Shares of the week: Mega MAGA fascist-insurrection edition
Laugh and learn something
New Study Finds that Delivering the News with Humor Makes Young Adults More Likely to Remember and Share - There usually needs to be some truth or sense in a subject for it to be funny, which makes satire a good platform for sharing information. Humor also provides us a little sugar for the increasingly-bitter pills of realty we all must swallow in order to effectively participate in history instead of only being a product of it. I myself credit John Stewart for showing me how to dissect the news in a no-nonsense, empathetic way. If only I was half as funny as he is.
Strength, womanhood and identity
'Catalyst for a movement': People around the world don ribbon skirts after Sask. girl shamed for wearing hers - She did not deserve the ignorance she faced at school, and by an adult, but the overwhelming global support the 10-year old has been receiving since this story first broke shows the decency there is in humanity.
Gig labour
Gig economy has roots in anti-labor tactics: Harvard researcher - The gig economy is making tools of people, just like the American construction industry did in the 70s. People are not tools, however. Well, the executives and shareholders of these companies might be. We must not allow these companies to further erode worker’s rights, which depresses all of our wages, whether we sit at a desk, hold a shovel, or pull a lever to earn our income.
Food Delivery Work Is a Big Test for Unions in Canada - Despite individualism and entrepreneurialism being at the heart of the gig economy, gig workers still rely on each other to navigate the many intricacies of their precarious jobs, especially during a pandemic. This solidarity is prime for a union drive if the right actions are taken by labour leaders on a local level.
Fascism in fashion
Trumpism in Canada? Erin O’Toole be thy name - The Conservative Party's identity today is incompatible with most of modern society’s most significant challenges. With a lack of any kind of popular policies, it seems like their only play is spreading conspiracy theories, lies and divisiveness, much like their Republican cousins down south. They are in for a bad time if this is the route they continue to follow.
Bonus: Canada’s Conservatives under fire for promoting “election rigging” conspiracy theories echoing Trump - The story that prompted the Conservative’s scrubbing of the election fraud accusations towards Trudeau
The Insurrection Was Predictable - If the mainstream media stopped reporting on how they want the world to be seen, and instead exposed the inconvenient, messy reality that we are all living in, then perhaps more people would have seen what I and others have been seeing coming for several years. We must accept that there needs to be radical, collective change, from the bottom up, that helps improve the lives of everyone if we want to survive this troubling period of history that is seeing a rapid rise of fascism globally.
Bonus: US Media Incapable of Criticizing MAGA Mobs Without Evoking Racist Cliches About "Third World" - A 30-min long Citations Needed podcast that brilliantly dismantles the media comparisons of the insurrection with civil unrest in the Global South, much of which happened to be caused by America.
Surprise, Surprise: Off-Duty Cops From All Over the Country Were in D.C. During Capitol Coup Attempt - The police and Trump supporters have a lot in common. Just another inconvenient truth that we are going to have to accept so that we can begin the complete overhaul. Reform is not enough to contain this amount of systemic rot.
Religion's responsibility
Unmasking religion’s role in the pandemic - As a recovering-Christian myself, I can attest to the type of thinking that religion breeds and how it mirrors what we are seeing in climate deniers, flat-earthers, anti-vaxxers, QAnon, and now anti-maskers and COVID-deniers. This rejection of science and reason is holding back both our response to the pandemic, and social progress in general, and is arguably causing more people to suffer than otherwise would. This may be hard for many to accept, but it’s time that we give religion the critical treatment it deserves for the harm it continues to have on society.
A Christian Insurrection - Religion would be good if it wasn’t consistently used as a force for evil, most recently forming the backdrop of Trump’s failed coup. Despite denials from leaders of the evangelicals who overwhelmingly support him, by making Trump their savior, this insurrection on the Capitol is exactly what theocrats expect in their pursuit of ultimate power. They are just embarrassed it didn’t work (this time). These traditional power systems are just too dangerous and too far gone to be saved or redeemed. Anyone thinking “not all Christians are like this” needs to remember the rot that is festering beneath.
Who really needs healthcare?
Whole Foods CEO John Mackey: The ‘best solution’ is to not need health care and for Americans to change how they eat and live - In the latest edition of “out-of-touch, rich white guy tells the poors what they don’t need”, the Whole Foods CEO says that the key to avoiding healthcare costs is to simply be healthy.