Canadian Pride and the Olympics

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I always cringe when Canada releases something that supposedly exemplifies Canadian pride.

One of our stereotypes is that we’re humble. You can’t be proud about being humble, that doesn’t make any sense! (Whether or not the stereotype has merit is a debate for another day)

Plus our attempts to find a national identity are always cringeworthy, because part of our “brand” is that we’re multicultural. We don’t have any “one” national identity. That defeats the purpose of multiculturalism. (Disclaimer: Not all Canadians received that memo. Rural Canadians and Quebecois separatists tend to be the most egregious offenders of this stereotype)

So the logic goes: what do all Canadians have in common, regardless of where they or their ancestors came from?

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Cathy Brennan is a fake goth (among other things)

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Content Notice: Virulent transphobia.

Cathy Brennan mentions on her Twitter that she identifies as a goth. Brennan also thinks trans women are “fake,” so someone eventually picked up on the fact that she has goth on her profile and asked Brennan if she’s a “fake goth.”

I’d include the links, but apparently, Brennan has apparently got Facebook to ban anyone who so much as states the message in a status update.

Just so we’re clear, Facebook considers this an offense of its user policy:

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Dear clueless “allies,” please stop helping us

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Content notice for mostly clueless cissexism.

With the recent surge in transphobic bigotry, there’s been an increase in (attempted) support for trans people as well. The problem is that a lot of this “support” is actually perpetuating transphobia.

First example will have no links, because it involves a young transgender girl and I’m not going to shine a spotlight on her Facebook for the hate shitstorm she’s already dealing with. Let’s call her Jane. Jane’s mom posts a photo of her young daughter in the style of a magazine cover–edited to all hell, airbrushed, enviable eyeliner and make-up to the nines. She’s even sporting a fantastic resting bitch face to match. She’s wearing a sort of country girl outfit, blue denim jeans and a stark white tank top. Her hair is long, half way down her back, curly and wavy like a shampoo model. All in all it’s a picture that screams high femme, unattainable without digital assistance as are most beauty standards.

Then the mom posts a caption along asking if it would be okay for you to send someone who looked like that into the men’s room.

The implication being that you should be comfortable sending your daughter in the men’s room if she doesn’t look like that.

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Anti-vaxxers convicted for negligence in death of child

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Some anti-vaxxer Albertan parents who decided to treat their infant child’s meningitis with hot peppers and garlic have been charged with “failing to provide the necessities of life:”

David Stephan, 32, and Collet Stephan, 36, were charged a year after their nearly 19-month-old son Ezekiel died in March 2012, under Section 215 of the Criminal Code which deals with “failing to provide the necessaries of life.”

…

Shannon Prithipaul, the past president of the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association, thinks it would be unlikely for the couple to receive “something close to the maximum.”

“It’s not like they were not feeding their child or they were purposely withholding medication that they knew would assist the child but didn’t,” she said.

Emphasis mine.

See, shit like this is why I consider myself a consequentialist thinker. We spend way too much time giving people the benefit of the doubt for intentions. Because yes, they absolutely withheld medicine despite all evidence suggesting the treatment was well understood, and that resulted in the death of their child.

Oh, and the real kicker? Alberta has socialized medicine. It is in fact more expensive to self medicate in emergencies than it is to take your kid to the hospital.

Anyway, my home province seems to be doing pretty good. First we elected an ostensibly socialist party, then we started taxing the stupidly rich, and now we’re convicting people for what should be rightly considered criminal neglect.

Stay cool lovelies.

-Shiv

Breaking news: Rust is a secret SJW plot and not a survival game

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Oh dog, lovelies, I can’t stop laughing.

So, what is Rust? From their About page:

It is a massive multiplayer game (currently up to 300 players per server) where you and other players are attempting to survive through the awful conditions, where humanity has been reduced to cavemen.

Rust’s world is harsh. The environment is not kind. Bears and wolves will chase and kill you. Falling from a height will kill you. Being exposed to radiation for an extended period will kill you. Starving will kill you. Being cold will kill you. Other players can find you, kill you, and take your stuff. Fortunately for you, you can kill others and take their stuff. Or maybe you can make friends and help each other survive, using the game’s building tools to create a safe haven.

We provide the tools. How players survive is up to them.

So what’s so funny about that? Oh man, guys, this is so good. The irony is catastrophic. I’m practically giddy. Are you ready? This is the best punchline I’ve seen in ages. 

The game randomly assigns your avatar’s sex and race based on your Steam ID–a fixed number beyond your control.

Predictably, entitled and fragile white cis men were (still are) freaking out.

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Coming up on AtG, May edition

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Hello interwebs. I hope you’re having a lovely weekend! I had my first 8.5 hours of uninterrupted sleep in 6 weeks. No nightmares, no imaginary arguments, no staring at the ceiling and waiting for sleep to claim me. Acute episodes of PTSD suck. And at least part of that healing process has been trying to expand on some of the issues affecting me into broader discussions about how the issues permeate into society. Here’s what to expect for the May program on AtG:

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Proper Canadian Values

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Trudeau tries to keep his gains in support from minorities and women by maintaining, and in some cases expanding, social programs such as childcare benefits. But the federal government is trying to do this without going overboard on the deficit–so what’s one of their strategies to make up the difference? Are they cutting their military spending? Raising taxes? Nah.

They’re selling combat vehicles to Saudi Arabia.

I understand and support deficit spending on make-work projects in order to dig one’s country out of a recession. But surely there’s improvements to be made at home, where we aren’t handing weapons over to an authoritarian monarchy with a shitstain for a human rights record? Seriously, at least part of the reason the Middle East is a mess is because the Americans sold them military hardware years ago. Haven’t we seen how that turns out?

I don’t really want a bolstered childcare benefit paid for on the backs of Saudis protesting for democracy and human rights…

-Shiv

 

True Canadian Values

True Canadian Values

Quality education shouldn’t stop because the subject matter is ‘gross’

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Today we are discussing an instagram user that is both: 1) a science educator; and 2) a human pathologist. This comes with a rather obvious Content Notice: We are discussing a person who is granting a platform of education regarding death, bodies, and forensics. Their photographs feature human bodies in various states of decay and injury. Follow the links at your own risk.

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The REAL reason the world ended in the Fallout universe!

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Was the apocalypse in the Fallout universe caused by single-resource dependencies for energy grids? Was it caused by desperate governments hellbent on nuclear proliferation? Was it caused by an extended practice of imperialism which never truly ended?!

No. I have discovered the truth.

It’s because The Cambridge Diner has a gender neutral washroom:

 

The horror!

The horror!

Take care of yourselves, lovelies. I know you’re just ruined by this information.

-Shiv