Submitted by fortmis in Canada (edited )

they way some people talk about it, you can really hear the disdain in their voice when they say "trucker," and I can't help but feel like there's this class dynamic that's going unchecked. people love to shit on truckers, always have. I'm not saying they're a group with the best track record, but I mean you could say the same about priests...

this whole this is so damn messy... but what gets to me the most is the tone people have about it... it just really rubs me the wrong way

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crime wrote

I think there's something to this.

I havent been following it super closely, so I'm not sure what all liberal outlets are saying about it, but I think that tone generally exists-- dismissing or belittling the thing because they're "uneducated truckers!!" and not because it's actually just fundamentally fuken wack. They feel like they can dismiss it out of hand because it's working class rednecks who don't know what they're doing. Which is true (and I use the term redneck endearingly), but liberal criticism comes from a place of looking down their noses, not engaging with a substantive criticism that actually deals with why it's so silly.

Someone addressed this tone in this reportback, referencing counter-protestors on the ground in Ottawa:

"Most of the signs were either calling for more police, complaining about inconveniences like sound and traffic, or making fun of the demonstrators for being unvaccinated and/or stupid. “Honk if you failed civics,” “Self-driving trucks can’t spread covid,” “Ottawa police act now,” “Make Ottawa boring again.” A lady with a wordy sign about how vaccine mandates save lives mistakes me for a member of convoy protest and chastises me for apparently being illiterate, “Did it take you a few minutes to read that one, honey?” I have a graduate degree and no business being this personally offended but I feel a surge of rage at downtown liberal elites who think the problem is that these people just didn’t go to school long enough."

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fortmis OP wrote

that report looks super interesting. just scanned but will go in for a full read soon. ya no matter where you look this thing is messy

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moonlune wrote

they're a group with the best track record

They're truckers, they can't go fast. hehe.

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fortmis OP wrote

very pleased to see this bread crumb trail was followed ;)

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__0 wrote

I was just talking to my roommate about these truckers, I don't necessarily think that everyone is shutting on truckers because they are truckers. There's a lot of Neo Nazis, libertarians, people who are afraid of cellphone towers, antisemitic new world order types, I have nothing against truckers, but there's a lot of people in the convoy I couldn't put faith in who are speaking for "truckers" ... Seeing the way they these people want to remove the government and have a popular assembly, but also hate anarchists and communists and liberals, and anyone else they've been told to hate. Most of the people who are yelling the loudest from the convoy don't understand any of the political implications of most of the stuff they are advocating for. It's ironic that people who's whole identity is waving flags are basically advocating for the dissolution of Canada and they don't even realize it,

I just think that the whole situation is unbelievably stupid, like mind numbingly, catastrophically stupid.

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fortmis OP wrote

Most of the people who are yelling the loudest from the convoy don't understand any of the political implications of most of the stuff they are advocating for.

can you elaborate on this? i've watched some of the press conferences they've held and unless i missed it (which is quite likely), i didn't hear much beyond asking for the mandates to be removed. is that what you're referring to? if so, what are the "political implications" of removing the mandates? I know there's a lot of wackos (to put it lightly) in the crowd, but I don't see the convoy as a whole advocating for the extremists' bullshit.

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__0 wrote

Oh I've just seen lots of people just listing politicians that need to step down, lots of finger pointing and blame, lots of people who want the entire liberal cabinet to step down (as if) and who want to do some sort of coalition type thing where the convoy becomes the majority voice in the government (yeah but who speaks for the convoy) there's a lot of us vs the government type dialogue as if the government is just kind of one person making decisions as opposed to an un-steerable contraption with multiple points of failure. It's always frustrating to see a group of people assuming authority over others and speaking for them. I don't think it's reasonable to claim patriotism and wave flags when they are effectively opposition to thing that the flag represents; namely the government of Canada...

I just see so many levels of optics that are built on such obvious lies, I think a lot of the people participating in the convoy are completely oblivious to the irony to it.

Also I think that vaccine passports probably will be partially withdrawn in the near future unrelated to this convoy,

Any claim of victory this convoy makes is just going to be used to leverage political power into a few figure heads that supposedly led it, and people in the convoy with media connections, the fact that the convoy leaders have at times stressed that people don't talk to media only focuses power upwards.

The fact that over 10million dollars was raised (most withheld) also hints at the organizers proximity to money... Although a lot of the money raised was organic support, It is unethical to demand that much money and give people the impression that the convoy is going to overthrow the government etc, when most of that money has no financial oversight etc. This is exactly the kind of thing where money become unaccountable, it exchanges hands and disappears.

It is ironic that a protest that raised 10milion dollars still clings on to the narrative that all counter protesters are paid (by who), Also if they aren't getting paid, who is...

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fortmis OP wrote

good points. i wonder what will happen next...

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metocin wrote

Yeah definitely. I try not to judge people too easily but Ive worked in a blue collar, male dominated trade and these type of guys are generally pretty ignorant and reactionary. Its one of the reasons I left the trade actually. But having that personal experience working in a blue collar field and knowing first hand what a lot of these guys are like is a lot different than a college educated liberal whose never gotten their hands dirty making classist assumptions.

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fortmis OP wrote

i think that a lot of people who grow up middle class and going through all the levels of school learn to love the system cause it serves them, and it's hard to really truly break free of that. whereas when the system never really serves you, sure you don't get the benefit of having the latest up-to-date perspectives that a university lifestyle will feed you, but you have a really valuable on the ground experience of what policy and bureaucracy look like when it's carried out.

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