Monday, January 25, 2010

Let the cognitive dissonance begin.


At the risk of sounding unsympathetic, I can't wait to see what Canada's Blogging Tories do with this:

On Christmas Eve, 2009, four construction workers were killed in Toronto, when the scaffolding they were standing on collapsed. A fifth worker survived with very serious injuries. All five were migrant workers and their working conditions were unsafe.

Bad enough, eh? No, it gets much, much worse.

The family of one of the four deceased workers are refugee claimants from Israel. They are Orthodox Christians, and came to Canada so their two daughters would not be forced to serve in the Israeli "Defense" Forces. The girls are 7 and 14 years old.

Now the family may be deported. They have a refugee hearing next month, and they cannot afford a lawyer.

I can see the minimally intellectual Blogging Tory grappling now:

"Useless, illegal refugee claimants, it's time to send those parasites back where they come from. Wait, they're Orthodox Christians? From Israel? Obviously, we need to help them, how dare we even consider abandoning them, the poor souls. Hang on, they want to stay so the daughters can avoid their mandatory military service? Fuck that, bunch of gutless draft dodgers, put them on the next boat back there!"

Who will be the first of Stephen Taylor's BTs to go all split-brain and try to come up with a coherent argument here? Really, I see immense entertainment value just around the corner.

9 comments:

Southern Quebec said...

If you think they are going to even acknowledge this, you are dreaming. I vaguely remember one of the BT's complaining about these people -- "stupid immigrants" blah blah blah, type of thing. Can't remember which BT it was.

bocanut said...

"I see immense entertainment value just around the corner."

You never cease to amaze.

CC said...

Really, boca? You don't think it will be hysterically funny to watch the Blogging Tories twist themselves into knots trying to figure out which of their many mutually exclusive positions to take?

That's some of the best entertainment you can get in that price range.

bocanut said...

Ever consider leaving bereaving women alone?

Lindsay Stewart said...

Would that be leaving them alone, as in abandoning them to the whims of such stellar wits as the Harper Cons? Their bereavement and grief will be met then either with hushed and shameful disposal into the welfare system or hushed and shameful deportation. The entertainment will not be derived from the plight of those whose lives are now shattered, who have lost loved ones but rather from the contortions that your ugly, ideological bedmates will perform trying to find a path through the minefield of sensitivities balanced against their own innate bigotry.

Speaking for no one but myself, my heart goes out to these people, they tried their damnedest to make a life for themselves by escaping religious and political persecution. They came to a new land and found work where they were ill treated, imperilled and ultimately died. Go free market capitalism!

bocanut said...

It's nice that your heart goes out to "these people" but spare us the lecture of your socialist agenda.
You do realize that more workers were exploited and killed by Socialist Workers Utopia's in the 19th century than any capitalistic society?
And really, isn't finding any type of entertainment value no matter the source ,real or imaginery, in someone else's misery contrary to the progressive human values your kind are forever alluding to?

Ti-Guy said...

Shaddap. Go and shag more American babes on the beach, you fat loser.

ForestP said...

'It's nice that your heart goes out to "these people" but spare us the lecture of your socialist agenda.'

really now this whole socialist OMGZ SCARY argument has got to go, the reason why socialism doesn't work is because it requires a strong central government and that kind of concentration of power typically stifles dissent.

Now, what I think most progressives ascribe to is a social democracy where the well-being of the population is the de facto cause of the government, and being a democracy it requires the elected members of government to be accountable to its constituents (something the CPC has done a grand job of doing...really...not so much!) and in the end, the hope is that not only business interests will be engaged in government's policy-making, so that the capitalist-trend of exploitation is curtailed by just a tiny little itty bit of forethought before they decide to bulldoze, hack and slash, and move whatever and whomever out of the way of their quarterly profits.

Is it really so much to consider that the social component of our societies entails that we even entertain the notion that we are co-dependent, and that any sane and rational being will want to extend a helping hand for somebody who is in dire straits?

Or is the opposite reality of hyper-individualism and manic-consumerism true?

double nickel said...

Boca, please, for the love of god, start taking your meds again.