Globe: Andrew Coyne: Canada is far from ready for the chaos coming our way
Now that the people of the United States have elected a fascist to lead them – a felon to “take care that the laws are faithfully executed,” an insurrectionist to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution,” a rapist, a racist, and a narcissistic psychopath to hold the country’s highest position of honour – the question on everyone’s lips, naturally, is: what does it mean for Canada?
Everything, would be the short answer. Living next to the United States has famously been compared to sleeping with an elephant, but a rogue elephant is something else again. Everything that makes this country what it is, everything that underpins our way of life, is predicated on the existence of a stable, united democracy to our south: a country we can rely on to come to our defence when needed, at the least a country we do not have to be defended from.
NYT: The Liberal New Yorkers Who Say They’re Tuning Out the News
Four years ago, a Swiss philosopher and businessman named Rolf Dobelli wrote a book called “Stop Reading the News: A Manifesto for a Happier, Calmer and Wiser Life.” A decade earlier he had eliminated newspapers, television news and related apps from his life, which he later described in a TED Talk as “one of the best decisions” he ever made. In an interview with The Irish Times when his book was published, he lamented that his news-obsessed friends had lost the ability to read more than 10 pages of a book at a time. He remained informed by organizing regular “news lunches” with experts in different fields, which is something he believed, however implausibly, that regular people, without TED Talks, could also do.
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Mr. Toff’s work also revealed that many people avoid the news because they grow frustrated with the lack of resolution — conflict and craziness that go on and on, miseries that seem insurmountable. “None of the stories feel like they come to a conclusion in a satisfying way,” he said. Reality was now subject to the plot structures of narrative television. Streaming, and the practice of binging series in particular, was habituating people toward an impatience. His subjects might complain about the violence and horror in the news as the reason to skip it — but then talk enthusiastically about the crime shows they watched and liked, despite the bloodletting, in part, because everything tied up so neatly.
Globe: Vass Bednar: Subscriptions are everywhere, and they are ruining our lives
More and more of our interactions with companies don’t involve owning anything they produce, but rather “renting” goods and services through a subscription — creating annual recurring revenue. They’re starting to overwhelm us: surveys are showing that Canadians are struggling to manage recurring expenses that accumulate over time.
In the United States, the FTC recently introduced a “one-click rule,” specifying that it needs to be as easy for customers to cancel their subscriptions and memberships as it is to sign up in the first place (this is also referred to as the “click-to-cancel"). After the proposed rule was announced in March, 2023, over 16,000 comments from the public bolstered it.
This straightforward principle has already come under fire from business groups (including Disney), who are pushing back — hard. That aggression is surreal because the legislation doesn’t say that subscriptions shouldn’t exist, but instead simply takes the stance that they should be far less sticky. But companies don’t want us to be able to exit this perpetual payment pitfall.
Last Updated: 24.Nov.2024 20:46 EST
