That Was The Year That Was

As we move with both hope and trepidation into 2024, here are a few reflections, through a Canadian lens, on what happened this year, as recalled by my favourite editorial cartoonist, Theo Moudakis:

Happy New Year, everyone.

To The American Voter

In the movie, Forrest Gump famously replied when asked if he was stupid, "Stupid is as stupid does."

It is advice American voters should ponder in 2024:

Words, Words, Words

 

It is hardly a revelation to say that words have power. They can delight, inform, edify, inspire and destroy. Unfortunately, it is the the latter effect that we see all too frequently today. One only has to look at the various cesspools to be found on social media to see this in action, and the tragic results of depraved online bullying. No one is immune.

And what is true about the misuse of language by individuals is also true of countries. In her most recent column, Shree Paradkar points out how the Israel's insidious misuse seems designed to obscure its atrocities in Gaza.

Who are Palestinians in Gaza? The Israeli government and its supporters would have us believe they are anything but innocent civilians. 

This is important. Denying the innocence of the thousands killed during Israel’s onslaught allows its leaders to justify civilian deaths or to proffer a rationalization that “they brought it on themselves,” while blaming everything on Hamas. 

Conflating all Palestinians with the evil of Hamas allows for the dehumanization of all Gazans, essentially equating the citizens with terrorism.

Former Mossad chief Rami Igra told CNN's Anderson Cooper last month that “The ‘non-combatant population in the Gaza Strip’ is really a non-existent term. Because all of the Gazans voted for Hamas. And as we have seen on the 7th of October, most of the population on the Gaza Strip are Hamas.” 

Cooper didn’t push back, but this is blatantly untrue. There have been no elections in Gaza since 2006, when Hamas won with 44 per cent of the vote, and in no district did it win a majority. Today, nearly half the population of Gaza is under 18; they were either not born when Hamas came into power or not eligible to cast a ballot then. It means only a fraction of today's Gazans ever voted for Hamas. 

Such a tact means that Israel can justify all manner of war crimes.

It allowed for Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant to refer to Palestinians and Hamas militants as “human animals.” And for Israel’s ambassador to Berlin, Ron Prosor, to double down on those comments and say the western world must stand with Israel as it fights the “bloodthirsty animals” of Hamas, who are used interchangeably with Gazans.

Accepting that premise means that we should not care what happens to Gazans, thereby justifying

attacks on targets such as hospitals and schools that are protected by humanitarian law by claiming that they are in fact “military infrastructure.” Israeli evidence of Hamas using hospitals and schools as hideouts and bases has not been independently corroborated and remains contentious. But whatever the truth, Israel and its supporters use these claims to absolve themselves of any responsibility for civilian casualties.

All who accept such premises really become complicit in the ongoing slaughter, and no clever linguistic nuances or semantics can change that fact.

George Orwell many years ago warned us about the political use of language. Sadly, it would seem that whatever lessons he tried to impart are long forgotten today.

 

Something To Think About

A friend sent me the following, Stephen Fry reading a letter from musician Nick Cave about the nature of creativity and how ChatGPT essentially short-circuits that process. Quite thought-provoking.

Pavlovian Dogs

I sometimes think, in my more cynical and dark moments, that our species really has not evolved very much beyond our tribal roots. Examine our collective deportment today, and it is easy to draw the same conclusion that Khan observes in the following clip from the original Star Trek series:

Start at 2;26 of the clip:

Today, we don't have to look far for evidence of our primitive, often Pavlovian natures. The rising incidents of both virulent anti-Semitism and anti-Islamic hatred are ample testament to that fact. It is as if, once triggered, our basest impulses come to the fore, demanding extirpation of "the other." That these hate-fests are also happening regularly at universities and other institutions of 'higher learning' is especially concerning, since those are the places people go to presumably acquire critical-thinking skills, skills that are clearly not standing them in good stead.

Everywhere we look, people behave not as rational beings but as Pavlovian dogs. I saw a story recently on American news that suggests the pace of electric car sales is slowing considerably. The reason? Gas prices have fallen significantly in many states. Because they have, a new embrace of the internal combustion engine seems to be occurring. Consumers' reasoning apparently is  that gas prices are down, and they will always be down. I hope you apprehend the problem with that logic. I do recall that same mentality took hold in Canada not so long ago. Have you noticed how many trucks and huge SUVs that most don't need are currently on our roads?

That our higher faculties are an inconvenience to be navigated around is evident everywhere. That we are plunging headlong into total climate collapse should surprise no one, given our penchant for spewing larger and larger amounts of carbon into the atmosphere via our profligate personal choices in incessant travel and a myriad of other self-indulgences. Indeed, despite its well-known contribution to global heating, people cannot stop themselves from idling in their cars for minutes on end, either to run the air-conditioning in summer or the heat in winter.

I have not bothered to place any links in this post to back up my assertions. Supporting evidence is painfully all too easy to find, if you are so inclined.

Sometimes it feels like the world is going to the dogs, doesn't it? 

End of rant.

1984 Redux: Moms For Liberty

You have perhaps heard of the Orwellian-named group, Moms For Liberty, whose main mission seems to be to ensconce themselves on school boards so they can restrict the books children have access to. But there is apparently another component to their mission, that of 'saving' the white race from extinction.The following video makes all things clear:

Then there is the most recent news about these God-fearing Christians:

Wouldn’t it be ironic if the woman who led an ultra-conservative movement in Florida education that sought to put gays back in the closet was having a long-term, three-way lesbian relationship with a lover she shared with her husband, the state’s GOP chairman? That’s the allegation being made about Bridget Ziegler — co-founder of far-right Moms for Liberty and a Sarasota School Board member — by an unnamed woman accusing Christian Ziegler of rape and sexual battery. Hypocrisy on steroids, if true.

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/fabiola-santiago/article282504773.html#storylink=cpy

God save us from 'Christian' zeal.  

Is It Brinkmanship?

 

H/t Moudakis

One has to wonder, given the lack of any real movement on a national pharmacare program, whether Justin Trudeau is gambling on Jagmeet Singh's NDP being more afraid of an early election than are the Liberals. Given that the polls show an almost inexplicable lead by PP's Conservatives, that is quite the roll of the dice.

For whatever reason, the NDP has never, with one real exception, captured the hearts and minds of 'ordinary Canadians'. Perhaps they consider themselves temporarily embarrassed millionaires, or fear that wild-eyed socialists will run amok in their home and native land.

However, one thing that is certain, at least in my mind, is that the Liberals, especially under their current leadership, have never met a corporate entity they didn't like. To bring in a true pharmacare program would 'disenfranchise' health insurance companies and reduce big pharma's profits by bulk purchases of drugs at significantly lower prices. Despite their rhetoric, this is not something Justin and the gang want.

All of which is to say that the rich and their money enjoy special government protection. Consider, for example, Linda McQuaig's latest column about wealth taxes and what they could achieve for an increasingly impoverished citizenry:

Understandably, people feel enraged when they can’t afford food and shelter for themselves and their children -- especially when they’re working full-time, often at several jobs. They know they’re getting the short end of the stick.

But unless they read Statistics Canada releases, they’re probably unaware just how long the other end of the stick has suddenly become.

Of course, it’s conventional wisdom that the rich always get richer.

This has not always been the case, McQuaig points out that we used to have a progressive taxation system that redistributed wealth quite effectively, but that ended in the 1980s, and now the wealthy are profiting more than they ever have.

Just-released Statistics Canada data show that, in 2021, the top 1 per cent of Canadians saw their incomes grow by fully 20 per cent. Farther up, the incomes of the top .01 per cent grew by a stunning 30 per cent -- to an average yearly income of $12.5 million. This prompted Statistics Canada, not known for rabble-rousing, to note that (in inflation-adjusted dollars) this is “much higher” than at any point in the past 40 years.

Meanwhile, that same year, the bottom half of Canadians (some 14 million working people) saw their incomes actually drop.

McQuaig's solution, which will please many and appal some, is a wealth tax. 

A wealth tax would apply exclusively to those with net assets of more than $10 million – just 87,000 families. Under one model, they’d pay 1 percent a year on assets above $10 million, 2% above $50 million and 3% above $100 million. Yet, the tax could raise an estimated $32 billion – about 60 times more than the Liberal income tax charges.

Despite almost no public debate about it, a wealth tax has the support of close to 90 per cent of Canadians.

But the current crop of politicos, both Liberal and Conservative, and their enablers, will likely continue to protect the interests of the few, since

the wealthy have managed to keep it off the agenda. Their phalanx of lawyers, accountants and economists are quick to dismiss all attempts to raise taxes on the rich. And a wealth tax, given the way it can be so effectively targeted, is considered particularly odious.

Jesus is reported to have said that the poor will always be with us. Given the sad caliber of our political overlords, I see no reason to dispute that assertion.