Politics Is Not About Principles … But It Should Be
Pundit Warren Kinsella’s website has been under attack recently. This is the new politics.
No doubt it is from a political opponent. In the internet world, the way to debate issues is to try to destroy your foes’ websites. People fighting for freedom of speech by trying to destroy that same freedom of speech.
That’s not debate. That’s fascism (hello Donald Trump and your Canadian admirers).
There is also comment spam and various other delights. The problem with comment spam for perpetrators is that it is easy to identify where it is originating.
People wonder why youth don’t take part in democracy. Would you want to participate in a system where you are bought off by campaign donations and in return send hundreds of millions of dollars in business to your patrons? Sole-sourcing? Not investigating obvious wrong-doing because it might implicate your buddies? Holding a contest to discover if the criminals are more corrupt than those enforcing the law? Not fixing problems but lying and lying by omission to cover up gross incompetence or decadence? Buying off the media by threatening to pull your advertising if they don’t support your project. Appoint lackies to public boards or so that you can get free money? Making you look like you are solving problems by saying you are solving problems but not actually doing it (hello petroleum industry, hello light rail)?
Public policy? A facade.
And as Kinsella knows (in fact anyone who runs a website knows including The Bulldog) trying to destroy your website because what you are saying makes the powers-that-be or others uncomfortable? A former prominent Ottawa political figure tried to destroy The Bulldog. This website recently had people from nowhere (the Netherlands, actually) try to brute-force attack it in the most serious of ways. Why? Who knows? Those are just anarchists.
In the past month, The Bulldog has had 1,528 complex attempts to damage it plus 17 brute-force attacks. Hackers (anarchists).
I have had five attempts to injure me or worse. And what did the police do? Nothing. When push comes to shove, you’re on your own buddy. That’s democracy? In reality, the police are to be feared, controlled, not supported (they plant evidence). People are slowly catching on to that one.
Your agent has been asked twice by serious people to run for mayor. I didn’t. Councillor, too. First, because I would lose, second, I don’t think I would be a very good mayor in the one-million-to-one shot that I would win, and third, while I believe I would be good at municipal policy, the idea of spending my time cutting ribbons at the new local drug store is dreary and wasteful. Same with MPP and MP.
For better or worse, I’m a journalist. That’s what I’m good at some of the time. That’s who I am. That’s what I believe in. I think it is important. So it’s what I do. It is the essence of my being (in unnecessarily flowery words). Win a few for the good guys. Lose a lot to the bad guys.
People don’t run for office because they know their backgrounds will be probed rigorously for misdeeds and if political opponents can’t find any flaws, they’ll make them up. They have better things to do like building good things (not necessarily buildings, hello new central library) and spending time with their families.
Naively when I was much younger, I believed about all the principles of democracy. I still do in a way but now know they are warped by ambition and the lust for power. It is very sobering. Politics is not about people. It’s about power, money and doing what is necessary to retain or win power. That’s where the principles are warped. It is a harsh reality and practised in a very harsh way. No prisoners are taken.
I once talked to an ethical woman who had been in office and subsequently lost an election. She wished she had never entered politics because now she knows how and why decisions are made. It’s about power, not the public good.
I used to be a strong Canadian patriot but now I’m much less so having been a journalist for 47 years. I’ve seen a lot. Maybe too much. I rise for the national anthem but with little enthusiasm. I wish people wouldn’t play it at public events because it stands for propaganda, indoctrination and wonderful principles that oftentimes don’t exist.
It’s about keeping and winning power … and money.
So yeah, Warren, I know what you are talking about.
Ken Gray
—
—
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
Discontinued Buses Are On Time: THE VOTER
Tough LRT Critic Offers System Faint Praise
Community Housing Gets Nothing For $83 Million: BENN
Where’s The Money NCC On Water Taxis? THE VOTER
—
DON’T MISS OUR REGULAR FEATURES
Everything Ottawa Full Local Bulldog Canadian
Opinion Comments Breaking News Auto
Ontario World Get Cheap Gas Big Money
Pop Gossip Your Home Relax … Tech
Bulldog Weather Full Local Sports
TV/Movies Travel
Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
– The Bulldog – News Feed Enter 
In a column focused on Warren Kinsella and the sad state of Canadian politics, an opening paragraph talks about the attacks on free speech as witnessed by the attacks on Warren Kinsella’s website. The next paragraph states that this is fascism and references Donald Trump and his Canadian admirers. As of late, Warren Kinsella has made many enemies on the left due to his strong support for Canadian Jewry, and Israel in its war with Hamas, and his condemnation of a Liberal government that shows ambivalent support for Canadian Jews and indifference to rising anti-semitism in Canada particularly from the left (sorry but thoughts and prayers don’t cut it) and recently even uncovered some “not-for-profits” that have been paying for people to protest in support of Gaza. In all of this he has angered many progressives and the far left and other supporters of Gaza (perhaps including those with well funded internet attack organizations such as Russia and Iran). These same “progressives” have continually shown on many issues that they also only seem to believe in free speech if it speech with which they agree. Notwithstanding that if you go far enough left or right on the political spectrum you reach the same point (the USSR and the Nazis both have Socialist in their names), by merely identifying the right as a threat, you are dismissing a big chunk of the problem and the threat to democracy.
Andrew:
I’m not sure what your point is here. It’s a bit muddled.
cheers
kgray
My point is that you seem to only be blaming the right for attacks on free speech and democracy. The progressive left is just as active in doing this and given the positions that Kinsella has recently taken regarding Israel and Gaza, any attacks on his website are more likely to have been done by his critics on the left.
Andrew:
I have friends on both sides of that fight and all I wish for them and the Middle East is peace.
cheers
kgray