Your knowledge of our country and our ways is impressive especially the part where you point out we Canadians have not shown in the past anything like the patriotism for our country with our flags prominently displayed everywhere in comparison to Americans who have always proudly displayed their patriotism with their flags prominently visible in all parts of their country. The trucker’s freedom convoy was indeed such a wonderful sight to behold with so many maple leaf flags they almost obscured the trucks and the protestors! Many had their flags wrapped around them like a protective cloak which was also symbolic and something I’d never witnessed before in my lifetime. The coming together of so many different people of all cultures and race from all walks of life in this peaceful movement of resistance against all of the many injustices that the covid tyranny had wrought on so many in a myriad of ways was indeed something extraordinary and wondrous and magical to behold that stirred strong feelings of patriotism for this country in me and many others I am sure. My fav flag was the f__k Trudeau one as many feel he is a traitor to this country and its peoples and not without good reason. Trudeau is a climate zealot amongst many other things who desires to completely stamp out our fossil fuel industry which is so absolutely insane as most of our huge country is a large land mass experiencing cold to frigid temperatures in the winter so we need our natural gas to heat our homes or we will freeze to death literally on top of our population being so small that the carbon emissions we emit in comparison to China or India is laughably and infinitely small. Alberta and Saskatchewan both have just made new laws to protect our sovereignty in our own areas of provincial jurisdiction under the Canadian Constitution so expect retaliation and a fight from Trudeau. Alberta’s main industry is fossil fuels and Saskatchewan’s is farming and just look at which two sectors are under direct attack from our federal government… in the name of “climate change.” He hates the West and he will destroy our economies and all of Canada will freeze to death because the carbon technology he touts is one hell of a long ways from being ready to supply all of Canada’s energy needs. The same for solar haha we get lots of sunshine in the summer only and windmills which only work when it’s windy … But all of these rational and factual arguments of reason and sanity by many including professionals in the energy sector who are not under the influence of woke ideology and can foresee the dire and drastic and dangerous consequences of the Trudeau government’s plans of attack are why he has got to go!!! The problem is in convincing central and eastern Canadians particularly of Ontario and Quebec the two largest most populated provinces which are vote rich in comparison to the West.
Hey, I’m utterly amazed to spot an unmissable parallel: A Midwestern Doctor reports having embarked on a mission (wrt what he calls a ‘tragic mythology of vaccination’) similar to the grand one you’ve just accomplished with gratifyingly exhaustive Solidarność exposé! 🤸
🗨 I am presently working on a series about the pioneers in vaccine safety because much of their pivotal work has gone completely unrecognized. I feel that this is important to discuss because many of them worked with almost no support to change the paradigm, learned many important lessons for opposing this industry, and their tireless work laid the necessary foundation for much of what we can do now.
In relation to this freedom movement/ protest many Canadians have been unhappy for some time long before covid restrictions and authoritarian mandates and subsequent punishments following for those that did not “obey.” I believe Canada had one of the strictest and longest lockdowns in the world and one of the highest vaccination rates of compliance too hence we were sick of it! Trudeau’s true colours came out in his obvious disdain and contempt for the blue collar truckers who dared to invade his pristine landscape of Ottawa and who weren’t willing to leave without some concessions being made. He hates Albertans in particular, our truckers, our oil rig workers who can make a shit ton of money without a university degree, our construction workers, all of our blue collar population whom he views as hicks and hayseeds but the problem is he needs our transfer payments of which Alberta contributes more to Ottawa than any other province annually and has done so for the past 50 years because of our natural gas and oil revenues. Many vaxxed people joined in the freedom convoy and or went to Ottawa too some out of curiosity and some because of how Trudeau and his Liberal government discriminated against the unvaxxed using his favoured identity politics to divide and his hatred of those who disobeyed him and we were all well and truly sick of the mandates and lockdowns by then too. The province of Quebec went so far as to even add a curfew to their mandates.You remember the truckers were able to raise $10 million twice with many small donations which shows how many Canadians and even some Americans were supportive of the movement. The Trudeau government is a woke authoritarian government so if you’re not ok living in clown world you want a change in government. Covid destroyed our illusions that our Charter of Rights and Freedoms under the Constitution was the most powerful document we had that would protect us, it was as if our charter no longer existed and was not worth the paper it was written on. Federal, provincial, and municipal levels of government all went extreme authoritarian as well as NGO’s and pretty much any business or entertainment organization so no one stood up or pushed back, not one single Canadian institution that was meant to protect us in times like these pushed back and covid turned some of the population into very hostile and aggressive actors for the government.
Yes the past 7 years of the Trudeau government have become more and more woke and more and more authoritarian and it has been made crystal clear they favour antifa and BLM violence over any type of conservative non violent protests. Think we’re in this for the long haul, those that feel similarly to me anyway. Our new provincial premiere Danielle Smith has just made law a restraining order against the federal government’s overreach in order to protect our provincial areas of natural resources and economic development and growth, so that anything Trudeau dreams up that would directly intervene and cause Alberta harm will not be adhered to in our provincial areas of jurisdiction at least! For those that preach tolerance and equity in this country their behaviour and actions show anything but.
Thank you once again for imparting your vast knowledge onto me! I really do appreciate how much research, work and time you must spend in order to write these jam packed condensed versions of history!
I wanted to share Bill 36 with you close to being made law in BC. I am pasting the Justice Center’s responding statement to Bill 36.
Great essay and indeed series of essays on this topic. I was reminded of reading Trotsky's history of the Russian Revolution several decades ago. As I remember, he continually underscored the importance of what he termed "molecular processes" among the workers in the run up to the revolution, which I interpreted as the workers continually improvising, learning from mistakes and experience, and adapting tactics and strategies more or less spontaneously at even the lowest levels (i.e. not determined top down by any organizational leadership).
Nevertheless of course some kind of organization would seem critical in maintaining knowledge gained over periods (sometimes quite long) separating times of protest action. Do the Canadians have something like that?
By the Canadians, you mean the truckers specifically? As you allude to, there is a spectrum -- maybe in fact multiple spectrums -- along which leadership can be considered. Clearly last winter's protest involved a highly decentered, loosely associated leadership. It was probably more or less sufficient for the specific purpose at hand. I suspect that if the convoy protest was going to turn into a more sustained populist movement, a more focused leadership would have to emerge. At the same time, though, the more concentrated and centralized leadership becomes the more susceptible it becomes to all kinds of ills, including corruption, cooptation, and pathocratic capture. If solving the leadership issue were easy, there'd be many more successful such movements than there have been.
Very impressive essay. I was particularly impressed by two points you make. (1) the kindness and fellowship demonstrated among the truckers and supporters & (2) relationship to the long term motivation of those involved in resistance - the understanding of freedom and individual rights as intended in the US Constitution. There seems to be some deep divisions among people - some who succumb easily to totalitarianism and propaganda and others who seem to have the inner strength and resilience to spontaneously resist it. What do you think are factors here?
Undoubtedly, personality structure -- as reflected for instance in the big five traits research -- does play a role in determining values and political disposition. Such structure is clearly phenotypic: weeding between heritability and "environment" is irrelevant as none of us control either influence for our own ontogeny.
I would add also, though (and you're probably not going to like this part), But I don't think the U.S. constitution is the beacon of clarity and righteousness around these issues that a lot of Americans -- including a lot of populists -- take it to be. It is a liberal document, emphasizing as you observe individual freedom. But as I've argued elsewhere on this substack, liberalism pretty much naturally and inevitably leads to managerial liberalism. Given the nature of its founding documents, I'm inclined to see the United States as having been more or less doomed to follow its current path. I'll have much more to say about these topics in my posts planned for the New Year, but that's a little teasing foreshadow.
Perish the thought. Thanks. Although I see real strength in many of the founding ancestors they were in turn inheritors of the managerial liberalism of Europe. They suffered many among their ranks who would sow seeds of later destruction. As a wealthy landed aristocracy the concessions they made to their own philosophies wreaked terrible death and destruction. Witness Andrew Jackson against the more egalitarian philosophy of a David Crockett. It gets real messy.
As will become clear next year, I see the one truly saving grace of the American founding being its emphasis upon federalism -- though I certainly don't think the 1789 constitution was as federalist as it could have or should have been. The Achilles Heel though was trying to balance federalism with a liberal appeal to individual rights and freedoms at a national level. Those impulses are incompatible; one was ultimately going to win. I believe the wrong one did. And given how corrosive liberalism is to organic community, again, the rise of managerial liberalism was with the smart money. But, without doubt, as you say: it gets real messy. I look forward to discussing these issues more deeply in the New Year.
Your knowledge of our country and our ways is impressive especially the part where you point out we Canadians have not shown in the past anything like the patriotism for our country with our flags prominently displayed everywhere in comparison to Americans who have always proudly displayed their patriotism with their flags prominently visible in all parts of their country. The trucker’s freedom convoy was indeed such a wonderful sight to behold with so many maple leaf flags they almost obscured the trucks and the protestors! Many had their flags wrapped around them like a protective cloak which was also symbolic and something I’d never witnessed before in my lifetime. The coming together of so many different people of all cultures and race from all walks of life in this peaceful movement of resistance against all of the many injustices that the covid tyranny had wrought on so many in a myriad of ways was indeed something extraordinary and wondrous and magical to behold that stirred strong feelings of patriotism for this country in me and many others I am sure. My fav flag was the f__k Trudeau one as many feel he is a traitor to this country and its peoples and not without good reason. Trudeau is a climate zealot amongst many other things who desires to completely stamp out our fossil fuel industry which is so absolutely insane as most of our huge country is a large land mass experiencing cold to frigid temperatures in the winter so we need our natural gas to heat our homes or we will freeze to death literally on top of our population being so small that the carbon emissions we emit in comparison to China or India is laughably and infinitely small. Alberta and Saskatchewan both have just made new laws to protect our sovereignty in our own areas of provincial jurisdiction under the Canadian Constitution so expect retaliation and a fight from Trudeau. Alberta’s main industry is fossil fuels and Saskatchewan’s is farming and just look at which two sectors are under direct attack from our federal government… in the name of “climate change.” He hates the West and he will destroy our economies and all of Canada will freeze to death because the carbon technology he touts is one hell of a long ways from being ready to supply all of Canada’s energy needs. The same for solar haha we get lots of sunshine in the summer only and windmills which only work when it’s windy … But all of these rational and factual arguments of reason and sanity by many including professionals in the energy sector who are not under the influence of woke ideology and can foresee the dire and drastic and dangerous consequences of the Trudeau government’s plans of attack are why he has got to go!!! The problem is in convincing central and eastern Canadians particularly of Ontario and Quebec the two largest most populated provinces which are vote rich in comparison to the West.
Hey, I’m utterly amazed to spot an unmissable parallel: A Midwestern Doctor reports having embarked on a mission (wrt what he calls a ‘tragic mythology of vaccination’) similar to the grand one you’ve just accomplished with gratifyingly exhaustive Solidarność exposé! 🤸
🗨 I am presently working on a series about the pioneers in vaccine safety because much of their pivotal work has gone completely unrecognized. I feel that this is important to discuss because many of them worked with almost no support to change the paradigm, learned many important lessons for opposing this industry, and their tireless work laid the necessary foundation for much of what we can do now.
[From https://amidwesterndoctor.substack.com/p/we-now-have-a-clear-estimate-of-the]
In relation to this freedom movement/ protest many Canadians have been unhappy for some time long before covid restrictions and authoritarian mandates and subsequent punishments following for those that did not “obey.” I believe Canada had one of the strictest and longest lockdowns in the world and one of the highest vaccination rates of compliance too hence we were sick of it! Trudeau’s true colours came out in his obvious disdain and contempt for the blue collar truckers who dared to invade his pristine landscape of Ottawa and who weren’t willing to leave without some concessions being made. He hates Albertans in particular, our truckers, our oil rig workers who can make a shit ton of money without a university degree, our construction workers, all of our blue collar population whom he views as hicks and hayseeds but the problem is he needs our transfer payments of which Alberta contributes more to Ottawa than any other province annually and has done so for the past 50 years because of our natural gas and oil revenues. Many vaxxed people joined in the freedom convoy and or went to Ottawa too some out of curiosity and some because of how Trudeau and his Liberal government discriminated against the unvaxxed using his favoured identity politics to divide and his hatred of those who disobeyed him and we were all well and truly sick of the mandates and lockdowns by then too. The province of Quebec went so far as to even add a curfew to their mandates.You remember the truckers were able to raise $10 million twice with many small donations which shows how many Canadians and even some Americans were supportive of the movement. The Trudeau government is a woke authoritarian government so if you’re not ok living in clown world you want a change in government. Covid destroyed our illusions that our Charter of Rights and Freedoms under the Constitution was the most powerful document we had that would protect us, it was as if our charter no longer existed and was not worth the paper it was written on. Federal, provincial, and municipal levels of government all went extreme authoritarian as well as NGO’s and pretty much any business or entertainment organization so no one stood up or pushed back, not one single Canadian institution that was meant to protect us in times like these pushed back and covid turned some of the population into very hostile and aggressive actors for the government.
Yes the past 7 years of the Trudeau government have become more and more woke and more and more authoritarian and it has been made crystal clear they favour antifa and BLM violence over any type of conservative non violent protests. Think we’re in this for the long haul, those that feel similarly to me anyway. Our new provincial premiere Danielle Smith has just made law a restraining order against the federal government’s overreach in order to protect our provincial areas of natural resources and economic development and growth, so that anything Trudeau dreams up that would directly intervene and cause Alberta harm will not be adhered to in our provincial areas of jurisdiction at least! For those that preach tolerance and equity in this country their behaviour and actions show anything but.
Thank you once again for imparting your vast knowledge onto me! I really do appreciate how much research, work and time you must spend in order to write these jam packed condensed versions of history!
I wanted to share Bill 36 with you close to being made law in BC. I am pasting the Justice Center’s responding statement to Bill 36.
https://www.jccf.ca/justice-centre-expresses-concern-about-british-columbias-bill-36/
Note 7 is very amusing.
Great essay and indeed series of essays on this topic. I was reminded of reading Trotsky's history of the Russian Revolution several decades ago. As I remember, he continually underscored the importance of what he termed "molecular processes" among the workers in the run up to the revolution, which I interpreted as the workers continually improvising, learning from mistakes and experience, and adapting tactics and strategies more or less spontaneously at even the lowest levels (i.e. not determined top down by any organizational leadership).
Nevertheless of course some kind of organization would seem critical in maintaining knowledge gained over periods (sometimes quite long) separating times of protest action. Do the Canadians have something like that?
By the Canadians, you mean the truckers specifically? As you allude to, there is a spectrum -- maybe in fact multiple spectrums -- along which leadership can be considered. Clearly last winter's protest involved a highly decentered, loosely associated leadership. It was probably more or less sufficient for the specific purpose at hand. I suspect that if the convoy protest was going to turn into a more sustained populist movement, a more focused leadership would have to emerge. At the same time, though, the more concentrated and centralized leadership becomes the more susceptible it becomes to all kinds of ills, including corruption, cooptation, and pathocratic capture. If solving the leadership issue were easy, there'd be many more successful such movements than there have been.
Very impressive essay. I was particularly impressed by two points you make. (1) the kindness and fellowship demonstrated among the truckers and supporters & (2) relationship to the long term motivation of those involved in resistance - the understanding of freedom and individual rights as intended in the US Constitution. There seems to be some deep divisions among people - some who succumb easily to totalitarianism and propaganda and others who seem to have the inner strength and resilience to spontaneously resist it. What do you think are factors here?
Undoubtedly, personality structure -- as reflected for instance in the big five traits research -- does play a role in determining values and political disposition. Such structure is clearly phenotypic: weeding between heritability and "environment" is irrelevant as none of us control either influence for our own ontogeny.
I would add also, though (and you're probably not going to like this part), But I don't think the U.S. constitution is the beacon of clarity and righteousness around these issues that a lot of Americans -- including a lot of populists -- take it to be. It is a liberal document, emphasizing as you observe individual freedom. But as I've argued elsewhere on this substack, liberalism pretty much naturally and inevitably leads to managerial liberalism. Given the nature of its founding documents, I'm inclined to see the United States as having been more or less doomed to follow its current path. I'll have much more to say about these topics in my posts planned for the New Year, but that's a little teasing foreshadow.
Perish the thought. Thanks. Although I see real strength in many of the founding ancestors they were in turn inheritors of the managerial liberalism of Europe. They suffered many among their ranks who would sow seeds of later destruction. As a wealthy landed aristocracy the concessions they made to their own philosophies wreaked terrible death and destruction. Witness Andrew Jackson against the more egalitarian philosophy of a David Crockett. It gets real messy.
As will become clear next year, I see the one truly saving grace of the American founding being its emphasis upon federalism -- though I certainly don't think the 1789 constitution was as federalist as it could have or should have been. The Achilles Heel though was trying to balance federalism with a liberal appeal to individual rights and freedoms at a national level. Those impulses are incompatible; one was ultimately going to win. I believe the wrong one did. And given how corrosive liberalism is to organic community, again, the rise of managerial liberalism was with the smart money. But, without doubt, as you say: it gets real messy. I look forward to discussing these issues more deeply in the New Year.
Look forward to it. It has gotten messy like the genocide that preceded it.