Independent1986

I am very happy I found this forum because it allows me to expose my ideas here and therefore it decreased my tendency to talk politics in real life which in this environment is not good to do. Having said this, maybe a lawyer can confirm this but aren't there slander/defamation laws on the book ? Because obviously my ideas are not in line with extremists on both sides and as you all notice I have a big mouth, I love to talk. I just want to educate myself in case of a scenario arises IN REAL LIFE and people start throwing words around that might damage what I worked for to politely ask them to stop because is not based on facts, just emotions or else I will contact a lawyer and a judge can look at the facts. Life is too short to get upset, if someone accuses you of something that might damage your reputation in real life and you know deep down they are lying, maybe is time to drag them through a lengthy trial.

POEM Author: Unknown Monk 1100 A.D. When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn't change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn't change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family. Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.

Canada First ! Patriotism should be to your home country

For me I define a good standard of life as having purpose. Getting up in the morning with a plan, thinking about something bigger than myself, like a business that provides services to other individuals. You can also find purpose in any job you have. Being involved in a small-medium sized business you can make profit but also help people and society. I have a tactic that I use, I never think about my clients as "clients", when that phone/e-mail starts I think about them as people asking for help. The feeling that you get when you solve issues by providing a service is amazing. Having said that, I am not a communist , money comes with it yes and there is no shame to receive rewards for hard work. Big monopolistic companies on top, I won't call them capitalistic because they are not, Amazon being one example has cannons and we are mosquitoes. If the mosquitoes (small-medium sized business) fail there is no socialism for us, which that is the way capitalism should be ! You win or you fail ! After you fail you think about another idea and you move on. The biggest welfare check was written to AIG Insurance during the 2008 crisis, how come ? This is the people that use words like "Profit" "Investors" when they get up in the morning yet they went running to the government crying for a bail out. Artificial Intelligence will help my industry, however the power is with the consumer and I am sympathetic with the consumer, because is easier to go on amazon.com and click on something and have it to your home the next day. However if we start with small steps, like coffee for example, I never buy from Tim Hortons or Starbucks, I walk an extra 100 m and give my money to a local Somali business owner. When all you socialists on this forum attack capitalism maybe you should vent your anger at the monopolists on top and when the next bailout happens I might even join you to a protest haha because I don't want to pay for other companies failures. If my neighbor builds a pool and 20 rooms and has no money to pay for it, why should I pay for it ?

When your name is bush_cheney, two individuals that in my estimation and opinion are responsible for war crimes, I would not talk about Trudeau. Hypocrisy much ?

Amazing point, you are a genius. So if a human being has economic and environmental issues that makes him revert to tribalism (for all races) your solution is to marginalize him. What is that going to achieve ? He will group with other marginalized individuals and extremism will flourish. However if you approach the person to engage in a conversation, you might be able to plant something in their head to think about. You can talk to the individual, not with the mob, once people join groups you can't reason with them. It seems is exactly what you want.

Ok, so you are just acting like an opposition party would. Critique and talking is easy but I want to hear policies, what should we (whatever that means) do ? If you can list some concrete solutions, I am curious. Again you are dismissing the individual and creating an attitude of us and them. And I agree about the cycle, on both sides, this reminded of an event that I shared a few weeks ago: I have a very good friend of mine that I met through a volunteering position. He is native and struggled with substance abuse when he was on the reservation. He mentioned the amount of hatred daily what he heard about the outside world in there prevented him to get help earlier. He moved by himself to Toronto and now he has his own apartment and works a decent job. I am extremely happy for him, I joke with him all the time saying that he was lucky that he did not meet any enlightened social studies degree holder that would tell him that society is the reason he was struggling. He does not fully agree with me haha, but hey, that's why this is one of the greatest country on Earth, we are allowed to disagree.

So what did you do, you, marcus in the past to feel responsible for these injustices ? What did I do ? This is the talk you hear in social studies courses, where the productivity is at zero. How am I, an immigrant from Eastern Europe responsible ? Because of my skin color ? Even if let us suppose in theory my grandfather was a colonialist, I am an individual, why should I be judged by the action of another person ? So what do you propose we do ? More taxes ? You want to tax the private industry at 99 % so we can resolve these "issues" ? And who should get this money ? What about the minorities and the native Canadians that succeed in life, why are you grouping them together so you can make your point across ? Lots of people don't listen to the propaganda, they go out and start businesses becoming productive members of society. “The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.” ― Ayn Rand

It starts to smell like Karl Marx's dirty bed sheets. Did you know that Karl Marx in his quest to brainwash individuals and turn them into sheep was forgetting to wash his linen ? Just a fun Friday night fact. Canada is an opportunity for every immigrant, minority, white person to work hard and create a life for their family however in a capitalistic society some people fail, who knows, it might be me next or not, I don't know, maybe then to explain my failures I will turn to agitators like yourself for comfort. I sure hope though, if that happens, to have wisdom and trust myself and keep moving forward.

Is Friday night after a long week of work, if you work, my advice would be to relax a little bit. Don't let your emotions overrule your rational thinking because you can end up like her, she will be spending most of her life in prison:

That was a great read. Thanks. In regards to this: Trying to differentiate a sociopath from a desensitised individual can be difficult as both may show zero signs of emotion when they abuse. Are there any variables that can be used to determine if indeed someone is a sociopath and not just desensitized ?

If you pick up a magnifying glass you can find problems everywhere. Maybe when we can change our DNA we can have a perfect place, until then I am sorry to be skeptical of this utopia you want. For example, I know of a case of someone from Algeria that applied to a subway store a few years ago and when he called to follow up he was lectured how bad muslims are in India and he won't be able to get the job. When my aquintance informed the person on the other line that he will seek legal action he was told "I don't care" and he hanged up the phone. Now I can easily pick up the same magnifying glass and start making generalizations but then I realize that there is a percentage of individuals in every group that revert to tribalism. In Canada that percentage is minimal, everything else is propaganda against this great country. The average individual in each group just wants a good life for their family unfortunetely some listen to agitators that are telling them: "It is us vs them". Is a nice way to keep society distracted and make some money on division.

Right Right, the more someone screams about racism and tries to lecture the more it seems yourself most likely are a racist. Canada racist ? You should go on a trip to Russia Ukraine Romania Hungary, Austria. Is hard to see when you don't have a relative point to go by. Fear and being talked down to people makes individuals choose irrationally like Trump's election. Don't think you are more superior, any human being in the right circumstances can make irrational choices.

What does white people have to do with what he said ? I have to say, if I was some broke white guy somewhere in the MidWest, the economy and automatization took away my job and on top you have people talking about me being a white guy (like I should feel guilty about it just because I am sharing an opinion), I think even with my education, in that scenario I would vote for Trump. You can't have a conversation anymore without identity politics.

Diversity in all things except opinion to quote a comment on the CBC website. People on the left don't understand that by going this route they create extremism. Is like a never ending cycle. There are a few people on this forum that have opinions that are out there (more on the right I might add) but I think is very good to allow people an environment to express their views because if we don't, those same people will go underground and become extreme. Suppression of thought is the worst thing you can do to a human being. It goes against every value of our democratic system.

Must be FAKE NEWS then

@eyeball are you advocating for riots and destruction of private property ?? what ?

Of course, we all have personal opinions, that's why we talk and exchange ideas to calibrate those opinions.

The more I look at these protests I realize it is a connection to massive unemployment and economics. There are lots of young people in the streets, all colors and backgrounds that because the society is moving so fast, business are implementing Artificial Intelligence (therefore cutting employees) and having a sociology major will not get you that far in life, this is a frustration protest. The unfortunate episode with the criminal cop was just the catalyst. Even with people that are highly educated, not just the social studies, I have a friend in Quebec he has a degree in Computer Science and can't find a job, he has so much potential yet all he is left with is frustration and staying idle. Extremism is on the horizon and is very possible. It will all depend on the middle class, either they will go with the social chaos or the system might become fascistic in which case the middle class will make a deal with an authoritarian system to maintain their safety. Both scenarios will be unfortunate. Let's hope it does not come to that.

There has to be 1 or 2 things that Trudeau did that you liked since he became PM ?!. Lets hear it. Focus on the positive. How can 1 single man be responsible for everything wrong that appears ? Next I am going to hear that he created the coronavirus.

I agree 100 %, that is the key but even in this I have days in which I struggle for balance. Occasionally, there are days when I believe too much in myself and I recognize that is the road to arrogance. Like you said, humility needs to come in as well and that can be done by recognizing that sometimes there are no answers. It is so easy to jump in a side and point fingers but each day is an opportunity to try again and remain free.

Not all of us are right wing, who is more outraged than who ? Is the murderer cop walking around free ? Last time I checked he was charged with third degree murder ?

You are insulting minorities and immigrants in my case that succeeded in life through hard work and struggle. Some of us experienced racism, some of us experienced homelessness to get personal through bad luck and other factors. Thank God I did not meet people like you or some socialist on the other side to keep repeating the big lie that the reason I am not succeeding is because of the system. I was lucky in that aspect and it never once crossed my mind to steal or do something illegal for my benefit. Is funny what happens when you put your mind to being productive. My first job was as a dishwasher in a pizza place now I can walk anytime I want and buy a take out meal without worrying for the cost. This arrogance comes from people from both the left and right, people that got everything handed to them on a silver plate, never struggled for a dime and they feel so superior lecturing everyone else on what their problems is. It might work for people that are too afraid and they buy your big lie. Many more however will get up today and look for opportunities to become successful. That is the beauty of our western system, it gives opportunity to everyone. Is up to the individual if they want to take it.

I will like to hear your opinion about this, I am willing to learn as Ayn Rand says: “If you don't know, the thing to do is not to get scared, but to learn.” I think the first 7 years of a child's life are the most important, it is the time when he/she absorbs information that will stay ingrained in the brain. Lots of opportunities were denied to African Americans resulting in poverty to this day and as a result of this lots of families ended up with no father figure or broken family structure. I grew up without my father and I remember always I used to look around for someone, a role model to learn from, I think every kid does, is it an instinct and when nobody is there you look at people that "achieved success, fast" without any hard work and it becomes attractive. Isn't appropriate to bring up an argument that also the entertainment industry holds some responsibility. Millions of dollars are made through songs that are promoting violence and shootings. They make money and kids end up in jail or in the ground. I will quote from my Jewish Friend: "Jewish youngsters after WW2 when they arrived in America and Canada started becoming active in gang life". The Jewish elders which were the role models at the time had a lot of power in the community and managed to turn things around. That comes from him, not me, so I can't verify what he is saying is true. And where is the Jewish community today ? Lawyers, doctors, politicians, etc. But then you can argue that the entertainment is created by the people, is what we want, there is no easy answer and who exactly draws the line what is acceptable and not ? Because then you can go to the other side of religious rule which also not good. Time to sleep been a long week all this agitation in the world is not helping.

That is very true, we have it in our DNA to always go back to tribalism. It is a survival instinct. Sometimes it is an automatic response in every community and group that's why conversation is important in order to calibrate our opinions and views.