Thread by @Norlaine

Can we just get one thing straight? Some things are true. They are verifiable and evidentially provable. Saying something different does not alter reality. No matter how loudly, or how many times you say it.
#cdnpoli #abpoli #onpoli #skpoli #mbpoli 1/25

Do you think there is a place in society for telling people things that are not true? For convincing people of things that are, in fact, lies? Should school teachers be able to teach things that aren't true? Should your kid's teacher be able to just make stuff up? 2/25

Suppose your kid's teacher is a member of that Diagolon group. Should they be able teach classrooms of kids that Didula is actually queen of Canada, and Queen Elizabeth and the royal family have been executed on Didula's orders? 3/25

Or that people don't have to pay their bills anymore because Didula said so?

What about if your kid's teacher teaches the students that the Holocaust never happened? Or that the earth is flat? Would you be OK with that? 4/25

What if the weather person announced that it will rain frogs tomorrow, and people should stay indoors next Thursday because it will be raining big buckets of money and head injuries are a hazard? 5/25

What if your boss said new regulations give them the power to beat employees for any reason, or just because they felt like it?

What if your faith leader told the congregation that they would burn in hell if they don't vote for the candidates the church endorses? 6/25

How does it make you feel to be lied to? How does it make you feel to be lied to by someone in a position of authority?

Are you OK with this? 7/25

Because, after all, "free speech!" Amiright? Everyone has a right to their opinion, right?

If your kids' teacher has the opinion that certain people are worthless, are you OK with them teaching your kids that? 8/25

If your boss has the opinion that employees should all work naked, are you ok with that?

If your faith leader has the opinion that women should be in the kitchen, pregnant and making sandwiches, because they aren't fit for anything else, are you ok with that? 9/25

There are things which are objectively true.
- Didula IS NOT queen of anything
- HRH QE2 is alive and well, as are most of her family
- You still have to pay your bills, or your electricity and heat and water will get shut off
- the Holocaust happened
10/25

- The earth is round, not flat
- It is not going to rain frogs or buckets of money
- Employers are not allowed to physically assault employees, or force them to work naked
- The church has absolutely no business telling people who to vote for, and hell isn't real anyway
11/25

- Women are equal human beings, not baby incubators
- There are no inferior races, we are all one species. Our experiences, cultural references, physical characteristics may differ, but we all have equal potential.
12/25

But, if you follow right-wing logic, those lies should be perfectly fine to say. In fact, they should be fine to say over & over until people believe them. Because, free speech.

That's bonkers, right?
13/25

By that reasoning:
People should be allowed to yell "FIRE!" in crowded movie theatres.
People should be allowed to sue/accuse to the police other people for things they did not do
No one should ever have to tell the truth in court
14/25

People should be able to spread whatever malicious rumours about others they like, without fear of consequences
People should be able to make up excuses for not going to work or fulfilling other commitments, 15/25

because they are just speaking their own personal truth, their opinion, which they are entitled to, right?

No! NO! No fvcking way!

We cannot have a civil society in which people just lie about everything. 16/25

We cannot have a civil society where people in positions of authority deliberately mislead people for their own gain.

At some point, we need to say, "ENOUGH". That moment has come. 17/25

We have a growing number of citizens who have been fed packs of lies, mistruths, spins on the truth, and deliberate disinformation. Some of it is trivial, but a lot of it has quite significant impacts. 18/25

We have some people who present themselves as journalists who make stuff up, or spin stuff, to convince the public that the current government is deeply corrupt, or even treasonous.

We have politicians who make stuff up to get their way on issues.
19/25

There's a guy running for the leadership of the CPC, who wants to be PM for gods sake, who tried to start a scandal knowing full well what he was suggesting was both impossible and completely false. This is the kind of moral compass we are dealing with. 20/25

It needs to stop. The lies and misinformation needs to stop. We are going to collapse as a society if this continues.

I shouldn't have to say this, but in Canada we don't have "free speech", we have freedom of expression. It's different. 21/25

You can say what you want, believe what you want, but if it hurts people, there are consequences. As it should be.

There are facts. And there are lies. There are no "alternate facts". Alternate facts are lies.
22/25

We have to put a stop to the firehose of lies and disinformation pouring into people's heads through the internet and some news media.

If you are selling toothpaste, there are strict rules about what claims you can make about your product and your competitors' products. 23/25

If you are selling insurrection, a quiet coup, an overthrow of the government, if you are running a smear campaign, discrediting your political opponents, there seems to be no rules.
If some of the media is complicit in it, again, no rules.
24/25

This is entirely unacceptable. We need to stem the tide of propaganda before things happen which jeopardize Canada as a country. Which put people's lives in danger.

The right can yell all they want. Censoring harmful lies is self-preservation for our society.
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