Fyi

“The blog,” I said to Dorothy – who had stopped reading it – “will turn into a toxic swamp.”

That was last year. The American election was months away. Trump was ascending, despite his criminal conviction for fraud plus a civil finding of sex abuse and defamation. Biden was struggling. And increasingly there was an alliance forming between the MAGA fan base and the anti-Trudeau, pro-PP Canadian forces. A crapstorm was darkening the horizon.

Now, after November 5th, it’s here. The rabid support for a capricious Trump tariff which could crush our economy by those Canadians wishing to hurt the federal Libs makes it clear. This is partisanship over patriotism. Too many care more about social conservativism and cultural slights than they do about their country.

Moreover, they’re angry. Bitter and hostile. Ungracious in victory. And, yes, this site has become toxic as a result. Certainly the comments section. I’m glad she doesn’t come here anymore.

In many ways, Trump’s narrow victory was a result of social media, the breakdown of fact-based journalism and the rampant ascent of conspiracy. People believe what they’re repeatedly told, and in the absence of verifiable truth.

So, many folks in North Carolina were told that awful hurricane and flooding were federally-induced to clear land for lithium mining. Seriously. They bought it. People believe employed migrants take benefits and pay no taxes (they contribute over $100 billion). They think all those brown Mexicans and Columbians are criminals and rapists (the bulk are women and children). Now they believe the Canadian border is porous and it’s our job to tell people they can’t cross. (It’s not. Our job is to vet people coming in.) Now that weird RFK is the US health guy, many support him in thinking vaccines cause autism. (They don’t.)

Lately council meetings in Ontario towns have faced angry citizens claiming elected people are trying to enslave them. They believe the ’15-minute city’ conspiracy theory which erupted during the pandemic. The idea is not to create a walkable, bikeable community with nearby services and fewer car trips, they think, but it’s part of a large plot to surveil and control the population, using G5 technology mounted on utility poles. The harmless word ‘mobility’ is now being stripped from local development plans as a result.

Turns out social media is a power that cannot be controlled, and as such may well destroy – or alter – what we have. Peer-to-peer communication is unfiltered, unverified, untested, often untrue, easily repeated, usually amplified and can be created instantly, convincingly and incessantly by AI. Brains have been twisted by this, especially in people who live in a closed world of messaging.

The things that Trump supporters believed were bizarre. Now he is the world’s most powerful man. No guardrails in Washington. The ability to shake nations with a social media post. We have years of volatility, chaos and unpredictable economic and geopolitical policy ahead of us.

Social media and its manipulators, Trump being the most skilled, made people living in America believe they were in a failed state. Meanwhile the US economy was the envy of the world, unemployment was at a 50-year low, financial markets were at record highs, wages had doubled inflation and an historic number of jobs had been created in a nation at the very leading edge of technology.

Well, here we be. Perception reigns.

In the last few days blog comments have been increasingly angry, derogatory, abusive and false. As you know, they are moderated – passing through my filter. So it’s been my task to wade into the muck and ghost or delete the most offensive. Sometimes it’s rabid lefties who cross the line into insult and mockery. Nine times of ten, it’s the MAGA and Canadian Con crowd who cannot be civil or truthful.

Life is too short to spend reading this junk. And this site is not here to give you voice.

We are closer to the end. FYI.

About the photo: “I want to thank you for your valued and quality advice you provide on your daily blog,” writes Ian, on Vancouver Island. “In today’s world I find it refreshing to get straight up honest advice with no filter. I’ve been following your blog for years. Here’s a little photo of Coco to brighten you day.”

To be in touch or send a picture of your beast, email to ‘garth@garth.ca’.

Source: https://www.greaterfool.ca/2024/11/28/fyi/