Thread by @ARCCollective

1. I'm not a Liberal and am generally ambivalent regarding the PM, but I remember the day after the election the people I watch started to demand Trudeau step down and that they would never accept him as the PM.

https://twitter.com/gtlem/status/1682785162726109184

2. They would be enraged by even small issues such as, on Canada's 150th birthday, when he briefly forgot Alberta in a speech about the provinces.

And I mean briefly. Probably no more than 5 seconds.

The far right were apoplectic.

3. But had he mentioned Alberta, nothing would have changed. They would be angry about something.

For example, the commitment to open the doors to more refugees from Syria.

4. Another was a non-binding motion M103, to condemn Islamophobia and all other bigotry. A similar motion condemning Antisemitism passed a few years unanimously.

5. In response hate groups such as the Soldiers of Odin and Worldwide Coalition Against Islam (and other similar groups) were formed. They railed against Muslims, including those born in the country. They were not "real" Canadians.

6. Other immigrants and identifiable groups were swept up in this too. Not real Canadians. Trudeau is dividing the country by bringing in foreigners.

You get it.

7. I also started to frequently see suggestions the PM should be publicly executed for... reasons. I guess?

8. And then of course the conspiracies.

Trudeau and the WEF.

Trudeau is burning down the forests.

Trudeau is part of a human trafficking ring.

Trudeau stole the 2015, 2019, and 2021 elections with the help of Dominion.

And so on.

9. Point is, there was nothing the PM could or will be able to do to calm things because these people were angry from the start.

10. For the claim the PM is dividing people, let's be honest about what that means.

The people I'm talking about are upset whomever they supported didn't win so any policies, even ones they might otherwise agree with, are dividing Canadians" when it isn't their person in office.

11. We also know they don't really care about "uniting" because of how happy they are at any opportunity to "own the libtards". They look at the orange man south of the border of the person the want who will enrage whom they have labeled as their enemies,

12. Doesn't matter if the policies of the orange man made their lives demonstrably worse. No, so long as he made the lives of the people they had come to hate worse than theirs, all was good.

13. So it probably shouldn't too surprising that in Belleville we saw Trump flags (and a "Fuck Trudeau" flag designed in the Trump style) because he represents the kind of leadership, if one can call his 4 years in office at all, leadership.

14. So let's be very clear, the people who complain about the PM "dividing" Canadians are absolutely fine with actually dividing Canadians... so long as they are the ones who have the power to do it.

15. There are things that one can genuinely be critical of regarding the Liberal Party and the Prime Minister.

But let's not pretend that a lot of the anger isn't simply incoherent rage about whatever the Facebook algorithm tells people to be angry about this week.