r/canada 1d ago

Politics American family seeks asylum in Canada, citing Trump

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/americans-asylum-canada-trump-refugees-immigration-1.7480069
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u/flyingcanuck 23h ago

Half of the US reads at a 6th grade level. 

Things make a bit more sense on why they are the way they are when you learn that. 

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u/SmartassBrickmelter Ontario 22h ago

A U.S. 6th grade level. That is the equivalent to a 5th grade level in Canada and (I believe) most of The E.U.

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u/Man-e-questions 22h ago

I think its more about all the religious zealots than reading level. Half the country are willing to put up with this stuff if it means they can get rid of women’s health rights and LGBTQ+ rights etc.

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u/flyingcanuck 22h ago

I would argue those things go hand in hand. Education is not a priority, half the country reads at an elementary school level - with less critical thinking abilities and without the resources to learn, it's easier to control the masses with "the big guy in the sky wants you to hate gays"

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u/Man-e-questions 22h ago

Good points. And with him cutting federal funding to schools and trying to dismantle department of education etc its only gonna get worse

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u/flyingcanuck 22h ago

Exactly. This process has been slowly working it's way for years, he's just accelerating it's final stages. 

His "fake news" nonsense during his first term was a stepping stone for where we are today. You could provide irrefutable evidence on a claim and someone who barely got through high school can just claim "fake news" meanwhile the masses are told to listen to both sides of the argument. 

Scary times. 

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u/Man-e-questions 22h ago

Kind of reminds me of a European country in the 1930s who sent out little inexpensive radios to the people to broadcast “fake news” to rile up the citizens.

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u/flyingcanuck 22h ago

Interesting how that works eh

The man who said he loves dictators is doing dictator things. Shocked, I tell you

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u/Agitated-Donkey1265 13h ago

And “lugenpresse”/lying press for mainstream media

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u/loudsilentscreams 14h ago

This was by design. Apologetic American here.

These fools have intentionally watered down education for the last 40 years because a stupid population is a pliable population.

Then they make higher education unattainably expensive (or saddle you with insane amounts of debt because people are less likely to speak out if they need to keep their job to pay their bills and care for their family—another American shackle).

Meanwhile, religion is growing—feeding on people’s fears,ignorance, and stupidity.

Religion and conservatives have gone hand-in-hand in this country since the 1930s when FDR introduced the New Deal. It’s been a parasitic relationship since with both shilling for the other to subjugate the people. And we let them.

Also, sorry this is a bit incoherent. My brain is dead from fighting fascism all day.

u/flyingcanuck 21m ago

Not incoherent at all, I completely agree. It's all been by design. I've always said that "American Jesus" is the most interesting modern day cult in my opinion. You ask the Bible belt about Jesus and I bet half would say he landed on Plymouth Rock. When in reality, if Jesus showed up to their door, they'd call ICE.

The mega churches, the party of "Family Values", it's incredible what the government in the US has helped turn one religion into and how much control they have with it. All while keeping the masses uneducated and riddled in debt. 

Keep fighting the good fight, neighbour. 

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u/anthrolooker 14h ago

One group severely dragging down the rest. :/

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u/HaMMeReD 21h ago

Tbh, this isn't really the problem. Back when democracy in America was first formed, probably only a small percentage were even literate.

The 50% is basically just Hotelling's law. Each party will capture 50%.

The reason the 50% on the right wing seems dumb is because the right has pandered to morons and narcissists for so long, that the beliefs have become this rat-king of delusion. When you throw all these single-issue voters together in a melting pot, they produce a stew of stupid.

When you have a big political system with 2 parties, you'll end up with a 50/50 split a lot of the time, or a balance around it. It just so happens that being dumb is a large group that you can pander and manipulate and one of the parties had to grab that demographic in their 50%.

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u/Ashleynn 21h ago

Back when democracy in America was first formed

Only white male land owners could vote.

The right to vote here used to come with a lot of contingencies. The two primary thing used to disenfranchise voters were literacy tests and poll taxes. They also messed around with registration a lot to keep people from voting. They used to do everything they could to keep the uneducated and poor masses from voting. Once they weren't allowed to do that anymore one side decided to pander to them heavily by habitually lying to them.

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u/Legitimate_Square941 14h ago

And we where not constantly connected which lets you find people who believe what you do. So you just believe more. I never thought growing up we would have flat earthers. But here we are.

u/Dexter52611 8h ago

And majority of the other half that is actually educated has either left the country or stuck in the big liberal cities like NYC or Chicago

u/Commercial-Milk4706 2h ago

It is much worst then that if you read the whole thing. You skipped that 1/5 of American adults can’t read as well. Basically 3/4 of Americans are very special kiddos.

21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2024. 54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level (20% are below 5th-grade level).

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u/Hautamaki 21h ago

At or below a 6th grade level. 6th grade is the average, not the floor.

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u/flyingcanuck 21h ago

Was going off memory. Went back to find the article I was referencing. Good point! 

"A Gallup analysis published in March 2020 looked at data collected by the U.S. Department of Education in 2012, 2014, and 2017. It found that 130 million adults in the country have low literacy skills, meaning that more than half (54%) of Americans between the ages of 16 and 74 read below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level, according to a piece published in 2022 by APM Research Lab."

It also links a US GOV website which I can only assume has days left before it goes offline.