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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 18th, 2023

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  • I don’t have time to read the article right now unfortunately, and have only glanced at it, but anyone not concerned about the global rise of authoritarianism isn’t paying attention. Based on my glances, I thought the commenters disparaging the Tyee read less of the article than me. I think we’re seeing a post-election uptick in US commenters making US-centric comments on Canadian news article posts on lemmy.ca. When they’re relevant or thoughtful, I don’t mind. I hope to read this slightly dated, but perhaps more relevant now than before, article later





  • It’s not just about the bike lanes. The bike lanes removal is part of a bill ford is using to build a highway. I’m not sure how much the bike lanes bit is a distraction from him circumventing opposition to a highway he wants to build. I definitely think the bike lanes removal is an issue, but it’s not the full picture of ford’s latest effort to @#$ the people of Ontario over, which we shouldn’t lose site of.

    https://thenarwhal.ca/ontario-highway-413-bill-explainer/ (bold mine):

    If built, Highway 413 would run through Ontario’s Greenbelt, prime farmland, wetlands, woodlands and waterways, connecting suburbs north and west of Toronto. Ford’s Progressive Conservatives have been trying to build it since 2018, and won re-election in 2022 on promises to deliver on the highway. But the process has been bogged down by intervention from the federal government — plus backlash over the 413’s environmental impact and the well-connected developers that stand to benefit from its construction.

    Six years later, with shovels not yet in the ground and the premier hinting at an early election, the government is now making another attempt to hit the gas pedal. It’s selling the new legislation — which also includes measures to restrict bike lanes — as a way to solve the Greater Toronto Area’s traffic woes, despite years of evidence showing new highways don’t relieve congestion and bike lanes don’t cause it.



  • The privacy violations seem egregious to me. Then there’s the fact that this bill will secure pensions for 80 politicians by pushing the next election back a week. Why doesn’t the electorate trust politicians more? /s

    I think political parties love where politics is at. It’s become about data collection and copious personalized advertising to ‘key voters’ (ie, small groups of voters that heavily and unfairly sway overall results in first-past-the-post style elections). Policy and party identity are passé and not as easy to game the system and be reactionary with. It’s easier to buy votes (via personalized advertising) than it ever was before this era of social media saturation, I think.

    I’m in my 30s and I reject these sort of privacy violations (and freedom of reach), in part because I remember how much ownership and privacy consumers used to enjoy. Now, we can’t access many services without handing over gobs of our data, and because we often pay for licenses versus actual goods (eg, netflix) we are at the whims of companies when they want to change their services, increase fees (eg, surge pricing), or change end-user agreements.

    I make a point of my age, because when I talk to people in their 20s and younger, they often don’t see things like I do; my privacy-centric views seem strange to them. For people who’ve experienced puberty and onwards with multiple mainstream social media platforms, they seem to regard this relationship with products and companies as completely normal. Good news for the oligarchs.



  • In a very superficial way, yes; in a meaningful way, not at all imo. In response to Black Lives Matter, “all lives matter” was a way of delegitimizing a marginalized group’s fight for justice and equality. Recognizing all victims of war and not strictly NATO soldiers (ie the red poppy) is about including more marginalized people in our memorializing, not fewer. It’s quite opposite to “all lives matter” actually



  • Shocked, saddened here.

    I can’t believe Trump did so well. He’ll be the first Republican to win the popular vote since 2004. He’s a racist, sexist, transphobic, fascist, anti-science rapist, convicted felon, climate change-denier, and champion of the uber wealthy.

    I guess there are many more deeply racist and sexist people than I wish to believe. It’s BS how first-past-the-post and the electoral college systems work - it’s so very easy to manipulate the system when you know the precious few key areas in advance to try to influence. Control of mainstream news and social media by the billionaire gives dis-, misinformation, and other bias so much reach to undermine democracy and voters’ rational self-interest.



  • I hope the Liberals and NDP learn from Trump’s surprisingly good results. Populism is really big right now and any party not embracing that as a means of staying relevant will not stand a chance of forming a government imo. (See the carbon rebate debacle, for example. I don’t like this, but it’s how I see things in the era of most people getting their news on billionaire-run social media platforms). Unfortunately, I do not foresee Trudeau stepping aside or acting with any ‘shape up or ship out’ pressure to adapt