I think when people hear the term "Social Justice" they think it's a good thing and automatically along with it. But that's a mistake. Because what they mean by it and everyone else mean are not the same. The New left are radical and intolerant of any opinion opposed to their's. It's like a new religion and its beliefs are not open to debate or discussion. And any who disagree with it are considered heretics.
As an 42 year old former super left leaning dude, I totally agree. Even if you broadly agree with most positions, but not all, you'll be cast out from the church. It's a very strange process of online shaming, harassment, lies and defamation used to excommunicate one from the church. I think much of modern leftism is about weeding out the true believers from people who think more critically and don't accept a totalising world view, rather than actually helping disenfranchised people.
Yes, New Left has been masterful at manipulating our language to their advantage with euphemisms like “social justice” (really mob justice), “equity” (political resource redistribution), “gender affirmation” (sex change), etc. They’ll continue to get away with it as long as cultural institutions (Education, Social & Mainstream Media) enable & provide cover.
A decade ago I was quite happy to say that I sought "social justice." Either my understanding was deficient back then, or the meaning has undergone an Orwellian Newspeak shift. I think the latter.
I think we’d all like a perfect justice system, and would agree our current system is flawed & biased in many ways and that we should strive for better - but it’s still one of (if not *the*) best available, and easy to “dismantle” but very hard to measurably improve. The SJW/Woke/Left seem determined to learn this the hard way, at great cost to all of our society.
Agree - the "new left" have actively changed the meaning of words although wrt to "social justice" it was a slower takeover of the word than outright Myriam Webster definition changes. Here's just one example of a word change.
You should read Bill 67 (Ontario) - it's on it's 3rd reading. Shameful. Protects every race except Caucasian and major religions except Hindu and Christian.
Attended a Meet & Greet for Cons. leadership candidate Roman Baber yesterday and he said “Bill 67 will not make it to a third reading.” Not sure if it was fact or hyperbole, but I sure hope he’s correct.
Yes, and he’s smart enough to “get back in the corral” and run for the PC leadership (where he can get his ideas in motion), instead of remaining independent where he needs to fight 10x harder to be heard. I admire and respect his courage and integrity.
Their convos have been excellent and if we all just get two (woke) friends to hear them, we may just have a chance at stopping this runaway train. You simply cannot argue against the truth.
Well said. Homeless here! I had a phone call from the NDP the other day, and told them that they lost me. I had been ticked off with the identitarian tendency for a while, but Jagmeet’s support for the emergency measures was the final straw.
I am a conservative who has - like a lot of us - become very disenchanted with globalism, unrestrained free trade and what it is doing to our society. The irony is that now that I am becoming a pro-union - pro working class socialist - the NDP have abandoned the working class completely. Both federally and provincially they block all major industrial projects in the name of global warming - they supported using the emergencies act (against a workers uprising no less!) - they support Covid measures that impact working people much more dramatically than office workers. They are the party of public sector office workers - the radical woke - and welfare. I think Canada needs a new working peoples party.
Pops, we need to talk! I have long held the opinion that Humanity, not just Canadian politics, is facing a bottleneck in evolution. In order to make it through to a good civilisation rather like “Star Trek, the next generation” , we will need to draw on the best from all past and present knowledge, traditions, cultures. We will need the engineer AND the shaman, the hard nosed pragmatist and the idealist, and so on. And it will have to come from the bottom up. Whenever I despair I remember the grain fiield metaphor.
Agreed, but if the “new left” continue on their path of rewriting history, destroying historical reference and prohibiting discussion about it under the guise of “social justice,” then all hope of learning from the past will be lost for future generations. They lack the fortitude and integrity it takes to be able to confront the truth and not feel the need to be damaged by it and cry “victim”, IMHO.
Very well said. As a western Canadian, the only thing I would add is that the incessant attacks by this government on the west have also created serious regional division. Sadly, I’ll be voting Maverick the next time around.
Me too. They lost me when they didn't stand up for my right to choose what I put in my body and when they stood by idly and judgmentally while my fellow citizens were being persecuted. I donated a small amount to a cause I believed in in good faith, with no ill intent, and worried for a week that my bank account would be frozen. Where was Jagmeet Singh? Where were the so-called fighters for social justice? When they call me, and they will, they will get an earful! I cannot stand this hypocrisy.
Quite. The federal NDP is appalling. However, I have to acknowledge that the temptation offered to Singh was very attractive. The Devil offered him much more power by cooperating with the Liberals than the party was likely to get through an election. All he has to do was sacrifice core NDP principles.
As I dentist (now retired) who worked first in the UK before coming to the Canada, I have a great deal of experience with nationalized dental care. I can tell you with certainty and from experience that of all the treatment options available for any given condition, the least expensive option is always the one the government will pay for, which is also the one with the worst long term outcome. Private dental insurance in Canada is the reason why the standard of care in Canada is among the highest in the world. It was a great treat for me to come here and offer the best treatment plans in terms of long term outcomes, and deliver them because private insurance plans (actuaries, actually) understand the economy of providing the best treatment (including preventive care) as opposed to the least expensive.
It's akin, really, to the Canadian 'health care' system, which offers decent emergent care, but really specializes in offering wait lists- even to find a family doctor. It fails quite miserably at most things in between including delivering, or even offering, preventive/ prophylactic health care. Our system is neither about 'health' nor 'care'. I'll contrast it to our experience in the US, with our daughter (who herself is now an Internist and Integrative Medicine specialist in the US). In high school, she suffered a head injury when a boulder fell on her head in a school mountain climbing trip on Vancouver Island. She suffered a myriad of injuries as you might imagine. Our system handled the emergent ones quickly (skull fracture/ brain bleed) but the handling of the long term sequelae was atrocious. For example, when our daughter developed seizures 4 years post-accident, the 'system' sent her to a neurologist specializing in epilepsy, for which we waited 5 months. He, in turn, prescribed repeat EEGs, each of which also mean a requisite wait list. When no aberrant electrical activity was found, she was referred to another neurologist, which also meant another months-long wait, while the condition remained both undiagnosed and untreated. This was followed by more EEGs, also months apart, because of the wait list for 'walking EEGs'. When our daughter was 18 months into undiagnosed, untreated seizures, we were desperate and finally made a call to a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix. We saw the specialist 13 days later at which time she ran all tests in the following 7 days, and delivered a diagnosis and treatment plan. For that visit, our Mayo bill was about 9000 USD- and worth every penny. (The costs of annual or semi annual follow up visits were less than 1000/ ea) .
I can't 'quantify' what the inadequacies of the Canadian system cost my daughter- how does one quantify suffering in a child? Certainly had she been an adult at the time, she'd have lost her driver's license and would have been unable to work for the entire period- the 'cost' of which would have been much more than $9000 USD. I'm betting the circus of specialists and EEGs interrupted by unacceptably long waits over 18 months cost the Canadian tax payer at least $9000 USD- all the while never even delivering a diagnosis, much less treatment.
Ultimately, what is most interesting to me is that our daughter's own experience drove her into a career in medicine. However, once she was in medical school here in Canada, she quickly discovered for herself what an inept system Canada runs in contrast to her ongoing experience at the Mayo. So, she planned her future to be able to deliver prevention focused care in the US, rather than be hampered by the very real limitations of the Canadian system which she says is centered on letting people get ill before enrolling them in the wait list system after the emergent situation is addressed. She now delivers prevention focused care in a group setting of specialists which draw on each other for fulsome, integrated treatment plans delivered expediently and with very high patient satisfaction outcomes (which the group tracks meticulously). When demand for their services outstrips their capacity to deliver care, they expand their group; in fact, several of her classmates and colleagues from residence have since followed her to the US. (This, of course, is a well known trend- which, you'll notice, never reverses; physicians in the US simply do not come to Canada for unsatisfying work in its 'superior' system.)
Yes, I am going on record to say that dental care in Canada will now follow health care's path, and patients will be worse off for it. Time will tell but I'll end with the query- what does the government deliver effectively and efficiently in Canada other than tax collection, debt building , self promotion and narrative engineering (looking at you, CBC) ?
I hear you about the dark side of single payer health care. I have never understood why we cannot have a combination system, with a basic plan that covers all, and the option for faster, easier access if one has the means. However, I would not trade our system, flawed as it is, for the one in the USA. In 2012 I suffered the interesting combination of surgery for colon caner and a car accident two weeks prior to the planned surgery. I was a bed blocker, ended up in hospital for four weeks, three surgeries. In the USA that would have been disastrous. We would have lost everything.
Yes - I say this as a former NDP voter/member. It boggled my mind to watch Singh's videos decrying the truckers as crypto-fascists, when after a half hour on YouTube I tracked down solid evidence that of the two offending flags seen amongst the protestors, one was almost certainly a plant (he wore a full-face mask, and was shooed away quickly), while the other was a misconceived attempt to paint Trudeau as a Nazi (look at the other flag the man carried). There used to be a video of a man who actually talked to the guy with the Nazi flag (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCJHgrYa_NY) that was removed saying as much. In interviews with hundreds of other of truckers (see Viva Frei, ottawawalks), there was a jubilant mood of national unity. How anyone could vote for someone so stupid - or so cynical as to manipulate the public mood to win political points - is beyond me. Add to this is the fact that the truckers were literally outside his "front door" on Wellington. If there were a protest a block from my house, I think I could quickly figure out their general political alignment.
The modern left only exists because of profligate government funding. Whether social programs that solve nothing, college tuition for social courses that have no market value, or endless pandering to selfish interest groups who have no interest in who is hurt by it. Cut the government funding and the whole left will shrivel because they will never fund themselves.
This is not discussed enough. The only reason the CBC can alienate 75% of Canadians is that they are publicly funded. Same thing with most university professors and literally thousands of other ‘non-profit’ organizations. If they were defunded a lot of the progressive narratives in society would dry up - particularly the completely nutty ones.
Agreed, too much $$ padding. If I see another 'study' or 'analysis' done about an issue that costs piles of cash but offers none to the people being studied I will scream. Again.
Christopher Columbus proved the world was round by sailing west to get to the east. The same is true in politics: go far enough to the left (socialism, communism) and you come full circle on the right with fascism, when the powerful protect only themselves.
This illiberal mindset only exists because most people have been cowards in speaking up and out on how bat shit crazy some of their positions are. Take Lia Thomas for example, in the past he would have been labeled as having a mental disorder, but here we are, and he's being celebrated as a champion of women's rights. Another example is the current nominee to the supreme court who's afraid to define what a woman is and she was nominated primarily because she is a woman. It's this kind of liberalism that is the biggest threat to our democracy. Stand up to these loons!
Interesting. This seems to align considerably with Jordan Peterson's views on Post-modernism, particularly the desire to shut down anyone who's going against the current trend. It appears almost Marxist wherein the evil oppressors are intellectual rather than economic. As I near the end of my life's journey I'm grateful that most of it was lived during the best times I think humanity might ever experience. Fortunately I can still live the way I like as long as I filter out most of the noise. Most of my friends are still sane :)
Lost in the word salad of labels is the greater group--the majority of "normal" Canadians who, unrecognized, are not the slugs the elites presume them to be. They are thinkers (when work permits), they pay their taxes (as yet without protest). They are the source of the $10-$12 million raised in just weeks by the Freedom Convoy.
They are the cause for declining charitable donations--particularly to now-discredited universities. They are the folks now adopting "financial antifreeze"--savings beyond the reach of distrusted banks--in reaction to government's unilateral, unwarranted and malicious seizures.
They are the "new right". There are no pointy hats, no racism, no stiff-armed saluting. They are the majority that are about to rise up against the worthlessness of the woke. The Freedom Convoy was just the first. There will be more...many more. Populism--no longer a pejorative--has taken hold in Canada.
The rage I have seen in some young people pushing for a "revolution" live in their parents' 5-bedroom houses, have everything paid for by daddy, and take multiple international vacations. It's astounding. My family, on the other hand, descend from refugees (i.e., my mother was a refugee) and lower working class (i.e., my father rose out of abject poverty while his brothers struggled as truckers and some went to jail for violent crimes).
No one in my family wishes for a revolution. We know what that brings - chaos, hunger, violence, despair, and the same elites at the top licking their chops.
Trudeau is nothing but a hypocrite and a lying tyrant. He took away all of our Charter of Rights Freedoms in Canada and threw protestors in jail, both under false pretenses. He has told the truth about nothing since he was elected and has brainwashed people who don't know any better and has never lived through communism.
People who watch CBC still have no idea Trudeau was called a "despicable tyrant" at the EU conference, and had 90% of all EU delegates walked out when he stood to speak. It is bad enough that he lies, but that he has Canada's publicly funded media lie for him.
I read conservative alt media just so I can know what is going on. They are bat $&@$ crazy half the time - but the other half of the time they break stories that are only acknowledged in mainstream media months later if at all. Their track record on Covid issues has been quite good.
This was a great read. Then I reread it, substituting "right" for "left" and choosing appropriate examples, and it works as well for the other side, too.
With all due respect I don’t think it does. There a huge chunk on the right that is batshit crazy and damned illiberal themselves. But it doesn’t hurt to identify the right problems. The right for instance isn’t ascendant in academia, and doesn’t control the media or the government of Canada. If what you’re saying is there’s an illiberal streak on the right too these day, you’re absolutely right. But it’s not the same.
Yes, there’s an outspoken & fanatical fringe right out there banning some books & whatnot… but no, they’re not even close to holding the power of the new left over society. The left has virtually all of Big Tech, virtually all of the Washington embedded bureaucracy, virtually all of higher ed and increasingly lower ed, and most of “mainstream” media including the “fact checkers.” This allows them to control national narratives (and therefore cultural/social/political direction) almost fully.
I’m sure the right would act in exactly the same way, given the same tools & power btw - but that’s not where they are today.
Yeah. I think the great challenge of our time, once we’re done getting nuked to oblivion of course, is figuring out how to stuff them all in a mosh pit somewhere and let them have it out while the rest of us go about having a life.
Economically, the new left is about as far right as one can get. Having abandoned the economics of the old left, the new left has embraced neoliberalism. Neoliberalism may be described as a system of global fascism. Instead of national socialism we get the WEF and inverted totalitarianism. The new left could just as easily be described as the new right.
I suspect you may be seeing this through an American lens. Here in Canada, Justin Trudeau’s rise to power was roughly analogous to someone from “The Squad” rising to power in the US. If the thought of that doesn’t scare you, it should.
IAll my life a leftie, now I've given up on "left". The English language has a way of miscommunicating - as in Congressional Oversight Committee. To see those in the current "left" sucking up to authoritarian/corporate power... sigh.
I agree with this definition and analysis. As an aside I am still puzzled by the fact that modern leftists are so determined not to engage in civil discussion, such self righteous indignation at all who disagree fits well with the fanaticism they display.
Absolutely agree, thus I label it as fanaticism, certainly marxists in keeping with communist social reeducation.
When science, philosophy economic policy or any belief cannot withstand the scrutiny of discussion or challenge of principles it reeks of dishonesty, propaganda and nihilism.
Cynic that I am, there is Always a group that will ultimately benefit from the destruction of the current system. That benefit always translates topower and wealth.
An excellent analysis of the collapse of the left, mostly into narcissism. Christopher Lasch warned about this long ago in his book Culture of Narcissism. I always considered myself as part of the traditional left as you described. But I refuse to join this circus.
I think when people hear the term "Social Justice" they think it's a good thing and automatically along with it. But that's a mistake. Because what they mean by it and everyone else mean are not the same. The New left are radical and intolerant of any opinion opposed to their's. It's like a new religion and its beliefs are not open to debate or discussion. And any who disagree with it are considered heretics.
As an 42 year old former super left leaning dude, I totally agree. Even if you broadly agree with most positions, but not all, you'll be cast out from the church. It's a very strange process of online shaming, harassment, lies and defamation used to excommunicate one from the church. I think much of modern leftism is about weeding out the true believers from people who think more critically and don't accept a totalising world view, rather than actually helping disenfranchised people.
That's exactly right!
Thanks man
Yes, New Left has been masterful at manipulating our language to their advantage with euphemisms like “social justice” (really mob justice), “equity” (political resource redistribution), “gender affirmation” (sex change), etc. They’ll continue to get away with it as long as cultural institutions (Education, Social & Mainstream Media) enable & provide cover.
A decade ago I was quite happy to say that I sought "social justice." Either my understanding was deficient back then, or the meaning has undergone an Orwellian Newspeak shift. I think the latter.
I think we’d all like a perfect justice system, and would agree our current system is flawed & biased in many ways and that we should strive for better - but it’s still one of (if not *the*) best available, and easy to “dismantle” but very hard to measurably improve. The SJW/Woke/Left seem determined to learn this the hard way, at great cost to all of our society.
money is colour blind and does not care about race
Agree - the "new left" have actively changed the meaning of words although wrt to "social justice" it was a slower takeover of the word than outright Myriam Webster definition changes. Here's just one example of a word change.
https://www.vox.com/identities/2020/6/10/21286656/merriam-webster-racism-definition
Well sounds like now the government IS racist again/some more! Against the unvaxxed! Systemic oppression in broad daylight.
You should read Bill 67 (Ontario) - it's on it's 3rd reading. Shameful. Protects every race except Caucasian and major religions except Hindu and Christian.
Attended a Meet & Greet for Cons. leadership candidate Roman Baber yesterday and he said “Bill 67 will not make it to a third reading.” Not sure if it was fact or hyperbole, but I sure hope he’s correct.
Thanks - I very much hope he is correct, too.
Yes, and he’s smart enough to “get back in the corral” and run for the PC leadership (where he can get his ideas in motion), instead of remaining independent where he needs to fight 10x harder to be heard. I admire and respect his courage and integrity.
Their convos have been excellent and if we all just get two (woke) friends to hear them, we may just have a chance at stopping this runaway train. You simply cannot argue against the truth.
Well said. Homeless here! I had a phone call from the NDP the other day, and told them that they lost me. I had been ticked off with the identitarian tendency for a while, but Jagmeet’s support for the emergency measures was the final straw.
I am a conservative who has - like a lot of us - become very disenchanted with globalism, unrestrained free trade and what it is doing to our society. The irony is that now that I am becoming a pro-union - pro working class socialist - the NDP have abandoned the working class completely. Both federally and provincially they block all major industrial projects in the name of global warming - they supported using the emergencies act (against a workers uprising no less!) - they support Covid measures that impact working people much more dramatically than office workers. They are the party of public sector office workers - the radical woke - and welfare. I think Canada needs a new working peoples party.
Pops, we need to talk! I have long held the opinion that Humanity, not just Canadian politics, is facing a bottleneck in evolution. In order to make it through to a good civilisation rather like “Star Trek, the next generation” , we will need to draw on the best from all past and present knowledge, traditions, cultures. We will need the engineer AND the shaman, the hard nosed pragmatist and the idealist, and so on. And it will have to come from the bottom up. Whenever I despair I remember the grain fiield metaphor.
https://freegreenliving.blogspot.com/2007/11/can-you-make-difference.html
Agreed, but if the “new left” continue on their path of rewriting history, destroying historical reference and prohibiting discussion about it under the guise of “social justice,” then all hope of learning from the past will be lost for future generations. They lack the fortitude and integrity it takes to be able to confront the truth and not feel the need to be damaged by it and cry “victim”, IMHO.
Rewriting history can obviously not give us the best! Truth is an important value.
Very well said. As a western Canadian, the only thing I would add is that the incessant attacks by this government on the west have also created serious regional division. Sadly, I’ll be voting Maverick the next time around.
Me too. They lost me when they didn't stand up for my right to choose what I put in my body and when they stood by idly and judgmentally while my fellow citizens were being persecuted. I donated a small amount to a cause I believed in in good faith, with no ill intent, and worried for a week that my bank account would be frozen. Where was Jagmeet Singh? Where were the so-called fighters for social justice? When they call me, and they will, they will get an earful! I cannot stand this hypocrisy.
They got 40 pieces of silver...
Quite. The federal NDP is appalling. However, I have to acknowledge that the temptation offered to Singh was very attractive. The Devil offered him much more power by cooperating with the Liberals than the party was likely to get through an election. All he has to do was sacrifice core NDP principles.
A basic national dental plan is rather nice. I don’t know the details of the pharma plan, but I fear Big Pharma is licking its chops.
As I dentist (now retired) who worked first in the UK before coming to the Canada, I have a great deal of experience with nationalized dental care. I can tell you with certainty and from experience that of all the treatment options available for any given condition, the least expensive option is always the one the government will pay for, which is also the one with the worst long term outcome. Private dental insurance in Canada is the reason why the standard of care in Canada is among the highest in the world. It was a great treat for me to come here and offer the best treatment plans in terms of long term outcomes, and deliver them because private insurance plans (actuaries, actually) understand the economy of providing the best treatment (including preventive care) as opposed to the least expensive.
It's akin, really, to the Canadian 'health care' system, which offers decent emergent care, but really specializes in offering wait lists- even to find a family doctor. It fails quite miserably at most things in between including delivering, or even offering, preventive/ prophylactic health care. Our system is neither about 'health' nor 'care'. I'll contrast it to our experience in the US, with our daughter (who herself is now an Internist and Integrative Medicine specialist in the US). In high school, she suffered a head injury when a boulder fell on her head in a school mountain climbing trip on Vancouver Island. She suffered a myriad of injuries as you might imagine. Our system handled the emergent ones quickly (skull fracture/ brain bleed) but the handling of the long term sequelae was atrocious. For example, when our daughter developed seizures 4 years post-accident, the 'system' sent her to a neurologist specializing in epilepsy, for which we waited 5 months. He, in turn, prescribed repeat EEGs, each of which also mean a requisite wait list. When no aberrant electrical activity was found, she was referred to another neurologist, which also meant another months-long wait, while the condition remained both undiagnosed and untreated. This was followed by more EEGs, also months apart, because of the wait list for 'walking EEGs'. When our daughter was 18 months into undiagnosed, untreated seizures, we were desperate and finally made a call to a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix. We saw the specialist 13 days later at which time she ran all tests in the following 7 days, and delivered a diagnosis and treatment plan. For that visit, our Mayo bill was about 9000 USD- and worth every penny. (The costs of annual or semi annual follow up visits were less than 1000/ ea) .
I can't 'quantify' what the inadequacies of the Canadian system cost my daughter- how does one quantify suffering in a child? Certainly had she been an adult at the time, she'd have lost her driver's license and would have been unable to work for the entire period- the 'cost' of which would have been much more than $9000 USD. I'm betting the circus of specialists and EEGs interrupted by unacceptably long waits over 18 months cost the Canadian tax payer at least $9000 USD- all the while never even delivering a diagnosis, much less treatment.
Ultimately, what is most interesting to me is that our daughter's own experience drove her into a career in medicine. However, once she was in medical school here in Canada, she quickly discovered for herself what an inept system Canada runs in contrast to her ongoing experience at the Mayo. So, she planned her future to be able to deliver prevention focused care in the US, rather than be hampered by the very real limitations of the Canadian system which she says is centered on letting people get ill before enrolling them in the wait list system after the emergent situation is addressed. She now delivers prevention focused care in a group setting of specialists which draw on each other for fulsome, integrated treatment plans delivered expediently and with very high patient satisfaction outcomes (which the group tracks meticulously). When demand for their services outstrips their capacity to deliver care, they expand their group; in fact, several of her classmates and colleagues from residence have since followed her to the US. (This, of course, is a well known trend- which, you'll notice, never reverses; physicians in the US simply do not come to Canada for unsatisfying work in its 'superior' system.)
Yes, I am going on record to say that dental care in Canada will now follow health care's path, and patients will be worse off for it. Time will tell but I'll end with the query- what does the government deliver effectively and efficiently in Canada other than tax collection, debt building , self promotion and narrative engineering (looking at you, CBC) ?
I hear you about the dark side of single payer health care. I have never understood why we cannot have a combination system, with a basic plan that covers all, and the option for faster, easier access if one has the means. However, I would not trade our system, flawed as it is, for the one in the USA. In 2012 I suffered the interesting combination of surgery for colon caner and a car accident two weeks prior to the planned surgery. I was a bed blocker, ended up in hospital for four weeks, three surgeries. In the USA that would have been disastrous. We would have lost everything.
Yes, but I wouldn't trade freedom (the right to dissent without being persecuted) for a dental plan.
Were we given a choice? Neither would I. Just trying to see if there are any light points.
Yes - I say this as a former NDP voter/member. It boggled my mind to watch Singh's videos decrying the truckers as crypto-fascists, when after a half hour on YouTube I tracked down solid evidence that of the two offending flags seen amongst the protestors, one was almost certainly a plant (he wore a full-face mask, and was shooed away quickly), while the other was a misconceived attempt to paint Trudeau as a Nazi (look at the other flag the man carried). There used to be a video of a man who actually talked to the guy with the Nazi flag (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCJHgrYa_NY) that was removed saying as much. In interviews with hundreds of other of truckers (see Viva Frei, ottawawalks), there was a jubilant mood of national unity. How anyone could vote for someone so stupid - or so cynical as to manipulate the public mood to win political points - is beyond me. Add to this is the fact that the truckers were literally outside his "front door" on Wellington. If there were a protest a block from my house, I think I could quickly figure out their general political alignment.
Jagmeet has had a taste of power , he will now do anything to keep it and increase it , did not take long for him to sell out
Very kind, Penny. But I'm not actually homeless, just politically homeless.
The modern left only exists because of profligate government funding. Whether social programs that solve nothing, college tuition for social courses that have no market value, or endless pandering to selfish interest groups who have no interest in who is hurt by it. Cut the government funding and the whole left will shrivel because they will never fund themselves.
This is not discussed enough. The only reason the CBC can alienate 75% of Canadians is that they are publicly funded. Same thing with most university professors and literally thousands of other ‘non-profit’ organizations. If they were defunded a lot of the progressive narratives in society would dry up - particularly the completely nutty ones.
China and left wing billionaires like george Soros and Silicon Valley and their widows are pouring billions in to the left.
GREAT POINT!
Agreed, too much $$ padding. If I see another 'study' or 'analysis' done about an issue that costs piles of cash but offers none to the people being studied I will scream. Again.
"Identitarian moralism." Excellent phrase!
Christopher Columbus proved the world was round by sailing west to get to the east. The same is true in politics: go far enough to the left (socialism, communism) and you come full circle on the right with fascism, when the powerful protect only themselves.
This illiberal mindset only exists because most people have been cowards in speaking up and out on how bat shit crazy some of their positions are. Take Lia Thomas for example, in the past he would have been labeled as having a mental disorder, but here we are, and he's being celebrated as a champion of women's rights. Another example is the current nominee to the supreme court who's afraid to define what a woman is and she was nominated primarily because she is a woman. It's this kind of liberalism that is the biggest threat to our democracy. Stand up to these loons!
Moral virtual signaling, or shapeshifting to root for the winning team… in either case it is reprehensible.
Interesting. This seems to align considerably with Jordan Peterson's views on Post-modernism, particularly the desire to shut down anyone who's going against the current trend. It appears almost Marxist wherein the evil oppressors are intellectual rather than economic. As I near the end of my life's journey I'm grateful that most of it was lived during the best times I think humanity might ever experience. Fortunately I can still live the way I like as long as I filter out most of the noise. Most of my friends are still sane :)
Lost in the word salad of labels is the greater group--the majority of "normal" Canadians who, unrecognized, are not the slugs the elites presume them to be. They are thinkers (when work permits), they pay their taxes (as yet without protest). They are the source of the $10-$12 million raised in just weeks by the Freedom Convoy.
They are the cause for declining charitable donations--particularly to now-discredited universities. They are the folks now adopting "financial antifreeze"--savings beyond the reach of distrusted banks--in reaction to government's unilateral, unwarranted and malicious seizures.
They are the "new right". There are no pointy hats, no racism, no stiff-armed saluting. They are the majority that are about to rise up against the worthlessness of the woke. The Freedom Convoy was just the first. There will be more...many more. Populism--no longer a pejorative--has taken hold in Canada.
Just think of them as Mao’s red guards. There is no logic, only rage filled regurgitation as directed by their corporate masters.
The rage I have seen in some young people pushing for a "revolution" live in their parents' 5-bedroom houses, have everything paid for by daddy, and take multiple international vacations. It's astounding. My family, on the other hand, descend from refugees (i.e., my mother was a refugee) and lower working class (i.e., my father rose out of abject poverty while his brothers struggled as truckers and some went to jail for violent crimes).
No one in my family wishes for a revolution. We know what that brings - chaos, hunger, violence, despair, and the same elites at the top licking their chops.
Trudeau is nothing but a hypocrite and a lying tyrant. He took away all of our Charter of Rights Freedoms in Canada and threw protestors in jail, both under false pretenses. He has told the truth about nothing since he was elected and has brainwashed people who don't know any better and has never lived through communism.
People who watch CBC still have no idea Trudeau was called a "despicable tyrant" at the EU conference, and had 90% of all EU delegates walked out when he stood to speak. It is bad enough that he lies, but that he has Canada's publicly funded media lie for him.
The CBC did cover it. Their slant was to expose the voices calling out Trudeau as right wing extremists and lone wolves with low credibility.
Exactly!
I read conservative alt media just so I can know what is going on. They are bat $&@$ crazy half the time - but the other half of the time they break stories that are only acknowledged in mainstream media months later if at all. Their track record on Covid issues has been quite good.
This was a great read. Then I reread it, substituting "right" for "left" and choosing appropriate examples, and it works as well for the other side, too.
With all due respect I don’t think it does. There a huge chunk on the right that is batshit crazy and damned illiberal themselves. But it doesn’t hurt to identify the right problems. The right for instance isn’t ascendant in academia, and doesn’t control the media or the government of Canada. If what you’re saying is there’s an illiberal streak on the right too these day, you’re absolutely right. But it’s not the same.
The right in Canada has no apparent power or even much influence...
I disagree. The conservative "silent majority" will show you their influence in the next federal election...
Yes, there’s an outspoken & fanatical fringe right out there banning some books & whatnot… but no, they’re not even close to holding the power of the new left over society. The left has virtually all of Big Tech, virtually all of the Washington embedded bureaucracy, virtually all of higher ed and increasingly lower ed, and most of “mainstream” media including the “fact checkers.” This allows them to control national narratives (and therefore cultural/social/political direction) almost fully.
I’m sure the right would act in exactly the same way, given the same tools & power btw - but that’s not where they are today.
Yeah. I think the great challenge of our time, once we’re done getting nuked to oblivion of course, is figuring out how to stuff them all in a mosh pit somewhere and let them have it out while the rest of us go about having a life.
Economically, the new left is about as far right as one can get. Having abandoned the economics of the old left, the new left has embraced neoliberalism. Neoliberalism may be described as a system of global fascism. Instead of national socialism we get the WEF and inverted totalitarianism. The new left could just as easily be described as the new right.
I suspect you may be seeing this through an American lens. Here in Canada, Justin Trudeau’s rise to power was roughly analogous to someone from “The Squad” rising to power in the US. If the thought of that doesn’t scare you, it should.
But he had daddy's cronies to fund him and so he became thier beard...
With so many of us politically homeless, could it be time for a new party? First, define ourselves by what we are FOR.
Amen!
IAll my life a leftie, now I've given up on "left". The English language has a way of miscommunicating - as in Congressional Oversight Committee. To see those in the current "left" sucking up to authoritarian/corporate power... sigh.
I agree with this definition and analysis. As an aside I am still puzzled by the fact that modern leftists are so determined not to engage in civil discussion, such self righteous indignation at all who disagree fits well with the fanaticism they display.
Absolutely agree, thus I label it as fanaticism, certainly marxists in keeping with communist social reeducation.
When science, philosophy economic policy or any belief cannot withstand the scrutiny of discussion or challenge of principles it reeks of dishonesty, propaganda and nihilism.
Cynic that I am, there is Always a group that will ultimately benefit from the destruction of the current system. That benefit always translates topower and wealth.
An excellent analysis of the collapse of the left, mostly into narcissism. Christopher Lasch warned about this long ago in his book Culture of Narcissism. I always considered myself as part of the traditional left as you described. But I refuse to join this circus.