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infernal machines posted:Well sure, but if they get a crawling sensation by the end of the first paragraph, it's a bit of a giveaway isn't it? Maybe. I get a crawling sensation when people consider The News anything but entertainment these days but it's crazy interactive entertainment like we are Arnie in the running man and they gave us Doug Ford instead of Patrick Brown so they could entertain the poo poo out of us.
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Sep 30, 2018 04:12
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Politics as blood sport, but it ain't them dyin'
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Sep 30, 2018 04:25
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Bell and other media companies in PlayFair are going to be beyond happy when we sacrifice our IP laws for this agreement aren't they? From a quick glance it looks like the IP laws are the same ones they're requesting, essentially the ability to shut down any Canadian sites suspected of hosted pirated content.
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Sep 30, 2018 18:27
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Godinster posted:Bell and other media companies in PlayFair are going to be beyond happy when we sacrifice our IP laws for this agreement aren't they? From a quick glance it looks like the IP laws are the same ones they're requesting, essentially the ability to shut down any Canadian sites suspected of hosted pirated content. Not if we nationalize all the telecom infrastructure immediately after.  I am well aware this would never happen under the Liberals or even the NDP but let me dream of Bell/Rogers suffering for this moment alone
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Sep 30, 2018 18:35
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There's lot of research documenting how these trade deals or structural adjustment programs or various other foreign imposed changes in economic policy are often mostly about giving domestic elites the necessary political cover to implement unpopular reforms. Not that the Liberals seem to need much cover given the sheer indifference of most Canadians to anything other than crime and taxes.
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Sep 30, 2018 18:36
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Former NDP MP Kennedy Stewart is running for Mayor of Vancouver under an independent banner. Setting aside his platform, should NDP supporters consider voting for him for the purposes of growing support for the NDP in general? I recall conversations in this thread about how the NDP needs to build up from the roots up, needing to secure more of a base of support at the municipal level. Though perhaps that conversation was more about activists changing the direction of the NDP and not this exact case, where you have a rather mainstream NDP politician running a front runner campaign that's been accused to being if anything boring and too cautious. Kennedy Stewart and Shauna Sylvester are both appealing candidates for mayor and I'm leaning Kennedy anyway, but I thought I'd bring up his NDP roots in this thread since it touches on a discussion we've had before. Do people think there are any benefits or interesting outcomes to having a NDP in all but name candidate running Vancouver? Of course the previous mayor Gregor Robertson was an NDP MLA, but there was an obstructionist Liberal provincial government at the time. Now with a BC NDP provincial government there could be some real synergy between NDP organizations in Vancouver and BC. Here's Stewarts platform. https://www.kennedystewart.ca
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Sep 30, 2018 19:37
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Helsing posted:There's lot of research documenting how these trade deals or structural adjustment programs or various other foreign imposed changes in economic policy are often mostly about giving domestic elites the necessary political cover to implement unpopular reforms. Not that the Liberals seem to need much cover given the sheer indifference of most Canadians to anything other than crime and taxes. Hate to break it to you but most Canadians dont care much about crime either. Canada can be summed up pretty much as "TAXES!  " right now.
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Sep 30, 2018 19:39
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Vote for him if he has a good track record and good politics. The mere fact he's been in the NDP is definitely not an indicator he has good politics and if anything suggests the opposite. I don't think leftists can really afford to abandon all engagement with the NDP but almost as a rule anyone who has made a successful career in the NDP should be viewed with suspicion.
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Sep 30, 2018 19:39
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Furnaceface posted:Hate to break it to you but most Canadians dont care much about crime either. Other than taxes, crime is the issue that lots of Canadians 1) tell pollsters they care about and 2) actually think the government can do something about. All the other poo poo Canadians claim to care about on polls like healthcare, the environment and transit - you know, all the stats that centre leftists cite when they try to argue there's a social democratic super majority just waiting in the wings - are also the same issues that most Canadians report thinking the government cannot or will not actually solve. Crime and low taxes are the sweet spot that Canadians both say they care about and say they think the government can do something about, which is why Conservatives constantly bang the "victims rights" drum. Also surprise, guess which issue New Canadians and suburban Canadians are disproportionately concerned about?
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Sep 30, 2018 19:42
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Helsing posted:Vote for him if he has a good track record and good politics. The mere fact he's been in the NDP is definitely not an indicator he has good politics and if anything suggests the opposite. Yeah I actually was a bit suspicious of him, in part due to his timid policy set he started with, but after listening to the Cambie Report podcast interview with him I feel much better about him. He's recently talked more policy too which has been reassuring. It's kind of a toss up between him and Sylvester, tho it occurred to me that there could potentially be some better opportunity for the various NDP politicians to work together on shared ideals, get things done while pumping each others tires, and this could result in a boost to NDP outcomes in BC.
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Sep 30, 2018 19:50
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Femtosecond posted:Yeah I actually was a bit suspicious of him, in part due to his timid policy set he started with, but after listening to the Cambie Report podcast interview with him I feel much better about him. He's recently talked more policy too which has been reassuring. Talking more like a lefty is in vogue now so of course we're seeing NDPers tepidly moving toward the ground that leftists in other countries started staking out years ago. It's a mildly positive development but there's no particular reason to trust any of these people to implement their ideas because at the end of the day they still believe in parliament and electoralism. So no matter what they're gonna end up in power and inherit someone else's mess and then like Bob Rae or Rachel Notley they're gonna think their job is to save capitalism from itself by implementing mild reforms to the system. All their social democratic policies will be justified by the help they give to corporations (free daycare is so good for the economy guys!!) and ultimately when the rating agencies or even just the editorial page of the Globe and Mail start criticizing them they'll blink and back off. The only politicians I would trust at this point are those who either 1) have an actual radical constituency they answer to or 2) a long Bernie Sanders / Jeremy Corbyn style track record of actually standing up for leftist ideas even when they weren't fashionable. There's literally no such politician in Canada today so I dunno, take what you can get I suppose. I have to admit I've gone past the point of thinking it makes any difference if the NDP wins power for a single cycle, in fact it might be actively harmful.
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Sep 30, 2018 19:57
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gently caress the NDP, vote for people based on their platform and not their party. If that leads to vote-splitting and a conservative government, like it always has, then this country deserves what it gets.
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Sep 30, 2018 19:58
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Voting is like, the least consequential thing you can do politically. If your view of politics begins and ends in the duration of a campaign lasting less than two months then you might as well not vote at all.
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Sep 30, 2018 20:01
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I mean without a doubt the policy and the personal values set has to be there. For example in the podcast interview Kennedy talked about how he came Vancouver to play music, and you get the feeling in the interview that that's something that was important to him and he understands the value that cultural spaces have in a city. Now I see that he has something on his platform talking about cultural spaces. No one else has been talking about this sort of thing at all because for years now the entire conversation has been utterly dominated by housing matters. That's the thing that comes across to me in the podcast interview the most, is that it sounds like he and I share the same set of values, which imo is generally a better indicator of whom one should be voting for than the bullet point list of promises.
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Sep 30, 2018 20:05
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Helsing posted:Voting is like, the least consequential thing you can do politically. If your view of politics begins and ends in the duration of a campaign lasting less than two months then you might as well not vote at all. A reason why municipal politics is so interesting to me is because it's so much more accessible. There are important council votes going on all the time and so easy for citizens to be a part of that process constantly. In recent years advocacy groups in Vancouver like HALT, Chinatown Matters, and Abundant Housing have very clearly directly influenced the conversation not just at the local level but at the provincial level as well. I don't think there'd be a foreign housing tax in BC were it not for HALT and demand side related academics speaking out.
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Sep 30, 2018 20:09
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Hand Knit posted:Though I'd much rather replace Mammoliti with Ford than Peruzza. Uhhh... Why? Tiffany Ford seems to have no real ideas, beyond gesturing vaguely at TCHC and talking about how the tenants of all things are making the buildings run down. Peruzza helped pass RentSafe (stricter health/safety guidelines for apartment buildings, more frequent city inspections etc.), improved all the parks in his ward and has been doing most of the leg work convincing people that yes, the Finch LRT is a good idea and no it won't make traffic worse. Are you just assuming he's the same as Mammoliti cause he's Italian or do you have an actual answer for this?
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Sep 30, 2018 20:10
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Helsing posted:There's literally no such politician in Canada today This is the key phrase. There are literally no good options in this country right now, and I certainly don't care enough about any part of this country to put real work in to trying to get this pathetic population to try and make things better. All there is to do is vote for whoever puts up the least disgusting platform or seems like they genuinely give a poo poo, or not vote at all if nobody running is good enough, and if that means we end up with the same conservative government we've had for my entire lifetime then that's what we get. Democracy is the style of government where you get what you deserve, and I see no evidence that this country deserves any better than it gets.
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Sep 30, 2018 20:11
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ChairMaster posted:Democracy is the style of government where you get what you deserve, and I see no evidence that this country deserves any better than it gets. This is very edgy and makes you look cool as gently caress. It's also a really convenient cop out that allows you to not participate at all in actually improving this country.
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Sep 30, 2018 20:18
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Edgar Quintero posted:This is very edgy and makes you look cool as gently caress. It's also a really convenient cop out that allows you to not participate at all in actually improving this country. How many Canadians have you guys met that you think that this country should be improved?? I'm genuinely curious as to why so many people think this is a worthwhile goal. Like have you just never been anywhere else or met other people? Do you really think Canadians represent even an above average sample of humanity?
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Sep 30, 2018 20:20
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ChairMaster posted:How many Canadians have you guys met that you think that this country should be improved?? I'm genuinely curious as to why so many people think this is a worthwhile goal. Like have you just never been anywhere else or met other people? Do you really think Canadians represent even an above average sample of humanity? The repeated refrain from this thread to seek therapy is still being ignored, I see.
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Sep 30, 2018 20:21
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I think people are alright.
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Sep 30, 2018 20:26
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ChairMaster posted:How many Canadians have you guys met that you think that this country should be improved?? I'm genuinely curious as to why so many people think this is a worthwhile goal. Like have you just never been anywhere else or met other people? Do you really think Canadians represent even an above average sample of humanity? Yeah I think most people are pretty okay, if not complacent as gently caress due to either a) Being generally unaware and being afraid to change the status quo, assisted by a healthy dose of "Hey it's bad, but at least it's not as bad as America" and b) Completely impotent rage followed by juvenile appeals to apathy like you're posting here. Maybe you're priviledged enough to just eat popcorn and watch the dumpster fire. I kinda want to make sure that my family still has healthcare, education and (LOL probably not...) affordable housing in the future. If Doug Ford cuts the affordable housing subsidies in this province basically half the people I know are out in the streets. I can't afford to pay their rent. But I do have time to canvass and help with campaigns against that evil fuckery. Go ahead though, tell yourself you're robbing the system of legitimacy by not participating. Oh and seek therapy like that other dude said.
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Sep 30, 2018 20:28
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Politicians calling themselves leftists is basically political gentrification
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Sep 30, 2018 20:41
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Edgar Quintero posted:Go ahead though, tell yourself you're robbing the system of legitimacy by not participating. The system's plenty legitimate as it is, people keep electing conservative governments and getting hosed over by them because that's exactly what should happen to people this stupid. Anyways I don't have a family or any economic privilege at all, but I'm white and mentally healthy enough that I can probably get out of this country before it's too late, which is a way more realistic goal than trying to put the brakes on this hilariously obvious downslide.
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Sep 30, 2018 20:45
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Legit Businessman fucked around with this message at 17:54 on Sep 9, 2022 |
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Sep 30, 2018 21:03
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ChairMaster posted:Anyways I don't have a family or any economic privilege at all, but I'm white and mentally healthy enough that I can probably get out of this country before it's too late, which is a way more realistic goal than trying to put the brakes on this hilariously obvious downslide. Maybe it's just me but that sounds like family and economic privilege.
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Sep 30, 2018 21:09
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My controversial opinion is that everyone deserves a better life, even stupid people.
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Sep 30, 2018 21:11
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vyelkin posted:My controversial opinion is that everyone deserves a better life, even stupid people. 
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Sep 30, 2018 21:23
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Argas posted:Maybe it's just me but that sounds like family and economic privilege. Being white is the best privilege there is, and it certainly bleeds over into other ones, but as far as primary economic privilege goes I certainly don't have anyone who's gonna help me pay tuition or rent or a down payment on a house or anything like that. Hey if you wanna send me the $1.5mil to buy citizenship in the country I wanna go to then I'll gladly never post in either canpol thread ever again. Anyways, what possible political campaign would I ever have been involved in? For as long as I've been old enough to be involved in politics there's been zero left-wing presence in this country, and by the time I was financially secure enough to even have the free time for such luxurious pursuits as being involved in politics I was far past caring what happens to this country. vyelkin posted:My controversial opinion is that everyone deserves a better life, even stupid people. That's very undemocratic of you. Somebody fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Sep 9, 2022 |
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Sep 30, 2018 21:25
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Femtosecond posted:A reason why municipal politics is so interesting to me is because it's so much more accessible. There are important council votes going on all the time and so easy for citizens to be a part of that process constantly. In recent years advocacy groups in Vancouver like HALT, Chinatown Matters, and Abundant Housing have very clearly directly influenced the conversation not just at the local level but at the provincial level as well. I don't think there'd be a foreign housing tax in BC were it not for HALT and demand side related academics speaking out. I admit I'm not all that familiar with local Vancouver politics but these just sounds like pressure groups for credentialed professionals making $70K a year and feeling the increasing squeeze of late capitalism. I mean I looked up what HALT stands for and it's literally got "Taxpayers" right in the title and its telling people that high house prices are the fault of foreigners. If this represents the most 'accessible' layer of Canadian government then that seems like a pretty strong rebuke of electoralism altogether. This is not so much burnout as me coming to the conclusion that middle of the road groups like the NDP aren't actually expanding the horizon of politics, and in fact are actively causing well intentioned people to waste time and money in the pursuit of getting more NDP staffers jobs. The BC NDP has at least implemented a higher minimum wage and a lower rental increase threshold but that's such laughably small ball thinking. I'm starting to feel uncomfortable telling people to waste time and money fighting for reforms that won't even last 10 years in the current environment and I've concluded that people who think the way the NDP leadership thinks are literally incapable of fixing our problems. When I look back through the sweep of history at political movements that transformed their countries for the better or worse the one thing I conclude is that literally none of them looked like the NDP. It's just not an organization that has any interest in fundamental changes at this point and a party that just sucks up peoples energy and attention without directing it anywhere useful is part of the problem, not the solution. Would still advocate voting NDP most of the time and loving around at the Riding level but with each passing year I get a bit more convinced the party is probably hopeless. I think the dumpster fire that was the latest leadership election really demonstrated just how bad things are. I used to tell everyone here that the NDP was the best option because they had the most left leaning base of support, and while that is true, they're also so hopelessly coddled, privileged and conflict averse that their theoretical leftwing stances are useless. A party that doesn't actually hunger for a fight isn't going to accomplish much in our current political environment and the NDP isn't composed of fighters, it's composed of milquetoast joiners who went to all the right clubs, got all the right degrees and read all the right newspapers growing up. People who dream of managing the system a bit better, not tearing it down. Somebody fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Sep 9, 2022 |
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Sep 30, 2018 21:52
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Helsing posted:I admit I'm not all that familiar with local Vancouver politics but these just sounds like pressure groups for credentialed professionals making $70K a year and feeling the increasing squeeze of late capitalism. I mean I looked up what HALT stands for and it's literally got "Taxpayers" right in the title and its telling people that high house prices are the fault of foreigners. All those groups I mentioned are indeed "regular folks". I think HALT used to go by something more generic like Vancouverites for Housing Affordability or something, but changed their name at some point. A lot of their activist attention was around foreign capital impacts on housing and the fact that persons were seemingly not paying taxes and/or laundering money so perhaps that's why they changed their name to emphasize taxation. I dunno. They're basically half crazy conspiracy theoryist nuts, but I can't discount the impact they've had on the discourse. Abundant Housing on the surface seems like a real developer friendly group, but if you look deeper there doesn't really seem to be any real connections to actual developers. Anyway my point was just that in muni politics you can spin up a local group of people and it seems like you can actually get some real traction and influence people. AH and HALT have genuinely imo set the framework of the discussion in this election. Jean Swanson and COPE have also had a big impact in shifting the conversation toward what they want to talk about and a big part of that was work by Vancouver Tenants Union and work to get Swanson elected in the recent byelection (she almost won). The pressure group for credentialed professionals would be something like the Urban Development Institute which yep, I have seen also come out to countless council meetings to argue for more loosening of zoning and regulatory rules. So yeah these sort of groups are around too.
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Sep 30, 2018 22:07
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Helsing posted:This is not so much burnout as me coming to the conclusion that middle of the road groups like the NDP aren't actually expanding the horizon of politics, and in fact are actively causing well intentioned people to waste time and money in the pursuit of getting more NDP staffers jobs. In your opinion, if we had our own Canadian version of Corbyn would she or he find a place in the current federal NDP or are they just too closed off now for even someone like that? Hell, is it even possible to have a Canadian version of someone like that?
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Sep 30, 2018 22:13
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vyelkin posted:My controversial opinion is that everyone deserves a better life, even stupid people. Do you also believe in population control or do you just not believe in science? xtal fucked around with this message at 23:36 on Sep 30, 2018 |
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Sep 30, 2018 23:08
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Legit Businessman fucked around with this message at 17:54 on Sep 9, 2022 |
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Sep 30, 2018 23:50
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My guess is on New Zealand or Morocco.
Somebody fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Sep 9, 2022 |
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Sep 30, 2018 23:55
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Postess with the Mostest posted:Outline plugin works better imo. Does anyone here actually subscribe? I had no idea about that plugin. Thanks!
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Sep 30, 2018 23:57
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Most developed nations don't give out citizenship for free, you have to have skills or a degree, or you can invest a bunch of money into their economy and they'll give you citizenship like that. I'm currently in school so that some day I can move away, but it'd be way easier to just do that instead. Either way, this is a climate change derail every time it comes up, and most people in this thread are pretty denialist about all that, so let's not. Somebody fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Sep 9, 2022 |
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Sep 30, 2018 23:57
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xtal posted:My guess is on New Zealand or Morocco. Its the USA and you know it.
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Oct 1, 2018 00:01
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Furnaceface posted:Its the USA and you know it. US citizenship is only $500k, but I can't imagine why you'd think I would want to live there.
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Oct 1, 2018 00:04
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ChairMaster posted:climate change....most people in this thread are pretty denialist about all that 
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