daveman
Diamond Member
Hey hey, ho ho! They dont know
Ignorant and angry. Pretty much sums up progressives, doesn't it?
Its easy for journalists to cover a protest rally. And thats who most modern protests are targeting the media. Its an exercise in PR.
The quick and easy formula for reporters is to make a rough estimate of how many protesters attend, take some pictures of the most colourful signs and costumes, get a bumper-sticker-deep slogan quote from a spokesman, and youre done.
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But instead of leaving as most busy journalists have to do in order to meet their deadlines I stuck around for two more hours. I introduced myself to more than a dozen of the protesters. And I learned something that Im sure I wouldnt have learned had I followed the usual media formula.
The first thing I learned is these protesters were clueless about the pipeline they were protesting, and about oil and economics in general.
I asked one of the protesters, Mike Roy, why he is only protesting the pipeline now, even though its been operating without incident since the 1970s. He seemed genuinely surprised to learn this. I asked him why he only opposes the plan to put Alberta oil in it, but was fine with it pumping OPEC crude for decades.
At first Roy simply refused to believe me. He was confused about how OPEC oil could be pumped from Alberta. He didnt understand that the pipeline was operating now, with Saudi and Algerian oil now. The Alberta plan would be a change thats the reverse part that he was protesting. He didnt know that.
When I pressed him on why he prefers Saudi oil in Line 9, he said he opposes Saudi oil too. But he couldnt explain why he has never protested Saudi oil before, let alone protested at the Saudi embassy. I asked these same questions of a half dozen protesters, and all were confused. One woman proposed an excuse: she prefers Saudi oil, she says, because its sweet oil. I think she believes that means its like sugar water, so its better for the environment. Others pretended not to use any oil at all as if you can bicycle to work in Hamilton in February.
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Theyre professional protesters, who go from town to town on whatever the cause of the day is Occupy, Idle No More, anti-GMO food, whatever. Thats why they didnt know anything about the pipeline. They didnt care. They just like protesting.
But it got darker. Because the more I looked, the more I realized these protesters were not just idealistic young people trying to heal the world. They were dominated by an inner circle of hard-core anarchists. Like Peter Hopperton. He was sentenced to five months in prison for rioting at the G20 in Toronto in 2010. Dave Prychitka was there too. He also rioted, but charges against him were dropped. Roy, Lamon and Beaudoin have all been charged with crimes too.
You wouldnt know these things if you were a reporter too busy to find out. Or too sympathetic to their cause to find out.
The quick and easy formula for reporters is to make a rough estimate of how many protesters attend, take some pictures of the most colourful signs and costumes, get a bumper-sticker-deep slogan quote from a spokesman, and youre done.
--
But instead of leaving as most busy journalists have to do in order to meet their deadlines I stuck around for two more hours. I introduced myself to more than a dozen of the protesters. And I learned something that Im sure I wouldnt have learned had I followed the usual media formula.
The first thing I learned is these protesters were clueless about the pipeline they were protesting, and about oil and economics in general.
I asked one of the protesters, Mike Roy, why he is only protesting the pipeline now, even though its been operating without incident since the 1970s. He seemed genuinely surprised to learn this. I asked him why he only opposes the plan to put Alberta oil in it, but was fine with it pumping OPEC crude for decades.
At first Roy simply refused to believe me. He was confused about how OPEC oil could be pumped from Alberta. He didnt understand that the pipeline was operating now, with Saudi and Algerian oil now. The Alberta plan would be a change thats the reverse part that he was protesting. He didnt know that.
When I pressed him on why he prefers Saudi oil in Line 9, he said he opposes Saudi oil too. But he couldnt explain why he has never protested Saudi oil before, let alone protested at the Saudi embassy. I asked these same questions of a half dozen protesters, and all were confused. One woman proposed an excuse: she prefers Saudi oil, she says, because its sweet oil. I think she believes that means its like sugar water, so its better for the environment. Others pretended not to use any oil at all as if you can bicycle to work in Hamilton in February.
--
Theyre professional protesters, who go from town to town on whatever the cause of the day is Occupy, Idle No More, anti-GMO food, whatever. Thats why they didnt know anything about the pipeline. They didnt care. They just like protesting.
But it got darker. Because the more I looked, the more I realized these protesters were not just idealistic young people trying to heal the world. They were dominated by an inner circle of hard-core anarchists. Like Peter Hopperton. He was sentenced to five months in prison for rioting at the G20 in Toronto in 2010. Dave Prychitka was there too. He also rioted, but charges against him were dropped. Roy, Lamon and Beaudoin have all been charged with crimes too.
You wouldnt know these things if you were a reporter too busy to find out. Or too sympathetic to their cause to find out.
Ignorant and angry. Pretty much sums up progressives, doesn't it?
Power to the people! who's the people? the same fucking hippies that are fucking shit up now in DC. also known as "the man"
