E-FLAP #000008 - The RWNJs at The Rebel Is Going To Do Sciency Science

Oh God, the impending hilarity that is going to ensue with this series from Joshua Lieblein at The Rebel Media.  Yup they are going to reclaim science for Conservatives and be like all sciency I guess.  So who is Joshua Lieblein?  I guess we should know who we are dealing with first.  Jashua is;

1. A Pharmacist by Education and Employment
2. He is also a member of The Toronto Tax Payer Federation, or at least he was back in 2011 when he wrote this Mayor Ford awarded a ‘B’. Though, since this article, has not written anything else for them, and I have no idea why, so I will not speculate. UPDATE : According to this internet cached article he serves as Research Director for the Toronto Taxpayers Coalition and the York Region Taxpayers Coalition, from April of 2015
   
3. He claims to be a blogger and activist by night, ya well join the club Joshua, we even have tee-shirts.
4. He writes for The Rebel Media, I guess this is his nocturnal blogging and activisting activities.
5. He also seems have been working for and paid by the Manning Foundation for Education.  , or maybe the Manning Think Tank paid to have it published and Joshua got jack-squat.  Who knows, who cares, the thing is he has work hand in hand with Consevative *Think Tanks*

Which brings me to the internet cached article.  I am not certain as to the original source, it is from an internet Google cache, but it appears to be from one or Preston Manning's non-profit charity think tanks and septic tanks.  I have include the full text of the article below, plus a screen shot at the end of the article.  Red or green text has been highlighted to point of the interesting tidbits.

Since the Harper government, and conservatives generally, are usually out-gunned in this environment, they try to protect themselves by using language that stretches the meaning of neutral words and phrases to suit their objectives, a phenomenon noted by George Orwell in his famous essay, “Politics and the English Language.”

AND

The Harper government is well practiced at word-stretching. The titles of its legislative bills are often euphemistic pile-ups such as the Marketing Freedom For Grain Farmers Act (which eliminated the Canadian Wheat Board) or the Protecting Children From Internet Predators Act (which expanded the government’s ability to track Canadians’ activities online). Such titles anticipate negative reaction and seek to neutralize it with language that is unassailable. 

AND

“Economic Action Plan” in response to the 2008-09 recession. A more accurate title might have been the “Borrowing Billions to Bail Out Automakers, Build Infrastructure and Buy Votes Plan”

From reading this article I almost get the feeling that Joshua is admiring The FORMER Harper Government's ability to, coin George Orwell, use DOUBLE SPEAK. 

So now Joshua wants Conservatives to *Reclaim Science*, I have to wonder if Joshua will be using the well tested method's that Ezra Levant uses.  Believe me people, this is going to be hoot.  As for Joshua's Rebel Media article "It’s time for conservatives to start reclaiming science" is only an intro and I assume the series will continue, where Joshua is going to try be all sciency.  As for an intro article he spends most of his time constructing silly strawmen.  BTW, he doesn't slay the strawmen, he just seems to assume that you will think he did, jesus talk about lazy.

Like I said before, this is going to be fun and hilarious and I hope Joshua as more to come.

C2C: When newspeak is written by the mob

Sunday, April 12, 2015 - 16:30

Prime Minister Stephen Harper usually gets the best of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau in Question Period, and their recent exchange over the niqab and citizenship ceremonies seemed no exception. After Trudeau accused the government of “going after minorities in an irresponsible way”, Harper pounced. He said the niqab is “rooted in a culture that is anti-women”, and asked why Trudeau didn’t understand that “almost all Canadians” oppose it. The implication was clear: Trudeau, the supposed progressive, was defending anti-women practices. In the moment, it looked like another win for Harper.
But the moment didn’t last. On Twitter, a new hashtag – #dresscodepm – was born, and within 24 hours it was trending nationwide. The PM was roundly mocked for his own fashion choices, for slandering Islam, and for presuming to suggest how women should dress. Suddenly, Harper was the one who looked out of touch.
The incident illustrates how difficult it is for governments to exert “message control” in the age of social media. Political actors have always competed for public attention and 1influence, of course. The successful ones dominate the medium and the message. But as Machiavelli observed, it is much harder for a ruler to hold a territory where the inhabitants speak a different language than it is to conquer the territory in the first place. He recommended establishing colonies within conquered territory, believing that colonized people will adapt the language of the colonizers, making them easier to control.
To gain and hold voter-rich territory in social media, then, it becomes all the more important for governments to control the language spoken there. Since the Harper government, and conservatives generally, are usually out-gunned in this environment, they try to protect themselves by using language that stretches the meaning of neutral words and phrases to suit their objectives, a phenomenon noted by George Orwell in his famous essay, “Politics and the English Language.”
The Harper government is well practiced at word-stretching. The titles of its legislative bills are often euphemistic pile-ups such as the Marketing Freedom For Grain Farmers Act (which eliminated the Canadian Wheat Board) or the Protecting Children From Internet Predators Act (which expanded the government’s ability to track Canadians’ activities online). Such titles anticipate negative reaction and seek to neutralize it with language that is unassailable.
The opposition MP (or Tweeter) who wants to criticize such laws is at a disadvantage before they even begin. Not only do they risk landing on the wrong side of Protecting Children or Marketing Freedom, but they inadvertently advance the government’s objectives every time they talk about it.
Perhaps the most effective – and certainly most ubiquitous – branding effort of the Conservative government was its “Economic Action Plan” in response to the 2008-09 recession. A more accurate title might have been the “Borrowing Billions to Bail Out Automakers, Build Infrastructure and Buy Votes Plan”, but obviously it would not have won the government the strong polling on economic competence it came to enjoy. The branding was so successful it still headlines the government’s economic messaging today, five years after the recession ended.
But as the niqab incident shows, government wordsmiths can’t hit home runs every time. While Harper’s “Get out of Ukraine” shot at Vladimir Putin was at least a triple, his attempt to link Trudeau to “anti-women culture” landed foul.
Another challenge facing governments is keeping up the evolution of the meanings of words. In the 500 million-tweets-a-day universe, yesterday’s term of endearment can quickly become today’s patronizing insult. Or a once-reliable insult can become a target for opprobrium. And entirely new words spring up overnight to advance political or social agendas, as occurred when advocates for the transgendered invented “ze” as an alternative to the third person singular pronouns he or she.
Certainly there is something empowering and maybe even democratizing about thousands of citizen-Tweeters picking apart a Prime Minister’s talking point, but there is also a great danger, one Machiavelli and Orwell could not have foreseen. The question is: Why should we trust these hashtag activists, these crafters of the new Newspeak, to speak truth any more than their word-twisting counterparts in government? Put another way: Harper may not speak for all women, but it’s just as unlikely that the #dresscodepm Tweeters do.
~
Joshua Lieblein is a Toronto pharmacist, blogger and political activist. He is currently serves as Research Director for the Toronto Taxpayers Coalition and the York Region Taxpayers Coalition.

Topic: 

Arts & Culture

Note: This content was paid for by the **Manning Foundation for Democratic Education**, a registered charity that falls under the Manning Centre trademark.

Screen Capture of Google Web Cache. Nov, 10, 2015