Close Reading

I'm surprised he could find that many white people in Brampton.

Idk i think you need to realize that we also have our bias in addition to you having yours. Meaning, to most of us , excepting the most left leaning socially progressive pockets and contexts , which even then wouldn’t be viewed that way to us just acceptable lol ?\n\nOur baseline/political middle in Canada is A LOT more left leaning than the baseline normal/political middle in the states. So while people tend to equate your democrats to our liberals or our NDP , and equate your republicans to our conservatives. It’s just not accurate. If you throw our span of parties and American span of parties on the SAME spectrum /polarity line. You might be surprised to realize how shifted left our systems range politically is from the American one. \n\nThis hugely impacts the average normal expectation , what we clutch our pearls at hearing coming out of the mouths of the general public , and our range of what we expect to not hear or see ranted about unless they’re to our view , extremely right leaning politically /social values. \n\nFor us this means that actually genuinely , a lot of America does get experiences by us as bat shit crazy racist homophobic immigrant intolerant culturally and religiously ignorant , and somewhat backwards in larger or smaller amounts ? I know that’s not fun to hear but. Being the most diverse country based so much on immigration means. What is normal and known /familiar and normal so we aren’t ignorant to , is completely different. \n\nFor us we have our pockets usually in more rural less populated areas further away from larger cities where there is more diversity but that’s the same often in many countries that you will find some of the louder racist homophobic intolerant voices typically in places that truly are unfamiliar and ignorant to the experience of growing up with and around much of any diversity of varying kinds. So it’s not to say we don’t have racism and intolerance of course like anywhere we do. It’s just contained and the range and frequency and intensity is MUCH different. We distinguish nuances of diff cultures and religions more easily and in larger numbers we’re more familiar with diff ways of life , language , food, dress , holidays , values and used to a much less segregated way of existing even when we are differnt from each other as the NORM. My parents were both born in the states and my older brother was born there but they moved up here when he was a baby. So nearly all my extended family lives down there and I’m a duelly. And my experiences discussing things with my cousins or visiting absolutely could be described as culture shock at times. The insane things that came out of my own cousins mouths when they hear our friends or partners of various cultures , our not understanding how big a deal and incredibly insulting apparently it is to have assumed someone American was lgbt lol the list goes on. Like I don’t think our most intolerant Pockets can hold a flame to even ur closet to middle a bit intolerant places and contexts in America. Quite honestly. \n\nI think the absolute undying favourable passionate upholding and support of nationalistic, capitalist, hyper individualistic mentality about society as a whole (from my Canadian born and bred perspective lol) makes the differences even more glaring blaring and hard to swallow for us lol. I think more Canadians would feel exactly how that comment stated , that you felt was not fair for us to experience America as. I think the truth is a lot of Canadians are being too polite to let you know that’s exactly how a lot of America comes off to a lot of Canada ?

Tyler? I suggest google’n “ school shootings, small town America”…. article after article, when you do, says why most mass school shootings tend to happen in small towns….where nobody expects that they would have happened & how all the residents in those towns are always surprised that they happened in their town. \nI say this as somebody who once loved the idea of moving to the USA. \nMy mom was a single parent and as a result I spent a ton of time as a very young kid in the late 80s throughout the mid 90s in a small town in Oregon on my aunt and uncles dairy farm with my cousins and I absolutely loved it. Truthfully, I still love small-town America and I love the vast majority of the people I have met from small-town America. There is the friendliness and community that I find very similar to prairie farming towns in Canada. \n And as a kid, I loved the focus on high school sports in the small USA town I spent time in and how it brought the community together. It was very exciting to go to my cousins football games—stuff like that was super fun as a kid.\nAs an adult, with 2 young kids of my own now? \nYes, I would be terrified to send my children to any school in the United States, especially knowing that the vast majority of my school shootings do happen in small towns, which is a type of place in the states I would personally like to go to, if I did move. \n\nAdditionally, I will be completely bankrupt at this point given my own health issues as well as my two kids health issues and I’m just in my late 30s. \nAnd I’m not talking to super crazy health issues, but health issues nonetheless. I have asthma that has gone through patches where I’ve had to be hospitalized & I was diagnosed with stage 3 malignant melanoma when I was in my late 20s and pregnant with my 2nd. My first child was born with a congenital heart disorder that was missed through the pregnancy and until she was two, and that involved many many trips to the hospital & various specialists until they figured out what was going on (one of the symptoms was her randomly stopping breathing and going blue, which was terrifying, and could’ve been for many different reasons & it took many specialists & many hospital visits to figure it all out)\nMy son was born with a multiple protein intolerance and later received an autism diagnosis. There a decent number of hospital visits and specialists for his first couple of years of life too. \n\n I have no idea if I was in the United States how I would’ve paid for any of our health issues (let alone all three of ours) for that 5 or 6 year period where we all needed various types of regular-ish medical care. \n(because we got good medical care, thankfully, none of us have really had to see doctors any more than the average person in the last few years?)\n\nMy kids are now in elementary school, and, as a Canadian, the issue of school shootings happening anywhere….., including in small towns that seem perfectly safe……as well as the cost of healthcare for stuff that is covered by our taxes here in Canada….. are the two biggest reasons that I will think fondly of my time in small-town America, but would never consider moving there