Yes, and that fucking sucks. The biggest takeaway I have from this whole situation is that his insensitive and racist actions of the past may well lead to even more suffering because paradoxically his actions are going to lead people to elect racists.
It seriously, seriously sucks. But that has nothing to do with whether or not his actions were racist and whether or not people should forgive him for it. Folks are going to vote for what they consider to be important. You don’t attempt to change that by trying to suggest that the facts matter less because of the circumstances.
I’m a lifelong NDP voter who voted Liberal in the last election (and will be absentee-voting Liberal in this election, too) because First-Past-the-Post makes it the best chance for a non-shitty outcome, and because the Liberal party, and the needs of the country, outweigh the actions of one person IMHO. That doesn’t mean I forgive or believe there should not be consequences for these actions.
I subscribe to both WaPo and NYTimes even though I am Canadian, because I think it’s the least I can do to support responsible journalism in an age where it is on the decline. The piece would be difficult to summarize and I linked to as a way to avoid being personally attacked. I’m done with this thread. The personal hostility is too much. Peace.
I sincerely tried to be respectful in this thread, but sometimes it’s hard to keep things chill when the subject is so contentious. I’m sorry if I crossed a line at any point. I know you’ll have no qualms about forgiving me , even though we disagree about progressivism.
Sometimes the local candidates make the choice easy.
The Conservative candidate was a cog in the Harper machine, and has a gold star from a homophobic Christian-right group. (You can’t pick your supporters, true, but it’s easy to disown them. She hasn’t.)
The NDP has real trouble getting anyone to run here.
The Liberals are running a local mayor that I have no problems with.
As it’s a swing riding, I’m not going to protest vote or stay home. The thought of 3-4 years under Andrew Scheer and Doug Ford is unbearable.
You’re right, I shouldn’t assume that. I first heard about this on the radio and expected to see an image with the markings that are distinct to blackface (I had an image up to show the difference, but it offended people, so I took it down). This includes exaggerated and highlighted facial features like big, pale lips. When I looked at it myself, I saw evidence that he foolishly covered himself in black makeup, but saw no evidence that it was designed to mock anyone.
There’s also been evidence that he has improved life for immigrants in Canada through policy changes. So, I tend to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.
This is a bit like saying, “If Hillary lost the support of swing voters because of the email scandal…”. She didn’t win the presidency, but was it really because of her email scandal? There’s probably more to it than that. For example, many media corporations limit or exaggerate the information they release to manipulate voters. Cambridge Analytica. The system is also rigged so that the winner isn’t necessarily the person with the most votes (in both Canada and the US).
In Canada, there’s also a situation where environmental groups could lose their non-profit status for chiming in during the election (effectively being shut down):
However, corporations like Shell are free to discuss the environment ad nauseam, because they have no status to lose.
Our elections are being manipulated in a very real way by the flow of information. Some information about (possibly inadvertent) racist behaviour is being given the spotlight over much more significant, purposeful, and calculated racist activity in the form of policy.
Nothing wrong with his words. Bigotry is a general term (applies to racists, homophobes, sexists etc). “Racism” can mean structural racism, but the word “racist” is also used to refer to a racial bigot.
Did Justin Trudeau do a racist thing when younger ? Yes, in the general structural meaning of racism. Does that make him a racist in the meaning of racial bigot? No. One word, two meanings.
You can benefit and participate in racism without being a racist (and white people in general do) but this is not the message that seems to be getting out there.
I clicked (actually, I copy-and-pasted the URL), and read the piece.
The tl;dr:
The author begins by grossly mischaracterizing the political left, in a way that seems very deliberate to me, and he continues that mischaracterization throughout, without ever providing evidence. The essay is mostly an appeal to a fear of Karl Marx that the author assumes the reader has, in order to convince the reader to stand against progressivism. The author firmly believes that contemporary progressives have not learned the lessons of the Soviet era (which I firmly believe they have), and is afraid that advocates for social justice will destroy democracy (even though, I believe, they’re working to make democracy better).
Imho, the article is obviously designed to convince people who benefit from the status quo that their quality of life will be destroyed if the people working to improve the quality of life for everyone else get their way. A choice quote:
(It should be noted that the author is a white male professor of political science at the University of London, and, based on his other articles on the site, it’s safe to assume he’s obsessed with fighting “wokeness”; he is adamantly a “moderate”).
I still haven’t forgiven Trudeau for Wilson-Raybould and Philpott. And you’re right that the truth is, I don’t have to. Partly because I can’t even vote for him. Hell, most times my vote doesn’t even have a say in who forms the government, because it’s already over before the polls even close here.
Hell, the Liberals could win in a landslide and Trudeau still not be PM because he loses his riding. That’s the biggest difference between the Parliamentary system and the one the US uses.
Nowhere does it say that if we must forgive the current leader to elect the party. Nor, as the ongoing British trainwreck shows, does the party have to call a new election if they decide that he’s too toxic or has too much baggage. Nowhere does it say demanding better means I have to choose worse.
To reiterate what I posted above:
I would add it’s also the same threat made by toxic masculinity. “But your father just hits you harder,” is not a good reason for someone to stay in an abusive relationship. It just means finding a solution that involves not moving back home, either.
Putting someone on probation is not the same as wiping their crime from the books. We can still put in a Liberal government, and remind our reps that if more of this continues, and they continue to close ranks that it’s not 2015, it’s 2019 (or 20, or anything else) and we don’t have time for this anymore.
Forgive sounds good. Forget, I’m not sure I could. They say time heals everything, but I’m still waiting. --The Dixie Chicks.
, even though we disagree about progressivism.