Pierre Poilievre continues to strengthen his ties to conspiracy theorists. Max Fawcett writes:
It’s not exactly a secret that conservatism has made more room in recent years for conspiracy theories, whether they’re about vaccines and COVID-19 or the World Economic Forum (WEF) and its apparently nefarious influence over the Canadian government. But a recent fundraising email that included mention of “globalist Davos elites” caught the eye of Canadian Press reporter Mickey Djuric, who covered the CPC’s ongoing flirtation with the language of dog-whistle politics and conspiracies. The response from Poilievre, along with past and present Conservative MPs and its director of communications? Gin up a new conspiracy about The Canadian Press and its relationship with the CBC and other “legacy” media outlets.
Conspiracy theories are the mother's milk of Conservative politics:
Former CPC leader Andrew Scheer decided to join the fray. “No wonder Trudeau wants to censor all but four or five Liberals [sic] news sources: they all coordinate in attacking Poilievre with the same false headline,” he tweeted. “Collusion?” This did not sit well with National Post columnist John Ivison, who clapped back at Scheer’s uninformed paranoia. “It's a wire story, with a suggested heading everyone used. Every political rookie knows that — and you're a lifer. The only conclusion that can be drawn is that you are deliberately trying to stoke conspiracy and disinformation. You need to give your head a shake, Andrew.”
Ryan Williams, an MP from Ontario, tried a different tack: pretending the conspiracy theories that kicked off this raging inferno of nonsense aren’t actually conspiracies at all. “The problem with the WEF is that elected officials are trying to implement its policies without being transparent about them in an election, or otherwise,” he tweeted. “Ideas like 15 min cities, digital ID, and Klaus Schwab below. Run these ideas in an election and see what happens.”
The godfather of all this baloney is, of course, Donald Trump:
Donald Trump turned this into an art form, albeit a vulgar one, when he became U.S. president, and his Canadian imitators have been doing their best to mimic him ever since. In his outgoing speech as CPC leader, Scheer blasted the mainstream media and its “narrative” and tried to boost alternative right-wing sources like the Post Millennial and True North.
Conservatives are good at attacking their opponents. But when it comes to thinking critically? Well, that's another story.
Image: Red Deer Advocate
12 comments:
I am lucky to live in Vancouver's West End not only for the many 'location' advantages, but also for the people who are are friendly and tolerant.
Just back from a road trip to Vancouver Is and a Gulf Island. ...
The ferries and restaurants and stores were fully of angry (hence ugly) impolite people with insults of all kinds written on the t-shirts. (skulls with "sex and death" for example.) Many of them were travelling in big-ass trucks with about half of these sporting Alberta plates.
We returned to Vancouver yesterday under the pall of forest-fire smoke, reminding us of the cauldron we are all cooking in. As the temp rises in the atmosphere and oceans, the social fires (stoked by Lil'PP and his ilk) may consume us all.
The fires -- literal and figurative -- are everywhere, PoV. Whether we're smart enough to avoid being consumed by them is the question that haunts us all.
Northern PoV is right about the angry, impolite people travelling in big-ass trucks with about half of these sporting Alberta plates. We see the same here in the Okanagan. The rage is proportional to the size of the grill.
As to the fires: Through the magic of CBC Radio we have heard the PM, Premier, Ministers of all sorts and assorted back benchers commiserate with the suffering, applaud firefighters and assorted helpers, etc. Trudeau did his well practiced emoting and promised support, yada yada yada. None of them said anything about this being the result of climate change or what to do about it. At the end of the summer it will be business as usual. Trudeau's pipeline is still being built. Those of us who have so far been spared by the fires have next year to look forward to.
After this summer, Toby, climate change should be at the top of everyone's agenda.
I hardly need to remind you, Owen, of Churchill's admonition that "Sometimes it is not enough that we do our best. Sometimes we must do what is required."
As the Earth turns hotter, angrier and more dangerous than it has been at any time in the history of homo sapiens (not merely civilization but since the very origins of our species) and is destined to become even hotter, angrier and more dangerous still for the foreseeable future, this is inarguably one of those moments that calls for us to do what is required.
We've had more than three decades of repeated warnings about this iceberg looming ahead yet there is still no one in the wheelhouse. Toby is spot on about Trudeau's 'well practiced emoting.' That is the one skill he has honed.
NPoV and Toby also rightly observe this summer pestilence from the near east. They have flocked in droves to my little seaside town that, until recently, had been spared any wildfire smoke problems. Why get choked out at home? And, yes, they seem unusually chippy this summer. It's almost as though they know that we know they've been sleeping with their sister. The school year in Alberta commences August 28 so we should be experiencing their exodus over the coming week.
Anger is not a strategy, Mound. It will only make things hotter.
Another MoS sighting at the Northern Reflecting pond....
and with this brilliant quote:
" It's almost as though they know that we know they've been sleeping with their sister."
You know, he could write up a decent blog, eh?
When he writes, PoV, it's always an education.
I wasn't sure what to do with this next bit.
Isn't it time, for the first time in the 200,000 years of the existence of homo sapiens, that we declared a global state of emergency? Doesn't the rolling catastrophe we've witnessed over the summer beg for such a declaration?
Heat waves that become progressively hotter, more lethal. Oceans that, in places, become too hot for swimming. Torrential rains that bring Biblical-grade flooding. Flash floods. Droughts that just don't seem to end. Flash droughts - when drought and extreme heat destroy all plant life, crops included. Wildfires savaging the Boreal forests from Labrador to Alaska, from Siberia to Scandinavia. Wildfires that may grant us a short reprieve over the northern hemispheric winter but promise to return even stronger, more destructive next year. Water-stressed regions that include East Asia, South Asia, the MENA (middle east, north Africa) region, much of Africa, even the affluent American southwest. Water stresses that are beginning to pit nation against nation even as they destabilize their economies and governments and drive mass migrations. Heat waves that hammer the Andes in the midst of the southern hemisphere winter. The loss of sea ice, the retreat of glaciers, the melting ice caps from one pole to the other.
Why a global state of emergency? Because that's the only framework that could possibly forge global cooperation. The United Nations annual climate summits have held sway for almost 30 years with precious little to show for it beyond lofty pronouncements and an endless litany of dire warnings that are consigned to the Memory Hole before the week is out. Do we fight this thing together or do we fight each other? What'll it be?
This summer has made it abundantly clear that we face a global catastrophe, Mound. The response to that catastrophe must also be global.
"Do we fight this thing together or do we fight each other? What'll it be?"
Aye, there's the rub.
That's exactly the right question, PoV. Unfortunately, we can't agree on the answer.
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