Thread by @sunnshiiny

So, Western Standard is reporting Shandro signed off on the order to fence up Grace Life church.

Interesting to watch dog eat dog politics.

However, this is power consolidation, not party implosion.

https://twitter.com/sunnshiiny/status/1380710188768841733

westernstandardonline.com/2021/04/exclus…

To consolidate power, means to rapidly consolidate your own prestige (through quick successes, disposing of enemies, or a successful war) or decrease your enemies' prestige (tripping them up, winning an internal political battle or major argument, or killing/exiling them).

Kenney appears to be under scrutiny and duress by the evangelical Christian community.

But that’s not how power consolidation works. Kenney isn’t the enemy. The public health orders being enforced and those who support them are. Science, fact and rule of law are the enemy.

By putting up such vehement resistance to masks and public health orders, Christian Nationalists enable Kenney to stall the implementation of the circuit breaker required to address more pervasive & deadlier covid variants, which allows covid variants to get firmly established.

AHS’s enforcement of covid restrictions, with help from police, is being considered too harsh and an overstep of government power by the radicalized “liberty” and “freedom” brigade. Their vehement protests and international support give Kenney the opportunity to remove the fence.

It provides justification for Kenney, using public pressure, to permit the church to hold oversized services, flout the law, and bestow special superior status on evangelical beliefs and values. Increasing the prestige and power of both evangelicals and Kenney, simultaneously.

It’s a symbiotic mutually beneficial relationship. The whole premise of the situation is absurd.

Kenney’s image comes across as the reasonable premier forced to strike a balance between liberty and safety. Evangelicals get to use their faith as a means to escape rule of law.

Reichstag events come in all shapes and sizes. It’s not always a literal fire. The ability to recognize one is aided by examining past events accurately.

Kenney and UCP have undermined covid strategy from the beginning. UCP has never focussed on health preservation as priority.

Most people don’t have the ability to recall past events to view the big picture. But that’s how character and integrity are assessed. Using a macro view. Not by using one or two incidents to assess a whole human being. Many only focus on the past few weeks. Not the whole year.

So let’s review the past year to demonstrate what’s true and factual.

When the pandemic was declared in mid March 2020, Kenney refused to acknowledge the danger of the health risk. He flew to Ottawa to confront Trudeau about O&G bailouts the day Sophie Trudeau tested positive.

The first weeks of global covid restrictions, all Kenney talked about was oil and gas, austerity cuts and oil industry bailouts.

edmontonjournal.com/news/local-new…

Immediately UCP moved to assume additional powers to limit debate and oversight of provincial legislation. Bill 10, 11, & 12 were rushed through legislature with very limited debate or understanding of the implications.

Bill 10 gives UCP ministers the power to alter, repeal or create legislation completely outside the legislature and opposition and public oversight.

By mid April 2020, Kenney was pushing to reopen the economy. Pressured constantly by profit motivated business interests and impacted citizens unable to gather to worship. Sounding much like Trump, Kenney raced to reopen the Alberta economy far too soon.

edmonton.ctvnews.ca/kenney-followi…

At the same time, Ottawa was warning not to reopen too soon or the risk of a second wave was increased exponentially.

Kenney ignored these warnings and forged ahead with opening widely.

Bill 1 was passed in late spring shortly after BLM protests commenced in Alberta. Most BLM protesters wore masks.

People protesting covid restrictions did not wear masks. But there was little effort to enforce restrictions. Kenney refused to issue a mask mandate. Just like Trump. Preferring to allow individuals to decide for themselves. Then urban centres issued local mask mandates.

The province refused to issue mandatory mask use provincially. Until late into the fall well into the case positivity upswing of the second wave.

Kenney reveals his preference for covid strategy is treating livelihoods and human lives equally. The province has never pursued zero covid. Rather it’s a mitigation strategy to ensure hospitals can adequately care for infected patients. The number of deaths seem irrelevant.

This video clip is from January 2021.

Kenney and UCP have always put the economy first amd people’s lives second. Right from the beginning. It helps to see this in one continuous thread.

Kenney isn’t under threat of losing leadership. He’s consistently given businesses and the evangelical radicalized Christian nationalists most of their demands. That’s who elected him, those are his donors, that’s who he answers to. Not the general public.

The political theatre with Grace Life church is Kenney’s and UCP’s method of maintaining livelihoods, “liberty” and “freedom” as the priority over public health, and to boost the power of the Dominionist Christians to shape Alberta policy.

How do I know? I found this JCCF video. It’s full of conspiracy theories, Q’Anon, & disinformation about covid, Canada & science.

It features Tucker Carlson, JCCF lawyers, Fox News prominently, & it’s currently being circulated widely in US & Canada.

rumble.com/vfji3d-covid-t…

What’s Rumble dot com? It’s the new alt right version of YouTube. Where Republicans and Conservatives continue to offer their propaganda unaffected by YouTube censorship.

Incorporated in Canada.

Yep, a Canadian company is the new video platform for US & Canada’s alt right.

This has international implications for national security. In the US, Canada and several other nations.

I read the other day that Canadian pundits believe Q’Anon phenomenon is dead or dying. Progressives, don’t be so naive. Trump & his cabal are not going to fade away quietly.

I and many others predicted after Biden’s inauguration that the January 6, 2021 insurrection wasn’t over. It was just regrouping. Using stealth instead of blatant threats.

We now have verifiable proof that Canadian conservatives are in cahoots with American Trump Republicans.

There is no doubt now. JCCF’s video is so saturated with American information, it’s reminiscent of the new UCP draft curriculum. Heavy on the American and evangelical Christian overtones. Canada is just a meagre replica of American greatness.

So let’s delve in further. Tucker Carleton has recently become a centrist target.

Calls for his resignation and firing go unheeded, but there is a valid reason for them.

Tucker provides the main narratives for Trump’s Q’Anon conspiracy theories.

forbes.com/sites/petersuc…

And Rumble dot com (since August 2020) provides the medium where Q’Anon conspiracy narratives are uncensored, expanded is slick professional productions and widely available. All under the radar.

Wrongly assuming since we don’t see them on Twitter, FB & YouTube, they’re gone.

Nope. They’ve just changed mediums.

It’s interesting that Trump and the organized criminal organization that surrounds him has chosen a Canadian company.

Canadians do have an innocent and benign reputation. Most of us are innocent and benign, even benevolent. But not all.

Stereotypes are only useful for broad categorization. They aren’t a rule, but just a reflection of the norm.

There are people without morals and ethics in every nation and every culture. And surprisingly enough they are not all on the right. Some are on the left as well.

That makes life more difficult to navigate, but it does keep it interesting. We can never assume a benign identity characteristic defines an individual in totality. Character is judged through time and across many personality traits.

If it were easy to sum up a person in one meeting, one incident or event or one verbal exchange, life would be simpler. And less messy. But we all have some good and bad characteristics. Assessing character is determining which of the two poles is more dominant. Good or bad?

Tucker is bad throughout. He’s a white supremacist clearly. But he’s a practiced, charismatic liar and gaslighter. Not to you and me, but to the people who have been convinced to turn their critical thinking skills off and just obey and submit all decision making to Q or god.

Rumble is being used as an indoctrination medium. It introduces and reinforces delusional far right beliefs and values. With complete impunity and little knowledge of the rest of the population who does use critical thinking in various degrees.

This is how you get people to believe that Jews eat babies in some insane dystopian blood libel narrative and that the left are all pedophiles.

Repeatedly offering those beliefs are called dehumanization.

Excessive dehumanization is the precursor to violence & insurrection.

We witnessed it on Twitter and Facebook before January 6, 2021. Now it’s being done in secret on a medium not used by progressives and centrists.

So the narratives and influence is several degrees more intensely dehumanizing and targeted at the most vulnerable people.

With no countering narrative attempting to provide balance or a more realistic view.

That’s how formerly normal rational people come to believe lizard people from space run the world, Trump won the presidential election and all democrats and lefties are Satan worshippers.

And those beliefs make it infinitely easier to completely buy into superiority narratives and to develop disdain, prejudice and hatred for anyone but the people who believe exactly as their pastor, Tucker Carlson, and Trump tell them to believe.

That is called a cult.

That is what is happening in western society. The world hasn’t gone nuts, conservatives are using economic insecurity, the current pandemic, climate change requirements and a myriad of other stressors to control the thinking of swaths of people.

Trump is merely the charismatic leader representing god. Organizations like Council for National Policy, ALEC, think tanks like Fraser Institute, and Rumble provide multi sectoral reinforcement of the narrative and control of the cult’s behaviour through suggestion.

I’ve been writing this thread all day. What happened with Grace Life while I was busy writing? Exactly what I thought would happen. A protest, without masks or social distancing, increased intensity, people completely oblivious to the danger of covid.

cbc.ca/news/canada/ed…

Tomorrow there is another protest at the legislature. The goal is to increase each side’s power and prestige. Provide Kenney with an opportunity to save face and bring peace by allowing church goers to continue protesting unmasked (even though we have a mandatory mask order).

Grace Life will pray for Kenney, Dr. Hinshaw and AHS and reinforce their sanctimony and commitment to preserving freedom (religious freedom).

Nary a word was spoke about the increased danger of variants I bet.

I like dramas. I do like live theatre. But I don’t enjoy having my freedom compromised by a premier who refuses to eliminate covid and a radicalized Christian group that believes the masses of unwashed are ruled by Satan, so they don’t have to follow our secular rules and laws.

People actually believe Kenney is in political trouble.

Kenney is an evangelical Christian. He has advanced reformist, radical zealous evangelical ideology his entire adult life.

But today he’s on the left, the science side and completely abandoning the community he belongs to, the people who direct his policies and the corporations that fund his politics. Because it’s covid. Uh huh!

Occam’s Razor. The simplest solution is usually the right one.

Kenney’s abandoned his lifelong ideology and is doing the right thing. Or he’s consolidating power for himself and his religious supporters.

How often do politicians do a complete about face?

How many elaborate ruses has Kenney performed to gaslight the public?

I’m a lifelong Albertan and political junkie. Kenney hasn’t abandoned his life’s ambition to install the Kingdom of god on earth.

@threadreaderapp please compile