Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that even though the Freedom Convoy blockades had been removed in a police crackdown over the weekend, “this state of emergency is not over.” We’re not even certain what the emergency was that drove him to invoke the Emergencies Act. Was it the bouncy castles? The snowball fights? So … why is the “state of emergency” not over again?
Glenn Greenwald has a new piece on Substack about “The Neoliberal War on Dissent in the West,” and he gives a good outline of it in this thread.
Those who most flamboyantly proclaim that they are fighting fascists continue to embrace and wield the defining weapons of despotism.
The tactics Trudeau is employing are a decade in the making, and are part of a much broader plan to criminalize and then crush dissent.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 21, 2022
Episodes like this demonstrate just how propaganda functions. We're so well-trained to instantly recognize these tyrannical attacks on dissent as autocratic and tyrannical when used by enemies of the West, but barred from seeing them the same way when used by our own governments. pic.twitter.com/iM5XA80Pk6
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 21, 2022
Once Western elites realized the depth of rage and contempt for them, they embarked on a strategy to criminalize dissidents and outlaw protest movements. They did it to WL, Catalonia protesters, MAGA supporters, Canadian truckers. That's the justifying rationale for repression. pic.twitter.com/s4Hfyb3WZj
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 21, 2022
Growing up, reading history, I always wondered how those who embraced repression — censorship, banning protests, imprisoning journalists — convinced themselves they were the good guys.
We see it now with liberals: they tell themselves their enemies are so bad, it's justified. pic.twitter.com/fIEKOvfBUp
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 21, 2022
Remember how Trudeau called the truckers violent racists and Islamophobes and … transphobes?
Obviously, Western liberals and their neoliberal leaders can never admit, even to themselves, that they're repressive. They believe that attribute belongs intrinsically only to their enemies. But whatever you want to call it, they do not tolerate dissent:https://t.co/mANSxUc1Gi
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 21, 2022
Couldn’t ask for a better, or more demented, example illustrating the thesis of this article that western liberals have become a completely despotic movement which, without hyperbole, does not believe in the right of dissent but wants to criminalize it. These people are menaces. pic.twitter.com/q8fea1pMO5
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 21, 2022
The pandemic sure exposed and put a brighter light on the elites. Hope the light doesn't die out with the pandemic.
— Steven (@Steven30352425) February 21, 2022
If you equate opposing ideas with crime, you no longer have to worry about civil liberties apparently.
— Llywelyn ap Gruffydd (@gruffydd_ap) February 21, 2022
The Trudeau government is now claiming they need ongoing emergency powers because of what 'could happen'. Totally cool. Not at all disturbing…
— Spencer Fernando 🇨🇦 (@SpencerFernando) February 21, 2022
“Once a person or movement becomes convinced that their opponents have exited the ordinary playing field of politics, then they are instantly convinced of the righteousness of any and all tactics used to attack them.”
— Done With The DNC ⌛️ ❌ 🌹 (@BernieTulsi2020) February 21, 2022
*Neomarxist
There, fixed it for you.
— C.S. Pearson (@fsu92alum) February 21, 2022
I'm Canadian and absolutely horrified what our government is doing to peaceful protesters.
They are effectively making protesting impossible.
This isn't for our health, folks…. Hasn't been for a while.
— XRPANDA MAN (@themanpanda) February 21, 2022
A variation on a themehttps://t.co/z9jy7CJ4m8
— Milton Keynes (@bluetroll21) February 21, 2022
To whit:
Antifa are actual fascists
Liberals take away liberties
Progressives drag us backwards
Black Lives Matter doesn't care about black lives— tipsybytwo (@tipsybytwo) February 21, 2022
The left is governing like they will never again lose power. The response when the right is back in charge will be just as ugly and the precedents will continue to escalate.
— Chris (@Christoph3r_J) February 21, 2022
We’ll see next year.
Related:
Suck it UP: Blue-check Jacobin ‘writer’ tries DESPERATELY (and fails hilariously) to pretend Justin Trudeau isn’t really on ‘the Left’ https://t.co/zNME6R3HB5
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) February 20, 2022
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