It was December, 2023, and Pierre Poilievre had started a speech to Bay Street executives by spelling out his aversion to them.
The audience took in the scolding with stony faces. You could have forgiven some of them, however, for having a good-humoured chuckle into their buffet plates of cod or chicken.
Shrewder listeners probably understood why Poilievre was casting them as aloof and indifferent aristocrats, while presenting himself as an intimate ally of the country’s aggrieved majority. A year and a half ago, it was still the season for targeting and tarring Canada’s elite, and this was kabuki theatre, using exaggerated, stylized gestures of combat to conjure a sense of conflict and confrontation—even though none existed.
After all, Poilievre was fresh from a flurry of private events at which precisely this crowd had donated thousands of dollars to rub shoulders with him. Just the night before, he had mingled with bankers, real estate investors, and corporate executives at a $16-million French-style manor that boasted an elevator, indoor basketball court, and a dressing room bigger than most downtown apartments.
Politics now exists to feed a base of social influencers with bullshit to magnify over the social media megaphone. The amount of disinformation that is regurgitated daily is unmanageable. So what do logical thinkers do… Disconnect. It’s not worth correcting everyone we come in contact with. But alas we’re also losing the war because there more it is regurgitated the more it is taken as fact.
The other thing is there is a circlejerk of funding keeping the machine running and the hateful right wingers spend money to feel the machine. Left/centererists tend to be suspicious and want detailed analytics and analysis before trusting.
Plus… A good conspiracy can be fun and empowering, like good gossip it feels good to be on the inside. Deep analysis is boring and rarely rewarding.
We’re fucked.