Since the present pandemic began, or even a bit preceding this, the idea of Fake News became popular. This was popular among interests that wanted to get their readers to believe certain lies in the community. The anti-vaxxers tell unwitting parents that the normal childhood array of vaccines cause autism and indirectly, try to discourage their parents from vaccinating their kids. The anti-maskers try to lie about the efficacy of mask wearing and how somehow, being required to do so in the midst of a global pandemic, is an infringement of our Charter rights. The travel requirements posed by our federal government to limit the spread of the variant COVID-19 virus are now aligned with sending people to the gulag. The reason they had to step up on this was because local resources set out to enforce in-home quarantines were not successful, with roughly half of these cases breaking the quarantine.
Those leading the fight to defeat these restrictions only care about the rights to infect others, to go wherever and whenever one pleases during a pandemic and to life all restrictions at a time, when some restrictions may be necessary. Every country around the world was affected by the pandemic and they all imposed restrictions, except for some time under Donald Trump who just believed at first that the virus was a hoax, or was like the flu and it would just "go away", as deaths began to mount in that country. The US did, in fact, become number 1, after all in this pandemic: the most cases, the most deaths, the highest transmission rate. This was because Trump did not set any public health standards and state initiatives were mixed and as a result of inter-state travel, many of these were not as effective as they could be.
I consider some of these so-called constitutional rights groups that fight for our so-called rights do not consider democracy and the interests of the community as a whole. To these people, it is perfectly fine to be forced to live under a bridge because you cannot find a job or are too sick to work in one, and be unable to afford to live somewhere, but their rights are on ... they do not have to wear a mask, at least. And they can attend their wacky religious cult at its building despite very clear public health orders about indoor gatherings. One of these same groups recently took up the cause of trying to diminish the universality of our Canada Health Act and provincial health services (in BC) by fighting on behalf of a BC doctor and two private clinics. It did not matter to the proponents of that suit that if they won, that health care in Canada would become further balkanized and people with fewer resources would be de facto denied health care due to being unable to pay or afford to carry the right insurance. Groups like this also go to places like the US and tell them lies about our health care system. While it is far from perfect, people do get the help they need and emergencies are dealt with promptly. Unfortunately, that has not been the message given to people in the US, many of whom see Canada's health care as "socialist" - again, a term they do not know the meaning of, or what exactly they are accepting.
Then came Trump. I would love to know how he dazzled millions of Americans, including those living in a abject poverty. How they actually believed that Trump would act in their interests, nobody knows. Under the US' former administration, a health care marketplace was put into place, which was a small beginning, but certainly not the completion of Obama's final plans to make health insurance accessible and affordable to everybody. Under this plan, more Americans received some type of health coverage than they did before this was put into place. Along came Trump. He then tried to tear down Obamacare under the guise that this was "socialist" and fascist for requiring people to sign up. Many people would sign up and have the same coverage under Medicaid if finances were an issue. Insurance companies were no longer allowed to discriminate on the basis of pre-existing condition. Trump took this away under the guise that nobody should have to sign up, that this was somehow an infringement of people's rights to sign up for health care.
Trump would carry on promising everybody that he would create "great health care" that would be good for all Americans, yet there was not a single step done in that direction. He lied to everybody, yet his supporters believed him, as many of them lost coverage they might have had under Obamacare. He campaigned against Hillary Clinton when she ran for the presidency as his opponent, citing some ambiguous scandals or crimes she allegedly committed. He would hold rallies where his supporters would yell "Hillary for prison 2016". If there was such evidence, would you not think that she would be charged with some type of crime and tried for it? Even Martha Stewart and Conrad Black were tried and convicted for offences that were less than that alleged for Clinton. Of course, when nothing like this is pursued, this is obviously hyperbole.
Then combine this with the social media. The social media is the worst place to obtain accurate information about anything, even political or community events. Everybody has an opinion, but nobody has the facts. The concept of privilege becomes more visible online, as people feel more free to attack minorities, low income people, refugees, among others. They are safely ensconced behind their computer screens, not paying attention to the impact of their words, nor do they care. Again, there is a reckless regard for the truth, as well as an unwillingness on the part of the dominant participant to see beyond their own privilege. In speaking about minorities, etc., those posting or commenting know a "friend of a friend". This is not factual, nor is this statistical, even if the story about the "friend of a friend" has some truth in it. However, repeating the story about the "friend of a friend" on social media leads to others with equally privileged lens helps to spread lies and stereotypes about "the other". This creates one type of "othering" on the Internet.
Another type of "othering" is the social acceptance of division. On PBS, I watched an episode before the US election, where neighbours in a duplex were supporting different Presidential candidates. On supported Biden; the other supported Trump. The Trump supporters only watched Fox News, were suspicious of new ethnic communities joining their neighbourhood and were against entitlement programs, never mind the fact one of them was receiving some type of state disability after being off work for almost a year. The Biden supporters watched CNN, were not concerned about new people in the neighbourhood and felt that during the pandemic, more support should be given to individuals who had lost their employment. Even the whole concept of wearing a mask became a political issue, with Biden supporters wearing one, Trump supporters not.
Online, Trump supporters often used hyperbole to describe their opponents. Instead of addressing the specific comments their opponents made, they would refer to their opponents as "liberals", "communists", "socialists", etc., of course, not even knowing what the real meaning of these words are. To me, this is a poor admission that they had lost the argument, although they would never see themselves as losing the argument. These arguments are usually baseless and not based on firm information; if links or "evidence" is involved, fake news outlets often get cited, or references to somebody's blog or a recent news story is used. When complicated arguments about the pandemic and what should be done about it are produced, rarely do we see peer reviewed research to back either side of the argument. If somebody does produce peer reviewed research, they are told it is biased because some organization for "vaccine choice" does not agree with it. I do not know what this does to further anybody's knowledge of the subject matter.
There are even more "news stories" published on social media from fake news sources than anywhere else. Just google whatever you want and you will find fake news on at least some of the sources that come up. I personally do not find it productive to follow a leader like Trump, Scheer, O'Toole or anybody, for that matter, if I do not know or care about their policies. Policy is what I follow, not politics or partisanship. Unfortunately, Trump has seemed to attract a number of adherents to cult-like thinking and for some, dangerous conspiracy theories. I heard them before. The Second Coming of Christ. Okay, if the end is near, why are you telling everybody? Why are you still working? Why do you even bother to shop for groceries or clothing or whatever? Why do you even bother to try to convince others of your beliefs? If this was true, you would just wait to get raptured, because, obviously, this is what you think is going to happen. You don't need to dress up for it, feed yourself before the rapture or earn money, because the Lord is supposed to take care of all of that ... so just go. Trying to spend all your time on the Internet convincing others the end is near, particularly those that are critical thinkers, is a waste of time.
Other conspiracy types tend to unknowingly side with the "alt-right". Free-dumb is mistakenly taken for "freedom". The alt-right have come up with all sorts of terms to describe the "other". One I get a particular kick out of is "antifa". I never met anybody who considers themselves part of "antifa", nor is there any such organization. When you ask one of the alt-right people where one can find the nearest "chapter" of "antifa", and who its president, secretary, treasurer and so on, are, they are baffled. They have no idea what you are talking about, but then again, you are not the one who is making up words that do not make sense. Yes, over the summer there was a blast of protests by a movement called "Black Lives Matter". This was not a violent movement. In discussing this online, one guy said that Black Lives Matter burned down cities, and when you asked them to name one city they burned down, they cannot do so. There is always some people that join certain protests to cause trouble, who are actually not even part of the protest.
During the G20 in 2010, a group of people known as the Black Bloc, were solely responsible for a considerable amount of damage to police cars, buildings, etc., while the main protesters tried to steer away from them. I do not know if somebody like the Black Bloc came into the couple of protests that did arise in problems with the Black Lives Matter but, violence and destruction in that movement was minimal when you consider this movement erupted all over the world, in many major cities and included people of all races, genders and ages. Nevertheless, at many of the US protests for these groups, police officers bearing riot gear were ready for them and in some communities, white vans drove by, stopped and picked up some of them to take them somewhere (and in watching the videos, one cannot tell what they did to deserve this.
Nevertheless, when former President Donald Trump and his brethren decided to bring his supporters to the Capitol and encourage them to be strong and take back the election that he kept claiming was "stolen from them", ten to fifteen thousand of them proceeded to the Capitol to carry out acts of destruction, violence and even citing angry words like "Hang Mike Pence". Some of them had intent to potentially kidnap some of the legislators and push them out. They were trying to prevent the inevitable from happening, which was the certification of the election results in favour of Joe Biden. At least five people died that day and several days later, one of the Capitol Police Officers committed suicide. Unfortunately, members of the alt-right had nothing to say about the destruction, violence and civil disobedience this day brought. A few tried to blame it on "antifa", whoever they are.
As times goes on, we are realizing this intrusion was planned ahead of time. Somebody let these people in to the Capitol buildings and directed them down the rabbit warren of offices so they knew where particular people worked, such as Nancy Pelosi (Speaker of the House), Chuck Schumer (now Majority Leader of the Senate) and Mike Pence (former Vice-President). There were only four hundred police officers on duty for the Capitol that day, while that force is two thousand five hundred strong. Other police forces were called in for backup, but it took several hours for them to arrive. It was as if this was planned and orchestrated to maximize the amount of damage this crowd can do. Among this crowd were members of the Proud Boys, Soldiers of Odin, local militias and Q Anon. People were witnessed wearing t-shirts showing the words "Six Million was Not Enough" and "Camp Auschwitz". All of them were white, mostly male although some females were involved as well.
For months, Trump and his gang spread the lie that he actually won the election and the somehow, there was massive fraud in the election process. There were no less than sixty-two lawsuits filed and presented at various levels of court, including the Trump friendly Supreme Court of the US. None of them would hear the case because the lawyers, interested in maintaining their law licenses, admitted they did not have any evidence of "massive fraud". After this, Trump began to contact and effectively threaten state election officials, many of whom were Republican. They refused to budge, citing that the election process was fair and secure. He fired his top officials who also told him the same thing. One such election official, from Georgia, recorded a telephone call made by Trump in an attempt to get him to change the votes. If this was not clear tampering with an election, what would be?
Some people from Q Anon, a major conspiracy theory group, actually believed that Trump would come back, arrest Biden and then take power again and when this did not happen, they were upset. I swear that if Trump offered cyanide laden Kool Aid to his followers, most would have happily taken it. From the minute Trump was running for election, I saw through him and warned others about him. I was called all sorts of names, which I will not repeat here. Many of my fellow Canadians are unfortunately stuck in the Trump swamp as well. Over the years, I lost a few good friends of mine who were once progressive, believed in universal health care and better support for people living on the street, living in poverty and so forth, who got swept up with the Trump virus. I have nothing to say to them anymore. I do not want a similar leader here in Canada.
These same people write posts about Trudeau committing treason and admitting known "terrorists" into Canada and so forth. I ask if they would prefer the CONS that would simply strip us all of universal health care, have to pay out of pocket, remove all safety nets including worker's comp, ODSP and CPP, and none of them seem to care. They either believe it would not happen to them, or these Conservative leaders were much like the ones heading from Mulroney and backwards who kept social programs as a sacred trust. These "new" Conservatives are nothing like the older ones. The "new" ones are usually millionaires, having been born that way and have no idea what it is like to have to pay rent, pay bills or to actually look for a job. Many have not held any real jobs.
Justin Trudeau could have been like that (as he was a trust fund baby too), but he chose to work: he taught school, which is a licensed profession. This is more than what can be said for the majority of our Conservative leaders. I do not see how any of them would have any understanding or knowledge whatsoever how their policies impact or do not impact on the rest of us. Under Harper, I tracked how much more money ordinary people around me kept in their pockets as a result of his policies. After reviewing their tax returns (as a group) and their weekly pay stubs, most actually paid MORE in taxes than prior to Harper's government. I knew a few that did pay less in taxes, but they earned well over $120,000 a year. The reason people paid more is because the wealthier set paid less. Even Doug Ford was trounced upon by Moody's and Dominion Bond Rating Services for not bringing in enough revenue (because he chose to blow billions of dollars at the outset to cut taxes for his wealthy clique).
Yet, many people continue to rant on about how they have proof the end times is near. They refer to the "Great Re-Set" and Agenda 21, which I read and shows absolutely nothing about what they are saying. Maybe this pandemic might be an opportunity for some government leaders to re-think how they manage the economy, but I really do not think this is going to happen. Throughout the pandemic, only outfits like Amazon, WalMart and other big companies made big bucks, while small businesses closed or lost money. Small businesses need the help, not big oil and gas, or Amazon or anybody else. The larger companies have access to credit, hold assets that can be leveraged and so forth, while most small businesses do not have that advantage. Yet it is small business that does the most hiring. Exactly what does any government, or even supporters of the conservative agenda (which is to subsidize Big Oil and Gas, tax breaks for the wealthy) think is going to happen when 50% of small businesses collapse?
I do not consider myself a left or right political analyst. I write about what I observe. I fully support the free market. Unfortunately, what we had was not the free market, but an oligopoly. We are becoming more and more like the US, where social class is starting to look like a caste system. Even my friends that make over $120,000 a year under paid less taxes under Harper have recently expressed concerns about this themselves. Others I know are willing to pay a little bit more taxes if it meant that we still had a strong health care system, a solid social safety net and help for the homeless. In the midst of this pandemic, people are losing their homes, their families and their infrastructure. What we need is a proper discussion as to how to get from here to clear and leave the conspiracy theories and fake news behind.
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