Thread by @Norlaine

It's an old political ploy, giving people and ideas they don't like a negative name. Rather than answer the criticisms of the curriculum, they accuse critics of having nefarious motives. #abLeg #abpoli #cndpoli 1/25

https://twitter.com/BetteGray/status/1395116284304510977

The Calgary Chamber of Commerce supports paid sick leave. The Ontario Chamber of Commerce supports paid sick leave. Everyone not blinded by ideology can see that paid sick leave helps stop the spread of the virus. 2/25

And the virus must stop spreading before there can be any "economic recovery". Jason Kenney is speaking ideology that has no relationship with how the world actually functions. 3/25

He is also using standard right-wing strategy. Remember how Trump gave people he didn't like nicknames? "Crooked Hillary", "Sleepin' Joe", "Pocahontas", etc. It looked like he thought he was being clever. But it actually is a strategy. 4/25

What he was doing was assigning "enemies" with attributes that would be linked in people's minds. Juxtaposition of words can be a powerful tool to influence the thoughts of others. Let's look at conservative communication. What words and phrases have been introduced? 5/25

"Big Union Bosses", "Environmental Extremists", "Eco-Terrorists", "Special Interest Groups", "Crooked Chiefs", "Academic Elites", "Woke Political Activists", etc. And things they don't like? Same MO. 6/25

"Job-Killing Policy", "Job-Killing Taxes", "Unnecessary Red Tape", talk about leaving a debt to our grandchildren... It's a very populist approach, to turn everything into a money issue that people are made to feel they should take personally. 7/25

There are no facts to go along with these labels. They are mnemonics that are designed to imprint an idea in your mind. They don't need facts when they have a crew of good psychological manipulation people in the communications crew or on speed dial. 8/25

What they say doesn't have to be true. The catch-phrases and nicknames get into people's heads. Impressions are formed. All the evidence proving it was false can't shake those impressions loose from a lot of people's minds. 9/25

Stephen Harper, as PM, introduced a lot of concepts to our lexicon. "Old Stock Canadians" is one. Similar to Ralph Klein's "Severely Normal Albertans", the phrase is a call-out to people who are white, middle-class, straight, and... 10/25

whose families have been in Canada for a long time. It was a dismissal of the voices of Canadians who do not fit that description. And it coincided with the rise of a lot of white supremacist/white nationalist activity, which has only grown since then. 11/25

Harper did a lot of bad things. He pushed through a lot of bad, draconian legislation; he destroyed research libraries; he made more than two dozen secret-orders-in-council, more than any other Canadian PM, even during wartime; he created retroactive laws and appointments...12/25

set to begin after his term in office ended. But the most egregious thing he did was to shove the Overton window much farther right. And he did it with language. 13/25
thecailleach.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-ov…

We are normalizing things that are not normal. It is not normal for an opposition party to invent scandals. It is not normal for opposition MPs to lie openly. And not be challenged by news media. 14/25

But, oh yeah... Harper allowed foreigners (mostly American and very conservative) to take control of all our national news except the CBC. And he installed his people in the CBC. 15/25

We are normalizing things that are NOT NORMAL. Like a premier dancing in a fountain after removing protections from LGBTQ2+ youth. 16/25

It's not normal for a Minister of Health to stand on a doctor's driveway and scream at him. It's not normal for the federal opposition to post an ad with an outhouse saying that's where the PM belongs. 17/
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It's not normal at all for news media to call an assassination attempt on the PM "trespassing". It's not normal. Why don't people remember? Well, I will tell you. 18/25

Language matters. It is very important. Language is how we communicate ideas. And when these people on the right use language, they use it very strategically. They imbed ideas in people's minds. They know exactly what they are doing. 19/25

They are counting on a lack of critical thinking skills. The skills the UCP is trying to eradicate with their draft curriculum. People who think critically see what the words are meant to do and they resist being taken in. 20/25

But those who do not have those skills are easy prey. Too much is being normalized. In the US, black people being killed by police, and mass shootings, have become normalised. That should not be. But it serves the wealth of arms manufacturers that shootings be normal. 21/25

It suits the supremacy and budgets of police departments that shooting black people is normalised. Cutting red tape is the big phrase of conservatives in Canada. They make it out so "red tape" is bad, job-killing, etc. Remember Walkerton? Remember Lac Megantique? 22/25

Remember Listeriosis? All because regulations (aka red tape) were cut. Regulations exist for reasons. They are not weird, arbitrary rules. They are there to keep people and the environment safe. Who gains from "red tape reduction"? 23/25

Companies who know their activities will hurt people or the environment and they don't care. The bottom line is everything. And conservatives listen to such companies. Why is hard to fathom. But red tape reduction has been normalised. Because language. 24/25

Think carefully when you hear conservatives speak. Ask yourself who will gain from what they are proposing. Hint: It's probably not you. Resist being influenced by language. Resist normalizing the very abnormal. 25/25