I’m going to lay out the Finkelstein Method strategies so its easily identifiable.
Finkelstein Method
1. Don’t provide details on policy, it’s unimportant to win. No actionable and measurable plans are required. Just vague policy statements. None of the opposition parties have calculable platform plans. Liberals have a budget.
2. Continuous character assassination of strongest opposition. Other opposition parties encouraged to help. Wittingly or just lust for power is irrelevant. All 3 opposition party leaders are attacking LPC & PM daily. Not opposing policy, personal attacks & false accusations.
3. Introduce divisive scandalous issues like drugs, sex or crime, used to denigrate the strongest opposition. Aga Khan, grope-gate, India trip, undue influence, etc.
4. Politically loaded issues also used to divide electorate into tribes. Immigration, race, LGBTQ rights, access to abortion & women’s equality, climate change. It elicits an emotional defense of values and beliefs. The electorate retreats to entrenched political positions.
5. Disinformation campaigns to confuse and demoralize the electorate. Create a post truth environment. Media & social media overloaded with gaslighting and scandal. No one can discern truth. Truth is unknowable. Apathy is induced in progressives. They don’t know who to trust.
5. Cont’
This is known as targeted voter suppression. Education is indoctrination, climate science is a hoax, refugees and asylum seekers are storming the borders, Muslims are promoting sharia law, etc.
6. Present the opposition as the enemy. The leader is a threat to national safety and must be removed. The SNC scandal, attack on oil, electoral reform and climate inaction (it’s being used by both sides). This creates rage and protest votes.
6. Cont’
People vote against the enemy instead of voting for the policy they support. Hang Trudeau for treason for stopping oil production. Trudeau betrayed Canada by suppressing Electoral Reform and ignoring climate change. And SNC - works for both sides.
This is the Finkelstein Method. Harper is a master at using these strategies. So is Russia and Trump Republicans.
Developed by Art Finkelstein to help Nixon win. It’s been used for decades to create chaos and delivery a Con majority.
That’s the reality in Canada right now.
This is how Trump won in US, Orbán in Hungary, Netanyahu in Israel, Bolsonaro in Brazil, Modi in India, and how Cons will win in Canada if we don’t stop responding to emotional provocation.
It’s also been used in Germany, France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Argentina, Chile, Columbia, Montenegro, many African nations and many other developing nations.
Most of the time it works or delivers a weak minority that cannot implement policy.
That’s where Canada is heading as a nation. Blinded by emotion, head long into authoritarian takeover, dismantling of Constitution & Charter, and turned into a Libertarian Republic with social conservatives imposing their version of Christian beliefs & values on everyone else.
Please learn the Finkelstein Method.
Identify your triggers.
This is why con trolls and bots say such stupid offensive horrible things. To elicit an emotional response.
When you feel “triggered”, you’re being manipulated.
Take a step back. Calm down.
What are the issues?
1 Climate change action
2 Protect the Constitution and our Charter Rights 3. Clear, measurable progressive policy
4 Stop the Conservatives at all costs, that includes electoral reform.
Until we get stronger hate laws and eliminate the threat from far left,
NOTHING ELSE MATTERS.
Our survival as a species is at stake. The protections bestowed by the Constitution & Charter are under attack.
If human rights and constitutional protections for citizens are removed, there is nothing stopping Cons from eliminating their competition. That’s us; progressives.
Here are some examples to peruse. Admittedly getting angry and overly emotional is hard to do. However, the trick is to ask yourself why you are triggered, & are you going to vote based on that anger or based on good policy and skilled & knowledgeable candidates.
*hard NOT to do.
An article making same observation from 2014.
Harper is still pulling the strings. Except now he’s doing it on a global stage through IDU.
Ok. So I’m trying to watch CPAC and HOC debate about the EA.
In between aneurysms I’m foaming at the mouth at the level of gaslighting going on.
I so want parliament to change the rules of discourse. Extreme gaslighting should NOT receive Parliamentary privilege.
So what’s driving me mental? The attempt by CPC and Bloc to legitimize the people who performed an occupation of Ottawa and the blockades of border trade routes as legitimate protesters.
I’ve had it with gaslighting and people who try to create alternate realities.
I’m insulted by the unscrupulous mendacity that CPC and Bloc MPs are offering up as commentary. This level of deceit is beyond acceptable, focussed on altering reality for the Canadian public and on legitimization of a fringe hostile mob seeking to effect a coup.
I just watched Noa Mendelsohn Aviv refer to the compromise of civil liberties like freedom of expression on CBC.
Not once have I seen occupiers be denied their right to peaceful protest and to express their opinions. But I’ve witnessed these occupiers torture Ottawa residents.
I’ve heard them make threats against a democratically elected government, attack journalists, flout Ontario mask restrictions causing an entire mall to shut down and put people out of work. I’ve witness horns honking day and night in an effort to torture residents and MPs.
Extortion of policy changes using torturous noise assaults is a criminal offence in Canada.
What about the civil liberties of Ottawans?
Do they count? Or is it just religious extremists & Q’Anon nuts who garner support for their civil liberty to perform a coup?
Liberalism is democracy. The Overton window Canada had from 1950-2000 was a narrow set of acceptable beliefs and values based on welfare state social liberalism and humanism.
Where conservatives were progressive and socialists were centre left.
It’s been abundantly and blatantly clear that this truck convoy was a sloppily veiled attempt at a coup d’état by a bunch of delusional Q’Anon & Dominionists who live in an alternate reality who hijacked a truckers protest.
While many of the participants and most organizers are known racists or support racist nationalist policies, this is not a specifically racist gathering.
It’s an attempt to overthrow the legitimately elected government and create economic and political chaos.
A large portion of rural residents and a significant number of urban residents have adopted this belief system and its values across Canada.
It’s called libertarianism: all restrictions should be removed & each individual makes their own choice based on personal responsibility.
This belief has been thoroughly adopted by The Liberty Coalition Canada among other organizations and ideologies. LCC has made removing Covid mandates one of its demands.
The vast majority of members are far right Christians.