Jaicee said:
Okay well then by this logic I guess we have to also conclude that the Occupy Wall Street movement of 2011, participated in by over a million Americans, was also a kind of sustained neo-Nazi organizing rally because there were opportunistic swastika-brandishing Nazis there too on occasion to explain to the rest of us with their crappy, moronic signs how supposedly the Jews control all the banks and yadda yadda rest of the bullshit stereotypes that such know-nothing idiots still use and rely on. That matter was widely publicized by both Fox News and CNN at the time as proof that the million plus people protesting the recent destruction of the world economy by financial aristocrats through organized, systematic fraud that they weren't being prosecuted for were all a bunch of racist, xenophobic bigots who had to be shut down and shut up. Sound like a fair characterization? Or, by the same token, perhaps the racial justice protests that swept the nation after George Floyd's murder in late spring and summer of 2020, led primarily by the Black Lives Matter movement and joined by millions of Americans and at least initially supported by more than 60% of the U.S. population, were actually about ending all law enforcement in the country because there were small fringe groups using the slogan "Abolish the Police" at some of these events? Does that seem like a fair characterization of the entire movement, or of the movement overall, to you? Were 62% of Americans actually anarchists? The Freedom Convoy is a Canadian movement and Canada and Quebec together have one-tenth as many people as the United States, so their protests tend to be smaller in scale, but nevertheless hundreds of thousands and Canadians and Quebecers have participated in the Freedom Convoys and surveys suggest that it's enjoyed the support of about half the population of Canada and Quebec. Would you say that half the population of Canada and Quebec consists of swastika-brandishing Nazis? No? Okay then! The guilt-by-association logic pseudo-logic here is bullshit and you know it. You're not that dumb. That's just what people recourse to when they'd rather not bother confronting the actual positions represented by a movement's mainstream because doing so could prove a lot tougher. Neo-Nazi and neo-Confederate opportunists have composed only a tiny fringe section of the Freedom Convoy participants and I've observed that they're often forced out once the recognizable insignia comes out, much like at Occupy encampments, because nobody who isn't one of those loons actually wants to be associated with them. Matter-of-factly, I find it a remarkable exercise in gaslighting that the Canadian Prime Minister accuses his critics of supporting the formation of a police state in Canada by virtue of opposing the one he's actually, in fact, creating right now in real life! |
You seem to imply that I said/meant a lot of things that I didn't say. Let me make what I mean clear: You could very well argue that guilt-by-association can often be a poor judge. What you can't argue is that the association is very much real. These individuals are literally standing beside neo-nazis, so don't act like Trudeau is off base by calling it out.
As for whether the association between extremist groups and opinions, and the convoy is as shallow as you imply, it certainly doesn't seem like it to me. I mean for one, the Ottawa Police set up a hotline to deal with the hundreds of hate crime reports that have poured in. Then, you have the open displays of support for nazis, extremist groups (eg. Three Percenters) and conspiracy groups (eg. Q). Finally, you have several of the most prominent figures in the convoy like organizer Pat King who supports the "great replacement"/"white genocide" white nationalist talking point and makes comments about how the jews control the world.
The way I see, no matter how you slice it, you are going to be left with a lot of alt-right bullshit and that shouldn't surprise you, as this convoy is nakedly about airing the grievances of the alt-right.
