James Bauder, the founder of Canada Unity and the architect of the "trucker" convoy to Ottawa, has said Trudeau “needs too[sic] be arrested and charged for treason, and for participating in committing crimes against humanity.” vice.com/en/article/bvn…
Jason LaFace, who was linked to far-right group Soldiers of Odin, is listed as the Northern Ontario organizer. Here he is rejecting the idea this is *just* about vaccine mandates.
Just so we're clear, the convoy isn't a decentralized or heterogeneous movement. Every aspect of this organization and convoy go back to a handful of organizers, including Bauder, his wife, and Pat King.
This is not a movement that's been "hijacked" or "taken over by extremists." That's factually incorrect. The freedom convoy was dreamed up by Bauder as a way to remove Trudeau from power. Since then it's attracted an array of other conspiracy theorists and far-right agitators.
I do feel like I'm losing my mind. In 2020, I wrote how a deranged plan to have the U.S. embassy try Trudeau for treason may have directly fed into one man's armed and delusional attempt to arrest the PM.
I genuinely can't believe that Canadian politicians are lending their credibility to a movement that believes it can oust our democratically-elected government, and will try and shut down our capital until they succeed.
This is why I asked Erin O'Toole what the hell is going through his head, in planning to meet with these people.
Details about this planned "blockade" have been hazy thus far. (Some organizers insisted it would surround the whole city and/or the U.S. border.)
In this video, from Jan 22, Pat King says they won't disrupt supply chains (that's "later") but they will target politicians homes.
And for folks who have insisted that Pat King isn't involved with the group: He's *still* listed as an organizer on their official page, he has a "Canada Unity" email address, and he's leading a number of trucks. He's a whole faction of this thing.
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This is core to the right-wing "groomer" discourse: Introducing the concept of Queer people is indoctrinating children; therefore it's sexualizing; therefore it's pedophilia. This is a fundamentally extreme position that has been mainstreamed thanks to some very couched language.
There is nothing new to this argument. There is nothing interesting about it. There is no valid point to be made, or new data to be pointed to.
This argument only works by trading in unhinged paranoia and fear.
If you're against teaching kids about the concept of diverse genders and sexualities, if you're afraid of drag queen story time, if you want to actively prevent parents from teaching their kids that Queer people exist and are fabulous: Then you're homophobic/transphobic.
We probably don't talk enough about just how prevalent the QAnon ideology is in Germany. dw.com/en/german-poli…
This really fascinating study does a great job of quantifying the popularity of QAnon in the German-speaking world, as well as the reach of some of its most influential channels and narratives. cemas.io/en/publication… (PDF)
There is an avowedly QAnon print magazine in Germany. It repackages some of the wildest Q theories — Chris Cornell was murdered by the deep state! The pandemic was planned!
After the much-hyped Twitter Files failed to prove that the FBI had any role in suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story, the pro-Trump crowd obsessed over ex-FBI counsel James Baker's role at Twitter.
Alex Jones has gotten a lot of attention recently for looking reasonable next to Ye's Hitler fandom.
And yet...
"Here's a bunch of leftist academics and Hollywood people, a lot of them Jews, literally trying to teach...[that] white people, except Jews are all bad people."
Jones has been on this kick for *a long time.* In the early 2000s, Jones ranted that "90%+ of the time, the vast majority of the time" Nazi and Klan rallies are run by "feds" and those Nazis: "You can look at them and tell, but it turns out they're Jewish."
As Ye gets denounced by even those friendly to his cause, Jones is seeing his star rise once again — despite the fact that he absolutely laid the groundwork for West's brand of paranoid antisemitism.
This is an absolutely atrocious take. Mass surveillance and data capture is *always* abused. Giving people control of their data — and the freedom to commoditize or keep private that asset — needs to be a fundamental principle going forward. thehill.com/opinion/techno…
Put another way: Enabling mass surveillance, even for altruistic purposes, actually robs people of their autonomy and power. If you want to eliminate disparities in the market: *Give people more control over their data.*
Take this passage on pay gaps, which blames "asymmetric information within the market, held by employers" which can be fixed by "publicly collecting salary data."
This is a false choice! Tax agencies and labour departments already do this and could publish *aggregated* data.