RECAP: Refuting Trump's Canadian Minions
Imperialism is never about freedom
Imperialism is always the opposite of freedom, liberty, and democracy.
From Freedom Convoy to Fifth Column
“Globalists” turned into nationalists are now pitted against nationalists turned into imperialist force multipliers. It does not follow that whatever was suffered by those who challenged Covid mandates, should now turn to support US imperialism—having battled one threat, they embrace an even bigger one. Acting on principle means that wherever and whenever you encounter the same basic problem pattern, you take the same approach. If the principle is that of sovereignty, or self-determination, and you uphold the freedom of persons to make their own choices, then you defend that principle everywhere it may apply: personal medical choice; bodily autonomy; freedom to self-identify; and, national self-determination.
Response to Donald Trump’s Force Multipliers in Canada: Jordan Peterson, Danielle Smith, and Maple MAGA
How can you be respected, and taken seriously, if you do not respect yourself? If you are so open and willing to kneel to a foreign power, and to even call for your own annexation, how would you expect your new master to view you, and to treat you? If you were that master, with what confidence, and what faith, would you deal with someone who has clearly shown that they are traitors who will sell out their own? These are important questions as they partly explain why the US has historically treated most of its overseas force multipliers as disposable trash to be discarded without a second thought once they outlived their usefulness. As for these force multipliers, they are vicarious nationalists. These vicarious nationalists are primarily Canadian right-wingers who admire nationalism, sovereignty, and self-determination, but only when it is practiced and expressed by Trump and his MAGA supporters. They so admire MAGA nationalism, that they will uphold it at Canada’s expense, which also means at their own expense. These people are ready to pay a Trump tax, and will blame Canada for it, and then they will still claim to be Canada’s only true nationalists. Maple MAGA types are trying to invent and rewrite history. It was the poor US, under attack from Canadian indifference and malfeasance, that was forced to respond. It’s all Canada’s fault for not doing more on the border. The Liberals are causing this trade war. America is innocent once again. At no point do they discuss these points: When did this begin? Who started it? Why did they start it?
Symmetrical Opposition
What disturbs me the most is the realization that for many of those around me, this whole struggle was never really about “vaccine safety” or “lockdowns causing job losses” or defending “personal medical freedom”. This was, for far too many, a moment for gratuitous opposition: opportunistic and expedient. The litany of gripes were mere steppingstones on a path. Most of these disparate groups in Canada, the majority of them Conservative or PPC in orientation, had a mission. One was to defeat Trudeau. The second, it turns out, is to uphold Trump, even at the expense of Canada. After five years of working with these people on common issues, such as challenging vaccine mandates, I discovered that at the drop of the hat they will scorn, ridicule, and lambaste you if you object to Trump and criticize his policies. If that is all it takes to be rejected, then that is all they were about.
The Ideological Work of Trump’s Force Multipliers in Canada
Here is where we dissect and dismantle each of the major claims of pro-Trump, right-wing Canadians, examining some of their key rhetorical techniques and ideological assumptions. Patriotism in Canada is not by mandate. “Mass formation psychosis” applies, if it applies at all, to the anti-Canadian scare tactics used by Trump’s servile Canadian followers. Mired in self-nourished resentments about what happened in Canada during Covid and the Freedom Convoy, they are nonetheless willing to forgive everything when it comes to Trump and his Operation Warp Speed and continued championing of the mRNA shots. Nowhere else in the world do we find the “victims” of Covidian regimes prepared to sell out and betray their own countries, which means we are dealing with a special brand of extremism in Canada.
Canadians who are thinking of colluding (further) with the US as it engages in threats and aggression against Canada, would do themselves a favour if they were to study the fate that collaborators in other countries have met. Where there is a state of open hostility, and institutions in the target country still function, it is not uncommon for individuals to be charged as traitors, and to be arrested, tried, and convicted. In the extreme case of an actual US invasion, then those collaborators would face a much worse fate. They seem to be oblivious to these possibilities, which tells us just how comfortable they still feel, living in Canada.
One final caution to pro-Trump Canadians, which they are sure to ignore because we live in a moment when brains have calcified and ears have been filled with noise:
🔘 Trump is not coming to liberate you;
🔘 Trump does not want to annex Canada because he loves Canadians so very much;
🔘 Trump is not coming to deliver American citizenship to Canadians;
🔘 Trump would not annex Canada so that he can give you “freedoms”;
🔘 Trump does not want Canada so he can challenge some nebulous WEF globalist plot.
Trump just wants your resources, and you are in the way.
INSPIRED BY MAX'S CRITICAL WORK, I entered into an exchange with a fence/border-sitting friend, the gist of which is copied below. Our point of difference concerns the importance of dissent in these trying times...
Ah, Samsara! You can't live with it and you can't live without it. (Except maybe in the case of the Enlightened Ones...)
Under the reign of Samsara a great many situations appear paradoxical or downright contradictory. For instance, during those pandemic days I felt it exceedingly odd that my tightest bonds were being formed with hard-right types - even including a few Flat Earthers! Astoundingly, it would be these grizzled ignoramuses who would most likely come to my defense if push ever came to shove.
Sadly the Left to which I am sentimentally and ideologically attached, had fallen under the sway of regimism (to use Forte's expression) to the point where they were unable to perceive a State hoax, even when is was being enacted right under their very eyes.
I have yet to forgive them for that. And even if I did forgive them, there remains the question of trust, for if they sold out this once, it would be that much easier for them to do it again.
Of annexationism (which as a tendency dates back to the pre-Confederation Fenian Raids of 1866) I didn't hear much expressed locally during those heady days; but then I was not in touch with the Alberta-based western wing of the protest until the Trucker Convoy end-game. I don't have the evidence before me, but it seems likely that major US hydrocarbon interests have played a subversive propagandistic role here. Anyway, in the midst of the struggle, such views can only prove lethally divisive when it is nationalist sentiment that strengthens the people's resolve.
Yet in a samsaric world, paradox prevails, in my case setting localism over against globalism. For years I have boycotted US and Israeli goods (as best I could), yet I've never be able to declare myself a Proud Canadian without those words getting stuck in my throat.
Nor can one pretend to withdraw from the scene of struggle like a "Beautiful Soul" right out of Hegel. For then one's basic assumptions remain un-confronted, untested, festering in the darkness of the unconscious.
Indeed, we speedily become dissidents the moment the authorities turn on us personally. From that point on, we study the adversary, mobilize resources, make alliances, take risk on behalf of others, lie patiently in wait, etc.
But when the pressure lessens, we tend to put all that aside, those heady moments of contestation with actual centres of power, and instead pride ourselves on raising above the storm into a realm of non-dual quietude.
In doing so we risk falling out of rhythm, losing critical insight, turning a shoulder to those who are still caught in the gears of the machine.
In the political realm spiritual practice involves (for one thing) reducing emotional encumbrances that may possibly hinder effective action.
For some years I published poetry through an online journal titled Dissident Voice. I felt privileged to express views that diverged from mass opinion. For me "dissent" was - is - the opposite of "consent". Of course, depending upon the levels at which we function, it is possible to express dissent in the face of injustice, while embracing the universe in its entirety just as it is.
I am suspicious of the suave neocon tendency to disparage "dissent" while failing to skewer complacency with equal hauteur. With few exceptions, this tends to be a right-wing (system-affirming) political posture disguised as a spiritual accomplishment.
It's not easy to identify where we are and what we want through collective behaviour. The act of dissent separates one, subtly or violently, from the herd. That is not an easy path. Even activists get worn down and fall into line. Should we not therefore express our appreciation for those who dare, given different levels of risk, to do so?
I do remember how we in the West were supposed to support the dissidents in Soviet Russia through donations of money and outpourings of praise. Funny how things change.
This is an astounding take on how resentment develops and what drives people to their conclusions. I wonder how you would respond to say the citizens of Saskatchewan facing 100% tariffs from China on canola, about to have their industry decimated, watching Mr. Carney make his first order of business Europe? How exactly do you expect citizens to react when the very people whose job it is to safeguard our economy against the insane machinations down south prioritize shoring up Europe’s finances instead? Forget about Trump, clearly Carney thinks LeBlanc and Champagne have it handled, but do you think it’s in Carney’s interests to stand up to Xi or is that something to set aside? This drive to assign malice to Canadians fed up with the Liberals as all MAGA supporting seditionists is completely deranged. Well done further driving the wedge.