podcast friday

[sabotabby]

Well, my benighted province once again chose "swift and repeated kicks to the balls for four years" over...basically anything other than that. Oh joy. This government wants me first unemployed, then homeless, then dead. Good times.

What's in some ways even more dispiriting is the results of the CIVIX Student Vote. This is a province-wide mock vote carried out across elementary and high schools. To my knowledge, it's never failed to elect the NDP. This year, for the first time, it went Tory.

A Grade 12 student today was in Grade 5 the last time a government pretended to care about their education, and even then, the public education system was in slow decline under a neoliberal regime. They simply do not remember what a well-funded public school system looked or felt like. Nor do they remember what it was like to go to a hospital ER and not have to wait 12 hours and emerge with two new infections. Short memories have doomed this province to eternal fascism and corruption. It makes me despair for the future.

You know who else despairs for the future? It Could Happen Here. This week in "Text Books and Holy Books," guest hosts Steven Monacelli and Dr. Michael Phillips talk about the two largest textbook markets in the US, California and Texas, and in particular how Texas' market share determines educational standards for the entire country.

I used to work in textbook publishing and there's a similar problem here, where at least back then, all textbooks had to conform to the standards of Alberta (the most conservative province with an economy that runs entirely on burning down the planet) and Catholic schools (the problem is obvious). I've been out of the game too long to know if that's still the case, but it resulted in materials that erased genocides, queer bodies and histories, and Indigenous peoples, promoting instead the accomplishments and worldview of white, Christian men. Obviously, the problem is way worse in the US where they just straight-up rewrote history so that the Confederate slaveholders were the good guys, but it's always the most extreme result of the same problem, which is the whiniest little bitches get the most say in what your kids are learning.

Oh, there's also quite a bit about the role of Hollywood in shaping the rather unique way Americans view the Ten Commandments, so also fuck you very much Charlton Heston.

Comments

[greylock]

You're in Ford-topia right?

It Could Happen Here
Too much the vibe now, podcast or not.

To my knowledge, it's never failed to elect the NDP. This year, for the first time, it went Tory.

Swings between con and lib however you frame them, would be normal. But what that says to me is kids have tended egalitarian... and now they are not.

What could be the chance? *puzzles*
In other news, Prince Barron got to cunts freed to Florida.

Oh, there's also quite a bit about the role of Hollywood in shaping the rather unique way Americans view the Ten Commandments, so also fuck you very much Charlton Heston.

I mean, I don't disagree, but... aside from late-life Heston, are the 10 Suggestions as big as issue as in the US?

[sabotabby]

The 10 Commandments aren't really a thing here, outside weird rural pockets.

The kids tend to be generally more concerned about the environment and poverty than adults. I've noticed climate crisis has dropped off their radar since covid, though.

[minoanmiss]

Fuck you, Charlton Heston indeed. (and so many more)

[sabotabby]

Yeah, I mean he's low on my list of people I'd like to dig up just to kill again, but he's not not on the list.

*quickly googles* oh yeah he's still dead, I had to check.

[ioplokon]

I guess to me, the big question is: how do we make rightwing failures stick to rightwing politicians and parties? Because it's not like they are netting stunning policy wins and improving standards of living, just winning the blame game.

Somewhat related, at least the Catholic School Experience is so bad that it's negatively polarizing. A paradoxical win for the left...

[greylock]

how do we make rightwing failures stick to rightwing politicians and parties?

Control the narrative.
You can't. "They" control the media*, the media feeds anti-social media.

At some point, maybe now, maybe 100 year from now, the underclass will mobilise and force change.
Same as it ever was.

(*I, who am nowhere in the comments, see this constantly. I see it all the time at work too.)

[ioplokon]

What a profoundly unhelpful comment. "Wait 100 years for something to happen" is not strategy on any level, even if you think our solutions are extra-electoral.

eta: To be a bit less harsh: If you think there's no hope building meaningful political power in this generation, then the question is rather: how do we build the communities that can survive on the margins and be ready when the time is right? Basically, I'm not letting you off the hook, no matter what. :p

[greylock]

I'm just pointing out what as happened before.
Historically, it happens in cycles.

My point (obtuse as it might be) is that, currently, THEY will absolve their god king of any responsibility, even as he trashes the economy and kills, say, cancer treatments.
You can't flip a narrative like that easily, even if, say, Medicaid is rerouted to tax cuts for billionaires.

I don't know how to solve the issue. What I do know is how it can gone before. It's a generational shift.You can argue it will be quicker now, but the means of dissemination are as controlled now as ever.

I have no strategy for the US problem. I'm trying to solve it too. Our leaders are not criticising China, nor Trump and... I say: blow it up.

[frandroid]

The unhelpful streak continues! You're onto comment 125 right now!

[greylock]

Well, I am glad someone's keeping count!

It's not like I'm trying to be See You Next Tuesday, mind.

[greylock]

Nice edit. I'm not saying you can't build power, and a voice. But it's harder now. We've given thought to media since the '50s, worse more recently.

In our modern world, your public spaces are own by oligarchs (Twitter, FB). People can mobilie, but it won't happen like it did in the 1990s, much less the 1890s.Unions are dying, and workers are struggling. Depending on where you are, we've been given enough rope.

My GenX peeps were the last to get property in any meaningful way, for example. The youngs are progressively less likely to enjoy stability.

As to what do do? Sabs is the activist! I'm an angry peep on the internet.
I hope *hope* the general strike movement takes off in the US and spreads globally.
It's the best tool we have*.

[frandroid]

> In our modern world

First year students called, they're upset you're plagiarizing them

[ioplokon]

Sorry but this is a cop out; you are also a person capable of acting and affecting the world.

[sabotabby]

That is in fact the big question for me. Any one of the scandals he's been involved in should have destroyed Doug.

He has gotten lucky, first with a worldwide pandemic, and now with Trump. Were it not for crisis, I think he'd have been far more fucked by the Greenbelt and the Science Centre.

[ioplokon]

This makes sense to me. I don't know a ton about him but "chancer who knows how to capitalize on people wanting a Big Strong Government Daddy" makes sense to me as what he's doing. People do randomly tell me, unprompted, how mad they are about both of those things?

[sabotabby]

To be fair, I assume you're talking mainly to Toronto people. Most of downtown Toronto still despises him.

[blogcutter]

The results of the student vote are indeed disheartening, although from what I've heard, young eligible voters are the least likely to actually turn out to vote in a real election. So on the plus side, if they don't vote for real, how much damage are they likely to do?! I think we had about a 45% voter turnout, which is admittedly still abysmal although a percentage point or two above the last couple of elections.

That aside, I obviously was not happy about Ford's 3-peat majority. But the results were actually quite a bit better than what I'd feared. In the Ottawa ridings I was glad that our 2 NDP ridings (one of them my own) stayed orange and that a Liberal won Lisa McLeod's old riding. I was pleased that the NDP maintain their official opposition status (something I hadn't quite dared to hope for) and that the Greens retained their two seats.

The big ordeal going forward will be the federal election later this year.

[greylock]

You don't have compulsory voting?
Damn.

they don't vote for real, how much damage are they likely to do?

*waves at the USA*

[sabotabby]

It's not so much about them doing damage as it means that we don't have the whole "well, when the kids are older and vote, the next generation will be more progressive" hope.

Although I always thought that was copium anyway. Maybe it's just ripping the bandaid off.

I guess at least he didn't gain. But he should have been decimated.

I heard it was 33%.

[blogcutter]

The idea of compulsory voting has been floated at various times but I don't see it happening any time soon. I'm not even sure it's a good idea. My hunch is that reluctant voters would just put an X beside the first name on the ballot, which would favour candidates whose surnames began with "A", regardless of what they stood for.

[sabotabby]

I agree, but also because I'm a "fuck you I won't do what you tell me" sort of personality.

[historicalmuse]

Yeah, we got Trump-Lite in office. 🤮🤮🤮💢💢💢

[sabotabby]

Claiming that he was anti-Trump, of course.

[historicalmuse]

IKR Sabot?? Fucking hold my beer man... :o

[sabotabby]

God I despise him.

[historicalmuse]

Who the fuck is electing Ford???? And why??? And where the hell are the other voters!? WTAF???

[dewline]

I'd love to have a way of getting all those no-shows to finally show up again...

[historicalmuse]

Same Dwight.