Given an unavoidable end result, I can kind of understand the idea that you wouldn't want to die for that. Plus there's the idea it'd be a soft invasion, where life would be good after. If Canadians had to fight for their actual lives, I would hope you'd see a bit more resistance. But that's the issue when you have a barely functional military, you can't just make one overnight.

There's already a good number of folks who would like a US annexation (in theory at least), as you allude to.

The cultural aspects are a little more complicated than what you describe, but I'll leave that.

Good luck with your pacifist utopia, hope some guy with a nail in a board doesn’t come and take it all.

The "you don't need it" excuse might have faired in the 90's post-war peace dividend times, but that's been a thing of the past for decades now. Our politicians really have used it as a chequing account when they can't make things balance. Hell, our airshow demonstration team was flying aircraft some 50 years old, and this was just disbanded - for budgetary reasons!

We've long done things radically on the cheap. From buying discarded legacy F-18's, to old garbage UK second hand subs. Hell our MCDV maritime defense vessels are cobbled-together from: a turbine for a skyscraper, WWII guns taken from museum pieces, and a hull that was never designed for any of this. You can imagine how well that worked out.

It's not just cheapness - it's political wankery. We had a multi-billion dollar helicopter contract cancelled, and paid more in fees that it would have cost to deliver the aircraft. Only to just buy those aircraft anyway years down the line. We signed on to the F-35 program, to bail on it, only to re-join it again. Our politicans act like we don't need a military, and it can be thrown around for political purposes - it's embarrassing, honestly.

If you want a good perspective from a veteran, a good resource is Esprit de Corps: https://www.youtube.com/@espritdecorpsmagazine

Fundamentally it's up to you to find people that respect you (employers, friends, partners), and to find reward and meaning in your life. BigCorp is always going to treat you like disposable shit, and that's nothing new.

I think the quality of life would depend a lot on where you lived. Working a farm? Hard but rewarding (I presume). Nobility? Probably very nice. Working a dangerous machine in a sweaty factory? Probably pretty shitty - as evidenced by the fact that many people fought and died to improve their working conditions.

Certainly tech seems to be on a mission to try to ruin people's lives, addicting them and stealing their attention and drive. This is true, but also pretty easy to avoid once to see the game.

I'm saying that we ought to try to keep a sense of perspective here. Yes, you may be treated as an automaton or a number on a spreadsheet. But on average, you are probably in a much better position than most people through the last few hundred years.

I don’t think you’d be pushing much freight on an Arrow (though I’d love to fly one!).

An XB-70 with modern engines? Now that would be interesting.

I didn’t make a recommendation (tailscale or otherwise), you should ensure you’re taking in the actual intent before writing a reply.

Unless you’re defining an idea as something that only exists in your conscious awareness?

Say you're East Timor and your neighbour wants what you have - if you don't have the means to defend yourself, you're pretty much screwed (and they were). It's the main reason we have a military - this is a harsh and unforgiving world at that level, and you need to maintain a given level of capability. We are not at the "end of history" as some thought in the early 90's, and this has been doubly re-enforced after the invasion of Ukraine.

So what I'm saying is that by making such sustained and deep cuts to the Canadian military, that our political leaders have left the second largest nation in the world undefended and subject to the whim of its neighbours. And if you're paying attention, those are some pretty unsavoury neighbours.

"What a horrible world you live in" - what a snarky and hostile thing to say, why not try to understand my message before typing out such a barbed and dismissive statement?

I do agree that the US military's perceived preeminence has taken a big blow, but what you're saying is just outrageously false.

Their replacement has been a political football for the last ~20 years, extending so far beyond the rational lifetime of our original CF-18's that it boggles the mind. Those who've tried to keep rust buckets on the road know how high the cost can be for trying to keep something flying for so long.

This extends to basically every part of the Canadian military - extreme delays followed by politically motivated (and extremely bad) decision making.

I disagree - literal generations of cutting to the bone and beyond cannot be turned around overnight. Defunding isn't just about the dollars, it's about the lost mindshare, training, culture, morale, equipment, stockpiles - everything.

It will take a generation of strong investment and actual commitment to get this force back to something it ought to be. And based on trends since the 80's, future governments will be quick to pull back on any recent allocations.

When you have something, and you lack the means to defend and assert that right - do you really have it? Canada has so defunded its military, that it's effectively an undefended nation.

I don't know a single person working the fields, doing dangerous work in a factory, working a coal mine, etc. Of course, I am fortunate enough to be in this position.

Power is continuing to squeeze people as much as it can, and life is very unaffordable and getting worse for most, but I think we still have it a whole lot better than a century ago (by and large).

The people that don't value good design will absolutely have a lot more rope from which to hang themselves.

Granted I'm not polishing up a prototype, I'm maintaining, evolving and modernizing a non-trivial 8+ year old product.