It's crazy the insight you get on UCP's political philosophy by reading 'The Shock Doctrine' by Naomi Klien in combination w/ reading up on Milton Friedman

It shows their ambition is deeply incompatible w/ a modern Canada

I'd even say the UCP is anti-Alberta

#ableg #abpoli

It's becomes very clear what we're seeing in Alberta isn't new. It's happening in Ontario right now.

It's been happening in the US & places all over the world for half a century.

And if we elect CPC to Ottawa in a few months, it will happen to all of Canada. Again.

What exactly is "it"?

It doesn't really have a name, some people use different concepts to describe different pieces of it, some just call it fiscal conservatism, but I honestly like to think of think of it as 'Tactical Libertarianism'

Essentially Libertarians, like Friedman, know their ideals & ambition of little to no gov't will never actually fly, so they recommend specific strategies to undermine & subvert gov't whenever possible.

This has been adopted by Conservatives in + and the Republicans in .

Why I think of it as 'tactical' is because the underlying principles & system can't function on their own.

Given free reign, it's as close to 1700s wild west anarchy as it gets.

It would be a disaster for everyone who isn't a plutocrat.

So because their politics would be largely rejected in modern society, wouldn't work anyway, they've crafted their whole scheme around being within a Western democracy that has large gov't influence & a population with natural resources they can exploit.

So the philosophy is like a parasite.

Tactically latching onto a host & extracting sustenance while resisting roadblocks (AKA cutting red tape).

Since around the 70s, Friedman & others have infested right-wing politics & shifted it further from the middle.

Wealth inequality has dramatically increased since Friedman's disciples gained power & it's not an accident or something they forgot to consider.

Inequality is not a bug, it's a feature.

To get a sense of who we're talking about here, Friedman was asked once how he would reshape 14 US agencies.

10 of them he wanted to completely Abolish.

Highlights:
Labour =
Commerce =
Education =
Energy =
Health = 50% cut
Housing =
National Parks = +sell land

Calgary Police Chief thinks people like me are "dangerous" for saying 'defund the police', but Friedman with a straight face can say ABOLISH 10 critical federal agencies & he was awarded a Nobel Prize.

ANYWAY.

About the book, here's a great high-level summary:

There is a video adaptation of 'The Shock Doctrine'.

Interesting lines from this clip:

"They start the story with Thatcher or Reagan because it's much more flattering that way"

"It rapidly became clear that Friedman's policies benefited the wealthy at the expense of the poor"

More on Friedman. If you were wondering where the irrational fear of socialism on the right came from, look no more.

With Friedman's own logic though, a more free & deregulated country like the US fails to live up in basically every metric available compared w/ Canada or Norway.

Friedman was very hostile to unions.

Specifically he railed on the American Medical Assoc. & Teachers' unions.

Friedman said equal pay for equal work regulation is literal apartheid.

He says feminists are actually anti-feminist for demanding the same pay.

Basically let the free market fix the patriarchy is his attitude.

Friedman was a huge promoter of school choice & charter schools. The exact same nonsense Alberta's Education Minister is turning up the dial on now.

Alberta remains the ONLY province with Charter schools, starting with our first in the mid-90s.

I cannot find a clip for this, but I read he believes the solution to systemic racism is simply abolishing the system.

Slavery was gov't regulated.
Segregation was gov't regulated.

So if there is literally no gov't, how can there be systemic racism?

That's the logic.

This is why Canada has never and will never have a libertarian government.

The answer to every problem is not abolishing the whole damn organization related to that problem.

I disagree with Friedman on basically everything, but you cannot deny the genius behind the overall strategy at play

I don't like any Trump analogy for AB

It's much more sophisticated than that & more ppl to be cognizant of the origin story for these villains we're dealing with

It has been evolved for more effectiveness over the course of decades.

The results are ALWAYS the same. The rich get richer. Everyone else suffers.

It's anti-Alberta. It's anti-everything we know & love about Canada.

We really need to end this UCP occupation in 2023.

Naomi gets last word in this thread: