Sunday, March 18, 2012

On Being Declared "Anti-Canadian"

So, when do they come for my passport?

Those of us who support the environmental movement in Canada have been denounced as "anti-Canadian" by Conservative members of the Canadian Senate.   Given that none of their fellows rose to challenge that outrageous slur they can be fairly taken as agreeing with it.

According to Harper's attack swine, Mike Duffy, groups like the David Suzuki foundation and the Sierra Club (and, presumably, those who stand with them) are "all anti-Canadian."

There was a time Duffy's remarks would have been beyond the pale.  Demonizing a significant portion of our population as anti-Canadian, disloyal to their homeland, is serious stuff.  Yet it is the rancid sentiment that ferments naturally out of the wedge politics, the "us or them" foundation of  Stephen Harper's administration.   These people really believe it.  You're either with them or you're a traitor to your country.

That message came shining through recently from Harper's morally-slack and hypocritically-boundless Vic Toews who demonized those objecting to his flawed legislation as "either with us or with the child pornographers."

And don't think for a minute that Duffy or Toews have gone rogue.  The tone of their remarks has been carefully set by their Ruler, Steve himself.   Harper, after all, shamelessly milked every drop of political juice he could get out of the blood of our soldiers in Afghanistan and then used what was left to hammer those Canadians opposed to the Afghan war as disloyal to the troops.

This "us or them" approach, the wedge politics, the persistent loyalty challenges - topped off with the secrecy, the dishonesty and unaccountability, the fearmongering and manipulation - that is anti-Canadian, about as anti-Canadian as it gets.  It's the stuff of tyrants and demagogues from times past, bullies with names like McCarthy or Stalin.

We have a government of bullies, thugs and reprobates.   Your kind - and mine - aren't fit for their Canada and they're sure as hell not fit for ours either.   The time for respectful disagreement and civil discourse is over.  They have seen to that.  

3 comments:

Sam Gunsch said...

Agreed re times have certainly changed.

Some criteria and assessment below re our current Canadian Borg CEO programming as manifested in the Duffy comments you discuss...

at Nick Fillmore...

http://nickfillmore.blogspot.ca/2012/02/is-stephen-harper-displaying-fascist.html

My suggestion for any readers as yet unfamiliar with Pedigree information on this Borg:

Google searches that find Shadia Drury analysis, essays, videos... Shadia Drury combined with any of Tom Flanagan, Harper, Leo Strauss, Ted Morton, Calgary School, neoconservative, populism, corporatism,

Also for history of this anti-Canadian stuff as it has been normalized as a subtext of market fundamentalism propaganda/business propaganda search also...Donald Gutstein or for method of corporatism underpinning Alberta variant of corporatism with references to fascism...see Mark Lisac, The Klein Revolution, Chapter 9, the Corporate State.

My homeplace of Alberta has nurtured this Borg in more ways than are generally recognized. Original nest of false populism.

The Mound of Sound said...

Thanks for the source links, Sam. Yes, religious fundamentalism is inherently fascist in nature whether Christian, Jewish, Islamic or even Hindu. It's a form of radical fascism that is too easily insinuated into Western politics and we risk our democracy if we don't stand against it.

LeDaro said...

Few days ago I read a story in the Huffpost that those who are opposed to Tar Sands and other environmentalist are funded by Al-Quaida according to one of the Con MP.