>I don’t feel pride in being Canadian because pride, to me, is reserved for accomplishments
>I had no part in being born in Canada, nor shaping this lovely country ... a country filled with opportunity and beauty, where hard work is rewarded, and life is governed fairly and predictably
>I am proud of my ancestors ... who crossed oceans, who spoke no English, and settled in the rugged, frozen prairies of Saskatchewan.
Does he think the modern Western democratic country we now know as "Canada" was always there and his fortunate ancestors stumbled upon it? Does he not consider carving this beautiful and just land of opportunity from a frozen wasteland an accomplishment of his ancestors?
How can you not feel pride in that? Does he not consider himself - a strong, healthy, intelligent, thoughtful man - an accomplishment of his ancestors; the result of millions of years of toil and struggle and selection?
Does he think it's random chance that he was not born in a hut in Tanzania?
How can one express pride in his ancestors and their achievements in the most abstract sense, while being very sure to completely reject any pride in himself and what they built? Indeed, what else is there? If you asked them, I'm sure they would say that their family and home are their greatest accomplishments - things that he explicitly excludes from eligibility for any sense of pride whatsoever.
All your points are examples of luck compounded over time.
Let's take your example of not being born in a hut in Tanzania. That bit of luck is called the birth lottery and has a major influence on one's life. It defines the resources you have growing up, including school systems, community, and medical care. Then, it extends into networks known by your parents, influencing where you get into college/university and where you start working.
We can't control events to guarantee the right outcome. The best we can do is load the metaphorical dice. For example, you increase your chances of finding a life partner through good hygiene, mental health, social skills, etc.
My meeting with my current partner is one of those luck stories. If I hadn't gone to that dating meetup, if I hadn't gotten the card for "German dungeon porn" in a Cards Against Humanity game, if there wasn't performative shock by all the pearl clutchers at the table, I probably wouldn't have said, “It's hard to be shocked by much after you discover your father is a cross-dresser.”
That one statement taught my partner a lot about me (filtering skills, lack of pretense, humor, and confidence) and made me desirable in her eyes, setting another luck chain in motion.
In my opinion, it was 80% luck and 20% skill.
I'm not sure you can take pride in many things that have happened to you or outcomes you think you achieved because they are most likely luck. Whenever I discuss life and luck, I'm reminded of two phrases that sum it up beautifully: “There but for the grace of God go I.” and “If you want to make the gods laugh, tell them your plans.”
I suggest spending more time reading up on the impact of the birth lottery.
the OP didn't choose to be born to Canadian parents any more than the that a child chose to be born to Tanzanian parents. In either case, the child's life trajectory has been significantly constrained by their parents' social standing, wealth and health.
That's the whole point. You have no agency over who your parents are or who the child is. When there is no ability to choose and no agency, what you get is a matter of luck.
He is his parents' child. As they are the children of their parents, and they are of theirs.
There is no sperm or egg that could have had him born as a Japanese man in outback Australia. He is the culmination of generations of ancestors' accomplishments, as is the civilisation they have built for themselves and their descendants.
Young *indigenous" (whatever that means in the UK) were overwhelmingly more likely to vote against Brexit. And older people were more likely to vote for it
The vote itself was extremely close, and it won't take many older people dying to swing it the other way. In fact, I think it already has, but not by much yet.
Your "race replacement" argument is just offensive and not what was meant.
Not a lot of Twue Celtic Britons left these days, waves of Anglo-Saxon settlement, along with Danes and Gaelic-speaking tribes to the north pushed the RealBritons™ back to the tin mines and sea tunnels of Wales and Cornwall.
It's not as if these men have willing marriageable women queueing up at their door.
They have not chosen to forego marriage and family in pursuit of these pointless nihilistic hedonistic hobbies. They seek comfort in them because marriage and family are unattainable.
A very common sentiment among young men is that "the juice ain't worth the squeeze".
There is a sense that the average man is being expected to meet increasingly demanding requirements - career, social, fitness, etc (some of which are literally impossible for many due to height, balding, or facial attractiveness) - for a shot at an overweight woman past her prime with dozens of flings and a couple abortions in her past, who will forever secretly think poorly of him, is only ever 5 minutes away from another fling with a random stranger on the app of her choice, and may at any moment become 'bored' and file for no-fault divorce ruining their family and finances.
Or we can do whatever we like for leisure, meet our sexual needs in whatever way we like (abstinence, prostitutes, casual sex, toys, porn, etc) and watch the world burn.
He could have a more balanced view for himself but that wouldn’t change the reality that he’s describing for everyone else (which is probably also shared by a large portion of the other gender).
