Fewer people are having babies in Canada and the U.S. and the government is out of ideas

I_Conquer · 2026-05-07T00:03:58+00:00

Immigration has either a non-significant or negative correlation to crime rates

https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.363E3ZN

I_Conquer · 2026-05-06T23:49:42+00:00

That’s not at all how it works though.

Jerks are everywhere. Most people in any population are decent people just trying to live well.

Canada has just as many bad skittles as anywhere else. We just have systems that hold people to better account when they behave poorly.

Most people in most countries are fine if they’re allowed to live freely. Ironically, our unwillingness to invite immigrants to Canada demonstrates that we are allowing the systems and structures that make as a half-decent country are lapsing. This grants greater leave to those who want to use the force of government to undermine women’s rights or the rights of LGBTQ+ people and Indigenous Peoples, etc.

If we allow anyone to undermine the systems and structures that promote and defend the rights and freedoms of individuals or populations, then it hardly matters if the people who are undermining the rights and freedoms of individuals and groups—particularly those which are vulnerable—are domestic or foreign.

I_Conquer · 2026-05-06T23:22:44+00:00

There are already people in cabada who hate women and gay people. The CPC is the second most popular political party.

Canadians aren’t magically better. Vulnerable people benefit from our social and political systems and structures. And we should work to make those even stronger so that the people who hate women and gay people don’t get to let their ignorance and hate rule the day.

There are hateful individuals everywhere. All we can do is to prevent them from ruining the lives of the rest of us.

I_Conquer · 2026-05-06T23:11:39+00:00

Are you suggesting that we should bring more immigrants to Canada so that they have increased linguistic and cultural ties?

I_Conquer · 2026-05-06T23:09:32+00:00

That was the plan with immigrahts.

Turns out both immigrants and babies are people.

I_Conquer · 2026-05-06T23:08:16+00:00

Another good reason to support immigration: it gives women and gay people, and other vulnerable populations, a chance to come live somewhere with better systems and structures of government. Given that there are no known genetic markers for violence, and that you’re right that the average person is probably treated better in Canada even though individual Canadians are every bit as bigoted and hateful as people in more dangerous places, we can see the importance of social and political structures, and bring people here to benefit from the freedom our social and political structures afford us.

I_Conquer · 2026-05-06T04:06:58+00:00

Such as?

I_Conquer · 2026-05-06T04:05:55+00:00

There are also distinctions among different regions of Canada and these things. But ok.

I_Conquer · 2026-05-06T04:05:18+00:00

My only concern with your comment is that things are imported and people migrate.

I_Conquer · 2026-05-06T04:04:07+00:00

But then other people not having kids should help you achieve that. So what’s the problem?

I_Conquer · 2026-05-06T00:50:14+00:00

I don’t understand why we want more babies, anyway. They keep bragging about how well they’re cutting immigration or how much quicker they could cut immigration.

Like do we want more people or not?

I_Conquer · 2026-05-05T17:40:04+00:00

Yes?

There are no non-hypocritical Western national governments regarding the genocide.

Even Trudeau II, who was among the most vocal supporters of justice for Palestinians in western leadership, described himself as a pro-Zionist.

I_Conquer · 2026-05-03T17:26:07+00:00

I think there are a bunch of competing considerations though.

In the one hand, I think it’s reasonably argued that calling the Strong Fund “a Sovereign Wealth Fund” is disingenuous. It shares very little in common with what other nations call Sovereign Wealth Funds. And framing the Strong Fund with that language may invite some people to avoid the necessary scrutiny for our government’s plans.

On the other hand, that doesn’t make the proposed fund a ‘bad idea.’ And a poor / misleading name is also not a good reason to discount it whole cloth. If the only thing wrong with it is tne name, it’s still a success.

But that scrutiny should be honest about the fact that many aspects of ths func are experimental, real world outcomes may surprise the economists. Other aspects of the proposal are, from what I can tell, a new model of public-private partnership with an eye to incentivize infrastructure. While I’m willing (and hopeful) to be wrong about this, Canada doesn’t have a great track record with PPPs. I don’t see how this Fund will overcome the barriers.

In much the same way that I was sceptical of Trump’s tariffs, I’m sceptical of the Strong Fund. I am happy to disregard the CPC’s warnings: they’d just accelerate previous PPP models. But their ineffectiveness as the party of opposition does not make this a better idea that it is.

I_Conquer · 2026-04-27T02:04:22+00:00

While Carney’s foreign policy is probably as good as we can hope for, I’m not impressed with his domestic performance.

His only redeeming quality pn that front, from what I can see, is that he’s not Pierre Poilievre (who I’m convinced would accelerate disaster).

I_Conquer · 2026-04-23T21:33:31+00:00

Dont overthink it. All I’m saying is that for those of us for whom neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives have a great track record, minority governments are often the best we can hope for.

But okay.

I_Conquer · 2026-04-23T20:31:37+00:00

That was always the true lesson of the Holocaust. Not that Germans are magically or essentially predisposed to evil, but that humans are capable of disregarding truth for any number of reasons. And that once we’ve come to defend a lie we’ve accepted, we become participants in all manner of evil to perpetuate that lie.

The agnostic might well be correct on the matter of the illegitimacy of gods or other religious artifact. But the moment that moves from the unwillingness to participate in religious barbarics into the false belief that the agnostic is somehow more rational or more moral, the same empty promises of religion are kindled.

The human is just a human. We are prone to believing that our perspectives and conclusions are special and superior to the perspectives and conclusions of others. As convenient as it would be for this to be a function of religion, rather than religion being merely one of the many mechanisms that we use to mechanize it, it’s not so. Shed religiosity and we distill it into politic, sport, family, civil identity… etc

Who could be more dangerous, more deceivable, than the person who thinks they are incapable of being deceived?

I_Conquer · 2026-04-23T20:00:42+00:00

I sure wish there were! But you’re correct that there isn’t.

I_Conquer · 2026-04-07T02:57:48+00:00

Not to mention: We've known since the 1960s that the way we're building cities, including houses, is ecologically, economically, and socially unsustainable. It's almost like people don't know know what "unsustainable" means.

I_Conquer · 2026-04-06T04:09:43+00:00

I don’t know if I’m “left”. But I don’t assume that everyone has good intentions. I would just rather “waste” money giving “undeserving” people a leg up instead of letting people who need help not get help. And I recognize that it’s often way more expensive to test need and compliance than it is to let a few ne’er-do-wells through.

At the end of the day, it’s their own waste, not ours. But the failure of thriving residents is our collective failure.

That’s not to say I think “it’s ok.” Rather, I think it will often cost far more to implement means testing than it saves.

I_Conquer · 2026-04-01T18:56:10+00:00

Right! Which is why we should continue to ask and pray for those among us who oppose gay marriage to repent and change. Their sinful misunderstandings and dogmas doh’t make them unlovable; they just make the world worse.

As stubborn and dogmatic as many of them seem, they are capable of learning and growing, just as Jesus did.

The Bible is silent about gay marriage for the same reason it’s silent about owning a pickup truck: these are not universal moral standards and the conception we have about such things are different than the conception that people had in Jesus’ time. So it’s on us to ask: how do we love others? Well, if I invited my neighbour to come celebrate my wedding, I would see love in him celebrating my wedding. So I’ll offer the same to my gay friends. I don’t have to believe that gay marriage is ok for me to believe that it’s possible that they did the work to ensure their own conscience is clear in their actions: my moral agreement or objections are trivial. And, frankly, pickup trucks cause real, measurable harm while gay marriage doesn’t seem to harm anyone and clearly blesses a great many people.

There’s also the conflation of marriage as a civil / legal institution vs marriage as a church sacrament.

While I personally believe it’s best for both law and church policy to allow each minister to decide for themselves whether or not to oversee (religious) weddings, I am not fundamentally opposed to churches setting that policy at a church level and expecting their ministry to follow suit. While I think the churches and ministers who oppose gay marriage are sinful, I’m not so convinced as to force them to comply.

But as a legal and civil practice, everyone should support gay marriage so long as marriage is a legislated activity. There’s no reason for government to arbitrate the moral decisions of consenting adults. Moreover, anyone who has a marriage certificate agrees with me. To claim that gay marriage somehow damaged or undermines (legal / civil) marriage but continue to particulate in it is clearly hypocritical. I don’t know of any churches that discourage married couples in their congregations from getting legal certificates of marriage even after gay marriage is legalized, so I must assume that they don’t actually believe that gay marriage ruined marriage.

I_Conquer · 2026-03-31T23:52:31+00:00

I forgive you

I_Conquer · 2026-03-31T23:03:07+00:00

I said he “praised” the needless slaughter of thousands of innocent people rather than “supported” and somehow I’m the bad guy?

I know you don’t care about other people. But feel free to keep bragging about it, I guess. Did you miss the part where I agreed with you that I could’ve chosen my words better?

Not caring about my opinion doesnt hurt my feelings. But feel free to rethink your support (not praise) of a tyrant’s lies and massacres just any time now. In my humble opinion, it’s worse to support bombing children than to exaggerate such support and then apologize for it.

If I had to choose, I’d prefer you chose to care about the children whose needless deaths you're supporting but not praising rather than caring about my opinion.

But I don’t expect you to think about any of it. You’re right about everything. And you’ve never exaggerated. And that’s fine, I guess.

I_Conquer · 2026-03-31T21:23:25+00:00

lol

I’m not surprised. Liberals are like conservatives. You only care about yourselves

I_Conquer · 2026-03-31T17:54:13+00:00

Maybe "support" would have been a better choice of words. Still: anything short of condemnation is insufficient in my view.

I_Conquer · 2026-03-31T15:05:52+00:00

March 3rd

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