Links - 13th April 2026 (2)

Meme - "You're suddenly declared a king. You may only choose one of these queens as your wife.
*Lagertha from Vikings, Daenerys from Game of Thrones, Margaery from Game of Thrones, Padme from Star Wars, Galadriel from Lord of the Rings, Arwen from Lord of the Rings, Freya from The Huntsman, Mera from Aquaman, Alien Queen from Aliens*"
For some reason people in the group I saw this in were talking about the Scarlet Witch

Meme - George R.R. Martin wrote, 2010-06-09, A Casting We Will Go:
MOOD: horny
Auditions continue in Dublin, Belfast, and London for a whole bunch of parts, both major and minor, on HBO's GAME OF THRONES. Sometimes it is a very hard job. I've just reviewed the tapes of twelve young women reading for the part of Shae. Excuse me. I need to go take a cold shower now.
TAGS: game of thrones, hbo"

Meme - "GOT SEASON 8
It's so over
HOTD SEASON 1
We're so back.
HOTD SEASON 2
It's so over
AKOTSK SEASON 1
We're so back."

westerosies on X - "George R.R. Martin intends to make a blog post about “everything that’s gone wrong with #HouseOfTheDragon.” “I do not look forward to other posts I need to write, about everything that’s gone wrong with HOUSE OF THE DRAGON… but I need to do that too, and I will.”"
Beware the Butterflies | Not a Blog

Meme - "*Lord of the Rings* Ended almost 20 years ago. Fandom going strong and millions still rewatch
*Harry Potter* Ended 10 years ago. Fandom going streng.and millions still rewatch
*Game of Thrones* Ended 1 year ago. Fandom is dead and nobody wants to rewatch"

Meme - "A proud father"
Fabrizio Laurenti: "Going through my daughter's highschool yearbook. They grow up so quick. She's going to be on tomorrow night's Game of Thrones. She told me not to watch it because she thinks she can't act well but I told her I'm proud of everything she does."
*Rosabell Laurenti Sellers as Mia from Mia and Me*
*Rosabell Laurenti Sellers as Tyene Sand*
"This Tweet has been deleted."

Woke the Dragon on X - "Following Alicent's confession, HotD season 3 will have Rhaenyra questioning whether her birthright and ambition, her worth within the patriarchal system of Westeros, are the essence of her existence."

Condall's wild ride continues. : r/freefolk - "framing a civil war between two factions of a medieval incestuous and genocidal dictatorship family as a fight against patriarchy. interesting choice."
"Ryan really went:
Book theme - the cycle of violence once taken place cannot be stopped, from human beliefs and positions, even such a thing as a slight or a dress rivalry can lead to a war that kills thousands and destroys all involved.
"Nah dog, my 0iq audience can't possibly understand that, let me make it more interesting by turning our leads into inactive angsty pseudo-lesbians who are suffering under the evil patriarchy, now that's something any 4th grade dumbass can understand."
It's so fucking done to death at this point, writers believing their audience is brain-dead and adding the most bottom of the barrel social good v evil themes to compensate."
"At this point, I’m just sick of showrunners using book adaptations as an excuse to promote their mediocre fanfiction, and then act like book readers are the problem when we don’t like their crappy adaptations.  I knew HotD season two was going to suck by the end of the first episode."
"Its a show made for the "slayyyy queen" TikTok audience. Don't think, just react exactly as the show tells you to. And if someone dares notice how shit the writing is, you accuse them of lacking media literacy, then write the most nonsensical defense of Condal and Hess' fanfic."
"Critics are often part of the problem with many praising media that pushes their agenda of choice and bashing anything that doesnt explicitly reinforce their world view.  And I might argue that the audience loves it despite these writing flaws not because of them."
Condall's wild ride continues. : r/freefolk - "My least favorite quote about HotD was (I’m paraphrasing) “At the end of the day it’s about these two women (alicent and rhaenyra) just trying to figure things out”.  Like… figure out what?? You guys are killing each others children. This isn’t a brain teaser for you to ponder, it’s a fucking war. Can you imagine any war being described as the two leaders just trying to figure things out?"

‘Can’t compete with S-E Asia’: China’s home-grown durians scarce and pricey for now - "Mr Zhang Mingming, 35, will soon be harvesting some 1,000 durians from his orchard in Hainan island’s leafy Baoting county, a haven for tropical fruit.  They spell a windfall for the businessman-turned-farmer: His durians, of the Thai Ganyao variety, are priced at 200 yuan (S$37) per kilogram. If all goes well, Mr Zhang will be around 700,000 yuan richer by the end of the durian season in September.  The bounty will grow further when his Malaysian Musang King and Black Thorn trees start bearing fruit in the next year or two. These varieties can fetch higher premiums, he said, with some even selling for up to 2,000 yuan each.  Across southern China’s Hainan province, savvy farmers like Mr Zhang are driving a rise in home-grown durians, which are not native to the country. It is a lucrative business opportunity – Chinese consumers love the fruit,  eating some 1.4 million tonnes of fresh durian imports from South-east Asia in 2023, up more than 70 per cent year on year.  But while 2024 marks the second year that domestically produced durians are available on the market, from Monthongs to Musang Kings, very few Chinese will actually get to taste them, as their small yields and high prices render them largely inaccessible for now.  China planted its first durian tree in 1958, but for years, it barely bore fruit. It was only in 2018 that commercial durian farming began in earnest. Most of this is taking place in tropical Hainan, and there are scattered pockets of growers in Guangxi region and Guangdong province in southern China, as well as in Yunnan province in south-western China.  The country’s first major durian harvest totalled 50 tonnes in 2023. And yields in 2024 are expected to reach 200 tonnes, said agriculture expert Feng Xuejie.  “The output is still very small because the trees have not been growing for long enough,” explained the director of the Institute of Tropical Fruit Trees at the Hainan Academy of Agricultural Sciences. “It takes six or seven years for the yields to start flourishing.”  That Hainan is prone to typhoons also does not help... Growers are working to step up not just production quantities, but also the fruit’s quality – which Mr Feng describes as “unstable”. Mr Zhang said the taste of Hainan’s durians right now varies widely. “There are delicious ones, but these are very few. The majority don’t taste good.”  He recalls that his first crop in 2022 had “no taste whatsoever”. It took an adjustment to the fertiliser’s formula before the durians’ taste drastically improved the next year... The scarcity of Hainan’s durians – amounting in 2024 to just 0.014 per cent of what was imported in 2023 – has driven up prices.  Some sell for between 120 yuan and 140 yuan a kilogram, local media reported. Some farmers, like Mr Zhang, charge 200 yuan a kilogram.   Prices will probably come down in two or three years when there are more Hainan durians on the market, said Mr Feng.  At a store named Hainan Quality Goods And Local Specialties at the Xinfadi wholesale market in Beijing, located outside a hall selling durians from South-east Asia, there was no sign of Hainan durians when The Straits Times visited on a Saturday morning.  “Too expensive, can’t sell them,” said Mr Ai Dong, who works at the store. “They are 60 yuan a jin (500g)! Those from Thailand are just 20 yuan to 30 yuan a jin.”  Durian lover Li Panda said he feels proud that China can grow its own durians. He and his 35-year-old wife visit the wholesale market every week or two to buy the fruit.  But Mr Li also expects them to be priced more competitively – cheaper than imported durians – in the years to come.  “When Chinese people grow things, they drive down costs,” said the 40-year-old, who works in the manufacturing industry. While China’s durian production capacity is projected to increase as more trees are planted and mature, “home-grown durians cannot develop to a very large scale”, said Mr Feng, the tropical fruit expert.  This is because durians are a notoriously finicky fruit to grow, and need specific soil and climate conditions to flourish.  “Very few places (in China) can grow durians,” he said. “We are restricted by the land available.”  Even on Hainan, durians can grow only in the south of the island, Mr Zhang said.  Mr Feng noted that this, coupled with Chinese consumers’ voracious appetite for the fruit, means that local production is unlikely to affect sales of South-east Asian durians in China.  Domestic durians, he said, serve more as a supplement to imports.  In 2023, China imported 929,000 tonnes of fresh durians from Thailand, 493,000 tonnes from Vietnam, and 3,763 tonnes from the Philippines – with total shipments valued at over US$6.7 billion (S$9 billion).  Imports of fresh Malaysian durians will commence soon, after a bilateral deal allowing for this was inked when Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited Kuala Lumpur in June. Malaysia has hitherto only been able to export frozen whole durians and durian products to China.  “We cannot compete with South-east Asia on quantity. Land and labour costs are also higher in China,” Mr Feng said.  “So the aim needs to be high-end, high-quality durians.”"
From 2024

TIL Dr Pepper is not a cola, root beer, or fruit-flavored soft drink, but instead belongs to its own category called "pepper sodas", named after the brand itself : r/todayilearned

Can anyone name the 23 flavors : r/DrPepper - "The 23 flavors are cola, cherry, licorice, amaretto, almond, vanilla, blackberry, apricot, caramel, pepper, anise, sarsaparilla, ginger, molasses, lemon, plum, orange, nutmeg, cardamon, all spice, coriander juniper, birch and prickly ash."

Captain Jack Sparrow to the rescue as Johnny Depp helps London schoolgirl - "When nine-year-old Beatrice Delap wanted to organise a mutiny against her teachers, she knew who to call on.  And it took just one letter to enlist the aid of the world's most famous pirate: Captain Jack Sparrow.  With only 10 minutes warning, Johnny Depp arrived at Meridian primary school, Greenwich, in full high-seas regalia with four other cast members.  Beatrice sent her appeal when she found out he was filming the latest instalment of Pirates Of The Caribbean at the Old Royal Naval College nearby. The letter said: "Captain Jack Sparrow, at Meridian primary school we are a bunch of budding young pirates. Normally we're a right handful but we're having trouble mutinying against the teachers.  "We'd love it if you could come and help. From Beatrice Delap, aged nine, a budding pirate."... "Then Johnny Depp walked in dressed as Captain Jack. There were gasps and screams. He pulled the letter out of his pocket and said he was going to frame it. Then he called me down and gave me a hug."  Depp, 47, spent 15 minutes performing for pupils and dancing with fellow cast members. "He said the pirates were going to take over the school and only eat candy and our teeth would turn black and fall out," added Beatrice. "But he said we shouldn't mutiny against the teachers because there were police outside and we might get into trouble.""

Meme - "r/mildlyinfuriating
I forced a bannana into a pvc pipe with butter and now I cannot get it removed, it can't push through the pipe and it refuses to come back out the way it came inside.... Does anyone have any ideas how to remove it?"
"Now, the real question. Is the banana really his penis or is the PVC pipe actually his rectum?"

Meme - "My cat has become OBSESSED with sitting in on my zoom calls and has now perfected the art of glaring straight down the camera
Abby Tomlinson @twcuddleston: "this could've been an email" her face says"

Instagram - "Go to Disneyland OR clean the windows ? Good thing he can’t read 😂"

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson Reveals the Disgusting Origin of His 'Hercules' Beard - "Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson stopped by "Live with Kelly & Michael" today to talk his new movie, "Hercules," out Friday.  He revealed that the film was actually the first project he pitched when he arrived in Hollywood 14 years ago... He also revealed the origin of his glorious beard in the movie, as he explained that it took more than 3 hours to get ready to film every day.  It's the hair from a yak's testicles, Johnson said -- "the softest, yeah."  "It’s the commitment to which I will go to" for a film, Johnson added."

Thread by @mhp_guy on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "I revisit this incredible Reddit post every month or so.  Below are my 8 favorite answers of boring and unique businesses that print money:
Specialized concrete hole cutting and X-rays.  The higher the percentage of people that never knew this business existed = the higher probability that this business needs more competitors.
Mailbox replacement services.  Your customers are freely advertising themselves out by the road.  A couple organic FB Marketplace posts per week should keep you busy.
$1.5m per month of aquarium sales. Compliance paperwork for large chemical companies. Livestock transport.
Providing washers and dryers to apartments for "free."  They get paid by keeping all the quarters.
Selling clean water in a rural area with unsafe drinking water. $6m per year from importing O-rings with no employees.
Below is the exact post if you'd like to read for yourself."

Meme - Worm 1: "N-NOT A SINGLE BITE TO EAT, SINCE WE GOT HERE. NOT ONE... I-I DON'T THINK I CAN GO ON MUCH LONGER, BUDDY."
Worm 2: "JUST TRY TO HANG ON, GARRY. JUST TRY TO HANG ON."
Worm 1: "I-I DON'T THINK I CAN GO ON MUCH LONGER, BUDDY."
Worm 2: "G-GARRY? NNOOOO!!!"
Waiter: "MENU, MISS OLSEN?"
Miss Olsen: "JUST WATER, THANKS."

Meme - "NOTICE: HUSBANDS CHOOSING PAINT COLOURS MUST HAVE A SIGNED NOTE FROM THEIR WIFE."

Meme - Amherst, Ohio Community Forum: "Can anyone help me find a local baker willing to make this cake for my daughter this upcoming Saturday. She just needs a smaller cake. turning 18"
"FINALLY LEGAL"

Meme - Shirin Khan @ShirinKhan _13: "A reminder that individual do not represent the entire religion."
Shirin Khan @ShirinKhan_13: "A Muslim risked his life to save Jews. This is Islam"
Generalisations and stereotypes are only accurate if they make "minorities" look good

Meme - "r/rightwingBDSM
Are trans/nb people welcome here?
Hi there! I'm a queer poly enby little <3 I got into kink as a way to explore my fantasy of being someone's little girl, but I haven't felt very welcome in any of the mainstream BDSM subreddits because there's too many blacks and jews."

Le Constellation: Memorial for victims in deadly Switzerland bar fire goes up in flames

Pimp Master Broda on X - "DC Comics is releasing a Harley Quinn fart themed comic in 2025. A full 32 pages dedicated to her farting. This isn't a barely disguised fetish of the writers. It's fully in the spotlight."

Meme - "Sam's birthday is this Saturday, right? What do you think I should get her?"
"Well, she's turning 4, so maybe just a stuffed animal or something"
*Girl getting teddy bear*
Man with stuffed bird: "damn"

Meme - Pop Tingz @ThePopTingz: "Selena Gomez has unfollowed Zayn, Gigi Hadid, Bella Hadid and Dua Lipa on Instagram."
Pop Tingz @ThePopTingz: "Hey guys. I'm giving myself the day off today! I won't be posting any updates unless it's something major. Thanks for understanding"

Meme - "THREE BROTHERS LAWN SERVICES
Scott Murphy. 1/5
Fantastic work! The team pruned our live oak and pecan trees beautifully. Although I had to leave for work while they were on site, they took the time to clearly walk me through the plan beforehand, which gave me complete confidence in their business. Fairly priced, professional, punctual, and left the site spotless! Had to dock a few stars because I came home from work early to find one of the brothers banging my wife. Other than that, happy with the service!"

Meme - "Be with someone who hugs you like Heath Ledger hugged the Gyllenhaal sibling *The Dark Knight* *Brokeback Mountain*"

Rapid improvement in Alzheimer’s disease symptoms following fecal microbiota transplantation: a case report - "Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common form of dementia, is a leading cause of death and a major cause of morbidity in older people. The disease is characterized by progressive memory loss, cognitive impairment, and the cerebral accumulation of amyloid-β peptide. Given the health and economic impacts of AD, treatments that target the underlying etiology of AD or modify the course of the disease are of significant interest. The gut microbiome has been increasingly implicated in the pathogenesis of several neurological diseases, including multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. Furthermore, emerging evidence has demonstrated that there are alterations in gut microbiome composition in patients with AD, suggesting involvement of the microbiome–gut–brain axis. We present symptom improvement in a patient with AD following fecal microbiota transplantation for a Clostridioides difficile infection... An 82-year-old man presented for opinion and management of recurrent CDI following hospitalization for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia...   Following a detailed discussion regarding the potential risks and benefits associated with the procedure, the patient underwent a single 300 mL FMT infusion (per the Borody method) using stool from the patient’s 85-year-old wife as a donor. The patient’s wife was intellectually acute, with normal affect and stable mood. Following the procedure, the patient’s CDI symptoms resolved, and repeat stool testing 2 months later was negative.   At the follow-up visit 2 months post-FMT, the patient’s wife reported improvements in the patient’s mental acuity and affect. The MMSE was re-administered by the gastroenterologist (and subsequently by the neurologist) and the patient scored 26, indicating normal cognition. Four months post-FMT, the patient reported continued improvement in memory, with no progression in symptoms. The patient now remembered his daughter’s birthday, which he had not been able to recall previously, and was able to correct the physician’s recollections of his symptoms. Six months post-FMT, the patient reported a marked improvement in mood, was more interactive, and showed more expressive affect. Readministration of the MMSE revealed that the patient’s score had further increased to 29."

Hussein Aboubakr Mansour on X - "I was just explaining to someone that one of the main problems Arabs have in dealing with Western culture is that they can't seem to discern or discriminate between its internal codes or understand that Western culture is not one, single aesthetic regime. It's a densely stratified system of class codes, generational codes, racial codes, subcultural, ideological codes, that natives read instinctively and outsiders flatten into a single undifferentiated signal called "the West." (I think Indians have the same problem)  So you'd find, in the 2000s, grown-ass Arab men, I mean really middle aged serious artists, established musicians,  earnestly copying NSYNC or Britney Spears. They didn't register at all that this was music for 14-year-old American girls. They just saw successful Western pop with sleek Western aesthetics. The aesthetics code was completely invisible to them.  The Gulf is the ideal laboratory for this because wealth removes all economic friction from consumption. When you can buy anything, the only remaining filter is taste, and taste is precisely the thing that requires a cultural literacy you cannot purchase. So you get the famous Gulf aesthetic: a villa combining Louis XIV gilding, Dubai modernist glass, Versace furnishings, and a Rolls Royce with ghetto-fabulous chrome, all experienced by its owner as a single coherent statement of prestige. But in the West, at least before mass migration and its vape shop aesthetics referred to below, each of these items belongs to a completely different, often mutually hostile, aesthetic world. French baroque is old-money nostalgia or Trump-land glamor. Modernist glass is the aesthetic of rationalist negation, liberal soulless soulcycle people. Versace is the Italian fashion house that Black American hip-hop culture adopted as a signifier of defiant philistinic excess and proud tastelessness. Etc. Etc. These things are not supposed to go together.   And this is ultimately why the Third Worlder became the hero of postmodernism and poststructuralism. Not despite this condition but exactly, EXACTLY, because of it. The dissolution of all codes into all other codes, the inability to distinguish high from low, sacred from profane, ironic from sincere, all are floating signifiers that could refer to anything and nothing, etc. this is the fulfilled academic left dream of dissolving Western civ into a one flood of undifferentiated slop. Deleuze wanted the dissolution of all stable identities. Derrida wanted the collapse of all hierarchies of meaning. Lyotard wanted the end of master narratives that organize experience into coherent wholes. Isn't walking through the shopping malls in Louis Vuitton and listening to Lil Wayne, is the living embodiment of all these theories? a subject with no center, no taste, no discriminating principle, chaotic, fragmented, rootless, genuinely believing in nothing because he never had the codes to believe in to begin with."

Dan Burmawi on X - "A couple of weeks ago, a university professor who knows @GadSaad  asked me what I think of what Prof. Saad says about Islam and Islamism.   I told him it is unbelievable that he would even ask such a question.   It shows how far the false narrative about Islam has been pushed, to the point that the plain truth Prof. Saad is stating is treated as questionable.  There is absolutely no difference between Islam and Islamism.   I was raised Muslim, and the word “Islamism” never crossed my path until I encountered Western discourse.  Islam is not a religion; Islam HAS a religion.  Imagine a version of communism where Marx is a prophet and the manifesto is the holy book, that is exactly what Islam is: a political ideology with a religious aspect.  Islam is a state. Muslims are citizens of that state. It has a constitution (Sharia), it has a foreign policy strategy (jihad), and it has a leader (the caliph).  Wherever Islam exists, it exists to rule and to replace man-made law.  Stop being afraid to say the truth.   Stop debating whether what we say is true or not.   You have been deceived into thinking there is a difference between Islam and Islamism, there is none."
He's going to be arrested for Islamophobia

Sama Hoole on X - "Summing up the Blue Zones:
Researcher: "We found 50 centenarians in this mountain village! They eat mostly plants!"
Local official: "Actually we have a pension fraud problem. Many of those people aren't that old."
Researcher: "We're not going to include that in the documentary."
Local butcher: "Also we eat a lot of lamb and cheese here."
Researcher: "We filmed someone eating vegetables so that's what we're going with."
Centenarian: "I've eaten pork fat every day for 90 years."
Researcher: "Can you hold this bowl of lentils for the camera?"
Centenarian: "But I don't eat..."
Researcher: "Just hold it. Say something about plants."
Netflix viewers: "Wow, lentils are the secret to longevity!""

Why Canada’s GDP per capita crisis is real: DeepDive

Why Canada’s GDP per capita crisis is real: DeepDive

"Critics argue that GDP is a flawed metric, pointing to legitimate measurement challenges. But these measurement issues affect every country. The question is not whether GDP per capita is perfect but whether Canada’s trend relative to our peers signals deeper problems.

The evidence suggests it does.

GDP per capita has well-documented limitations...

But here is what makes Canada’s situation different: We are not just dealing with measurement noise. We are seeing a systematic decline relative to countries dealing with the exact same measurement challenges.

From 2014 to 2024, Canada’s real GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power parity grew by just 3.2 percent in total, an anemic 0.4 percent per year on average, and the third lowest among 38 advanced nations. Over the same period, the United States posted 20.2 percent total growth (1.9 percent annually), and the OECD average reached 15.3 percent (1.4 percent annually). The measurement shortcomings cannot explain five-to six-fold differences in growth rates.

Yes, this period coincides with the pandemic and an oil price shock. But for perspective, in the previous decade, which also encountered the global financial crisis, Canada’s real GDP per capita grew at 0.9 percent annually, roughly on par with the United States (0.8 percent) and the OECD average (0.9 percent). The divergence is recent and dramatic.

Canada’s real GDP per capita now ranks 19th among 38 OECD countries, down two positions from 17th in 2014. More troubling is the deterioration in Canada’s relative position on two fronts. Against the United States, Canada fell from 83.1 percent of American GDP per capita in 2014 to just 71.4 percent in 2024. Against the OECD average, Canada historically exceeded it but dropped to 99.5 percent in 2024, falling below average for the first time in recorded history.

The trend is what matters. This is not a measurement quirk; it’s a systematic decline.

If GDP per capita were disconnected from other measures of well-being, its stagnation might not matter. But the empirical evidence suggests otherwise. GDP per capita tends to correlate with the very social indicators that critics say we should care about instead.

In his recent Hub analysis, Mike Moffatt shows how Canada’s weak GDP per capita mirrors declining relative performance across multiple dimensions of social well-being. Our global ranking on the United Nations’ Human Development Index dropped from 13th in 2013 to 16th in 2023. The World Happiness Report shows Canada falling from 5th in 2012 to 18th in 2025.

According to the 2026 World Happiness Report, released after Moffatt’s analysis, Canada’s standing has dropped further to 25th. The generational divide is particularly troubling: young Canadians under age 25 rank 71st globally in happiness vs 24th for the rest of the population. Lack of housing affordability likely plays a role in the comparative unhappiness among the younger cohort.

The international evidence supports these patterns. Cross-country analysis of up to 146 countries reveals that higher GDP per capita strongly correlates with better well-being outcomes: higher life expectancy (correlation of 0.71), lower infant mortality (-0.65), and lower inequality (-0.55). Recent data from 2024 covering over 150 countries shows a clear positive relationship between GDP per capita and self-reported life satisfaction, with no evidence of a satiation point where additional income stops mattering for well-being. Research by Sacks, Stevenson, and Wolfers finds that even in wealthy nations, higher GDP per capita continues to correlate with higher reported well-being, challenging earlier claims that economic growth becomes irrelevant above certain income thresholds.

This does not mean GDP per capita captures everything. Economist Dan Ciuriak has noted that Canada’s higher life expectancy relative to the United States provides an implicit benefit not reflected in GDP comparisons. Using value-of-statistical-life methodologies, Ciuriak estimates this longevity advantage represents a substantial “good governance premium” that, if included, would materially narrow the apparent Canada-U.S. income gap.

These quality-of-life dimensions matter. Yet even accounting for such factors, the broader pattern is concerning. When economic output per person stagnates, governments have fewer revenue-based resources to fund health care, infrastructure, and other social programs.

Some critics acknowledge Canada’s relative GDP per capita decline but argue it reflects a defensible trade-off: we accept lower income in exchange for greater equality. The data contradicts this narrative.

Eleven OECD countries achieve both higher GDP per capita and greater income equality than Canada, after accounting for the welfare state’s tax and transfer system. For reference, Canada’s GDP per capita stands at approximately $52,000. The list of countries that are more prosperous and more equal spans from Luxembourg ($121,000) and Ireland ($114,000) to Scandinavian nations of Norway ($71,000), Denmark ($68,000), and Sweden ($60,000). The Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Iceland, France, and Finland complete the roster of countries demonstrating that higher prosperity and equality can coexist.

Several additional countries achieve higher prosperity with similar equality: Germany ($61,000) maintains virtually identical income distribution to Canada, while Switzerland ($80,000) and Australia ($60,000) achieve significantly higher GDP per capita with only marginally less equal outcomes.

The United States represents a starker trade-off: 40 percent higher GDP per capita than Canada but substantially greater inequality (Gini coefficient of 0.394 versus Canada’s 0.306). The United Kingdom falls between these extremes with modestly higher income but markedly greater inequality than Canada.

Canada is not choosing equality over growth. We have fallen to 99.5 percent of the OECD average GDP per capita in 2024, down from above average historically, while maintaining only middling equality. Apart from modest pandemic-era improvements, our income distribution has remained essentially unchanged. We are falling behind in prosperity without material gains in equality.

On the income gap with the U.S., a recent Bank of Canada study has important insights about income concentration. Three-quarters of the Canada-U.S. GDP per capita gap lies among the top 10 percent of market income earners. The bottom half of Canadians earn roughly 95 percent of what their American counterparts earn. But the gap widens dramatically moving up the distribution, with the top 1 percent of Canadians earning only 40 percent of comparable American incomes.

This concentration points to the selective emigration of high-ability workers. The analysis estimates that a substantial share of Canadians who would rank among top earners in Canada have emigrated to the United States—roughly 40 percent of potential top 1 percent earners and 30 to 50 percent of the next nine percentiles. Canadian-born individuals in the United States are more educated than native-born Americans, earn substantially more, and cluster disproportionately in top income deciles.

Canada is effectively exporting its inequality to the U.S. The brain drain simultaneously lowers our average income while raising American income, accounting for a significant share of the persistent GDP gap.

Bottom line: the international evidence shows prosperity and equality aren’t necessarily substitutes. The policy challenge is pursuing reforms that drive productivity growth, retain high-ability workers, and maintain or enhance social mobility.

Some defenders of Canada’s economic performance point to immigration as explaining weak per capita GDP. After all, rapid population growth increased the denominator in the per capita calculation, mechanically reducing the ratio even as total GDP grew.

This argument misses the policy choice embedded in that growth. Immigration is not an exogenous shock but a policy lever. Canada’s annual population growth averaged around 1.0 percent from 2004 to 2014, but climbed to 1.5 percent from 2015 to 2025, including surges of 3 percent each year in 2023 and 2024...

The immigration surge exacerbated the productivity challenge on two fronts. First, the composition shifted toward temporary, lower-skilled workers crowding out some of the high-skilled immigrants who complement capital investment and drive innovation. Second, the sheer volume increased population growth, making labour abundant, and encouraging the substitution away from capital. When businesses can easily access abundant low-skilled labour, they have less incentive to invest in the capital equipment and technology that boost output per worker. Together, both forces undermined productivity and the growth of real GDP per capita.

To be clear, the policy choices about immigration levels and composition are part of a broader set of challenges affecting productivity, not a separate phenomenon that fully explains Canada’s underperformance.

Even Canada’s headline GDP per capita figure, while weak, may overstate our underlying economic health. Total government spending as a share of GDP increased from approximately 38 percent in 2014 to 45 percent in 2024. Much of this incremental spending was deficit-financed. GDP accounting treats government spending as contributing to output regardless of whether it is funded through current taxation or future obligations. Putting aside the potential displacement of private sector activity, this creates a “fiscal mirage”—headline GDP growth that does not reflect sustainable economic activity.

So, within Canada’s already weak GDP per capita performance, a growing share comes from government. As government’s share of the economy expands through deficit spending, it can temporarily prop up headline GDP figures even as the private sector struggles. This matters because the productivity growth that drives economic progress comes primarily from the private sector. Accumulated debt eventually requires servicing through higher taxes or reduced services, both of which drag on future growth.

Proponents of a larger government role might argue that this expansion is positive. Higher public spending improves quality of life, reduces inequality, and provides essential services. This perspective deserves consideration.

The relationship between rising government spending and social outcomes is complex. Empirical research by economist Livio Di Matteo suggests Canada has surpassed its growth-maximizing point. Economic growth is generally optimized when total government spending remains between 24 and 32 percent of GDP.

Consider specific measures during Canada’s period of government expansion. Measured poverty declined through 2020 as the federal government increased the child-related cash transfers. Inequality modestly declined during the pandemic according to the adjusted after-tax income Gini coefficient, though it increased on other inequality indicators. Yet both metrics have since worsened from the pandemic low, even as government spending continued to expand as a share of GDP.

Food bank usage has doubled since 2019, with over 2.2 million visits in March 2025 alone. Violent crime severity is significantly up over the past decade. Health-care wait times reached 28.6 weeks in 2025, the second-longest ever recorded. Canadian students’ scores on standardized tests (PISA) have declined steadily, though Canada still ranks among top-performing countries globally.

At the same time, government productivity has been declining while the share of the workforce employed by government continues to expand to record levels. We are getting a larger government sector without corresponding improvements in efficiency or social outcomes that might justify the expansion.

The fixation on GDP per capita obscures a more fundamental question: What actually drives rising living standards over the long term? The answer is productivity growth, which depends on capital deepening and innovation.

Workers equipped with better tools, technology, and knowledge produce more valuable output per hour worked. This enables higher wages without inflation, supports public services, and allows for sustainably rising living standards without borrowing from the future.

Canada’s performance on these key drivers gives cause for concern.

Granted, the collapse in oil prices after 2014 delivered a significant external shock to Canada’s resource sector. This affected investment levels, particularly in Alberta and Saskatchewan, and contributed to the overall investment decline. External factors matter and deserve acknowledgment.

But the investment crisis extends well beyond the resource sector and has persisted even as oil prices recovered.

Business investment per worker has been declining for a decade. Our stock of machinery and equipment is falling. Canadian businesses today operate with less physical capital per worker than they had 10 years ago. Canada invests less than peer countries across important knowledge-economy measures, including intellectual property. Business expenditure on R&D as a share of GDP has flatlined recently and sits at just 1.1 percent, well below the OECD average of 2.0 percent. Venture capital investment, the lifeblood of entrepreneurial startups, is falling as a share of GDP. The shifting composition of venture capital has created an environment where Canadian entrepreneurs often must scale their companies south of the border.

Putting aside GDP measurement issues, these trends in capital and innovation are hard to ignore. The GDP per capita decline is the symptom. The investment crisis is the disease.

The problem is less about the metric and more about the policies that have contributed to a decade of underperformance. Our tax system creates disincentives for investment and talent. Our regulatory burden imposes significant costs on businesses and deters development and entrepreneurship. Protected sectors shelter incumbents from competition."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Links - 13th April 2026 (1 - Migrants: Europe)

Meme - Jonatan Pallesen @jonatanpallesen: "It is possible that close to all stranger assault rape in Northern Europe is by immigrants and descendants of immigrants. Preposterously, not a single country has officially studied this. But a 2018 study by a Swedish television channel found that 80% of all stranger assault rapes were foreign-born. The majority of the remaining 20% may well be descendants of immigrants."
"In 2018, Uppdrag Granskning, a TV-program broadcasted on Swedish state television, surveyed every individual registered for rape or attempted rape between 2012 and 2017. 58% were foreign-born. Among the remaining 42% born in Sweden, some had a migrant background as children to foreign-born, but their exact proportion was not presented. Among those registered for attempted, and completed sexual assault, where victim and criminal were strangers, a good 80% were foreign-born."

Meme - i/o @avidseries: "OK, sure, maybe Muslim immigrants in Denmark cost the country a little more - alright alright, a lot more - but, you know, you also need to take into account that they... uhm... rape more."
"Immigrant Net Cost and Rape Rate *positive correlation*"

RadioGenoa on X - "Some schools in Germany will not have music lessons because they don't want to offend sensibilities of Muslims, who consider music a grave sin. It sounds like a joke but it's not."

Polymarket on X - "BREAKING: Spanish Prime Minister announces decree to freeze rents nationwide due to Middle East crisis."
arctotherium on X - "Rent control to obscure the housing market effects of infinite immigration. The lefty classic."

63.1% of people convicted of rape in Sweden have an immigrant background. : r/europe_sub - "Individuals with an immigrant background were about 2.07× more likely to be convicted of rape than people with non immigration backgrounds in Sweden."
Immigrant Background and Rape Conviction: A 21-Year Follow-Up Study in Sweden

Richard Hanania on X - "Young men in Spain have gone to the far right. Given that immigration to Spain has caused much fewer problems than elsewhere, this is good indication that it’s not about actual grievances, but young men turn right because they’re just kind of stupid."
The Composite Guy on X - "Except nearly half of sexual assaults are committed by foreign nationals, 20% of whom are Africans even though they represent only 2.4% of the population. In Barcelona, 76% of street arrests are foreigners."
Vilain Petitcanard 💸 on X - "Not to mention the “nationals” usually are in fact foreign. As here in Germany:"
Remix News & Views on X - "🇩🇪🚨 Last year, police in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia arrested 155 suspects in connection with 209 cases of gang r*pe. A total of 84 suspects were foreign nationals and 71 were German citizens. At the request of the AfD state parliamentary party, the state government has published the first names of the "German" suspects. ⬇️  Ahmet Bayar Bilal Burak Burak Furkan Gamil Hanif Hasip Ibrahim Ismail Kaan Melik Mihraç Mirhan Mohamed Muhammed Nicolas Norbert Nurkan Seçkin Seda Süleyman Thierno Wahell Yasar-Engin Yasin Yasmine Yazan Yigit Zakaria Zayd"
Names aside, in North Rhine-Westphalia the total number of foreign suspects exceed the number of locals, so left wingers need another cope beyond ignoring per capita

Jonatan Pallesen on X - "The Danish state-funded propaganda channel DR is pushing these stories about how sad it is that many foreigners living here do not have Danish citizenship, so they can't vote.  What is not mentioned is that if we grant citizenship to all Muslim / African immigrants, there will be a large number of them who commit violent crime, and then we can never deport them. We will just have to live with them victimizing Danes for the rest of their criminal career.  It is less sad to not be able to vote than it is to be raped by a Syrian immigrant who has committed 50 prior crimes and ought not to have been in the country.  It is also not mentioned that Muslim immigrants overwhelmingly vote for even more social welfare for themselves. It is an obvious flaw in the system when foreigners can come in and vote for larger and larger transfers to themselves, from the already most heavily taxed population in the world.  The articles are always just about how it is sad and a democratic problem to not immediately give citizenship to all these immigrants."

Crémieux on X - "Do European countries appear to perform worse than White Americans in standardized tests because of low-performing immigrants? Probably not. Removing 1st- and 2nd-generation immigrants from the 2022 PISA sample, America still outperforms. 🧵 First, mean scores:"

Now Islamists want to close schools in Rome for Ramadan : r/europe_sub - "  The offensive of the Islamic Party: “In Rome it would make sense—what are we waiting for?”  Closing schools in the capital as well in order to accommodate Ramadan? This is the appeal launched by “MuRo27,” short for Muslims for Rome 2027, a group led by former Democratic Party member Francesco Tieri (pictured), formed ahead of the elections to be held in Rome next year and intent on influencing the electoral agenda also through political proposals based on the Islamic religion.  They themselves write that “for the third consecutive year in Pioltello (Milan) the school is closing for the end-of-Ramadan holiday. How was this possible? The Islamic presence in Pioltello is high, and for years about 40% of students have been absent for this religious observance, effectively bringing lessons to a halt.” But why should there be a need to stop the regular course of teaching when students would be perfectly capable of making up what they miss over a couple of days? Is this not merely an ideological stance and a way of pandering to a religion—Islam—that has not yet signed an agreement with the Italian state as established by our Constitution? That step—the signing of an agreement—has not been taken certainly not because of shortcomings on Italy’s part, but because the relevant bodies have carefully avoided associating themselves with a constitution that in many respects does not align at all with the dictates imposed by the Qur’an. Among these is equality between men and women.  MuRo27 therefore goes on to say that “starting from the 2023–2024 school year, in order to maximize effective teaching hours, the Iqbal Masih Institute decided to use one of the collective closures available under school autonomy for this occasion.” Then comes the proposal: “In Rome, too, there are schools with numbers that would make an intervention of this kind sensible—what are we waiting for?”  Italy is a secular state, in which—between halal menus in school cafeterias, closures requested for Islamic holidays, controversies over the presence of crucifixes, and lessons featuring UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese as a guest—there is a risk of total submission to ideological dictates that do nothing but shape and steer the thinking of young people and children. In recent days, there has also been debate over the decision of a high school in Genoa, where the head teacher invited staff to concentrate oral exams and tests in the early hours of the school day so as not to burden students who are fasting and who, later in the day, would struggle to sustain significant mental effort.  And this is only the beginning of Ramadan, which observant Muslims must undoubtedly be able to observe in the best possible way—but without affecting the normal routines of other students. Otherwise, once again, we would be faced with a form of reverse discrimination, in which some people in Italy demand rights without respecting the duties laid down by our legal system."

Evelina Hahne on X - "A Syrian immigrant and his brother brutally raped Swedish woman Petra.  Petra is no longer with us. She ended her own life.  Before she died, Petra received only $330 in damages from the perpetrator because he had no more money.   Meanwhile, he was awarded over $92,000 by the Swedish state for spending "too long" in jail. This amount is three times what Petra was supposed to receive from him for brutally raping her ($30,000), and the Swedish Enforcement Agency is not allowed to seize this money to pay Petra.  After his release, he continued committing crimes and has still not been deported, despite being sentenced to deportation.  The Swedish court system spares the wolf and sacrifices the sheep."
Left wingers claim that they don't riot for victims of illegal immigrants because the perpetrators are brought to justice. Lol

Hans Mahncke on X - "Germany’s equivalent of the FBI warns that roughly half of Muslims under 40 in the country support the creation of a Muslim state or worse, radical Islamist rule. That is a very serious problem. Ideally, such views would be concentrated among older generations while younger Muslims were integrating, but it is exactly the opposite.   One major reason is that Islam projects strength because the West keeps cowering. By giving special protections, carve-outs, and legal privileges and by avoiding confrontation, the West signals that being Muslim comes with status, protection, and leverage. The fact that a litany of Western nations has literally criminalized criticism of Islam is a perfect illustration of this problem.  Yet instead of confronting these issues, examining their causes, and looking for remedies, we get people on both the left and the right screaming that Andy Ogles cannot say what he said. Whatever the solution, banning the discussion is definitely not it."

AF Post on X - "Austria’s far-right remigration party, the FPÖ, is poised to sweep elections. Follow: @AFpost"
Oilfield Rando on X - "Lmao the EU is going to nullify another election to protect “democracy” aren’t they"

WELT on X - "Zoll kontrolliert Tank-Touristen an Grenzübergängen"
Hans Mahncke on X - "This is a perfect illustration of Europe, and Germany in particular. Authorities often come down hardest on the most law-abiding citizens over minor infractions while tolerating far more serious problems caused by people who might actually pose a threat. A recent example was fare inspectors being told not to check the tickets of passengers who might cause trouble, focusing instead on compliant passengers. The latest example is that border controls have suddenly become remarkably efficient, but only when it comes to catching citizens who bought gasoline in a neighboring country without declaring it for fuel taxes."

𝐍𝐢𝐨𝐡 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐠 🇮🇷 ✡︎ on X - "Somalian migrant in Norway: "In a few years Norwegians will be a minority in their own country. Looking forward to seeing thousands of Abduls instead of Anders." Norway is for some reason willingly replacing itself."

Wall Street Mav on X - "Europeans were told they needed to import millions of foreigners to come work, keep the economy going and pay for elderly European pensions.   Reality: 3rd world foreigners came, got on the welfare system and 90% of them didn’t work at all.  Europe didn’t get the cheap workers, but they are paying for all of the expenses of supporting millions of deadbeats.   Europe's economies are stagnant and national debt is surging as the foreign colonizers take up resources in vast amounts."

Man who raped 10-year-old boy at swimming pool in Austria has sentence overturned by Supreme Court - "A man who raped a 10-year-old boy at a swimming pool in Austria has had his conviction overturned after judges found he may have believed the child consented.  Police said the 20-year-old Iraqi refugee, who has not been named, assaulted his victim in a toilet cubicle at the Theresienbad swimming pool in Vienna on 2 December last year. The child reported the rape to a lifeguard and his attacker was arrested at the scene, reportedly telling officers in initial interviews that he was experiencing a “sexual emergency” after not having sex in four months... His trip to the swimming pool was said to be part of integration efforts, sparking outrage amid tensions over the refugee crisis in Austria... Police statistics in Germany showed that sex offences make up a tiny proportion of crimes committed by refugees and migrants in the country, which are mostly related to transport and documents"
The Heretical Liberal 🇨🇦 on X - "This is the kind of headline you read and your mind just refuses to believe it. You assume there must be some exaggeration or misinformation,  or some nuanced fact is being exploited to paint an inaccurate picture.  Because surely it cant be this, right? Surely theres no way a 20 y/o man could have his sentence overturned because it wasnt established at his trial whether he "thought he was having consensual sex with a 10 y/o".  But then you read the article (article 🔗'd in reply) and thats literally what it is. This is what makes ppl think our leaders hate us, this is what deligitimizes the Liberal project in many people's minds.  Like many liberal-minded people of my generation, I grew up believing that progressivism promised a better way, a more fair and just world, where people really WERE judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.  When I see stuff like this, i cannot help but think something is deeply wrong with the state of the modern Left. After all, to paraphrase the psycho from No Country For Old Men:  "If the liberalism you followed brought you to this....of what use was your liberalism?""
The Heretical Liberal 🇨🇦 on X - "And file this one under "you cant hate the media enough " check out this insane whitewashing of these crimes at the end. Of course you knew the media was going to add some version of "but whatever you think about this story, unchecked migration from cultures that hate women and are fundamentally incompatible with Western values is definitely not the problem" but this example of it is insane.  "Police statistics show that sex crimes are a small percentage OF THE CRIMES COMMITED by refugees and migrants"  Lmao like wtf?  The proportion of their sex crimes in relarion to their oberall crime rate is completely irrelevant.  What WOULD be relevent would be the rate of sex crimes committed by this group vs sex crimes committed by native Germans. And i can promise you, theres a reason they DIDNT go that route. If they could make that argument,  they absolutely would have. So instead, they went with "well, this group commits SO MANY crimes that sex crimes are just a tiny fraction, so therefore youre racist is if you have questjons about this". And THATS the reason they give why you should never question the policy of unchecked migration by mostly sexually frustrated young single males from countries where women being treated as property are literally baked in to the laws.  This story shows in clear relief how two of the foundational pillars of society - the courts and the press - have been completely morally gutted by the Woke mind virus."

Elon Musk 'misinterpreted' Swedish immigration figures, study author says - "Elon Musk reposted a post from another account with an image including a collage of headlines, the largest of which reads in capital letters “Sweden: 79 per cent of ‘refugees’ have vacationed in country they ‘fled’ from”."
The cope is ridiculous. One "fact check" site claimed the sample size could be 5, but this article points out it is 189. The only valid quibble is the use of "vacation", but the point still holds that they returned to the country where they were supposedly unsafe. Apparently refugee status is meant to be permanent and you never need to go back to your home country even if conditions change

Martin Sellner on X - "Vienna. “She was bullied and humiliated as the only German-speaking girl in her class and as the only Austrian without a migration background.” The child was bullied and was not even allowed to eat the food she had brought with her.  When confronted about it, the class teacher responded: “What are we supposed to do? We have no chance.”"

bender871 on X - "You may remember that in May 2025, a pride event in Gelsenkirchen, Germany was canceled. Authorities were tight-lipped about the reason and cited only an "unclear threat scenario". It has now been revealed that the source of the threat was of an Islamist nature. Here is German woke news magazine SPIEGEL with the surprise news."

White Papers Policy Institute on X - "Oh good grief. In 1995 when Germany's foreign-born population was a modest 9% the remittances flows out of the country were $11 billion. As of 2025 the foreign-born population of Germany exceeds 20% and remittances now top $24 billion. Incidentally, $25 billion is how much Germany spends on immigrant welfare."

Mossad Commentary on X - "🚨  FOR THE SAKE OF “TOLERANCE,” NO FLAMENCO DURING RAMADAN  Barcelona’s city government has circulated guidance to schools recommending that music and dance activities be avoided during Ramadan out of respect for Muslim students.  That includes activities such as flamenco, one of Spain’s most iconic cultural traditions.  Schools are being encouraged to adapt programming and avoid activities some may consider inappropriate during the holy month.  Stay connected, follow @MOSSADil ."

paleoneoliberal on X - "There's simply no reasonable rationale for mass Muslim and African immigration to Europe. They don't even provide decent cheap labour, let alone solve the problems associated with fertility decline.  In reality, they are a significant fiscal loss, very disproportionately unemployed and on welfare, drastically overrepresented in violent crime, hostile to Western individualism and capitalism, unusually supportive of terrorism, erode social trust, are of low average intelligence (negatively affecting institutions), increase public diaorder, and drive local population away from most productive areas."

arctotherium on X - "Composition of theft rings in Greece, by nationality. Of Greek theft rings, 72% are indigenous, of which 86% are Roma and 14% are ethnically Greek. 22% are foreign, mostly Albanian or Georgian."
Emil Kirkegaard on X - "If Greece didn't have Gypsies and other foreigners, the theft rate would be about 12% of the current rate. Wild numbers but not too surprising."

'Imported crime' – Foreigners commit 500% more rapes than Spaniards, 400% more murders, according to new study - "A new study highlights the outsized role of foreigners in serious crimes in Spain, which has seen worrying growth in rapes, attempted murders, and other serious crimes in just the last five to six years. The CEU-CEFAS Demographic Observatory report, titled “Demography of Crime in Spain,” examines the evolution of crime across various demographic groups and geographical areas in the country, and the researchers are warning about “imported crime” due to mass immigration...   Some of the key findings indicate that foreigners, who make up 31 percent of Spain’s prison population, commit per capita 500 percent more rapes and 414 percent more murders than Spanish citizens. The highest rates are seen among Arabs and Latinos, with many of them hailing from countries in South America known for their extremely high crime rates...   The report introduces the concept of “imported crime,” which includes violent offenses, property crimes, jihadism, Latin gangs, and drug trafficking networks. The study specifically analyzes two types of crimes.  Jihadist terrorism has been linked with Muslim immigration, predominantly Moroccan.  At the same time, Latin Gangs are a growing menace. These are associated with first- and second-generation young Hispanic immigrants, with a strong presence observed in Madrid."

Net contribution of different nationalities in Denmark (2017 data released in the 2020 report by the Ministry of Finance) : r/europe - " At the top three contributing nationalities, the average Dutch migrant contributes $17500 a year in taxes, American - $16300, and French - $15800.  As for the three nationalities that cost the most to the Danish taxpayer, the average Somali costs Denmark $21771 a year, Syrian - $19700, Lebanese - $16500"

White Papers Policy Institute on X - "Muslim populations in Europe vote for left wing parties because they are after two things:
1. More Muslim immigration. Mainly more family reunification.
2. Bigger welfare cheques from European governments.
The Left-Muslim coalition is not at all confusing."

Mario Nawfal on X - "🇩🇪 German courts couldn't find a criminal for his trial. Bild newspaper found him in 5 minutes. He's been collecting €7,250/month in welfare for 23 years.  Huso B. from Bosnia has a deportation order since 2003. Multiple criminal offenses, still in Germany.   The guy gets €87,000/year to support his wife and 8 kids plus free housing.  Germany in one story.  Source: @zerohedge"

The US is dragging Europe back to the days of white supremacism. Our leaders are playing along | Shada Islam | The Guardian
john milbank on X - "There is a ludicrous conflation here of race, culture and religion. It is not racist to say that a Europe with an excessively large Muslim population and influence would no longer be Europe. It is simply true."
As usual, left wingers are obsessed with "dog whistles" to pretend that their opponents say things they didn't. Naturally, she's a critic of Israel, but of course, that's not a dog whistle because it pushes the left wing agenda
Ironically, she proclaims that migration reshapes Europe, so she actually concedes Rubio's point

Maxwell Meyer on X - "The NYT has come up with an amazing critique of Rubio's Munich speech. In short: "akshually, your appeal to shared Christian heritage between USA & Europe is false because we replaced the Christian population with Afghans" Didn't see this one coming. I'm impressed."

Europa.com on X - "🇩🇪 A youth centre in Berlin’s Neukölln district is accused of covering up the rape of a schoolgirl after staff refused to contact police because they feared the suspects would be labelled “typical Muslims.” The girl says she was raped in November in the centre’s garden by a 17-year-old boy and later groped by nine boys of Arab descent in a back room while one stood guard. Staff reportedly did not file a police report, instead giving girls a “safeword” if they felt threatened. Police were only notified after the victim’s parents went to authorities themselves. Follow: @europa"
Ave Europa on X - "This is merely additional proof for what many have been saying for years. The left prioritises protecting immigrants from "bad stereotypes" over protecting women from abuse. The left has abandoned women. The victim in this case was herself of Kurdish-Turkish origin, meaning they weren't even willing to prosecute the rapists for the sake of a minority's safety. Europe's right wing needs to show that we haven't abandoned women. We will build a new pan European right wing generation that emancipates itself from the slop chauvinism it used to be characterised by and pointless culture wars. We stand for security, stability, predictability, accountability and honour. These are the values that can create a far better and safer world for women. From legalising self defence such as pepper spray to deporting criminals immediately, we have many ideas that will benefit women. It's imperative that we step it up."
Time to blame white men for minority women getting raped

Youth centre did not report 16-year-old girl's rape to authorities because 'Muslim boys are already under enough police scrutiny', German media claims - "a transcript of a conversation between the centre's supervisors obtained by the German publication stated: 'Intimacy in the premises of the youth center is permitted – even between girls and several boys.' Markus Oegel , head of the CDU parliamentary group in Neukölln, said: 'You can't create spaces for intimacy in youth centers simply because Muslim youths aren't allowed to do that at home – that's unacceptable. 'After all, we're still talking about minors.'... The youth club has since been officially closed."

Links - 12th April 2026 (3 - US Schools)

Neetu Arnold on X - "Washington State fell from 12th to 25th place in national math scores Perhaps “Illustrative Math” and teaching students that math is “oppressive” aren’t helping"
Clearly, the problem is too little anti-racism and even more is needed

What a boob: Texas school district bans Virginia state flag and seal over naked breast - "Virginia’s state flag and seal, depicting the Roman goddess Virtus standing over a slain tyrant, her drooping toga exposing her left breast, has been banned from younger students in a Texas school district."

Thread by @StevenWelliever on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "WA K-12 is being Bolshevik’d. That is what Ethnic Studies is.  It is the curriculum that all minorities in the USSR were indoctrinated with 100 years ago.  I will prove it graphing the keywords in the @WA_SBE memo.  Here we go 🧵…
By the 1920s, the USSR was divided into 2 racial groups: Great Russians (52%) & ~190 non-Russian minorities (48%): Backwards & Indigenous Peoples; this is analogous to the the Ethnic Studies division of Americans into Whites (58%) and BIPOC (42%). Great Russian chauvinism was the Leninist charge slung at the ethnic majority Russians, as well as minorities who weren’t going along w/ the communist agenda. This is analogous to the ‘white supremacy culture’ accusation used in Ethnic Studies today. The Stalinist education system, beginning in 1925, used decolonization and indigenization as the method of socialist indoctrination. These terms are replicated in Ethnic Studies. Just as in Stalin’s nationalities policies in the schools, Diversity & Equity (Actual Equality is the translation) were the goals. Diversity meant unity of socialist content thru diversity of ethnic form. ‘Diversity’ was determined to be the surest route to communism. Just like Lenin & Stalin, Ethnic Studies is claiming it will liberate you from racial oppression.  Zum Kommunismus! Utopia awaits…
I hope these graphs help illustrate the truth & the danger we are in. The @WA_SBE are a communist cult who are hell-bent on installing Ethnic Studies as a graduation requirement, as well as the content of all subjects, K-12. And there is little standing in the way."

CasperOtto on X - "LEFTIST HACK TERESA BORRENPOHL WAS WARNED 3 TIMES TO STOP HECKLING THE SPEAKERS!! SHE CONTINUED ON AND WAS RIGHTFULLY REMOVED!!"
Suzanne 🇺🇸♥️ on X - "Mom from CA says “she feels betrayed by the very people she thought would protect and educate her daughter!” Then, of course, the school board director shuts her down, as if she’s just a nuisance.. Parents Do Not Matter to Democrats, and they run the Public school system."
The same people who are getting upset at her being removed for shouting and disrupting the town hall and claimed that she was being silenced and it was dangerous to democracy cheered the silencing parents who asked school boards difficult questions about grooming and related questions. The parents did not throw public tantrums because they weren't left wingers, but if they had and had to be removed too, left wingers would've rejoiced

Heather Lauer on X - "Yesterday at a Blaine County legislative town hall hosted by the Democrats' central committee, a handful of Republicans voters were in attendance - outnumbered roughly 10 to 1 - yet managed to remain composed throughout the event. During the Q&A session, the Republican audience members patiently raised their hands and posed respectful questions. By contrast, several Democrat attendees adopted a hostile tone toward the end, repeatedly interrupting and shouting at speakers. Claiming such disruptions as mere “dissent” is absurd; in a structured forum, speaking out of turn is simply bad behavior and disrespectful to everyone else in attendance. Idaho Democrats should learn to engage in politics as mature participants rather than resorting to tantrums and biting people. No wonder their influence in the state continues to wane. #idpol #idleg"

Thread by @MegEBrock on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "🧵To understand the importance of the LGBTQ+ book Supreme Court case, you have to understand its queer theory in action.  Queer theory seeks to disrupt and deconstruct any/all normative sexual behavior.  This is not passive, it’s intentional.  It’s a feature, not a bug.
This is spelled out in a petition filed by the parents which says:  “The story books were chosen to disrupt ‘cisnormativity’ and ‘either/or thinking’ among students.”  The purpose of teaching kids about gender ideology isn’t to inspire kindness, it’s to disrupt norms.  Children are innocent. The mere act of introducing materials about sexuality is already disrupting normative behavior (being an innocent child who doesn’t think about sex and sexuality).  Breaking these norms is equivalent to a religious cult indoctrination and has long term consequences. Children in fact have “either/or thinking” as noted in the petition.  A young child isn’t supposed to process materials about sexuality.  When you flood their mind with information they can’t developmentally handle, you are overwhelming them by creating scenario they cannot process.  Overwhelming a persons emotional capacity is by definition a trauma.  When you overwhelm a child it’s much easier to mold them.  When you mold a child to accept something as insane as believing a men can be women, you can likely mold them to oppose any normative behavior.  You’ve successfully indoctrinated them into your religious cult.  You’re also training them to rely on the cult to understand the world.  Some might call this “grooming.” Part of Queer Theory’s end game is to create cult evangelists- commonly known as activists.  Remember that the “Q” in LGBTQ stands for “Queer.”  I’ve spent hundreds of hours reading materials from LGBTQ activists and there is almost always an element of encouraging children and teens to become queer activists. As a society, we must protect the innocence of children.  Schools should not recruiting children into the religious cult of queer activism.  Read about the Supreme Court case here:"

Supreme Court To Consider If Religious Parents Can Opt Kids Out Of Sexually Explicit Storybook Readings - "Books elementary school teachers read to students include “Pride Puppy,” which asks students to look for images of items like “underwear” and the name of a “controversial LGBTQ activist and sex worker,” and “Intersection Allies,” which asks students to consider questions like what it means to be transgender, according to court documents.  While the school board initially allowed parents with religious objections to opt their children out of the program, it later changed its decision and declined to even offer parental notice.  Opt-outs are available for sex ed classes mandated in high school, yet the district denies opt-outs for the “LGBTQ-inclusive” storybooks it required for elementary students in just 2022, according to parents’ petition"
Opting out of left wing indoctrination "hurts" queer people, of course

Meme - Stat Shepherd @stat_sherpa: "There is almost no correlation between the amount a school district spends per student and test scores."
*Scatterplot* "Spending & Test Scores. Avg. Spend Per Student & Avg. Test Scores By School District (2009-2019)"
Clearly, this is proof they're not spending enough since the effect doesn't show up, and even more money needs to go to schools (i.e. teachers' unions)

My high achievers are starting to notice their hard work doesn't matter : r/Teachers - "6th grade teacher in a SBG district. We are not allowed to take off any points for late work and because "creativity/visual appeal" on projects isn't a standard of mine, I am not allowed to grade it. Meaning one kid has a poster with nothing but some words written in pencil gets the same exact grade as the kids who went above and beyond. They've started to notice that the kids who turn things in late face no consequences, and the kids who do the bare minimum get the same grade as them. One of them said to my face "how is it fair he turned his project in late with nothing but pencil on his poster but mine is on time and creative but we get the same grade?". I didn't know how to respond appropriately so I asked my admin what I should say and they told me "Tell them that life isn't fair". So now I have kids catching on to this, refusing to work because they now know they can do it whenever they want with no consequences and then when they do work they do the bare minimum, because why would you work harder for the same amount of credit?  Honestly, I can't blame them. I would do the exact same thing if I was in 6th grade now. I don't know how to solve this problem because "If it's not a standard, it can't be graded"."
Clearly, the education system has failed, because the kids don't have empathy

Wall Street Apes on X - "Mayor Brandon Johnson just gave Chicago Teachers Union a $1.25 billion dollar raise while the city is broke Just 14% of students are proficient in reading and math The average CTU salary is already $114,429 per year And they’re getting a $1.25 billion dollar raise…"
Obviously they aren't spending enough

New School Program Raises Awareness Of Things Kids Didn't Know They Were Supposed To Be Offended About | Babylon Bee - ""Kids are starting to think things aren't that bad in America," said W.O.K.E. spokesperson Troy Henson. "That's the kind of backward thinking we want to put an immediate stop to.""

Defiant L’s on X - "Woman calls for someone to assassinate Trump, says she's too busy because she's a teacher."

Ro Khanna on X - "It is absurd that Palo Alto School district just voted to remove honors biology for all students & already removed honors English. They call it de-laning. I call it an assault on excellence. I took many honors classes at Council Rock High in PA."

San Francisco's education chief forced into humiliating U-turn on woke 'Grading for Equity' program - "San Francisco's education chief was today forced into a humiliating U-turn on a woke new program to lower pass marks in an effort to promote 'equity.' Superintendent of Schools Maria Su unveiled the new 'Grading for Equity' plan last night that would have seen homework and weekly testing scrapped, with students allowed to pass with scores as low as 41 - down from the current pass mark of 61. But just hours later on Wednesday afternoon, Su released a statement following widespread condemnation from across the political spectrum saying the district would hold off on implementing the move for a year... Ro Khanna, a Democratic congressman for Silicon Valley known for his progressive values, had slammed the move on X, writing: 'My immigrant dad asked me where the missing 10% went when I scored a 90. He came to America for the chance to work hard & pursue excellence. 'Giving A’s for 80 percent & no homework is not equity - it betrays the American Dream and every parent who wants more for their kids.'... the new plan would have essentially eliminated homework and weekly testing from making up a student's final semester grade. A student's grade would be based solely on their final examination, which they can also take multiple times. Students can also be late in handing in assignments or even fail to appear in class without it having an effect on their overall mark... Current thresholds in place mean a student needs a 90 for an A and at least 61 for a D. The changes mean a score as low as 80 now counts as an A, while a mark of 21 counts as a D. Democrat Garry Tan, a venture capitalist, also blasted the move. He said: 'San Francisco schools is trying its absolute hardest to make sure all middle income families who could move out of the city do so right away... Entrepreneur Chamath Palihapitiya added: 'This is, on its face, absolutely retarded. It’s also a disgrace that this comes from the preeminent tech capital of the world. 'This will, however, be very good for housing prices in areas surrounding SF.' According to the outlet, the district had consulted Joe Feldman who had helped implement a similar system in Placer County in 2019. In an article on the School Superintendents Association in 2019, Feldman said: 'The percentage of students receiving D’s and F’s decreased — and decreased more dramatically for students of color and for students with special needs."
Requiring attendance and effort is white supremacy

Frank McCormick on X - "Our workforce sucks because teachers like me wasted dozens of hours documenting absence rates to justify failing students, only to have admin say: "Cook the grade books or find a new job." Schools have raised Americans to believe that their behavior is inconsequential."

Thread by @BreastMilkEnjyr on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "There are more Americans with a college degree than Americans who can read at the standard of a 12 year old. For half the population, every year of schooling past the age of 12 is a complete waste. Sharing a classroom with these people is a disaster for the kids with some intellectual prospect. I will not stop my crusade against educationalism until not just the schooling system, but the idea of mass education itself is totally discredited"
Clearly, the US needs to send even more people to college to improve literacy

Thread by @illinoispolicy on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "🚨NEW  She makes $265,150 a year.  She demands the “wealthy” pay their fair share.  But she still refuses pay her water bill—so you're covering her tab.  Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates strikes again. 🧵
Stacy Davis Gates owes $1,006.95 in unpaid water, sewer, and trash bills to the City of Chicago.  She did this last year too.  Back then, she let her bills pile up for over 3 years, hitting $5,700 before quietly paying them off.  The latest debt was revealed thanks to a FOIA request filed by the Illinois Policy Institute.  The city delayed releasing her info—until she paid up.  Again.  Funny how that keeps happening.
Let’s be clear:  This isn’t about money. It's about entitlement.  Davis Gates makes at least $265,150 for her roles with CTU and @iftaft. Why no accountability?  In 2022, the Chicago City Council banned water shut-offs for nonpayment.  The policy was meant to help the poor.  Instead, it conveniently shields a privileged union boss. Her unpaid bills don’t just sit there.  They’re subsidized by the rest of Chicago.  Including low-income residents who actually pay their utility bills.  That’s her idea of “fair share.”
This isn’t the only scandal tied to Davis Gates.  She:
👉encouraged violence against principals
👉took an Indiana property tax break she didn’t qualify for
👉withheld financial audits from CTU members
She’s turned CTU into a widely despised machine.
And voters have noticed.  60% of Chicagoans now disapprove of CTU.  That’s not just a reflection on the union.  It’s a referendum on her leadership.
While Davis Gates pushes higher taxes for working families, she skips out on basic bills.  The double standard isn’t just offensive—it’s endemic.  And it's happening in public for all to see.
Accountability starts with basic facts.  This isn’t a story about politics.  It’s about entitlement, hypocrisy, and an unpopular union leader who thinks the rules apply to everyone but her."

Seattle Schools Defy Supreme Court, Ban Parents from Opting Kids Out of Gender and Sexuality Lessons - "Ted Cruz, an actual Constitutional scholar seems to disagree with them."
Nobody is above the law - unless it threatens the left wing agenda

Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist on X - "Randi Weingarten just promoted her new book calling those on the side of parents "Fascists."  She's wearing a shirt that says "Protect Our Kids."  She thinks she owns your kids.  Wake up, parents.  Dismantle the teachers unions."
Riley Gaines on X - "Anyone who says “our kids” when referring specifically to YOUR kids should set off an immediate red flag. These people operate under the assumption that the state, the system, or some ideology partially, if not entirely, owns your kids."

LeBron-Backed Ohio School Still Rock Bottom in Achievement — Despite ‘Progress’ - "Report cards are in and LeBron James' I Promise School is still failing, but there's "progress" being made, according newly released data from the Ohio Department of Education.  The achievement scores for I Promise, the school LeBron started in 2018 in collaboration with the city of Akron to serve at-risk kids, are still bad. Real bad.   No, not as bad as in 2023 when it was revealed that not a single 8th grader had passed the Ohio math proficiency test, but there are still major issues, based on the new data that OutKick analyzed... In 2019, LeBron boasted that his school was going to get kids on track after they suffered in public schools  "LeBron James Opened a School That Was Considered an Experiment. It’s Showing Promise," the New York Times announced less than a year after the school opened.  It was a feather in the cap to LeBron. The national media had the storyline it needed: LeBron is a hero.   "These kids are doing an unbelievable job, better than we all expected," Mr. James told the New York Times in 2019 after test scores showed his school was working. "When we first started, people knew I was opening a school for kids. Now people are going to really understand the lack of education they had before they came to our school. People are going to finally understand what goes on behind our doors."  It doesn't appear the Times has written a single story about I Promise test scores since."
Clearly the problem was too little money, and too many discrimination, racism and stigma

Abolish private school (and charter school, and homeschooling) : r/Teachers - "I love posting my controversial opinions on this sub.  I think we should eliminate all private school, all charter schools, and, yes, completely ban home schooling unless it is medically necessary. We should also abolish school choice.  I want 100% of education resources out into local public schools. The most efficient way to run things like schools is to pool all resources into one place. Likewise, private schools create a two tiered system that disadvantages working class students. It also creates class segregation.  Which brings me to another point. Local property taxes should not be the primary funding mechanism for schools. At least as much only should come from the state and federal government to even out the disparities between communities.  I may come off as a bit reactionary when I talk about pedagogy (chalk and talk and drill and kill work, sorry, not sorry). But my economic views are about as far left as you can go. School is for everyone, everyone should get an equal education, and the rich have no right to opt out if that system. Honestly, medicine should be the same way: everyone gets the same, tax funded and government issued insurance, everyone gets the same care.  Honestly I think private school abolition should be an issue that public sector teacher's unions should embrace."
Left wingers hate choice

Meme - Soyjak: "If you homeschool your kids, they won't fit in with society."
Society: *various freaky people - 3 unconvincing MTFs, crying pussy hat wearer, double V-sign flashing man. commie, upset 'I <3 science' soyjak, mask-wearer*

adic on X - "new cause area: figure out how to fix the “a large percentage of very smart kids get depressed from ~15-17” problem"
pnorm on X - "Why are Americans so allergic to putting the smart kids in their own special smart kid schools Every other civilized country already does this"

Alec Stapp on X - "This is a really astonishing claim: Students in Mississippi & Louisiana score higher on reading tests than students in California & New York despite spending way less money per pupil and having higher child poverty rates. Decided to double check the data because, if true, this should be alarming for blue state leaders.  And yup, it checks out.
Reading performance (NAEP 2024, Grade 4 reading, average scale score):
Mississippi: 219
Louisiana: 216
New York: 215
California: 212
Child poverty (SAIPE; “estimated percent of people age 0–17 in poverty,” 2023):
Louisiana: 25.2%
Mississippi: 24.3%
New York: 18.6%
California: 15.0%
Per-pupil spending (public K–12 “current expenditures per pupil,” FY2023, inflation-adjusted to FY2023 dollars)
New York: $29,588
California: $18,568
Louisiana: $14,822
Mississippi: $12,238
It should be unacceptable to spend that much more taxpayer money while delivering worse results for students."

Hunter📈🌈📊 on X - "In 2017 if you told someone Mississippi would be top 10 in the nation in 4th grade reading in 2025 you'd have been laughed out of the room. And yet..."
Time to mock red states again

Charlie Smirkley on X - "🔴 Red states spend $14.0k per pupil. 🔵 Blue states spend $21.2k. NAEP composite (math + reading 4 and 8):
🔴 244.9 🔵 245.3 Correlations w/ NAEP composite across 50 states and DC.
Raw spend: r = +0.07 and Income-adjusted: r = −0.14."
Sean Fitzgerald (Actual Justice Warrior) on X - "When people realize that Mississippi is spending between $10-$13k per pupil & has gone from 49th in education to 9th in the nation in 13 years, & that they did so by switching to a pre-90s phonics curriculum instead of just flooding a bad system with more money. They'll revolt"
Maybe having bad results is the point, because then left wingers and teachers' unions will keep demanding more money

Sar Haribhakti on X - ""A Black Mississippi child is two and a half times as likely to be proficient in reading by fourth grade as a Black California child." "...states with large increases in school test scores enjoyed rising incomes and drops in teen motherhood, incarceration and arrest rates...""
Rep. Josh Williams on X - "Black children in Mississippi are now performing better in reading and math than black children in New York and California-- despite having much higher rates of poverty and spending much less per student. And the secret was simply not allowing children to move up a grade level unless they can read proficiently.  It turns out that when education is prioritized over woke ideology, the outcomes for our kids are better."
Elizabeth Brown on X - "They also switched from balanced literacy to phonics. The podcast series "Sold A Story" has more on why, focusing on why the cueing method of balanced literacy persists, but sight words, from whole language, are also harmful."

Sar Haribhakti on X - ""A Black Mississippi child is two and a half times as likely to be proficient in reading by fourth grade as a Black California child." "...states with large increases in school test scores enjoyed rising incomes and drops in teen motherhood, incarceration and arrest rates..."
zxy on X - "i told a liberal woman this and she laughed and said “um, no” and that was as far as the conversation got. she told me blue state schools are better, blue state people are smarter, the end. if they don’t want to know something they just won’t. no mental gymnastics necessary"

Melbourne's Justice Problem

Melbourne's Justice Problem (aka "Getting Away With It")
The case of Bao Phuc Cao—released without a conviction after secretly filming over 100 women in public toilets—reveals that Melbourne’s judiciary is drastically out of step with the public understanding of the purpose of criminal justice. 

Despite an ongoing crimewave, Melbourne was recently named the world’s best city by Time Out magazine, to a mix of celebratory headlines, crowing by the Victorian state government, and general bemusement among everyone else. Sure enough, just two days later, the city reminded the world of its recent sad decline.  

On 13 March, Vietnamese international student Bao Phuc Cao pleaded guilty to secretly filming a woman under the cubicle walls in the toilets of a shopping centre in the city’s Docklands area. His camera was found to have similarly intrusive images and videos of more than 100 women on it. Their identities are unknown. And he was already on a community correction order (a form of community-based punishment involving monitoring and other conditions) from two previous prosecutions for similar offences. The victim in this case has been left anxious and traumatised. While Cao pleaded guilty and has reportedly abided by his order, at the time of his arrest he also apparently offered the baffling excuse that he was in the women’s toilets because he was “unsure” about his gender. Despite all this, Cao was not sentenced to prison, much less deported from Australia (though his visa is reportedly being reviewed); in fact, no conviction was recorded, and Cao was released into the community with no further punishment at all, beyond an undertaking of good behaviour and continued compliance with his existing order. The seemingly bizarre leniency of the judgement raises larger questions about the administration of criminal justice in Victoria, the alignment of the judiciary with public standards and expectations and the function of criminal law.

There is a longstanding philosophical dispute about why some acts are deemed to warrant society’s strongest sanctions. One answer is that the distinguishing feature of crime is that it is an offence against both victims and the public. Civil wrongs involve only the parties to the immediate dispute, but crimes contravene the basic standards and values of society, and for this reason, the state generally takes responsibility for prosecuting criminals and imposes severe punishments like incarceration that are unavailable to the civil law. It is this public and moral aspect of the criminal law that underlies the controversy when lenient sentences defy common sense, because this suggests that the judiciary neither share nor care about the values of the public encoded in the criminal law itself.

At sentencing, Magistrate Michelle Mykytowycz made two revealing comments about how the purposes and principles of sentencing are interpreted. First, Victorian law states that sentences can only be imposed for the purposes of punishment, deterrence, rehabilitation, protection of the community, and denunciation—i.e. showing that we hold such acts to be abhorrent. On this, Mykytowycz reportedly said, “[The] court has to send a message to the community that they denounce this offending and (reinforce) the protection of women who are entitled and must feel safe in public utilities.”

But denunciation is not just a matter of words: it is communicated through the sentence itself. In a case involving repeated, highly invasive offending against unknown victims, the magistrate’s decision to merely reinforce the orders Cao was already under did little to communicate the seriousness of his offending. Moreover, while the magistrate gestured towards women’s safety, her sentence did not address public disquiet about the treatment of women’s rights by law and policy. Even if Cao were genuinely experiencing gender dysphoria, and even if it were acceptable for biological men to use women’s toilets, this would not change the nature or extent of his offending. The other purposes of sentencing, like rehabilitation, are legitimate, but reducing the importance of denunciation undermines the court’s public credibility.

Secondly, an established principle of sentencing is totality, which holds that where an offender is sentenced for multiple offences, the sentence should be appropriate to the overall pattern of offending. The idea is to avoid an unduly harsh punishment if sentences are stacked on top of one another. It does not mean that new offences cannot be punished; rather, it requires that all offences be considered together when determining the overall penalty. In this case, the magistrate apparently accepted the defence’s argument that Cao’s offence was part of the same pattern of offending for which he had already been tried and convicted in 2025, and that taking the offences together would not have changed his sentence. That is, Cao’s offence in this specific case did not make his overall pattern so much worse that he deserved a harsher punishment than he had already received.  

But this is a confusing application of the principle. Totality is not supposed to elide repeat offending altogether. In the sentencing mix ought to be the fact that Cao had offended multiple times, which would properly be seen as an aggravating factor, and made worse by the addition of this offence. By invoking totality as a reason not to make Cao’s punishment more severe, the magistrate implied that the offending in the case before her did not, by itself, amount to much. It makes sense to punish offenders for their pattern of offending, but each offence also needs to be treated seriously, in the name of both victims and society.

Looming over all this is Cao’s visa status. Under Australian law, visas are mandatorily cancelled for anyone given a prison sentence of twelve months or more. Consistent with Victorian law, Mykytowycz noted his lack of family in Australia as one factor influencing her decision not to record a conviction. Beyond this, Victoria’s sentencing manual states that the prospect of deportation is considered relevant to how severe a sentence will be for an offender, but that artificially lowering sentences with this in mind is an “error.”  However, it was reported in 2024 that magistrates had been advised at a training day to avoid the twelve-month threshold, so that offenders might not be subject to deportation.

Cases like Cao’s therefore raise an ongoing concern: that the courts might treat visa holders more leniently than citizens. If they decide that a punishment would be too harsh because it might lead to deportation—a consequence that obviously does not arise in the case of citizens—then, in effect, they are imposing a lighter sentence than the offence really warrants because the offender is on a visa.

The mistake here is treating potential deportation as part of the punishment, rather than as a separate process triggered by a breach of the visa terms. This sits uneasily with the principles of proportionality (the severity of punishment should match the seriousness of the offending) and parity (that similar sentences should be imposed for similar offences) because it gives weight to a characteristic of visa holders (being at risk of deportation) that is neither relevant to the gravity of their offending nor shared by most of the community. As a matter of principle, and contrary to current practice, offenders’ visa status should play no part in sentencing.

The connecting thread here is a shift in focus from the public to the offender. Cao’s case can be understood as an example of what is often called individualised justice, the idea that sentencing ought to consider the circumstances of offenders’ lives.

By itself, this notion is not especially controversial. Laws are generally written quite broadly, and judgement is required to determine how they apply to the facts of specific cases. So, in the criminal law, judges have some discretion about how they apply sentencing principles to the cases before them. For example, in Cao’s case, the judge had to determine the extent and severity of his offending and weigh his prospects of rehabilitation against the public’s right to protection from crime. There is also some evidence that the public understand this. Studies have found that people who are inclined to favour harsh punishment in principle tend to moderate their views when given more concrete details about a case.

But, taken too far, individualisation in sentencing runs counter to the principle that justice requires that like cases be treated alike, which goes to the universality and hence morality of the law and to its function in creating a predictable and stable society. Individualised justice can only work if the public trust the judiciary and its value judgements. People’s trust in the criminal justice system—which, according to surveys, is already quite low in Australia—is shaken by cases that suggest that the judiciary and public do not agree on what factors are relevant to assessing the harm caused by offenders, their culpability, and how they ought to be treated.

Driving this growing gap between the judiciary and the public is a shift in how crime is understood. Rather than being seen as an offence against victims and the public, crime has come to be treated as a social problem to be managed through policy. The demographic factors that courts now consider in sentencing reflect this redefinition away from punishment and denunciation and towards explaining crime in terms of offenders’ circumstances. The result is an expectation that judges will consider the overall picture of crime in society, not just the cases before them.

While this approach might be partly motivated by a desire to reduce the number of people in prison, to avoid being overly harsh and save money for the public purse, it has a wider effect. Society is no longer seen as adversely affected by crime but as at least partly responsible for it. This can lead courts to place less emphasis on the public’s sense of being wronged, and more on their own assessment of what is best for society—in, for example, how much weight they give to an offender’s visa status. This view can bias judges against issuing punishments, like prison, that are not primarily rehabilitative (or “restorative”), and even calls into question the legitimacy of the criminal law itself, which, stripped of its moral basis, becomes at best just a blunt instrument for social management and at worst an arbitrary expression of power.

The broader issue in a case like Cao’s, then, is not just that the judiciary may reach different conclusions from the public, but that it is working from a different understanding of the purpose of the criminal law and moving even further away from the views of ordinary people.

Realigning the judiciary with the public will not be easy. One possibility is the reintroduction of mandatory sentencing. The state’s previous scheme was considered unworkable by the judiciary and was largely repealed by the current government in its first term. The attraction of mandatory sentencing is that it corrects a tendency towards undue leniency. Conversely, the argument against mandatory sentencing is that by reducing judicial discretion it risks sentences that are disproportionately harsh and, over time, drives an unnecessary and costly increase in the prison population. But with Victoria’s incarceration rate at an historic low, this argument might not carry much weight. In addition, there is emerging evidence that Victoria’s judiciary has become more lenient. Over the past ten years, the median sentence in Victoria has increased from 3.5 to 5 years, but this is because many offenders who would previously have been sentenced to shorter spells in prison are receiving non-custodial sentences instead.

However, mandatory sentencing is a blunt tool. A more targeted approach would be to strengthen, and make more use of, the existing mechanism for correcting outlier cases. In Victoria, the Director of Public Prosecutions can appeal against sentences handed down in the County Court and Supreme Court on the grounds that they are “manifestly inadequate,” while sentences in the Magistrates’ Court can be appealed in County Court in de novo proceedings. The DPP has a policy of using its appeal powers rarely, out of respect for the authority of the courts and the principle of double jeopardy for accused persons, while resource constraints also limit its practical ability to appeal. Additional proceedings also increase the burden placed on victims, for whom the prosecution process can already be gruelling. In 2024–25, the DPP initiated just 25 appeals against sentence. (It is not clear how many sentences in the Magistrates’ Court were appealed.)

Yet an increase in the number of Crown appeals would be a positive change. If the DPP is not minded to do it, this could be achieved by amending the law to give the Attorney General, the Victims of Crime Commissioner, or even victims themselves greater power to initiate appeals. This would ensure that in those cases that shock the public and raise questions about the values and discretion of the judiciary, the public could at least be confident that the system contains a mechanism for conveying their concerns to the judiciary. Moreover, if courts knew that overly lenient sentences were more likely to be appealed, they might be more willing to take public sentiment into account in the first place. Strengthening the Crown appeals process would therefore improve the system. Even if most appeals did not advance beyond a preliminary hearing, the judiciary would still receive important feedback from the public and its representatives about its sentencing practices.

Ultimately, though, procedural fixes will be meaningless if members of the judiciary remain at odds with the public. The next government will have to take any opportunity to turn over the judiciary. Since judges in Victoria are never removed for political reasons, in practice this would likely mean looking outside normal career paths, firms, and chambers for replacement appointees and, more controversially, perhaps even using political litmus tests, implicit or otherwise. It might also mean creating new positions, which would likely be desirable anyway given the state’s population growth and rising crime. The state’s longstanding Labor government (in power for all but four years since 1999) has appointed approximately 90 percent of full-time magistrates and judges: 139 of 164 magistrates, 68 of 69 County Court judges, and 51 of 55 Supreme Court judges. There has also been a significant increase in the number of magistrates, up from 103 a decade ago.

It would be too simplistic to say that this explains the values gap between the judiciary and the public—after all, Labor has been in power so long because it keeps winning elections in Victoria. But such a sustained period of effective one-party rule is likely to influence how judges understand their roles and responsibilities to society. Victoria may not be quite in the same position as El Salvador, but Nayib Bukele was right when he commented, “If you don’t impeach the corrupt judges, you cannot fix the country.” When judges substitute their own values for those of the people, they are abusing their power and retreating from the animating principle of the criminal law, namely, not only to act in the interests of victims, but to protect society itself.

The case of Bao Phuc Cao highlights the tension between individualised justice and the essentially public character of the criminal law, while raising difficult policy questions about how to secure a connection between the judiciary and the sentiments of the public. Nonetheless, getting this right ought not to be beyond the world’s best city.