Women of ABpoli Hot Flashes: Everybody wants to rule the world
This week in AB
What colour is the sky in your world?
Ezra Levant, purveyor of infotainment outlet "the Rebel", and Dr. Dennis Modry, CEO of the Alberta Prosperity Project, moderated the debate that only the former Wildrose caucus members would attend.
The APP's CEO, Dr. Dennis Modry, uses his impressive academic credentials from the late 60's and early 1970's to support his wickedly twisted logic that includes such gems as "(a)fter 116 years in which no Alberta Provincial Government or Canadian Federal Government ever protected Alberta’s interests or future prosperity, Dr. Modry concluded that the only logical path forward for Alberta was freedom from the tyranny and oppression of Alberta’s interests by Ottawa.".
Dr. Modry believes Alberta has not recovered from a failed policy proposal in the 1980's and to hear him tell it, and I've been incredibly unfortunate to hear it directly, Alberta has been a financial wasteland ever since.
Levant has been accused of displaying a "reckless disregard for the truth".
Now we know where the starting point is...
There were so many bothersome moments, like when Smith suggested that having the Alberta Sovereignty Act in place could have stopped Tamara Lich (who was also there, for freedom, probs) from being arrested.
It's so difficult to follow nonsense. Even if Smith was referring to when Lich was arrested in Alberta on charges of breaching her bail conditions, it wasn't the federal government who requested it, it was the Crown Prosecutor in Ontario where she's charged with mischief and counselling to commit mischief.
Is Smith planning to expand the Sovereignty Act to try and restrict provincial jurisdiction as well? Like, I can't figure out how she can dodge so many facts in order to get to her ridiculous points.
In the freedom worrier realm, everyone wants to make sure that no future leader will make them feel like they have any responsibility for public health.
So, naturally, Smith wants to remove the board of Alberta Health Services (and replace it with a link to Facebook?), and the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Smith believes doctors should be able to treat patients with any means they feel appropriate and that's how we got dudes with God-complexes performing lobotomies, you twit.
She brought up the great gun grab in High River when she was an MLA. What she consistently neglects to mention is that RCMP found guns in plain sight in abandoned homes after the 2013 floods and took them because ABANDONED HOMES. Guns they did find were labelled and returned to owners. Revisionist history much?
When it comes to appropriate ages to acknowledge that not everyone feels comfortable being labelled "girl" or "boy", Smith believes that children should be left to their own devices until high school to potentially discover they aren't alone.
If you've never heard the story of David Reimer, it explains how telling a child they're a "boy" or "girl" doesn't actually make it so.
Quick synopsis: a circumcision gone wrong made a doctor think it might be a good idea to just raise the child as a girl. The child never felt like a girl and was absolutely fucked up by the experience. This story has made me think it's what every trans person feels like when someone tries to force gender stereotypes on them and it's not okay.
Smith also thinks addressing homosexuality should happen in high school but heterosexual education can begin in junior high -- again, this is a horrid belief in certain circles that children are "groomed" or otherwise coerced into being attracted to the same sex and so these numpties want to literally do exactly that to kids who don't conform to what they think is "right".
It shouldn't be controversial to say that children should have the opportunity to feel seen, accepted, and represented in every possible way in a public education system.
I know that hurts some whiny-assed adult feelings.
Not sorry.
Anatomy of a conspiracy theory
Thanks to the internet, a pandemic, confirmation bias, anti-intellectualism, and a host of other issues, disinformation is one of the best paying gigs around.
No longer is it simply a hobby for those with too much time on their hands but something marketable -- and lucrative.
So began the latest distortion of fact that is now "Justin Trudeau's Climate Police".
In the before times, we would refer to these roles as "Fish and Wildlife Officers" at the provincial level or "Environmental Enforcement Officers" federally.
They investigate complaints, test soil, air, and water quality, and generally try to ensure that the basic necessities to sustain life in Canada are not being poisoned by all of the things that make our lives so much easier.
However, that doesn't sell subscriptions or make it onto the platform of other grifters who are desperate to make people stop demanding solutions to real problems.
So, when baby misinformation enthusiast Keean Bexte put the appropriately misleading spin on something completely boring, and pointed the finger at "liberals", the freedom worriers ate it up and regurgitated it to their malleable-minded followers.
It made an appearance at the Alberta Prosperity Project's rainbow and unicorn fundraiser, has also filtered out through UCP leadership candidates (Smith and Travis Toews) social media, which has in turn been pushed into every conservative misinformation Facebook group I'm in, producing a tizzy of pearl-clutching at every stop chicken little makes.
This garbage is making unhinged people (more) desperate
“The women circling DPM Freeland today in an elevator is the story of women all over this country.
For generations we’ve been taught that our safety comes in numbers. Just as you've seen today.
Women of colour experience this 10 fold.
Will there ever come a day when women are safe? Asking for our daughters.”
Some 'Berta fuckwit wants to keep certain people out of this province.
I must admit I know how precisely how that feels.
In a perfect world, men with hurt feelings could have access to mental health supports and not be on TikTok bragging about screaming at a woman to get the fuck out of *his* province.
No, it doesn't matter that Chrystia Freeland is from Alberta.
This guy believes the shit that has been raining down on him from other men who have successfully manipulated him into fighting their battles.
Who are we kidding, here, though? This guy feels like a hero because there's a bunch of other like-minded losers telling him how awesome he is.
It's not just the righteous right, however. There are far too many self-styled feminists who will defend this behaviour so long as it's happening to a woman they have decided deserves it. Some even gleefully participate for the same reason.
We see you -- everyone does.
Speaking of harassing women
Women in journalism have been sharing their emails. Women in politics have shared their experiences. Women in general have been sharing their experiences.
UCP leadership candidate and Chestermere-Strathmore MLA Leela Aheer's social media was hacked early in the week and the hackers posted visuals of child exploitation that they apparently had on hand.
These people weren't trying to get data -- they were trying to embarrass Leela Aheer personally.
They were also trying to intimidate her. All of these stories are about intimidation and control.
New Episode from Women of ABpoli
“A commentary on women, politics, & dancing.”
Dr. Angela Grace has been active on the curriculum file since 2019. As she worked to correct misinformation, and advocate for a non-partisan curriculum, people started asking her to run for office.
As she was running into barrier after barrier with the UCP, she started to think she might have to "get political".
We invited her to talk with us about this last week, as well as share some insight about what's happening to women in and adjacent to the political sphere.
Canada
"Exorcisms" and Saskatchewan
So... RCMP are investigating an alleged exorcism incident at a summer bible camp. And there's also this other investigation into complaints of exorcisms and more at Christian Centre Academy, a private school in Saskatoon,
Whoops, I mean Christian Centre, and two other independent schools in Saskatoon, Legacy Christian Academy and Grace Christian, as well as Regent Academy in Prince Albert.
Mkay...
More weird adults
I...
...
Not every resident of the freedom worrier realm are running to be Premier of Alberta -- hey, that is good news! -- some are squatting in a church in Ottawa because people aren't donating enough money for them to live there and not have jobs...
...
Final thoughts
Me: Huh. Wonder what this is for?
(Ex)Husband: I was thinking for the senior’s discount… 😂”
“Can we have a statue of Keanu Reeves instead of Winston Churchill?”
cover photo credit: @edwinmundt