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CoolPro's avatar

Your dispatch seems a pretty reasonable assessment of what's been a crazy week capping off a crazy 3 weeks in Canada. I would add a few points.

You may have actually understated the shocking lack of self-awareness, unbelievable naivete, and lack of political / marketing sophistication of the vast majority of protesters in Ottawa, Windsor, Coutts, and other scattered protests across the country (with the exception of the few lunatics and 'hard men' that Matt described, who I am leaving out of this paragraph). The decision to camp out on streets rather than, say, staying in hotels or even camping in public areas so businesses could still run and local folks could still get around and function. The F**k Trudeau signs (so classy). The honking without regard to the impact on (more or less) innocent locals. The lack of coherent and consistent spokespeople, and the almost nonsensical list of demands. My overall take on the lot is that they are well meaning, may be correct in at least a few of the expressed concerns and frustrations, but absolutely, utterly clueless as to how they came accross on TV, radio, and social media to a majority of Canadians.

From my vantage point here in 'berta, I have been watching the positions of some of my aquaintances, friends, and family in both in-person conversations and online ones harden to the point of (at least) concrete. There may be a few who have 'flipped sides', either towards sympathy for the protesters or (gasp) sympathy for Trudeau and the government, but the vast majority of the folks I have even the slightest interaction wtih have only hardened their positions one way or the other. Polarization to the degree I have NEVER seen in my 50-odd years. The most radical of of either side are increasingly brazen in what they'd perscribe to 'fix' the problems. Not quite advocating violence toward the others (whichever side they hate), but they're much closer to those extreme solution than I could have ever imagined. People on both sides are PISSED OFF.

The police (particularly in Ottawa) generally did not come off well optics-wise from either extreme position, though the combined police forces may have pitched a hail mary pass with those who wanted the protests to end with their generally calm, orderly breakup of the protests. Those firmly on the side of the protesters, well, their view of the police is leaning heavily toward jackbooted thugs. Not good. Not sure where this will go in the next several weeks and months. Not an easy time to be in law enforcment at the street level.

Politicians on all sides have generally come out as clowns. Rather than designate them by their parties, I'll boil it down to two political camps. Canadian Progressives & Conservatives in all of our parties today either ignore and/or are ignorant of history's lessons, consider it virtuous to shamelessly use situational ethics, and conduct themselves with no honour whatsoever.

This is worrisome, as many of we ordinary voters are rendered politically homeless, both federally and provincially (municipally, it's a bit better). I don't know if it means more potential voters will simply not vote in subsequent elections, but speaking for myself, I have no clue who to vote for going forward either federally or provincially. The choices as presented now are all horrible.

Finally, the media. With rare exceptions (such as The Line, I continue to feel my subscription is money well invested), the media have predictably shown themselves to be the attention whores and paid shills the protesters have been mocking them for. My respect for most of the media was low before this series of events, and is nearing the point of disbelief as to how incredibly shameless they are in their pronouncements. Matt and Jen, I know may of these folks are your colleagues and friends, but I have to tell you, the view of the media in most of the country (on both sides of the divisions on this crisis) has them lower than the Police, Protesters, and Politicians. They are literally swimming below the PPP at the bottom of the ocean.

It is becoming very difficult to have a civil conversation with anyone about the state of all of the above, at least in my own life. Most, however, will gladly share with you their polarized view, and fully expect you to be on their side. I'm not sure how we swing back from the current abyss. The rest of the world must think Canada has well and truly gone (as Jen coined) bug fuck crazy.

Thank you for your fair and balanced view of current events. I find myself looking forward to your columns and dispatches as islands of sanity in an ocean of insanity.

Cheers.

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George Skinner's avatar

There’s a certain childishness that’s spread through society where people actively seek out information confirming what they already believe, and ignoring or rejecting anything that contradicts them. The right wing has fallen into this trap with the conservative media ecosystem. The Liberals are convinced of their own brilliance and righteousness because that’s all they let into their bubble. The anti-vax activists desperately seek affirmation for their views anywhere they can, on Twitter or in comments sections. The problem is that reality is what it is, and ignoring the inconvenient parts doesn’t change it. Instead, it just leads to an increasing divergence between what is and what people think it should be. That’s when people start to get unhinged, because they won’t revise their beliefs and instead look for explanations (often conspiratorial) that salve the cognitive dissonance.

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