deleted by creator

Canada is basically USA-lite (sorry). We play cricket with NZ, India, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, South Africa and the Poms while you are playing seppo sports. You want to be part of the Commonwealth when things are tough but the rest of the time you are up the USA hard. So you are kind of Commonwealth-lite as well. We might be friendly and our countries sort of weird mirror images but pragmatically we don’t have much in the way of common interests or uses to each other. Neither has a navy able to bust a blockade from the US or China so we are useless to each other militarily. Most of your exports go to North America and most of ours go to Asia. Apart from off season skiing there isn’t a lot there.

Meanwhile there is a certain group of people who are anglophile, white supremacist, monarchist, regressives who want the British empire back and we have them in Australia as well. They plotted coups against the government in the 1930s but they are back again today, emboldened by Trumpism and social media. I am suspicious as hell about CANZUK types. Fascists are the problem, not the solution. If people want a union based on those values, Trump is offering it all.

Muslims ruled the Iberian peninsula for about 800 years. Islam had a very productive golden age of great scholarship, science and maths that had a huge influence on European thought and progress.

Canada actually shares a land border with the EU.

Brazil has a stronger claim if that was is all that counted.

Georgia has no such claim but is a great candidate for EU membership.

France’s longest land border is with Brazil. Brazil has not been invited to the EU despite being the past home of the Portuguese throne which in a reverse colonialism move kind of makes Brazil a past European power, majority Catholic and they speak a European language. Brazil would be the fourth largest economy in Europe, ahead of Canada with higher economic growth. They would be past Italy and aiming for the French position in no time.

Pakistan, India, South Africa and Nigeria are Commonwealth countries. How about bringing in the other European ex-colonies? Indonesia has a lot of potential, similar sized economy to their old rulers the Netherlands and growing faster.

The reason Europe likely would be receptive to Canada isn’t cultural. It isn’t language. It is that they have a relatively small population with relatively high incomes and a lot of resources. They don’t threaten the status quo.

Nah, Eurovision is enough. We are happy to be everyones mates and have access to their markets. Our focus is Asian markets and it hurts our interests enough that some in the region view us as a remnant of European colonialism without us leaning into that. We aren’t colonial and we aren’t European. We need to find our own identity. Unlike Canada we aren’t heavily dependent on exports to the US and desperate to find a replacement. Our equivalent would be a trade war with China and we have already proved we can cope with that.

I am more concerned about the US alliance. If they can shit on Ukraine and by extension Europe all our strategic planning and defence investments are worthless overnight as we can’t rely on parts, or support let alone US forces showing up.

The Chinese writing system probably isn’t so bad with predictive text entry (perhaps even better than English) but I think a tonal language with limited sounds has some challenges taking on the dominance of English in global culture. I like songs in other languages but being able to listen to artists from South America, Mexico, Germany, Italy, Norway, Finland singing in English is a privilege I don’t take for granted. When you go down the rabbit hole and discover a country like Japan has a lot of talented musicians it is sometimes hard to understand why they don’t have more global recognition until you understand that countries struggles with English language proficiency.

Also English vocab borrows from all around the world. That gives a lot more flexibility for word choice than a language like Esperanto.

I am not the enemy and I am genuinely sorry for your hardship (though not nearly as much as for people born into poverty, war and genocide in far lass fortunate countries)

Americans trying to justify themselves on social media seems like a waste of energy and focus and its probably not good for mental health. Outside opinion that contradicts the narratives we have in our heads is important. My opinion might be wrong but its a genuine observation. My very real fear is we can’t rely on US citizens to fight for their democracy anymore and that has global implications for the world and my children’s future. Please prove me wrong. I love to learn new things. The BLM protests were huge but perhaps they turned from grass roots outrage into a social media phenomenon instead of a real effective political movement.

Protecting our kids is an issue that cuts across all beliefs, races, classes to the heart of our humanity, the most basic goodness that unites our species. I think the turning point, if such a thing exists, may have been Columbine, 1999. Not the bad guys on 9/11, not Putin election interference or MAGA. That is the issue that would have really outraged most countries. Millions on the streets protesting. Politicians of all parties scrambling to act. The shootings kept getting worse every year and it was swept under the carpet. More than the homelessness, wealth inequality, healthcare, that makes me worry a lot for your future and by extension the rest of us. We are definitely drifting to the right here and are a worse society as a result but for all our similarities and weaknesses that is still the the most fundamental issue that separates your politics and society from ours which is why I think we can never really be in your situation (we also don’t have the historical acrimony and economic disadvantage stemming from a bloody civil war).

They won’t. They couldn’t even get upset over kids being massacred every week in their schools. They are a broken people. Have been for decades. Their military.and economy didn’t fail. Their moral fiber did. They substituted thoughts and prayers and other virtue signalling for community organisation and direct action.

If you think I am wrong then don’t reply. Go outside and prove it. Nobody gives a shit what people write in social media. It means nothing.

Reply that you work for Meta and Mark said it will be ok.