All-American Hell Is Breaking Out in Canada
The trucker blockade manifests the concept of freedom as convenience, and tyranny as temporary bother.
A familiar sort of American hell is breaking out in Canada. Last week, a group of truckers banded together to protest COVID-19 measures, including compulsory quarantine upon return for any unvaccinated Canadian truckers who drive into the United States. (Thanks, Tucker. I never lived in a plague ship before.) From the BBC:
This has grown into something called a “freedom convoy,” and it exists now as a virtual blockade of the city of Ottawa. Matters are becoming very, very ugly. From CNN:
Canadian politics has fallen into turmoil. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been lobbing anathemas at the truckers from his own COVID quarantine. On Wednesday, Erin O’Toole was 86’d as leader of the Conservative party, in part because he was considered insufficiently rabid by the standards set by the truckers' revolt. (O’Toole probably doomed himself by supporting a Liberal Party bill banning so-called “gay-conversion” therapy.) Meanwhile, the protest goes on, the nation’s capital remains paralyzed, and the protestors remain chuffed in a familiar sort of American way. From the CBC:
Being a dumb American, I don’t see how the constant honking of dozens of horns from dozens of semis qualifies as respectful—or serious—dialogue. But it does sound very familiar to the rising political cacophony from all points of the compass down here south of the border. This is the concept of freedom as convenience, and tyranny as temporary bother. The lunacy is contagious, and airborne, and it knows no borders.
