I’ll respond to this because I’m a father and have observed a lot of things about other parents that I never noticed or paid attention to before becoming one. There are some seriously selfish-ass people who treat their kids like accessories or tea-cup dogs. On the other end of the spectrum, there are people who treat their kids as franchises or property and view the kid in terms of ROI.

Some people only find value in themselves as mothers or fathers (“I’m the goddamn pater familias!”) where the role is often more important than the kids. While the act of parenting can be selfless, there is a performative element to it that takes over some people’s identities and personalities (clothing that advertises your “parent-ness,” name-brand clothing, chic and fashionable accessories, strollers that cost as much as a used car, humongous houses and baby suites, paying for full- or part-time help, excessively documenting “baby’s” life and sharing it widely beyond friends and family, et cetera and ad nauseam).

Now, there’s another take on selfishness I’ve picked up on from anti-natalist threads which is specifically tied to the concept of agency: a child has no agency regarding the circumstances of its birth. The fact that two people can intentionally (or even worse, unintentionally) choose to procreate is viewed as immensely selfish since it denies the created being of all choice. Parents often “want” to have a kid; but there is often no “need” (biological imperative notwithstanding). Hence, a selfish act.

Another expression of selfishness is that some parents cannot help themselves from creating clones. From birth, the kid is a reflection of the parents’ identity, interests, politics, hobbies, and media fandoms. The political or religious parts are especially disturbing—no kid has a valid opinion of the election and has no solid foundation for belief in a deity. Raising kids with values is one thing, but creating little mouthpieces that just repeat parents’ opinions is another. There is also the chance that a parent will try to live vicariously through their child and push them into sports or academics so that they can fix their mistakes or relive the past.

All said, some people make really shitty parents. And I don’t mean shitty people—there are lots of pleasant and thoughtful people who are fucking terrible caregivers. I think that some people felt too much social, cultural, or religious pressure to be honest with themselves and stay away from parenting. I think that nothing says selfish like knowing that you shouldn’t do something but do it anyway because you know that you will benefit from it in some way (financially, socially, etc.).

I deal with shy hyphens a lot. They don’t display unless there’s a line break, so they get copied from various word docs or websites and end up in a database somewhere waiting to piss me off.

Oh, I’m with you. I was just diving really deep into how absurd the 51st rhetoric is on our side.

It is clear that there is no intention of treating Canada fairly and, as you rightly pointed out, annexation would be violent and justifiably so.

If Canada entered collectively as a single state (pure nonsense, but hear me out), they’d get two senators and 1 representative to the house. The apportionments for US representatives would need to be raised to account for 40 million new people, which my guess wouldn’t happen, so instead California and Canada (who have almost equal populations) would just trade off allocations of representatives alternating with New York and Texas. Canada would end up with a lot of representatives in the House this way but wouldn’t be nearly as powerful as adding 20 senators if the provinces entered as individual states.

All said, not all of these seats would go democrat, but the GOP definitely wouldn’t be able to guarantee majorities or stalemates in both houses like they have been for the past 20-30 years. Even if the Trump admin pulled this con off and annexed Canada as a US territory, the GOP would just block entry as a state since I can’t imagine this Congress passing a joint resolution to allow it. Furthermore, Congress doesn’t even have to consider adding a new state even if the population of that territory keep petitioning for it (see ongoing D.C. and Puerto Rico statehood petitions).

Shit would get really complicated when the US has to handle the dissolution of parliament, withdrawal from the Commonwealth, and Quebec.