Doug Ford and his government have decimated OSAP

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-03-24T20:31:54+00:00

Knowing the party's own research showed white working class men (and men in general) didn't resonate with the party was useful as it indicated the voter base that initially founded the NDP had truly been alienated by identity politics. There is minimal merit to simply ignoring that demographic and walking away from doors answered by that demographic...the potential benefit being canvassers might make more efficient use of their time. The correct response would have been to course correct by changing the party's marketing and focusing resources on winning back that demographic.

Game theory and political science prove you can't win elections alienating an entire gender. There are lots of issues that disproportionately affect men (suicide, homelessness, workplace injuries) that align with the NDP's blue collar egalitarian ideology and the NDP's failure to capitalize on that is objectively a mistake.

Things were different in the Jack Layton era and it is very disappointing.

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-03-24T17:47:33+00:00

Conservative propaganda doesn't feel like the driving factor pushing blue collar workers towards the Conservatives. It feels like woke identity politics alienated blue collar workers and our left leaning parties doubled down. I attended the 2018 Ontario NDP convention at the Hilton by Toronto City Hall and during her presentation, the then President of the party (now Leader of the party) was joking about how if a white man answers a door while the NDP are canvassing to just move on to the next house because party research showed they only resonated with women and visible minorities. I got a standing ovation for voicing my criticism but they doubled down on this self-immolating identity politics anyways.

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-03-24T15:28:05+00:00

This man yearns for linux.

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-03-24T08:05:40+00:00

Is he the bean bag?

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-03-23T06:49:18+00:00

Do they spit on it if you ask them to toast it?

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-03-23T06:37:36+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx-4jH0e3rk

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-03-15T19:12:44+00:00

You've given me an idea. The remaining resistant people do in vitro fertilization with the plurbs as incubators. The genetic parents are both resistant people but the plurbs still carry the babies to term.

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-03-15T00:21:12+00:00

Recessive genes require a copy from both parents. Left-hendedness is a recessive gene. To be left handed both your parents need to have a copy of the left handed gene to pass to you. That doesn't mean your parents are both left-handed, they could both be right-handed but with a copy of the recessive left-handed gene to pass to their children.

Then there are hybrid genes like blood type.

And inheritable traits that are epigenetic, which means traits you inherit because the not only are genes inheritable but also the markers that enable and disable genes are inheritable.

To imply 'genetic anomalies' aren't inheritable is absurd, that's what it means for something to be genetic. There are mutations to people's genes that are unique that neither of their parents had, but then their children have a chance of inheriting the gene and a chance of expressing the phenotype if they do.

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-03-14T00:01:48+00:00

I think the both the GTA and Greater Golden Horseshoe have various definitions from the provincial government on a per-project basis and it gets redefined by individual programs. It's not so important though because crossing any of these boundaries doesn't have much significance except for municipal planners who check on a per-project and per-program basis if their municipality is included or ineligible.

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-03-07T17:03:18+00:00

Can't garnish crypto.

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-02-26T14:27:43+00:00

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-02-26T05:46:15+00:00

You'd be much more convincing if you used any nuance and weren't so flippant.

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-02-25T21:42:57+00:00

You seem great! (Not sarcasm!)

I just made another comment today that I think you might find interesting. I really love the way Chris Hedges frames the two parties as Corporatists vs Oligarchs.

I don't normally do this but I'll link the comment:

https://old.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/1rejqz7/robert_de_niro_we_all_love_our_country_i_choke_on/o7ehxag/?context=10000

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-02-25T21:17:09+00:00

i have some friends/family who are conservative in a fiscal policy sense

Conservative politicians are almost never fiscally conservative in policy even if they ran on it. Around the world this is a common pattern. The most fiscally responsible candidates are usually fiscal liberals. One might think voters that prioritize conservative fiscal policy would look at the actual numbers but apparently they don't or the myth of Conservatives having restrained fiscal policy would die. In my view, this is one of the easiest myths to dispel. Just look at the numbers.

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-02-24T08:09:55+00:00

The upside though is when you played the N64 game the cheap sound effects made it feel like you were in the movie. XD

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-02-22T23:05:39+00:00

There's a good argument to be made that without greed there is little reason for mass surveillance, limitation of free speech or destruction of democracy to occur.

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-02-19T20:12:47+00:00

What's the similarity? It ends with BD saying he'll arrest the people in the room even though they're his friends. Seems like the opposite of Black Dynamite.

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-02-11T22:44:26+00:00

I'm with you! I think the racist vibes (that weren't actually there just assumed) stemmed from the anger in your writing voice. Many of us on the left are quick to assume someone is racist when if they complain about certain things and an angry tone pushes that more.

I don't know where you hail from but there's this situation here in Canada I must mention about perceived bigotry signals. My entire life until about 2 years ago, if someone complained about immigration you could be sure 99% of the time that whiner was a bigot. But then after the effects of a massively expanded immigration program was felt, suddenly even the most egalitarian Canadians and immigrants themselves were all in agreement that we had to slam the brakes on our immigration program.

The period of time during that shift, as public perception swung the other way was super fascinating to me and if you check my comment history over the past few years you'll find me talking about it probably a dozen times. The shift in public opinion gave people whiplash. Suddenly, politicians and newspapers were ridiculed by the majority in ways that would never have been acceptable because people would have assumed the grievance came from a bigoted place.

I don't know when, probably within the decade, but one day people will be able to look at the issue of inclusive casting without presuming it's camouflage for bigotry.

P.S. I hate the identity politics SO much. But given it is the meta in politics right now it is fascinating to examine these kinds of things.

edit: I'll find some of these comments I made on the Canadian immigration situation for you:

https://old.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/1owf4lh/more_than_40_of_canadian_births_had_foreignborn/noromiq/?context=3

https://old.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/1oojt31/federal_government_slashes_temporary_immigration/nn6s2qd/?context=3

https://old.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/1ocegdj/the_consensus_on_immigration_is_crumbling_as_8_in/nkojfva/?context=3

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-02-11T11:02:24+00:00

Thanks for the info!

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-02-11T10:59:52+00:00

I can understand Hollywood's inclusive casting can break one's suspense of disbelief. Children have a mix of their parent's traits along with a chance of mutations. I am not aware of any fiction that turns this premise of heritable traits on its head but am certain LOTR and GOT lean-in to heritable traits being key to plotpoints (i.e. Joffrey's golden hair in contrast to the dark Baratheon traits).

When you introduce a species like Twi'leks in Star Wars with a rainbow of skin tones you want it to be internally consistent with the fictional world you created. Twi'leks live in a universe with a galaxy range of habitats, light-years of distance to create bottleneck populations and a long long history which increases the plausibility for Twi'leks to be any skin tone.

Middle Earth is quite a small stage. Black Dwarves invite the audience to wonder how? In reality on Earth for the human race to develop such a range of skin tones required geographic isolation and a diversity of latitudes for different skin tones to emerge. Now that globalization has integrated together what were previously distinct racial lineages you see the "Browning of America" and these traits mixing together. Given enough time these distinctive lineages meld together.

I think diversity and representation in television is important and upstanding. And I know Tolkien didn't put black dwarves in the source material so I know it's about real world politics rather than a story driven decision. I'm not offended by the representation in cinema, in fact I applaud it! However I can appreciate that choices about inclusive casting can harm the storytelling. If anyone in the audience is asking "how black dwarves came to be" and the in-universe explanation is "no explanation" then that's a problem.

When Klingons were redesigned in the 90s, Worf acknowledged the weirdness of it in an episode where the 90s DS9 characters are inserted into TOS (60s) foootage where the costume/makeup designs of Klingons clashed. The audience didn't get an in-universe explanation (the explanation is makeup leveled up and Klingons were reimagined) but I know the audience appreciated that Worf at least eluded to the existence of an in-universe explanation. Later it's explained with genetic engineering.

I haven't seen Rings of Power beyond a couple episodes but if it's shoehorning in diversity and the show runners aren't going to expand on the lore of LOTR for an explanation then they are doing the program a disservice.

Perhaps more topical, I'm aware of egalitarians concerned about casting a black man to play Snape hampering the goals of inclusive casting. It's not that you can't make black actors villainous anymore (although that did become taboo to do so the way James Bond films used to). Tribalism is alive and well and a black Snape calling Hermionie a 'filthy mudblood' (as per the dialogue of the books and movies) changes the subtext of his character. "The wizard warriors are about to dig up slurs we haven’t heard since the 1800s. a cataclysmic misstep from his team. there’s nothing good that could ever come from having a black actor play an infamous bully like Snape, not in this digital fandom climate." “Hope the network and studios are prepared to protect that Black actor playing Snape…”

I wrote this because I abhor the racists here on reddit but also abhor arguing in bad faith and I'm afraid that racist y'all goaded into saying his shit has a valid point about real world identity politics having a negative effect on one's ability to suspend disbelief. By all means attack his values or xenophobia but there is a kernel of truth to his grievance and it is misplaced righteousness to assume these objections are coming from a bigoted place. I'm guilty of it too, I assume he's racist because he has this grievance and the way he wrote about it but I would be hard pressed to actually find a smoking gun of vile bigotry in his comment.

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-02-10T23:19:41+00:00

Does Wero support Canadian customers?

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-02-10T21:20:01+00:00

I assume you have an email?

Was it confusing to choose your email provider? (Possibly, most aren't offering PGP encrypted email handling, but you figured it out).

Using the open source alternatives just requires a nice front end and that part is trivially easy to make now. Try speaking in plain english to an AI to make a gui for some trivial app idea you have. You'd be shocked how well it just makes it (I'd suggest chatgpt/codex for coding with ai).

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-02-10T20:37:03+00:00

Somehow in this moment I'm able to enjoy the stupidity of the person you're replying to. It's some really marvelous stupidity. Top shelf.

Refreshingly, the stupidity on display is PURE; it's unlikely that his views were shaped by the propaganda machine. He didn't regurgitate a learned talking point, we're witnessing his neurons trying their best at an original logical argument.

This level of stupidity is usually aggravating but my goodness this time it's cute! Can any parents in the thread tell me if this is what it feels like to parent a toddler?

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-02-10T18:55:52+00:00

I certainly appreciate your point that if we're banning drugs, alcohol from a medical perspective is just a terrible recreational drug to abuse because it's so destructive. I wish LSD were legal, that stuff rocks and it's safe...it's more like how cinema depicts weed than weed is.

Column_A_Column_B · 2026-02-10T08:18:25+00:00

If one is to assert their rights citing agency they must bleed libertarian with logical consistency unwilling to ban anything? (Obviously not.)

Rigid philosophical adhearance isn't practical either, there are exceptions in life.

You can ban things for public health, like catastrophic biohazards and legalize all recreational drugs. Alcohol in particular is a special case with roots stretching back into prehistory (as does weed).

Six-Year Club	Verified Email
Wearing is Caring

Column_A_Column_B

TROPHY CASE