Out-Sourcing Liberty

[nfotxn]

I must admit that I actually find a great deal of pleasure in informing you that "a spineless lack of patriotism" is not basis for immigration into Canada. Or anywhere else for that matter. I know it's mostly just a joke but I fail to find the humour in it. It outlines the sort of apathy... nay.. pathological laziness that got the USA into the fix it's in today.

Sitting on your ass waxing about moving to Canada does nothing. Even if it is just a joke. It makes most people I know furious to think that a bunch of Americans would even find humour in the idea that only enforces the stereotype. That a valid alternative to some patriotic heavy lifting is emigration to my country. We've DONE our work, thank you very much.

It's not that my country simply exists as some sort of paradise where we believe in equality through inclusion and an equal right to health regardless of income. Canadians have worked hard to come together and realize that these things make a nation great. As should Americans in their own country.

Get involved in your own political process until you have a reason to seek refugee status. Write your federal, municipal and state representation. Protest. Display a work of art. Stop using liberal, the right, conservative and the left as proper nouns. That sort of linear and one dimensional thinking about politics is dated. Stand by your convictions and get angry at somebody who disagrees with you. Tell them why you are angry and talk to them. Because that's how people communicate.

Carrying out but one of these tasks will make you feel better. It will make your country better. And it will allow the rest of the world to exhale.

Neologistic title courtesy Some old commie in Berkeley

Comments

[iahklu.livejournal.com]

..."a spineless lack of patriotism"...pathological laziness...

ouch. seems a tad broad and unfair.

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

I'm addressing people who believe that immigration to Canada is a valid course of action. So it's not that broad. Or particularly unfair in my own judgement.

[slumberjack.livejournal.com]

The only country I'd move to is Antarctica. :-)

It's more worthwhile to stay in the states and keep pushing/whining/whatever you call it for the things you guys already have, like socialized healthcare.

I think people just tout Canada as an "ideal" because of things like that, and because it's so close.

I don't think you need to actually get nervous about an American invasion. It won't happen, regardless of what happens on Nov. 2. You know we Americans are a very lazy lot.

[shawnsyms.livejournal.com]

I bet Antarctica is really beautiful.

canada is best place to live, eh?

[(Anonymous)]

that's it! close your borders! i'm sure you personally have done a lot of work to keep canada's healthcare system operating smoothly. you were born into a progressive and responsible system, which doesn't give you some sort of bragging rites, nor sagacity as to how to improve one's country. you people do it differently up there, but i can assure you there would never be an american mass exodus of ex-pats to canada. they go to more exciting places. the pretentious posture of canada's citizens is enough to dissuade most foreigners. and as fewer and fewer emigrants come to canada, the place will just get more and more homogenous and boring. you should try hard to keep up the pretense if you want to keep americans out. (and non-american emigrants too!) fucking nationalist.

Re: canada is best place to live, eh?

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

I think my favourite part of your comment is how you get angrier and more irrational towards the end.

Sort of Like Margaret Trudeau

[foodpoisoningsf.livejournal.com]

Don't worry. "I'm moving to Canada" is just a joke left over from the 'sixties. No one's moving there, and that's the joke. We're much too lazy and prefer countries that are English-speaking and warm, llike Mexico. I'm sure you've been saying much the same about all the Hong Kong Chinese who moved to Vancouver "why can't they do the right thing and lie down in front of their own tanks?"

As for laziness, it must be nice to sit around across the border and complain about the Americans. Gives you something to do, risk free.

Re: Sort of Like Margaret Trudeau

[33mhz.livejournal.com]

that are English-speaking and warm, llike Mexico.

hahahahhahaha.

[xkot.livejournal.com]

Hey, we agree on something! ;) Seriously though, I get incredibly irritated at people who throw out the "well I'm just going to move to Canada" answer when they're faced with the things that are wrong here. People need to learn to clean up their own messes instead of running away from them.

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

And it really hasn't been that long. It's just that only know when things are at the worst they've ever been for the USA that a large majority of people are finally noticing just how incredibly uninvolved they are with their democratic process. A lot of people are putting on face like they've always been this involved but I remember looking south of the border before Bush...

[jawnbc]

I agree in sentiment, a bit less in tone. Though I get how exasperating it all is.

When American friends make these sorts of statement I politely remind them that we Canucks want migrants moving towards Canada as a genuine, legitimate destination. Not because it's close, and the people have sort of the same accents.

Of course when I arrived in Hongcouver from NYC (in 89) I had a similar colonial mindset. Until I realized I was probably born a Canuck and kidnapped by desperate American baby smugglers. How else could I explain my social democratic leanings, preference for real bacon, and infatuation with Carol Shields and Margaret "Won't marry you Dakey Doyle, unless you lose the moustache" Atwood.

Though I also believe that Canadians are better informed than Americans (generally), but only slightly more inclined to engage in active citizenships. We just don't have the insane, steroidal political processes. Puh-raze Jaysus.

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I wrote after a long day at my shitty job. So I regret that but even still I think I got my point across, perhaps setting off a few patriotic drama queens that could have more easily been stepped over.

[bleedsdaylight.livejournal.com]

Maybe part of what makes Brodie, and so many others, upset, is that the US has already been moving in for years, with the huge impact of the multinational marketplace, and all their lovely Free Trade sponginess, coming up and sucking up all of our local enterprise, reducing our citizens to the options of working at Walmart OR a call centre and buying up all our oil, water and red dirt.

And sure, we owe part of this legacy to our own government, but the whole system continues to exist because of American foreign policy. It's not a matter of us being inhospitable, it's more that corporately your entire culture has been sneaking under our blankets as we slept and have begun dry-fucking us before we even had a chance to wake up. (damn, i just lost most of you into a big rape fantasy, haven't I?)

So, yeah, I think it's just a matter of assuming you'd be able to slip in and enjoy our hard-earned liberties without even asking if that was ok with us. We're not ONLY a bunch of happy-go-lucky, toque-wearing, pot-smoking, poutine-eating Canucks. We're also the children of Socialism, and we have fucking pride in what we've built. When you say you're going to "move to Canada", it comes across as we're just another resource for you to take advantage of, without even considering the impact on us. So, although we love you, we just want to talk this out some more before we make the agreement.

[gr8grizz.livejournal.com]

NO, quite the contrary! Canada is NOT a joke. A lot of people in the states admire Canadians. And trust me, the people who do joke, you don't want that TRASH!

things that make you go hmmm.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

pathological laziness that got the USA into the fix it's in today.What fix? What pathological laziness?

I know it's mostly just a joke but I fail to find the humour in it. You're pissed because someone agrees apparently with your vision of what good govt is; and makes a comment in passing in a cyberland journal setting telling you they MAY move to gaze upon your sexy self? Lighten up for heaven's sakes! Dood. Lighten up. Sheeesh.

[brianmn.livejournal.com]

Ooh! In your post try replacing "Canada" with "USA", and "USA" with a poorer country's name, and although some of the details don't fit, the overall tone reads kinda offensively! It's angry Mad Libs! Fun!

[profundis.livejournal.com]

Just insert Mexico in place of USA, it works best.

[ericdabear.livejournal.com]

There are also some of us who would love to move to Canada because it is better and because of the work you've been able to accomplish.

I vote and try to do my work to make this country more of what I would like it to be but you know what, the hard work I've done doesn't amount to a pile of shit. Thus, I consider going elsewhere.

[gr8grizz.livejournal.com]

You live in a country where being gay is often worse than being a murderer and see how hard it is to get the government to work with you, go ahead take a look! We tried everything we could and the DOMA laws immediately went up like a smoke screen! THAT is what you get when you try to get a 50 something W.A.S.P. politician to listen to you! Go live in a country where the person America voted for in 2000 actually got into office and ill listen to you call ME lazy and spineless.

I know I don't come from a country that can spend millions trying to deport a flying squirrel and yet, has problems fixing its submarines. I know I don't come from a country that petitioned a guy in parliament to change his name to Doris Day, but hey.... we all have our foibles.

I know you don't admire the American that is lazy and spineless, just as I don't like young and snobbish Canadian political critics who rope many americans together in the same group as the white trash that is now residing in the oval office.

I like you Brodie, but we are not all this way. Some of us actually can see past the politics, but have realized that were outnumbered by stupidity of the masses and legal manipulation by the upper classes.

Is this the communication you wanted because I have all day!

[profundis.livejournal.com]

Rock! The Furry Firebrand returns! I have plenty to discuss with you, but alas, class beckons. I'll check in later today when undoubtedly it will have all been said by someone more eloquent. ;)

[profundis.livejournal.com]

Or not. Oh dear, so much for that eloquence I wished for. LOL! I think I'll just chat with you personally sometime instead. ;)

[antnycub.livejournal.com]

As a Canadian living in the US and living on a college campus here in Maine, I am surrounded by several liberal political activists. They actually DO things and work to change the way things are.

When they say they want to move to Canada they're not half joking. When people like Bush, who defy all conventional electoral wisdom, make their work seem irrelevant why should we, as Canadians, deny them the opportunity to enter into the country where they can put their political zeal to work?

It's not like we'd be inheriting a hoard of deadbeats. While I can certainly appreciate what you were saying, I think you were painting everyone with a rather broad, sweeping brush. I thought better of you, Brodie.

[chucknoblet.livejournal.com]

Wo-ow. That was a string of incredibly over-broad generalizations.

Get involved in your own political process until you have a reason to seek refugee status. Write your federal, municipal and state representation. Protest. Display a work of art. Stop using liberal, the right, conservative and the left as proper nouns. That sort of linear and one dimensional thinking about politics is dated. Stand by your convictions and get angry at somebody who disagrees with you. Tell them why you are angry and talk to them. Because that's how people communicate.

Someone can do this for years and get very, very tired. There are a few people who can do this for a very long time, but don't assume that you are one of them. Canada was already more progressive than the U.S. on the day you were born, so I question whether you have the standing to speak down like this.

Mmmmmmmmm Moose Jaw!

[danlmarmot.livejournal.com]

Would Americans be so excited about moving to Canada if they had to move to Saskatoon or Moose Jaw?

These whiners need to turn off the news, and stop believing that federal politics has direct control over their mental health. Maybe they should just consider moving someplace else in the US first... and If you don't like Atlanta or California or Akron, take control of yourself and bloody move out and don't play the victim. There are many different cultures in the US (just as there are in Canada), it's not a monoculture by any means, and happiness and contentment comes from within, not from whatever nutcase sits in some oval office.

Whenever I hear the childish pouting line 'if Bush is reelected, I'm moving to Canada/Australia/Zimbabwe' line, I roll my eyes and sound the drama queen alert. These people should get real.

Re: Mmmmmmmmm Moose Jaw!

[chucknoblet.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it's very easy not to think about what's going on in the federal government when the federal government isn't being increasingly controlled by fascists that like to use you and people like you as scapegoats and whipping boys.

Once people like that start being in control of the federal government, and once they start imposing themselves on you, you'd have to have your head up your ass not to be concerned and upset.

[chinacub.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately when that rant crosses the border it's only 80% as effective as when you read it in Canada...

[blakes-7.livejournal.com]

It's good that you haven't been through the complete and utter disillusionment of your country and to watch it stride more and more towards a fascistic state not entirely unlike Nazi Germany. It makes you lose all hope. All of it.

Getting angry at people isn't going to make things better. Nay, it never has. The truth is no longer relevant. What matters is spin and other psychological games. I can and have written many letters to our representatives, so have countless others. It hasn't helped. Millions of people have protested our President to no avail.

There's a time to fight and we have. But there's also a time for self-preservation and that may come.

[sinnabor.livejournal.com]

Carrying out but one of these tasks will make you feel better.

But, but, but... to change would require that we make an effort!

If Bush gets re-elected, I'm moving *close* to Canada. And even if he doesn't.

[booddhabear.livejournal.com]

But if I move to Moose Jaw, I have the pontential to be the next BIG THING with Mr. Boogaloo.

[gusmacroy.livejournal.com]

comment whore

[perlcub]

lol... right-on!

[perlcub]

Sitting on your ass waxing about moving to Canada does nothing.

And what about sitting on a bum waxing about waxing about moving to Canada? ;)

[trckrfckr.livejournal.com]

stop flirting

[jongrizzman.livejournal.com]

dude, uhm... we need to hang out. k?