Michael Hardner

They haven't tried actual socialism yet. That might be on the horizon.

Well they're humanists, and it aligns with the basic philosophy of Christianity. Just as humanists are Christians in a sense. But no humanist Christian would honestly state that their religion doesn't do harm, ever. And even non-humanist Christians will ignore most of the old testament, if not all of it. I was brought up religious, and nobody I knew including my teachers, including the nuns, believed in creationism. There's a spectrum of metaphysical beliefs, and a spectrum of moral philosophies. Within humanism and Christianity that is even true. I don't think I've ever disagreed with someone over what they want to call themselves. I've called myself an atheist Christian on here, and people got mad at me.

They were extremely humanist.

Oh, the apocalpyse side of religion. Hmmm.... well... religious humanists still exist and have for a long time. And RADICAL religious humanists... well you're talking about my family now. Family members who devoted their lives to the church but in such a way to make an atheistic humanist blush.

Good answer.

I saw someone on Bluesky asking where all the "patriots" with their honking and Canadian flags are now that we actually NEED patriotism... They're likely over at WalMart I guess...

I think that the Canadian populists in the mold of Doug Ford may eventually stumble upon a protectionist public-private angle to create nationalist enterprises run by the new populist elite. When-if that happens, it'll be the China model in Canada maybe even with China helping. Just gazing at the clouds in my coffee... maybe boycott Dylan and load up on some Joni...

That would be a paradox huh? 😂

Tarrifs, on, delayed, delayed, moved up.... John Bolton called the White House like being in a pinball machine... And I watched the whole press conference with the heroic president of Ukraine. There were some mixed messages...

1. If not evidence, then what happened to convince you things had changed? I don't watch CBC News. I find all TV news superficial anyway. 2. I'd be okay with that.

1. 80 years of relative peace and prosperity? Hundreds of millions of people who sleep well, knowing that they won't be invaded? 2. You think Marxists are strange? Do you think MAGA is strange? 3. They're called Russia now.

1. No but the UN cares and we usually protest such things if not take military action. 2. I mostly hear that argument from hardcore Marxists, so... I don't think it's real. 3. A defense treaty that the West created to protect us from invasion is a cancer ? The metaphor doesn't make sense, even... It's not clear to me that he is. If peace comes out of it, then great. But I don't think his methods are sound in either case.

Do you think Might Makes Right though ? Should we just shrug and accept these things ? The US can withdraw without grandstanding, and keep their international relations intact.

Maybe ? They seem to now be off the negotiating team. People are starting to plan around them, which is exactly what I would expect to happen without clear messaging.

It's aligned with what Project 2025 had documented. The problem isn't Trump, it's the people who elected him. They remind me of the 'proles' in 1984: “If there was hope, it must lie in the proles, because only there, in those swarming disregarded masses, eighty-five percent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated. The Party could not be overthrown from within. Its enemies, if it had any enemies, had no way of coming together or even of identifying one another. Even if the legendary Brotherhood existed, as just possibly it might, it was inconceivable that its members could ever assemble in larger numbers than twos and threes. Rebellion meant a look in the eyes, an inflection of the voice; at the most, an occasional whispered word. But the proles, if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength, would have no need to conspire. They need only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies. If they chose they could blow the Party to pieces tomorrow morning. Surely sooner or later it must occur to them to do it.”

Maybe Trump will learn that bringing the used-car-salesman persona into the arena of international diplomacy doesn't quite work.... or maybe the world will learn something. Changing your mind every week isn't conducive to planning, when it needs to be done on a large scale.

I'm zero and one in trying to get to the bottom of it, this year anyway. Honestly, I don't care if it's patronage or if it's glad-handing... If they deliver a good product for Value then I am in.

I'm not sure that it's wielded as a political tool for anyone's benefit. You seem sane, so I would accept any evidence you have... But they don't seem capable of anything like that. And any insight into the management structure would also be informative. It seems to me I asked a similar question long ago with someone and they came back with talking about Marxism. Something about the globe and Mail being a leftist organization etc.

That's where I stopped reading. The newspaper that is owned by the richest family in Canada, is never that has never not endorsed explicitly the conservative party in federal elections, is not leftist. It is not. As such, trying to lay the blame of a center left politics infecting the CBC is not a point I'm going to strain to see in the rest of your post. The CBC television network just doesn't resonate with people, neither does CBC or Global much either. The big hit Canadian shows came from cable startups, presumably run by young people who could see value in proposals that came to them. This point is obvious to me. The idea that people refuse to watch because they are center left doesn't make sense. Sorry.

Might makes right. That is a moral. But it was abandoned because democracy gave people the agency to defy that moral. People eventually determined they didn't want to be pawns on a chess board for Royals.

I don't agree with the framing here. But if I went into details as to what I disagree with, it would have meant to equip all I would just say they misunderstood where they stand. And I don't think that contradicts what you're saying. The last paragraph, I'm not sure of. Harper tried to fix it, and they ended up with with some changes happening. The toughest not to crack, being CBC English television, came close to producing some hits. I think most of us would like for that to happen. I don't think Harper wielded it as a tool of politics, although if he had been successful then that would have been a feather in his cap. I work in information technology, and was interested in working point there at one point... But with no knowledge for how things work internally. A mutual friend hooked me up with someone on the inside, to explain it. Sure enough it was a mess. It just wasn't run in an organized way. Now I do hate it when people say that things need to be run as a business... Because a lot of businesses are run. Horribly. I think things need to be organized, and especially aligned to the people who fund and use the organization. I would wish the same thing on Rogers, as I do on the CBC. I interface with revenue Canada, for a business I run, and I never have a problem with how they do things. They're definitely better than Rogers. However, I suspect they do throw money at problems in order to run as they do. Good conversation, I like talking to you.

I think that I answered. I said I agree with the 'mature minor ' designation.

Say it twice.. 👍

Ps, inbox me here if you want my personal email address.

I don't think they ever felt entitled. I don't think they're that smart. I think they wanted to be relevant and fashionable. The former quality should be almost guaranteed given their position, but I'm sure they could see its slipping away. And they were never fashionable. With the resources they have, they could be Central to our culture, the public forum of record, a source for our entertainment. There is only one thing stopping all of this: management. Management culture for a large organization is pretty hard to change, if not impossible. The inventor of the geodesic dome....R. Buckminster Fuller: Buckminster Fuller A... Visionary could create a new Branch of the CBC, reporting only to the top person. Low overhead, digital, locally produced. Hire young people, young journalists, young content producers. Cbc4 Calgary, produced by Young calgarians. Keep the politics out of it, just cover local news and make interesting content. Cheap and cheerful. This is just one idea. Try it, fail, improve it, repeat. If conservatives and normal folks like it, then you've succeeded. You've created what the CBC is supposed to be. And you didn't spend an arm and a leg.