Although fall marks the end of summer, and heralds the impeding arrival of winter, I have always loved the season.
The fall colours are just another reason I love Canada so much.
But this year I'm finding it hard to celebrate the stunning beauty of our country.
For as Andrew Coyne writes, this is now a country teetering on the edge of political violence.
Some time in the not too distant future, when the first Canadian politician has been assassinated since Pierre Laporte, we will all look back and wonder what we could have done to prevent it.
When we see the rising tide of bile online; when a substantial proportion of the public are observed to live in terror of a number of wholly invented hobgoblins; when that fear turns to rage, and rage turns to threats, we should recognize that the odds of one of these materializing as actual political violence has also increased.
And those who can't see that, or insist it couldn't happen here, are in a state of dangerous denial.
You don't have to like someone's politics. You don't have to vote for them. But these two individuals went to Grande Prarie city hall and waited for Freeland just to yell at her. You're not a patriot. You are coward that thinks he did something. Also, put a better shirt on. pic.twitter.com/lDyYfg7Y2I
— JB 🍁 (@sheepkingjb) August 27, 2022
Where others were shocked by the sight of Chrystia Freeland being cornered by a large man shouting obscenities and accusing her of treason, skeptics see only rough-and-ready democratic protest, or at worst understandable frustration. People have always yelled at politicians, one columnist yawns: there’s nothing new here. The nutters are a tiny fringe, snickers another: and besides, they don’t really mean it.
For the Con terrorists may be a minority, but there are still a lot of them, and I haven't the slightest doubt that many of them are deadly serious about trying to kill Justin Trudeau.
For what other message could that send?
And no it's not accidental.
This is not accidental, because those in its grip are not responding to actual events or circumstances. An angry protester in the past might be worried he would lose his job to free trade, or that governments would de-index her pension. Today’s discontents, by contrast, inhabit an alternate reality, in which Donald Trump is still president, Russia is threatened by Ukraine, vaccines and not viruses are killing thousands, and the World Economic Forum is controlling our lives – or plotting to.
And Pierre Poilievre and his Convoy Party must be held accountable for the terrible damage they have done to our country.
More to the point, these views are being mainstreamed by populist media and political parties – indeed, by the presumptive leader of the Conservative Party. We have never before seen a leading candidate for high office in this country embrace the sorts of far-fetched conspiracy theories and paranoid fears that Pierre Poilievre has in the course of this campaign – unless you count Maxime Bernier.
With his grotesque conspiracy theories and far-right friends like Jeremy Mackenzie.
Seen here with members of the Diagolon terrorist group he founded...
Which along with Poilievre's deranged rage farming, can only lead to disaster and tragedy.
People who believe crazy things are more likely to do crazy things in response. If you genuinely believe the population is being subjected to mass poisoning, or that a reclusive German economist is conspiring with the Bank of Canada to monitor your every movement, you are more likely to be persuaded that some sort of extraordinary action will be necessary to stop it.
As for me I'm glad to see people like Andrew Coyne criticizing the fascist behaviour of Pierre Poilievre and his Convoy Party, but can only wonder why it took him so long.
And where are the others? Where are all the writers who contribute to Progressive Bloggers, why were they so silent?
How could they let disgusting slogans like this one be normalized?
And not raise their voices in protest.
As for me, my conscience is clear. I have fought the fascist right and the toxic Trudeau haters for years, more than all the others put together.
So I am delighted that the Prime Minister recently told his cabinet that he plans to stay on and fight the next election.
Pierre Poilievre's never ending hate mongering has failed to get Trudeau to resign, or give up the battle for a more decent Canada.
So he will be able to flatten that ghastly Con and his Convoy Party.
And I will get my beautiful Canada back...
16 comments:
Hi Simon, well said. I love talking politics but I've noticed over the past couple of years the amount of craziness that has been emerging. I really have no interest in engaging with anyone who has clearly lost its grip on reality. I had an interesting online exchange with that nut job Derek Sloan a few months back that was certainly interesting. As he is right next door to the riding I grew up in and where I good chunk of my family lives I was deeply concerned about his stance. Especially as my mother was fighting cancer for the second and actually couldn't get vexed, this issue goes beyond mere idea and disagreement for me as it has real-world consequences for my family. Knowing he was lawyer and presumably familiar with logical fallacies and not wanting to straw man the guy, I began by simply asking him if he felt that COVID was real but perhaps he felt it was being handled wrongly or if he felt COVID was some manmade concoction. He responded that COVID was real. So initially I was thinking at least the guy is living in reality. But things soon went off the rails. I then asked when it comes to making decisions about how to address the pandemic, what was he basing his decisions on. He then responded by saying "freedom" and "science". Interesting that freedumb comes first, I thought. So I asked him what happens when "freedom" and "science" contradict each other and gave examples of where what we would like to do are in conflict with actual science. His response was telling. He simply thanked me for my opinion and moved on. As if asking asking a question if an opinion. Good grief. When I pressed him on the issue, I was simply ignored. This, more than anything, tells me how this idiots think.
Waywayup
Thé problem with Piss Pants Pierre, he’s never worked a day let alone an hour with any of these radical apes. And when he gets his Con leadership and tries to soften his stance, the apes will turn their barrels on him. Take note of the video of him with McDavid, Pierre didn’t piss himself, he shat his pants.
1914: As long as people continue to believe absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities (Spoken by a fictional version of Voltaire)
1933: Men will continue to commit atrocities as long as they continue to believe absurdities (Described as “formula of Voltaire”)
1936: Men will continue to commit atrocities as long as they continue to believe absurdities (Attributed to Voltaire)
1937: If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities (Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan)
1944: Men will be brutal so long as they believe absurdities (Attributed to Voltaire)
1946: People who believe in absurdities will commit atrocities (Attributed to a great thinker)
1960: Certainly any one who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices. (Translation of Voltaire by Norman L. Torrey)
1963: Those who can persuade us to believe absurdities can make us commit atrocities (Described as a dictum of Voltaire by Norman L. Torrey)
1977: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities (Attributed to Voltaire)
Hanging, witchhunts, burn them out, cry treason, sedition is in.
Diagolon wants to be the accelerant to bring it all down.
One more fire.
One first shot.
Freeland missed her shot at charging verbal assault.
That little girls parents should be investigated for child abuse.
Convoy went on that long because "they" hid behind their children.
And i get it ... there are enough of "them" in the system to make it crack.
But at some point this laissez faire government better grow a pair because no-one in the world will rescue them
Lungta, the government is not "laissez-faire".
The RCMP is at work every day and the convoy people will dissipate as will inflation. Then it will come down to Trudeau fatigue v. Poilievre fatigue.
Future is uncertain. Still think a LPC minority but there's a long row to hoe.
Coyne is one to talk. He went whole hog on the SNC farce and participated in the media's lynching of Michael Wernick when he warned about this. The bullshit scandalmongering that the likes of Coyne and his asshole colleague Fife have been waging against PMJT and even his family (how much time did they waste on the WE nonsense? How much? How much? How much?), is what's enabled Skippy and his thugs to tap into a manufactured sentiment that PMJT and the LPC are "corrupt" and "crooked", and should be ousted from office by ballot or bullet.
Stripped of the byline, it's a good column, a prescient warning. But that warning was already made three years ago when Andrew Coyne and his cronies chose to ignore what the CPC was doing so they could vilify the prime minister for nothing and score a ratings coup. If anything happens to PMJT or an LPC minister or MP, as far as I'm concerned, they have blood on their hands because they helped it happen. Just look at the disgusting turn that CNN has taken as the threat of fascism is greater than ever. Jake the Flake Tapper being one of the worst.
I will never fucking forgive any of them, and I carry no sympathy for their complaints about "persecution of the press." They feed this monster, and then they act all shocked that the leopards come back to eat their faces too? Fuck the CPC and fuck the spineless weasels who continue to give his phony grievances and conspiracy theories oxygen, all in the name of "holding the government to account"!
Hi Way Way Up....Despite my concern over where Poilievre and his Convoy Party would take this country, I am consoled that at last some in the media are starting to write about the craziness that is threatening to envelop our country. Between those I can't avoid on the street, and the comments I receive, I find it almost impossible to avoid the depraved insanity of the Con cult. I don't know how so many people could believe some of the many conspiracy theories flying around like bats out there, but I guess that's what happens to those who join a cult, like the MAGA cult across the border. And their use of the word freedom or freedumb to explain their actions is an insult to our intelligence and an insult to all the Canadians who gave their lives so we can live in one of the freest countries on earth. Derek Sloan is at least pretty clear about his intentions. He is a religious fanatic, and a foul anti-gay bigot, and he wants to replace out public education with home schooling. So needless to say my contempt for him couldn't be greater. But asI have said all along I am confident that that our humble but precious Canadian values will carry us through these troubled times to a better future...
Hi anonymous...Yes, as if Poilievre didn't have enough to be ashamed of, he is also a dreadful hypocrite. As you point out, the man has never had a real job in this life, and is worth an estimated $9 million dollars. So any claim to represent the working class in this country is absolutely ridiculous, and as you also point out, sooner or later his pet apes will turn on him with a vengeance. I look forward to that day for it should be hugely entertaining...
The fix is in, the CPC has decided to go all out fascist. With the personal Freedumb meme covering up the fuck you rage and a whiney egotistical leader sucking up personal power from his supporters what could go wrong. Especially with unlimited neighboring aid consisting of Trump and deep pool of money sponsored media to sanitize and justify the rage.
“The bare-bones definition of a fascist state is this: It is an authoritarian state ruled by a charismatic leader enjoying a personality cult”. PP is not exactly a charismatic leader but he does exude ‘I am angry at your stupidity’ form of superiority that can empower his supporters who will reciprocate by empowering him. Together they will attack our democratic institutions in order to replace them with the Freedumb to rage against and punish whomever and whatever they choose. Watch for the sign posts along the way ….. first up is likely a thinly disguised purge in order to establish that only those that can out do each other in complimenting the leader are of any value.
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/3635350-let-history-be-the-judge-of-what-is-fascism/
RT
Hi Lungta....That is indeed a depressing litany of human idiocy. And I particularly enjoyed this saying:
As long as people continue to believe absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities
For as I said in my post that is what I fear could happen here. Let there be no doubt the Con cult is dangerous, one atrocity could be followed by another, and if that happens our country will never be the same
But it's not just up to the government or the police to end this threat to our way of life, it's up to all of us. And the main thing is to destroy the Convoy Party before it destroys us. It won't be easy but I am confident we can do it....
Hi Pierre...you are right to mention that the RCMP and other police forces are finally taking steps to control Canada's would be terrorists. But as I just told Lungta all of us must join in the struggle. We must attack the Convoy Party and its media stooges harder than we ever have before, and if we do that I am confidents that the Con cult will be so reduced that it won't threaten us anymore. If they think that cutting services to the poor and vulnerable, and ignoring climate change is the road to victory we will show them how wrong they are....
Hi Jackie....I realize that Coyne is totally unpredictable, and can't be trusted to attack those who threaten this country, as he should. And as you point out, as I did in my post, he has taken far too long to understand the bigger picture. But I think he is getting there, and judging from the reaction to the story I used in my post, the Con cult is quaking in its boots. We need to put pressure on their media stooges, but again I'm confident we can. We have time on our side. Three years of Poilievre's grating voice and diseased conspiracy theories will be more than most Canadians can stand, and they will convince the Cons to give him the heave ho long before the next election. Of course I suppose I could be wrong, and if that's the case I'll see you in Scotland. ;)
Hi Rt....I watched the excruciatingly boring Convoy Party convention almost to the end, and there can be no doubt now that the Cons are a fascist movement. They exist only in their own bubble, and when that bubble is popped they will be hopelessly lost, and easy prey for Canada's democratic parties. Like all cults they have been carried away in a moment of exultation but sooner or later will go down in flames. Poilievre is the chosen demagogue that will lead them to their final resting place in the garbage can of history. And I for one couldn't be more excited. I have denounced them as fascists for a long long time, so it's great to see so many progressives more determined than ever to destroy them...
Give me a passport or give me death
HI Simon, You're built of tougher stuff than I am if you sat through that Con bore fest, I must say. I had the choice of watching that crap or my nephew's OHL hockey game. He was the youngest and smallest guy on the ice but didn't let himself get pushed around and got his shots on net. I'm sure there's an interesting analogy in their somewhere. Cheers
Waywayup
Hi Steve....I suggest you pass that one on to Pierre Poilievre or the Con cow Jennie Byrne. They are always looking for cheap slogans to inflame the Convoy Party rabble....
Hi Way Way Up...I think you made a very wise choice to watch your nephew's OHL hockey game. I wish I could have done the same thing. Watched something really Canadian instead of that Con borefest. But when the Cons started chanting "Freedom, Freedom" at least I knew I was right, the Cons really are the Convoy Party, as fascist as they come, and as Canadian as a three dollar bill. Which of course we shall use to destroy them in 2025, if their little Trump Fuhrer doesn't destroy them first...
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