Can we just have trains please? Plain normal slow intercity trains, that have more than 5 departures a day. That would be great.
But no, we can only have one big high speed project that will take years and risk failing, like other mega projects.
Meanwhile VIA Rail sucks ass and it won’t ever get better. Just wait for Alto!
While the world is winding down we seem to want to move faster toward it’s inevitable conclusion.
Not entirely following you here. Winding down what?
We went all in on corporate profit over societal progress. It’s unsustainable and resources are dwindling. No social programs just drug addiction in a self-medicating world with the rest of the folk sticking their collective heads in the sand. Shame gone, not a lot of respect for people or institutions anymore. A low-level anger that seems to permeate everything. Unstable world politics indicating a revolutionary sea change sometimes in the near future. Maybe major projects will get that money flowing for everyone but I believe it’ll be the same old players who know how to use the system. That’s most likely just the tip of the iceberg. I believe there is also a lot of good and happiness in the world but more so on an individual level than a societal one.
You sure we’re in the same Canada? I mean, sure it’s not great and hasn’t been for at least 20 years, but it’s not the hellscape you’re describing either. That, I’m afraid, is in about another 20 years.
If you’re in Canada right this minute, then we are in the same Canada. I suspect the reality is closer to my description but we all wear varying shades of rose-coloured glasses and I always allow that I could be utterly and completely wrong in my ramblings.
I think it very much depends on your perspective, and also how old you are. Keep in mind I was 25 when the financial crisis hit. There really hasn’t been a decade in my adult life where there hasn’t been a once-in-a-lifetime event (I turned 18 and 9/11 hit). If I’m gonna wake up tomorrow with a chip on my shoulder, I have evidence. And if I let all of that shit define me, that chip on my shoulder’s gonna be Ontario-sized.
Do you maybe avoid politics as a topic in your life? Because the things melsaskca is describing are absolutely real.
Social program funding has been cut year over year for quite a long time.
A non insubstantial group of the population legitimately have no shame.
Respect for people (Indigenous, LGBTQ+ etc) is dwindling. Hell even had masked Nazi’s show up at one of the Reserves during Truth and Reconciliation day.
Respect for many Institution’s (higher education being a huge one) is basically dead in the water.
Low Level anger has definitely permeated society, largely driven by social media and now “AI”. People can see their futures completely quashed because some tech bro’s and CEO’s think they’re already at Artificial General Intelligence, when all they have is a tool that doesn’t work for shit without proper human structures behind it.
Unstable world politics is impossible to ignore.
Society is being actively damaged by the Wealth Class, from climate change denialism to abuse of foreign worker programs to cuts to healthcare.
Sure you can find good things still, but as melsaskca said, most of that is on an individual level not a societal one.
Thanks for the defense. I stand by what I said but it’s nice to know I’m not alone and just yelling into the wind. All the best.
Jebus but the apostrophe crime there.
Social program funding has been cut year over year for quite a long time.
I know. It’s why I am doing my level best to never be in a position to require government assistance again.
A non insubstantial group of the population legitimately have no shame.
That’s always been true. social media just made it more visible. Your racist uncle can spout his opinions on Facebook instead of solely at the dinner table.
Respect for people (Indigenous, LGBTQ+ etc) is dwindling. Hell even had masked Nazi’s show up at one of the Reserves during Truth and Reconciliation day.
The people who are disrespecting those groups now have always done so. They’ve just done so quietly until people in power started teaching them it was okay. Trump is one example, but there are others. And far too many of our people in power are included in that list.
Respect for many Institution’s (higher education being a huge one) is basically dead in the water.
Speaking as someone who has obtained postsecondary education, there’s a reason for that. In 2008 you were told go to college/university and you’ll land a good job. That was true. For about 15 years. Now the postsecondary education I have barely qualifies me to answer the phone and follow a script. But yes, also the deliberate underfunding of higher education - which predates the 2008 recession doesn’t help.
Low Level anger has definitely permeated society, largely driven by social media and now “AI”. People can see their futures completely quashed because some tech bro’s and CEO’s think they’re already at Artificial General Intelligence, when all they have is a tool that doesn’t work for shit without proper human structures behind it.
You’re giving AI too much credit. AI has become the most recent thing to blame for the current situation, and the AI bros are making that easy. But if not AI, it’ll be something else. Just like it was something else before AI. We’re never going to have it as easy as our parents, and our kids will never have it as easy as us. I’d be tempted to be pissed off about that too. It’s part of the reason I don’t have kids.
Unstable world politics is impossible to ignore.
That’s the circle coming back around again. They were impossible to ignore in the 30’s too, but the internet and social media didn’t exist back then. Disruption, meet megaphone.
Society is being actively damaged by the Wealth Class, from climate change denialism to abuse of foreign worker programs to cuts to healthcare.
You don’t need to be wealthy to be a climate change denier. And you don’t need to be wealthy to benefit from an abusive TFW program. And you especially don’t need to be wealthy to vote for any of the parties who would love to abuse that program, which is basically all of them.
Sure you can find good things still, but as melsaskca said, most of that is on an individual level not a societal one.
And I still disagree with this. Again, I’m not saying we don’t have our issues. But if there is literally nothing good left in this society, then please tell me how to start the process of tearing it down and replacing it with a better one. And then find at least three people who can agree on what “better” looks like.
Violence.
The reason we’re always told that Violence isn’t the answer, is because it works, and consistently at that.
The only times society actually gets objectively better for the majority, is after the majority show the Political and Wealth classes that they’re not immune to violence, nor are their families.
There is no peaceably forcing the hand of those that have gone Fascist, nor is there any other way to convince the Wealthy that what they’re doing is wrong. Dragging them out of their homes in front of their families and beating them to death is how change actually happens. That happens a few times and suddenly they see that the masses should be feared.
Luigi Mangione is an excellent example, the weeks following him allegedly shooting that Insurance CEO, and all kinds of people were approved for things that would have been denied otherwise. That is a microcosm of how change actually happens.
Left leaning people are usually incredibly against violence, you have to push them really far before they’re pick up that tool. Trying to talk down the right with words and platitudes does nothing. Their entire ideology is violence. Everything from cutting funding to Education and Healthcare to Climate change, that’s all violence being committed against the citizenry of the worldwide society.
It’s not going to stop until they’re forced into fear.
Nazi’s didn’t used to walk around the streets because beating the shit out of them was a valid response. They do now because it isn’t.
I mean, it has never been legal, in Canada, to beat the shit out of anyone, regardless your opinion of that person. I’d like to see a source that says otherwise. It has never even been legal to do that in Germany, and they gave birth to the damn things.
Luigi Mangione is an excellent example, the weeks following him allegedly shooting that Insurance CEO, and all kinds of people were approved for things that would have been denied otherwise. That is a microcosm of how change actually happens.
You’re gonna need a source for this, I’m afraid. All I can find is vague mumblings about more transparency after it happened. Regardless, are you really bringing an example from the country where guns are the answer to everything into a country where guns are considered evil and should be banned? BTW the ban is supported by the left.
Disclaimer: I am neither left, right nor centre and in fact despise labels like that. But the folks who generally call themselves left seem proud of that fact so for the purposes of this discussion, those folks are who I mean.