Perfectly Average Blog

And for those wondering, yes, these leftists are rich and white

As for the rich, the town switches off with one other town for richest town in Oregon. I grew up solidly middle class and I was in the lower half to quarter income part of the high school. I had a classmate lose $200 gambling, told his parents it fell out of his pocket at Starbucks, and they gave him $200 more.

Washington Post is paywalling the article but it looks like Taylor Farms — a consumer bagged salad brand that also supplies produce to grocers and fast food chains like Taco Bell, Walmart, McDonald's, Chipotle, Burger King, KFC, and Meijer —may be at least one of the sources of the current cyclosporiasis outbreak.

The concept that's been going in my head is that "Right and Left" isn't really an effective mechanism to map the current political landscape, not anymore.

Instead, what I'm observing is a large scale movement of various flavors of authoritarian autocrats and their supporters, engaged in alliances of convenience and mutual benefit, whose worldviews are not "reality-based"--they're fundamentally founded on vibes/propaganda/ideology. But they recognize each other as fellow authoritarians, and while they're certainly willing to fight each other, they're more concerned with squashing "centrist liberals"--principled democratic technocrats who are concerned with such things as "facts", "rule of law", and "consistent ideological principles".

The autocrats come in a variety of flavors--Kleptocrats like Trump and Putin, Islamist theocrats like the IRGC and associated, Strasserites and Stalinists like Western Leftists and the DSA, or just good old-fashioned absolute monarchists like Crown Prince Suliman in Saudi Arabia or the leaders of Qatar and the UAE. They all have more in common with each other when it comes to their authoritarianism and rejection of factual reality, and it's why you get things like DSA members in the US finding it easier to engage with people like Trump than centrists (yes, I'm singling out Mamdani for his interactions with the Orange One here).

The "center" is what we typically view as the economic center, and socially it is liberalism, democracy, freedom of speech and ideas. Authoritarians reject diversity of people and thought, free ideas and free elections. Authoritarians can come in different economic flavors on the right and the left, but I think they're less distinguishable than many would argue because the results are the same: state control of the economy, corruption, and poverty.

Namaygoosisagagun First Nation/Collins has burned to the ground. The entire community is nothing but ashes after being quickly consumed by wildfires. They did not have any support from emergency services, and no one offered aid. The community saved themselves by escaping into boats because no one came.

Mishkeegogamang and Cat Lake have lost power. Families are ending up in shelters with nothing. Armstrong, Lac La Croix, Whitesand, Gull Bay, Lac des Mille Lacs are currently in the fires path and all members are being evacuated.

All this loss, all this devastation, and it was entirely preventable.

After steadily underfunding wildland firefighting and purposefully excluding Indigenous wildland firefighters and Indigenous wildfire organizations from wildfire operations, firefighter training, decisionmaking, and resource exchanges, in 2025, Doug Ford slashed the forest firefighting budget.

It's hard to ignore his decision to cut funding and leave us out of adequate fire training (even though we've lived with forest fires for thousands of years—far longer than settlers have been in Canada—and made sure fires like the ones we're all seeing today were prevented through kinisitotēn) when, despite making up less than 5% of the population, we account for 42% percent of all wildfire evacuations in Canada.

And when we are successfully evacuated, we face discrimination and racism—like Kashechewan—because it's always been easier to blame us than it is to blame the true culprit: denialism, corportate greed, and colonization.

The people of Collins and every other impacted community deserve better.

Right now, the AFN is currently accepting donations to help Collins First Nation. If you're able to, please consider donating.

ONWA (Ontario Native Women's Association) is another great place to donate to. They have outreach vans going to motels and inns and offering food, water, resources, and cultural support to those impacted by the wildfires.

Other places to consider donating to are Mikinakoos Emergency Fund, Red Cross, True North Aid, Indigenous Climate Action. You can also send donations directly to Whitesand First Nation via e-transfer ([email protected]) and they request that you add your full name in the e-transfer comment section to receive a tax receipt.

*Before sending money, verify that the appeal appears on an official First Nation, Tribal Council or registered charity channel.

If you can't offer financial support, please consider donating items of need. Moontime Connections is currently accepting drop-off donations. If you live in the Thunder Bay area, Namaygoosisagagun Health Office is also taking in donations! They can also bemailed to Superior Inn Hotel & Conference Centre at 555 West Arthur Street, Thunder Bay, ON, P7E 5P8.

items needed are: food, diapers, medical masks, men’s and women’s joggers (all sizes), children’s clothing (newborn to size 14), children’s shoes, summer clothing, men’s clothing, toiletries (lotion, Vaseline, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, conditioner, soap, deodorant, etc.), strollers, adult depends-all sizes, dog & cat food