3 ms·
This sort of highlights how the dividing mechanism works. You pick a group of people known for some fairly reasonable (asking to end mandates that have little e
by john_moscow 5y ago
This sort of highlights how the dividing mechanism works. You pick a group of people known for some fairly reasonable (asking to end mandates that have little effect given the ~90% vaccination rate anyway) and other unreasonable (blocking highways) actions, and you switch focus from the exact actions to affiliation and support.
Then you can convince the public to turn against your political enemies by framing their support for the cause as support for the unreasonable actions, ignoring any good faith intent they might have had. You double down on this by finding some fringe groups (e.g. actual neo-nazis) sharing the same identity (e.g. being white) and linking them to the person you are trying to destroy, and the public eats it up, completely ignoring the matter of the discourse.
The only way we can stop it is start distinguishing between affiliation and concrete actions. "Blocking traffic is bad" or "vaccines should be available, but not enforced if the hospitals are not overflowing" are much less divisive statements than "freedom convoy and all their supporters are bad".
Edit: funny how this comment's karma keeps swinging up and down. I guess, this take itself is somehow divisive these days. I truly wonder what stance could be accepted a fair compromise by both sides...
- nathanaldensr 5y agoYou're arguing using logic against those who, as I've said elsewhere in this thread, are fully ensconced in the red vs. blue, left vs. right, us vs. them primitive human false dichotomy.
- frabbit 5y agoI wonder if there are other interesting things going on with a desire for safety. The language used of "hurt" and "healing" in some of the press conferences and the lawsuit makes it seem like the feelings police are in charge in Canada and they're going to make sure you're happy: https://youtu.be/wZK5ixf4o7Q?t=699 https://youtu.be/wZK5ixf4o7Q?t=699 In this interview with a resident of the downtown area who seems to have had to initiate legal injunctions while the police and apparently all the city authorities did nothing I am torn between sympathy for someone being inconvenienced and a sneaking feeling that an unpleasant situation is being exaggerated: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G86OL0YyHw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G86OL0YyHw I was watching those after listening to the excellent Bungacast which tries to dissect the recent use of "trauma studies" to understand the evolution of the neo-liberal state under its most recent pressures https://bungacast.com/2021/12/14/231-new-class-analysis-ft-catherine-liu/ https://bungacast.com/2021/12/14/231-new-class-analysis-ft-c... Canada does not seem as though its ready to deal very minor, low-level political dissent and is incompetently defaulting to maximum authoritarianism. Latest news seems to be that a woman was trampled and seriously injured by a police horse.