I’m a Canadian. I just happen to understand what a genocide is and isn’t unlike what appears to be a concerning number of westerners who clearly lack critical thinking skills or a baseline education to understand the reality that is before them and see through a Muslim brotherhood propaganda that they are being taught.

I keep bringing up jealousy because it’s so evident how pathetic your mindset is when it comes to other people.

You’re a failure. Not everyone who isn’t a failure is wealthy. Some of us are just normal people living normal lives. A normal middle class life is exactly what I’m fortunate enough to be living.

Still rambling on with jealousy eh? I feel good about myself surrounded by my loving family and friends. I don’t feel good about myself because I can afford a house and others can’t.

You are jealousy is preventing you from accepting reality. It’s also quite clearly what’s holding you back.

You’re so confused. You alternate between saying I’m trying to impress people and then I’m trying to deny it. I’m doing neither. I’m simply stating reality. A reality that you seem too dense to grasp and yes, you’re absolutely impoverished and when I say that I’m not talking about your bank account, I’m talking about your mental abilities.

As someone who’s here because his family had to flee the situation you describe in your last paragraph to the middle East and then to Canada. I’m not ignorant enough to forget the poem ’ first they came for’

That’s outside of the reality being faced by Canadians today and they’re rightful anger towards the situation.

It’s comments like this that demonstrate just how uninformed Republican supporters are about the actual policies of the two parties.

Which bridge collapsed, other than the one hit by the boat in Baltimore?

It means nothing. It’s political theatre to distract from the party’s current issues.

I’m not telling on anything by being honest with you. I can’t afford a new car right now. In 2 or 3 years. I’ll have saved up enough to be able to afford one, but right now it’s simply not in my budget. I also can’t afford the kitchen renovation that I have planned. Can’t afford a lot of things that you seem to think the wealthy people can.

I can’t afford them because I’m a pretty firmly middle class household that can afford some of the nice things in life but not without working for them. Like the wealthy are able to. At no point am I downplaying my privilege. I’ve said a number of times even in these posts how fortunate that I am. That you think admitting to going on a vacation is gloating just reinforces your jealousy. We budget to be able to take a vacation. I read the other week that over 30% of Americans take multiple vacations per year. By you’re jealous framework, you’re claiming that they’re all wealthy, which is obviously an absurd thing to say or position to take. I’d chalk much of my fortune up to the fact that I’m not a moron with my money running around charging my life on a credit card, like the vast majority of people that you see around you today. I’m not benefiting from the exploitation of others any more than the manager at a McDonald’s is. I get paid for the work that I put out. I don’t get paid for other people’s work and I don’t get paid from real estate holdings or investments or any of the other wealth creating vehicles that the wealthy in our society utilize, if I had the ability to I certainly would but seeing as a middle class those avenues to earn are not available to me.

You’re accusing me of lacking critical thinking when you apparently don’t have the ability to think critically enough to budget your own life or to think critically enough to put yourself in a position where your paycheck will allow you to live the middle-class lifestyle that I happen to be able to live right now.

That you think my understanding my place in the social hierarchy is an attempt to make me look bad. Really demonstrates your lack of ability to think critically your poor emotional intelligence and your lack of overall social context… Which probably at least in part explains why you’re jealous of someone who’s living a middle-class lifestyle and probably why you’ll live in poverty for the rest of your sad life. Crabs in a bucket.

If I were wealthy I sincerely doubt I’d be driving my broken down Ford but you tell yourself whatever you gotta to alleviate your feelings of failure.

I’ve got a play structure on mine. There’s usually a half dozen kids on it daily.

It’s funny, my yard is essentially the community play ground. When I don’t maintain it, the clover gets destroyed and it turns into a mud pit the kids can’t play on really. Natural grasses didn’t stand a chance even after being given the time to establish.

I consulted with a landscape architect who I was partnered with on an elementary school I was building looking for what I could do naturally to keep the yard in tact while the kids played… this was a nationwide firm, on a LEED Gold project. Their answer? Grass. Rye grass, KBG and red fescue was the recommendation.

I nuked the lawn, soil and seeded it and two years later it’s held up wonderfully and is enjoyed by a handful of families.

I planted Milk weed for the pollinators. They don’t want most of the crap people plant trying to be Eco friendly anyways or so the landscape architect told me.

This anti lawn tirade is kinda anti-kid to a degree. When my kids are older and not using it every day, I’ll tear it all out and hardscape it. I don’t wanna maintain things for no purpose.

Nah man, redefining things doesn’t work at all. I’m not wealthy. I’m pretty firmly middle class based on just about every definition of middle class that’s available to any sociologist on this planet. People ignorantly seem to think that middle class is tied to your salary or household income which is not the case.

I’ve got no problem with people seeing me living the life that I live. I grew up in a twice broken bankrupted household and I’m pretty damn proud of what my partner and I have been able to achieve. I live a pretty comfortable middle-class life and I try to help uplift the people around me so they can do the same.

I look around me and I see people struggling to achieve the middle class lifestyle that I’m grateful that I have but the fact that parts of society are falling behind doesn’t by default make me wealthy. If I were wealthy I wouldn’t have a mortgage or a host of other things that are currently saddling me financially. The people who can be categorized as wealthy are those who don’t need to work for a living and whose capital sustains them.

You might not agree with me but that doesn’t change. The facts are reality surrounding our individual financial situations.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/443063/number-of-immigrants-in-canada/

You’re lazily conflating immigration and refugee data. It’s a combination of both the Canada is struggling with. Right now. There’s no shortage of analysis or study showing that far too many people are coming to Canada than our system can handle. Even the federal government who is the one who set these policies have started walking them back.

As someone who hails from a middle Eastern culture and is married to an Iranian refugee, I can say with certainty that the influx of people coming from the places that my wife and I escaped are absolutely causing societal problems for us here in Canada. I’m far from a pull. The ladder up behind me. Kind of guy but I’m also a citizen of this country which is being quite clearly impacted by the oversaturation of new people coming from very small pockets of this planet into Canada. This isn’t being driven by politicians. Both the conservative and the liberal sides of politics in this country are very much pro-immigration due to our inability to maintain our population rates and tax base without it. The people of Canada on the other hand are starting to show more and more discontent with this approach.

Canada used to have a strict policy and on some levels still do outside of the programs being instituted to supplement the workforce and to bring refugees in from complex zones, we’ve allowed in over double the previous amount for the past couple of years, under various refugee programs. Going a bit farther back there was a large influx of Syrians (and tasty shwarma!). The canada.ca website details the rapid increase in numbers quite well.

I would never say that these people move to Canada are not true Canadians because at one point my family got here on a boat and my wife’s family escaped an islamist regime to come here too. We’re both quite Canadian in culture and jean jackets.

From what I see, many of these problems derive from cultural conflicts that were previously not apparent because while many people knew to a country tend to stick together when they are a true minority, they tend to work to fit in. When you have large waves of people coming at once, there’s no impetus for them to fit in because they can stay within their own cultural confines… As sad as it is to say, some of those cultural confines are very much at odds with the greater Canadian culture.

I’m happy to admit that I live the life that you described. For the most part. Big house and a desirable neighborhood. Couple of six-figure jobs. Couple of nice cars, at least one warm vacation every year and another one to visit family. Kids educations will be fully funded by the time they’re 18. Registered savings accounts are nearly maxed out and will be by the end of this year. The house I grew up in was a single parent home that went through bankruptcy when I was a young teenager, so I’m quite familiar with the other end of the spectrum and I’m putting plans in place to avoid ever ending up there… While still not thinking twice about picking up $1,000 dinner, tap while out with friends for a celebration. Balance as possible if you’re willing to sacrifice some of the shiny things that people seem to want these days.

I’m grateful for our fortunate position. When I look around I see people living lives quite a bit more extravagant than ours and I don’t quite understand it, but I’m more focused on building my family’s future. So I keep the blinders on and keep doing what seems to be working for us. I’d suggest more people do the same and that would involve spending less time on sites like this.

That’s not wealthy though. That’s maybe well to do or upper middle class.

Wealthy is your children not having a mortgage and also having a trust fund.

I’d disagree with that. For 50 years Canada did pretty well letting in controlled numbers of people from around the world. Then they opened the flood gates and problems started.

I’m not sure it’s about being black and white, i feel like it’s more about people feeling the need to integrate which doesn’t happen when you arrive with 100,000 of your countrymates.

I know a guy who’s worth over 10 and probably closer to $50 million. He still lives in the same house that he did when he graduated university. He drives a 10-year-old car and his son who is one of my best friends drives the car that he had before that as a handme down.

Some people flaunt it. Some people build it quietly.

This gentleman that I know has bought both of his son’s houses cash so they have no mortgages. He owns a million dollar cottage on a beautiful Lake and another property on the panhandle in Florida. You would think that he’s on social security though if you just saw him bumbling about his yard.

The rise of right-wing in Europe can be directly attributed to the massive influx of right-wing conservative ideologues from the middle East pouring in.

I’m a huge proponent of immigration, but what we’re seeing here is the backlash of immigration done incredibly poorly.

There will be articles for years that tap dance around with us, but if you listen to the people who are voting for right-wing assholes, it’s pretty clear why they’re doing it and what they’re saying. The Press has been bullied into avoiding talking about it though under the guise of islamophobia.

Typical of your ilk facts are relevant because they don’t suit your narrative.

The Free world will continue to focus on reality. Here. The reality is there’s a terrorist organization running an enclave right next to the only democracy in the middle East. Those terrorists have spent their entire lives outwardly calling for the death of the citizens of that democracy .

No one in that enclave is being genocided and that’s easily proven by the fact that no genocide has ever ended when the hostages were released.

That you’re unable to acknowledge these simple facts and this readily apparent reality really just shows how easily people are caught up in the social media cause du jour.

I’d call on you to be better to be less ignorant and to be less pathetic, but you’ve proven yourself unable to do any of those things.