266) Day 34 -- Reason #34 to revolt against Predatory Capitalism: Politic-speak -- e.g., Doug Ford
One of the key problems with Predatory Capitalism, which connects with our previous discussion of Manufacturing Consent, is that the people we elect to be in charge of our system, don’t speak the same language we do. They speak the language of politics. NOT the language of common sense, the language of everyday people, the language of integrity, or even the language of basic logic.
This makes “politics” extremely frustrating. Because our politicians get asked questions — by reporters, by citizens, by other politicians in Parliament or Congress or wherever, and instead of ANSWERING those questions, they just talk about whatever they want to talk about, say whatever their pollsters have told them will score points with the public. And thus, “conversations” aren’t conversations at all. “Question Period” is, maybe, about Questions, but it sure as hell ain’t about Answers. And they use the media, journalists, the press, as their tool, as a kind of free advertising of whatever they want the public to hear. (Honestly, I can’t even imagine being a journalist who wants to hold politicians accountable. Those people must be the most patient people on Earth. They must be all enlightened monks or something, just to keep from going completely insane at the far-too-oft futility of their jobs.)
As one little micro-cosmic example, let’s take a look at Doug Ford, the Premier of Ontario, who just used Trump’s whole tariff debacle to do one of the most incredible, instant-flip-flops and bullshit moments I have ever seen in politics.
Act 1: Trump’s tariffs.
Trump threatens Canada (and other countries) with massive tariffs, 25% in the case of Canada. Twenty-five percent!! Holy shit!!! AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!! We’re doomed!!!
So Canadian politicians go bananas trying to figure out what to do, how to respond, and how to “fight back”. The premiers of the provinces, with a notable exception (**cough cough, Danielle Smith of Alberta, cough cough**) pull together with Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister, forming “Team Canada”, and for the most part, come up with a plan — $155 billion in counter-tariffs.
“Ha ha! Fuck you Trump! True North Strong and Free!”
Justin Trudeau makes a genuinely moving, leader-like speech explaining to Canadians, and Americans, in nice-sounding but emotional language, what a dirt-bag-shitty-friend-move Trump just made, stabbing us all in the back.
And Doug Ford? Dude seizes the moment like a champ. Or at least someone who wants to LOOK LIKE a champ.
With his peppy new hat, “Canada is not for sale,” Doug becomes a true patriot. And he announces, to great fanfare and press releases that he is “ripping up” the $100 million deal that Ontario just recently gave Starlink, Elon Musk’s company. This deal was to provide high-speed internet access to some 15000 Ontario households in remote areas. But, we’ll have to find some other way to do that. Because fuck Elon Musk, the Nazi, and fuck Trump and his tariffs.
Way to go, Dougie! Rip that sucker up! Team Canada!!
* * * * *
Act 2: No more tariffs!! (For a month)
Then…***drum roll*** … Trump has a phone call with Trudeau (and with Mexico’s president, who seems super bad-ass, but this story is about Canada).
Trudeau: “Yeah Mr. Trump, so like, fentanyl eh? Yeah, we’re gonna really deal with that there problem. Big-time!”
And he promises to do a bunch of stuff at the border that, um…well, you see, is exactly what he already had agreed to do a few months ago, with Biden.
But Trump takes credit anyway. “Look at me! Look at me! I just made a deal!”
MAGA cheers for their saviour. Canadians roll their eyes at how dumb the whole thing is.
And Doug Ford? A few hours after his big “rip up the Starlink deal” announcement?
“Hey there folks, our good buddy to the South, y’know because Team Canada and all, said the tariffs are off, eh? So my friends, the Starlink deal is back on. Thanks Friends. Team Canada!”
Yes, that’s right. A FEW HOURS after saying he was going to rip up the deal, Doug Ford says “Actually…no.”
No standing up to Musk. No standing for…anything, it would appear. Doug was just capitalizing on the political moment to PRETEND to be a champion, because he knew it would poll well with the voters.
And even though Trump’s tariff threat hasn’t gone away and he plans to renew this extortion plan in a month, probably asking for even more from Canada because that’s just the kind of sociopathic bully he is, Ontario is going to give Elon Musk $100 million anyway.
Who are we?
“ONTARIANS!!!”
What do we stand for?
“Errr…um…nothing, apparently. Sorry…”
* * * * * *
Epilogue: Politic-speak’s radical alternative: Straightforward Honesty!!
Now, to be fair, I know diddly-squat about high-tech internet stuff and how to provide access to remote Ontarians. Maybe Starlink IS the best solution. I don’t know.
But that’s not the point.
The point is, we, the public, elected Doug Ford to represent us. And how did he do that, in this case?
First, he decided to give Elon Musk $100 million.
Then, he decided not to, when it became clear he could look like a champ standing up to a bully.
Then, when he didn’t need to do that anymore (for a month anyway), he completely changed his tune, literally hours later. Showing us that he has no VALUES; he was just being a political opportunist.
What COULD he have done instead?
Well, he COULD have been honest and forthright with Ontario citizens. He COULD have said something like,
Option A:
“Sorry folks, I know there’s a lot of pressure to bail on Starlink, but here are the facts. Ontario residents need high-speed internet access, eh? It’s a basic equality issue, and you know me, I’m “For The People”. So even though it kinda feels crappy and all to give Elon Musk, the Nazi saluting guy, 100 million bucks, it really is our only choice. And so, I’m going to stick with the deal, because it’s in Ontario’s best interest. I know this might be unpopular right now, and I’m sorry for that, but we’ll have to stand up to Trump in all the other ways we can. Honouring our deal is the right thing to do for Ontario. That’s what I believe.”
THAT would have been honest, if that’s how he really felt, and if Starlink really is Ontario’s best option. THAT would be Doug Ford having integrity and telling us the hard truth. Like a leader.
OR, even better —
Option B: Before signing on with Starlink in the first place —
“Hey folks, as part of the provincial and federal government’s $1.2 billion we’ve been allocating to provide internet access to everyone in Ontario, we’re opening up a consultation and bidding process for the next year. We’ve got this big pot of money, and remote residents need high-speed internet, so here’s the deal — Entrepreneurs, businesses, tech experts, send us your ideas, and we’ll pick the best ones and fund them.”
“We’re currently considering a $100 million deal with Starlink to provide access to 15000 households. But instead of just giving all that taxpayer money away to an American company, we’re going to give Canadians first crack at this. If you can come up with something better than Starlink, send us your proposals! We’re delaying the decision by one year.” (Or whatever time-frame makes sense.)
That would also have been honest. It would have told Canadians what was happening; it would have given Canadian tech companies a real chance at doing something innovative, and then, if Canucks couldn’t come up with anything awesome, then Elon Musk would be the best bet. And Doug would have let us know that ahead of time.
My point is, politicians, like Doug Ford, don’t speak with integrity. They make announcements designed to win votes. And then they do whatever they want, behind the scenes. And then make more announcements when it seems like it’ll win more votes.
The whole snap-election thing is another example. Why is Ontario suddenly in an election? Because Doug Ford says he needs a “strong mandate” to stand up to Trump.
But that’s total bullshit! Doug Ford hasn’t needed any sort of “mandate” to decide to sell off protected green space and build a super-expensive highway that the experts say won’t make a difference to traffic, that environmentalists say is a catastrophe, and that violates long-standing agreements to PROTECT a whole “green belt” of Southern Ontario. He just went ahead and did it. Corruptly! First of all giving his land-developer donor friends a heads-up so they could BUY this protected land, knowing that in a few years it wouldn’t be protected anymore because Doug was going to open it up for a highway development, and the “protected land that can’t be developed”, would be suddenly worth a whole ton of money.
He didn’t need a “strong mandate” to destroy the Ontario Science Center, despite widespread opposition to the idea, claiming it was because of a structural problem with the roof. A problem I would add, that engineers said wasn’t really that much of a problem and anyway, private funders were willing to front the money to fix it in order to keep the Science Centre open! But nope, Doug didn’t care; he just wanted to get rid of it.
He didn’t need a “strong mandate” to destroy Ontario Place, use hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars (which is now turning into billions as costs rise) to give a 95-year lease to a foreign-owned luxury spa company. Yep, Ontario taxpayers are paying $400, per household, so Toronto’s wealthy elite can have a nice spa, and a privately owned foreign company will make a crap ton of money. And he did this on what used to be Ontario Place. Public interest be damned.
He didn’t need a “strong mandate” to privatize more of our diminishingly-public health care system, to underfund schools, to destroy hundreds of millions of dollars of green energy infrastructure projects, to spend tens of millions of dollars ripping out already-established bike lanes in Toronto, or to spend hundreds of millions of dollars getting booze into Ontario’s grocery and convenience stores and taking a sledgehammer to the LCBO, and then hundreds of millions more speeding up the process by a few months because…he wanted to.
He didn’t a “strong mandate” for any of the unpopular, wreck-the-public-services-and-squander-taxpayers’-money decisions that he’s been making for years.
But now? In a moment of political turmoil when he figures his polling numbers are strong and Trump is doing crazy shit and Ontario will be rallying behind an incumbent leader because that’s what people do when they feel under threat, Doug tells us all he needs a “strong mandate”?????
This is politic-speak. I.e., bullshit. And it is a direct outcome of living in a system of Predatory Capitalism.