You’ve probably heard about the so-called Freedom Convoy of angry Canadian truckers who are fed up with all the common-sense regulations intended to curb the spread of COVID-19. No surprise that the MAGA bugnuts have taken their side. I can understand the frustration of having to heed the mandates, but there is no justification in rebelling against them.
We are now in year 3 of the COVID pandemic, and even with a vaccine and boosters we still have to take precautions. Yeah, yeah, masks are uncomfortable, lockdowns are not fun – but we all need to do our part. This situation is temporary, and the sooner we all each accept our personal responsibilities, the sooner the pandemic will be officially over and the sooner life will return to more-or-less normal.
Unfortunately, a lot of people, out of entitlement or selfishness or cowardice or denial or some combination of the four, are refusing to face reality. COVID-19 is real, 100% REAL. Wearing a mask in public is not the same as being forced to wear a Star of David. Really – how low can you go, people, viciously slapping those of certain ethnicities in their faces? Comparing mask and vaccination mandates to the brutal persecution of Jews isn’t comparing apples to oranges – it’s comparing apples to Portobello mushrooms.
Recently Canada’s Superior Court of Justice blocked GiveSendGo, a crowdfunding site that has raised money for far-right extremist organizations such as the Proud Boys, from sending $9 million to the anti-vaccine truckers. Seriously? Those donors are willing to give $9 million to help advocates of childish selfishness? Nine million bucks would go a long way to feeding a lot of hungry mouths, or housing a lot of homeless people. Or paying the medical bills of COVID-19 victims. But these pseudo-Christians would rather support criminals and terrorists.
The “Freedom” Convoy has paralyzed traffic and trade in both Canada and the United States, blocking the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit, MI and Windsor, ON. One report estimated that U.S. workers and businesses have already lost some $51 million in damaged commerce and wages due to the action. Far from being a convoy of freedom, it is a convoy of destruction, harming commerce and innocent workers. But these spoiled brats don’t care. The Free-Dumb Convoy suck-a-thumbs will allow the economies of two nations to tank just because they’re too chicken-doody to wear masks and get vaccinations. They profess to be defending freedom, but in reality they seek to destroy democracy and enforce fascism.
Thankfully, there has been plenty of backlash against them. Residents of several Canadian cities have held counter-demonstrations against the convoy. Canadian police have arrested more than 100 of these troublesome truckers.
The Freedom [sic] Convoy has done a wonderful job of giving normally polite and respectful Canadians – 90% of whom are fully vaccinated – a collective black eye. Apparently the Great White North has caught second-hand right-wing nuttiness from the USA.
Progressives on both sides of the border need to cooperate in order to battle right-wing extremism, an evil that respects no political boundary.
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