Mike Lindell, the now-infamous “MyPillow” guy who has been peddling false tales of Trump’s electoral victory for a year now, tried to cross the Canadian border on Tuesday night in a truck laden with 10,000 pillows (and 10,000 Bibles), meant for the “Freedom Convoy” protesters in Ottawa. He was stopped butt-cold at the gateThey were sent home. Lindell, unperturbed, has promised to drop those pillows (though not the Bibles?). Helicopters will be used to protest the incident. There’s an old WKRP in Cincinnati episodeIt didn’t end well for the cargo.
This is what I’m talking about. How can you look at this and not just slap your neck with your nose? You should resist the temptation to do this, as it could become dangerous on an enormous scale. The Nazis are showing up with their flags. Paging Clement Vanlandingham), the Trumpy QAnons, and their threatening signs have all been out to play. This type of turnout is not good.
The ones who started the show, who parked their trucks over the specific issue of Canada’s new border-cross vaccine mandate, certainly had every right to do it. And the action has been wildly successful if measured by size and media attention paid… but somewhere in there, the whole thing went from having a shred of potential (if factually wrongheaded and scientifically dangerous) dignity and turned into the party sceneThe end of Weird Science. Scratch the surface and you will see another human monument of white supremacy.
The Ottawa protest began small — most Canadians, and specificallyMost Canadian truckers do not support the truckers who started this action. It was inevitable that it would end quietly, with little media attention, until all sorts of American money began pouring into the organizer’s GoFundMe accounts, they were the new heroes of Fox NewsThey suddenly found themselves surrounded by the same Trump-bound, right wing all-stars who have made U.S. Politics such a rich pageant of late.
With increased size came increased attention, followed by more size, and more attention again… and somewhere in there, the moment stopped being a Canadian protest about vaccine mandates and expanded into what swaths of Americans will be doing on Saturday night 10 years from now if Trump wins again in ‘24 (h/t HST).
Many of the “Freedom Convoy” joiners are loud, belligerent or actively hostile, not only to pandemic safety strictures but to the Canadian locals who are suddenly up to their eyeballs in characters who make the Capitol insurrection’s “QAnon Shaman” look like Epicurus of Samos. This is another import phenomenon.
“The Ottawa protests have made clear that extreme elements supporting fascism and white nationalism are attracted to the movement,” writes Henry Giroux for Truthout, “and visible in the appearance of neo-Nazi and Confederate flags and an abundance of QAnon logos emblazoned on trucks, signs and stickers. Some sources suggest that funding for the project, which totaled more than $8 million as of February 7, 2017, may have come from right-wing Americans. The highest individual donations are from come from American billionaires. Funding from the states has so alarmed members of the New Democratic Party that they have called it ‘an attack on Canada’s democracy’ and have asked the U.S. ambassador ‘to testify before the House of Commons foreign affairs committee.’”
A few days ago, I felt a little sorry for the original convoy organizers. But that feeling had the half-life a bedfart. For one thing, while the main focus of their protest has been subsumed by a bilge tide of right-wing noise stamped “Made in the U.S.A.,” they still appear to be enjoying the hell out of themselves right now.
They are giving very formal-looking press conferences, designed to increase hostility at the gathering and make it more hostile. violent public crunchWith law enforcement almost inevitable. “As the authorities threaten to arrest people blocking the streets of the capital,” reports The New York Times, “protest organizers on Wednesday appealed to supporters to pour into Ottawa and make their gatherings too large for the police to disperse.”
Worst of all, I am certain that variations of this thing are the Hot Item for right-wing calendars by March. I’m fairly shocked we’re not already seeing Trump trucks at intersections all across the country.
It was about vaccine mandates. Here, if it does come, similar actions would certainly seem to be another tactical maneuver toward a second insurrection; a practice run, if you will, under the cover of “We Hate Everything” protest cacophony.
How better to slow down federal response to a second coup effort than to clog vital areas with Peterbilts or Macks? You can park it, take the engine out, and then throw the keys in to the river. It’s just that simple.
