Canada fought measles and measles won; virus now endemic after 1998 elimination

Canada's loss also represents a loss of regional elimination for the Americas.

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[Uncivil Servant]

Various science fiction authors over the years have written of societies in which birth control was mandatory and that being a parent was only possible if you achieved a licence.

Once upon a time, I thought that was a horrible thing.

Now: I'm not as sure

This has happened in the USA before, as has forced sterilization and forced births (and forced conception, rape). Medicaid is explicitly prohibited from reimbursing for any sterilizing procedure unless it's a indirect result of an otherwise-necessary procedure (eg hysterectomy due to cancer), as a direct response to this long and horrifying history.

If you're wondering why this wasn't covered in school, it's because the people it happened to weren't considered "people" at the time.

 

[Uncivil Servant]

Asimov's essay on the "Cult of Ignorance" describes it best, I find. The US has always had a, compared to many other countries, disproportionately large body of people for whom ignorance was a virtue.

You don't get a population of 380 million where over half have the literacy of 6th graders just by schools being less effective. You need a genuine and persistent, cultural disdain for education - parents giving no shits about their children being unable to read, for generations, for this sort of outcome to present itself.

You're joking, right? By historical standards that's a highly-educated country. It wasn't until the 20th century that universal literacy became the norm in most countries. Much of rural Central Europe had literacy rates in the 30% range until after WWII.

One reason the USA historically has had higher literacy rates was that religious zealots in Boston decided that mass public education was the only way to assimilate and "civilize" people from other cultures and make them into proper Americans. And then as the idea filtered South, it became less and less popular as people realized the dangers of letting certain people read and write and possibly organize themselves.

Eventually I'm sure something in American history will not begin and end with conflicts between different groups of bigots over how and why to be bigoted, but yeah, if you dig deep enough that's usually the cause.

 

[Uncivil Servant]

There's more historical context here. Anti-vax is a Republican talking point now, but the original anti-vaxers were granola moms on the left and anti-government sovcits on the right. Canada has plenty of both.

I feel like the 1980s in North American liberalism is a bit like...actually just like the 1980s with regards to race and civil rights in America as well: a bunch of really important stuff happened, but we're all supposed to pretend that it didn't.

In this case it wasn't the Southern Strategy, but its opposite counterpart: The Democratic Leadership Committee. The official myth is that by 2000, the Democratic Party was simply a centrist technocratic coalition, and because the guy taking credit for it was also a sex pest who we wanted to forget after Jan 20th 2001, there was no reason for anyone to consider how the Democratic Party kicked out the New Agers and LaRouches and assorted other left-wing versions of the John Birch Society.

It just sorta happened, and right in time for some guy to become President just for the blowjobs. But fortunately today's Democratic leadership would never impose any sort of litmus test like that. It's a really slippery slope from there to rejecting candidates who only have a single Nazi tattoo from 20 years ago...

 

[Uncivil Servant]

Alright ditch Cali then. Ultimately I just want someplace warm to vacation and/or retire that's Canada and can spend in CAD$. Climate change ain't moving fast enough.

I feel somewhat disappointed, have you guys even tried seizing some tropical islands and claiming them as dependencies or territories?

And you have the nerve to call yourselves a former British colony...

(If the Royal Canadian Navy can make it to Réunion, perhaps they can steal it from the French? If not, they could always re-arrange some road signs in the Caribbean and try to convince the Dutch that Curaçao has gone missing)