THIS RAGE IS SO INFURIATING.
WANT TO AVOID ELECTION PROTESTS, MR. TRUDEAU? STOP MAKING VOTERS ANGRY
Apparently rage in politics is suddenly uncool now that it’s directed at progressives. But while advice on anger from columnists might seem like a lecture on demon rum from a guy face-down on the Skid Row cobblestones, at least we know where the shoals are. And frankly if we’re serious about this problem we must take two essential steps: don’t be infuriating and don’t be infuriated.
Both are harder than they sound. Take the PM’S sanctimony about a Tory candidate accused of groping, despite his own past. It’s infuriating. Like his brushing off holding an event flagrantly violating COVID restrictions, and attacking the Tories for having unvaccinated candidates when he does, too.
As Jonathan Kay wrote Tuesday, Trudeau doesn’t just accuse Canada of genocide, he says it’s happening on his watch so he should be re-elected. No wonder people who don’t monologue for a living are sputtering.
If I were to list all his infuriating deeds we’d need a bigger newspaper. But it’s not just Trudeau. And Gen Z is evidently seething, too, so despite the divisive “angry white men” trope it’s not just the dog-whistle Nazis alleged by epidemiologist David Fisman feeling the burn.
There’s Jagmeet Singh raving about the “ultrarich.” There’s organizers letting the Bloc into debates while Maxime Bernier is shunned. And this business of declaring that any time the left wins, debate is “closed,” thus delegitimizing contrary views in the name of tolerance.
Or consider COVID. The endless inept improvisations are annoying. But it’s the hypocrisy that drives people round the bend. As Chris Selley reminded us in Tuesday’s Post, in March 2020 the Conservative health critic asked why no mandatory quarantine on hot spot travellers, and Trudeau sneered, “On this side of the aisle, we believe in science.” Then he flip-flopped, while continuing to call partisan foes vile dumbo nothings. It would make a plaster statue gag.
Then there’s blockades, where the rule of law clearly applies to conservatives only. As with trashing statues, why should only one side play by the rules?
This mockery of the rule of law scorns ordinary people’s efforts to live good if imperfect lives. And it’s hypocritical because with Ryerson or Queen Victoria it’s smash away but if someone went after the Famous Five, for their feminism or even their racist eugenics, there’d be outrage and prosecution.
Or the too-common nod and wink that while burning churches is deplorable it’s understandable. Which you sure wouldn’t get if someone burned a mosque.
According to the hugely divisive Gerald Butts, poor Justin “can’t get a message out” because of recent ugly protests. (In case you thought he’d been all over the news for ages, including that one-man-government-from-a-cottage.) But what about his oleaginous feminism/aboriginality while crushing Jody Wilson-raybould? And his now-you-seeit-now-you-don’t relativism about people experiencing things differently, rendered especially inflammatory by the habitual smirk.
In fact wokeness generally is a seething cauldron of rage, hate and hypocrisy. Identity politics condemns based on race or gender while preaching anti-racist gender-fluidity. Think people pulling alarms at Jordan Peterson events, or that lady with the garrotte, aren’t angry? Or scary? So where’s the outrage? Or even calls to calm down, let alone empathy?
Barack Obama declared himself a uniter not a divider then was so smugly partisan he drove people to elect Donald Trump. Whereupon many Canadian as well as American commentators engaged in an orgy of scorn and snobbery instead of trying to understand where misguided MAGA anger might be coming from.
So it’s infuriating. But the real problem isn’t the people who particularly annoy me, which doesn’t narrow the field much anyway. It’s that righteous indignation feels sooooo good you just can’t ... Hang on. Is that actually wrath I’m indulging?
Yup. So here I try to throw cold water on you, and the back of my own neck. Because for 60 years now we’ve been told to let it all hang out but some of it needs tucking in. Ours as well as politicians.
Including wrath, one of the seven deadly sins. Remember them? The others above the neck are Pride, Envy and Greed, and downstairs Sloth, Gluttony and Lust. All are problems, and not just for other people.
I wish we’d put greed aside in the ballot box, and refuse to support whichever party offered better bribes. Which takes work, so sloth, too, must go into a cage. Etc. But first things first.
If we don’t want other people to be angry, conspiratorial, or hypocritical, we can rant at them, ignore our own failings and thunder about plots in obscenity-laced tweets. Or we can weed our own garden.
Just because people are infuriating, don’t give in to anger. And try not to be infuriating. Remember Nelson Mandela’s poignant maxim “resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.”
Makes you mad, doesn’t it?
IT’S THE HYPOCRISY THAT DRIVES PEOPLE ROUND THE BEND.