Canada 15:11 - Oct 24 with 7248 views | BklynRanger | As tragic as a loss of human life is, and as pleasant as Canadians generally are as people, I hope that they and everyone one else soon shut ups about this 'Terrorism reaches Canadian shores' story. One nutter kills someone, runs into the parliament buildings with a gun and it's cart blanche to have interviews in the street with 'resolute' members of the public about their 'Freedoms' and their 'way of life'. A Canadian girl in work came up to me yesterday and told me her family live 'only 35 minutes away' from that incident in Ottawa. When I asked if she was concerned for their safety she actually thought I was serious! It's the same down here with New Yorkers and Americans in general going on about their Freedoms and their toughness. Quite honestly, with the exception of the fire fighters on 9/11 I have never seen evidence of New Yorkers being in any way uniquely tough. And now the Canadians are coming out with the same shit! People in countries that actually have it tough must be laughing their arses off at these North Americans and their cuddly rhetoric. I know this may come across as an unreasonable rant but its just embarassing and irritating to witness. [Post edited 24 Oct 2014 15:12]
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Canada on 15:18 - Oct 24 with 4325 views | pomanjou | All nationalities do although I do agree this Canadian reaction is approaching an art form. Everyone seems to want to have been close to any action as if gets reflected glory. Soldiers do it. Less than 10% of all troops get to see real action and the rest are stuck at headquarters or training battalions or boiling cabbage at base. I was behind the goal when Hungary beat England 3-6 at Wembley. Now I'm at it.......... | |
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Canada on 15:22 - Oct 24 with 4298 views | QPunkR | It's been going for ages though. For one of the original ones, please refer to the 'Blitz spirit' forever rolled out about Londoners. Obviously I'm not trying to say it was fun, all that being bombed from the skies etc, but other places have had it worse and made less fuss about it. | |
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Canada on 16:12 - Oct 24 with 4227 views | BklynRanger |
Canada on 15:22 - Oct 24 by QPunkR | It's been going for ages though. For one of the original ones, please refer to the 'Blitz spirit' forever rolled out about Londoners. Obviously I'm not trying to say it was fun, all that being bombed from the skies etc, but other places have had it worse and made less fuss about it. |
There was a bit in one of Malcolm Gladwell's books (maybe the latest one) about the blitz spirit and similar mindsets. Basically the theory is that if you are close to a cataclysmic event, but aren't directly affected by it - e.g. killed or maimed, then you actually gain strength from that feeling of survivability. So the blitz spirit and other modern examples are a collective expression of that experience. I dunno but it's not a bad theory. [Post edited 24 Oct 2014 16:14]
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Canada on 16:21 - Oct 24 with 4199 views | Hayesender | The city of Liverpool have had it much worse than anyone else ever | |
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Canada on 16:23 - Oct 24 with 4193 views | jamois | Brooklyn I don't think it unreasonable at all. Far from it in fact, I think you went easy. I used to think that Canadians were the acceptable face of North Americanism, that in reality they had much more in common with their Commonwealth cousins and with the British in particular. This is certainly how they get portrayed and I swallowed that line until I ended up living in a town full of them and Yanks. And what I've found is that both are largely indistinguishable except there are some key differences which can actually make the Canucks even less appealing. Canadians are subjected to the same all-pervasive and vitriolic news media and general way of life, yet by dint of being from the commonwealth and not being Americans, they regard themselves as being a cut above, a bit different. I've found them, almost without exception, to be boring, boorish, lacking in humour, incredibly literal in the way they understand things (including humour) and even more arrogant than their yank cousins. The idea of the old ties to Blighty are long since gone. There is no humility, no humour, just (largely) an empty space, they are Americans with a different flag. With these new cultures, they've not integrated the subtle humbling impacts, passed on through generations, of wars, famine, invasions, terrorism, colonialism, empires falling and rising and falling.....all of which takes its toll on the shaping of a culture. North Americans are still like new-born babies in this respect, except they're new-borns with a voice, a loud one. Hence the need to define themselves so belligerently as, amongst other things, tough and free. They swallow this shite the media feeds them like the wee babies they are because they think it defines them, gives them identity. Give 'em a few hundred years more, let their empires crumble away, and they'll be alright. Is that enough of an unreasonable rant for ya?! [Post edited 24 Oct 2014 16:27]
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Canada on 16:29 - Oct 24 with 4174 views | loftboy |
Canada on 16:12 - Oct 24 by BklynRanger | There was a bit in one of Malcolm Gladwell's books (maybe the latest one) about the blitz spirit and similar mindsets. Basically the theory is that if you are close to a cataclysmic event, but aren't directly affected by it - e.g. killed or maimed, then you actually gain strength from that feeling of survivability. So the blitz spirit and other modern examples are a collective expression of that experience. I dunno but it's not a bad theory. [Post edited 24 Oct 2014 16:14]
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My dad went down the bomb shelter one night, when he emerged the girl next door whom he walked to school with and her family and their house had been wiped out by a doodle bug. | |
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Canada on 17:58 - Oct 24 with 4087 views | BklynRanger |
Canada on 16:23 - Oct 24 by jamois | Brooklyn I don't think it unreasonable at all. Far from it in fact, I think you went easy. I used to think that Canadians were the acceptable face of North Americanism, that in reality they had much more in common with their Commonwealth cousins and with the British in particular. This is certainly how they get portrayed and I swallowed that line until I ended up living in a town full of them and Yanks. And what I've found is that both are largely indistinguishable except there are some key differences which can actually make the Canucks even less appealing. Canadians are subjected to the same all-pervasive and vitriolic news media and general way of life, yet by dint of being from the commonwealth and not being Americans, they regard themselves as being a cut above, a bit different. I've found them, almost without exception, to be boring, boorish, lacking in humour, incredibly literal in the way they understand things (including humour) and even more arrogant than their yank cousins. The idea of the old ties to Blighty are long since gone. There is no humility, no humour, just (largely) an empty space, they are Americans with a different flag. With these new cultures, they've not integrated the subtle humbling impacts, passed on through generations, of wars, famine, invasions, terrorism, colonialism, empires falling and rising and falling.....all of which takes its toll on the shaping of a culture. North Americans are still like new-born babies in this respect, except they're new-borns with a voice, a loud one. Hence the need to define themselves so belligerently as, amongst other things, tough and free. They swallow this shite the media feeds them like the wee babies they are because they think it defines them, gives them identity. Give 'em a few hundred years more, let their empires crumble away, and they'll be alright. Is that enough of an unreasonable rant for ya?! [Post edited 24 Oct 2014 16:27]
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Yes, that's fine. I have found some reasonable Canucks but I do agree with parts of that. The odd feeling of superiority seems hard to justify a lot of the time. The second paragraph I couldn't have put better myself. | | | |
Canada on 18:44 - Oct 24 with 4040 views | Toast_R | Glad i never had to live through the blitz. Hearing those bombs drop with the thought that the next one might have your name on it must have been f@cking terrifying and to suffer that every single night is unimaginable. Rolled out indeed. Those poor bastards lived through it and somehow kept their heads down to go to continue helping their country fight a terrible enemy. Heroes. | | | | Login to get fewer ads
Canada on 18:50 - Oct 24 with 4034 views | BrianMcCarthy | Been thinking about this as well and slightly worried by the Canadian reaction. If all it takes is one shooting by a Candian citizen to get the mild/mannered Canadians to increase security and into enter into 'War on Terror' mode, then we really are in a worrying state of affairs. It was a shooting. Why the huge change in mindset? | |
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Canada on 18:56 - Oct 24 with 4011 views | joolsyp |
Canada on 16:23 - Oct 24 by jamois | Brooklyn I don't think it unreasonable at all. Far from it in fact, I think you went easy. I used to think that Canadians were the acceptable face of North Americanism, that in reality they had much more in common with their Commonwealth cousins and with the British in particular. This is certainly how they get portrayed and I swallowed that line until I ended up living in a town full of them and Yanks. And what I've found is that both are largely indistinguishable except there are some key differences which can actually make the Canucks even less appealing. Canadians are subjected to the same all-pervasive and vitriolic news media and general way of life, yet by dint of being from the commonwealth and not being Americans, they regard themselves as being a cut above, a bit different. I've found them, almost without exception, to be boring, boorish, lacking in humour, incredibly literal in the way they understand things (including humour) and even more arrogant than their yank cousins. The idea of the old ties to Blighty are long since gone. There is no humility, no humour, just (largely) an empty space, they are Americans with a different flag. With these new cultures, they've not integrated the subtle humbling impacts, passed on through generations, of wars, famine, invasions, terrorism, colonialism, empires falling and rising and falling.....all of which takes its toll on the shaping of a culture. North Americans are still like new-born babies in this respect, except they're new-borns with a voice, a loud one. Hence the need to define themselves so belligerently as, amongst other things, tough and free. They swallow this shite the media feeds them like the wee babies they are because they think it defines them, gives them identity. Give 'em a few hundred years more, let their empires crumble away, and they'll be alright. Is that enough of an unreasonable rant for ya?! [Post edited 24 Oct 2014 16:27]
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Dear Jamois, Go fcuk yourself. Love, a Canadian. ;-) | | | |
Canada on 19:04 - Oct 24 with 3994 views | bobby | There's a bit of speculation that this is a 'false flag' operation to get the Canadians on board.. it does look suspect given the cameramen present and the joking gunman in the internet videos.. also questions being asked about the possibly photo shopped beheadings.. | |
| http://twitter.com/#/bobbyosborne1 |
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Canada on 19:48 - Oct 24 with 3951 views | Brightonhoop |
Canada on 18:50 - Oct 24 by BrianMcCarthy | Been thinking about this as well and slightly worried by the Canadian reaction. If all it takes is one shooting by a Candian citizen to get the mild/mannered Canadians to increase security and into enter into 'War on Terror' mode, then we really are in a worrying state of affairs. It was a shooting. Why the huge change in mindset? |
It's easier to pass dodgy Legislation if you have a cared population perceiving they are under attack. It's a massive over-reaction to a comparitivey small event, as distressing as it must have been for those present. | | | |
Canada on 19:54 - Oct 24 with 3943 views | TheBlob |
Canada on 15:22 - Oct 24 by QPunkR | It's been going for ages though. For one of the original ones, please refer to the 'Blitz spirit' forever rolled out about Londoners. Obviously I'm not trying to say it was fun, all that being bombed from the skies etc, but other places have had it worse and made less fuss about it. |
Really?Who was that then? And please define "fuss". [Post edited 24 Oct 2014 19:56]
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Canada on 20:03 - Oct 24 with 3927 views | Brightonhoop |
Canada on 19:54 - Oct 24 by TheBlob | Really?Who was that then? And please define "fuss". [Post edited 24 Oct 2014 19:56]
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Erm, Dresden for one. Bombing was not as prolonged as it was for London but the total carnage was complete and made Coventry look like a picnic. And rightly so. Stalin had been promised help in the East the previous year, and that the land invasion would commence in '43. Churchill owed him, Harris delivered. | | | |
Canada on 20:05 - Oct 24 with 3925 views | TheBlob |
Canada on 16:23 - Oct 24 by jamois | Brooklyn I don't think it unreasonable at all. Far from it in fact, I think you went easy. I used to think that Canadians were the acceptable face of North Americanism, that in reality they had much more in common with their Commonwealth cousins and with the British in particular. This is certainly how they get portrayed and I swallowed that line until I ended up living in a town full of them and Yanks. And what I've found is that both are largely indistinguishable except there are some key differences which can actually make the Canucks even less appealing. Canadians are subjected to the same all-pervasive and vitriolic news media and general way of life, yet by dint of being from the commonwealth and not being Americans, they regard themselves as being a cut above, a bit different. I've found them, almost without exception, to be boring, boorish, lacking in humour, incredibly literal in the way they understand things (including humour) and even more arrogant than their yank cousins. The idea of the old ties to Blighty are long since gone. There is no humility, no humour, just (largely) an empty space, they are Americans with a different flag. With these new cultures, they've not integrated the subtle humbling impacts, passed on through generations, of wars, famine, invasions, terrorism, colonialism, empires falling and rising and falling.....all of which takes its toll on the shaping of a culture. North Americans are still like new-born babies in this respect, except they're new-borns with a voice, a loud one. Hence the need to define themselves so belligerently as, amongst other things, tough and free. They swallow this shite the media feeds them like the wee babies they are because they think it defines them, gives them identity. Give 'em a few hundred years more, let their empires crumble away, and they'll be alright. Is that enough of an unreasonable rant for ya?! [Post edited 24 Oct 2014 16:27]
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Just as a matter of interest,what do Canadians think of you? | |
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Canada on 20:18 - Oct 24 with 3899 views | johncharles | The next Al Qaeda attack will be somewhere not immediately obvious. Why not Canada ? Won't be London but How about Manchester ? | |
| Strong and stable my arse. |
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Canada on 20:24 - Oct 24 with 3887 views | six_foot_two |
Canada on 19:04 - Oct 24 by bobby | There's a bit of speculation that this is a 'false flag' operation to get the Canadians on board.. it does look suspect given the cameramen present and the joking gunman in the internet videos.. also questions being asked about the possibly photo shopped beheadings.. |
Do you wear a tin foil hat ? | | | |
Canada on 20:25 - Oct 24 with 3885 views | jamois |
Canada on 20:05 - Oct 24 by TheBlob | Just as a matter of interest,what do Canadians think of you? |
Well I'm sure they don't like me eh Blob! But that's fine by me.I 'd like to point out though i'm talking about the canadians in my town and even then i'm generalising for the fun of it. That's a sample of about 25. I do have some good canadian friends believe it or not :) | |
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Canada on 20:29 - Oct 24 with 3878 views | qprwpg |
Canada on 18:56 - Oct 24 by joolsyp | Dear Jamois, Go fcuk yourself. Love, a Canadian. ;-) |
+1 BUT, there has been a little difference of attitude every time I go back home over the years, it's more American and than the (stereo)typical Canadian. It's more noticeable if they spend more time with Americans (work/live) or are from the Toronto area. The more west you go, the more Canadian it feels. That's been my experience. | |
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Canada on 20:36 - Oct 24 with 3867 views | jamois |
Canada on 20:29 - Oct 24 by qprwpg | +1 BUT, there has been a little difference of attitude every time I go back home over the years, it's more American and than the (stereo)typical Canadian. It's more noticeable if they spend more time with Americans (work/live) or are from the Toronto area. The more west you go, the more Canadian it feels. That's been my experience. |
Funny you should say that but all the people I get on with best are from either Calgary or Vancouver. | |
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Canada on 21:02 - Oct 24 with 3819 views | DylanP | In every nation some percentage of them are going to be idiots and some are going to be great. Why should Canada be any different? As for the idea that it was no big deal, that is rubbish. The gunman got to within feet of the Prime Minister. That is a big deal. Not that I am completely disagreeing with Booklyn's original point -- but people get freaked out by all kinds of things, especially the first time it hits close to home. When Lord Mountbatten was killed I remember being completely freaked out. I didn't know him from Adam the day before, but the day after I was freaked out. It was just unexpected and the first time anything like that had happened. Sometimes you just have to allow people to have their momement of freaked-out-ness. Of course, taking the piss oot of their silly accents is much more fun!! | |
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Canada on 21:08 - Oct 24 with 3809 views | BklynRanger | Yes but how long are they going to be freaking out for Dylan? Eh? How long? If they haven't shut up about it by Monday morning I'm driving up there. | | | |
Canada on 21:25 - Oct 24 with 3782 views | BklynRanger |
Canada on 21:08 - Oct 24 by qprwpg | Yeah, the Manitobans are a friendly bunch - we do have 'Friendly Manitoba' written on the license plates for a reason. We don't like Saskatchewanians, and think we're better than them. Brklyn, have you ever been to Saskatoon? Maybe there's some nice people there, but the town is a shithole. |
Yeah, a couple of times. My friend's wife is from there - they live in Calgary now. Yes other than seeing a laundromat that was also a bar (good idea I thought!) the town is indeed a shithole. When my friend started going out with his now wife she tried to tell me that Saskatoon was the 'restaurant capital of the world' because all the major chains 'piloted' their recipes on the local residents - WTF! They do have nice lakeside cabins I'll give them that. And the countryside is nice, if very flat and uneventful. Is Manitoba like that? | | | |
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