GodofLies

This is a stupid made up wedge issue. The real question should be - what is sports and what exactly are athletes competing for?

Why is it the default in sports male and female categories? Is it because they are physically different? Is it because one has a uterus? is it because of hormones so males and females develop differently? We have managed, through scientific breakthroughs, hormone replacement therapy to be able to transform our own bodies into what we want and that in itself is an achievement - albeit it isn't perfect yet - but that's another topic.

If the goal is to compete and display human physical prowess and strategy in a regulated environment then male/female/other/etc. categories shouldn't exist. It should only be rated as 'where do I stand as a human being among my peers in X sport?'

Trying to fit a gender into a flawed categorical system of sports is bound to cause friction.

Do you need to pay to access Steam and play games? The answer is no - there are free games on Steam and also forum features that allow you to post media content too. From that standpoint they're in the same boat. The difference is the platform's intended use.

I think the real issue isn't about Visa and MasterCard trying to gatekeep/censor this. The talk should be about we as a society haven't matured enough to be willing to talk about our own bodies as humans and human nature with our own kids. If you look at what's shown on mainstream TV around the world, off the top of my head, Europe seems to be a lot more mature about it than many parts elsewhere.

Nothing but hypocrisy from Visa and MasterCard - there are far more NSFW content on Xitter than in games and yet I don't see a peep of them banning payment towards that little blue checkmark.

Definitely not crypto banks. I mean more of - people being able to do the transactions themselves straight from their phones or whatnot without the middleman (the banks). That's how crypto is supposed to work - and people just pay a transaction fee ("gas fees") to get the transaction done. There's a lot of work that's already been done to bring down the cost of gas fees too. Staking is like lending out your money and pooling it together while whoever borrows it has to pay you interest instead of paying the bank interest. There's a lot of shitcoins and corrupt things with crypto for sure, but that's a problem people collectively also need to solve - maybe don't "stake"/lend out your money to shady coins is a start and don't chase after this big marketed bullshit (FTX scam anyone)? There's a reason why techbros, wall street etc got in and it's because they're circumventing regulation - so looks like the bank even in this current state despite being regulated still do tons of shady shit. The penalties are just the cost of doing business.

It's a dual edged knife. Want to be free from the middleman banks? Current regulation standards don't even hold a candle against crypto. Crypto is community driven, decentralized and possibly even anti-inflationary. There are a lot of advantages but also in its current form easily perverted. Anyways, going to stop here as we're off topic.

Oh of course there's always pain and big tech has always been hard to block or even tax (our government is extremely slow on figuring out tech) - just look at our very own big telecoms - we can't even get them to behave. Canada has positioned itself into a weak position because we collectively keep voting for these spineless or clueless people believing they are doing good or for private interests. I am sure there is still a large portion of people thinking that politics don't affect them or they think that their vote won't matter etc etc. These reasons are all excuses - voting is the just the bare minimum.

Canada should have its own GDPR like the EU. Our personal data and things that we put online - one should have sovereignty over it. We have nothing in place that backs our own citizens and this in itself costs Canada nothing. It is pure and simple legislation and can cause pain to big tech without even changing any operating system.

Canada got turned into the US's "little bitch" wasn't a mistake overnight. Go look at the past 30 years of policies and who voted for what - it's clear there's a trend and one political part is almost blatant in bed with the US. There are many other ways to cause pain beyond just digital taxes.

Banking wise, I look forward to a day when banks are obsolete via crypto, but this requires a large public understanding of what crypto is all about. I'd argue that the Canadian government has no real way of governing crypto given its nature of how it works. But that's another discussion.

And it's possible to push for change much more easily at this level instead of the federal overnight. TBH - microsoft is used because of the history of how computers were introduced in the NA market. If you look to China for example, they skipped the entire PC generation and went straight to mobile. Windows is not big player but rather things like 'superapps' that act more like an OS than an app. That's only scratching the surface because these apps are much more because they even have financialization (see WePay, AliPay). The other big alternative is MacOS which seems to be catching on in the post-secondary and consumer market this may lead to a change in the business playing field as the older generation retires and younger people move into the workforce.

The media can keep bashing the Canadian government scrapping the tax. The last minute "capitulation" as many in the media is framing it as, while true, is also disingenuous on how Canada has to deal with the US given the cards it has in hand. Canada right now still relies heavily on exporting things to the US and keeping the US at the table talking is the best it can do right now until it can secure other trade deals around the world. Proximity matters and even more so when they are still is a superpower.

Canada still has many options despite this digital tax. What about banning US big tech? What about changing the rules about tech companies entering Canadian job space (and it doesn't have to be a tax)? Other countries have managed (eg. China, Denmark), so why can't Canada? The government can fight on one front, but Canadians themselves also have to. The boycott of travel to the US and of US goods clearly has made impact, but Canadians can do more. Support open source software like Linux, move away from Adobe and so forth. There are alternatives and some even Canadian ones. If we are to truly give the Canadian government good tools to fight, we too must do our jobs individually.

I'm going to say it's probably because PP stopped paying them. After all, these influencers, are there for the grift.

What a load of crap. Very likely it's Choice Properties REIT, which is also another company that Galen Weston owns, that's in control of the property restrictions anyways.

Arc'teryx is Chinese owned and for quite some time already. There's probably only a few Canadian clothing brands that are worthwhile in Canada, but most of them don't manufacture in Canada either.

Either way, Lululemon comes to mind, but their founder Chip Wilson isn't a pleasant person in supporting certain political parties even though he technically has been booted by the board of the company (I'm sure he still has shares). Artizia, Psychobunny, Roots...just to name a few that could be considered. Of course, if you're looking for outdoor wear, I'd say look to the European brands and even then it's a minefield.

This is just the symptom of a much bigger underlying issue. We can talk about regulation all we want or even banning it, but it won't solve the big problem of what young adults have to face today in society at large. They are ill prepared for the real world, bombarded by social media influences 24/7, this is just another coping mechanism they've turned to.

Excessive use of alcohol, vapes, sugar etc. are all just as bad. But hey, the stats are saying 16-19 year olds at 43 percent - last I checked the legal age to purchase cannabis was 19 in Canada. So, anything under that would be considered illegal and I'd solely place the blame on the parents - just like any other substance abuse. Alas, that still doesn't solve the mental pressures that these young adults will need to face (housing, employment opportunities, global factors - climate change etc.). We can educate all that we can, but it won't change the reality. The reality is that it takes real political will and a strong mandate from voters (we all know our federal government is like a bunch of companies in a trench coat and that needs to change) to actually FIX the money side of problems. I am not surprised that the 20-24 year old's use cannabis (48% claimed by the article) - record inflation anyone? high groceries? lack of good livable wage employment? housing?

Here's my hot take, cannabis gets more bad rep than alcohol when alcohol, IMO, is worse.