September 22, 2024

How to Return to Civility in Politics?

By admin

Name calling.

‘Sellout Singh’.

‘Carbon Tax Carney’.

Pierre Poilievre (who I’ve labeled as Pierre PoiLIEvre) and the Cons are doing their best to take it up more than a notch.

It’s a regular habit.

Because they have nothing else.

Name calling is ultimately the last resort for people that lack substance when it comes to political theatre (and yes, I just threw myself under the bus with that statement).

But bullying? Threats of chaos and anarchy? ‘Freedom rallies’?

It’s bullshit. It’s gone too far.

I just watched ‘Stopping the Steal‘ on HBO (Crave): it’s highly recommended!

It’s well worth it to see how bullying, name calling, baseless accusations and much, much more spirals out of control until confirmation bias proves it to be true and ends in nothing but anger.

Repeating the lie over and over again does NOT make it true.

The media – especially Fox News – pretending that ‘both-sideism’ is a right. The facts simply don’t support their conspiracies.

But we have to waste monumental volumes of time refuting baseless claims.

The accusers are criminals is complicit in this.

Please understand how easily manipulated and fragile our entire voting system is.

Ultimately, I watch something like ‘Stopping the Steal’ and I find it sickening to know that the United States was a hair’s breadth from collapse.

Which begs the question: how is Trump running again?

How did we get here where someone who’s been dragged to court dozens if not hundreds of times for an array of charges over many years is able to run for the President of the United States? Again?

The Canadian Experience

How do we have someone in charge of the Cons calling out other politicians for wanting pensions when Pierre Poilievre is a career politician and is positioned to earn upwards to three to four times what others MPs might get?

Baseless claims.

In Canada, we’re seeing the same kind of anger (largely from the same sources) ooze out onto Parliament Hill, being fanned by Conservatives that would sooner have chaos and think they’re right as opposed to a functioning government where most of the actors negotiate and act in a professional manner.

We have dedicated politicians that are routinely being harassed without cause. Or repurcussion or consequence.

We’re now seeing that many right-wing publications and media companies are taking money from places like Russia and are spreading lies and comments online to further their cause.

They perpetuate the misrepresentation of our current government as being corrupt, communist or whatever else you want to call it.

The number of times I’ve seen automated bots spew the same memes over and over again on platforms like the CBC.

And the feeds are NOT being publicly challenged so folks who want confirmation bias continue to get it.

It turns out the real foreign influence is willful ignorance.

Before an election happens, we need some serious action to make sure the truth sees the light of day.