All the nice things we have are thanks to political radicals and social movements that were once marginalized if not violently repressed by the mainstream and the state. Progress isn't the product of centrists or technocrats or 'well-meaning' capitalists seeking to right wrongs. It's the product of radicals and social movements fighting for justice despite, and against, these people.

Being able to define one thing as political and another as apolitical is a function of power. It’s not neutral. Saying a keffiyeh is political but some other piece of cultural or religious garb isn’t? That’s political! It’s not a given. It’s a choice. Like how we culturally construct the wearing of a hijab versus a nun’s habit, for instance.

In time, we ought to see evidence of one sort or another that support Trudeau's India claim.

In the meantime, as the investigation continues, we have brains and ought to be able to draw conclusions from what we know: 1. Trudeau made an extraordinary claim re: a killing
2. He had been talking to allies (and India), including the US, about this claim for weeks
3. The US has de facto corroborated the claim in its statements about the killing

Canada’s election wasn’t stolen by China. If you think that, you’re not the “critical thinker” you think you are.

Canada’s elections are won legitimately by parties who get 100 percent of government with ~20 percent of eligible voters! We should broadly investigate foreign involvement in our elections (including the US, China, the convoy funders and the far right, PACs, etc.). But guess what: we have deep, persistent democratic problems that have been around much longer than the latest front page panic.

I have finally made a difference in this country.

https://twitter.com/David_Moscrop/status/1630333101879468033

Sorry. I have finally made a difference in this country. #DougFordIsAPotato

This article framing does nothing for producing better policy. It contributes to an antagonistic gotcha media space that makes better outcomes harder -- and makes people less likely to talk to journalists.

I do not care for it.

https://twitter.com/gmbutts/status/1630198857156943872

It's hard not to hate this business some days.

Hello and welcome to my thread on Justin Trudeau's testimony before the Public Order Emergency Commission. You can watch the proceedings here.

publicorderemergencycommission.ca/public-hearing…

I'm embarrassed to admit it took me a long time to come up with a formulation for Doug Ford's politics but one coalesced today while I was researching populism for an article. Doug Ford isn't a populist. He's a clientalist. He's a right winger and that informs his politics. But he also creates relationships of exchange in the right wing universe between electoral constituencies in return for support, narrowly serving those sectors through patronage.

That is...a lot of union heft on one stage. You love to see it

Solidarity.

*millions* of private and public sector workers represented on that stage, CUPE national president Mark Hancock says.

If Ford wants to change the channel on his assault on labour rights, he's going to have to swallow an F-150 during this press conference. He looks and sounds awful during this presser. I hope he's feeling the pressure.

As long as we’re making up Twitter policy on the fly, I think any account that gets ratioed on a tweet by more than 4:1 should be suspended until the owner completes an American-gladiator style gauntlet challenge. Actions have consequences. Make them fight.

I cannot stress enough how critical this moment is. If governments in Canada can smash the constitution and legislate away the right to strike, collective bargaining rights are dead.

If collective bargaining rights die, workers across the country are goners.

That means you. This is a critical juncture.

The way of the Ford government is the way of oppression, austerity, and suffering.

The way of solidarity and union rights is the way of better jobs, better pay, and better lives.

Choose carefully.

#GeneralStrike

I'm so excited to share the first episode of my monthly Substack podcast 'On Work', featuring the legend himself: @elamin88.

This is a podcast about how people work. Their routines, rituals, tactics, strategies, and more.

Listen below and sign up today!
davidmoscrop.substack.com/p/episode-1-el… Please note, I get the name of *my own* podcast wrong, calling it On Working. It's On Work. But what a fun little Easter egg to start with.

Also, twice I say we're ending the chat but keep going. Well, folks, Elamin is just that good. There was more to say.

I hope you enjoy!

If the government was legislating you into a multi-year pay cut (during an affordability crisis), how would you feel?

How about if you made $39,000 for critical work that made education possible and safe?

Everyone should stand with CUPE education workers. And if your private employer is screwing you in a similar way, that’s not an argument to throw CUPE workers under the bus.

It’s an argument for higher unionization rates in the private sector and for solidarity across the board.

CUPE 🔥

“Pierre is a career politician who has been collecting a six-figure salary on the public’s dime since he was 24, and he’s spent every minute of his time in office fighting against fair wages, good pensions and a better life for working people.”

cupe.ca/statement-cupe… “He is not a worker, and he definitely doesn’t get what it means to be a member of the working class.”

Good evening and welcome to my thread on the 2022 Conservative Party leadership event. We're now into the part of the evening where we all use sports analogies and metaphors to talk about the night and treat our politics as an exclusively strategic concern devoid of substance, as if policy was an afterthought, which I suppose it is.

If you have a column in a high circulation newspaper, you’re an elite.

https://twitter.com/sunlorrie/status/1568616101973733377

It’s not a state of mind. It’s a sociological relationship.

Democracy is in decline globally—and has been for years. It’s not getting better. And a handful of growing and overlapping crises are only going to make things worse. Democracy is an historical exception, not rule. It’s hard to build and easy to lose. Economic democracy is rarer still but essential to political democracy. You’ve gotta want it or it’s a goner.

A lot of folks in politics and media have some choices to make right now about who they associate with and platform during an increasingly dangerous moment. I don't exempt myself from these choices. But sorry folks, a lot of your go-to people, green room buddies, and cocktail hour pals are bad news.

You folks run Jordan Peterson. Ever met his fans?

nationalpost.com/opinion/from-t… The call is coming from inside the house.

Once again thinking about the Canadian journalists and “journalists” who backed Trump or downplayed the threat he posed and how they should never be taken seriously again. Most of them shouldn’t have been taken seriously in the first place but hey.