Resistance Must Speak Truth to Power
Rebel Meter : 7 out of 10
On various social media platforms, I posted an objection to a recent podcast by the MeidasTouch podcast network, including to MeidasTouch themselves. I like the podcast. It is trying to raise hell. I have been listening to it obsessively for weeks. I am often entertained by the hyperbole. Today I was not.
The two taglines for the episode were sensationalistic. In the video version, a thumbnail screams: MAGA TANKS ALL OVER THE WORLD! that includes a picture of Trump with his head in his hands, next to a separate picture of the leader of the Australian conservative party. The title of the episode is “Trump gets RUDE AWAKENING as MAGA CRASHES abroad.” Even the show-notes has exaggerations similar to this.
Trump, we find out, has not gotten a rude awakening at all. Mostly because we are not inside his head. Nevertheless, I think his behaviour shows he will never admit to the truth. He will never act like he has gotten an awakening. Ever. As many others have noted, he is more like the knight in Monty Python and The Holy Grail, who, not willing to admit defeat, asserts, “It’s only a flesh wound,” as each of his limbs is hacked off.
The host, Ben Meiselas shows a misunderstanding of Canadian politics around the 12:28 mark, when he says, “He [Pierre Poilievre] bullied a member [of parliament] just…yesterday. He bullied…someone who has a riding in Alberta where there was an 80% conservative vote - for this other guy to forfeit his riding so Pierre Poilievre could stay in Parliament - could stay in the House of Commons. So Pierre Poilievre took somebody's seat, which you can do in Canada. I mean which is you know fairly embarrassing right there…”
Poilievre lost his seat this past election to the Liberals. He is currently a leader without a constituency. I don’t know for sure, but Poilievre likely did not bully anyone. That's not the accepted way Canadian politics works. Furthermore, he can stay leader of the conservative party without a seat. But admittedly it is not normally done. Poilievre has indicated that he is not stepping down as leader, a disappointment for many Canadians. What is probably going to happen, if Poilievre gets his way is this: He is asking for another PC candidate, who won by a large margin in their riding, to step down (which can be done). A by-election then has to be held. Poilievre is hoping to keep the seat for the Progressive Conservatives and thereby legitimize his leadership. The by-election has to be approved by Carney first, which he will do. Whether you dislike Poilievre or not, that's the way, for better or worse, Canadian politics work.
The most likely outcome is that Poilievre will re-win the seat. Poilievre is showing that he plans to wait it out to make another run at Prime Minister in a few years. What most Canadians want, which is for Poilievre to step down, is unlikely to happen. He has a lot of support in the Western provinces. If it weren’t for the Trump regime, some ridings that went liberal on April 28th, would have gone another way. Voters would have chosen to support the Conservatives or NDP (New Democratic Party), or in Québéc, Bloc Québécois. I hope this voting behaviour does not forshadow a trend in our politics. I would not like to see any permanent movement to a two party contest. I want the option of voting in a meaningful way for the NDP, Green Party or in Québéc, the Bloc. I want them to have a place at the table.
I wish that the MeidasTouch network would change its tactics. I wish that they would do more fact checking. I would like it if they stopped making inflammatory remarks and, in some cases, sensationalistic claims. We need this podcast because it tries to speak truth to power, in a way the mainstream media will not, but not at the cost of misinformation and endless hyperbole, however entertaining.
Erratum: Sorry I misspelled the MeidasTouch Network and didn’t correct for initial publication. Now corrected.