Trudeau is Toying with Fascism

The excesses of socialism always lean towards fascism.

Forget about the liberal/progressive media and political nitwits who regularly label anyone with whom they disagree as a “fascist.” As usual they are much more glib than factual.

Merriam Webster defines “fascism” thusly:

1:. . . often capitalized: a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition

2: a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control

The first definition is the preference for tying fascism to the socialist regime of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei Nazi regime. However, the Nazis were simply a subset of the larger definition shown in example 2. above who threw in the irrational demand for extermination of the Jewish people as well as other people deemed to be “imperfect” – homosexuals, Romanis (gypsies), etc. Fascism intrudes whenever there is autocratic rule, suppression of individual thought and speech and support from the corporate class of such repressive measures. It is the necessary correlation between a political ideology that sounds beneficent on paper but which is wildly unpopular in its application.

Does any of that sound familiar? Well it should because it is the underlying element of today’s “cancel culture.” It is the underlying element to using government armed forces to quell dissent. It is Canada under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. It is Mr. Trudeau’s response to the truckers’ protests over mandatory vaccinations.

Mr. Trudeau is not only the prime minister of Canada but he is a prince of privilege having been born the son of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau with all of the privileges of educational and societal opportunities that come with such parentage. He was also born rich and inherited substantial sums from his father. As a rich wastrel, Mr. Trudeau preferred academia over industry and politics over accomplishments – he had none. But like many liberal/progressive/socialists he quickly learned about the power of political office without ever learning the consequences of the arbitrary exercise of such power.

And like his liberal/progressive/socialist counterparts in America, Mr. Trudeau was quick to embrace the idea of “mandates” in response to the COVID-19 pandemic – mask mandates, quarantine mandates, vaccination mandates, anti-protest mandates, travel restriction mandates, etc. “Mandates!” Doesn’t that just roll off your tongue much more politely than “dictates.” But the end result is just the same – particularly when the former lacks any scientific basis and intrudes significantly on the rights of people to be secure in their bodies and their possessions. Particularly when the corporate class aligns its arbitrariness with the government. Particularly when the titans of the internet align their arbitrariness with the government – in this case did they not only echo the mandates but recently they confiscated the funds of those seeking to protest. The combination of the Trudeau government, the corporate class and the media/internet titans is precisely the combination that evokes the spectre of fascism. (One is tempted to throw in bigotry for Mr. Trudeau wearing “black face” on several occasions but we all realize that was due to a rich kid without boundaries rather than actual racial animus.)

Mr. Trudeau does not come recently, or even lately, to the power of fascism. He, like his father before him, were friends and admirers of Cuba’s Communist dictator Fidel Castro – Mr. Castro being yet another branch of the socialist/fascist combination and the prime mover in fifty years of repression, poverty and ignorance. Mr. Trudeau, in response to the death of the of Caribbean killer* said this:

“While a controversial figure, both Mr. Castro’s supporters and detractors recognized his tremendous dedication and love for the Cuban people who had a deep and lasting affection for ‘el Comandante.’ I know my father was very proud to call him a friend and I had the opportunity to meet Fidel when my father passed away. It was also a real honour to meet his three sons and his brother President Raúl Castro during my recent visit to Cuba.”

Shades of Senator Bernie Sanders (Socialist-VT).

Even as the premiers of one Western province after another defy Mr. Trudeau and cancel the burdensome mandates (Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario for example) Mr. Trudeau doubles down and has seized upon a provision of war time emergency powers that permits him to mobilize the armed forces to impose his will and disband the protesters. Every escalation draws Canada closer to the tragedy of Kent State where angry politicians sought to quell protest with a national guard untrained in crowd control and wound up killing unarmed students. It became a turning point in dealing with the protests against America’s participation in the Vietnam war – a pointless war in which the politicians were willing to sacrifice America’s young men and women (57,000) but unwilling to win the war. Similarly here, the battle over vaccine mandates has nothing to to with public health and everything to do with reinforcing political power – a fight to stay in power, but not to actually deal with a pandemic on the wane.

Suffice it to say that Mr. Trudeau will lose this battle. He is either going to have to relent with regard to the mandates or he is going to lose power at the next election. The only question is whether he will put the lives of his citizens at risk for his own personal power in the interim.

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*The Black Book on Communism estimates that between 15,000 and 17,000 Cubans were executed by the brothers Fidel and Raul Castro.