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Bruce Dowbiggin

Elon Musk Takes On The Safe Space Empire

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Elon Musk blew up the world this week. Okay, the liberal/ progressive world. Why so mad?

First, remember just a few years back when the news media were saturated with stories about the “campus rape crisis”? You couldn’t open a news site without stories of how one in four women was being sexually assaulted beneath the ivy-coveted walls of academia? It was ghastly.

Remember the pictures of the distraught woman carrying a mattress on her back to highlight the epidemic? The now-debunked Rolling Stone UVA clunker? And how the only protection was “safe spaces” where co-eds could avoid these beasts— and the traumatic messages buffeting their world view?

Good times, good times. For the Woke revolution, that is. Using statistics that bore no relation to the reality of drunken post-secondary hook-ups , they enlisted  media to intimidate college administrators into extending control of thought and deed over both student body and teaching staff. They called it safe spaces.

The U.S. Department of Education under Barack Obama warned schools to reduce the standard of evidence to find an accused rapist guilty or lose their federal funding. Kangaroo courts were started to boot men from the schools. The Trudeau junta did likewise. It worked. The intimidation part. Safe spaces were now an accepted form of modern discourse.

This lowered threshold for hurt sent complaints up like a Musk Space-X rocket. Questioning the validity of the “crisis” invited being culture cancelled.  As we wrote back in April 2019  :

Modern education has become TikTok, an accumulator of all things that amuse or distract young people. The ability to block or (be still my restless heart) censor messages that disturb the quiet lily pond of the young mind completes the bliss. And the bonding of like-minded woke folk stokes each other’s prejudices.

It is why late-night TV viewing is also imperative in the formation of the non-critical mind. Stephen Colbert’s daily dose of sarcasm in place of critical thinking guides hapless students in the ways of consensus… while bonding them with kids like you who just want to belong in an unquestioning environment.

There’s no indication that the sexual dynamic of student life have changed much. But that’s yesterday’s news. The media shape-shifters have moved their safe spaces on to the suddenly red-hot issue of the transgendered right to compete in swim meets against women. Where the same combination of media derangement/government overreach aims to create a safe space for the 0.01 percent of the population identifying as transgendered. Everyone else gets to shut up.

As a technique for subversion this mission creep would make Saul Alinsky blush. One by one, the pillars of Western society have succumbed to the pressure tactics from safe-space zanies. Corporations, media, entertainment and education have surrendered to the hurt feelings of radicals on critical race theory, gender fluidity, white privilege, cultural appropriation and 1984-style socialism in their organizations.

The latest example being Disney Corp, where an inside group of LGBTQI provocateurs forced their CEO into a disastrous conflict with the state of Florida over teaching sex to kids from JK to Grade 3. As a result, Disney has had their privileged tax status in the state revoked. But that’s a rare setback for HR radicals, as we wrote in this column on Michelle Obama’s lasting impact.

More typical of the safe-space incursion was the media-led campaign to eliminate the name of Egerton Ryerson from the downtown Toronto university for having some role in residential schooling in the 19th century. In his day Ryerson was considered “the paragon of the forward-looking, progressive, inclusive, worldly intellectual. He was a beacon of educational reform, a fighter against injustice of all sorts, and a kind and generous man”.

No more. The school’s “enlightened” board of directors announced he’s a non-person. Ryerson will now be named Toronto Metropolitan University to placate those sensitive to hundred-year-old re-evaluations of history. (No word on purging anything named after famed feminists/eugenicists.)

Where does Musk fit into this? The final horizon, and perhaps the greatest prize in the safe-space advance, was social media. From its initial vision as the Town Square, sites such as Twitter and Facebook have devolved into the Silicon Valley Square, home to censorship and disinformation campaigns against anyone who invaded the white liberal-guilt safe space. Read: Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, Alex Berenson.

While there are a multitude of examples of this hubris, none is more illustrative than the suppression of the Hunter Biden scandal during the last weeks of the 2020 election. The censors at all the major outlets— Twitter, Facebook, Instagram— suspended the accounts of the New York Post and other outlets for reporting that the future POTUS was selling influence to him in China, Ukraine and other hot spots.

They were joined by all the major broadcast and print outlets (except FOX News) who denounced the stories as Russian disinformation. A large percentage of voters cast their votes having been denied a story that may have changed their choice. So Joe Biden won. Institutionalized bias in social media was now weaponized by the Left— much to its smug satisfaction.

That’s why this week’s sale of Twitter to Musk sent panic through the halls of the Rachel Maddow Finishing School. The Tesla guy had noticed the funny business: “Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate.” Musk has promised to re-institute the mission statement of Twitter. Free and open exchange of comment. Removal of bots. Authentication of human sources. (An end to 98 percent of employees donating to the Democratic Party.)

Those employees are panicked about secret internal emails being revealed and their share options being cut. Politicians like Adam Schiff see hate on the march. Others see uncharted speech as only a benefit to “white males”. @AnandWrites: “This future in which there would actually be more abundant and equitable speech terrifies the crap out of people like Elon Musk.”

“Make no mistake: Musk’s ownership of the company will likely make the platform into even more of a hellscape,” penned HuffPost heavy breather Ja’han Jones. MSNBC’s Ari Melber, who’s apparently been in a coma the past five years, shrieked, “You could secretly ban one party’s candidate…secretly turn down the reach of their stuff and turn up the reach of something else and the rest of us might not even find out about it until AFTER the election.” Self-awareness alert in Aisle three.

Predictably the same poseurs who vowed to go to Canada after Trump won in 2016 are now vowing to leave Twitter. As if. When there is so much hurt to weaponize against your enemies it would seem foolish to leave the party now.

 

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). The best-selling author was nominated for the BBN Business Book award of 2020 for Personal Account with Tony Comper. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. His new book with his son Evan Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History is now available on http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx

 

BRUCE DOWBIGGIN Award-winning Author and Broadcaster Bruce Dowbiggin's career is unmatched in Canada for its diversity and breadth of experience . He is currently the editor and publisher of Not The Public Broadcaster website and is also a contributor to SiriusXM Canada Talks. His new book Cap In Hand was released in the fall of 2018. Bruce's career has included successful stints in television, radio and print. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster for his work with CBC-TV, Mr. Dowbiggin is also the best-selling author of "Money Players" (finalist for the 2004 National Business Book Award) and two new books-- Ice Storm: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Vancouver Canucks Team Ever for Greystone Press and Grant Fuhr: Portrait of a Champion for Random House. His ground-breaking investigations into the life and times of Alan Eagleson led to his selection as the winner of the Gemini for Canada's top sportscaster in 1993 and again in 1996. This work earned him the reputation as one of Canada's top investigative journalists in any field. He was a featured columnist for the Calgary Herald (1998-2009) and the Globe & Mail (2009-2013) where his incisive style and wit on sports media and business won him many readers.

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Bruce Dowbiggin

Eau Canada! Join Us In An Inclusive New National Anthem

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This past week has seen (some) Canadians celebrating their heritage— now that Mike Myers has officially reinterpreted Canadian culture as a hockey sweater and Mr. Dressup. This quick-change was so popular that Canadian voters even forgot an entire decade of Justin Trudeau.

In the United States, the people who elected Donald Trump– and not Andrew Coyne– to run their nation celebrated Independence Day with stirring renditions off The Star Spangled Banner, although few could surpass the brilliant performance of the song by the late Whitney Houston at the 1991 Super Bowl.

The CDN equivalent is some flavour of the month changing the words to O Canada at the Grey Cup game. Canada’s national anthem has always been open to interpretation by people who may or may not have Canada in their hearts. At the 2023 NBA All Star Game Canadian chanteuse Jully Black became the latest singer to attempt a manicure to the English lyrics of O Canada, penned for the 1880 Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day ceremony ( Calixa Lavallée composed the music, after which words were written by the poet and judge Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier. The English lyrics have “evolved” over the years, just like the dress code for the CDN PM..)

Black amended the first line from “our home and native land” to our home ON native land”. Because something-something. But this creative license is nothing new. Unlike Chris Stapleton, Marvin Gaye or Whitney Houston with the Star Spangled Banner, interpreters of O Canada have seen fit to amend the lyrics to their sensibilities. Roger Doucet, famed anthem singer of the Montreal Canadiens in the 1970-80s, tried to add the words “we stand on guard for truth and liberty” in place of the first “we stand on guard for thee”.

In 1990, having nothing better to do, Toronto City Council voted 12 to 7 in favour of recommending that the phrase “our home and native land” be changed to “our home and cherished land” and that “in all thy sons command” be partly reverted to “in all of us command”. (The latter was officially adapted.)

While those attempts had mixed outcomes it appears it’s just a matter of time till Ms. Black’s class-conscious culling of the words is accepted. Being generous we here at IDLM thought we’d short-circuit piecemeal attempts to create a throughly Woke version of the anthem that would last till the latest fad come along. Herewith our 2023 definitive O Canada that even— maybe only— Justin Trudeau could love:

“O Canada” (Ignores the French fact in our culture) Change to “Eau Canada”

“Our home on native land” (ignores indigenous land claims) Change to “Get off our land, settlers”

“True patriot love in all of us commands” (Only true patriot love? There were officially 78 kinds of relationships in Trudeaupia. And commanding love?) Change to “Love the one you’re with”.

“With glowing hearts we see thee rise” (rise suggests triumph of white triumphalist dogma) Change to “Non judgementally we oppose the crushing impacts of Euro-based autocracy”

“The true north strong and free” (How can anyone be strong or free when we support America’s killing fields?) Change to “Heteronormative thinking must be stamped out at our borders. If we even have borders anymore.”

“From far and wide” (Body shaming) Change to “Obesity is a disease that is not helped by putting it in the national anthem.”

“O Canada” (biased against A, B, AB blood types) change to “Science Must Be Believed”

“We stand on guard for thee” (Spreads hate against the non ableist community) Change to “Please remain seated.”

“God keep our land” (God? God? What is this, the Reformation) “Change to “It’s your thing”

”Glorious and free” (Glorious harkens to the bourgeois subjugation of Indigenous thought processes by white Christian priests) Change to “A genocidal state if there ever was one”.

“O Canada we stand on guard for thee/ 

O Canada we stand on guard for thee”  The denial of trans rights is used twice here to emphasize the intolerable burdens faced by people of the LGBTQ2R community as they seek respect and compensation for the evils of the founding oppressors.) Change to “Eau Canada, after 6.5 hours of intensive lectures on the gender, race and dissociative application of class war on your citizens you may someday come to understand that this song is a manifestation of your bigotry and exploitation of minorities— and why rhyming lines like “thee and free” is the work of the devil or J.K. Rowling, whomever comes to mind first.”

There. That wasn’t so tough, was it? Flows trippingly off the tongue like Mark Carney refusing a special inquiry into China buying the electoral process.  Or perhaps we should simply accept a literal translation of the original French lyrics:

“O Canada!

Land of our ancestors

Glorious deeds circle your brow

For your arm knows how to wield the sword

Your arm knows how to carry the cross;

Your history is an epic

Of brilliant deeds

And your valour steeped in faith

Will protect our homes and our rights.”

Yikes. That’s downright fascistic. But it’s Quebec, and we have to allow them their peccadilloes. So circle your brow with glorious deeds, grab a cross and a sword and valour steeped in faith. And remember we must be adaptable in the new era.

Unless it’s Alberta using the adapting to fuel its CO2-belching machines. In which case it’s man the battlements and follow Mike Myers into the fight.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.

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Bruce Dowbiggin

The Game That Let Canadians Forgive The Liberals — Again

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With the Americans winning the first game 3-1, a sense of panic crept over Canada as it headed to Game 2 in Boston. Losing a political battle with Trump was bad enough, but losing hockey bragging rights heading into a federal election was catastrophic for the Family Compact.

“It’s also more political than the (1972) Summit Series was, because Canada’s existence wasn’t on the line then, and it may be now. You’re damn right Canadians should boo the (U.S.) anthem.” Toronto Star columnist Bruce Arthur before Gm. 1 of USA/ Canada in The 4 Nations Cup.

The year 2025 is barely half over on Canada Day. There is much to go before we start assembling Best Of Lists for the year. But as Palestinian flags duel with the Maple Leaf for prominence on the 158th anniversary of Canada’s becoming a sovereign country it’s a fair guess that we will settle on Febuary 21 as the pivotal date of the year— and Canada’s destiny as well.

That was the date of Game 2 in the U.S./Canada rivalry at the Four Nations Tournament. Ostensibly created by the NHL to replace the moribund All Star format, the showdown of hockey nations in Boston became much more. Jolted by non-sports factors it became a pivotal moment in modern Canadian history.

Set against U.S. president Donald Trump’s bellicose talk of Canada as a U.S. state and the Mike Myers/ Mark Carney Elbows Up ad campaign, the gold-medal game evoked, for those of a certain age, memories of the famous 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the USSR. And somehow produced an unprecedented political reversal in Canadian elections.

As we wrote on Feb. 16 after Gm. 1 in Montreal, the Four Nations had been meant to be something far less incendiary.  “Expecting a guys’ weekend like the concurrent NBA All Star game, the fraternal folks instead got a Pier Six brawl. It was the most stunning beginning to a game most could remember in 50 years. (Not least of all the rabid Canadian fanbase urging patriotism in the home of Quebec separation) Considering this Four Nations event was the NHL’s idea to replace the tame midseason All Star Game where players apologize for bumping into each other during a casual skate, the tumult as referees tried to start the game was shocking.

“Despite public calls for mutual respect, the sustained booing of the American national anthem and the Team Canada invocation by MMA legend Georges St. Pierre was answered by the Tkachuck brothers, Matthew and Brady, with a series of fights in the first nine seconds of the game. Three fights to be exact ,when former Canuck J.T. Miller squared up with Brandon Hagel. (All three U.S. players have either played on or now play for Canadian NHL teams.)  

“Premeditated and nasty. To say nothing of the vicious mugging of Canada’s legend Sidney Crosby behind the U.S. net moments later by Charlie McEvoy.”

With the Americans winning the game 3-1 on Feb. 15, a sense of panic crept over Canada as it headed to Game 2 in Boston. Losing a political battle with Trump was bad enough, but losing hockey bragging rights heading into a federal election was catastrophic for the Family Compact. As we wrote in the aftermath, a slaughter was avoided.

“In the rematch for a title created just weeks before by the NHL the boys stuck to hockey. Anthem booing was restrained. Outside of an ill-advised appearance by Wayne Gretzky— now loathed for his Trump support— the emphasis was on skill. Playing largely without injured Matthew and Brady Tkachuk and McAvoy, the U.S. forced the game to OT where beleaguered goalie Craig Binnington held Canada in the game until Connor McDavid scored the game winner. “

The stunning turnaround in the series produced a similar turnaround in the Canadian federal election. Galvanized by Trump’s 51st State disrespect and exhilarated by the hockey team’s comeback, voters switched their votes in huge numbers to Carney, ignoring the abysmal record of the Liberals and their pathetic polling. From Pierre Poilievre having a 20-point lead in polls, hockey-besotted Canada flipped to award Carney a near-majority in the April 28 election.

The result stunned the Canadian political class and international critics who questioned how a single sporting event could have miraculously rescued the Liberals from themselves in such a short time.

While Canada soared because of the four Nations, a Canadian icon crashed to earth. “Perhaps the most public outcome was the now-demonization of Gretzky in Canada. Just as they had with Bobby Orr, another Canadian superstar living in America, Canadians wiped their hands of No. 99 over politics. Despite appeals from Orr, Don Cherry and others, the chance to make Gretzky a Trump proxy was too tempting.

We have been in several arguments on the subject among friends: Does Gretzky owe Canada something after carrying its hockey burden for so long? Could he have worn a Team Canada jersey? Shouldn’t he have made a statement that he backs Canada in its showdown with Trump? For now 99 is 0 in his homeland.”

Even now, months later, the events of late February have an air of disbelief around them, a shift so dramatic and so impactful on the nation that many still shake their heads. Sure, hockey wasn’t the device that blew up Canada’s politics. But it was the fuse that created a crater in the country.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.

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