates to authority.

I keep seeing a response to words like “welcoming” as though it is a binary, for instance. Are you writing as though there’s welcome and deny, and that’s it? Fox News does this sleight of mind, for instance, reducing things to absolutes. It’s how single issue voters are created. Question it.

I once documented a youth conference of diasporic Black students from Windsor, Detroit, and Toronto. As director and editor I had to pay attention closely to the discussion. Some amazing things became clear: fundamental differences in identity and worldview. In particular, the Canadian youth got where the USA youth were coming from, but not the reverse, at least during the discussions.

It was more than about identity, it was about nuance and complexity. Something just made it really hard for the Detroit folks to think in terms more than black white latino asian and a few others, as well as simplifying broader topics. Looking for easy conclusions. The Toronto folk counted over 100 languages spoken at their school and thought in terms of ethiopian, africanadian, igbo, jamaican, trini, etc. The Windsor folk were like, “yeah that and we’re distinct yet linked, our local history explains a lot, and we have to work together across divisions.” Social complexity is pretty natural in canadian discourse.

This, this is one of the difficult things to explain across the border. It’s one of the key things we are worried most about losing in an annexation. And like most colonial relationships, the understanding generally goes one way.

Are you as a Canadian, directly responsible for the neocolonial blights in Bolivia because you are a Canadian citizen?

More than 1/40,000,000th responsible, yes. Directly, I don’t think so, I’m not aware of investments in Canadian mining. My spouse’s pension plan may be investing there, because even though they have some ethical oversight, money, uh, finds a way.

“Direct” is a bit of a false dichotomy however. I benefit from those atrocities in various ways. I pay taxes, I use government services, and the CA government enables this neocolonialism. I work for clients who have done I-don’t-know-what, I use products that are cheap because of this exploitation, and I fail to track many details of the supply chain that would help me avoid participating.

More, I have not donated to miningwatch.ca for years, I haven’t written any letters to officials about it in decades, and I haven’t even been tracking news about the problem lately.

Given that those are all choices I have made, whether active or passive, I bear a little extra responsibility above the basic citizenship share, yes. It’s a lot less responsibility than the choice I made to have children, let’s say, but it is each individual’s to some degree. My life is full of such things. It’s not a burden! It’s the bitter irony of awareness, which is a blessing.

It’s also the basis for a civic mindset that will get us through the great filter.

TL;DR: you leave a wake as you pass through life, those ripples wash up somewhere

Ah, nice that you took the time.

I think you believe I and other Canadians are saying no USA citizens should move to Canada. I have heard a few people mention this but it’s fringe.

Refugees in particular, and that has been mentioned in this thread, well we’re readying up for that like we always have. Active dinner table discussions about how to handle an influx of trans folk and other victims of fascism, beds available, resources for support, secrecy protocols, etc.

What has changed, though? A declaration of war, and yes it isn’t official but it feels surreal and inevitable at this point. I can’t stress this enough: Canada is on fucking edge and the threat is a complete elimination of identity, mass death and suffering, and generations of oppression and resistance.

You know, colonialism.

What I think would be unreasonable to expect of anyone is to tell them they must believe in anything in order to live somewhere outside of some very basic things. On a systemic level it would be authoritarian and draconian otherwise.

Oh, basic things like being in favour of a colonial outcome? So it sounds like you are suggesting we should welcome those who hold us in contempt by hiding behind ideology. “Oh you’re just overreacting” say the US centrists.

So yes, perhaps we should be screening immigrants for their position on our pending invasion. I’m not asserting that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if security protocols are enacted at borders.

What I am talking about is reception. How any US citizen moving here will have to deal with the social reality. After 100+ years of low level colonialism from the south, we have some attitudes that you will have to deal with.

it sounds like almost like you are asking people to repent for the sin of having been born and raised in the US regardless in order to take refuge by going through a re-education program or something.

lol well statistically a large number of US immigrants do believe in original sin. However I am pointing out that it will be difficult for someone who was raised in a highly individualistic culture to take responsibility for the society they come from, and for the beliefs they carry forward. So yeah, if you come to Canada, and pretend we are just as individualistic as the USA, you’re going to feel like a hero around all these meek and diminished folk. And that has been happening my whole life, “americans” who move here and talk down while acting convivial and take over all the little ponds they swim in. It’s a type. Usually professional or middle class. Often they are “fleeing” the States… but not really. I grew up with an influx of draft dodgers, and yeah, they were welcomed, but there were problems, and here’s the thing: they are often oblivious to the fundamental cultural differences.

So when I refer to ‘decolonize your mind’ that is something we are actively trying to do as average residents of Canada, as we draw a long running genocide to conclusion. It’s a common enough phrase that you can research it yourself, cf. Freire, Pedagogy of the Opressed and related ideas.

The sharp point of colonialism wielded in our direction from the south means we’ve had to put up with a lot of bullshit.

So, to clarify, if you move here as a refugee because you object to your government, but aren’t a direct victim yet, and call yourself a refugee, expect doubt. Expect irony as your privilege is obvious. Expect to prove you aren’t the enemy in spirit, and expect to do some work shedding the things that made your country the enemy.

This includes culture and attitudes that you aren’t aware of.

Individuals are not responsible for the society they are born in and are raised in, regardless of context. People don’t even choose to be born in the first place, let alone where.

That is just a bizarre conservative attitude that works well for neo-aristocracy goals. It’s destructive to other societies and we wish you wouldn’t export that unwelcome shit in your media and migrants.

So fucking tiring. The world is not black and white, yes we carry collective responsibility. It’s a matter of degrees, culture doesn’t just magically happen and society springs forth from culture. If Assata Shakur can take responsibility so can you.

I’M DOING MY PART!!!

lol no hope for zombie bootlickers I guess

Most of the reasonably intelligent people playing Helldivers know full well that it is satire with a side of sick sarcasm.

If anything it’s antifascist indoctrination on a grand scale.

A slide to the right that is anti-colonial, that says send us your refugees, that says keep your authoritarianism and individualism from ramping up the colonial takeover that has been under way for decades?

Conflating that with USA populism and xenophobia (and you implied racism ffs which is classic no-u bs) is just whining that the colonial people are not welcoming enough.

Most Canadians are fine with Americans moving here that aren’t enemies. The bar on trust has risen, so prove you aren’t a threat is the new rule. Don’t fucking blame us.

Your response is just a colonial perspective.

You are taking the discussion very personally. It’s an individualist complaint. You might be an awesome person and a great benefit to Canadian society. So if you immigrate here and overcome the baggage of being a colonizer citizen and cultural perspectives that are probably invisible to you, fukan a, congrats and welcome. You will be rare as a gem. Your response tells me you have a ways to go before decolonizing your mind. First you must acknowledge your inadvertent participation in the bullshit.

I keep seeing “don’t blame me” posts from USA folks who don’t want to take any responsibility for the society they live in… and they want to bring that attitude here!

As a Canadian I would not move to Bolivia, because our mining companies are neocolonial blights on their economy… unless I could be clearly employed mitigating that colonialism.

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Nah man fuck that noise, the point is not appealing to conservatives who want more Americans up here, and by not getting it really you just are proving the point: more Americans moving to Canada in a surge will mean shifting Canada’s overton window to the right, as even well intentioned democrats are conservatives here.

And I would happily say send us your lefties but you need them, and because if you don’t fix this now, we’re pretty sure you are going to invade.

OK so there’s the main task for those looking for purpose: get the word out. But since it’s early stage fascism, do it faster and harder. Start by taking collective responsibility for this shit despite the polarization.

More clues: eating together, especially preparing food, tends to open people up. Organize events.

The irony of anarchism is it requires more organizing to be effective and not descend into chaos. If you discard lame ass cookie cutter institutions you are always working on ad hoc replacements in the moment.

This is not a weakness, just another social chore.

It’s not comparable at all. Show me where Mexico has been economically and culturally colonizing the USA for a hundred years, and made it part of their culture.

US cultural ignorance about Canada and built-in arrogance is exhausting. Most of you folks just don’t get it, and this thread is a fine example.

We’ve been housing refugees from the USA for centuries, and getting the first bit of the next flood already. Them we take just fine. We’re good for that.

Well good thing it’s spring now right? Farmers markets are starting up. Look into local CSA’s.

Buy local was always the goal for food sovereignty activists. Eating seasonally is less burdensome with the greenhouses we’re building, but the whole world needs to adopt buy local goals anyway.

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!

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.