FluTruxKlan Update

[sabotabby]

I was out most of the day having an actual life, so I'm just now catching up on the attempted January 6th that the Karen Convoy was doing.

You see, friends, every time America does a thing, Canada does a shittier version of the thing a year or ten later. Anyway some dudes tried to do a coup.

I'm not normally on Twitter but there is some ace material there.

While these shit-for-brains represent only a tiny minority of truckers, 90% of whom are vaccinated, and only a minority of today's superspreaders were even truckers at all, they have powerful backers, from Tory leader Erin O'Toole to Elon Musk (you know, the guy who wants to replace actual truckers with self-driving vehicles). The Ottawa police, predictably, laid out the red carpet for these schmucks. Even the national media is determined to add ahem-nuance to a blatantly fascist, pro-plague agenda, giving them sympathetic coverage all week. 

So quite a lot of people have egg on their face after these bastards:
1) Paraded around downtown Ottawa waving Confederate flags, Gadsden flags, and pro-Trump memorabilia
2) Did so on the fifth anniversary of the Quebec mosque massacre, resulting in the cancellation of a vigil to remember the dead victims of another fascist
3) Parked on the National War Memorial and did a little dance on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
4) Raised a giant Nazi flag on Parliament Hill
5) Desecrated the Terry Fox monument

Now, there are many differing stripes of political opinions in this so-called country of ours, most of them quite terrible, but there are two things that everyone agrees on: Nickelback suck, and Terry Fox was a goddamn hero. Like, you can't be against Terry Fox. It's like being against sunshine or puppies. I don't care how cold and twisted your heart is, you're gonna get misty-eyed thinking of this one-legged kid trying to run across the country. I was on a group chat a few minutes ago with a bunch of cynical-as-fuck commies and they were all like, "but but but Terry Fox," and I can guarantee that there were right-wing group chats saying the same thing.

If you're a Brit, think about that juxtaposition of BoJo partying while the Queen is sitting in mourning black in church. That's what this image does for Canadians.

This, my friends, is what is known as a Big Oopsie. I live in a country that is very tolerant of the extreme right, with many sitting MPs in all parties expressing support for fascists*, but there is a line and I believe they may have stepped over this line. If it were normal times and not 2022 this would be the end of a good many people's political careers, but shame is dead so I'm sure this little escapade and all who supported it will be forgotten by the next election. We have very short memories here.

ETA: Parliament Hill sits on unceded Algonquin territory. Note that when Indigenous and Black people organize protests, they are not treated warmly by the authorities.

* Oh no, Liberals and NDP. I'm not letting you off the hook either. I'm no fan of Putin but I'm no fan of Ukrainian neo-Nazis either.

Comments

[dewline]

Clearly, so much was messed right the Hell up from "go" here.

As for Ukraine? Both Putin and the local neo-Nazis based in Ukraine deserve to be shown the exit door. Harshly and firmly. This should not be an "either/or" thing, but an "AND".

[sabotabby]

When I was there, everyone I talked to just wanted to be left the hell alone. They had a vague desire to be part of the EU but were very clear that all their current, past, and potential leaders were fetid garbage.

[lynnenne]

I knew there would be Confederate flags. I did not expect the Terry Fox thing. Now I’m kind of cackling at their stupidity.

[sabotabby]

Yeah, a lot of the hangers on are just fanboys of American politics, and you can pretty consistently predict the imagery and rhetoric as a result. Whether the actual defacers were American and just didn't know or are Canadian but deeply stupid can be left for the open source intelligence comrades whomst I assume are carefully scouring photos and footage as we speak.

[altamira16]

Americans like to show that they are manly men by wearing shorts in the snow. That first guy in the Twitter links is taking this behavior too far.

[sabotabby]

To be fair, a number of Canadians across the political spectrum do this too. I had a friend who insisted on wearing shorts until January. Montrealers wear miniskirts in -40, and some of my female students wear incredibly summery clothing regardless of the weather.

[franklanguage]

I have never seen a pale white guy wear a thong in the snow, nor do I want to ever again.

[lapinlunaire]

Yikes. This is a mess and I'm so sorry.

[sabotabby]

It's so gross and it keeps getting grosser. Today they closed the Rideau Centre, which in addition to being a place where if you're working, you will probably not get paid time off, is also a place where many homeless people go to warm up and use the bathroom.

Rideau Centre?

[dewline]

Still closed as of 3 February.

The cruelty of these #ConvoyCoupCrowd people continues.

Re: Rideau Centre?

[sabotabby]

FFS

[lcohen]

ugh. i am so sorry--american politics are a vile thing to imitate : .

[sabotabby]

I suppose it's quid pro quo. We export a lot of our worst to the US—David Frum, Jordan Peterson, Gavin McInnis—where they fan the flames of cross-border toxicity.

[lizbee]

Our version of the same idiots made a similar mistake by pissing on the Shrine of Remembrance. Even those of us who are die-hard anti-war lefties who think the War Memorial Industrial Complex needs to be stopped went, "Oh come ON, my great-granddad did not suffer profound PTSD for this!", and I can only imagine what the Right were thinking.

[sabotabby]

Yeah. I mean, fuck war and warmongering but you don't piss on the grave of dead soldiers. Certainly there are some politicians you can piss on instead.

The right, of course, is doing that meme with the guy in front of two buttons, because they're presumably against disrespecting statues and flags but their flunkies went and drew swastikas all over Canadian flags.

[minoanmiss]

I was out most of the day having an actual life I am glad to hear this. *hugs you*

[sabotabby]

It's a rarity to be sure!

[numb3r_5ev3n]

I'm from Texas and even I know the importance of Terry Fox (mostly because a book about him was part of a set I had as a kid with stories about inspirational heroes and figures from history, but still.)

[sabotabby]

I had to explain to a lot of folks yesterday. It's part of that weird Canadian thing where you assume that everyone knows everything you do about Canadian culture but it's kind of random as to what other people know about.