Pause, for a moment, to say a prayer for Jeremy Broadhurst. A few days ago, Broadhurst was named the campaign director for the Liberal Party of Canada’s 2019 re-election effort. He was not the first choice. The first choice was Katie Telford, Trudeau’s Chief of Staff. The 2019 plan was
Continue readingTag: hate
Warren Kinsella: Nazis? Just when you think he can’t get any lower, Trudeau does
“Dirty Jew.” It’s the Summer of 1986. The place: Caroline, Alta., just outside Red Deer. The slur has been uttered by Terry Long, the “High Aryan Warrior Priest” of the Canadian branch of the Aryan Nations. I’m at the fenced gate leading to Long’s acreage. On either side of me
Continue readingThings Are Good: One Easy Method to Stop Hate: Don’t be “Edgy”
Filter bubbles are real and impact our world in the most serious of ways. The recent massacre in New Zealand has shown this all too well. You’re probably wondering if there’s anything you can do stop the spread of online hate and the growth of “right wing” violence. Thankfully there
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: One way Canada can fight hate, right away
Talk is cheap. If the Trudeau government is serious about stopping the spread of hate, here’s something they can do this week. Will they? (Oh, and one Minister was looking at ways to bring back a version of section 13. Guess who she was?) The federal government’s words about combatting
Continue readingThings Are Good: Less Open Debates for a More Open Democracy
The last few years of this bizarre decade have witnessed the resurgence of hate groups. Some of these hate groups are just nicer sounding Nazis and that’s a really bad thing. Since this site is dedicated to good news let’s take a look at how to deal with these ignoramuses.
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: Hate and extremism in the Trump era – today at U of C’s Faculty of Law, live
This afternoon, I will be doing the Merv Leitch Memorial Lecture at my alma mater, the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Law. The topic, as the poster says, is the explosion in hate and extremism post-Brexit and post-Trump. And what we, in a civil society, can do about it. It’s
Continue readingWarren Kinsella: Our fight against that neo-Nazi hate rag
Story link is here, and a bit of it is below. Meanwhile, Lisa will be speaking tomorrow night at an anti-hate forum being led by a great leader in the fight against bigotry, Liberal MPP Arthur Potts – more details here. They know it won’t be easy and expect to
Continue readingThe Political Road Map: The Tyranny of the Triggered
Modern society has become an ever expanding landscape of polarization and finger pointing that not only undermines our ability to discuss, but corrodes at the very foundation of our democracy. The issue is so alarming, that it is no surprise when people feel out of place when it comes to
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Trump may have emboldened hate in Canada, but it was already here
While many Canadians often associate the continuing rise in white supremacist hate in Canada to US President Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric, the right-wing extremist movement was already “alive and well” in Canada, “with more than 100 active groups and well over 100 reported incidents of right-wing extremist violence in the
Continue readingTrashy's World: Charlottesville – likely just the beginning
In the space of a decade or so, public debates over differences in policy in US politics have been replaced by mud-slinging over differences in colour, religion and heritage. Obamacare was the last time when an actual policy was the centre of public debate. It hasn’t disappeared entirely but it
Continue readingThe Political Road Map: Hate Speech is Free Speech
I know, you’re reading my entry title and thinking, wow…that is one bold statement or rather, what the hell is this guy thinking!? Free speech is a right that all humans should have, this is a basic, but crucial statement regarding life on Earth. After experiencing people of all places
Continue readingThe Political Road Map: When Trudeau Met Trump
The saying goes…men and woman cannot be friends, they are bound to become lovers or fall apart. While it may seem like this has nothing directly to do with today’s meeting between Prime Minister Trudeau and President Donald Trump, the relationship between the countries they represent does relate to it
Continue readingThe Political Road Map: 3 Reasons to Not Punch a Nazi
Lately, I have kept my distance from the American election and much of the ongoing affairs in Canadian politics as well. With work being busy and life equally as busy, it has been hard to follow every aspect of current political affairs, while dedicating the sufficient time needed to complete
Continue readingThe Political Road Map: 3 Reasons to Not Punch a Nazi
Lately, I have kept my distance from the American election and much of the ongoing affairs in Canadian politics as well. With work being busy and life equally as busy, it has been hard to follow every aspect of current political affairs, while dedicating the sufficient time needed to complete
Continue readingThe Political Road Map: Omar Mateen and the Orlando Massacre
I began sipping my Sunday morning coffee, when upon opening my CBC app, I was confronted with the headline: “Mass Shooting in Florida, 50 Dead, 53 Injured.”
Suddenly, my coffee didn’t taste very good anymore; it became bitter and left a feeling of unease in the pit of my stomach.
This feeling did not happen because of the fact that another shooting had just been committed in the United States, no, those seem to be happening on a weekly basis as of late. The feeling developed, because as soon as my eyes glanced on the headline, I knew that someone had taken an AR-15 and used it on a group of innocent people in order to address some kind of hate or vendetta against society. I hadn’t even read the article yet and I knew the gun utilized by the person and that made me sick, because it seems that no matter how many bodies are counted, families destroyed and minority groups targeted, Americans still believe they do not have a gun problem.
The needless massacre at a nightclub in Orlando, that also happened to be a favorite spot of the areas LGBT community was more than just an example of America’s problems with guns however. I love how the media feels the need to emphasize the fact that this nightclub was a gay nightclub, as if to say it was the sovereign state of homosexuals, where no one else could join. The reality of the matter is that the opposite is the truth; this social location accepted everyone into a safe environment, which made it the perfect target.
Omar Mateen was supposedly a follower of ISIS, but unlike foreign entities coming into the country to wreak havoc, this individual was a natural born American.
His religion and his beliefs coupled with the mental illness of Bi-Polar Syndrome seem to be the catalysts that allowed his beliefs to become reality.
The media quoted a family member, who stated that the sight of two men kissing enraged Omar.
Why would this be though? Did the men motion to have him kiss him? Were they trying to impose their way of life on his or come to his home or mosque to enforce the importance of kissing members of the same sex?
Most likely not.
When someone chooses a location to stage their protest or make a stand, it will often time carry with it a significance that enforces the beliefs of the actor. In the case of the nightclub, one must question why a young man with strong ties to Islam and also suffering from a mental illness, would choose this night club out of any other areas in the city that might prove significant to the LGBT community?
Was Omar really that bigoted against the LGBT community? Was he attempting to change his approach to Jihad against America and thought that targeting a minority, much like his own group, would instill the necessary fear to get his message across? Did he leave any documentation or even a manifesto that supported his allegiance with ISIS?
Or was this act the result of a man greatly confused and torn between his own desires and the requirements of his religious faith. Was Omar Mateen truly disgusted by the fact that two men were kissing or was he in fact angered because they could never kiss him?
Was a man who may have been questioning his own sexuality, put into a position that forced him into choosing to live the life you want and isolate yourself from your faith or follow your faith, but deny yourself the identity you truly are?
This wouldn’t be the first time in history that someone who was confused or torn took to the method of lashing out against the very group they so longed to be apart of, when reality reinforced the fact that they could never truly be free.
The Political Road Map relies heavily on the discussion of our political realm and its impact on our daily lives, but what it also indirectly does is allow you, the reader, to map out your own life and how it interacts with our society.
Where are you? Where are you going? Is your government headed in the same direction?
If you find yourself in a position of isolation, of feeling lost without direction, because either your own group or the society you live in is headed in such a drastic direction how would you react?
Could the same consequences have been accomplished here in Canada?
They could have, but they would have been much more difficult and would have been illegal from the start. The AR-15 is to the Americans, what the AK-47 was to the Soviet Union. It is an easily user-friendly gun that can be built rather cheaply and sold en mass. When coupled with the right intentions, it can wreak havoc on both civilian and enemy with little difficulty.
America’s gun problem is that it allows these weapons of war to be made readily available for every house mom and working stiff with the right amount of zeroes on a cheque. Combine this with the bigotry that comes from the religious right and it is unfortunately no surprise that acts like this are being committed more frequently.
In closing, I ask that you forget about the fact that Omar Mateen pleaded his allegiance to ISIS before the attack, because this kind of hate toward LGBT individuals is not solely committed by radical Islam, but by fundamentalist Christians, Catholics and even non-religious idiots alike.
Remember the victims of this tragedy and look forward with hope and love in order to avoid such an event from happening again. More importantly though, remember the perpetrator as someone who is not a hero of infamy, but an individual who will go down in history as a confused and possibly sexually challenged individual, who did not get the required help before acting out.
Peace, Love, Hope and Sound Direction!
The Political Road Map: Omar Mateen and the Orlando Massacre
I began sipping my Sunday morning coffee, when upon opening my CBC app, I was confronted with the headline: “Mass Shooting in Florida, 50 Dead, 53 Injured.” Suddenly, my coffee didn’t taste very good anymore; it became bitter and left a feeling of unease in the pit of my stomach.
Continue readingThe Political Road Map: Omar Mateen and the Orlando Massacre
I began sipping my Sunday morning coffee, when upon opening my CBC app, I was confronted with the headline: “Mass Shooting in Florida, 50 Dead, 53 Injured.” Suddenly, my coffee didn’t taste very good anymore; it became bitter and left a feeling of u…
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Sunday Religious Disservice – Not Coffee You Dirty Sodomites!
Get out the duct tape! You’ll need it to keep your jaw from hitting the floor over how amazingly absurd this fine christian preacher is. Because people are protesting outside of his church they must be Sodomites and by extension the coffee that they are serving must be infused with
Continue readingTrashy's World: I hadn’t yet weighed in on Marois’ Charter of Quebec “Values”…
… because I was waiting to see exactly what it was going to look like… And, well, I’m disgusted. I’m sickened that any government in this country would go far as to prohibit the wearing or display of anything that does not in any way harm another person nor take
Continue readingdrive-by planet: Some Islamophobic new atheists as bad as Fox News on steroids
Atheist “fundamentalists” whose very existence seems predicated on their non-belief in God can be as extremist and narrow minded as the worst religious prig. They’re fixated, the way many extremists are, targeting any trace of faith with the blade of their remorseless skepticism. It’s one thing to have doubts about
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