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Jen Gerson Profile picture
Jen Gerson
@jengerson
Co-founder of @the_lineca. Chaotic Neutral. National Treasure. One-time trash cake ambassador. You know I'm right.
Jun 8 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
1) Ok, Imma put on my "comms" hat for half a minute here because the way this water crisis in Calgary is being communicated is really bad and I am going to try to help. 2) Firstly; please explain clearly why the breaking of the water main is affecting the entire city's potable water supply. Use clear and simple maps.
Nov 26, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The tl;dl version of our podcast: you can make a political and sociological, and maybe economic case for the invocation of the EA. However, the legal justification remains, to our mind, elusive. theline.substack.com/p/experimental… Meanwhile, the fact that the freedom convoy ever reached the level of crisis that required the EA to be contemplated at all was the result of staggering failure at every level of government. Just an absolute embarrassment.
Nov 26, 2022 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
@mattgurney @davidprime I believe (though correct me!) that almost all of the assault charges were laid as a result of the police action to clear out the protestors; And the charges and names remain, bizarrely, secret. nationalpost.com/news/canada/id… @mattgurney @davidprime As Matt rightly pointed out, there were certainly increased cases of general disorder as a result of the convoy's occupation. But I'm not aware of any serious charges of assault or the like prior to the period of clear out.
Nov 25, 2022 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
All social media platforms are doomed to failure. All social media platforms are populated by humans: once they reach critical mass, they devolve into internecine tribal warfare and general awfulness. It's not the algorithm. It's not the owner. It's not the user interface. Social media is bad because we, humans, are bad.

We are the baddies.
Mar 31, 2022 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
No. As the private sector figures itself out/collapses, there's a role for the CBC, particularly in underserved communities.

We should, however, hold a serious mandate review. The CBC needs to focus on what it is good at and where it is most needed in the current media landscape. Instead, what we've got is a hydra-headed bureaucracy deeply prone to mission creep. The CBC can't be everything to everybody and largely sucks when it tries.
Nov 9, 2021 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Said it before: but the market is so ripe for more expensive consumer goods designed to last a century. High quality materials and easily replaceable mechanical parts. I'm restoring and refinishing a 140 year old desk. Imagine anything from Ikea after 30.
Nov 9, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Something to be written about how the sheer abundance of consumer goods has reduced once-basic life skills into luxury hobbies. Cooking, baking, sewing, carpentry, gardening, raising food animals like chickens; all of it totally unnecessary, producing goods that can be more cheaply obtained via Amazon.
Oct 29, 2021 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
The dissent in this case really is something to read. Just amazingly muddy thinking. "The issue is whether the child with disabilities lost protection from discrimination and the right to be free from public humiliation and bullying just because he is well known."

The "right" to be free from public humiliation? Which "right" is that again?
Aug 26, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Like, am I expecting us to get literally every single person who worked for us out of Afghanistan? No.

But was I expecting we'd tell a bunch of them to show up to gas stations and airports and then ghost them while the Taliban closed in? ALSO NO. theline.substack.com/p/kevin-newman… The bar for success was not "perfect execution." The bar was, like, maybe don't tell them all to come to a hotel and then abandon them.

Aug 26, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
I honestly don't know how anyone can read Newman's pieces here and think: "this is good enough. Canada's doing good enough, here."
theline.substack.com/p/kevin-newman…

theline.substack.com/p/kevin-newman… Or: "yeah, it's really useful and excellent and says good things about us as a country to have GAC and IRCC at each others' throats during a crisis." theline.substack.com/p/lauren-dobso…
Mar 18, 2021 • 66 tweets • 7 min read
Please understand that I resent this. I resent this enormously. Tonight's drunk live-tweet review will be Bigfoot Family, recently made famous in Alberta political circles by the critical reception of our premier.

Our viewing will be accompanied by @lindsayamantea, who provided our libations. And virtually by @EmmaLGraney. Let's begin.
Jan 21, 2021 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
1) Imposing aluminum and steel and other targeted tariffs as a strategic punitive and defensive measure against an anti-trade U.S. President like Donald Trump was politically viable because those tariffs had little visible direct impact on consumers. 2) By comparison, if you think Canadians are going to risk a trade war escalation and clamor for higher heating and oil costs in the middle of winter to engage in a useless symbolic protest over...Keystone XL. Right before an election call. You are off your fucking rocker.
Jan 18, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Things are going well in Alberta. Hey, at least we have that job-generating corporate tax credit, fair deal panel, misinformation-fighting war room, and a premier who is finally willing to FIGHT FOR THIS PROVINCE in opposition to the Alberta-hating federal government whose help we now desperately need.
Jul 27, 2020 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
1) So I have some news!

At the risk of falling into another tedious Twitter debate about "cancel culture" etc., there is one point that hasn't been widely made about the state of our politics, culture and commentary and *waves hands* ALL OF THIS. 2) Many of the critics of cancel culture are focused on the toxic dynamics of "the mob" that leads to pile ons, excommunications, denunciations etc. This is understandable.
Jul 11, 2020 • 12 tweets • 2 min read
The observations in this thread by @Scholars_Stage is correct, and I would only add a few thoughts. When I spent more time in online communities, I noticed the same dynamic over and over. When they begin, they're generally pretty amicable. People chat, debate, disagree, but usually in a friendly way.

Then the community begins to grow.
Jul 3, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
"These “solutions” are unacceptable. The lack of affordable child care, especially for low-income and racialized families, was already unsustainable. It is now a crisis for many." theglobeandmail.com/opinion/articl… If governments move forward with these *insane* proposals, the only option for (mostly) women will be to quit their jobs, or to create informal schooling networks outside the purview and control of the public system.
May 4, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
I swear, a man walks into a room full of Conservatives and says: "I don't want gov't handouts. I just want a system that allows me to compete and work" and he gets a standing ovation.

A woman with children says the same, and it's blank stares and crickets all around. "Ok, but we'll give you a bigger cheque if you stay at home with your kids and earn no income and call that a choice."
Nov 14, 2018 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
1) So, a few quick thoughts on #calgary2026. I thought that the yes side was going to take it because it was so much better organized and funded. Plebiscites are won on turnouts. Who mobilizes votes. 2) That said, there was also an angry, skeptical vibe about this entire shambolic process. I didn't know if that feeling would be strong enough to motivate people to vote.