The Critical Compass Podcast - Pre-Election Thoughts： Amarjeet Sohi is Never Happy, Liberals Don't Understand Conservatives, & more

00:00:00.000 I think this is a particular problem on the left in that they can reiterate the policies of the politicians on the right, but they can't conceptualize of why they would believe this.

00:00:12.560 At least in this election, obviously identifying more with the conservatives, we can articulate to you what the liberal platform is and what they're trying to achieve with those goals.

00:00:21.080 You want a population that's very heavily taxed and regulated so they can maintain a market in the type of economic system that they want to have.

00:00:30.000 You know, that's the system that they want to have and these are the way that they can achieve those aims.

00:00:51.980 Welcome back to The Critical Compass.

00:00:54.520 I'm James.

00:00:55.120 This is Mike.

00:00:56.380 And today we're going to dive in and talk about why Edmonton's mayor is going on a leave of absence and why our politicians seem to just step away from their duties randomly.

00:01:09.540 I don't understand.

00:01:10.540 Mike, you tell me what's going on here.

00:01:13.940 Well, I'm sure glad you passed it off to me because I also don't understand.

00:01:17.780 But what I do know is that our mayor is taking a leave of absence so that he can run in his historical riding that he was.

00:01:28.780 Maybe many of our listeners might know that he was once Justin Trudeau's transport minister.

00:01:33.920 I think he may have had another ministerial role as well, but Amarjeet Sohi, he certainly was an MP for a while.

00:01:44.380 And yeah, so this article is from a few weeks ago, but we wanted to talk about it now.

00:01:49.100 It's kind of middle of the road through the election cycle here.

00:01:52.100 It's just such a crazy story.

00:01:54.720 I mean, I'll just read the first few lines like Edmonton City Council granted Mayor Amarjeet Sohi's request Monday afternoon for an unpaid leave of absence while he runs for the Liberals in the federal election.

00:02:05.880 So he announced on Sunday he's running in Edmonton Southeast, a new riding that covers part of the area he used to represent as the MP for Edmonton Mill Woods.

00:02:14.240 Sohi's leave will be in effect until the day the official results of the election are released.

00:02:18.660 Canadians go to the polls on April 28th.

00:02:21.760 And this is just a great little quote here because I think I would probably describe it the opposite way.

00:02:28.140 But quote, I think this is being respectful of the taxpayer dollar and that the leave without pay is part of the motion, said Councillor Joanne Wright during Monday's special council meeting.

00:02:39.860 James, that's really an interesting choice of words because, like, I mean, I would say, like, rather than being respectful of the taxpayer dollar, I think that's just like that's the absolute bare minimum.

00:02:53.260 Like, the notion that it would even be acceptable in any circumstance to pay Amarjeet Sohi simultaneously to be the mayor, that he isn't fulfilling his duties while he's running for a completely different level of government seat.

00:03:08.140 I mean, the notion is ridiculous, but I think that the whole thing is ridiculous because, like, this is a situation where an opportunity has presented itself, obviously, that Sohi views to be more either lucrative or, you know, a higher, you know, maybe he feels like he's, like, not getting his dues, you know, as just a lowly mayor when he was once in the federal government.

00:03:32.000 And I don't know what he's thinking, but, like, nothing about this feels respectful to me.

00:03:36.520 I don't know.

00:03:36.860 What do you think?

00:03:38.580 Yeah, it feels like he's running away from the city because, obviously, if his heart was in making Edmonton better and fulfilling his duties as the mayor, he would stick it out the whole way through.

00:03:54.700 Obviously, like, if somebody's truly bashing it and they're like, I'm here for a term, here's what I have, here's what I'm implementing, let it be in his case, it's more bike lanes, it's some of these eco initiatives, like the electric buses that don't work in the winter.

00:04:12.880 If your heart is truly in it, wouldn't you stick through to the end?

00:04:20.600 So, that's showing a lack of commitment.

00:04:24.900 And that's almost, you wouldn't do this in any other workplace.

00:04:30.600 Yeah.

00:04:31.140 You wouldn't say, like, okay, well, like, I'm doing great here as an employee, but, okay, I'm going to, like, just hold with me for two weeks.

00:04:41.280 I'm going to apply for another job.

00:04:43.180 If I don't get it, I'll see you back.

00:04:45.020 And then, like, I hope you welcome me back with open arms.

00:04:49.420 But don't worry, I'm not expecting to be paid during these two weeks.

00:04:52.080 Like, yeah, no shit, because you're not working.

00:04:54.280 Holy Christ.

00:04:55.600 This next part is just brilliant.

00:04:58.120 I just love it.

00:04:59.860 So he has said that he will come back to the mayor's chair and serve the rest of his term if he loses the federal race, but he will not run for re-election municipality in the fall.

00:05:08.220 Yeah, well, I would hope not.

00:05:09.560 I would hope that he wouldn't even return.

00:05:11.640 But anyway, in the meantime, city councilors will take turns filling in as deputy mayor.

00:05:18.020 I'm not going to pronounce it, but Karen Principe has the position until April 21st, and Anne Stevenson takes over after that.

00:05:27.020 If so, he wins the federal seat.

00:05:28.660 He will resign as mayor, and city council will discuss filling his role, potentially with an interim mayor or continuing with the deputy rotation.

00:05:35.240 So not only is this, like, you know, throwing a wrench in for the last two weeks and for the next two weeks, now potentially we could just not have a mayor.

00:05:43.900 We could have a rotating musical chairs of deputies until the municipal elections in the fall.

00:05:50.600 Like, talk about disrespect, man.

00:05:53.140 Like, that's, as a resident of the city, like, I just, it's, oh, man, I'm heated.

00:05:59.800 I'm hot.

00:06:00.720 It is funny.

00:06:01.380 Um, if your job can be so easily covered, how important was that job in the first place?

00:06:08.980 Yeah.

00:06:09.580 And I love the, like, oh, he'll, he'll return.

00:06:11.720 He'll just return if he loses the federal election.

00:06:13.580 Okay.

00:06:14.000 Well, I'm sure, like, his headspace will be right, and he'll be like, you know, he'll be reinvigorated and ready to go, and he won't just be there just filling a chair and warming a seat up until, you know, for the next four or five months.

00:06:24.640 Like, yeah, it's, I, I think it speaks to also the fact that he's not planning on running again, um, reflects that, well, he's not leaving Edmonton in a good place.

00:06:40.020 Well, and I guess the examples I can point to is that they spent a huge amount of money on projects that not everybody really agrees with.

00:06:51.120 Let it be, uh, painting our sidewalks, all kinds of colors, these virtue signaling type of issues where we, we still have roads that have, that have potholes, and we have areas that are being converted into more and more bike lanes where it's frozen half the year.

00:07:11.800 We have electric buses, and those don't work, so we have money sinks that maybe someone could argue that we're not getting our money's value out of it, and there's some base level, let it be sewage, um, just infrastructure, just, well, are we providing good services to the property, like the homeowners that pay the property taxes that go into the city coffers?

00:07:38.540 And the fact that they had to ask for more money, and had to raise property taxes, saying that we ran out of money, that, that's not demonstrating good fiscal responsibility.

00:07:53.220 And I, I think we see this more on the left, is they are great at spending other people's money, and they've lost the perspective of, well, it's just a million here, it's just a million there.

00:08:05.120 And, really, the sense of value gets watered down, and then nothing's really accounted for, and I think you could expect that going into the federal, like, the federal election as well.

00:08:20.500 You look at these track records, and so much money is wasted, and it blows my mind that it's not really, like, nobody's being, nobody's being called out for mischief, for misallocating millions and billions of dollars, yet we have prosecution of protesters, so it doesn't make sense to me.

00:08:46.440 Yeah. Yeah, it's just a general level of, like, you know, clown show that we're just expected to accept, and I mean, I don't, I don't think we're being precious about this.

00:08:57.660 Like, I don't, I don't think it's too much to ask that, like, you know, if you're in a position as a mayor of a city, that you're just not allowed to run for another level of government, a completely different level of government concurrently while your term is being served as mayor.

00:09:13.760 Like, there are people who voted for him as mayor that, like, I would assume want to see him fulfill his term as mayor.

00:09:20.920 Like, that's, you know, if you were a SOHI voter, how are you looking at this?

00:09:24.500 Like, oh, I guess, like, you know, I got, you know, whatever, 80% of my votes worth, you know what I mean?

00:09:32.580 Like, it's not, I don't know, but anyway, that's the state that we're in.

00:09:37.860 So, it's, it's, it's, it's going to be a gamble regardless, because that's the, I believe his competitor is, well, his name is slipping now from me, but he, he's, he's beaten SOHI the last couple times that they've run together, I think.

00:09:56.540 Can you think of his name?

00:09:59.780 That's not my.

00:10:05.740 Tim Upple.

00:10:07.860 He's, he's actually, I believe, may even be the deputy, one of the, two, like, deputy PMs or something.

00:10:16.480 Did we meet him at all?

00:10:18.600 I think we did.

00:10:19.520 I don't remember.

00:10:20.540 I think we did very briefly.

00:10:21.500 Was he at the AGM?

00:10:23.120 I believe he was, and he was, he actually introduced, he introduced some speakers at the, at the rally, yeah.

00:10:31.140 Yeah.

00:10:32.180 Yeah, he is deputy leader of the opposition, serving with Melissa Lantzman.

00:10:36.060 So, yeah, he's, he's very high up in the, in the, the party.

00:10:40.580 So, yeah, that'll be, it'll be a tough race, but he, he's beaten SOHI before.

00:10:46.660 So, be curious to see how that, how that riding goes.

00:10:49.040 I'm going to be curious to see, maybe this is a good segue into this, the general election talk.

00:10:55.420 Because today is the first official debate.

00:10:58.740 It was the French language debate.

00:11:00.400 I saw some clips.

00:11:01.340 I wasn't going to watch the whole thing.

00:11:02.620 I'll watch the highlights or the lowlights as it is.

00:11:04.820 Um, but I have read the general consensus, maybe we're in a bit of a bubble, but the general consensus seems to be that, uh, Polyev did very well.

00:11:14.320 Um, people are commenting that he sounded and he seemed very prime ministerial.

00:11:20.160 Um, uh, Carney is well known to not have strong French.

00:11:24.180 And I believe that, uh, that may have affected him.

00:11:28.280 The, the general comments that I've been reading is that his, his, um, people are having a hard time understanding him.

00:11:34.560 I don't think his, his, um, vocabulary is necessarily that strong.

00:11:41.140 So maybe that would, you know, maybe he's not being very precise in French.

00:11:45.200 James, I'm curious what you think.

00:11:46.640 Cause I've, I've had this discussion before with people.

00:11:48.780 We may have even talked about it briefly on here, but, um, I don't know that.

00:11:55.100 I mean, everyone knows the polls are fake and gay and they're not real, but, um, the, the idea that the liberals are just going to walk through Quebec like they always do.

00:12:05.460 I don't really buy that.

00:12:06.880 Like, I don't think that, I don't think that the Quebecois are too thrilled on handing their vote to a guy who very obviously doesn't really have much time or interest in learning how to properly communicate to them.

00:12:21.480 He's had, you know, he's worked in Europe before.

00:12:23.960 I mean, he worked in England and he's lived, you know, all over Europe and he's, I'm sure had lots of business dealings in France.

00:12:29.660 Um, you know, he's a, markets himself as a pretty worldly guy.

00:12:33.300 Um, you know, apparently he doesn't have the interest though to, you know, woo voters in a, in a huge liberal stronghold traditionally.

00:12:43.140 And I have a hard time that they're going to vote for him when you have, I mean, maybe this is selling them short a little bit, but I mean, the guy, Pierre Polyev, that's about as French as it gets.

00:12:54.480 His French is very strong.

00:12:56.660 He, uh, you know, has a long track record of being, you know, pretty, pretty well liked in Quebec.

00:13:01.960 So yeah, I just, I just don't think that Quebec is going to be as red as people think it is.

00:13:06.480 I don't know.

00:13:06.760 What are your thoughts?

00:13:08.920 Yeah.

00:13:09.680 I feel like in Quebec they do, they vote for their province more than they vote for Canada.

00:13:17.620 And I, I feel like that's been demonstrated in the past and in this case, Carney doesn't seem to be other than he doesn't seem to be favoring Quebec other than maybe protecting equalization.

00:13:32.240 If, if they were going to vote on something, if they were worried that equalization would be maybe like watered down or shifted under the conservatives.

00:13:46.580 I don't know the rhetoric that's happening in Quebec right now, but I could see that being maybe one of the deciding factors.

00:13:54.220 Um, yeah, yeah.

00:13:55.860 By that.

00:13:56.360 Um, but the, the other, the other thing about this debate is, uh, if you, I don't know if it matters as much of the French vote, but I feel like the choices of translators is like, is a little sus.

00:14:13.180 I heard about that.

00:14:14.420 I heard about that.

00:14:15.320 Yeah.

00:14:15.440 Like give the most confident sounding voice to the weakest French speaker.

00:14:22.220 So Carney gets the strongest translator.

00:14:24.600 Yeah.

00:14:25.040 The effeminate, less confident sounding voice to Polly have.

00:14:29.640 I wonder if they though, like just to play devil's advocate here.

00:14:32.620 I wonder if, if Carney needed the strongest translator, like a guy.

00:14:37.580 Yeah.

00:14:37.820 Like maybe he's the only person who can like fully decode.

00:14:42.580 Yeah.

00:14:43.380 His pseudo French.

00:14:45.060 But which again, though, to, to unplay devil's advocate, that's not really right.

00:14:52.980 Is it?

00:14:53.360 Cause if, if he's such a, if he requires this much assistance, then, you know, that's just further proves my original point.

00:14:59.820 Well, what I'm getting to is the bulk of the voters being English speaking.

00:15:05.500 If they see highlights from the French debate.

00:15:09.080 Uh, they'll hear it in the conference.

00:15:10.760 They, they will, they will, they will hear sound bites that sound more confident and sound more articulate than they actually are.

00:15:19.600 Um, so it, it, it, for the majority of the voters, this French debates currently not going to hurt them as much as it, it would, if everybody could fully comprehend how, how, how much nonsense he's speaking in French.

00:15:38.640 Yeah.

00:15:41.600 Yeah.

00:15:42.140 It's, um, yeah, there's shenanigans all over the place.

00:15:45.900 There was a lot of comments.

00:15:46.840 Actually, I was reading that, um, it felt like the, the speed with which Carney was answering questions.

00:15:53.320 Um, it felt like he may have been aware of what the questions were.

00:15:57.680 I mean, I know that's a very like spicy allegation, but, um, I mean, wouldn't be the first time that one candidate was given an advantage over another in a bit in a debate.

00:16:07.880 So who knows?

00:16:10.580 He's the only candidate actively, maybe other than Jagmeet, uh, who is like championing the CBC.

00:16:19.380 So I don't know if you have to, if you have to remember Carney is an outsider, he's an outsider in no way.

00:16:27.280 Yeah.

00:16:27.720 He's new.

00:16:28.180 He's an outsider, never in politics.

00:16:30.380 Um, unless you count him advising the liberals for multiple years.

00:16:35.560 For four years.

00:16:36.820 And then for being, but he's an outsider, finance minister in two different governments going back to 2008.

00:16:43.440 I think he, he, uh, managed to get a signature on the money by video.

00:16:49.380 Oh, good for him.

00:16:50.800 Being at the Bank of Canada.

00:16:51.540 Oh, I've been the governor.

00:16:52.760 Yeah.

00:16:52.960 Yeah.

00:16:53.120 I mean, the, yeah.

00:16:54.940 The.

00:16:55.620 Wow.

00:16:56.140 Yeah.

00:16:56.400 The person who gets to press the print money button and then, then would declare.

00:17:02.800 He was happy to do that.

00:17:03.580 Hey.

00:17:03.700 Yeah.

00:17:04.320 It's like, I don't know where this inflation's coming from.

00:17:08.040 They, they, they act so surprised.

00:17:09.900 Like, well, we predicted inflation would be less.

00:17:12.140 It's like, well, you.

00:17:15.220 Wow.

00:17:15.540 You obviously don't understand some basic principles of.

00:17:19.060 I predicted I'd be an all-star NHL player, but you know, here we are.

00:17:23.520 Yeah.

00:17:24.080 Some things just don't work out the way you, uh, you intend.

00:17:27.700 So.

00:17:28.460 I guess not.

00:17:29.320 This is where.

00:17:31.560 This elections.

00:17:34.240 It's funny to me.

00:17:35.660 Well, it, it seems strange, but I have.

00:17:38.320 Funny ha ha or funny.

00:17:39.040 Uh, yes, it's both hilarious and it's both a mind fuck in a way.

00:17:46.260 Um, but I also, any, any time I seem maybe a little bit frustrated, I take a step back

00:17:53.760 and I realize people are living in different worlds and the world that we're living in,

00:18:02.180 we've, our information landscape, we've put a lot of effort to step outside and to seek

00:18:08.840 new information, to stress test our ideas.

00:18:11.520 And we've changed our, our consensus over time.

00:18:15.900 Our ideas have shifted.

00:18:18.280 And I don't think people have gone through the same process.

00:18:24.100 Like a good chunk of people have not stress tested their ideas.

00:18:27.320 They get emotional when somebody disagrees and we've seen this with friends and family

00:18:32.200 and you see this online with people who, um, you just get upset when you say the wrong

00:18:40.480 words, the wrong opinion.

00:18:43.200 You're not supposed to believe that you're a bad person.

00:18:46.540 So there, there's a lot of incentive to kind of stick within your own circle.

00:18:52.160 And as soon as we step outside of the circle, I think a lot of conservatives forget how it

00:18:59.260 feels to be inside one bubble because we're outside of that bubble.

00:19:05.260 And if a lot of our interactions are with people who also believe the same things, let

00:19:10.520 it be on mandates or how COVID went or, uh, with kind of the financial side of where Canada

00:19:16.540 is going or kind of where we need to go with governance and immigration and all these other

00:19:23.560 policies, we're in a totally different bubble.

00:19:29.000 So I'm wondering, well, not wondering, like, um, I know there won't be a bridge to gap that

00:19:40.500 divide in this election, but I'm wondering how strong is that bubble and what is the minimum

00:19:47.880 that people need to vote on?

00:19:50.900 Is it a, is it, maybe it's a simple misconception.

00:19:55.400 Could it be PR is going to take away abortion rights?

00:20:00.700 That could be, and that's not true.

00:20:03.100 And that's enough of a miss, that's enough of a misconception that a uninformed, unengaged

00:20:10.340 left-leaning voter might even vote on that.

00:20:14.640 So I guess.

00:20:16.880 Yeah.

00:20:18.320 Well, we were talking about, yeah.

00:20:20.800 Sorry to interrupt your train of thought there.

00:20:22.520 We were talking before we hit record here about how that little clip that came out this

00:20:26.740 week about, um, or maybe late last week, um, of Polyev talking about his, um, nonverbal

00:20:32.860 daughter and how that was kind of a nice little, like humanizing kind of moment, you know,

00:20:37.920 to maybe for somebody who, you know, who views Polyev as a, you know, a Trump light or something

00:20:44.340 like this, like, you know, obviously couldn't be farther from the truth, but, um, you know,

00:20:48.800 a lot of conservatives in Canada wish he was like a Trump light, but you know, these

00:20:52.600 unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, depending on your opinion, not even close.

00:20:57.340 Um, but to see, you know, a little, a little human humanizing type of a segment about this,

00:21:02.140 where he's talking about his little daughter, who's like, you know, obviously I think nonverbal

00:21:06.400 probably means like she's somewhere on the autism spectrum probably.

00:21:09.160 And, you know, they've just, she was just a small comment on like how they communicate,

00:21:13.180 they find different ways to communicate and like how nice it is when she like, cause

00:21:16.500 she really wears her emotions on her sleeve.

00:21:18.200 Cause she can't really, you know, she, you know, she'll, she'll, she experiences the,

00:21:22.380 the extremes of emotions.

00:21:23.580 And so when she shows, you know, caring and love, you know, that's like a, it means a little,

00:21:28.120 it means so much more cause it's so you can tell that she really means it kind of thing.

00:21:32.180 I, I think that was the gist of the little comment, but like, I have a hard time believing

00:21:36.240 that, you know, even the most hardened, like poly of like liberal poly of hater could see

00:21:43.480 that and be like, ah, you know, they, maybe he's not so bad.

00:21:47.140 You know what I mean?

00:21:47.640 Like, it's like when you see somebody you hate and you know, or like a politician or

00:21:51.520 an actor or somebody you don't like, and like you see them interacting with their dog or something

00:21:55.820 or their kids and you're like, ah, yeah, maybe he's all right.

00:21:59.080 You know what I mean?

00:21:59.600 Like one of those little breaks the fourth wall kind of things.

00:22:03.640 Is that enough to undo months or years of, of demonization?

00:22:11.200 I doubt it.

00:22:11.840 I doubt it.

00:22:12.420 Because here's the thing, you can, you can find clips of Trump being like him interacting

00:22:19.540 with his grandchildren.

00:22:21.360 Yes.

00:22:22.160 The softness and the grace.

00:22:24.760 And, and you, you can see like, you could see his heart come out and he's so happy to

00:22:30.460 see them and he's interacting and the way he interacts with children.

00:22:34.220 Those are all green flags of like, if it's, if you're comparing between different political

00:22:41.200 figures, there's examples of people who are creepy around children.

00:22:45.160 Yeah.

00:22:46.760 Maybe a couple, too many sniffs.

00:22:50.000 Yeah.

00:22:50.640 Old sniffing sleepy Joe.

00:22:52.420 Yeah.

00:22:52.600 Yeah.

00:22:52.860 I was just going to say like, that's a, it's a perfect example because it's like, you look

00:22:57.240 at how, you look at how the media tried to portray Joe Biden and his family for the last

00:23:03.000 four years, man, for the last, like, you know, even going back into the, you know, late two

00:23:07.540 thousands, you know, or rather a, yeah, late two thousands, early 2010s as, as the vice

00:23:11.640 president.

00:23:12.300 And like his family is a disaster.

00:23:15.400 Like they're just awful people.

00:23:17.460 And like, what a mess.

00:23:19.040 And then you look at Trump and Trump's supposed to be this like irredeemable, like scourge on

00:23:24.320 the earth.

00:23:24.740 And like his kids love him.

00:23:26.520 They're all like high powered, you know, professionals.

00:23:29.320 They all like, they all work with him in some capacity.

00:23:32.820 The grandchildren love him.

00:23:34.380 Like his family unit is like very intact.

00:23:37.060 So it's like, Oh, how do you, how do you square these two things?

00:23:39.900 Hey.

00:23:40.520 Yeah.

00:23:41.000 And if, if the fundamental truth is shown through somebody's character, you shouldn't need media

00:23:50.280 to cover for it.

00:23:52.340 Like it should be, let's say somebody, somebody has a lack of character.

00:23:56.520 Truly like you should just be able to take a clip, let it run its full context.

00:24:05.180 And a five minute clip should show you everything you need to know.

00:24:09.220 And when there's the same thing happens with Polyev, uh, you get these little snippets and

00:24:17.280 I don't think people really engage with more than that.

00:24:19.500 I'm always curious, like what's the, what's the full context around this?

00:24:23.820 And we, we run into this problem.

00:24:25.980 I think we all are a little bit guilty of, we'll see a clip.

00:24:29.260 It says something that we resonate with whatever that small little snippet is and we don't see

00:24:35.560 the full, the full picture around it.

00:24:38.040 And we have to do this even when it agrees with us, if, if it kind of like, oh yeah, that's

00:24:45.080 awesome.

00:24:45.400 Like it confirms my, my gut feeling on that.

00:24:48.560 Like, okay, well let's always just step out, let's get into the habit of watching the full

00:24:54.220 thing, seeing what the context or not jumping to conclusions, no matter how good or bad they are.

00:25:01.920 Yeah, well, and, and also what guys like us and, you know, the people, the circles that

00:25:06.680 we run in now tend to forget too, is there's not a lot of people out there sitting there

00:25:13.760 spending their evenings watching, you know, hour long or, or even more, you know, documentaries

00:25:20.560 or, or like series of related YouTube videos on political theory and like, you know, and

00:25:27.460 like, you know, the history of, you know, such and such an issue in this country or like,

00:25:31.800 you know, philosophical, you know, discussions about policy.

00:25:35.420 Like not a lot of people do that.

00:25:37.000 We are twisted and just like messed in the head and we, we love this kind of stuff.

00:25:42.980 And that's why we, you know, we in turn like to talk about it and sort of, you know, bounce

00:25:47.060 ideas back and forth with each other.

00:25:48.420 And so we can kind of, you know, this isn't to toot our own horns here, but this is just

00:25:52.380 sort of how we're wired.

00:25:53.360 Like we're, both of us have our flaws and our disinterest in tons of things.

00:25:58.940 We just happen to be interested in and good at talking about this kind of stuff, but we

00:26:03.080 are not representative of the average voter.

00:26:04.940 Like you look at what, you know, you can, I don't know if you've seen those clips of guys

00:26:09.080 like who go to, um, who go to, um, I can't think of the guy's name, but he's been going

00:26:15.700 to carny rallies and like interviewing, you know, the average carny attendant and like

00:26:19.740 invariably it's like a 60 year old white woman or whatever.

00:26:23.260 Right.

00:26:23.560 And it's like, well, what are your, you know, what are you concerned about in this election?

00:26:26.380 Well, you know, we, we want to stand up to Trump and it's like, for Christ's sake.

00:26:31.820 Okay.

00:26:32.360 Is that's the, that's the extent of what you believe this election is about?

00:26:35.820 Like, cause both, both of the guys talk, you know, say the same rhetoric there.

00:26:40.960 Is there anything, does your analysis go any deeper than this?

00:26:44.000 And the answer is no.

00:26:45.540 The, the analysis does not go deeper than that.

00:26:49.860 Yeah.

00:26:51.020 These people, I feel like they're engaged.

00:26:55.020 They're obviously going to rally.

00:26:56.640 So they're engaged in one way, but are the ideas, have they, they really engaged with the

00:27:03.240 ideas and maybe some of them have in university, but that's also not, is that fully stress testing

00:27:13.540 all these ideas?

00:27:15.680 Yeah.

00:27:16.220 You look at even, I was going to say as an example of the type of content I will gladly

00:27:23.320 relax to and make some food or get a workout.

00:27:26.840 And I have like listening to a, the full breakdown of how we shifted into fiat currency, just as

00:27:39.040 a nice little topic to relax to.

00:27:41.060 Like there's some nice light listening.

00:27:42.580 Yeah.

00:27:43.220 Yeah.

00:27:43.520 And some people would be like, I will, some people would never dream to just listen to

00:27:48.800 you.

00:27:48.880 Like it would not, they would not be able to follow.

00:27:51.340 No.

00:27:51.860 They, they would find it too boring or like, why does this matter?

00:27:55.760 Yeah.

00:27:56.840 But why it matters is these things underpin pretty much everything in society.

00:28:02.280 And if we're voting on specific people to implement policies, what underlies these policies?

00:28:11.560 Yeah.

00:28:12.220 So we've got to take the emotion out of it.

00:28:15.360 And same thing with even voting for, I feel like the conservatives, people voting for conservatives

00:28:23.320 right now, it's the, you still run into that issue where if you're voting out of hate, it's

00:28:30.360 like, well, if your choice is this other side, well, look at what they did to us.

00:28:36.240 I hate them.

00:28:37.160 So I'm voting for the conservatives to spite them.

00:28:40.180 That's not a good reason.

00:28:42.500 Yeah.

00:28:43.060 Um, it is, it's, it's a backwards way of approaching it.

00:28:48.240 You shouldn't be voting against things you should be voting for.

00:28:51.040 Right.

00:28:51.240 Same thing.

00:28:51.860 But if that's the whole liberal strategy right now is demonize Polyev as Trump.

00:29:00.920 Yeah.

00:29:02.260 And then prop up Carney as, well, we are fighting against Trump and by Polyev by extension.

00:29:10.940 Yeah.

00:29:11.760 Yeah.

00:29:12.380 You know, there's a, there's a, I'm sure many people have said this in many ways, but there's

00:29:18.940 a kind of an old adage where it says like, you know, you, you, you can't really claim

00:29:23.020 to understand your opponent's viewpoint unless you can iterate it back to them in a way that

00:29:29.260 they agree with, you know, in the way that they've agreed that you've given that you've,

00:29:32.800 uh, laid out what their position is.

00:29:36.100 You know what I mean?

00:29:36.980 I would go one step further, especially in respect to politics.

00:29:39.960 And I would say you, I would say that you can't really understand your opponent's political

00:29:47.420 views unless you can iterate it back to them in a way that they understand.

00:29:52.640 And in a way that you understand the goals that they're trying to achieve, because I think

00:29:58.200 that, I think that most conservatives or liberals could, could recite to you, you know, some

00:30:03.740 of the major talking points of the opponent's platform, for example, but I don't think, and

00:30:09.180 I think this is a, of course I'm going to say this, but I'll justify it.

00:30:13.340 I think this is a particular problem on the left in that they can reiterate the policies

00:30:20.100 of the politicians on the right, but they can't conceptualize of why they would believe

00:30:24.960 this.

00:30:26.460 It doesn't work the other way because, you know, as people who, you know, broadly identify

00:30:30.180 as, you know, more so with conservatives, I think we're both probably more a little bit,

00:30:33.360 you know, call us libertarians or whatever, but at least in this election, obviously identifying

00:30:39.840 more with the conservatives, we can articulate to you what the liberal platform is and what

00:30:43.560 they're trying to achieve with those goals.

00:30:45.240 You know, you, and even if you say it's, you know, uncharitable, you, I don't even think

00:30:51.200 they would deny it.

00:30:52.420 You know, you, you want a population that's very heavily taxed and regulated so they can

00:30:57.860 maintain a market in, in, in the type of economic system that they want to have.

00:31:02.160 You know, they, that's the system that they want to have.

00:31:04.320 And this is, these are, these are the, the way that they can achieve those aims.

00:31:07.380 And, you know, maybe for a very tiny subset of the population, that's an appealing, uh,

00:31:14.180 system, but I would say for far more, it's not on the other, on the other hand, I don't

00:31:22.160 know of many like strong liberal voters who could articulate.

00:31:26.180 Let me give you an example, a clearer example, then I'll stop talking for a second.

00:31:30.860 The, do you remember when Trudeau was pushing that, um, school lunch program?

00:31:35.800 Um, we've talked about this before briefly, I think he was pushing the school lunch program

00:31:41.200 and was using the conservatives opposition to it as a, as a point of argument of like,

00:31:47.680 like, oh, the conservatives don't want your children to have food or something.

00:31:51.560 And it's like, well, obviously not.

00:31:53.020 That's obviously no one disagrees with the premise that children should have healthy lunches

00:31:57.100 and good food.

00:31:58.240 No one is on the other side of that argument.

00:32:00.260 The argument is that should it be the government that's providing that food or should it be, should

00:32:05.340 a system of government governance be put in place that allows families to have the type

00:32:10.120 of disposable income that allows them to provide their children with the necessary and healthful

00:32:15.580 food to, to get their lunches?

00:32:18.760 That's the actual argument.

00:32:20.440 The argument is not this straw man that they've constructed of like, oh, well, the conservatives

00:32:24.160 just don't, they just, all that money that would have gone to that program, they want to give

00:32:28.460 to their wealthy bankers or whatever.

00:32:30.180 And it's like, okay, listen, bud, your party leader is a wealthy banker.

00:32:33.900 So like, you know, this is, this is my point.

00:32:36.480 Does that make sense?

00:32:38.060 Yeah.

00:32:38.320 Well, I'm, I'm going to be the one person to say, uh, with the childhood obesity rates,

00:32:43.200 we need less food for children, less food in schools.

00:32:48.080 James from the critical compass.

00:32:49.560 You heard it here first.

00:32:50.480 But that's the perfect example of some of these, um, it's a legislation.

00:32:58.500 It's not ultimately the implement, like to actually set it in motion.

00:33:05.980 It's not designed to be effective because you can't feed everybody.

00:33:09.640 It's not a top down unless they have the level of control in every school.

00:33:16.460 It's the amount of like improvement that they can get is, is minimal.

00:33:22.720 Same thing happens with the dental program, uh, the, like, or the childcare CCB, childcare

00:33:32.000 benefit.

00:33:33.560 These things sound great when you're delivering a speech, then you look into the details and

00:33:39.400 they have very strict stipulations.

00:33:41.320 They have very strict income cutoffs and, um, they're actually not helping a lot of people,

00:33:49.300 but to a voter, it sounds like a good thing.

00:33:54.460 Yeah.

00:33:55.080 And then you see cases of people trying to access the childcare benefit and you're like,

00:34:00.580 okay, well, I'm not eligible for it yet, or I have to submit a thing.

00:34:04.200 And then there's some paperwork and then it gets denied.

00:34:06.860 So the opposition, the cases, the cases, sorry, again, please finish your thought, but often

00:34:14.220 the cases with these types of things, exactly like what you're saying, the incentive is to

00:34:18.720 actually make less money so that you can qualify for these programs.

00:34:22.480 The incentive is never in a, in a, on the more, you know, progressive, you know, liberal

00:34:27.560 side, the incentive is to never earn more and achieve more.

00:34:31.060 It's always, if you're earning less and achieving less, we'll give you more.

00:34:34.960 So we're how that's a, it's a perverse, it's an inverted incentive.

00:34:39.060 Yeah.

00:34:39.600 We, we might have to do an episode where we actually pull up the numbers.

00:34:44.100 Um, there's some good data on this right now, even showing that, um, the money disproportionately

00:34:50.100 goes to new Canadians or new, uh, temporary residents and people who are, well, they're coming

00:34:59.640 to Canada and they're struggling.

00:35:01.820 So again, you are kind of just buying voters at this point.

00:35:06.520 Yeah.

00:35:07.520 This is a population that is expanding and these amounts of benefits, I can see where it comes

00:35:13.260 from because you're saying like, well, these people need help.

00:35:16.080 They're not doing as well as another group.

00:35:18.260 If that makes sense, when you're coming from the left, you have compassion for all, this

00:35:25.600 wide circle of compassion.

00:35:27.160 We've seen these heat, heat maps of where people broadly direct their empathy towards wider and

00:35:35.480 wider circles outside of their kind of family unit.

00:35:38.460 And what happens is that as this empathy gets applied to these groups, well, you can't ever

00:35:46.700 oppose any of these things because you are immoral.

00:35:50.660 If you do only a evil conservative would try to deny benefits to people who need it the most

00:35:57.760 rather than thinking about, well, what's the economic background?

00:36:02.600 Like what's the landscape that is informing these decisions?

00:36:08.460 So, yeah, that is the, the study.

00:36:14.720 The liberal, this is the image, the, uh, the, oh man, I can't find this.

00:36:21.540 Okay.

00:36:21.860 Sorry.

00:36:22.420 Yeah.

00:36:22.680 The, uh, um, conservative versus liberal, uh, heat map of empathy.

00:36:29.060 The, as the circles get larger, the, the, uh, relational distance from you gets farther.

00:36:35.380 Yeah.

00:36:35.860 Saying that conservatives focus more on family and like close knit circles.

00:36:40.820 Yeah.

00:36:41.920 And so the argument was that I've heard, I've read two conflicting things.

00:36:46.060 The, there are two conflicting ways it says that the, that the study was worded is that,

00:36:51.360 um, that each ring is, it was not inclusive of the other.

00:36:57.260 So like the attention that you would give to one in the inner circle was, was taken away

00:37:00.720 from all others.

00:37:01.920 And then there's another way that, that, that said that the study was worded that outside

00:37:08.340 rings were inclusive of inner rings.

00:37:10.600 And that's why the liberals heat mapped out here.

00:37:14.360 And, but that's actually like just as stupid.

00:37:18.280 That's actually like just as bad because it's not like in what world do you think you can

00:37:24.060 give equal consideration to amoebas as you can your, your literal family members or like

00:37:29.480 non like potential, uh, all living things in the like alien life forms.

00:37:35.060 And then you're like, what do you think you can like, your empathy can extend that far?

00:37:39.800 Like regardless of, of what the, uh, the actual wording of the question is, it's all stupid.

00:37:45.320 It's all bad.

00:37:46.140 It, yeah, the people may disagree about exact, exactly what this study proves or not, but

00:37:54.620 the reason it's turned into a meme and it's been spread around is because it reflects a

00:38:00.940 fundamental known truth that we all, we all agree on this.

00:38:07.080 I think liberals will be the first ones to tell them they have empathy for everybody until

00:38:13.320 you disagree with them.

00:38:14.300 Then they, their empathy runs a little dry instantly.

00:38:18.680 Yeah.

00:38:19.300 They want diversity in all things except for opinion.

00:38:22.000 Yeah.

00:38:22.200 They will, they will call you a lot of bad words, uh, instantly when you disagree.

00:38:27.920 So in this case, it's, it, in our political sphere or our political climate, these types

00:38:38.900 of things are to, it preys on the emotions, um, and there, I wish I could find, let's see

00:38:51.760 if I can.

00:38:52.260 Why don't you tell me, I'll look it up while you're, while you're talking.

00:38:54.580 The, I think I have a picture saved.

00:39:01.340 Okay.

00:39:01.700 It's on my phone.

00:39:03.100 Um, all right.

00:39:11.060 I, I think this, there's another layer to it.

00:39:14.580 So we've had, um, we've had masculinity demonized in a way.

00:39:20.380 Um, yeah.

00:39:21.160 And I feel like in a sense we, we see a, the people rejecting kind of these, the soft

00:39:28.860 spoken feminization of men are shifting towards the right.

00:39:34.360 Generally.

00:39:35.100 Andrew, Andrew Tate factor kind of thing.

00:39:37.280 No.

00:39:37.700 Yeah.

00:39:37.940 It doesn't even need to be, that's kind of an overcorrection.

00:39:40.580 We could unpack that in its own, like that's, it's, it's, maybe that's the manifestation

00:39:47.760 of, to the degree that this, this kind of issue has metastasized into, but, um, I want

00:39:56.620 to read this one quote.

00:39:57.960 And this is one of these like unnamed red text saying people who can't defend themselves

00:40:06.200 physically, women and low T men parse information through a consensus filter as a safety mechanism.

00:40:14.080 Um, they literally ask, they literally do not ask, is this true?

00:40:22.220 They ask, will others be okay with me thinking this is true?

00:40:27.260 This makes them very malleable to brute force manufactured consensus.

00:40:32.800 If every screen they look at says the same thing, they will adopt that position because

00:40:37.700 in their brain, it interprets it as everybody in the tribe believing it.

00:40:42.200 Only high T alpha males, which is, we can argue about the term alpha male or not, but, and

00:40:50.340 a neurotypical people like the autistics out there are actually free to parse new information

00:40:57.480 with an objective.

00:40:58.600 Is this true filter?

00:41:01.000 This is why a republic of high status males is best for decision-making democratic, but

00:41:07.140 a democracy for only those who are free to think.

00:41:10.180 So what, what are your thoughts on that?

00:41:14.380 Yeah, I've seen that one before and I really liked it.

00:41:16.740 I, I, you know, regardless, yeah, like you say, you can pick apart some of the language

00:41:20.260 there, but yeah, I think it's, I think it's the, the insight there is, is very broadly

00:41:25.040 true.

00:41:25.500 I mean, there's, there's a, we saw this during COVID.

00:41:28.200 I mean, you know, where people's, um, you know, entire, uh, you know, like people were

00:41:34.320 willing, literally willing to throw their fellow citizens in prison camps for not, you

00:41:39.940 know, taking the thing that they, the TV said that they should do because they were, you

00:41:45.040 know, the, the vaccine is a hundred percent effective, but if they don't have it and if

00:41:49.980 your friend doesn't have it and you do, then you could still get sick.

00:41:52.280 So, you know, like it doesn't have to make sense.

00:41:54.720 It just has to be what they're being told is right.

00:41:58.000 And yeah, it's, it's, you know, it was, we invariably saw, um, this, this very phenomenon

00:42:03.740 where you had certain people of, you know, what they call like the, you know, the, the

00:42:07.380 bro podcast scene or whatever.

00:42:09.580 Like you see, I can't remember the guy's name.

00:42:11.440 There was a Canadian guy who he lives overseas.

00:42:14.100 Now he was like a big, like kind of bodybuilder guy who got pretty well known for like making

00:42:19.380 kind of anti lockdown videos and stuff.

00:42:21.420 Chris guy, Chris guy.

00:42:23.320 Yeah, that's right.

00:42:23.740 Fully tatted guy.

00:42:25.340 Um, he, he did a bunch of videos where he was going through airports and saying, well,

00:42:29.260 I don't need to go to quarantine camp.

00:42:31.460 And he really pushed.

00:42:32.760 Yeah.

00:42:33.140 Yeah.

00:42:33.360 He really pushed back on that.

00:42:34.440 And that is something that like only a, you know, at least somebody who views himself

00:42:38.620 as a high status person would do, but obviously only somebody with the type of, um, you

00:42:43.500 know, self-assurance to, to, to kind of pull that thing off.

00:42:46.140 Right.

00:42:47.300 So, yeah, I mean, we, we saw it.

00:42:48.900 I mean, it was, I know some people will look at that and say that it's sexist and whatever.

00:42:53.720 And it's like, well, it isn't sexist because it's, you know, there are, there are plenty

00:42:59.360 of women out there.

00:43:00.020 There are plenty of conservative women out there who are very vocal on, on these issues

00:43:03.420 and don't like follow.

00:43:05.200 I think there's a certain, you know, there's kind of a, there's kind of like a meme of the

00:43:12.200 like conservative Christian, like trad wife girl or whatever, like, you know, but I think

00:43:17.340 a lot of that is like a lot of those things are fairly protective against, um, social

00:43:22.140 contagions, you know, cause they, those types of women are, are, are, they've found meaning

00:43:27.900 outside of, um, you know, whatever the most popular thing in social circle is, you know,

00:43:33.080 they, they have their family and their faith and whatever, you know?

00:43:35.920 Um, so yeah, there are certainly, and, but those would be the type of women who would

00:43:41.340 also agree that society needs to be led by, you know, strong, independent, free thinking

00:43:47.520 men.

00:43:47.960 You know what I mean?

00:43:48.540 Like it's a, it's sort of a, a double, uh, it's sort of a, I can't think of the term.

00:43:54.220 It's, it's ironic in a way, but it's like, yeah, I don't, I don't think, I don't think

00:43:58.880 very much of that is controversial.

00:44:00.200 Uh, well then, then that kind of describes how, uh, you point, you kind of pointed to

00:44:06.620 how faith and family are some of these fundamental pillars and with a strong family unit, you

00:44:14.520 are less susceptible for that, to that social contagion.

00:44:19.100 Cause you're like, well, this is, this is what I need for my family.

00:44:21.760 Here are our principles.

00:44:23.300 And you put trust in whatever structure you have on that family.

00:44:26.400 And I think you run into issues where, well, where do you defer your trust and where do

00:44:34.960 you defer your authority to?

00:44:37.300 And there's one example, it was somebody saying like, well, okay, well, feminism has got us

00:44:45.260 to a place where a woman's taught to go to a job and listen to a male boss and take orders

00:44:53.720 and do, yes, sir.

00:44:55.060 Yep.

00:44:55.380 I'll do that and take orders from that.

00:44:58.520 A will listen to the government.

00:45:00.520 Yeah.

00:45:00.780 Yes.

00:45:01.160 I'll do that.

00:45:02.040 Thank you.

00:45:03.540 Big, big government for telling me how to live my life and then go home and think that

00:45:10.380 following the direction or listening to her husband is oppressive.

00:45:16.100 Yeah.

00:45:17.660 So why, so the one person who has vowed in his heart to do everything he can to love and cherish

00:45:28.060 and help her grow and raise a family, the person who stood up in front of friends and

00:45:35.440 family, like a hundred people and said their vows somehow should be disregarded.

00:45:43.480 Cause that's oppression.

00:45:44.960 That's oppression.

00:45:45.840 Yeah.

00:45:46.100 Yeah.

00:45:46.360 It's, it's, it's such a, it's such a, uh, you know, uh, a dirty trick that was played

00:45:52.120 on women.

00:45:52.740 Right.

00:45:53.060 You know, it's like, um, the, the notion that, well, I mean like, and so the other half

00:45:59.580 of that, the, the faith part is like, you know, there's, it's not a coincidence that every

00:46:04.700 authoritarian government that's ever existed, you know, I mean, we can point to the ones in

00:46:08.640 the, you know, 20th century anyway, that as soon as they arise to power, they do everything

00:46:13.880 they can to eliminate the churches, any, any churches, it doesn't matter which, just anything

00:46:18.940 that, that would pull from a person's willingness to submit to the authority of the state.

00:46:24.720 If, if they have a higher power, it becomes much, uh, much more difficult to get them to commit

00:46:30.360 atrocities on behalf of the state.

00:46:31.960 Right.

00:46:32.440 Yeah.

00:46:33.880 The religion's always a, it's incompatible with the state because the state is functioning

00:46:39.960 as a religion at that point.

00:46:42.840 Um, and you must have faith in the experts.

00:46:46.720 You must have faith in the structure.

00:46:48.640 You may have, like, if you do not have science.

00:46:51.940 Yeah.

00:46:52.500 If you do not have faith in your institutions, what do you have?

00:46:56.940 And I remember even during COVID, when I was pointing some things out on the efficacy of

00:47:06.400 lockdowns and how it's, it's never really been done before.

00:47:09.600 And it's outside of the pandemic plan that we had and all the recommendations that were

00:47:14.580 preexisting before all those recommendations were thrown out the window.

00:47:18.860 So I remember making some posts and a couple of friends said, like, it sounds like you're

00:47:24.580 against the government, like really, like this kind of accusational vibe of, well, it's

00:47:35.340 like, it sounds like, sounds like you're a sinner.

00:47:40.460 Yeah.

00:47:40.980 That sounds like, yeah, that's right.

00:47:43.260 Yeah.

00:47:43.580 Shame.

00:47:44.080 It's like you, you are, you are questioning our doctrines.

00:47:50.060 You're questioning the trust.

00:47:51.860 Yeah.

00:47:52.580 Yeah.

00:47:52.780 Um, so anytime a government starts filling this role, I get very, very skeptical of.

00:48:04.680 Yeah.

00:48:04.960 Well, it's an uneasy kind of thing.

00:48:06.340 It's, uh, it's, uh, Peter Boghossian's, um, substitution hypothesis, right?

00:48:12.300 You know, in, in the absence of a religion, you know, something else will come in to fill

00:48:16.100 the void.

00:48:16.660 And, you know, if it was, you know, if we were having this podcast in 2011 or 2012, maybe

00:48:23.880 we would be talking about how stupid vegans are.

00:48:27.160 Cause you know, they, that sometimes we still talk about that.

00:48:31.420 That's true.

00:48:32.200 It's never a bad time to talk about how stupid vegans are, but you know, there were every

00:48:36.400 other restaurant that was popping up was a vegan restaurant.

00:48:38.740 Cause if you were, you know, you had to identify as that, otherwise you were like, how can you

00:48:43.120 justify eating meat?

00:48:44.340 And then if it was, you know, 2015, 2016, you know, when a lot of, um, maybe 20, 2014 to

00:48:50.980 2016, when a lot of debate was raging in the U S about changing, uh, um, is it 2015?

00:48:58.840 No, maybe it was a little earlier than this.

00:49:00.780 You know, when there was the, even Obama was on record as being like, you know, not sure

00:49:05.180 about like what gay marriage was going to look like, you know, like the, the, the transition

00:49:09.500 from civil unions to, uh, to, from a definitional standpoint.

00:49:14.860 Yeah.

00:49:15.180 Yeah.

00:49:15.780 You know, then it was that discussion.

00:49:17.260 And so like, you know, it, it, it sort of, it changes with the eras, you know, with the,

00:49:22.740 with the cultural zeitgeist as it shifts through, through the years.

00:49:25.460 And, you know, COVID was a perfect example.

00:49:27.800 Like the trusting the science was, you know, if you went against, you know, um, father

00:49:33.920 Fauci, you know, you were, you know, you were, you needed to go to confession and you needed

00:49:39.560 to, you know, take your, you needed to take the Eucharist, which was of course your, your

00:49:44.420 booster shots.

00:49:45.140 And so like, yeah, I mean, this is, it, it's a, it's a one to one, it's not even a stretch.

00:49:49.960 Like none of this is hyperbole.

00:49:51.520 It's if you don't, and you know, it affected obviously even religious people, I'm sure, but

00:49:56.980 the types of, the types of behaviors and the types of actions that, that, uh, um, a government

00:50:04.620 with a tendency towards authoritarianism evokes in people is one of a religious fervor in nature.

00:50:12.020 But right now that's not apparent to the people who are in it.

00:50:18.580 Hmm.

00:50:19.640 Cause yeah, they don't see it right now because they, they're oftentimes very vocally, you

00:50:23.760 know, atheist or whatever.

00:50:24.840 Right.

00:50:25.340 Well, but like, how is it that, so the, the, we're trying to wrap our minds around, like,

00:50:31.020 what is the, what's the doctrines or what's the, what's the messaging?

00:50:36.340 What do people on the left believe right now?

00:50:38.720 And I keep on hearing the message where right now people believe that the USA is a fascist

00:50:47.460 state that the next Hitler is in power, that there are actual Nazis and Elon's a Nazi, uh,

00:50:56.580 despite them passing laws on antisemitism, uh, expanding hate speech, et cetera, and both

00:51:05.020 going to Israel and supporting, um, Israel's right to exist.

00:51:10.360 And these things that no good Nazi would, uh, would do.

00:51:15.940 So, you see, the, the, the, the term has just been, I was reading something about this

00:51:22.520 earlier.

00:51:22.800 It's like a, I think it was like a green text thing too, actually, um, about how like the,

00:51:28.300 the world war two, I mean, this is another discussion, but the, the post world war two,

00:51:32.540 uh, consensus, like that is, that is the West's religion and it has all of the features of

00:51:39.360 a religion.

00:51:39.760 Like you, you know, you have your Satan figure in Hitler and you can't, um, you know, there's,

00:51:46.560 it's completely irredeemable.

00:51:48.140 You can't like, that's the worst evil there ever was.

00:51:50.320 You have the, you know, the, the, the sin, which is being a Nazi.

00:51:53.620 And then you have, you know, the West, which is your, you know, Churchill and the, and you

00:51:58.700 know, the, the allies, which are your savior figures.

00:52:01.060 And, and, you know, you have these sort of sacred cows and these sort of like untouchable

00:52:04.520 subjects because it's, it, it acts and it behaves and it moves through a society as a

00:52:08.620 religion would.

00:52:09.780 Yeah.

00:52:10.620 And we see this pop up time and time again, and this is dominating their thinking.

00:52:16.900 And as long as you can point to somebody and put enough media force behind it, you can

00:52:22.460 get these, these ideas to propagate.

00:52:25.620 And my, my larger point with this is the contrast between them calling the United States fascist

00:52:35.740 right now doesn't align with what has actually happened through COVID.

00:52:42.780 They, they let things go.

00:52:46.180 They do not criticize things that would actually fit the definition of a top-down government

00:52:53.500 and overreach and authoritarianism.

00:52:57.640 They, they don't criticize COVID because, well, it's like, it's for the greater good,

00:53:04.040 which factors into some of these foundation, this foundational myth of there's a clear and

00:53:11.080 present danger.

00:53:12.140 This evil is there and we must do everything to get rid of this evil.

00:53:16.120 Even if it comes at the cost of like some, some human rights and that same logic, same

00:53:26.660 logic gets us, well, how many wars has the United States has, well, how many countries has, is the

00:53:35.000 U S bombed for that very reason?

00:53:37.860 Well, they have weapons of mass destruction.

00:53:40.040 Well, Saddam's the next hit, but like, or he's going to go of genocidal.

00:53:46.040 Yeah.

00:53:46.260 And every time the threat is, you, all you need to do is you just need to connect it with

00:53:53.000 this foundational, the, this foundational pillar, say this threat is the next threat of this

00:54:01.560 degree.

00:54:02.540 It's the same degree.

00:54:03.920 It's the same.

00:54:04.860 Like we, we got to save the world by doing this.

00:54:08.620 And then as soon as you connect it with those emotions, people will fall through and you

00:54:13.940 can, you can sidestep rights.

00:54:17.440 You can enhance surveillance.

00:54:19.100 You can say, well, we need to do this because, uh, well, if we don't increase screenings,

00:54:24.460 terrorists will come and sure we have increased screening.

00:54:27.740 And then they just let people across the border.

00:54:29.920 So like, what's all this airport screen?

00:54:32.040 Like they're just going to drive, they're going to get a pickup truck.

00:54:35.760 Like why fly?

00:54:36.940 Like airports are not a convenient place to shuttle a bunch of people with weapons over.

00:54:42.500 So like, yeah.

00:54:44.540 Why is our security so strict there?

00:54:48.240 And then our borders are not as strict.

00:54:51.020 So these things do not make sense, but they make more sense when you think about like,

00:54:58.100 what is beneficial to governments who want to increase their power?

00:55:03.040 I think that's a perfect, sorry.

00:55:05.360 I think that's a perfect little bow to just wrap that up with.

00:55:08.160 Cause that's, Ooh, I couldn't have put it any better.

00:55:11.560 Yeah.

00:55:12.120 That's it's as we always do.

00:55:16.200 James, we, we start very specific about the mayor of Edmonton running for a federal MP,

00:55:24.180 a federal seat as an MP and we end up in geopolitical immigration theory and, and COVID inevitably.

00:55:36.700 But, um, I love it.

00:55:38.540 I love it, man.

00:55:39.360 But that's, that shows that we are, we are practicing what we preach and we are applying,

00:55:45.500 we are thinking from a principled standpoint about specific issues rather than trying to be

00:55:52.700 hyper specific in the, in the globe, in the, in the grand scheme of things.

00:55:57.820 Do you know what I'm saying?

00:55:58.820 Yeah.

00:55:59.500 It's, if we're able to relate it back to like, well, here's the larger dynamics in play,

00:56:03.580 then, um, then that's more than just like sensational.

00:56:08.020 Like, guess what this person did?

00:56:09.700 Yeah.

00:56:10.060 So, yeah, cool.

00:56:12.600 Yeah.

00:56:12.900 It's, uh, hopefully you are all finding this very useful.

00:56:15.840 Hope to, uh, see some of you in the comments as well.

00:56:19.380 If that's an interesting discussions, um, for any liberals in the comments, uh, we'll see

00:56:23.640 there as well.

00:56:24.500 Yeah.

00:56:24.840 Oh, I know.

00:56:25.360 Even if we didn't want you to, you will be there and we, but we do actually want you

00:56:29.280 there.

00:56:29.520 So don't, uh, don't think otherwise.

00:56:31.340 I, I, I do.

00:56:33.240 Thanks for everybody sticking around with two white supremacists.

00:56:36.600 Uh, yeah.

00:56:38.780 After immigration, we were talking about immigration.

00:56:41.220 Somebody's like, we're white supremacists.

00:56:44.320 Really?

00:56:45.740 Yeah.

00:56:46.480 I better tell my Lebanese father that.

00:56:49.080 But, uh, anyway, yeah, that's, um, that's about all she wrote.

00:56:53.800 I think guys.

00:56:54.700 Yeah.

00:56:54.860 Thanks again.

00:56:55.360 As always, um, for me to, um, make sure to, um, of course we're on, uh, you're probably

00:57:02.020 watching this on YouTube.

00:57:02.860 We're on X.

00:57:04.140 We have the links below.

00:57:05.220 We're on rumble.

00:57:06.540 We're on Spotify.

00:57:07.300 We'll have the full episode on Spotify and, um, yeah.

00:57:11.900 Thanks as always guys.

00:57:12.940 Appreciate, uh, appreciate you hanging out with us.

00:57:15.840 Cheers.

00:57:16.480 Till the next one.

00:57:17.100 Bye-bye.

00:57:29.620 Bye-bye.

00:57:31.440 Bye-bye.

00:57:32.700 Bye-bye.

00:57:35.860 Bye-bye.

00:57:38.420 Bye-bye.

00:57:39.860 Bye-bye.

00:57:40.560 Bye-bye.

00:57:41.280 Bye-bye.

00:57:41.780 Bye-bye.

00:57:42.660 Bye-bye.

00:57:43.020 Bye-bye.

00:57:43.840 Bye.

00:57:43.960 Bye-bye.

00:57:44.660 Bye.

00:57:44.820 Bye-bye.

00:57:45.480 Bye-bye.

The Critical Compass Podcast - April 27, 2025

Pre-Election Thoughts： Amarjeet Sohi is Never Happy, Liberals Don't Understand Conservatives, & more

Episode Stats

Length

Words per Minute

Word Count

Sentence Count

Misogynist Sentences

Hate Speech Sentences

Summary

Transcript