Zeitgeist

I would provide the same career information to all students regardless of backgrounds or gender. Assuming that a gender or race or group should be pushed into a field more or less than another gender or race brings bigger problems. It’s like saying we should have fewer women in the healthcare field (where they represent more than 50% of students) and more of them in engineering (where the percentage is less than that). Not all differences can or should be socially engineered away.

Why do you assume that everyone in a racialized group is financially disadvantaged? Why not just offer the grants to financially disadvantaged people, and if more of them happen to be racialized, then a greater proportion of the grants will go to racialized students?

No, but talent also isn’t equally distributed among all people, which is why it’s absurd and wrong to impose equal outcomes on populations. Asians generally do better academically than whites. That doesn’t mean white people should get a 10% advantage, for example. There’s no way to discern deservedness on any other basis than performance, unless we’re talking about financial charity, but then we have to be clear about it and call it what it is. What do you think is a healthier mindset, “Work hard and get in on your own merit?” or “Tell them you’ve had a hard life and get in based on sympathy.” The latter isn’t really bad if someone has genuinely had a tough life with poor financial consequences, but it requires some verification, like a declaration of assets, etc., like is required for a student loan. People of all backgrounds can be in that situation. It’s certainly not the case that being black makes you poor or a victim. Indeed, some of the most successful people I know are people of colour, but the power of their stories comes from their strength. The legacy disadvantages of slavery and racism are quite minimal in Canada. I heard arguments for redlining in real estate in Canada, but they weren’t convincing, certainly not in the last 30 years.

Look, it’s human nature to seek advantages where you find them, but when parents are recommending to their kids to state on applications that they’re bisexual when they’re really heterosexual in the hope of getting a job because of an “intersectionality”, we’ve lost the plot. Discrimination is discriminatory. If we ignore that principle then we risk returning to old hates and oppressions, because injustice can only be swallowed for so long before there’s a reaction, and that reaction can be overblown. Wokism is an overreaction.

There should be zero scholarships, freebies, admissions or job hiring on the basis of race, gender, etc. Discrimination is wrong, no matter who does it. Financial challenges should be the criteria for student grants. Academic achievement and involvement in positive community activities and school activities should be the criteria for admissions to schools. Merit and financial hardship fall across all racial groups, genders, religions, and ethnicities. I can’t believe we have to fight for this in 2024.

To me woke is synonymous with identity politics, basically making value judgments against or for certain identity groups, creating winners and losers, based on superficial traits like race or gender. Whenever I hear someone throw around the word inclusive, I usually don’t have to wait long before the same person starts talking about white privilege, white supremacy, hetero-normativity and other 2nd year Gender Studies or Feminism 101 pseudoscience. When you hear the words equity and inclusion now, expect inequality and exclusion, because the game is labeling some groups victims and others oppressors based on superficial traits. It’s a farce. There are no white supremacist groups making political inroads or setting hiring policy. The only systemic racism left in large organizations, mid-large-sized businesses, and places of learning is DEI.

Where is the Supreme Court of Canada and the constitutional lawyers on this? To give money to people strictly on the basis of skin colour is pure discrimination. So no black people are wealthy, successful, or even middle class? No whites or Asians are poor or struggling either? What the hell is going on in Canada? Stop DEI programming and race-based hiring/admissions/subsidies immediately.

The fastest growing religion worldwide is Islam.

In theory, Protestants broke away from the Church. Anyway I understand the criticism of popery and corruption within the Vatican. The problem is always that people with flaws do bad stuff within religious organizations.

I think you had it right when you said that we are all individuals with sacred souls. Everyone is judged before God on their own merits, and by God’s grace redeemed. No person can judge anyone, as no one knows what’s in another person’s heart. As a Christian I believe that we’re all created in God’s image. We have consciences, Commandments, and we face temptation and must make choices. That’s where we look to religion and philosophy for guidance, as science is ethically neutral. I can only choose what I imagine to be the best course of action based on what I know, which is limited, as I’m imperfect.

But there are consequences for not defending Christianity in Canada, such as the next generation growing up as woke lunatic cultural Marxists, or at the other end of the political spectrum, Islamo-fascists supporting the suppression of women and “infidels”.

Well you seem to be selling Islam. I see some essential common values in all of the major religions. The compelling aspects of Islam to me are its fervour and total submission to God, which can be very compelling, especially for people who feel lost. It’s the fastest growing religion. I just think that the messages of the New Testament are more compelling. Both the Jews and Muslims avoid depictions of God because of the belief that God is ineffable, which is also compelling to me. Christian mystic Meister Echart said radical things like, you have to destroy god to get to God. What he meant was, our concept of the Devine is limited. I do believe we are somewhat in the dark, hopefully seeking the light.

“Live with”? I accept that Muslims, Unitarians, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists, and many others live among us and can be good neighbours. Not having the same beliefs doesn’t mean I have to wish anyone ill will. In fact, many Muslims (and people with different beliefs) are kind and helpful. My point in this discussion is that Muslims are reproducing themselves and asserting their beliefs more than Christians, which is a problem for Christians, and I believe, ultimately a problem for Canadian culture and values, because what you value about Canada is connected to Christian values and culture. You appreciate the Scots-Irish Protestant influences more than just about anyone on this site, right? Well, that important element of Canadian culture is endangered.

They don’t believe Jesus is God. They believe He is a lesser prophet than Muhammad.

Well, you and I and Muslim friends can visit the Vatican; you can’t walk around the Kaaba in Mecca, but much more could be said. Again, I’m not saying Muslims shouldn’t be in Canada and have the same rights as all Canadians, but Islam and Christianity are not the same. If you’re one, you can’t be the other.

Except that we are considered infidels, and I’m sure most Muslims would rather see Muslims in charge than Christians. Many people have been slaughtered for being infidels, and the fervour for slaughter is real when the promise of heavenly reward is added, which many Muslims believe.

Well, the most successful civilizations in history have been Christian-dominated. They are the freest and most prosperous, but current citizens have forgotten the values that made them so productive and positive: adherence to virtue, restraint against hedonism, honesty, modesty before a higher power rather than hubris/pride, prolific and connected family, etc.

It’s an ideological battle, no, a spiritual one, against the excesses of wokism and the anti-Christian. People have to remember that much of what attracts immigrants to Canada, whether they know it or not, has its roots in Judeo-Christian values (which have Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Sumerian, and other antecedents implicit within them). If we unmoor ourselves from those roots, the excesses of an oppressive Post-National State are highly likely.

But the Ulster Scots and even the once highly fertile Catholics are leading the West’s mass suicide because the anti-Christian lifestyles that these non-practicing lapsing Christians (most Christians today in the West) have adopted are shrinking their birth rates: abortion, porn, birth control, MAID, urban living, gender ideology, homosexuality… You think the Muslims are embracing all that to the same degree? They are not. There won’t be any Ulster Scots, nor Papists, at least not enough to have political weight. Only Christian social conservatism can save them, but the kids are being actively indoctrinated to oppose such values.

On this I’m going to disagree a bit. Islam was founded as an expansionist militarized movement. It has had very peaceful manifestations for prolonged periods in many parts of the world, but it has also been used to justify slaughter, and there’s no shortage of examples. Yes “Christian” Europe participated in the Crusades and there has been much war between the people of Christian denominations. However, the messages of the New Testament and the Koran are not the same. Christian holy texts don’t call for or reward the killing of non-Christians. That doesn’t mean that Christians and Muslims can’t live peacefully side by side. They do in many places, but Christian minorities are under attack in many Muslim countries today. Muslims are not as unsafe in Christian-dominated countries. Again, Canada’s constitution allows for religious expression, and I oppose Quebec’s suppression of religious garb in public servant jobs and education. Just remember that Muslims in Canada today more actively defend and practice their faith than Canadian Christians. Their birth rate is actually positive, and along with Indigenous, are the fastest growing populations in Canada, which is poised at the current immigration rate to become a Muslim-dominated country. It’s important to recognize the cultural consequences. Add anti-Canada “settler colonial” rhetoric, especially with a strong Indigenous minority, and you can see how, without assertion of Christianity, the only alternative to a Muslim theocratic wave will be anti-religious secularism as we see in Quebec. It makes Canada ripe for falling into China-style Post-National State, atheist Internationalism. No thanks. I want to see Canada retain strong Christian influences. This is also why wokism poses such a threat. Muslims and Christians can help each other fight the woke and maintain mutual respect much as the Protestants and Catholics have in Canada, but if Christianity continues to be encouraged to fizzle out, ruled “patriarchal”, “colonial”, “genocidal”, etc., the imbalance will be clear, and Canada will face Quebec’s mess with Muslims. It will also face BC’s mess with Indigenous. It’s already happening under Trudeau.

So I agree and actually commend Canadian Muslims as the last bulwark against the gender ideology wing of the radical woke revolutionaries. However, the anti-Israeli and anti-Canada “settler colonial” faction of the woke lunatics in our universities, media, and Liberal-NDP federal government has much support among many Muslims. It comes back to ensuring that none of these excessive forces usurp bedrock Canadian values, which though pluralistic, must remain grounded in Judeo-Christian, liberal democratic values. That means tolerance for alternative lifestyles/identities and expressions of opposition to Israel and Western countries, but NOT indoctrination through our education systems, government and media of such ideologies. I still see a profound takeover of our institutions by radical activists. It’s an attack on the family, an attack on Christianity and Judaism, and an attack on Canada itself. It’s even economic, as it empowers Russia’s narratives and makes Canada susceptible to manipulation by China and internationalist (in the communist sense) interests.

There are so many Muslims in Canada now, and so many occupy positions in our universities, media, and government, that, like in Britain, they have become so influential and vocal that the modest mouse Christians in Canada who fear being labeled colonial and racist simply accept the antisemitism and anti-Canada settler-colonial narratives. This is so obvious, but most Canadians are ignorant of history and used to being told what to think. They daren’t push back for fear of being cancelled and told they have “unacceptable views”. Obvious, sad, and unchanging.

It’s a great way to shoot yourself in the foot. Good luck with that.

This whole notion that natives are less warring, less colonial, less oppressive, and more peaceful than other humans is stupid and wrong. Giving a veto to non-taxpayers is stupid. BC is a silly jurisdiction that would have no economic heft if it wasn’t for its nice geography that makes it a retirement mecca. It’s drug-infested and over-priced. They’re totally uncritical about the Indigenous people there, who kept slaves and were one of the most brutal peoples in the Americas. Read about the tortures and slaughters that took place between tribes historically. It’s not pretty.

I have known a couple of trans people. I called them what they wanted to be called and made them feel normal and welcome. That’s an important aspect of my faith as a Christian. I don’t judge them. I know the Church’s teachings on gender are that we are our biological gender and should embrace our natural reality. My faith also teaches that we don’t judge people. We don’t know what someone else is dealing with until we walk in their shoes. Kindness is always important.