Week of February 7

What caught my attention the Week of February 7

New Words (at least for me):

Truthiness – a truthful or seemingly truthful quality that is claimed for something not because of supporting facts or evidence. So, something has truthiness because of a feeling that it is true or a desire for it to be true. 

Doomscrolling or Doomsurfing – These words refer to the practice of spending hours of screen time absorbing negative news. The practice often results in deteriorating mental health and insomnia. Maybe you suffer from the scrolling of doomsday scenarios in your head as you toss and turn? It is an addictive practice that drives people into echo chambers and towards conspiracy theories. They have detox centres for drugs and alcohol. Perhaps we should have detox centres for doom scrollers.

A Doomscroll for the Week of February 7

• Sabre rattling over the Ukraine. It feels a bit like the Cuban missile crisis that had schoolchildren being drilled to hide under desks to ward off nuclear attack. And you don’t think baby boomers were traumatized?
• Extended “freedom” demonstrations as the minority tries to impose its will on the majority.  
• Lack of any political leadership. Trudeau and Ford dither. Candace Bergen and Pierre Poilievre courted the truckers. Bergen has since reversed course as has the Conservative Party. About time – populous party they are, I guess the polling must be telling them something about support for the demonstrations. 
• Just the general ennui that comes with two years lost to the pandemic.
• Yesterday, I got out a boring newsletter that I had to write for my own sanity. Why? Because I was trying to make the point that decisions around sanitary measures and vaccines is a question of balance. David Leonhardt of the New York Times made the point much more elegantly on February 11. The link is to the NYT daily newsletter, so no subscription necessary.

And saddest of all:

• School violence got much too close this week. Too close because a boy of 16 was fatally stabbed about three  blocks away from my home in safe, suburban Pointe-Claire. My granddaughter  had taught the victim. And the attacker was an erstwhile classmate of my grandson. A life taken, one ruined, and two broken families that can never be repaired. So sad!

Hopescrolling – the opposite of Doomscrolling

• Ontario citizens – Doug Ford was not missing in action. He was hard at work in Québec City. You do know he has a winter gig there as Bonhomme Carnival!

• Have you heard of Romana Didulo? In a September 2021 YouTube video, this Victoria, BC woman states: “I am the head of state, commander in chief and head of government and queen of Canada replacing Queen Elizabeth the second of England who has now been executed for crimes against humanity,” Romana Didulo states in a video posted to YouTube on Sept. 17.” Just another Q-Anon nutcase! Marjorie Taylor Green must have had something to do with hercoronation! Could Green be a Democrat plant to make the Republican party look really bad. Is it some kind of performance art? Gazpacho police! Really! Nobody is that dumb!
• A clear majority of Americans want to end the practice of gerrymandering. According to the Economist, 63% of the American public want independent commissions to oversee re-districting. On a party line basis, that percentage exceeds 60% for both Republicans and Democrats. Something to work on?

Lets be Prudent – Who wants to bring back sanitary measures after lifting them?

• Canada considers eliminating the need for entry PCR tests. Canadian provinces start the serious reduction of sanitary measures.  Could the “umpteenth wave” be coming to an end? Could we have some kind of herd immunity  to serious illness. For the record, I think that measures should be pulled back gradually. Some see moves by Saskatchewan and Alberta to remove all measures immediately as leadership. I think that this demonstrates political cowardice. Scott Moe and Kenny are afraid of their base. Remember, Moe of Saskatchewan went begging for help during a recent COVID surge tied to mismanagement? Will history repeat itself?Turn Chaos into Order – Issue 68

Lets celebrate: 

• The 90%+ of truck drivers working this week 
• Doug Ford as Bonhomme Carnival
• Bad grammar – some of the commentary on social media sites is just so badly written that it is funny. A new type of scrolling – the dopescroll!

Big raspberries to:

• The less than 10% of truck drivers who will not be working 
• The hubris of the “freedom protesters” to claim that they speak for all Canadians
• Justin Trudeau, Candace Bergen, Pierre Poilievre, Doug Ford, Scott Moe, and Jason Kenney
• The tragedy of Romana Didulo and Marjorie Taylor Green
• And to copy Jack Todd of the Gazette, last but not least – François Legault

Quote of the Week

The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible. – Winston Churchill

And that’s a wrap for the Week of February 7