Justin Trudeau’s camera-ready liberalism is obscuring the rise of Canadian nationalism | Alex Verman | Mic
Trudeau won in 2015 by looking like the only progressive choice to beat the Conservatives. Now that the Liberals have a majority in Parliament and have thrown away their promise to introduce more proportional representation, Trudeau seems to think he has the left in the bag — and that he can afford to backtrack and sideline them in favor of gaining votes on the right. He’s abandoning those same promises that made progressives love him, like taking action on indigenous and environmental issues and accepting more refugees.
Canadians who watched the 2016 United States election should take notes. Trudeau’s Liberals are following the same strategy as Clinton’s Democrats. And there’s a real danger of falling into the same trap.
The Campus Free Speech Battle You’re Not Seeing | Peter Moskowitz | Jezebel
The nonprofits that have been accused of being behind these harassment campaigns are not officially linked, but they have many of the same funders, according to a report by the pro-Palestine organization Palestine Legal. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent by prominent conservative Americans on monitoring and attacking professors and students critical of Israel. Sheldon Adelson, the casino owner and Trump supporter, has said he will spend at least $20 million fighting the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement. And in 2013 the Jewish Agency for Israel, a nonprofit that advocates for Israel-friendly policy, and coordinates closely with the Israeli government, said it would spend $300 million raised from both rich donors in the U.S. and the Israeli government, to “create what is likely to be the most expensive pro-Israel campaign ever.”
On Memetics and the Transfer of Cultural Information | Deidre Olsen | Paste Magazine
While the internet has in many ways proliferated the usage of memes, they have existed since human beings began to share information with one another. The internet has globalized memes and has allowed people to absorb information from those sharing content on the other side of the world at exponential rates and add their own spin on them. In the past, long before the internet, memes were shared as far as one could travel across land and water and over the course of longer periods of time. Contrary to popular belief, memes have been here with us all along.
The Epidemic of Gay Loneliness | Michael Hobbes | Highline, Huffington Post
For decades, this is what psychologists thought, too: that the key stages in identity formation for gay men all led up to coming out, that once we were finally comfortable with ourselves, we could begin building a life within a community of people who’d gone through the same thing. But over the last 10 years, what researchers have discovered is that the struggle to fit in only grows more intense. A study published in 2015 found that rates of anxiety and depression were higher in men who had recently come out than in men who were still closeted.
“It’s like you emerge from the closet expecting to be this butterfly and the gay community just slaps the idealism out of you,” Adam says. When he first started coming out, he says, “I went to West Hollywood because I thought that’s where my people were. But it was really horrifying. It’s made by gay adults, and it’s not welcoming for gay kids. You go from your mom’s house to a gay club where a lot of people are on drugs and it’s like, this is my community? It’s like the fucking jungle.”
Correcting the Record on Refugee Crossings | Aris Daghighian | Canadaland
It is important to correct the record in these respects, as perpetuating such mistaken information can be incredibly damaging to refugees and the treatment they receive after they arrive.
A recent poll showed that 41 per cent of Canadians think Canada is allowing too many refugees into the country, while only 11 per cent said the country should increase the number of refugees we accept. This is concerning not just for how refugees are viewed by the public at large once they arrive, but also for the effect that public opinion has on government policy: this year, Canada announced that it intends to resettle 15,000 fewer refugees than in 2016.
What journalists report and opine is often taken by the public at face value; therefore, it is incumbent on the media to be fully informed.
Alex Verman Green 