Reading Wednesday

Currently reading: Middlegame by Seanan McGuire. I actually thought I was going to finish that last night but I'm so ill that I passed out, sans sleeping pills, before I got to the end.

But anyway, unless the next 20-30 pages or so are somehow terrible, I think this is one of my favourites, which is saying a lot because I've been a fan of everything I've read by her and her pseudonym. It follows two twins, Roger and Dodger (because their creator is a Bad Person who shouldn't be allowed to name children), separated by adoption but linked by a telepathic connection, created by an alchemist to embody the Doctrine, which will give them—and whoever controls them—godlike abilities to alter reality. Roger is brilliant at languages, Dodger at mathematics, and part of the appeal of the book beyond its very cool worldbuilding and premise is its ability to capture what it's like to grow up as an unevenly gifted child.

It's also beautifully written in the way that most of her books are, and very much a page-turner in the way that all of her books are. 

A l'il bit of media analysis

Sorry to go on about the Don Cherry thing when there are other, more important things to talk about, but this is a fascinating example of the way the media enables and promotes white supremacist ideology.

See, there was a protest against Cherry being fired. Two guys showed up. LOOOOOOL.


But.

If you watch the video itself, it's fascinating. It's seven and a half minutes long. There's a media scrum. For two guys standing in front of CBC! There are more people milling around than protesting.

Here is what happens in the video:

1) Two protesters show up. This is worthy of coverage by at least 7 different news outlets. I don't remember seeing CP24 coverage of, say, pro-Kurdish demos that get a lot more people out.

2) The protesters, to put it mildly, are not very coherent or prepared with their talking points.

3) To the point where the "journalist" from Rebel Media needs to basically put words in the guy's mouth.

4) CP24 devotes quite some time to allowing the Rebel Media guy to air his opinions under the guise of an interview.

 

This is why Ford and Trump. This is why the military was able to overthrow a democratically elected leader of a country and install far-right Christian fundamentalists and the soft liberal media has not dared call it a coup. This is how the People's Party of Canada, despite being a fringe group, got as much coverage as the mainstream parties. This is how the media makes far-right ideas look like their part of the mainstream discourse even where these ideas are not particularly popular or mainstream. So it's not actually that funny after all.