The fact that we are now living in a world in which innovation in social media has fostered an asymmetric system with zero barriers to entry is something to be celebrated, not decried. That won’t stop media dinosaurs like Andrew Coyne, however, from pining for the “good old days” when authority figures with sufficient financial resources could just prevent people from seeing information they didn’t like.
I have a suggestion for Andrew: instead of labelling ideas you disagree with as disinformation and branding their proponents as lunatics, get busy and offer some counter arguments. Maybe the reason you feel defeated is because your arguments are ineffective, non-existent or just plain wrong. It is also possible to offer a bad argument in favor of a good idea. Let that sink in.
https://twitter.com/acoyne/status/1710461278957760892
We’ve made counter-arguments. You choose to believe in nonsense because you want to. In any event, social media neither here nor there. It’s the demand for nonsense that matters not the supply.
https://reason.com/volokh/2023/10/05/the-demand-for-political-misinformation-is-a-bigger-problem-than-the-supply-even-in-the-age-of-ai/
You have never made an argument Unme. Not once. You troll. Nothing more.
And Coyne is a pathetic joke and has been for a long time. In his defence so are virtually all others in his profession.
I’ve pointed to the data, you chose to ignore it. You will be buried.
An Op-Ed is not data. It’s an opinion. Give it whatever weight you deem appropriate.
The data actually trends quite strongly against the “vaccines”.
That’s the thing about a free country and choice, hey ?
The decent people realize when the choice is personal and fundamental to being an individual.
And shut the fk up about it, and have some respect.
Others exude the character of fresh dog sht, on the bottom of your shoe.
Nikita Khrushchev said that back in 1960s. Look how that turned out for the USSR.
You know that’s psychotic right? Claiming an opinion piece is data? You’re mentally ill. Get away from the keyboard, go touch grass, talk to a human, if you know any. Threatening to “bury” people is dangerous acting out.
These people can help you, just reach out, you’ll be ok:
Talk Suicide Canada at 1-833-456-4566
Buried? I don’t believe you know how to operate a shovel. That tends to bring you to the wrong end of one.
You’ve trolled, and trolled, and trolled, in support of the Left.
The -true- nature of the Global Left is on display in Israel today. Soak it in, baby. Those are your boys. They are on -your- side.
Andrew doesn’t seem to understand that he’s one of the certafiable lunatics. His ‘let’s pretend to be conservative’ hasn’t fooled anyone.
Coyne is part of the Laurentian elite and as such, considers his positions and opinions as truly enlightened, precluding the need to consider alternative sources of wisdom. He typifies his peers in the dying legacy media lamenting their demise while bitterly attacking those who are now easily offering something others wish to consider while he is reverting to supporting not so subtle forms of censorship. Knowledge only progresses when a thesis is discussed or challenged. He wants blind acceptance of his preferred institutional narratives and positions. He is becoming an inquisitor.
I fully support Andrew and other crazies to continue to believe things like , Biden received 81 million legal and lawful votes in the last election, even though the majority of American citizens now believe otherwise. Why do Andrew and his friends feel that they can be the only ones to decide what is true or false?
“even though the majority of American citizens now believe otherwise. ”
That is outright false, and that you’d choose to believe so is the exact reason why people like Coyne and me get to decide what’s what. The adults table is for adults or people who can at least make convincing simile of an adult
unDORK
” the exact reason why people like Coyne and me(WTF) get to decide what’s what”
Yer a dimwitted fool who pedals bullschitt, and are too stupid to identify TRUTH!
Jeezus unme you’ve gotten worse! You and Coyne don’t decide anything and nobody listens to either of you except for amusement, in “what the hell is wrong with you ” kinda way.
@UnMe,
To hell with the waste of time (and the expense) of voting for useless, REPRESENTATIVES.
Debt burdened Canadians now have “[adults] like Coyne and [you who] get to decide what’s what”. That is mighty democratic of you. Not sure how to repay that benevolence?
BTW, please do provide SDA readers with your credentials, we only follow EXPERTS these days. No need to provide Coyne’s, he is MSM, so obviously he is to be trusted absolutely, and without question.
So your real logo is “The Decider”?
How do you manage to breathe with such an IQ?
Are you a dolt or just a bott?
“Get to decide what’s what?”
You too funny.
You must be a government minion,slaving away in your wet lab,dreaming of the day you become a real Statist Thug..
Have they promised you a “real snappy” uniform?
“There’s one in the spotlight, he don’t look right to me, get him up against the wall.”
Yeah, the good old days of narrative control, now the uppity proles are revolting and you wish to re-bottle the genie of open information sharing. All you info revisionists work so hard to dismiss Assange and Snowden, like the receipts aren’t printed. Go ahead, but censoring when at least 1/4 see thru the BS is only going to speed up your irrelevance.
Wow, what a sad spectacle Coyne has become. I used to look forward to reading his columns when he started at the G&M. They were well written factual dissections of economic policies of the government of the day. Somewhere along the line he morphed from critical analysis to a “The View” style harpy, as seen here.
What are Coyne’s credentials to rebut someone like Dr Yeadon? Coyne is a gatekeeper pundit, whose scribbles now serve to define the narrow boundaries of opinion the establishment seeks to preserve. Dr Yeadon, on the other hand, knows how the particular sausage of which he speaks is made. In light of all the ascribed so-called conspiracy theories that have turned out to be true, you’d think someone like Coyne would be a little more measured in his response, lest it further erode his credibility. But self awareness is obviously not a strong suit. What we’re seeing is the cry of someone whose profession and personal credibility being reduced to cinders, whose influence/relevance has been reduced to an evaporated readership and the couple thousand that wait to hear his “incisive” commentary on the national broadcaster, another medium going up in smoke.
The Laurentian Elite class is genetically disposed to Kreutzfelt Jacob disease. Soon enough it will be hard to disguise the drool-drenched chin and vacant stare.
He has spent years trying to atone for the weekend he took off and his blog was taken over by “gay bashers”.
Closing the blog, showcasing his CBC disdain for the hoi polloi and flashing his Liberal credentials ever since, all the while lamenting his lost wokeness points.
He has spent years trying to atone for the weekend he took off and his blog was taken over by “gae bashers”.
Closing the blog, showcasing his CBC disdain for the hoi polloi and flashing his Liberal credentials ever since, all the while lamenting his lost wokeness points.
Agreed, he used to be a must-read, now just a cog.
Dear Andrew,
Now you know how Kings, Queens, Sultans, Burgermeisters, Popes, Despots, Emporers, Lords and Ladies felt when the printing press came out.
Under normal circumstances l would agree with Coyne because I absolutely despise fear mongering and doomsday prophecies. But…nothing has been normal for the last few years.
In Canada we’ve had :
– the military admitting they spying on and deploying propaganda techniques on Canadian citizens during covid.
– a covid response where all sane pandemic protocols were thrown out and a campaign of socially divisive fear mongering and scapegoating implemented. Including talk of removing children from unvaccinated parents, refusing healthcare to the unvaccinated and forcing the unvaccinated into quarantine camps.
– ignoring biological reality by forcing people to accept that men can become women and invade exclusively female spaces and sports.
– unrelenting economic hari-kari via unrestrained money printing, debt accumulation, high interest rates, unsustainable immigration, inflation, war on affordable reliable energy and food production.
– a prime minister and federal government that constantly calls opposing ideas misogynistic, racist white supremacists. Freezing bank accounts of protesters and those donating to their political protest
– MAID expansion to vulnerable groups and government assisted drug use
– kink and queer being taught to children at schools and policies to keep secrets from parents about important issues regarding their children
I could go on but this post is already too long. The point is that people are feeling under attack by the political class and, inevitably, this leads to anger, desperation and even paranoia. You reap what you sow.
A good list. But add in the breathless excitement in the news that mRNA vaccines can be administered through very air itself!
That would be an undeniable breech of the Nuremberg Code and every other medical ethics code plus almost all human rights charters. But, the US has done illegal experimentation before on their own citizens and on Canadians.
U.S. secretly tested carcinogen in Western Canada during the Cold War, researcher finds
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/u-s-secretly-tested-carcinogen-in-western-canada-during-the-cold-war-researcher-discovers
“I could go on but this post is already too long. The point is that people are feeling under attack by the political class and, inevitably, this leads to anger, desperation and even paranoia. You reap what you sow.”
A great list, LC. The ‘climate crisis’ (and all the related taxes, fees and other BS) surely would have next in the list.
I was trying to stick to issues that I think the majority of rational people would agree are wrong in a constitutional democracy that claims to uphold basic human rights and freedoms.. My personal thoughts about the data and modeling underpinning anthropogenic climate change are probably quite obvious from other threads on SDA.
I’ve been warning for some time to expect a backlash. The anger towards the political.class is growing quickly. The chattering class in Canada have been embarrassingly oblivious to the smoldering hostility towards the political class. Now that their preferred political party is sinking like a stone, they notice…and promptly blame the middle and working class people who dare to complain. Typical ruling and chattering class response.
And their desperation will surely lead to more brutal crackdown on the rabble, further eroding their legitimacy and grip. I hope there’s enough left to maintain a society once they’re done scorching our Earth.
I remember when every new war was accompanied with calls for a cease fire from a significant number of politicians.
I don’t hear Coyne or any of the other government toadies calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine.
It will be interesting if they remember the words to the song and start calling for a cease fire in Israel/Palestine.
I disagree completely with Coyne’s post. There is very little difference between listening naively to some idiot on the net and listening to pompous, uninformed, elitist douchebags like Coyne.
“Never have certifiable lunatics had such ability to broadcast their insanity to the world, for the instruction of the naive, the credulous and the uninformed.”
Sez that with a straight face, with a Ukraininan flag besides his name.
“Sez that with a straight face, with a Ukraininan flag besides his name.”
Indeed. The very definition of ‘useful idiot’…it never even occurs to him to question anything about the Russian-Ukrainian fiasco (not even the way it actually started).
Coyne had his pride rocked. A significant number of great unwashed approached the “miraculous vaccination” from a more intelligent position that he did. And, he’s willing to go down with the ship due to an unhealthy ego.
That being said, there are just as many idiots on the other side of the spectrum who think the “vaccination” is a death sentence (and purposefully so). I don’t subscribe to that. I just think it was a get rich scheme across the board where those in a position to do so saw a way to improve their portfolios. The result was a slip-shod misrepresented “vaccination”. Personally, I know more people who had adverse effects (potentially) from the “vaccination” than I know people who suffered symptoms of Covid. And, that shouldn’t be the case.
My “conspiracy theory” belief surrounds Covid in the first place. I am convinced that it was a purposeful release in China (intended to be regional) that got out of control. The true purpose was part of a program China has been focusing on for the last decade. Their one child rule put them in a precarious position of not being able to provide for the non-producers in their country, and they needed to cull the elderly and infirm to shore that up.
“I don’t subscribe to that. I just think it was a get rich scheme across the board where those in a position to do so saw a way to improve their portfolios. ”
My thoughts exactly. “They want to kill us all!” just makes no logical sense to me, since the wealthy got wealthy and stay wealthy because of us in the first place….why would they want (or need) to kill us? I always default to ‘follow the money’, whether it is on Covid, climate change, gender identity, residential schools or whatever…because it *always* seems to come down to “give us more money and we will solve this horrible problem” in the end, doesn’t it?
“They want to kill us all!” just makes no logical sense to me,”
They want control, and they want a slave class to serve them. It’s the useless eaters, polluters, and trouble makers that can go after that.
Except, quick money wouldn’t need worldwide, coordinated, propaganda and intelligence community driven media censorship and suppression.
Unless the quick money scheme had a much darker, sinister, motive. Kill us all through surreptitious injection of “life saving vaccines”, or the introduction of oppression and stripping our rights away. Either way, this was about much more than simply an opportunity for pharma and hucksters to make a quick buck.
You have to look at it from a perspective of those being in a position to capitalize on profit aren’t subject to the inconvenience of nationality. They openly flaunt their desire for a global community instead of borders and boundaries. You can’t look at the media as a whole in being a member of that cabal. They are a useful tool overseen by corporate ownership (who just happen to be part of the former). It used to be that editors focused their stable of journalists. Nowadays, the editing is pre-established by the executive officers of a large media corporation.
“they needed to cull the elderly and infirm”
Couple that with a very convenient way to crush growing mass protests in Hong Kong, without the disastrous optics of Tiannamen tanks.
Also, it can’t be easy to feed and keep a huge population contented after years of hyper accelerated growth with manipulated currency. Pandemic confinement and surveillance measures provide the gateway for stricter control and help the CCP keep a tighter lid on signs of disaffection.
Coyne is a symptom of the reversion of progressives (illiberals) to their old ways of their attraction to the fascist state. The “coming together” of all things under the state demands fealty to contemporary statist pieties, which in the west, now includes climate and pandemic hysteria-based authoritarianism, along with the post modern nihilism of multiculturalism, CRT, gender pretense, DEI, ESG, etc. Any and all discussion potentially undermining these sanctities is considered “misinformation / disinformation by the illiberals. Comparisons with the national socialists are likely not as relevant as to the inquisition.
“Coyne is a symptom of the reversion of progressives (illiberals) to their old ways of their attraction to the fascist state. ”
He fancies himself a ‘progressive’ conservative, which amounts to the exact same thing as being a liberal.
He fools no one anymore.
FRED
“He fools no one anymore.”
Well, other than himself, and the unDORK.
Andrew Coyne is the Laurentian Bill Maher.
https://youtu.be/j2_6lha8jO0?si=kZ6kztEBczUVkysr
Ancient astronaut theorists say no, Coyne is not a conservative. See, even they get it.
Coyne is scared. His irrelevance and obsolescence are staring him in the face.
Coyne’s a clown – He’s butthurt because he and his pals don’t control the information anymore. Gone are the days of Canadian MSM pissing on our legs and telling us it’s raining and it’s precisely why he hasn’t said one god damned word about Bill C-18 because he likes things the way they were.
Gone are those heady days of drinking Scotch and smoking cigars at the very exclusive Rosedale club with other media birthright types like Zach Paikin…oh I’m sorry, that would be Doctor Zach Paikin, my bad, opining about the state of the Canadian indigenous and what they would do if they were kings. Remember that Andy? LOL… I do.
At least your pal Jonathan Kay grew a brain and jumped ship.
Especially ban lithium ion batteries, for the children!
Freakin cowards everywhere.
Remember, folks, Canadian conservatives are to the left of Obama, that’s why our country is going down.
I think PM Blackface Bollywood should make a ministry as i suggested for Mr. COYNE…he should be nominated to the “Minister of Genuinely Unhinged”. Aptly titled after his genuinely unhinged theory of people criticizing PM Blackface et al for their typical and consistent blunders such as the “nazi” episode as “genuinely unhinged”. The pot calling the kettle black.When you’re in the progressive liberal cult it takes a lot to be deprogrammed. But most of all it’s difficult for Mr. COYNE to give up his Laurentian Elite buddies and their invites to the lobster, champagne, caviar & foil gras circuit…..so congrats to you Mr. COYNE with your new appointment and your liberal boot licking.
Governments have chosen to police things that are not tangible to give themselves control over both the problems and the solutions.. You don’t fit into this picture.
I want it all.. The politics of the day is designed to be absurd to manufacture dissent.. This dissent is used by a government “looking for a fight” to push even harder.. Not so much the meaning of the words as opposition to them.. A process crime that has nothing to do with reality.. I don’t like your tone and I will read anything I want into that to shut you down..
Easy Peasy.. The low hanging emotional fruit of social media has overtaken our institutions and government.. So much so that they feel they own it now.. One stop shopping for demagoguery.. Slick ready made issues with a built in fan club.. Season ticket holders at the local theatre.. Subsidized entertainment for the ruling class..
Defend democracy with censorship?..
The moment politicians got involved with social media is the moment it became necessary to censor social media.. Everything they do has a downside.. They pick winners and losers.. They fail more often than not..
This information has to be suppressed in order for the illusion to work.. A horse and pony show that is not to be judged only admired.. The fact is democracy cant take the social media heat.. Left or right they are all full of it..
I notice all the new mandates, banning’s and projects have all been kicked way down the road.. We will see what 2035 or 2050 brings?.. Imagine people in 1975 making decisions for today.. This passes for leadership?..