- Reaction score
- 85
- Points
- 580
The ironic thing is that I learned this behaviour in Canada. Canadians do not engage with any one. Most people don't even know their neighbors. Why should I strive to accommodate or even understand when the other side doesn't do so them selves.
This is all very true. I don't think Supersonicmax suggested that Canadians (in general) do what he said is a good approach; I certainly didn't intend to suggest that. I would only say that I think that if people engaged in a respectful and empathetic way, this would be a good thing.
The things you point out with respect to Canadians not engaging and not even knowing their neighbours I believe are key pieces to the polarization of society, cancel culture (easier to cancel people you didn't know in the first place) and the very easily offended aspects. And I believe that social media/the internet exacerbates all of this and makes it even easier for people to not engage (although certainly COVID lockdowns have played their role in gravely aggravating this problem in Canadian society).
The real ironic part is that all this talk of echo chambers, public sector workers, and military employed from my observation and experiences are the worst ones to suffer from this.
Again, agreed that this often appears to be the case.
Again you want to engage with me then do so in a civil manner. As for people being nice maybe in your experience but as some one that has lived outside of Canada for a large portion of their life and immigrated here I can tell you that the world is not peaches and cream. We are just all bunch of hairless amoral apes with our own agendas and narratives. People are nice, that is a very privileged Canadian thing to say and what I find incredible ironic is that some one in the military or former military would ever say that. If people were nice we wouldn't need a military.
I am trying to respond to this briefly ... humans are absolutely capable of doing very evil things. This capability is in all people. It's true that Canada has been privileged to enjoy peace and relative harmony unprecedented in human history. That said, I think that there is also truth to the comment that most people -- if you actually speak to them and treat them with respect, they are basically "nice" or decent. I would go out on a limb and say that the majority of people don't commit brutal acts with an intention to be evil -- they think they are doing good/have been convinced by others that what they are doing is good and just. While the world will never be all "peaches and cream" it could be better a better place if there were more attempt to engage and understand.
I know that sounds a little idealistic and "strawberry fields forever". It probably applies more on a small-scale level within our neighbourhoods and communities rather than globally. Global peace and harmony is never possible.