Hacker News: poncho_romero

New comment by poncho_romero in "Neanderthals survived on a knife's edge for 350k years"

poncho_romero — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 17:14:32 +0000

I believe Enkidu also became much more wild over time. In Against the Grain the author suggests earlier tellings of Gilgamesh presented Enkidu as unusual, but human. When the same story was being recorded a thousand years later, he was a monster. If the story was preserving some ancient memory about Neanderthals, such significant change seems unlikely.

New comment by poncho_romero in "Bill C-22, the Lawful Access Act: Dangerous backdoor surveillance risks remain"

poncho_romero — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 16:14:01 +0000

What is the benefit of something like Venmo over Interac e-Transfer? And everything about Robinhood seems sketchy enough that I am comfortable keeping them firmly south of the border.

New comment by poncho_romero in "Bill C-22, the Lawful Access Act: Dangerous backdoor surveillance risks remain"

poncho_romero — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 16:12:40 +0000

So no?

New comment by poncho_romero in "The EU moves to kill infinite scrolling"

poncho_romero — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 21:09:48 +0000

I hope this goes through. Trillion dollar companies are waging a war on our attention, using everything at their disposal to make these apps addictive. It isn't a fair fight and the existence of infinite feeds is bad both for people and democracy. Regulating consumer products that cause harm to millions is nothing new.

New comment by poncho_romero in "India and EU announce landmark trade deal"

poncho_romero — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 21:23:51 +0000

Fair enough!

New comment by poncho_romero in "India and EU announce landmark trade deal"

poncho_romero — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 21:22:56 +0000

What countries would you consider to not be racist? Canada is a functional pluralistic society. Yes there are racists here, but far fewer than elsewhere in my view.

New comment by poncho_romero in "India and EU announce landmark trade deal"

poncho_romero — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 00:02:01 +0000

Do you believe Trudeau could have made a speech like Carney did at Davos? Or that he would have been so active in signing new trade deals and international agreements, or on dismantling internal trade barriers? I think there is a world of difference between them.

New comment by poncho_romero in "India and EU announce landmark trade deal"

poncho_romero — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 00:00:35 +0000

Canada is one of the least racist countries in the world. Please travel.

New comment by poncho_romero in "India and EU announce landmark trade deal"

poncho_romero — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 23:59:14 +0000

This is undoubtedly happening (and we need to do something about foreign owned press in this country), but I think this is too convenient a story. I am a socialist and I have become extremely concerned about immigration in recent years. I want to talk about those concerns and work towards solutions that are amiable for our country, Canadians, and immigrants. Unfortunately, a lot of people who otherwise share my beliefs, don't seem willing to acknowledge that people like me (who strongly oppose the National Post propaganda organ) exist.

New comment by poncho_romero in "India and EU announce landmark trade deal"

poncho_romero — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 23:50:25 +0000

Agreed. See also Mark Carney saying "this is a rupture, not a transition" at Davos. We aren't going back.

New comment by poncho_romero in "India and EU announce landmark trade deal"

poncho_romero — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 23:47:49 +0000

I agree for the most part. I said immigration is broken, but really the problems are almost exclusively to do with the TFW program and degree mills. One area the TFW program has hurt the country, is in the significant reduction in the number of jobs available to high school students. Anecdotally, I know of many high school students who have been unable to find any work for years, and a stop into any local fast food restaurant or superstore will back that up. These kids looking for part time jobs don't show up in unemployment numbers. They could help the labour shortage, but instead are silently being added to it, in favour of temporary foreign workers filling the positions.

We do need immigration long term for sure! Canada is and will always be an immigrant country. That said, I also don't think an appeal to the past (the fact that almost all of our ancestors came as penniless farmers) should enter into the conversation. To my view, this is a dispassionate conversation about politics. Concerns over hypocrisy are irrelevant.

New comment by poncho_romero in "India and EU announce landmark trade deal"

poncho_romero — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 18:33:34 +0000

If you can't agree that questioning immigration policy is not racism, there is nothing to discuss here.

New comment by poncho_romero in "India and EU announce landmark trade deal"

poncho_romero — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 18:31:16 +0000

No one said "everyone from their country is a bad influence." Indians were viewed as model immigrants in Canada for decades. Again, their good name is being tarred due to bad government policy.

My point is is that if leftists cannot talk about immigration policy in a nuanced way, right-wing extremists (for there are no other kinds of right wingers these days) will be the only game in town, and people who want to talk about immigration policy will therefore be drawn towards them.

Humans see patterns in everything, that's how we work. You can be a naive idealist all you want, but that doesn't change the fact that people will inevitably associate the effects of a bad policy with the policy itself.

New comment by poncho_romero in "India and EU announce landmark trade deal"

poncho_romero — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 17:47:08 +0000

It is worth adding here that in the years after Covid began, the raw number of immigrants reached record highs, in some years more than doubling the previous (steady) intake rate.

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/71-607-x/71-607-x2025008...

New comment by poncho_romero in "India and EU announce landmark trade deal"

poncho_romero — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 17:41:49 +0000

It's a much larger drove this time around, to be fair.

New comment by poncho_romero in "India and EU announce landmark trade deal"

poncho_romero — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 17:39:08 +0000

You don't understand, and your unwillingness to approach this issue with the nuance it deserves will only drive people towards right-wing extremists. These people are not racists! The federal government increased immigration (largely of TFWs and students) by far too much, and that has put an enormous strain on Canada's housing and job market. Canadians are turning against broken immigration policy, which has naturally become associated with its most visible aspect--the recently arrived, unskilled Indian worker. You must understand the negative sentiment is driven by association with bad government policy, not naive racism towards Indians. Of course, none of this is the fault of individual immigrants or TFWs, but they are part of the problem, because they are symptoms of it.

Racism is a serious allegation. Let's not cry wolf when there is a reasonable explanation here.

New comment by poncho_romero in "India and EU announce landmark trade deal"

poncho_romero — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 17:21:59 +0000

Because there are so many Indians around, newly arrived Indians tend to spend most of their time with other Indians, and as a result don't integrate with the rest of society as much as previously waves of immigrants did. Canada is a cultural mosaic, but a certain degree of intermixing and assimilation is necessary, in my opinion, to preserve social and national bonds.

New comment by poncho_romero in "India and EU announce landmark trade deal"

poncho_romero — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 17:19:58 +0000

The majority of Indian immigrants to Canada are coming from one state, Punjab, so the benefits of diversity within India is not necessarily reflected in the Indians coming to Canada.

New comment by poncho_romero in "India and EU announce landmark trade deal"

poncho_romero — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 17:18:16 +0000

Canada as a whole has been pro immigration for a long time, but our immigration system was broken in recent years, and the most visible consequence of that has been an enormous increase in low skill, low wage Indian workers. A lot of people who have never had issues with immigration policy before have become very anti Indian immigration as a result.

New comment by poncho_romero in "Short Little Difficult Books"

poncho_romero — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 01:42:02 +0000

Do you recall in what book or article Newport made that suggestion?