Silencing dissent

Jason Kenney has people on the payroll whose job it is to intimidate and silence criticism of the UCP government. Albertans are, through their provincial taxes, paying for people whose job it is to silence any criticism of the government. Issues managers, spokespeople, the War Room, even some MLAs... And this doesn't begin to cover the trolls, pardon me, communications officers, that flood Twitter and Facebook when people dare to question what the government is doing.

We are literally paying people to tell us to shut up and F*ck off. That doesn't seem very democratic. In fact, it seems, well, fascist, to be honest. 

The wrecking ball that is the UCP is on a rampage in this province. Kenney has a job to do and he is getting it done while suppressing any dissent. 

From cutting off aid to Albertans he/the UCP/the CPC/the IDU consider liabilities (i.e. not contributing to corporate coffers) and justifying letting some of these people die to restoke the capitalist money machine, to paving the way for private education and health care 

I expect Jason's real bosses are fairly pleased with his progress. He is the steam roller and Albertans are the pavement. In another couple of years, there will be no universal health care, no harm reduction, no environmental protection... 

Coal mines all over the place, people with disabilities will have died or left, public education will be in tatters, and health care will only be available to the rich. It will be open season on LGBTQ and POC, and people will be desperate for any sort of job, at any rate of pay.

And people on the right, led by the UCP and their supporters, will convince people that they have a right to pay for healthcare themselves. And they have a right to work for peanuts. And... 

What I Learned From Twitter

A few days ago, in the wake of two mass shootings in the US, one in El Paso, Texas, and the other in Dayton, Ohio, I posted a tweet thread about my fears that a CPC win would see more guns and more military style guns coming into the hands of Canadians. This fear is based on CPC leader, Andrew Scheer's platform which was online during his bid to become leader of the CPC. The platform was pulled down the next day. The supposition is this was done because what is palatable to the CPC membership may not be palatable to the rest of Canadians.

In his section on guns, he promises to take away RCMP powers to designate certain weapons as restricted or banned. He promises to repeal restrictions on magazines, which are currently set at a maximum of 5 rounds. He said he will put representatives of the gun associations, the NFA and the CCFR and possibly others, on the Firearms Advisory Council, a body which was formed to advise government on gun regulations. The Council currently has citizen gun owners on it, along with representatives of the police, the judiciary, women's groups, and members of the health-care community. The current composition of the Council emphasises public safety as the goal of gun legislation.

Scheer also promised to. essentially, forgive gun owners who do not renew their permits on time.

Finally, Scheer says he will create a Firearms Ombudsman, whose role it would be to ensure that all legislation is seen through the lens of the firearms community.

He goes on to say that "law-abiding Canadians should not have to justify to the government why they need a firearm." An important thing to note is the two gun organisations noted above have ties to the NRA and both advocate for laws that allow the use of guns for the defence of person or property. This is a radical shift in philosophy from what has been prevalent in Canada. The emphasis under Scheer would be keeping gun owners happy, rather than keeping the public safe. My analysis of this and some info on the gun organisations that will apparently be running the show is here.

So I posted this. I began my thread with a rather gory picture which I understood was a shot of a trauma room after a gunshot victim had been treated. There was a bed, empty, and a lot of blood on the sheets and the floor. Medical equipment and a couple of nurses could be seen in the background. You can see a blog version of my tweet thread here.

Definitely not the most diplomatic way to approach the subject, I admit. But on Twitter, sometimes you have to SHOUT to get people's attention. I got attention, alright. Now, several days later, several hundred a day are showing up to beak at me. Better than the thousand or so a day for a couple of days after I first posted it.

I got people's attention. There were quite a number of people who agreed with what I was saying. But there was also a storm of people who were outraged. I was able to observe several things from this.

1) Many people have very poor reading comprehension skills. It didn't seem to matter how I tried to explain what I was talking about, they just didn't get it. They would say things like, "Canada's gun laws are perfectly adequate. What are you talking about?" - completely missing the point I was making that a CPC government would change Canada's gun laws to be less than adequate.

2) Many people do not know how to interpret messages or read between the lines. Ever so many demanded to know where Scheer had said he would let more guns into Canada, where is the video or the citation for a quote?... And no matter how I tried to explain that while he is obviously not going to come out and say that word for word, one only needs to read his platform to realise that is what he means. The very fact that he has a gun platform, while barely giving a nod to climate change, is a good indication of where his priorities lie.

3) Several people were determined to prove the photo was staged or fake. This really puzzled me. We are talking about gun violence and gun proliferation and you are trying to prove that it can't be a real photo because the blood is too red? Really? Why? Were they squeamish? Did the message lead to such cognitive dissonance that they sought to find falsehood in the image so that they could dismiss the rest without thinking about it? Incidentally, there were responses from several ER/trauma doctors and nurses who said, yes, this is exactly what it looks like and I see it way too often at work.

4) Some expressed the opinion that getting rid of guns was not the answer. Longer, harsher sentences for gun crime was the answer. Tapping into that right-wing thirst for vengeance, rather than seeking solutions and preventative measures.To which I say, that is the wrong paradigm. In a mass shooting, even if the perpetrator doesn't die in the process, the victims will still be dead or maimed, no matter what sort of sentence is imposed. It's shutting the barn door after the horses have bolted. We need prevention. That means getting guns off our streets and curbing the ownership of potential weapons of mass destruction, even among "responsible, law-abiding gun owners" because guns get stolen. Guns get sold quietly. Responsible, law-abiding gun owners are responsible and law-abiding until they aren't. Many guns used in US mass shootings were obtained legally or "borrowed" from friends or family members. It also means combating the root causes of gang membership and violent crime. These include poverty, alienation, lack of access to quality education, violence in the home, and exposure to radicalising right-wing, white supremacist propaganda. The US has among the harshest "tough on crime" laws in the developed world, and the highest rate of multiple homicides. Longer sentences are not a deterrent. Especially if the perpetrator doesn't expect to survive their moment of glory. The CPC plan is to go the US route. When the only tool you recognise is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

5) Most who disagreed were insulting. They called me a "retard", a "liar", "scum", a "diseased toxic liar", and worse. They said I had no compassion or conscience. They called me a "Liberal shill", a "libtard", and  "lefty turd". They said it was horse crap, and fear-mongering, and using a tragedy to score cheap political points. Is it fear-mongering when there is a real danger and someone tries to warn everyone about it? I did not advocate for any political party, simply warned that loosening gun laws is in the CPC platform. If we don't want to become like the US, we should not vote in a CPC government.

6) Most attackers were conservative, either supporters of the CPC or the PPC. Almost all, in fact. Many have very few followers which, I am told, makes it likely they are paid trolls or bots. A few were also extremely religious. None offered anything to convince me that what I presented was wrong, other than "He never said that!" which they repeated even after being shown where and how he did say it.

7) Further to the inability to evidentially refute my premise, being presented with information that conflicts with what they believe seems to fill many with rage. There is no room in the ardent CPC supporter's mind to examine any evidence that does not fit their world view. It is a very curious phenomenon. Some might call it willful ignorance.

8) Some offered the argument that it didn't really matter what the CPC did because guns were already easy to get. One person who responded said it doesn't matter what they do with the 5 round magazine limit. It's totally easy to knock the limiter pin out. All you need is a power drill. I offered the suggestion that he had maybe just admitted using his firearms in contravention of the Criminal Code of Canada. He went silent.

Anyway, I am not bothered by their words. I have been called worse by opponents on the ice, holding a big stick and standing right in front of me. What I hear is, "I am a conservative. I have always been a conservative. I believe in the conservatives and anything they want to do is just fine. I will not listen to any other view. I will get very angry and abusive and try to silence other views. Because my leader, Andrew Scheer tells me that the other parties, especially the Liberals, are evil and destroying Canada and the economy and they lie all the time. Only Andrew Scheer and the CPC can be trusted to tell me the truth. Not most of the TV stations and not most of the newspapers. Andrew Scheer never said any of this, and if he did, he must have a good reason." And that is quite troubling.

However, it is generally understood that between 28% and 33% of Canadians will always vote "conservative", regardless of what the party is called or what they do. And they always vote. And if a conservative party is in power and does things that make these conservative voters' lives miserable, they will still love them. They will blame another party, or immigrants, or someone that isn't them. They are, as seen by the replies in my Twitter feed, so indoctrinated it seems impossible to reach them. Voters for other parties switch party from time to time, depending on how their current party of choice is behaving and what they are offering in the way of policy. Also, in recent years, which candidate in their riding can potentially keep a seat away from a CPC candidate.

The challenge, then, is to make sure those who are not voting conservative recognise that the threat from a CPC government is very real. That preventing CPC candidates from being elected at the riding level, outweighs any misgivings one may have about one party or another. If we do a very good job of this, the CPC could be reduced to third party status, with some constellation of Liberal/NDP/Green actually governing the country.

This is, of course, conservatives' worst nightmare.

From a sociological point of view, it is quite fascinating. There is this subset of the population that is quite anomalous to the mainstream Canadian zeitgeist. Their views are more American than Canadian. For this, I hold the inundation of Canada by American media at least partly responsible. An alarming number of Canadians don't realise that gun ownership is not a "right" in Canada. It is a privilege. They don't have any sort of clear grasp of how our systems of government work. They refer to DAs instead of "the Crown prosecutor". They want to "impeach" Trudeau. They think they can petition to recall elected members of legislatures or parliament. For this I also blame a substantial dearth of civics education, taught in an engaging and meaningful manner, throughout the K-12 school experience of Canadian children.

It is impossible to know, interacting with them online, if you are dealing with a bot or paid troll, or someone who is very low information, or someone who gets all their information from the CPC and the Rebel and The Sun newspapers. Or if they are so indoctrinated they can't comprehend any views or evidence that differs from their own views. Or if they just really can't, for whatever reason, cope with changing their opinion about anything, and so dismiss or fight against any challenge to their closely held views... I hesitate to say they are very nasty and irrational people, although they frequently present as such online. Presumably there are people in their lives they are kind and generous and compassionate towards. Wouldn't know it from their online presence, but, whatever.

So, that's what I learned from Twitter over the past few days.