Two plus two equals fish

In my second day at We Unify, everyone had an answer.

Oh where to begin? Even having 24 hours between me and that event feels less than optimal.

If Saturday’s agenda of the We Unify conference was dedicated to separatists, Sunday was offered up to the deep state. There’s overlap, to be sure, and it’s surely not coincidence that it’s threaded by religion. Conspiracy world is a truly dizzying space that is propped up and propelled by a shallow but consistent feedback loop that is accepted as the norm rather than the outlier.

Someone asked how I can sit in these spaces and not be “turned” by them. I responded that little of it is actually “new” to me. As I noted in the first article, I’ve heard these stories before and I know them well enough to also know what’s missing when I hear them again. I’m also contrarian by nature. When I hear something new, I’m motivated to look into it, while being discerning of my sources. Then there’s the logic brain which necessarily balks at “two plus two equals fish.” Even if I could control for the former, I have no control over the latter.

Which is not to say that I’m immune; I’m sure I could be turned by an extremely well-designed argument for which no more reasonable explanation or conclusion existed.

However, much of the fervor around separation and even “freedom” stems from adding everything they don’t like together to get “fish”.

Truly, you have a dizzying intellect

Education made its way onto the stage early, with a parental version followed by those who were, or at least more recently were, students. Home-schooling was applauded often and public education was denigrated generally. It was extra special to hear the college drop out from the U.S. offer his “insight”. I’ve seen the conversations people have been recording with some of the dumbest people on the beach, sidewalk, or at a Trump rally in the U.S., too; there are definitely some major problems out there.

What I consistently marvel at is how most of them were so certain that being cut off from learning about people or things they disagreed with somehow gave them a better opportunity to think critically about the same things.

As a person who spent 14 or so hours in the room listening to it, it’s certainly given me something to ponder.

Anecdotes of how others aren’t learning critical thinking in school were punctuated at times with how no one gets a participation ribbon in the real world. From people who were shielded from participating in a “real world” where they might disagree with something themselves. There were calls for parents to get more involved in their child’s education, which I don’t necessarily disagree with to a point. Parents should know what their children are being taught. Talk to your kids and find out. But I want to draw the line at them forcing their views on my kids’ education. Not because I inherently trust government, but because I put more weight on the expertise of people who have spent their careers studying education than I do on the individual preferences of whichever parent is loudest.

The college drop out insisted that education was “too feminine” and relied overmuch on memorization instead of critical thinking. Most agreed that there was too much emphasis on “what to think,” especially in elementary school, over learning “how” to think. Another suggested that there wasn’t enough diversity of thought coming out of the school system yet, somehow, they all managed to find a way to disagree with everything they’d been taught enough to get an invite.

The more recent students also thought everyone around them (outside of this event, obviously) was in a worse state than themselves. Some recognized that they benefitted from parents who treated them like autonomous beings and engaged them in discussions about the world around them. Some blamed the previous generation for handing their children off to the public school system with the belief that government would make everything all better.

I bring my own bias to this topic.

I was educated in Alberta’s K-12 system and so were my children. I know that Alberta’s standards have been exceptionally high and Alberta students have met and exceeded them consistently. They didn’t belabour the point about parents giving their children the confidence to disagree with their fellow students, or a teacher, despite flirting with it a bit.

To circle back to the reason we were all there, it couldn’t possibly be the government’s fault if it’s a parental responsibility, though, could it?

“Science” pffft

Considering I have the logic brain, it does suggest that I should have enjoyed science more. I like math. Or, more precisely, math problems in word form, and algebra, and statistics, but I’m not a fan of science. In a way, I could blame the crap science teacher we had in junior high who could easily be persuaded to go off on health food and exercize instead of teaching us science, or my fellow students who would all have a go at getting him off topic for the entire class, but it wasn’t my thing at all and I blame no one. I was, however, woefully unprepared for the introduction of a new science teacher in grade nine who expected us to use the scientific method. Meh, I learned.

What I’ve always been willing to admit, however, is that I don’t know jack about science. Yes, I could memorize life cycles of frogs and I was able to use linguistics to deduce things I didn’t know about bio-chem to figure enough out to pass, but it all boils down to I know little to nothing about the topic.

There were no speakers representing what one would deem “the scientific community.” There was an MD who raised the alarm about COVID vaccines. He didn’t say that his town burned down because of his findings but his town did burn down eight days after he went public, so.

Another speaker wanted everyone to know that raw milk is fine. A farmer said that if you know your farmer, you can guarantee you get the unvaccinated meat and eggs. He added that he was home-schooled and his four children were home-schooled. Not by him but by his wife. He offered that probably means they probably home-schooled themselves. I think he meant it as a joke at his wife’s expense?

There was a former Ottawa Police Service detective who noticed that deaths in children under the age of 5 had tripled. After she brought it to her sargeant’s attention, she was suspended. And accused of accessing records, including coroner’s reports for personal reasons. She helped solve a cold case once though, so. She received a demotion, the union urged her to take a plea, which she refused. She now has representation by a lawyer who was also a speaker.

The lawyer wants the province to convene a tribunal to take away the licences of those who advocated for the vaccine because “millions” have been injured. The Allison Inquiry demonstrated just how badly some have been injured and no one is admitting fault, they said. Though I do recall that the Canadian government set up a website where people could report issues with the vaccines and potentially receive compensation if they were injured. Almost as if every vaccine comes with potential risks and the Government of Canada acknowledged that risk when they set up the website to report said outcomes.

I’m not sure why it’s a thing to suggest that no one acknowledged risk; I can only surmise that it sounds worse that way.

Much like a Trudeau in government, though, COVID has also become a catch-all for everything that went wrong. Just the feds, of course, even though health is provincial jurisdiction.

They are careful not to let that slip, mind you, because it would mean admitting that not everything is the fault of the federal government.

The “entertainment” was a woman who blames not getting vaccinated for her career not taking off. I heard her sing. My ear says her vaccination status was and remains entirely unrelated to the particular outcome.

Then there was the guy who has always said he was arrested for defying public health orders, which he was, but described it the third time he spoke as being “in the drunk tank for three days,” and I have questions.

Then there was the anti-transwomen crusader who is in the midst of a human rights tribunal that is set to hear final arguments in December. Some people I’ve truly heard enough of and from.

However…

I have been quite taken with Benoit Trudeau’s contributions each time I’ve heard him speak and his debate with Derek Fildebrandt was no exception. It probably needs to be reiterated that he is neither a separatist nor have I heard him lay blame at the foot of COVID mandates for all of his problems.

He does have an, in my opinion, slightly unhealthy interest in getting back at/even with Ottawa, but I suppose that’s the minimum requirement.

In the same way that I have some initial support for Drew Barnes’ plan to start an Alberta bloc, I also support Ben Trudeau’s assertion that Alberta can behave more sovereign if it chooses to. I support each of these as options to try before one moves to “I’ve tried nothing and therefore separation is the answer.”

Back in the 1960’s, the federal government offered provinces the option of taking over some federal responsibilities like building hospitals. Quebec was the only province to do so. As a result, they see a slight decrease in federal taxes but the province collects the same in order to pay for them.

Mr. Trudeau said that he was extremely disappointed that Alberta’s government would take such a great democratic tool and use it to confuse and conflate every question. He said the only question that meets the requirements of the Clarity Act is Option 1 of Question 10.

Mr. Fildebrandt agreed, saying that while he was a proponent of direct democracy, he felt that referenda should be used to overturn bad laws, not waste his time telling the government he supports them in doing their job (immigration questions) or supports them in whining about things they cannot do (constitutional questions).

I also fully admit that while Mr. Trudeau makes the most sense, what he’s talking about is a hard— if not impossible— sell to the people he’s speaking to. They’re on the same page with “taking more control” but differ exponentially at meeting the challenge.

Mr. Fildebrandt threw some shade at former Premiers Ralph Klein and Jason Kenney, as well as current Premier Danielle Smith for not moving on implementing ideas from the Firewall Letter without acknowledging the thing that stops every Premier in Alberta from acting: responsibility.

They don’t want to recreate the wheel of federal services because they’d have to ask Albertans to pay for it. They don’t want to take on the responsibility because Alberta voters might not let them get away with blaming the federal government.

It would poke a lot of holes in “the Alberta Advantage” and also leave Conservatives without someone else to point the finger at.

And really, how un-Albertan would that be?

If you’ve been reading Women of ABpoli for a while and find my analysis useful, a paid subscription supports the work, learning, and follow-through; it builds my knowledge and yours!