Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney got up on stage in Davos and admitted the liberal world has been complicit in the breakdown of international law, war crimes and mass atrocities, but that the west was happy to go along with it while the brutality of empire benefitted them.
Well stated, as always! As a Canadian, my critical thinking skills snap into overdrive when a speech is universally lauded, but especially when it is lauded by both the average Canadian, who places complete faith in our banker PM and simultaneously by his billionaire neoliberal audience at Davos. If Carney was reading the room, it was the room he gave the speech in.
Even people thoroughly sick of the Liberal government voted for Carney for fear of ending up with Pierre Poilievre, a real disaster-in-waiting. So we got a high-level banker and business as usual.
One of the very first things he decided to do was fold Women & Gender Equality into another portfolio where it would no doubt get shuffled to the bottom of the pile. People pushed back and the plan was dropped. But then it was revealed that the WAGE budget was getting slashed by over 80%. Now there's more pipeline talk while Indigenous communities and pleas for more renewable energy go unheard. And people shrug and say, "At least he's not Justin Trudeau." Or Pierre Poilievre.
Carney is a likeable guy who dresses nicely, smiles a lot, plays well with others. So Canadian. He's better in some ways than the alternative. But why is that good enough? When someone is lauded as a hero for merely stating the obvious, it tells you how desperate we've become.
Some people think that an "intelligent" speech is worth the price of admission. It was a smart-sounding nothing burger. Empty. I'm surprised by how much it's been praised as brave when he didn't name the elephant at all, just skirted around it. An apology would be good. Proper accountability. And then a clear path to rectifying those wrongs. But we won't get that, we'll just get applause for saying the bare minimum while saying nothing at all. Now is not the time to be polite in these speeches or waffly.
This analysis is spot on. The way you break down Carney's admission that the rules-based order was always a convenient fiction really exposes the cynicism at the heart of liberal centrisim. What's particularly striking is how the establishment media praised this as brave truth-telling when he's literally just admiting decades of complicity in imperial violence. The presciption being more neoliberal trade deals and defense spending shows they learned nothing.
I write this as the sole US only citizen of an otherwise Canadian family. (My wife is a dual citizen.)
Fighting the evil one, us (US), entails the following at a minimum:
a) Stop adhering to US dictates over copyright. Jailbreak software locks on all manner of products. Let Apple and Google lose their 30% vig worldwide.
b) Stop selling us the dirtiest petroleum on the planet. One side effect, Mother Nature and all that live will benefit. Our military might need to go on an energy diet. Again, all living creatures benefit.
c) This will seem counter intuitive but do remove tariffs on the few essential products imported from the US. Why should Canadians be penalized for the US having a ghoul for president?
d) Raise taxes on Canadian billionaires and Canadian corporations.
e) Listen to Nate Bear and stop enabling evil. Unfortunately, pigs might learn aerodynamics first.
And sadly this needs to be said to the spooks on both sides of the border, do not construe my views with those of family members actually residing in Canada.
What stands out to me is not just the content of Carney’s diagnosis, but the timing of its emergence.
Many of these contradictions about the rules-based order have been understood inside elite circles for decades, but they were tolerable as long as the system continued to serve their interests. Now that the system is less stable and offers fewer guarantees of protection, the critique becomes speakable.
That doesn’t make the diagnosis wrong. It suggests the incentive structure has shifted.
Disclosure follows vulnerability, not principle.
That dynamic feels more important than whether Carney is sincere or cynical.
Mark Carney is a product of his age. And if he ‘protests too much’ - especially against the excesses of Trump - I think he just wants things to return to the status quo ante, before Trump came along and challenged his own way of doing things.
You might even call it ‘intellectual snobbery’ on his part; I think he thinks Trump is a vulgar oaf and he doesn’t want to be associated with him.
Well stated, as always! As a Canadian, my critical thinking skills snap into overdrive when a speech is universally lauded, but especially when it is lauded by both the average Canadian, who places complete faith in our banker PM and simultaneously by his billionaire neoliberal audience at Davos. If Carney was reading the room, it was the room he gave the speech in.
What else would we expect of a Bank of Canada governor and Goldman Sachs protégée?
His little line about “How did the big scary authoritarian COMMUNISM keep people complacent??” In times such as these is so laughable
I'm glad I'm not the only one who saw that
Even people thoroughly sick of the Liberal government voted for Carney for fear of ending up with Pierre Poilievre, a real disaster-in-waiting. So we got a high-level banker and business as usual.
One of the very first things he decided to do was fold Women & Gender Equality into another portfolio where it would no doubt get shuffled to the bottom of the pile. People pushed back and the plan was dropped. But then it was revealed that the WAGE budget was getting slashed by over 80%. Now there's more pipeline talk while Indigenous communities and pleas for more renewable energy go unheard. And people shrug and say, "At least he's not Justin Trudeau." Or Pierre Poilievre.
Carney is a likeable guy who dresses nicely, smiles a lot, plays well with others. So Canadian. He's better in some ways than the alternative. But why is that good enough? When someone is lauded as a hero for merely stating the obvious, it tells you how desperate we've become.
Well said, all of this!
Oh, very well then:
https://indi.ca/wolves-crying-wolf-canada-denmark-etc/
https://www.ianwelsh.net/understanding-the-competent-concierge-canadas-prime-minister-mark-carney/
Some people think that an "intelligent" speech is worth the price of admission. It was a smart-sounding nothing burger. Empty. I'm surprised by how much it's been praised as brave when he didn't name the elephant at all, just skirted around it. An apology would be good. Proper accountability. And then a clear path to rectifying those wrongs. But we won't get that, we'll just get applause for saying the bare minimum while saying nothing at all. Now is not the time to be polite in these speeches or waffly.
Just love the way some like to pile on, like wolves themselves. Got any solutions?
This analysis is spot on. The way you break down Carney's admission that the rules-based order was always a convenient fiction really exposes the cynicism at the heart of liberal centrisim. What's particularly striking is how the establishment media praised this as brave truth-telling when he's literally just admiting decades of complicity in imperial violence. The presciption being more neoliberal trade deals and defense spending shows they learned nothing.
I write this as the sole US only citizen of an otherwise Canadian family. (My wife is a dual citizen.)
Fighting the evil one, us (US), entails the following at a minimum:
a) Stop adhering to US dictates over copyright. Jailbreak software locks on all manner of products. Let Apple and Google lose their 30% vig worldwide.
b) Stop selling us the dirtiest petroleum on the planet. One side effect, Mother Nature and all that live will benefit. Our military might need to go on an energy diet. Again, all living creatures benefit.
c) This will seem counter intuitive but do remove tariffs on the few essential products imported from the US. Why should Canadians be penalized for the US having a ghoul for president?
d) Raise taxes on Canadian billionaires and Canadian corporations.
e) Listen to Nate Bear and stop enabling evil. Unfortunately, pigs might learn aerodynamics first.
And sadly this needs to be said to the spooks on both sides of the border, do not construe my views with those of family members actually residing in Canada.
Bad day for libs when they find out they’re on the imperial periphery, not its metropole.
Basically where they've wanted to be for the last 50 years. Success!
as greta would say, carney's speech (reposted ad nauseum) was pure blah blah blah.
it's hard to respect a man who doesn't walk his oh-so-smooth talk.
What stands out to me is not just the content of Carney’s diagnosis, but the timing of its emergence.
Many of these contradictions about the rules-based order have been understood inside elite circles for decades, but they were tolerable as long as the system continued to serve their interests. Now that the system is less stable and offers fewer guarantees of protection, the critique becomes speakable.
That doesn’t make the diagnosis wrong. It suggests the incentive structure has shifted.
Disclosure follows vulnerability, not principle.
That dynamic feels more important than whether Carney is sincere or cynical.
Mark Carney is a product of his age. And if he ‘protests too much’ - especially against the excesses of Trump - I think he just wants things to return to the status quo ante, before Trump came along and challenged his own way of doing things.
You might even call it ‘intellectual snobbery’ on his part; I think he thinks Trump is a vulgar oaf and he doesn’t want to be associated with him.
Thank you Nate Xx