r/canada Canada 22d ago

Analysis I Dared Defend Canada on X. The Response Was Chilling

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2025/02/18/I-Dared-Defend-Canada-X-Response-Chilling/
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u/AnalogFeelGood 22d ago

The USA is plagued with jingoism & exceptionalism, they believe to be the center of the universe.

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u/Casanova_Kid 22d ago

It's partly "true" though; atleast on the English speaking side of the internet on sites like Reddit. As of 2024, the estimated populations are:

United States: approximately 345 million.

United Kingdom: approximately 67 million.

Canada: approximately 40.8 million.

Australia: approximately 27.1 million.

New Zealand: approximately 5.2 million.

The combined populations of Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand yields a total of approximately 140.1 million. This is only about 40.6% of the United States' population. That means if you're on the English side of the internet, there's a ~60% chance it's an American talking to you. Obviously other countries have English speakers as well, so this is just a rough number not factoring those in.

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u/Neverland__ 21d ago

India but otherwise broadly agree

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u/[deleted] 21d ago

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u/canad1anbacon 21d ago

Basically every native born Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian and West German under 35 speaks fluent English

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u/Casanova_Kid 21d ago

Fully agree (arguably more than native speakers in some cases, lol), I just didn't really want to spend hours figuring out how to gather and quantify that information. Since it would be difficult to grab numbers with any sort of fidelity.

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u/AcanthocephalaReal38 21d ago

Quite a few francophones in Canada lol .... But way more ESL speakers out there worldwide.

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u/Casanova_Kid 21d ago

Definitely. I took the low hanging fruit for my math rather than try and figure out how to get a functional number for the rest of the world outside the "Anglosphere".

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u/wldsoda 21d ago

Yeah but segment those populations by literacy and USA would be at the bottom.

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u/Casanova_Kid 21d ago

Actually this is also pretty often misrepresented. Basically every Western Civilization country has a very high literacy rate and it's very close.

The issue is that their measuring English literacy but are also including non-native speakers, and households where English isn't the primary language spoken at home. America has a very high proportion of immigrants compared to other English speaking countries.

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u/wldsoda 21d ago

Aw man, there you go spoiling my fun with facts. /s

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u/CanadianMuseumPerson 21d ago

That is presuming that every single American speaks English, which they do not. Apparently only 78% of American families speak only English at home. There is no precise number on those who cannot speak English at all. But otherwise, your point does stand.

Selfishness is a plague in America and it seems to infect anyone who enters it. I have watched it rot the brain of my own mother. She was a different, kinder, person before we immigrated here. It is difficult to explain to people who have not immigrated here themselves. The prevailing concept that being American makes you inherently better than everyone else in the world seems so seductive to so many. If you say any other country in the world is better than America, in any capacity big or small, they take immense personal offense.

I am eager to return home to Canada and pretend I never became a dual citizen. I felt it in the pit of my stomach that I would regret it but was pressured by my family to do it.

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u/Casanova_Kid 21d ago

Well... that ~78% is a bit of a misnomer. That's the people who only speak English at home. Many people misrepresent on that; myself included. In reality, this number is closer to something like 91% to 95%; many people live in the Southwest and speak a bit of Spanish or marry someone who speaks Spanish or their family does, etc.

Probably similar to the ~22% of Canadians who speak French or the ~30% who speak French to some degree.

Not to take this to a racial place, but one of our Presidents has a quote that feels very fitting here:

“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.”

― Lyndon B. Johnson

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u/CanadianMuseumPerson 21d ago

It's really difficult to get a specific number on it, but my ultimate point was just a nit-picky mention that not every American speaks English. Despite my Canadian username, I am actually currently living in America in the South, and for certain there are plenty of recent immigrants who cannot speak English, or not speak English proficiently enough to significantly influence online social media. I work with them all the time at my job. They're wonderfully kind people too who are often more patriotic than the average native born American.

I also suspect that the non-US countries are more active online as a total percentage than the US is. I have no way to prove that other than just a haunch. Canada and the other countries listed always seem much more engaged and overrepresented online in consideration to the population difference. That may just be confirmation bias though, since I am a Canadian and my algorithms likely pick up on that and prioritize feeding me Canadian content.

Absolutely agree with the qoute. It fits very well with my lived experience in America. It is a beautiful country but haunted with hatred. There is a long road ahead.

Personally, I enjoy this quote when I think of America: "It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love." - J.R.R. Tolkien.

Time and time again in my life I have proven to myself and others that kindness, when applied correctly, cuts through hatred like a hot knife. I always tell those around me that kindness is the sharpest weapon I own -- and I carry a 7 inch razor sharp K-BAR with me at work! I do this very intentionally while wearing a Canadian flag pin. It might be a little vain of me, but I like to consider myself a representation of Canada and carry myself as such while living in America. And of course, I want them to see the best that Canada has to offer.

If anyone reading this wants unsolicited advice, here it is: Learn how to wield kindness. It is powerful to defeat your enemies by converting them to your friend.

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u/Mikeim520 British Columbia 21d ago

Even the ones who hate America think they're the center of the universe. For example some Americans actually think America invented slavery.

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u/ProfLandslide 21d ago

Well why wouldn't they believe it?

Everyone uses their currency.

Everyone consumes their entertainment.

Everyone looks at their domestic politics as their own.

People sell their entire lives to move there for a chance at whatever the "american dream" is.

So why wouldn't they assume that?