Thread by @sunnshiiny

AND YET SHE PERSISTED

Everyday I see people at their wits end struggling to find hope and the motivation to continue to fight for social democracy. In Canada, and in the US the overwhelming sense of doom is getting to people.

The political, social (and for some the economic) environment is toxic. Most don’t recognize what it is making them feel sick, stressed, angry or disgusted. They believe it’s themselves, or a political party, or (insert your favourite wedge issue).

They want to retreat in apathy, lash out in anger, fight former friends and current neighbours. They are exhausted and emotionally distraught.

But there is something that keeps me motivated.

I think of the alternatives.

The source of stress is an all out attack on social democracy itself. It’s meant to confuse, discombobulate, emotionally charge (anger, depress, disgust) everyone. How else do you get people to abandon a successful peace and cooperation that’s been demonstrated for 70 years?

Here’s an analogy to consider.

Imagine yourself in a building. You’re responsible to maintain your quarters & keep the building tidy. The fire alarm goes off. The normal reaction is to leave. But in this case, it’s not an option. You must stay & conduct regular maintenance.

With the alarm ringing loudly, you run from floor to floor putting out small fires. Some fires are out in the open, others are behind the walls. Then, the sprinklers come on. What a mess. The alarm is still ringing.

You have no option but to ignore them and carry on. Then you hear screaming and people accusing each other of fire starting and other evil behaviour. Still, you stay at your post putting out fires. Then you smell smoke and begin to have trouble breathing. Panic sets in.

Do you save the building because that’s where you live and it was perfectly fine place to live before some kept setting fire to it? Or do you abandon the building and run to one of the 2 prison buildings next door being advertised amongst the noise of alarms and spraying water?

Metaphorically, these are our choices. We no longer have a viable democracy. It’s been damaged by multiple fires and the framework is falling apart.

To rescue and restore the building, it will require much work, effort & rebuilding.

But first we need to identify and prevent the fire starters.

The identities are known, but we’re so busy putting out fires, we haven’t bothered to identify or stop them.

The fire starters come from opposite ends of the political spectrum. Far left and far right.

We need to stop listening to the people that continue to light numerous fires, because social democracy is not really a building, that IS just an analogy.

But the multi pronged attack on social democracy from opposite ends of the political spectrum is not an analogy. It’s real and we need to stop responding to every cry to be up in arms and focus on eliminating the fire starters ability to start fires.

Then, rebuild the framework of democracy to shore it up, before adding to the structure.

Or we can choose to forget the ton of work, but live in a prison cell within one of two prisons being offered. One is radical socialism, the other is theocratic libertarianism.

The building is about to collapse. We either band together or choose a prison cell. The social democracy framework is about to crumble.

This is the environment that we’ve been living in the last three decades.

Many have made a choice & abandoned social democracy. They come in two varieties. People promoting libertarianism, theocracy and what conservatism has morphed into.

And people promoting socialist institutions, abandonment of all capitalism and what federal NDP has morphed into.

Many feel overwhelmed with grief and terror at loss of democracy, can’t stand the noise constantly sending them into a state of panic (unending stress) or succumb to anger & rage, they don’t understand.

But that’s a choice. That may sound harsh, but we have an option.

That is what we are living in. What we raise our children in and what we struggle to survive everyday. This is normalization for the younger generations. Running from fire to fire with our panic in tow.

Rebuilding democracy seems daunting, overwhelming. So does living in a cell.

That’s the angst. If you’ve made a decision to support social democracy, then ignore the false rhetoric and provocation. Those are the fires. We can not put out every fire, the framework has already been damaged.

By fires, I mean the lies, disinformation and chaos being fostered by partisan actors on both extreme ends of the political spectrum.

It’s not every NDP or every CPC that’s holding a torch. Those are the people we need to focus on and remove any legitimacy they have.

Many are overwhelmed, afraid, resentful, disgusted, etc.

Which, of course, was the intent of those who started little fires all over the building we all live within, democracy. That was the Reform Party. 30 years ago the fires were small and manageable.

Well, they recruited help. Enlisting the assistance of far left hardline socialists, ambitious fringe parties, a proliferation of internet disinformation & propaganda mills.

Correcting every error in a statement is unnecessary. It’s the messenger that needs to be checked.

Is it legitimate for W Brett Wilson to incite violence like this? No. But personal jabs do nothing to deter him and his ilk. They revel in it. They call it “owning” Libs. When you react in anger, they own the anger.

Countering propaganda at the levels we are experiencing can be done. What would Brett do if 500 Centrists responded to his tweet with “Desperate to colonize indigenous territory, Brett incites violence, bending the law, to remove protesters.” & just left it at that?

There are ways to counter propaganda and disinformation. Here is a list of 25. Some of which the average citizen can manage independently or in small groups. Especially if we team up together. euromaidanpress.com/2017/06/16/way…

Why aren’t we developing a guide to propaganda for the average medium to low information Canadian? The most vulnerable to propaganda and disinformation are defenceless. Twitter messages aren’t getting the job done. But a digital guide could be shared on multiple media.

Why aren’t we educating continuously about what disinformation is, calling out the techniques that are being used?

We need to identify lies overtly. Don’t dance around the issue. Call a liar a liar. Leave no doubt what the truth is and who is adhereing to it.

Why aren’t we madly amplifying Conservatives that don’t agree with these crazy tactics or NDP who aren’t looking to revolutionize Canada?

Is there a list of journalism ethics that citizens can use to gauge the validity of an article? How does one identify fact from opinion?

A list of propaganda methods could assist every resister to identify and label what cons are doing. Attaching a label makes it easier for medium to low information to identify too.

One of the things we don’t do enough is good news stories about people who are upholding democracy. We need to promote the heck out of that to help counter character assassination.

That’s how I maintain motivation. I follow established strategies.

If you feel powerless, anxious or terrified, implementing an established strategy helps. These strategies are used by Eastern European resisters. Ukraine, Estonia, Finland.

This is how they survive.