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if-you-fan-a-fire · 2 years

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“I watched some Freedom Convoy livestreams on YouTube and some news media interviews with the many white folks wrapped in Canadian flags cheering for the unvaxxed truckers (a minority of truckers) now blasting their horns on Parliament Hill.Here are some themes in the Freedom Convoy discourse:

*free markets good; government bad;

*individual freedom to do whatever one wants regardless of consequences for others, good; restraint on individual freedom for a greater social good, bad;

*freedom from vaccines in Canada, good, safe; freedom to be vaccinated by government, bad, dangerous;

*Covid-19 conspiracy theory-disinformation, good for Canada, trustworthy, the Truth; COVID-19 'expert'-scientific information bad, untrustworthy, Big Lies;

*unvaxxed folks resisting vaccine mandate, good enlightened patriots; vaxxed folks following vaccine mandate, bad-sheeple "Trudopes";

* unvaxxed folks participating in FreedomConvoy, ordinary rebel hero People fighting for Canadian peace and unity; vaxxed normies, unwitting dupes-pawns of corrupt Big Gov-Media-Science Elite, fomenting hate and division in Canada.

* Canada is greatest country in the world, but it is being-has been corrupted by Liberal PM and Federal government overreach; the great freedom-loving people of Canada are taking Canada back, saving Canada, freeing Canada from tyranny, etc.

Well, the 'national popular' is clearly not dead in Canada (but what would Gramsci do with it? What to do with it?)

When asked what they want, many Freedom Convoy people say they want Canada to be free of the vaccine mandate and free from public health restrictions. One first-time protester said she wants to "get back her individual freedom to go shopping again whenever she wants to, and to travel across the border to visit her friends in the United States." So, the wish is for a restoration of the pre-pandemic neoliberal capitalist status quo: freedom to work for wages and to then go shopping, to enjoy the conveniences of the market unhindered by the 'inconveniences' of responsibly abiding public health guidelines in a global pandemic. Others-many middle aged white dudes-speak of themselves as 'victims' of Justin Trudeau and describe the PM as a 'dictator', 'tyrant', 'authoritarian', 'Communist' and 'Nazi'. They seem to believe Trudeau is pushing them and Canada down the road to 'serfdom', the 'gulag', even to the 'camps'!

These white guys represent themselves as at once the 'oppressed' and the 'enlightened vanguard' of a national liberation movement that aims to emancipate the People in 'Canada' from the Elite and restore to 'Canada' the 'Freedom' taken from them by the Federal Government and the Liberal Party. They make lots of macho death threats against the PM and jubilantly declare a desire to kill the PM to punish him for 'his crimes'' against Canadians. Though the provincial governments are at helm of making and enforcing public health mandates, the Freedom Convoy people aren't calling for the death of Doug Ford.

All this reminds me of Tea Party propaganda and protest and the Far Right populist rhetorical frames crafted and operationalized by Trumpism. Much sounds a lot like what Jordan Peterson has been prattling on about to his millions of fans, for years. After all, Peterson described the splatter of COVID-19 rules as a 'totalitarian' threat to freedom. "The thing that surprised me the most," says Peterson, "was how rapidly we stampeded to imitate a totalitarian state in the immediate aftermath of the release of COVID." After the booster shot was encouraged, Peterson tweeted: "Over my dead body you totalitarian wannabees."

As such, the Freedom Convoy's demand for Freedom is a reactionary one. It draws water from the well of mainstream and fringe conservativism. Simply put, the Freedom Convoy demands nothing more for society than a return to free-market capitalism, where individuals freely pursue their self-interest in the market, unhindered in any way by the State. The demand is to go back to 'business as usual', minus Trudeau, but likely plus Bernier or O'Toole. The Freedom Convoy does not demand freedom for everyone from the realm of necessity; it makes no demand to free anyone from compulsory, precarious and alienating waged work; it advances no demand on the State to enhance our freedom by maximizing resources for universally provisioning necessities like public healthcare, education, welfare, daycare, transit, communications and more, for one and all!

The Freedom Convoy's understanding of Freedom stems from an impoverished political imagination, one in sync with the old political-economic status quo, that fails to contemplate its problems, and cannot take us beyond what was.

The Freedom Convoy's future-oriented political horizon points backwards to the myth of a better past. It is the Canadian far Right trailing behind the American far Right (and as one meme put it, "with much lower production values"). After all, the Freedom Convoy is organized by Alberta seperatist Wexit Party people (Tamara Lichsome), People's Party of Canada people (Benjamin Dichter), Yellow Vest Canada people (white nationalist Patrick King), No More Lockdowns people (anti-vaxx and anti-BLM organizer Jason LaFace), and Action 4 Canada - Canada Unity people (Islamophobic anti-LGBTQ haters) and some other far Right ghouls and goons. These folks know how to organize an effective social media campaign, and to reach out, fundraise and recruit through the Internet and digital platforms. Whatever is going on in the minds of the mix of people in this FreedomConvoy milieu has been given shape and given direction by the digital media environment.

It is this environment that the far Right utilizes to move people that might otherwise go Left, to the far right. The digital media environment, as created, manipulated and mobilized by political actors, plays something of a determining role, when it connects to people's real material conditions and experiences. It is the 'ISA' of our conjuncture, not public education, not the legacy news media, and not the old culture industry. The material conditions people live are given meaning, are made meaningful, with the social problem and political solution identified, framed and explained, within and by the digital media environment. I think the far Right is just so much better than the Left at using these tools, because many Lefties are still just trying to be good public educators, not propagandists.

Anyway, the far Right's Freedom Convoy movement was launched on the Internet and has taken off, gone viral, become a material force, connected with and captivated many many thousands of hearts and minds, won more people to far Right anti-vaxxer ideology and integrated them into far Right disinformation networks. The media spectacle accompanying the big event is commented on, shared, captioned, memed, retweeted, and streamed far and wide, across the Internet by lots of far Right folks all around the world, especially in the US.

Donald Trump praised the FreedomConvoy for "doing more to defend American freedom than our own leaders by far." Donald Trump Jr. cheered: "When we push back against the insanity, we can win, and that’s how all this ends...This is a genius idea. We need to see more of this in the U.S." Ben Shapiro tweeted support: "Canadian truckers are rightfully demonstrating against authoritarian vaccine mandates." Fox News pundits like Sean Hannity praise the protests: "TRUCK YEAH: Canada Forms Freedom Convoy of 10K Trucks to Protest Vax Mandates, ‘Overreach is Over.’” Celebrity Joe Rogan declared "Canada is a country in revolt" and billionaire Elon Musk also approved.

The Freedom Convoy has also been taken up strategically at the national level by Maxime Bernier's People's Party and some in Erin O'Toole's Conservative Party, with each trying to ride the Freedom Convoy to increasing electoral returns.I would not claim that every person swept up by the Freedom Convoy's social media momentum was a willing collaborator with the far Right white nationalists who organized this campaign. Nor will I claim that every person who is exhausted, scared, angry and stressed out by the pandemic and nostalgic for some pre pandemic situation or wishing for some post-pandemic era to come identifies with the far Right. I do, however, claim that noxious far Right groups coordinated and catalyzed Freedom Convoy to influence the working class, to take advantage of people's fears and hopes, to turn truckers into a popular symbol of the Right. They have been effective at pushing and pulling people into their hateful ideological milieu.

At the same time, many people that chose to participate in this campaign, online, along highways, and on Parliament Hill, know very well what they are doing, the type of politics they are supporting and why they are doing what they do.

But why are all the thousands of folks targeted by this far Right Freedom Convoy campaign so receptive to its messages and imagery? Not all started their day identifying as or with the far Right, so what made them so open to its influence? Can anything be learned from this mass event? Structurally? About the conjuncture? About our opponents' strategy and tactics? About how to counter those and win people to a better and different kind of Freedom?

H/T to Steve Maher for earlier discussion and encouraging these types of political questions. I don't know the answers to these questions, but I do share John Clarke 's overall assessment: "it is deeply alarming that a fascist core can find the means to rally such numbers and execute such a serious initiative. The confidence, resolve and sense of purpose this will give them is far more dangerous than the immediate event. Only an equally serious and ongoing working class mobilization can neutralize this threat."”

- Tanner Mirrlees, January 29, 2022.

#convoy nonsense #canadian far right #reactionary politics #neoliberalism #business as usual #trumpism #astroturfing #politics of protests #political protest #neo-fascism #antivax #conspiracy theorists #covid19 #negative freedom #canadian politics

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llyfrenfys · 5 months

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"Fascism and Welsh Nationalism", or "Stop Fawning over the FWA you cont"

This is inspired by things I've been noticing around Aberystwyth lately while out and about.

Some mfer is putting up Free Welsh Army (FWA) stickers and I have to keep on pulling them down. Why? You ask.

Fascism.

Because of the not so subtle links between the FWA and fascist movements (of which those links are quite frankly underdiscussed) this post is necessary.

So, starting with the stickers:

This is just one of three identical stickers I've pulled down this last week in Aberystwyth. They appear more to be car stickers than anything else and must have cost a pretty penny to print and/or purchase. They appear to have been bought directly from a website using FWA imagery and slogans - yet does not claim to be the FWA (that I can see, at least). I'm not going to link to it because they don't need any more web traffic. But we will get onto why this is significant in a bit.

Anyway, returning to the stickers - I pulled down the first one off of an electric box on North Road, opposite Vaynor St in late November. I pulled down the second (pictured) also in late November on Penglais Road off the bus stop near the hospital. And in early December I pulled down the third one off of a wall near the Spar at the end of Vaynor Street. Right off the bat we can assume the guy who wasted a lot of money on these stickers lives local to where the stickers I've found so far were. So they're lazy, for one - not venturing much further than their own front door by the looks of it.

Iconography:

I've written about the iconography of the FWA before here but it bears repeating that if fascists approve of your iconography, then that's a sign your movement is already overrun with fascists.

This is the sticker design which I've been noticing about town. Top to bottom we have "Cymru Rydd/Free Wales" which on its own is fine. No qualms with that. But between the Welsh and English text is a symbol. This one:

Now, this was the symbol of the Free Wales Army. Note that I say *was* because the FWA doesn't exist any more. Yet various actors have tried to resurrect its very unsuccessful corpse over the years. These stickers seem to belong to a new organisation which is the latest to try and capitalise on the ghost of the FWA. Now, if you're like me, you'll have already noticed this design is, for lack of a better word, a bit dogwhistley. The angled, blocky, swastika-like stylisation of what is supposedly an eagle, the black and white void of any other features and the very fact it *is* an eagle depicted all seem a bit *too* similar to the iconography of the Third Reich, don't you think?

Their design choice is no accident. It is a design which appeals to fascists while also has enough Welsh cultural reference for apologists to hide behind with a plausibly deniable reason for why their eagle Looks Like That. The white eagle is a reference to the 13th C. poem Mab Darogan, in which Myrddin prophesises that "a king shall come with heroism from among the Welsh people" and that "generous men shall be reborn of the lineage of the eagles of Snowdonia". The eagle could have literally been drawn in any way. But it rather specifically was drawn like this. That choice is not accidental.

Now this new organisation which is trying to reanimate the corpse of the FWA (we'll call them EW) has incorporated the FWA symbol into their sticker. An endorsement of the failed so-called 'paramilitary' organisation on their part, to be sure. EW also have included a different style of white eagle on their sticker as well - which is blatantly stolen from Wikipedia (the copyright is expired, but 0/10 artistic effort on their part even so). Also not to nitpick but the eagle on the sticker is grey not white so that's also a fail.

Artistic criticisms aside, the sticker is loaded with dogwhistley iconography all round. The Celtic knot border isn't necessarily problematic, however, fascists and/or neo-nazis love to slap Celtic knots onto things because they associate Celticity with whiteness. The colour scheme may also be a coincidence, but it does remind me of the fascist symbol which is the 'Flag of Kekistan" which uses the same colour scheme.

Why does this matter and who were the FWA?:

The FWA were a Welsh nationalist (supposedly 'paramilitary') outfit which formed in Lampeter in 1963 and disbanded in 1969 (just 6 years of activity). They took a lot of their cues from the IRA and were effectively fanboys of them. The group was never really considered a threat and mostly consisted of middle-aged men playing paramilitary dress-up. They did claim to be funded by the IRA and that they had dogs trained to carry explosives. Their claims remain unproven.

HOWEVER - and here's where things get sticky. A lot of the issues the FWA were publicly concerned with were and are actually valid issues (e.g. the drowning of Capel Celyn, the Aberfan Disaster etc.). The problem is that fascists or fanboys of fascists love to get their foot in the door by addressing genuine issues. But what happens is that invariably a minoritised group is blamed for the existence of said issue and naturally that leads to discrimination and violence.

The police started to get a bit antsy with the investiture of then-prince Charles as prince of Wales and the possibility of the FWA doing some terrorism. So some of the FWA's leaders were arrested just prior to this. The group officially ended in 1969.

The nationalism advocated for by the FWA was of the 'blood-and-soil' type. Not just your common or garden nationalism (which still has issues but given context is perfectly able to exist in a non-fashy way). And that's why the idolisation of the FWA in years since is sus. It appeals to romanticised nationalist notions of brave men in uniforms helping free Wales - when in reality they did little terrorism and little to actually further the Welsh nationalist cause. In fact, the leadership of the FWA fell apart after they started to disagree on whether their actions were damaging the cause rather than helping it.

Julian Cayo-Evans founded the FWA and ran it with Dennis Coslett and Gethin ap Gruffydd. Gruffydd went on to found other youth nationalist organisations after he left the FWA due to disagreements with its direction - e.g. he founded the Patriotic Front in 1964 which was later outlawed by Plaid Cymru in 1966. It goes without saying names like 'Patriotic Front' are deliberate nods to other, similarly named fascist organisations like National Front.

Legacy and The Present:

FWA's only legacy is the sycophantic fanclub which ressurects the corpse of the FWA every few years to parade it around and relive the 'glory days' of paramilitary cosplay. But aside from functionally being useless, their iconography and politics are still very much under the fash umbrella and that must be resisted at every opportunity (hence why I'm tearing down their stickers - I don't want fascists to feel welcome here). Part of why people may turn a blind eye to the FWA/sympathise is that they may not be aware of the history of the FWA or see the dogwhistles laden in their work and symbols. Some may even just assume without any other context that they're just another Welsh-language preservation group and may even support them without realising the deeper nature of the organisation beyond just preserving the Welsh language.

Which brings me back to EW. I'm going to put the rest of this under a cut, I do encourage reading the rest though and reblogging to get the word out that

It is always morally okay to tear down fascist propaganda

If you see some in your town, don't hesitate to let fash know they aren't welcome here.

EW:

So, onto the latest in a long line of paramilitary wannabes who idolise a long-dead organisation from the 60s.

The EW website seems... sketch. Lots of banners and sections asking to 'donate now' and 'take action' (with money). So right off the bat this looks like a cash-grab.

Secondly, from their own 'About' section they claim that the Welsh Independence movement has "become inundated with authoritarian Marxist entryists who regard Welsh independence as merely a vehicle for furthering their own political agendas". Which is pretty bold stuff coming from an organisation trying to do The Exact Same. There's also a LOT of emphasis on youth involvement and youth nationalism.

There's also a lot of ahistorical claims in the About section too. E.g. on the prophecy of Myrddin "From this legend derives the very name of Cymru’s greatest mountains, with ‘Eryri’ meaning the ‘Seat of the Eagles’ in Cymraeg." - this is contested as there is no one agreed upon etymology of Eryri. To claim that this is The Etymology suggests that they picked this one just because it conveniently fits the version of the mythology they're presenting. They also claim that "Owain ap Gruffydd, would adopt three such eagles as his royal coat of arms" - this is blatantly incorrect as Owain ap Gruffydd lived before the Age of Heraldry and the three eagles are actually later attributed arms.

In EW's FAQ there's a section on supporting their organisation - with one paragraph saying that you can buy stickers instead "If you aren’t eligible or willing to commit to becoming an activist". Lol at 'if you aren't willing to fully commit to our FWA fanboy club you can put up some stickers instead'. Also the button to buy stickers suggests you pay via paypal "We’ll accept quick payments using PayPal and will have them shipped to you First Class" - which *totally* sounds legit (what do you bet they ask people to pay via 'friends and family instead of through business means?).

And... that's it. There's very little else on their website. It *looks* like they're trying to be a movement, but appear to lack substance (and money, judging from how many different Donate Now buttons are plastered all over the site). A hollow organisation blatantly bending history and mythology to fit their narrative, proudly using symbols designed to appeal to fascists while asking people to trust them with the future of Wales?

Dim diolch.

For further reading on why we should guard against fascism in Welsh language revival and independence, see my other post here.

Reblogs welcome for an antifascist independent Wales.

#cymraeg #cymru #free wales army #fwa #eryri #eryr wen #antifascist #annibyniaeth #welsh independence #welsh #fascism cw #neo nazism cw #white nationalism cw #long post

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odinsblog · 1 year

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This is what whitewashing history looks like

This is what erasure and racism denial looks like

Under Ron DeSantis and the GOP, Florida is removing any references to George Floyd, Black Lives Matter, racism, social justice, critical race theory, and take-a-knee from their textbooks. (this is not a comprehensive list of redacted terms).

When Republicans aren’t busy banning words, books and movies, they’re re-writing history books to retcon and erase their racism.

This is happening in real time, right before our eyes.

It’s very fash.

#politics #republicans #ron desantis #florida #whitewashing history #education #erasure #white fragility #republicans are evil #fascism #neo fascism #textbooks

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decolonize-the-left · 2 months

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Rewatching Bo Burnham's Inside.

I'm never ever gonna get over how everyone watched this and wrote essays and how even liberals were watching it and how white people STILL posted tiktoks about how THEY were socko (a clear representation of PoC experiences in liberal spaces) and now people are like vote for Joe Biden!!

Like I???????

these people could literally have the problem blasted directly into their fucking brains and treat it like a personality for a month and they would STILL yell at me when I say our government is the problem and that we need to address it from outside their white comfort zone. That their comfort zone is in fact holding progress back.

I frfr can not believe the reality I've found myself in as a disabled native

'What can I do to help?'

'Read a book or something, I don't know Just don't burden me with the responsibility of educating you. It's incredibly exhausting'

'I'm sorry, Socko. I was just trying to become a better person'

'Why do you rich fucking white people insist on seeing every socio-political conflict through the myopic lens of your own self-actualization? This isn't about you. So either get with it, or get out of the fucking way'

'Watch your mouth, buddy. Remember who's on whose hand here.'

'But that's what I- Have you not been fucking listening? We are entrenched in a way- (starts to put Socko away) Wait, wait, no please! I don't wanna go back, please! I can't go, I can't go back. Please, please, I'm sorry!'

'Are you gonna behave yourself?'

'Yes'

'Yes, what?'

'Yes, sir'

'Look at me'

'Yes, sir'

'That's better'

Like what level of dystopian is that this was Everywhere just a few years ago and STILL people are saying shit like 'i think the brown ppl's expectations should be more realistic cuz we definitely need to vote to keep killing them overseas to save the white gays on us soil'

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