The Power To Shock

I readily admit that most days, almost nothing fazes me, having come to the same conclusion as George Carlin that we are going away. Looking at all of the existential threats we face, it is clear they have one thing in common: a deeply flawed humanity with no prospect of remediation. 

Despite that,  I am not so disengaged from the world that I look upon events with Buddha-like serenity. The stupidity of people, the rise of the ignorant right and their passionate intensity, still has the power to offend me. And sometimes I even have the capacity to feel shocked.

Which was how I felt while reading Edward Keenan's column on the consequences of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v Wade. The part that shocked me I will get to in a moment, but first, a little bit about his article, which discusses the fallout of the abortion decision: a growing distrust in government and its institutions as evidenced by the ongoing demonstrations of those vehemently opposed to the that decision:

The overwhelmingly pro-choice crowd chanted “Abortion is health care!” and many demonstrators carried signs reading things like “Her body, her choice” and “Keep your laws out of my uterus.” But among them were a prominent number of signs with a less issue-specific sentiment: “F— SCOTUS,” for example, and “Abort the Court.”

These sentiments that didn’t just object to a decision but crudely questioned the legitimacy of the court itself were in line with a growing strain of opinion in the U.S. in which trust and support for the court are at all-time lows, and its decisions are seen more widely as based not in law, but in naked political partisanship.

The polls show that 59% of Americans are opposed to the decision, but confidence in the Court itself has dropped to an all-time low of 25%. And when institutions that play a vital role in people's lives take such a hit, you can be sure of trouble ahead:

“Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the Constitution and its reading are just political acts?” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in December when the court was hearing oral arguments in the abortion case it ruled on this month. 

It is hard to see the Court in any other way. The increasingly emboldened pack of politically-appointed hacks is clearly just getting started.

On Monday, the court threw out the long-standing “Lemon test” of church-state separation in a case involving school prayer; a week ago, it similarly ruled a state might be compelled to fund religious private schools; in a New York gun control case last week, the court ruled the 110-year-old requirements for permits to carry handguns did not align with history enough to be an allowable restriction of the right to bear arms.

Clarence Thomas, the longest-serving hack, has suggested much more is in store; the part I have italicized and bolded is the part that shocked me:

...in his own concurring opinion in the abortion case, Justice Clarence Thomas explicitly said the court should revisit the cases that protected access to birth control, legalized same-sex intimacy, and allowed for same-sex marriages.

Many may not remember the sodomy laws that once held sway in the United States and still exist in some jurisdictions, making homosexual activity between consenting adults illegal and punishable by prison terms. Indeed, there are still many countries that prescribe the death penalty for such activity. That these kinds of retrograde laws may return to the U.S. would have been unthinkable not too long ago.

Life today has become increasingly bleak, the aura of the dystopian nightmare undeniably pervasive. An outsize part of that nightmare is the fact that America is unquestionably being remade into a theocracy, of the same ilk and infamy as those who rule Iran and Afghanistan. It seems very unlikely that its democracy can survive. 

There are elements in the U.S. that want to bring back 'the good old days." Go back far enough and those days included the burning of witches at the stake and putting people in stocks, both of which I have little doubt still hold strong appeal for some of our southern neigbours. A significant portion, in fact, the majority, on the other hand, finds returning to a 'simpler time' both horrifying and abhorrent. 

How to reconcile the two polarities? Without the institutions of government to mediate and moderate and be the voice of the people, there is no resolution other than civil war, something many argue has already begun, its bloody conclusion somewhere off in a future that will be anything but rosy.

 

Pick Your Friends Wisely

Clearly, Pierre Poilievre is making a calculated decision here in who and what he associates himself with.

H/t Theo Moudakis

Too Good Not To Share

 

H/t Mary McCasey Kearney

Truly, He Is A Man Of The People

I have a friend, subversive in his own way, who joined the Conservative Party for $15. He is entitled to thus vote in the September leadership election. I'm think he bought the membership in support of Pierre Poilievre, a man we both agree is not fit for such a position; it is sobering to be reminded, according to his rhetoric, that he is running to become "your next prime minister."

While Pierre no longer extols Bitcoin as a bulwark against inflation and government control, he is currently casting himself as a real 'man of the people,' something the following video amply illustrates. Note how easily and pseudo-empathetically his moves amongst them.

BTW, it is four-minute long; for the constitutionally delicate, one-minute of his propaganda should suffice to get his 'message.'

This is unbelievable.

People are lining up for a passport at 3AM. They wait 7 hours, or longer. Some are just turned away and told to come back tomorrow.

What’s taking so long?

This is the waiting nation.

We are asked to wait for everything, as sleepy bureaucrats and government gatekeepers stand in the way of you getting the basic services to which you are entitled.

Sound familiar?

Watch and share my new video:

BTW, his propaganda is clearly reaching some. If you want to read the adoring comments he has elicited from true believers, click here.

A Trip Back In Time

That must be what it feels like to visit the United States these days, with the Supreme Court okaying the open-carry of guns and overturning Roe v. Wade.

The Real Faces Of 'Freedom'

I probably spend more time on Twitter than is healthy, but given that I follow a number of people who are either political writers or activists, that time is not entirely wasted. Two that I regularly check in on are TizzyEnt, an American filmmaker and justice-seeker, and Caryma Sa'd, a Toronto lawyer and satirist, much-hated by the Freedumb crowd for merely showing, via her videos, their inanity and unhinged natures. 

Last week, while riding her scooter in Toronto, Sa'd was assaulted and her scooter stolen. The following video tells the story and identifies one of the suspects, Emanuel Tamburrini.

The Time Is Out Of Joint

 

I spend a fair bit of time in this blog discussing my aversion to the United States. Widely populated by benighted souls, it is a country I now shun and have no intention of ever again visiting.

However, my smug convictions about the superiority of Canadians relative to our American counterparts has been shaken, for reasons that will quickly become apparent.

Martin Regg Cohn offers this disheartening news:

One in three adults in Canada believe Microsoft founder Bill Gates is either monitoring people with vax chips, or they think it’s possible, or they’re just not sure — but can’t rule it out. That leaves just 66 per cent of Canadians who reject that particular conspiracy theory outright.

According to new public opinion research by Abacus Data, it’s not just the Gates microchip, but a host of hoaxes and top secret cabals that are on the minds of Canadians — and causing them to lose their minds. A few more to blow your mind:

• Elections, recessions and wars are controlled by small groups secretly working against us: 44 per cent agree;

• COVID vaccines have killed many people, but there’s a coverup: 44 per cent say it’s definitely/probably/possibly true, or they’re still unsure;

• COVID was caused by the rollout of 5G wireless technology: 26 per cent can’t rule it out.

While it would be comforting to lay the blame for these results on the way the Abacus poll was framed, a quick check reveals that respondents were simply presented with statements with which they could agree or disagree which, I believe, as polling techniques go, seems fairly innocuous. (I stand to be corrected here by those who know more about such things,)

But it has long been a quintessentially Canadian conceit that we are a more judicious and less suspicious nation, not so easily manipulated and corrupted. Not quite.

“As pollsters we often get asked, ‘Is Canada different, is Canada immune, are we somehow exceptional to our neighbours to the south?’” Abacus CEO David Coletto said in an interview.

“We felt the answer is No,” which is why his polling firm tested out these questions with a representative sample of 1,500 Canadian adults. “We’re still human beings and still susceptible to the same information at a time when we’re feeling anxious … I think we’ve come to this place.”

While I think we are all aware, thanks to the stridency of the anti-vaxxers and the Freedom Convoy occupation in Ottawa, that we have people who subscribe to destabilizing fictions, we have sometimes chosen to ignore other signs, one of which Regg Cohn reminds us:

When a trickle of “irregular” migrants started crossing our border from Vermont and upstate New York, the clamour to batten down the hatches kept rising; when a couple of boatloads of ethnic Tamil refugee claimants from Sri Lanka arrived off the coast of B.C. in 2010, a Toronto mayoral candidate named Rob Ford complained publicly that Canada didn’t need more migrants.

...an Angus Reid poll later showed a remarkable 55 per cent of Ontarians wanted those Tamil passengers deported even if found to be legitimate refugees (as most were). 

If any comfort is to be found in the Abacus poll, it comes from the fact that the support for fringe ideas

is higher among supporters of the People’s Party, those who self-identify on the right of the spectrum, those who have not received any COVID-19 shots, and those who think media and official government accounts of events can’t be trusted. Those who feel Pierre Poilievre is the Conservative leadership candidate closest to their values and ideas are more likely to believe these theories when compared to those who feel more aligned with Jean Charest.

You can see the full breakdown of that support here. 

While it is true that only a minority of Canadians hold beliefs or leanings that run counter to the goal of living in a rational and ordered society, the size of that minority is disturbing, and its implications a cause for concern, especially if the fracturing spreads. 

As Abraham Lincoln famously said, borrowing from the Bible, "A house divided from itself cannot stand."

Let's hope it never gets to that in Canada.

P.S. If you have the time and inclination, check out M.P. Charlie Angus's take on all of this.