Disco elysium ass cactus
The Super Dooper Canadian Thread (now with 47% more Canadian Bacon)
I fucking hated dealing with the Best Buy marketplace when I worked there. It had just started and it was easier, though maybe not a wise career move, to actively discourage people from buying from them. Not necessarily because things were garbage but rather because if you bought something from there and had an issue with it, good luck getting a return. Best Buy wouldn't do them in store for marketplace items, you had to contact the seller through their page and hope they accepted it. And then the return process itself for them was needlessly convoluted as another barrier even if they did accept.
And that was on top of the stuff sold there being trash.
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I fucking hate it when Canadians act morally superior to Americans. I have a friend who genuinely believes the only thing you can 'make fun' of Canadians for is that we're polite, and that there are no serious cultural or political problems here. Just baffling levels of denial. Hot take: the only unique trait of Canadian culture vs American culture is Canadians think we don't have American culture while desperately pretending to be as relevant as America.
Eh, as an outsider I would definitely say "Canadian culture" is not as bad/toxic as "American culture", generally speaking.
That most definitely doesn't mean "Canadian culture" (history, general opinion, traditions, habits, etc) doesn't have its fair share of issues and blemishes. The way Canada treat(s/ed) the indigenous population is barely any better than the USA, and that in large part because Canadian indigenous people tended to live in places no-one else wants to be. The ones who lived in dense forested areable land aren't quite so populous anymore. The way Canada looks at their oil deposits and other natural resources leaves a lot to be desired. Despite big words, Canadian assistance for refugees from the Middle East is laughable (yes, a couple of planes full makes for great photo ops - but per capita, the amount of Syrians or Afghans helped is ridiculous compared to the wealth level and diplomatic finger waving towards others)
In many ways Canada tries to bridge the gap between America and the Scandinavian countries. In many ways, it does....For better and for worse.
I don't mean any of the above to indicate there's something fundamentally wrong with Canada or Canadians - having darker periods in your history (and not confronting them), being opportunistic or callous, etc are all perfectly normal for Western countries, and there's much more to be said about Belgium than about Canada in many respects. But yeah, "our only problem is we're too polite" is...hubris.
That most definitely doesn't mean "Canadian culture" (history, general opinion, traditions, habits, etc) doesn't have its fair share of issues and blemishes. The way Canada treat(s/ed) the indigenous population is barely any better than the USA, and that in large part because Canadian indigenous people tended to live in places no-one else wants to be. The ones who lived in dense forested areable land aren't quite so populous anymore. The way Canada looks at their oil deposits and other natural resources leaves a lot to be desired. Despite big words, Canadian assistance for refugees from the Middle East is laughable (yes, a couple of planes full makes for great photo ops - but per capita, the amount of Syrians or Afghans helped is ridiculous compared to the wealth level and diplomatic finger waving towards others)
In many ways Canada tries to bridge the gap between America and the Scandinavian countries. In many ways, it does....For better and for worse.
I don't mean any of the above to indicate there's something fundamentally wrong with Canada or Canadians - having darker periods in your history (and not confronting them), being opportunistic or callous, etc are all perfectly normal for Western countries, and there's much more to be said about Belgium than about Canada in many respects. But yeah, "our only problem is we're too polite" is...hubris.
I guess I feel like that is more "domestic/foreign policy" than culture. I'm referring to the sort of common culture that is lived by daily Canadians, which to some extent does get expressed in policy matters, but is that stuff which is so ingrained in your behaviour you almost never think about it intentionally. Like, the stereotype "What does a Canadian say when you step on his foot?" "Sorry." sort of automatic living that comes with being in a culture. I think most of our behaviour is equivalent to any given American person. Like if I put a Canadian in a given American place, they wouldn't be obvious. But even I spoke perfect French, if you put me in France, it's like, oh, that guy is definitely not French, on account of how everything he does is a little weird to us.
It's sad because it's true.
Indigenous notwithstanding, anyone who says Canada isn't racist should read about Africville here in Halifax.
Not the point of your post, but I learned French from a teacher from Northern Africa who lived in France. It didn’t prepare me completely for speaking French here.
To the point of your post, one only has to look at the news last summer and residential schools to see something terrible that has happened here. I was never taught about this in school when I was younger and that’s appalling. I am glad that our kids are aware growing up.
Our country has plenty of issues and I too dislike that so many people don’t see it.
This just popped up on my twitter feed. Canadian whisky is GOOD, dammit!
www.atlasobscura.com
Why the World Overlooked Canadian Whisky
A preference for blending put the Great White North on the wrong side of industry standards.
www.atlasobscura.com
on Wednesdays I go shopping and have buttered scones for tea!
There's a Popeyes near my house that is usually pretty good and one near my friend's house that I have only ever had bad experiences at. Super slow, constantly out of stock on items, etc. He says it's never been a problem for him and it's been there for years, so must give others decent service to stay in business, but I have never once had a positive outcome going there.
We have the same problem with the only Popeyes near us, so after 2 tries, we don't go anymore.
Tell me you've never been to Belgium without telling me you've never been to Belgium.
GasBandit
Staff member
Here in the first world, if fast food takes more than 7 minutes to arrive after ordering, we riot.
Here in Proper Food Country, if warm food arrives within 25 minutes, we're offended you're cutting our conversation short :-P
(to be fair, this is a cliché that's been changing - fast food here is now much more in line with UK/US/Germany/NL times. But 20 years or so ago food that arrived too quickly was really suspect and older people would literally send it back since you couldn't possibly have made a decent meal in 10 minutes)
So that's really the problem with Popeyes: yes, at a regular restaurant, the food is better quality, so taking longer makes sense. Popeyes is fast-food quality, and when it isn't fast, and it's not quality, it's not worth it.
Unless it's Whataburger. You can be the only one in the drive through, and it's still gonna take 10 minutes.
Worth it.
I've worked at a fried chicken place in my teens (Hartz, for full disclosure). We slung those chickens like mad, all day. A batch takes like 17 minutes to cook (unless you're fancy like KFC and have those patented pressure fryers). Whoever's working the fry station should constantly be slinging chicken to keep the bin full. If you have to wait more than "immediately" for your food, it's because the fry cook did a shit job, and is behind, and how you have to actually wait for the chicken to finish frying.
You’ve found a Whataburger that only has one car in line?!?!?! WITCHCRAFT!